Saria: Happy happy joy joy!
Tori: Happy happy joy joy!
Zas: Happy happy joy joy!
All three: Happy happy joy joy! Happy happy joy joy! Happy happy joy joy! HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY JOY!! (BAM!!)
SA: (hefting a mallet) Idiots. This isn't Rin and Stimpy. Besides, wasn't that show taken off the air YEARS ago?
People to thank for finally getting this written: Roy for one was a definite help, he helped me kick around ideas and form them into complete thoughts!
My reviewers definitely helped: thanks to Little Karma, Demonically Angelic Neko88, SailorSaturntheSilencer, and kallipso!
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It was a bright, beautiful morning. Outside the birds were chirping as a strange looking blue one flapped around frantically. Many of those that were staying in the hotel were preparing for the walk to the second stadium for the finals that would be held that day for the dark tournament. Everything seemed at peace.
"BAM!"
"Yusuke, where are you?!?" Bui shouted as he ripped the suite that he and Karasu shared with the girl.
"Not so loud!" Karasu hissed, his head hanging out of the closet. "Toguro hears you, and we'll be dead."
"We'll be dead anyway if we don't find her," Bui answered as he rushed to the door of the room, but saw that the thin strings that he had attached the night before were neither broken nor disturbed. "When she left, she didn't use the door."
"I'm certain she didn't use the window," Karasu glanced outside and spotted the blue bird thing again. "Wait, what if she turned herself into the bird?!"
Bui stared at Karasu for a moment before knocking him over the head, hard.
"If she had shape shifting abilities, she would have used them long ago!" he roared, before moving to the balcony to observe the ground below. "Besides, didn't she suggest that we work together to get rid of Toguro?"
"So, do you think whoever gave her the Lordinir took her?"
"I don't know, but how are we going to get away before Toguro comes?" Bui whispered.
Before either of them could even begin to brainstorm, the door swung open and Toguro stepped in. He glanced around at the trashed room, but wrote it off, turning his gaze on the closed bedroom door.
"There was some strange energy last night, many of the spiritually aware are nervous," he said as he walked toward the door to the bedroom. "Is she responding to anyone?"
"Who?" Karasu asked before Bui elbowed him, hard, and nudged him toward the balcony.
"No," Bui answered, and Toguro turned toward the door and opened it.
Karasu and Bui both edged toward the window, but neither got close before Toguro realized Yusuke wasn't in the room.
"Well," he growled dangerously. "Where is she?"
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The first thing to come into focus was the ceiling, one which looked like it was an odd shade of off-pink and shifted in patches.
Walls came into focus next, painted a peppermint pink that would cause headaches to anyone, even the most pink obsessed people.
Finally, Yusuke felt the aches that crept into her body, mostly in the form of a headache that made her feel as though her head were about to split open. Her limbs for the most part throbbed slightly, almost as though she had growing pains.
'Great, I'm going to grow taller,' she thought before turning onto her side and pulling the blanket that covered her up to cover her more as she closed her eyes again.
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Toguro paced angrily as he tried to figure out what the video feed from the cameras were showing him. They were set up outside the windows of the rooms that Yusuke, Karasu, and Bui had shared. Although they showed that the now missing girl had been near the windows, even opening one for a short time, she had not left through one.
The cameras in the hall showed the same thing.
This left only one possibility, especially if neither Karasu or Bui knew what happened, that Yusuke had been removed using energy.
And since he knew very well that she didn't have that ability, the only possibility seemed to be the weird energy that had been sensed the night before. Could someone have been using that energy to remove Yusuke?
It didn't matter at the moment. What he needed right now was to finish the tournament and for that he would need a fifth member of the team. He should have appointed one instead of being so confident that nothing would happen.
"Any ideas brother?" he heard a voice ask from behind him. Turning, Toguro found that it was indeed his older brother. "I have already checked around, even going so far as to check around the team that Genkai was leading. It is almost as though she simply dropped off the earth."
'Or at least out of Ningenkai,' Toguro thought as he remembered several stories he had heard about demons that ate human flesh. No doubt they would probably view someone like Yusuke as very good eating…
"You have a theory?"
"Yeah, and I don't think we may be seeing Yusuke alive ever again. We'll look for her remains after the Tournament. Koenma might even be willing to locate her soul for us." He didn't notice the pained look that crossed his brother's face, or the winces that Karasu and Bui shared from the door way.
They all knew that there were some demons that didn't like humans having powers, and this one would have to be very strong to be able to slip past both of the roommates, grab the girl, and slip out again.
"Enough of this though," Toguro continued as he pushed away from the video displays. "There is still a tournament that we need to participate in and we need a fifth person." None of the team, not even his brother noticed the slight tightening in Toguro's throat as he moved down the hall to talk to their manager, and he was glad of it.
Yusuke had proven she was a child that it was easy to become attached to, and he had become attached despite how much trouble she was. To accept that he may have just brought her to a place where he was certain she would be able to defend herself against all possible attackers and to be proven so wrong…
For a moment he found himself feeling very similar to that day when he had returned to his dojo and found his students slaughtered…
"Sakyou, I need a favor from you."
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Yusuke wasn't sure how much time had passed, but it couldn't have been more than a few hours since she had first woken up. Around her the room was warm, but not overly so, just comfortable.
Most of the aches were gone from her body though, and she felt up for moving a bit more.
Finally she opened her eyes again, then shut them quickly, fighting off a huge wave of nausea that passed over her. The room around her made her feel as though she were swimming in a pool of pepto bismol.
When she had opened her eyes before, she had only taken in the color of the walls, but hadn't gotten the full scope of the pink that made up the room. True the walls were pink, but so were the curtains, the few pieces of furniture, the bed, everything, except the floor.
Sitting up, but keeping her eyes closed for a second longer, Yusuke pulled the blankets tight around her again. Leaning back, she found that her bed was pressed up against the wall on one side, allowing her a full view of the room in all of its pinkish glory…
'Gag me…' Yusuke thought as she shivered slightly in disgust. Her hair may be pink, but that doesn't mean she likes the color, not by a long shot. 'Well, at least whoever took my clothes redressed me in white instead of pink… Wait a minute… REDRESSED ME?!?'
The sound of footsteps caught her attention, about half a minute before the door to the room was thrown open by an odd, doughy looking woman who had orange skin.
"Look what I made!" she exclaimed as she held up a pink tutu-like dress, and Yusuke found herself having flashbacks of the maid from the movie "Cats and Dogs".
'Oh hell no!' "Get the hell away from me you old hag!" Yusuke yelled as she dodged to the right as the maid dove at her.
"Such naughty language!" the maid exclaimed as she reached out to catch Yusuke again.
Ducking under the chubby arm, Yusuke ran out the door that had been left open and found she was in yet another room painted pink, except it seemed more like a playroom.
"What is it with you people and pink!?" she yelled as she scooted through the room, grabbing at the door that she hadn't been through and jerking it open, before noticing something disturbing. Her head was lower than the door handle.
Shaking off the creepy feeling that she felt at this discovery, Yusuke quickly dashed into the hall, evading the maid person once again who shrilled something that sounded like, "But little girls love pink!"
Running as fast as she could down the hall, Yusuke knew immediately that she wasn't in the hotel anymore. She actually had no idea where she was and she couldn't sense anyone who was familiar.
'Is this some sort of hoax planned by Toguro to punish me for causing so much trouble?' she wandered as she turned and sped down another hallway, almost running into a group of what looked like monks. 'Nope, there is no way he could have humor enough to create this sort of set up.'
Yusuke almost lost her footing when the maid who was chasing her turned the corner and actually did run into the monks. The effect and noise reminded her of a bowling alley and she probably would have started laughing if she hadn't run into someone else at that moment also.
She fell onto her butt rather firmly at that moment, but quickly faced forward to see who she ran into.
What she first saw was a pair of blue pants, then looking up, and up, and up, Yusuke finally saw the person was a very well built man with wild white hair and a tattoo on the left side of his face. There was something oddly familiar about him…
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The finals were about to start for the Dark Tournament and everything seemed to be set up. The team members were all at the door and ready to enter the arena, but Toguro still felt odd about not having a pink haired squirming brat with the group. Instead, Sakyou stood silently with the group, his formal suit standing out from the fighting armor or clothes that the true members of team Toguro.
His older brother seemed to be sulking and glaring at the same time, obviously not liking that Sakyou was there, but that couldn't be helped.
He couldn't tell with Karasu and Bui, both wearing their masks or helmets, but they seemed more detached than ever.
It was hard to believe that one human kid had so much effect on all of them. They didn't even know if she was really dead!
Sakyou had already deployed a number of "loyal" demons to look for the girl; all of them had reported negatives about finding any trace of her.
All of the team members had agreed though that as soon as the tournament was over, they would begin looking for the girl once again.
A slight energy flux down the hall caught the attention of all the team members though as a person approached. Looking up, Toguro was slightly surprised to see Genkai, already alive again, heading towards them, a look of deadly seriousness on her once again young face.
"I want to talk to you, alone!" she hissed at Toguro before turning and walking toward a more private area.
Nodding to his brother, Toguro followed the young version of his former lover down the hall to an empty area where she stopped and set up a sound proof shield.
"What do you want, Genkai?" he asked with a detached interest.
"Where is Yusuke?" she demanded venomously, her eyes gleaming with a deadly light.
"Why not ask Koenma, he seems more like he should know her whereabouts, because if I knew, she would have certainly have been retrieved by now."
The pink haired woman glared at him once again before sighing and sitting down on a bench. "Koenma doesn't know; he doesn't even have a tracer on her. Besides, her disappearance should be more of a concern to us since her mother doesn't give a damn. If she did, she would have allowed me to take custody of Yusuke years ago."
Toguro felt a nagging feeling rise up in the back of his mind before he fully caught what Genkai had said.
"How could you have known Yusuke for years if you only met her during your tournament to decide your pupil?"
"Did you ever wonder why I refused to go with you all those years ago?" Genkai asked. "Did you ever send someone to check on me or just follow the rumors? Didn't you find it odd that I built a temple and stayed there for fifty years?"
Realization crept up Toguro's brain, and the world seemed to slow down.
"I was pregnant Toguro. Fifty years ago I gave birth to a child, a girl. She grew up, married a nice boy and had a daughter of her own when she was twenty-two that she named Atsuko. That child in turn had a daughter of her own, when she was fourteen, right after her parents died in a horrible accident."
Toguro's head was reeling, he felt nauseous, and he knew the worst part had yet to come.
"That child was named Yusuke. She is our great-granddaughter."
Toguro felt his heart gain yet another scar as he realized the full implications of this situation. He could only turn and stumble back towards his team, slow steps as he reviewed all he had done.
He had kidnapped and beaten his own grandchild. Locked her in closets, dislocated limbs, allowed for her to go for days without food…
His brother took only one look at him before demanding an explanation, to which he could only murmur one thing.
"My grandchild…"