Disclaimer: I claim no rights to Yu Yu Hakusho, nor any related characters or merchandise, and make no profit from the writing or distribution of this work of fiction.
Yusuke wakes with a throbbing headache that's not quite the familiar pulse of a hangover, but he figures it's close enough to count. So he sits up, rubbing his head and groaning piteously, hoping someone will notice.
"Oh, man... How much did I have to drink last night?" he asks, and it's not strange to him at all when someone responds. That's sort of what he was expecting, after all.
"Nothing at all, actually - or, not enough to matter."
Huh. Well that, he wasn't expecting. And those bars he sees, when he opens his eyes? Yeah, he wasn't really expecting those, either.
"What the hell - ?" he begins, reaching out for the bars - but he never finishes, because before he registers Kurama's cautioning shout, before he notices the little slips of paper plastered all over the bars, his fingers graze the wire mesh stretched between them, and it burns.
Immediately, Yusuke pulls his hand back, hissing in pain, and he hears Kurama sigh. And when he glances over, he realizes - he's not in a cell, like he originally thought. He's in a cage. Bars and wires all the way around, and - from the looks of Kurama's confinement set-up - suspended who-knows-how-high-up from a ceiling he can't even see.
"Well, this is new," he says, rather conversationally, and Kurama hums his agreement. Settling himself into as much of a sprawl as the rather humble dimensions of his cage will allow, Yusuke sets himself to figuring out what's going on. Or, really - asking Kurama, because he's pretty sure the fox-demon's got everything figured out that can be.
"So," he asks. "Kidnapped, locked, and warded. How'd they manage that?"
Kurama gives a sort of one-shouldered shrug, and Yusuke mentally adds 'chained' to the list - he can hear the links rattling at Kurama's motion. "My best guess is some sort of herbal drug - slipped into a drink, most likely. And probably why I metabolized it faster than you did. My body is accustomed to the presence of plant-derived chemicals."
Yusuke really only catches 'drug' and 'slipped into a drink' from that, but he figures that's the relevant material, and it prompts a disgusted snort. "Never going to hear the end of that, I bet. " After a brief moment contemplating how much shit he's going to get from various people over this little incident, he shakes his head with a little shudder and focuses on the more immediate problem.
"And what's the grand escape plan?"
He's prepared for just about anything but what Kurama does next, which is to shake his head in defeat and say, "I don't know."
Yusuke stares. That's all he can do - his brain just doesn't want to process the fact that Kurama just admitted to not having a plan.
"Did you just - But - How do we get out, then?"
Kurama sighs. "I don't know, Yusuke. We're doubly warded - paper wards and skin wards - and even if I had my powers, they've stripped me of my plants."
"Well...the guys will come for us, right? I mean, they'll notice we're missing and start busting heads until they find us, won't they?"
There's another sigh and the clinking of chains as Kurama lifts his hands and points - and Yusuke's not sure how he managed to miss the fact that Hiei's been sitting in a cage not too far away this whole time. He's about gotten to wondering why the fire-demon hasn't had anything sarcastic to contribute to this conversation when Kurama answers him.
"He's warded so heavily he can't even speak."
Ah. That would explain it. "And Kuwabara? Where's he?"
Soft clinking as Kurama shifts. "No one knows."
And before Yusuke even has time to process that, Kurama's turning to him. "You know what this means, don't you?"
He hardly pauses before continuing, which is probably the best idea in this situation - Yusuke's still caught up on the 'Kuwabara's missing' idea, and there's even less chance than usual that he can make the sort of logical leap Kurama's expecting here.
"Whoever's behind this has inside information. How else would they have known that there is nearly no way to knock you unconscious with straight alcohol, or any kind of physical blow? How else would they have known to take my plants, to kidnap all four of us to prevent any rescue attempts?"
Yusuke frowns, and now the wheels have finally started turning. He knows there's no one out there who knows this much about them - or, at least, no one they haven't dealt with in one way or another.
Except...
He looks carefully at Kurama, whose arms are crossed at the wrist and shackled in front of his body, when it would clearly put him at a much greater disadvantage to have them shackled behind his body. He looks at Hiei, whose baleful red eyes are glaring at him from underneath a nearly-pristine Jagan ward, and whose right arm is meticulously wrapped and warded.
And he looks down at the wards painted onto his own skin, wards that - now that he gives it a moment's thought - he's seen before, stroked carefully on in a familiar hand, with the scent of burning incense in the background.
Except...
He's just opened his mouth to say something when a door opens beneath him, the light that comes streaming in bright enough to make him squint, lifting a hand to block his eyes. And in the doorway is a silhouette he knows, and from it comes a voice he knows even better.
"Finally awake, are you? Dimwit."
And then there's Kuwabara's braying laughter, with Kurama's soft chuckling cutting a gentle undertone, and Yusuke curses under his breath. He should have known Genkai would pull something like this - and that she'd pull the rest of the team in on it.