Kuwabara asked, "Are you sure this is going to work?"
Kurama and Yusuke fanned him with giant leaves as Puu stayed off to the side. "Yes," Kurama explained, "Hiei still works the border patrol looking for humans so if someone in his patrol catches your scent they'll come here. Outside of this job he's has alusive as ever. It would take us forever to try to hunt him down in this world."
Yusuke asked, "Isn't he living with Mukuro?"
"No anymore," he replied.
"What were you talking about before?" Kuwabara asked, "I'm not some weak human you know. I doubt this border patrol would even come looking for me."
Yusuke said, "It doesn't matter what strength you are, you're still human and that's what they're after. Hey look!" He pointed to a giant centapead headed their way.
"Another scent of a human," a demon with a large nose on his face said from the top of the centapead, "11:00."
"Not again," Hiei complained.
He replied, "I smell some demons too. Since killing a human is illegal now under Lord Enki, if we catch them we'll get a reward!"
"Hn," Hiei said, looking away, "do whatever you want."
They moved closer and saw Yusuke, Kurama, and Kuwabara waving them down. At the sight of that, the other demon said, "Great, looks like it's just some idiots pulling a prank. Should we teach them a lesson?"
Hiei said, "Don't bother, I know those idiots...and Kurama." He jumped down to their level, landing on one knee dramatically, stood up, and asked, "What do you want?"
"You punk!" Kuwabara shouted and grabbed him by the collar.
"Kuwabara wait!" Yusuke said.
Kurama said calmly, "Hiei, it's Yukina."
Hiei pulled himself away from Kuwabara and asked, "What about her?"
"She's gone," Kurama explained, "we don't know who took her or why. It's already been hours. She could be anywhere by now." Hiei stared at him in shock.
"Hiei, you punk," Kuwabara said angrily, "what kind of man are you? How could you lie to her all this time? We all know Yukina's been looking for her long lost brother forever. Where are you going?"
Hiei said, "I'll find Yukina myself. Don't bother following me, you'll only get in my way."
Kurama said, "Hiei, you know strength lies in numbers." He disappeared before he could even finish.
"Dammit," Yusuke said, "maybe we shouldn't have told him. What should we do now?"
"Go to spirit world for help," Kurama explained, "it's likely they're still in living world, and spirit world still holds juristiction there. Koenma might be able to tell us where she is or something about this demon that kidnapped her."
Hiei stood atop a building in the middle of Tokyo and opened his jagan, throwing away the cloth that covered it. She's still in this world, he thought, and there isn't any talasman cards blocking her energy this time. I should be able to get to her before sundown, easily. He tracked her energy to an abandonded factory in the mountains off of some old railroad tracks.
As he tried to scan the area surrounding it a headache overcame him. "What was that?" he held his head. He shook his head and started moving in her direction.
He stopped on a road deep in the mountains and looked up at the trees. A horridous feeling came over him, but it couldn't figure out why. Was it Yukina? Was it the forest warning him of something? He jumped in, jumping from tree to tree, branch to branch. As he moved forward, his legs got heavier. Landing in trees became harder.
Eventually he landed on the ground, and gave in to walking. "I bet you're wondering what's happening right about now," a demon said as he appeared in front of Hiei. He had long mechanical claws on his hands and two swords around his belt.
Hiei glared at him, making sure this demon didn't catch him off guard. But deep down he wondered, Where did he come from? Why didn't I sense anything?
"This forest suppresses demon energy," he explained, "don't worry, once you leave it'll come right back." He grabbed his sword, "Assuming I don't kill you first."
"There's an ice maiden in the building ahead, isn't there," Hiei said, "I'll make this quick." He took off his jacket and revealed his own sword.
"I can't let you do that," he said, "she belongs to all of us now." He charged forward.
Hiei swung for his arm, meaning to cut it off completely however he didn't move as fast as he anticipated. Instead he gave him a long gash, leaving himself open to a deep cut to his left shoulder. As Hiei moved around to his back he tripped and managed to slice him down his back, cutting open his heart and killing him on the spot.
"This forest," he said as the demon fell the ground, "he wasn't joking. This is going to take forever." He said 'us' before, he thought as he slowly stood back up and held his shoulder, that means there's more of them. He sheathed his sword and started moving forward.
Becoming more tired as he walked, Hiei practically stumbled through the thickening forest. I can't believe I'm going through this weakened state again, he thought as he clutched his hidden necklace through his shirt. He felt Yukina's necklace in his pocket and remembered when he tried it hand it back to her before.
"Keep it," she had said, "I have a feeling it will be better in your hands than in mine." Then walked away as if they hadn't spoken to each other at all in that moment.
He brought himself back to the present and took a knee to rest.
There was suddenly movement all around him. He saw several demons with different length swords in a circle move in. "It's Hiei," one of them whispered. They were all covering their mouths with strange mouth pieces so he couldn't tell who was talking when.
"Look at that," another said, "the great swordman Hiei is on his knees in front of us."
"Quiet," Hiei demanded as he stood up and drew his sword again. I didn't even hear them coming, he thought.
"The forest suppresses the senses once you're this far in," one of them said, "your hearing and eye sight will be weakened next!" They all jumped up, readying for a group attack from the sky.
