Disclaimer: Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

(for a more serious disclaimer, please visit Chapter 1)

Note: This story started out as my less dramatic, more comical story. But after this chapter, the comedy mostly ends.

That's right, I have finally found a PLOT to go with this story? Didn't know I was completely winging the whole thing? Eh, wow, I was doing good then…Better lucky than good, that way you have an excuse for when you suck.

: p

So, of course, the story is dramatic, tragic, and hardly comical.

Enjoy.

-o-o-o-o-

Cold Rescue

Chapter 4

-o-o-o-o-

"Yusuke?"

"…Yeah?"

"…" Kuwabara bit his lip in great confusion, brow furled as he tried to find reason for the words he was about to speak. "…Is that a penguin?"

"…Yeah, Kuwabara…I think it is."

"Where the fuck are we?" Both boys turned from the black tuxedoed bird waddling past them to Hiei, emerging from the icy cave that, moments before, they had exited.

Kuwabara was shivering slightly, whether from the negative temperature or from the bird, no one quite knew. But they had gone from an index heat of Hell-knows-what to a negative cold of God-knows-what by simply stepping through a specially made portal.

"Well, this ain't no demon world," Yusuke put in helpfully, his eyes going back to the penguin, which had stopped waddling by to stare at them. Yusuke looked back to Hiei. "How the hell did we end up in the North Pole!"

Hiei's eyes narrowed dangerously as anger flared his mind. "Just another one of Jirinti's tricks. Let's go. We'll revisit him and try this again."

Yusuke and Kuwabara both shivered at Hiei's malicious tone, glancing at one another. After a moment, both gave a small sigh and followed the fire demon, who had already disappeared into the icy cave before them.

-----Two hours after: Koorime Lands, Makai-----

Kurama swam to consciousness and knew immediately that something was wrong. His hazy and fogged mind immediately screamed at him the one truth that was conceivable through the cloud.

He had been drugged.

The second indicator was Ritoko running around, gathering different bandages and such. Kurama blinked lazily, his eyes not half open as she ran past him, shoving several gauze rolls into a bag.

Slowly, he tried to call to her, but found his voice gone and his throat thickly closed. Kurama gave a hard swallow as he raised a leaded hand. "R-Rito-" his voice failed and he closed his eyes, swallowing as his throat began to turn sore.

The older woman turned, eyes wide at the call. "Oh dear, oh dear," she whispered, crossing over the bearskins to his bed to take his hand in both of hers. "I feared this might happen, but never so soon."

Kurama opened his mouth to try and ask, but no sound came out as his lips formed the word, "What?" Ritoko understood, however, and shook her head.

"They know you're here. The Elders, they've put my daughter under house arrest and they're coming for you as we speak!"

The kitsune's eyes widened and he tried to sit up, but Ritoko pushed him back down. "You are still injured and you seem sluggish! You cannot go on your own, but there is a secret passage through which I will lead you."

Kurama could only nod as she shoved three more things into the bag and grabbed his hand. With her aid, the fox was led to the far wall and a bearskin was pulled off, revealing a round tunnel in the ice.

The fox reached out to grab the side of the ice tunnel, about to climb in when a flash of pain ripped up his hand followed by instant numbing. His already hazy vision and leaded eyes grew heavier as he focused on his hand, only to see a metal dart sticking out of it.

Everything went black as Ritoko cried out and his legs failed beneath him.

-----One Hour Prior: Ningenkai------

"Yusuke?"

"…Yeah, Kuwabara?"

"…Please, please, please, tell me I'm imagining things."

Yusuke gave an annoyed, tired sigh as Hiei screamed out in frustration beside him. "First the Antarctic, now the Sahara…What the HELL is wrong with these portals!"

Hiei turned to look back at the portal they had exited, buried halfway under a sand dune with a rusting, metal sign sticking out of the sand beside it, reading, "Welcome to the Sahara. Enjoy your Stay. Drink lots of water."

They had turned around and gone straight through that portal in the Antarctic, but instead of arriving back in the jungle, they arrived in this new hell-hole.

"The portals," the fire demon growled out through clenched teeth, "must be programmed to alter every few minutes to a new location. Eventually…we'll end up at the portal that leads to Kurama."

"Right so…let's just keep trying then?" Kuwabara asked as he looked around the vast nothingness of never ending sand and heat.

Yusuke nodded beside him and turned, walking back to the portal as the others followed behind him.

----Four Hours After: Koorime Land: Makai-------

Kurama moaned as he blinked into the dimly lit world, his eyes blurry and his lids heavy. He rolled his head to the side, feeling only hard, cold stone beneath his hair. Something warm and wet was pressed against his neck and temple, and he had the feeling that it might be an explanation for the headache raging through his head.

"Hey, hey, hey, you're awake!"

The fox's eyes narrowed in pain just at the level of the voice. It was purely ecstatic with excitement and shouting in glee. Kurama groaned and rolled over, closing his eyes and pressing his forehead against the cold stone floor, trying to get his bearings.

"W-Where am I?" he managed to croak out. His throat felt raw and dry, a lack of water that had his tongue swelling in his mouth. A headache pounded in the far regions of his mind, for now a thought postponed until later when he had time to take care of the pounding pain.

Every muscle in his body felt weak and unused, or shook with overuse and exhaustion. Kurama fought to make it to his hands and knees alone, but kept his forehead pressed against the cool stone, hoping for a healing touch from its temperature.

"In the dungeons, where else!" the voice replied, chipper as before and Kurama could almost see the head that it belonged to bobbing on the shoulders in utter joy.

Something about being joyful in a prison didn't quite add up.

The fox managed to pick his head up and finally take in his surroundings. The room was small, not more than five feet long and only a few more feet wide. Everything was grey, and that word was not used in exaggeration.

The walls were peeling with dull fungi and wet with dripping water which pooled in the cracks in the floor. Some of the liquid froze against the walls and floor, creating an icy temperature and hanging icicles. The ceiling and floor, as well as all three walls, were a chalky, drab grey stone pieced together roughly and made for a rather uncomfortable stay within them.

A fourth and final wall was made up of darkly colored metal bars holding them within the confines of the prison. These bars were spaced two inches apart and dripped with coatings of ice and wallpaper made of wards.

In the corner of the cell, though not far from him due to the size of the prison, was a demon, crouched on the balls of his feet, hunched over with his arms hanging between his spread legs and smiling with squinted eyes.

His hair was a bright blonde that bordered almost on orange and swept around his head in unruly, short spikes down to the nape of his neck. Bangs fully covered his left eye, sweeping down to a point at his chin, hiding that side of his face completely. The rest of his bangs swept to the right in spiky chaos.

His right eye, and most likely his left as well, were closed in a squinted smile, his mouth spread wide in a closed grin. Long, slightly chubby fingers brushed against the floor as his arms hung, shoulders folded in slightly. His long legs swung gently in tune with his arms as he turned ever so slightly on the balls of his feet, swinging his knees out and in.

Kurama shivered in the cold temperature, his breath coming out in a steamy cloud among the icy air. His bare arms shook slightly, his bare chest bore before the freezing air of the lower dungeons of the Koorime Land, but he kept his green eyes locked on this new stranger.

His head swarmed with the pain of a cloudy, drug-induced fog that clouded his mind. A dull ache drummed through his thoughts and he raised soft fingers to rub over his temple in a repetitive motion, in hopes that he might lesson the hurt.

Kurama ran deft fingers over the back of his hand where an angry red welt had been left by the protruding dart that cost him his consciousness and gave him his pain. His eyes remained on his apparent cell mate, though his fingers scratched over the sore that oozed blood lightly.

The man rocked back on his heals, hunched back. pressing against the wall shortly as his smile faltered ever so slightly. "Ya should'n do tha', Mis'er." Kurama moved back until he could move nor farther, but the man still proceeded towards him, scooting on his crouched legs. "Here, le' me see ya'r hand."

The fox blinked, unsure of the man before him. Yet, he could sense no evil intent in the demon, for he was surely a demon, and the kitsune within him was not shouting great warnings, but exemplifying caution. Kurama slowly extended his hand to the demon.

His smile grew wider as he took the fox's limb in both his hands, turning it up and down, bending his wrist gently before he turned the hand palm down. Slowly, he ran a finger around the wounded skin, scrutinizing over it.

"I's no' tha' bad," the demon reasoned, his thick accent increasing the almost childish look he held to his face, eyes still squinted shut. "The wound was made by a dar', righ'? I don' see signs of poison, jus' irritation."

Kurama nodded slowly, a curious smile spreading slightly over his face. "Thank you," he responded, pulling his hand back as the demon released it.

"Don' mention i'," he grinned back as he spoke. "My name's Kichahakaru, bu' ya can call me Kichi." The man gave a small peace sign, his grin widening.

"I'm Kurama," the fox replied in turn as he glanced briefly around the cell once more, his hand going to his temple again.

"Does your head hur' ya?" Kichihakaru asked, tilting his head to the side and giving Kurama the odd impression of a following puppy. Shaking the feeling off, as it was quickly developing into a rather brotherly emotion towards a complete stranger, Kurama nodded slightly. "Le' me help ya, then!"

Reaching out his hand to the fox's temple, Kurama held himself still against the instinct to move away from the stranger's hand. Kichi barely brushed his fingers across Kurama's skull before he felt a warmth flood over his skin and a coolness touch his head, spreading over his forehead.

"Wha-" Kichi pulled away at Kurama's surprised response to his touch. The kitsune blinked as he raised his temples up to the cold, icy skin of his forehead, and yet the rest of him had warmed against the freezing air. "An ice demon?"

Kichi's grin remained as large, but shifted to one of confusion before he laughed lightly, chuckling. "Nah, close though!"

The demon opened his mouth to say more when the large BANG of a door echoed through the cavernous hallway outside their cell, and several footsteps followed. They were light and short, and several of them shuffled with determined age.

Both Kichi's and Kurama's gazes turned to the hallway outside as the elders of the Koorime slowly turned to face their cell. There were seven of them in total, though Kurama was unsure if they were all present.

The shortest and eldest of them stood in the center, with three on either side of her, their hair different shades of the icy blue and teal that was so accustomed to the Koorime.

The leader, her skin wrinkled with years and her body hunched with age, stared at the two of them with icy, pure blue eyes. But those glaring orbs of wisdom quickly honed in on Kurama's own green orbs.

"You…you are the man found by Kiraniri Miyuki." Kichi's right eye opened, the first time since Kurama had met him, revealing a piercing maroon, a grape-red wine orb as he glanced over at Kurama in curiosity, but not surprise.

"You will be executed with Monanuki Kichahakaru at dusk on the third night of the new solstice."

----…I'm not even sure what time it is, though I do happen to know my location…or do I!…----

And that's the end of Chapter 4. I hope you all enjoyed.

No author notes, so if you have any confuzzlements, let me know in a review please.