At the other end of the park, the 'Worm Wiggler' couple had just gotten off of their exciting ride. Kuwabara was turning various shades of green while trying not to stumble in his own footsteps. Yukina, on the other hand, was smiling and wearing a cute pair of souvenir antenna. They stopped near the picnic tables where Shizuru and Botan were finishing their meals.
"Woah, you alright Kazuma?" Shizuru said with a laugh. "You look like you're gonna hurl!"
"Looks like you two had fun," Botan giggled.
The dizzy ginger held his finger up to say something but was interrupted by Bira running past.
"That was...strange," Shizuru said, her sixth sense going off. "Something's weird with that kid."
A sudden beeping sound came from Botan's jacket. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a compact. Opening it, she was greeted by the angry face of her ruler, Lord Koenma.
"BOTAN!" the baby prince yelled. "Where are you? I've got a new lead on our assignment!"
Botan laughed nervously as she waved her hand forward, "Oh, nowhere, you know. What did you find out?"
The toddler gave her a stern look. "I've just received news that children from all over the city have gone missing."
"Missing? Do you think it could be Juno?"
"That is a possibility, yes. But based on the evidence we've gathered so far, it doesn't seem too likely."
"What do you mean by that?"
"In every case, the missing children were last seen with this person," he displayed a photo of a blonde child.
Shizuru peered in over the reaper's shoulder. Upon seeing the photo, her eyes widened with surprise.
"But if that's true, then we just saw her!" she said.
"What!" the toddler shouted. "You'd better find her quickly before she causes more trouble, then!"
"Yes sir!" Botan replied.
"Oh and one more thing," Koenma added. "Bring me back some funnel cake once the job is done!"
"Y-yes sir..."
After riding ALL the roller coasters several times, Keiko was bored. Yusuke had insisted they ride them again and again but she knew it was just his way of avoiding conversation with her.
"WHEW! That was fun!" Yusuke said with a big grin. "Wanna go again?"
Keiko shot him an irritated look as she patted down her wind blown hair. "Don't you think we've had enough for one day? There are other things to do in this park, you know."
"Hey how about that?" Yusuke pointed to a game stand with cute stuffed animal prizes hanging around it. "Want me to win you one of those?"
"Yusuke..." the girl blushed. She crossed her arms and looked away, pretending like she didn't care. It was then that she felt something bump into her shin.
Keiko looked down and saw a little boy! He seemed to be searching for something.
"Oh, hello." she said, bending down to speak to him. "Are you lost?"
"...find...her..." the little boy murmured quietly.
"What was that? I couldn't hear you." Keiko looked into the boy's empty eyes. She noticed his face was pale and sickly looking.
"...kill...KILL!" the little boy screamed as he grabbed onto her pant leg, tugging as hard as he could.
"HEY!" Yusuke intervened. He grabbed the boy by the shoulders and shoved him aside. "What the hell's your problem?!"
"Yusuke," Keiko said with worry. "I think something's wrong with him. He looks sick!"
Yusuke tilted his head to get a better look at the cowering boy. "Yeah, he does look a little weird, I guess."
"I'm gonna go to the front desk and see if they can call his parents!"
"Hey wait a minute!" Yusuke shouted as Keiko left. "I'm not a damn babysitter, you know!"
The teenager sighed. He whipped around in time to see the little boy turning the corner.
"Stupid brat! Get back here!"
Yusuke ran after the boy until he became lost in a mass of people. Pushing his way through the crowd, he soon found himself in an empty part of the park. He scoured the area, knowing the kid had to be hiding somewhere nearby. An old haunted house, a mini game stall, and a small cafe were the only places around. He was about to explore them when he heard a familiar voice.
"Yusuke!"
It was Serina accompanied by Kurama. He greeted them with a wave of his hand.
"Hey, you two didn't happen to see a little boy running around here didja?"
"Actually," Kurama said. "we're looking for a girl."
"Hey guys!" Kuwabara joined the group. Botan followed close behind.
"Oh good, you're all together!" the reaper said. She filled everyone in about her call from Koenma and explained the situation.
"And that's not all," Kurama added. "When she attacked Serina and I, she said that Juno was her brother."
Kuwabara was flabbergasted. "Wait, she's RELATED to that freak? Don't tell me we gotta beat up his whole family!"
"I don't care if I gotta beat up their grandma!" Yusuke shouted. "I'm sick of these weirdos messin' with innocent people!"
"But how will we find her?" Serina asked. "We followed her trail here and it looks like a dead end!"
A laugh followed by a sweet singing voice echoed from the haunted house nearby.
"I think we found our answer." Botan replied.
The group approached the attraction. It was shoddily boarded up and had a faded 'Closed For Repairs' sign hanging on the front. There was an opening big enough between the slats of wood for a child to walk through. Wasting no time, they all crawled in.
"It's pretty dark in here!" Kuwabara exclaimed. "And I don't think the lights work."
"Wait a minute, lemme try something," Serina said. She extended her palm and took a deep breath. Focusing as hard as she could, her hand began to glow white. A small orb formed from it and illuminated the room.
"Woah," said the ginger haired boy, "since when could you do that? I thought Genkai said you couldn't use your energy!"
"Normally I can't," she explained. "But this is something I could do ever since I discovered my powers. I honestly wasn't sure if I could pull it off... Anyways, I don't know how long it'll last so we'd better move quickly."
Everyone agreed and they moved forward. Thanks to Serina's light, they could see down the long entrance hallway. Several Victorian styled portraits adorned the chipped red walls and the rug beneath them was shredded. The air smelled of wet, rotten wood and rust could be seen on some of the old mechanical props meant to pop out and scare visitors.
"I'm don't get it," Botan said. "I thought this park was just built."
"It is new," Kurama responded. "But I think there was once an old abandoned theme park here. They must have built on top of it."
Bira's singing became louder as they approached the end of the hall. There was a door labeled 'KEEP OUT'. Yusuke, never one for following rules, opened it. Carefully, the gang filed in with Serina leading. She held her lit palm up to see what was ahead only to be greeted by her own image. Touching it with her free hand, she felt cold glass.
"A mirror?"
Without warning, a loud, high-pitched whirring came from beneath them. Serina fell back in fright leaving the gang in complete darkness. She frantically felt around for the mirrored wall and managed to get back onto her feet. Slowly, dim flickering red lights began to fill the room.
"I guess someone found the power switch!" Botan said.
Serina let out a sigh of relief. "For a moment there, I was scared we'd be stuck roaming around in the dark!"
Kurama reached out to console his classmate with a pat on the shoulder but his hand hit ice cold glass. "I don't think we're safe just yet. Take a good look around you!"
Even though the lights were dim, the gang could tell the whole room was covered with shape altering mirrors. Each of them reflected their own image, distorted and disfigured. It was clear that they had all been somehow separated!
"This is stupid!" Yusuke huffed as he charged up his pointer finger. "I'll get us outta here with my spirit gun!"
"Yusuke, wait!" Kurama yelled. "If you shoot your spirit energy off in here it would just bounce off of the walls. It could cause the whole building to come crashing down on us!"
Botan gasped, "He's right, Yusuke! Remember how you destroyed the Forlorn Hope?"
"Oh yeah." The raven haired punk said, scratching his head a little. "Guess I forgot about that..."
"If we can't break down the walls, then we just gotta find our own way out!" Kuwabara said. "And soon I hope. This one mirror's makin' my ass look totally fat."
Serina took a look at her own reflection. The tips of her hair were dipped white. Again, Kurama had saved her from a horrible demon, and again she had no control over herself. She wondered if she could ever master the power within her. Kurama wouldn't always be around to save her... would he? Taking a deep breath, she trekked forward.
It felt like an hour had passed when Kurama finally spoke up. "I may have found an exit!"
"Me too!" Serina hollered back, grabbing the handle to the exit's door.
Botan, Kuwabara, and Yusuke all yelled back with the same response. All together, they opened their doors and walked down a few steps. At the bottom was a large, round room lit by fake candle lamps. In the middle of it, the demon girl was sitting on the floor with her hands covering her eyes. Everyone was standing in a perfect circle around her. Bira giggled and began to sing her song again.
"I'm gonna go ahead and guess that you're the brat who's been causing us so much trouble." Yusuke said with sass.
"Shhhh." hushed Bira. "You can't talk! It's against the rules!"
"Excuse me?!"
"Hmm. Now let me see." Bira put a finger against her pursed lips, her eyes still shut tight. "It must be... Serina!"
"What?" was all Serina managed to say before a trap door opened up beneath her. She screamed, landing with a 'thud' onto dirt covered ground below. Bira opened her eyes and looked around the room.
"I was right! I was right! I rock at that game!" Bira exclaimed as she danced around the room.
Kuwbara clenched his fist. "Hey little girl, that's not nice! What the hell kinda game are you playin', anyway!?"
"I'm not telling!" the girl teased, blowing a raspberry in his direction. Yusuke quickly snagged her by the collar.
Bira flailed her arms about wildly. "Lemme go! Lemme gooooo!" she cried.
"Good job, Yusuke!" Botan applauded. "Now let's take her back to Spirit World."
"Hold on a second, Botan." said Yusuke. He held the girl up by the scruff of her neck."What did you do with all those kids you took?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." she lied.
"Quit your stupid games! What the hell are you up to!?"
While they were arguing, Kurama peered down the open trap door where his class mate had fallen. It was poorly lit and he could not see Serina anywhere.
"She's gone!" The red-head exclaimed.
As the group faced Kurama, Bira whipped herself around and kicked Yusuke off. She landed gracefully on the floor.
"You guys are so dumb!" The blonde jeered. "Do you think I'd just let her get away?"
"What have you done with her?" Kurama said, his green eyes gleaming dangerously.
"Oooh! Doggy is ma~ad! How scary!" she chuckled. "I'd love to stay and play with you some more but I don't want to keep Juno-nii waiting!" She pushed past the boys and quickly escaped through the hole in the floor.
"Damn, she's fast!" Yusuke said bolting after her.
The gang tried to chase after but she was already far ahead. Beyond the trap door was a long tunnel that extended underneath the park. Wasting no time, they all began running forward hoping to find both their friend and the demon, Bira. They followed the winding path until Yusuke spotted a familiar figure. It was the boy from earlier!
"It's you!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing here, kid? You shouldn't be playing around down here."
The little boy looked up at Yusuke with a devilish smile and began to laugh. Suddenly, more laughter came from behind him. The gang turned to see several giggling children staggering towards them.
"These must be the missing children!" said Botan.
"Uhhh, not that I'm not happy that we found them or nothin'," Kuwabara stated. "But am I the only one who's kinda creeped out? I think something's wrong with them."
One of the kids lurched forward, grabbed Kuwabara by the leg, and began gnashing their teeth. He screamed and pushed them off of him.
"I think they're being controlled by that girl!" Botan yelled as she shoved a little girl away from her. "Do something, Yusuke!"
More small hands tried to claw at them as they backed away slowly.
"What am I supposed to do? I can't fight these kids, they're weak!" Yusuke shouted back, dodging a tiny fist.
"We'll have to make a run for it!" yelled Kurama.
They turned and ran as fast as they could. Through the twists and turns of the tunnel, it seemed that the children were slowly gaining on them.
"We need to find a way to distract them!" Botan said. "At this rate they'll catch up to us."
"That sounds great and all but how are we supposed to do that?" asked Yusuke.
"With this!" Botan pulled a funny-looking grenade out of her pocket and threw it to the ground. "Now, let's get out here!"
A large plume of smoke seeped out of the bomb behind them as they ran. The last thing that they heard were the coughs and cries of the confused little terrors. Now they could see daylight shining ahead. Everyone raced through to the exit.
Yusuke shielded his eyes as the bright sunlight hit his face. When his pupils readjusted, he could see that they were on top of a grassy hill. Bira and Serina were nowhere in sight.
"Damn," he said. "Don't tell me that brat already got away..."
Kurama inhaled deeply. "I don't think so," he said. "They must be nearby, still."
"Kurama's right, Yusuke. Look!" Botan said as she took a few steps towards the edge of the hill.
Bira, Juno, and Serina were all on the plain below.
Yusuke cracked his knuckles. "Alright, time to kick some ass."
