Groaning loudly and rubbing his head, the Spirit Detective sat up and winced-his back was killing him. The room was pitch black, so he waited a few minutes before his eyes got used to the dark. He counted four lumps, and thought everyone was there.
No, wait, we have that Shidousha dude, too…he thought, double checking for any more slumped-over figures. To his terror, one of them was gone. Yusuke got into to his feet and walked over to the other's unconscious forms. Kurama, Hiei, Kuwabara, Shidousha...Automatically, his heart sank-Anei was gone. As if on cue, screams of curses echoed and vibrated off the walls. They were Anei's shrieks, he was sure of it. Turning around, Yusuke looked for an exit, but to no avail.
"Anei...?" he heard someone murmur, but ignored it.
"Anei! ANEI, CAN YOU HEAR ME?!?" he shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth to be louder. There came no reply, ultimately making Yusuke worry even more. Nobody but the other four heard him. The other's groans filled the room as Anei's screams stopped. He heard someone get up; whirling around, he saw Shidousha standing and looking around as well.
"Who's screamin'?" Kuwabara asked groggily as the echoes still resonated throughout the chamber.
"Anei! Where are you?" the Shidousha guy whispered.
Probably more to himself, but Yusuke was upset. Suddenly angry, Yusuke snapped, "If I knew where she was, would I be shouting for her? Would I wonder why she was screaming?"
"Yusuke, calm down; she can't be far if we can hear her scream," Kurama reasoned. He stared at the floor for a second, and then his emerald gaze traveled up. A steel barred door covered their entrance to their hole.
"There's our way out," Hiei muttered, brushing himself off.
"In case you haven't noticed, that exit is way up there. There's no way we can get up that high!" Yusuke complained. A smug look appeared on Kurama's face. Pulling a rose out of his hair, he formed his infamous rose whip. A second later, it was latched onto one of the rungs and Yusuke was still grumbling.
A few minutes after climbing-with difficulty-the rose whip and, removing the trap door, the five were out of the hole. As they brushed themselves off they looked around, and were shocked. Anei was across the room, hanging on the wall in chains, with a large gash in her right arm.

Being the one with the fastest instinct, Shidousha ran towards her, oblivious to any danger-he needed to save her. Five feet away from her, Shidousha slammed against something cold and very hard as he skidded to the floor. He sat up on his elbows, and the others could see he was sporting a bloody nose. He rubbed his left cheek, as a large and painful looking bruise was sure to be soon forming there. He wiped the blood off on his sleeve.
Angrily, he stood up, and pounded on the invisible wall.
"Anei? ANEI?!? ANEI, WAKE UP!!" he bellowed, finally abandoning his job to beat on the wall.
Suddenly, a woman's voice reverberated around the room. "She can't hear you. Or see you, or very well move, for that matter."
Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Shidousha all searched the room with their eyes, all being upset. Kurama and Hiei both scanned quickly for her aura, but she was masking it.
"Who are you?" Yusuke called to the silence. "Why are you doing this to Anei?!"
The woman's voice chuckled, and then something appeared right behind Hiei. The 'something' was supposedly to owner of the voice. She wrapped an arm tightly around his waist, somehow preventing Hiei to not move. One of her paled hands caressed his cheek.
"Oh, you're a cute one," she said in his ear, but loud enough for the others to hear. The boys' assumption for her to be the holder of the voice was true.
It was one of those sickly sweet tones, her voice. On the outside, that was pretty much true as well. Her long hair was a light blue gray-ish sort of color and its straight locks fell down to the middle of her back. Her eyes were violet-red, and they reflected the scene with interest. She wore a dark purple velvet dress that was a little puffy at the short sleeves, and it creeped up her neck in a 'v' pattern. A black jewel was encrusted in the dip between her collarbones. Out of the corner of his eyes, Hiei could barely see the strange woman with the pale skin.
"Nothing, to Anei, dears. It's to something inside her." the woman replied finally, resting her chin on Hiei's shoulder. She muttered something, and only Hiei heard it. "Bikou Gishu."
Suddenly, Kuwabara cried, "What is that?!" He jumped up and pointed towards Anei.
A hand and arm made out of black energy started to slowly swirl up Anei's neck. The woman was controlling the hand, moving her hand with the energy in synchronization. The hand stopped and stroked her face, the woman chuckling while she did so. It stopped and floated down to the middle of her chest, near the base of her neck, and delved in.
As soon as the fingertips of the hand had entered her body, Anei started to scream with agony.

The half shadow demon felt something cool against her skin, traced against her cheek and then hovered down to her chest. Confused, she wondered what could possibly be going on for this kind of sensation. Had she had gotten to train any of her shadow demon powers, she would have known this was the Bikou Gishu, or Shadow Hand.
What in the world is this feeling? Someone tracing ice on my skin? Geez…I'd-
All her thoughts stopped abruptly when she felt something infiltrate her body, something invade her vessel, she felt it grope around her spirit, like it was trying to find something. It was not a pleasant feeling. It grew even more horrid as a pain reached her head, one which not even her tough will could handle. Her first physical reactions were a blow to her pride. To the others, her eyes shot open, but she still could see nothing. She screamed in agony as the hand continued to sift through her aura, trying to find something she apparently hid very well. It tore and clawed at her very being, ripping open wounds and delving deeper, farther into more than anything she could have imagined.
The pain was mind blowing. She wanted to die, she wanted everything to end. As long as the pain stopped, she would be fine with anything, even if it meant not seeing anyone ever again. She wanted Botan to come and get her right now, take her away, to officially live in Spirit World as a spirit. Maybe end up ferrying souls too. But, just let the pain end first.

The cries of agony angered Shidousha; how could this shadow hand thing hurt her enough to scream? Anei was strong, the strongest and her stellar willpower was unmatched by anyone that he knew. She never screamed when she was in pain, she fought on. The very fact that she was in pain and there was nothing he could do about it angered him even further. Yet, she was in pain because of that woman...
"You bitch! Stop this right now!" he cried, turning towards the woman and Hiei. He could no longer watch Anei suffer.
She chuckled. "You think calling me names is going to stop me? I need something from her, and nothing is going to get in my way. Not even you, wolf boy." She smirked, and laughed. "Is poor little hero upset because he can't save his princess?" she taunted, speaking in a baby's voice.
Growling with frustration, Shidousha changed into his wolf form, not caring about the consequences he'd have later. He was suddenly aware of everything around him – increased heartbeat, the sweat on Yusuke's forehead, the bruises Kuwabara started to get from punching the wall, Hiei's ragged breath, and the smell of evil, coming from the woman's direction. Ready to cause more pain than Anei was suffering, he lunged towards her. She smirked and narrowed her eyes, throwing Hiei to the ground. He was unconscious, why, the Ookami leader didn't really know, and for that matter didn't care, he just wanted Anei to stop being in pain, and this woman was going to stop that. She stood, not bothering to move when he started galloping towards her. Her feet were together and her arms hung loosely at her sides.
He ignored everything else that was happening around him; his only focus was to cause fatal damage to this woman who was hurting Anei. He leaped at the last second and opened his jaws, ready to close them down onto some part of this woman's body. But he felt nothing but air between his teeth as he landed, and skidded to a halt. He heatedly turned around and saw where the evil shadow demon had gone.
She had wound up to the right of him. Her hair fell back in place as she stood. Another nasty smirk appeared on her lips as Shidousha panted loudly. His growl echoed around the room. The hair on his back rose, as he continued to snarl. He needed to disarm this woman somehow.
She chuckled softly and soon her laughter was almost covering Anei's shrieks. "You don't even know why she's here, do you?" she questioned.
"You have Daifu; we're trying to rescue him! Anei's here because it's her father!" Yusuke explained irately. "That's what we do! We rescue people and kill the bad guys!"
"Yusuke, you don't even know the half of it," the woman told him, putting her hands on her hips. "You see, Master Fuzen wants his power back. Somehow, it got stuck in that whore whose making that entire racket. Naturally, I, Kerai, his most faithful servant, would find it for him."

The hand continued to touch and burn her energy, her life force, her. She felt like she was going to die.
No…she thought. I'm not going to die. Not now, not after all I've been working for. I can't leave my friends and dad again…no. I'm going to get out of this. I will.
Shut up, you little whore, the woman's voice spoke again in her thoughts.
Clenching her teeth, Anei focused on a shield inside herself – around her very core. She expanded it to burst out from her body. The hand disappeared into oblivion, along with her shield. She let her head go limp, her chin resting against her chest, ignoring the four symmetrical wounds she received from her shield.
The half-shadow demon felt eyes on her as she raised her head and glared with her blind eyes at the woman who had caused her to hurt her pride and scream from pain.

Suddenly, Anei's screams stopped, and everyone who was awake looked at her. The shadow hand had disappeared and her head hung, as if she was unconscious again. Her chest heaved heavily-she was breathing very fast. Slowly though, her head rose and it appeared to the others that she was glaring right at Kerai.
Four new and unknown wounds had appeared on both her arms and both her legs. Her eyes were pupil-less, it seemed, so she could not see anything. Her expression portrayed deep hatred. A black, purple, and silver aura seemed to swirl around her, and she savored the newfound energy.
Abruptly, her energy lashed out and struck the invisible wall, which then was visible to all as it shattered into a gazillion pieces. The shards flew out in every direction, glittering like stars and creating quite a scene. The energy bonds that held Anei to the wall were severed, and she had landed on one knee to the floor. No one dared to move, for her anger was enough to fill the room.
The half-shadow demon rose silently, and made her way across the room towards Kerai, not even bothering to realize that the broken shards of glass were giving her fresh wounds on her feet. Her emotions made her oblivious to that. The other four watched in shock as she walked past them. Her energy danced wildly around her as she backed Kerai into a corner.