Hiei felt someone not far from Aly-Jay's room. It was convenient that Kurama knocked on her door, it gave him the chance to quickly leave and check it out. He didn't want to risk them coming too close to her room. While he knew some demons were aware of her location, he didn't like the idea that she could be in danger. He followed the demon energy all the way to the lake where he saw Aly-Jay play with water for the first time. The demon stood at the edge of the lake, waiting for Hiei. When Hiei finally got a better look at the other demon, he realized it was just a low class demon, no threat at all.

Curious as to why such a low class demon was around, Hiei landed a few feet in front of the stranger. Neither of them exchanged words, they just stared at each other for a few seconds. When the other demon reached into his robe, Hiei braced himself for an attack. However, the other demon just pulled out some kind of glowing orb.

"A message for you, Hiei," the demon said, throwing the orb. "From Mukuro."

Hiei tensed as the other demon disappeared. What could she want? He told her he was leaving for Human World, and it's not like he told her when he would go back. He stared down at the orb in his hands for a couple seconds. Should he listen? Then again, why shouldn't he? It's not like he's hiding anything. Still, he couldn't help but feel guilty over whatever happened with Aly-Jay. He had tried to comfort her but it didn't look like it had worked. Making up his mind, he threw the orb at the nearest tree. A shadowed image of Mukuro began to form against it.

"Hello, Hiei. I can't help but notice how long you've stayed in Human World. It hasn't been the same here without you. The others just don't compare to your company, I'm afraid. And I'll admit, I've gotten curious. Word has gone around that the mixed demon is real. Alive and well. In Human World even. I wonder if you know anything about this demon. Rumour has it, it's really powerful. I wonder what you could do with that kind of power at your fingertips. Anyways, I guess this message is me thinking it's time for you to come home now. Goodbye."

Minutes after the message ended, Hiei could only stare. Did Mukuro know that Hiei has been part of Aly-Jay's training? Or was she just assuming Hiei would meet her? Even just sending the message in the first place confused him. The emotions were pulling him in all different directions, he didn't know what to do with it. While he knew he wasn't in love with Mukuro, he didn't think it was possible for him to feel love, there was something different towards the way he thought of Aly-Jay. He couldn't explain it, and it made him frustrated.

Needing to think things over before going back to Aly-Jay, he jumped up into a tree to sit. It must have been hours before he could have sworn hearing some kind of crash in the distance. At first he ignored it, thinking it was the wind, but then he got a weird feeling in his chest. Something was wrong, and he didn't like it. By the time he made it back to the house he could hear a large commotion.

"God damn it, Kuwabara!" he heard Yusuke say from upstairs. "How could you let this happen?"

"I'm sorry. I swear, I only fell asleep for a second. And nothing has really happened in a while. Plus, it looked like Aly-Jay could handle herself after what happened at the beach..." Kuwabara's voice was quiet. He sounded super guilty. This wasn't helping Hiei's nerves. "I feel so bad, you don't even understand."

Hiei made it upstairs to see all the guys standing in the hallway. Frowning, he asked, "What's this all about?"

Kurama was the one to turn to Hiei, even he looked guilty. "It's Aly-Jay. She's gone."

"What?" Hiei yelled, forgetting to hide his emotions. Without another word, he quickly ran to her room. It was a huge mess. There was broken glass everywhere, her side table turned over, and her bed unmade. Hiei also noted that Mizu was laying on her pillow, as if trying to keep her scent around him. As the cat and Hiei made eye contact, guilt ran through Hiei as well. If he didn't stay behind to think of such petty thoughts, she wouldn't have been taken. Furious, he turned to Kuwabara and grabbed the front of his shirt and forced him down. "What happened?"

Kuwabara had the nerve to look ashamed. "I swear, I only fell asleep for a second. I didn't even realize that I had dozed off. I'm so sorry, it's all my fault."

"It's all our faults," Kurama said, placing a hand on Hiei's shoulder. "Why are you so angry anyways? I don't think I've ever seen you react this way before."

Hiei took a step back, shrugging off Kurama hand while ignoring the stare Kurama was giving and tried to think of an excuse. "We don't know who has taken her, or what they might do. They might even use her to destroy Demon World or Human World. I don't know about you guys, but I'd like to die on my own terms. Besides, she hasn't mastered her powers. What do you think they'll do to her when they find that out?" Hiei made a point to give a piercing stare at Kuwabara.

When Kuwabara looked away, Hiei looked back into Aly-Jay's room. There was a small puddle of water under her broken window. It was surprisingly comforting to see that she put up a fight. But he didn't like the other feelings that went through him as he thought of Aly-Jay's capture. There were some he couldn't even identify, and he didn't like that either. Calmer now, he turned to Kurama. "So what happened?"

"We were all sleeping at the time. I woke up to the first crash, which I'm assuming was her lamb, but it was quiet so I thought it was just my imagination. It wasn't until her window broke, shortly after, that I realized it wasn't. By the time all of us made it to her room, she was gone. I tried to run after them but whoever stole her was really fast. Judging by their tracks she was trying to fight him off," that gave Hiei very little comfort, "but at one point he paused to bind her. It must have been an excellent binding because it was smooth sailing for him. I lost the track soon after." That offered no comfort to Hiei.

They were all silent for a second. Then Yusuke said, "Where were you, Hiei? I'm surprised you were out so late."

Hiei glared over at Yusuke. "Not that it's any of your business, but I received a message from Mukuro." He pulled out the orb to prove it.

It was obvious the guys were curious about what the message was, but now wasn't the time to ask. Not wanting to waste too much time, they decided to go see Genkai. She wasn't happy to have been woken up, but when Yusuke told her about Aly-Jay she quickly dressed so they could try and come up with a plan. Yusuke's pounding at the door had woken up Yukina as well. Since Yukina was worried about Aly-Jay, she decided to help out any way she could. She started by making coffee for the guys.

"Idiots!" Genkai yelled as they settled into one of her extra rooms. "I should have known better than to have her stay with you guys."

Unable to willing take a verbal smack down from Genkai, Yusuke got all defensive. "Hey, Grand-ma, we haven't seen any sign of some kind of attack for weeks! How were we suppose to know that they would show up tonight?"

"That's probably what they planned!" Genkai yelled back. "They probably waited for our guards to go down before they decided to make a move."

Hiei tried not to tense at that. Was the she not taken sooner because Hiei has been spending the nights with her? The one time he didn't see her, she was taken. Hiei looked down at his feet at the thought. God, he's such a fool.

"Do you think they took her to Demon World?" Yusuke asked.

"I'm not sure," Kurama stated. "I almost think they would expect us to go to Demon World, since the first time the demon showed up he smelled of Demon World. But would he have been willing to make the whole trip down there? Plus, we need to consider the fact that this demon might not be the one who wants Aly-Jay in the first place."
"But who would want to take her?" Kuwabara asked.

"Anyone who wants power, I'd imagine."

They spent the next couple hours debating if they took her to Demon World or kept her in Human World alone. The amount of possibilities where endless so none of them knew were to start. All of them had drank as least three cups of coffee before they realized that they weren't getting anywhere. And since the sun was coming up, they decided they needed to rest before they took any kind of action, whatever it may be.

But Hiei couldn't sleep. He didn't bother trying to get some rest because he knew it wouldn't work. So he went outside and tried to follow the tracks. He touched a couple broken branches from the struggle. At least she put up a fight, but he wondered why she wasn't that successful. From all the training she went threw she should have been able to draw blood or something. Maybe try to leave a trail for them to follow. Then he realized that she hasn't had any real fight before. Did she freeze, forgetting all of her training? Did she underestimate her kidnapper?

Feeling angry over the fact that he let her get stolen, defeated over feeling like he couldn't do anything, and worried over what might happen to Aly-Jay, Hiei balled his hands into fists. The bandages on his right arm began to tighten. When he looked down at it, he could see the dragon wanting to be unleashed. He frowned at his arm, unsure of what that meant. Hiei knew he needed to calm down so he turned around to follow the tracks back to her room.

He took one step before seeing Mizu standing a few feet away, staring at him. Well shit, who's going to take care of this little guy? The cat still hasn't accepted the other guys but he seemed perfectly comfortable in Hiei's lap. Hiei wasn't sure if he should pick him up and carry him back to the house but as he walked past the cat he noticed he didn't need to. Mizu followed him all the way back. Still unsure with what to do with the cat, he hesitated outside Aly-Jays room.

Finally making a decision, Hiei opened the door and saw Mizu sitting at his empty bowl. The cat looked over at him and meowed softly. Making sure no one was around, Hiei walked inside her room and closed the door behind him. Trying not to look at the mess, he went to Aly-Jay's bottom drawer where she hid the cat food. Working as fast as he could, he poured the cat food into the small cat bowl before putting the cat food back.

Well all was said and done, Hiei finally went to go get some rest. He didn't think he would be able to fall sleep but he passed out the moment his head hit the pillow. An hour passed before Hiei woke up panting. He hasn't has a nightmare in what felt like months. But this one was different. While it started the same, him getting the Jagan eye, it ended differently. He was in bed with Aly-Jay, and she was reading to him but she started to get dragged away from a shadow. No matter how hard Hiei ran, he couldn't reach her.

Knowing he wouldn't be able to get any more sleep, Hiei got up. Someone started knocking on the front door when he started to make his way down the stairs. Narrowing his eyes, Hiei went to go answer. Hiei tensed a little when he saw it was Yukina.

"Oh," she said sheepishly, "I was hoping I could talk to you for a minute. About Aly-Jay."

Hiei only opened the door so she could come in. Yukina went to go sit on the couch while Hiei sat in the lazy boy.

"I know I haven't really spent a lot of time with her," Yukina started, looking down at her hands, "but I feel like I really bonded with her the other day. She tried to help me learn to dance. Anyways," Yukina shook her head slightly, trying to get back on topic, "I haven't been able to stop thinking about her. I'm know she hasn't been able to master her powers and so I'm really worried about her. And I don't know if you've tried this already, and I hope I don't insult you if you had, but I remembered how I asked you if you could use your Jagan eye to look for my brother. So I thought, maybe you could give it a try. Maybe you could reach her somehow."

Now Hiei was torn even more. He felt like an even bigger fool for not thinking about using his eye in the first place. And now he wanted to do what he could to make Yukina happy. Caring for his sister was one thing, he always tried to do what he could, but to be worried about Aly-Jay as well... He didn't know what to do with all of this. Trying to offer what little comfort he could, he got up to walk Yukina to the door as he said, "I'll give it a try."

It was actually a good idea. After Hiei watched Yukina leave, he went outside and jumped up to the top of the tallest tree. He didn't know if the height would help, but he did enjoy the fresh air. Hiei took a deep breath before uncovering his Jagan eye. At first he tried to use his telepathy to reach Aly-Jay, but his thoughts just hit a wall. Frowning, he tried to find her location, but again, he came back with nothing. Whoever stole her had some kind of mental wall, preventing his eye from finding her. Balling his hands into fists, he tried his telepathy again but he made the message stronger.

"Hiei?"

Hiei almost went weak in the knees at hearing her voice. Admittedly, he wasn't expecting this to work so easily. "Yes, where are you?"

"My mind..."

The whimper she let out made Hiei growl. Whoever took her was going to pay. He didn't know how long he could maintain connection so he had to stay focused.

"You need to tell me where you are."

"Human World."

"Good. Now you need to tell me more. What's around you?"

"I don't know... It's so dark... my mind... I can't..."

"I need you to focus. Try to give me something. What do you see, smell, hear?"

She didn't reply right away and Hiei worried that she was gone.

"It smells musky... the windows... they're shut... covered with wood. It's so quiet... but there are birds..." She was starting to panic. Hiei could hear her heavy breathing, even through her thoughts. But she continued, "Forest... but sometimes hear cars... not often."

"Who took you?"

Her breathing began to increase. Again, she whimpered.

"He's coming..."

"Who took you?" Hiei almost yelled out the question.

"Hel-" She was gone.

Anger pulsing through his veins, Hiei jumped down and punched the nearest tree. Nothing happened, but a second later the tree shattered. It took all of his will power not to go searching for her right away. But he knew that the only way to find her as soon as possible was to get help from the others. Hiei tried to calm himself when he found that everyone was back in the room they were in last night. Keeping his face blank, he walked inside.

"There you are," Kurama said, "I went looking for you."

Yusuke went straight to business, not giving Hiei the chance to reply. "We were just talking about you and your Jagan eye. Do you think you could-"

"I already have."

They were all quiet.

"Annnnd," Yusuke said.

"I couldn't find her exact location. They blocked that from me, but I was able to talk to her."

Yusuke jumped up. "What did she say?"

After Hiei told everyone what little information Aly-Jay gave him, they began to try and figure out where she might be. Given the amount of time that has passed since she was taken, they figured she couldn't be too far. She would still be in Japan, for sure. They also gathered that she was in an abandoned building, something hidden from view, but close to a road. Well that narrowed it down. Not.

Genkai placed a bunch of maps on the ground in front of them. She arranged the maps in way where it acted like one large map without risking the zoom that they needed. With this they were able to pin it down to ten possible locations. Being able to bring it down to both abandon and close to a road was actually helpful. Now they had to figure out where to start.

They started off with the ones closest to Genkai's compound. Since the tracks lead north, everyone thought they should head at way first then making their way eastwards. The first few places were completely empty, some were even almost impossible to get to. And every time they arrived at a location Hiei tried to contact Aly-Jay through telepathy. Every time his thoughts hit a wall. However, since they were all able to run fast they went through the buildings rather quickly. When they got to the fourth house, their hopes were beginning to lower. Kuwabara was even starting to get out of breath.

"If you can't handle this, Kuwabara, you might as well go home," Hiei said as they arrived.

"No," Kuwabara said between breathes, "I'm the reason she got kidnapped, I've got to find her. It's the least I could do."

Hiei narrowed his eyes at him before turning to the building. As he made his way forward, he caught Kurama staring at him, again. Kurama has been giving Hiei these weird looks ever since Aly-Jay was taken. Frankly, it was really starting to irritate Hiei. It make him feel like Kurama knew what was going through his mind, and more importantly, like Kurama knew more than Hiei did. Ignoring Kurama, Hiei searched the place to find it empty. That didn't help his irritation.

As they began to make to make their way to the next location, Hiei had began to get this weird feeling. This next place was it. He could feel it. Feeling a new sense of hope, Hiei began to pick up speed. He didn't slow down until they reached the edge of the woods. The others weren't far behind him.

"Guys," Kuwabara panted, "can we take a little breather or something?" He braced himself against a tree as he tried to catch his breath.

Kuwabara quickly fell silent as he noticed the others were quiet, staring at the building in front of them. As he looked over at the building as well, Kuwabara realized why no one was talking. There was something different about this place. His spiritual awareness was practically screaming at him. Something, or someone, was hiding in there. Even though he couldn't feel any energy, he just knew there was something inside. The feeling didn't sit too well with anybody.

All of them cautiously to walked forwards, all of them had their guards up. Yusuke reached for the door knob. His fingers barely touched it before a blast of energy threw them all back. It was clearly demon energy. The guys struggled to get themselves up since the energy was still raging. None of the guys felt anything like this before. They knew it was demon energy but their knowledge didn't go much further. It was weird, like a hybrid energy of some kind.

Suddenly the energy vanished. All the guys braced themselves as they heard heavy footsteps coming from inside the building. A shadow appeared in the doorway that it quickly grew into an obviously large demon. At first glace he looked like a very tall human, but the demon energy was undeniable. Much unlike the energy they felt before. That and humans didn't have fangs the way his guy did. They were hard to miss as he had this huge grin on his face.

When he finally took a step out from the door way, he opened his arms in a welcoming manner. "Ah, you've arrived. Welcome to my humble abode." All the guys tensed at that. The demon pointed at Hiei. "I was a little worried you wouldn't use your eye to try and find her."

Hiei's hands balled into fists at that. What the hell was he talking about?

"What? You think that you just got lucky by getting through to her? Where's the fun in taking her powers without a little challenge?"

Take her powers? It took all of Hiei's will power to not cut this guy's head off. If the guys weren't here he probably would have. But he needed to make sure that Aly-Jay is alright.

"Who are you?" Yusuke asked.

The demon had to nerve to act shocked. "You mean to say that you don't know who I am?"

"I'm sorry," Yusuke said, "I don't make a habit out of meeting assholes."

This time the demon crossed his arms and glared. "The name is Hiroto, and I believe I have something that belongs to you."

That odd energy came back again, but this time it didn't come in a huge blast. Another set of footsteps were heard. As it got louder, the energy got stronger. Not sure of what the guys should suspect, they could only wait and see. Finally, they could see a shadow in the doorway. The first thing Hiei noticed was the way the long hair moved in the wind. It reminded him of graceful ocean waves and the whip of flames at the same time. Then he realized that he recognized the height and shape of the figure.

Ready to defend her, Hiei braced himself to attack. But he completely froze at Aly-Jay's actions. Without hesitation, she walked right up to Hiroto and allowed him to rest his arm on her shoulder.