The stranger interrupted their silent moment, or at least, in Anei's head, he did. You must leave before the scouts come. They will place you in these jail cells you see before you. Hurry and leave now.
Wait! Who are you? Anei asked before he left the connection.
No one special. Now go.
At that moment, Anei felt several presences coming their way down the hall that the stranger had come from. She turned towards him and nodded, and he disappeared. She knew the others had sensed them too, because of how they all tensed up and kept sending uneasy glances down the dark corridor.
"How...how did you get out?" Daifu asked, and then his gaze turned to Yusuke. "And how are you still alive?" He obviously was too happy to sense the oncoming danger.
"They're both long stories," Anei answered, turning with the rest of them all towards the dark hallway. "But it's going to have to wait. There are guards coming this way."
"What are we gonna do about Hiei?" Kuwabara asked, noticing the unconscious fire demon still in the arms of Kurama.
Quickly, Anei removed him from the fox demon's care and
Anei knew it probably would've been better if she had listened to the man with the hood. But she needed desperately to calm her anger at the capture and suffering of her father.
"Anei, I don't think you should fight," Daifu announced quietly, so the oncoming guards did not hear.
"I do dad. They captured you and hurt both of us. They deserve it," she replied, stealing a quick glance in his direction.
"Fine. After this, you're grounded," he replied. She was fiddling with her shirt, which he knew was a sign she was hiding something from them all.
Her mouth dropped open and she turned towards her father. "Are you joking?!" she shouted.
"No, I'm not," he answered.
Anei sent glares towards Yusuke and Kuwabara, who were silently laughing behind their hands. She frowned and looked away, and then noticed Shidousha trying to conceal himself as much as possible behind Kurama.
What're you doing? she asked him in his head. He looked quite startled that her voice suddenly echoed around his mind.
I don't want Daifu seeing me, he answered, sending her a furtive glance.
Anei rolled her eyes. He had figured that since her parents didn't want her married, they hated him. She had always insisted that they just thought she was too young, but he hadn't swayed.
"I'm serious, Anei. I don't want you to fight," Daifu persisted.
"Dad! I can handle it!" she shouted, her anger making her snap.
He frowned. "Anei Hana Tanizawa; don't take that tone with me."
Yusuke and Kuwabara's chuckles grew louder.
Anei's mouth tightened. "Fine." She turned away, towards the oncoming opponents. "I'd rather be grounded and fight than not fight at all."
Daifu's frown grew deeper. "He's too close. You're going to die," he muttered under his breath.
Back in Spirit World, Koenma heard what Daifu had said, for no sound went unnoticed on his television.
"Die?! Whaddya mean die?!!" he exclaimed, jumping up in his seat. He grabbed for his remote, but in his haste, he dropped it. After fumbling with it, the display, instead of showing the people and place, it just showed the spirit energies. Anei's was pretty dim, and getting dimmer because of a section that went off somewhere else in the castle.
Koenma frowned, and with his remote, followed it to where it ended, like the end of a rainbow or something. Botan, who had returned to see the detectives' progress, and George leaned in closer, staring intently at the screen. There was a continued black abyss and the energy being sapped from Anei shone out brightly against it.
"What do you think it is Koenma, sir?" George asked the question that was on both his and the Reaper's mind.
"To be honest...I have no idea. But considering the circumstances, I fear it's...him," Koenma answered, his frown deepening.
By how long it was taking, he figured he must have gone up several floors, and probably across the castle.
"No! It can't be!" Botan cried. "Why would he want her power?"
Koenma remained silent. He couldn't say, not now anyways. Botan got it and dropped the subject.
They had found someone. Two someone's, actually. One someone's aura was getting steadily brighter, and was obviously the culprit of draining Anei's energy. He switched back to the people and place. They gasped and stared at the screen in terror.
In Kage Castle, silence once again consumed them. The only sound was the occasional mumblings of the distant enemies. Meanwhile, Anei directed everyone telepathically.
Kuwabara, Yusuke, get on both sides of the entry. Kurama, and Shidousha, you can hide behind those pillars.
What're you gonna do? Shidousha thought, hoping Anei still had a connection with him.
You'll see.
Everyone got in their places, and Anei crept over to the entry, stepped into the shadows and disappeared. Daifu stared into the darkness, wondering where she had gone to. When he didn't see her, he immediately and instinctively became worried. "Anei?" he whispered loudly. "Anei?!"
Her voice entered his head. Hush up! Do you want them to get suspicious?
Where are you?
In the shadows. She paused, and he thought she had left. I'm fine, dad, she reassured after he thought that using that power would wear her down faster.
He sighed and slightly relaxed, making it seemed he was still a prisoner, and concealing the unconscious boy Hiei at the same time.
Minutes seemed to drag by as the strangers with torches came closer and closer with each stealthy step they took. Anei was on the wall high above them, watching them and following them silently as she drifted over the cool wall. She had mastered this technique in jail; it's how she escaped so many times until Koenma figured out what she was doing. It was that damned suck-up Forie who told him. She scowled at the thought of his name, or at least, she felt herself scowl, but nobody would've seen it.
Finally, the light got brighter, and as the strangers crossed the threshold, Anei jumped down behind them.
"NOW!" she cried, unveiling herself.
Yusuke and Kuwabara both jumped out and started attacking; they were clearly Kage soldiers. Kurama and the wolf-form of Shidousha came tearing out from behind their assigned pillars, attacking the front; Kuwabara and Yusuke battled the flanks, Anei held the rear.
Daifu smiled sadly as he watched Anei fight. She looked just like her mother when she was mad and fighting. Her fighting style, the way she moved, everything down to the expressions on her face. His heart ached. And then, someone caught his eye. It was a boy, and it caused his aching heart to suddenly race in fear of that boy being seen by Anei.
Koenma trembled and slowly sank back down into his chair. Botan stared with her mouth gaping open, and George? Well, he had fainted sometime in the middle of the staring fest.
Why would someone so powerful need Anei's aura? But, then again, he had disappeared from Demon World crimes for about sixteen years...
Koenma started stared at his clammy hands, trying to think of what to do. Should he get them out of there? Wait...were they still there? He switched it back to aura and followed Anei's aura back to them all. There were several other auras with them, and they were all moving around pretty fast. Kaida must've sent some reinforcements.
No…Kerai, not Kaida. His eyes widened. The Caravan! I can call them and they can help fight Fuzen! Koenma, you're a genius!
He stood up on his desk and put himself on loud speaker. "Attention all ogres!" The loud shuffling, arguing voices, and telephones ringing immediately stopped. "Someone try to find and contact The Caravan. Tell Yasuo that Koenma needs him! Bring medical ogres to assist George! And a glass of water for Botan!" He stepped down, and then remembered something. "And someone bring me a strawberry rice cake!"
Daifu cursed silently; for being so helpless, and for Shuu deliberately fighting Anei. He possibly wanted to get closer to her, to watch out for her, so she wouldn't get killed by his other soldiers, but she wasn't allowed to see him! It totally ruined the promise that he made to Sayaka, of Anei never finding out what happened that day. The day he had found Sayaka and a newborn baby, lying in the snow and the baby crying loudly.
Anei let her guard down several times, one reason to get a better look at this guy she was fighting-because he looked just like her-and another reason to find out why he was being so hesitant every time she did. The last reason, was she really didn't mean to. She was getting weaker and weaker, just as her father had warned, but she refused to give in so easily. Not to herself, there was no way. These Kage had kidnapped her father, trapped her and her friends, hurt them all-no, there was no way they would get away with it. Not without a fight.
The boy who looked just like her saw an opening that wouldn't kill her and would make her fall unconscious, because he noticed her struggling to keep up with him, and he needed them to get out of there. He didn't want her to suffer even more if one of her friends were killed.
He took it, right underneath her ear. He hit it with just two fingers, but she immediately went down like a rock. He heard Daifu cry her name out, but ignored his shouts directed towards him.
"Shuu! You killed her, you bastard! You traitor, I thought you loved her!" Shuu made a sound of annoyance and muttered, "This is taking too long." He dashed through the other fights and hit them all in the exact same spots, making them fall like rocks. His soldiers stood, amazed at how fast he worked.
He spit down next to Yusuke's head. "Let's get out of here. Their bodies can rot away here."
As they walked back down the hallway they had come, he ignored the shouts and pained screams of Daifu. He would have to apologize later. His brow set low, and his mouth a grim line, he decided he would visit Anei's room once more tonight.
The next time Anei woke up, she was surrounded in an infirmary with the others; Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, Daifu, and Shidousha. She smiled and slowly rose from the bed, and walked over to Shidousha's. She grabbed his hand and her smiled widened as he stirred, but didn't wake. He looked so god damned cute when he was sleeping, she couldn't help but kissing him on the lips.
He woke up when she did that, and made a surprised noise, but then realized what was going on and kissed her back softly. They continued kissing until they heard...
"Ah, guys, get a room or something!" Yusuke cried, holding an arm in front of his face. They laughed and stopped, turning towards him as Anei flopped down onto Shidousha's bed.
"I dunno, Yusuke. I kind of enjoyed it..." Kuwabara said as he sat up in his bed. Making an angry face, Anei threw a pillow at Kuwabara and made a disgusted noise. Shidousha followed the pillow and started beating the shit out of the orange-haired pervert while Anei bounded over to her father. She wiped a curl of hair out of his face and, being an extremely light sleeper, he woke. Smiling as he saw who had woke him, he sat up and stretched.
"Good morning, dad. Are you feeling better now that you're out of prison?" she asked, grinning broadly.
"Of course. I feel like I just slept for the first time in years." He yawned and Anei laughed, then watched Shidousha and everyone else fight each other with her dad.
A few minutes later, a streak of green and a shock of reddish hair came in and, there was a crack of a whip, and everyone that was fighting was tied up with aforementioned whip. Surprised and blinking, Anei stared at a girl, who was holding the whip. She had bright blue eyes, medium length, reddish orange hair with a white bandana tied around the top of her head, and a grinning freckled face. She wore a short green leather vest with a white tube top around her chest, a green miniskirt with a leather belt and knife strapped around her, and knee-high leather boots on her feet. White bandages graced her well-toned arms and she flexed them unconsciously.
"Alright! Master Koenma requests your presence in the kitchen! Quit the horsing around and get your asses down there!" She glared at all of them, as if testing them to do something.
"Who are you?" Yusuke asked angrily, struggling to get free of his bonds.
"I'm Emiko, member of the Caravan and fighter extraordinaire!"