Kurama walked into the hotel room he and his new step brother were going to share tonight at the hotel next to the wedding hall. His step brother was already asleep in the room, oblivious and exhausted from the day's events. Lucky. He pulled out his phone, texting Nanashi to see if she were home yet. She answered back that she almost home, having been dealt with a taxi driver try to run up the meter on her. He sighed, trying not to dwell on it. He got himself ready for bed, trying not to dwell on her reaction to find out the two consciousnesses within in him were blending, which led to its own problems with the mixing of emotions, feelings, motivations, and desires. Yet when the human side of him became drawn to her, it dragged the demon side with it. Only the demon side now felt stronger, emotions from the human side blurring and intensifying desires in such a complicated manner. Even if the human side gave in first, the demon side felt stronger...

He felt groggy, on the edge of fitful sleep finally when he heard a sharp voice shout in his mind, 'fox, where's the girl?' He jumped awake, thinking he had dreamed the sound of Hiei's voice in his mind. He waited. 'I thought I heard something from her a bit ago.'

Kurama shook his head, looking over at the other bed. His step brother slept hard, snoring slightly. 'She's home. She texted me to say so.'

'Are you certain?' Hiei asked back, tone unsure.

'She would not lie about something like that,' he replied back assuringly. 'Good night, Hiei,' he added with finality. He closed his eyes, hoping to fall back asleep soon.

He woke up not long after, seeing Hiei standing at the end of his bed, the window wide open. "Hiei, what-" he started, blinking sleepily.

"She's not home. The detective is there, so is his mother, but not her. I can't sense her anywhere," Hiei cut in, thankfully not loud enough to wake Kokoda.

"Damn it," Kurama swore, sitting up. He sat, up throwing back on his clothes from the wedding in a haste.

He called and woke up Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Prince Koenma to explain what happened as he and Hiei left the hotel. The five of them assembled outside the apartment building Yusuke lived in in the dead of night. Yusuke brought one of Nanashi's shirts for Hiei to use to track her energy signature. When he sniffed it, Yusuke asked him if he was part blood hound, but no one seemed to find it amusing.

Hiei kept the shirt in hand, walking carefully on the ground, trying to pick up her energy signature amongst all the other energy signatures around the area right now. He exited the apartment complex, going over to the bushes, finding Shizeru's purse with Nanashi's phone in it. He tossed it over to Kuwabara, who caught it.

"Three demons, weaklings, were here as well," Hiei stated, kneeling down and running his finger tips along the ground. He went to the middle of the street. "One was knocked out."

"Demons? Not SDF?" Prince Koenma asked.

"Hn," Hiei grunted.

"How did the other two demons take her?" Yusuke asked. "If they're weaklings, it should have been nothing for even her to fight them off."

"They might have had other means of capturing her," Kurama explained, feeling himself growing more nervous. Three demons took her... Three demons had visited him to pass along Yomi's invitation. Only two demons had visited Hiei. The demons who had come on Raizen's behalf would have never taken her out of veneration for Yusuke. "Can you track her or not?" he asked flatly.

Hiei had taken a few steps forward down the street, then side stepped. He touched the ground again before nodding. "Now that her signature is mixed with two demons, it will easier," he affirmed before talking off down the street.

Kurama followed soon after, struggling to keep up with Hiei, zipping suddenly over a fence and into a a wooded area, going deeper and deeper into the wildness of it. Kurama followed easily, so did Yusuke and Kuwabara, but they soon ended up leaving Prince Koenma behind. Hiei stopped abruptly after what seemed like several minutes of running at the base of an old tree, gnarled and twisted, roots exposed. Hiei stared into the gap between the roots, just big enough for a man to crawl through. "The signatures disappear into there," he pointed.

"Right," Kurama sighed, nodding.

Yusuke and Kuwabara had caught up to them. "In there? Alright, who wants to go down the creepy tree tunnel first?" Yusuke asked, stepping over towards it.

Kurama shook his head. "No, I will have to go alone," he said. "Whatever Yomi is up to, it is best I face him alone now."

Kuwabara asked, "who's that?"

"One of the rival demon kings, and a former associate of Youko's," Prince Koenma huffed out, finally catching up to the four of them. "You think he took her?" Kurama nodded.

"Why would he take her?" Yusuke asked.

"To guarantee I would go to him alone," Kurama inferred before kneeling down to crawl inside the tunnel by himself.

The tunnel widen a little bit, but still required crawling in its dark and enclosed space. It angled down as well, going deeper into the earth, but not to the Demon World. After several minutes, Kurama emerged into a wider space, lit up by lanterns and occupied by three unexpected people. He pulled himself out of the narrower tunnel and stood up tall in the space with them, looking the three of them over.

"Well, well, well, took you long enough," Shunjun from the SDF commented cockily. Two other SDF male members stood with him. "Those three Gandaran demons passed through here with with your sweetheart a little while ago. You know how boring it was to wait for you figure out what happened and come running?"

Kurama brought his hands behind his back, standing calmly otherwise. "Now why would the SDF allow such a thing like that? Three demons to ferry one human away to the Demon World? Did you rip the barrier open for them or did you just let them slip away?" he asked flatly.

He looked over the other two SDF members, passive looking, uninteresting, possibly disliking being on this assignment. Shunjun however, was more excited. He wanted to be here in this moment. "King Enma's plans run deep. He wants you three demons out of the Human World, but as peaceably as possible so to reconcile with his son. So if the three of you were brought into the Demon King conflict willing..., it could be a means to an end. Yet you want to remain in the Human World with your mortal human mother."

"So my friend is taken to make me willing," he responded.

"Your friend?" Shunjun asked, amused. "Your friend bares your bite," he pointed out.

"One, not three, done in a loss of control," Kurama answered. "Means nothing," added, sounding bored.

"Captain, our orders are to allow this demon to pass to the Demon World territory Gandara, not to question him," one of the men by him said impatiently.

"Captain?" Kurama questioned, curiously.

"Temporarily, for now," Shunjun responded. "Our old captain needed replaced because of his lack of courage in the face of the mazoku. Hopefully it will be made permanently soon." He snapped his fingers, conjuring up a silver and metallic light from both of his hands. "Gandara then," he said. "Three of my other men are at Yomi's castle with him, ready to send your sweetheart back should you agree to Yomi's terms."

Shunjun shot is hands up in the air between the two of them. The other two men copied him. Kurama stepped forward into the portal they created, at the last moment hearing one of the other two men saying, "wait, sir, where-" before he was drawn into it.

Kurama landed on the ground, but in a mountainous, forested area, nowhere near the Gandaran Castle. In the middle of the night. He swore, scouting the area. He saw far ahead in the distance the sight of lights of a city and a castle, hoping that was his destination considering Shunjun did say they would send him to Gandara. The bastard had not lied. He trudged forward, keeping his destination in sight.