"Where is she?!" Hiei hissed in frustration.
Nanashi stood near him, with Izo and Prince Takashi in the middle of the forest between the castle and the village. Hiei had been traipsing them back and forth through the woods for hours, trying to track Hikari. It was a jumbled up track that zipped back and forth all over the area.
"They wanted us to lose the trail," Prince Takashi muttered irritably. "Whoever they were."
Hiei heard him, turning on him. "I can track anyone anywhere," he told the prince. "If you ever tried to run from me, there's is no where you could hide that I couldn't find you." He swore. He covered his ears and closed his eyes. His Jagan Eye glowed and pulsed on his forehead.
Prince Takashi grabbed his head next to Nanashi. "Would you stop invading my mind! You've already combed through my memories from last night!"
Nanashi bit her lip. They had discovered Hikari missing by mid morning. The last person to see her was Prince Takashi last night when she tried to kick him out of the castle, leading to the two of them fighting verbally. Nanashi already knew Hiei reviewed the prince's memories of the incident over and over again, back and forth, finding nothing there as a clue to her whereabouts. No one in the village or the nearby farms knew where she was either.
Hiei gave up on reading the prince's memories, shuffling around the area once more. He knelt down, studying a certain patch of grass. "She was standing here. Then they picked her up, her footprints disappear right here."
"Who were they?" the prince asked.
Hiei looked over at him once more. "Eight people. One was killed, but carried off along with Hikari."
"But who were they?" the prince repeated.
Nanashi looked over at Hiei, knowing his patience was beyond wearing thin, especially with the prince. She spoke gently, "we don't know. And we can't sense her or them either."
"Why?" the prince asked her.
Nanashi shook her head. "We don't know," she answered, feeling her own panic trying to overwhelm her. She felt a knot in her stomach, wondering if this was some kind of punishment for not telling Hikari to wed Prince Takashi selflessly like the Great Hawk Spirit told her to. She looked down at the ground, trying to quell her panic.
Izo stepped up to her. "She's still alive," he said comfortingly. "I would know if something happened to her. That can't be camouflaged from me."
"Yeah, but in what state?" the prince scoffed.
Hiei huffed. "Where's the map of the forest?" he demanded, stepping over to the three of them.
Nanashi had been holding it. She passed it over to him, hoping he could use it in tandem with his superior tracking skills. It made her hearken back to a few years ago when they had actually mapped the whole area in and around a big chunk of the area around the castle together. She had flown and he had scouted out the ground. The map was a perfect as it could be.
"We need to start here, and widen our range. Go in a circle that keeps getting bigger and bigger until we find her," Hiei ruled.
"That'll never work," the prince complained.
"It's the best idea we have," Izo said to the prince.
The four of them split up to try the idea. Nanashi flew while the other three stayed on the ground, searching through their now designated third of the circle for Hikari.
Once night fell however, Nanashi met up the the three of them at the original site. It was too dark for her to see. The prince complained that he could not see as well. Hiei and Izo had better night vision, but both looked exhausted for all their searching.
"The village was in my section," Izo explained tiredly. "Still no one has seen her since we asked after her this morning. The mayor did agree to form a search party to continue looking for her through the night."
"Lucky," Prince Takashi had commented. "All I had was a bunch of caves and tunnels at the base of the mountains."
"Did you search them?" Nanashi asked.
The prince shook his head. "She wasn't in there," he sighed. "I nearly got lost myself in there."
"The castle section yielded nothing," Hiei admitted. "Some of those there are out searching now. Asa has organized the search party." He looked so exhausted, stressed, and worried. Nanashi wished she could do something, anything, to take that worry away for him.
"I didn't see anything from an aerial view," Nanashi explained. She felt the dull headache that had been her head for the later half of the day trying to draw attention to itself again. "She... she wouldn't be out so late like this. Nor could she have gotten so far in a day... But she wasn't on her own, or willing for that matter..." She sat down by a tree trunk tiredly. She was unsure if she could keep going, not matter how much she wanted to...
"My angel, wake up," the prince said next to her.
Nanashi jumped, awaking up in front of the tree she had been leaning against. "What happened? Where's Hikari? Has she been found?" she rushed out.
Prince Takashi shook his head. "No such luck. Izo and Hiei are still searching. They said they went to the caves I had searched earlier. She's not there. I didn't sense her there anyway," he grumbled. "Not that Hiei would listen."
"No one can sense her, that's the problem," Nanashi groaned. She rose up, exhausted. "Let's go help them," she said tiredly. She stumbled tiredly, but kept going.
"My angel," he said, catching up to her. "Neither of us can keep awake much longer. Lord Hiei said to carry you home, but I wasn't sure if I had the energy to."
She stopped walking, looking at him. He looked exhausted and guilty. Nothing in her could make her blame him for Hikari running off, no matter how much she wanted to. He wanted Hikari to be found, to be safe and sound, just as much, if not more, than she did. "We're going to find her," she told him, looking him dead in the eyes.
They trudged back to the castle, where the staff was down to only a few people who were not already out searching. They looked just as exhausted as Nanashi felt. She spotted Asa at the side of the entry way, speaking with others. Asa looked up, studying her, making her feel self conscious.
"I just need coffee and I can go back out again," Nanashi ruled, heading for a table laden with coffee and other snacks for those involved in the searching. She had a cup in hand by the time Asa was standing next to her.
Asa placed a hand on her shoulder. "Come with me, sweetness," Asa whispered in her ear. "Somewhere private, you'd prefer that."
Nanashi sat the reluctantly sat the coffee cup down untouched and followed Asa through the dining hall, passed the kitchen, and a spot in the hallway near the pantry that was unoccupied.
Without a word, Asa turned to face her, pulled her in, and hugged her fiercely. Nanashi whimpered at that, allowing herself be open about her nerves and panic. She shook freely, not sure how or what to say. Finally, she admitted, "it's all my fault."
"It isn't," Asa assured her.
The guilt caught up to her, knotting up in her stomach. "It is. I withheld a message from the Great Hawk Spirit, so now I think angels took her."
Asa pulled away from her, looking her over. Asa's hands rested firmly on her shoulders. "What message?" Her face oddly read triumphant, yet disappointed.
"Hikari was supposed to wed the prince immediately and selflessly," she admitted. "But that should be her choice-"
"You shouldn't have decided to withhold that," Asa scolded her. "You're one of her angels, just like your father was. He followed her orders to protect and rescue your mother. You've been called on to be her messenger. You've been her messenger before. You're withholding of information about her has only yielded you drama later. Like when you were told to confess about writing Jin's name down to Hiei, only to do it when you could no longer avoid admitting it. And the two of you have been strained by the secrets you've kept from each other ever since."
Nanashi ran her hands through her wind tousled hair. "If- when we get her back, I'll tell her. Then she can decide for herself, so she still gets a say in the matter." Nanashi felt shaky and tired. "I need to go out again and search more in the skies."
Asa looked at her disappointingly. "If you think she's been taken by angels, then maybe sleeping is your best bet. It's how you've been given messages before. Go to sleep, and hope she takes you into her realm to tell you how to make it up to her to get your daughter back."
Nanashi felt a wave of panic broil in her chest once more. She shook her head. "That won't work anymore," she choked out. "The block Hiei put on my mind, remember? So I could sleep without fear of going back into her realm."
Asa sighed, unsure how to respond further. "Are you withholding anymore messages from her?"
"No," Nanashi replied honestly.
Asa looked her over. "No matter what the messages contain?" She did not believe her.
"I have shared everything-" she started.
"You've said that before," Hiei's voice said behind the two of them.
Nanashi turned around, suddenly feeling surrounded. "Why are you here? You and Izo were searching the caves for Hikari."
"It's too dark," he answered. "Even for us. We have to wait until morning," he added unwillingly.
"How much did you hear...?" she asked nervously.
"Enough to know you intentionally withheld another message and think Hikari was taken by angels in punishment for it," he stated bluntly, stepping up to her. He reached his hands up to her head.
She flinched, stepping back and running into Asa behind her. He brought his hands down to his sides. "What are you doing?" Asa's hands clasped her upper arms. Her grip was firm and strong, even in her old age. "What are you doing?"
"Removing the block from your mind," Hiei stated.
"I figured you were still withholding a message from us," Asa explained. "You were behaving the same way you did when you tried to hide the king's message all those years ago. And only with me you would let your guard down long enough to share it. I'm so sorry, sweetness." Her voice sounded just as guilty. "Take away the block and send her to sleep," Asa told Hiei in a strained voice. "If it was really angels who took Hikari, this is the only way of finding out."
"Asa," Nanashi breathed her name. She felt Asa's grip slacken on her upper arms. She shook and stepped forward, closer still to Hiei. "I- I'm so sorry," she confessed. "I-" she shook her. She dropped down to her knees, hanging her head in the shame of it all. "Do it. Do it all. Remove the block. Send me to sleep. I want to do it. I'll face her. I'll face her willingly. Her, and the consequences." She shuddered.
She felt Hiei's hands clasp either side of her head. She panted at the itch she felt tickling through her mind. The block was gone now, even if his hands stayed on her head. The Great Hawk Spirit could take her now, would take her now. The very idea terrified her. She dwelled on it. What if she would be attacked for her disobedience, or trapped in her sleep in that realm forever? What if-
She gasped, pulled out of her dwelling by a sudden and unexpected kiss from Hiei. She opened her eyes to see him kneeling in front of her, hands still holding onto her head. "Sleep," he told her, voice echoing into her ears and throughout of her mind.
She felt her body pitch forward, willing herself to not resist his order. The last thing she noticed was him catching her upper body as she fell.