"Well?! Yuknia?" Yukina bit her lip and shook her head.
"I swear to you, Yusuke," she whispered. "I have told you all that I know. If something has happened, it wasn't my doing, nor of my knowledge." Yusuke was about to ask who the hell's doing it was when the phone rang. Yusuke picked it up angrily and put it up to his ear.
"What?!" There was a brief silence.
"Fine- you don't want to talk to me, I'll hang up now and call Kurama instead." Yusuke's jaw dropped.
"Kay?! Are you all right?" I chuckled.
"I'm fine, Yusuke- I'm with some..." I looked over at Laxor, Fox, Jin, Zani and Sonique and smiled. "I'm with friends."
"Where with friends?"
"I can't tell you where I am- at least not over the phone."
"Why the fuck not?!"
"Because I said no."
"Kaira Urameshi, what the hell is going on?"
"Just get Kurama, Kuwabara and Hiei and go to the school- be there at midnight. Someone will be there to help you." Before Yusuke could say anymore, I hung up the phone. "Boy, he's gonna hate me for this."
"As would I," said Sonique. "You were a bit over mysterious with him, weren't you?"
"It's not like I could tell him exactly where I was!" I exclaimed. "You haven't told me that either, you know!" Zani, who was adding the sliver tint to my hair, tossed her head back and laughed.
"Sorry 'bout that, Kori," she said. "This is the Castle of Guardians- it's hidden from the outside world, and has everything here we would ever need."
"Am I supposed to move in here?" I asked, trying to hide my worry. Don't get me wrong, it was a cool place but I'd rather be home with Yusuke... and Kurama.
"No, we don't usually stay here unless there's an emergency," said Fox. "The rest of the time it's just empty."
"I stay here," Sonique jumped in. "It is the only home I've ever and will ever will have." I nodded.
"It's a great place... but it's not my home."
"Well, we're here. Where is the Baita?" Hiei had always been the impatient one, and the fact that he was being dragged off to a Human Learning Institute in the middle of the night with Kurama, two people he didn't like and the sister who didn't know who he was really didn't do much to lighten his mood. Yusuke shook his head.
"Give it up," he replied. "You want to help Kay as much as the rest of us and you know it." Hiei rolled his eyes.
"You know, I'm really going out on a limb for her on this, and I'm not the kind..."
"Excuse me." The group turned around- a young woman was standing behind them. "I'm Zani Love- Okibi Guardian of Powers. I'm here to bring you to Kori."
"Kori?" asked Kuwabara. "Who's Kori?" Zani let out a sigh, shaking her head.
"Okay, lets see if I remember everything." She pointed to Hiei. "You're Hiei- you don't like Kori because she's better than you and you both know it." As Kuwabara burst out laughing, her finger went to him. "Kuwabara- Hiei doesn't like you because your a dork... Kori thinks the same, but she puts up with you." Before Kuwabara could say a word, Zani turned to Yusuke. "Yusuke- the cousin/best friend." He nodded, prompting her to turn to Kurama. "And you're Kurama- the one she loves." Kurama nodded.
"This "Kori" you talk of must be Kaira," he replied. "The new Kori Guardian, am I right?" Zani nodded.
"You are correct, Sir. And she's waiting for... wait, who's she?" Zani pointed to Yukina, who was hiding behind Kuwabara.
"She's an Ice Demon," Yusuke told her. "She came here to help Kaira- we didn't know if she was still sick or not."
"Did she sound sick when you spoke with her?" asked Zani.
"No, but she wouldn't be Kaira if she told you how she was really feeling."
"I know Kaira Sonique," Yukina chipped in. "She asked me to be on the look out for whoever might be the Kori Guardian... I must admit, though- Kaira Urameshi was the last person I thought of for this job."
"Makes two of us," muttered Hiei. There was a pause.
"Okay," Zani said. "Twenty Questions is over- my ride's this way."
"This is too easy, Fox," I said. "I play Change of Heart, taking control of your Mysitcal Elf and I sacrifice her and my Magician of Faith to play Wingweaver in attack mode and directly attack your life points. I win." Fox gave me a blank stare.
"You didn't tell me you've played before!" he cried, angrily. I rolled my eyes.
"Please- I have my own deck, duel mat, I keep them with me, and you think I don't play?" He muttered something under his breath, but I didn't push on what it was. "Zani's been gone a long time," I commented. "But I have a feeling she can handle herself."
"Being Urameshi's cousin," said Jin, "you should be pretty good yourself." I turned to him and smiled.
"It that a challange, Wind Master?" I asked him. "And even if it is, are you sure you're up to it?" Jin smiled back and gave a nod.
"I am if you are. Shall we?" He gestured towards a staircase. "That leads to the Castle Arena- we usually train here." I nodded, and followed him up the stairs. When we got to the top, he charged at me, his fists looking like hurricanes. I jumped into the air, dodging the attack and came down behind him, driving my foot into his back. He flew across the room, did a flip in the air and landed on his feet, clearly out of breath.
"Wow," he thought. "And I thought Urameshi was tough..." He was about to launch another attack, when I launched one I didn't even know I had.
I put my hands together in front of me, the palms of one hand touching the fingers of the other. As my hands began to glow an icy blue, they did a 180, then slid away from each other, sending a large ball of blue light straight at Jin. Had it missed him, I would have felt better. But it hit him square in the chest and he turned into a large ice statue!
"Oh my God!" I yelled. "Jin!" I ran over to him, horrified as humanly possible. "Holy shit, what have I done?!"
"Chill out, Kori." I turned around to see Zani standing behind me, a smirk on her face- it was one of those smirks that comes right as says "I know something you don't... and by the way, this is funnier than hell." I was in so much shock, I didn't even notice the rest of my friends were with her.
"I-I don't know what I did," I stammered. "We were fighting and then I turned him into a popsicle!"
"Chill out, Kori," Zani said again. "He'll be fine in three... two... one..." As suddenly as he had changed, Jin was back to normal, a confused look on his face.
"What.... hit me...?" I raised my hand meekly.
"That would be me... not quite sure how, but yeah that was me." I heard clapping coming from the back of the room and turned around. Sonique was standing in the doorway, smiling.
"Congratulations, Kaira- you've gained your first power."