Me: "Yeah, I seriously should be doing my History homework right now, but I accidentally fell of the swing after school today and landed on my leg in some weird position, so now my leg is in excruciating pain, and I don't feel like limping upstairs to my room where my book bag is, so I'm just going to stay down here for a while."

Kenshin: "Baka. I told you to be careful while doing all those crazy stunts you and your friends made up."

Me: "Hey, I wasn't doing anything then. Ironic how the one time I get hurt on the swings is the one time I'm not hanging upside down on them."

Kenshin: "You were holding on with only one hand-"

Me: "So? I do that all the time."

Kenshin: "-which made it easier for you to slide off and fall five feet."

Me: "Hey, at least I wasn't hanging upside down. And I wasn't that high up."

Kenshin: "Either way, it was your fault, so don't you blame it on me."

Me: "I wasn't blaming it on you."

Kenshin: "You were about to."

Me: "Uh, yeah, before this argument goes any further, I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, Inuyasha, Demon Diary, ummm, damn, I forgot, was there anything else? Oh well, I don't own them either. Oh, and just so you don't get confused, I changed Susanna's name to Cristina. Turns out she hated the first code name I gave her. I'll try to change it in the other chapters."

=^o.o^=

"Cristina?"

Cristina [once known as Susanna] quickly closed the e-mail she had currently been reading before her dad could walk in the room.

"Cristina? Rebecca said that you won't get off the computer."

Cristina whirled around in her chair to face her dad.

"Just a few more-"

"No. Get off. It's your sister's turn."

Cristina could see Rebecca standing in the doorway, sticking her tongue out at her.

"Can't I at least print-"

"No! Now get off."

Cristina sighed and got out of the chair, not before she stuck her tongue back out at Rebecca. Of course Rebecca would tattle on her. Cristina doubted that whatever her little sister's posse was e-mailing her was more important than the e-mails with all those clues in it. She stomped up the stair into her room.

Cristina threw herself onto her bed, throwing that wretched pillow with the ugly pink unicorn pillowcase on the floor. This was so frustrating. She could be figuring where Riyo and the other were right now, but no, she had to be stuck up here because little baby sister had to check her e-mail.

Things had been crazier then usual at school. News and suspicions on the case kept coming in, most of them false. Those detective people had interviewed pretty much every student, and yet people were still being taken out of class to be questioned. Cristina tried, but she couldn't remember exactly what she had said to them. If she had told them what she really thought was going on, of course they wouldn't believe her. Because Jamie and Riyo were no longer there, fifth and sixth graders constantly overran the French room during study hall. And on top of that, Cristina hadn't whacked anyone in the face with her lunchbox for weeks. Who'd have thought that the disappearance of her insane friends would only cause more insanity? Still, the hallways seemed quieter than usual.

Since she couldn't bee downstairs reading the e-mail, Cristina closed her eyes and started going over everything she had figured out so far. A new moon was due in a couple weeks. Hadn't Jamie once said something about also being affected by the new moon? Maybe something would happen then

"Heh, foolish mortal. Then again, you're closer than those imbecile detectives."

Cristina sat straight up in her bed. At the foot there stood a woman who seemed vaguely familiar. It took a few seconds to register in Cristina's mind. Her full figure. The woman looked exactly like her full figure art project from seventh grade except instead of blond hair hers was snowy white, and in her hand there was a dagger where there should have been a sword.

"Come."

Cristina didn't move.

"So you're going to resist, are you?"

"Who are you?"

"I think you should know that already. I am the Seeker of Light." The woman pointed her dagger at Cristina. "And it's time for destiny to be fulfilled."

=^o.o^=

Everyone except for Sesshou-maru sat down like obedient dogs. We all had a feeling that this was not the time to anger Eclipse.

He cleared his throat.

"Bakura and Marik, you go first."

"Awww, do we have to? Why do we always have to go first?"

"I SAID, 'BAKURA AND MARIK, YOU GO FIRST!' LAST TIME I HEARD, KAIBA WAS THE OWNER OF THAT SWORD, AND I'D LIKE TO KNOW WHAT YOU TWO ARE DOING HERE WITH IT!"

Yep, this definitely was not the time to anger Eclipse.

Bakura let out a whimper. "Ok, ok, we stole it from Kaiba, and a source told us that this girl-" nodding towards Laurie, her hands still tied together-"was a friend of the holder of the silver, so we brought her along just in case we had to "bargain" with you about the swords. We came here planning on getting the rest of them, and would have if this winged rat-" Marik said, indicating Takumi-"hadn't have gotten in the way."

Eclipse nodded. "Thank you. Now, Set, you explain your predicament to everyone."

Set growled. "The gold one belonged to me, but that twit-" pointing to Takumi of course-"stole it from me millenniums ago. I just managed to get it back, but because I'm now a possessive spirit, I'm not allowed to use it, so it gets handed down to my hikari."

Jamie's eyes widened. "That's mine?"

"No," explained Eclipse, "it's still Set's. You just get to use it instead. But that's not the point. How did you get here?"

"My hikari and her mortal friend-" Set waved his hand in the direction of Cassidy-"somehow convinced me to take them to Riyo's room to look for clues. They, of course, just happened to find the ring still sitting in their world, and of course my baka hikari had to ignore me and touch it."

"Ah, ok. Kenshin?"

"You should be asking Riyo," growled Kenshin."

"Me?! I havn't a clue what's going on."

"If you had listened to me and not have touched the sword-"

"Maybe if you had explained to me-"

"STOP ARGUING AND JUST EVERYONE EXAXTLY WHAT HAPPENED!" Eclipse shouted. Kenshin shut-up immediately.

"He started it," I mumbled.

"Hey, if you hadn't-"

"I TOLD YOU TO STOP ARGUING!"

This was when I decided I shouldn't test Eclipses limits and just tell him what happened.

"I guess the sword belongs to me. My mother gave it to me in the form of a ring. Kenshin got it into his head that he should have it, and then we had this fight and I ended up getting stabbed-"

Eclipse held up his hand to stop me. "You mean to tell me that Kenshin first tried to take the sword, which does rightfully belong to you, and then used it against you?"

"It was an accident-" argued Kenshin.

"Yeah, actually, it was kinda my fault. See, I kinda tackled him while he was holding the sword out, then it scratched my side kinda deep, but not that deep-"

"Blood?" Eclipse interrupted.

"Huh?"

"Was there blood on the sword?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, and this baka got it into her head that at that moment she should make a grab for the sword," said Kenshin.

"Oh." Eclipse leaned back in understanding. "So that's why you're here."

"Huh? Why are we here?" I asked.

"I'll explain everything to the ones who don't understand later. For now, we are just listening to everyone's stories. Sesshou-maru? You havn't gone yet. I believe your tale is most interesting."

Sesshou-maru, who had remained standing, nodded and sat down cross-legged. He set his transparent sword down in front of him.

"This sword," he began, "does not belong to me. It actually belongs to the White Warrior of Light, Yharas. She disappeared years ago. Since then, I have been the holder of this sword, protecting it from misuse and using it to search for it's true owner. Recently, the first task has become more difficult. Zhiren, the Black Warrior of the Dark, has returned to destroy the sword of Yharas and to add the remaining lesser swords to her collection in order to strengthen her own Sword of Darkness. My fear is that she was already done part of the second. I'm not sure where she or some of the other sword owners are at the moment, but the sooner we figure this out, the better off we are."

"Thank you, Sesshou-maru." Eclipse turned to the rest of us. "And that is where you come in."

=^o.o^=

Outside, the wind blew strongly. A dark figure watched the Demon Lords castle from a nearby hill. The figure was a woman clad in warrior's garb. Her black hair blew around freely, and her deep red eyes glowed fiercely against the rising sun.

"So, Sesshou-maru, you have beaten me again," she whispered to the dawn. "That leaves me no choice."

She pulled her blade out from its scabbard and held it up to the newborn light. It was total darkness compared to the light around it. It was black and shadowy, and yet at the same time appeared solid. In the hilt there was a black stone that broke the rays of the sun, like a prism, except instead of scattering the light, all pointed in the same direction, northwest. The woman smiled fondly upon it.

"Guthor!"

A short man wearing simple clothing with a rather long dagger at his side came running up.

"Yes Mistress Zhiren?"

Zhiren whipped around and swung her dark blade at him. Guthor dodged just in time. She frowned.

"Bring me the hostage. And next time, don't dodge." She gave a wicked smile. "Have some faith in your Captain."

Guthor returned and uncomfortable smile and nodded.

"Yes, Mistress Zhiren."

He turned to leave.

"Wait, Guthor."

He paused and turned to her.

"Do you hear that?"

"No, Mistress."

Zhiren turned to face the sun. A silver void was forming in from of it, growing as it swirled faster and faster.

"What luck," she exclaimed.

The void grew larger and larger until it looked like a few grown me could come out of it. Instead, out fell one teenaged boy with his hands tied together. He looked Chinese, with black hair and silver glasses. Zhiren walked over and picked him up off the ground with one hand.

"What have we here? What is your name, boy?"

He stared at her with wide eyes. "M-my name? M-max."

She gave him a false smile. "Ah, Max. And where might you be from?"

"I-I don't know. I'm-m not sure w-where I am at the m-moment."

"Yes, that can be a problem," said Zhiren in fake understanding, placing him back on the ground. "Would you be from, let's say, the eighth precinct?"

"I don't know. I've never heard of it," said max, feeling much more comfortable now that his feet were back on the ground. "Weird things have been happening where I'm from. My friend Jamie and two of her friends went missing, these two guys appeared in my room from out of no where claiming they were looking for one of Jamie's missing friends, Riyo's her name, but then they tied me up and took me away. Said something about a hostage. Anyway, we somehow ended up in one of Jamie's remaining friend's house, and then they decided to take her instead, so they grabbed her and this silver portal thingy appeared out of nowhere and they jumped though it and I jumped after them and now I'm here."

Zhiren gave a real smile this time. "Oh, is that so?" Riyo you said?"

Max nodded.

"Guthor, take this boy to Mokuba. I believe we have found ourselves another bargaining tool."

"Wait! Where is he taking me?" Max yelled as Guthor dragged him away.

"Don't worry, dear. If all goes well, you'll be seeing your little friends again soon."

Zhiren turned back to the castle. "And to you Sesshou-maru, don't worry. We'll have another chance to finish what we should have finished long ago."