(End of Flash Back)
"If you wanted a rematch you should have left Yukina out of it!" Hiei whispered in a hushed yet angry voice. He had heard Kurama's warning but he had been too focused on getting to Yukina to respond. "I don't intend to fight you. I didn't last time either. You started it." Li said calmly. "I'll finish it if you don't tell me where Yukina is!" She smirked and pointed upwards before leaping with a speed that nearly matched Hiei's to the high branch she had descended from. Yuusuke, Kurama, and Kuwabara approached the tree and were staring up at the kidnapper. She used telepathy to speak to them from her lofty perch. After seizing Keiko's hair tightly in her fist to pull back her head (with much resistance on Keiko's part) she placed a familiar pocketknife at her throat. Each spirit detective heard in his head, "No one moves or honey here gets it."
Yuusuke was at a loss at what to do. For the first time in his life he felt absolutely helpless. If he shot Li with a spirit gun he might kill Keiko too. There was no way he could get to that tree in time to save her. Their eyes met. Keiko's were filled with horror and tears. He had to do something. Not knowing exactly what he was about to do he made a dash at the tree. Li made a big production of the shocking motion of her knife across Keiko's throat. She was careful to make sure to pull the knife about a millimeter away from Keiko's neck creating the half a second illusion that she had slit her throat. Half a second was more than enough to set her deadly plan into motion and tear Yuusuke's soul apart.
"KEIKO!!!!" he bellowed, terrified that he'd lost his best friend in the world, only to realize something even scarier, he had been tricked, manipulated like some kind of puppet, and now they would all pay for his out-of-control emotions. "You IDIOT!!" Hiei snarled. There was a deep rumbling noise, Hiei was the first to act. He attempted to level the tree by slashing at it with his Katana, but it simply bounced off the impossibly hard bark. Before he'd had time to try again a root burst out of the earth to seize him. Yuusuke had already been caught by one of the trees horrendous appendages and was struggling desperately. Kurama had given up trying to manipulate the plant. It was out of control.
Evil Mutant Flowers Precious watched from her perch. Keiko had begun to sob bitterly so she knocked her out with the hilt of her dagger. Why did things always have to turn violent? "At least I don't have to kill them. My friend mother Nature will." And Mother Nature seemed to be having a great time with them. Hiei had escaped the roots twice only to be caught a third time. Flowers on nearby branches had grown teeth and were shooting from vines to snap at the detectives. Several had developed a taste for Kuwabara already. It was actually pretty funny to watch his fearful expression as he was attacked by what he called "Evil Mutant Flowers". They had already begun sucking Kurama's blood and he'd passed out. "Such a shame. Karasu would have loved to meet him, but then he'd have killed him anyways." "Karasu's dead! Kurama killed him." Shizuru stood up and towered angrily over Li. "You have to stop this! My little brother's gonna die!" "And I should care because...?" Besides he's not dead, I just saw him yesterday." "Liar!" Shizuru yelled. "Enough Precious Li!" Someone interrupted their conversation from even higher in the tree. "There's been a change in plans." "How'd you get here boss?" Li looked up. "This was just a test to see if you were clever enough to carry out an assassination without getting your own hands dirty. I've been doing it for years. I wanted to see if my talents rubbed off on y—"Shizuru cut the man short. "Will you just hurry up and kill the tree before they all die!" She shouted at the stranger who had apparently came out of nowhere. "Chill babe. Alright, go to the top branch and pluck that really nasty red flower. It's the central nervous system. Hurry, foxy down there is losing a lot of blood." Kurama's unconscious moans and Yuusuke's screams and the occasional clang of Hiei's sword against rock hard bark. The flower was easy to spot, but you could hardly call it a flower. Gleaming fangs and a drooling tongue protruded from a ring of blood red petals. "Wow! That's a nasty flower!" she flung her dagger at its center. A sour smelling acid splattered everywhere burning holes in her jeans. She collected the monstrosity and shoved it in her pocket before hopping down. All the tree's violent activities immediately stopped. Atsuko, Keiko, and Yukina cried out in relief and shouted at her son, as Ms.Minamino would have if she had not passed out a long time ago. Each of the detectives (with the exception of Hiei who had escaped) was still held about five feet in the air by a suddenly lifeless root. Li wondered what she would do now that she didn't have to kill the Reikai Tantei.
Precious' boss fell somewhat gracefully from the tree. He smoothed his hair and his suit before he began to speak with smooth business like eloquence. "I usually enjoy chaos and confusion but in this case I find it absolutely irritating. No one move or speak or one of your lovers really will die. Now listen closely because this situation is not really what it looks like." Hiei completely ignored the man's presence and was in the tree checking in Yukina. This caused a mild irritation in the businessman. "Will you very kindly remove yourselves from that tree?" Hiei helped all of them down. "Let's begin by reviewing the situat—"He stopped short when his eyes fell on the incapacitated and bleeding fox. "Does he need medical attention?" Yukina rushed to Kurama to begin treating him. Li's boss cleared his throat. "My dear employee of many years, Precious Li, kidnapped the following women: Keiko Yukimora, Shizuru Kuwabara, Atsuko Urameshi, Yukina and Ms.Minamino. I assure you it was with no intent of harming them, only of harming you, because I ordered her to." Kuwabara interrupted. "Did you say HER?! Hey, the shrimp said somethin' about a rematch. Does that mean you got your butt kicked by a little girl?" The root that held Kuwabara wrapped itself around his mouth, startling everyone as they had assumed the tree was done for the night.
"If you wanted a rematch you should have left Yukina out of it!" Hiei whispered in a hushed yet angry voice. He had heard Kurama's warning but he had been too focused on getting to Yukina to respond. "I don't intend to fight you. I didn't last time either. You started it." Li said calmly. "I'll finish it if you don't tell me where Yukina is!" She smirked and pointed upwards before leaping with a speed that nearly matched Hiei's to the high branch she had descended from. Yuusuke, Kurama, and Kuwabara approached the tree and were staring up at the kidnapper. She used telepathy to speak to them from her lofty perch. After seizing Keiko's hair tightly in her fist to pull back her head (with much resistance on Keiko's part) she placed a familiar pocketknife at her throat. Each spirit detective heard in his head, "No one moves or honey here gets it."
Yuusuke was at a loss at what to do. For the first time in his life he felt absolutely helpless. If he shot Li with a spirit gun he might kill Keiko too. There was no way he could get to that tree in time to save her. Their eyes met. Keiko's were filled with horror and tears. He had to do something. Not knowing exactly what he was about to do he made a dash at the tree. Li made a big production of the shocking motion of her knife across Keiko's throat. She was careful to make sure to pull the knife about a millimeter away from Keiko's neck creating the half a second illusion that she had slit her throat. Half a second was more than enough to set her deadly plan into motion and tear Yuusuke's soul apart.
"KEIKO!!!!" he bellowed, terrified that he'd lost his best friend in the world, only to realize something even scarier, he had been tricked, manipulated like some kind of puppet, and now they would all pay for his out-of-control emotions. "You IDIOT!!" Hiei snarled. There was a deep rumbling noise, Hiei was the first to act. He attempted to level the tree by slashing at it with his Katana, but it simply bounced off the impossibly hard bark. Before he'd had time to try again a root burst out of the earth to seize him. Yuusuke had already been caught by one of the trees horrendous appendages and was struggling desperately. Kurama had given up trying to manipulate the plant. It was out of control.
Evil Mutant Flowers Precious watched from her perch. Keiko had begun to sob bitterly so she knocked her out with the hilt of her dagger. Why did things always have to turn violent? "At least I don't have to kill them. My friend mother Nature will." And Mother Nature seemed to be having a great time with them. Hiei had escaped the roots twice only to be caught a third time. Flowers on nearby branches had grown teeth and were shooting from vines to snap at the detectives. Several had developed a taste for Kuwabara already. It was actually pretty funny to watch his fearful expression as he was attacked by what he called "Evil Mutant Flowers". They had already begun sucking Kurama's blood and he'd passed out. "Such a shame. Karasu would have loved to meet him, but then he'd have killed him anyways." "Karasu's dead! Kurama killed him." Shizuru stood up and towered angrily over Li. "You have to stop this! My little brother's gonna die!" "And I should care because...?" Besides he's not dead, I just saw him yesterday." "Liar!" Shizuru yelled. "Enough Precious Li!" Someone interrupted their conversation from even higher in the tree. "There's been a change in plans." "How'd you get here boss?" Li looked up. "This was just a test to see if you were clever enough to carry out an assassination without getting your own hands dirty. I've been doing it for years. I wanted to see if my talents rubbed off on y—"Shizuru cut the man short. "Will you just hurry up and kill the tree before they all die!" She shouted at the stranger who had apparently came out of nowhere. "Chill babe. Alright, go to the top branch and pluck that really nasty red flower. It's the central nervous system. Hurry, foxy down there is losing a lot of blood." Kurama's unconscious moans and Yuusuke's screams and the occasional clang of Hiei's sword against rock hard bark. The flower was easy to spot, but you could hardly call it a flower. Gleaming fangs and a drooling tongue protruded from a ring of blood red petals. "Wow! That's a nasty flower!" she flung her dagger at its center. A sour smelling acid splattered everywhere burning holes in her jeans. She collected the monstrosity and shoved it in her pocket before hopping down. All the tree's violent activities immediately stopped. Atsuko, Keiko, and Yukina cried out in relief and shouted at her son, as Ms.Minamino would have if she had not passed out a long time ago. Each of the detectives (with the exception of Hiei who had escaped) was still held about five feet in the air by a suddenly lifeless root. Li wondered what she would do now that she didn't have to kill the Reikai Tantei.
Precious' boss fell somewhat gracefully from the tree. He smoothed his hair and his suit before he began to speak with smooth business like eloquence. "I usually enjoy chaos and confusion but in this case I find it absolutely irritating. No one move or speak or one of your lovers really will die. Now listen closely because this situation is not really what it looks like." Hiei completely ignored the man's presence and was in the tree checking in Yukina. This caused a mild irritation in the businessman. "Will you very kindly remove yourselves from that tree?" Hiei helped all of them down. "Let's begin by reviewing the situat—"He stopped short when his eyes fell on the incapacitated and bleeding fox. "Does he need medical attention?" Yukina rushed to Kurama to begin treating him. Li's boss cleared his throat. "My dear employee of many years, Precious Li, kidnapped the following women: Keiko Yukimora, Shizuru Kuwabara, Atsuko Urameshi, Yukina and Ms.Minamino. I assure you it was with no intent of harming them, only of harming you, because I ordered her to." Kuwabara interrupted. "Did you say HER?! Hey, the shrimp said somethin' about a rematch. Does that mean you got your butt kicked by a little girl?" The root that held Kuwabara wrapped itself around his mouth, startling everyone as they had assumed the tree was done for the night.