Chapter 2: Katakai

'I can smell blood from here.'

Hiei sent out a telepathic message to the others

'I think we'd better check this out'

(A/N: He is sending thought waves to the others and they can communicate back as thoughts instead of saying it).

'We'll be right there. Which mountain are you on?'

Kurama sent back another message.

'The one on all the way to the right.'

Hiei answered.

Kurama ran, top speed toward the mountain. Yusuke and Kuwabara also made their way to the mountain as fast as they could. About 10 minutes later, they were all assembled at the peek of the mountain. Being at the top of the mountain, it was very cold and a cover of snow lightly coated the ground.

"M-m-m-man, is it c-cold up he-e-e-ere." Kuwabara said, his teeth chattering.

Everybody ignored him and looked down in the direction that Hiei was facing. He knew he had sensed something from the top of this mountain. It was the scent of blood. And the unmistakable feeling of two auras.

"Let's go check it out. It could be them." Kurama said holding in his shivers. Kuwabara was glad they were leaving. As he put it; he was almost frozen solid.

The mountain was very steep and slippery; scaling it gave the wary group a hard time. After about 20 minutes of climbing down the mountain, they reached the bottom sighing in relief. Yusuke stepped aside and called Koenma.

"Koenma, I think we might have their blood scent. We're investigating it now." Kurama said politely. They didn't want Yusuke to tell him, for you'd never know what could happen between the both of them.

"Okay, call me back if you find them and I can send the girls over. Please be careful." Koenma said urgently then hung up after that.

They headed south for about two hours. The blood scent grew stronger as they went; even Kuwabara and Yusuke could smell it now. However, they couldn't see anything yet.

They soon came to a cave that looked as if it were dug out by a 30-foot monster. Hiei could sense that the blood scent was coming from inside the cave. There was absolute silence as they went into the cave. There were five passageways.

The silence was broken when Kuwabara posed a question "So, which way do we go?"

Hiei didn't answer but closed in eyes and sniffed the air. It was coming from the middle cave. He pointed to the middle cave (A/N: When there is an evil demon involved, expect that there will be the flunkies; or other traps set by it; guarding the right path, more than any other path).

The tunnel was pitch black, nobody could see anything. Even though they couldn't see, they felt where the walls were and went along that way. After what seemed like forever, the group saw a bright light up ahead. They ran towards it.

'This seems too easy. There must a trap or something.'

Kurama thought.

'Well it's either that the demon is hiding is best tricks 'till the end or this is the easiest mission we've ever been on.'

Hiei returned the comment.

When Kurama, Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Hiei got to the door, their mouths dropped. For there, in front of them, was a fighting arena. The only difference was that there were no boundary ropes, everything else was the same. Torches were lit in each corner of the arena and on the other side of the room were three doors.

"Well, well, well. Look what we have here. Trying to rescue the girls are you not? Hahahahahahah." A dark figure loomed over them. He appeared in the dim light. It had a tall figure, almost like a monk. But his skin was a paler, almost blue, and he held a god-like staff in his left hand.

"Your quest ends here. But don't worry, you will be joining them in hell."

There was a sudden earthquake and the floor shifted. The small group had no choice but to run inside the painted red circle. Everything that was outside the circle collapsed and fell into what seemed to be like a whirlpool. There was only a small path that led to the doors on the other side of the arena.

Everybody drew their weapons (if you don't know then, Hiei had his Katana, Kurama had his rose whip, Kuwabara had his twin spirit swords; one in each hand, and Yusuke had his right hand pointed in a gun shape with his left hand around his other wrist... If you don't know this stuff, then that's just SAD.) The monk demon –thing had his staff out in front of him holding it like a sword.

"Nothing is going to stop us from getting those girls back! And by the way, what it is your name? I want to make sure I say it correctly when you die." Yusuke shot back.

"Shinori is my name. However it will be of no use to you once you are dead." Shinori grinned and let his fangs show.

Shinori vanished and appeared right behind them, attacking as soon as they were in view. Yusuke and Kuwabara felt a sharp stab of pain in their backs. However Hiei and Kurama dodged the blow. Yusuke only took a couple of seconds to examine the gash in his back. But that was more than enough time for Shinori to attack again. Yusuke dodged, but barely. The staff made another cut across his left arm. Yusuke stepped back in pain as he felt the warm blood drip down his arm. But the blow did more than just cut him; it also made a huge crater at the edge of the ring allowing more rock to fall into the whirlpool.

"If you're going to fight, than at least pay attention to what he's doing," Hiei snapped "That way you're less likely to get injured." He said trying to dodge one of Shinori's attacks. Yusuke felt a low growl escape his throat.

"Kurama, try and hold him still while I knock him of the edge." Yusuke yelled. Kurama nodded.

"Yusuke! In front of you!" Kuwabara shouted in panic.

He was too late though. Shinori attacked Yusuke from the front where he'd let his guard down. Yusuke's breath escaped him, and he hit the ground making another crater. Yusuke felt the pain stinging in his back from the previous attack. He fell slowly into unconsciousness from blood loss.

Shinori attacked Kuwabara next and would have succeeded, if Hiei hadn't appeared behind him and stabbed the demon right in the back of the neck. His breathing stopped instantly and fell to the ground.

Kuwabara got up and over to Yusuke. He tried to wake him up but had little success.

Inside Yusuke's Mind and his POV:

"Huh? Kuwabara?" Yusuke said. He was exhausted and was trying to look around, just to see that his mind was completely blank. Then he felt shaking.

"I have to..... wake up." Yusuke struggled to find his way back to reality.

Yusuke's eyes started to open slowly. He tried to sit up but the pain in his body was too severe and he lay back down.

"It's about time you woke up. I didn't expect you to be unconscious that long anyway." Kurama said coolly

Yusuke looked up to see a pair of emerald green eyes staring down at him. "Well, you know me. I'm just to stubborn." He paused for a second and then said "How long have I been out?"

"Only 10 minutes." Kurama turned around and walked away leaving Kuwabara with Yusuke.

"Don't you scare me like that. I was actually worried about you." Kuwabara gave Yusuke a death look and knelt beside him.

"That's a first." Yusuke said sarcastically.

"Oh shut up Urameshi! I uh, just didn't want you to die because we never got a chance to fight and let me beat the crap out of you." Kuwabara said nervously trying to cover up.

Yusuke chuckled and said "Only in your dreams Kuwabara. Now help me up."

Kuwabara helped Yusuke to his feet and walked over to where Hiei and Kurama that were standing near the door.

Kurama strode over to the door slowly and pushed it open.

"Aww man," Kuwabara moaned "Another dark hallway." Everybody remained silent and walked down the long hallway. This time there was light coming from the smoldering torches on either side of the hallway. It was little but enough.

When they reached the end, there was a dark gray iron door. Kurama and Yusuke hauled it open to reveal fairly large chamber. Again it was made of solid stone and there was a door on the other side. There were stone pillars holding up the ceiling and the rest of the castle above it. Also, in this chamber, there seemed to be no lights. Hiei found a light switch and flicked it on

(Yes I know, I know. There's not supposed to be any electricity going through a cave but I'm making it that way).

A chandelier turned on and glowed brightly lighting up the whole room. Hiei obviously didn't like it. He had always liked the dark and sometimes seemed to embrace it.

"Your lucky you made it this far, but you are not going to go any further." Said a cold and icy voice. A demon stepped forward, revealing itself. His skin was colored in an aqua-blue and he wore a strange dark blue robe.

(Like Sesshomaru's armor from Inu-Yasha)

He looked a lot like a dragon. And he had what looked like a Jagan eye in his forehead.

"My name is Seiryu. So, who will fight me? Or should I just kill you all."

"I'll fight him." Hiei said without thinking.

"Good. I'll kill you all one by one. Shinori was weak. However, I will make sure you die here."

"I can assure you, that is not going to happen." Hiei shot back.

The battle began. Seiryu didn't take out any weapon but Hiei drew his Katana. The fire demon knew his opponent was an ice demon by the cold it admitted from its body. Hiei attacked first. Using his katana he tried slicing at the demon, but Seiryu just stepped aside. Seiryu held out his hand and a frosty blast erupted out of his fist. The attack became stronger the longer he held it out but Seiryu just grinned evilly.

"Dragons Freezing Fist!" A beam of light charged Hiei but he dodged quickly. Though when the light hit the floor and wall, it turned to solid ice. Seiryu kept using the Dragons Freezing Fist trying to freeze Hiei. The fire demon had a hard time dodging them, for even though he was fast, the ground was slippery and hard to run on. When Seiryu attacked him again, the ice demon froze Hiei's right leg so, as he couldn't dodge any longer.

Seiryu seemed to stop his attack for a moment and came running at Hiei and whacked the katana out of his hands. Hiei was startled by his fast reaction and stepped back. Then Hiei knew what he was going to do. He was going to use his attack again and this time he would his whole body.

"I will not die like THIS!" Hiei shouted as the ice magically melted on his leg. Hiei ran furiously in the direction where his katana laid on the floor. He grabbed it and ran for the wall behind Seiryu. He used it as a launch, and pushed off of it and attacked Seiryu. The ice demon was startled by his speed, but he was quick to react. He used his freezing fist. Hiei lashed his katana multiple times at his forehead. He landed lightly on the floor on both feet. The fire demon had a deep gash on his leg and it was bleeding freely. Seiryu gasped, closed his eyes, and fell onto the floor, never to wake up again.

"Hiei! Are you alright?" Kurama asked, puzzled as to why Hiei didn't seem to notice the wound.

"Fine." Hiei said not looking at the kitsune.

By now Yusuke was back on his feet and had most of his energy back. Kurama opened the wooden door to find that they were facing three different tunnels.

"Well?" Hiei asked Kuwabara. Kuwabara sensed the air; the scent of blood grew stronger in the right tunnel.

"We go right. I'm sure of it." Kuwabara replied.

As they walked down the long and wining tunnel, they heard a loud whispering sound, echoing through their ears.

"Go baaack." The voice said. It sounded like a girl's. They
stopped to listen.

"Turn baaack." The voice said again. This time it sounded as if it were
in pain. After that the voice disappeared. There was a long silence
between them.

When they finally got to the end of the tunnel. Yusuke was surprised that there wasn't any door this time, instead there was a portal. The wary group entered the portal, when they came out they weren't in a cave anymore. They were in a beautiful green forest that seemed oddly familiar.

"Hey, haven't we been here before?" Kuwabara said, confused.
"It seems like it. There's supposed to be a clearing at the end of
this row of trees." Kurama said and walked slowly in the direction of the trees, and there just as he said was a clearing. There were no trees in the center so it looked kind of suspicious.

"Congratulations. Not many people have made it this far and live to
tell the tale. You should be worthy opponents." The gang looked over
to the right and saw a man in a red T-shirt and black pants and black
leather boots. He had long rave hair and blood red eyes. He was a fire demon.

"My name is Katakai. I'm the one who kidnapped those girls and I can tell you this, you will not rescue them. I can assure you of that."
In back of him were long thorny vines that covered two figures from head to toe only showing their heads, hands, knees and feet. They were both unconscious from the blood they had lost. Pools of red covered the floor around them.

"Let them go!!!" Kurama snapped.
Katakai chuckled dryly.
"It doesn't matter if you kill me or not. The bleeding process is
almost complete." Katakai kept his cool with the scowling Kitsune.

"What do you mean by the bleeding process?"

"Take a good look at the vines the girls are trapped in. Notice
that they're covered in thorns. Those thorns stick themselves to the
demon's body and slowly suck the blood out of its victim. Making cuts on the body it allows the blood to flow freely. The more the vines suck out, the weaker the victims get, and when a certain amount of blood is sucked out, the victim will die automatically. Of course I removed all their spirit energy before I did this so they would be too weak to fight back."

Kuwabara ground his teeth and made his hands into fists. Lifting
one up for Katakai to see. Yusuke put his hand on his wrist and gave
him a "not right now" glare. Kuwabara put his fist down.
All of a sudden, Crystal's eyes snapped open and she looked around trying to see where she was, but her vision was too blurry. Finally it came into focus.

"Hmmm. Where am I?" Crystal looked over at Silver and her eyes
widened.

"I see you're still alive, but don't worry, you won't be for long."
Katakai turned around to her. The gang was shocked at what they saw. Crystal tried not to go into unconsciousness. Fighting
to sustain herself, she attempted to get loose. But when she pulled out, the vines made gashes in her arms forcing her to retreat back to her original state. Unfortunately she blanked out having lost way too much blood, she couldn't move without feeling the slightest bit of pain in her body.

Hiei couldn't hold his anger in much longer. He charged Katakai, who
dodged with ease throwing a fireball at him. Hiei was shocked by his quick actions and dodged, then charged Katakai again. In less than a blink of an eye, Hiei stabbed Katakai, figuring his weak point, and landed on the ground lightly. He pulled out the sword and put it back in its scabbard.