A/N: Sorry it took me so long to get this next chapter up but I was having a writer's block plus my internet decided not to work on me for about a month and a half but anyway I'm back now .By the way any misspelling you see when Brendi speaks it's like that on purpose. It's my attempt at giving her an accent. Well, on with the chapter.

Chapter 3: Trouble ahead

Nami awoke the next morning ready to go to school. She thought about what she was going to do about Yusuke and the rest of them and came to the conclusion yesterday that she was going to confront them about it. There was no way in hell she was leaving the only home she'd ever known just because some nut balls believed she was a demon. She was going to make sure of that. After showering and getting dressed in some baggy blue jeans and a red T-shirt she ran downstairs ready to eat breakfast.

"Good Morning Nami."

"Morning Mom. Where's dad?"

"He had to leave for work early today."

"Oh, okay."

"You're up a little earlier than usual. Is there something wrong?"

"Nah, I just wanted to get a jump start on getting to school today."

"Well, okay. Finish your breakfast."

"Will do"

Nami finished her breakfast and got her shoes on just as Brendi knocked on the door.

"Hey, Mrs.-"

Brendi stopped mid-sentence as she realized that it was Nami and not her mom standing in the doorway.

"Whoa, I was expecting your mother. You're normally still shoving breakfast down your throat."

"Yeah, well things change." She said running out the front door. "Bye Mom."

"Bye Nami." Her mother called after her.

Nami and Brendi got on their skateboards and just started to skate towards the school.

"Nami, iz there sumting wrong?"

"No why?"

"It's just normally when you leave for school early you have sumting on your mind."

"It's nothing."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm quite sure." She said skating ahead of Brendi.

"Well, ok."

They met up with Ryo and continued on their way to school and the whole time Nami stayed focused on what she had to do. She been psyching herself up to do this since yesterday which meant that's what her mind would be on all day and nothing else.Besides, she wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone today. All night long she was having an emotional struggle within herself trying to make herself believe that those boys had a screw loose. She planned to confront Shuiichi right after school. Once they got to school Brendi and Ryo still tried to get Nami to tell them what's wrong but she continued to shrug it off. She knew they wouldn't believe her even if she was to tell them. So, once the bell rang by the end of school Ryo hit her with questions.

"Nami, what is wrong with you?" Ryo asked as she quickly shoved her things into her backpack

"Nothing, I just have something to do."

"But it's just you've been so distant all day. You barely even talked to me or Brendi."

"Look," she said after slamming her locker shut, "I just have a lot on my mind right now."

"Oh," he said as his expressed softened "Anything I can do to help?"

Nami glanced past Ryo to see Shuiichi shutting his locker.

"No, I'll be fine but I gotta go." She said dashing past Ryo

"Don't forget about tonight!" he called after her

"I know I'll be there!" she yelled back

Once she got outside she looked around and saw Shuiichi walking down the school steps.

"Hey Shuiichi!" she called after him "Wait up!"

Nami ran down the steps until caught up with him.

"Hey, mind if I walk with you?"

Shuiichi looked down at her and smiled "No, not at all."

They walked together in silence until it was time to reach her turn in with they would part and she would head for home. 'Ok, this is it.' She told herself

"Hey, this is my turn. Thanks for walking with me Shuiichi."

"No problem." He said beginning to walk off

"Or should I say Kurama?"

Kurama froze in his tracks "What did you say?"

"Kurama. That is your name isn't it? I mean isn't that what Yusuke, Kwubara, and Hiei call you?"

"How do you know about Hiei?"

"I'm not dumb! I knew there was something weird about you so I followed you yesterday. I mean at first I thought I was going insane when I saw that boy in the school window. But now I know it was Hiei one of the people responsible for taking me to...What do call it? The Spirit World?"

Kurama was stunned he couldn't believe she followed him yesterday and without him even sensing her presence.

"So, now that you know why we are here. Why not make it easy for all of us and just come with us now?"

"No, see here's the problem. I've lived here my whole life and I'm not gonna let some psycho kids who believe in demons take me anywhere."

"Stop, with this pointless charade. You know you're a demon and here in the human world illegally. So, either you come with us now or we'll have to fight."

Nami eyes widened she couldn't believe what she was hearing. After spending half the night convincing herself that these were just a bunch of psycho kids who believed they were here to capture demons. He was making it hard for her to believe that that was the case.

"Look! I'm not a demon ok! So, here's the deal; I stay here and you and your friends get on some medication because seriously ya'll got issues. Well, good-bye and good luck in the mental ward."

Right, after that was said she turned on her heel and walked away leaving a very stunned and confused Kurama behind her. To tell the truth Nami didn't really believe they needed to be on medication she just wanted to believe that they were crazy so badly. But for some reason a voice in the back of her mind kept telling her that they were not. Just as she was reaching her front steps she stopped and glanced behind her.

"Why do I have the sinking feeling that this isn't over."

That night Nami walked down the street to Brendi's house. Almost every Friday night they takes turns having movie night sleepovers at each other's houses and tonight was Brendi's turn. Nami walked up to the door and rang the bell and within seconds Brendi answered.

"Hey Chica! Come on in."

"Hey, is Ryo here yet?" she asked stepping in the house

"Yeah, he's in the living room setting up the sleeping bags."

At first Brendi's parents weren't too thrilled about having a boy staying over their house for the night with their daughter. But after a few years they got to know him and realized he was a good person and nothing more to Brendi than a friend. Nami stepped into the living and set her bag down by the couch.

"Hey Ryo."

"Hey Nami. You seem to be in a better mood."

"Yeah, sorry about earlier. I shouldn't have been so secrective."

"It'z ok." Brendi said

"Yeah, don't worry about it."

"Hey Bren, where are your rents?"

"Oh, they're out for thee night."

"Oh, well let's pop in the first movie and get this party started."

Being with her friends made Nami forget all about her problem. It was nice to know at the worst times her friends were there to make everything better and by the third movie Brendi was out cold. She thought everything was going just like they always do. But let's face it Nami's life was done being an ordinary one.

"Ha! Brendi's asleep. She's always out by the third movie. It never fails."

Ryo laughed "Yeah, you're right."

Nami turned back towards the movie when Ryo asked "Nam, I know that you're just fronting being happy. Whatever was bothering you still is and I don't mean to pry it's just I'd like to know what's wrong. I mean we've been friends for a long time and I don't like to see you unhappy."

Nami turned towards Ryo and thought 'He's such a good guy. I don't deserve a friend like him. Maybe I should just tell him. I mean hell what do I got to lose. He'll never believe me.' Nami sighed heavily and began to tell him.

"Ok, Well, you know the new students right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I followed Shuiichi yesterday after he left school because something just wasn't right about him. For some reason I had this feeling that he was hiding something so I had to find out what."

Ryo raised an eyebrow "Yeah, and did you find anything?"

Nami nodded "I followed him to the park where he met up with Yusuke and Kwuabara. See that wouldn't have been so strange if there hadn't been this other boy there."

"What does that other boy have to do with anything?"

"See, remember that day where I was way spaced out the whole day?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I thought I saw a boy in one of the school windows and at first I thought I was going crazy until I saw him meet Shuiichi in the park. But that's not the crazy part the strangest thing is that I heard them say they thought I was a demon and that they were gonna take me to the spirit world or something. So, I confronted Shuiichi about it today but really his name is Kurama. But anyway, he really believes that I'm a demon or something and I have this nagging feeling that maybe they aren't just some crazy people who believe in demons that what they're saying is true and that I might be what they said I was."

Ryo stared at Nami as if she'd just gone nuts and Nami took a deep breath, sighed again and said "God, I can tell by the expression on your face that you don't believe me."

"Nami I -"

Ryo was interrupted by a loud crash that came from upstairs.

"Nami, grab the cordless phone and the bats from the hall closest."

Nami grabbed the phone off its cradle then went over to the hall closest and grabbed wooden and metal baseball bats then walked back into the living room and handed the wooden one to Ryo. 'Good, thing Bren and her dad used to play baseball.' She couldn't help thinking to herself.

"Stay behind me." Ryo said as they slowly walked up the steps to the guest room where they heard the crash. Ryo put his ear to the door and heard nothing. He slowly opened the door and looked around. He tried to turn on the light but the lights in the room wouldn't work. Nami stayed by the door as Ryo walked in to see a broken vase shattered across the floor. Then he looked up and saw that the window was open.

"The wind must of knocked over the vase." He said as he bent over to pick up the broken pieces. Then suddenly they heard a scream.

"Brendi!" they both yelled as they ran downstairs.

When they reached the living room Nami almost fainted as she looked into the crimson eyes of Hiei with Brendi in his arms unconscious.

"Hiei." She whispered to herself

"What?" Ryo said his bat posed ready to start swinging

"That's the boy in the window!"

Hiei was staring at them both coldly and Nami was extremely pissed.

"Let her go now!" she yelled

Hiei smirked then lept out the window with Brendi still in his arms.

"Shit!" Ryo said "Nami, call the cops!"

"No, they can get away to easily. It's me they want." Nami said dropping the phone and bat as she ran outside after Hiei with Ryo close behind her. They ran down the street until they reached a vacant lot.

"I know you're here! Give us back Brendi! NOW!"

"Nami -"Ryo began as he was cut off by a strange figure walking towards them.

"So, are you ready to come with us now?"

"Shuiichi? Then what you said...." Ryo started

"Where's Brendi!?!"

"Don't worry she's fine." Said a blue haired girl who appeared out of nowhere floating on an oar.

"Who are you?" Nami asked

"What are you?" Ryo asked

"All of that will be explained later. Now, will you come with us or not?" Kurama asked

"If I go with you will you please bring my friend back safely?"

"Yes." He said calmly

Then suddenly Yusuke and Kuwabara walked up.

" Hey, is all this really needed? I mean Brendi didn't do anything after all." Yuske whispered to the blue haired ferry girl

" I'm afraid considering the new circumstances that have recently been discovered this is the only way we can get her to come with us."

" But we're not really gonna hurt her are we?"

" Of course not Kuwabara, we're just using her friend to get her to come with us and she's only unconscious due to some powder from spirit world that knocks you out for a couple of hours."

" Oh." Yusuke and Kuwabara said in unison

" Well, are you going to come with us or not?"

Nami bit her lip and sighed. She didn't have any choice and just as she was about to say "Yes" Ryo stepped in her way.

"No!" he said letting the wooden baseball bat slide from his hand.

"Ryo?"

"You can't have her! Take me instead, please! Just please don't take her and don't hurt Brendi!"

"Ryo," she started as she placed a hand on his shoulder "It's me they're after. I'll be fine"

"But -"he started as he turned around to face Nami. She then looked up at him and pulled him into a hug. " I don't want you to go. How will I know if I'll ever see you again?" Ryo said starting to tear up

" I'll be back. Don't sweat it."

Nami let go of him and walked over to Kurama, ready to except her fate.

"Hiei, you can let her go now!" Kurama yelled

Suddenly, Brendi was dropped into Ryo's arms and Hiei appeared before them.

"I'm Botan by the way." She said as she grabbed Nami by the wrist.

" Ryo!" she said before disappearing into the Spirit world " Tell my parents what happened and not to worry."

Ryo nodded as she faded along with everyone else. Tears ran down his face as he carried Brendi back to her house and wondering if he'd ever see Nami again.

A/N: Well, that's chapter 3.. I hope you liked it! I'll try to get the next chappie up asap! Okay! Until then REVIEW!!!! PLEASE REVIEW!!!! Laters.