Author's Note: There is a point to a subtle lameness of their mission, you know (retrieval of the Magic Staff... sure). There is no excuse for this to be poorly written, though, so I'd appreciated feedback, please. Even if it only says that you've read this!

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Saturday morning, when most normal people would be sleeping or eating chips in front of a television, four beings with great spirit energy trudged their way up a grassy hill by an old, run-down temple. They stopped when they reached the top, just to look upon a very dark, extensive forest.

"She's not here," Kuwabara acknowledged the absence of their supposed guide. "Probably slept in."

"Do not be so rash, Kuwabara," Kurama said, looking into a branch of one of the few still-green trees above them.

Sitting on the slowly withering bough was a small figure smiling ever so slightly at them. She leapt down in front of them and gently removed her hood. She wasn't tall—but still taller than Hiei. The hood she put back was attached to a very long light lavender-blue cloak that covered her entire body. She had simple, shoulder-length black hair that was brushed behind her ears.

"Good morning, detectives," she spoke softly.

"Soooo…" said Yusuke, breaking the calm lull, "you're our guide, huh?"

"Yes. And I take it you are Yusuke. And you would be Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei," she replied, nodding at each person as she named them.

"And your name would be…" Yusuke paused, obviously implying for her to complete his sentence. She seemed to be very interested in the ground.

"No name… Nanashi. I am Nanashi."

When she looked back up her mahogany brown eyes glimmered. "Well, shall we begin? I didn't come this early just so we can dawdle and end up having to camp anyway."

The Tentei were surprised. Kuwabara voiced their thoughts by shouting, "Just how long is this supposed to take?!"

"Very," she replied, walking into the shadowy, ominous forest.

Not long after they had started walking, Nanashi stopped, gazing carefully into an out-of-place clearing in front of them.

"What now?" Hiei asked, irritated. It wasn't supposed to take a whole day to merely get to the villains, especially if there was nothing but some scary forest between them.

"Well," Nanashi began, "I thought I'd warn you before you face imminent death."

"Are there a bunch of bloodthirsty demons on the other side?" Yusuke asked, rubbing his hand together in glee.

"No—it's the clearing that the problem… think of it as one of those old castle booby traps—outdoors. You know, come to think of it, forget what I said about imminent death. You guys should handle it no problem."

"Hey," Kuwabara looked from left to right, and back again, "Why can't we just go around it?"

"You would get lost, for about… ever. Until you die of starvation—there isn't much growing here, in case you didn't notice." At that, they all automatically looked at the barren ground beneath their feet. "This is the only way," Nanashi continued, "trust me."

"Why should we trust you? We haven't even known you for an hour and you expect to lead us blind?" Hiei asked bluntly.

"He has a point," Kurama added quietly.

Nanashi just looked at them blankly. "It's not like you have much of a choice. But if you want, I'll just leave right now and you can continue on your own."

"Guys," Yusuke spoke out, attempting to break the newborn tension, "Koenma hired her—she can't be all that bad." There was a slight tone of sarcasm in his voice.

"Fool." Hiei said curtly, waving away any remark anyone had wanted to say after his, and started to walk into the clearing.

As soon as he passed the gradually shrinking shadow of the last tree before the traps, several arrows shot out from behind the trees around him.

"Go!" Nanashi shouted, almost pushing the rest of them in. "It gets worse the longer you stay!"

With those words, what seemed to be mini (if that's what you call it) bombs detonated in the ground all throughout the treeless circle. Then, strangely enough, huge boulders fell from the sky. Each one was about as big as a house—which was pretty hard to dodge when the area itself was not very vast to begin with.

"What the HELL?!" Yusuke shouted as he had to dodge two boulders and smash a third one, only to run into a bomb. If the danger wasn't accounted for, the raining stones were fairly comical to look at—as Hiei noticed when he got to the other side with pure, mad speed.

He also noticed that Nanashi seemed to be determined to go the long way around, as well as destroying things she could have dodged. "Hn," he muttered.

When the fourth eruption of hazards broke out—a series of walls made of Makai fire advancing from behind, the Reikai Tentei, along with their guide, had reached the other side.

"What kind of stupid forest is this?!" Kuwabara asked breathing heavily.

"The one known to be very hard to navigate," Nanashi said in monotone, repeating Koenma's words.