[[chapter five- this is the part where you understand the title of our story]]

"Come on, Hiei, can you walk any slower?" Kurama snapped.

"As a matter of fact, I can." Hiei promptly began walking at a snail's pace.

"And he's the fast one?" Kuwabara muttered under his breath.

"Hurry up," Kurama said acidly. "Andrea's gonna die if we don't hurry!"

Adopting a 'very annoyed, and possibly mad' face, Hiei answered doing his best to hold his temper,

"No, she is not," he said, "All that will happen is that she'll be kicked out of the group, or something along those lines."

"How do you know?! Those fangirls can be vicious!" Kurama shouted at him. The others were silent, and looked on as Kurama turned on his heel and began, again, down the sidewalk.

"You know," Kuwabara said, absently. "Kurama was doing a good job of staying calm until now."

"Gee, I'd have never guessed." Yusuke said sarcastically, following Kurama down the walk.

"You know," Hiei said, mimicking Kuwabara. "You were doing a good job of being quiet until now." He began down the road, slowly, calling over his shoulder, "Now, shut up."

[[in Location B that we now know as the old abandoned store]]

Elli ran around frantically, setting mousetraps around the room, hanging fake but otherwise very realistic looking cobwebs from the roof and lamps and other things like that. And for a final touch, she added an old china plate, with cobbler crumbs on it. She looked at the plate wondering how anybody could eat fruit that was warm, preferring it cold herself. She glanced over her shoulder, and ran back to the new control room. She stepped through the aura-in-a-bottle they had erected around the room, so as the four wouldn't be able to find them, and into the little room. She sat down in her chair, monitoring the progress Kurama was making. Andrea, who had transformed into a halfway stage where she wasn't quite a fox, but not quite a human, looked over her shoulder, and said completely honest,

"I think Kurama likes me."

Elli stared at her a moment then said,

"You mean, like like?"

Andrea nodded and retreated to the makeshift courtroom, where they were going to pull one on Kurama. Elli bit her lip. If that was true, what she wouldn't give to be in Andrea's shoes made a very small list.

Neha wandered in from the side room. She plopped down in the chair next to Elli, and flipped on the speakers they had rigged in the old shop. She tapped the microphone saying,

"Hello, hola, aloha, whatever. Testing, one, two, testing, do the speakers work? Inu-Yasha is better than Youko..."

Elli glared at her friend, and she stopped talking.

"What?" she asked, "I'm entitled to my own opinion, aren't I?"

"No," Elli said flatly.

Liz tapped on one of the cameras, and waved.

"Sounds great!" She said to the camera. Neha smiled and spoke into the microphone.

"Thank you, mortal." She layered her voice with a creepy, deep accent.

Elli grabbed the microphone and yelled at Liz,

"You don't honestly mean to tell me you agree with her on the Youko—Inu-Yasha thing?"

Liz looked at the camera, with an awkward look about her. She coughed once, and quickly left the range of the camera. Elli returned her attention to the screen of her computer.

Kurama was fighting through the crowds of people in the city. Hiei, Kuwabara, and Yusuke were lagging behind. The two humans had managed to rid themselves of the feathers, but some glue still clung to their clothes. They approached the doors of the old shop, hesitating at the door.

Elli grabbed the microphone and shouted into it,

"Okay, Kurama's prank is ready. I hope that the gerbils have gotten to work on the pie, and aren't sitting around playing Super Smash Brothers like I told them not to!" Elli frowned as she heard scurrying and squeaking from the other room.

She sat down and activated the computer, embedded in the table, it hummed and booted up. She carefully slid a headphone set that blended with her hair on her head. As of now, Elli was tuned in to everything going on in the control room.

"All right, Elli, we're in business," Neha said in her ear, having returned to the control room by this time. "Get back here, because you have to be with me for the test of that ThoughtManager software I made—but it was Nikki's idea to use it against Hiei," she added hurriedly, and Elli knew that Nikki was standing menacingly over her poor friend.

"I'm coming," she sighed. "Just let me get Andrea in her place...those pills should keep the blood from rushing to her head, so tell Liz thanks." There was a slight beep as Neha pressed another button to speak to Andrea.

Elli smiled, rubbing her hands evilly. This summer was turning out to be a lot more fun than she'd expected.

Kurama heaved the door to the broken down shop open. The other three followed him into the dimly lit room.

It was dusty, damp and cold. There were cobwebs everywhere, and old mouse traps strewn over the floor.

"Nobody's been here, ever." Kuwabara said, shivering.

"When, exactly did you figure that one out?" Hiei asked, coldly. There was no answer.

"HEY!" Yusuke shouted running over to a little table. "Look at this!"

He pointed to a plate, with crumbs on it. The others walked over, and looked down on the blue china plate.

"So what?" Hiei asked, clearly not amused.

"It means that those girls were here and they have food!"

"How will this help us, exactly?" Kurama asked him. Yusuke thought a moment, then said,

"It doesn't, I'm just really hungry!"

"Great," Kurama said glancing around the room, "Good for you. Now lets go find Andrea."

Almost as if on cue, there was a noise down one of the hallways. It was a rattling clinking noise, as if something, chains maybe, were being dragged down the hallway. Then it stopped and someone, a girl, moaned.

"Please." She said, her voice sounded weak, and strangled. "Don't, please..!"

The four of them froze, staring down the hallway. The dragging began again, and the girl's voice disappeared down the way.

"That must have been Andrea!" Kurama said, in a soft voice. Then with out another word, he started at a run down the corridor.

"Should we follow him?" Kuwabara asked.

"Nah." Yusuke said, turning down another hall, where there were more pie crumbs, "Let's go see were they're keeping the food."

"Do as you want," Hiei said walking over to the stairs, and sitting down, "I'm going to wait here for Kurama."

"Whatever." Yusuke said, and disappeared down another hall. Kuwabara turned and followed him, leaving the fire demon in the little room.

Hiei sat in silence for a while; pondering the situation they were in. With that stupid kitsune kidnapped, Kurama was gone. He always was an oversensitive fool. And the pig Kuwabara and the other pig Yusuke had gone after pie crumbs...kind of like Kurama when he got drunk...Hiei snickered in spite of himself. Kurama dancing around like the fool he was, turned out to be an interesting experience. He remembered the substance the other kitsune had put into the lemonade—Thisstuffmakesyoudrunk. He wondered vaguely if they had any left...it would be interesting if they did...you could put it in all sorts of things...lemonade, pies, cakes...

Pies.

It hit Hiei in an instant. He jumped to his feet. He didn't care much for Kuwabara and Yusuke, but he didn't want to seem outsmarted by Team Kitsune. He dashed down the corridor where they had gone.

Somewhere far above him, Nikki pushed a button, smirking.

Hiei prowled down the hall, fireball in hand. He scanned the wall, the floor, even the ceiling, looking for the slightest hint. There was a small noise above him, a clicking noise of sorts. He looked upward, and the tiled ceiling opened up, and then...

Tapioca pudding?

Hiei was so confused he forgot to run. The thick pudding sloshed over his shoulders, splashing to the floor. It took him a few seconds to recognize the sounds of laughter overhead. And then he knew.

I've been pranked!

The fact that this was so unlikely was enough for Hiei to feel, if only for one small nanosecond, completely and utterly defeated. But the next second, his eyes were filled with determination. He would make them pay.