For one long week, Maku had been missing. His family and friends looked for him, and told the police, who were looking for him too.
"Oh, he was in detention for one week. He'll be back..." Akifuru told her daughter. "Either that, or he was stolen."
"Mom... Please..." Mikiko sat down on the sitting room sofa, and began to sob; Erik sat down next to her, and comforted her.
The doorbell rang.
"I'll get it." Shi stood up, and went to open it.
"Hello?"
"Hi honey. I didn't find your brother." Her boyfriend, Seventeen, was standing on the porch.
"Oh, Seventeen, what happened to him?" Shi let him into the house.
"He couldn't have gotten out the door because everyone would've saw it." Yusuke said, thinking something bigger then a normal kidnapping. "He couldn't have jumped out the window because there isn't any in his room."
"Oh, Maku, please..." Shi fell down onto her knees, covered her face, and silently cried. Even if he was a pest sometimes, she still loved her family very much, and was scared of what would happen to Maku or what did.
Seventeen sat next to Shi, and hugged her, rocking her while she cried.
"Maybe he went in the trapdoor under his bed." Akifuru said, even though there wasn't any in the bedrooms.
Hijo cursed, and punched the wall.
"Erik, can I hold your hand?" Hijo didn't call his uncle 'Uncle Erik'.
"Alright. Fox, comfort your mother." Erik said, standing up.
"No, it's okay..." Mikiko said, getting up, heading to the kitchen. "Atsuko, help me make coffee."
"Okay, Miki." Atsuko went into the kitchen too.
"Che!" Kuwabara swore in Japanese.
"That's it! I'm going out!" Yusuke said, walking out without a jacket on. No one stopped him, and Kuwabara stayed with the family.
Even through her tears, Shi noticed Fox slipping out the back door.
"He couldn't have gotten the front or back doors, or any of the windows, and there aren't any trapdoors in his room!" Yusuke was speaking angrily to himself. "IT ONLY MEANS HE GOT KIDNAPPED BY A DEMON!"
"Yusuke? What are you screaming about?" A tall, handsome redhead said to him.
"That MAKU has been stolen by a demon!" Yusuke yelled at him.
"Sorry, who's Maku?" The other one asked.
"New friend, who do you think!" Yusuke snapped, and continued. "STUPID FOX! not helping me..."
"I'll help you." The redhead told him. "When did you last see... um, him or her?"
"Last week from today." Yusuke snapped. "I saw HIM last week from today, okay, Kurama!"
"Hm.." Kurama looked around. "He might be dead for all we know."
Yusuke threw one of Maku's shirts on Kurama's face. "Whiff him and find him."
"I'm not some sort of dog." Kurama said, insulted, holding the shirt.
"Yes, you are, you're a fox."
In spite of himself, Kurama rolled his eyes, and wished Yusuke had more respect. "Yes, yes, I smell him."
"Which way?" Yusuke demanded.
"I meant off the shirt." Kurama sighed, folding the shirt, and over one of his arms to hold it up against his chest.
"DUDE, WHAT happens next!" Yusuke screamed at Kurama, whose poor ears hurt now.
"Um, I'll like it if you'd stop yelling." Kurama said quietly.
Just then a policeman stopped on the sidewalk next to them. On his radio:
"There's been a robbery at Jewel Shine store, and we tracked the robber to his hideout. He has a gun and a hostage."
The policeman grabbed the speaker. "I'll be right there." Then the radio told him where to go, and Yusuke and Kurama looked at each another.
"Yusuke, do you think...?"
"Yeah." Yusuke and Kurama started running in that direction.
"Don't come near me OR I'll shoot him!" The robber threatened dangorously, holding Maku. "If you shoot me, I'll still be able to pull the trigger on him."
The police surrounded the warehouse.
"Now, call all your men to the front of the warehouse, while I make my escape out the back with this hostage - and if there is any men when I leave, I'll shoot him!"
Yusuke and Kurama arrived on scene, they were blinded a minute by the helicopter search lights.
"Oh no, Yusuke... is that him?" Kurama pointed to Maku, who was being held tightly by the robber, who looked familar to them.
Yusuke nodded. "Yes it is."
The robber backed up, and then ran out the back door with Maku.
"Let's go!" Yusuke ran around the warehouse, Kurama following close behind.
"I SAID NO ONE!" The robber shot Maku... but it was a needle full of some type of poison, which was injected into Maku's arm.
As Maku was only human, it would kill him within 24 hours.
"NOW HE'LL DIE!" The robber tossed Maku into the river, which ran behind the warehouses. The robber moved incredibly fast, leaping on Maku's back to get across the river, crashing Maku harder into the river.
"Kurama, get Maku!" Yusuke ordered, run-jumping across the river after the robber.
"Yes." Kurama lept into the river.
The soaked fox stood up, the water only went up to his chest. Kurama quickly scanned and spotted Maku.
Kurama swam over to him, grabbing the young teenager, and pulling him up onto the lower bank ground at the bottom of the hill.
Meanwhile...
Yusuke was on the robber's tail until a rock wall summoned out of the ground right under Yusuke sending him flying into the air.
"AHHHHHH!" Yusuke landed on his face, then he stood up - lip drippled from his mouth and bottom lip which was busted, blood came from his probably broken nose, and his eye was swollen because it smacked right onto a flat rock really hard.
The robber laughed at him, then ran to Yusuke, punching him hard in the ribs.
The robber stood back, and summoned his 'Spiked Armor of Clay'.
The robber, who is Risho, stabbed Yusuke in his stomach.
"AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Yusuke screamed in agony, falling onto his back, twitching.
Risho stomped on Yusuke's face, the kicked him in his right side sending him rolling to the left.
"I thought Kuwabara killed you..." Yusuke spoke through wheezes.
Risho lifted Yusuke. "WRONG!" He threw Yusuke but held onto his shirt, causing it to rip as Yusuke flew across the air.
Yusuke landed on and broke his right arm when he crashed into the ground.
Risho picked up a BIG club and hit Yusuke on the head REALLY hard, and Yusuke's skull started to bleed badly.
Risho began stomping Yusuke's chest, crushing his ribcage.
Meanwhile...
Kurama was watching Maku, waiting for Yusuke to come back.
"HEY, TAKE YOUR FRIEND!" Risho threw Yusuke down onto Kurama, then laughing, he ran off.
"Yusuke!" Kurama stood up, staring at Yusuke's battered body. Kurama then figured he should contact someone for help.
Just then, the police spotted them from the top edge of the hill. "GET AN AMBULANCE!" One of them yelled back to the others.
Later...
The Shinomutos, Atsuko, Kuwabara and Seventeen were at the hospital to see Maku and Yusuke; Kurama was also there, of course.
Atsuko was crying at Yusuke's bedside, while Yusuke's spirit watched her from the other side of the bed.
"Darnit! I'm dead again!" Yusuke cursed.
"Dead again?" Maku asked, who was also a spirit, sitting on the floor.
Yusuke's and Maku's bodies shared the same room, divided by a ceiling curtain, which wasn't pulled across.
"You're not dead. Just sorta astro-projecting." A toddler with a pacifier appeared next to Maku, looking at him.
Maku looked down at him.
"It's a baby. What does a baby know about astro-projecting?" Maku almost laughed.
"I'm not a baby. I'm Koenma." Koenma told him.
"Koenma? Koenma?" Maku said as if he were trying to remember something. "Koenma midget?"
"NO! I'M KOENMA, THE RULER OF REIKAI!" Koenma yelled at him.
(Reikai : Spirit World)
"The ruler?" Maku asked.
"YES." Koenma said sternly.
"Well, I'm still going to treat you like a baby." Maku said, staring at him. "So... we're not dead? So, why did the Reikai come in if we're not dead?"
"I'm here to tell you that YOU-" Koenma pointed at Yusuke, who had been watching him and Maku in amusement. "-were nearly killed and forced to astroproject so you won't be sleeping! And YOU-" He pointed at Maku now.
"Loud mouth. I can hear you so you don't have to yell." Maku pointed out annoyed.
"You were poisoned by a Makai Vaccine, so you would die at midnight, but for some reason, you're not going to." Koenma continued. "And you'll both be able to return to Ningenkai in a week's time."
(Makai : Demon World)
(Ningenkai : Human World)
"THAT'S TOO LONG!" Yusuke screamed in the toddler's face.
"I'VE BEEN MISSING FOR ONE WEEK, AND NOW I HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER WEEK! COMBINING THAT TOGETHER; MEANS THEY HAVEN'T SEEN ME FOR TWO WEEKS!" Maku yelled at Koenma too.
Koenma was silent for a matter of minutes.
"Then you'll just have to find a pastime."
Then Koenma vanished.