Chapter 5: Return To Demon World
Kurama gathered Botan in his arms and stood up. He looked up at the sky, eyes sad, before turning back to Yusuke and Hiei.
"Well, what now?" Yusuke asked.
"We have no choice but to go after Sagara and stop him from using Yasuo's hidden power," Hiei answered, shrugging slightly.
"Yeah," Yusuke agreed, nodding. "We should probably go get Kuwabara first. You know how he hates it when we leave him here." He prepared to take off to Genkai's place to get his friend.
"No," Kurama spoke up, stopping him. "I will go get him." He gave Botan to Yusuke and started walking off.
"Hey wait!" Yusuke called, running up to him. "Why don't we send Hiei? He's still the fastest out of the three of us."
"No," Kurama denied, shaking his head. "I am much faster than Hiei, and, besides, Kuwabara would never listen to him." He smiled at his short friend over his shoulder before walking off again. "Take care of Botan, Yusuke," he ordered, turning into his fox form. Taking one last look at his friends, he ran off.
"In his fox form, Kurama is much faster than me and can outrun anything, demon or human," Hiei noted, smirking. "That cheater."
Kurama sped through the forest and reached Genkai's temple stairs in record time. He charged up the steps and jumped the last one, landing lightly in the middle of the courtyard. He scanned the temple for any signs of life and found three in the backyard.
"Ah!" Kuwabara yelled, appearing in the courtyard. "It's a fox! Rrr. Spirit Sword!" His sword formed in his hand, and he ran at the fox.
Kurama's eyes tracked over to him, and he smirked inwardly. His figure blurred as Kuwabara's sword came flying at him, leaving a brief afterimage. He reappeared behind his friend and growled at him, trying to provoke his fury for a little amusement.
"Why you," Kuwabara cursed, turning to him. "I'll get you this time!" He charged and swung, missing again.
This time Kurama landed a few bare inches in front of a large tree. He growled at Kuwabara again and leapt into the tree as his sword came flying at his head, landing on the lowest branch. He quickly transformed back into Shuichi and sat down on the branch. As his friend pulled his sword from the tree trunk he began to laugh.
"Huh?" Kuwabara wondered, stupidly. He looked up into the tree to see Kurama perched on the branch, laughing at him. "Kurama? What are you doing here? And what happened to that fox?"
Kurama jumped down from the branch and landed before Kuwabara, his back turned to him. "You must come with me, Kuwabara," he ordered, the cheer leaving his voice. "We don't have much time left." He turned into his demon form and looked over his shoulder at his friend. "I promise I'll explain everything to you later. Now, follow me." He turned into a spirit fox and ran into the woods, stopping momentarily to wait for Kuwabara to catch up before taking off again.
"Wait up, Kurama!" Kuwabara called, breathing heavily. "You're going too fast!"
Kurama stopped and watched him trying to keep up. He is too slow, he thought. Perhaps if I persuade him a little, he'll pick up the pace. Come on, you slowpoke! Come catch me if you can!
"What'd you mean slowpoke!" Kuwabara yelled, angrily.
Just what I said, you're not even close to being fast enough to catch me, Kurama answered. He smirked and took off again.
"Oh, that does it," Kuwabara muttered, chasing the spirit fox. "We'll see whose calling who slow when I catch you, fox-boy!" He chased Kurama all the way back to the clearing where Yusuke and Hiei were waiting for them.
"Hmph. What took you?" Hiei asked. "Stop for a quick snack? That trip took you ten minutes and should have only taken five."
Kurama reassumed his demon form and smirked at Hiei. "Of course not, Hiei," he replied, looking up as Kuwabara entered the clearing. "It would have taken me five minutes alone, but I had company, remember?"
Hiei looked up at Kuwabara and smirked. "Ah yes," he sighed. "The baffoon couldn't keep up, could he?"
"Hey shrimp, who you callin' baffoon!" Kuwabara yelled, getting right up in Hiei's face.
"Any slightly intelligent human would have known I was referring to you," Hiei answered, glaring at Kuwabara from the corner of his eyes.
"Rrr. Why you lit-"
"Children!" Yusuke butted in. "That's enough. We've got more important things to worry about right now."
"Yes, that's right," Kurama agreed, going to Yusuke. He took Botan from him and turned to the others. "You go on ahead to demon world. I'll take her back to Koenma's palace and meet you there." He turned his back to them and looked at Kuwabara. "Oh, and by the way, sorry about the insults, Kuwabara," he apologized, smiling. "You shouldn't be too upset about not being able to catch me though. Hiei is a lot faster than you, and he can't even catch me." He smirked at them and disappeared.
"Uh guys, where'd Kurama go?" Kuwabara asked, stupidly looking around.
"You imbecile," Hiei insulted. "He took that Spirit Guide to Koenma's palace."
"Oh," Kuwabara said, looking over at Yusuke. "Urameshi, Kurama said we were supposed to go to the demon world, right?"
"Right," Yusuke agreed, nodding once.
"Well, how exactly are we supposed to get there without Botan!" Kuwabara wondered, impatiently.
"Hmm. I don't know," Yusuke answered. "That's a tough one."
Kuwabara fell over.
"You're more of an idiot than I thought," Hiei said, exasperated.
Kuwabara jumped up and glared at Hiei, Yusuke doing the same.
"I can get us to demon world," Hiei explained, looking up at them. "Every demon living in your world can go back and forth between the three worlds at will. You'd think a half-demon like you would know that."
Yusuke rolled his eyes at that last comment. "All right," he said. "Let's go then."
"Right," Hiei agreed, turning his back to them. "Put your hands on my shoulders, and we'll go."
Kuwabara and Yusuke obeyed.
The three of them disappeared instantly. They reappeared in a similar forest and looked around.
Hiei stepped away from the humans and stopped suddenly, feeling a presence behind them.
"What kept you?" a voice asked from behind them.
Kuwabara whirled around and got ready to fight, not recognizing the voice. He dropped his stance when he saw who it was.
"Hey, Kurama," Yusuke greeted, eyes tracking over to his friend.
"Hello," Kurama replied, pushing himself up from the tree he had been leaning against. He walked up to them and smiled. "Are you ready to begin our search?" he asked.
"Search for what?" Kuwabara asked, stupidly. "What's going on?"
Kurama's smile faded, and he hung his head in shame, his thick red hair covering up his green eyes.
"We're looking for Sagara's hideout, you incompetent," Hiei answered for Kurama.
"Okay, that answers one question," Kuwabara said, ignoring Hiei's insult. "Now, what's goin' on?"
"We need to find Sagara and kill him before he takes over the three worlds," Yusuke answered, simply.
"Oh, a fight, huh?" Kuwabara said, mood lifting. "Well, I guess you guys knew you were gonna need a lot of help to beat this guy. That's why you sent Kurama to come get me." He began to laugh, arrogantly.
The other three sweat-dropped.
"Not exactly," Yusuke corrected. "We know how much you hate being left behind, so Kurama came and got you."
Kuwabara glared at Yusuke before his eyes widened as he remembered something. "Hey, where's that little kid?" he asked, looking around.
Hiei was about to say something when Kurama spoke up.
"Sagara showed up at Yusuke's house," Kurama replied, sadly. "We all got into a fight with him and lost. Botan tried to save Yasuo by flying away but got burned by one of Sagara's flame attacks. Sagara then found them in the woods and took Yasuo."
"And that's bad, right?" Kuwabara wondered, scratching his head.
The others sweat-dropped again.
