A/N I'm so sorry it took so long. Gomen. Well, no more lingering, on with the story, chapter 5!
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or the characters, except for the Acire.
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Chapter 5: The Movement
It had been a long night. Yusuke couldn't put his mind to rest. He kept thinking about his kidnapped friend. He couldn't stand it. What had happened to Kurama? Was he alright? He just had to know.
At 5 am he was walking around in his bedroom, causing him to get only more frustrated. The nearby pillow created a short moment of distraction when Yusuke threw it as hard as he could against the bedroom door, but the relieving feeling didn't last long.
'Damn it! Why did they had to take Kurama? It's not like it's our fault of their loss. I swear, if they hurt him, I'll… I'll…' The spirit detective couldn't find a good threat to ease his mind. He knew he wouldn't go through with it. Those water-demons had been through enough already and getting on their bad side would only make them angrier.
He let himself fall on the bed. After a while he looked at the clock. 5.52 am. The sun started to shine through his window. He jumped of his bed once more, this time to get himself dressed. He took a pair of jeans from his closet and a yellow shirt. It was comfortable and functional.
'We're coming for you, Kurama. And you, Acire, better be on your guard, because if you start a fight, I won't hesitate to fight back.'
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Sleepy, Kurama opened his eyes. Looking around, he saw that Meike and Jeresa were still sound asleep. Ira was sitting on the block of stone, her eyes half open and in an, to Kurama's opinion, interesting shade of blue-gray. She didn't move or even blink.
Kurama sat up straight, feeling his sore back from laying on a piece of stone for a full night. The moment he started to move, he noticed that Ira's eyes were changing color again. They regained their original aqua color, as Ira yawned and scratched her head.
"Good morning!"
"Good morning," Kurama replied.
"Had a good night?" Ira asked while tidying her clothes.
"Sort of, if you take away the fact I was sleeping on a rock…"
"Never done that before?" Ira continued along with the redhead's funny mood.
"Nope."
"Not even when you were a Youko?"
"No. I slept on a warm layer of plants and leaves."
"Lucky you, but at least you can state after this all that you've tried something new." Ira laughed.
"O joy…" Kurama grinned. The girl wasn't too bad company. After last night their relationship seemed to have taken a turn to the positive side. She felt more comfortable with his presence, cherishing some respect for him for taking it all so easy, Kurama somehow felt more comfortable as well; the girl was talking with him as if he were someone she knew for decades, as if he were a friend
Ira swum to the two sleeping girls and gently shook them. "Come on, girls. Time to wake up. The sun is shining on the horizon already."
"No… One more minute…." Meike complained, still drowsy.
Jeresa, on the other hand, woke up really quickly and decided that this was her chance to steal the best chair in the little stone house: Kurama's lap.
Kurama looked down, a little bit surprised, where on his lap the little girl curled up again, visible enjoying the kitsune's body heat.
"Jeresa! Let go of Kurama."
"But… but… I don't wanna…" the girl mumbled.
"Let her be, it's OK," Kurama said, smiling. In a way he found it pleasant that the little girl trusted him enough to get so close. "Say, Ira…"
"Yes?"
"Why did your eyes changed color when I sat up?"
"You don't know?" Ira asked confused. "Koenma should give his henchmen better information." She sat down on the edge of the stone that Kurama had used as a bed.
Kurama sat up straight as well, legs on the ground, still with the girl on his lap, who was now cuddling with his stomach. Meike sat down on Ira's lap, giving Jeresa a jealous look.
"I hope you have noticed the difference between our eyes and those of other demons and humans?"
"Yes," Kurama answer. "The swirling colors."
"Correct," Ira said. "Our eyes are very special. Where a heart is the most important part of a human body, the eyes are our most important body part. They express our emotions, our character. They are the key to our existence and our strength."
Kurama frowned. It all sounded very strange to him.
Ira noticed his confusion. "Don't worry, I'll explain. You've seen a few emotions already. When I was angry with Sarchi, my eyes froze, the swirling stopped, causing hardening. When one of us is sad, our eyes turn into a vague gray-blue, like fog. When happy, the colors all swirl around like crazy, making our eyes look like sparkling gems. The color of our eyes and the amount of movement makes that one can see how we feel. And why my eyes changed when you moved… I woke up, when I noticed your movement."
"You sleep with your eyes open?" Kurama asked, surprise all over his face.
"Yes, it's what all Acire start to do when they reach a certain age. The young ones don't do that yet, since their eyes aren't fully developed. I can see all that happens, while sleeping," Ira smiled.
"Strange… If never heard about anything like that before… But you said as well that they provide your strength…"
"I did. The movement in our eyes symbolizes our connection to the water and from the water we get our energy. Once our eyes are closed, we lose the connection and so a great deal of our power, practically all. We aren't much stronger then, than a D-class demon. Once our eyes are closed, we're as good as helpless."
"Blindfolds…" Kurama whispered. He remembered that all the Acire were blindfolded, no exception. Back then it was strange, but now it all made sense.
"Blindfolding us is difficult," Ira said, knowing where the redhead was going. "We barely blink our eyes. But they are very sensitive, especially to certain kinds of plants and juices. When close to those, we have to close our eyes to protect them from getting destroyed."
"Lookie…" Jeresa pointed to her left eye with her small finger. Kurama noticed little red spots next to it that he hadn't noticed before.
"Jeresa got into close contact with one of those juices. If I hadn't taken her out of there, right then and there, her eye would have been destroyed, making her blind and losing half of her power for the rest of her life. The wounds are almost healed now." Ira said, gently stroking the little girl's face.
"Ira is very good at healing. She takes care of us," Meike said. "We all listen to what she says we have to do, because she's the oldest."
"All but Sarchi," Kurama added.
"Don't say that to fast," Ira said, smiling. "I'm the oldest and, even though he'll deny it, the strongest. He's stubborn, but when it really comes to it, he listens to me, and me alone."
"That's because your smarter," Jeresa said. She looked at Kurama. "Really, Ira is really smart. Every time she plays a word game with Sarchi, she wins."
Kurama looked at Ira, who took all his confusion away as soon as she soundless said the word 'argue'.
"Yep, she always wins," Jeresa said proud, almost like it concerned herself.
"OK girls, enough chatter. Time to do your chores," Ira said, putting Meike on the ground
"Owwww… But… but…" both girls protested.
"I'll make a deal with you. If you do your chores now, we'll play a game all together afterwards, OK?"
"Will Kurama play as well?" Jeresa asked, puppy-eyed.
"I will," Kurama said, smiling.
"Yeah!" Jeresa jumped off his lap and swum to the door, followed by Meike. "Bye, see you soon!"
"Bye!" Ira waved.
"Cute girls."
"Yeah, but sometimes they can make you just want to throw something at them."
Kurama laughed. "Like you can hit them… They won't sit still, at least, not if they're not sitting on top of me. Have they always been like this?"
"I don't know," Ira admitted. "Since you-know-what, I take care of them. I'll never be able to replace their mothers, but at least I can try to do my best in the role as 'big sister'."
It was silent for a while, when Ira popped a question Kurama didn't see coming. "Why did you respond so late?"
"Late…?"
"Our tribe leader had predicted the attack a week before the actual attack took place. We warned Koenma, but he never contacted us…"
"He didn't…?"
"No…" Ira starred blankly to the ground in front of her.
"I'm really sorry," Kurama said with sad eyes.
"I believe you and you, I can forgive… You carry no blame. It's Koenma… He's the one who angers me. He could've prevented it! If only…" she sighed. "If only 'if's' could become reality… maybe then we could try to get our lives up and going again, without living in constant pain of loss and fear…"
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Yusuke gave the 'safe'-sign. Carefully looking around, he silently walked towards the sound of moving water.
"So, that is where they are?" Kuwabara asked.
"Yep…" Yusuke answered.
In front of them was a gigantic lake, shimmering in the sunlight. It was surrounded by grasslands for the first few dozen feet, then passing on to a forest. On the shore lay pebbles in more then a hundred different shades of brown and white, that sparkled in the sun.
"If so, why don't I feel them?"
"Did you feel them back in Ningenkai?" Hiei said, already knowing the answer.
"No, but…" Kuwabara tried to defended himself.
"But… but… Humans and their 'but's'."
"Shut up, shrimp!" Kuwabara yelled at the small fire-demon, who was sitting up in a tree.
"Don't yell, you baka. They'll notice this awful sound, known as what you call your voice."
Kuwabara couldn't let this insult get over his side, so he summoned his spirit sword and swung it at the tree-branch Hiei was sitting in. The demon, of course, disappeared in a blur, appearing again next to the orange-haired boy, giving him a hard blow to the head.
Kuwabara fell on the ground, clutching his head.
"What did you do that for?!" Yusuke yelled towards his human friend.
"Did what?" Kuwabara asked, clearly not understanding what he did wrong.
"With creating your sword, you raised your damn spirit energy. You blew our cover, you imbecile!" Yusuke yelled on top of his lungs.
"… Oops…"
"That's all you have to say…? Oops?" Yusuke leaded a hand trough his hair and sighed. "Well, all we can do now is wait. Approaching the lake now is too dangerous, since they know where we are, but not the other way around. We'll have to stay here, until one of them comes to us." He sat down, eyes fixed on the water, fully focusing on anything that might be a demon or demon-movement.
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The little fish swum directly towards his eyes. He tried to avoid it, but didn't react fast enough. The fish dove down, into his hair and from there, getting inside his dark-green shirt.
"Ah! Get it out, get it out!" Kurama yelled laughing. Meike was rolling on the ground because of laughter and wasn't able to let the little fish dissolve again.
Ira grabbed his shoulders and gestured Kurama to stand still. The kitsune could feel her hand close to the skin of his back, but she didn't touch him. The moment her hand closed in on the fish of water, it stopped moving. When Ira let her hand go up, the fish followed, leading it out of Kurama's clothes. The little fish kept floating in the palm of her hand, but with a simple movement of her fingers, it fell apart.
"Thanks."
"You're welcome." Ira walked back to Jeresa, after putting the last of the shells both girls had collected on the table. "In just a few day's, we'll have enough shells to decorate our house," she said, getting on one knee to support herself. She took the piece of blue weed from Jeresa and started to bind the little girl's orange hair together in a high ponytail. She was about to lay the second knot in the weed, when her body froze.
"Is something wrong, Ira?" Jeresa asked carefully.
"Uh… What…? O, o… No, nothing is wrong."
"You're a horrible liar," Meike said, a little evil smile on her lips.
Ira made the second knot and stood up. "Meike, you watch Jeresa for me for a little while, OK?"
"Where are you going? Meike asked.
"Just to take care of some business," Ira replied. "And just to let you know, Kurama, there is no chance of escaping. As soon as I feel that your Ki is leaving the house, I'll commend the water to take you down. So no tricks or whatever when I'm gone."
Kurama nodded. He knew that trying to escape now would be a stupid mistake. He was still in Acire waters and an attempt to get away, would only lead to getting them angry.
Ira grabbed a ribbon out of one of the drawers. Kurama saw a little light ball hanging on it, one that she had used to light up the room as well. This one was really small, pea-sizes. She put the ribbon around her wrist and made sure it was tied so tight, that it couldn't fall of in any possible way.
She swum through the exit and placed her hands in front of it. The water started flowing roughly, which prevented the others inside the house from exiting. "I'll be back soon," Ira said, just before she swum off with great speed.
"That's strange…" Meike stated. "Normally, she isn't so stressed. Something must be really wrong if she doesn't want us to leave or anyone to get in. I wonder what's going on?"
Kurama wished he knew, but to him, it was a mystery as well. There was no reason at all for the girl to get so upset. There was no one around that could be of any threat. At least, he didn't feel anyone… Could she have felt something that he had missed, or did the water block energy-radiations from above the surface so he couldn't feel them, but the Acire, who lived in the water, could? In the current situation, that seemed the only possibility that was logical enough to his opinion.
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Yusuke, Hiei and Kuwabara stood up as fast as they could, when they noticed the water moving unnaturally. Their eyes were fixed on the movement, ready just in case the creature was going to attack them.
Slowly emerging, the girl walked towards the shore. She had noticed the spirit detectives right away, they hadn't even tried to hide themselves. The sun on her skin felt strange. Ira remembered it from the kidnapping; the sun had burned the skin on her arms, because it wasn't used to so much exposure of the sun.
Kuwabara's mouth dropped, Yusuke stared and not even Hiei could fully mask his surprise. None of them had expected a girl, a young beautiful girl, to be the one that was responsible for their friend's kidnapping.
Ira ignored the stares she got, getting right to business. "So, I guess you're here because of your friend."
Yusuke snapped out of his trance and answered the girl. "Yes, we are. Where is he?"
Ira pointed at the lake, smiling. "Somewhere down there."
"We want him back," Kuwabara said, on the edge of yelling.
"You will get him back, eventually. In what amount of time and in what state, that will be up to you."
"Why you little…!" Kuwabara was getting really frustrated with the girl's answers.
Hiei watched the scene. 'I can see she's the planning one. Turning away blame for future things… She's up to something…'
"What is it that you want in return for his release?" Yusuke asked, trying to solve it the peaceful way.
"Nothing you can provide us."
"Us? So there is more then 1?" Yusuke questioned.
"Did it really took you that long to find out…?" Ira said with a grin on her face.
Yusuke wasn't about to let this girl run over him with her answers. "There is nothing we can do to get our friend back?"
"There could be something, but I know that you won't do as I would ask, so I'm not even wasting my time on trying something that is bound to fail. And now, I kindly request that you get back to your own realm, away from our territory."
"But, what about Kurama?!" Yusuke yelled.
"He's fine. He's unhurt, fed and in a good mood today, so don't worry about him. He's in less danger then you are right now, especially if you don't get out of here, now!"
"We are not leaving without the fox," Hiei said.
"I promise you'll get him back soon, unhurt," Ira said, looking Hiei in the eye, trying to make an arrangement to get the Reikai Tantei away form the lake. She knew that they could provide trouble. The youngest two Acire weren't able to defend themselves if anything should happen. "He'll be back in 2 days, if you leave now."
"Not in a million years!" Kuwabara yelled, no longer able to control his anger. In his right hand, his spirit sword appeared.
"No, don't!" Yusuke screamed, but it was too late. Kuwabara had already sprinted towards the water-demon.
"I tried to do this the peaceful way, but if you want to fight, you leave me no choice," Ira whispered softly, an strange vibe in her voice. The wind stopped moving, the water of the lake became wild. High upcoming waves tossed a blanket of small water drops on the land. In Ira's aqua eyes, the colors stopped swirling around and they started to become deep ocean-blue. She took a fighting position, eyes fixed on her opponent.
Kuwabara was closing in. He lifted his sword, ready to let it hit the Acire with as much strength as he could.
The Acire girl was ready to take him down in order to protect herself, her last remaining fellow Acire, temporary home but mostly, to protect her goal: revenge for the loss of her people.
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A/N Sorry, a cliff-hanger this time. It was to long to put it in 1 chapter. In the next, you will read how the fight between Kuwabara and Ira will develop. But for now, please review! Please? ::puppy eyes::