A/N: Here I am again with chapter 9! So far this is the only story that I had plenty of idea's for to continue, so I guess that's a good thing. Phase 2 of the Acire plan has been preformed, now how will the Tantei react to it? You will read it this chapter!
Before I forget, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed. Thank you so very, very much! I love you all!
Disclaimer: I still don't own Yu Yu Hakusho. Oh, how I wish I did, but unfortunately, I wasn't the lucky one to create it :( Still I do own the Acire.
Chapter 9: Back to the Source
With shaking hands she tried to control the flying oar of the rough waves of the wind. Still recovering from her sudden collapse it took Botan all her strength to do even the most normal things. Slowly her energy returned to her, but she could sense the blockade inside of her body.
She looked down where on her lap the prince of the Reikai lay. She and Ayame had decided that Botan should take him away from the Reikai, afraid that the Acire might still be there and would return to finish the job. The place safest in her mind was Genkai's temple with the Reikai's elite team. Ayame had stayed in the Reikai to inform other employees. The king of the spirit world unfortunately was on a so called 'business trip', a very important 'business trip'. No one was allowed to lay contact, and even if they would ignore that for once, only very few spirits knew where the king was. Botan and Ayame, both working for Koenma, had no idea.
'This is just too much. First Kurama, then Kuwabara and now Lord Koenma. Is no one safe from these creatures?'
They were once again reaching their little house build on the loose sand. Sarchi and Meike had been instructed to get back to the demon world as soon as they could after performing 'phase 2' in the Reikai, this out of safety messieurs. The groups oldest knew that they were in less danger grouping together, then when they would swarm around all on their own.
"Remember, not a word!" Sarchi said strict, almost a snarl.
Meike nodded. Telling Ira what happened would be suicide, in 2 ways. Both Ira and Sarchi would be out of themselves of anger. "Not a word…"
She was the first to contact the sand. Lingering, Sarchi gestured Meike to get inside. A new level of fear was born inside her. She was sitting between 2 immense fires, powers far greater then her own, which were fighting each other in a constant battle. Choosing sides would be too dangerous in this situation.
"Ah, you're back!" Ira smiled as her fellow Acire entered. "And? How did it go?"
"Fine…" Sarchi said uninterested.
"Everything went well," Meike said, a small nervous smile on her lips. 'Well… sort of…' she sighed in her mind.
"That's great to hear!" Ira exclaimed, her eyes twinkling of happiness. "Perfect! That means our problems will be solved soon. You hear that, Jeresa? Everything will be going in the good direction from now on!"
The youngest girl, who was sitting in a dark corner, turned her head and smiled sweetly. She still didn't understand how 1 little action could get their lives uphill, but as long as Ira said it was alright, she would think it was fine, too.
"Trust me. Within 1 day, everything will be alright! This will all be over and we can start rebuilding our lives."
Meike tried to hide the fearful surprise in her eyes. Was Ira's original plan capable of doing all that? 'Oh no… What have I done…?'
Sarchi grew annoyed and quite uncomfortable with Ira's happiness. "I'm out of here."
Ira turned to him, calming her head and getting serious. "Wait a minute! You're not going anywhere. That we'll be safe once this is all over is a very good thing, but that time is not now. You know that better then anyone. Right now it's still tricky if you get out to far."
"Oh, stop nagging!" Sarchi snarled at her, his gray eyes frozen. "I can take those Tantei freaks on all by myself!"
Ira went into attack mode. "No, you can't. None of us can! If they caught you all alone, you'll be fish bait!"
"You think I can't beat them!"
"Indeed!"
"Arg! Come on! Those morons are back in their own little world. They don't even have a clue about what is going on!"
"But they could find out soon! Within a day, the danger will be gone, but as long as Koenma is still under our control, we're in an awkward position. It's easy to misinterpreted!"
"Alright, so I'll be around here, not too far away! That good enough for you!" he yelled on top of his lungs.
"Getting it from you, I have to do with it, but don't you dare getting out of our territory. If I notice I can't sense you anymore, I'm going to find you and it won't be pleasant," Ira warned him with her voice shaking of anger.
"Like I'd care!" Sarchi turned his back to the aqua water demon. "I'm out of here!'
"Sarchi!" He didn't respond to her call. "Damn him! Why does he have to be so stubborn? He knows this is the most risky part of it all."
Meike didn't understand what Ira was talking about, but she was smart enough not to ask. She should have known what they were going to do, but since she didn't follow Ira's long planned strategy, she hadn't the slightest clue.
"O well…" Ira patted Meike's head. "As long as you tell me everything went well, I'm not going to get worked up. I mean, why would one be angry if everything is going perfectly?"
Meike smiled slightly, trying to hide the guild. 'I let her down… But I can't tell her…I just can't…'
"Look!" Yukina pointed in the sky.
"Isn't that Botan?" Yusuke thought out loud, raising to his feet.
"It is," Kurama said, standing next to his friend. "But what is it what she's carrying?"
Yusuke narrowed his eyes and stared in the distance. The next second his eyes grew with fear. 'It couldn't be…' "Koenma…?"
"What!" Kuwabara abandoned his place next to Yukina and walked forwards a few steps.
A few seconds later Botan, totally exhausted, landed in front of the temple, almost falling off her oar as she did. In slow-motion she let Koenma slide onto the ground, before she too let herself fall on the grass. She looked up to Yusuke, who had rushed to her as she stumbled down her oar. "Hello…"
"Botan, what happened to you?" the brown-eyed spirit detective asked his friend worried.
"Still trying to figure that out myself…" she said, out of breath. "It feels like my energy is blocked."
"You could say that!" Yusuke exclaimed. "Damn, Botan!"
"What happened to him?" Kuwabara asked, pointing at the unconscious body of the Reikain prince.
"Well… I'm not sure… But I suspect… the Acire are behind it," Botan was able to tell.
"The Acire? But how? How did they find their way to the Spirit world?" Kurama wondered.
"Don't… know…"
"Well, we can figure that out later," Genkai brought in. "Right now we need to find out what in wrong with Koenma and see if we can get rid of the blockade of Botan's Ki."
Yusuke and Kuwabara picked up their boss and started to carry him inside the temple.
While the nerves were still racing inside her body, Meike felt how her limbs got heavy and her eyelids started to close without her own permission. She couldn't suppress the yawn.
"Guess you're worn down from this tiring day," Ira said smiling. She stood up and wrapped her arms around the young pink-haired girl, carrying her to a corner, where she put the girl down. She stroke Meike's face with the back of her hand. "Go to sleep. You have done a great job today and I want you to know that I'm very proud of you." Ira tugged the girl in. "Sweet dreams, my little adventurer."
Meike closed her eyes and rolled onto her left side. 'Why does she say that? I feel so guilty…'
All watched as Yukina and Kurama bowed down over Koenma to inspect his body.
"I don't see any wounds…" Kurama mumbled.
"Neither do I," Yukina told him.
"There must be something!" Yusuke exclaimed, getting worked up. He was shaking because of stress and the lack of ability to help at this particular moment didn't help much either.
"There is one thing that I can't place… I sense a disturbance in his energy. It feels like it's being held inside his body," Kurama said turning to his friend, "like an animal in a cage. It tries to get out, like any normal aura would do, float around the body… However in this case, in looks like the energy is trapped and can't get out. This could result in unconsciousness, since the body needs the energy from the spirit to function normally."
"Sounds logical enough," Kuwabara said scratching his chin. "Is there something we can do about it?"
"We need to get the Ki to flow again," Yukina replied. "This however may be difficult, since the body does not only keeps his energy in, but ours out too…"
"His blood…" Kurama mumbled, interrupting Yukina.
"What are you talking about?" Yusuke asked questioning.
"You have access to the Ki when you have contact with the persons blood. Back in the Dark Tournament when I was battling against Touya and my spirit energy was blocked by Gama, I let him cut me with his ice sword so I had access to my blood and Ki."
"I remember that," Kuwabara said in thoughts.
"Sounds good enough, let's try it!" Yusuke looked at the Reikain prince. "Uh… How do we get to his blood?"
"We'll cut him," Kurama answered nonchalant.
"What! You can't do that to Lord Koenma!" Botan yelled, which resulted in her being out of breath. She closed her eyes to stop the dizzy feeling inside her head.
"Calm down, Botan. It will only be a little one, which will heal in no time at all. I'm sure it won't even leave a scar," Kurama tried to assure her.
"Alright… But who of us is going to do that?" Yusuke wondered. He didn't have to wait long for an answer. Hiei unfolded his arms and stepped away from the wall, reaching under his cloth. The next moment he held his unsheathed katana in his right hand. "Um… Isn't that a bit too drastic Hiei?" Yusuke said sweatdroping.
"No way I'll let that shrimp near Koenma!" Kuwabara yelled. "We can't trust him! He could decide to de-head him for all that matters!"
The black-clothed Koorime smirked. He could do that…
"Hiei-san is very skilled with the sword. He knows better then all of us how to use it and how to make which injury," Yukina defended the fire demon. "I think we should let him…"
"But…" Kuwabara protested.
"Let him," Kurama said agreeing with Yukina. He looked at his crimson-eyed friend, who was staring back. The kitsune didn't worry. He knew Hiei longer then today and experience had taught him Hiei was a cryptic person, having his own complicated honor code. Kurama was convinced that his Koorime friend would not kill anyone who was asleep, or at least in a very weakened state in which he hadn't the chance to fight back, which would make it a very un-honorable kill.
'You know me too well fox,' Hiei concluded in his mind. Although he disliked the prince of the Reikai for letting him work for the spirit world, he couldn't kill him, no matter how much he liked the thought. Still, getting the chance to swing his katana at the brown-haired prince was enough for him to do it, especially now he couldn't get punished for it. He walked forwards and stopped on the right side of the laying Koenma, feeling the eyes of the other members of the Tantei burning in his back as he did so.
"I swear, if you do anything…"
Kuwabara didn't get the time to finish, because the same moment he spoke, Hiei raised his sword and with a fast and flowing swing he cut Koenma's lower left arm, no more then an inch long and half an inch deep.
"Perfect," Kurama nodded. He walked forwards as Hiei returned to stand against the wall. The redhead took Koenma's arm in his left hand and with the fingers of his right hand trailed over the red line. He placed the top of his forefinger exactly in the middle of the cut and pressed it a bit inwards, making light contact with the blood inside Koenma's body. "That's strange…"
"What? What's wrong?" Yusuke asked worried.
"His blood…" Kurama turned to the spectators. "It isn't streaming… It's like… his heart has stopped beating and everything else in the body has stopped functioning as well…"
"Heart stopped…? No I don't believe that! If that would be the case, he would be dead," Yusuke spoke.
"Does that count for spirits too?" Kuwabara wondered.
"Let's find out!" Yusuke kneeled next to Kurama and placed his fore- and middle finger on the large blood vein in the neck of the brown-haired prince. "Good thing I know something about first-aid." He concentrated on the skin beneath his fingers. At first he didn'tnotice anything, when all of a sudden. "I think I feel something!"
"A pulse?" Genkai asked interested.
"I think so… It's weak, but it is there…"
"So… His heart is beating, but without pumping the blood around…" Kurama said in thoughts.
"Almost as if his blood has frozen inside his veins," Yukina said softly.
"I don't think such a thing is possible," Yusuke told her.
"Well…" Kurama took his finger from the wound and studied the clean fingertip. Not a speck of blood on it. "It does look that way…And without the body having the blood to provide oxygen and everything else it needs, that could very well be the real reason for his unconsciousness."
"Can you use one of your plants to undo this?" Kuwabara asked Kurama.
"I'm afraid not… This is unlike anything I've seen before," the redhead sighed, shaking his head.
"Then there's only one thing we can do, not?" Genkai crossed her arms and kept her stare focused on the unmoving form laying in front of her. "Get back to the source. The one who caused it most likely knows how to get rid of it too."
Yusuke rose to his feet, clutching his right fist. He gave a quick nod to Kurama, before he spoke up with a serious face. "Alright then. Time to hunt down some Acire."
Jeresa fiddled with her light-orange dress, plucking a tread that was on the edge of becoming a lose end. The young girl had decided to give it a little help 'breaking free'. She turned her head to the opposed corner where Meike was sleeping very restless. The older pink-haired girl kept rolling from side to side, making squeaking noises as she did. Still nothing interesting. Fiddle, fiddle, fiddle.
The same moment the aqua water demon was looking outside, staring in the distance. After their argument Sarchi had traveled far away from their plain, farther away then he said he would go. Clearly, he was provoking the elder. Ira clutched her fist. 'I'm warning you… Do not cross the border…'
Fiddle, fiddle, fiddle. Jeresa started glaring at the little tread, getting really annoyed it didn't go as she wished. She bowed down, closing in like a predator on it's prey. Little fingers held the orange tread, orange strings of hair falling in front of purple eyes.
Slowly but certain it started to faint away. Ira straightened her back, walking outside a few steps. How dared he! He knew this was too dangerous! "Damn you Sarchi!"
Jeresa didn't hear Ira cursing. Her stare on the tread became so intense that if she would have been a fire demon, it would have combusted spontaneously. She concentrated to the fullest to get it out of the rest of the fabric.
Still staring in the distance, Ira started to speak to the sitting girl. "Jeresa, I have to take care of something. I'll be back before you know it. 'I swear, Sarchi. you're not getting away with it this time!' Without looking if the little girl had heard her words she quickly turned to the doorpost and created a barrier of flowing water, to prevent the younger girl from wandering around. However, because of her hurry not to lose Sarchi, who's Ki was fading rapidly, she didn't pay much attention to the blockade, unaware that she made it weaker then she normally would. Without a second to spare, she started her chase after the disobedient male.
She hadn't heard a single word her elder had said to her. Jeresa grinded her teeth, her little fingers and hands shaking of tension. Concentrating even harder, she was able to grab the tread between two fingertips once more, but this time pressing the fingers together for dear life. Then, with a little screech, she pulled it, letting out all her concentration and energy, causing a wave-reaction inside the little house. In sudden realization of what she did, she covered her mouth with her right hand, looking over to Meike, who was still sleeping. Jeresa let out a relieved sigh.
Proud of herself, she raised her left hand where, between thumb and forefinger, she held a small thin orange string of fabric. "Got you!" She quietly started to laugh out loud, excited that she had beaten the 'evil tread' and had led it to 'freedom'. Letting herself fall on her back with spread arms, she failed to notice that her sudden explosion of energy had caused Ira's weak barrier to get unbalanced and fall apart, leaving the exit unprotected.
"Are you sure about this?" Kuwabara spoke, his voice slightly shaking. Together with the other members of the Reikai's elite team he had returned to the demon world, in search for someone to help them out. "I mean, those Acire are some crazy creatures. Who knows what they might do?"
"And that is exactly why we're going to find one!" Yusuke said with a strong voice. "They have crossed the limit! Kidnapping Kurama was one thing, taking you down, I can live with that as well, because she was defending her territory…"
"Defending! Hell, entering someone's body isn't defending!"
"… but to stop someone's blood from running, that is just plain low." Yusuke said, ignoring Kuwabara. "This has to stop… Now!"
Kurama, who was walking behind Yusuke, kept looking to the side. He couldn't imagine that any of the Acire would do such a thing. Meike and Jeresa because they were too young, Ira because she would prefer a face-to-face confrontation and Sarchi because Ira would always be on his neck, keeping him in line. Still, he couldn't get rid of the feeling that the victims weren't chosen randomly. Why kidnap him, only to let him go unharmed? Why go after Kuwabara, only to knock him out, but in such an extreme way? Why did they got off so easily, but did Koenma have to pay such a high price?
"What are you thinking about, fox?" the black-clothed fire demon asked, his eyes fixed on his former youko friend.
"Nothing…"
"There is no nothing," Hiei said with his low voice.
Kurama slightly smiled. "True…" He raised his head and looked at the leaves on the branches as they walked towards the lake where he was held captive for almost a day. "You know… I think you and Botan were right. There was more to my kidnap then just getting me in their hands."
Yusuke turned around as he heard these words. "What are you talking about?"
"It's all too accidental. It was all well planned. My kidnap as well as Koenma's attack. If not, someone would have noticed them as they were performing the action. We're all seeing this too much as lose outbursts… Although I have no strong evidence, I suspect it's all part of a bigger whole…"
"We can ask them soon." Hiei nodded.
The others followed his line of sight and saw the lake in the distance, the lake which the Acire inhabited.
She lifted up her round face and stared outside. It didn't took long for her to recognize one of the spiritual forces closing in on her territory. Jeresa's big purple eyes started to sparkle as she clearly felt Kurama approaching. "He came back!"
Suddenly she noticed the door, without the barrier to block it. "That's strange… Ira never leaves without it…" The only reason the girl could think of was that her elder wouldn't be gone long and had to be somewhere close. That way she would be able to sense them, but it wasn't necessary to protect them from the outside.
'Would she mind? No… She would tell if she doesn't like it.'
Jumping to her feet, she turned to her friend, seeing she was still asleep. Jeresa kneeled next to Meike, carefully stroking the pink curls. "You sleep, big sister. I'm going to say 'Hi' to Kurama. I'll say it for you too!" She pressed a little kiss on Meike's cheek, before she quietly swum outside, looking around if she could see Ira. She didn't, so she figured that it would be alright for her to greet the red-haired human. Following the stream she let herself drift to the surface, her smile widening more and more as the light approached her.
Slowly, Yusuke let his jeans jacket fall on the ground, getting ready for a fight.
"Yusuke, please. There is no need to use violence."
"There is, Kurama. I don't want things to end up as they did the last time I saw an Acire. This time I'm not going to stand there and watch: they will listen to us! This will end now!" He clutched his fist out of anger, grinding his teeth.
She stopped her persuade, body frozen when she suddenly felt the rising energy in the distance above the water-surface. The aqua-eyed water demon recognized it to be owned by the spirit detective with brown eyes and raven-colored hair. 'Well… That was predictable.' Ira sighed. 'This is just great! The Tantei decides to pop up exactly when mister 'I'm-too-good-to-listen-to-you' is too far away to help out! Arg!'
She buried her hands in her long hair. Sarchi's Ki was barely sensible, too far away for her to get him now. She just had to deal with the Tantei herself then!
She was about swim upwards, when she felt a very familiar and weak energy source near the Tantei. Her eyes grew with fear. 'But how…? I thought I…' "Jeresa!"
"Look!"
Hiei, Yusuke and Kurama all at the same time focused their eyes on the water, all seeing what Kuwabara had noticed.
"That must be one of them," Hiei growled.
"My thoughts exactly!" Yusuke took a step forwards and raised his right hand.
"What are you doing? You can't just shoot at it!" Kurama exclaimed panicked. Although not the full 100 percent sure, he had quite a good idea of who it was approaching them from under the surface.
The tip of his forefinger started glowing asthe spirit detectiveaimed it at the wrinkling water where he saw a shadow appear, growing as it got closer. "Yes, I can…"
A/N: O.o Cliffhanger! I'm so mean, cutting it off on the worst moment. But that means that if you want to know how it ends, you have to read the next chapter :D (which, hopefully, won't be posted too long from now :remembers long periods between updates: Arrrrr, bummer!)
I hope you liked this chapter. Please review! … Please?