Disclaimer: Same as before. :3
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Kurama's hand now rested on the knob of the large metal door. He slowly turned around, his heart beating quickly. His eyes instantly showed cowardice at the sight of the person walking over to him. The person was wearing something similar to what the other men of the village wore, but he had a burlap sack over his head and a chainsaw hoisted high above it. Kurama backed up in fear, then noticed the others run into a vacant house. Seeing that he could probably sneak in through a window in the back, Kurama dashed around the person, the chainsaw just barely missing him as it came down quickly.
Kurama crawled through the window and sighed. "Guys?" He called. "Are you in here?"
"Kurama," Yusuke yelled from upstairs, "Up here! Quick!" Kurama bolted upstairs and sighed.
"I think we're safe up here," He said.
Hiei was unsure though. He had every right to be. Especially when he heard a wooden ladder being put up against the window in front of them. The boys screamed as loud as their lungs and throats could handle. No one was around to here them, though. Only those people who wanted them dead.
As the person slowly approached, Kurama remembered his flash grenades. He reached for one, covered his eyes, and threw it. Everyone took a hint, so they did the same. When the flash grenade exploded, the attacker screamed and staggered away and fell out the window. He landed on his neck, causing it to move around mindlessly like a rag doll's. The other's swallowed.
"That was close," said Kuwabara.
"One of our closest calls," Yusuke panted, but grinned. He looked to his right and saw, within a glass case, a few handgun bullets. He opened the case up now that everything had settled down and took the bullets out. He loaded his gun and finally said, "We should look around more. The president's daughter isn't going to wait much longer, eh?" Yusuke walked downstairs and out the door. The others followed him.
No one was outside now. The chilling feeling that was spreading through Kuwabara's veins had eased a little bit. He sensed more danger to the west. He looked that way. Why aren't you listening? Came the voice from before. Leave, now! This was a female's voice, he could easily tell. It seemed so familiar, yet so unfamiliar at the same time. This person obviously didn't want him on this case.
"Did you guys hear that?" Kuwabara asked.
"Hear what?" Hiei replied.
"Someone talking," Kuwabara replied.
"No," Hiei frowned. Then, he heard somene talking, but it wasn't who Kuwabara heard. It was something in a foreign tongue beyond gates to the west. "There's something back there," Hiei pointed in that direction.
Maybe he has these weird feelings like I do, Kuwabara thought, but shook his head. Nah, he's never mentioned a sixth sense before. Kuwabara shrugged the thought off. "Yeah, I think we should go that way," He agreed with Hiei for once. He started off in that direction without them.
"K-Kuwabara wait!" Yusuke started to walk quickly after him.
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The scared teenagers (maybe not Hiei) crept stealthily to the gates. Yusuke rested his hand on it and swallowed. "A-all right," He whispered, "When I open this door, do not make a sound...got that?"
Everyone nodded slowly in agreement.
"Okay," Yusuke squeezed his eyes shut, "Here goes nothing...!" He thrust the gates open and looked around.
Total nothingness. Maybe they were hearing things from before.
Yusuke looked around and sighed. Suddenly, the males' ears picked up the sound of the people, screaming in the unknown language again. They quickly dashed to hide in the shadows, praying that they wouldn't be seen. Each time one of those people would pass, their hearts would jump. They'd almost scream, but they knew that screaming would be like waving the white flag in the air. It wasn't a very good idea, thus, they didn't do so.
They all should open a mind connection to talk to each other. But it was complicated, and it gave them a headache. Again, a stupid idea. They decided to sit and wait for them to pass.
Eventually, the large crowd of villagers and farmers thinned. Slowly they all disappeared. Where are they all going? Yusuke pondered to himself.
Saddler, Said some of them. It was the first word that the boys could understand.
"Who's Saddler?" Kurama hissed slightly.
Kuwabara shrugged, as did Yusuke. No one knew. He knew no one knew who Saddler was, so why did he bother asking?
Yusuke looked around. All of them seemed to have passed towards wherever they were going. He started to come out of hiding, and he cast another cautious look around the farm area again. He looked back at the others and nodded, signalling that they could also come out, and they did.
"Where do you think they were going?" asked Kuwabara.
"I don't know," Yusuke said, looking back at the people. They didn't bother to look back at the boys as they walked. They were deffinitly focused on something, but what? Maybe it's that Saddler dude, Yusuke figured, shrugging.
"We have to get out of here," Kurama said, "With the president's daughter, of course." He also looked around fearfully. You couldn't be too sure in this hellish wasteland.
"Then we'd better start looking," said Hiei finally. I don't know what they're afraid of, he thought, This place isn't all that scary. He frowned at the others. He started to walk on without them.
"Hiei, wait!" Kurama dashed after him. Yusuke and Kuwabara followed hastily.
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Hiei peeked around a corner. He was looking into a barn. The cows seemed unaffected by this little predicament, as did the chickens and a dog. He ran away from them, scared. The others simply watched it move away. It's tail was between its legs as it turned to face them. "Poor little dog," Yusuke said, tilting his head as he looked at it. "He must be more afraid of those freaks than we are."
"Maybe so," Kurama said, "but he's not wounded. They're not trying to kill him." He took one step towards the dog and it fled in fear. "But we shouldn't be worrying about him. I think he'll be fine." The dog's eyes widened and he barked pathetically at Kurama. "We should really be worrying about how to get out of here."
"And with the president's daughter," Hiei added. "Because if we come back there empty handed, I don't think we'll have heads anymore."
"Yeah, really," Yusuke climbed up ua ladder and looked out over the farm. "Hey look," He said, "There's a blue medallion here." He climbed out the window and took it out of its place.
"Let me see," Kuwabara said.
"Okay, don't let it break." Yusuke said, crawling back inside the farm. He dropped it into Kuwabara's waiting hands.
"I think this might come in handy later, I just have a hunch." Kuwabara announced.
"You could be right," Hiei said, holding up two more of the blue medallions. "I found some of them, too."
"I never noticed you go away, Hiei, how did you find them?" Kurama asked.
"While you weren't looking, I managed to take one of them from the tree near the entrance, and another from a barn."
"Oh, I get it," Yusuke jumped down from the top floor of the barn. "Anyway, we need to get going before we end up dead here." The others nodded as they walked into a small, weathered house.
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"Yeesh!" Yusuke twitched. "It's smells in here!"
"It's what happens when you live with a bunch of farm animals," Hiei dodged a passing rat.
Kurama, in the mean time, was investigating a bookcase. "Strange," he said, "these books don't even look real." He attempted to pull one of them, and instead, he pulled off a whole row of hollow, plastic "books". Only one, crimson book with a golden spine didn't move. It looked really old. "Hey," he called, "Hey, I found something!"
Yusuke and Kuwabara ran over to him. Hiei was still looking around, trying to find any hints on what was going on. He blew dust off of a desk and found an insignia engraved into it. It was the same insignia that they saw on the metal door!
"Maybe there's some important information in here," Kurama inferred randomly as he flipped through the pages of the worn book. Then, he found the same sign that he found on the door. "Hiei, come here for a second," He said. Hiei quickly looked at the others, but he walked over to them anyway. "Remember this?" He asked.
Hiei pointed to the desk behind him, and the rest of the boys noticed the same logo was on the desk and in the book. "I think it's over used." Hiei huffed.
"Do you think it means something?" Kuwabara asked.
"It could be a sign...like for a cult of some sort." Yusuke said, scratching at the hollow walls of the shack. The wallpaper peeled and it revealed a secret door. "I didn't notice that there," He said, then looked at the bookcase. He pulled it down and found the knob to the door.
The rest of them looked through the passageway. "There's a reason that's there," Kuwabara said finally.
"I say we go." Yusuke said.
"I say we don't," Kurama quickly added before Yusuke could step through.
"Why not?" He asked.
"Because it could be a trap," Kurama remembered the trap the others had set up for him when they sent the chainsaw man after him, and the one where Yusuke got his foot caught in a trap.
Yusuke laughed. "Hey, buddy, I think I'd notice a trap." He started to walk, failing to notice the explosives he was about to walk through.
Hiei grabbed his shoulder before he could walk into them, pulled him back, and sent his sword through both of the traps. They set off two large explosions. "And to think," he said, "That your inards could be all over those walls if I didn't feel like saving you."
"Whew...Thanks, Hiei." Yusuke's heart was racing at the thought of his brains being splattered against the wall. "I think I'll keep an eye open more." He pulled Hiei's sword out of the wall and handed it to him. Hiei nodded in reply as he returned it to its sheath. Then they all started to walk through the winding halls of the "small" shack.
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The author's hand twitched. "C-crap..." She muttered, hoping no one would hear her. It was almost eight in the morning, and she had been up since three. "Writer's block..." She started to gnaw on a pencil, fighting back the pain in her teeth that resulted from not brushing them for quite some time now. She bit the skin off her lips and the inside of her cheeks, but nothing helped. She played Super Mario Sunshine for a while, but that made her want to write a different story. She listened to music, but it didn't help. She read over the story and thought of a way it could help. Nothing helped. But then an idea hit her. She wasn't on writer's block anymore. Thank God for writing randomly. Okay, back to the story.
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Kurama peeked around a corner. Nothing was there. Nothing at all. Nothing seemed to be of importance, no people were there that needed to be helped. Just nothing. Perhaps this really was a trap. "There's nothing here," he said, then turned around. "Guys?" He asked. No reply. He started to walk back down the hallway until he heard someone behind him. He quickly turned around and then he was hit in the head hard with something heavy. He crumbled to the ground, unconcious.
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Kurama started to wake up. He looked down. He was bound to something with ropes. He turned around and saw that he was tied to Kuwabara's back. He started to wriggle around. "Kuwabara," he whispered. "are you awake?"
"Yeah," he said. "I've been trying to wake you up for a while now."
"I guess I'm a deep sleeper then," Kurama chuckled, then they both heard someone enter the room. If they were lucky, it would be Hiei or Yusuke. It was neither. Instead, if was one of those people. In his hands was an axe. "Perfect!" Kurama shrieked, then he had an idea. "When I say to, pull away from me, okay?" He said hastily. Kuwabara nodded, and the axe came crashing down. "Now!" Kurama cried, and the axe sliced through the rope that bound them together. Kuwabara kicked the person into a wall, snatched the axe, and chopped his head off. He sighed.
"That was way too close," he said.
"Yeah," Kurama replied, then took a deep breath. "Do you know where the others are?"
"No, I just remember being knocked out and then I woke up here," He replied, "Why?"
"I was just wondering. I hope they're okay." Kurama said after a while.
"Yeah, I know what you mean." Kuwabara said, looking out of a window. "Hey," he said, "someone's out there!" He started to run outside.
"Kuwabara, wait!" Kurama dashed after him.
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Once outside, Kurama slowed his run to a walk, and then a complete stop. "Kuwabara!" He yelled.
"Over here!" Kuwabara yelled back. Kurama let out a sigh of relief, knowing he was okay. He started to walk towards him. "Hey, look! This guy's giving us some weapons in exchange for those medallions!"
"Really?" Kurama asked, then he started looking around for one. He had none. "That's right, Hiei has them." He sighed.
"Don't worry, I found another on the way out here." Kuwabara handed one to Kurama.
"'Got some good things in stock today, stranger!" The man spoke with a strong Australlian accent. He showed Kurama his selection. He went for something lightweight, but powerful. He didn't want to tire himself out just by carrying a strong gun that was twice his weight! He finally picked out a decent sized handgun. "Heh heh, thank you." said the man that he bought the guns from.
"Oh no, thank you, sir," Kurama replied, smiling. He and Kuwabara started to walk off towards some gates. "Kuwabara, I thought I saw some ammo in the room we were in before."
"Really?" Kuwabara asked. Kurama nodded. They returned inside, twitching at the bloody heap Kuwabara had made. They split the ammunition among each other evenly, and then they headed through the gates.
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Yusuke jumped around the room. He was tied to a chair tightly. He couldn't break out of this, at least not so easily. "Dammit, I'm gonna kill whoever did this!" He screamed, continuing to hop around, thinking it would acomplish something. It accomplished nothing, however, he just made a fool of himself.
"Yusuke," he heard someone hiss. He perked up his lowered head.
"Hiei, is that you?" He whispered. He felt a pebble hit his ankle sharply. "Ow! Yeah, it's you all right."
"How are we going to get out of here?" Hiei asked quietly.
"I'm trying to figure that out right now..." Yusuke looked behind him, and sitting on a small table was a pocket knife. It was open. "I didn't see that there before," he said mainly to himself. He hopped over to it, spun the chair around, picked up the knife and started to slice away at the ropes that bound him to the chair. He slipped his hands out of the ropes, then moved over to Hiei. He cut the ropes off of his arms as well.
"Thanks," Hiei muttered.
"No problem, now how are we going to get out of here?" Yusuke looked out the window and saw dozens of the villagers surrounding the house. If they had realized they had broken free of the ropes, they'd die. Gunfire rang through his ears and he looked around. "Hey! Kuwabara and Kurama are over there!" Yusuke hissed, ducking under the window opening. He was sure that no one would hear (or see) him. Hiei also followed after he took the hint. "We need to help them," Yusuke asked. Hiei nodded. The two of them started to sneak out of the house. Behind them, someone started screaming in a foreign tongue. "Shit!" Yusuke cried. They both started running for their lives.
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"Kuwabara," Kurama said after reloading his weapon, "Look over there!"
Kuwabara whipped his head around, and Kurama managed to pop an approaching enemy's head off its shoulders."Urameshi!" Kazuma cried.
Yusuke paused and looked over. He grinned and started waving at the two, and Hiei pulled him out of the way of a pitchfork. "Watch it!" He cried.
"Sorry," Yusuke replied sheepishly. They broke off into a run towards their allies, dodging more pitchforks and flaming torches.
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Kurama and Kuwabara gave a sigh of relief, lowering their weapons. They scanned the area. Blood was splattered against the walls, dripped onto the ground, and was in assorted other places. The detectives' stomachs turned inside out at the sight, but they could withstand it. "Where did you get those?" Yusuke asked.
"A man gave them to us in exchange for those blue medallions." Kurama said. "We can show you where he was." He pushed the gate open cautiously, and everyone followed him.
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"Seriously, where did you get those?" Yusuke snickered. That old fox, pulling our legs like that.
"I-I could have sworn he was there..." Kurama stuttered.
"Maybe he left," Kuwabara announced, raising and dropping his shoulders in a shrug.
"Or maybe he wasn't there at all, a figment of our imagination." Kurama suggested.
"Then how did we get these?" Kuwabara held his gun him.
Kurama was silent as he pondered about what this person could really be up to, if he was up to anything at all. Or maybe he wasn't even there. Perhaps he was just a ghost in the wind, or a spirit. That would explain the sudden cold Kuwabara felt as they entered. Kurama knew, because Kuwabara announced that he was chilly after all.
"Well, it doesn't matter now," Hiei said, "What's done is done. We can think about it later."
"Yes," Kurama said, "I suppose you're right."
"Keep going then?" Yusuke asked.
"Yeah, I guess so." Kuwabara replied. The four boys headed back out the gates, trekking up the trail they had seen before.
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A man in a royal purple cloak smirked, placing a crate of ammo onto a barrel, knowing the boys wouldn't see him there anyway. "What fun this is," he said, "They're not even aware they're just a part of my game."