Winds of Thyme: The Sequel

By Sakura Takanouchi

Winds of Thyme: The Sequel Chapter Six: A Quickly Fabricated Plan

Disclaimer: Fabricated is one of my favorite vocab words! Meaning to come up with, or something synonymous with that. Read up, y'all. Don't own nothing, not even the computer I'm using to write this.

'Damn,' Hiei cursed under his breath,'Why didn't our plan work?'

"Hey, Yusuke, Mukuro, let's set these things over there, in the corner!" Mukuro and Yusuke nodded, and they got everything in the corner closest to the forest.

"I don't think we're going to get out of here without a fight," Kurama said.

"I can take 'em all on," Yusuke started.

"Every single demon here? This is the anbu shijou we're talking about! Therey'll be hundreds of strong demons and many weaker ones. If we fight, it'll be a long one," Mukuro cautioned.

"If we're going to do this, we should do it early, before anything gets bought," Hiei mentioned. He paused. "Or anyone."

"Yeah," Sakura agreed. "So let's do this thing." She turned to Hiei. "You use your katana to cut through the cage, and then Yusuke, you hide the tree and get into the forest. Mukuro, you go with him and make sure you get to your mansion. We'll-" She motioned to Hiei and Kurama- "We'll stay and fight."

The other security youkai were pushing and pulling cages to the grounds. Fortunately, no one set anything up too close to the tree or the cage. Yusuke looked at his watch. The time was 5:23. At 5:30, it would officially be open for business. A group of common and stronger youkai crowded near the gate, ready to look for the best objects. Kurama looked at the tree. 'It looks inconspicous enough…I hope no one recognizes me here,' he thought.

Hiei looked at his katana. He hoped he could break through t he iron bars that lined the cage. 'I'll do it early on, in 10 minutes, tops. No one should recognize me here… but they will recognize Mukuro. Maybe her being here is an asset to us after all,' he thought.

The next eight minutes were torture. Demons would come and go, not many pausing to look at Kurama, Hiei, or the tree.

Sakura polished her shuriken and talked to Yusuke. Kurama studied the demons strategically, determining how many each of them had to kill and how much spectral power he would have to use to defeat the youkai. He soon felt a telepathic link forming in his mind. 'I'm doing it soon. Yusuke will give the signal, and I'll slash these cage doors to ribbons.' Hiei's voice seemed impatient.

Hiei didn't want to turn around. That would be way too conspicuous. He wished Yusuke would hurry up and give his signal. But just then, he felt a cold wind that made him shiver. In fact, it made everybody shiver. He looked around suspiciously. Then, a green lighting came down from the clouds and struck the ground. It traveled outwards, striking everyone. It was headed in his direction. His jagan could not stop this-- -

He awoke several minutes later. He looked around. He was lying on the ground. Everyone was down, and it looked like he was the only one who had survived the blast. Until he turned his head. Sakura was silently shaking Kurama, tears falling down her face. Yusuke was chewing gum, frowning at the sight. Something or someone had destroyed the anbu shijou.

His first concern was for the tree. It lay, slightly disturbed, poking out from behind the cage that he had previously been held in. His senses were returning more fully to him now, and he heard voices.

"Grab some loot and take it back to the cabin, Yohji. When he shows up, he wants all evidence gone," a female voice ordered.

"I'm going…but Rai, what are we going to do with all this evidence?" A younger sounding male voice answered. Hiei assumed this was Yohji and he was talking about the dead youkai.

"Well, we're… hey! You're alive!" Rai saw Sakura and frowned. "You must not be youkai."

"Does that mean anything to you?" Sakura answered. She was crying heavily now.

"It does. We counted on not having any non-youkais here this far into the demon world. You shall have to come with us to our hideout, where you can either join our forces, or we'll kill you." Rai sneered at Yusuke. "You, too. We don't want any evidence, so you best hurry up and start dragging these bodies to the river if you want to live."

"There's a river?" Yusuke asked.

"Yes, you numbskull, there's a river. Now move it!" Rai began to drag the nearest demons away from the forest and towards the gate, where the faint sounds of a river could be heard.

Sakura knew that if she could get Kurama away, and the tree, then there might be a faint chance he could come back to life. Then, she heard something inside her head. Hiei was opening a telepathic link!

'I thought you were dead!' She thought.

'Sorry that the kitsune is, though,' Hiei replied. 'Listen, drag me towards the edge of the forest, while both Rai and Yohji are gone, and then I'll take the tree and hide away from sight. All you have to do is kill both of them with Yusuke's help, and then we'll get Mukuro and go back to her castle, where the tree of life can start working.'

'That's a really complicated plan, but I think it might work. Tell Yusuke.' Then Sakura dragged Mukuro towards the edge of the forest, with the help of Yusuke. Then, they dragged Hiei. He was a lot heavier than his height let on. Sakura almost giggled, but then stopped herself just in time.

'You and Yusuke must be half-youkai, half something else. I know Yusuke must be half-human, but what about you?' Sakura asked.

Hiei remained silent, which made Sakura think that he didn't want to talk about it. After he had snatched the tree of life, Yusuke warned him, 'Don't touch it for that long. You might turn the berries black, or evil, or whatever. And if we need some help, then bail us out. Rai looks strong, for a human.'

"What are you humans doing? Do you wanna fight?" Yohji threatened.

"Yeah, punk, that's right. We wanna fight. But first, What are a group of humans doing out here, anyways?" Yusuke asked.

"We're getting rich off of the boss' good ideas and powers!" Yohji exclaimed.

Sakura jumped forward and grabbed Yohji by the collar before he could even make a sound. "Okay, kid, we don't want to hurt you, so pretty please tell us where the 'cabin' is and who your boss is and stuff like that, ok?" She smiled at him.

"Don't worry, I'm used to threats all the time. But I don't know where our cabin is, or who the boss is. I don't think anyone knows, except Rai. She's cool." Youji looked proud of her.

"What are you people doing? Yohji, come back over here. I guess you guys want the death sentence, huh?" Rai's voice seeped contempt and anger. "The boss is coming in ten minutes, so I better finish you off soon." She looked at Sakura, then at Yusuke. "Yohji, you take on the punk, and I'll take on the girl." She assumed a fighting stance.

"You must be only human too, right? So we're on an even ground, somewhat," Sakura said. Then she grinned. "But I'm still going to win."

A/N

WAHOOOOO! Okay, I''m in a writing frenzy now because I plan to write, like, ten chapters or something during spring break, and maybe ten more before school lets out, and then I'm going to update them all! MUA-HA-HA-HAHAHAHA! Okay, that may be a long wait for anyone who may actually still be slightly interested in the outcome of this fic.

You know that buzzing sound you often hear in summer, like crickets chirping in an empty stadium? I'm feeling that right now.

Saku

(AOL is being dorky and not letting me online, which I haven't been on for months, so any reviews and stuff [if any] shall not be read until AOL recieves a thrashing. So I apologize for that. Hey, wouldn't it be funny if when I logged back on, WOT had, like, 50 reviews or something? Chance of that when pigs fly.)

Saku again