Shade- Yo, been a while huh? Hehe, hehe... uh

People- You effing bitch

Shade- I like to take my time

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Genkai and Karuka had been inside the room for over and hour trying to depict what the symbols could possibly mean. They had argued and argued and sat in silent confusion for the most part. Yukina would come in occasionally to bring them food for thinking and give them company when they were too stressed from their work.

The way they could find out what the symbols could possibly mean were by studying the width and angles of the strokes of the ink on the paper. It was a very confusing language to master, especially as an adult. Also, it had been so long since Genkai had studied the symbols with Truyo, that she had forgotten some rules of the written language. She was hoping Karuka know enough to fill in those holes.

"I'm telling you, if you look at the length of the stem lines and the angles and millimeters at which the size decreases, it clearly proves to be the syllable FO." Genkai was arguing with Karuka again on the meaning of the strokes in each symbol. As Genkai had been taught, the rules for the correct language were extremely confusing and sometimes extremely stupid.

"But you said yourself, Genkai, these were written oddly and probably by someone who hadn't done this kind of work before. What if this person's calculations are wrong? What if the collaboration wanted them to be wrong?" Karuka looked at Genkai to see what she thought. Genkai kept the possibility in her head for a while.

"If that's true, what you say, then how are we ever going to depict them correctly? Especially with this one that was distorted in the water. Doesn't this all just seem like a lost cause now?" Genkai just stared at her, trying to get some answers out of her. Karuka thought for a moment, like she had made Genkai. She sat down in frustration, frizzling her hair a bit. Genkai followed, but more calm.

"Genkai?"

"Yes?"

"What could these demons possibly want?" Karuka looked up, not expecting an answer at once, but checking for her expression. Genkai looked down at the hardwood floor; she really didn't know where any of this was going.

Karuka looked out the one window that overlooked the garden. It was a beautiful day, and she was stuck inside trying to figure out what could be the answer to one of the biggest disasters in history.

"Genkai?"

Yes, Karuka?"

"How many characters to you remember? From the language, I mean."

"Oh, dear, I'm afraid I don't know all that many correctly-"

"I don't care if it's correct. Just from the top of your head, how many do you know?" From the look on Karuka's face, it seemed she was on to something, so Genkai went along.

"From what I was taught, and all the hours I spent learning, I suppose I know 50 or so."

"Good," Karuka said, standing up and walking to the window with her hands behind her back. "I want you to write down as many as you can remember so we can compare them with these. Perhaps if we compare yours, which wouldn't be too professional since it has been a while, with these two we could determine their meanings." Genkai looked at Karuka's back in slight confusing. She stood up, facing Karuka.

"You don't honestly think that would work do you? It does seem like a long shot."

"We don't have anything else besides a long shot." Karuka turned from the window to look Genkai in the eye. She knew as well that if they wanted to get any closer to answering these strange writings they would have to do anything they could. Genkai walked to the door and opened it slightly.

"Yukina, bring me some ink and paper."

Several more hours later Genkai had been prodded by Karuka to write down as many characters as she could possibly remember. Occasionally, Genkai would make up ones just to get Karuka off her back. Karuka was sitting at the window and trying to think of any strange character she may have seen at her house when her father was around. She scribbled down a few that she seemed to recall but they didn't seem anything like the two they were trying to find. A couple more came into her head that she remembered right before her father left for the fatal fight he was in, but yet again, they didn't match at all.

"Anything?" Karuka stood up and walked to where Genkai was seated with at least thirty papers surrounding her.

"A couple seem to resemble them. But not by that much. You?" She looked up after shuffling a few around. Karuka shook her head.

"Although, we should save all of these, just in case."

"Yes, that would be best." Genkai looked up at Karuka and saw a sunken in look in her eyes. She could tell that Karuka was tired.

"Maybe we should stop for tonight. I'm sure they'll allow you to stay over. Let me call them."

"Fine, you sure you won't mind?" Genkai shook her head no and lead Karuka to a bedroom. Karuka slid the door closed and turned around looking for a window. The room was quite cozy, a chest of drawers off to one side and the closet on the other. The bed was stuck in between the two, and that was where she found the window. She saw one above the bed, opened it up, and quickly left.

Forest

'It couldn't be, could it? No… it's not possible.' Karuka was running at her top speed through the forest, making everything around her seem a blur trying to get back to the guys as fast as possible. She had decoded those two symbols; she remembered something from the day her father died. Something he was fiddling with in the den, symbols she had never seen before. Until now. She had thought nothing of them then, but now, they were incredibly important.

As all these thoughts ran through her head something suddenly came out from a bush, knocking her over. She got tripped up and fell to the ground, rolling for several yards till she skidded to a dusty stop. As the dirt fell back to the ground she could see a rock near her with blood on it, her blood. She looked to her ankle and saw a slender trickle of crimson slide down it. She looked up as she breathed heavily. Someone had purposely thrown that at her. And he was standing right in front of her.

"Who the fuck are you?" Karuka stood up and wiped some dirt from her face to see a laughing demon with strangely pale skin. He had snow white hair and his eyes were all white. Even his clothes seemed oddly white, no dirt or anything on them. He started to talk.

"Hello Karuka. How are you?" The demon's voice was a high voice. The smirk on his face never faded away.

"How the hell do you think I am? And who the fuck are you?" Karuka was slightly angered.

"Oh, we'll get to that later. I came regarding the jewels." Karuka froze. He was apart of them. She tensed up and walked a little closer, becoming more aware of her surrounding just in case. The demon noticed and responded.

"Oh don't worry, you won't be attacked here. Some people are waiting for you. I'm sure you'd like to see them as soon as possible."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"If you turn around and go back to Genkai's I'm sure she'd love to tell you." It was just then Karuka saw two pieces of fabric in the hands of this demon. Both looking familiar, because they belonged to Genkai and Yukina.

"What did you do?" Karuka started walking forward as anger fell over her. If he had touched either of them…

"Oh they're safe. But I believe you should talk to Genkai about these gems." He then pulled out a bag that showed several gems. All the gems the guys had found and thus taken from Spirit world.

"How the hell did you get those?" Karuka was past mad and was going on furious. This guy was obviously from the bad side. Her eyes glowed a sudden yellow, letting her emotions take over.

"Oh, don't attack. Trust me, that won't work. Besides the fact that I have you frozen to the ground." The demon pointed to the ground and showed Karuka that she was in fact frozen to the ground. He had somehow used his powers to freeze her feet to the ground, leaving her immobilized.

"Now, I will defrost you from the ground, but you have two choices. You can fight me for these gems back, or you can go look on Genkai about Yukina's future health. Trust me; she's in need of help where she is now. However, that, Karuka, is out of my hands." His smile widened and Karuka debated whether to leave as the ice around her feet started melting. She finally decided, and sprinted off back to Genkai's.

The pale demon walked forward and picked up a small rock. Blood dripped off of it almost hitting his snowy white shoe.

"This should do," he said and rose the other two blood covered fabrics in his hands, "Let's hope she wears something warm, don't want her getting a cold."

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Shade- Yo… reviews please