Chapter Three

It didn't take long for Botan to locate them and open a portal to the spirit world. Yoru was forced into handcuffs by the demon Hiei and Tsuki was being cared by the red head demon. Yusuke, Kuwabara and Hinote lead the way through the winding paths until they came to an enormous pair of doors. Yoru was amazed by the sheer height of them and wondered what kind of monsters lurked inside. As they stopped in front of the doors they heard the voice of the bubbly blue haired girl they had seen in the compact come on over the speaker that Urameshi was speaking into. Yoru stole a glance at Tsuki to see numerous bruises forming along her arms and stomach, she was still unconscious and Yoru mildly wondered weather or not they would live to see another day. The doors opened and they filed into long dark hall until they came to another set of doors with two blue ogres on the sides.

"Hey, Yusuke! How ya been?" Asked one of the ogres with a cheerful smile.

"Good as I can be. Is Koenma in?" Yusuke replied

"Yeah he's in, go right on through."

The group passed through the second set of doors into a large room with many different colored ogres running around with stacks of paper in their hands. They maneuvered their way through here until they reached yet another set of doors. When they entered they saw a mid sized room with a desk at one end and a monitor at the other. Sitting at the desk was a toddler with a large blue hat that had the word Jr. written on it.

"Ah Yusuke, nice to see you've returned, and with the prize I see." The toddler said looking up from his stack of papers.

"That's right Koenma and I believe we deserve a nice long break after this." Hinote said with a sigh of exhaustion.

"You have got to be kidding me! This little runt is the ruler of the spirit world! Yoru said before she could control herself.

"I'm assuming that this is one of the demons. Where's the other?"

"She's here but she's unconscious." The red head said walking forward slightly to show Koenma.

"Holy mother, Yusuke what happened to her?"

"I was forced to use force." Yusuke replied with an embarrassed grin.

"I simply don't have time for this, take her to sick bay and see what you can do for her wounds. As for the other, Hiei can take her to the holding rooms."

"Yes, Koenma." The red head replied as he left the room with Hiei

They walked again past all the crazy ogres and down another, quieter, hall. They split ways about half way down it, Hiei leading Yoru to the right and the red head carrying Tsuki to the left. Yoru silently followed him until they came to a door with a strange symbol on it. He led her through it, and inside she saw a bed, a table and two shackles attached to the wall. Hiei quickly drew his sword, pointed it to her throat and guided her to the wall with the shackles. When she was within three feet of them she felt them clamp onto her ankles. Hiei lowered his sword when he was sure that she couldn't get out of them and said, "If you try to take those off they will constrict around your ankles until your feet fall off." With that he left Yoru alone with her thoughts.

Meanwhile Tsuki was taken into a different room by the red head. He laid her on a metal table and began to wash the blood, dirt, and sweat from her skin and cuts. About half way through this she woke from her sleep. But even though she was finally awake she had no strength to fight him off. She gave him a quick glance as he lifted her shirt slightly to clean a deep cut to her ribs.

"Ah, you're awake. That's good." He said as he tore a length of bandage from its roll.

"Why are you healing me? I thought Enma wanted us dead." Tsuki said with the little energy she had.

"Now what gave you that idea?" he said with a slight frown.

"Why else would he send you after us except to kill us for stealing the book?"

"Well that was the main reason we went after you, but we had no intention of killing you unless we had to."

Tsuki gave a small "Hn" in response. She found it hard to believe that they hadn't meant to try and kill them both. She winced slightly as he dug out several rocks from her side. She was surprised at how gentle he was and how carefully he did his work. He reminded her so much of him. She shock her head trying to get the thought out of her head, she didn't need to let this demon see her shed tears.

"Your quiet lucky that Hiei's sword didn't do much damage to your leg." The red head said as he pulled up Tsuki's pant leg to clean out the cut Hiei had given her during one of his attacks in the forest. "Why did you risk your leg for her?"

"She's my best friend. Why did you take the form of a human?"

"I was gravely injured and had to take the body of an unborn child."

"Why didn't you come back when you regained your power?"

He hesitated for a moment as if considering if she was worthy of a response. But before he could say anything she guessed his answer.

"You felt love for the woman that became your mother, right?"

He nodded silently and continued wrapping her leg. "You seem rather curious about the subject. If my guess is right you've lost someone close to you and want to remember the feeling of beginning with them."

"You're a fool! Demons don't have hearts and they don't fall in love!" Tsuki replied quickly without thinking. But as she thought about it later she began to see that he was right.

"That may be true but there are special cases in everything. I meant to ask earlier what your names are."

"Tsuki Newa and Yoru Atsui. What about your group?"

"Yusuke Urameshi. Kazuma Kuwabara, Hinote and Hiei Jaganshi, and my names Kurama."

"Kurama, as in the legendary bandit Yoko Kurama?"

He didn't answer and that was enough for Tsuki to know that her guess was right. They both remained silent after that, Kurama tending to her wounds and Tsuki lying quietly as he did so. When he had finished he took Tsuki in his arms again and carried her down the hall to another room like Yoru's. He gently set her on the bed before placing the shackles around her ankles.

"What's going to happen to us now?" Tsuki asked as Kurama turned to leave.

"I will go speak to Koenma and let both of you know later." And with that he left.

Tsuki lay awake for some time pondering hers and Yoru's fate. But eventually darkness took over her brain and she fell into another disturbing sleep. She dreamt of the past, how happy they had all been, how easy life had been. But that peace was disrupted by a shadow. It had no specific form or out line, it just hung there over all of them until it decided to make its move. As it attacked Tsuki felt herself lung at it trying to stop it from hurting what she cared about most. But she was pushed aside by the very thing she sought to protect. When she looked back she saw it feeding on her loved ones heart, which had been torn from his body. She charged forward but the shadow dissipated before she reached it. She leaned over him gently pulling his form onto her lap. Tears began to fall from her eyes and an uncontrollable feeling of lose consumed her. She pulled her dagger from its scabbard and placed it to her chest. But a hand stopped hers before the blade had even touched her skin. She looked down to see her love gazing back at her. His eyes were clouded and his hand shook as he took the dagger from her, she let out a small sob as he throw it to the side and reached his hand to her face.

"You… you must live." He said in a small blood choked voice.

"I can't live without you." Tsuki sobbed into his hand.

"I'll see you again someday. But today is not your day to die. Promise me you'll live and I promise to wait for you."

Tsuki could only nod in response to his promise. She felt him pull her head towards him slightly then felt his lips touch hers in one final kiss. When she pulled away his hand slid from her face and he lay motionless in her arms. She bent forward further and laid her head on his chest constantly sobbing "No! Don't leave me. Don't leave me!"

She shot up in her bed screaming these last words. She was drenched in a cold sweat and her face was covered in tears. She looked over to see Kurama staring at her with a look of pity in his eyes. How long had he been standing there? Slowly he reached forward and undid the shackles around her legs. Then without a word he took her from the bed and began walking down the hall. Tsuki vaguely remembered seeing Yoru, being led by Hiei as they entered a large room with an even larger man sit on a throne in it.

He stared down at them as they stopped in the center of the room below his feet. He continued to gaze at them as if testing their nerves to see if they would snap before his gaze. They both held their tongues and stood gazing back at him.

"Are these the demons who stole the book?" the giant asked in a deep booming voice.

"Yes lord Enma." Kurama said tighten his grip on Tsuki to stop her from falling.

"And what other crimes have they committed."

"We've stolen many other artifacts, killed a lot of fucking people, and vandalized the name demon." Yoru replied dislodging her hands from Hiei's grasp.

"Well you certainly don't like hiding things do you? Now we need to decide your punishment."

"Lord Enma, if I may," Kurama said stepping forward with Tsuki still in his arms "I believe that the best way for these two to make up for their pasts is to join our team."

Everyone, including King Enma, stopped and stared at Kurama. Never in all his years as King had Enma heard a suggestion like this. He leaned forward with a slight look of amusement in his eyes and said, "Why do you believe this to be a suitable punishment?"

"Simply because they have been through the training and need someway of using the strength they've acquired. If they join the team they would be benefiting Spirit world rather then causing it chaos."

King Enma remained silent for a moment apparently think on the matter. He slowly reached his hand to his face and stroked his beard with a small smile. Yoru's eyes gave off a small twinkle of what most would call hope. Tsuki, on the other hand, merely leaned her head on Kurama's shoulder and prayed that she would stay conscience until King Enma had made a decision.

"I agree. Yusuke will keep me posted on their development. We will see how soon we can open a portal to the temple for you."

"Thank you King Enma, sir." Kurama said bowing deeply before turning and walking out the door.

Later that night Tsuki lied awake in her quiet little room contemplating the latest nightmare she had had. It had been similar to the one before except she had been holding, not only the body of her lover but the bodies of two small children. One of them was a boy with short black hair tinged with red and the other was a little girl with brown hair striped with black. They both carried the wooden swords used for training and dressed in the same fashion as their parents. Tsuki had lain there; her face soaked with tears, and hugged all three of them close to her. She placed her hands on top of the children's heads and began to stroke the boy's short black and red dog ears and the girl's small brown cat ears. She then laid her head on her lovers and began to sob the words, "come back, please. Come back."

Slowly Tsuki got up from her bed and began to slip on her shoes. She silently crept to the door and pried it open careful not to let it squeak. She then slipped into the darkness of the hallway and, sticking to the shadows, began to navigate her way through the labyrinth of doors and halls. It took well over two hours before she finally found her way outside. She walked along the floating walkways that led from one world to another. Another hour passed by before she found the gate to one of the many worlds of the after life. This one had high steal gates decorated with the crests of hundreds of different samurai families, both human and demons. Outside of these gates stood three figures, one was tall dressed in ronin clothes and the other two were small, about waist high, carrying wooden bokens. All three of these figures had small, fuzzy demons ears.

"I knew I'd find you here." Tsuki said as she approached them.

"Mommy! Mommy! Daddy look, Mommies here." The little girl squealed as she ran into her kneeling mothers out stretched arms.

"We've been waiting a long time mommy. Daddy said you'd come back to us one day." Said the little boy as he snuggled his way into her arms.

Tsuki hugged her children close to her hoping that they might be able to stay like that forever. Slowly she gathered the kids up in her arms and walked to the third figure standing by the gates. He stood silently waiting for them to draw closer and as soon as they were within his reach his hand shot forward and gabbed Tsuki by the waist. They embraced each other for a long time merely taking in the feeling of being in each other's arms again.

"It's been to long Tsuki." Her husband said pulling away from her so as to look into her eyes "We've all missed you, right kids."

"Yeah we did, didn't we Kasha?" The little boy said to his sister.

"Yes we did very much; you should have heard Tenchi crying for you at night mommy."

"Now now kids, don't taunt each other." Tsuki said to the two children in her arms.

"Are you ganna stay with us forever now mommy?" Kasha said snuggling into her mothers shoulder.

"Please mommy, we really miss you." Tenchi replied to his sister's remark.

"I really wish I could kids, but mommies got some more work to do before she can be with you forever."

Both kids grabbed a handful of their mother's shirt and buried their faces in it as tears began to flow from their eyes. Tsuki looked up into her husband's eyes and saw a small line of tears flowing from them as well. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead as if to say he understood her and was willing to wait as long as need be for her to return.

"I promise we'll always be here for you."

"Yeah, we promise mommy." Both kids said in unison whipping their eyes with their sleeves.

"I love you all so much." She hugged each of her children separately as she placed them on the ground beside their father. When she stood back up she throw herself into her husbands arms in a long, emotional embrace. They kissed several times before parting and even then it was hard for her to let his hand go. But eventually she felt it slip out of hers and she began to feel herself being pull backwards by an unknown force. Next thing she realized she was back in her room lying on the floor in a cold sweat with Kurama leaning over her.

"Why are you here?" Tsuki demanded as she pulled herself onto her bed.

"I found you outside of the gate to the afterlife. May I ask what you were doing out there?" Kurama replied tilting his head slightly.

"None of you damn business."

And with that said Tsuki rolled onto her side and pretended to fall back asleep. Kurama left shortly there after saying as he closed the door that he hoped she'd be able to find peace with her past someday. Tsuki remained awake for the rest of the night silently vowing that the next time she returned here it would be for good.