Lalala. I finally decided to update. I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho. Here you go!
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Chapter Five
The Unwilling Prisoners
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"You WHAT!" yelled the small toddler, standing on his chair. The gang had just finished explaining to Koenma how Rhys and Yukina were kidnapped.
"We lost her, sir," said Kurama, not daring to look him in the eye.
"They just appeared out of nowhere!" cried Yusuke indignantly.
"And they took Yukina!" added Kuwabara, looking extremely angry. Hiei narrowed his eyes and folded his arms across his chest, standing to the side of the room.
"As I've heard." Koenma said calmly before yelling, "So why are you here telling me about it! Go out and FIND HER!"
"We need to know who took her first. Do you know of any demons who use the Spirit Jump attack?" coolly replied Kurama, as always the voice of reason.
Koenma groaned. "Too many. Do you have anything else to go on?"
"Not really." Koenma sighed and sat back in his chair. The toddler glared around the room but was only met by a stony silence.
"Are you sure you don't know what her powers are?" asked Kurama.
Koenma looked confused at the sudden change, but recovered and answered, "There's two I know of, but one she can only use while asleep. The other you may of heard of. It's called the Sword of Flaming Light and is similar to Kuwabara's Spirit Sword, except she has to transfer her Spirit Energy into any kind of sword or knife. And it's more powerful."
Kurama's eyes widened slightly and he glanced at Hiei. The little youkai hadn't physically shown any sign of caring, but in his eyes - they were darker and tinted worry. Hiei returned Kurama's look, knowing he was thinking the same thing.
Koenma noticed and folded his arms. "Is there something I should know?"
Kurama started to say something but was cut off by Hiei. "No." Everyone turned to look at him, getting a glare in return.
George rushed in suddenly, breaking the tense silence with, "Koenma, sir, you must sign these immediately." At the glare he received from the toddler, he stopped in front of his desk. "Am I interrupting something, sir?"
"Yes!" Koenma sighed. "But it doesn't matter now. You guys, go look for Rhys," he said to the gang. With a glare from Kuwabara he added, "And Yukina, too."
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Back at Kurama's house, they all sat again in the living room, trying to form a plan.
"Can anyone sense her?" Yusuke asked for what seemed like the hundredth time.
"Stop asking, Urameshi! We've told you before, that stupid Spirit Jump is in the way!" answered Kuwabara.
"Well do you have any better ideas!"
"I can't think when you're talking!"
"BOYS! Settle down!" interrupted Botan, who sat next to Kurama. "None of us can think while you're fighting." The two teenagers shut their mouths, glaring at each other now and then.
Hiei suddenly gasped, drawing everyone's attention. He was staring at his arm where deep scratches had appeared.
"Hiei, what happened?" asked Kurama, rising to stand in front of the fire youkai.
"It's nothing," he answered, trying to lock his arm at his side.
But Kurama overpowered him and surveyed his arm. "Where did these come from?"
Hiei did his best to shrug, but it was hard while the kitsune was holding his arm. "They just appeared."
"What do you mean, they just appeared?" called Yusuke from behind them.
"I mean just that. I don't know how they got there." The wounds were dripping blood all over the carpet and Kurama glanced down at it. "Go into the kitchen and clean that up," instructed the fox. The fire demon ignored him and instead took to licking his wounds.
While Hiei was occupied, Kuwabara asked, "Where d'you think those cuts came from?"
Through the beginnings of another spat between Yusuke and Kuwabara, Hiei spoke in Kurama's head. 'Fox. She's hurting herself again.' Kurama shot the short fire demon a quizzical glance, but Hiei just looked out the window, his arm still dripping blood.
Without warning, Hiei fell to his knees, eyes open wide and breathing hard. Kurama, Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Botan were at his side in seconds. "Hiei! What's wrong!"
"Fire...burning..." were all Hiei could choke out, the words burning his throat. A picture of a man standing in front of him, laughing evilly, played in front of his eyes.
Kurama reached out a hand to steady his shaking friend but immediately pulled it away. It seemed Hiei was, indeed, burning.
But then as soon as it had come, the burning sensation left the fire youkai. He fell onto his hands and knees, heart pounding. "I know where she is."
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A cold floor met Yukina as she was roughly set down. Her blindfold and gag were removed to reveal a dingy room resembling a bedroom. Behind her, the door closed and was locked. Yukina sat gently on the bed, tear gems falling fast.
Her blurry eyes surveyed the room. Two boarded windows. One wooden door. Cracks in the walls and floors and ceiling. She put her face in her hands, tears clacking to the floor.
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Rhys was flung into a room similar to Yukina's, except there was only one barred window near the cracked ceiling. Her restraints were removed and she heard a lock click into place.
There was a bed in the corner, which she sat on to ponder. She wondered where Yukina had been taken. Was she hurt? Why had Yukina been kidnapped with her? She didn't do anything. 'It's my fault…all I ever do is cause pain.' But at least she knew Kurama, Hiei, Kuwabara, and Yusuke would have to come rescue them both.
Her thoughts were interrupted when a demon carrying a tray walked through the wall. Rhys started, making sure she wasn't going insane by replaying the image in her mind. Yes, he had come in through the wall.
She didn't look at him as he moved towards her and dropped the tray loudly at her feet. The kiyone made a face at the thick brown soup in front of her, wrinkling her nose when she smelled it. It was a good thing she still didn't want to eat anything.
The demon smirked. "Better get used to it. It's all you're getting." Her bright orange eyes shone fiercely at his red ones, but her glare didn't make him falter. "I'll be back for you later. Boss wants to see you." With that he disappeared through the wall and silence graced Rhys' ears.
She pushed the tray away with her foot and pulled out the knife she had smuggled from Kurama's kitchen. Beaded red lines quickly appeared, making her feel better. Each drop of blood falling from her arm was a drop of pain being released. She felt worlds better after a few cuts and hid the knife for future use.
There was a small pool of blood from her arm on the cement floor. She squeezed more blood into it, watching the way the puddle expanded and rippled with every new drop. She had never lost that much blood before...
And she liked it…
Heavy footsteps pounded past her door and she heard loud voices. Through the commotion she heard a high-pitched scream. Yukina?
Rhys felt her stomach flutter. She was never the one for fighting, whether she could see it or not. She wanted to drown out the commotion, but couldn't allow herself to. She had to help Yukina. Rhys took the knife from its hiding place and used it to set lock free and took a step into the doorway.
But before she could go anywhere, her skin instantly felt like it was being burned from the inside out. She cried out in pain and tried to step back, but she was frozen in the doorway.
The same demon that had delivered her tray stepped in front of her, laughing evilly. She tried to attack him, but even glaring made the burn worse.
"Baka onna. Don't struggle." She stopped moving around and the burning died down slightly. She looked at him with cautious eyes, wondering why he had helped her. "I don't know how you unlocked the door, but it's good we put up extra protection. Or else we might have lost you." He reached out and held her chin in his hand.
She did her best to glare with the pain watering in her eyes. "Get. Away. From me," she managed to choke out, the words like smoke in her throat and making it hard to breathe.
He only chuckled, but dropped his hand. "You're just as stubborn as your father." With that he left, leaving Rhys wondering how he knew her father.
The demons in Yukina's room suddenly ran out, glancing over their shoulders as if something were chasing them. Blasts of ice ricocheted off the wall and went the same way as the demons.
Rhys' head felt like it was exploding and she forgot where she was. The room swam in front of her eyes, making her feel nauseas before everything went black.
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"Rhys!" cried Yukina, rushing towards the doorway holding the girl.
Rhys didn't move towards them; She didn't move at all. Her eyes were shut and she was slouched over as if ready to fall at any second. There was blood dripping onto the floor from deep cuts on her arm, the red liquid standing out on her deathly pale skin. Her arm...the cuts were exactly where Hiei's were...and his were still bleeding as Rhys' were.
"Don't touch her," warned Hiei. He had a nagging suspicion that her skin would feel like it was burning.
Kurama quickly turned on his heal, rose whip colliding with something and breaking it in mid air. Botan gasped. At the end of the hallway stood a stout man in a business suit with two strong but dumb looking demons on either side of him. The man in the suit had the eyes like rubies gleaming in the sun.
The man made a hand motion to the demon on his left, who leapt in front of Kurama with the grace of a cat. "Stand back guys," growled Kuwabara. "Let me handle this one." The others stepped back, knowing how Kuwabara got when he was determined - and fighting in front of Yukina. Sure enough, with a few clever strikes of his Spirit Sword, the demon was a bloody mess on the floor.
Once the first fight was over, the man in the business suit didn't look at all nervous. The remaining demon next to him leapt into battle, bearing his fangs and whipping around his tail murderously.
"Watch out for his tail!" cried out Botan, noting how it was covered in pointy spikes, but it was too late. A spike caught in Kuwabara's shirt, tearing it and grazing the skin.
"Is that all you got?" asked Kuwabara with a mocking, cocky grin.
The man laughed coldly. "I think that'll be more than enough for you."
"Whudd'ya mean? It's only a little scratch!"
"Yes, but when you add in the poison dipped on the spike, it makes 'only a little scratch' deadly."
Kuwabara stared at him with defiant eyes. "Poison? That's all you got? You're stupid poison isn't enough to - " He fell unconscious, the promised poison already taking its toll. Yusuke caught him and laid him on the ground, glaring at the man.
"Kazuma!" Yukina rushed over to him, hands already glowing for healing. Kurama took over his fight and easily won it, slashing the demon to pieces with his rose whip. The man in the business suit showed no signs of nervousness.
Instead, he snapped his fingers. Rhys immediately jerked her head up, wide awake. The burning sensation was gone and she found she could move again. She stepped out of the doorway, afraid she might get stuck again, and ran to Yusuke, Botan, Kurama, Hiei, Kuwabara (healed now), and Yukina, and noticed them all looking at her.
She took one look at the man in the business suit and fear crept across her face. "No..." she whispered, creeping closer the security of being close to the people she trusted. The man was grinning sweetly in a sickening way.
Yusuke started, "Rhys? What's going - " before he was cut off by the man calling to Rhys.
"Rhys, dear, come here, don't you remember me?"
Hiei growled and glared at the man, unsheathing his sword. "Leave her alone."
"Quiet, boy," he said coldly. "Don't stick your nose in places it doesn't belong."
Hiei's eyes burned with anger at the notion of being called 'Boy' while he took a menacing step towards the man, sword at the ready. He was about to fire an icy remark back when a tugging at his sleeve directed his attention. Rhys had soundlessly moved beside him and was now clutching the fire demon's sleeve, looking at Hiei in a sadly pleading way.
"Please don't," she whispered. Hiei lowered his katana.
The man laughed from across the room. "Ada girl. You always did want to protect even those who hurt you - "
"Shut up!" she cried defiantly, anger burning in her cheeks. "I-I'm not protecting you!"
"Of course you aren't. But just remember - 'Mommy dearest' isn't around to save you anymore."
"What did you do to her?" Fear edged into Rhys' voice, making it tremble and crack. Her eyes filled with tears that she wouldn't allow to spill over.
"The same thing I would have done to you, if you stayed around long enough. But you ran away before I could get my hands on you…"
"Hiei," she whispered under the ring of the man's voice, staring at the ground. "Kill him. Now. Please."
Before Hiei could move, the man called out to Rhys one last time. "Rhys, dear, you wouldn't want to kill your father, now would you?"
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