A/N- This one came out of my fingers faster. So I give it to you faster! Maybe this one is little more... HB-y. Not really? Yeah, I guess you're right. But c'mon, this is Hiei we're talking about. He doesn't soften up too fast. But at least there's more interaction. Right? Right?

Er. Anyway. There are some questions that I failed to adress last chapter. Since the responses I got for ch.1 were few and far between, the questions all come from the prologue.

The prologue was less of a prologue, I suppose, and more of a window of what's to happen in the future of this fic. It is to let you know what's going to occur later on, and it is a scene taken out of the turning point of the whole thing. Where the romance really springs out, etc. I did not specify where any of the things in the prologue come from (like what happened to Botan or why they're in a shack), which means many questions will be answered as the chapters progress. I am a good-movie junkie, and this kind of prologue is one that often happens in suspense thrillers. I hope this answers any questions you may have had, and thanks to those of you who have reviewed so far! I hope to see more of them, as they inflate my ego. x)

Chapter 2- Of Rescue and of Agitation

With the help of a map, the five unlucky people discovered that the sorry state of the place in which they landed themselves was an island called Hilali Island. It was small, run-down, and apparently the port hadn't been used in years. The fact that it was on the verge of winter did not help.

Kurama said they were in economic depression. Yusuke couldn't understand why demons would need an economy.

"They just steal whatever they want anyway!"

"Yusuke, you shut your mouth!" Botan jumped to their defense. "You have no right to make generalizations!"

"Well, I can at least say 'a majority of them', right? I mean, look at the ones we're traveling with now! Both Hiei and Kurama are thieves!"

Hiei couldn't help puffing proudly while Kurama chose to ignore them, focusing instead on the trees.

Botan crossed her arms over her chest, grumbling a little. "Were. They were thieves." She looked over at the two standing side by side, one pensive, the other smug. "I hope."

"Excuse me," Kurama interjected, observing a constant rustle in the leafy canopy. "I think we have a problem."

That was four hours ago.

Now they were separated. Well, not all of them. But as soon as Kurama uttered his warning, a wall of… something fell down with a thunderous noise. It split the team in two: Yusuke and Kuwabara on one side and Kurama, Botan and Hiei on the other.

The shockwave the falling wall emitted was enough to send most of them flying—or at least scrabbling at the rocky ground for a proper foothold.

The 'wall' as I'm choosing to call it, could have been described as a 'wall of light', as that is what it looked like. However, it was more obviously a wall of spirit energy forcibly blocking one half of the island from the other, carving a jagged canyon into the earth beneath it, and if you were there, you could even see the mounds of dirt it was digging out on either side.

"Tch." Hiei knelt on the ground to keep his stance as dirt, rocks and people alike got blown away from the glowing barrier. His sight was none too good, but he squinted against the debris and spotted Kurama struggling to stay in one place a few yards away. Yusuke was on the other side, along with Kuwabara. Yusuke had been backed up all the way against the line of forest behind him, and Kuwabara, miraculously, had only moved about four feet. That left…

Damn that idiotic ferry woman! He knew for sure that she was on his and Kurama's side, but also did not manage to see where she had gotten blown away to. He whipped his head around, but saw nothing but the field backing him up. There was a lake, but there wasn't much chance that she got blown into that. Or was there? Hiei thought back to when she had first arrived. He knew she had a death wish for accompanying them.

But there was no other safe place for her to stay, another voice reasoned.

He gritted his teeth. Death wish. She had a death wish.

She's also a member of the team who needs help. A non-fighting member of the team.

Hiei cursed his logic for one of the rare moments in his life and let go of the ground, his jump having greater speed and height with the added gusts.

"Hiei?" Kurama yelled in alarm when the small apparition turned and left. With one glance back across the wall at Yusuke and Kuwabara, he turned as well and ran after him. They can take care of themselves. What's important right now is that we stick together.

Hiei leapt across the field towards the lake, where he was slightly surprised that there was still wind all the way over here. From this vantage point, he could see that the wall reached all the way up into the sky so that he couldn't tell where the storm clouds ended and the wall began. It never seemed to end to the sides, either, and instead stretched in both directions through the trees and everything else.

He turned his mind back on finding that stupid woman. He was now satisfied that she hadn't fallen into the lake; it was frozen, and there were no holes in it to be seen. So where could she be off to? He scanned the scenery around him, fighting to keep leaves and hair out of his face. Wait, wait- who was that…? He almost felt disappointed as he recognized Kurama's form running towards him. Hiei watched him approach disinterestedly. His honor code told him to be looking for someone else.

"Hiei?" Kurama drew to a halt in front of him.

"You almost look out of breath, Kurama. Losing your touch?"

"Save it, Hiei," He said warningly. "What are you doing over here?"

"Looking for the woman," Hiei informed him, and turned his eyes once more to the surrounding land.

Kurama snapped his head to the lake. "She's not-?"

"Idiot. The lake's frozen."

Kurama gave a relieved sigh and turned his back on the body of water as well. "It should be snowing soon, then."

Hiei didn't respond.

"Can you tell where everyone is?"

The apparition's face soured. "That won't work right now. Haven't you felt it yet, fox?"

Kurama frowned, and Hiei took that as a 'no'.

"The air is filled with some imbecile's spirit energy. It will be impossible to distinguish anyone else's energy from that."

The fox's face lit up with understanding. "I can tell now. Someone went to great lengths to plan this all out, didn't they?"

Hiei shrugged. "It doesn't matter. The end result will be the same."

"Which is?"

"They will be dead, and I will be alive."

Hiei, of course, wouldn't take into account any of ourselves, Kurama thought with sardonic tone, but he knew that the statement was in no way false.

"We should be searching for Botan."

"What do you think I'm doing, fox?" Hiei said sharply. "She was supposed to be your responsibility, yet I'm the first to even think of her when she gets blown around like an airborne twig."

Kurama stared at the ground, covered in dead grass that was preparing for the winter. The tinge of guilt that crept onto his features was something that he could not prevent. "You're right. Let's not dwell on it. As long as that wall is up, there's no way we can get to Yusuke and Kuwabara. We'll have to do what we can until then."

Hiei silently agreed and set off in an ill-tempered hunt.

They found her some time later; she was out cold in the field, shrouded by tall beige grain plants. It was undoubtedly the plants' fault that Botan was so hard to find, as they sheilded her from all directions. Truth be told, she was found by accident when Kurama nearly tripped over her.

She was laying face up, blue hair out of its normal ponytail and fanning out behind her. She had been sporting a nice looking bruise on her elbow, but there were no injuries more serious than that.

The two others crouched around her, plotting out their next move while waiting for her to wake.

Four hours later, Botan was awake, and they still had made no headway. Hiei perched on a rock, watching the sun gradually sink down in the sky. It was now late afternoon, bordering on evening. Kurama sat cross-legged in front of an unsure-looking Botan, desperately asking her questions about the situation.

"Okay, so replay to me exactly what happened when you came here."

"Um… Koenma tried to watch you from his television, and that didn't work, because it couldn't go through to the Demon World. And then the communicator didn't work, either, so I tried the portal. The portal worked."

"Yes, yes. But why?"

Botan tapped a finger on her chin thoughtfully. "Err…"

"She can't remember anything, Kurama. I wouldn't try."

"Hiei, please," Kurama reprimanded while Botan glared at him. He patted her on the leg. "Calm down and just tell me what you can recall."

"Well, Koenma was saying something about like… A density between the worlds. For instance, whoever has this power to block things out can increase and decrease the density between them, and can therefore say what can go through and what can't. And obviously, they let me through. But now they're not letting me back."

"Well, it would make sense, but it would help if it wasn't secondhand information."

Botan poked at the ground helplessly.

Kurama looked over at Hiei. "I'm guessing your Jagan is still not working?"

Hiei grunted and continued to stare at… whatever he was staring at.

Kurama's frown increased. "Fantastic situation. They're going for the divide and conquer tactic, so we should be seeing whoever it is that's after us soon."

"Doubt it," Hiei spoke up.

"Why's that?"

"You forget the spirit energy. The downside to their filling the air with energy is that they themselves cannot find us. They'll have to physically come down here in order to get our location."

"So what are they hoping to accomplish?" Botan inquired.

"Most likely just to get us separated," Kurama answered. "And knowing those two, we probably will be in no time."

"Oh." Botan stewed in her own uselessness. She didn't get it, nor could she do anything to help. "So, should we be going back for Yusuke and Kuwabara now?"

Kurama shook his head. "The wall's still up. It can't be up for very much longer, and maybe we'll go back for them then. But right now, we should just worry about laying low until that time. We should all be together when the enemy attacks."

"Right." Botan looked at the light-wall. "Well, this is gonna be boring."

Hiei looked down at her with some degree of contempt. "Just try not to get blown away again."

Botan seethed.