Hola! I don't own any characters other than those four. Thanks for your reviews! This chapter is intense (at least, writing it was intense). Chapter sixteen: ready, set, go!

The night passed still and quiet, but for the creeping of the plants surrounding the clearing, and the slow, silent movement of the illusion of molten glass. When Akiko and the others woke, an unnerving silence had settled itself over them. It was ominous, somehow, as if hinting that something big was going to happen. And soon.

Kiyoshi still seemed hesitant to continue, so Akiko and Kasumi each grabbed him by one arm, Akiko ignoring the jabbing protests of the plants on Kiyoshi's arm. "We need to move, Kiyoshi. We can't just hide in here forever. You and Akiko arguing would drive me insane," Kasumi muttered. And then they shoved him through the illusion, Kasumi wincing as she watched him burn. Quickly, she, Akiko, and Takeshi followed.

"Oh my god!" Kasumi said, before falling over. She could see her own flesh burning, could see the glass surrounding her as if she was swimming in it. But she could feel the ice solid beneath her feet and she wasn't in pain until her hands hit the unearthly cold of Akiko's ice. It was the most disorienting thing she had ever experienced.

At about the same moment she fell down, she heard a thump from behind her. "Idiots." She heard Akiko mutter from somewhere in front of her, "Just close your eyes. The illusion is only visual. It's just so powerful, most people wouldn't realize that. They'd see that and the basic mind over matter would naturally take over. They'd drown before they ever escaped."

Kasumi did as Akiko suggested and found she was right; although she couldn't see and still couldn't keep her balance, she could feel the ice beneath her feet. Her sight could no longer lie to her.

After several long minutes, they emerged on the other side, Kiyoshi, Takeshi, and Kasumi shivering because they had fallen down so often.

But the sight that greeted them wasn't the one they had been expecting. Instead of the forest they had anticipated, there was a cavern containing all of the treasures the surrounding area was intended to protect. A labyrinth of passageways created by items stacked one on top of the other, sometimes more than six feet high.

Akiko and Kasumi both stepped forward only to be stopped by Takeshi and Kiyoshi. Takeshi then muttered, "Something doesn't feel quite right here. I can't put my finger on it… but the aura in this place is off. And it isn't just the aura of the objects in the room, either."

Kiyoshi nodded in agreement. "It might be another illusion."

Koenma sat alone in his office, still puzzling over the words in Kurama's message. Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by a loud rapping on the door, before it was thrown open to slam loudly against the wall.

Looking up he saw Botan, leading for of the underworld's most competent spies. Four people who were currently stationed in four different areas of the demon plane, unless there was an emergency, in which case they were to report back to him immediately.

Koenma looked at them, perplexed. "What in the world is going on? Surely you can't all have had emergencies at the same time. The likelihood of such a coincidence is incredibly low."

Botan responded, "If I may speak, sir, coincidence may not be the right word. And they all arrived within six minutes of each other… claiming the same emergency."

"The… same one? What's going on that is that widespread?! And how could it reach such drastic proportions before I heard about it?!" Koenma jumped up, slapping the palms of his hands onto his desk.

Botan chose her next words carefully. "It's not really that widespread… In fact, as far as I can tell, no one outside this room knows of it at all. But you issued a decree fifty three years ago saying that any news they received of your team was to be treated as an emergency. Kurama obviously designed this, but this time we know Hiei and Yusuke are in on it."

"You have got to be kidding me, Kurama." Koenma muttered, sinking back into his seat. "I haven't figured out your last puzzle yet."

"It's not an illusion…" Akiko muttered, her logic for once overshadowing Kiyoshi's. "If it was, you guys wouldn't be able to sense it, remember? Something else is going on here." She said it confidently, but the care with which she stepped forward showed that she wasn't as certain as she seemed.

When nothing happened, however, she continued moving forward. Eventually, she turned and said, "You guy coming or not? That letter could be anywhere in these piles of junk." Kasumi snorted at the idea that what probably amounted to millions or billions of dollars in treasure was 'junk.'

"Well, as long as we're looking, we might as well record all of this stuff, since we'll have to do it anyway. I was bored, and I found out that if you hold down the three button and hit the camera button at the same time, it doesn't send the picture to Koenma, but it does save it in your device." Kasumi said, suggesting they actually do their job. The others groaned, but nodded in agreement.

As he took pictures, Takeshi felt uneasy. There was a prickling on the back of his neck that seemed to suggest he was being watched. But by what, or who, he couldn't guess. However, every time he turned around, no one was there. This served to make him almost as nervous as he had been in the trees. Perhaps even more so; at least then he had known what was making him nervous.

He looked over his shoulder for what felt like the hundredth time and jumped, "Aaahhh!" When he jumped, he fell backward into the stack of items he had been looking through. The column collapsed, the noise ringing through the cave. Then his brain caught up with his eyes; it was only Kiyoshi.

Kiyoshi looked at him a moment before offering a hand to help him up, saying, "You feel it too."

Takeshi nodded as his pulse slowed and he allowed the older boy to help him up. Then, almost simultaneously, Kasumi and Akiko appeared, attracted by the crash. "What happened here?" Kasumi asked.

"Nothing much." Takeshi muttered, "Kiyoshi just tried to give me a heart attack, is all."

As Kasumi turned on him, Kiyoshi added quickly, "Not on purpose. I needed to ask him a question. And he was already a bit nervous. The fact that he was jumpy answers my question." Without another word, Kiyoshi walked off to do his job, leaving Kasumi to stare after him in disbelief. Every once in a while he glanced around himself, showing that he, too, felt threatened by the unseen presence.

"What was that about?" Kasumi demanded. "And why are you so nervous, Takeshi?"

"You guys don't feel that?" Takeshi asked, incredulous.

Akiko and Kasumi shook their heads, Akiko saying, "Nothing more than the strange aura from when we walked in, which I attribute to these powerful artifacts."

"That's not it," Takeshi said, his voice stunned and quiet, "I think we're being watched. And I think Kiyoshi thinks so too."

Koenma had decided that dealing with the current problem was more important than attempting to decipher Kurama's cryptic message. The fact that Kurama had been capable of discovering both the identities and the locations of his best undercover agents was deeply disturbing to Koenma. The fact that he also had the ability to contact them without revealing his own location made this, in Koenma's mind, a low-level crisis.

"So at some point in the past two days you each received a letter from Kurama? I won't ask why you didn't report it before now." Koenma said. Upon seeing their nods, he commanded, "Let me see them."

One by one, they stepped quietly up to his desk, and each placed a small slip of paper on the desk in front of him. Each was addressed with two names—that of the agent it had been delivered to, and that of Koenma. As he read them, Koenma's expression grew steadily more frustrated.

Sora and Koenma,
First, we have a question. Can you read this, Koenma? Second, do you have any idea where we are? How is it that the kind of the underworld can't keep track of his own employees? This is the second time, if you don't mind us pointing that out. Sora, do not take this to Koenma until 7:41 a.m. on the morning of October the sixteenth. If you deliver it before that time, we will know, and you will suffer the consequences.

Katashi and Koenma,
You should have figured out by now that, in the demon plane, we can travel about as we please. Unless we wish it to be so, no one is aware of our travels; this means that any attempts to catch us are in vain. Katashi, do not take this to Koenma until 7:41 a.m. on the morning of October the sixteenth. If you deliver it before that time, we will know, and you will suffer the consequences.

Kyou and Koenma,
You should know that your new team interests us. Immensely. We just wonder about your carelessness. This agent was all too easy to discover, first of all. Second, why would you send your precious new team into such a dangerous situation? You are completely aware of what we are capable of. Kyou, do not take this to Koenma until 7:41 on the morning of October the sixteenth. If you deliver it before that time, we will know, and you will suffer the consequences.

Michi and Koenma,
We imagine you are tracking your team using a GPS. However, following them would be… inadvisable. Doing so could have disastrous effects in regards to the health of your employees. Don't think of this as a threat; think of it more as insurance. For we hold nothing against your team. But neither will we suffer any qualms from killing them in order to avoid you. Michi, do not take this to Koenma until 7:41 on the morning of October the sixteenth. If you deliver it before that time, we will know, and you will suffer the consequences.

Each was signed Yoko Kurama, Yusuke Urameshi, and Jaganshi Hiei.

Koenma had grown pale. The threats against his agents had seemed to startle him, pushing him close to his breaking point. But to see it written down, so blatantly obvious… Hiei's willingness came as no surprise, but the fact that Kurama and Yusuke were willing to kill his new team because of something he did… to see that was simply too much. He said nothing, simply pushed the papers away from himself, and leaned forward to rest his forehead on his desk. In the absolute silence in the office, he was struck by a sudden thought, one that made him leap up and start raging around the room, seemingly oblivious to everyone else present.

"Damn it, Kurama! That's all you were trying to tell me?! You and Kiyoshi both! I thought it was important! But you've just been screwing with me for the past hundred and fifty years, because this is just a game to you! Are lives this expendable, Kurama? Is that how you see this? I thought you had changed. But now you throw this crap at me?" He gestured violently to the letters written in Kurama's tidy script. "What is wrong with you?!"

"Watched? As in video cameras or people are actually, physically here?"

"I'm not sure… Probably the second." Takeshi responded slowly, not wanting to alarm Kasumi. It didn't work.

"What?!" she shrieked.

Before Takeshi could answer a shrill beeping followed by enraged shouting issued from the other side of a stack of very large, very old books. The three of them rushed over to where Kiyoshi stood. Or rather, Takeshi and Kasumi rushed with Akiko walking slowly behind them. They found Kiyoshi looking bored and listening to an irate Koenma go off on him. Finally, as Koenma's rant wound down, Kiyoshi asked, "Does this improve your mood any?" before showing Koenma the room in front of him.

Koenma gaped for a moment before saying, "Where are you guys?"

The answer he got was not the one he expected, nor from the person he expected to answer. And it startled him immensely, as well as making him look up in confusion and disbelief.

Kurama, Hiei, and Yusuke had approached the group that was now in front of them silently, their energy cloaked. And then Kurama had answered a question from within the group with, "If he doesn't know, I don't suggest you tell him."