Here's the second chapter! I'm sorry that it wasn't finished and uploaded last night. It would have been, but we had some bad weather, so I wasn't able to work on it much. Again, I'm sorry! The pairings have not officially been decided yet, but I think I have some sort of an idea as to who I'm going to have end up together.

As usual, Yu Yu Hakusho rightfully belongs to the wonderful Yoshihiro Togashi, who, sadly, I am not. All I own are the ideas in my head and my OCs.

"Is there anything you can tell us that would help lead us to Keiko's cousin?" Yusuke asked. He and his friends were seated in Koenma's office. The ruler was half-hidden behind a stack of unsigned paperwork, and he did not immediately respond.

"She had been gone for nearly three weeks now," the demi-god finally said. "If she was taken to be sold as a slave like we think she was, then I can almost guarantee that she was sold pretty soon after she disappeared.

"That being said," Koenma went on to add, "we have a pretty fair idea of what demons often participate in the human auctions, so it shouldn't be too difficult to narrow down which demon has Kyril in its possession now. I just need time to do that."

"Time?" Yusuke repeated, his left eye twitching. He clenched his hand into a fist as he rose from his seat. "Damn it, Koenma, I promised Keiko that her cousin would come back unharmed! You have had three weeks to find out where she is. Why haven't you done it yet?" Koenma opened his mouth to reply, but he was cut off by Kurama.

"Relax, Yusuke," the redhead calmly told his friend. Yusuke turned to glare at the fox, who ignored him and continued to speak, his emerald gaze locked on Koenma. "I believe that he knows precisely where Kyril is being kept and who we will be up against to get her back."

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Three long weeks had passed. Three weeks of pain. Three weeks of torture. Three weeks of wishing that each moment would be her last, and then having to face the harsh reality that she was still alive.

When Hangu had told her that he was going to teach her a lesson, Kyril regretted to admit that a small part of her hadn't believed him. He'd stuck true to his word, though. He'd moved Kyril to a small cell somewhere beneath the castle. The walls and floor were still made of stone, and from the sound that had echoed in the cell when the door had been slammed shut and locked by Hangu, it was made of steel. That was the extent of what Kyril knew of her new home, though. A pair of rusty shackles had been locked around her small wrists to deter her from moving around the cell.

If he'd left her punishment at that, Kyril would have been ecstatic. Instead, he'd made it a part of his daily routine to come in at least three times every few hours to taunt her and beat her to remind her of who was in charge in the mansion. Kyril would have fought back, but she'd eaten just enough in the past few weeks to keep her alive. She didn't have the energy to do anything, not to even cry out every time he struck her. She'd lost a good deal of weight in the time she'd been there. She had become sluggish in everything she did, and often times, she wouldn't be responsive. He had not come down to her cell that morning, but she expected that he would before too long.

It took a great effort, but Kyril managed to lift up her head, turning it so that she could blankly stare at the cell's barred door. The sound was faint, almost inaudible, but she was sure that she heard the click of shoes as someone ran through the stone hallways beneath the castle. Before long, the sound had increased slightly in volume, and she heard voices as well. Kyril let her head hang again, but the blind girl continued to listen to her surroundings.

"I' looks like there aren' any survivors," spoke one male in a heavy Australian accent as the footsteps came to a halt. His companion did not say anything for a minute.

"You're wrong," the second male voice finally reached Kyril's ears. "There's a human in one of the cells down here. Chances are high that she won't survive for long if we don't get her out of here. Her energy levels are quite low." The footsteps began again, much slower this time. They steadily came closer to Kyril's cell, and she heard them stop outside the cell door. She couldn't tell much about the men with her beneath the mansion, but she could tell that the second one, the one standing outside of her cell, was small and light on his feet. The first, she guessed, was tall and muscular; his steps were heavy like Hangu's

"Who are you?" Kyril asked before the words even registered in her mind. She was surprised to hear her voice. It was raspy and wavered, threatening to break at any moment.

"I'm Touya," the second man replied. His voice was even, betraying little emotion. "My friend's name is Chu. We're here to help you." Kyril heard a snap as the chains and lock that held the door closed were broken. They fell to the floor with a clatter, and the door swung opened, its hinges squealing in protest. Touya stepped into the room. Despite him saying that they were there to help her, Kyril shrunk back as much as she could. She had come to trust no one in the past weeks, and the two would be no exception, no matter how friendly they seemed to be.

"Relax. You're in safe hands now," Touya quietly said to her. He knelt down beside Kyril and picked the locks of the shackles around her wrists. They soon fell off, and Kyril lowered her arms. She gently rubbed her wrists, feeling the scabbed over wounds where she'd tried many times to get free from the restraints.

"We're here to help you," Touya told her again. He rose and helped Kyril to her feet. "Can you walk on your own?" Kyril nodded, and Touya let go of her forearms. The girl took a step forward, but she was so dizzy from being weak that she lost her balance and began to fall. Touya caught her before she hit the ground.

"I really didn't figure you would be able to," he commented. He picked Kyril up, cradling her in his arms.

"He won't let you get very far with me," she whispered. "He'll catch us, and then he'll hurt both of you like he did me. Please, don't get yourselves involved." Behind Kyril and Touya, Chu laughed, the sound filling the cell and echoing several times.

"Aye, ya'd think so," the demon replied. "'Cept he's dead jus' like everyone else in this here mansion."

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"Hey, Kurama, how'd you know that Koenma wasn't telling us who has Keiko's cousin?" Yusuke asked his red haired friend. They were standing in Spirit World's castle's hallway, waiting for Botan to appear so that she could send them to the Demon World. Kurama, who'd been leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, opened them to look at the detective.

"It wasn't hard to tell that he was lying," the fox replied. "For me, at least, and I'm sure Hiei realized it, too. When a part of you has spent a great deal of time with the shadier sides of life, you begin to find that it's easy to tell when someone's withholding information. After you know that, it's just a matter of deciding a way to fittingly punish them for not being completely true with you." Yusuke and Kuwabara both blinked several times as they took in what Kurama was telling them. After several minutes, they both turned their backs to the fox and leaned their heads close to each other.

"Say, Urameshi, remind me to never lie to Kurama," Kuwabara whispered to his friend. Yusuke nodded his head.

"Agreed. I'd hate to see what he'd do to us."

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"What happened here?"

Botan had just dropped the group of four off in Demon World. They'd been placed at the edge of the forest, within sight of the location of a mansion that Koenma had told them belonged to a demon by the name of Hangu. They were to infiltrate the building, except…

"We can't very well break into a place that's no longer standing!" Yusuke exclaimed. True to what the detective had said, the mansion was no more. In its place lay a pile of rubble.

"Touya and Chu's energy signals are present," Kurama informed them after a minute. "Maybe they had something to do with this. If we can find them, maybe they'll be able to shed some light onto this situation."

Thank you for reading, and please make sure to review! I love to hear what you guys think, and your opinions are very important to me!

Much love,

Pandah