Recap: The gang stole a military vehicle and rescued a group of ice maidens from being auctioned off as cures to the virus, but the ice maidens were hostile and wary despite their assistance. They were forced to travel underground to escape capture and Hiei continued to be weird.

Chapter 13: Tense Negotiations

"What did you just call me?"

"Kahuna."

"Kahuna?"

"Yes, that's right, Kahuna."

"Who's Kahuna?"

"You."

"…What does it mean?"

"It's a demon word. It means… Idiot."

"Oh… Cause it sorta sounded like you called me Kazuma."

"Why would I call you that?"

"Because that's my name?"

"I thought your name was Kuwabara?"

"Well it is, but… Never mind."

"You're done."

Hiei snatched back his hands and spun around, presenting Kuwabara with his back. Kuwabara flexed his fingers experimentally, surprised to find them once more fully functional and only a little numb. A brief glance over his skin confirmed that he had sustained no lasting injury – which was something of a miracle – but he was so distracted by Hiei's slip-up, he barely cared about his hand any more.

"Um, Hiei?" he said awkwardly. "Look, about what happened with those wood nymphs, and then the next morning when we woke up and we were, you know, sort of sleeping together, I just wanted you to know that I'm not gay."

Hiei turned his head, looking back over his shoulder at Kuwabara. It was the sort of look he usually gave someone he had just issued a death threat to and Kuwabara welcomed it.

"Not that there's anything wrong with being gay," he continued. "But I'm not gay. And neither is Kurama, so you know, you're probably wasting your time with him too."

Hiei narrowed his eyes slightly but said nothing.

"Urameshi!" Kuwabara called out, his voice cracking slightly. "I need to use the bathroom, are you done yet?"

Kuwabara hurriedly stomped along the walkway to the bathroom door and began banging a fist against it. Yusuke cursed at him from the other side of the door and the two shortly dissolved into a shouting match through the door, leaving Kurama groaning in frustration as their bickering frightened the one ice maiden who had been brave enough to climb down from the roof space. He looked up in time to see a swish of orange silk above his head as she once more concealed herself into the space above him. It had taken a great deal of coaching to encourage her down, including repeating over and over that none of the men onboard were rude or violent, and in an instant Yusuke and Kuwabara had undone all his hard work.

"Oh Hiei, go away," he said dismissively as Hiei joined him.

"What?" Hiei echoed.

"I'm sorry to be so blunt, but these women will never come down with you here," Kurama replied.

Hiei looked up, leaning from side to side in an attempt to locate any sign of life above them. Kurama put a hand on his chest to keep him at arms' length, his action making Hiei flinch and stagger back a step, a hint of colour spreading over his cheeks.

"Please Hiei, let me handle this," Kurama said. "And, as you can probably feel, they're creating a lot of cold air around here. You're sick and you don't have your cloak any more, you should stay in the driver's cabin and switch on the fan heater to keep warm."

Hiei started to suggest that the cold air was actually welcome but he stopped short as something moved above them and both he and Kurama looked sharply up expectantly.

"Hiei?" a voice called down to them.

One of the ice maidens was peering over the ledge at the top of the ladder, her expression made up of equal parts of curiosity and concern. A voice whispered something indiscernible behind her and she turned her head slightly before nodding and peering down again.

"You," she said, pointing a finger at Hiei. "The little manly one. Are you Hiei the emiko?"

Hiei opened his mouth to answer her but stopped abruptly when Kurama touched a finger to his lips.

"Who's asking?" he called up to the ice maiden.

"There was a boy cast from our village once," she answered. "He was called Hiei. He was dark and evil and he wanted to kill us all. If that is Hiei, we want you to take us back to Illyria."

"What?" Yusuke yelled, stomping over to join Kurama and Hiei at the base of the ladder.

"Hiei tried to kill us when he was born," the ice maiden replied. "And he was but a baby then. He's a grown man now, he will surely torture us far worse than those men in Illyria would have."

"Hey, you ungrateful bitch, we risked our necks saving your lives!" Yusuke shouted. "People are dying because you won't help them, now shut the hell up and get down here, or I'm gonna come up there and drag you all down here by those stupid spiky things on your heads!"

"Yusuke…" Kurama said through a sigh.

"Hey, I was on the fence about this whole thing, but you were right Kurama!" Yusuke said to him. "We should have just left them there. Seriously Hiei, what the hell were you thinking?"

Yusuke rounded on Hiei, but before either of them could say any more, the ice demon above them spoke again.

"Hiei led the charge to free us from that place?" she asked.

"Yes, he did," Kurama replied. "And do you know why?"

"Yes, I do," she said. "He wanted the satisfaction of pulverising our frail bodies with his own filthy man hands!"

"No!" Kurama said quickly. "You misunderstand!"

The ice maiden darted out of sight again and Hiei leapt at the ladder, scaling three rungs before Kurama and Yusuke both grabbed him to halt his progress.

"You're wasting your time," Yusuke said. "Let's just take them to Enki, make sure none of them have to be sold at auctions, and let the government decide what to do with them after that."

"That's not good enough!" Hiei protested. "What if there are other auctions, just like the one we broke up, going on in other cities?"

"Those bitches don't even want our help!" Yusuke argued back.

"But what about the children?" Hiei asked.

Yusuke's anger melted into confusion and surprise.

"Never thought I'd live to hear you say those words, Hiei…" he muttered.

"They have to make a choice, just like the adults," Kurama said.

"But they don't have a choice to make!" Hiei said. "They were forced from their homes and now they're being sold in cages! Where was the chance for them to make a decision there?"

"They could have decided to help," Kurama insisted. "When they were first taken down from their village, they could have agreed to cure the sick, but instead they refused. Some of the ice maidens being held against their will may well be children, but what about those dying of the virus?"

"How would you feel if it was your mother being sold like that?"

Hiei glanced back and forth at Yusuke and Kurama, to let them know that he was directly the question at both of them.

"I never said I agreed with the auction itself," Kurama said, maintaining a calm tone despite growing increasingly agitated. "But I certainly don't agree that the only chance of curing this virus and saving lives should be allowed to walk away from the problem."

"Hey, arguing this isn't getting us anywhere," Yusuke said, stepping fully between Kurama and Hiei. "I think my plan is the best one, so that's the one we're going with: we leave those women with Enki and let him decide how to handle this."

"What if he auctions them off too?" Hiei asked.

"He wouldn't do that," Yusuke replied.

"Yusuke's right Hiei," Kurama said. "This problem is longer ours to solve. And besides, don't you want to be cured? If you let the ice maidens return to their village without helping anyone, you won't get help from anyone either. Do you really want to stay as you are?"

Hiei looked up at the entrance to the roof space, as though expecting one of the ice maidens to emerge again. When none did, he lowered his head and turned away, pushing past Yusuke to make his way back to the driver's cabin at the front of the vehicle.

"Well this is fun," Yusuke said to Kurama once he was sure that Hiei was out of earshot.

"I'm concerned that we're wasting time here," Kurama solemnly replied.

"Yeah, I think you're probably right," Yusuke agreed, peering up the length of the ladder. "Those bitches didn't even want rescuing, and if we'd left them where they were, they might have started curing people by now."

"It's not so much the ice maiden problem that concerns me. I'm far more concerned about the fact that Botan has been contained within her own quarters in spirit world."

"Botan's tougher than she looks, I'm pretty sure she can handle a few days in her room."

"It's not her individual case I'm referring to."

"…Be less vague?"

"With demons hunting ferry girls, there is a need to contain them within spirit world, but why has that need extended to containing them within their own rooms under constant surveillance?"

"In case they miss the smell of dead bodies and decide to wander out on their own?"

"No, I think it's because the demons who started all of this are still holding their ground in spirit world."

"I thought Koenma said the SDF would handle them?"

"He said they would, but we've had no confirmation that they have yet. We're wasting our time here because I think spirit world has more need of us than demon world at present."

"Well, I wouldn't mind another chance to beat the crap out of Fabio."

Yusuke smacked a fist into his open palm and grinned at Kurama, who attempted a smile, if only because Yusuke's enthusiasm never failed to amuse him.

"Since the ice maidens won't come down, I suggest we all eat and then move on," Kurama said. "And since Hiei is a little highly-strung at the moment, I'll drive the remainder of the journey."

"Damn it, what now?" Yusuke groaned, pressing his forehead against the windscreen and squinting at the view outside.

Kurama had taken over driving as he had said he would, and the journey along the tunnels of the underground had become an increasingly slow and difficult one, as they continually came across impassable ravines that forced them to reverse all the way back to the nearest junction, flooding that caused the vehicle to lose its grip on the road and forced them to reverse all the way back to the nearest junction and low ceilings that forced them to stop while Puu climbed down and then to stop again when it was safe for him to climb back up again.

Kurama leaned forward and pushed a button on the control console, holding it down to a faint buzzing sound, the headlights rising up to better illuminate the road ahead of them. Kurama had stopped because he had seen the obstruction on the navigator, but Yusuke was too impatient – and now too tired – to bother learning how to read it, and so Kurama decided just to show him the problem. He released the button as the shadows ahead of them began to change shape, the headlights continuing to rise for a second longer before halting, clearly showing a pile of rubble in the middle of the road.

"I'll blast it," Yusuke said, sliding down from his position sat atop the control console.

"No, we don't know what's on the other side," Kurama warned.

"So we have to turn back again?" Yusuke asked.

"No, we're very close to a parking bay, and from there it's less than half a mile to Gandara," Kurama replied.

"…I thought we were going to see Enki?"

"That option was denied us several blocked tunnels ago, I'm afraid. Gandara was the nearest place of influence I could get us to. The network television station is close by the exit from the underground, perhaps we can find out more there about the situation around the world."

"So how do we get past the rocks?"

Kurama smiled humourlessly and pulled on the parking brake. He turned off the engine and stood from his chair, pushing his sleeves up over his elbows.

"I'll wake Hiei, you see to Kuwabara," he said, nodding towards the back corner of the cabin where Kuwabara had fallen asleep bundled up in a space blanket.

"We're moving the rocks manually?" Yusuke asked.

"We don't know what's on the other side, we can't risk any aggressive movement," Kurama replied, crossing the cabin.

"What's the worst that could happen if I just blasted it a little bit?"

"You compromised the structural integrity of the entire tunnel and it collapsed in on us, the weight surely crushing us all or at the very least suffocating us before we could dig our way out."

"…You're a cheery son of a bitch."

Kurama forced another smile and moved on, leaving Yusuke to wake Kuwabara. Hiei had left the cabin some time earlier, and Kurama expected to find him asleep on one of the luggage shelves lining the walls of the vehicle: but instead he found Hiei sitting at the foot of the ladder to the roof hatch, his legs bent up in front of him supporting a thick book he was apparently thoroughly engrossed in reading.

"Hiei?" Kurama said.

Hiei started, blinking to focus his eyes as he lifted them to Kurama.

"We've encountered a roadblock, we need to go outside and clear it," Kurama told him.

Hiei looked up the ladder.

"Don't worry, we won't be going far, and Puu will stay on the roof, the ice maidens will be safe," Kurama added.

Hiei folded over the page he had been reading and placed the book down on the floor. As he stood up, Kurama peered over at the title of the book, surprised to find that it was an instruction manual for the vehicle they were using. He quickly hid his curiosity as Hiei made to pass him, their closeness making Kurama suddenly aware of just how cold it was standing so close to the cluster of ice maidens hiding above them.

"You shouldn't linger here," he told Hiei. "It's far too cold, and you're still sick, you should be keeping warm."

"I like the cold," Hiei flatly replied.

"No you don't…"

Hiei edged past Kurama and continued towards the cabin, where Yusuke and Kuwabara were already making their way outside. Kurama hurried after him, grabbing his shoulders from behind to halt his progress before he reached the door.

"Hiei, you're cold to the touch," he said, alarmed at just how cold Hiei's skin felt beneath his palms. "There's no need for you to sit so close to the ice maidens, stay in the cabin from now on, where it's warm."

"I'm fine, stop fussing," Hiei grumbled, shrugging Kurama's hands from his shoulders.

He hopped out the door after Kuwabara and Kurama followed, all four reuniting by the pile of rocks.

"Those lights are blinding me," Kuwabara said, shielding his eyes against the headlines of the vehicle.

"We need those lights to see what we're doing, dumbass," Yusuke pointed out.

"Oh, yeah, right…"

"Let's make this quick," Kurama said. "Kuwabara, you're the tallest, you clear the middle, where the rocks are piled highest. Yusuke, you and I will take either side of him and Hiei you clear the lower sections at the sides and make sure everything we take down it piled close to the walls so that we can definitely pass through."

"What about that huge rock at the bottom?" Yusuke asked, pointing at a rock almost as tall as he was and half as wide as it was high.

"We'll have to clear around it first and then we'll all push it together," Kurama replied.

The others nodded and set about their tasks quickly and quietly, the only sounds around them being the occasional yawn from Kuwabara. They worked that way for several minutes before Yusuke suddenly stopped, dropping a large rock and narrowly missing squashing his own feet. Kuwabara frowned at him expectantly, but Yusuke's eyes were wide and looking in another direction. Kuwabara, Kurama and even Hiei all paused in their tasks long enough to clearly see the two figures standing halfway between them and the vehicle. Even though the headlights threw most of their features into shadow, it was clear that the two standing there were Rikka and her mother, both dressed in the clothes Kurama had bought for them at the market.

"Let them do what they want," Yusuke eventually said, breaking the silence. "I just wanna get out of here."

He carried on working and the others gradually followed his lead, though all of them remained conscious of the pair of ice maidens watching them. Hiei paused when Rikka's mother leaned down to whisper something to her daughter, who nodded and ran off, but as she turned back towards them, Hiei quickly turned away again and carried on working. The ice maiden crept closer, her movements barely audible, her eyes darting between all four boys as she moved.

"I thought they were running away from us?" Kuwabara whispered to Yusuke.

"Just shut-up and keep moving rocks," Yusuke whispered back.

Kuwabara frowned but Yusuke groaned and shook his head, hoisting up a boulder big enough to fill his arms and turning around to move it to the side of the road, only to almost drop it when he found himself suddenly face-to-face with the ice maiden.

"Uh… Hey…" he said awkwardly.

She bowed her head but said nothing, and so he stepped around her, placing it down by the tunnel wall.

"Hi, how's it going?" Kuwabara said as he found himself alone with the woman.

She bowed her head again before moving her hands to a large rock near the top of the pile. Kuwabara watched in a state of wonder as the clammy surface of the rock slowly crystallised and became reflective, like glass. As the rock froze, the smaller chippings above it began to slide away on either side, before the rock itself began to move, slipping forwards and falling down on the other side of the blockade.

"Oh, uh, you wanna help us clear the road?" he asked.

The ice maiden gave him a faint hint of a smile, though he found her gesture no more reassuring: her exceptionally pale complexion and pale lavender hair looked almost luminous against the dark colours of her clothing and under the glare of the headlights.

"Why?" Yusuke asked, stopping behind her.

Her head whipped around, her eyes looking up at him warily, but still she said nothing.

"Never mind why," Hiei said to Yusuke. "If she wants to help, maybe you should just let her instead of assuming she'll only get in the way."

"Okay, Hime…" Yusuke muttered.

Hiei ignored his response, diligently continuing with his work.

"Okay fine," Yusuke said to the ice maiden in front of him. "If you wanna help, go ahead, knock yourself out."

He moved to continue his work and Kuwabara cautiously returned to the task at hand too: but all four continually glanced over at the pale and frail woman in a ridiculously oversized grey woollen poloneck and chocolate brown slacks with the ends rolled up twice to stop herself tripping over. She moved a considerable number of rocks, though with little effort, as she froze everything she touched, allowing her to slide the rocks about. Before too long, all the rocks had been moved from the road, and all that remained was the one large boulder. The four boys stopped to consider their options, but the ice maiden continued towards it, pressing her hands against it and freezing it over.

"Hey, that makes things easier, right?" Yusuke said, smiling and starting towards the rock.

The others followed him and all five gradually slid the giant rock to one side of the road.

"Can we get past that?" Kuwabara asked, squinting back at the vehicle.

"We might scrape the sides a little, but it should be alright," Kurama replied.

"Well it can't be any worse than the damage Hime already did," Yusuke commented.

"Huh," Hiei grunted, scowling at him angrily.

Kuwabara yelped as something poked at the back of his knee, looking down over his shoulder to see Rikka holding a tray with five flasks on it.

"I hope you don't mind," her mother said, surprising the others by finally speaking out loud. "I thought this work might make you thirsty, so I asked my daughter to prepare some refreshments for us."

"That sounds good to me," Yusuke said, looking around the others.

"I'm thirsty, a drink sounds good to me too!" Kuwabara said, reaching down towards the tray of flasks.

Hiei caught his arm, halting his movements, but when Kuwabara turned to him to ask why, Hiei was turned towards the ice maiden.

"We have tried to help you," he said in a low voice. "It would be very despicable of you to attempt to harm us."

"I understand your wariness, Sir," the ice maiden replied. "But I promise you that I mean you no harm."

"Wait, are you asking if she's trying to poison us?" Yusuke asked.

"It does seem strange that she should have this sudden change of heart," Kurama pointed out.

The ice maiden looked around the others before nodding her head.

"I didn't want to stay in Illyria," she said. "I didn't want to leave the ice village, I just want to go home. We tried to escape, my daughter and I, but they came after us. I did all I could to let my daughter escape without me, but when those men put us in cages and we realised that our people are being hunted and abused all over this world, I thought my child had been killed for sure. I was so relieved to see her alive, and I have all of you to thank for that. Please, the least I can do is help you in any way I can. The flasks are just filled with fruit juice and ice, nothing sinister, I promise. I'll drink from each of them myself to prove their validity if you wish."

"Nah, that's okay, I trust you," Yusuke said, helping himself to a flask. "Where did you get this stuff?"

"There's a bunch of lunchboxes and flasks in the cupboard I got my blanket from," Kuwabara said, taking a flask. "And we bought the fruit, right?"

"Thank you, but it's not necessary for you to wait upon us," Kurama said to the ice maiden.

"Aren't you thirsty?" she asked. "I thought you would be more worn out by this exercise than any of the others, Miss."

Yusuke and Kuwabara snorted into their hands in amusement and Hiei rolled his eyes at them.

"Please Miss, you need to look after yourself too," the ice maiden insisted, picking up a flask and offering it to Kurama.

"Alright, but please don't feel you need to serve us," he said, accepting her offer.

She nodded her head and picked up the last two flasks, holding one out towards Hiei.

"No thank you," he said quietly.

"But–"

"There aren't enough to go around. You and your daughter have those two, I'm fine."

"I didn't work as hard as you did, Mister Hiei. I can share with my daughter, neither of us need as much as a man."

Hiei looked at the flask, an array of emotions flashing across his eyes before his expression settled into a grumpy grimace and he snatched the flask from her.

"So where are your friends?" Yusuke asked, sitting down onto one of the rocks they had cleared by the side of the road.

"Yeah, aren't they hungry or thirsty up there?" Kuwabara asked, sitting down on the ground by Yusuke's feet.

Kurama and Hiei sat down onto rocks on either side of Yusuke, and Rikka and her mother knelt down on the ground before them.

"It's difficult for us," the ice maiden began. "None of us had ever seen anyone outside of our own village before today. Had you not saved my daughter so bravely, I would not have come down either."

"So they're still up there?" Yusuke asked.

"Where did you think they were?" Kuwabara asked.

"I thought they might run away after what they said before about Hiei," Yusuke replied.

"What did they say about Hiei?" Kuwabara asked.

Yusuke froze, his flask tilted against his lips and his eyes wide.

"Kuwabara was in the toilet when we had that conversation, Yusuke," Kurama quietly reminded him.

"I remember Hiei, actually," the ice maiden said. "We all do – well, except the young girls with us. I didn't see him back then, I wasn't allowed out of the house until he had been disposed of, but I knew of him. He's the only emiko to have been born in any of our lifetimes. The elders have seen several such children, but most of us are too young to know of any of them apart from Hiei."

"Wait… Hiei came from the ice village?" Kuwabara asked. "But he's a fire demon, that doesn't make any sense!"

Kurama and Yusuke turned to Hiei, who looked as confused as Kuwabara did.

"But if you're from the ice village, doesn't that make you a woman?" Kuwabara continued, turning to Hiei.

"Women of our clan occasionally birth male offspring," the ice maiden explained to Kuwabara. "The child is the result of the mother having relations with a man, he is always born male, and he is always a fire demon – it's a curse of our people. Hiei is one such child."

"Like… Yukina's brother?" Kuwabara asked faintly.

"Yes, I believe his sister is named Yukina," the ice maiden replied.

Kuwabara's eyes almost popped out of his head.

"I thought everybody already knew," Hiei said quietly.

"Uh, not exactly," Yusuke said awkwardly. "We never told Kuwabara or Keiko."

"Just me and Keiko?" Kuwabara echoed. "Everybody else knew that Hiei is Yukina's brother?"

"Yukina doesn't know," Kurama added.

"That's probably for the best," the ice maiden said, nodding politely at Hiei.

"Why do I get left out of everything?" Kuwabara complained.

"It's not your concern, and if nobody would tell Yukina, why should they tell you?" Hiei snapped.

"Okay, let's just keep it sane here," Yusuke said through a sigh. "What's your name?"

The ice maiden lightly touched a hand to her chest, raising her eyebrows curiously.

"Yeah, you," Yusuke said. "I think I know who everyone else around here is."

"I'm Mizore," she replied. "My daughter already informed me of your names, I suppose it was rude of me not to tell you mine, I do apologise. You have to understand, I've never really been in a social situation like this one before. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'm not really sure what's expected of me."

"That's okay," Yusuke assured her. "But maybe you could do us a favour and ask your friends to stop being so hostile."

"That's also quite difficult," Mizore replied.

"Can you at least ask them to help the sick? You seem to like helping people where you can, don't you want to help cure the virus that's killing people around here?"

"I'm sorry Mister Yusuke, I just want to go home."

Yusuke sighed and took another sip from his flask.

"Demon world is in crisis," Kurama tried. "And, like it or not, your village is a part of demon world. Your race is the only one protected, the rest of us face extinction. Is that something you can willingly stand by and allow to happen?"

"I beg your pardon Miss Kurama, but your view of the matter is very one-sided," Mizore said softly.

"How so?" Kurama asked.

"Well, you portray your crisis as though it was some sort of cruel accident that is taking innocent lives, when in fact it's the result of your own people conducting an unholy act by waging war on spirit world."

Kurama narrowed his eyes, but, despite still looking wide-eyed and meek, Mizore did not falter under his glare.

"Your people did this to themselves," she continued. "They did something terrible, and now they are paying the price. Our clan had not been a part of your affairs for countless millennia, we were not part of the cause, but we are being forced to become the solution, even though the cost of doing so is the loss of our habitat and, in some cases, the loss of our lives."

"That's not right," Kuwabara said.

"I thought for sure we would all be killed," Mizore said. "Made to use our powers until we've used up all of our demon energy and all of our life energy, and then cast aside. And I'm sure that would have been our fate had you not rescued us. And I feel I should warn you that my people perhaps are very cynical and wary of strangers, but it's only because we know no other way. We were safe in our village, we were raised to fear men, and it was men that chased us from our homes and men who tried to sell us like slaves. We're all terrified of what lies ahead of us, and we're all incredibly grateful that you four came to our aid. The others with me are just too frightened to talk to you because they've been conditioned to fear you. I was just as afraid as they were, but when Rikka told me that Hiei – the man we fear the most – risked his life to save her from monsters who tried to eat her, I simply had to express my gratitude to you directly."

"You don't exactly look or sound that bothered," Yusuke bluntly pointed out.

"I don't know how to," she faintly replied. "Through my daughter, I've seen emotions I had forgotten even existed: happiness, excitement and friendliness. I can't express myself like she can, but I still feel the same way inside. When I saw my daughter returning to me on your swan I was so happy I wanted to cry."

"Puu's not a swan," Yusuke corrected her.

"The problem with our people is that the longer we live in our village, following the strict rules of the elders, the more close-minded and harsh we become," Mizore continued. "My companions are older than I am, two of them considerably so, and they are too set in their ways to trust you completely. You will meet many more like them on our journey, but you will also meet many more like me and Rikka, many who will learn to trust that you are helping us."

Yusuke, Kurama and Kuwabara glanced around each other awkwardly.

"Uh, what do mean about us meeting more of you?" Yusuke asked.

"Forgive me but I overheard you say you are taking us to Enki," Mizore replied. "From what I heard, it seems as though Enki is a very large and important place in your world, so I assumed that most of my people would be there. When we go to rescue them, our number will probably increase more than tenfold, and I wanted to assure you now that any women who appear ungrateful are really just unsure of how to express themselves."

Yusuke's flask slipped from his hand, landing in Kuwabara's lap: but Kuwabara was as stunned as Yusuke was, and so did not so much as flinch at the impact.

"Enki is a person, not a place," Hiei told Mizore. "He's the current ruler of demon world. We're taking the six of you to him, and we intend to leave you there."

"Oh…" Mizore said, her eyes lowering to the floor. "I thought you were rescuing us… It never occurred to me that you were stealing us to sell us for an even higher price than those men in Illyria tried to…"

"We're not selling you!" Yusuke said. "Just… We can't get involved, Mizore. Our friends are sick, and if your people won't help them, they could die. We don't want you to be sold and forced to use your powers until you die, but we don't want you to run away without helping our friends, either."

"I understand."

"Do you?" Kurama asked.

She nodded, looking down at Rikka, who was finishing her flask of fruit juice, blissfully unaware of exactly what was being said around her.

"We'll need our strength when we start working for your leader," she said quietly. "Please excuse us, we must get some rest while we still can."

She stood up and hoisted up her daughter into her arms, ignoring the complaints she made. Mizore marched swiftly back towards the vehicle, and as she began to climb the ladder up to the door, Hiei stood up and started after her, only stopping when Kurama lunged at him, grabbing his arm and pulling him back. He stumbled slightly, momentarily teetering on the edge of his balance, but shortly found his footing again. He turned to look at Kurama, who was surprised to find that the fire demon no longer looked angry.

"Let her go," he said. "I know it's hard, but this is the way it has to be."

Hiei worked his arm free of Kurama's hold, but did not go after Mizore.

"We should keep moving," Kurama told the others. "It's probably getting late already, it would be in everyone's best interests if we got to Enki before nightfall."

"Maybe we should just stay the night," Yusuke said.

"What?" Kuwabara echoed.

"Kurama said there's another open cave up ahead, we could park up there and get some sleep," Yusuke said. "We don't have a solid plan anyway, we're off-course for going to see Enki, we might as well sleep on it."

"I guess that's not such a bad idea," Kuwabara agreed. "There are beds in the back and spare blankets."

Kurama held up his flask, his eyes moving from it to the others around him.

"There should be enough beds," he concluded. "Judging by the size of the vehicle and the fact that there were at least five flasks on board, there ought to be at least six beds in the back compartment."

They all stood up and began to move back towards the vehicle, stopping again when Kuwabara spoke.

"So where will we sleep?"

"In the beds," Yusuke answered him. "Unless you wanna carry on sleeping on the floor?"

"But there are only six beds, and there are ten people on board," Kuwabara pointed out.

"I don't think the ice maidens will leave their hiding place," Kurama assured him.

"It can't be comfortable up there," Kuwabara said.

"Hey, they chose to hide up there," Yusuke said.

They all moved on again in silence, entering the vehicle and making their way towards the back compartment, Yusuke leading the way. They passed the ladder leading to the roof hatch, each peering up towards the upper deck, but none of them seeing anything other than shadows. Beyond the ladder the metal grating flooring ran past the door to the toilet cubicle and straight towards a closed door. Yusuke reached out a hand towards the door, which he already knew led into a small room containing three bunk-beds, readying himself to open it: but just before his fingers reached the door handle he stepped onto something slippery and his foot swung out in front of him. He tried to stagger to regain his balance, but had suddenly lost his grip on the metal grating with both feet, and he fell backwards, colliding with Kuwabara. Kurama quickly turned around and began ushering Hiei back along the walkway, but Kuwabara fell too, his back slamming against the backs of Kurama's legs, hitting them out from under him. Hiei grabbed at Kurama's arms to try to stop him from falling but his weight had already tipped his balance in the wrong direction and he fell regardless.

"Get your head out of my crotch, Urameshi!" Kuwabara cried.

"That had better be the corner of your wallet in your pocket poking me in my ear!" Yusuke snarled.

"You threw yourself at me!" Kuwabara complained.

"I slipped on the damn ice!"

Yusuke grabbed at the handrail and pulled himself up, slipping slightly before finding his balance. Kuwabara threw one arm over the top bar of the handrail, anchoring himself into a sitting position by bending his elbow over the bar to support his weight as he let his feet slide back to the opposite side of the corridor. He managed to push himself up at an awkward angle, his arms supporting most of his weight against the handrail and his feet turned outwards and pressed against the opposite side of the walkway.

"So I guess those bitches discovered the bedroom," Yusuke said.

"Well, the gentlemanly thing to do is to let them stay there," Kuwabara said.

"You're just scared they freeze you again," Yusuke said.

Kurama was still on his knees on the floor, at first surprised to see Hiei standing serenely in front of him: but again he was reminded that fire power cancelled out ice power, and Hiei had probably used his powers to melt the ice around him to stop himself from falling.

"Still, can't exactly say I'm any happier about this freezing air any better than you are, Kuwabara," Yusuke continued, wriggling his hips slightly and grabbing a hand at his crotch. "Lying in that ice made my dick shrink to the size of a raisin."

"Heh, maybe that's why the ice maidens put out cold air around men," Kuwabara suggested. "They hate men, right?"

"So they intentionally cause shrinkage just because they have penis envy?" Yusuke asked.

"Maybe it makes them feel safer," Kuwabara said. "Because, you know, they're scared."

"I guess they wouldn't appreciate my impersonation of a cocktail then…"

Yusuke and Kuwabara both laughed and Kurama gave Hiei a smile, but found him looking twitchy and horrified: which was odd, because usually he had a cutting rebuttal to deliver when Yusuke and Kuwabara started making puerile jokes about their anatomy. Assuming that Hiei was just concerned that the ice maidens could probably hear everything being said, Kurama turned his attention to the handrail and began to pull himself up. He managed to find his footing a little quicker and easier than either Yusuke or Kuwabara had, and wrongly assumed that it was because Hiei had melted the ice around them, finding the confidence to release the handrail and attempt to move away from the bedroom door: but in just one step his feet slipped out from under him and he began to fall again.

"Great," Kuwabara grumbled. "If Kurama can't even keep his balance, what hope do we have?"

Kurama stopped with his knees just short of colliding with the walkway. He looked up to see Hiei looking back down at him, his expression tense. Hiei had put out his arms to stop Kurama's fall, catching the fox demon's weight by hooking his arms under his armpits. He seemed to be straining to hold Kurama in place, and so Kurama quickly pulled himself up again – though he did stumble slightly on the way and was forced to grab at Hiei's shirt twice.

"Thank you," he said quietly once he was upright again.

"So where are we gonna sleep?" Yusuke asked.

The others all looked around each other awkwardly.

"There's more blankets in the supply closet," Kuwabara said.

"But we're all sleeping up front, right?" Yusuke asked.

"It is the warmest place right now," Kurama said.

Hiei turned and started back towards the driver's cabin, stopping when he reached the open storage compartment. He began helping himself to blankets, only stopping when he noticed the others still sliding about behind him. Kurama, being the furthest from the door, was the first to escape the iced section of the walkway, joining Hiei by the cupboard before looking back as Hiei was. Kuwabara and Yusuke were doing little to help their situation, pushing each other and snapping out insults every time one of them slid into the other accidentally.

Once Yusuke and Kuwabara had eventually escaped the ice, Kurama took the remaining blankets from the cupboard and all four moved to the front of the vehicle where Kurama handed out the blankets he had. Yusuke took two and climbed up onto the control console, folding one up into a pillow and pulling the other over himself as a blanket.

"Are you sure you want to sleep there?" Kurama asked him.

"The dashboard is covered with velour or something," Yusuke replied. "It's cushioned, and a lot more comfortable than lying on the floor."

Kuwabara collected the blanket he had been sleeping with earlier from the back corner of the cabin and took it to the driver's chair, sitting down and reclining it back as far as it would go and covering himself over. Kurama turned to Hiei and attempted a smile.

"You might find it more comfortable sleeping on one of the shelves," he suggested.

"I'm fine," Hiei replied, pushing the two blankets he had into Kurama's arms.

"I don't need three blankets, Hiei," Kurama assured him.

Hiei moved over to the corner Kuwabara had been sleeping in and sat down, hugging his arms around his knees.

"You need to keep warm," Kurama insisted, moving over to Hiei's side.

Hiei glared up at him but said nothing, and so Kurama sat down beside him, wrapping a blanket around his shoulders. Hiei tensed at the contact, his eyes widening, but still he said nothing and he made no move to push off the blanket or Kurama's arm from his shoulders.

"I know this is very difficult for you, but since Mizore seems to want to help us, perhaps you should let her heal you," he suggested.

"I don't anything from that woman," Hiei quietly replied.

"This really isn't the best time to be so stubborn, you know."

Kurama moved his hand from Hiei's shoulder to his head, ruffling his hair. Hiei grunted and turned his head away slightly and Kurama allowed himself smile.

"That little girl was right about you, Hiei," he said. "Your hair is very coarse. Then again, it maybe just feels that way to me because someone burnt the skin off the palms of my hands."

Hiei turned abruptly, his eyes suddenly enormous and fixed onto Kurama's upturned palms.

"I haven't had the chance to make up a healing balm," Kurama said. "There might be medical supplies on board. Or maybe I could ask one of our guests to help me – like you ought to."

"I'm going to sleep now," Hiei said, rolling onto one hip, away from Kurama.

Kurama took Hiei's gesture to mean that he was unwilling to talk any longer, and so he shuffled along slightly and began trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in.

Next Chapter: The next morning starts awkwardly and only gets worse when the gang arrive in Gandara and encounter another dubious auction taking place, which again divides them on how to deal with it. Meanwhile, in spirit world, Koenma confronts Botan about her wayward behaviour, with disastrous consequences. Chapter 14 – Tight Nook

NB: The title of the next chapter is in no way a double entendre, I swear.