Chapter 30: The Necessary

"They're not really fighting very much, are they? It looks more like they're just two friends, out for a friendly stroll… Wait, is that Kurama in his full demon form? It is, isn't it? It's Kurama and Hiei. But how did they get here ahead of us? And where are they going? Don't they know they can't pass the gates on Justice Road without someone else's help?"

Rui twitched.

"What are the prerequisites of becoming a ferry girl?" she asked.

"There are lots of perks for being a ferry girl, but there are some not-so-good things about it too," Botan replied, squinting at the receding figures on the path ahead of them.

"That's not the question I asked…" Rui said. "Well anyway, that's clearly Fumio and Yukina before us."

"Yes, you're right. Clearly Fumio and Yukina did leave here before us."

"Are you listening to me?"

"Yes…"

"What should we do? We're not strong enough to fight Fumio individually, but do you think the three of us could overpower him?"

Botan turned to look directly at Rui, pouting and frowning curiously.

"Maybe if we took him by surprise?" Rui tried.

"Hiei doesn't need our help to fight Fumio," Botan replied. "He managed to fight him well enough when we rescued you and he would surely have defeated him if he hadn't made the mistake of defrosting the River of Dreams. But, since there are no frozen rivers here, I think Hiei will manage just fine on his own. We should concentrate on finding Yukina."

Rui pointed at the duo on the path ahead of them, her mouth moving redundantly as words failed her.

"They're probably just walking to a more suitable location for their battle," Botan said. "After all, it would be a bit silly for them to get into a scuffle this close to the Cliff of Honesty."

Rui tried to talk again and again she failed to find the words to convey her thoughts to Botan.

"I should probably warn Hiei about that actually," Botan said.

"What?" Rui muttered.

"Hiei!" Botan shouted.

Rui balked as both Fumio and Yukina stopped and turned around to face them.

"Be careful at the Cliff of Honesty!" Botan called down to them. "If you fall off, you'll be banished to a place of pain and suffering!"

"The same place of pain and suffering victims of Justice Road are sent to when they fail to open a gate or a different place of pain and suffering?" Fumio called back up to her.

"I don't know!" Botan shouted. "But either way, a bad fox like you will be in big trouble if you fall!"

Fumio muttered something unpleasant about the logic of spirit world that made Botan gasp in horror.

"What are the two of you doing here?" Yukina asked.

"We were looking for you!" Rui answered.

"Well, no, we were looking for Yukina, actually," Botan corrected her. "And Fumio. But since you're taking care of Fumio, we'll continue our search for Yukina."

"It isn't safe here, you should both go back to the temple!" Yukina warned them.

"You said I could be a part of this adventure, Mister!" Botan snapped back.

"I didn't say that," Yukina replied.

"Yes you did, Hiei!"

"I'm not Hiei!"

"Don't try that trick with me again! Fool me once, shame on you, fool me seven or more times, shame on me!"

"…Just get out of here!"

"Yes, the two of you should really leave," Fumio said to Botan and Rui. "We have no further use for either of you."

Botan began muttering complaints under her breath but Rui stiffened in alarm.

"We?" she said.

"Yes that's right, we," Fumio confirmed. "Yukina has decided to become my partner."

"Oh no she hasn't!" Botan yelled. "Tell him, Hiei!"

"I'm not Hiei, Botan!" Yukina growled.

"That's right, despite her outward appearance, this is in fact Yukina," Fumio said. "And as you can see, she has chosen to side with me."

"You're taking her against her will," Rui said.

"Not really," Fumio replied. "She was even more willing to join up with me than you were, Rui."

"I'm confused…" Botan muttered. "Where's Yukina?"

"Over here, you idiot!" Fumio barked, pointing at Yukina.

"She's in disguise, remember?" Rui whispered to Botan.

"Right, yes, I understand now," Botan said, nodding slowly. "So where's Hiei?"

"Probably still fighting those bandits we encountered by the River of Dreams," Rui replied.

"Right…"

"Do you understand?"

"Probably not."

Rui's face dropped, but she did not have long to dwell on her pains as Fumio called up to them again, cutting into her thoughts.

"We're leaving," he said. "If the two of you stay there and don't try to follow us or send anyone else after us, I won't bother killing you."

"So what happened to Kurama?" Botan called back to him.

"Kurama?" Yukina echoed. "Something happened to Kurama?"

"This is very confusing…" Botan said.

"What part of "stay away from me and I won't kill you" don't you understand?" Fumio snapped.

"So there are two Hieis and two Kuramas now?" Botan asked.

"That's Fumio and Yukina," Rui reminded her.

"But how can you tell?" Botan whispered. "They look just like Kurama and Hiei!"

"What part of this do you not understand?" Rui asked, her patience waning. "It was you who told me about Yukina's ruse, you explained to me how she had disguised herself this way, why can't you understand it any more?"

"She's from spirit world," Fumio said before Botan could answer Rui. "The spells Yukina has used to disguise herself were created by enchantments far stronger and darker than the limitations of the ferry girl's powers will allow her to conceive. She doesn't stand a chance of seeing through this disguise."

"Is that true?" Rui asked Botan.

"Why is Hiei just standing there with that fox demon if he isn't Kurama?" Botan asked.

"Farewell, ladies," Fumio said.

He waved a hand at Botan and Rui and then dropped it onto Yukina's shoulder, grabbing a handful of her shirt and pulling her around to face away from Botan and Rui. He released Yukina and turned around, and together they started to walk off again. Rui turned to Botan expectantly, and found her scratching her head and pouting.

"Having two Kuramas makes this all very confusing," she said.

"That's not your friend Kurama, that's Fumio," Rui pointed out.

"Yes, I know, but he looks very like Kurama," Botan replied. "It's very difficult to tell the difference between the two."

"Trust me, that is Fumio, and he is abducting Yukina," Rui insisted.

"He is?"

Botan looked about herself and then squinted down the path at Fumio's back.

"Where is she?" she asked.

"She's right there, next to…" Rui began.

"Next to Hiei?" Botan asked. "No, I still don't see Yukina anywhere…"

Rui balled her fists and sighed in frustration.

"Should we follow them?" Botan asked, summoning her oar.

"Yes!" Rui immediately replied. "We must follow them!"

"Oh good!" Botan said cheerfully, lowering her oar and sitting onto it. "I'm so glad you enjoy adventuring as much as I do!"

Rui forced a smile and nodded, sitting down at Botan's side. She could not really be sure if Botan's confusion was because of the nature of the talismans Yukina had placed upon herself or because she was the sort of person who was easily confused, but she decided not to try to find out, rather to just humour Botan as best she could until they caught up to Fumio and Yukina, at which point she hoped she could convince Botan to help her get Yukina away from the wayward fox demon.

Botan flew at a steady pace behind Fumio and Yukina for some time before suddenly veering off to one side of the path. Rui tried to ask her what she was doing, but ended up chewing on Botan's ponytail as the wind whipped it around against her face. Botan moved around in a wide circle before zooming downwards, coming to a halt in front of Fumio and Yukina, who both stopped abruptly.

"I can't let you go any further," Botan said.

"What?" Fumio, Yukina and Rui all said in unison.

"I said I can't let you go any further," Botan replied. "It's too dangerous."

The others looked around at where they were: the path came a halt a short way behind Botan and Rui, the edge dropping down in a steep, jagged cliff that led into a hollow abyss. But there was a slightly ragged rope bridge leading off of the path, crossing the drop to another path on a nearby mountain.

"It's just a bridge," Fumio said.

"Nothing in spirit world is as it seems," Yukina warned. "It's probably a trap of some sort."

"Hiei's right, the bridge is a trap," Botan replied.

"I'm not Hi…" Yukina began. "Never mind…"

"I think you're lying," Fumio said to Botan. "You're just trying to stall us."

"No I'm not, I'm trying to protect Hiei!" Botan snapped, waving a hand at Yukina. "This is the Cliff of Honesty, and this bridge is the only way to cross from here to the Mountain of Rapture, but you can only cross if you're not a liar! The test is the bridge: how it looks to a liar is not the same as how it looks to an honest soul. Only those who can see the true bridge can cross. Those who see the false bridge plummet to a place of eternal pain and suffering."

Fumio rolled his eyes and turned to Yukina.

"What do you see?" he asked her.

"A-a rope bridge?" she replied. "It just looks like it's made of rope and wooden planks to me."

"Me too," Fumio agreed. "So that must mean that I can see the true bridge."

"No!" Botan said, holding up her hands at Fumio took one step forwards. "You're both seeing the same bridge because you're both liars!"

Fumio looked down at Yukina thoughtfully before slowly nodding and turning back to Botan.

"It literally rejects all liars, regardless of intent or purity of character?" he asked.

"Lying is a very naughty habit," Botan sternly replied.

"It looks like a rope bridge with wooden planks to me too," Rui said, looking back over her shoulder at the bridge. "So no-one but you can cross it Botan?"

"You're a liar too Rui?" Botan gasped, turning to look directly at her. "I can't believe I'm the only one here who isn't a liar, that's just – ooh, it looks like a rope bridge with wooden planks to me too, that's not how it used to look…"

"So… None of us can cross?" Yukina asked.

"This is getting ridiculous," Fumio grumbled.

"We need to find another way around," Yukina pointed out.

"How else can we get over there, ferry girl?" Fumio asked Botan.

"There is a much, much longer route you can take," she replied. "But it does mean going all the way down this mountain, crossing the Glen of Goodwill, swimming through Lake Fantasy, scrambling over the Boulders of–"

"You're bluffing," Fumio cut her off. "If the bridge looks the same to us all, then we can all pass it. Why would the rulers of spirit world place an obstacle that could trap one of their own residents? You go first."

Fumio placed a hand on Yukina's back and pushed her towards the bridge. She grunted and stumbled forwards before managing to right herself and stop just before her feet reached the edge of the cliff. She leaned forwards slightly and peered over the edge, staring into the darkness beneath her expectantly: but, no matter how long she stared, she could not make out the bottom of the fathomless void beneath the base of the cliff. What lay beyond it was as pleasant as the rest of the spirit world countryside, but the void itself was disconcertingly wide and looked endlessly deep.

"I might fall," she said, keeping her eyes on the drop as she spoke, but raising her voice enough to be sure that Fumio would hear her. "I lied when I disguised myself as my brother, and I put the lives of my friends in danger."

"I didn't know you had a brother, Hiei!" Botan called over to her.

Yukina groaned quietly before continuing.

"If I fall, how will you continue your mission without my help?"

She slowly turned her head, looking back over her shoulder at the fox demon. He appeared to be considering what she was saying.

"Yes…" he said slowly. "You might fall, and you're no use to me at the bottom of a pit of eternal pain and suffering… Get away from the edge, I have a better idea."

Yukina sighed in relief and turned around.

"We'll go the long way?" she asked.

"No, we'll use a different test subject," Fumio replied.

Yukina took a moment to register exactly what he meant, and her hesitation allowed Fumio enough time to grab Rui's ankles and pull her from Botan's oar. Yukina pounced at Fumio, ramming her shoulder into his gut. He staggered back a step and Botan leapt down to help Rui to her feet and guide her a few steps away from the edge of the cliff.

"You agreed to team-up with me, Yukina!" Fumio snarled. "Is this how you think team-mates treat each other? Because if it is, you should bear in mind that I am a thousand times stronger than you are."

"I never agreed to let you hurt my friends!" Yukina argued back. "I agreed to teaming up with you because I thought you would leave my friends in peace if I did! I won't stand by and let you hurt them!"

"Hiei!" Botan snapped. "How could you agree to team up with him? I thought your days of double-crossing us were long behind you!"

"Someone make her stop," Fumio growled, glaring at Botan.

"I have a better idea," Yukina said. "You should be the test subject!"

She pushed Fumio towards the bridge but, although he did stumble in that direction, he was easily able to stop himself before he reached the edge of the cliff.

"Maybe I need to remind you how much stronger than you I really am," he said, narrowing his eyes as he glared at Yukina.

"And maybe I need to remind you what an ice maiden does to a fox demon who sets foot somewhere he isn't welcome!" Yukina replied, drawing out her sword.

"Big words, little girl," Fumio replied.

Yukina tightened her grip on her weapon and pounced towards him. He aimed a punch at her but she hit back his hand with the flat side of her blade, ducking under his elbow and then dropping her sword with a clatter to grab both hands onto his tail. He grunted out a small sound of alarm as she dropped to her knees, pulling him back and down. The pain and distinct worry that she was going to cut off his tail as he had seen many of her kind do to his kin slowed his reactions and he failed to see the roundhouse kick she aimed at the back of his ankles. Unprepared for the attack, he tripped backwards and stumbled off the edge of the cliff and onto the bridge: which his feet promptly passed through as though it were a mere hologram. As he began to fall he grabbed both hands at Yukina, catching one leg of her pants with one hand and the side of her shirt with the other. Her eyes went wide the instant before his weight caught against her and she slid helplessly onto the bridge and straight through it just as he had done.

Rui cried out to Yukina and dived at the cliff edge, reaching over and desperately grabbing at Yukina's outstretched arms. The weight of both Fumio and Yukina pulled Rui's arms and shoulders over the edge and through the bridge, but they stopped there. Fumio was easily managing to hold onto Yukina, but Yukina and Rui were struggling to keep a hold of each other, each gripping their fingers into each others arms tighter and tighter as they began to slowly slip apart.

"Don't let go!" Rui said. "I'll pull you up."

"You're not strong enough to take us both," Fumio pointed out.

"Then you should let go!" she replied.

Yukina yelped in pain and shock as Fumio yanked at the back of her shirt, pulling the neckline against her throat. Her grip faltered and Rui's hands slid up to her wrists before she managed to grip on again.

"I can fix this!" Botan said cheerfully. "I just need to walk out onto the bridge like this…"

She stepped off the edge of the cliff and onto the bridge by Rui.

"And I can – ah!"

Her words broke into a scream as she passed through the bridge just as Fumio, Yukina and Rui had done. She flailed her arms about desperately before managing to catch hold of one of Fumio's legs. When her weight caught on his leg all four were jolted lower, Rui sliding further over the edge, her body doubled over and barely balanced.

"You're too heavy, we're going to fall!" Rui cried.

"Well excuse me!" Botan snapped back indignantly. "I'm no fatter than you, Miss Ice Maiden!"

"Botan, use your oar!" Yukina called down to Botan. "Let go and fly away!"

"Oh, I never thought of that!" Botan said. "Silly me! I was just so surprised when I fell through the bridge, and then I thought I was going to fall into the pit of–"

"Use your oar, Botan!" Yukina snapped.

"Alright, Mister!" Botan snapped back, letting go with one hand to summon her oar. "You're being very rude to me today, you'd better make up for it later."

She let go with her other hand and sat onto her oar, rising up until her face was level with Yukina's.

"And I mean with sex," she said.

Yukina whimpered and shook her head, but Botan merely crossed her arms and pouted in reply.

"I mean it, Mister," she said sternly. "I will – hey!"

Botan was suddenly jerked downwards, her hands grabbing at her oar as she almost slid off of it. Looking down she saw that Fumio had wrapped his Rose Whip around the handle of her oar just above the blade. Without thinking she grabbed at the thorny green vine in the hope of unwrapping it and freeing herself, but her fingers were immediately pierced and lacerated by the thorns, and she retracted her hand with a yelp of dismay. As he was only holding onto Yukina with one hand, Fumio's weight was pulling her shirt tighter against her throat. Her fingers faltered as instinct demanded that she tear the neck of the shirt before it choked her to death; and she lost her grip altogether when her shirt tore slightly at one seam and Fumio gripped his claws into her skin to maintain his grip. One of her hands fell from Rui's, and her remaining hand was barely holding onto her friend's fingers.

"Why are you pulling me down, you idiot?" Botan snapped at Fumio. "We'll all fall into the pit of eternal pain and suffering if you keep this up! I could fly you back up to safety, why are you sabotaging this for all of us?"

"Because I want us all to fall," Fumio replied. "Once we are falling, I can discard of the older ice maiden and you will fly me and Yukina across the chasm to the mountain path on the other side of the pass."

"Absolutely no way!" Botan shouted.

"You're not going to have much choice in the matter," he warned. "I won't let go of you – so either you fly us over there or I drag you down into the pit."

"No!"

Botan tried to fly back up over the cliff edge, but another sharp tug from Fumio left her crying and struggling to hold onto her oar, and the sudden movement made Yukina's lose her grip of Rui's hand. Rui lunged forwards and grabbed Yukina's other hand with her free hand, but in doing so she lost her balance and slipped roughly over the edge. For a brief moment all four fell, Botan being dragged with the other three as she clung onto her oar, which was pulled down with Fumio's Rose Whip, but they all jarred to a halt a split second later. Botan was the first to look up to see why, breaking into a brilliant grin at what she saw.

"George! When did you get here?"

George managed a strained grin for her benefit. He had managed to catch Rui, his arms wrapped around her hips, but it was clear that he was straining at the limit of his physical strength.

"I don't know how long I can hold on like this, Botan," he said. "You have to help me help you."

"That doesn't make any sense," Botan replied. "And some hero you are, asking us for help when we're the ones in dire peril!"

"If you let go of one of my hands, can you reach back to the ogre, Miss Rui?" Yukina asked her friend.

Rui looked back over her shoulder for a moment as she considered the question before nodding as she turned back to Yukina.

"I think so," she said. "But why?"

"He's sweating," Yukina replied. "Freeze him."

"Do what?" George yelped.

"His body is covered in sweat, freeze him to the ground so that he can't move," Yukina insisted. "It will anchor him in place there and secure his hold of you."

"Right, then it will be easier to pull you up!" Rui said. "Good thinking, Yukina!"

Rui let go of one of Yukina's hands and reached back, touching her hand to one of George's biceps. He sobbed in complaint but his tears turned to crystals of ice that fell to the ground and shattered as he was frozen against the flat top of the cliff.

"Now what?" Rui asked Yukina.

"Now you're safe, so let me go," Yukina replied.

"What?" Rui echoed.

"Let me go," Yukina insisted. "I can free Botan as we fall and she can fly back up and help you and the ogre."

"No!"

"For once, I agree with Rui," Fumio said. "And just to make sure you two miserable ice witches don't change your minds, consider this."

Yukina turned her head as Botan screamed out in alarm. Fumio had yanked back on his Rose Whip, tugging Botan's oar further from the cliff. The momentum of the pull sent Botan flying outwards, which Fumio let her do until she once more reached the end of the length of the Rose Whip, at which point he yanked her back. Yukina realised too late what his real intentions were, her entire body going numb as Botan collided with the cliff face, her body going limp. Her oar vanished with a pop and her body slumped and began to fall like a deadweight towards the gaping pit far below them.

When her senses returned to her, Yukina yanked her hand from Rui's hold and she and Fumio began to fall too. She called out to Botan and tried to reach for her, but the distance between them was already insurmountable.

"Idiot!" Fumio cursed her, driving a knee up into her gut.

She groaned and doubled over as the air was driven from her lungs and her body went numb. She vaguely felt Fumio's hands grab at her clothing and her descent halted suddenly. As she fought for breath she looked up to see that he had managed to catch a rock with his Rose Whip, saving himself and her. She shook her head and swung an arm at his weapon, grabbing onto it despite the thorns that bit into her skin, and, in a flash of energy, she froze the length of the plant, which promptly withered and snapped. Fumio cursed her, but she simply glared back at him.

"You'll kill us both!" he shouted at her.

"You'll hurt Rui if I let you save yourself, and you've already sent Botan to a terrible place," she returned. "This is your punishment!"

"You're coming down there with me!" he reminded her. "We'll be stuck there together!"

"I don't care!"

"Then you can die alone!"

Yukina gasped as Fumio appeared to sprout butterfly wings that seemed to make him shoot up into the air – though a quick check of her surroundings told her that he had simply slowed his descent whereas she was still plummeting towards the pit at near terminal velocity. As her surroundings began to darken, Yukina could only think of one thing: if Fumio was free and managed to escape, he could take Rui again.

Yusuke looked about himself, breathing heavily and wiping sweat from his forehead with the back of one hand. The three SDF officers were crowded around their captain, who looked to have only suffered superficial wounds, Koenma was still standing amongst a clump of trees holding broken off branches in each hand as though he actually thought he might be mistaken for a tree and therefore be safe where he was, Kuwabara had just sat down onto a rock and looked about as tired and confused as Yusuke felt, and Kurama looked quite untidy, from his torn clothes to his blooded face, but the determined and distinctly irked look in his eyes somehow made his other physical detriments pale into insignificance.

Hiei, Botan and Rui had all vanished.

Yusuke could not even remember when they had left, which way they had gone or even if they had left together or separately. Fighting off the demon invaders had not been a challenge in terms of their strength, only in terms of their number: but their apparent leader had been conspicuous by his absence.

"Hey, did anyone see Fabio?" Yusuke called out, looking around the others.

"No," Kuwabara replied. "I think we lost Koenma too."

"Koenma is doing what all children his age do: he's playing make-believe in a special costume," Kurama said flatly. "He's over there pretending to be the prince of spirit world."

"Hey!" Koenma snapped, throwing down the branches.

"Yeah, well, Fabio's not the only one we're missing," Yusuke said. "We lost Botan, Hiei and the ice maiden, too."

"And Yukina," Koenma added.

Yusuke glanced at Kurama, whose face remained disturbingly unchanged, and then Kuwabara, who looked slightly more confused than before.

"So… That's a real thing?" Yusuke asked, turning back to Koenma as he started to venture from his hiding place. "Yukina really did disguise herself as Hiei?"

Koenma glanced about cautiously before hurriedly tip-toeing his way towards Yusuke.

"Yes," he said as he drew closer. "And we left her behind at our campsite this morning. It was definitely her. She couldn't fool me, I saw right through her disguise. Unlike you idiots."

"Shut the hell up!" Yusuke snapped. "Like we were supposed to know that Yukina would do something like that! She's the most boring, plain, simple, weak, submissive, boring–"

"Urameshi!" Kuwabara cut him off.

"Did you know Yukina had a secret fantasy about stuffing socks down her pants and pretending to be Hiei?" Yusuke asked him sarcastically.

"I think there's been a misunderstanding," Kuwabara replied.

"I guess the only way to find out is to go back to the campsite," Yusuke concluded. "If there's a girly-looking Hiei there tied up in Kurama's plant then we'll know it's true. If not, then Hiei's still sick and he needs to get cured already."

"So if that was Yukina with us all this time, where was the real Hiei?" Kuwabara asked. "And where is he now?"

"I suspect the answers to all of our questions are back at our camp site," Kurama suggested.

"Then let's go," Yusuke said. "This has been the dumbest most pointless mission I've ever been on – and that's really saying something considering some of the crap that brat's made me do over the years…"

"Hey!" Koenma yelped.

"Come on tree-boy, let's "leave"," Yusuke said, smirking at Koenma.

"Hey, maybe he's Koenma Hood, Prince of Leaves," Kuwabara added.

"You're not funny," Koenma said flatly. "Either of you."

"Don't worry guys, his bark is worse than his bite," Yusuke said to Kuwabara and Kurama.

"Yeah, underneath that rough exterior, he's a sap," Kuwabara added.

"He's rooted to–"

"Enough."

Yusuke stopped abruptly, surprised to find that it was not Koenma who had interrupted him.

"We've wasted enough time this last week," Kurama continued. "I'm going back to the campsite. Come with me or stay here bickering, either way I don't care."

"Okay, I–"

Yusuke stopped mid-sentence again as Kurama took off in a sprint, leaving them behind.

"Let's go," Yusuke said to Kuwabara.

"Carry me."

Kuwabara turned sharply to Koenma.

"What?" he yelped.

"I can't run as fast as you two can, and I don't want to miss the moment when Kurama and Botan realise there are two Hieis, so one of you had better carry me!" Koenma snapped back.

Kuwabara turned to Yusuke to comment on Koenma's demand, but before he could even draw breath to speak, Yusuke cut him off.

"Sucks to be you," he said quickly, before spinning on his heels and sprinting away, Kuwabara's shouted protest dying on the wind as the distance between them grew.

Hiei sighed impatiently as he waited, again, for a reply. When none came after several painful seconds of listening to and watching a futile struggle, he tried again.

"What happened here?"

At the sound of his voice, the ice maiden paused long enough to peer fearfully up at him through the ragged strands of hair that had fallen loose by one side of her face before once more trying to wrestle her way out of the grip of the ugly ice sculpture that she had somehow become lodged into, hanging over the edge of a cliff.

"You could make this a lot easier for both of us by just telling me what happened here," Hiei tried.

He recognised the ice maiden's face, but he was not so sure that she remembered him: it was Rui, the same miserable wretch who had cast him out of the ice village in his infancy.

"I don't need your help, but you do need mine," Hiei added. "And I won't help you unless you help me first. So, I'm going to ask you just one more time: what happened here?"

"Don't step out onto the bridge!" she blurted out suddenly.

She pointed a pale, quivering finger outwards from the cliff edge, and Hiei almost wanted to laugh at himself when he found his eyes following the direction of her gesture.

"Hn, I'm not stupid," he scoffed. "I can clearly see that there is no bridge. Is that how you ended up as you are now? You thought there was a bridge?"

Rui blinked owlishly before slowly looking around in the direction she had been pointing. Her head moved slightly as though she was scanning the length of a bridge she thought she could see there before once more turning to face Hiei.

"The-the fake bridge..." she said faintly. "The one only the deceitful can see..."

"Since you won't help me, I won't help you either," Hiei concluded.

"No, please, wait!" Rui cried out as he turned to walk away. "I'm sorry, I was just startled to see you here. I do need help, but more importantly, you have to help Yukina and Botan!"

Hiei turned back at the mention of two names he did at least care about.

"They fell," Rui continued as he faced her once more. "Fumio the fox demon was with them. He pulled them down. Botan tried to rescue us but he knocked her unconscious so that she couldn't use her oar to fly us to safety, and she fell with him and Yukina. I tried to hold on, but... And now I'm stuck..."

Hiei nodded and turned away from Rui again.

"Wait, I want to come with you!" she said. "I want to help!"

Hiei grunted out exactly how helpful he thought she could be, which, he was glad to find, left her speechless. She had gotten herself into the strange position she was in, she could get herself out of it, he decided. It was about time the ice maidens start learning to think for and stand up for themselves, he thought. And, with that thought absolving him of any sense of obligation to Rui, Hiei ran on along the rough path that ran parallel to the cliff-edge. The path was a little unkempt as though it was rarely used – though if Rui's comment about an imaginary bridge was any indication, apparently most who approached the cliff edge had been stupid enough to walk straight off of it – and the uneven ground was slowing him slightly as he ran. But Hiei did not get far before he was forced to stumble awkwardly to an abrupt halt as something dropped onto the path ahead of him.

"Where did you fly in from?" Hiei grumbled, glancing about the sky suspiciously.

"Never mind about that," Kurama quietly replied. "Where are you going now?"

"Never mind about that," Hiei said, lowering his head to look directly at Kurama again. "Just get out of my way."

"Let's deal with Fumio first," Kurama suggested. "And then you and I can settle our differences."

"There's nothing for you and I to settle," Hiei replied. "And Fumio is mine."

"We need to work together on this."

"I don't need your help to beat him."

"Navigating around this realm isn't simple: what if you encounter a gate or test you cannot pass?"

"Then I'll do to it what I will do to you if you don't get out of my way: I'll burn it down."

"This isn't the time for fighting amongst ourselves."

"I don't intend to fight you. I intend to get past you."

"I'm not moving until you agree to work with me."

"Then you leave me no choice."

Hiei whipped out his sword, grimacing as Kurama responded by drawing out his Rose Whip, the look of determination in his eyes never faltering.

Botan awoke to the sound of a scream, and only when it sounded again did she realise that she was the one making the noise. She quickly got to her feet, her head throbbing in complaint. She touched a hand to the point of pain, feeling a slight swelling on one side of her head. Once the dizzying sensation had passed, she looked about herself curiously, but saw nothing but darkness. The ground beneath her was bare rock, barely lit by the distant light far above her head from the entrance to the apparently unreasonably deep pit she was now at the bottom of.

"Well this is a bit of a pickle, isn't it?" she muttered, dusting dirt from her clothing absent-mindedly.

"Keep your voice down."

"Why, are you afraid of the dark?" Botan sarcastically replied.

"I think they're asleep, we don't want to wake them."

"It's so dark in here, I feel like sleeping myself. How did I even... Wait..."

Botan paused long enough to let herself remember how she had come to be where she was: the last thing she could clearly remember was Hiei, a fox demon who looked like Kurama and Rui all hanging off the edge of a cliff, and the fox demon attacking her oar with his Rose Whip, almost pulling it from her grasp entirely. She winced as she remembered being flung towards the stony cliff-face, her mind then piecing the rest of the puzzle together: clearly she had fallen unconscious after hitting the rocks, her oar must have then disappeared, and she herself must have fallen to the foot of the Cliff of Honesty – and into the place of eternal pain and suffering.

"Oh my!" she gasped.

"Sh!"

"We have to get out of here!" Botan said urgently.

"We're not alone in here. There are strange things in here with us. I haven't seen them, but I can hear them. I think they're asleep. Maybe if we keep quiet, they'll stay asleep, and we can escape."

Botan frowned curiously, almost glad of the distraction she was confronted with.

"Yukina?" she muttered. "When did you get here?"

"About three seconds after you," Yukina replied. "I tried to take Fumio with me, but he used some sort of trick to escape falling into this pit."

"I can't see you! Where are you?"

"Right beside you."

"But I can't see you!"

"It's too dark."

"I have a flashlight–"

"Don't use a light in here! We just need to get out! Can you fly us out of here?"

"Ooh, good idea Yukina! Let me just get changed into the correct outfit for escaping a dark, monster-infested pit of eternal pain and suffering–"

"Just get your oar and get us out of here, Botan!"

"Well, there's no need to get all snappy! You almost sound as abrupt and rude as your brother!"

"Now, Botan!"

Botan yelped indignantly but did as Yukina asked and summoned her oar. She sat onto it and promptly felt a weight drop on at her side. Without even bothering to check that it was Yukina, she started to ascend towards the light.

"Faster, Botan," Yukina said.

"You know Yukina, I think maybe you're learning some of your brother's bad habits," Botan snootily replied.

"Go faster, Botan!" Yukina urged.

Botan turned her head to admonish Yukina directly, but before her eyes reached her passenger, they caught a glimpse of something else: something large and fearsome, rising up after them from the depths of the darkness.

Botan abruptly turned towards the light again and focused all of her energy into speeding their ascent: though she was almost certain she could not out-run the Apepi.

Next Chapter: Yusuke, Kuwabara and Koenma become caught up and slowed down when they set about freeing Rui and George, and Hiei and Kurama become a little too distracted settling their dispute with each other, leaving it up to Yukina and Botan to save spirit world: but they're no longer up against just Fumio, as their escape from the pit of eternal pain and suffering leads to them releasing the Apepi into the open. Chapter 31 – Twin Nightmare

NB: I'm confusing my religions here, because Apepi is the Egytpian god of chaos, but I was drawing a blank trying to find a suitable equivalent in Buddhism. This chapter, I am mostly failing at research…