Again, another update so soon! I'm shocking myself over here! This was just going to be one HUGE chapter (compared to what I usually do), but I thought it'd be better to break it up. So tell me what you think!
I didn't know how long I had been out, but when I woke it was dark. I tried digging my toes in the soil to stop my head from spinning and to get my bearings, but my ankles were tied together. I could tell that I was in the Makai from the slick feeling of the air in my lungs, but that's all that was familiar. There was cloth wrapped tightly around my legs, arms, feet, and hands, leaving no flesh exposed. I felt a thick bruise covering my left temple and reaching down to my jaw. My shoulders ached from holding my weight. I was tied up to something. Ropes cut into my wrists. When I leaned back to try and relieve the pressure, the back of my head bumped something rough. Tree bark.
'I'm tied to a tree. They covered me up so they must know my powers and don't want me to know exactly where I am. I'm in the Makai. Someone took me from Genkai's.' I tried to keep calm by listing what I knew, but the utter darkness felt like it was suffocating me. I couldn't hear anything, no matter how hard I listened. A raspy whimper escaped through my lips, and I felt dried blood wrinkle and pull against my mouth. My throat had reopened and dried. I assumed since I was still alive I hadn't lost too much blood, but from the fogginess that just wouldn't go away, I had lost enough.
Time passed. It was hard to tell how much since the dark didn't recede, and no noise but the sound of my wheezing breath reached my ears. Minutes felt like hours and I was lost in eternity. I slipped in and out of consciousness until ice cold water plummeted over my head and brought me to full attention. My eyes opened wide, but I was blinded by a great light in front of me. I took a deep breath, letting it out shakily, and tried to calm my pounding heart. It looked as if I was in a large dome made of earth, and a slice had come down to open it up.
A man came into my view. It took a while for my eyes to adjust, but when they did a sense of doom flooded over me.
He looked like me, too much like me to be a coincidence.
His eyes were a sharp reflection of my own. His hair was the exact same shade, though longer and pulled back into a tight knot. We had the same tan skin, the same nose, the same thin arching eyebrows. He even had similar thin scars that littered his hands and feet, both which were calloused, signaling a lifetime of hard work.
"So you're the sister." His voice was deep and angry. I swallowed hard and looked away, trying not to let him see the desperate look on my face. I just wanted to leave, and never come back to this place. His strong hands grabbed my chin and yanked my face toward his. I could feel the scab on my throat pull, blood oozing ever so thickly down past my collarbone. His grip was familiar, he was the one that took me from Genkai's temple. Closing my eyes, I prayed he would just go away. In answer to my prayers, a fist connected hard with my jaw. My head whipped around and the blood sped its slow journey, reaching my stomach under Hiei's too-big jacket that still covered me. While the stars still burst in front of my vision, I wondered if I would ever get the stains out so I could return it to him.
"Doran, stop." I froze, holding my breath as recognition tore through my veins. I kept my eyes closed refusing to look at the man who had cast me in a river to drown. His voice had haunted my nightmares for eighteen long years. Light footsteps slowly came towards me, and this time the hand that held my chin was smooth and cold. Hesitantly, I opened eyes and was met with a deep brown pair. Crow's feet tugged at the edges, and freckles from years in the sun patched over his nose. Black hair with dark silver streaks fluttered past his shoulders. He looked older than the blank-faced man that slunk in the dark shadows of my hind
"Father, let's just get it over with." Doran growled from out of my line of sight.
"Not yet. Ah, little nameless devil. You didn't know you had a twin brother, did you? Born only minutes before you, but he didn't kill anyone coming into this world. Tch," he dropped my chin in disgust and stood. He was a tall man, just like my newly discovered brother, "Ugly creature. I almost didn't believe it when Doran here said he felt your energy. In the Human World, none the less!" Letting loose a mocking laugh, I saw him eye the bloody scab. I was becoming lightheaded. It was starting to become hard to keep myself conscious. "Looks as if someone figured out what a horrible curse you are. Too bad they couldn't finish the job."
My mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water, trying to force words forward, but the blood coated them. I wanted to tell him that I never went nameless, and to try and explain that I wasn't trying to kill Mother. I wanted to convince him that I was not a curse. Only gurgles and wet hisses came. My father and brother laughed hard, almost clutching their sides in the joy of my agony. Tears slid down my cheeks, uncontrolled.
They continued their laughing, walking outside of the dome. Doran lifted his hand and I was in silent darkness once more.
Her energy had disappeared, gone completely off the map. It had been six days of the entire team scouring the surrounding areas of Genkai's temple and anywhere else they could think of. Koenma called them into his office on the beginning of the seventh.
"We think we have a lead, but it's iffy." The toddler murmured from behind his binky, rubbing his temple in an aggravated manner.
"Iffy is better than nothing, Diaper-Boy! Spit it out!" Yusuke slammed his fist into the desk. It groaned in protest, but he didn't let the pressure off. Suteki had grown on all of them, she was a part of their everyday lives. Even Hiei was tapping his foot aggressively.
"Yusuke is right, Koenma. If there's anything at all, you need to let us know." Kurama crossed his legs as he drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair he sat on.
"Well there was a large burst of energy that showed similarities to Suteki's," Koenma slid his eyes toward the fox demon. "It was in the Makai… In Yomi's territory."
Kurama paled, but cleared his throat and regained his cool composure. "Do you know where?"
"Well, I'm not sure exactly. Her file says that her father lives in a village called Moriko, but-"
"I know where it is." Hiei abruptly said, but it almost went unnoticed. He remained leaned against the wall with eyes closed and arms crossed, foot still rapping harshly against the tiled floor. When everyone looked his way he cracked open his eyes. "Open a portal. One hundred kilometers south of Yomi's temple."
"Alright. Be careful. The energy was strong, low to mid S class. We can't pick it up anymore, but things like that don't just disappear." Koenma opened the portal to their destination, giving an exasperated sigh as they jumped through without a second thought.