Shishi was in his human form battling the snake with his sword. Suzuki came in to fight it as well. It took a couple minutes before Shishi sliced the snake's head off. Suzuki examined the snake. Yusuke and Hiei were there in moments only to be the first to search her room. Kurama was asking Isae if she was alright. The others were looking around to see if anyone was watching. Hiei came out with a note.

"This is what we found," Hiei handed it to her. She read it to herself.

"What does it say?" Kuwabara asked.

"This is your first warning, we know who you are, join us or we'll expose your identity in the tournament," Yusuke announced to the rest.

"Is that a threat from those raccoon demons?" Kuwabara got angry.

"No, it doesn't seem their style," Toya spoke. "Besides they are her family."

"Someone else must know that there is a demon after you," Kurama looked over to the note.

"It doesn't matter right now," Hoshimi looked to all of them. She had an idea who it was from. "Thank you all for helping me, but we have just begun the tournament. You all should get a good night's rest. Those teams may seem easy for now, but it's going to get a lot more challenging." The team agreed and headed off to bed while Yusuke, Hiei, Kuwabara, and Kurama stayed in the hall with her. "You should be getting some rest too."

"Not when you're a target," Yusuke remained calm. "We're switching rooms for the night. You will stay in ours and we will have someone watch over you." The three men looked at Kurama. "We can't have the owner and replacement of the team get taken out."

Kuwabara and Yusuke slept in Hoshimi's room. Hiei went back to his. Kurama took Isae to Yusuke's. Kurama laid on the other bed while he read a book while Hoshimi was watching past tournament fights. She had looked up the names of the teams that entered again to see the past matches.

"Isae," Kurama was thinking about the incident.

"Hm?" She kept watching the fights.

"Why would a demon be after you?" He tried to figure her out.

"I stumbled upon something they want and I am the only one who knows about it," Hoshimi gave him a vague answer.

These other demons must know about it too and are trying to threaten her to join them, Kurama thought to himself.

Hoshimi paused the screen and went to sleep. She had seen all the fights she needed to before the next one. Kurama smiled at how fast she went to sleep. He had started to grow fond of her but the fox demon Hoshimi was still in the back of his mind.

The next tournament fights kept being smooth easy wins, though Hoshimi was not left alone by any means. Yusuke and the group took turns escorting her after the fights to the motel. After a fight that was getting heated and could have went the other way, Team Isae headed back to rest. In front of Hoshimi's hotel room was a potted three-foot purple flower. Hoshimi and Kurama were in the middle of the group. Yusuke and Jin were in the front talking about the current fight.

The two stopped in front of the plant.

"Huh?" Yusuke saw the note on the flower. "What's this?"

Hoshimi and Kurama saw the flower. "No!" They both yelled as they ran up to stop them. Kurama pushed Jin and Yusuke out of the way as Hoshimi got the full force of the plant's purple smoke that started to spew out. Kurama also got some of the smoke. The group covered their mouths as the smoke started to dissipate. The grouped looked around to see who did it.

Hoshimi became unconscious and Kurama became light headed. The plant wilted as the smoke vanished. The two were on the floor. Chu picked her up as Kuwabara and Suzuki helped Kurama. They headed into their room.

Hiei took a look at the note with Toya and Rinku. Jin, Yusuke, and Shishi were looking for the perpetrators. They found nothing and came back to meet up. The flower had wilted and died after spewing out the gas.

"What did the note say?" Yusuke was curious.

Hiei handed him the note as he inspected the plant. "Give up now. We won't wait for much longer."

"They were planning to kidnap her," Shishi saw the plant.

"What kind of plant is that?" Kuwabara asked.

"It's known as the Funeral Bloom," Kurama spoke. He clung to the doorway.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Yusuke raised his voice. "You're supposed to be resting." Yusuke rushed to help stabilize him.

"I must see the plant," Kurama looked over to the wilted thing. "It's harmful to humans, it can even be fatal. To demons and spirits, if we breath the whole amount in, we become unconscious, or if you inhale some of it, it just makes you dizzy and have hallucinations. As you can see the effects have already started to take a toll on me. It looks like a young plant, so it didn't have much potency." He looked back to Hoshimi who was still knocked out. "She took the full force knowing the consequences. I hope she survives."

"Is there anything to take away the effects?" Rinku asked as he checked to make sure Isae was still doing alright. All of them were growing fond of her.

"White scires will lessen the symptoms but all the ones I've seen are in the Demon world," Kurama spoke while trying to focus.

"The new rules state that no team member should leave the island," Suzuki mentioned. "We are disqualified if one of us steps into the ocean."

"Doesn't the little Sheila have brothers that know about these plants," Chu thought out loud.

"I know where they are staying," Kuwabara spoke up. "I pass by them all the time. I'll go get them." He left to go find the three brothers.

Yusuke to Kurama back to the bed. The group took turns watching out for the ones that caused the trouble. Kurama was trying to fight through and overcome this plant. He stared over to see if Isae was getting worse. Instead he saw Hoshimi laying on her side with her tail waving back and forth. Her golden eyes staring right at him with a small smirk drawn across her lips. He blinked to know if this was real.

"Ho-hoshimi," he called to her.

"Oh dear, Kurama," he heard her speak but didn't see her lips move. "In such a blunder. Come closer and let me help you." He shook his head while closing his eyes. Once he reopened them he saw Isae still unconscious. "It was just a hallucination." I must fight against this. Kurama tried to fight off the effects.

Hitoro, Sora, and Naozumi came running into the room. Naozumi picked Kurama up by the collar.

"What did you do to her?" Naozumi had his fist ready.

Hitoro looked at the plant while Sora was looking her over.

"Hey," Kuwabara grabbed Naozumi. "You put him down! He got smoked out by that plant thing too, you know!"

Naozumi put him down and looked over to the plant. "Funeral Bloom. First time blooming. Height and width shows that it had a supercharged fertilizer to make it grow this way. Usually the bud is the size of a human baseball. This is the size of a basketball."

"Cultivation and transfer of the plant in the pot shows that it was recent. Roots haven't gotten the chance to grow," Hitoro added.

Sora pressed on Hoshimi's chest to make smoke come out of her lungs. "Smoke cloud from plant is still transparent and odor is minimum. She should come right out of it." Sora let out a sigh in relief. "She's had worse." He smiled.

"What are you smiling about?" Chu was angry. "This poor Sheila could die any second." The two other brothers smiled in relief as well. "What about using that white scires plant to help her? You should be getting that plant now and now smiling like idiots. Blimey"

Naozumi laughed. "You didn't look for it yourself?"

"It's in the home world, none of the team members can leave or else we will be disqualified," Suzuki explained.

Sora grabbed her suitcases and put them on the table. "You must not know Isae too well." He opened all three of them. Inside were variety of plants from live to dead to dried to seeds, flowers, roots, and everything in between. "She comes prepared." Sora even grabbed a small Funeral Bloom. "She was even growing her own." He set it back and took a white scire. He went over to Kurama who inhaled the aroma it was giving off. The hallucinations had gone down along with the dizziness. Sora set it back into the suitcase. He looked to his brothers and nodded. All three were gathered around her. Two were on each side of the bed while the other was in the front. They were ready to brace her even though she was still asleep. Hitoro whispered into her ear that only she could hear. His voice low enough to vibrate into her ear drum.

"Kurama found you," he spoke.

Her eyes flew wide open and tried to fling off the bed. Her two brothers tried to catch her while the third stopped her. He hugged her to calm her down.

"It's alright Isae, you're fine, no one is going to harm you," he soothed her from trying to run away. She took in some deep breaths before regaining composure. Naozumi released her. "See, she's had worse."

"How long was I out?" She looked over to them.

"An hour or so," Rinku answered.

"Oh, I'm getting a stronger immunity to it," Hoshimi was back to her happy self. "Last time it took three hours to get me awake." The group looked at her as if she was from another planet. If she was in her demon form it would have not done anything but in her human form it has some effects on her. "Hey, don't look at me like that. You work at a demon florist shop and try to survive."

"She was the first one to wake up between all of us when we tried to harvest ten-year-old Funeral Blooms that had bloomed too early," Naozumi backed her up. This information clued the rest in that Isae wasn't really a human. She was hiding many things but they still trusted her to a point. Kurama was still trying to find her secret. He had deduced that she was a demon with high enough power to overcome certain obstacles. He was still figuring out what kind of demon she was or if she was that certain fox demon.

The next few tournament fights were getting harder. Some of them had lost one or two battles but still had overcome and won. Hoshimi made sure they weren't berating themselves too much. It was just a fight and they would win again the next time around.

Botan, Keiko, and Shizuru came to watch the tournament. Keiko ran up to Yusuke and the gang. Team Isae was already heading down for another fight.

"Hey, you made it," Yusuke smiled. "Halfway through the tournament though."

"You don't look like you have any scratches on you," Keiko was surprised as she carried Puu in her arms. Yusuke had left it with her to take care of while he was away. She looked at Yusuke. "Hey, some of us actually want to learn and go to school."

"I don't," Yusuke tried to hide the fact that he didn't get into the tournament.

"What's wrong Yusuke?" Keiko asked. Puu flew out of her hold and perched on Yusuke's head and hooted.

"We didn't get into the tournament," Kuwabara outed them.

"That's a relief," Keiko sighed.

"What?!" Yusuke looked at her.

"It pains me to see you get hurt all the time Yusuke," Keiko defended herself.

"Hey, isn't the tournament starting," Botan cut them off before they could keep arguing.