Kurama asked Kaname where the portal was at as well as the host club. He instructed the psychics to keep a low profile and not to get involved. He requested them to send a message to Koenma. Kurama was going to learn more from these humans were trafficking others. He headed to the host club that mingled with demons and humans. He headed in one night. A bartender with glasses specially made for seeing fox demons in their disguises, spotted him. He gave a cue to the henchman to herd Kurama to a dark hallway. Kurama suspected something was up but he fell for their trap. Demons came behind him and sedated him from causing any harm. It was a routine they had down. Kurama stood no chance. They bound him and gagged him. The demons took Kurama to the portal at the industrial building. He was pushed through. On the other side were demons waiting for humans.
"Huh? Oh, look what we have here," a demon spotted the unconscious body of Kurama. "A disguised fox demon. Bring him to the Master." He shifted his glasses. "Wait!" He also had the same type of glasses. He headed over to the wall of portraits. He sifted through the faces and glancing back and forth between them and Kurama. "Let the Master know we have a special one here. Place him in a terrarium, we don't want him to escape." The other demons nodded before dragging Kurama off.
Kurama was placed in a cylinder tube before it was locked. The Master was called. He was a muscular demon with a golden body and teal markings. His eyes were purple and his long curls of hair was also teal. He was like Sahar. The Master viewed the Kurama's body.
"This is the latest one?" The Master inquired.
"Yes, they say it's the great thief Kurama," one of the servants explained. "However, we found out that his body is human and his soul has fused to it. Looking through the database from the demons in Gandara City, if you provoke him, his fox side comes out." The servant had a tablet in his hand.
"Such an interesting case," the Master pondered. "How many tails does he have?"
"Just one!" The servant was perplexed. "But he's an S class. Shouldn't he have more?"
"Let's wake him up or should you just open your eyes already, Kurama," the Master called him out. Kurama opened his eyes as he had been listening to their conversation. "How unlucky is it for the great thief to be caught or was that your intention. Remove his gag."
The gag was removed. "Either way you captured me."
The Master laughed. "You live up to your reputation. Put a collar on him. I'll show you around since you're never going to leave this place." The collar was placed on his neck. Kurama felt the constricting of his powers. The unbound him and brought him out of the terrarium. "Follow." The collar moved Kurama to follow the Master as he walked out the room.
"Are you sure this isn't a mistake?" Kurama kept calm. "Showing me my escape routes."
"No one has ever escaped from here," the Master was confident. "Not even you can escape from here. And if you try, it would be amusing." The Master led him to a balcony that showed an army stretching for miles.
"This army will be easy to spot," Kurama jabbed.
"It hasn't, we're underground," the Master smirked. "I've been building this army for a long time now. No one has ever come across us."
"With these many demons, surely the others know they are missing," Kurama saw that it was a giant cavern they were in.
"No, these are families, several lineages bred to fight," the Master explained. "You must wonder how these demons can have so many offspring. That's thanks to demons like you. This way." He led him from the balcony to a long corridor. A familiar scent wafted around his nose. He was led to a window that showed several cells of young kits with their mothers. "The tails from a nine tail bring about abundant progeny," he explained. He kept walking with Kurama being tugged along with the collar. Kurama could not take his eyes off the families. They ended up back near the terrarium. "You may believe that your fine since you have just one tail." Kurama froze on the spot. The Master headed to his back. "You're wrong." He punched Kurama in different chakra points. He gasped out in pain as he couldn't dodge the power of those hits. He felt his body reacting. He could feel two more tails. "Three tailed fox, huh, I at least thought you would have more. That doesn't matter, soon you will be a nine-tail." He beckoned servants to come.
They took him back into the terrarium and hooked him up to different tubes that were inserted into his body's vitals. The Master placed his hand on Kurama's head making him change into his demon fox form. The three tails drooped behind him.
"You're my new prized possession, Kurama, enjoy the perks," he sneered as Kurama's cylinder tube was slowly moved down into another area. He glared at the demon who did this to him.
Kurama could see that he was next to other foxes with the same type of treatment. They opened their eyes to see who the pitiful fox who got captured. The faint glow from the terrariums let them see each other.
"Who are you?" A male with eight tales questioned.
"Kurama," he tried to break free.
"It's no use," a female beside him with seven tails warned him. "Those who do try to escape are stripped of their tails and life, that's if they can escape. It's impossible."
"Besides you're his pride possession, there are more watchful eyes on you," the male with eight tails added.
"Kurama? Oh," a five-tail fox seemed surprised but then started to cry. "We're doomed! We will never escape this torture!" He started to wail. "The great thief who is a mastermind of breaking locks has been captured. There is no hope at all!"
"My reputation is still remarkable," Kurama sneered. "Nothing is impossible. This Master has too much arrogance, we're foxes we know every trick in the book." He laughed. "We wrote the book."
"Don't drain your strength," the seven-tailed female sighed. "You're his new stud."
This stopped Kurama before he let out a menacing laugh. "Stud? There's only one fox that's going to be my dam if he wants me to sire. She's an aloof vixen that needs devouring." His lips curled up thinking about her. The others looked to him with curiosity. They wished they had the same outlook but it was hopeless dreams. "She'll show up and then the fun will begin."
"Don't give yourself hopeless dreams," the seven-tailed fox warned. "Besides you're a pure Yako, he'll want you to sire every dam he has. There are many other rooms like this. I'm a Zenko, he doesn't care much for us only to breed with Yakos to have strong offspring."
"Hmph, good foxes, bad foxes," Kurama smirked. "He gives us energy; is he not afraid about us biting his hands?"
"I guess you haven't been shown the trophy room." The five-tailed fox was surprised. Fervent whispers filled up the enclosed room. "You're this haughty because you don't know what he can do."
"Trophy room?" Kurama didn't like the sound of that.
"He used to slaughter families to clans of us foxes," the eight tailed explained. "The first to be slaughtered were the family from a powerful Yako and a powerful Zenko. Their children had nine tails each when they were born. The Zenko who protected his territory was the first to die next was his wife and then his children. These tails were the first to bring hundreds of demons into his army. He kept slaughtering more after that. He then figured out that if we were alive still, we could double the amount of demons into his army. He breeds us to help fuel his army."
"And the humans?" Kurama didn't care about the backstory but one part did strike him as familiar.
"Food for his army," one was perplexed as he asked that question. "Demons eat humans."
"Not anymore," Kurama explained. "We have a tournament to battle it out to rule as the king of all demon world. This is the second king and he still has the first rule in place, no harm shall come to humans." He heard the whispers. "He's building a rival army. This Master is breaking rule number one." This got the foxes in a frenzy. They may just be saved.
A week later, Koenma was at his desk going through file after file. Stacks of them took up every space in his office. They stood so high that no one could find him. Yusuke had been called by Koenma for an urgent meeting.
"You called, Koenma?" Yusuke saw the piles of files. "Koenma?" He called out. He leaned over a stack to see him flipping through files.
"Yusuke!" Koenma let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness! Is Kurama with you?"
"No, he was in the human world," Yusuke started to get a bad feeling.
"Yu Kaito informed me that Kurama hasn't checked for a while," Koenma relayed the message. "We thought he finally joined up with the rest of you."
"No! He ordered us to go back and he was going to stay," Yusuke started to get hasty. "He was going to further investigate."
"If he's not with you then that could mean he got caught," Koenma rubbed his forehead. "This isn't good."
"I know what you mean," Yusuke clenched his fists. "I'll go right away."
"WAIT!" Koenma yelled at him before he headed out. "While you are looking for Kurama, he could be on the same cases as we are, hopefully," Koenma looked at all of papers. "All these files are missing people. I need you to find out what's going on and quickly before things get out of proportion."
"Alright, I'll find out what I can about Kurama and these missing people," Yusuke planned. He headed back to the human world. He met up with Yu Kaito and the rest.
"Kurama didn't go back to you?" Yu Kaito didn't like the sound of this. "We thought he left back to the demon world after he did his investigating."
"He was trying to find the people who were sold off to demons," Mitaria looked down.
"More humans are missing," Kaname spoke up. "I've seen that girl again, she frequents the portal."
"Hoshimi," Yusuke tried to see how they were connected.
"She didn't lure him into a trap, did she?" Tsukihito Amanuma.
"She wouldn't," Yu Kaito defended her. The others stared at him. "We both know, Yusuke, Isae would not harm Kurama and she would not anything to harm him."
"Hmph, that was before her brother came back into her life," Yusuke doubted her a bit.
"Don't doubt her Yusuke," Yu Kaito urged.
"Alright," Yusuke nodded. "I'll have a talk with them, if they know nothing about Kurama, we're going to search that host club top to bottom."
Yusuke headed back to the demon world. He informed Hiei. Hiei followed him into the castle at night. Hiei used his Jagan to find where Hotaka was at. They came to the observatory where giant plants were growing.
"Where is he?" Yusuke looked around.
"Talk louder and everyone will find us," Hiei looked around. He examined the plants in front of him. They were familiar plants but he never seen them this size.
"You're trespassing," Naozumi came from the shadows of the plants.
"So, you work here as well," Yusuke crossed his arms.
"Hoshimi is our family," Naozumi stood his ground. "We are here to help her."
"Do you support Hotaka?" Yusuke asked the question.
"I support his idea of a brighter future for us demons," Naozumi kept his stance. "Hoshimi wouldn't support him if she didn't feel it was right."
"Everyone keeps saying that!" Yusuke started to get heated. "But all I see from his side are missing humans, an army he is building, and nothing concrete! It's stacking up against him and I'm ready to knock him down."
The plant above them started to move. The giant closed bud started to open. Golden pollen started to rain down on them. The group jumped back. Hotaka was covered in pollen. They had woken him up from slumber.