Kuwabara's eyes fluttered open, the first thing he noticed was the intense chill emanating in the air. Feeling around for his blanket he soon realized he had
knocked it onto the floor along with his pillow some time during the night. His eyes shifted to his left, finding Hiei's bed empty as usual. Across the room, he
eyed Yukina's sleeping form, icicles had formed on the ceiling above her. The ice maiden didn't know it, but when she slept the temperature would drop at least
40 degrees much to Kuwabara's distaste.
A knock on the door caused Kuwabara to jolt upright, quickly he sprung out of bed so Yukina would not be awoken. His foot became entangled in his blanket
and he fell to the ground with a loud thump, waking Yukina. "Kuwabara!? You in there! Open up!" Yusuke yelled from the other side of the door.
Kuwabara scrambled to his feet as Yukina sat up in her bed, yawning and stretching her limbs. Suddenly the door busted open scaring the living daylights out
of the two, "You broke the door!" Kuwabara exclaimed. Yusuke looked down examining the wooden door half off its hinges and shrugged, "You weren't
answering I thought something might have happened to you guys."
"Knock knock" Kuwabara's eyes met with an emerald pair, "Hey Kurama." "Good morning Kuwabara, I wanted to let you know we have reached Mist Island.
"Mist Island?" "There are two islands this ship port of calls at, Mist Island is the first." The fox explained. "Huh? Nobody told me anything about stopping at
some island!" "I was unaware as well until I overheard a couple talking about it this morning. Apparently, we will be docked here until midnight."
"At least we won't have to worry about those freaky mermaid creatures for a while." "Quite the contrary, there is a species of mermaid on this island that can
walk on land" Kuwabara's eyes widened, "What! I'm not safe on land anymore either!" Kurama chuckled, "Don't worry Kuwabara, from what I've read these
mermaids are polar opposites of their water bound relatives." Kuwabara shivered as he glanced out the window of his room, "How do you know all this
anyways?" Kurama held up a small maroon colored book, "I visited the library again this morning."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Cheza closed her eyes as she soaked in the morning rays. Leaning against the railing of the upper deck Cheza opened her eyes and watched as people exited
the ship and followed the path leading to the island's village. The island remained barely visible due to the thick fog hovering in the air, no wonder the island
was referred to as "mist island." "Cheza, do you want to head down there? Kurama just went to get the others. I'm sure they wouldn't mind if we went
ahead." Cheza turned to see Keiko staring at her expectantly. Cheza shrugged, "Sure, why not." Keiko's face lit up as she latched onto Cheza's arm and pulled
her forward, "I heard there are a lot of mini stores around here, maybe we can find some cute gifts for Yukina's baby." Cheza nodded, "Good idea."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
" Five dollars! Okay okay only two dollars! You sure you don't want one Miss?" As soon as Keiko and Cheza had reached the village island, tons of people had
practically surrounded them from all angels trying to sell them various trinkets. "No thank you" Keiko declined politely. Scanning the various shops, Cheza
spotted one that caught her attention. The shop was nothing but a hole in the wall, but was one of the nicer ones around. Many of the other shops were
outdoors, this one was not. "Keiko, come with me!" Cheza exclaimed. As the two entered the shop their eyes landed on a glass counter, jewels of all sorts
twinkled brightly at them from beneath the glass. Keiko gasped, "Oh! Look at this Cheza! This would look so pretty on you!" Keiko pointed to a pearl necklace
with an odd purple glow to it. "I have to agree with your friend here, would you like to try it on?" Cheza looked up meeting with a bright blue pair of eyes. A
man with short spikey red hair and a charming smile stared back at her. Unlocking the glass case before Cheza could respond, he picked up the necklace. "Oh, I
couldn't afford something that nice." Cheza replied.
"Nonsense!" the red headed stranger replied before boldly approaching Cheza and moving her hair to the side to reveal her neck. Before Cheza could even react he had placed the necklace around her neck.
"There you guys are!" Keiko and Cheza turned to see Yusuke approaching them. "Kurama is going ape shit right now, he thought one of those freaky mermaids
might have gotten you guys." Keiko frowned, "And you weren't worried at all Yusuke?" Keiko demanded. "Choose your next words wisely Yusuke!" Cheza
exclaimed with a slight grin. "Of course I was worried! I .." Keiko grabbed Yusuke's wrist and proceeded to drag him out of the store, no doubt to yell at him
without any prying ears to hear. Cheza chuckled then spun back around to face the red-headed man once more. "I better get going, thank you for letting me
try on the necklace..it really is beautiful." As Cheza went to remove the necklace a hand stopped her. Turning around she met with those bright blue eyes once
more, a bewildered look fell upon her features. He had just been in front of her not even a second before, how had he gotten behind her so fast? "Please,
consider it a gift." "What? No.. I couldn't possibly except something so expen"
"I insist! Besides, if there are freaky mermaids coming after you then you need all the protection you can get. This necklace is known to protect whoever wears
it" the man commented with a wink. Cheza tensed up for a second, she was getting a weird vibe from this guy and it seemed as if he knew about the
mermaids lurking in the water surrounding the island. "Well..if you insis"
"Cheza!" Cheza turned, spotting Kurama rapidly approaching her. "I was worried something happened to you." After embracing her in a hug, he pulled away
his eyes landing on her necklace. "Where did you find this?" Kurama asked, referring to the necklace. "This? The owner of this shop was kind enough to give
this to me as a gift, isn't it pretty? Thank you aga.." As Cheza turned around to thank the mysterious red head she found that the shop keeper was nowhere in
sight. "That's weird..maybe he had to use the bathroom or something.." Kurama frowned, "There is a strange energy emitting from this necklace."
"That explains why it has that odd glow to it." Kurama remained silent for a moment, clearly enveloped in his own thoughts. "I've never felt an energy quite like
this." "Is it..bad energy? Evil energy?" Cheza asked. Kurama shook his head no, "Quite the opposite, this energy feels pure. "
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
The gang found themselves sitting at a large circular glass table located outside a ritzy looking restraunt they happened to come across. Cheza picked up her
glass of water and went to take a drink when suddenly she dropped it. Kurama watched as her hand reached up to her necklace, "I feel it too." Kuwabara
commented while getting to his feet. Both Cheza and Kuwabara's head tilted upward towards the sky, the sun had suddenly disappeared. Rapidly the sky was
beginning to darken and in a matter of seconds lightning stretched across the gloomy sky. "What are you talking about Kuwabara?" Yusuke asked while
looking around for any signs of trouble. "Something big is coming I can feel it" Kuwabara replied. "Cheza? You feel it too?" Kurama asked while getting to his
feet. "My necklace..it just suddenly started pulsing..it's almost as if it has a heartbeat. I think it's trying to warn me about something." Suddenly rain came
crashing down from the sky, though there was not a cloud in sight. People around them started to scream and run for cover from the rain. Hiei placed a hand
on the hilt of his katana, "Kuwabara get them out of here." Hiei demanded, referring to Yukina, Keiko and Cheza. Kuwabara nodded and proceeded to do so,
Cheza remained adamant in her decision to stay. "Cheza, it isn't safe for you please go with Kuwabara" Before she could reply an earth shattering moan
echoed around them. "It's coming from the water" Hiei commented before disappearing in a blur of black. Kurama, Yusuke, and Cheza followed suit. Soon, they
came to the location where the ship was docked. Massive waves continually crashed against the ship walls. Thunder, lightning, and rain began to increase with
intensity. Suddenly a massive creature with a sharp horn and three tails protruded out of the water, popping up like a floating island.
"What the hell is that thing!?" Yusuke asked while taking a step back. Kurama stepped in front of Cheza as a voice resounded behind them. "Every few months
it comes up for air and destroys everything in its vicinity." Cheza turned meeting with those blue eyes once more, "you…" A weird golden glow emitted from the
red head's hand and soon a golden trident appeared in his hand, "I could sense an unnatural amount of spirit energy emitting from you all earlier. I will need
your help to defeat this beast once and for all." "What exactly are we up against?" Yusuke asked as another loud moan echoed around them. "The Isonade"
Hiei replied while unsheathing his sword.