SHWU: Hello all! I hoped everybody enjoyed the last chapter! Let's have a big round of applause to Kiyara for completing the last chapter before she went on her cruise. And hope that she does not get sunburned! XD; Yes, well, that enough procrastinating, let's get this party started!

"speaking" 'thinking' somehow important/emphasized Yoko mind speaking to Kurama

Disclaimer: Yusuke'sSister and Sugar High Water Uma do NOT own Yu Yu Hakusho. Yusuke'sSister does own Kiara, and I own Lacy.

Chapter 5

Recap

Slowly I bent to Kiara's eyes so she looked, her face looked washed out and her teeth chatted, I whispered, "Forgive me, for I'm about to win." Standing up I looked at the night sky and people cheered the match was over. I had won.

Forgive me, Kiara.

Kiara's POV

Betrayed.

Such a simple word, but it expresses so much emotion. Anger, love, confusion, self-doubt. All these things make up this word, yet none of them come even close to how you feel when you are really betrayed. A piece of your heart of torn out of you, as the world comes crashing down on you. You've been tricked into believing that a person was your friend, when in reality, they never even cared about you.

"Winner of this match, and still reigning champion, BELOVED!" Was shouted over the speakers. Even though the noise boomed through the stadium, I barely registered it in my mind.

My mind was focused on one thing, and one thing only. Lacy. My friend. My sister. My teammate.

My enemy.

Lacy smiled at the crowd, then her smile disappeared as she turned to look at me. "Kiara, meet me at the east gate at dusk. Please be there." Her voice was soft, serious, and strong. Wait, why would she want to meet me somewhere? They said she wasn't my friend, that she betrayed me, that's why I am here right now.

"W-w-why?" I said, my voice quivering from that small word. My body couldn't handle the strain of the sickness, and staying conscious. Slowly, my body starting shutting down. It was then, in between consciousness and unconsciousness that I hear something…. Or at least, I think I heard something.

Because I care.

Enemies aren't suppost to care about each other… what's going on here?

Kurama's POV: Demon World, 15 Miles From TRADE Base

The portal KoEnma gav-

Don't you mean dropped?

No, he gave us the portal, Yoko (1)

Okay, he gave coughdroppedcough you the portal.

Yoko…. Please be quiet

Never, MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA…. You should probably continue, or else nothing will happen.

The portal gave-

DROPPED.

YOKO! THAT'S IT!

Yuusuke's POV: Demon World, 15 Miles From TRADE Base (2)

What does KoEnma think we are, sacks of potatoes? That he could just drop us through these portals without any warning at all! I could probably land if I had a little incentive, hell, I did land…. Until Kuwabara landed on top of me. That big oaf!

Well, anyways, KoEnma's portal landed us about 15 miles away from TRADE Base, 15 miles away from Kiara and Lacy, and 15 miles from saving their butts. We seemed so close, but yet, we 're so distant from each other. What could have happened to them while we were being briefed? Could they have done something to break Kiara even more? Could they have broken the unbreakable Lacy?

"…-meshi… HEY URAMESHI!" Kuwabara shouted into my ear. The sudden burst of noise pulled me out of my thoughts and back into reality.

"Would you shut up! I'm trying to think here!" I yell at Kuwabara, as he scratched his head in thought.

"I don't think thinking will help us fin-" Kuwabara started to say.

"I KNOW that thinking won't help us rescue the girls, Kuwabara! That's why we gotta start mo-"

"I don't mean them! I mean Kurama and Shrimpy!" He yelled, getting all up in my face.

"What do you mean Kurama and Hiei!" I shouted right back at him.

"DIDN'T YOU REALIZE THAT THEY DIDN'T COME THROUGH THE PORTAL WITH US!"

I blinked… then blink again, as I started to look around for the missing demons. We were standing in the middle of a clearing of what looks to be an extremely dense forest area. The trees surrounding us stood about nine to fifteen feet high, and most of their branches intertwined, which created the illusion of night.

After looking around at everything is view, I gave up looking for them. There was no trace what so ever that the two could have been here. I can't even feel their energy, they must be real far away from here…. Wait a second…. I can't feel any energy. None, nada, zip!

"Hey Kuwabara. Do you feel that?" I looked over to where I last saw him. He wasn't there.

I frantically began looking around for the big oaf. Everything looked the same, as when I tried looking for Kurama and Hiei. The tree still as dark, the dirt still as hard, the orange mob of hai-.

Wait a second, Kuwabara has orange hair! That must be him! I sprinted over to where I saw the orange, I had found him. But he was missing something…. His life.

Kuwabara was hanging from a thick tree branch by a thorn-covered vine. His skin had that unhealthy gray bluish tinge to it, like this had happen to over an hour ago. In the corner of my eye, I saw something red. At first I thought it might have been blood…. But as I turned my head to look at it, I saw that it was Kurama's hair.

I spun around quickly and moved towards, to what appears to be, his corpse. There was no mark what so ever on his body; although, some sort of plant was growing out of his mouth. That must have been what caused his death, some sort of demonic seed got inside his lungs and clogged up his airway.

Something behind me moved, I spun around to only face Hiei… who had his own katana stuck through his OPEN Jagan Eye. Blood dribbled from the eye as it started to glaze over. Hiei collapsed to the ground. The katana was at angle, and the pressure from Hiei's fall made it move upward on his head, exposing a pink organ. His brain.

How could this be happening? How did this happen? Who did this? We weren't prepared for… this. I was prepared to do whatever it took to get Kiara and Lacy, but I wasn't prepared to do that by myself after seeing my friends' corpses. How could this be happening?

The last thing I noticed before I too fell, was that… nothing had shadows, not Hiei, not Kuwabara, or Kurama… Not even I had a shadow. Is this real?

I opened my eyes wearily, only to see Kurama eyes only two inches from my own. (3)

"AHH! WHAT THE-" I started, Kurama quickly clamped his hand onto my, currently open, mouth.

"Yuusuke, be quiet. You'll give away our presence with your yelling." Kurama stated coolly. "Can I let go of your mouth now?" I nodded. "Good." He took his hand away from my mouth.

"First off Kurama, whatever lotion you're using, switch it, your hand stinks!" I stated, as Kuwabara snickered and Kurama sweat dropped. "Secondly, how are you alive? I saw your corpse yourself, Kuwabara's and Hiei's too!"

"We never died Yuusuke. You fell out of the portal, and into a bush full of demonic thorns. The thorns poisoned you, and made you go into a part of your brain, which contained your worst fears. Those fear overcame the rational part of your brain and made you believe that we died, nothing more." Kurama explained calmly. "If-"

"Shouldn't we be getting a move on? We already wasted enough time waiting for the detective to wake up." Hiei interjected.

"How long have I been out for!" I partially yelled, before remembering what Kurama said about keeping quiet.

"It's been like… one and a half hours Urameshi." Kuwabara said. "So it's around 4:30 now…."

"WHA-" Kurama quickly clamped his hand on my mouth yet again, muffling my surprised scream. Kurama glared/nodded to me, which easily translated to 'Don't scream again, or else.' I nodded back to him and he released my mouth. "How long will it take us to get to TRADE base?"

"Hiei? You are more familiar with this territory than I am, how long do you believe it will take?" Kurama asked the silent chibi.

"15 minutes." He responded. I grinned inwardly at myself. "For me…. But for this large a group, the security that TRADE more than likely has, and our annoyances… two hours minimum, if we run full out."

Kuwabara and I just deadpanned while Hiei smirked at our expressions. Kurama's gaze turned to the trees as he began to think. Unfortunately, Kuwabara, that big oaf, had to break his concentration with the most stupidest question ever.

"….What bush is safe for peeing on, Kurama?" Kuwabara looked suspiciously at some of the surrounding plant life. "I don't want to end up looking like Urameshi."

"Hey! Watch what your saying! I can still kick your ss no matter how I look!" I replied, waving my fist menacingly.

"Oh yeah, just watch th-" Kuwabara started.

"Could you two please try to calm down. Fighting isn't helping anyone. If you let me have some quiet to think, I will be able to figure out about how long it shall take us to get the TRADE, without running full out." Kurama looked at us pointedly, allowing some gold to tinge his emerald eyes, showing us that he was being extremely serious. Kuwabara and I quieted immediately. A few minutes passed, as Kurama looked around us, his stare hard and calculating, then he finally turned to us with an answer. "It appears that we are farther away from TRADE than we expected. Currently, we are 40 miles away-"

"Forty miles! What the hell! KoEnma should have put us right out of reach of TRADE's security." I said angrily.

"Well, apparently, they expanded." Kurama replied. "KoEnma set the portal to put us right out of reach. They expanded, KoEnam didn't know of it, so, we we're put farther back. Now, if we run at a moderate pace for half an hour, then take a fifteen-minute break, do this for four hours. At the two-hour mark, after finishing our third half hour run, we spilt into two groups, Kuwabara and Yuusuke, and Hiei and myself. Hiei and I will go around toward the back, so it appears as if we aren't in the same group as you two. Once we reach TRADE, we can try to make contact with the girls, or each other and form a plan of attack there. Does everybody got it?"

"Yeah! Let's go!" Kuwabara and I response simultaneously.

Annnnnndddd… we're off!

Two Hours Later

So far, we haven't run into any demons, or the so-called 'security' things this place apparently has. This was a good thing though, because if we have taken any time with fighting some thing, I doubt we could make it to trade anytime tonight; or that we would have been able to make it this far.

As the two-hour mark hit, we all slowed down to a stop, and tried to catch our breath. Kurama walked over to a strange purple tinged and plucked a few berries from the branches.

"Kuwabara, Yuusuke, if you tired out in the last half of running, eat one of these berries. Each berry can replenish about a fourth of your energy, it's not much, but they will help." Kurama said, as he handed us each eight berries.

"Thanks." We replied, as we each ate one of the berries.

"Wow, these do work!" Kuwabara exclaimed.

"Now, when you two feel ready, just keep on running in a straight line toward TRADE, Hiei and I shall be going around, so the next time we see each other should be at TRADE." Kurama stated, then turned toward Hiei and took off.

"Hn. Don't die." Hiei gave us that last piece of advice, and then he, too, took off.

1 Okay, I couldn't resist the Yoko! He's just so fluffy! And I know that some people say Youko, well….. I say Yoko… so there! If you don't like it, pretend that there's a u in between the o and k, okay? Good.

2 Well…. Yoko was being… difficult, so we had to change the POV to Yuusuke because could describe it better….. since he doesn't have multiple personalities…. Or does he, hehehe.

3 Haha, you didn't really think that I would kill off three canon characters, now did you? Hehe, hopefully nobody will take the fake killing of characters too seriously.