The Sixth Unmarked Videotape

The Sixth Unmarked Videotape by; boysluvcraft
Part6…

Man, it’s been awhile since I fell asleep at my desk, Yusuke thought as he came awake slowly. His neck was sore and drool had pooled up around his cheek. Only a moment later he recalled he hadn’t been a school for years. Memories of resent events sprung into his mind. He remembered being ensnared in a net of searing energy. His head snapped up. He wasn’t in a school, but close enough. It looked like a library. Now there were libraries and then there were Libraries. Yusuke found himself hunched over a desk at the centre hub of several book stacks that radiated outward like the spokes of wheel. Over head he could see the shelf of a second and a third floor. Any farther up was too dark for Yusuke to see. The place was huge, that was for sure. And it was dark, after hour’s maybe?

“Weird,” Yusuke mused to himself, “Why would someone capture you and then dump you in a closed library?” Whoever had left him there was kind enough to leave him a light source. Yusuke picked up the small electric lantern and paced over to one of the corridors between stacks. He shined the light; he didn’t see anything save for books receding into darkness.

“Hello,” Yusuke called out, for lack of a better idea. “Is any one home?”

No surprise, there was no answer. He hadn’t really expected one either, he could sense that the place was devoid of life. A point which dispirited him, because that also meant that none of his friends were there. Yusuke took his lantern and paced down one of the stacks. A few yards down the path split two ways, Yusuke wondered aloud which way he should go. “Let’s see, I want to get to the exit, but I don’t see any signs…”

Then Yusuke remembered that in libraries the book are typically in arranged by subject and in alphabetical order, in fact these books should have catalogue number attached to them. It was miracle that he knew that much. He’d spent the better part of his life avoiding places like this. He turned to look at the books on the shelf. If he was correct he could simply follow the numbers counting backwards and find either the exit or a main isle which he could follow to the exit.

As expected for any book depository the books ranged in size, color, and thickness. Some were hard back, leather back, some were paperback. The peculiar thing was that none of them had titles printed on their spines. Now, as previously stated Yusuke was no expert on literature, but he was sure that most books had information of some sort printed on their spines. He pulled a book out at random to look at its cover, also blank. But Yusuke was not disturbed-- until he opened the book. It was blank. Every page within was blank paper. He dropped the book and grabbed up another. He opened it, it was also blank inside. Once again he dropped the tome and reached for another. Blank. Again and again he did this, he cleared shelf after shelf. Blank, blank, blank, all of them were blank.

“What stupid kind of a library doesn’t have any friggen words in their friggen stupid books?!” Yusuke ranted as the unreality of the situation bore down on him. What kind of a library doesn’t have any words its books? Why a library that isn’t a library of course. This place was stage, a set, a cruelly decorated cage at best. It wasn’t real. Yusuke still stood at his juncture, no clue which way to go. But worse yet, Yusuke wasn’t sure if there was any place to go.

* * *

At the same time as Yusuke was waking up in a puddle of drool, Kurama was also stirring. His body was sore and his head was swimming from the heavy sweet drug laden air. The usual questions were swimming in his head; what happened? Where am I? As trite as they may sound, they are legitimate questions that anyone in a similar situation may want to know. Kurama rolled over, willing his eyes to open. They didn’t seem to want to; probably because they knew it was going hurt should there be any light to strike them. When he rolled his hand landed on something soft and warm. Then a soft giggle came to his ears, the shock of which was enough to convince his eyes to snap open.

Kurama jerked his head up to come face to face with a very lovely face. Her eyes were narrow, pleasantly tilted, seductive, and feral-- she was Kitsune. She had long shinning, copper colored hair and fur on her vulpine ears and tail. And her shin-- all of which was devoid of an ounce of clothing-- was rich and tawny. Kurama snatched his hand back off of her lap as if it were a hot stove.

She giggled again, “Oh, you don’t have to be so shy.”

“I’m sorry… Miss, but I really have to get going,” Kurama struggled to his feet.

“Go?” The fox said the word like she had never heard it before. “Where will you go? There is nowhere to go.”

“Wha--” Kurama looked around the room. It was an expansive room painted in warm colors and furnished with rich tapestries, and luxuriant couches. Every nook and corner was littered with pillows of all sizes. There was even a large steaming pool in the center of the room, complete with sculpture and fountains. The place looked like a harem straight out of Arabian Nights. And to support that theory, he and the girl were not the only occupants of the room. There were both males and females, types ranging from mature and sensual, to sweet and barley legal. All of them were naked. All of them were Kitsune.

“What is this?” Kurama implored the coppery kitsune.

“What does it look like?” She giggled yet again, “It’s a harem, silly.”

“Who’s harem?”

“Yours, of course. We‘ve been waiting for you Kurama.”

“Wha-- no, I don’t have…” Kurama stammered. Then he got a hold of himself, “What game are you playing?”

“Oh, we’re playing a game?!” She clapped her hands together like an amused child.

Kurama was about to loose his temper when a handsome male approached. His body was sculpted like Michelangelo’s David, well, except for a few parts in the lower region; they were much bigger than David’s. He was dark and swarthy, with long black hair. He approached Kurama and the girl with a big smile on his face and a playful sparkle in his eyes. “Did I hear right, Kurama wants to play a game?”

“No no, I not playing--” Kurama tried to protest, but already his words were being drowned out by the multitude of exited foxes.

“Kurama’s playing a game?”

“What kind of game?”

“Can I play too?”

Damn my race and its playful nature, Kurama cursed to himself. He knew that it was no use getting any answers out of them when they were like this, unless-- “Okay, this is the game; I will ask you questions and if you give me the correct answer, you get a prize.”

“What sort of prize?” This came from a young looking female with pink hair and big eyes.

“Hmm,” Kurama answered by taping his lips. This was received by a wash of excited sounds. Kurama began with something simple and trivial, “Who is the Lord of Gandara?”

Kurama received a mass wave of “I-know-know” and “oh-me-pick-me.” He pointed to a meek looking boy with light brown hair. The boy answered, “That would be Lord Yomi, sir, though his power in the region no longer absolute, because Enki rules over demon world as a whole.”

Kurama nodded “That is correct, and you get bonus points for knowing King Enki.”

The boy shuffled closer to Kurama to claim his prize. Kurama pulled him in to lay a soft kiss on his lips, for the bonus he dipped his hand down to stroke the boy’s fluffy brown tail. He knew how good that felt to a kitsune. And he most defiantly wanted to encourage them to disclose information. His next question would be a little more personal, “Now, who was my last partner in crime?”

Kurama picked the dark haired male with the nice body. He answered “Wouldn’t that also be Yomi?”

“Nnkk,” Kurama made the buzzer sound, “Wrong. You.” He pointed to the copper haired girl.

“It was Hiei and Goki, when you robbed the spirit world vaults.” She preened at her superior knowledge.

“That is correct,” Kurama congratulated her with a kiss while he lightly stroked down her breasts.

“Does anybody know where they are now?” Kurama was leading them into the more serous questions, though he spoke as if it were only a silly game.

He pointed to a lithe, blond male who answered, “Goki is dead, and Hiei is lost.”

“Lost?” Kurama inquired, but the blond was silenced before he could reply. Two other kitsune, the pink haired female and a male with short red hair, had clasped their hands over his mouth. All three sets of eyes held a touch of fear as they turned toward a new voice.

Her voice was sweet as a bell. “Now now, Master Kurama doesn’t want to hear of such dreadfully boring things,” she said as she emerged from the pool. She looked as though she could have been born of it. Her long blue hair reflected the light like light reflects off the water. Her skin was pale, almost pearl like. The beautiful male with the long dark hair left Kurama’s side. Head bowed he shuffled over to the blue haired women to help her pull on a blue robe with elaborate silver embroidery. She didn’t bother to tie it, rather she left it open to frame her amble breast. She practically flowed toward Kurama.

She spoke again as her tapered white fingers ghosted across his chest, “And speaking of dreadful things, what is this game you are all playing? Not to say, you have no taste in games, my dear, but I do think I can show you something more… enjoyable.”

She started to work at the belt holding his tunic shut. He caught her hands, “Actually I would very much like to hear what the young man was telling me.”

She scowled; the expression greatly marred her pretty face. “You know that things could have been much worse for you. So, why don‘t you just lay back and enjoy yourself,” she said as she roughly push him down onto the pillows. Her strength was incredible, and unnatural. If she was this strong he should have been able to sense it, but he couldn’t-- actually, he suddenly realized he couldn’t sense her at all. He couldn’t sense any of the kitsune. It was like they weren’t even there. A trace of panic danced through Kurama’s mind. He reached for his pocket and the seeds he had stashed there-- Gone! All of his weapons and tools were gone.

“No good, lover,” the blue haired she-fox chuckled, it was deep dark oily thing that betrayed her external beauty. “Now, I told you to lay back and enjoy yourself.”

“NO!” Kurama spit the word like poison.

“LAY BACK AND ENJOY YOURSELF!!!” Her face transformed into an angry thing as she raised her sharp claws to Kurama’s neck line and with one quick jerk she ripped the material down to his waist. He tried to raise his hands to stop her, but he was caught. Her hair was twined around his wrists, but it was no loner silken shiny hair, but tentacles of astounding strength.

Her face continued to transform-- not just the expression but literally transform. Her lovely features melted and flowed. Her eyes, once sparking and blue, now uniformly black splinters, her jaws elongated her pert little mouth became a gruesome gash in a toothy rictus of a smile. Her body grew, lost its feminine shape. Where her ample breasts where hung two sagging hollow paps. Her sides split open to admit rows of curling, groping appendages that picked off the remaining bits of his clothes. Then they wrapped themselves around his body, lifting his hips and back until only his pinned down shoulders touched the ground. He felt his legs wrenched open, and something thick, cold and slimy grazed across his entrance. Kurama screamed as his terror picked.

And that cloying voice kept saying, “Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, ENJOY--EIAAAH!” The thing screeched as its weight suddenly disappeared off his shoulders. He was aware of hands, many of them, prying the tentacles off of his body.

Kurama opened his eyes. The harem kitsune had come to his aid. The handsome dark haired one and the meek brown haired one, along with several others that he had not yet interacted with, were wrestling the creature away from him. He heard the cracking of wood being broken. Then the copper and pink haired female’s appeared baring splintered stakes they had broken from the furniture. They rushed to where the others were fighting the thing and then they brutally plunged the stakes into its body again and again until it stopped moving.

Wide eyed, Kurama looked from one face to another as inane, yet valid questions ran through his head. What’s going on? What was that thing? Why did you help me? What happens now? Though voicing these questions was unnecessary, because they were the questions anyone may ask given the situation, so the kitsune already expected them and proceed to answer.

“It wasn’t like us,” the handsome dark haired one told him, “It came because you were being uncooperative. You were supposed to be drawn into the sheer sensuality of this place and expend your energy with sex. You were lucky to have been given such a generous and luxurious prison. But you did not cooperate, so this thing came to make you expend through fear.”

Kurama pressed, “It feeds on energy?”

“It does not,” the meek brown haired one took the question. “The one who created it and this world feeds off your energy. The stronger you are the better the meal.”

Kurama shook his head “How do you now all this?”

“We know this because we are a part of it, Mister,” the young pink haired female explained as she handed him a new set of clothes. “We were created as a part of this world of pleasure to give you pleasure, so you would expend your energy and it would feed.”

Suddenly the ground trembled underfoot. The lithe blond haired one rushed to Kurama’s side to steady him. He spoke quickly, “It has seen our disobedience. You must leave this world now. Blue things, like that,” he pointed to the dead fox-octopi, “were not created as a part of a world, like us. They are sent in latter. When they enter a world they leave a small hole, which you can use to escape from. However know that when you leave here you will only be going to another false world.”

“My friends, are they in these worlds too? Will I be able to find my friends?” Kurama asked as another quake shook the room.

The blond replied, “All the worlds are connected, but it is complicated. If you are looking for your friends, I doubt the one who controls these worlds would allow your paths to cross. It watches you and always knows were you‘re at.”

“I have to try anyway,” Kurama said with determination. “You said I can leave the way that thing came in?” He first saw her by the pool, he looked there and sure enough the water eddied and drained out from a hole that looked like it had been dug from underneath. One last thing, he turned to the gathered foxes, “The one who created these worlds and that thing created you too right? If that is so why are you helping me?”

The copper haired female said plainly, “Because we adore you, Kurama, we love you. It was what we were created to do.”

A heavy feeling crept into Kurama’s chest. He wondered what would happen to these kitsune when he’d left. Would they be punished for disobeying the one that had created them? Or would they simply cease to be? Or would they just remain here in this pleasure palace, knowing that he would never return to them. In Kurama’s mind that would be the cruelest of all. He knew too well how it was to be deprived of his loved ones. He did not want to be so cruel, but… Yusuke… Hiei.

Kurama swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and spared the group one last glace, “Thank you.” He jumped into the swirling waters.

* * *

Yusuke had adopted the Hansel and Gretel technique in navigating his path around the vast book depository. Except instead of bread crumbs he left a trail of crumpled papers in his wake. The stacks had proved to be a variable maze. Yusuke had already come to several dead ends, and he even crossed his own path two or three times. Every once and a while he would look up at the undefined darkness were the ceiling should be and sighed. There was a possibility that there was no way out of the library, thus all this wandering around was pointless. But on that same token he also knew it would pointless to sit there feeling sorry for himself.

It was easy to start feeling sorry for himself. The dark and the quiet gave him plenty of time to think about how screwed up things were. He wrapped his arms around himself and wished they belonged to someone else, someone with long graceful limbs and smelled like roses and vanilla. He sighed as he tore the last blank page out the book he was carrying and dropped it on the floor. It didn’t have to be Kurama, he would have been just as happy to have Hiei there-- shoot even Kuwabara would have been a welcome disturbance to this bleak silence. Of course if Kuwabara was the one to join him there wouldn’t be any of the romance. Romance? Yusuke scrunched his nose at the thought. Was his relationship with the two demons romantic? Earth to Yusuke, he shook himself, you’ve got bigger problems right now.

Yusuke did his best to turn his thoughts back to the present as he plucked another book from the shelf. His stomach gave a sudden lurch because for just a second he thought he saw movement on the other side of the shelves. Yusuke swallowed the lump that had appeared in his throat. Easy there tiger, there ain’t nothing there. If there was you would have sensed something, right? It was just a trick of the dark-- “Gahwah!”

Yusuke screamed as he stumbled back from the shelves. A hand had suddenly rushed out from the shelf. If Yusuke had not fallen back, it would have grabbed his face. The hand, and the arm that it was attached to, lacked substance in more ways than one. It wasn’t much more than a bit of leathery blue hide stretched over bone. It was also semi- translucent, and it moved like a lulling fog. But it must have had some solidity, because it knocked books off the shelf as it groped around.

That was when Yusuke noticed the books, the ones that the hand had touched. Their spines curved, their binding gave away as the covers warped and peeled back and the pages yellowed and turned to dust. The books were decaying into nothing at the things touch. What was this thing, a ghost? Yusuke believed in ghosts; he used to be one. But he’d never heard of a ghost to could do that! Almost all of the books were on the floor now and framed in the empty shelve, Yusuke could see a face like a horse’s skull glaring hate at him with eye’s that burned like embers.

Yusuke’s feet were carrying him far from the scene even before his mind gave the order. He paid no mind to which direction he ran, as long as it as way from that thing. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be healthy to let it touch you. Ahead a shabby figure flowed into the space where there was a junction in the stacks. Yusuke’s feet slammed to a halt so suddenly he tore the carpet beneath him. Yusuke cursed, the thing was faster than him-- or was there more than one? It would be a thing to consider while he watched this one fry. It was flowing down the aisle, sticky arms out screeching toward him. With shelves to either side of it; it would have trouble dodging his Shot Gun.

Yusuke charged up his energy and took aim, but just as he was about to fire, a familiar voice cried out to him, “NO!”

Yusuke smelled the burning of wood and paper as the shelf to his right collapsed. Someone hit his arm causing his spirit energy to discharge harmlessly toward the ceiling. That same someone hauled on his arm, pulling him through a freshly cut smoldering hole in the shelving to his left. Yusuke didn’t refuse, because he quickly realized that this someone was Hiei.

“Hiei!” Yusuke gasped, “I can’t believe I’ve found you! Dang it, if we weren’t running for our lives, I’d drop right now and blow you!” Yusuke was so happy he could cry.

“Hn, I found you, Yusuke,” Hiei corrected him. “And you can blow me later--Damn!” One of those phantom-like creatures popped up in front of them. So Hiei zigged down an aisle before cutting another hole with his Darkness Flamesword and zagging through it.

“Way didn’t you just let me toast it with my Shot Gun?” Yusuke asked.

“It would have only thrown it back at you.” Hiei told him, “All the other creatures I‘ve encountered have done that, so it‘s a fair bet that this one will do it too. It seems the only way to kill these things with energy is if you explode it from the inside.”

“You can’t get that close to this one,” Yusuke informed him, “It turns everything it touches to dust!”

“Then we run,” Hiei told him. That is what they did. They rounded a corner and nearly ran headlong into skeletal clutches that would have spelt death, but at the last possible second Yusuke fired his Spirit Gun into base of the book cases, causing the shelves to topple down onto the spectral thing. They leapt over the fallen debris and ran on. But then they came to an intersection where two of the things tried to converge on them. They narrowly escaped.

“How many of these friggen things are there?” Yusuke howled.

“I don’t know but, those last ones came uncomfortably close,” Hiei replied. “I saw something on my way in that might help though.”

“If you got in here, can‘t you just show me the way out?” Yusuke shouted, however he would not get a response, because then Hiei zipped up behind him and lifted him in his arms like a bride. Carrying Yusuke, Hiei leapt up on top of a book case. He bounded over the tops of the cases, at times hoping over the reaching specters. The fact that they couldn’t reach him proved that they either couldn’t fly or they were really stupid; either way it gave Hiei confidence in his plan.

Overhead he could see the balcony of the next floor up. He gathered his strength in his legs and sprung for that balcony. He landed easily on the balcony rail. He shifted his weight aiming himself to jump again, this time kitty cornering up to the third floor. Yusuke had thought for a second that the smaller demon had lost his balance and clutched at him in a way that Hiei found adorable. After Hiei landed on the rail on the third floor he prang up to the fourth, then he jumped out over the open space. His feet came to rest on the rim of a great glass bowl of a hanging light fixture. He had to quickly shift Yusuke so that he could hold him with only one arm, and use his other hand to grasp at the suspending bar until the fixture stopped swinging.

“Here we are,” he told Yusuke as he lowered the boy into the giant bowl.

“This is your plan?” Yusuke exclaimed, “Hide in a big lamp! Shouldn’t we just get the hell out of here the same way you got in?”

“I got in that way,” Hiei pointed up into the indeterminable darkness above, “I fell fast for about ten minutes, then I grabbed onto one of these things to stop my fall. Trust me; we ain’t getting out that way.”

Yusuke accepted that, but still… “Hiding Hiei? I never thought that would be your style.”

“Believe it or not, you don’t know everything about me,” Hiei said. “Besides don’t think of this as hiding, but an opportunity for privacy.”

Before Yusuke could ask Hiei what he meant, he felt Hiei’s petite palm pressing against the front of his pants. Yusuke jumped, “Whoa! You sure this is a good time for that? I mean, not that I don’t want to. I totally want to. B-but is this really the best time?”

Hiei kissed him and then Yusuke felt him smiling against his cheek. Hiei chuckled, “I’m not going to seduce you in place like this. I just… missed you.”

I missed you. Those three little whispered words-- and coming form Hiei of all people-- melted Yusuke to the core. It made him forget all about traps, trick libraries, and prowling killer things. He moaned something that might have been Hiei’s name as the small apparition pulled him into an embrace. Yusuke’s fingers threaded into spiky locks. Hiei petted Yusuke’s muscular neck with one hand while the other tickled across firm abs. Yusuke let one hand fall to stroke Hiei on the back. Hiei’s tongue slipped into Yusuke’s hot mouth. Yusuke surrendered to him, slipping to the bottom of the bowl. Hiei covered him with his warm body. Their soft sighs and panting breath might as well have been a roar in the silence of the library. Lucky for them, the specters downstairs didn’t seem to notice.

* * *

The marble showed two dark haired demons tangled in a warm embrace. The first woman cradled the spinning liquid orb while she twittering like a mad thing. “Look at them, moving about in MY worlds as if they were their own. They are mocking me I know it, I know it! Oh sister give me my well, I wish to destroy these fools. I don’t care if it takes all of my energy!”

“I fear that these developments have rattled our sister’s mind,” the second woman whispered to the third.

“She is not used to having control so blatantly taken from her.” The third told her, “But I am sure that she will return to normal once that human is taken care of. I can drain his life energy to nothing, if you can mange to hold him still long enough.”

The second nodded, “I’ve already designed a new web, specifically to ensnare him. All I require is for our sister to locate him so that I may deploy it.” She looked over at the first woman, who was grinding her teeth and glaring into her catch of worlds, and frowned, “Although, I have seen her more competent.”

“We may not have to rely on her competence,” The third tossed her head, “but we shall rely on those men’s incompetence. Ah-ha, you see that the small has resurfaced. He was all but free but he walked right back into his prison for the sake of his lover. Such foolishness, it is a wonder that he has survived so long, and raised so high in the ranks of demon world, being such a fool. To think he is Lord Makuro‘s second, she must be a fool as well. Ha! Perhaps we should devise a trap for her as well. Think of all the power we will have!”

“Do not get greedy,” the second snapped. “Remember what mother always told us? Never take more than you can eat.”

“Mother only said that to cover the shame that she could not keep a fully stocked larder,” the third one countered. To which the second had no response. He turned away with a sigh, muttering about impossible fools.

While the other two where bantering, the first woman was glaring at the two demon boys, who were cuddling inside of a light fixture. They were mocking her, she was sure of it. She wanted to destroy them. Of course doing that would lose her and her sisters a food source, but she didn’t care. She hated them, these arrogant men who defiled her precious worlds, coming and going against her will, holding each other as if they were on honeymoon. She saw that her sisters were preoccupied, so she took up her ink well and added another drop to the world that held Hiei and Yusuke. Satisfied with her mischief, she settled back to watch their impending misery. So engrossed into this, she did not think to check back in on the fox.

* * *

Kurama had let the currants pull him for what seemed like forever. He had no idea he could hold his breath for so long, but then again the alternative was drowning. He surfaced in clear emerald colored waters that tasted of salt, not too far from a white sanded beach. He swam to shore where he surveyed this new world. It was tropical, but not too hot. There were palm trees and bushes with sweet smelling brightly colored flowers. All and all it looked like paradise, then again the last place he was in looked like a paradise too, but it turned out to be a hell. At least this place presented him with the opportunity to rearm with some of the local flora. Though, he was skeptical as to the quality of said armaments. While Kurama picked through the bushes he kept an eye on his surroundings. In particular he kept his eye out for anything blue. Little did Kurama know the next incursion he would experience would not be blue, but was most distinguished by its bright orange hair.

Kuwabara had run through the vast white nothingness. For the lack of landmarks he would have thought he was getting no where, but the energy signal he was following was definitely getting closer. Then he saw something in the distance. It looked like a slivery ball of mercury, spinning in space. Incidentally, that was the direction Kurama’s energy was coming from. When he got closer to it he found that it was only about three feet in diameter.

“Man,” Kuwabara talked to himself, “Is there really an entire world in that?”

He looked closer and to his surprise-- though he really shouldn’t have been surprised-- he saw Kurama through a shimmering mist. He was keeling next to some shrubbery. He didn’t look like he was hurt, just deep in thought. Kuwabara was glad to see his foxy friend was well. Kuwabara nodded to himself and summoned his Jigon-to. He was going to peel this thing like an orange.

Inside, Kurama stood abruptly as the ground began to shake. He didn’t panic. He’d been expecting something to happen. He plucked a leaf from the bush he had been examining, with a little jolt of his energy the thing grew, bent, and hardened into an arcing scimitar. He waited for whatever attack may come. But it did not come. Instead the ground continued to shutter and shift violently. The sky warped and bent, until it split. Needless to say this wasn’t what the fox had expected, nor was he prepared for this. He could only look on in horror as the sky peeled back like the sections of an orange. The splits extended down to the tress and the ground. Rifts came from all dictions, converging on his feet. The fox was cornered! He looked around wildly for an escape, but all the places he could escape to were peeling away like poorly hung wall paper!

Kurama’s eye instinctually squeezed shut as he felt the ground give way under his feet. But then the scream he was holding captive in his throat gave birth to a gasp. He wasn’t falling. There were strong arms around his waist. Carefully, he forced his eyes to open. He stared down into sparking blue eyes and big cheesy grin. Kuwabara laughed, “Heh-heh, well looky what I caught!”

Kurama started to laugh too, though his mirth may have been closer to hysteria, “Kuwabara… I can’t believe it…. How?”

“I’ll tell you on the way. Shorty said he’ll take my balls away if I don’t deliver you to him safely,” Kuwabara told him, “Not that I’m scared of him or anything….”

“You know where Hiei is?!” Kurama cut in.

Kuwabara shrugged, “Yeah, he kinda went off to go protect Yusuke while I went to get you.”

Kurama sniffed the air as if searching for the scent of his lover, and maybe he was. He must have caught it because in the next moment he seized the human’s sleeve. “What are you waiting for? Come on.”

* * *

“NO NO NOOOO!” The first woman gibbered as she tore through her catch where she kept her worlds.

“What is it?” The second gasped.

“It has happened again,” third exclaimed, “one of her worlds had come undone! Oh, it was the one that contained the fox was it not? I can tell because I am no longer able to siphon off his energy.”

“It was the world I kept the fox in,” the first one growled, “it was that human again, curse him!”

“Curse yourself,” the second chided her. “I saw, you have so obsessed about those two in the library and you forgot to watch your other captives. But no matter, we know where the escaped fox and that human are headed. Sister, step aside and I shall set the trap.” To the unknowledgeable onlooker, it would have appeared as though she had done nothing but stare into her sister’s catch false worlds, but in fact she was working with her mind to weave the perfect net for her prey, and placed it in a spot where he could not help but step. Finally she turned away with a nod of satisfaction. “There we are. Soon that speck of a human will be out of our hair and we shall feast undeterred upon those little men.”

* * *

Yusuke and Hiei had enjoyed a good long spit swapping session intermingled with a conservation about all the dirty things they would like to do with one an other, when they get out of this mess. Now, all conversation and kissing had ceased, because something had changed in the library. Before, they had been pursued by a host of dull witted, rather silent phantasms. Now crashing sounds assaulted the air. Books falling to the floor, wood being rendered apart, and this strange sound like a boiler back firing, “pfft pfft pfft.” Whatever was making the noise, it was nearby. Yusuke and Hiei both sat cradled in the giant lamp globe, each holding the other in a protective manner, wondering if they should dare to poke their heads out and see what the commotion was, at the risk of giving away their position.

The sound was getting closer still, “pfft pfft PFFFFTTTT!” Through the frosted glass they could see a glow swell and plumb out over an area not too far away. The telltale cracking and the smell of smoke were unmistakable. The library was being set on fire! Being a fire demon, Hiei was neither concerned about the smoke nor the flame harming him. However he was not so sure about Yusuke. To some extent, the boy’s physic defenses would protect him. But in the long run, there was no telling how the Toushin would stand up to the inferno that was building outside of their glass hiding place. Again those sounds, “pfft PFFFFTTTTTT!!” And another glow sprung up, directly beneath them. They could feel the heat permeating the glass. The globe made small screeching sounds as the surface absorbed the heat.

Hiei cursed to himself as he took Yusuke by the hand, explaining, “We have to move. At these temperatures, the glass is going break!” He hauled Yusuke up to the rim and once again took Yusuke up in his arms. Out of the corner of his eye he saw another plumb of fire bloom and then he saw the creature that created it. It was a large shapeless thing, like an enormous garden slug, save that it didn’t have any antennae, nor did its skin seem as soft and fragile in nature. It looked tough leathery and dry. When it reared up, Hiei could see twin rows of thrones on its belly which it must use as a means to propel itself. It stared to make those sounds again, “pfft pfft….” As it did so its sides puffed up and organs glowed just under the skin. Then, “PFFFTTTT!” Its great gummy mouth opened and it spit flame onto a stack of books which almost immediately turned into a cinder. The hungry flames spread and released vast amounts of black coiling smoke.

Yusuke coughed, tearing Hiei’s rapt attention off of the worm-creature. He needed to get Yusuke out of there before he suffocated. He told Yusuke to hang on, like he needed to be told. Hiei leapt from the hanging lamp fixture to land lightly on the forth floor balcony. Just in time, as it was moments after Hiei sprung, the glass exploded in shower of bits and shards. He set Yusuke on his feet and looked back. By now the flames had already engulfed the entire floor beneath them and were quickly climbing to the second.

“Come on,” he urged Yusuke to follow him as he set off into the dark recesses of the library. The library was vast so there was a good chance that some of the farther reaches of it were not yet aflame. If they could just stay ahead of the flames, they might stand a chance.

“Lookout!” Yusuke warned. A skeletal form flowed around the corner, making a grab for Hiei. Luckily, Hiei did see it in time and bounded back from it.

“Damn, I almost forgot about these things,” Hiei cursed.

“Shit,” Yusuke breathed. More of the specters were emerging from the stacks. They had Hiei and Yusuke hemmed in from the front and their flanks. The fire was at their backs. What now? Should they try to push their way past the life stealing phantoms of take their chances with the fire?

As it would turn out, a decision would not be necessary, because at that moment a swash of clean silver light slashed through one of the phantom things, cutting it in two. It shrieked and vaporized. The silvery patch remained hanging in the air like a hole in space, which was exactly what it was. The other creatures started to flee as the rip expanded. Entire sections of the library was peeling back and falling away as if it were only a poorly hung backdrop the entire time. The floor shook beneath their feet as the cracks tore the wood and carpet like paper. Then the floor simply dropped out from under them.

Yusuke only fell for a second. He opened his eyes that he did not realize he had shut, to see what had stopped his fall. He opened his eyes to find himself staring down into slightly amused emerald eyes. Yusuke felt the heat well in his cheeks as happy tears threaten to gather in his eyes. Kurama was smile for him beautifully.

“Kurama…” Yusuke was sure that the smile he returned could only qualify as goofy, but it seemed to alight exhilaration in the fox’s eyes.

Kurama sighed in return, “Oh, Yusuke….” As he hauled him even closer to mesh their lips. Yusuke opened his mouth and their tongues met in a fierce tangle. Kurama still hadn’t placed Yusuke’s feet on the ground, so the boy wrapped his legs around Kurama’s waist as they continue with their happy reunion. The two were so caught up in their passion, they may well have made love right there standing up in the vast white nothingness, if not for the comical yelling taking place not two feet from them.

“God damn it Kuwabara, put me down!” Hiei yelled. Apparently he had opened his eyes to find himself in being held aloft by a grinning Kuwabara.

Kuwabara bounced Hiei in his hands, which nearly completely encircled the small males waist. “Dang Hiei, I knew you were tiny, but who knew you was so light. Ha ha, it’s like playing with a itty bitty baby.” He emphasized the point by tossing Hiei in the air a bit and catching him, and then he spun around, “Weeeee! Ha haa!”

“Damn it I can and will kill you!” Hiei wailed and kicked his legs.

Kurama and Yusuke watched the display and soon broke out laughing. Hiei shot them both a glare and protested that it was not funny. But they continued to laugh proving that it was indeed funny. Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama laughed until their sides hurt. It felt so good to laugh. It felt like it had been a thousand years since they had last laughed like that. Hiei pouted, but with out much conviction, because truth-be-told it felt good to hear his friends laugh-- even if it was at his expense. After the past few days of forced isolation, it felt good to be together again. He was even happy to see Kuwabara. On that point, Hiei made a mental note to stop by Reikei, later, to check to see if hell had actually frozen over.

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TBC….
A/N: Sorry if this one took awhile to get out, life ya know it causes delays. Okay, teaser time; Cue Smile Bomb! All the boys are back together again, that means every things going to be okay, right? Oh, but lets not forget that Kuwabara is standing on a trap and its getting ready to spring! With Kuwabara out of commission how will our sexy demon trio escape this maze of worlds and how will they defeat those twisted sisters? Next time!