Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Shattered Gates ❯ Chapter 11: Why You Should Never Have Candy For Breakfast ( Chapter 12 )

CHAP 11

A week or so passed and Yukina approached the Team with a very simple request.
"Karyuu-donno, I'm afraid there's a bit of a problem..." The ice-apparition said that morning, crimson eyes a little wide.
Karyuu frowned a little and looked up from her tea.
"What is it, Yukina?"
The others looked up quickly and immediately ceased the usual morning chit-chat, becoming intent.
"Well... it isn't anything too serious..." she said awkwardly. "I just thought -"
"Please, Yukina," Kuwabara said earnestly, his honest face intent. "Tell us what we can do to help you... you know we'd do anything to help..."
Yukina's face flushed and she clasped her hands tightly in front of her.
"It's nothing... I just thought I ought to tell you we are running low on groceries, and I was wondering if maybe you could pick a few things up... restock our supplies, I mean..."
Karyuu smiled a little, hiding it behind her teacup as she took another drink and directed her eyes up to the ceiling, allowing the stunned, mildly embarassed flinch that passed amongst her team-mates to pass before she spoke.
"Well, that's no problem," she said with a nod. "I guess we can take the day off for chores... Do you have a list of things we need?"
The ice-apparition smiled and nodded, reaching into a fold of her kimono, retreiving a peice of paper, (folded neatly) and handed it to the shorter woman, who unfolded it, opaline eyes moving over the surprisingly long list before she looked back up at her.
"How long have you been waiting to give us this? There are at least three different black inks on this..."
Yukina fidgeted and then smiled a little.
"A few days, Karyuu-donno..."
The elfin woman shrugged, choosing not to say anything about the honour-prefix the gentle demoness had attached to her name, (miss-directed as it was), and finnished her tea.
"Okay, but don't wait so long, next time... It's no trouble..."
Yukina bit her lip and smiled almost guiltily, understanding passing between she and Karyuu as the others shrugged and returned to their breakfast.
*****
And so, an hour later, the Urameshi set out though the forest on their way to the bus-stop, leaving Hiei and Yukina at the Temple to procure the items on the extencive list of groceries the ice-apparition had requested.
"So... what's on the list?" Yusuke asked with a yawn.
Karyuu pulled out the paper and began to list off the items, ignoring the groans that accompanied the continueous list, not bothering to look up at the path they were walking on... not that she needed to, her acute sences warning her of any obsticle in her path that might trip her up.
"Well, let's see... there's rice, tuna, milk, egg noodles, soy, flour, bread, eggs, chips, doughnuts, toufu, sugar..." Yusuke winced inwardly as the list was read off to him, growing steadily as they walked.
'I shoulda' stayed in bed...' he thought irritably, having taken the last watch the night before. 'Faking sick is better than going out to get that much stuff this early in the morning...'
"... Egg-plant, onion, Carrots, pepper, toilet paper, soap, tea, apples, honey, pepper (ground), dish detergant, cherries, wasabi -"
"Alright, alright!" Yusuke muttered, shoving his hands deep in his pockets. "I get the idea..."
"You're such a bum, Urameshi," Kuwabara said, clapping his friend on the shoulder. "It's just grocery shopping. It ain't like you've gotta' wash all the flag-stones in the Temple with your tooth-brush..."
"Shadd-up, Kuwabara," he muttered sourly. "You just wanna' show off for Yukina..."
"No I don't!"
"You don't, huh?"
"Er, I do, but this is just because it's gotta' be done... Yukina does all the cooking, and we do all the eating, so the least we can do is do the shopping for her!"
"He has a point, Yusuke," Karyuu murmured.
The Spirit Detective sighed quietly.
"Yah... I guess so..."
"Cheer-up, Yusuke," Kurama said lighlty. "We're going to get food... that's one of your favorite things."
"Only if I'm eating it," he muttered sulkily, making Karyuu laugh at him.
*****
The four caught a bus into the city and the three men spent most of the ride telling their elfin team-mate about the various shops and stores in which they could find the items, and some of the more interesting elements of Tokyo.
Yusuke made a point of mentioning a specific candy-stand on the way to the large grocery store they were heading for, and eventually, Karyuu took the hint and asked if they had particularily good candy.
"Yah, they're really good, they're chocolate is the best and they've got really great mint-things -"
"It's nine o'clock in the morning, Yusuke," Kurama said pointedly.
"Yah, so?"
"It's a little early for sweets, isn't it?"
Yusuke just blinked at him and the fox-demon shook his head tiredly as Karyuu giggled.
"Let's go," she murmured. "I have to see the candy you're raving about..."
And so, the four made their way to the main-street which held the promise of candy and, (more importantly), groceries, stopping at the little stall set up at the mouth of a side-ally that litterally perfumed the air with the smell of sugar in virtually every form imaginable.
The Spirit Detective immedeately selected a bag of peppermint hard-candies, whos scent she recognised from his jean jacket before stepping aside to let the others get to the stall.
After a few minutes of numerous suggestions, Karyuu finally selected a small bag of chocolate-covered almonds and made her purchase, not really paying attention to the vendor as Kuwabara spurred a loud arguement by stealing one of Yusuke's mints.
"Aww, cmon Urameshi!" He cried as the shorter man punched him none too gently in the shoulder for his sticky fingers. "I don't have any money on me..."
"Too bad for you! Paws off!"
"Here, Kuwabara, take mine," Karyuu murmured, slipping the bag into the tall young man's coat pocket with a wink. "I'm not very fond of sweets this early..."
He grinned at her, mouthing a "Thanks a lot." before the four returned to their quest for more nutritous sustinance.
******
After re-directing the energy of the two young men back to the task at hand, they continued on their way, Yusuke happily munching on his mints, (keeping them safely hidden from Kuwabara), and Kurama leading the way, they moved once again toward the grocery store. There, after a virtual whirl-wind of extremely disorganised shopping insued, they had fulfilled the extensive list, (with a few additions that Karyuu added in the way of exotic foods and spices in the import section), they checked out, a pile bulging of white and red plastic bags held in each of their fists as they made their way back to the bus-stop...
*****
An half an hour later, the bus-ride delivered them to the remote stop on the side of the highway and they had just stepped off of the bus and begun moving down the barely visiable dirt track that lead to the Temple but were forced to stop again when Kuwabara halted dead in his tracks and snapped his fingers.
"Damn! I just remembered something!"
"What now?" Yusuke demanded.
"Shizuru's outta town and we'll be running out of cat-food!" Half a beat passed and he grinned at them sheepishly. "I've gotta' run back and get some food for Eikichi and take it home..."
Karyuu sighed and took his bags from him, adding half to her own pile, the other going to a helpfull Kurama.
"Get your cat some food,"the elfin woman said, handing him a twenty-dollar bill. "Go on, we'll be waiting for you back at the Temple."
"Thanks Karyuu, I owe you one!" He called over his shoulder, jogging quickly back up the slight enbankment to wait for the next bus.
'Loveable ox...' She thought with a smile and a shake of her head, as she picked up her alotment of grocery bags and pleasantly ignoring Yusuke's grousing, she and Kurama escorted the irritable Spirit Detective back to the Temple, leaving Kuwabara to tend to the business of pet-maitnence on his own.
*****
Two hours passed and still Kuwabara haddn't returned, a fact that didn't really worry the others, since his affection for his little furry family-member was well known to all, they simply assumed he was having fun visiting with Eikichi.
"I don't understand why he likes cats so much," Yusuke muttered to himself as he and Kurama moved out to the main courtyard to bother Hiei in his tree. "For a tough-guy, he's sure got a weird choice of pets."
The Kitsune chuckled.
"There's nothting wrong with cats, Yusuke. They're formidiable hunters and one of man-kind's oldest companions."
"Yah, but they're fuzzy and they go 'mew'... How the hell can a tough guy have a pet that goes 'mew'?"
**Better than a blue penguin that goes 'puu!', though, eh? ;) **
Kurama seemed about to answer, but a sudden, decidedly unpleasant sensation deep in his stomach made him stop dead in his tracks, on hand going to rest on the source of the odd feeling.
It was almost as if his stomach muscles were clenching together as if in great agony... and yet he didn't seem to be having a genuine physical responce. The best way to describe the sensation would be to call it a memory of a severe pain suffered and healed a long time ago... and by the pale look on Yusuke's face, he was feeling it as well.
"What the hell?"
There was a blur of motion before them, and Hiei appeared, his normally expressionless ruby eyes narrowed a little.
"Something's wrong."
They nodded and were about to call to Karyuu, when a blur of motion passed them and began to run down the stairs, her voice sounding in their minds as they automaticaly began to follow.
"Hurry and follow me!" She cried, bounding ahead of them like a barely-visiable spirit flickering through the undergrowth. "Kuwabara's in trouble."
"What?"
"You feel that weird sensation in your gut? Like an old pain that isn't really there?" She demanded, starteling them with the curt harshness in her tone.
"Yah..."
"Well, that's a shadow of what he's feeling... He's in a lot of pain, and I don't know why... He isn't answering me."
A surge of surprise, followed by varying degrees of worry and genuine concern flickered between the members of the Urameshi Team, and they began to run faster, closing the distance between their elfin team-mate as much as they could, trying to keep up to her as she moved effortlessly over the partial-path that would lead them back to the main road.
Yusuke's frown deepened, a feeling of dread rising in the back of his mind that he couldn't seem to shake off.
Kuwabara was in trouble...
They could feel it through the link they shared...
He wasn't answering them...
All that was left to them was to run, and hope they could reach him in time to help him...
*****
Kuwabara writhed on the floor, only able to let out a soft moan for help as he lay on his side in agony, knees drawn up and arms wrapped around his stomach as if he could ease the pain by putting preasure on the peircing pain tearing though his body. Dimly he became aware of the approaching energies of his friends... He had heard them calling to him, but the pain was so terrible that he had not been able to answer... the agony tearing at him forcing him into silence when the one thing he needed to do was speak...
'I never though this was the way I was gonna' go...' he thought bitterly, teeth clenching as a scream was cut off by another burst of agony. 'Killer indegestion... Yusuke'll never let me hear the end of it when he gets to the Afterlife...'
Sapphire eyes closed tightly as a new wave of pain washing over him, clear tears leaking out from beneath his eyelids as he curled in tighter around himself... What ever was happening was killing him, he understood that with absoulte clarity, and in a last-ditch effort to save himself, he mustered the strength he needed to gain just enough control to contact one of his friends...
*****
Karyuu raced along side Hiei, leaping over the rooftops on the way to Kuwabara's appartment building as Yusuke and Kurama raced down the street below. Something was desperately wrong, they all could feel it; a dull aching phantom-like pain in their stomachs; a tiny whisper of the pain that their friend was feeling.
"Why hasn't he called for us?" Yusuke asked within the silence of their minds.
"It's the pain, Yusuke," Kurama said, his mental voice sounding as if the fox-demon was feeling a little sick himself. "He can't concentrate enough to find us... The pain's killing him and he's afraid."
Karyuu's jaw set and she increased her speed, fighting back the urge to abandon them all and rush to her friend's aid, knowing that Kurama was right, having senced the same thing herself, but unwilling to risk the rest of the Team being attacked without her there to come to their defence, should the same fate befall them as well.
Then, very faintly, she heard her friend's voice whisper in her mind, so full of pain that it brought tears to her eyes.
"Karyuu... please... it hurts..."
"I know, big-guy," she replied as soothingly as she could. "We're coming... just hold on!"
There was no answer, and so she couldn't tell if he had heard her or not, but she feircely ignored the silver tears streaming down her cheeks, pushing herslef past the limit of any speed that she had tried to acheive before, making it difficult for the others to keep up to her, Hiei being the only one able to stay at her side as she left the others on the ground behind.
"Haul ass, people!" She said sharply to the others within their minds. "He's dieing..."
"How do you know that?" Hiei demanded uneasily, his Jagan strangely unable to get a lock on their friend's possition, as if another force was blocking him from his sight.
"He told me."
No one thought to question her and she and Hiei rebounded off of the springy metal of a flag-pole to gain an extra hundred feet before touching down again, running as fast as their legs could carry them over the roof-tops.
*****
It took less than fifteen minutes at that break-neck speed for Karyuu and Hiei to reach their orange-haired friend's home, and entering through an open bedroom window, they split up to search for him in the two-level apartment. Karyuu followed the most recent scent that caught her attention and moved down the short fight of stairs, leaving the upper floor to Hiei, and moved at speeds remenecent of those she has used to arrive there through the house, by-passing the bathroom, the laundry room, pausing for half a beat at the empty living-room, noting that the lights were still on, and a small, brown and white cat, (presumeably Eikichi), was hiding under one of the easy-chairs. Then her sensitive ears caught the sound of heavy breathing and an almost impercieptiable groan down the hall.
She moved toward the sound, and then surged forward as a pair of familiar socked feet came into view, lieing on the pale blue of the lanolium floor in the kitchen.
"Hiei! The kitchen, hurry!"
In an instant, Hiei appeared in the doorway and moved forward quickly as Karyuu knelt by her friend one hand on his broad shoulder. The orange-haired warrior's face was very pale and he was sweating profusely as his body was wracked with crippleing waves of pain. His eyes were closed tightly and his body was curled into a fetal possition, teeth clenched in a grimace of agony as every muscle under his skin trembled beneath her hand.
"Yusuke! Kurama! Where are you?" She demanded.
"One block from the apartment," Yusuke replied. "How is he? What's happened?"
"I don't know, but it isn't good... I think he's been poisoned somehow. Hurry and get here quick, I'm going to need your help."
"Right, wel'll be there soon."
She returned her attention to Kuwabara who moaned and his muscles spazemed beneath her hand.
"Don't you dare die on me, Kuwabara!" She whispered and to Hiei's surprise, he saw his dieing friend's eyes flutter open for a second and closed tightly again as a fresh stab of agony surged through him.
'She can reach him,' Hiei thought with surprise. 'Even though the pain she can reach him where my Jagan cannot... It's as if she's holding his hand within his mind, helping him focus on something other than the pain...'
Opal eyes raised to look at him, her face drawn.
"Hiei, can you get me a pillow or a thick towel for his head?"
Without answering her, the fire-demon disapeared and reapeared an instant later, handing her a pillow she had seen in Kuwabara's room. Gently, she lifted Kurama's head and put the pillow under the tall man's head to pad him against the hard floor on which he withed. The two heard a pounding on the front door and without being asked, Hiei left and returned, having opened the door to admit Yusuke and Kurama, who were both breathing heavily.
The Spirit Detectives' brown eyes widened as his gaze fell on Kuwabara lieing on the floor, and he immediately came to kneel beside him, face worried.
"What's wrong with him? Why haven't you done something yet?"
"Because I don't know what's doing this to him," she snapped, pulling off her jacket, and tossing it to the side out of the way. "Now help me roll him onto his back, and hold him down."
Obediantly, Yusuke and Hiei helped to roll him over and held down his thick arms at the shoulder and wrist while Kurama moved to hold his head still, keeping it from thrashing from side to side, a soft sob escaping their friend as he strainged against them, trying automaticly to curl back into the fetal position, his honest face a mask of pain; pale and sweating, teeth set as his body slowly died.
Karyuu bent low, opal eyes searching his face, her hand gently touching his sweating forehead, cheeks, neck, and paused over his chest, feeling his heartbeat rapidly beneath her palm, his ragged breathing hissing between clenched teeth. Her frown deepened as she looked at him.
"Poison..." She breathed, reaching out to take his pulse.
"Can you repeat what you did for Hiei?" Kurama asked as a new bout of agony made their friend spazam again, but Karyuu shook her head. "Can't you withdraw it from him with a Jewel?"
"Not if I don't know what it is. I could end up poisoning myself if I'm not careful, and then we'd really be screwed..." she leaned forward and sniffed at him, drawing back sharply with a grimace, before reaching behind her as if to grasp the dagger at her back. "There's only one way... If we're lucky..."
"Hey! What're you doing?" Yusuke demanded in alarm.
But Kurama shook his head at him as he saw her hand move past the knife to the pouch he hadn't noticed there before tied to her belt, nimble fingers untieing it to bring it around.
"It can't be as simple as that..." she muttered, quickly untieing the string and dumping the contents onto the floor beside her.
"What's simple?" Yusuke demaneded, the strain of watching his friend die beginning to wear on him.
"I think he ate some Lambros, in the almonds on the table... and I think I've got the antidote here..."
"He will die before any antidote has a chance to take effect," Hiei said quitely.
"True, but if I can neutralize the poision in his mouth, then maybe I can draw it out from the rest of him the other way," she replied, sorting through tiny white triangular packages bearing archaic writing they regognised as the Language of the servants, and after selecting one, she tore it open with her teeth, moistening two of her fingers to the first knuckel and diped her fingers in the fine black powder, carefuly setting it asside as the others looked on.
"Hold him down, the antidote has some nasty side-effects and he's going to thrash around a lot."
The others looked at her in alarm, nut tightened their hold on him none the less, theire faces set.
Karyuu used her free hand to open his mouth, parting his lips over clenched teeth and trached his lips inside and out with the black powder, as well as his teeth, suprising the others as it frothed white on contact.
"Strong dose..." She muttered darkly with a shake of her head.
Frowning she diped her fingers again into the packet before prying his clenched teeth open with strong fingers, prompting an agonized groan from him, eyes squeezing shut tighter, his body straining against the hands of his friends as sudden tears gathered in his eyelashes, glittering like tiny diamonds. Quickly, Karyuu put her powder-coated fingers into his open mouth, coating his tongue with the antidote with a pass of her fingers.
Instantly, Kuwabara let out a strangeled cry and he thrashed wildly, forcing his three team-mates to use their whole body wieght to hold him down. Karyuu was not so lucky, however and the tall young man's teeth clamped down hard on her fingers and as she let out a low hiss of pain, Hiei and Kurama caught the sudden strong scent of her blood free from her skin. Hiei's ruby eyes flickered to her face and he saw pain there, but there wasn't even a flicker of anger in her opal eyes. She pryed open his mouth with a supprising amount of difficulty, (no doubt as a result of trying not to hurt her friend further, than any contest of strength), freeing her injured hand, her blood dripping slighlty, mixing with the white foam that now covered her fingertips.
'Damn it, he's dieing...' Yusuke thought, feeling hot, angry tears rise behind his brown eyes as his friend's face contorted in pain. 'C'mon, Kuwabara... fight it man!'
"We're loosing him, Karyuu," Kurama said urgently as Karyuu absently whiped the blood and foam off of her fingers on her jean-covered thigh, her eyes intent on Kuwabara as he continued to thrash and struggle convulsively against his friends hands.
"Just a few more seconds..." she murmured quietly, opal eyes not leaving him for an instant.
Then suddenly, Kuwabara's body went riged, his whole body convulsing violently. Quickly, she swung her leg over his body and leaning forward, she sealed his mouth with her own, ever-changing eyes closing as she did so.
Yusuke, Kurama and Hiei felt their jaws drop in surprise as their eyes went wide in absolute shock.
'What in the Nine Hells, dose she think she's doing?' Hiei wondered as tears trickeled down Kuwabara's cheeks.
But then, a soft red-orange glow enveloped the tall warrior's body, and the three heard a strange rushing sound, like water flowing very fast over rough stones with in their minds. The glow brightened and began to pulsate and shift, begining to move through the big man's body and seemed to concentrate in the center of his broad chest, moving up into his throat, a soft cry escaping Kurama as it moved up into his mouth before dissapearing into Karyuu's. They watched her, transfixed as she slowely pulled away and straightened her eyes remaining closed as her body tensed and arched slightly as her mouth opened, silver tears straming down her cheeks as she exhaled sharply, expelling a smoky cloud of glowing red-orange mist that swirled angrily in the air above her. Kurama and the others shied away from it, though they maintained their respective holds on Kuwabara and watched, stunned as she slumped a little, breathing hard as Kuwabara's body went limp beneath her. She quickly slipped off of him, coming to kneel beside him once again, using the back of her injured hand to wipe her silver tears away as she looked down at him, opaline eyes still intent.
"Karyuu... What is that?" Yusuke asked uneasily, eyeing the seething cloud floating uncomfortably close to his face.
She raised her eyes and met his breifly before extending her good hand and the swirling smoke condensed and solidified into a tiny round Jewel that dropped into her waiting palm.
"It's a Jewel of Affliction," she said quietly, closing her fingers around the tiny jewel before leaning forward again, this time pressing her ear against the tall man's chest, unable to hear it over the pouding of the others around her.
"But... it looks different from the one you made when you helped Hiei..."
"Different poison, different Stone," she replied absently, falling silent as she listened intently to the workings of the living body under her.
She was releived to hear that his heart-beat was back to normal, and that his breathing was quickly slowing to a more healthy pace, a fact that made her smile as she raised her head again, fondly brushing his sweat-soaked curls out of his face, now calm and peacefull as colour began to return to his skin, opal eyes meeting the questioning gaze of the others, looking tired but pleased.
"Here, keep this for him," she said quietly as she handed the stone to Yusuke who received the jewel on a shrinking palm. "Don't loose it... You can let go now. The poison is in Yusuke's hand and Kuwabara will be fine..."
Slowly, they released the tall warrior and absently, Yusuke found himself streightening his friend's clothes that had been pulled askew during his struggles without really thinking about it.
"Are you certain?" Kurama asked looking at the red-orange gem in his leader's palm.
She nodded and got slowly and stiffly to her feet, looking very tired, wobbeling a little where she stood.
"Yep, I'm sure... let's get him onto the couch in the living room; the floor isn't doing him any good."
They agreed and together, they lifted him up and carried him quickly to the livingroom and deposited him gently on the couch.
"Why isn't he waking up?" Yusuke asked, automaticaly going to a linnen closet to retreive a thick flannel blanket and covered his sleeping friend with Karyuu's help.
"His body needs to get a hold of itself and throw off the last of the effects, " she said in a gentle whisper. "Making a Jewel of Affliction takes a lot out of a person... and the one that made it. He'll wake up in a couple of minutes, achey, but perfectly fine..."
She broke off as she felt a warm hand close over her right wrist, raising it up to eye-level.
The elfin woman turned and was surprised to see that the hand belonged to none other than Hiei. He didn't meet her eyes and instead raised her hand to look at it, ruby eyes inspecting her injured fingers emotionlessly. She frowned a little, surprised by the act and further by the little, barely perceptiable frown that touched his usualy stoic face as he turned her wrist left and right. Then, using his free hand, he pulled the white bandana from his head and tore it in two, with his teeth. Left with two thin strips, he held one in his teeth and wraped one finger and then the other, bandaging her wounds before he let her go.
The smell of her blood was bothering him...
"Thanks," she murmured quietly.
"Hn."
There was a breif, awkward pause before she returned to the plight of their sleeping friend.
"We're lucky we got here when we did," her eyes moved to the peacefuly sleeping young man and anger flickered behind her opal eyes. "That crap would've killed him if we got here five minutes later..." she paused and them moved into the kitchen again, followed by Yusuke, leaving Kurama and Hiei to watch over Kuwabara.
She bent and picked up the unopened packets she had left on the floor, replacing them in the pouch and put it back on her belt, before she absently lifted the used packet of black powder into the air with a burst of air, dropping it in the empty sink before making it burst into flame, producing a smell similar to burning toast. Karyuu got slowely to her feet again and staggered a little, leaning heavily on a chair next to the kitchen table for a moment, closing her eyes as a slight dizzy spell touched her.
"Hey," Yusuke said, coming forward, hesitantly touching her shoulder, surprised at finding her muscles trembeling beneath her shirt. "You okay?"
She nodded slowly with a sigh.
"Yah... I'm fine," she said, turning away from him, her head bowed. "I'm just... tired..."
Yusuke frowned as he saw the knuckels of the hand gripping the back of the chair went white, as her grip on the metal chair tightened, her fingers denting the metal ever so slightly before she quickly released it, not wanting to damage it too badly. He forced her to turn to face him , seeing a balefull rage in her eyes that almost made him draw away from her.
"What is it? You know how this happened, don't you?"
Her jaw clenched and she looked away.
Dull anger he had been holding at bay rose sharply to the surpace and he caught her by the shoulders and shook her, brown eyes blazing.
"Tell me!" He snapped in a harsh whisper. "Tell me who did it!" Her eyes were angry as she looked up at him, though her anger wasn't directed at him, but at the one who had tried to murder their friend, and his voice softened a little. "Tell me, Karyuu..."
"Don't ask me, Yusuke," she whispered quietly, such pain and anger in her voice that his own anger was reduced again to that dull throb, quelled by the look in her eyes. "Please... not yet... I'll explain later, I promise, but please don't make me do it now."
The Spirit Detective frowned at her for a moment, and then reluctantly, he nodded slowly.
"Alright, Karyuu, but if you know something... you oughtta' tell us."
"I will... just not right now... tomorrow... I promise tomorrow, when Kuwabara is strong enough to get back to the Temple..."
She broke off as both pairs of eyes fell on the deadly chocolate almonds sitting on the table that had almost cost Kuwabara his life, her expression darkening. She scoweled and waving her hand at it, she made it float into the sink, melting it into liquid with a small burst of heat and then burned the paper to a fine dust that crumbled into the stainless steel of the basin.
"I'll contact a friend of mine after we get Kuwabara settled and find out who's responsiable for... this," she growled, moving to the counter and running the water to wash the ash, chocolate and black powder down the drain, hot water steaming as she increased the tempreature to just below boiling. "And then I'm going to deal with the one responsiable... I'm not sure how, but I will."
"We will," Yusuke corrected firmly, and before Karyuu could answer him, a quiet voice caught their attention.
"Karyuu? Yusuke?" They turned to see Kurama standing in the kitchen doorway. "You had better come quickly. He's waking up."

Sharing a look, she and Yusuke quickly followed the red-haired demon into the living room where Hiei stood a distance away from where Kuwabara lay, ruby eyes watching as the orange-haired team-mate began to stir.
Karyuu moved forward and sat on what little space was left on the couch beside Kuwabara and touched his cheek lightly with her fingertips as sapphire eyes opened slowly, and he groaned softly, shifting uncomfortably as his aching muscels protested his conciousness.

He blinked and focused of Karyuu who smiled gently at him.

"How's it going, big-guy?" she asked quietly.

His eyes widened suddenly and he sat bolt upright, embracing her tightly with a releived laugh, Karyuu looking slightly startled, but she laughed and patted the tall man's back in a comforting way.

"I guess that means he's feeling better," Yusuke said with a laugh.

Kuwabara released her quickly, an embarassed grin touching his face as he looked at all of them as if waking from a dark dream to find himself surrounded by close friends.

"You guys heard me..."

"No, Karyuu heard you," Hiei said plainly, his tone bored, the concern that had been there before safely stowed away again. "We were only forced to endure the feeling of it."
"And we ran our butts off to get here," Yusuke added, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "You owe me a new pair of sneakers, Carrot-top."
Kuwabara laughed quietly.
"Do you remember what happened?" Kurama asked, their tall friend's face sobering immediately.
"Not really... I went into the kitchen and took a bite out of the chocolate almonds Karyuu gave me..." He said slowly. "Then I went to the fridge to get some milk, but before I got there... a pain hit me here," he said laying one broad hand on his stomach as the memory of the agony that had taken him returned. "And then I was on the floor... I don't remember much after that, except the pain... the kind you can't really ignore, ya' know?"
Karyuu nodded slilently her face betraying the kind of sympathy only availiable to one who has suffered the same.

"I don't know how long I was there... I was sure I was gonna' die but I managed to pull it together enough to call for you guys..." He smiled and rubbed the back of his head, wincing slightly as his muscles protested even that simple movement. "Heh, heh... Guess it worked..."
"Lucky for us," Hiei said sarcasticaly, prompting a slightly irritated look from everyone in the room, which he firmly ignored, (despite the fact that not one of them was convinced that he was serious).
"Do you feel well enough to go back to the Temple?" Kurama asked and Kuwabara winced slightly, shifting his possition on the couch.
"Well... yah, I can go..." But as he tried to swing his long legs over the side, he paused, and fell back with a grunt, a frown touching his face. "On second thought, maybe I oughtta' just lie down for a while..."

Karyuu laughed quietly and patted his arm, (much more gently than she would have done normally), and got to her feet.

"You feel like you've just been hit by a small train, right?"

He nodded.
"Where do you keep your medicine?"
He tried to point, winced and then nodded stiffly in the direction of the bathroom she had by-passed in her search for him, and the elfin woman moved off in that direction, checking through a few cubboards before returning with a glass of water and a white and red bottle of Tylonol.
She gave him two, handed him the glass, (which he drank quickly), and then set the bottle down beside him, before reaching into her pocket to produce a small pad of paper and a black marker. The Servant of Gaia then began to write something rappidly over the length of the long, rectangular paper as the others began to relate the tale of what had happened in order to save their poisoned friend as he listened intently. After the story was over, Karyuu had made eight pages worth of writing and Kuwabara's curiosity was satisfied at least a little.
"Man..."
"Yah," Yusuke said quietly, his demeanour oddly subdued for a moment before brightening again under his indominable spirit. "But Karyuu got that stuff out of ya', and now everything's cool..."
"No, Yusuke, it isn't," Kurama said quietly. "There's still the matter of how the poison entered the candy in the first place."
The Spirit Detective sucessfully mannaged to surpress a wince as the fox-demon spoke; he had perpously avoided that fact to give Karyuu time to do whatever it was she needed to do before she spoke to them about it, but Kurama's brain wasn't put off that easy.
'Sorry, Karyuu... I gave it a shot...'
But it seemed that the elfin woman had been aware of their red-haired team-mate's intentions, and when he turned to look at her, he had fournd that she was gone.
"Karyuu?"
"Over here, Kurama."
Blinking they all turned to find her standing at the base of the stairs.
"I just set up a few Protection Wards on your house, Kuwabara," she said coming forward again. "Is that alright?"
He nodded.
"Yah, sure... thanks..."
"No problem... Anyway, it'll be getting dark soon, and two of us ought to stay here with you until tomorrow..."
"I don't need a baby-sitter, Karyuu!" The tall young man said defencively.
"No, you need body-guards," she said in a placating tone. "You really don't want to try and fight much of anything when your muscles are as pissed off at you as they are now, do you?"
He frowned and then hunkered down almost poutily in his blankets.
"No..."
Hiei rolled his eyes skyward and Yusuke laughed.
"Don't worry, Carrot-top, I'll hang around," the Spirit Detective said with a grin. "I won't let the big-bad-boogy-man get you..."
The tall warrior glared at him, pointing a thick finger at him threateningly.
"If I wasn't so sore, I'll break your face, Urameshi," he growled and his oldest rival-turned-best-friend smirked at him, folding his arms over his chest.
"Yah, right, Doofus, in your dreams..."
Kurama ignored the insuing banter and turned to look at the elfin woman, his emerald gaze almost pleading, and she gave him an apologetic look.
"I've got to contact an old aquaintnce of mine to see if he knows anything about this," she murmured, and they both glanced at Hiei, who gave them a 'don't even think about it' look before they looked at one another again. "Sorry..."
The fox-demon shrugged and ran a hand through his hair.
"It's alright... I'm certain they'll tire of fighting... eventually..."
She smiled at him, and after manageing to gain the attention of the two Human men yelling at one another long enough to say her good-byes, she left, closely followed by Hiei before the two sepperated, the fire-demon going back to the Temple and Karyuu into the city to gather the information she needed.
*****
Once the two team-mates arrived at the Temple, Karyuu breifly related the events of the day to Keiko, (whom Yukina had called after the four had dissapeared and had insisted on coming over), and Yukina herself.
The opal-eyed Servant had spent almost an hour trying to convince the ice-apparition that Kuwabara was fine, and that her healing abilities would be of no real use to him at the moment, eventually suceeding in keeping her within the safety of the Temple grounds, (much to Hiei's releif). Keiko had been worried as well, and fussed about the three team-mates staying in the orange-haired giant's appartment without the full protection that surrounded the Temple to guard them, but finally seemed to calm at least a little as Karyuu quickly moved to tell her about the Wards she'd placed all over Kuwabara's home.

The rest of the day was conducted in a sober kind of silence, Hiei keeping watch in a tree by the red arch that served as the Temple's front-gate, Keiko and Yukina remaining close together, talking about what had happened that morning and afternoon in hushed voices, leaving Karyuu free to 'contact' her 'old aquaintence' for information about the day's near-fatal events through means that were beyond their knowledge.
Needless to say, Hiei was less than re-assured.
Anger, on Kuwabara's behalf (which he would never admit to willingly), was boiling inside of him, the coincedence that the tall Human had been the one to first discover the little secret Karyuu had been keeping from the Team, and his subsequent near-assassianation weighing heavily on his mind.

He doubted that Karyuu had intentionally endangered the baka, her anger, fear and releif had been betrayed quite clearly through the link she shared with them, but there was no doubt in his mind that she was responsiable, at least in part for what happened today, with the attack of the Bone-Devil months ago, and the mysterious poisioning of the seemingly innocent bag of candy she had given him.

'The time for waiting is over. The Servant will explain herself and the secrets she has been hiding willingly, or I'll force it out of her,' the fire-demon thought darkly. 'I want answers, damn it...'
Of course, he knew that Kurama would probably protest this train of thought, but at that point, Hiei didn't really care.

He hated not knowing things, and the fact that Karyuu was keeping a secret that had endangered his fri... his team-mate was nothing short of infuriating.
When the sun set, he was going to get some answers from the mysterious Servant, one way or the other.