Kurama was already walking towards the school gate when he heard someone call his name. He turned around as soon as he heard the familiar voice.
"Wait up, Shuichi-kun!" Riya called as she ran towards him. "I thought you still have a club meeting today."
"It was canceled because of the faculty meeting with regards to the Rose Festival," he answered, and then he began to walk. "And besides, Yusuke talked to me a while back before he and Kuwabara headed out first."
"Yusuke? Why would he talk to you?" she asked innocently. 'Don't tell me the demon shinobi are on the move again...'
However, Kurama remained serious. "I can't tell you the details right now." 'I couldn't tell you that we'll be facing another danger with regards to the mission Koenma made us do,' he sadly thought in addition to what he said.
"I see." Then silence fell.
"Where are you going, by the way? Is the soccer match already over?" he asked after a short while.
She nodded as she faced him. "Yeah, but Yukari-chan and I will head downtown to go to Ayako-chan's shop. We'll be having some issues to discuss."
When they reached an intersection, it was when Riya took her leave.
"I'll see you tomorrow at school, Shuichi-kun. Be sure to get ready for the practice, okay?" she mentioned with a smile.
Kurama returned the gesture and waved as she walked away from him. "I will. Be careful on your way."
And with that, she left him. But it took a while before he finally head to his destination. Somewhere in his heart, he was feeling guilty for not telling Riya the truth about his mission along with Yusuke. But he couldn't afford to endanger her any further after she got hurt from the demon shinobi's last attack at the school. He couldn't watch her get hurt because of it.
'I'm sorry, Riya. But I couldn't find a chance to tell you everything. Maybe one day... I could. But not right now. I couldn't let you face the same danger as we are.'
After that, he turned and headed to the park where Yusuke asked to meet him along with the others.
xxxxxx
At the park...
Kurama arrived and he saw that Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Botan were already there waiting. As for Hiei, he was still out of sight.
"Sorry about the sudden call, Kurama," Yusuke said as soon as he arrived. "I've been sensing the Flute of Melody's energy lately and some demon shinobi, as well. It's been a while since they last made an appearance to any of us."
"It's alright, Yusuke. There might have been some activities regarding our enemy and the wielders recently that we don't know," he said. "But I noticed that the wielder of the Arrow of Wind hadn't made an appearance along with the other wielders at all. Not even once."
And when they thought about it, the three realized that what he said was true.
"Now that I think about it, you're right," Botan said. "But I also think that Hiei had so much confrontation with the wielder of the Dragon Sword of Flame recently. Or at least that's what I noticed."
"Fire versus fire, huh? It's going to be one tough battle when that happens," Yusuke commented.
"I have to agree with Urameshi on that one," Kuwabara added. "But if that's the case, why wouldn't he just arrest the wielder and take the weapon from her? That way, our mission would be finished in no time."
"I don't think it would be that easy, Kuwabara," Kurama countered to what Kuwabara said. "You must have forgotten their ranks in terms of powers."
When Kuwabara remembered that part of the legend told to them before, he just scratched the back of his head and laughed. "Oh, yeah. I forgot about that."
But before anyone could react to that, they already sensed a powerful evil aura hovering near. And when they looked up to the sky, they saw several dark-colored shards coming toward them. With that, they leap away from that place to avoid the shards. But that was when they made a mistake. When the shards struck the ground, they immediately turned and came after them faster than they thought.
Yusuke used his Spirit Gun to blow up the shards coming after him to bits. Kuwabara summoned his Spirit Sword and tried to strike and destroy it to pieces. Kurama used his Rose Whip to cut the shards. Then one small piece of that cut shards entered his body—something that he hadn't noticed.
They successfully destroyed the shards, but the damage it caused upon impact to the ground was massive. Soon, many people would be coming there to check it out and it would be trouble for them. When they looked at the sky, they noticed a demon shinobi floating in mid-air.
"You're good, Spirit Detectives," a female demon shinobi commented and then smirked at the sight of the damage on the park grounds. "I'm not surprised you had escaped that low-level attack."
But before they could say anything else, they felt a sudden gust of wind that distracted them. When it was over, they looked around and then up. They were surprised to see the night sky suddenly turned starless, cloudy, and red.
"What happened? What was that wind all about?" Yusuke asked as he continued to look around. "This place suddenly turned creepy after that."
"We're inside a dimensional barrier, one that disables the damage was done inside and it won't affect anyone who was outside the barrier," Kurama stated. "Someone among the wielders must have cast this barrier to prevent catching attention."
"They're capable of doing that?" Kuwabara asked but no one managed to answer since they weren't sure about it.
The demon shinobi tightened her grip on her staff and then swung her arm, throwing another batch of shards that were much bigger than the first.
"You got to be kidding me!" Yusuke shouted before he stretched out his index finger and fired his Spirit Gun.
Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to destroy the shards coming toward them. But then Kurama began attacking.
"Rose Whip Slash!" he shouted as he strike the shards many times, slashing them to bits. But then he never anticipated the incoming attack from the shards and the demon shinobi's staff-turned-sword.
The shards that were cut out front still came towards him and struck him to his left arm and waist a few times. The sword of the demon shinobi came down to his shoulder and an ear-splitting scream pierced the stillness of everything inside that dome.
"Kurama!" Yusuke and Kuwabara screamed while Botan just gasped loudly at the sight because of shock.
xxxxxx
Somewhere inside that dome, four people were trying their best to hide from those who were there and at the same time watching the ongoing battle. Soujiro, Yukari, Ayako, and surprisingly Riya were there since they sensed the demon shinobi's presence from Ayako's shop. Upon Riya's command, Ayako cast a near-impenetrable dimensional dome—a force field of some sort—to mask magical effects from public views as the attacks of the Spirit Detectives and the demon shinobi.
At the sight of Kurama getting hurt by those two surprise attacks from the demon shinobi, Soujiro clenched his fist and tightened his grip on the Scythe of the Deep Waters. Yukari did the same thing even though she was shocked. Ayako could only tighten her grip on the Staff of Shimmer as she gritted her teeth because of anger. Riya's eyes widened as she threw her hands to her mouth to prevent herself from screaming because of shock from witnessing Kurama had gotten hurt.
"That demon bastard!" Soujiro hissed in anger.
Yukari looked at her brother and then to Riya who had not said anything after witnessing that sight. They just looked at Kurama who dropped to the ground after that attack. They saw Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Botan rushed to his side as he clutched his bleeding shoulder and was panting slightly.
"Riya-chan..." Ayako called. "Are you alright?"
But no response came out of her. Instead, she just stood a little further from the other three and then faced both Soujiro and Yukari.
"Yukari-chan, Soujiro-kun, create a defensive barrier to surround those four. Ayako-chan, lower the strength of the barrier for a bit," she said and then she sighed. "I guess I'm left with no choice but to use it now."
The three wielders immediately understood their mistress' plan.
"As you wish, mistress," the three said in unison and positioned themselves to do their tasks.
As for Riya, she began materializing with a beautiful and glowing bow and arrow in her hands.
'She finally summoned it... the Arrow of Wind,' Ayako thought when she glanced at Riya.
Riya immediately positioned herself with the bow and arrow in her hands. Her eyes hardened at the sight of the demon shinobi laughing at what happened to Kurama. She began stretching the string of the bow with the arrow on it as her eyes began to narrow.
'Let's see if you can still laugh like that after this, demon shinobi!' She angrily said in her thoughts and then the arrow began to glow in bright yellow. Crackles of lightning began surrounding the arrow, as well. She aimed the arrow at the enemy before shouting a spell and releasing it.
"Luminous Thunder!"
The moment she released it, the arrow pierced the demon shinobi's body almost instantly before exploding after some seconds of electrocution. The Spirit Detectives were surprised at that sight but they were glad that the demon shinobi was dead.
Yukari looked at her after that. "For a moment there, I thought you're going to use the Storm Eagle spell to kill that wretched demon shinobi."
"I was planning to," she said nonchalantly. "But then I remembered that Ayako's force field couldn't cover up the damage that the Storm Eagle spell would leave at the scene."
"But this is surely getting harder for us to hide much longer," Soujiro commented. "If only we could make them understand the true purpose of the Legendary Weapons, then perhaps we won't be having a hard time at all."
Riya sighed after that. "Maybe someday, we could make them understand."
With nothing left to do, she left the scene. The others later followed her after releasing the barrier and the force field they cast a while back.
xxxxxx
"Okay, that was an unexpected turn of events," Botan commented after witnessing their enemy's death.
'It was from the wielder of the Arrow of Wind. He finally made a secret appearance along with the other wielders,' Kurama thought as he tried to stand up despite the wounds he acquired. Yusuke helped him do so.
"Can you still walk, Kurama?" Kuwabara asked. He nodded in response.
"Anyway, we need you to be healed. I'm sure Master Genkai could do it. She's in Yusuke's apartment, though. I hope you could still walk that far," Botan stated as she looked at him worriedly.
Kurama managed to smile despite the pain from his wounds. "I could still walk. But..."
But Yusuke somehow figured out what made the demon fox worried. "I'll try not to let Riya know you're hurt. Besides, I'm sure she'll yell at me big time when she finds out you're doing a mission with a delinquent person like me. She'll smack my head several times when that happens. Her punches are even worse than Keiko's."
The redhead laughed at that. And then they finally headed to Yusuke's apartment.
xxxxxx
The next day...
The class was talking a little louder than usual since it was the start of their practice for the play they were about to perform for the Rose Festival. They were given a full two and a half months to practice since the festival was a month-long celebration and the play would be performed as part of the ending celebration.
Class 2-C's play that was entitled Beneath The Sakura Tree was said by Miss Ryuuzaki to have acquired the highest score from most of the teachers. That was why they agreed that it should be performed last. Several preparations were made and the other roles had been assigned so all that was left was to practice. As for Class 2-D (Yusuke's class), they were going to do a theatrical play as well, using Ayako and her partner's piece. It would be performed two days before the presentation of Class 2-C's play.
Riya arrived at the school earlier than usual and began reading the script as soon as she arrived. But then she noticed that she couldn't concentrate on what she was reading because of her worries about a certain person.
Kurama.
Her worries for the said redhead were becoming intense slowly but steadily as each second passed. Kurama hadn't arrived yet and she was worried that something might have happened to him after the battle in the park last night.
'I hope nothing happened to him...' she hoped as she continued to read the script.
After a few more minutes, Kurama entered the classroom. Ayako was the one who spoke first upon his arrival which made Riya stop reading.
"You're late, Minamino-kun," Ayako said with her hands on her waists.
Kurama only smiled at that. "Sorry, Kirisawa-san. For some reason, I woke up late than my usual wake-up time." And then he proceeded to his seat.
Riya raised her head as soon as Kurama reached his seat and what she saw made her frown a bit. "Are you alright, Shuichi-kun?"
Though caught surprised by her question, he smiled and answered. "Yeah, I am. What made you ask that?"
But that smile didn't ease her worries for him. Still, she responded. "You... looked pale... As if you're sick. Are you sure, you're alright? If you're sick, you could go home and we could just practice the other scenes. You don't have to force yourself to come here if you're not feeling well."
"I'm... fine, really," he insisted. "So you don't have to worry about anything, okay?"
She sighed exasperatingly because of that and stood up from her seat which surprised him. And what surprised him, even more, was when she stood in front of him and leaned closer. Now they were facing each other with only a few inches of distance. She stared at him for some seconds before she lifted her hand and laced it on his forehead; her eyes still have worries etched in them.
"You're burning up," she uttered after a short while. "I think it's for the best if you head out to the clinic since it appears to me that you don't have to go home because of this."
He shook his head before he stood up. "I'm fine."
"Well, you're not!" she said. "So don't insist on something you're not and stop being a hard-headed and insisting person."
He looked at her intently for some seconds before he sighed and laughed.
"What's so amusing?" she asked confusingly.
"You are," he answered after laughing. And then he faced her. "But you're right. I'll head out to the nurse's office now... and—" But he never managed to continue what he wanted to say when all of a sudden, everything around his sight began to blur and his mind slightly spun. After that, his surroundings became black as he collapsed in seconds but he still managed to hear Riya call out his name.
"Shuichi-kun!"
And that was all he remembered.