It didn't take long for the police to appear on the scene since they hadn't been too far away. Kuwabara sat beside his sister with his head bowed down and his shoulders convulsing every few seconds or so. A few sobs would rip jaggedly from his throat but other than that he remained silent. Before the cops had arrived and Rika had walked off Yusuke was left staring blankly ahead into the darkness of the forest around him.

Distantly the dying sounds of the festival could still be heard, a shout here or a particularly loud laugh, but in the area around the tool shed there was only silence and death. His eyes flicked down to Kurama, he always seemed to know what to do, but he appeared just as lost as he felt. It was something that as a team they had yet to deal with, Genkai had died during the dark tournament sure but she had come back. They always came back no matter how grim the situation, in the end they were always together tired but at the same time laughing about the crap they had just had to endure.

Yusuke wandered over to the body of Maebara and stared down at him with contempt. He hated him for what he had done but knew inwardly that it wasn't necessarily all directed towards the other boy. He hated himself for letting it happen. It was after all in the end his fault for allowing his team mate to be killed since he was the one they all seemed to follow, why he still wasn't quite sure. They had beat team Toguro in the dark tournament and since things had more or less been calm. They had walked into Hinamizawa with that chip of victory on their shoulders only now to see the folly of their ways and where in the hell was Hiei?

It was then that Yusuke heard a group of people approaching. They were pushed back by several officers while flashlights were shined around and spotlights were set up bringing to light the gruesome scene. The three of them were asked questions as to what happened and as usual it was Kurama who answered the police. Even for him it seemed too surreal to actually be happening.

On the other hand his genius mind began processing everything around him making sure not to skim over a single detail. It made him question again Rika's theory that she was moving from one world to another but only this time it made him wonder if maybe she were right. Mentally he shook his head; it wouldn't make sense. Once again he reminded himself, if that were the case this would be considered a 'dead' world.

"I'm detective Ooishi. My officers informed me that you knew the girl. I am very sorry for your loss." The rounded man said as he sauntered over bringing Kurama out of his thoughts. The three remained silent. "So you kids were here for the festival?"

"That is correct." Kurama replied his voice soft.

"And you're from Tokyo, right?" Ooishi asked. Kurama merely nodded his head once. "Your friend her name is Kuwabara Kesaki?"

"Keaka, her name is Keaka. She doesn't like Kesaki." Kuwabara said suddenly as he clenched his fists tightly. "She never did, ever since we were little."

"You've known her a long time then?" Ooishi asked.

"All of her life. She's my…my…little sister." Kuwabara managed to choke out as hard as it was with the words sticking in his vocal cords.

"I am sorry for you and your family Kuwabara-san." Ooishi said. "I'm going to need to take you three down to the station, ask some questions if you feel up to it of course."

"Detective Ooishi, if it's all the same to you we would prefer to wait for morning?" Kurama asked.

"Of course uh…Minamino-san right?" Ooishi asked receiving another nod from Kurama. He turned his gaze to Yusuke. "And Urameshi-san. I understand. That's fine. Are you boys staying in the village or Okinomiya?"

"Okinomiya?" Yusuke asked narrowing his eyes somewhat.

"Yeah you had to have passed through if you came up this way to Hinamizawa." Ooishi said.

"You'll have to excuse my friend. None of us are exactly in our right frame of mind." Kurama interjected quickly swiping the look of contemplation that crossed the detectives face clean.

"Right, of course. Well at any rate do you guys need a ride down into town? It's quite the haul especially at this time of night." He said straightening out his expression.

"Thank you but no." Kurama said. "If there is nothing else…"

"You guys are okay to go for now but just remember to stop by the station in Okinomiya tomorrow. I'll make sure your friend gets where she needs to go and again, sorry." Ooishi said walking away.

"Kuwabara…" Yusuke said tugging at his friend's sleeve.

"I know Urameshi, it's just…do you think they'll let me sit with her for a little while?" Kuwabara asked clearing a sob from his throat.

"Given our current situation Kuwabara I highly doubt this will be the last time any of us see Keaka." Kurama said walking away.

"What do you mean by that?" Yusuke asked following close behind his friend with Kuwabara right beside him as they walked into the darkness of the forest.

"The miko said that she was a part of their village. From what I can gather from her she believes that she goes from one world to another. Each time she ends up in Hinamizawa repeating similar events but a few things always seem to stay the same. When we arrived here both the village and town were deserted. If we say that perhaps Rika does travel from one world to another then that would mean this Hinamizawa and Okinomiya were already destroyed and she should have moved on. That is what causes me to believe that she has never left this place along with the rest of its residents." Kurama talked fast and walked even faster as his brain ran more quickly than his mouth was capable of doing.

"What?" Yusuke asked Kurama's explanation refusing to process in his mind.

"This place is cursed and we have found ourselves in its epicenter." Kurama stated.

"So those really are ghosts?" Yusuke asked shoving his hands deeper into his pockets.

"Ghosts, shadows or perhaps an illusion of people who died here." He said.

"Created by the demon we were sent here after." Yusuke stated.

"It's possible. At this point I am not throwing away anything." Kurama said.

"But my sister's dead. I know a little bit about curses and if it is one then it means she's trapped here now. It means that she's become a part of it." Kuwabara had stopped walking and stood with his head bowed down slightly. He wasn't sobbing anymore and the tears had ceased leaving him with a sore throat and a headache but knew if he could he still would be.

"We'll get her back Kuwabara." Yusuke said.

"And what if we don't Urameshi? What if we can't get her, what if we're all trapped here and this is where we end up; just some ghosts haunting a dead village." Kuwabara shouted. Yusuke took a step back looking down at the ground.

"Now is not the time Kuwabara. Once we get back to the inn we can discuss it. Unfortunately it will take us some time before we can come up with a solution." Kurama said shooting a glare back at the two of them which resulted in silence.

The rest of the walk was a quiet one. Whether it took them a while to reach the hotel or not neither could tell. Their watches still weren't working and the stars seemed transfixed in their place unmoving. The three team mates walked into the inn exhausted from what had transpired. As they entered their room the beds came into all of the view.

"I'd give anything just to be able to lay down and sleep." Yusuke stated falling down fast first onto the mattress. Kurama sat down on the bed opposite to him while Kuwabara sat in a chair that was located in a corner of the room.

"As much as we would all like to rest I don't believe it would be wise." He said.

"Yeah, no shit. Who knows how much time would pass if we did." Yusuke replied. Kurama nodded in agreement.

"Once we learn more about how time passes then we can sleep in shifts." Kurama said after a few minutes had passed but received no answer from Yusuke. He watched the teen for a few moments watching as he breathed slowly and sighed realizing that he had already fallen asleep. "Or not."

Kurama stood up walking over to his friend rolling him over onto his back. The last thing they needed was Yusuke suffocating himself in the blankets. It never did cease to amaze the fox how bad luck seemed to follow the boy. His eyes flicked to Kuwabara who had his head lolled back slightly breathing steadily. He wasn't asleep yet but he soon would be.

'Perhaps it is for the best that they rest. Who knows what we may come across here.' Kurama said. He walked over to the window pushing the curtain aside slightly to peer outside. The sun shone brightly as if it were late morning when he was certain they had only been in the room for a few minutes. Without any further hesitation he walked over to the night table that sat between the two beds against the wall. He searched through the drawer finding no pen or paper. He sighed deeply before walking out of the room making sure it was locked securely.

If he had been able to tap into his demonic energy he would have erected a plant barrier in front of the door ensuring the two wouldn't be able to leave until he came back but relented to simply leaving a message at the front desk.

"It is of the utmost importance that they do not leave the inn until I return. Can you please relay this message to them?" Kurama said to the girl at the desk. She wrote it down and nodded offering a pleasant smile. "Thank you."

Kurama walked out of the inn onto the sidewalk making his way past others as they hurried by. In any other case he wouldn't have paid any of the inhabitants much mind but given the situation he eyed each cautiously. He examined them but aside from obviously being stuck in the past they didn't appear any different from any other person. His mind ran over again what he knew about Hinamizawa and Okinomiya.

He knew that he had heard about Okinomiya as being associated with the village that lay an hour or so away but had never known its name. Most of Hinmizawa's residents had commuted daily for either work or school but it did have its own residents. He knew from what he had been told that Hinamizawa had been wiped out by a natural disaster. While most of it he had learned from just what children had whispered on playgrounds when he was smaller he knew that the overall legend of the village was true.

Given what Rika had told him however he had to take into consideration the involvement of Takano Miyoko. If she were in fact responsible for what had happened in the village then why was she still there? Had something happened to her as well that made her a part of Hinamizawa as well? Was she even initially responsible for what had happened?

Kurama knew that demons enjoyed playing games. He stopped dead in his tracks as an icy fear gripped him. It cascaded down his spine causing him to shudder despite the onslaught of humidity in the air. His heartbeat sped up tenfold at the prospect of what he had thought.

'If a demon was the one responsible for what had initially happened here to cause the deaths of its residents and abandonment of the town then who is to say that it hasn't kept their souls here for its own amusement.' Kurama thought. It wouldn't be unheard of. There was nothing that most demons found more amusing then messing around with the human world and its inhabitants but how could it have gone on so long undetected?

If a demon had been responsible for murdering all of the village's residents then keeping their souls trapped it would mean that what they faced was extremely powerful and intelligent; a very bad combination. Kurama tuned his senses back in seeing that he had walked himself to a bus stop. He looked at the sign that read 'Hinamizawa'. Underneath it someone had scribbled the word 'onifaguchi'.

'They couldn't be more right.' He thought to himself. If he could get away from people then he was almost certain the walk up to the village wouldn't be a full hour and even if it was he had to get to the village for that was where his answers were hidden.

Yusuke woke up groaning and rubbing at his forehead yawning loudly. He sat up rubbing at his face bewildered for a moment trying to recall where he was before remembering the events of the night before. If that's all it had been, the night before. He was upset that he had fallen asleep not knowing how much time had passed since.

He did a quick scan of the room seeing only Kuwabara.

"Where the hell's Kurama?" He asked aloud to himself. He stood up walking over to the door that led into the small bathroom to find it empty. "Son of a bitch!" Yusuke cursed opening the door only to slam it shut behind him. "After all of his big fancy talk that we should stay together the fox boy goes and takes off."

Yusuke stalked past the desk. It was vacant otherwise he would have asked if Kurama had said where he was going even though it didn't take too many brain cells to figure out where they all should have been. The air outside the inn was hot and sticky leaving Yusuke at least grateful he had worn a short sleeve shirt as opposed to his heavy school uniform jacket.

He passed other people on the street seeing them but not paying any attention to them still feeling his stomach knot uncomfortably at the fact that they were walking amongst the dead. If what Kurama had said were true anyways. He wanted to believe that it was just an illusion but knew from his time being a ghost that it was possible for a spirit to become transfixed to one place. He had helped enough of them move on to know that when they were determined enough that that was that. Without a sock in the jaw there was no moving them especially when they didn't know that they had actually died.

He hoped that it wasn't the case with Hinamizawa but realized, with some nausea, that it probably was what was going on. It was an awful scenario. At least he had been able to figure out he had died when he was unceremoniously run down and then thrown into the back of the meat wagon but what about a person who had gone to bed and never woken up or at least not physically. The idea hit him like lightening jolting him down to his very core.

"Please just let all of this be an illusion." He said aloud not wanting to have to deal with what may happen to the residents once they took care of the demon because he was going to get his hands on the that demon and he would make sure to get in a lot of good punches before it was all said and done.

He came to a bus stop reading the sign that indicated that it went to Hinamizawa. Despite his best efforts he couldn't suppress the shudder that followed reading the word 'onifaguchi' underneath it. If what Kurama has said was right then if he could get away from people, and he was fairly certain not many people would willingly walk up the village road, then he should be able to get to the village in a short time. He knew ultimately that that was where he had to go whether he wanted to or not.

Periodically Kurama had checked the position of the sun as he had walked up the mountain road and saw that after a while it had stopped moving. His watch remained immobile whether he was around anyone from the area or not. As he walked over the large bridge that led directly into the village he attempted to push down his earlier thoughts of what was going on in the area in order to think clearly.

There were a few houses here and there but everything was spread out over the large area of the village. He stopped only momentarily at the base of the steps that led to Furude shrine sighing as he did so before walking on.

"Hey, wait up!" A girl called out that forced him to stop cold. Everything in his body seemed to freeze at the voice and the sudden rush of footsteps that followed.

"Well you're the one being so slow." Another said in response. Slowly Kurama turned around blinking a few times in order to make certain he was in fact seeing everything clearly.

"Keaka!" He shouted out forcing her to put her brakes on as she ran nearly crashing to the ground. She turned around and smiled at him pleasantly. He walked over to her cautiously examining her as much as he could. Her hair was pulled back tightly on her head into two pigtails that hung down on either side of her head leaving her bangs resting loosely against her forehead. Her top was a simple white short sleeved button up with a navy blue ribbon tie around the collar. Her skirt was the same navy blue color and came to rest halfway down her thighs. White knee high socks and brown school shoes finished her ensemble.

She appeared to be in good health which only caused Kurama's fear to thicken. She smiled at him as if they were friends in passing or rather acquaintances.

"Good morning." She said politely bowing somewhat in respect.

"Good morning Keaka. Where are you headed?" Kurama asked cautiously.

"To school of course, Keichii-kun and I are late so we have to be heading off now." She said simply brushing him off.

"Keaka, wait; you don't go to school here in Hinamizawa. You attend school in Tokyo." He said feeling confident if he could ease her away from Maebara then he could help her. His eyes turned to the boy who watched the scene innocently enough. None of the former malice he had directed towards him for being with the girl was projected as he stood by patiently waiting for her.

"Oh, well I've transferred here to Hinamizawa." She said smiling happily.

"Transferred?" Kurama asked feeling his voice dry out in his throat.

"Mhmm." Keaka said with a nod. "I'm staying with Ryuuga Rena and her father. They were nice enough to let me stay with them."

"Keaka what about your family; your sister Shizeru and your brother Kazuma? I highly doubt they would simply let you move all the way up here to Hinamizawa." He stated.

"They understand." She said simply. Inwardly Kurama screamed to her to come with him but knew it fell upon a deaf mind.

"I don't think that they will. You know how protective they are of you. Not only that but…" He continued only to be cut off abruptly.

"I said they understand!" Keaka screamed loudly closing her eyes tightly. The sudden outburst caught him off guard as he stopped speaking. She appeared angry, extremely angry. Kurama took a step back as she reopened her eyes. For a moment they held nothing behind them. There was no emotion, no light and no life; they were dead eyes. In an instant they came back into focus and she smiled sweetly at him again. "Well we have to going now. I'll see you around Minamino-san." She said formally.

She walked off with Maebara. Distantly he heard the boy ask her how she was feeling but soon they were gone from view. Kurama tried to swallow down his fear and doubts but knew it was pointless. The only time his friend had ever called him so formally was when she was angry at him. He didn't know what exactly to make of the situation but knew that Kuwabara Keaka was lost to them.