The brothers watched her go, both looking startled.

She landed accordingly in Genkai's temple, and this time she even stayed. Which meant everyone started hurling questions at her.

Well. Almost everyone. Hiei watched from a short ways away, rather amused.

Naomi blinked as she was bombarded by questions even before she could get her feet back under her.

"One at a time?" she ventured as she tried to brush the dirt off her pants with one hand, the other holding the book.

"What have you been doing?" Genkai demanded, since she commanded respect and had shoved her way to the front of the group. She was slightly irritated that her garden was being used as a landing pad.

"I'm trying to figure that one out myself," Naomi replied. "As far as I can tell, my stepmother had this irritating magic book, and I stole it, and now I'm trying to make it behave." And that was pretty much the SparkNotes version of the last six hours or so. She glanced around at the group, and then glanced around the general area. It took her a moment to spot Hiei up in one of the trees, and her youki reached out to brush his before she realized it.

Hiei smirked faintly at that and he returned the gesture, though carefully. He didn't move over, but he was keeping track of her.

"That doesn't tell me why you've been popping in and out like Yusuke on a sugar rush."

"Hey! Old bat!"

"Shut up, dimwit."

"That wasn't my fault," Naomi protested even as she was inwardly pleased at the return gesture. "The book is irritating and smug and likes to twist my words around, and it was flinging me around in circles until I managed to make it stop." She held the book up, although she didn't offer it to anyone. She rather liked being in control of her transporting, at least for the moment.

"So a book is throwing you around through universes?" Yusuke asked doubtfully, looking at it. "Looks normal to me."

"Dimwit." Genkai whacked him. "It doesn't feel right. Come inside. I'll make more tea." That was aimed at Naomi.

"This book has bad juju," Naomi said to Yusuke as she followed Genkai inside. "You can't tell me you can't feel it. Hell, I felt it as soon as I saw it. You cannot tell me you can't tell, you're at least three levels higher than I am."

"I can tell," Yusuke grumbled.

"When you're paying attention," Genkai snapped back at him.

"Shut up Grandma!"

Hiei snorted at them and brushed her youki again, having already felt a difference.

Naomi glanced at Hiei even as her youki brushed back. She hadn't realized it before, but she'd actually kind of missed his particular youki signature. She set the book aside as she sat down and waited for the tea.

Genkai finished with the tea and set mugs down.

"Now. I think you need to explain this better," she said, sitting down across from Naomi. She was curious, but she also wanted to know exactly what she was in for.

Naomi set the book down in front of her and accepted one of the mugs.

"To be honest, I'm not sure how to explain it in any other way," she said. "My stepmother had this book, which I'm convinced is the root of the entire problem, and I stole it, and then all of a sudden Osa and I were being thrown in a big circle and landed elsewhere. Then I started to experiment a bit to try to get the thing to behave."

"And you seem to have figured it out, at least partially," Genkai observed. "As you're not currently bouncing in and out again, like you have been over the past few hours."

"Only through carefully-worded orders," Naomi admitted. "I don't want to do that again, it was nauseating." Reaching out, she opened the book to the middle pages again. May as well see if the book had anything snarky to say this time.

You'll get used to that. Your kind isn't designed for multi-dimensional travel, you know. It would be much easier if you didn't have a physical body to haul around.

Yusuke leapt out of his seat. "What the hell?! Books are not supposed to do that!"

Ah, a bright one. Good to know education is still highly valued these days.

Naomi sighed and closed the book again.

"And that's what I meant by irritating magic book," she said. "Somehow, it never fails to deliver a condescendingly insulting comment. And hell if I know where Niobe found the damn thing."

"Peculiar." Genkai looked at it briefly before she shrugged. "I doubt I'll be much help. All I know is, it's not from here."

"And you should just burn the damn thing," Yusuke grumbled.

"I considered that option," Naomi replied. "First one I thought about. But if it gets torched, then I'm stuck here and Osa is stuck elsewhere and neither of us are home." Which seemed to be the entire problem: the book was bad, but they still needed it.

"Well, that sucks." Yusuke huffed. "Where is she, anyway? Thought she stuck with you." It had seemed like it to him at the time, anyway. Osanna hadn't seemed to be far from Naomi at any given point.

"Three worlds back," Naomi responded. "I wanted to see what would happen to me first before I dragged her along with me again." She finished off her tea quickly. "And in fact, I should be going back to get her."

"Um." None of them seemed quite sure what to say to that. "See you soon, then?"

Hiei snorted at them and looked at her briefly before going to settle himself somewhere again. Because clearly he was not going to be fussing over her. Ever.

At least, not where anyone else could ever see them.

After a moment of thought as to how she would word this particular order, Naomi figured that 'three worlds back' would work well enough for her purposes. After all, the book had been dropping her at the same place she left from so far, right? The world disappeared from around her after she gave the order and two more worlds flashed by before she was dumped face-first into a snow bank.

The sudden snow surprised her, but the surprise quickly turned into a sort of childish glee as she rolled over and made a snow angel.

Hiei, of course, landed on his feet. Because he always did. He glowered briefly at everything, taking a few moments to take stock of things, before he moved over to Naomi, leaning over her just a little and peering down at her.

"What are you doing? And why are you just laying there?"

Naomi jumped in surprise when he suddenly leaned over her, making her ruin the admittedly half-assed snow angel she'd made.

"What are you doing here?" she asked once she managed to get her heart rate back under control. She paused as she registered his questions. "I like the snow. I thought that would be obvious."

"It would seem I got pulled along with you." Hiei made a face, looking around at the snow. He had no idea where they were; nothing looked or smelled familiar, which was throwing him off. And he was Not Pleased. He hadn't started to blow things up yet, which was always a plus.