Osanna yawned briefly as she walked back towards her house, which was directly across the street from a childhood friend of hers. Everything else was quiet; it was after 2 a.m. and she'd gone off on a walk, unable to sleep and too restless to stay in bed.

Which is exactly why she paused when she heard something odd from the forest that started just beyond their property, looking over into the trees. Odd. Animals didn't come this close, so it had to be something else... She took off at a jog towards the trees, not even caring that she was in sweats and a t-shirt.

Ed groaned softly as he sat up, holding his head. That had hurt, whatever the hell that was. "Al?" he asked, starting to look around for his little brother. He could see nothing but trees around him, which freaked him out just a bit. "Hey, Al! Where are you?" He got to his feet a little unsteadily.

Hiei's eyes opened swiftly and he remained motionless as he started to feel around. He couldn't sense anything that unusual; Kurama and Yusuke were nearby, but beyond that... nothing. He couldn't feel anything outstanding beyond that. He got to his feet, looking around cautiously. Forest. Not that unusual. His eyes narrowed as he heard something moving near them.

"Ow..." was the first thing Yusuke said as he sat up. "Did I fall asleep on a rock or something?" He paused when he realized he wasn't at home. "Okay. What the hell is going on this time?" He got up quickly, his headache fading once he got moving. "Hiei! You're here too?"

"Obviously." Hiei glanced at the spirit detective and away again.

"Wherever here is. You have any ideas?" Yusuke looked around. He'd been run through Genkai's forest enough times to know it by now, and this wasn't it. He took Hiei's lack of response and general bad mood to be a 'no'. Just perfect.

"No need to shout, brother, I'm right here," Alphonse replied, sitting up. His body ached a bit, which was still a new sensation for him, so he wasn't entirely sure whether or not the ache was a bad thing yet. Carefully, he got to his feet and looked around. The trees were very unfamiliar, and even the air smelled different than what he had gotten used to at home. "Brother, where are we?"

Kurama was also awake by this time. He was able to tell immediately that they were in an unfamiliar forest, but his attention was momentarily diverted when he heard Yusuke not too far away. Getting up, he took a quick inventory of any potential injuries. Finding none, he followed the sound of Yusuke.

"I am here as well," he spoke up when he found his friend. He nodded to Hiei as well. "Are you both alright?"

"I don't know," Ed admitted after a few moments, frowning as he looked around. "This place doesn't look right..." He was quiet for a few moments, looking over at Al. "Come on, let's go take a look around. Maybe we'll see something familiar."

"Yeah, we're fine," Yusuke said, looking around. "Kurama, please tell me you have some idea where we are..." He did not like not knowing where they were.

Hiei glanced sharply through the trees. "Someone's coming," he said, his voice quiet. But his hand rested near the hilt of his sword, and Yusuke turned the direction Hiei was facing, tensing for a fight.

Osanna was still jogging through the trees when she saw flashes of color, and then she stumbled on the three. Her eyes widened and she paused instinctively; she hadn't expected to find people out here...

Al nodded.

"Right," he said. Looking around would probably be their best bet for now. They had no idea where they were or what could be around them, so looking around would give them a chance to get their bearings.

"I'm afraid I don't know where we are," Kurama replied when Yusuke asked. "I'm as clueless as you are." He turned when Hiei said that there were others around. It only surprised him a little. Even if they didn't know where they are, there had to be someone around who did.

Ed started walking, having picked a random direction. He didn't see anything for a while, and he'd glance back at Al every once in a while. "You seen anything familiar yet?" he asked. He had a sinking feeling the answer was no, still. Just where were they anyway?

Osanna looked at the three males in front of her, sizing them up instinctively. She frowned a little as she looked at them.

"Who're you?" Yusuke asked as soon as he saw Osanna. She didn't seem threatening, and he couldn't feel any spirit energy from her. Just a human, then?

Osanna's frown deepened when he spoke, and she considered them for a few moments before she motioned for them to follow her, beckoning them over.

"What's the matter? Don't want to tell us?" Yusuke took a few steps closer to her anyway.

Al walked with Ed, glancing around every so often. A random direction was better than no direction at all.

"No, nothing looks familiar," he said. "This is really weird. How do you think we even got here in the first place?" He was sure Ed would come up with a couple of theories, at least. His brother was good at that.

Kurama frowned slightly when the young woman didn't speak. Something seemed off, but he couldn't quite place his finger on what. Then again, this entire placed seemed a little bit off. Still, it seemed unusual that Yusuke wasn't getting any replies from her...

Ed looked around again. "Well, it looks like we've been moved somewhere else entirely," he said quietly. "Someone had to have done this intentionally. Things like this don't just happen. But I don't know where exactly we are, or why someone would do this."

Osanna let out a huff of air and whipped out her cell phone, texting at lightning speeds. Need help! Get out to the forest ASAP!

She sent the message on its way to Naomi before turning to the boys again, beckoning to them again.

Yusuke watched her for a few more moments before he walked over to her. "What's up?" Normally he didn't care one fig about strangers but this was weird. Sure, they were in a strange place, but that wasn't new. The fact that the girl couldn't, or wouldn't, talk was.

Hiei, on the other hand, stayed back with Kurama. Let Yusuke get into trouble if one of them was going to.

Naomi's cell phone lit up and chimed at her from her nightstand. With a groan, Naomi reached out from under the blanket and felt around for her phone. She had to read the message twice before she really understood it. Sighing, she got up and pulled on a pair of pants and a sweatshirt, shoving her feet into a pair of shoes. There had better be a good reason for this.

"Then we need to figure out what happened," Al said. "Maybe we can figure out how to reverse it." He looked around. Everything looked exactly the same, and none of it looked familiar yet.

Letting Yusuke be the one to get into trouble first sounded like an excellent idea. It had always worked in the past, at least. Kurama hung back with Hiei, waiting to see what would happen.

Osanna looked at the other two with exasperated eyes. She jabbed her finger at the two of them before beckoning again.

"Hey guys, you might as well come over here. I think if she was going to sprout fangs and try to eat us she'd have done it already." Yusuke turned to look at the other two.

"Hn." Hiei glared lightly at the detective before moving so he was closer but still not too close. He stood near a tree, watching for now.

Osanna let out a silent growl, getting frustrated quickly, and grabbed Yusuke's wrist, starting to half-drag him along in the hopes that his friends would follow.

Ed nodded and paused. "Hey, did you hear something?" He thought he heard a yelp and then quiet cursing, but he couldn't be sure. And he couldn't find the source either.

Al paused for a moment, listening. After a moment, he nodded. He heard faint voices in the distance, but he had no idea which way to go to find them.

"Yeah, I hear it," he said. "But where is it coming from?"

Kurama couldn't help but be mildly amused as Yusuke was essentially manhandled by the silent young woman. Yusuke was right, though. If the girl was dangerous, they would have realized it by now. He followed as Yusuke was dragged along.

Naomi walked through the trees, looking for her friend. Taking out her phone, she pushed the speed dial for Osanna's phone.

"Osanna, where are you?" she called, listening for the ring of the other cell phone. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"There!" Ed heard Osanna's cell phone go off and started after the sound, jogging over towards it. It was getting louder; they'd be there any second now, hopefully.

Osanna let go of Yusuke only to jump up and down and wave her arms around to get Naomi's attention. Yusuke rubbed his wrist with muttered curses. The girl might not be dangerous, but she was strong!

"Who the hell are you?"

The exclamation from Edward made Osanna turn and look at the two. Even more new people? Geeze, were they all hippies or something? Unable to articulate this, she turned to Naomi with a look that clearly said "help!"

Naomi heard Osanna's cell phone, too, and made her way towards the sound. By now, she heard other voices, so now she was curious. Her attention was grabbed when she saw motion through the trees. As she got closer, she could see Osanna waving her arms around. She could also see other people there, and even from a distance, she could tell at least three of them weren't human.

Al followed Ed through the trees. Other people, that was a good sign. Maybe they could tell them where they were. He almost tripped when Ed stopped short in front of him. He looked over his brother's shoulder, trying to see what was going on.

Kurama turned around at the new outburst, unconsciously tensing. Where did these other people come from? Were more just going to come out of the trees at random? Nothing around this place seemed to make any sense. He turned back around when another young woman did just that. He'd been able to sense this one coming, though. While she didn't feel strong enough to be a full-blooded demon, she was clearly not completely human.

Naomi stopped when she saw the group. She'd gotten out of bed for this? Some random group of people in the woods?

"I don't suppose anyone can tell me exactly why I was dragged out of bed?" she asked in general. It was the middle of the night, and she was outside in a sweatshirt when it had to be at least fifty degrees out. She had absolutely no reason to be polite about it.

Osanna walked over to her, typing furiously into her cell. Oh come on, random people in the woods don't make you curious? Besides, they're not from here. I can tell. Yeah, they're demons or part demon, but they're not from here. She handed the phone over to Naomi to read, looking at the now five people in front of her.

"What the hell is going on here?" Yusuke demanded, turning to look at Ed and Al. "And who are you two?"

"I'm Edward Elric, and this is my brother Al." Ed glared up at Yusuke. "Just who do you think you are?"

"Yusuke Urameshi." Yusuke glared right back at him. Sparks were practically flying between the two.

"This is pointless." Hiei growled quietly, looking over at Kurama. "We may as well leave him here and try to figure this out on our own."

Osanna face-palmed.

"Easy, brother," Al said quietly, putting a hand on Ed's shoulder, both to calm him and restrain him. "It's a bad idea to annoy the people who might be able to help us." He glanced at the other people. Something seemed a little strange about all of them. It was as if they were putting off a kind of energy that other people didn't.

Kurama sighed.

"Splitting up isn't a good idea," he pointed out to Hiei. "Not when we don't know the area. It's also a bad idea to leave Yusuke to his own devices."

Naomi read the message, and rolled her eyes.

"Three of them are, I gathered that one," she said to Osanna. She took an unconscious step away from the one wearing all black. He practically radiated heat, and it was making her distinctly uncomfortable. She handed Osanna back her phone. "Alright, let's get this figured out, then... It's two in the morning, and I really want to go back inside where it's cold."

Osanna stuck her tongue out as if to say 'spoil sport'. Then she turned and motioned to the others, pausing for a moment. She was not going to put the black-wearing short one with Naomi. That was just a recipe for disaster. So she started walking towards her house, where they'd be comfortable but Naomi could also go retreat from the heater.

Ed nodded. "You're right, Al." He paused for a moment when he saw the two girls starting to walk and he followed them after a few moments. "We might as well see if they know where we are and how we can get back." He kept himself between Al and the three strange men, though. He didn't trust them.

Yusuke snorted but started walking, muttering things about short people under his breath. Hiei jumped down from his tree branch to join him and Kurama. He admitted to being a little tiny bit curious.

Naomi walked with Osanna back into the house. She relaxed visibly when she walked into an almost-literal wall of cold as she crossed the threshold. Much better. She turned on the light as she walked by the switch, illuminating the room. Now that there was light, it was easy to see the one broad stripe of translucent blue in her hair, standing out against the rich brown. She brushed the blue out of her face absently and tucked it behind one ear.

"So why were you out at such an unholy hour?" she asked her friend. She knew Osanna had insomnia sometimes, but the reason tended to vary. She turned every so often to keep an eye on their 'guests.' After the mini-confrontation, she didn't trust them not to start fighting again.

Al shuddered slightly as he followed Ed into the building. He wasn't expecting it to be so cold inside. Was that normal in this place? What kind of people kept their houses cold instead of warm?

The cold surprised Kurama a little, but not much. It seemed to make sense, now that he'd had a chance to really get a feel for their 'hosts.' He still wasn't entirely sure about the quiet one, but the irritable one was clearly some sort of elemental half-blood. He glanced at Hiei and Yusuke to see if they came to the same conclusion.

Osanna sighed and picked up a pad of paper, starting to write in scrawling letters. I couldn't sleep, so I went for a jog. I felt something weird in the forest, so I went to go investigate, and I found the three weird ones. Those other two must have been out there too.

She handed over the pad of paper while she watched their five guests. The cold didn't bother her any more, since she'd been friends with Naomi for a long time. She was used to chilly temperatures.

"The hell is wrong with you people? Haven't you ever heard of heaters?" Ed demanded, shivering briefly. It had to be ten degrees colder inside than out, and outside had been a little brisk to begin with. This was just nuts.

Hiei rolled his eyes. The cold didn't bother him at all, since he just raised his body temperature to compensate. Yusuke crossed his arms over his chest, a little glad that Hiei was giving off some heat.

Naomi took one large, deliberate step away from the one in black. He was going to throw off the temperature of the entire house with that trick.

"I only turn on the heat in the winter," she said absently as she read the note from Osanna. "When it gets too cold outside. This is nothing."

Which only confirmed what Kurama thought. He stepped a little closer to Hiei as well, letting some of the radiant heat take the edge off the chill, but made sure to keep himself between Yusuke and the other newcomers. Best not to let them start arguing again.

Al rolled his eyes at his brother, and pulled his coat around him a little tighter. He didn't scold Ed for being rude, though. He got the feeling that the one comment was going to be the least of their problems.

Naomi looked at the five newcomers and sighed.

"You all may as well sit down," she said.

"Okay, stupid question, but why isn't she talking?" Yusuke asked, pointing at Osanna. He leaned back against the wall, but he didn't sit.

Ed glanced at Yusuke. Well, at least he'd asked something good. He went over and sat down in one of the chairs, knowing Al would sit by him. "And what's going on? Do either of you even know?"

Osanna looked at them all before she shrugged helplessly. She didn't have a clue. She'd just found them. She headed off to the kitchen to get something to drink. Now she really wasn't going to get any sleep.

Al did indeed sit down next to Ed, both out of habit and necessity. He wanted to be right there in case he needed to restrain his brother, which actually happened fairly often. Ed still hadn't mellowed out of his explosive temper.

"Because," Naomi replied, setting down the pad of paper and glancing over at him. She didn't offer any further explanation. "And no, we have no idea what's going on. As far as I know, you all just showed up out of nowhere in our woods, and frankly, one of us would have noticed if you were there before."

Kurama didn't sit, either, but it was more out of lack of space than personal preference. It was clear that the young woman didn't entertain much, and she only had one armchair and one sofa, with the two bothers were currently occupying.

"I'm afraid we've been terribly rude," he spoke up after a moment. "You've invited us into your home, but we haven't introduced ourselves." It was the least he could do to try to balance out Yusuke. "I am called Kurama, and my companions are Hiei and Yusuke." He gestured to the two in turn.

"...I'm Naomi," Naomi replied after a moment. "My friend is Osanna."

"Like I said, I'm Ed and this is my brother Al." Ed looked at Naomi for a moment before he settled back into his chair to try to figure out what had happened. Nothing immediately popped to mind, so he figured he'd just have to think about it longer.

Osanna came back with a cup of tea for herself and a glass of water for Naomi. She glanced around at everyone else, gave up on trying to communicate, and perched on the nearest table to just watch them all with big owl-like eyes.

"That's not a real answer," Yusuke said, turning his gaze to Osanna again. But there was no real heat in his voice. He was more concerned about how they'd gotten there. He was sure Hiei or Kurama would have some ideas, but he wanted to figure it out so he could get back home again.

"Well, you know, ask a stupid question..." Naomi replied as she accepted the glass from Osanna. Almost immediately, a faint layer of frost formed on the surface of the glass, around her fingers. She didn't notice it.

Kurama noticed, but didn't comment. If Naomi and Osanna didn't say anything about it, then it must be normal for them, and so was nothing to worry about. There were more pressing matters at hand anyways.

Al also noticed, but had no idea how to bring up the question tactfully. He'd never seen anything like it before, and was kind of curious as to how it happened, but he couldn't just come right out and ask about it. It seemed rude.

Ed, on the other hand, had no such problems. "How'd you do that?" he asked, leaning forward. The scientist in him was curious. He hadn't seen a reaction take place, but ice didn't just form on its own, not above the freezing point.

Osanna grinned and shook her head, going back to her tea. She'd let Naomi tackle that one. Not only would it take a lot longer for her to write it all out, but Naomi was better at the blunt stuff. And, from what she could tell, Ed wouldn't take it well at all.

Yusuke blinked. Those two didn't know? Who were they, then? Maybe they didn't have demons where they came from, or they just didn't know. It was an odd thought, but it made sense after a minute. Maybe they were just normal humans who didn't know anything else. Sucked to be them.

Naomi blinked. She honestly hadn't noticed the frost on the glass.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, genuinely confused. "How did I do what? What did I do?" She glanced at Osanna, as if asking for some sort of hint.

"Brother, I don't think she realized that it happened," Al murmured in Ed's ear, leaning over slightly. Somehow, it made it more fascinating. After all, there hadn't been a reaction that he'd seen, and the girl didn't realize it had happened, so there had to be some other sort of explanation.

That was interesting... Apparently the two boys had no clue that their hostess wasn't completely human. That made it clear to Kurama that they hadn't had any contact with demons in the past, at least not blatantly. That made him curious as to where they were from.

Osanna tapped the glass, wiping off some of the condensation on the outside and showing the frost. Then she went back to her tea, rather amused.

Ed nodded his agreement, still fascinated. He was half-tempted to get up and go look, but who knew how that would end. So he just sat there, still trying to puzzle out how she could have done that.

Hiei rolled his eyes at the idiot humans. He knew how Naomi had done it, and he wasn't at all curious. He just wanted to figure this mess out so he could go back to his normal life.