"Interesting ..." Xeros's approach was cut short by Hiei's blade being placed against his throat. A dark smile crossed his face, leaning forward so that the edge of the blade just barely pierced his skin.
"Ah ... poisoned, how unusual." The smile grew darker, and the others drew back slightly in surprise. Yukina and the other girls, Keiko, Shunusuke, and Botan, scurried so that they were between Yuusuke and Kuwabara.
"But of no matter, no matter how unusual it is for a kitsune to be reborn as a human. Please, follow me." Xeros turned to leave, a thin trickle of his blood still upon Hiei's sword.
"Why should we follow you?!" Yuusuke made no secret of his suspicion of the stranger.
"Do you really have a choice? You can meet the others now, or stumble upon them not knowing who might be friend and who might be foe."
Before the others could speak, Hiei's voice cut smoothly through the opressive air. "We will come with you."
Elsewhere, others were having more trouble than Xeros in persuading the groups they had found to come back to the main area.
Zelgadis fumed, silently putting up with Nuriko's attempts to make him smile, while warily making sure that Amiboshi and Suboshi didn't do anything to the rest of his group.
Amelia was in dire threat of her group stuffing her in a tree stump and striking off to find the main area alone, due to her constant justice speeches.
Lina had found it much more convenient to dump cold water on half her group, stick the animals in a cage, and carry them that way while the rest trailed along behind them.
Gourry had his hands full just remembering where the main group area was, let alone whether or not it was a good idea to let Washu expirement with some tissue samples.
Firia had already tried to hit Kusanagi twice, and only managed to nail him once. The rest of the TAC had not been too happy with her, but had followed anyways.
Rezo had the joy of keeping Pirotess and Deedlit from slitting each others throats, and their men were of absolutely no help at all. Ashram simply found it all amusing, and Parn was a wimp when it came to Deedlit.
Sylpheel had to heal Mink twice, due to Lufa's incompitence with her lightning staff, and her normally cheerful nature was being stretched to it's limits.
And back in the main area, Mokona hopped around, said 'Puu' a lot, and generally drove everybody nuts.