"Kurama! Kurama!" I called as I ran down the street, avoiding the people around me and their disturbed glances, hoping that my memory served me and the red-haired boy ahead of me was the one Botan had sent me to find. The boy turned around, startled, and I could have cried with relief. It was him. I jogged up to him. "Kurama?"

"Yes. Who are you? How did you know my name?" He asked, frowning slightly. I panted slightly, trying to get my breath back and brushing my long black hair back from my hot face.

"That doesn't matter right now. Botan sent me to find you." I said. Kurama's frown deepened at Botan's name and I remembered that she was the one who generally gave the spirit detectives their missions. "You have to come with me! Yusuke needs your help!"

He stared at me for a moment, probably trying to decide whether to trust me or not, before grabbing my arm and dragging me back the way I had come. I stumbled after him until I could get my feet under me.

"Tell me while we run." He ordered. I nodded and took the lead, leading him back to the alley where I'd left Botan and Yusuke.

"Some demons kidnapped Keiko," I explained, "To draw Yusuke out. He went after them alone, of course, idiot that he is. Botan and I didn't find out 'till 'bout two hours ago and it took a while for us to find him. Unfortunately, there were too many demons, and Yusuke was knocked unconscious shortly after we got there. Botan's with him now, but she can't protect and heal him at the same time, which is why we have to hurry."

"So you're asking for my help." He said as we made another turn onto a different street. The people near us looked at us oddly and moved out of our way. I shot him a disgusted look, ignoring everything else.

"Look, fox. If I didn't need your help, I wouldn't be asking for it. It's just that I wasn't at my best when we started fighting, and I can't do it alone now." I told him.

"Huh. So, who are you?" Kurama asked, looking at me sideways. I glanced at him, wondering why I hadn't remembered that he was so cute. Then his question hit me.

I hesitated; I usually avoided telling demons, or anyone else for that matter, who and what I was if I could. "I'll tell you later. After we save Keiko." I said finally. Hopefully, he would forget my promise and I wouldn't have to tell him who I was. It wasn't like I was planning on staying with them all that long, anyway, just long enough to refresh my memory on who they were and how powerful they were.

"Hmm," Was all he said. A few minutes later, we turned down an abandoned alley, to find Yusuke sprawled out on the ground and Botan kneeling next to him, concentrating on holding off the dozen or so demons trying to get to Yusuke off. I squatted down next to Botan.

"Hey, I got Kurama, so you can let it go now." I told her. She gave a relieved sigh and dropped the barrier. The demons hesitated, unsure if there was something else coming.

They hesitated too long.

Kurama and I leapt at them, causing them to split. The red-haired boy struck out with a thorny whip, slicing through them like a hot knife through butter before they could move. I wielded nothing more than a long dagger made of my aura, preferring to go hand to hand, this time at least. I really didn't have the power right now to dismember each with my mind only.

I had just permanently separated a demon's head from its neck when I happened to catch sight of Kurama, who was behind and slightly to the left of me. He was concentrating on a group of three or four demons and hadn't noticed that one demon had managed to get behind him and was preparing to strike with a short dagger, a real one made of steel.

With a yell, I leapt just as the demon surged forward. Kurama whipped around, but he was too slow. As I crashed into him, I felt the demon's blade stab into my side. Landing heavily on Kurama, I knew it was bad, maybe fatal. Even so, I somehow stood up and even managed to catch one of the fleeing demons.

Holding him in a vice like grip with one hand, the other trying to staunch the flow of blood from my wound, I glared at his ugly pug-face. "Who sent you, you worthless scumbag?"

"I d-don't know." He stammered. "W-we w-were j-just t-told to k-kidnap the g-girl!" I tightened my grip on his neck, causing his eyes to bulge, before tossing him off to the side. I already knew he didn't have anything worthwhile to tell me. Behind me, I heard Kurama getting up.

"Keiko is back there. There may be guards." I said, pointing over my shoulder without looking at him. I stumbled forward to sit against the wall near Botan. With a sigh, I closed my eyes and succumbed to the pain and exhaustion.

(Kurama's POV)

I trotted behind Keiko as she ran forward to join Botan and the now conscious Yusuke. The human punk didn't seem to have come away with anything more harmful than a few bruises and neither did Keiko. I went over to sit next to Botan, but I caught sight of the girl who had come after me sitting up against the wall with her eyes closed. I noted with a bit of confusion that her hair, previously black, was now a light silver color.

Going over to kneel next to her, I gently pulled her hand away from the wound it had been covering. I quickly examined it. Rocking back on my heels, I looked at Botan.

"She's got a pretty bad knife wound." I told the blue-haired girl. "Do you have enough energy left to heal her?" Botan got up and came over to look.

"Hmm. I can heal it a fair ways, but I'm too drained to do the full job; you'll have to finish it." She said after a moment. I nodded.

"That's what I thought." I said, resigned. "Please do what you can, then. I'll do whatever you can't."