Serina was barely able to breathe. Juno smiled as he pressed his thumbs into the center of her neck. He
loved this iconic combination of a helpless girl dressed in a high school uniform. It was just all too classic!

"Come on, minette. It's no fun if you don't fight back!"

Shutting her eyes tightly, she began to shudder. She lifted her pale hands up to his and weakly dug her nails in.

'I don't want to die! Not like this! I- I can't!'

Suddenly, her body became warm as ribbons of energy shot out from her core. The raw power surged through her fingertips, toughened her grip, and caused the demon's hand to bleed. Serina opened her mouth and let out a hateful scream. The enemy released her, watching in satisfaction at this transformation. Opening her eyes, her dark and damaged hair had become a shiny brilliant white. The streams of power multiplied and rapidly circled her whole body as she began to charge at him.

"STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!" Serina yelled, swinging a glowing fist at Juno.

He redirected the punch with his forearm and grabbed her opposing wrist. He then whipped the girl up into the air and slammed her face first into the hard concrete. Serina could feel a stream of blood trailing down her forehead.

"My, my. What a temper for such a smart little school girl!" The demon tossed back his long blond hair. "Didn't your parents ever teach you how to behave?"

"And didn't your parents ever teach you not to pick on little girls?"

Juno turned around to find the owner of the smug comment. It was Yusuke Urameshi! Kurama, Kuwabara, and Hiei stood close by.

"I didn't know you were so popular with the boys, machérie." said Juno, ignoring the delinquent's comment.

"Yeah, well your FACE is about to get real popular with my FIST!" Yusuke leaped forward into a flying punch straight at him. The boy's blow hit its mark as it crashed into the demon's jaw. Juno slumped back a few feet and landed on one knee.

"Yeah! That's what you get for hittin' a girl, ya big bully!" Kuwabara cheered from the sidelines. Hiei, who seemed rather unimpressed, stayed quiet.

The girl attempted to get up but jerked back tears as she felt a sharp burning sensation in her right arm. Looking down at it, she could tell it was horribly twisted and broken. Kurama ran over to his panicked schoolmate. Between Serina's quickened breaths, a calming scent of roses lingered in the air.

"Try not to move too much." the boy said while he placed a gentle hand on her left shoulder, "Just stay where you are."

The girl didn't recognize who was speaking to her, but his voice was soothing and familiar.

"It seems that my little flower is into bad boys now, non?" The blond demon jeered, collecting himself from the ground. "Guess I don't have a chance with you. Though I'll still cherish those cold nights we spent together~!"

"What the hell are you babbling about?" Yusuke interjected. "Why don't you make this easy on yourself and get back on the ground, eh?"

"As much as I would love to stay and play with your new friends, I must bid you adieu!" He elegantly bowed and winked at Serina.

"Hey are you stupid or something?! I'm over here!" Yusuke leapt at the demon once again but his punch went straight through. Juno had faded into the night air, leaving no trace of his presence.

"W-wait..." Serina weakly whimpered before everything went black.

A while later, her garnet eyes slowly opened. A blurred vision of a ceiling came into view. She tensed her fingers and felt a soft fabric beneath them.

'Is this my bed? But... when did I get here?'

She slowly turned her head to the side, her mind still hazy with sleep.

'Oh... I remember now... I went to school for the first time in a year. All the teachers seemed really nice... and then I met Shuichi who helped me toclass... and then … and then...'

"...and then..."

Distraught, she shot up, throwing a heavy blanket off of her.

"Juno!"

Quickly looking at her surroundings, it occurred to her that she was not at home. There was a rice paper door across from her and the floor was covered with tatami mats. This was a very traditional looking home. Remembering her previous injury she glanced at her right arm. It didn't hurt nearly as bad as before and was now tightly bandaged up. She touched her forehead. Where her wound had been, it now seemed like it never existed except for the fact that she had earned a raging headache. It was then that a small elderly woman entered the room.

"It's about time you woke up." she said

"Who are you?" A blank look of confusion washed over Serina's face. "And...where am I?"

"Relax, kid, you're safe here. My name is Genkai and you're in my house."

"I don't understand. I was walking home and then I was fighting Ju-" Serina stopped herself, placing a hand on her mouth. If she were to say anything about her fight with Juno, this poor old lady might send her to the loony bin!

"You tried to fight a powerful demon by yourself and lost." Genkai said, matter-of-factually.

"Er..."

"Believe it or not, I know a thing or two about handling troublemakers from the Underworld."

"Oh... Really?!"

Serina couldn't believe what she was hearing. No one she had ever met had actually knew what a demon looked like let alone how to deal with them! Come to think of it, during the fight she thought she had heard other voices. Were those demon fighters too? They must have saved her! For some reason, she remembered the scent of roses. But she couldn't remember this old lady being there...

"Is someone else here with you?" Serina asked, "You know, who also 'handle' demons?"

Before Genkai could say anything, the door opened. It was a pretty, long haired girl dressed in a light blue kimono.

"Oh, you're awake!" she said as she carried in a set of new bandages. "I was just about to re-dress your arm."

"My arm? OH! My arm!" Serina recalled, "Thank you! I thought it was broken pretty badly but I guess I just sprained it." She rubbed the back of her head as the new girl knelt beside her.

"Actually, it hardly looked like an arm when you first got here!" Genkai added, "Yukina and I used our spiritual energy to heal you."

"Spiritual...energy?" the school girl inquired, "You mean... you blessed me and I got better?"

"Now that's a laugh. No, we manipulated our energies to fix that mangled arm of yours."

Serina gave them an innocently quizzical stare.

"You mean, you really don't know?" Yukina asked. "But I can sense an immense amount of energy being held up inside of you!"

"I think we need to have a little chat." said Genkai.

A few doors down, the Spirit Detective and his team (along with Botan who had arrived moments after the fight) were sipping on tea. Strange things had happened that night and many questions were lingering in the air.

"So, you're saying that the girl we saw at Koenma's is the same as the one we saved?" Yusuke said to the red-head across from him.

"Precisely." Kurama responded, cradling a teacup in his hands.

Hiei looked at him. "And you're positive that girl is your little friend from earlier?"

"Yes. I was unsure at first." he face changed into a worrisome expression, "But once I got close, I noticed her scent was the same."

"I could have sworn she had dark hair before." Botan chimed in."What could have caused her appearance to change so drastically?"

Genkai entered the room.

"Spiritual Repression." She said, like a doctor diagnosing a patient.

The whole gang looked at the old woman.

"What's that s'posed to mean, Master Genkai?" Kuwabara asked, his mind filled with strange possibilities.

"It is a state when one cannot access their spiritual energy unless they become extremely vulnerable. Once they become emotionally unstable, the user will lose the ability to contain it, causing it to violently erupt."

"Well that explains her crappy fighting," said Yusuke, "but what does that have to do with that weird hairstyle?"

"I've heard of some extreme cases where a person's energy level is so out of sync that it can cause the user's appearance to change out of stress. Its not a common occurrence but it does happen. By the way, if you have any more questions I suggest you go ask her yourself. She's awake now."

That was all they needed to hear before moving over to the room where Serina was resting. Leaving Genkai behind, the group approached her side (except for Hiei who stayed by the doorway). Yukina, who had just finished bandaging the girl's arm, stood and greeted the gang with a smile.

"Oh, hello everyone!"

"Yuuuuukiiinaaa~!" Kuwabara pranced toward her, "How nice it is to see you!"

Yukina giggled, "Hello to you too, Kazuma! Have you all come to check on Serina? Her arm is almost fully healed."

The tall boy made a righteous pose, his ginger pompadour bouncing along with every motion,"That's because of your amazing healing powers, baby! See, Kurama here was really worried." he pointed over to the other red-head, "But I, the honorable Kazuma Kuwabara, knew you could do it all along!"

Serina's ears perked up. She looked to where Kuwabara was pointing. It was her classmate, Shuichi Minamino but, why did this boy call him 'Kurama'? Realizing her current appearance, the thought was pushed out of her head. That was the last person she wanted to encounter while she was in her current state! Grabbing the nearby blanket, she made a desperate attempt to hide her bright snowy hair. Naturally, this had attracted every one's attention.

"Are you feeling cold?" Yukina asked with concern.

"Um, well I..."

"It's all right," Kurama comforted, placing a hand on her head, "There's no need to hide yourself. We already know what's happened." He lifted the sheet, uncovering the slumped girl as her cheeks reddened from embarrassment.

"Oh." She said. Serina took a deep breath, gathering a little courage to look up at everyone, "That must mean you're the fighters that Genkai said helped me out."

"Helped you out?" Yusuke spoke up, "You almost got yourself killed! Why were you messin' around with a guy like that anyways?"

"He acted like you two were old friends, or somethin'!" Kuwabara proclaimed.

"No." The expression of shame in Serina's eyes turned into a mixture of anger and sadness. She clenched her right fist, causing a bit of pain. "That's not true at all. I would never, EVER,befriend a monster like him."

"Well that's good," Yusuke said "At least we know you're not on his side. So, you're name is Serina, right?

"Yes, it is."

"I'm Yusuke Urameshi. This big oaf is Kuwabara." he pointed to the tall boy who seemed displeased at the comment. "From what I hear you've already met Kurama and Hiei, so that just leaves-"

"-Botan's my name!" The girl with a ponytail said cheerfully as she bounced up to her, "I'm Yusuke's coach!"

Serina's face turned back to its usual expression. "Thank you all for saving me." she said, "But, I need to get back home now."

"Are you sure you're feeling well enough to walk?" Botan asked.

"I think I can manage." She said, slowly rising to her feet. Besides, someone is waiting for me. They'd be very worried if I didn't come home tonight."

"Then it can't be helped! I'll fly you home! "

"Thank you- Wait, what?"

Botan opened the door and held out the palm of her hand. An oar magically appeared into it.

"Hop on! We'll use this to get you home quickly." She seated herself on the now floating object.

Serina walked up to her in disbelief. "Um, that's O.K. I'll just walk home."

"Don't be silly!" Exclaimed Botan as she pulled the shy girl up. "It's perfectly safe! Just try not to fall off!"

The two zoomed off into the night air before Serina could object any further.

Not far from where Serina had fought, Juno was glowering at his injured hand. He never expected his precious little toy to have such powerful friends. Sensing a secondary presence behind him, he let out an arrogant laugh.

"Bira! Lamia! Were you spying on me?" He said coyly.

Under the shade of a nearby tree, two blonde demons hopped out. One was tall and busty wearing a black and white swirled one piece. The other was short with long pigtails. She was dressed in an elementary school uniform.

"It's no fair if you get to have all the fun!" The shorter one pouted, "Lamia and I wanted to play too!"

"Now, now, Bira! You know you mustn't waste your precious energy," He said dotingly. "At least not until we get your strength back up."

"Aw! But when are you gonna let me play?" The little one whined.

"Don't worry, I'll find some nice kids your age for you to play with! And if you're good," He smiled wickedly, "I'll serve you up the spirit energy of my minette."

"And what about her friends?" Objected Lamia "From what I saw, those boys are from the team that prevailed in destroying the Dark Tournament Committee."

"Oho! Is sister worried about moi?"

"Wha- what?! No!" The demon girl crossed her arms and blushed. "I'm just worried about Bira. She relies on you, you know."

Juno grabbed his middle sister by the waist and pulled her in for a tight hug. "There's no need to worry! We'll make sure that our sweet little brie is taken care of." He pulled his bleeding hand up to Lamia's mouth and she began to suckle his wound. "You will help your older brother out now, won't you?"

"Y-yes, anything for you." She whispered in between laps of blood.