"Are you okay?" En's eyes were wide, and his voice was high with surprise. He was so surprised, in fact, that he'd broken one of our little group's unspoken rules: don't talk to each other until M4 and M5 were gone.

Judging by En's outburst, Kai's furrowed brow, and Ryo's dark glare at the demons accompanying me, I must have looked a sight. I knew there was at least some blood on my face, and a number of deep scratches on my arms. My limbs were tender and heavy, already becoming swollen and red with forming bruises, and my ribs ached with every step.

Before this nightmarish ordeal, such injuries would have had be sore and healing for weeks. Now, thanks to my burgeoning psychic powers and En's tutelage, I figured I'd be back on my feet in two or three days, at most.

I began learning to heal myself a few weeks ago when, instead of drawing my blood, M4 and M5 took me to an indoor obstacle course. The place was large, the size of a small gymnasium, maybe, all concrete with ropes and cement blocks and metal shipping containers forming obstacles and barriers. For the first few days I simply ran the course as instructed while Doctor Ichigaki watched with beady eyes.

Then, the fourth time I ran the course, M4 and M5 gave chase.

I had not been prepared. Doctor Ichigaki wanted us alive for his experiments, after all, so I wasn't expecting him to order his minions to attack me. And while I was faster than the both of them, the obstacles in the course slowed me down and drove me into corners. M4 and M5, though sloppy, impulsive fighters, had the advantage of sharp claws and teeth to swipe at me. I, on the other hand, had never so much as punched someone in my life. And though I'd been working hard at improving my spirit powers, I only had the strength to lob one or two orbs at the demons before I ran out of energy.

Ichigaki must have had the sense to tell M4 and M5 to hold back a little, because they hadn't broken any bones or cut any major arteries. Still, they'd had their fun. They seemed to enjoy drawing blood the most, because while they weren't allowed to kill or eat me—however much they assured me that they'd very much like to—they could lick as much of my blood off their claws as they managed to spill.

When I'd returned to the cells, battered and bruised and covered in shallow cuts, En had begun to coach me on yet another useful aspect of spiritual powers: accelerated healing. I wasn't very quick at it, but if I focused, I could rid myself of bruises and heal all my cuts to faded lines by the time the doctor and his servants called on me again.

Ryo waited for M4 and M5 to leave, listening for the sound of the heavy metal door closing, before he remarked bitterly, "They're not pulling their punches anymore."

I shook my head in denial. "This isn't their work." I crossed to the sink and wett a rag so I could wipe off some of the blood that was becoming tacky and dry before returning to the bars to continue, "I came a little too close to taking M4's head off in our last 'exercise', apparently..."

I had improved at fighting much quicker than I had at healing; M4 and M5 were not particularly intelligent, nor were they fast. Once I got a sense of their moves and had memorized the layout of the obstacle arena, I had a distinct advantage as long as I stayed out of reach of their claws. When one of my orbs had come within inches of M4's head, blasting a hole in a shipping container, Doctor Ichigaki had looked ridiculously pleased; proud, even. I suspected then that he might even have congratulated me if I had managed to kill the demon. But after the near miss, I doubted M4 or M5 would be keen on fighting me again anytime soon. Not in a fair fight, at least.

"...so I got to fight a giant robot instead."

Ichigaki had bragged about the robot for a good long while before he'd set the thing to attack her.

"It's remarkably strong, and nearly indestructible," the Doctor had said through grinning needle teeth, patting the robot fondly. He looked like a demented toy next to the thing, with it towering at a height of at least ten feet, and the Doctor being the shriveled runt that he was. "It feels no pain, no emotions. It has no will, except the will to obey its master. The perfect killing machine!"

The Doctor's voice had risen for a moment, filling the obstacle arena like he was addressing a crowd, presenting his masterpiece to the world. His eyes even seemed distant, for a moment, like he was imagining just such a thing. But soon his eyes cleared, and Ichigaki turned to me with a patronizing look.

"For now it has been instructed not to kill you, Nana," Ichigaki said patiently. "But it can still maim you all it likes." Ichigaki smiled, and it was not a pleasant expression. "Let's see how you fare."

I fared not well.

It was completely different from M4 and M5. Whatever computer the thing ran on was smarter and quicker than the two demons combined. It was faster, too. Worse, its size and strength meant that the obstacles around the room that slowed me down were little more than nuisances to it, easily tossed aside or torn straight through.

I'd been tossed and battered and stuck many times. I tried fighting back, but the robots swift movements and sharp claws kept me constantly on the defensive. Eventually I gave up fighting and just tried to run, to hide somewhere its bulk wouldn't let it through. Eventually I found the shipping container I'd blasted a hole through when I almost killed M4 and shimmied my way into the hole, pressing inside the back corner of the container and hoping, praying, that the damn thing wouldn't find me.

It did. The thing was too big to fit inside the hole in the shipping container, but that didn't stop it. Its claws gripped the thick metal and tore the opening further, widening the gap I'd made like the container was made of nothing more substantial than construction paper. Trapped as I was in the container, I had nowhere to run from the claw that grabbed me around the middle. It pulled me out of the shipping container in less than a second, and then it squeezed.

I screamed. The pressure on my arms and ribs built and built, and I wasn't sure how long it squeezed before Ichigaki finally called it off, striding over to examine my wheezing, huddled form on the ground.

Ichigaki had looked puzzled, at first, before some dawning realization struck him and his lips thinned. "You're in pain," he said lowly. It was not a sympathetic comment. It was closer to a complaint than anything, really. "Of course. How inconvenient."

And then, without further comment, he'd ordered M4 and M5 to drag me back to my cell.

"A robot?"

Ryo was eyeing my injuries critically as I finished wiping off the blood. "How giant was this thing?"

I thought about it. It was at least twice my size, so, "10 or 12 feet."

"Then those marks on your arms—" En said, staring at the angry red slashes and darkening bruises.

"Are from roboclaws, yeah." I looked down at the forming injuries, too, then sighed and assumed a meditative position, preparing to focus my energy towards healing the worst of the damage. As my eyes slid shut I added, "The good doctor assured me that the thing could have snapped me like a twig, had he not programmed it not to."

"That bastard," Ryo spat.

"Why would Ichigaki have a robot like that?" En sounded troubled, and a opened my eyes to frown at the question, wondering what he meant. "I mean… he is a doctor, right? He has to be doing something with all the blood he's taking. Right?"

I highly doubted that Doctor Ichigaki had any kind of real medical credential. While he was certainly doing something with all the blood he was taking, I highly doubted it was in an attempt to produce any sort of medicine or treatment which would heal illness or prolong life.

"But now he's building robots," En continued. "That doesn't make any sense, does it?"

Kai, too, looked troubled by En's words. Ryo snorted dismissively. "You're wasting your time trying to make sense of it, En. Ichigaki is just crazy."

I shared glances with Kai and En, who clearly doubted this, but none of us voiced our skepticisms. Ichigaki was crazy, yes. He was completely immoral, possibly sociopathic, and almost certainly insane—but he was never illogical. Everything he did had a purpose, a plan.

So then, why was Ichigaki experimenting with human psychics and robots? What was the commonality?

Even as I sank into myself and focused my energy on my injuries, a part of me wondered about the fondness in Ichigaki's eyes when he gazed at the robot, and the disdain and disgust that had curled his lip when he watched my pain.

A week later I was taken to a different section of the lab. The room was a few doors down from where Ichigaki normally drew my blood, and about the same size. But instead of the chair with straps and rolling tables of medical equipment, this room was dominated by some sort of pod.

It was oval in shape, bright white plastic looking shiny and innocent. A glass door opened on hinges and a dark plastic seat was visible within, but despite the high-tech look, there were still the ominous features which set my stomach churning. Restraints lined the edges of the plastic seat, but most horrifying of all, dozens of tiny, shining needles hovered just at the edges.

"Come in, come in!" Ichigaki said cheerily when M4 and M5 led me in. He grinned at my conspiratorially, like I was about to be let in on a big secret. "We have an exciting day ahead of us, Nana."

What Ichigaki found exciting could not possibly be good for me. I swallowed the fear and trepidation rising in my gut and forced a look of polite interest onto my face. I nodded toward the pod. "Does it involve that device, Doctor?"

The Doctor smiled, and I was glad that he turned to look proudly at the thing, because the look made me queasy. "Impressive, isn't it? It's my own design, of course. State-of-the art technology, and durable against spirit energy, of course."

Of course. "What does it do?" I asked. It did not look like a very efficient way of killing someone, which was what Ichigaki seemed to be mainly interested in so far.

"The specifics are far too complex for you to comprehend," Ichigaki said with a dismissive wave of his hand. Still, he continued, "The bath supplies the nutrients and energy your body will need, of course. The electricity will generate strain and tears on targeted muscles groups, while the serum stimulates muscle activation and recovery, in essence condensing years of physical training and conditioning into just half an hour."

Ichigaki turned back to me and grinned that awful grin again. "In short, my dear Nana, I'm going to make you strong."

Ichigaki instructed me to climb into the pod. I didn't want to. I wanted to smash Ichigaki's stupid, bulbous head in the door of the thing and blast M4 and M5 out of the doorway and run far, far away. For a moment, I even considered doing it. Surely, by this point, their guards were down? I'd almost killed M4 a while ago. I could take the three of them, couldn't I?

But they would be expecting it. No doubt Ichigaki had some means of subduing me if I made any sudden moves, and just because I could subdue M4 and M5 didn't mean I could make it out of the complex unscathed. I didn't know what other guards or security measures might be in place.

Besides, if Ichigaki really was going to make me strong… wouldn't it be better to save an escape attempt for after he'd done it?

And so, despite every instinct telling me to run, I climbed willingly into the pod, and lay still and cooperative as Doctor Ichigaki strapped me in.

"I should warn you," Ichigaki said once I was secured in the pod, in the tone of someone casually reminding their friend that it might rain today and they should probably bring an umbrella, "the pain will be excruciating."

My mouth went dry. From the corner of my eyes, the gleaming silver needles I'd spotted before seemed bigger, sharper.

"But if you wish to survive the process, you must try not to struggle too much," Ichigaki continued seriously. "Do you understand, Nana?"

Was I about to die? Was I about to die, and the last thing I heard was some demon prick calling me the wrong name?

I swallowed my fear and anger and hate. I nodded. "Yes, Doctor."

"Good." Ichigaki smiled, a small, sharp thing, and removed something from his pocket. "Now, open up." A mouth guard sat in his palm. I stared at it for a few long seconds before slowly opening my mouth. Ichigaki shoved the thing in and nodded, satisfied, when it was secure. "Can't have you biting your tongue in half, can we?"

Ichigaki stepped back. The door to the pod sank closed and sealed with a hiss of air. I waited.

A pale blue liquid flooded into the pod first. The bath Ichigaki had mentioned, I supposed. As the water level rose, I eyed it warily, struggling to breath calmly. I was terrified of drowning, now. After suffocating to death seven times, I could think of few things worse than drowning. But thankfully the angle of the pod covered my body and neck in liquid but left my face free to breath the limited, stuffy air left in the pod.

I was just starting to relax in relief that I wouldn't drown when the needles came. They came all at once, and for a moment it was as if I was being eaten alive. All over my skin, the needles stung and bit into my flesh. I tried to writhe in my pain, which was a terrible idea, because the needles did not move, and I shrieked in agony around the mouthguard at the dozens and dozens of needles digging into my veins.

And then, the serum. I had shrieked at the needles, but the noise that shredded my throat at the injection was near inhuman. It was like the needles had injected molten metal. It was more than burning, more than being on fire—it was heavy, and thick. It didn't so much pulse through my veins as it coated them.

I was sure that I was melting. There was no possible way that my weak body could hold up to whatever poison Ichigaki had just exposed me to. I was sure this burning was igniting my veins, burning them away, liquefying me. In just a moment I was sure that I would dissolve into the pale blue liquid sloshing all around me. I would turn into a bloody jelly, and Ichigaki would have to abduct some other distant Urameshi relative and try again.

Maybe that would have been better. But I didn't liquefy.

I fried.

Because just when the burning, searing pain of the serum was flowing all throughout my body, the electrical shocks began. Conducted through the liquid, my skin crackled and shone with light even as my veins burned, and burned, and burned. My tears mixed with the milky liquid around me. I couldn't tell if I was screaming or not. My mouth was open, and my throat was straining, but all I could hear was the sloshing of the liquid and the wild beating of my heart.

Would I die? Would I die for an eighth and final time? In a way I hoped I would, because at least dead I would be free of the suffering of my body. I wouldn't feel the agony of my tortured muscles, my burnt innards, my fried skin.

I'm not sure how long it lasted. The pain felt like it went on for hours, but it might've only been minutes. But eventually, mercifully, my vision at last went dark.

After the procedure, I was taken not to my cell, but to the obstacle course. My body felt odd, light and heavy all at once, and I was sure I must have grown a few inches, because I stood level with M4 and M5 as they escorted me.

In the arena, the robot waited. Once again, the battle was a no-contest. This time, though, it was in my favor. The robot seemed to move slower, now. Or perhaps I was simply that much faster. It took me less than five minutes to jump onto the thing's shoulders and yank out the exposed wires at the neck joint, deactivating the thing.

When at last I walked back into my cell under my own power, three inches taller and looking exhausted, Kai was the one who asked, "What happened?"

Eventually, I would tell them. But for now, I was too tired to explain, to recount the events of the last… day? Hours? I didn't know. I flopped down onto my cot and murmured tiredly, "I beat the robot."

Nobody said anything to that. I couldn't tell if the silence was worried or surprised, and couldn't bring myself to care which.

"Kai?"

"Yes, Ren?" I smiled, taking a moment to savor the simple pleasure of hearing my real name.

"Would you tell us a story?"

"Of course," Kai said kindly, then paused. He'd run out of new stories to tell us a while back. "Which would you like to hear?"

"Koinobori."

Kai began.

Many hundreds of years ago, a humble fisherman lived by the sea with his elderly parents. He worked hard to support his family, and they were very poor, but they all got by.

One day, the fisherman went out in his boat to catch fish, as usual. And catch a fish, he did—but not just any fish. The fisherman caught the most splendid fish he had ever seen. It was a carp, but it was more beautiful than any other. Its scales shone every color of the rainbow, glittering like jewels in the sun.

The fisherman knew that if he brought the fish to market, he could earn a hefty price for it. It would be enough to support his family for months, maybe even years.

But the fisherman was a kind-hearted man. Looking at the beautiful fish in his net, he couldn't bring himself to kill it. And so the fisherman set the carp free.

The carp was grateful to be set free. Touched by the fisherman's kindness and mercy, the carp told the fisherman to follow him out to sea, leading him to the best places to fish. With the carp's guidance, the fisherman was able to catch more than double his usual amount of fish—more than enough to feed his family, with extra to sell in the market.

The carp and the fisherman became the best of friends. Every day the fisherman would go out to sea, and every day the carp would meet him, guiding him to the right places to fish.

Then, one day, the fisherman's net caught on something in the ocean. He tugged and tugged, but the net was caught. The carp swam down below the surface to see what had caught the net, and saw that it had snagged in the teeth of an enormous sea monster—and the monster was growing enraged by the fisherman's tugging.

The carp swam to the surface to warn his friend to let go of the net, but it was too late. The monster swam away, and the fisherman, tangled in the net, was pulled into the ocean after it.

The carp swam after them as hard as he could, trying desperately to catch up and help his friend, but he couldn't. He wasn't fast enough, or strong enough.

That's when the fish remembered what his mother had told him.

One day, when he was a young fish, his mother had pointed to a stream that fed into the ocean. An enormous power lay at the end of that stream, she told him, but he must never swim up it, unless he was prepared to die.

The carp knew he would need enormous power if he wanted to save his friend. And just as the fisherman had once spared his life, the carp knew he would gladly give his own life to save the fisherman.

And so, he swam up the stream.

It was hard. He had to fight the current the whole time, but he used all the strength he had, and he slowly made his way up the stream. When he was exhausted, and had almost no strength left, the carp came upon a great waterfall. He was at the bottom, and the only way forward was up. And though he was tired, more tired than he had ever been, the carp knew his friend was in danger.

So he heaved himself up the waterfall. It was slow work. Fish have no legs to help them jump from rock to rock up a waterfall, but the carp tried anyway, heaving himself up, rock after rock, climbing higher and higher.

The carp grew tired. The top of the waterfall was in sight, but he was so exhausted. If he fell now, the stream's current would carry him back to the ocean, where he would recover. If he pressed on, he was sure he would die of exhaustion.

But the carp thought once more of his friend, the fisherman, trapped in a net in the jaws of a sea monster, and he heaved. And heaved. And finally, he heaved himself over the edge of the waterfall.

And like his mother had promised, the carp died in the pool at the top of the waterfall. But in those magic waters, the magic fish was reborn. Not as a carp, but as a mighty dragon, with rainbow scales that shone like gems in the sun.

The dragon returned to the ocean at once, determined to save his friend. He found the sea monster, and for seven days they battled so fiercely that the sea churned with storms. But on the seventh day, the dragon rescued his friend the fisherman from the net. The sea monster fled, and the dragon was able to return the fisherman to the shore.

All was quiet after Kai finished his story. Maybe he thought I'd nodded off, but I hadn't.

I asked a question I'd wondered when Kai told the story the first time. "What happens to the fisherman?"

"The story doesn't say," said Kai. "But I like to think he and the dragon remained friends until the end. And that when the fisherman's son went out to sea, he was sometimes able to find good places to fish by looking for a flash of rainbow scales in the water."

"...I like that ending."

They took Ryo first.

It was just like any other day. En, Kai, and I all exchanged the usual concerned glances, the same as every other time the doctor took blood from one of us.

We didn't know at the time that the doctor was done taking blood.

Ryo was gone for three full meals. It was an unusually long amount of time, and when he came back he walked under his own power. The demons weren't even holding his arms. Most disturbing, however, was the fact that he was positively covered in blood.

We all spouted questions at once, wanting to know if Ryo was okay and totally ignoring the custom of waiting for M4 and M5 to leave before talking. But it hardly mattered, because no matter what we asked, no matter how many times we asked or how desperately we asked, Ryo never responded to us. He never even turned his head.

"Ren, what's Ryo doing?" Kai finally asked desperately. Myself, Kai, and En were all sat at the bars at the edge of our cells, but only I could see Ryo. "Is he hurt?"

I had been watching him for a while, and what I saw was deeply unsettling. In a way, I was glad that En and Kai couldn't see it. "I don't think so. He's just... sitting there, really still." I thought for a moment, then added, "Unnaturally still. He hasn't even turned his head when we've talked, or moved at all. Not even to wipe off any of that blood. And..."

I trailed off, narrowing my eyes and trying to shift to get a better look at the thing.

"And what?" Kai pressed, voice tense.

"I'm not sure how to describe it. I can't get a good look at it, but there's something on his back. Wires, or tubes, or something, going into his neck."

"The blood," En said quietly, desolately. "It's not his, is it?"

It was more a statement than a question, but I answered anyway. "I don't think so. No."

And for these three men, who were so peaceful, and had been taught never to harm another living being, that might have been worse. Because whatever Ichigaki had done to Ryo, it had been enough to overcome that pacifism to the point that Ryo was drenched in someone else's blood, and utterly unbothered by it.

En was so distraught that he tried to escape again, even though we all knew it was useless. Kai warned him against it, told him to stop, but En wouldn't hear reason. He shot his angel blades at the bars, the floor, the ceiling, the walls, but each time his energy rebounded and struck him, flinging him into the walls.

I watched him exhaust himself, sick with sadness and anger and worry. Eventually En couldn't muster his blades anymore and he sank to the ground, shoulders trembling as he started to cry. I cried, too, and so did Kai.

Ryo did nothing. He just sat there, very, very still.

They took En the next morning. He fought, and me and Kai screamed at M4 and M5, but it didn't matter. En was gone for less time than Ryo, but he came back the same: quiet and covered with blood. I got a better look at the thing on his back this time, and it was foul. It was like a horrible mechanical tick, swollen with blood and sticking its tentacles into En's neck.

Kai and I didn't sleep that night. Though we didn't say so out loud, it was clear that Kai would be next, and soon. And so we sat up in a silent vigil, mourning, until Kai broke the silence in what must have been the early hours of the morning.

"It's like they're empty," Kai said, voice rough. "Like there's nothing left of En and Ryo, like they're just… puppets."

Puppets wasn't the word I would use. No, I thought of them more as robots.

Because that's what Ichigaki wanted, wasn't it? The pride with which he'd described his giant robot, boasting that it experienced no pain, no emotion.

"It has no will of its own, except the will to obey," I said, echoing Ichigaki's words from that day. "He did say he wanted to harness human energy like never before." And now, it seemed, I saw exactly what Ichigaki meant by that.

"And what does he plan to do with it, once he's harnessed it?" Kai asked, voice trembling.

I didn't answer him. I didn't need to. The blood that had drenched En and Ryo, the blank expressions on each of their faces, was answer enough.

When they came for me, I resolved to fight.

I planned it out silently in my mind when they took Kai, repeating the plan over and over. I would only have one chance. One moment, the briefest second, where the demons would have to uncuff me before I was secured to the operating table, when I would be free to move and use my powers. I would have to be quick, impossibly quick, and incredibly lucky, but I thought it was possible. Ever since Ichigaki had made me strong, I was very fast. If I could just overpower Ichigaki and his demons, I could escape. I could break En, Ryo, and Kai out of here, and yank those awful devices out of them.

The plan was the only thing that let me keep calm and focused when Kai—kind, gentle, fatherly Kai—returned drenched in someone else's blood.

It seemed like only minutes after Kai was returned to his cell that the demons came for me. I stood and walked calmly. I didn't fight as they put on the energy-suppressing cuffs. I didn't struggle as they led me toward the labs. When I was ushered into the lab, my stomach leapt, part nervous excitement, part fear. The room looked precisely the same as it had the first time I woke in this place. The night I died.

Ichigaki watched from a high stool as M4 and M5 ushered me toward the table and hissed at me to lay down. It was clear I was meant to lie on my stomach for this—the table had a hole in it, for my face, presumably. I lowered myself down as best I could with my hands secured behind my back, and I held my breath.

It had to be now. They had to remove the cuffs to stop me to the table. It would take a second, at most. One second.

The cuffs snapped off.

M4 and M5 slammed into the lab walls with the explosion of energy I released. It was wholly unskilled, the psychic equivalent of waving my arms wildly and slapping everyone away. I didn't wait to see if they were knocked out as I rolled off the table; the most dangerous of them all was Ichigaki. I had to take him out first. There would be time to deal with M4 and M5 when Ichigaki was down, and then I go back for En, Ryo, and Kai.

When I made eye contact with Ichigaki, he was already leveling a small gun at my heart. He grimaced as he pulled the trigger and I jolted to the side, nearly tripping over myself as I leapt out of the projectile's path. Not a bullet, but a needle.

The first dart missed. Ichigaki fired again, and once again I dodged. I had to get the gun out of his hands, somehow. There was nothing to throw, and limited space to run. As I backpedaled away from a third dart, I narrowly avoided tripping over M4.

And now, I had something to throw.

I was strong, now. I hefted the demon's limp body easily and hurled him at Ichigaki. A fourth dart struck M4 before his body collided with Ichigaki and they both tumbled to the floor with a clatter.

I started to make my way over—I had to end Ichigaki now, kill him before he recovered.

A clawed hand clutched my ankle. I froze for half a second too long. M5 tugged, and I crashed to the floor.

"You bitch." M5 looked livid and ecstatic, mouth stretched in a sharp-toothed, too-wide snarl. And I learned why when the taser made contact.

The familiar smell of burning flesh rose in the air immediately, and I couldn't contain a scream. My muscles jerked and shook of their own accord, completely out of my control. I could feel my eyes rolling, my jaw snapping uselessly. With what little control I had over my rebellious limbs I struggled and flopped, trying to break the contact between the device and my skin, but M5 pressed it in hard, unyielding.

Eventually the pain ended, but it was no relief. Because when I opened my eyes, there was Ichigaki, gleaming needle in hand, eyes cold.

"You disappoint me, Nana." He jabbed the needle into my neck. "I thought you were cleverer than the others, more open-minded about the possibilities of science. But in the end, you're just like all the other lab rats."

Ichigaki depressed the plunger, and the world went fuzzy, then dark.