I don't know why everyone thinks I'm so nice.

I'm polite, I'll give them that, but they've all known Kurama long enough to know that's not nearly the same thing. I sometimes wonder if it's because I'm a girl, and while I wouldn't call the boys sexist, exactly, they do all have a over-developed sense of chivalry that gets annoying sometimes. As if their desire to protect us equates with our actually needing to be protected, and that defenseless people must, by default, be nice.

It's wonderful to have someone care enough to fight all evils and injustices for your sake, but they shouldn't forget that I'm as demon as any of our other friends, more so, in fact, than either Kurama or Yusuke. I grew up in that world, I've been kidnapped and tortured by humans, I have, as Yusuke put it a few hours ago "freaking superpowers."

And the people who raised me are known for throwing baby boys off cliffs.

I guess it's really not a surprise that they have this misconception about me. As I said, I'm polite. I've worked hard to be polite, because despite what they all think, it's not necessarily an inherent skill. We all have many aspects to our personalities, and the opportunity to choose which aspects of those personalities to develop. And I have chosen to be pleasant.

I made this conscious choice because I did not want to be like the women who raised me, and as Hiei has chosen to be combative, he is ironically more like the ice maidens who rejected him than the one they accepted. Someday, I hope they realize this, just as I also harbor the secret desire to burn that village to the ground and watch them drown in their melting ice. I want to, but I probably never will, because I'm pleasant. Polite.

But my friends are gravely mistaken if they think that's my only defining characteristic.

As another person who seems polite but is not, and one who also made a conscious choice to change their personality, I thought Kurama and I had a lot in common. I thought we understood each other. I suppose we did, to a point, but it seems Kurama still has hidden depths within his character.

I think it's getting overwhelming for his little brother, though Shuichi has taken great delight in seeing Kurama so completely awash in this sea of events. As one who has an older brother, I can relate, though my experience is far more minimal. But I'm getting a lot of pleasure out of seeing Hiei so completely frazzled and out of his depth. Now that the secrets are all out of the bag, perhaps Shuichi and I should compare notes on how to best be dutifully annoying younger siblings?

But, as I mentioned, things have started to get just a bit too intense for the kid. That happens when several of the most powerful demons around are all assembled in your living room like some afternoon social while your elder brother and his best friend are trying not to bleed all over the couch. Yes, we have relocated to the Hatanaka's house, after I bailed everyone out of jail, since the hospital absolutely refused to let us back in. I think that violates the Hippocratic Oath, but we did destroy a lot of property, and anyway, Yusuke doesn't have a heartbeat, which as far as they know, violates Nature. However, Dr. Kamiya did follow along to give treatment to the wounded, (the numbers of which have grown steadily,) though his presence is making everyone, particularly Yusuke, more than a little twitchy.

Nobody's seen Kaito for hours. Kurama refuses to admit he has any involvement with that.

Most of the time has been passed recuperating from injuries, or yelling at each other. Usually both. Unfortunately, with so many people in the house, it's impossible for any two parties to finish an argument without other people jumping in or derailing the topic. As a result, nothing is getting resolved, and it's giving me a headache.

Despite what Yusuke and Kurama think, this isn't what I had in mind when I called Shiori.

I definitely didn't mean for it to go this far, or get so out of hand, any more than Kuwabara meant to shove his spirit sword through Yusuke's arm. You might think all of this was intentional, but in fact, none of it was.

That said, I'd be lying to say we didn't feel any sense of poetic justice.

At the moment, I am hiding in the kitchen. People need food in their stomachs and I think that eating is a safe enough activity that will keep everyone out of trouble. At the very least, it will shut people up for a few seconds. Surprisingly, no one offered to help me, (Little Shuichi didn't dare), not even Kazuma, but it's probably because the chaos in the living room demands their attentions. For my part, I'm growing sick of it.

As removed as I am, I still can hear all the noise from at least twenty separate arguments battling for dominance. I can hear the screams as Hokushin gets on the wrong side of a man-eating plant, and the various ways people are trying to help him out of this predicament. Presumably, it was an accident, since Kurama is shrieking "No, I can't control it, I am missing my right lung, or didn't you notice!" In his entire life, it may be the first time he's ever uttered the words, "Just kill the stupid plant!"

Keiko and Yusuke aren't speaking to each other, a welcome break from the constant repetition of "What is wrong with you two? Every time you get together!" and "But this time Yukina started it!" It was in perfect opposition with Shizuru and that Maya girl's gushing over bridal magazines, as apparently, Kurama's engaged now. Yomi continues to offer his congratulations, though the sincerity is doubted by just about everybody.

I'm doing my best to ignore it all, because somewhere along the way, I stopped caring. All the rage, the sympathy, the guilt, and the resurfacing rage have died down, and only apathy remains. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was the way Kurama's eyes never lose that look of betrayal, or the way Hiei won't look at me at all. Maybe it was having to hear Yusuke call me "The Ice Witch" for the millionth time. It could be the realization of all the people who have been affected by the destruction we've caused to the city, while Shura and Shuichi play 3-7 on Game Battler like their fathers aren't on the cusp of a fist fight.

All I wanted was revenge. Is that too much to ask?

I suppose I got my wish. Kurama's life is a rather splendid mess, and by extension, so is Yusuke's. Unfortunately, there was an unexpected side effect. Coming from my ice village, I didn't really know what it was to have friends. To trust other people, knowing that they would never betray you or wish you harm. Yusuke and Kazuma were my first true friends, my first experience with what that meant. The Dark Tournament is filled with horrible memories, but to me, that time is precious, as I got to spend so many hours laughing, joking, hoping and cheering with and for the new community that surrounded me.

Since then, I've also felt what their betrayal feels like, and how to use friendship to extract justice.

I can't remember why Yusuke opened up to me about his first encounter with Kurama. I wasn't particularly digging for information at the time, and I can't even remember how we got on the topic. But somehow, we got onto "Yeah, I was supposed to arrest him," and then moved to "It was the most horrible feeling I ever had."

"Nobody thinks it," Yusuke had confided in an unusually vulnerable tone, "But we're actually a lot alike. And to see his eyes while he was talking about giving up his life for someone, I felt like I was dying all over again. And he trusted me. No one ever did that before."

Friendship is a powerful sword. Especially when wielded by another friend.

What hurts one friend will carry on to the other. And so, my strategy to include Yusuke in my retribution plan worked magnificently, but it carried all the way down through the chain, affecting everybody, and eventually, it made it's way to me. Earlier, I would have bristled at the suggestion that I needed to apologize, but now, I might be willing to swallow my pride, and concede one thing:

I still think I was right, but I was also wrong.

Out in the living room, I hear a sound that sounds suspiciously like Kazuma's spirit sword being swung around. "You knew, but you never told me? I thought we were friends!"

"Shuichi, don't you dare use that Rose Whip in the house!"

Oh, good grief. I may just go tell Yusuke he can kill me now.