Standard disclaimers apply. I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of the related characters referenced in this story. The characters Sin and Emina are not mine, either: Sin belongs to KitsunexShi and Emina belongs to EminaKotek-nightmare. Both of them are totally awesome and you should TOTALLY READ THEIR STUFF.

Story continues...

…blood…

…blood…

…want blood…need blood…

…want…to feel blood…warm blood…taste blood…

…fly…flap…search…

…look for blood…

…find blood…find…

…there…blood…

…blood…

…catch…

…catch them…catch them kill them shred them tear them bite them drink their blood, blood, blood, blood, blood yes blood blood yes oh bleeding blood blood lots of blood of tasty blood blood yes blood oh yes dohyesohyesohaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-

"-aaaaaaaaaah!"

Sin jolted upright, drenched in cold sweat. The sudden motion jarred her injured foot, causing her to shout again, this time in pain. She pulled her throbbing foot to her chest, curling around it in an attempt to dampen the pain. Unfortunately, she lost her balance, and fell off the bed onto the floor, where Emina was curled up on the futon. The albino awoke with a yelp, flipping over underneath Sin and launching the larger girl into the air with surprising strength.

Sin hit the ground beside her friend, feeling the air rush out of her lungs for the second time in less than a day.

Emina sat up, blood-red eyes flashing in the dark room. "Sin? What's wrong? What happened?"

Sin simply groaned in pain, weakly pushing herself up into a sitting position, and trying to refill her lungs with air.

Emina crawled over and quickly helped her friend up. "What happened? Another bad dream?"

Sin nodded, massaging her hurt foot.

Emina scooted next to her, putting a small arm around her shoulders. "I'm sorry. Was it the same dream again?"

Sin nodded again, starting to get her breath back. "Yeah…same dream…"

She got a comforting squeeze from her friend and smiled. "Think…" she coughed, "think I fell on you by accident…"

Emina nodded and patter her shoulder. "It's alright, I'm fine. I hope I didn't hurt you too bad, lashing out like that."

Sin heard the door open, and the lights turned on. "Is everything alright?" asked Suiichi.

The two girls were momentarily blinded by the light. "Yeah," said Emina. "We're fine."

"Is the baka onna having another one of her little nightmares?" Hiei sneered, appearing behind the redhead.

Sin shot him a glare. "Shut up," she said. "I got out of bed for a glass of water and tripped on Emi." The telepathic demon raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

She lowered her eyes again, but a thought struck her. "Hey…" she said. "What are you two still doing here?"

"I've been checking your vital signs and body chemistry every four hours," said Suiichi, "So Emina politely offered to let me stay the night." He smiled at the albino, who smiled and shrugged, blushing slightly.

Sin nodded, blearily. She could remember Suiichi giving her some strange type of tea he'd whipped up from these weird plants…he'd said it was a heavy anesthesia, and that she would fall into a deep sleep so that he could remove the deadly vetch without hurting her. She looked down at her foot and, sure enough, the disgusting plant was gone, replaced by a thick white bandage.

She looked back up. "What about him?" she asked, indicating Hiei.

"I come and go whenever and wherever I please, girl. I wouldn't be here if Kurama had agreed to help me, but he insists on resting his frail human body whenever he isn't sticking his little plants into you or gazing stupidly at your friend's-"

"Sticking what in me?" asked Sin with exaggerated outrage, cutting off Hiei's rather embarrassing statement.

Suiichi gestured across the room, face turning slightly red.

Sin looked and saw an array of the strangest-looking plants she'd ever seen lined up on the other side of her bed, one with big, broad circular leaves, another that looked like a fern, and a third that was simply a mass of long, thin tubes jutting straight up into the air.

Sin felt the color drain from her face. "Um…have you been growing those in my body while I've been asleep?" she asked nervously.

Suiichi shook his head. "No, no, the winddrinker bush and the earthquake lily don't require any penetration of the skin. I use them to check your breath rate and heart rate respectively. The only plant that needed to enter your body was the vampire weed-"

"Are you fucking kidding me? First a 'death seed' and now a 'vampire weed?' What is it with you and the deadly plants?"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hiei smirk. "Did you know he fights with a rose?"

Sin laughed a little. "Really? Are you serious?"

Suiichi threw a sideways glare at the small demon next to him. "Yes, it is technically a rose, but it's a certain kind of rose, you see-"

"You fight with a flower, fox. No point in denying it."

Suiichi snarled in irritation. "I don't fight with it AS a flower, Hiei, I turn it into-"

"Into a what?" interrupted Sin. "A flower sword? With petals on the hilt and leaves all over it? Or no, I bet it's a big, flowery WHIP!" She laughed at the image.

Suiichi calmly raised an eyebrow. "Correct."

Sin's laughter caught in her throat. "Haha- wait, seriously?"

Emi looked up suddenly. "Hey! A flower whip's a good weapon! I think it's…um…cool…" She trailed off into embarrassed silence and looked back down again.

Suiichi looked down at her, maintaining a steady red color. "Um…thank you, Emi."

He clapped his hands unexpectedly, and Sin jumped. "Well," he said loudly, "It's just about five-o'clock. We might as well have some breakfast. What do you all want?"

Sin thought for a moment. "I'd like some toast, please. Toast and jelly."

"Eggs, scrambled. With a little bit of cheese," said Emina, not looking the red head in the eye.

Hiei glanced sideways at him. "I'd rather we were out hunting, fox, but if we must delay for food, then find me some meat, preferably raw and bloody."

Suiichi paused and returned the sideways look. "Indeed." He turned and walked out of the room. "I'll see what we've got available."


"So you sprained your ankle falling into a ditch?" asked Mal.

"Yeah, pretty much," said Sin, shifting her hurt foot's position on the hard concrete floor of the landing.

Mal winced in sympathy. "That must've hurt. This is why you two shouldn't go off alone on this 'baiting' game."

Emina, sitting next to him, raised a pale eyebrow. "Because tripping and suggestive clothing are totally related."

Sin chuckled. "Yeah, usually it's the other people that trip."

Mal opened his mouth to say something, and then thought better of it. "Alright, point taken. But still, you two really shouldn't be wandering the streets dressed like that. People will think all sorts of things about you."

Emi winked at him. "That's sort of the point, now isn't it?"

Mal rolled his eyes. "Anyway, so that's what you two were up to over the weekend. Where's Suiichi? My Othello skills need exercising."

Sin snorted. "Why? The never seem to improve."

Mal glanced between the two girls. "Ah, but aren't you two supposed to be training me, or something?"

Sin sighed. "Yeah, but we can't hit you for making a mistake if you're not even playing."

Mal reached over to his messenger bag, whipped out the game box, and set it down in front of him. "Then you can play me!" he said with a grin, gesturing at Sin.

Sin groaned emphatically: She hated board games. "Must I? I'm so tired…"

Mal's grin faded to a look of concern. "Still having those weird dreams?"

Sin nodded, sleepily, tossing him a look that said, 'I'd rather not talk about it.'

Mal nodded understandingly. "I'm sorry." He brightened up. "Well, play me anyway, 'cause if I make a mistake against you, you'll have a much more legitimate reason to hit me than if I lost to Suiichi. Where is he, anyway?"

Emina shrugged. "We don't really know. We ran into him over the weekend, and he said he'd met an old friend of his that needed his help. My guess is that he's off with this friend of his solving whatever the problem was."

Sin nodded. In reality, Hiei had practically dragged Suiichi out of Emina's house after he had finished making them breakfast, and they hadn't heard from him since. That had been two days ago. She was doubtful now that any actual harm could come to either of them, seeing as they were both literally superhuman, but she couldn't help but worry for both of them…

Both of them? She mentally shook herself. Why was she worried about Hiei? He'd seemed pretty capable of taking care of himself, and he didn't seem to give a damn about her. Why should she be concerned with his well being?

Because he's with Suiichi, and if he's in trouble, Suiichi's in trouble, or so she told herself. It was, at least, partially true: Hiei seemed like a much more capable fighter than Suiichi, so if things were going bad for him, then the red-head was probably in quite a bit of trouble, "rose whip" or no.

Still, though…She'd been noticing every little shadow all weekend, thinking it might be him. Every twitch of movement she caught out of the corner of her eye might have been his small, muscular body shooting by at incredible speed. Every glint of red became his angry crimson eyes…

And she couldn't help but dwell a little on how close their bodies had been on the couch…how he had simply reached into her mind and taken away the fear…how he

"Sin?"

She snapped back to reality, cursing the hotness that was spreading across her cheeks. "Yeah, what is it?"

Mal was eyeing her strangely. "We don't have to play if you don't want to…"

She shook her head irritably. "No, no, I'm focused," she lied. "Just tell me how to play, and we'll play."

Mal shrugged. "Right then…well, the rules are simple…"


Sin limped out across the school lawn several hours later, still cursing Mal's definition of "simple." That stupid game had been so complicated she'd eventually picked up the board and beaten Mal over the head with it, claiming her victory, before storming off in a huff.

Getting around the school had been murder. Sin had been limping on her hurt foot all day. She'd limped to every class, limped to her and Emi's locker twice, limped to lunch, to gym, through gym, everywhere. She'd been given a decent set of crutches to use for walking, but they just transferred the pain from her foot to her arms, so she only used them about half the time.

Sin managed cross the vast sea of grass in about ten minutes. Immediately upon stepping underneath the leafy canopy, she tossed the hated things aside and toppled to the ground, collapsing against the base of the tree trunk.

God she was tired…felt good to lie down finally…why was the trunk so squishy all of a sudden…?

"I see someone's had a hard day," said a familiar voice with a giggle.

Sin opened her eyes, and found her best friend sitting off to her left, pale-silver hair providing a backdrop for her deep red eyes, which were currently focused on a point just above Sin's prone form.

Sin looked up into a pair of vibrant green eyes, framed by a mass of messy red hair. A rather perplexed Suiichi stared back at her.

She sat up quickly and shoved the boy aside. "Bitch, quit hogging the tree," she said, covering her sudden embarrassment with her normal verbal abuse as she resumed her relaxed position.

Sin heard a burst of laughter from Emina, but her heart froze as a third voice chuckled softly off to her left. Her head snapped around to find the short, black-clad demon leaning against a low branch. A small part of Sin's brain noted his ability to stand comfortably underneath the short, leafy canopy.

"I take it your foot is still bothering you?" asked Suiichi, dusting himself off.

Sin nodded, massaging the foot gently and forcing her attention away from Hiei. "Yeah. It started hurting real bad a few minutes after I left Emi's house. I took some drugs for it, but it's basically been hurting for three days."

Hiei raised an eyebrow. "You need to drug yourself to deal with physical pain? No wonder you humans are so weak: you've built up no pain threshold to speak of."

Kurama nodded, almost to himself. "Well, in this case, Hiei, I would strongly advise the painkillers: The chemical 'cast' covering her bones isn't going to dissolve that quickly, so it's probably still about six millimeters wider than normal."

Sin eyed her booted foot suspiciously. "That can't be good."

Suiichi shrugged. "Well, if you consider the fact that when I first removed the deadly vetch from your body, your bones were experiencing a diameter growth upwards of thirteen millimeters, I'd say this is a marked improvement."

"…I see," said Sin blankly. "Changing the subject, then, before I freak out: I had two questions regarding your little…explanation on Friday."

Suiichi chuckled. "Yes, I thought you might. The existence of multiple universes does tend to confuse people upon first learning about it."

Sin shook her head. "No, I'm not really confused about anything, there's just a couple things I still want to know."

Hiei scowled. "You do realize that by telling you anything, Kurama has already violated Spirit World law?"

Sin cleared her throat. "Well, that's kind of my point: I was wondering why, out of the three worlds, human world isn't allowed to know about the others. I mean, if you're fine letting demons know, then what are you afraid we're going to do?"

Hiei glared down at her. "You imply that demons are, by definition, inferior to humans, baka onna. Amend this now."

Sin's eyes widened, realizing too late her faux pas. "Oh, um, I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"In order to maintain any kind of objectivity, you must first be able to consider all three worlds as equal," said Suiichi, in a concerned tone. "If you fail to do that, all of your opinions will inevitably be biased and skewed."

Sin looked down, feeling rather embarrassed. "I'm sorry," she said, lamely. It seemed a rather insufficient apology for having just insulted an entire race.

Surprisingly, Suiichi laughed. "Truth be told, as far as a certain…strength of character goes, demons generally rank far below humans." He gestured over his shoulder at Hiei. "As I explained previously, they tend to be violent, aggressive, and completely amoral in regards to ending the life of another individual. In fact, the current government of Makai consists solely of a dictator being 're-elected' every three years by way of a worldwide tournament. The last man standing, after about six-thousand others around him have fallen, gets to run Makai for another three years."

"…Wow…" said Sin.

"Might I add that this inane process was thought up by a human boy?" snarled Hiei.

Suiichi nodded. "Indeed…there are many school of thought that suggest that humans and demons are not so different, psychologically speaking. However, arguably the most important difference between them is the relative population. In fact, out of all three worlds, humans contain the single largest population of individuals, by a factor of a thousand at least. Were they to learn of these other worlds, they would inevitably try to follow the standard course of their history: they would set out to conquer and colonize, to make the three worlds their own. They would overrun Makai and Reikai through sheer numbers. So, as a precaution, they are simply kept from knowing that the worlds exist."

Sin nodded. "I guess that makes sense."

"Spirit World seems to think so," said Suiichi with a shrug. "Now, what was your other question?"

"Oh! Right," Sin had almost forgotten. "What should we call you?"

The boy looked confused. "What?"

"You said you had a demon name, I forget what it was, started with a K…Kurama, I think?"

"Oh, right, yes," said the red-head. "Well, I have gone by both names fairly equally over the past decade or so, so either will work. However, in the presence of others, I must ask you to use my human name, Suiichi Minamino. When we are more alone, though, such as within this tree, you would be free to choose whichever form you want."

Sin thought for a moment. "Hm…Kurama is a lot easier to say that Suiichi. Easier to spell, for that matter."

Suiichi/Kurama nodded. "That would be fine."

Sin nodded proudly. "From now on, we shall call you Kurllama.

Kurama nodded, not quite listening. "Yes- wait, what?"

Sin giggled mischievously, as did Emina, although she still wouldn't look up at the boy.

Hiei furrowed his brow. "I fail to understand."

Sin stopped giggling and shook her head. "Never mind, we're just teasing." She suddenly remembered something. "Oh, so speaking of you, Hiei, what's this big problem you've been having? And why are you here with us instead of out somewhere trying to fix it?"

Hiei took on a look of irritation, which slid quite naturally across his face. "If it were up to me, Kurama and I would be working tirelessly and without rest until I found the man I'm looking for. However, his fragile human body seems to need sleep after a mere twenty-four hours. We'd be out now, working, if he didn't find it so utterly necessary that he sit here and chat idly with you two."

Kurama looked down uncomfortably. "I, um, just felt that we'd been working rather hard for several days now, and it would be best if we took a break. That's all."

Hiei snorted. "I'm sure."

Kurama turned around and raised an eyebrow at him. "Hiei, we picked apart half of the country in less than forty-eight hours. I consider that rather impressive, even by our standards. And if you still don't think we're moving fast enough, you could always continue your search alone."

There was a bit of an uncomfortable silence. Sin broke it. "Um, so who exactly are you looking for?"

Hiei's fiery red eyes locked with hers. "It's none of your business, onna."

Emina looked up sharply. "You know, if you were maybe, I don't know, nice for once, we might consider trying to help you."

Hiei rounded on her. "I don't need your help, human. What possible use could you be?"

Emina glared at him. "I don't know, demon. But if you need Kurama's help so badly, then you obviously can't do this on your own."

Hiei returned the albino's red-eyed glare with his own. "I need Kurama's help because he's capable of subtlety. If you're unfamiliar with the term, I suggest you look it up. It generally requires something resembling intelligence."

Emina got to her feet, snarling. "I know what subtlety means, shrimp. It's a term for people who don't use forty gallons of hair gel to try and add-"

"If the next words out of your mouth displease me in any way, you will not live to see the end of this sentence."

Emina paused, then started to open her mouth again, but Kurama raised his arms, cutting off the argument. "Perhaps," he said quietly, "it would be best if you at least told them who you're looking for." He paused, and then added quietly, "You would only need to tell them who."

The short, black-cloaked demon and the albino continued to lock gazes of hatred for a moment. Then Hiei closed his eyes. "Alright. Have it your way." He said calmly.

He sat down, as did Emina.

Hiei opened his eyes again. "I am looking for a man. Human, by his own description. Roughly five-foot-ten, dark blonde hair. He was wearing a long brown coat and carried a heavy walking staff, about five feet long."

There was a long, awkward pause.

"Well that was anticlimactic," said Sin, although something about the description was nagging her. "I was expecting a big long, 'I first saw this man over a thousand years ago' kind of monologue. Got anything else besides a description that would fit a good third of the world's population?"

Hiei glowered at her. "Nothing you would find helpful, human, unless you've discovered how to access your spirit energy, and judging by your distinct lack of knowledge about the spirit world, I believe it's safe to assume you haven't."

Sin sighed at the small demon. "Dude, just tell us. The more we know, the more we can help find this person. Unless you really would rather search alone."

Hiei growled in response, but continued. "He has a very peculiar energy signature. If you were able to sense energy around you, you would know if you'd seen him. Because he doesn't have one."

"Every living being has an energy signature," explained Kurama. "it's a certain...pattern to their internal energy, be it demon or spirit, that is unique to them, like a fingerprint. What's so significant about this man is that...well, it's not that his energy is so weak it can't be felt, because in that instance, you'd feel a certain hole in the ambient energy of the environment where their energy signature should be. With this man, from what Hiei tells me, it's that he has no energy signature at all. There is no definable break between him and the surrounding environment. As far as energy is concerned, he doesn't exist."

Emina raised an eyebrow. "So…how do you find someone that doesn't exist, exactly?"

"Oh, he exists, girl," snarled Hiei, with so much malice it actually made Sin shiver involuntarily.

"According to Hiei," continued Kurama, "this man generates a sort of static that blocks Hiei's…extra abilities. First, we have Hiei scan the energy signatures of everyone within a five-hundred-meter radius. Then, we-"

"Scan what now?"

Everyone's head snapped towards the sound as Mal ducked under the leafy dome, stuffed messenger bag slung comfortably over one shoulder.

Sin knew pretty well that, at that very moment, everyone under the tree was suddenly struck with the realization that no one had told Mal any of this yet. Sin's mind was flooded with a hundred different thoughts, most of which were concentrated on a single point: good lord, how are we going to explain all this to him?

However, none of those questions were able to be answered, because a single, small observation cut through all of them like a hot knife through butter:

About five-foot-ten, dark blonde hair, carrying a staff.

"YOU!"

Before anyone could so much as blink, Mal's form disappeared backwards through a new hole in the tree's leafy walls.

Hiei stood where Mal had been, drawing back an outstretched fist. Sin couldn't see his face from where she was sitting, but she could practically feel his rage. Dimly, she was aware of the distant thud of Mal's body colliding with the school building almost a hundred yards away.

Kurama leapt up. "Hiei, don't, he's not the man you're-"

His flying tackle connected with air as Hiei blurred. The canopy flew open for a moment, and then folded back again.

The three young people got up as fast as they could, and swiftly exited the tree, Sin limping badly. They got their bearings just in time to see Hiei reach Mal.

The latter had left cracks in the brick wall he'd connected with that were visible even from this distance, and he was currently sprawled awkwardly on the cement. As he struggled to rise, Hiei reached him at speed, delivering a sprinting kick that sent the blonde-haired youth rebounding of the wall again, increasing the amount of cracks and sending him rolling back across the grassy field.

Hiei jumped, bounced lightly off the wall, and sped through the air back towards his target. Mal barely managed to roll out of the way as the smaller man's fist as it collided with the ground with a thundering impact. The shock wave alone sent Sin to the ground as it jarred her hurt foot. She saw Mal fly into the air as she went down.

By the time she sat up, Kurama had finally come to his senses, and was sprinting across the field at high speed towards the combatants. Hiei had withdrawn his fist from the ridiculously-large blast crater it had left, and Mal was shakily trying to sit up some distance away, still wearing his bag.

Kurama was about halfway across the field when Hiei tore off his cloak for better mobility, and shot forward again. Sin felt her heart flutter against her will at the sight if his small, chiseled torso. She also noticed that the bandage on his right hand and arm ended at about the elbow.

Mal had just managed to remove his battered satchel when the half-naked midget reached him, throwing a right cross into his jaw that sent the former hurtling backwards across the grass.

"You know," said Emina, distantly, "if you hit a normal person in the head hard enough to send them flying that far, their head would come off."

As Mal rolled to a stop, struggling to right himself, Hiei blurred, appeared behind him, and slammed a bandaged fist into the back of his head, driving Mal's face into the ground.

"So since Mal's still intact," muttered Sin, just as distantly, "then…"

"Then he's not a normal person," finished Emina.

That same hand then hauled him upright and held him in position for a wicked left hook that sent the boy flying backwards into Kurama, who was knocked to the ground. The redhead recovered quickly as Mal rolled to a stop once again, and stepped between him and Hiei.

"Hiei, you have to stop," he yelled. "There must be some mistake. Mal couldn't have-"

He lunged, but missed Hiei's blurred form as the fire demon sped past, blind with rage. He leapt towards his target, to deliver another devastating punch, but Mal had finally gotten to his feet, and was able to leap away as Hiei threw another earth-shattering punch into the ground.

Mal landed lightly on the ground. The fight had drawn closer to the two observing girls, and Sin could now make out a bit more detail: namely, that Mal was obviously limping and covered with blood, a bit of which he now spat out.

He looked up, and Sin saw his mouth smirk and his brown eyes narrowed at his opponent. "Alright, I don't know who you are, or what exactly your problem is, but if we could please just talk for a moment, no one would have to get hurt."

Hiei chuckled maliciously. "Ah, but that won't do, now will it? If I'm to properly repay you for your-"

A movement caught her eye, and Sin looked up to see Kurama, back on his feet, thrust his hand forward. All around Hiei, the grass suddenly grew up into hundreds of thick, green ropes, wrapping the small figure from head to toe. Hiei let out a cry of surprise, then a roar of rage as he ripped apart his organic bindings.

"Back off, fox," he yelled. "This bastard is mine!"

More green ropes shot up out of the ground around Hiei as Kurama, reached back into his scarlet mane. "Hiei, please," he called, "You are mistaken, I promise you. This is not the man you're looking for!"

His hand reemerged from his hair bearing a small, red rose as Hiei tore an arm free of the assaulting vegetation, and slammed it hard into the ground. A ring of flame erupted around him, burning through the grass in an instant and scorching the earth clean of it within a five-meter circle around him.

The fire burned off Hiei's bandages, as well, and Sin couldn't contain a gasp of shock.

Hiei, now completely free of bandages, had revealed two things: one was a winding, black tattoo along the length of his arm in the shape of a dragon. And the other…was a third eye.

Planted smack in the middle of his forehead, an enormous, almond-shaped purple eye glared out at Mal, burning with equal fury to the other two eyes. Sin felt her skin crawl as she involuntarily began to think about how that eye would feel, wriggling around in the center of her forehead.

Suddenly, another green rope hit Hiei, this one covered with thorns, wrapping up his tattooed arm and holding it fast. Sin looked to see Kurama on the other end of it. "I'm going to tell you once more," he said, straining against Hiei, who was attempting to pull free. "You must stop this, before-"

He was cut off by Hiei, who gave a tremendous tug on the vine, sending Kurama flying towards him. Hiei drew his katana with is free hand. "I said. Back. Off!"

The blade impaled Kurama's airborne form with a sickening squelch, passing all the way through his body. Sin heard Emina scream as Hiei tossed the green-eyed youth aside, blade still lodged in his stomach. Hiei raised his wrapped arm and glared at the thorny vine. It incinerated almost instantly.

Emina sprinted down to help the stricken redhead as Hiei turned back to Mal. "Alright, you bastard, time to finish this."

Sin looked over at Mal, who was looking back at the small fire demon calmly. "Fine. Have it your way."

He thrust his arm out to the side. Sin watched as a dull glow formed under his down-turned palm, and then grew into an orb of light so glaringly bright she had to shield her eyes. When the glow faded, she looked back up to find Mal holding what looked like an old wooden broom handle. A second flash flared up on his back, and a flimsy, home-made sheath appeared, made of an old piece of pipe, some duct-tape, and a belt.

Hiei took that as a signal to resume the attack, and charged towards Mal with impossible speed, covering almost forty yards in the blink of an eye. There was an earsplitting crack as the small man's fist broke the sound barrier-

And connected with air. Sin watched as Mal leapt easily over the fire demon. As he somersaulted away, a third flash engulfed his staff. When he landed, it was different: about four-feet long, painted bright white, with a metal stud on each end. The sheath on his back was now a compact, sleek piece of black metal, with a study leather strap.

He stood up and turned to stare down at Hiei with a pair of bright, confident blue eyes Sin had never seen before. "Alright, tiny," he jeered in an unfamiliar voice, "I'm gonna give you one shot to tell me exactly why you're tryin'a tear my head off."

Hiei smirked without any trace of joy. "Simple. I'm going to tear it apart and feed the pieces to a hate fish."

Mal snorted and folded his arms. "Wow. That's harsh, man. What'd I do to deserve that?"

If it was possible, Hiei's eyes showed even more anger than before. "What did you do? What did you do? You killed Mukuro you son of a bitch!"

A blur shot across the field towards Mal, and Hiei was immediately on top of him. With unprecedented agility, Mal dodged the first blow and struck out with his staff, catching Hiei in the temple and sending him tumbling away. Sin's eyes followed his airborne form as it landed, recovered, and shot back towards Mal, who blocked his first attack again, but missed the second, which hit him in the shoulder and spun him around in almost a full circle. Mal used the momentum to whirl around and slam the end of his staff into Hiei's chest.

Hiei rolled upright again, unfazed, but did not advance. His eyes blazed with anger, and his third one was giving off such a violent purple glow it was sending shivers down Sin's spine, as was the electricity arcing around his tattooed arm.

Mal eyed the small figure warily and dropped into a fighting stance, slipping his staff into its sheath and sliding both hands down to his hip. "Look buddy, I ain't seen Mukuro even once my whole life." he said in a warning tone. "Last I heard, she was patrolling the edges a' Demon World lookin' for anybody that wasn't supposed to be there. If somethin's happened to her, I'd be more'n willin' to help out. But you'd best be standin' down, or I'ma have to end this right now."

Sin glanced between the two. What the hell was going on?

"Hiei, don't do it…" Sin looked around. Kurama was, miraculously, standing, with a distraught Emina attempting to support him. There seemed to be some black things in her hair, which was swinging down behind her like a tail, but the sword protruding from Kurama's front and back, dripping with blood, created such a strange sort of allure for Sin that she paid it no mind...

Hiei grinned evilly, ignoring his friend. "Please, allow me the pleasure of ending this…"

He raised his right arm, still sparking with purple bolts of lightning. If Sin didn't know better, she would have sworn the dragon tattoo was writhing around on its own. "Dragon," he shouted,"of the Darkness Fl-"

"Hiei, don't!" she shouted. She had no idea what he was about to do, but the sharp pain she felt in her heart every time Mal or Hiei took a hit told her this fight needed to stop.

And against all odds, Hiei did stop, arm halfway forward into some kind of attack. His head snapped around to look at her, his three-eyed stare presenting her with an expression she couldn't quite place.

"Nova Beam!"

Everyone turned to look at Mal, who had thrust his hands forward.

In the instant it took, Sin saw his palms erupt in yellow light, creating a sphere several meters in diameter. The sphere produced a beam of light, of a similar size, which shot towards Hiei and slammed into him with an earsplitting bang.

The combination of the flash and the sound completely disoriented Sin for a moment. When she came to, she found an enormous, charred line extending away from Mal, across the field, and stopping at the school building, which had finally given way under the continued assault. Sin could barely make out Hiei's prone form atop a small pile of rubble just inside the wall.

She turned back to Mal, who turned a brown-eyed gaze on her.

"Thanks for that," he said, leaning heavily on his five-foot broom handle. "Now will someone please explain to me why I just got my ass kicked?"