Disclaimer: Neither Hiei, nor Yu-Yu-Hakusho is mine.

Claimer: Chichiro and Ketsue are mine, Kaze is BritKit, Aria is FoxWitch. While not all the characters are mine, all writing, storylines and concepts in this fanfiction (Save any YYH references) are.

When I slowed and walked into the small area that lacked trees, my eyes widened slightly, and I let myself fall backward and sit down clumsily.

"…Shit." It was empty save a large amount of scattered blood. I was alone.

I was in a world I didn't recognize, I was injured and unable to move around or fight as well as usual, and worse off, now I was alone and with no idea where Hiei was. I wasn't even sure what to do, and I glanced around and tried to keep myself from becoming worried due to the blood on the ground…chances were, it wasn't Hiei's blood. At least that's what, according to his skills, it should have been; then again, I didn't see any bodies, shadowcats or otherwise. I could only hope that either shadowcats buried their dead like humans and wouldn't have left them here, or that no one had died. Even then, there was still the possibility of Hiei being seriously injured…

I shook my head. I couldn't panic—I already told myself I wouldn't. Stop being such a pessimist and think about this. The fight could have gone somewhere else, or maybe they reached some sort of agreement… I looked to the blood on the ground, grimacing. Oh, yes, it really looks like a peaceful agreement was found. I sighed and decided I just wasn't an optimistic person. "Fuck," I whispered, then stood. Even Zerathus wasn't in the clearing, which I found only mildly weird, since I had gotten here almost an hour after he had left.

Waiting only a few seconds more in a shaky standing position, I finally turned and walked back into the forest in the direction me and Hiei had been heading. "Time to explore," I mumbled to myself; waiting around was not only most likely pointless, but I doubted it was safe, either. This world was, as said before, unfamiliar to me, and Hiei wasn't around to rescue my ass if I got myself into some sort of trouble. At least if I went and 'toured' the area, maybe I'd stumble across Hiei or some shadowcat that I could try and beat information out of.

…Ah hah, riiight. I doubted I could beat anything out of anyone right then. But, still, even if I was captured by the shadowcats (I wouldn't resist it, being that I wouldn't leave without Hiei, and I knew they wouldn't kill me because they wanted me for something. That 'something' made me wary, but it could be used to my advantage if I didn't piss them off like I had Zerathus), most likely that would bring me to Hiei or let me know where he was and if he was okay. He had been with the shadowcats before, after all.

The forest was huge. No, more than huge. It was…Well, I don't even know if there was a good word for how gigantic it was. Let's just say I'm amazed I didn't get lost, if it's possible that I wasn't lost in the first place.

I made my way toward the rift tear, all the way taking in the strange scents of this new world. There were too many to decipher from one another, and I doubted I would have been able to anyway, being that I didn't know what the scents belonged to. The entire forest had a faint blood smell, however, no matter where I went, and I was surprised I hadn't noticed it earlier. It wasn't just my own blood I smelled, which was something I had considered, because I knew the scent of my own blood. No wonder Hiei wanted to leave here so bad, I thought for not the first time that day. Even without the shadowcats, this place seems pretty unwelcoming. Not a tourist site, at any rate. I couldn't really smell many shadowcat scents, however, and all of the ones I did pick up on were fresh, like the shadowcats had only been here a day or two longer than Hiei and I. Maybe this isn't their world after all.

I quickly began to realize that I wasn't getting any closer to the rift-tear. No matter how long I spent walking toward it, it never got any bigger or seemed any closer. Maybe it was shrinking, or something whacky like that, but even so that wasn't a very comforting idea. I didn't want to be stuck in a different world. I just hoped Hiei hadn't left without me, though I doubted he would have, since he had refused to before when Spike wanted me to go with him and the other cats.

Stopping where I stood, I looked up into the dark branches of the nearest tree and realized that they were far too dark to just be shadowed by the tree's own leaves. The sky was darkening. I sprang into the branches and leapt to the top of the tree, standing on the highest branch that was thick enough that it could hold me, and looked out across the trees. They seemed endless, and I could see nothing else for miles around. The rift-tear was just as far away from me as it had been before. "Damn it!" I growled, turning to look behind me toward the beach. I couldn't see the beach now, of course, with how far I had come, but I knew which direction it had been. "Hiei, where are you?" I sat down on the branch and leaned against the trunk of the tree with a heavy sigh. This really didn't look good. There were too many things I didn't know about this place. I didn't even know where it was, for starters, nor the creatures who lived in it, whether it was safe to sleep or even to be in the tree, or if the nights lasted as long as in the human world. After all, this new world may not have the same day-and-night cycle as my world, and I wasn't familiar with the lengths of it either.

"Dozing off in an unfamiliar world? That hardly seems intelligent to me."

I stood up as soon as he began to speak, but when I recognized Hiei's voice, I wasn't sure whether to glare at him or tell him how relieved I was to see him. I chose the first. "And where the hell have you been? Leaving me in this 'unfamiliar world' alone doesn't sound very intelligent to me, either!"

Then I actually got a good look at him; he had four, long scratches down his torso and a single, thin slash across the right side of his face. "Before you attack me due to worry or ask, I'm fine," Hiei told me, seeing my eyes scanning his wounds. "They're minor injuries."

"So, uh, what happened with you, then? Where are the shadowcats?"

"Actually, that's why I'm here. See, I didn't quite k—" I think he meant to say 'kill them', but he was cut short as he gave a swift, fleeting glance behind him then grabbed me and leapt off the branch just as it combusted and shattered into thousands of flame-covered wood chips.

I was unable to do much other than stare, but Hiei set me down and stood in front of me as a man walked out from the shadows of the forest. He was about as tall as Zerathus, maybe lacking a few inches, and he almost resembled the shadowcat, but his long hair was black. He had blue cat-slit eyes, and on his brow, as with the other shadowcats I had met, there was a dark symbol, as if burned into his flesh; his, however, was a black ankh. Behind him, another, taller (Taller even than Zerathus) shadowcat came forward. His hair was short and mildly gravity-defying, like Spike's but shorter, and he had red cat-slit eyes.

"I thought you told us you wouldn't take us to your demon girl," the one with the black hair growled in a half-mocking voice. His tone actually had emotion, unlike most of the other shadowcats I had met, but not very much of it.

"Hn. And I had planned on doing just that, but I sensed her nearby and figured you would as well; better that I got to her first, don't you agree?"

I looked over at Hiei as he finished speaking. "Have you been running from these guys the entire time?"

Hiei glared at me. "Don't act like I had choice otherwise. I hate to admit it, but facing all of them at once was taxing and I don't have very much energy left." He paused a moment, then muttered, as if offended, "And I wasn't running from them. I was trying to find you and they followed me after I killed four or five of their allies. Spike decided to sic them on me."

I grinned lightly—too good of an opportunity to pass up. "So you just happened to be running away from them as you were looking for me? Can't kill them?"

I could have sworn I saw Hiei's eye twitch from what I could see from his face when he was turned away from me, but when he gave me a fleeting glare he was relatively expressionless. "Actually, I'd rather not kill these idiots. I hate to use to word 'friend', but that's the closest I can find in your language to what these incompetents are to me."

"It's not my language," I spat back. "It's just the one I grew up w—" My eyes widened as the cat with the black hair began to summon an attack, and I leapt at Hiei and pushed him down just as a long, strangely-colored fire trail shot over us and just barely missed killing both of us. "Well, you might consider them almost-friends, but they sure don't seem to mind tying to kill you."

"I never thought I'd see the day," Hiei said with a smirk as he drew his sword, still positioned on the ground, "when you had to rescue me."

"I wouldn't call it 'rescue'," I replied, standing with him and summoning my energy sword. I realized as the cats didn't attack again that they hadn't been trying to kill Hiei, but just getting his attention…In a really dangerous, life-threatening way. "That's such a degrading word when used against you."

Hiei smirked. "I couldn't agree more." He sprang at the black-haired cat, slashing at him with his sword. The cat countered by shooting fire towards him, and I had to wonder what had happened to Hiei not wanting to kill them.

The taller, white-haired cat who had yet to speak was next to me before I had registered movement, and he grabbed onto my arm. I opened my mouth to speak, when his fist hit the back of my neck in a strange way, and my vision blurred and blackened as the ground rushed up to meet me.

I certainly wasn't expecting to wake up to being surrounded by shadowcats, but then again, I'm not sure I was expecting anything. I blinked, then sat up slowly. I was in a…bed?

…M'kay, then. This is creepy. Who is this nice to their prisoner and/or enemy?

"She's woken, my Lord." That came from the female shadowcat from before, Asakari, who was sitting, as with the others, about five feet from me. There were three other shadowcats next to her, none of which I recognized, but all of them female.

"About time. I didn't think Skyre had hit her that hard, but I guess I was wrong." It didn't take me long to recognize Spike's voice, and as he walked into the room my suspicions were confirmed.

I opened my mouth to ask where Hiei was, not even bothering to ask where I was, as Hiei seemed more important at the moment than that, but my throat felt like it had been crushed and attempting to speak only sent me into a raspy coughing fit.

"Don't try and speak, Ketsueki. I doubt I'd be willing to answer most of your questions." Spike crouched next to me, and I automatically leaned backward away from him, but he only smirked. "You're at one of our temples, and I expect you to cooperate. Understand?"

I just gave him the fiercest glare I could manage, and hissed without using my voice (And somehow managing to only cough once as I asked), "Where's Hiei?"

"You do have a one-track mind, don't you?" Spike purred with amusement, then grinned at me. "I'll let you see Hiei just as soon as you do something for me."

I gritted my teeth and didn't drop my glare, but I slouched against the wall (As the bed was located in a corner. I had never been in this sort of bed; it was flatter than my bed, and it was more like a mat than a mattress.) in grudging obedience.

Spike's grin never faltered. "Good, I'm glad you intend to listen. Wouldn't want to hurt you anymore. I think that number Skyre did on your neck was enough for one day, don't you think?" Of course, I didn't answer or try to. I must say, though, glaring at Spike wasn't nearly as fun as glaring at other people…he refused to stop grinning arrogantly, if not mockingly, at me. "Now, follow me, would you? I'm sure you can manage walking on that leg if it's a short distance."

I decided not to try and mention the long run back to the clearing, or the walk away from it, simply for the sake of allowing my neck to heal. I stood and walked after him out of the paper-walled room into what looked like a marble hallway. I kept on my guard, since this was shadowcat territory, and by Skyre's (At least, who I thought was Skyre. I wasn't sure if I was pairing the name to the right person, but by the neck comment from Spike before, I figured it would be the tall, short-haired shadowcat.) roughness they obviously didn't mind hurting me.

Spike turned into a large room, again paper-walled; he stood aside so I could study it. It seemed to be some sort of training area, or a dojo, because there were many practice and combat weapons hung on the walls, and there were wooden and metal posts that looked to have been attacked with blades standing in scattered positions on the floor of the room. My look alone asked Spike what this was.

"This is one of our various training rooms," Spike told me, confirming what I had guessed before. "I'd like to see what you can do, since I was cheated of watching your other fight." I glared incredulously at him. "Yes, I know you're injured. I won't make you show me yet. But I'd advise you try and train while you can anyway."

I tried to clear my throat, to see if I'd be able to speak, and it worked fairly well. "What do you want with me?" I asked in a rough, scratchy voice.

"Your throat improved quicker than I thought," Spike purred, but didn't answer and turned around, walking back into the hallway and turning right.

I growled, but decided following him was my only option. I didn't dare go anywhere else, and of the shadowcats, Spike seemed to be the one least likely to injure me. Might as well stick with him. "Why are you keeping me here?" I tried again, and he slowed for a few steps before stopping and turning to face me.

"You will be an asset to us in the Dark Tournament."

I stared at him a moment, then it shifted to a glare. "Are you saying you're entering the t—" My throat felt constricted, and I was sent into another round of coughing, but I re-started after I had recovered. "You're entering the tournament?"

"Yes. We both share a common enemy in the tournament."

"Common enemy?" I asked, blinking a single time. "Look, Spike, I don't know what you mean. I'm clueless about this tournament past the loose concept of what it is. I don't know who organized it or who the 'common enemy' is."

"If you don't want to have your head removed from your shoulders, I'd advise you call me Lord Spike. I personally don't care for formalities, but my guards tend to be a bit…over-protective of them." He began walking again, and I sighed as I followed. I was beginning to feel like a puppy. "I'm sure you've heard of Nirvana, haven't you?"

My eyes widened slightly. "Nirvana? She's going to be in the tournament?"

"Nirvana and her team are the ones whom the greatest amount of support will be directed. Her team is expected to get to the final round near indefinitely, so the real question for the tournament's final round is only singular: who will face Nirvana's team?"

I examined the walls as we walked. It seemed weird that the rooms were styled like a Japanese temple, but the halls were made of a sort of stone that, as I previously mentioned, resembled marble. "Alright, so why do you want me to fight for you?" I turned and watched Spike as he walked in front of me. "I would think you would want Hiei to fight with you. He's stronger than me, and he isn't an assassination target for demons."

"He is wanted dead, though," Spike replied. In front of us, there was a door that looked to lead to the outside. I briefly looked behind us; I couldn't see the end of the hallway. This temple must be huge. As Spike opened the door, which looked to be metal, and walked outside, he allowed me to follow, a fact I was surprised about. I thought he would probably restrict me from following, simply because I might be able to leave and evade them. However, I didn't make the attempt at leaving; I may have been getting better at traveling on my wounded leg, but I still doubted that I'd be able to keep distance between Spike and I. "And it is true that he is stronger than you, and more experienced, but I find that you would be simpler to bribe into fighting with us. Besides, Nirvana would feel more obligated to battle us if you were fighting on our team rather than Hiei."

"So you just want me because I'm easy to obtain and because Nirvana would want to fight you guys?"

"Don't sound so offended." Spike walked past me and sat down on the grass, leaning against the wall of the temple. "You do intrigue me…greatly so. I believe you have room to grow stronger. Maybe you can even surpass Hiei."

I growled. For some reason I thought that statement was offensive rather than a compliment, maybe because I was so quick to defend Hiei rather than myself. "Don't get ahead of yourself. I could never get stronger than Hiei."

"Now, with an attitude like that, how do you expect to improve on anything?"

I started coughing again. I had actually forgotten about my throat, as my voice had returned to normal, but it seemed that I still wasn't completely better. "Shut up. Where is he?"

"I told you before: cooperate and I'll tell you. Eventually."

"You can't possibly expect to keep me wondering through the entire tournament, so I suggest you start talking if you want me to fight for you."

Spike looked up, his golden eyes flashing with interest. "Are you saying that if I tell you that you'll fight for us?"

"No, but I'd be much more inclined to be civil with you and consider it if I knew that Hiei was okay."

"Well, that's something you needn't worry about. He's perfectly unharmed."

"And? Where is he?"

"You told me before not to get ahead of myself," Spike replied, his grin (which had faded to just a smile previous) returning full-swing. "One thing at a time, Ketsueki."

I wondered for a moment if persisting would have any effect, and decided it wouldn't, so I just asked, "Why do you keep calling me that? I mean, you never heard anyone else call me Ketsueki. That I know of, the only thing you've ever seen me called is Ketsue."

"Well, it wasn't hard to figure out what 'Ketsue' was short for, but it seemed more like a nickname for people closer to you to call you. I figured Ketsueki would be the closest I'd be able to manage for a half-formal name, being that I'm sure you wouldn't want to be called Chichiro."

It seemed weird to me that he read so easily into my dislike of being called Chichiro, especially with how I acted toward Zerathus when he refused to use my name. Speaking of, "Where is Zerathus, anyway? He just disappeared after something near you guys blew up."

"Courtesy of Kent, I'm sure you mean." I assumed he meant whatever had blown up had been obliterated by someone named Kent. He didn't elaborate. "Zerathus is around. He's mostly unharmed, and faring better than you."

I made a light 'hmmph' noise as response and sat against the wall on the other side of the door, farther away from Spike than I would have been if I had just walked toward the section of wall I was closest to. "So how do you intend to force me into fighting for you?"

I sensed Spike's eyes on me, but I didn't turn to meet them and closed my own. "Well, I know you're eager to fight in the tournament. Why would you resist?"

"Because I don't know where Hiei is, and I wouldn't fight on any team unless Hiei was there with me."

"One-track mind," Spike reiterated in a purr. "I find it so amusing how attached you are to him."

"Pssht. Shut up, cat."

He snickered, then stifled his laughing; I sensed his eyes move from me. "Do you realize that we aren't in the same world that you were knocked unconscious in?"

My eyes shot open. I hadn't realized, but what he said was true. The air felt lighter and cleaner, like in Makai, and the trees before us were more like those in the human world. "Where are we, then?"

"It isn't your concern right now. But I figure that piece of information will keep you from trying to run off."

I glared sideways at him without turning my head. "Hate to sound 'one-tracked' again, but is Hiei in this world?"

"Of course not."

I grimaced when he confirmed what I had feared. No wonder he had been so confident in keeping me here. Hiei wasn't even in the same world as me, and there was no telling how far away the world he was in was. "Where is he, then?"

"Haven't we been over this? I have no intention of telling you yet."

"For fuck's sake, at least tell me what world he's in."

Spike snickered again. Apparently, my anger was amusing to him. "He's either back in the world we left him in, or he's returned to Makai."

I finally turned my head to glare at him straight-on. "He wouldn't leave without me."

"Oh no?" I really didn't like Spike's tone. "And what if we had slipped and told him you were dead?"

My eyes widened, and I felt a similar anger to that of when my shoulder was hit begin to grow within me. I stood slowly, not even caring that my energy was flaring up at a fast enough rate that it was making my right arm sting horridly. It felt as though something living was tugging on my arm, as if the dragon had returned by choice and was asking to be released to devour Spike. At the moment, I was almost considering doing that. The only thing that held me back was the knowledge that Hiei wasn't around to rescue me like usual and keep me from killing myself. "If it was so simple for you to slip and tell him that," I growled, my voice low and sounding completely demonic and unlike me, "then I suppose I'll just have to let my sword 'slip' and bleed you dry." I summoned my energy sword…with my right hand. I honestly didn't even notice myself doing it, but somewhere in the back of my mind I registered the pain of doing so and the fact that the sword was black and blue, flame-like energy, like Hiei's energy sword, rather than steel like my usual energy sword.

"Already using your right arm this soon after using the Darkness?" Spike asked, still looking amused, but somewhere in his expressionless eyes, I could see nervousness beginning to grow. "Impressive. Your healing powers are almost as great as Hiei's."

"Come now, Lord Spike, do you already dare use his name again after making me so angry with it?" The voice was still not my own. I wasn't even sure I was forming the words. It was scaring me, much more than when I was in my full-demon form. At least in that form I had control over what I did, even if it was more erratic than usual. I hadn't changed form, and yet it seemed my movements were not due to my own free will. I made myself believe they were coming automatically just out of anger simply so I wouldn't scare myself further.

Spike realized I was actually going to attack him, and he drew a chain and sickle from where it had been tied on his belt, swinging the curved blade around in a leisurely way, as if to show it off before using it. I quickly analyzed that he wouldn't attack me unless I attacked him first, and that was why he was 'showing' his weapon to me rather than shooting it at me. I kept my body, which was not very much under my control anymore, from lunging at him. "Tell me his exact location, incompetent." Again, it wasn't a voice that sounded entirely like me. I could tell that it was still my voice, but it was deeper and more yami-like…fiercer. Demonic. It wasn't my intention to say 'incompetent,' either. "I know you can tell me, so I suggest you talk." Actually, I didn't know that. But my voice said it anyway and it seemed to make sense afterward.

Spike sized me up with his eyes then shrugged with a smirk. "Alright, you win. He's in the Z'chor Realm with Kurama. He went back to Makai a few hours ago and fetched the demon fox and brought him to Z'chor. I don't think he believed us when we told him you were dead."

"He has a jagan, idiot, and you'll never find someone with a keener eye than Hiei. You couldn't lie to him even if you believed your lie." I lowered my energy sword. My control was coming back. "Bring me to him. Take me to that realm."

"And why would I do that?" Spike asked with a smirk. "We've captured you, and you're injured. If you have to ask me to take you, obviously you wouldn't run off and try and find it yourself. You'd get hopelessly lost between worlds and probably never make it back to one you recognized."

"Exactly why you're taking me, you pompous feline." I moved quicker than I thought I was capable of with my wounded leg, and my sword was at Spike's throat in milliseconds. "That is, if you intend to keep breathing."

Spike stared at me for a moment, not with fear, but with wonder. "You really are Chichiro's reincarnation, aren't you?" He nodded. "Alright. I'll take you to Z'chor. But realize this isn't over…I will try again."

I grinned sweetly at him, knowing it only came off as creepy when I was acting this exceedingly demonic. Exactly what I was going for. "Oh, now, Spike, we both know that 'try' is all you will do. You can't possibly plan on succeeding if you're giving me up so easily."

"I don't plan on it, no," Spike replied, his face and tone serious for the first time, "but I will not settle until I know I tried the best I possibly could to succeed."

"And by that you mean death," I muttered, "because 'the best' would be until you died."

Spike grinned at me. "Nah, I wouldn't go that far. We'd still have a chance to beat you guys and face Nirvana." I smirked back at him. "I rather like you, Ketsueki," Spike admitted, starting to walk toward the forest. "I'll have to take extra care to be sure my soldiers refrain from harming you."

I blinked. To me, that sounded like some really, really strange form of flirting. I chose to believe it was my imagination and followed him.

Three hours later found us falling. Rapidly. I was really starting to get sick of falling. It just wasn't a fun thing to do, especially not on a daily basis and when it was from thousands of feet up. Luckily, this was only from a few hundred feet and Spike and I both kicked off the tips of the trees and were able to land on the ground without breaking anything (though in my case I'd say breaking anything worse.).

I stood from my crouch after my knees and ankles stopped burning, and looked to Spike. "You do know where in this realm he is, don't you?"

Spike grinned at me again. "Of course. I know every inch of Z'chor, even if I didn't, and it wouldn't be hard for me to find him."

"Just because my patience is wearing thin, I hope that was simply a hypothetical comment."

Again, his response was a grin. He really did look cat-like; not his features, but the way his grin formed and the looks in his eyes. Like that of the Cheshire Cat. "Follow me."

I sprang after him, though I picked up on Hiei's energy signal soon and called for Spike to stop. He turned to me, looking expectant. "Okay, so here's the deal: You're a complete bastard for kidnapping me and lying to Hiei, but you're pretty cool anyway and I'd hate to see you die. Hiei's a sadistic jerk…he would enjoy to see you die. So I suggest you leave before he realizes you're here with me." Spike looked at me like I was crazy, since Hiei's energy was still about ten miles away; I didn't think he had much faith in my sensing and tracking skills. "I can find him from here," I assured the cat. "Now leave, before I have to demonstrate that I can be a sadistic jerk when needed as well."

Spike nodded, giving a two-fingered wave, and leapt back the way we had come.

And then I noticed Hiei's energy coming toward me, and I turned back the way I had been headed and went to meet him halfway. …Er, tried to meet him halfway. Hiei was still much faster than me, and I turned out going about a third of the distance when I spotted him as a tiny, black dot in the distance. I waved, despite the fact the action probably couldn't be seen, and continued going toward him, and within seconds he was in the tree in front of me. "Hiei!" I stopped on the branch I was on and grinned.

"I thought Spike was feeding me lies," Hiei said, giving a light smile (Well, more like smirk. But I can pretend it was a genuine smile.) back, revealing a single fang.

"Yeah, as you can see, I got pissed off enough that my threats actually worked, and I 'talked' him into bringing me here."

Hiei nodded with a short 'heh'. "What did he say to you while you were still his captive?"

"Meh, just something about wanting me on his team for the Dark Tournament, or something like that about something like that."

Hiei stared at me, then snickered quietly. "I never thought I'd actually be glad to hear your half-English gibberish."

"'Half-English'?" I asked, pretending to be offended. I thought he meant that my sentence hadn't made much sense.

"Yes. You're speaking half-Demon, half-English again."

I mentally sweat-dropped. "Er, 'again'? I remember talking in Demon once, but that's it. And I don't recall it being half-English."

"You rarely talk fully English anymore. You lapse into Demon and Japanese in almost every conversation."

"…That's…actually really cool."

Hiei shook his head at me, then turned to look behind him. I could see the shape of someone else approaching.

"Kurama?" I guessed, earning a nod.

The spirit fox arrived within a minute, and smiled at me. "Glad to see Hiei was right."

"About Spike being a lying bastard? Yup." I grinned back at him, then looked to Hiei. "So, does the fact that he's here mean that you found a rift-tear that could get us back to Makai?"

"Hn. Of course I did."

Hiei's arrogance always made me smile. I usually hated other people's arrogance, but Hiei's was just what made him…Hiei. "Great. So, can we go back, then?"

He nodded and flickered from my sight. Kurama looked sideways at me. "Well, despite his calm demeanor, he really was quite relieved when he sensed your energy." He squinted the slightest bit when he thought, something I noticed him do often when he found something weird. "Actually, he sensed your energy far before I could ever dream to, and before I thought even his abilities allowed. At least, his abilities without his jagan. He didn't use it."

I just gave Kurama a lopsided grin. "That's Hiei for you. Always unpredictable." I offered no guess as to why that had happened, though I had quite an obvious one. I wasn't sure if Kurama was like Yusuke about my relationship with Hiei, but if he was, I definitely didn't want to spark any further problem for myself by mentioning the fact that Hiei cared about me as reasoning for him being able to sense me easier than anyone else. "Shall we?"

Kurama agreed and I followed him back to the rift-tear, not surprised to find Hiei sitting on a branch near-by and looking quite bored with waiting. "Time to go home," Kurama mumbled, and thrust himself off the branch and up into the rift-tear, disappearing back to Makai.

"Home," I quoted quietly, finding an involuntary smile spreading across my lips, and I went after him, sensing Hiei behind me.

That was the first time I realized that 'home' was officially my word for Makai, and that I didn't particularly want to go back to Ningenkai. But, rest assured, I would find in the next few months it would definitely not be the last time.(1)

After we landed in Makai and walked (Hiei and Kurama decided to go easy on me and didn't make us run, and Hiei actually, uncharacteristically, waited and walked with us.) a few miles toward the rift-tear that would take us back to Ningenkai, I requested that we stopped somewhere so I could take a quick power-nap. Hiei had confirmed my suspicions that we really weren't anywhere close to the rift-tear back to the human world, so I figured I should get a bit of rest before we made our way back. The two demons had agreed to it, and I'd sat down in the first comfortable tree I could find and was immediately out.

It was dark when my eyes finally opened again, and I could sense Hiei above me a few branches away, and that Kurama was near us but not in the immediate area. I realized that my wrist was healed most of the way when I pushed myself lightly off the trunk of the tree into a sitting position (I hadn't been lying down, exactly, but I had been slouching.). Lifting my arm to examine it closer, I turned it palm-up and found that the claw marks from Zerathus's claws were also just simple scars now; it only felt as though I had twisted my wrist, not had the bones excruciatingly splintered.

"Finally awake?"

I jumped lightly, then leaned over the branch to meet eyes with Kurama. "Uh, yeah. Hey. I didn't even sense you coming."

"Your energy hasn't fully recovered yet, and so it effects your spiritual awareness as well." He smiled. "I see you noticed that you're mostly healed."

I then pulled my right leg up so that my knee was against my chest, and rolled up the torn bottom half of my jean leg to find that my leg wound was minor, now, as well. My neck didn't hurt, either. "How'd that happen, exactly? I don't think I was asleep a short enough time for it to be called a nap, but I don't think I was out long enough for everything to heal."

Kurama laughed lightly. "No, that was me. But Hiei and I figured it would be best for you to rest as long as needed. Your body isn't used to remaining in your demon form for such a long time, though it seems your demon blood dominates fully over your human now, and you had also lost more blood than you were aware of. We were in no hurry to return to the human realm anyway."

I got a weird feeling that Kurama had carefully said 'human realm' rather than 'your world'; everyone else I knew always referred to Ningenkai as my world, but apparently Kurama had picked up on the fact that it pissed me off, and almost offended me. "I noticed the blood-loss thing a while ago, but I guess I forgot. Heh. Air-headed as always." I reached up to rub my eyes with my right arm and winced, having oddly forgotten (I say 'oddly' because I hadn't let the injury slip my mind since I had gotten it. The pain of the Black Dragon Wave burning all the skin off your arm and scarring it even down to your very energy wasn't something to be easily forgotten.) that I still couldn't use it, and noted that there was a new bandage on it. "Uh…"

"You used your right arm to summon a hell-flame sword, though I doubt you were conscious of it. It burned your old bandages right off your arm."

"…Oh." I examined the bandage. There was some small square of paper at the end, above my knuckles, with a symbol I didn't recognize on it. "'Hell-flame'?"

"The Black Dragon Wave technique does not summon flames directly from hell or any sort of place close to it, but the flames of the demon realm. However, the version of the Darkness that you used did use something that could almost be called hellfire, and because of that, your right arm now cannot summon normal energy anymore automatically. It can only summon hell-flames."

"…Greeeat. That really sucks, since I'm Christian and tend to stay away from that sort of thing."

Kurama chuckled. I swung my legs over the side of the branch and leapt down to stand next to him. "Don't worry. Like I said, they are flames related to direct hellfire, but different enough that you don't have to think you sinned by summoning them."

I nodded, not entirely understanding, but, like many things Hiei told me, I understood the gist of it and left it at that. "What's this?" I held up my arm, my fist clenched as usual, and indicated the small paper-symbol on top of the bandages. There were also two thin, dark chains on the bandage; one was positioned near the top, a few inches below my shoulder, and the other was wrapped around my wrist, but hung down with a small, circular charm on top of my hand.

"It's a seal," Kurama explained. "The reason your arm has been in so much pain lately is because you do not know how to control the dragon or the hell-flames like Hiei, and thus they both try and free themselves from your arm at their own will. That seal will make sure they don't do that anymore, at least not for a while."

I studied the symbol again, and for a moment, memory flickered within me and I could read it; not that it translated to English in front of my eyes or anything, but I understood its meaning. The single symbol just meant 'seal', flat-out. "Did you have to do some sort of spell or anything? This just looks like normal paper to me, and 'seal' is just a word, that I know of, and doesn't do much on its own."

"Think of it like your Ofuda. It holds tremendous power by itself, without needing to be nursed with energy constantly."

I started, looking up at Kurama. "You know about the Ofuda?"

Kurama smiled lightly at me. "How else would you and Hiei have identical scars on your shoulders?"

I blinked once, then looked down and realized for the first time (I'm slow when I wake up. You all should know that by now. It didn't even occur to me that I shouldn't have been able to see all of the bandage and that my arms were lacking sleeves.) that I wasn't wearing my hoodie, only a black camisole, and had to wonder when I had lost it. True enough, there was no longer an actual wound on my shoulder, but a long, rough white slash across it, spreading in a strange way up my arm like spidery fingers. "Ah, right." I couldn't help but stare at it. It actually looked pretty cool, when I studied it, but that didn't explain why it still hurt even though it was a scar. "But there could be some other way of that happening, right?" I looked up at him. "I mean, I don't think ofudas are the only way of people sharing pain. But, then again, I still don't know much about demons and non-humans (even though I am one and I find it incredibly unfair to be so clueless), so I could be wrong."

Kurama looked up into the tree branches at Hiei, not answering my question. "I can only wonder how he feels about it," he mumbled. "It seems that he has disengaged it for quite a while, now, but as your power increases, so will that of the Ofuda. Soon, it will be too draining for him to continue making the Ofuda null."

Kurama was just as perceptive as Hiei. Rrg. When was I going to start having that awesome demon 'I-know-everything' thing going on? "Okay, and how did you know that?"

He turned to me and blinked a single time. "Know what?"

"That Hiei disengaged the Ofuda."

"Well, your back isn't wounded," Kurama replied, as if it were obvious. "And Hiei's injuries from two days ago weren't transferred to you, so it must be null, for now at least."

The second half of what he said nearly flew over my head. "Back injury?" It only took me a few moments to remember a while back when Hiei had been hurt by the Escque when we were closing rifts, before I had killed the human and used the Black Dragon Wave, but I hadn't really thought about it. "Is…does he still have that wound?"

Kurama looked like he was wondering if he should have mentioned it. "Don't worry, it's healing."

"But that was so long ago!"

"Well, you should know that certain wounds take longer to heal than others."

"But…I thought it was just..." I had planned on saying an 'ordinary wound', but that wouldn't have sounded right, so I tried to think of a better word.

"Injuries like that do not take the normal amount of time to heal. He will recover, though. It's past being serious, but it will take a few more weeks to repair fully."

For Hiei to never mention or act like he was injured for this long seemed odd to me, and again I was all the more aware of how often he had to rescue me even if he was wounded. I despised being the damsel in distress, though my reasons for involuntarily becoming one were a bit more severe than the general typical story. "So…what made this different? I mean, why is it taking so long for him to get better?"

"Some attempted form of poisoning, I believe," Kurama said with a shrug. "You know Hiei well enough, so it should come to no surprise to you that he told me he didn't need any medical attention any longer and that he wouldn't allow me to further look into it."

"…Oh." I realized that I had been acting 'incredibly interested' in the ground, and I shifted my gaze upward to Hiei. "He's asleep?" I hadn't really wondered before, but he was either out cold or listening while we talked about him.

"Yes. He's been dozing with you for a few hours now." I felt Kurama's eyes, which had before been focused on the forest before us, switch to look at me. "You've been out for an entire twenty-four hours, by the way. I took a short nap myself before Hiei decided to rest."

I would have thought I had slept far too long if I hadn't been gradually slipping into the realization that my schedule generally demanded that I stay awake for a few days straight, and when it didn't then I was usually injured or had earned a day-long sleep. I sat down against the trunk of the tree, not bothering to leap into the branches like before and remaining on the ground. "Where in Makai are we?"

"I'm not sure, to be honest. I haven't toured Makai for kicks in a while." Kurama gave a light chuckle. "Hiei knows Makai far better than I, now. Remaining in relatively the same area for a month or two closing rifts was the most I've seen of this world in a little over twenty years."

I looked up at the spirit fox, whose eyes were cast off to watch the trees' leaves ruffle in the wind again. "How old are you, anyway?"

Kurama turned back to me, looking amused. "Do you mean my real age, or the one that I've been classified as because of my human form?"

I knew his amusement was due to the fact that I didn't consider myself thirteen even though my body was, and I had clearly been asking his human age. "Gah, sorry," I muttered, cursing myself. "I meant your human age, but I guess I'd actually rather know your real age."

"You needn't know it," Kurama replied with a smile. "My human form is twenty-three, though."

"Wow, really?" I studied him and decided he looked younger. Not too much, but more like eighteen or nineteen. "Damn, now I feel like a kid again."

Kurama laughed lightly. "Don't worry, you're real age is still much older than mine by a few thousand."

I grinned, not pointing out the fact that I couldn't remember most of my past-lives. "How old is Hiei? I don't think he has a human age, so I'm asking his real age."

"I'm not sure, to be honest. It never came up in conversation. He's at least five-hundred, to be sure."

Insert mental sweat-drop here. "…Yeesh. I didn't know he was that old."

It must have been the way I said 'old', because Kurama set off into another round of muffled chuckling.

"What are you two talking about?"

I felt an automatic grin on my face and I directed my gaze upward to meet Hiei's blood-red eyes. "Just about how much of a geezer you are," I replied, wondering how long it would take him to decapitate me for that comment.

Instead, he just leapt down with a 'hn' and said, "Well, if I'm a geezer than you must be a hag. You're far older than I am, even though you don't remember it."

I glared at him. "Quiet, you."

Kurama had been watching us silently, but now that we had already stopped talking, he spoke to Hiei. "Did we wake you?"

"Yes, but it isn't as though I would have slept much longer anyway." Hiei looked to me again. "Are you rested enough, now? I'd think after such a long time you should be."

I nodded. "Yeah, let's get going."

As we traveled, I mostly stayed behind Hiei and Kurama by a least fifteen to twenty feet, following them at a leisurely pace but making sure they didn't get too ahead of me. Every once and a while, bits of their conversation would drift back to me, though I couldn't hear much of it, because they were able to talk insanely low. I could tell that they were talking about the Dark Tournament and the fact that I was wanted for it, but the technicalities of the discussion were lost.

By their body language, Kurama was winning whatever minor argument they were having, but Kurama didn't know it and Hiei was still fighting with him. I wondered if one of them actually wanted me to go to the tournament, but I doubted either of them would want to go back, which they probably would if I entered it. That brought me to think of who would be on my team if I did go, which I wasn't sure if I could resist anyway, as from what I had seen from the anime (I hadn't finished every episode of the series, and was still missing a few in random places. I wasn't aware that the invited team had no choice other than death besides complying and going to compete, but I had that sort of idea in my mind.) it seemed that the 'guest' team was forced to go.

The two demons in front of me slowed, Kurama muttering something finalizing to Hiei before leaping upward into a rift-tear that I hadn't even noticed before. I had been too preoccupied with my thoughts. As I watched Hiei spring up into the rift-tear after Kurama, for once not making me go before him (Probably because we were in a world at least halfway familiar to me.), I think I heard him growl something like, "Stupid fox," but he disappeared before I could ask. Sighing, I realized I would have to use one of the nearby trees to get myself high enough to get into the rift-tear, since although I was mostly healed I still didn't have much demon energy, which obviously was the only way I'd be able to jump thirty feet straight up in one solid leap. Damn demons, I thought without true venom, and positioned myself in the first tree I could get myself into and leapt at the rift-tear, half-expecting it to disappear and make me fall on my face, but luckily no such thing happened.

This rift-tear was only twenty feet off the ground. Nice change, but unexpected, and I didn't have time to save myself from a painful landing. No matter. Nothing was broken. I stood and cracked my ankle in a circle and made sure I hadn't sprained it or anything, then looked up to find Hiei and Kurama watching me from a nearby tree. "…What?"

"What took you?" Kurama asked.

I blinked. "Well, I still can't jump thirty feet, thanks. I had to get into a tree first."

"I doubt climbing a tree, even in a human form, would have taken you that long," Hiei said from Kurama's right.

"…Okay, how long did I take, then?"

"Twenty minutes. And Kurama refused to allow me to go back and get you." Hiei's blood-red glare was pin-pointed on Kurama, now, but the fox ignored it with amazing skill. It was rare that anyone could stand up to Hiei's glare.

I sighed lightly and settled that the demon world was just really weird and that I didn't need to know why a less-than-five-minute jump took twenty minutes. "Whatever. Can I get back to my house now?"

Hiei raised his eyebrows. "You're asking to go back? Normally you don't even want to go."

"Meh. I miss my pets, and somehow I doubt that you can use your jagan on them to trick 'em into thinking that I was there the whole time." I looked around and realized that I was standing on the grounds of the High School, which was very close to my house. "…There's a rift-tear this near where I live?"

"They move around," Kurama explained. "It won't be there tomorrow."

I nodded, making sure no humans were around (Though Kurama informed me it was roughly 2:30 in the morning) to see three people randomly drop from the sky, then walked home. I didn't quite feel like running, and though I was enthusiastic toward seeing my pets, and halfway-enthusiastic at seeing my family, I still didn't want to go "home". I wanted to go to my real home, back to Makai, and kick some demon ass or somehow find some place to sleep there rather than the human world. Just breathing human air made me feel nauseous, making me gather that my sense of smell was improving, still. Kurama was right in what he had told me in Makai—I was loosing more and more of my false humanity every day to my demon side, and I didn't mind a single bit.

I crept into the house quietly, heading straight for the stairs (which were directly in front of the front door.), but I hadn't counted on Mom coming to the top of the stairs like she was expecting me. I stopped and kept myself from gasping, glad Kurama and Hiei hadn't followed me in. "Uh…hey, Mom."

"Hey," she replied in her raspy 'I-just-woke-up-but-am-trying-to-pretend-I've-been-waiting' voice. "How was the party?" She turned and headed to the bathroom for a drink.

I watched her go, then sighed and muttered Hiei's name like a curse, and said, "Er…it was great," as I finished going up the stairs.

"How's Joanna?" I heard the 'shhh' of the tap turning on, and she returned with a glass of water.

"Kaze? She's good."

Mom probably would have said 'you mean 'well'', normally, just to annoy me, but she nodded and went back to her room with squinted, tired eyes.

I let out a breath I didn't realize I had been holding, then went to my room and flopped down onto the bed (Remember, this mattress was about a foot off the ground, if that, so it was like literally falling over.), careful not to squish my dog, Louie. He bounded over to me on the mattress and covered my face with slobbery kisses. "Okay, okay, I missed you too, dufus!" I tried to shove him off, to no avail since I didn't want to hurt him, then finally managed to flip him over on his back to scratch his stomach. It was the first time I really marveled at the fact that he so easily allowed me to see his most vulnerable part—his underbelly. I guess I realized how dangerous I could be in my demon form, then, and that he must have really trusted me to allow me to scratch him in my demon form. (That thought only confirmed that my mom had been doing the equivalent of sleepwalking, with little comprehension. She had failed to notice that I was thinner and that I was showered with various minor cuts and new scars, and that I was still half-limping.)

After vigorously giving Louie a petting as a reward for so patiently waiting for me to come back every week to see him, I unceremoniously fell sideways onto my pillows and enjoyed the scent of the newly-washed sheets. "Mmm…bed."

I heard Hiei snicker from outside my window, and I rolled onto my left side so I could face the tree. "'Party'?" I asked in a half-accusing tone.

"Simply because they're related to you, they begin to notice your absence despite the jagan after about a week, so I had to make them believe you were at your friend Kaze's. house"

"Meh. What about Adam?" Adam, in case anyone doesn't remember, is my human brother. "He's related to me—does he notice me being gone?"

"Usually. Sometimes he even notices swifter than your human parents, but that's rare, and only when his friends mention you."

"Friends? His friends talk about me?"

"Naturally. They've never met you." Hiei smirked at me, and again a single fang was revealed. That really did look awesome, and I half-wished I could have fangs all the time, rather than just in my full demon form. "Then again, you aren't around enough for anyone to meet you."

"Argh. Shut up." I glared at him for only a few seconds before realizing that I was tired again…already. "Is this 'cause I over-slept?" I asked, pointing at my mouth while talking and yawning at the same time.

Hiei gave a light shrug. "Probably."

I yawned again, right before the first yawn stopped, then rubbed my eyes. "Where's Kurama, anyway?"

"He left to find Yusuke and the idiot to tell them that you're alive."

I had completely forgotten, already, that Spike told Hiei I was dead. "Oh, right." I let my head, which had been propped up by my hand, fall limp on the pillow, and I made a strange, purring noise, opening my eyes immediately afterward. "…Uhm. Was that me?"

Hiei was snickering again. "Chichiro used to do the same thing. I never did understand how she managed that."

I shrugged once, then closed my eyes again and gave a single, surprisingly contented sigh before falling asleep.

Authoress's Note: Okay, the Dark Tournament chapters will be starting in either the next chapter or the one after that, so obviously they do end up going. The Dark Tournament in Yu-Yu-Hakusho lasted exactly a week, so I'm most likely going to do it in seven chapters, one for each day and possibly the last chapter being part of the sixth day and the seventh. Hopefully you all don't mind extra fighting. Nyahahah. –Cough- Also, you can find a link in my bio to what the outfit that Ketsue wears for most of the tournament looks like.

1—Technically I planned on ending the chapter here, but I decided because I was such a bastard with the last chapter and the cliff-hanger (Heheh, sorry about that. I love leaving cliff-hangers.) that I wouldn't leave you with such a short chapter.