Disclaimer: I only own my OCs and the plot.

Recap: Tsukino tried to kill Kurama and Kuronue because of the Kuro Shi and an illusion created by Amaterasu. However, the boys managed to survive due to Hiei knocking out Tsukino when he returned to the lair with Neyuki. Shorty afterwards, the Kuro Shi and the Jewel of Wrath had a lover's spat. Tsukino entered the third stage again (that seems to happen often) and went back to stage two after Kurama gave her mouth-to-mouth. Then four spheres rolled into their tunnel and paralyzed everyone.

I'll Show You What I Can Be
Chapter Twenty-Five
Hostage

Day Hundred-Fifteen

At first the fog surrounding us appears to merely be a smoke screen, but after a few seconds we learn otherwise. As the fog clears and reveals Amaterasu and Yasu entering our tunnel, none of us is able to move. For a moment, the two raccoons hover near the entrance, studying their work. Amaterasu is the first to walk into the cave and places herself in front of Hiei. He glares at her as she pinches his cheeks.

"You were right, Yasu. Hiei really is the cutest of them," she announces as she removes the bag with the artefacts in it. With her back turned, she fails to see Hiei strain against his paralysis. However, she seems to sense Hiei's anger and energy grow because she quickly moves away from him in case he manages to release the Dragon of Darkness.

Once she is away from Hiei's line of attack, she reaches into the bag and looks through it. Yasu meanwhile is making his way towards the women. From the corner of my eye, I can see him stand before them with a sickening smirk on his face. He must have said something because both Tsukino's and Neyuki's energies suddenly leap out from being hidden. Their combined anger is enough to cause Yasu to take a step backwards but he continues to smirk.

To my right, Kuronue has also started to strain his muscles in an attempt to move. I have no doubts that he heard what Yasu said and wants to kill him for it now.

Before I can imagine what Yasu said, my attention is pulled back to Amaterasu as she growls. In her hand is the now powerless Jewel of Wrath and she stares at it a moment before saying, "Drop it Yasu. It looks like we'll need to use plan B."

Yasu looks away from the girls as he asks, "Why?"

Amaterasu watches me from the corner of her eye as if she blames me for the newest obstacle in her plan. "Our power source is useless now so I suggest that you stop antagonizing our new one."

"We could always steal another one."

"But that means waiting for the new moon."

"They happen every month."

Amaterasu looks away from me and turns her attention fully to Yasu as she says, "And I suppose you want to wait for a whole month for your wish?"

Yasu rolls his eyes but reaches for one of the many pouches on his belt. He pours a sour smelling powder onto his hand before turning to face the women again. After taking four large steps away, he throws the dust at them.

At first both women recoil and take a step back. Then, realizing that they can move, they move into offensive stances. Before they can attack, Yasu waves both hands in front of him. "I wouldn't attack me if I were you."

Neyuki, with her spear at the ready, glares. "And why would we listen to you?"

"Because I have something you might want to see." He reaches down towards his boot and unties a rope that stretches back the way the two raccoons entered. The women remain in an offensive stance but watch as the rope becomes slack and a small demon enters the cave. Her white tail is tucked between her legs and her blue eyes are tearing as she looks around the room before her eyes land on Neyuki.

"Sister!" she mews as she starts to run over to Neyuki. However, before she can reach her family member, Yasu pulls on the rope causing the kitten to be jerked back by the throat.

A hiss rises from Neyuki's throat while Tsukino shouts, "Let her go!"

Amaterasu laughs as she walks over to Yasu. "Or else what? Your boyfriends aren't able to move, and we both know that neither of you can use any form of energy attacks."

Both women twitch a bit but try to remain calm.

"What do you want?" Neyuki asks as she watches Yasu pet her sister's head.

Yasu nods. "I always knew you were smart, Neyuki-chan." He ignores her hiss as he hands Neini's rope to Amaterasu. "You and your lovely friend will go with Amaterasu while I stay here and make sure your friends don't try to interrupt your girl talk."

Again, both women twitch, but Neyuki lowers her spear as Tsukino drops her offensive stance. Slowly, they walk towards Amaterasu who motions for them to walk down the tunnel in front of her. Within seconds, the group disappears from view. Yasu continues to watch the tunnel after the women have vanished.

Beside me, Kuronue and Hiei attempt once more to move but are unsuccessful.

Without looking towards us, Yasu says, "You might as well give up. My Petrifying Powder is foolproof. Not even you, Kurama, can think of some way to overcome it."

It is not hard to remain silent, as I am unable to move my mouth. Yasu does not seem to care as he continues speaking. "I still don't see what she liked about you."

The kick came from nowhere, and I collapse on the floor. However, my body does not remain in the same shape it had been when standing as it should have if I was petrified. Instead my body briefly adjusts to its new position before becoming rigid again. Yasu does not notice the change. Instead he circles us.

"Cold as a stone. No experience at all. Absolutely no personality to speak of. Even the bat would have been a better choice." He punches Kuronue in the jaw and starts to walk away when he pauses. "She was interested in you for a week actually."

From my place at the ground, I can almost feel Kuronue's disgust as Yasu continues his walk, nearing Hiei.

"Of course for some reason, she thought that you'd warm up and change if she gave you a chance." He passes Hiei without even looking at him, which seems to anger Hiei. "I can't imagine why she won't let me kill your friends. It's not like we can use them for anything." An insane grin comes to his face as he summons a black axe. "However, I'm sure she wouldn't care about damage."

The blow landed on my back and blood poured over my shoulders. Kuronue is the next to feel the blade as it cuts through his side. Again Hiei is passed over. As Yasu turns to me, he raises the blade to his mouth and carefully licks the blood from the blade. "Perhaps it is just the taste of your blood she likes," he mutters as he raises the blade over his head. As Yasu pulls his arm back to throw another blow at my back, I tense. The axe descends through the air towards my back again, and I instinctually try to dodge.

A cry rings throughout the cave but it is not mine. Instead, Yasu is yelling in anger. I barely have enough time to wonder what is happening when he swings the blade at me again. He misses as I dodge but only barely. The blade cuts a bit of my hair as I jump away from him, a reminder of how sharp the blade is.

"How can you move!" he demands as he stares.

Behind him, Kuronue twitches and moves his head to look at Hiei. Yasu notices the movement and turns to look at Kuronue who becomes immobile again. Before Yasu is able to look at me again, I have punched him. He stumbles back and nearly crashes into Kuronue.

"It appears that your powder is not as foolproof as you thought," I reply as I walk towards him after borrowing Hiei's sword.

Yasu glares at me and quickly stands. However, he does not charge as I expected him to. Instead he places his blade at Kuronue's throat. "Think you can still take a step forward, fox?" he says as he slits open Kuronue's throat a bit. He fails to see Kuronue's wandering hand until it is too late.

"Why don't you take a step back?" Kuronue shouts as his scythe stabs onto Yasu's back and tears through his side and organs.

Yasu stumbles away from Kuronue and stares at him as his organs slip out of the rips in his body. He starts to speak but only blood leaves his mouth. Then he hits the floor. For a second, Kuronue stands over him as watches as Yasu's side stills. "That's what you get for even thinking about touching my sister," he mutters before turning to me with his usual grin replaced by a frown and a piercing glare.

I return the glare while wondering why Kuronue was glaring at me instead of the corpse at his feet. As he removes a flask tied to his belt and quickly swallows more than would be considered wise, I recall what he had said about Enma's mind control. Without speaking to him, I walk over to Yasu and quickly go through his pockets, hoping to that the alcohol will last until after we find Amaterasu.

Rather than join me, Kuronue turns to Hiei and says, "You can move midget. He's a goner."

Hiei's energy lashes out towards Kuronue, but does not materialize into an attack. Ignoring Hiei's attempts to harm him, Kuronue walks closer. "You don't have to be afraid of getting killed now."

I find nothing of use in Yasu's pockets and turn around in time to see Kuronue poke Hiei on the forehead. "What's wrong with him?"

"Nothing," I reply as I walk towards them. "He simply cannot move because of the powder Yasu used. Since the powder wasn't tied to Yasu's energy, it will still work after he is dead."

"So why can we move but he can't?"

I pause beside Kuronue, hoping that he will cheer up once I mention how to help Hiei. "When Yasu attacked us, he caused us to bleed. Our blood removed the powder from our bodies so we were able to move again."

A hint of a smirk appears around Kuronue's mouth as he cracks his knuckles. "Think a nose bleed will work?"

Before I can answer, Hiei is sitting on the ground with a bleeding nose, and Kuronue's good humour has returned. His usual grin covers his face as he shakes his hand to get feeling back into it. "Wow Hiei. You sure have a hard nose."

Hiei glares at me as he wipes some blood away from his nose. "Why didn't you use an antidote or something?"

I shrug as I hand him back his sword. "I would have preferred to give you one but Yasu did not have any antidotes in his pockets and I could not waste energy making one." I look at his still bleeding nose. "Pinch your nose, Hiei. It will help stop the bleeding."

Kuronue places a hand on Hiei's shoulder. "He's lying. I'm just his favourite."

Before Hiei can reply, I turn to walk back to the lair. "Amaterasu will have to surface if she wants to use the mirror after she has fixed it."

"So why aren't we following her?" Hiei shouts as he stands up, still holding his nose.

"Because the tunnel she traveled down will be filled with traps. She won't risk using Neyuki-san's energy in such a small space either. We'll leave through the front door and then look for them above ground."

Kuronue frowns. "But doesn't that mean we have to travel through the demon-eating plants?"

I nod.

"Can the midget go first?"

A small sigh escapes my lips as Hiei retaliates and Kuronue continues mocking him. As the two run down the tunnel ahead of me, I briefly hope that they retain some of that anger. Amaterasu will be using all her tricks to confuse us and any advantage we can get will be helpful.

Minutes later, we leave the lair and enter the surrounding forest. Without even pausing to check for Amaterasu's scent, I walk to where I know there is a clearing in the forest. Amaterasu will need an open area where the fixed mirror will be able to reflect the non-existent light of the new moon, I reason.

Hiei and Kuronue fall into step behind me and we walk pass the many demon-eating plants I had planted around the lair. As we enter the forest, Kuronue and Hiei both draw their weapons, which they had sheathed as we raced through the tunnels. I had not sheathed my whip so I had not needed to unsheathe it now.

The forest had grown since Kuronue and I had last visited. The ground was covered in fallen trees and foliage that made travelling slow and difficult. More than once we had to double back because breaking through the obstacles would waste precious time and energy. However, as we jumped over a rotting log Kuronue called for a halt. Hiei and I watched as he tilted his head from side to side before pointing to our left.

"Something small, terrified, and crying is over there."

Hiei scowled. "We don't have time to play superheroes, remember?"

Kuronue nodded. "Yeah, but no demon is stupid enough to wander into a weird forest without a good reason."

I frowned. "You think it's Neini-chan?"

"I'd bet money on it."

I turned to walk to where Kuronue said the crying was coming from. Kuronue fell into step at my side but Hiei refused to move.

"How do we know it's not a trap?"

"We don't," I replied. "But we do know that if we find Neini-chan, we'll also find Amaterasu."

Hiei continued to scowl but fell into step beside us as we made our way westward.

A Lack of Will?

Amaterasu kept Neini on a tight leash so Neyuki and I were unable to do anything but follow. Eventually we came to the end of the tunnel. Many demon-eating plants turned to growl at us but did not attack as we continued on our way. I couldn't help but wonder if Kurama had forced the plants to hold back or if the plants simply did not attack anyone who left the lair.

Thinking about Kurama caused me to reflect on his, Kuronue's, and Hiei's situation back in the tunnels. I was confident that they would escape and hopefully cause Yasu to take back those threats he had uttered to Neyuki and me. However, I was worried about whether they would be able to escape in time to help Neyuki and me. As long as Amaterasu had Neini our hands were tied and I was sure that Amaterasu was planning something. Though she was annoyed about the Jewel of Wrath being useless, she was walking with a little hop in her step and from my place at her right hand I could see her smirk.

'She must have wanted to use this plan in the first place but decided to use the Jewel of Wrath because it was easier,' I thought to myself. 'But what is her plan?'

At my left, Neyuki glared holes into Amaterasu's back and if looks could kill, that mission would have been over within seconds. However, they couldn't so she continued to walk at my side, every so often looking in her younger sister's direction with an attempt at a reassuring smile.

Finally, Amaterasu halted. The forest of demon-eating plants had vanished to be replaced with a grassy meadow in the middle of which was a tree. Behind Amaterasu the sun was beginning to set. It would have made a beautiful picture if it wasn't ruined by the image of Amaterasu standing by the tree with a twisted grin on her face.

Once we had stopped, Amaterasu reached up to the branches of the tree, which were covered in pink fruit. She picked two of the fruits and threw them to Neyuki and me. I turned the fruit over in my hands and wondered what Amaterasu was up to. My hands froze as I noticed that the fruit was oddly shaped. It had two dents in the upper portion of the fruit that could have been eye sockets if the fruit was a face. There was also a small bump that could have been a nose and lines that could have been winkles and a mouth.

"Recognize it ladies?" Amaterasu asked as I turned the fruit over in my hands again.

Neyuki growled and said, "What do you plan for us to do with human-faced fruit of the demon-eating tree?"

My face must have shown my shock because Amaterasu grinned and watched for my reaction as she said, "Eat it."

"What?"

Amaterasu grinned. "You heard me. You have to eat that fruit or your sister will die."

I stared at the fruit in my hands and debated if I could throw it at Amaterasu fast enough to grab Neini and run. Meanwhile, Neyuki hissed. "If you want to kill us, why don't you just use your weapon instead of fruit poisoning?"

"Let's just say that I have a little experiment I want to try and you two are the guinea pigs." She pulled on the leash making Neini stumble towards her.

With no choice, Neyuki and I took a bite of the fruit. As I swallowed I braced myself for the choking that I was sure would follow. A second passed. My shoulder slowly loosened. Two seconds. I opened my eyes to look down at my hands. It was as if I had never eaten the fruit. I turned to look at Neyuki. She too was staring at her hands. But her form was blurring. I blinked as I tried to make out what was in front of me. My head started to feel heavy and my blood burned. I collapsed to my knees as I felt my lungs close up and refuse oxygen. I coughed but no air entered my system. My lungs then felt like I just swallowed a litre of acid the wrong way and I felt tears coming to my eyes. Finally, I blacked out.

When I awoke, I realized that I was standing. I stared at the other side of the clearing, trying to remember what had happened when I passed out. I was pretty sure that I had fallen to the ground and didn't remember standing. Neyuki remained at my side, but when I turned my head to look at her, I did not move. My eyes remained focused on the other side of the clearing. I frowned and realized that my facial muscles had also not moved.

Had the fruit really killed me? I wondered. Was my soul trapped in my dead body and how did I get back into a standing position?

As a small experiment, I tried to flex my aura. It is hard to explain what I saw. I know that I saw my hands light up in my side vision, but at the same time I didn't see my hands light up. It was as if I was behind a full-body mask. I could see the outside world through the eye-holes of the mask but could also see what was inside the mask because the covering hovered nanometres away from me. In the outside world, my body gave no hint of my attempt to flex my aura. But behind the mask, my aura flickered and lit the inside of the mask before disappearing.

I knew that demon and spirit energy came from the soul so I reasoned that my theory of my soul being trapped in my body made sense. What did not make sense was why my body and soul had become split and why my soul was trapped behind the fleshy mask. If I was dead then I wouldn't be standing and I wouldn't still be breathing as I slowly noticed. So, the fruit obviously was the case of my problem, but I couldn't see how it managed such a feat. Then I reminded myself that I wasn't in human world where the most surprising thing was finding out that demons were real.

Deciding not to dwell on my problems, I decided to try to figure out where Amaterasu and Neini had gotten to. Unfortunately, I could not make my body move at all and was forced to stare at the same spot. Eventually, it dawned on my that I was staring at the Demon-Eating Tree where Amaterasu was lounging in the upper branches poking at the fruit. Neini was nowhere in sight.

Amaterasu continued poking at the fruit for a while until I wondered if she even realized that while my body was unable to move, my soul was awake and watching. And confused.

I just couldn't see what she could gain from making Neyuki and me immobile and our souls restless. Unless our bodies being uncontrolled by our souls made her able to control them. But that still didn't explain how her using us could gain her a new power source. Unless she was going to have us steal one. But if she was going to make up do that, she could just as easily steal herself a new one. However, Amaterasu knew about Neyuki's untamed demonic energy because of her time in the Cat Demon Base. I shook my soul head.

'Even Amaterasu wouldn't try that,' I thought.

Neyuki's power was just as unpredictable as the Jewel of Wrath. Also, I had a feeling that our bodies wouldn't be able to channel soul energy now that our souls had been separated from them. So what was Amaterasu planning?

My thoughts came to a halt as Amaterasu jumped down from the tree and walked towards Neyuki and me. She stared into our eyes for a moment, making me want to squirm. Finally, she took a step back and grinned.

"Congratulations. You two are the first to have survived eating the Human-Faced Fruit." She walked around us, poking and seeing if we reacted. Our bodies did not but I was sure that Neyuki, if her soul was also awake, was hissing for a battle. "Everyone else was too strong-willed to survive," Amaterasu continued as she batted my tail. "Or their power was too tightly tied to their bodies. That's why I never attempted this method on Kurama. With his strong will, he would have died within seconds."

Seemingly satisfied with her work, she took a step back. "Now, I've hidden the kitten in the forest behind us. I want you to find her and kill her."

My legs moved without my will controlling them and I strained to keep my spirit legs from following. But my back hit the back of the inside of my body and I found myself walking, looking through my eyes towards the forest.

"Oh and Neyuki."

I watched as Neyuki's body paused and looked back.

Amaterasu grinned again. "Be sure to use your bare hands."

Bile ran up my throat as I watched Neyuki bow and run into the forest. Again, I dug my heels into the ground and strained against the movement my flesh wanted to make. Once more my back hit flesh and I was forced into motion, keenly aware of the hysterical sobs of kitten coming from the west.

We have barely traveled a mile when we found the source of the noise Kuronue had heard. Hidden between the roots of a rotting tree, Neini watches with tear-filled eyes as we step onto the roots above her. After minutes of coaxing from Kuronue, she finally climbs out from between the roots and scrambles into his protective embrace. While he gently questions her, Hiei and I circle through the surrounding foliage looking for signs of Amaterasu or the other women. As I scan the treetops I take notice of a black sphere rising higher into the sky.

"She won't be able to use the mirror for another two hours at least," I mutter to Hiei.

He glances in Kuronue and Neini's direction. "So why did she get rid of the hostage?"

I shake my head. "I do not know unless she found another way to control the girls."

"From the looks of things, it wouldn't be too hard to control your mate."

I glare at him. "She isn't my mate, and it just has happened that our adversaries have decided to use her instead of another person."

Before he can reply, Kuronue joins us with Neini still in his arms. "Neini-chan said that Amaterasu forced Neyuki-san and Tsukino-chan to eat some weird fruit before dragging Neini off into the forest and abandoning her."

"What sort of fruit?" I ask.

Neini eyes have dried of tears but they are still fearful as she says, "It was pink and she said it came from a demon-eating tree."

I must have been the only one in our group to have ever heard of the tree because Kuronue and Hiei only stare with a confused frown on their faces while mine freezes into a worried frown. "Did the fruit look humanlike?"

Neini blinks. "What does a human look like?"

Words do not come to my mind as I try to figure out how to describe what humans look like. It has not occurred to me that Neini, being as young as she is, would not have seen a human before. Thankfully Kuronue thinks of a reply. "Like the midget only with flatter hair."

Neini frowns. "But these were pink like cherry flowers and there were more lines on it."

"What does it matter if they looked human, Kurama?" Hiei demands as he glares at Kuronue for daring to say Hiei looked humanlike.

"Because the Human-faced Fruit of the Demon-eating Tree is able to remove the spirit from the control of the body if the spirit's energy is not tightly bond to the body or the will is weak."

Kuronue frowns. "So what happens if you eat the fruit and your will is too strong?"

"You die."

Too late I realized what effect my words would have on Neini and she instantly started to cry. Kuronue took the time to glare at me before turning his attention to Neini and attempting to get her to calm down. Hiei meanwhile huffs. "Well at least we won't have to worry about your mate dying," he mutters.

"Are you suggesting that Tsukino-san is weak-willed?" I ask as I attempt to keep a growl out of my voice.

He nods. "She'd have to be to get possessed so often. Even her soul has gotten stolen by the Orb of Baast, which only steals human souls. Any other demon would have fought it off or died trying."

"Or said hot."

Neini looks away from Kuronue's attempts to make her laugh to ask, "Why would saying hot get your soul stolen?"

If Hiei didn't hold me in such regard, he probably would have killed me on the spot. Thankfully, he only growls and walks off. With nothing else to do we start to follow him and find him again just in time to see get tackled to the ground by Neyuki. Kuronue and I watch as Hiei shoves her away from him and moves his sword into an offensive position. Instead of charging forward as we expect, Neyuki glances around the area before focusing on Neini in Kuronue's arms. Her eyes are glassy and dull as she stands and removes her gloves.

Seconds later, Tsukino appears through the foliage. Her eyes are also glassy but instead of charging towards me, she too focuses on Neini who has started to shift uncomfortably under the unblinking stares.

Kuronue carefully lowers Neini to the ground and steps in front of her. "I guess the fruit got them," he mutters as he also pulls out his weapon.

"Apparently," I reply as I move into an offensive stance.

Neyuki and Tsukino make no move to attack and just continue to stare at Neini. Suddenly, Tsukino lunges forward while Neyuki moves to the side. Many years ago Hiei and I had used the same move so we were more than able to counter it. Tsukino, the distraction, is quickly caught in my whip. Instead of struggling or cutting through the whip with her claws, she merely blinks. Meanwhile, Hiei blocks Neyuki's claws with his sword as she attempts to attack Neini from behind. Neyuki's face show no surprise or annoyance as she is forced back. She merely retreats and continues to stare as if she is assessing our reactions before creating a new plan. Hiei doesn't give her much time before he charges towards her. For a little while, Neyuki is unable to do anything but dodge.

Tsukino, however, moves into a new attack. Taking advantage of my capture, she runs forward and shoves me out of the way. My grip loosens on the whip just enough for her to slip out from my grasp and charge towards Kuronue. He easily blocks her punches but when he tries to attack she slips on the ground and slides around him to where Neini is. Before she can harm the kitten my whip forces her to retreat. I quickly move forward and block Neini from her view and clearly signal that to get the kitten she has to go through me. She pauses as Neyuki did and stares.

Kuronue has also paused and is staring at the treetops. With a flap of his wings, he disappears into the night. A second later I hear Amaterasu shout, "Neyuki, defend me!" as she darts from tree to tree with Kuronue's scythe on her tail.

From her duel with Hiei, Neyuki looks up and leaps towards Kuronue's and Amaterasu's duel. As she runs she pulls out a small rod that quickly grows into a spear. From my place 5 metres away I can feel the static electricity coming off the spear. Like all bat demons, Kuronue is easily defeated by electricity but it does not appear that he realizes the danger approaching him as he continues to try to murder Amaterasu.

"Why don't you defend yourself?" he shouts as his scythe cuts through the branch Amaterasu was planning to use as a landing. As she starts to fall, Kuronue pulls back his arm and aims the blade for her throat. At the same time Neyuki appears behind him. With no time to shout, I am forced to use my own weapon to pull Kuronue out of the way of Neyuki's attack.

As he crashes to the ground a bolt of lightning passes over his head and hits what used to be a tree. All that is left is ashes.

Kuronue moves to his feet fairly quickly considering that he just hit his head on the ground. He shakes it slightly as he turns to face me, probably thinking of either yelling at me or thanking me. Instead he shouts, "Watch out!"

I turn just in time to see Tsukino lunge towards Neini and me. Thankfully, my adventures with the rest of the spirit detectives have made me able to move quickly even with little spirit energy left. I grab Neini and jump out of Tsukino's reach.

Amaterasu, meanwhile, returns to the forest floor with a grin on her face. "I should have done this from the start. These girls are far better bodyguards than Yasu ever was. All he was good for was getting killed. After I fix the mirror, I think I'll keep them as pets." Her eyes turn to me. "What do you think, Kurama? Want a mutt for a pet?"

My reply is halted by another lunge towards me by Tsukino. Neyuki, however, remains by Amaterasu's side as she watches me protect Neini.

"Of course we'll have to get her de-clawed," Amaterasu mutters to herself.

"Why don't you get disillusioned?" Kuronue shouts as he throws his scythe at Amaterasu once again.

Instead of blocking it, Amaterasu merely smirks and watches as Neyuki places herself in the blades path. She raises her spear again and allows the blade to strike the metal. Another bolt of electricity travels from the spear but this time follows the metal of the scythe back to Kuronue. He takes the attack and is blasted into a tree where he collapses to the floor. To my relief he gets to his feet in seconds and wipes some blood from his mouth.

"Damn it, she's good," he mutters as he struggles to get to his feet.

At this moment, I realize that Hiei was missing and look around for him while keeping out of Tsukino's grasp. I spot him behind Amaterasu, readying to decapitate her. Unfortunately, Neyuki also spots him and seconds later he too crashes into a tree.

Amaterasu grins down at him before turning to Neyuki and saying, "Let's go. Tsukino, you keep these boys busy until I need you, okay?"

To my surprise, Tsukino and Neyuki nod before Amaterasu and Neyuki disappear back into the undergrowth. Hiei moves to follow but Tsukino suddenly appears him front of him and manages a well-placed punch that forces Hiei to take a few steps back.

Kuronue starts to move but she kicks him away. From his place at my right, he says, "Any ideas?"

"One," I reply. "Be ready to defend Neini if Tsukino lunges when I move."

He nods and rises to his feet. Hiei has not moved so I trust that he has an idea what my plan is.

Carefully, I move away from Neini and start walking towards Tsukino. She stares at me as I move closer. Her right hand twitches slightly but she does not move, not even to get a weapon. I walk a bit to her right and continue forward. She leans a bit onto her left leg. Her plan is probably to punch me as she did Hiei. I am parallel to her and pause. She does no move other than to stare at me out of the corner of her eyes. I take a step forward.

Her hand seems to come from out of nowhere and flies towards my temple. However, I raise a hand and grab hers before pulling her off balance. She stumbles towards me and I get behind her. With a careful hand, I push on the pressure point in her neck. She collapses.

The event only lasted a second but Kuronue stares at me for a least another four before saying, "Those mission you went on must have been one hell of a ride."

Hiei rolls his eyes as he moves towards Tsukino and me. "About time you took maters into your own hands, Kurama."

I nod and try to avoid looking at the body at my feet. "Come on. We only have an hour to find Amaterasu again and stop her."

A/N: First, you can tell I was reading Inuyasha manga, can't you? And Hiei greatly amuses me. I just love how he can badmouth Tsukino and live. The fact that he wasn't awesome enough to get punched by Yasu is funny too.

Second, did you find Yasu's feelings towards Amaterasu surprising? Do you think I need more hints at his feelings before this chapter to make this seem more realistic and less out of the blue?

And third, I'm just curious. Would you guys want the two to just end up together in this story and be done with the series? Or would you prefer that I keep to my original plan and just keep annoying them until the end of the fourth story? Because to be honest, I'm getting tired of this plot and character design.

Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing. I'll try to update quicker since the next chapter will probably be the last. Shocker huh? And I swear there is progress between Kurama and Tsukino in the last chapter. Just probably not as much as you want. Unless you all just want this story over and done with. Then I guess I could just fudge it A LOT and throw in a lot of OOCness and be done with it. But we'll see.

See ya next chapter!

-D101