Not Invulnerable

Me'ran follows the boys through town. Kurama's kind of set the mood to a glum pace, what with his furtive looks in her direction. Me'ran remains fairly unresponsive to Yuusuke's attempts to cheer her up. Finally, they arrive at what was apparently the destination--a very large sort of courtyard. There's a set up of a miniature garden in the middle (Me'ran can see what was probably once a fountain), and all's quiet, really. There are a bunch of people around, so the human, the human-turned-demon, and the demon-turned-human take a seat where they all can see all around the area.

After a long period of silence (Kurama's sitting and looking deep in thought, Me'ran's got her eyes closed and is trying to sense out whatever this threat is, and Yuusuke's apparently just looking around), Yuusuke gets bored or annoyed and sits back and looks at the other two. "Do you feel anything?"

"Not yet," Me'ran mumbles. "Where am I supposed to be looking? What am I looking for?"

"Me. Look over here," a voice says from the left. Me'ran first thinks that his voice is strangely high pitched for someone evil, but her thoughts are very unimportant, right now--her body starts moving almost the instant she head it, and she needs to start controlling it. She's already on her feet. He's taller than her, probably a little taller than Kurama, and his blonde hair is curly. He's kind of cute, if one cuts out the malicious smile that is oozing negative charisma and pointy teeth, and ignores the fact that one can see death in his eyes. Something in Me'ran's chest goes cold, and she recognizes the bad feeling tracing a claw over her lungs.

"Oh, hi," Yuusuke says brightly as he approaches the guy. "We're here to make an appointment with om--"

The guy interrupts when he punches Yuusuke in the face and knocks him flying. Everyone scatters.

"That's cheating," Yuusuke whines as he gets up, rubbing his jaw. "You're supposed to warn a guy before you do something like that!"

"My deepest, sincerest apologies," Sho says mockingly. "Maybe I'll tell the red-head that I'm about to steal his seed packet-" and his arm shoots out and he grabs Kurama's hair and digs around under his hair and pulls out a small little... well, it looks like a bag, but not really--"and throw him about fifteen meters that way." And he flings his arm out, sending Kurama flying.

Yuusuke's gotten back up and gotten to him, and he punches him right in the solar plexus. It does a little damage, but he just smiles and knees Yuusuke in the stomach. Yuusuke's sent skidding backwards.

Me'ran waits a second (Kurama landed badly, but Yuusuke took a greater blow), but Kurama's already on his feet, so she starts for Yuusuke. As she starts to move, but Sho puts his foot down on hers, and she falls onto her face. She starts to get up, but she can't. Then there's a pressure in her back, and she can't breathe, and she feels her back stop resisting his foot at the same time pain blossoms across her back. Then it gets eight times worse, and she tries to scream, maybe alert the boys, but she still can't breathe. Her hair pulls, and there's a stretching sensation in her whole body, and she comes to the realization that she's not in her original one piece, and she screams after she finally takes in enough of a breath. She swings a little as Sho's weight twitches, and there's a glint of a blade, and then she's too hurt to notice anything. Whatever he does after that is not known to her, and she tries to move. Her legs don't obey, but her arms do, and she grips his arm in her hands. There're sharp pains in her back and her side, but her only goal is keeping him from doing anything else to her. He's got her hair, so there's not a lot she can do, though. He twitches his weight again and swings his arm back, then slings her forward. Then she soars through the air and hit the ground and roll and skid. She finally stops after a little while, and her mind twists and panics as she suddenly become aware of the fact that she can't get back up.

She tries to move, but she can't. For the first time in her life, she can't get back up. A fear that she'd never known grips her heart and chokes her, and she starts to cry out and whimper, or try to. After she calms down a little, after she realizes she's not dead, and she can still sort of move, but not her legs, she relaxes a little. Alright. Okay. Okay, okay, okay... I'm okay. I can't die. I can't even bleed.

She opens her eyes, and the spill of black and red blood on the ground is what she sees first. She's lying in a puddle of her own blood. I'm bleeding, she slowly realizes. That's my blood, I'm bleeding, I'm actually bleeding--I'm bleeding bad, did he get my liver? Oh, god, the blood's black, he got my liver, oh, and I'm still bleeding, he's one of my kind, he's one of us!

Footsteps run over to Me'ran, and then a second pair. She can see green and magenta.

"Me'ran," Kurama breathes worriedly. She whimpers loudly, and she tries to look up at him, but when she moves, it hurts. Familiar footsteps, Hiei's, sound close, too. She tries to talk, but she can't, because she can't get her mouth to cooperate. Plus, she can't breathe that deeply.

"Kurama, can't you do something about this?" Yuusuke says quickly. Hiei leans close.

"She's not dying. Don't be so afraid for her, Fox," Hiei says softly. "She can't."

But I can, Hiei, and I am, please, help me!

"He could be one of her kind, too, Hiei," Kurama warns.

HE IS, GODDAMMIT, NOW LISTEN TO FOX-BOY! OF ALL THE TIMES YOU'VE READ MY MIND, YOU DECIDE TO NOT READ IT NOW!? YOU FUCKING BIG-HAIRED, FAT-HEADED, BUG-EYED PSYCHOTIC MIDGET, I SHOULD DISSECT YOUR ARM WHILE IT'S STILL ATTACHED!

"Then do something about it, then we'll do something about him," Hiei spits. "Then we'll worry about her." She feels something touching over her side, stretching the skin. She guesses he's got something closing the hole.

"We'll be back soon, okay?" Kurama says. "I'm sorry."

Loud footsteps sound even louder than before, over her still form. "MAN, URAMESHI, WHY---What the heck?" It's Kuwabara. He's standing close enough that his shadow is over her head.

He leans down and scoops her shoulders into his arms, but an intense pain shoots through her back, and suddenly, she can scream again--it's being wrenched out of her by instinct and pain--and he drops the girl quickly. Her head bounces painfully on the concrete. A bit of blood splashes up when she lands back in it. Am I bleeding that much?

Yuusuke hits the ground next to her, growls, gets up, and leaves. She can't see the fight, but from what she can tell, her team isn't doing too hot.

She's getting a little dizzy, and her head swims. She tries to move, but her back hurts, and she can't force herself into more pain for an exercise in futility. It's not that she can't move; it's just that she doesn't want to. (Well, she can move, but only her arms, and that's basically useless with a broken back, and she doesn't want to finish bleeding out.) Her consciousness is starting to slip, and her brain attempts to panic, but she's too busy being lost and confused.

She tries to breathe a sigh of relief when she hears the bad guy's shriek of pain and defeat, but his crying out in pain continues. He's not dying.

"He's one of them, too," someone says quietly. He sounds scared. Then someone slides on their knees next to her. "Me'ran," he adds. Kurama. Hiei's near them, too, but she can only smell him. Kurama's hand touches near her nose and mouth. He's checking for breath. She bites his hand to let him know she's alive. Yuusuke gives a little laugh.

"He's one of your kind," Kurama informs the womanling quietly. She sort of nods, but she really wishes she could say, Tell me something I don't know, jackass, now, I'm fucking DYING, here! "Can you move?"

"Nn..." She fights with her lungs until she finally gets enough air to sigh, "No."

Someone picks Me'ran up carefully, and when she looks, she sees Kuwabara, but as soon as he pulls her weight up off the ground, her back pulls, and she screams. Kuwabara starts to drop her, but someone else holds her up.

"Don't drop her, you idiot!"

She feels a sword being pushed into her hand, and she closes her fist around it. Then Kuwabara carries her a few steps. Every motion jars her back, every time he puts his foot down is felt like sharp stabbing pains all up her spine, and the only reason she doesn't scream is because it hurts to even try building up the air. A few of the attempts to scream fall out of her throat in the forms of weak moans. What happened to that nice numb feeling from before? Why can't she just sleep and not suffer?

Someone moves her arm and she feels something under the blade. She lets her arm's dead weight force the sword down. She's not sure what's down there, but she can't see it, and she drops the sword.

"Now what?" Kuwabara asks.

"We take her home. Yuusuke, please call Botan," Kurama says quietly.

Kuwabara starts to walk, and it hurts so badly that one of the screams she's been trying to let out finally throws itself out of her. The cry of pain startles Kuwabara so much that he stops moving.

There's no discussion after that--just a lower, quiet voice that barks a soft, "Here," and then Kuwabara kneels and Hiei takes her from Kuwabara. He doesn't run much steadier than Kuwabara walks, but he goes a lot faster. She's in her apartment before she realizes it.

Hiei puts her on the floor in her living room, then rolls her carefully onto her stomach so her wounded back is up. Botan comes in through her bedroom, so Me'ran guesses she's flying.

She starts thinking about how funny it is that she was the one that got hurt this time. Not just a flesh wound, either, like the guys always get, but she's actually dying now, isn't she?

There's a strange warmth in her side, and her mind clears, but she still can't move. Botan's face is suddenly in view, and she can see tears welling up in her eyes. She pets Me'ran's head gently.

Oh, come on, I'm not dying. I won't die, even if they kill me. You ought to know that. I'm not going anywhere--have a little faith in me, would you?

But as she opens her mouth, the air just kind of falls out. The warm feeling comes back shortly after Botan leaves her side, and she feel a hand on hers at the same time warmth spreads over her back. She feels herself returning, but not well. She tries to open her mouth, but it doesn't work again. Her eyes drift close, and she opens them again.

"She can't die, can she?" Kuwabara asks. "She can't. That's why she works with us."

"There are more of her kind than of Yuusuke's, Kuwabara," Kurama says softly. He's the one petting her hand. "The one that dealt the blow was just like her, and the Indestructibles can kill each other. That's why we couldn't kill him, but she could."

"Yeah, like... uh-oh."

Shut up. I'm not dying. Someone cover me with something, and make sure it's not white, so I don't have to fight with the blood, later.

"She wants a cover," Hiei reports. He's sitting near her, too. "Not her bed, it'll stain," he adds. "And she told you to shut up; she's not going to die."

Someone picks Me'ran up and carries her to her room and wraps her in a spare quilt and lays her in the floor in her room. She lies there for a bit. She kind of wishes someone else was a doctor. She also wishes the pain in her ribs and back and side would go away, too.

"We could probably knock you out by some means," Kurama suggests. "You can't eat or drink anything in your condition... But... give me time..."

Want to be knocked out? Hiei's voice in her head asks.

Yes.

There's a sudden pain and impact, and her head hurts really badly.

"Nnnnnngh," she groans to report that it didn't work.

"Hiei! You can't do that--"

Kurama continues complaining, but what Me'ran hears is an irritated Hiei. "Goddamned Indestructibles, can't even knock them out without trying to kill them."

Kurama is still bitching. "She was injured by another of the Undying, Hiei, she is too weak, right now, and even if she wasn't, sleeping now when she has so little blood and she's only human--"

Another impact, and this time, it works. She's out cold in a second.