~DISCLAIMER: Yu Yu Hakusho is created and owned by Yoshihiro Togashi. My characters are entirely fictional.~

Chapter 35: Danger Around Every Corner

"Tomiko, I'm pretty sure one of the boys would be more than willing to walk you home." Keomi said as she absent mindedly bumped her bag against her knees as she walked down the street with the girl from her class. They hadn't had much interaction but through the platform incident during the festival they had created a bond. A bond that almost could be called the begins of a friendship but Keomi wasn't quite sure of this girls character yet. She had to make sure she wasn't one of those that was constantly after Shuichi and trying to get rid of her, the thought of trying to make a friend caused a shiver to run down Keomi's back.

"What's wrong Keomi?" Tomiko peered at her closely as they continued to walk down the almost empty street. She took a jab at her feelings with a guess, "Are you worried that something it going to happen…like someone else is going to disappear from our class?"

Keomi looked at Tomiko's bright blue eyes, she had such a strange color of iris for being Japanese. She didn't respond to Tomiko's question because she knew if she answered, even a lie, then it would scare her more than she needed to be. Instead Keomi changed the subject by asking a question of her own. "Tomiko, why are you hanging around me?"

Tomiko didn't stop walking but remained close to Keomi's side, "I would guess I would have to say because I like you."

"You like me?" Her eye brows were stretched high, "Why? You hardly even know me!"

Tomiko giggled as she turned to smile sweetly at Keomi as she replied, "I notice that you don't have any friends since Ayume disappeared but she was nasty. She said a lot of mean things behind a lot of people's backs. I beat that she was just using you to get close to Shuichi since he hangs with you a lot. He doesn't socialize often either personally I think that is one reason you two get along so well. I was extremely happy when I heard you two started dating, you two just don't get along well, you two are perfect for each other!" Tomiko giggled giddily again as she skipped forward a few more steps. She stopped when she saw the skeptical look on Keomi's face and almost read her mind. "Oh….oh no no! I don't like Shuichi, not at all. If that's what you're thinking you don't have to worry one bit, I won't even try to take him away from you. You two are a match made in heaven and besides there is someone else that I like…"

Keomi's doubts were washed away in an instant as she watched Tomiko's bashfulness emerge and her clam up. She couldn't keep the smile off her face, "So then, who's the lucky guy?" She started naming guys from their class until she hit the mark and Tomiko's face deepened a shade of pink. "Osamu Inoue? Yep he's the one, isn't he?"

Tomiko nodded slowly, "Yeah," she sighed softly. "But he doesn't notice me at all. Sometimes I think he's blind or something, I can never get his attention."

Keomi could sympathize, "Have you tried confessing to me? A love letter maybe?" Tomiko's face deepened from pink to a light red, guess that was a no. "If you never try then how do you know if he never pays attention like you say? Maybe he's just as shy," Keomi grinned at her suddenly new found friend.

Tomiko didn't say anything more about Osamu as they walked home together. After saying goodbye to Tomiko at her front door Keomi headed down the street with the principles words echoing in her mind. Her steps were a bit quicker than normal but soon she slowed her pace as thoughts and plans of getting Tomiko and Osamu together filled her mind. It didn't take long before Keomi's mind returned to thoughts of girls mysteriously vanishing on their way home from school. Keomi brushed it off thinking that nothing would happen to her since she was a demon. She now wore a silver bracelet on each wrist so she could pull weapons from her demon slayer arsenal. She had also stored extra energy in the bracelets in case she got in a fight that would drag on too long, she was making sure she was prepared for any instance.

Keomi was snapped to attention as she tilted her wrist closer to her fingers and brushed up against the cool metal. Chills were multiplying rapidly across her now damp skin as her eyes darted side to side. She couldn't explain it nor could she explain the pit in her stomach that was starting to grow deeper and hollower with each step she took. But without a doubt in her mind she knew something was out there and it scared her, a demon killing demon slayer. That thought within itself frightened Keomi more and in the next millisecond she broke into a run. With one hand clutched her bag to her chest and the other hand tightly gripping the already materialized handle of a dagger hidden up her sleeve as Keomi ran. Pure instinct had screamed at her to run and she had listened as her nerves about made her skin wiggle from fear as Keomi caught a dark shadowy wisp from the corner of her eye.

Hysterics on the brink Keomi's demon mode kicked in and she took off like a space shuttle shooting into space. But still the presence hung around her like bad BO in a cramped room. Deciding that if she ever wanted to lose the feeing of the presence then she would have to do better than that. Changing her line of her straight running direction Keomi took full deomness effect and in an instant she was bouncing out of the closest tree. Hair wiping around her face Keomi flew threw the unrestrained night air before she rolled across a roof to soften her landing before she took off running again. She continued to run, fly, and bounce in and out of trees but she couldn't shake the feeling that if she wasn't a demoness then by now she would have been the next girl to vanish. Swiftly running to her building Keomi jumped down into a tree into the courtyard, she happened to jump into the branches of the same tree whose branches had smashed through her window during the typhoon when Shuichi was staying with her. A slight blush made its way to her face, calming her for a short minute for she launched herself out of the tree toward the building. Landing on the small balcony to the door that connected to her kitchen Keomi easily jimmied open the lock and slipped into the safe heaven that her apartment usually provided for her. Locking the door behind her Keomi hurried to her bedroom and immediately went to work on creating an energy barrier around her apartment and the two beside her. Reiko lived alone and she was a female so Keomi figured that she was as much of a target as many of the girls in the area. The small measure would go unnoticed by Reiko but Keomi felt a bit better inside just knowing that she would be protected. When Keomi was finished with the barrier she stood in the shower and let the hot water heat her cool skin. While coming home it felt as though ice water had been on her skin instead of sweat even though she had been in such a panicky rush to make it to safety. After Keomi was finally warmed up she stood in the steam of the bathroom as her fingers explored the familiar eight pointed mark on her back. The scar tissue had long disappeared from her skin and the mark was nothing more than a tattoo now. A mark that constantly reminded who she was now, a demon but even so the feelings that had passed earlier that night were still fresh. Keomi was still a girl and that made her a target although she never assumed she would be one. The feeling that if she wasn't a demon Keomi would have vanished by now remained with her the rest of the night as she sat in her apartment, almost too scared to venture out and investigate like she had planned. The masked woman would have to wait another night while Keomi tried to gather her frightened wits. Instead of investigating outside Keomi turned her attention to the old laptop that was her fathers. She hardly ever used it since she had downloaded the Spirit World files onto it but tonight she looked into the disappearings of her fellow classmates and other girls from her school along with other girls in the area. Keomi easily discovered that more than one girl in the area had disappeared on the same night as some girls vanished from their own homes. The plot and problems thickened.

The next morning as Keomi walked to school she was nervous but nothing picked up on her hyper alert demon sense. She was just beginning to calm herself down and return back to her normal self when she arrived at her classroom. The girls were already there but there was one less to their entourage than there was yesterday. Keomi walked to her desk suddenly as stiff as a board and set her things down as she read the girls' minds. Soon all of them would be missing as well and there was nothing that they could do about it. Fate seemed to conspire against teenage girls at that moment in time to make them all vanish. They were all going to disappear and not even Keomi could do anything about it. She was just one person, one girl, one demon, one her.

~I don't know what is wrong with me. I write a long chapter and then like two short ones, and it's annoying me. I don't know why I do it but I do! Argh! So anyways having a hard time writing, Christmas is rounding the corner and I just want to strangle people but I won't. I'll try to be good so if I'm good will you give me reviews?~