Kuronue: Hello again! As you remember my LITTLE mistake from last time....

Maruken: You were SUFFOCATING me!

Kuronue: Ah, yes....... Well..

Maruken: And Kuronue still can't...MRPPPHHFFFFF!!!

Kuronue: I'm SURE everyone knows THAT little useless piece of information. As I was saying WHAT ARE YOU DOING READING THIS?!! Read the STORY, PEOPLE!!

Disclamer: Again, blood is not falling from the sky and dragons don't roam the Earth. My era has not come yet... BUT IT WILL!!!!!!...A.K.A...... I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.

As soon as Kuronue was sure she was asleep he took a good long look at her. Since they were fighting and exchanging insults, he hadn't got a good clear look at her. Now he could tell she had shoulder length whisps of gold and tan that hung on the sides of her face. A long brown braid with tan highlights lay next to her on the grass, stray hairs swayed back and forth. Wine red ears lay amongst her hair and a long wine red tail was spead out from beneath her. Her shirt was sprayed with blood, which contrasted with her blue and green sleeveless shirt which wrapped around her neck and had intricate designs of golden thread. Cream colored off white pants billowed from her waist and got bigger towards her ankles, where it stopped. Strips of the cloth like the shirt wrapped around her ankle and 2nd toe on each foot.

He was very careful not to touch her, one of the few things he had learned from his instructors were that mononokes could communicate through touch with a vision of themselves called a soulself. If you were ever touched by a mononoke never follow them into their own soul territory, but this is kind of easy because they have to be touching you for you to be able to venture out of your own soul territory and down a different path. "Finally I'm beginning to use some of the stuff they taught me. But who would have thought it would be on mononokes?"He chuckled to himself and laid back down, gaze averted to the sky. As he watched the sky he thought over everything he knew about mononokes."When I get back to the tribe I'll learn more about mononokes, and hopefully find out why she was so angry at being called a kitsune and a youko." After these last words he fell into sleep.

A few hours later Yamiko's eyes shot open. The night sky was on the brink of twilight, her favorite time. Also the time she was supposed to be back."Kuso, why does everything have to be so peaceful and then in a instant it's shattered?" Her eyes looked up at the sky then down at her newfound friend. Kuronue was sleeping peacefully, black bangs obscuring his eyes. Two stray locks of midnight ran down his shoulders to his chest and moved in time with rise and fall. He had a stange hat that had little back, a long brim and no roof, that basically served as a hairband for his waist length raven black hair. Little pointy ears stuck out of the mass of black. He had on baggy light brown pants with two holders that had sickles in them, both attached to a piece of rope. " So he didn't try to kill me, he just wanted to have some fun too." She realized. If she wanted to, her swallow bow would probably have killed him. His black shirt was frayed at the shoulders and had a little v neck. A cream colored wrap lay on his hips that had a large v shapped cut in the middle so he could spread his legs as far as he wanted which gave him maximum speed when running, or so she guessed. Wide stripes of black leather wrapped around his arms and ankles. The black leather wings were concealed in his back while he lay sleeping there. As she was turning to leave she whispered, "Sayonara, bat." and sped towards her pack home, at the foot of the mountains.

Kuronue opened his eyes when the moon was half way from the top of the starry night sky. He propped himself up on his elbows and turned to face Yamiko but to his dismay, she was gone, leaving only grass. As he got up a sharp pain shot through his shoulder. "Forgot about that." His pounding headache was gone so he could think more clearly. Probably nobody at the tribe missed him so he didn't care how long he stayed out. His mother might miss him, unless the hunt for a notorious thief was successful. And if the hunt was successful his father would be out there, beating them to a pulp. The kids were pretty scared of him, except for a select few, the ones that actually had contact with the darker side of Makai and knew how to handle themselves. But even they just left him alone, but put him higher than the ignorant little batlings. The only person who actually cared about him was his favorite instructor, Midoritsuki. He taught Kuronue how to really fight in desperate measures, and the right foods to eat in the unsheltered and wilder regions of Makai. Midoritsuki taught him all the really important crucial things. One of the most important things in Makai is the social ladder, a least that was what Midoritsuki thought. To know what royalty know and think of you, how to catch them off guard, how to act around certain guards and protectors, how certain youkai and hanyou races and breeds think, how to find creatures incognito and how to strike deals with almost any creature. Luckily the feeling was mutual for both instructor and student, they both came to care for each other.

"I wonder if Midoritsuki knows anything about mononokes." Kuronue thought aloud. Deciding there was nothing else to do, and no better sorce of RELIABLE information, he spread his black wings and took off. The wind blowing past him always made him feel better. Luckily the night air was still crisp and refreshing, as it always was at the beginning of the night. "Bet Midoritsuki is going to have one hell of an expression on his face when he finds out I actually met a mononoke. Heh,heh." He chuckled a bit at the thought and shook his head. Before he knew it, he was already outside Midoritsuki's hut.

A light taping noise was heard as Kuronue gentle knocked on the fabric. "Come in." Came a bit of a rough voice from inside the hut. Kuronue did as asked and stepped into his instructor's hut. It was nice and cozy but spacious enough for about 5 people. "Where were you? I thought you would have wanted to see the caught thief." This time the noice came from a man who looked about 1700. He had emerald hair in a short ponytail with two long stray strips down the sides of his face. His eyes were a glossy silver and he mostly wore dark green on his long baggy pants and waist length kimono.

"They caught the thief?!" Kuronue's jaw dropped. " He wasn't a very clever one, but the bounty money will keep us fed for about three weeks." "That's pretty good, but we can just go out and hunt for our food, I can't see why the others don't." He grumbled a bit. " Kuronue, lower level youkai are getting really scarce. The only other youkai are the A and S classes and some very high B classes. We have to bargain with other, more fortunate youkai." Midoritsuki tried to reason with him. "But that just makes us seem like low weaklings!" Kuronue exclaimed. "You and your pride, not everyone has pride like that." Midoritsuki shook his head at Kuronue's last comment. "Anyway, I came to see if you knew anything about mononokes." Midoritsuki looked Kuronue directly in the face, long and hard,but to his amazement and curiousity he didn't even flinch. "You know I don't teach mythology. Besides, you always hated it, called it 'a bunch of junk thought up by a crazy pyshcopath with serious mental deficincies'." " Well, maybe some wern't missing as many parts as I thought." Kuronue defended himself, against his own words. " Why this sudden interest in mononokes, only?" "Reasons." Midoritsuki decided he wouldn't press the topic any further, he knew from experience the little bat could be as stubborn as a rock, and just about as movable. "Try the instructor that actually KNOWS mythology and believes in the crap." snorted Midoritsuki.

So Kuronue found himself in front of his mythology instructor's hut, at midnight. He quietly tapped on the fabric, and got the same "Come in." as Midoritsuki greeted him with. But the reaction was quiet different. "KURONUE?!! What in all the heavens and hells are you DOING HERE?! And at this HOUR!" Yelled Mizuyume, in absolute shock. "That's the second bashing my ears have gotten." He mumbled under his breath. "I'm here to find out about mononokes." "But I thought you hate mythology?" Kuronue mouthed what Mizuyume said. "And if your going to ridicule me you can learn about them elsewhere." "Gomenasai Instructor" Kuronue said rather quickly, for fear of not being able to learn about his newfound friend's history and abilities. " Now, sit down and I will tell you of mononokes and their enemies and allies."

Kuronue: Ahhh, K'so, I did it again.

Maruken:....* Passed out, yet AGAIN, from lack of oxygen.*

Kuronue: Well, I might be able to wake her up again if we get 5 more reviews.*Shameful bribery*