Disclaimer: I don't own YYH or Yu Yu Hakusho or Yuu Yuu Hakusho or YÅ« YÅ« Hakusho or anything like that...

The rest of the day passed speedily, for I was strangely more eager to meet Suichi after school than to learn anything on that particular day. Luckily, the teachers didn't give me any homework because it was my first day there.

I was outside after school and wondering where to meet Suichi when he approached me.

"Come with me." He gestured in a vague sort of way, and started walking out of the school. I followed him for some distance, our strange little march ending in a forest clearing with a tree stump in the middle. He sat down on the stump, and I sat on the ground in front of him, cross-legged. "Now, as I was saying at lunchtime, I know you have the power to summon plants; yet you do not know of demons... Hmm... this will be somewhat complicated, but a demon is generally a vile creature, stereotypically characterized by claws, fangs, horns, and strange skin colors."

"What do you mean 'generally' and 'stereotypically'?"

"I'm saying that not all demons are bad. I want to make that very clear for, I am almost certain, you are a demon."

"What?!" I looked at Suichi in astonishment, but oddly not anger. "But, how would you know who would be a demon?"

"Can you demonstrate for me a bit of your power? I would like to see it again." Suichi smiled at me encouragingly. Somehow, this smile made me want to give him all of my powers, but I supposed I could be content with just a small demonstration.

"Okay, Suichi, but... how would you know if I was a demon?" I said as I bade the grass under myself to grow tall enough and thick enough to raise my body so that I was eye level with Suichi. I closed my eyes, and mentally commanded clouds to form: huge, threatening rain clouds that started pouring rain immediately. Fortunately, the branches of the trees had just finished intertwining themselves together to make a leafy canopy that shut out all of the rain, although it pattered on the leaves on the ground around our hideout. A small breeze stirred the clearing, rustling the trees' foliage and Suichi's scarlet hair, and periodic lightning lit our haven. With the breeze I caught a whiff of rose scent coming from Suichi, and I opened my eyes. Suichi watched all of this with something a bit short of amazement, then looked at me and smiled his encouraging smile. "Is that what you were looking for, Suichi?" I blushed. Maybe the breeze was a bit much... I thought to myself. However, Suichi now looked pleased.

"Yes. That was all I needed to know." Suichi paused, closed his eyes, and the stump under him grew, and grew, until it was a live, healthy tree again. I gazed up at Suichi, who was now sitting on a low branch about seven feet up, with amazement and wonder in my eyes, and he looked down at me.

"Suichi, how... Are you...?"

"Yes, Nerua. I am a demon with powers over nature as well. Suichi is a name I adopted while living in this world, but my true name is Kurama. I was a demon fox spirit, living in the Spirit World, but hid myself in the human world to avoid being hunted. If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been aware of your demon powers?"

"Kurama, I will tell you anything." The grass grew more, being supported here and there by blooming wisteria and trumpet vines, until I could look directly into Kurama's emerald eyes once more.

"It was a beautiful, warm, summer night in California, about two years ago, I guess, so I decided to take a swim in a nearby lake. I was underwater playing with the fish while the storm kicked up, and couldn't see the lightning, hear the thunder, or feel the rain. I was made aware of the downpour, however, when the fish suddenly darted away, and a lightningbolt struck the lake I was swimming in." Kurama gasped. I looked down, took a deep breath, blinked slowly, and looked back to Kurama. "I'm sure I died for at least a second. In that second, I know it's overrated, but my life really flashed before my eyes. I saw my friends, my home, my parents, and everything in between. Suddenly, I started to see visions that hadn't happened to me. There were scenes of me meeting some short, seemingly important kid with a pacifier in his mouth, and heading to take a rest, and there were other scenes of me wielding powers of nature, like the trees, rain, lightning, and wind. I understood that this was some kind of decision I needed to make to decide my future, so I felt deep within myself, and decided that it wasn't yet my time to rest. I suddenly became aware of myself, and that's when my whole life was turned around. Because sometimes I've... had trouble controlling my powers, my parents and I have never stayed in the same place for more than a six months since that fateful night." Kurama had his eyes closed and his head down, thinking, but looked up at me when I stopped.

"I see..." he said. "You are a demon, only your powers were hidden from you until the lightning strike, when you encountered enough shock to blow the barrier to your powers away. I'm surprised that you couldn't sense what Hiei and I were."

"Oh, but I could. Sort of, anyway: why do you think I caught your eye in the first place? Something struck me, it felt like alarm bells in my brain, that made me look in the direction of your little group."

Kurama chuckled softly. "Come. It is getting late. We should get home."

I started. "Kurama, I was hoping that you could help me figure out who blocked my powers from me. I'd like to give them a taste of why they hid from me my destiny." I was riling myself up, and knew it, and allowed my body to get caught up in the anger just long enough to heat up the surrounding air, causing the nearest leaves on Kurama's tree to wilt, but not touching my own grassy pedestal.

Kurama was startled. "Fire, as well?" Hiei will be intrigued to know of this, Kurama thought to himself.

I looked at myself in awe; I never could do that before. "How did I know all of that? I knew exactly what was going on with me... but I could never control fire before... Kurama, please, help me!" I whispered. Tears were collecting in my eyes, but I would not allow them to spill over...

Kurama drew closer on his branch, and as soon as he knew that I was cooled down enough, he reached out and lightly brushed away the tears' tracks on my left cheek with his fingertips. He drew back his hand quickly, but with a slight hesitation.

"There, there. Some of your demon powers must still be hidden from you, but I have never encountered anyone with such diverse powers. You must be a very special kind of demon, and I believe that you have the potential to do great things, but for the life of me I can't remember what you would be proclaimed in the Spirit World... huh?" Too late Kurama realized that the part of tree branch that he had been sitting on was unsteady, but as the branch cracked and fell, a few hardy tendrils of ivy snaked out from my support and caught him. I smiled down at him, and brought him up to sit next to me on my little pillar of nature.

"Might your parents be demons as well?" Kurama asked with surprising frankness and sudden intuition after a few moments of silent thought, gazing into my eyes.

"No, they can't be - I can't sense in them what I can in you and Hiei."

"Then you must be the special demon, one that appears from the human world, and apparently normal humans, every few hundred years or so, only I'm afraid that your line was started to help demons dominate the human world. Over centuries we demons were weakened, however, and forced into the depths of Spirit World. The line apparently lives on, said to be the descendants of Susanoo, the legendary Shinto god of storms. His sister, Amaterasu the sun goddess, helped all life to prosper, but Susanoo hated it, so created demons to undo her work. Besides, one characteristic of Rainer demons is white hair." He glanced at my natural white highlights that gave a stark contrast to the rest of my mousy hair. "You are the first female Rainer demon that I've heard of, however."

"Cool! That means I'm about Amaterasu's great2000-niece or something! But wait a minute. Is it in the legend if my Rainer predecessors had to overcome obstacles to their powers too?"

Kurama shook his head. "No. I'm afraid the demons were born with their powers, using them immediately to destroy their human parents, their home, and everything in their reach."

I gasped. This was maybe a bit more that I had expected when I sought out Kurama the first time. "Kurama, what can I do? I would like to use my powers, to do good, but not before I find the sorry beings who ever tried to screw with me!" I suddenly stopped, quieting, then stood up and turned around.

I felt other demons approaching.

Ellen: Wow, long chappie.

Fwooshy: Yeah, a whole three pages.

Ellen: Shut up. Here - take a match (lights).

Fwooshy: o.o Fiiiiiiire.

Ellen: Oh yeah, I think I forgot to mention in my bio that Fwooshy is addicted to fire.

Fwooshy: O.O Fiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrre. (match burns out) ...Huh? Wha? Ellen, you didn't...

Ellen: Ha ha ha ha ha.

Fwooshy: I'll show you to make a fool of me, you vermin! (lunges at Ellen)

Ellen: Vermin? (blocks all punches and kicks with one leg) Fwooshy, you really need to work on your technique. You just keep repeating the same moves over and over.

Fwooshy: Grrrrrr.

Cheddar: Read and review!