A/N- Wow, don't have many reviews yet, but I'm so happy to know that those few fans I have are quite consistent. Thank you to my loyal fans and please spread the news. Sonya, I agree with you entirely, so you can help spread the word about this rather undiscovered story. Quite glad that I made you cry though. Here goes another chapter...hope you enjoy!

Miari

Stirring slightly, I awakened to see a familiar face before me. "Kurama!" I shouted, throwing my desperate arms around his neck. Dressed in my ningen clothes, I blushed a little at the fact that I was hiding even while he was around. "I've missed you so much."

"And I've missed you, my lovely Kaiina," he replied, brushing a hand against my cheek. It seemed as though I had gone from strong lover to porcelain doll once more, but this time I actually did feel like a doll. My heart had been starved for the love that only he could give, and I didn't want to abandon all hopes of his return.

"You look thinner," Kurama observed. "You needn't starve yourself over me." Burying his face in my now glossy black hair, he breathed deeply, taking in my scent and enjoying it. These were the small gestures that I remembered from our short time together, the things that had sent chills down my spine.

"I feel like less of a person now," I replied, wrapping my arms around his waist. Somehow, he had become more muscular, even more attractive, if that was possible. There was no option of running away anymore. I had to find him, and as soon as possible. "How can I return to you?"

"Go to Yuki," he began. "She knows how to find me. She will tell you how to reach me and perhaps help you in doing so. She's a jealous woman, but she knows who I really love. Please, Kaiina, it's nearly dawn...time for me to go."

"One last thing," I said softly, reaching out to grab his arm.

"What?"

"I'm sorry I left you there. I should never have let that happen. Not in my forest, at least. It was the place I knew best, but I couldn't-" He placed a finger on my lips, then drew me into a very long passionate kiss. After we broke apart, I was nearly in tears, knowing that he had to leave.

"It wasn't your fault," he said, and slowly that dear image faded away, until the darkness would hide away the veil of death once more...

A hand on my shoulder awakened me sharply, and I felt the lush grass beneath me. For a split second, I thought I was back in Hell's Grove. However, my mind snapped back to unwelcome reality, and I realized Jakiri was kneeling next to me, and we were in Ningenkai. Her now innocent blue eyes stared down at me with concern, but I wasn't feeling receptive. All I could feel was the terrible cold that enveloped me. It was the desolation that I felt without Kurama.

"Mistress," my servant whispered, wrapping her arms around me tightly. Once again, there were a few more cuts on my body. Maybe I'd have to give up sleeping if it meant acquiring more small scratches. Tears fell from my eyes, and I looked up at her. No, Jakiri couldn't help me through this trauma. She couldn't wrap her arms around me like the mother I'd never had and comfort my screaming soul. It refused to shut itself up this time and condense into one little ball of misery. Dusky grey hung over the entire city right now, and it seemed to multiply my loneliness a thousand-fold.

Getting up in an instant, I took off, dashing toward the downtown, where there seemed to be plenty of places to go and run away. All I needed was somewhere to forget the misery. Maybe if I forgot, I wouldn't have to face my competitor like this, a weakened fragment of what I once was. Yuki couldn't see me like this and say how weak I was, how I was incomparable to her and how she should have Kurama! Sinking down against the wall of an alleyway, I clutched my hair, pulling on it vigorously and crying non-stop.

No one stopped to even try to comfort me. I was just a sad, lonely soul, a thing of the ordinary that was barely worth looking at. There were so many out there with worse problems than mine, but why was I so upset? Why couldn't I get over him and move on? There was never absolute love amongst demons, just lust and a night's thrill, something pathetically temporary. How could I have ever believed in such a philosophy?

I had believed because it was true. He had taken care of me, made no mistake that he loved me. We had laughed together, kissed, teased each other for the sole purpose that we found it entertaining. None of those memories remained now. It was just the vague feeling that I had once done those things, back when I had been a young, immature harlot! I had been needy, irresponsible, and overall weak. Now I had matured, right? Now I was beyond running from my problems...but that was what I was doing at that very moment, curled up tightly in a ball, hoping nobody would find me.

Raising my head slightly, I could hear Jakiri's voice. "Kaiina!" she called. "Come out! It's alright, just tell me what I did wrong!" Leaping to my feet, I jumped soundlessly on a dumpster and sprang up to the first windowsill. This process was very easy, until I reached the roof. There was nothing to do up there, except wait and try not to be seen or heard. Both were easy to do at the moment, since I really had nowhere to go. Nobody but Jakiri acted as though I existed. Kurama's touch would have been so very welcome at that moment, but he wasn't there. Leaning up against a door surrounded by a raised concrete rectangle, I slowly drifted to sleep, the only place where we were together anymore...

"Kaiina, you're back early," he said, looking at me in pleasant surprise. "You didn't see Yuki." Shaking my head, I looked at him, tears in my eyes. There was no way to mince words; I had failed him and that was that. Tears fell...and fell...and fell some more, but I couldn't bring myself to stop. It wouldn't have been right to stop.

"I couldn't bring myself to do it," I admitted. "Yuki is competition...she would have been too harsh...I couldn't have taken it."

"It's alright," he said, pressing me into his chest, letting me moisten his soft skin with my childish tears.

Distraught and unsure, I looked up at him, my eyes still glistening brightly. There was nothing else to live for but finding him. Jakiri had shown me that she was capable of straying, and I knew it could happen again, even if she didn't want it to. There was no stopping the terrible force of nature, that which could be strong and intimidating enough to knock down the fiercest fighters. It was that very force combined with the even more powerful love that tied me and Kurama together, making us inseparable. "I'm sorry," I said. "I should have done it. I really do want to see you again, but I can't make myself go see Yuki...not yet, at least. Perhaps I'll send Jakiri to do it."

"Now, Kaiina," Kurama said, a sly smile illuminating his gorgeous face, "why spoil our few meetings with these apologies, especially when you're not even at fault? It's quite disappointing."

"You haven't changed a bit," I said, glaring at him, challenging him boldly in a contest that I rarely won.

"There's no time for this," he said, kissing my cheek tenderly. "I've found a way back into the world, but I will be in Ningenkai, and it will take time."

"How much time?" I demanded, stroking his long, silver hair gently.

"Sixteen years, give or take." My jaw gaped open. That seemed like an eternity to wait. How could I live that long without really seeing him, touching him in reality, not this dream world? Would I be able to survive that long without Kurama?

Kurama, being the sly fox that he is, saw the distress in my eyes and wrapped an arm around my waist. It felt good to have him touch me, but it was different from a real touch, from the world that I was accustomed to, where I didn't have to run away. "I'm so tired of running away," I said softly, running my hand up and down his back in a tantalizing fashion. "How can I make those years go by faster? How is it possible to defy time?"

"Go see Yuki about that," he said, basically giving me a big, fat 'I told you so.' Somehow, I would have to gather up the strength to go see Yuki, and it definitely wouldn't be easy...

Just as I was before, I was on the roof of a building, one that I didn't know. It could have been anywhere, and it didn't really matter anyway. Reality had come to rudely arouse me just when Kurama was about to feel me one more time, gently kiss me goodbye on the lips, any of those small gestures I had come to appreciate. Nothing else could duplicate the feeling I got when Kurama kissed me. So, it was definitely important that I go see Yuki. She would be in Makai, and if I just felt around a little...there was a portal almost right on top of me. Whispering a few archaic words, I watched the green ring of fire open up, creating an eerily colored light.

Then I was back in Makai, the place that held so many memories...in Hell's Grove, no less. Looking down at the ground, I could almost see the crimson blood pouring out of his veins, draining his life away as he screamed in agony, unable to contain the emotion anymore. There was his corpse, so beautiful even though it was drenched with blood. His silver tresses were spread out behind him, and I saw the last flickering of golden eyes before his lids were closed shut with the fateful sleep of death.

The scene was so nightmarish that I had to close my eyes for a moment and regather my thoughts. What was there to regather? I realized. Kurama was my only thought, him and reaching Yuki. Picking up the pieces of my broken heart, I carried on, toward the edge of the forest. When Yuki had healed me, she had left a trace of herself behind in me. Also, that trace seemed to lead me right to her door, which was locked quite tightly.

Even with some severe pulling, I couldn't open Yuki's door. Deciding to be polite to the wench, I rapped gently on the door and saw it swing open of its own accord, revealing a very small disheveled house to match a very small disheveled Yuki. "What do you want?" she demanded irritably. "I know he wants me to help you, but why should I? You put me out of the running with him."

Staring at her in indignation, I realized that she was just as catty as I was, and this was going to be quite the argument. However, it was the only way to get the information and the help that I needed. "Excuse me," I said, rolling my eyes flippantly, "but he chose me over you. I didn't even like him to start with. Why do you think I left a couple days after you healed me?"

"Nice try," Yuki retorted sarcastically, shooting me a glare that could have killed anyone else.

"Nice try at what?"

"Getting me to help you," she said, as if it should have been obvious. Of course, it was my purpose here, but that didn't mean she, of all people, had to be sarcastic about it.

"Well, Kurama told me to see you," I said, glaring at her. "We both know that you wouldn't want to disappoint him. After all, he'll be coming back soon."

"Really now?" she said, perking up a little and feigning excitement. "I can tell that you have no ability in foresight. You couldn't have known that."

"He told me in my dreams," I said softly.

"Really," Yuki said. "He told me when we were in bed last night."

"Liar."

"Good," she replied, glad that I wasn't entirely dense. "I remember the time when me and Kurama were together. We met during one of his smaller raids..."

"He was in my master's house back when I was an apprentice. Studying hard, I was up late until dusk came, and I knew it was time to head to my chambers before the master found me out at such ridiculous hours. On my way down the stairs, I heard a sound, and pressed myself against the wall, hoping that whoever was there wouldn't see me. If it was my master, I would be flogged, most certainly. However, upon looking around the corner, I could tell that it was a very arrogant group of thieves. They all carried themselves as though they could have ruled Makai, talking and making noise as though I was deaf.

"It wasn't long before they began to head up in my direction, and I used a cloaking spell. It was simple, so I was able to weave my way through them, for the most part. When I got to Kurama, and saw him up close, I was so taken aback that one of his drones ran right into me. Startled out of my wits, my cloaking spell dissipated, and I was left out in the open. Kurama so kindly notified me that they could implement various forms of torture in such a situation, and being so young, I shrank back in terror of what they could do to me. Back then, I was hardly what one would call competent.

"Seeing how scared and pathetic I was, Kurama decided instead to start commenting on my features, using various forms of flattery to soothe my nerves. Instead of letting me go, he took me back to their headquarters, where I learned some...different skills. For a long time, we lived undisturbed, and truly in love.

"Then you came along. He set eyes on you, and nothing could divert them. Every night he would talk about you, dream about you, talk while sleeping as if he were lying next to you and not me. This carried on for a while, until I grew tired of it. Fed up with playing second to someone I didn't even know, I left him without a warning, without a trace, and made my own living, trained by myself, until I became what I am today." Finishing out her story, Yuki had a very nostalgic look on her face. I had known that she wanted Kurama, but I never knew that she had once had him.

"So, then, will you help me?" I asked, hoping she would say yes. Yuki seemed to be the sort who could make themselves into quite a problem if they wished it, and I didn't want to deal with that big a problem.

"Why not?" she replied, shrugging. "I've got nothing better to do. What do you need?"

"I need time to fast forward about sixteen or seventeen years. That's when Kurama said he would be ready."

"Say hello to him for me," Yuki said, and all of a sudden, the floor fell out from under me.

Not only had I not expected Yuki to help me, but I hadn't expected time travel to be so painful. A constant vortex seemed to pull me one way, then another, then another. Lights flashed brilliantly before my eyes, and I could see so many different images. They blurred together into one until I landed, looking around at Ningenkai, where I had been transported somehow. I was alone again, with no more Yuki and no more Kurama. Once more, I was being made to stay in a place that was entirely unforgiving.

There was nothing to do but wander, and hope that I found him as soon as possible. There was no telling what I would do if we weren't reunited soon. There were vast possibilities, none of them good. For all I knew, we were doomed to a life of eternal boredom, where we would slowly grow tired of each other. That would be such a disappointment, I barely gave that one a chance.

Gazing down the practically unchanged streets, I saw very little there in the way of places to stay and decided to walk a little further. It was too bad I had left Jakiri behind. She was so loyal, but I needed to make this pilgrimage alone, without her aid. If she came along, I would be hindered too far, and there would be the problems of both of us impeding my path. That was the one thing I didn't need, since I was strong enough to be on my own. I was strong enough to make it without someone to watch my back all the time, or so I thought.

Something flashed by and leaped out at me, pinning me to the ground and sitting on me triumphantly. "Aha! Finally found you!" a cocky voice shouted.

"Finally found what?" I growled. "A beating?" A few rather unnoticeable vines came and lifted that unwelcome body off of me. Standing up, I looked at the boy who had pinned me. His hair was black, slicked back and very greasy looking. Dark brown eyes stared at me viciously, as if he were circling in for the kill.

"You're that demon we've been looking for," he replied. "You broke into Kurama's vault!"

"Screaming won't solve anything," I said flatly, glaring up at him. "You think I would go near Koenma's office? He wants me dead, and the security would have spotted me. Even Kurama couldn't have gotten through there. I'd have to murder the Prince of Reikai to make it out of there alive."

"Well, your trace matches the DNA Koenma gave us, so please explain why you're not it!" the boy shouted, raising his fists as if he were ready to fight.

"You couldn't even take me," I spat, giving him the dirtiest look I could manage. This child was getting to be far too insolent for my tastes. "What's your name, anyway?"

"Yusuke Urameshi," he said confidently, as if that name could buy him all the glory in the world. Sighing heavily, I began to walk away, only to find that he was ready to follow me already.

"I'm done being the rabbit," I said. "I prefer the very illusory butterfly." Taking a giant leap into the air, I landed on a windowsill and jumped back and forth. Ahead there was a very large building that looked like some sort of office structure. It was nothing compared to the great architecture of Koenma's palace, but maybe I could find Kurama in the records there. If nothing else, I could get some information.

It didn't take long at all to get there, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Nobody followed me, and I found that this building was a school. What kind, then? A martial arts school? When I went inside, I passed various rooms where people were studying. A few had them talking, but I came to one office where a stern man sat inside. Maybe he could help me find Kurama. "Excuse me," I said, walking in, "but I was wondering if you had any records of residents of the city that I could look through?"

"No, miss, I'm sorry," he said. "Are you the new transfer student?" Hey, if I couldn't get to those records, I could get in by being one of them and getting inside their operations.

"Good," he said. "You start tomorrow."

I said my farewells and left the building. On the way out, I saw a boy with long, vividly red hair and emerald eyes. He looked to be a little over six feet tall, and reminded me of Kurama. That couldn't be him, though. Kurama wasn't that soft, that gentle. Everything about that boy seemed so quiet, but I found it captivating at the same time.

Dismissing such silly thoughts from my head, I refocused, ready to begin my main objective: finding Kurama again. I didn't know what he would look like, or even if he would remember me, but I wanted to see him again, no matter what.