It was now spring, nothing much had happened since November, except for a few insignificant cases that Yusuke could do by himself which he always did. Shiei and Hiei hung around the woods near Nuema's house and they usually only came out to get ice cream, or as they had termed it "sweet snow". Kurama barely left his house for his mother had been plagued by mysterious dreams and was constantly losing her strength.
It was history class, first thing in the morning; normally Kurama was wide-awake like a good student, however today he could barely keep his eyes open.
"Mr. Minamino?" That was the third time his teacher had called his name in two minutes. Each time the teacher got the same response, nothing. His teacher came over and slammed a hand on Kurama's desk. Kurama looked up at the teacher, bleary eyed. "Mr. Minamino, is something wrong?"
"No, I'm just a little tired is all."
"Okay, just try and stay awake. Now, as I was saying, I have a new group project for the class," several students brightened up, "I'm assigning the group of four and one group of two." Faces fell and there were a few groans. After the groups were assigned, the members were allowed to move next to each other. Nuema turned her chair around to face the tired Kurama.
"You look like you haven't slept in ages, Shuuichi."
"..." Kurama nodded slightly, Nuema was right. He hadn't slept well because his mother had taken ill and he was helping her a lot.
By the end of the period they had discovered the project was due the next day. Nuema and Kurama had agreed to work on it after school but Kurama refused to work anywhere else but his house because he wanted to keep an eye on his mother. Kurama was also completely awake.
Once they got inside his house Kurama uncharacteristically dropped his school bag anywhere in the house and walked to a room in the house. Nuema dropped her bag at all, not caring about it at all and followed Kurama's path, but a little less urgently. She was getting a bad feeling about the room from her sixth sense.
She walked through the open door and watched Kurama talk to a bed-ridden woman that looked young but was very weak giving her an aged appearance. Nuema saw a dim black aura around her which was unnerving her and she looked around the room.
"Mother, how have you been today?"
"I'm fine, Shuuichi. I just feel extremely tired." She turned and looked at Nuema, who had moved into the doorframe, with half opened eyes, "You brought a friend with you?"
"Yes, mother, we're working on a school project."
"Well, don't let me distract you from your work, I'll just take a nap." Kurama's mother closed her eyes and Nuema saw that the dim glow became stronger. She felt cold and put a hand on the door frame for support, as she felt weakened suddenly. Kurama turned to leave and saw Nuema. He quickly helped her to a chair nearby.
"Is there something wrong, Nuema?"
"Yes, I'm afraid." She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Any fool with spirit awareness or a sixth sense could sense her energy had plummeted. Kurama watched Nuema, his green eyes flooded with concern; this is how things had started with his mother.
"What?"
"I don't know how to explain this to you."
"Just try," Kurama sat on the floor.
"First off, you should know I'm a psychic. I have a highly tuned sixth sense, a lot greater than the one Kuwabara has. I can see things most people with sixth senses or even spirit awareness can. My body and mind have become in tune with the tenth dimension, the minds dimension, anything on it I can see and feel."
"I understand."
"There are three types of aura, spirit energy, which only a select few can use. A battle aura or bloodlust which any fool can sense, but only some can see. Then there is something called the psychic's aura. It can only be seen and used by those that are in tune with the tenth dimension. This type of aura can trap matter, change it if one has honed their skills with it, affect even the way people feel and act. It can also be used to move matter. Your mother, unfortunately, is covered by one of these auras."
"Is it what is causing this to my human mother?"
"Yes. Unfortunately I can only see it, I can't dissipate it. Its effect is to draw her energy."
"But if it is only to draw her energy, then why did it draw yours?"
"Everyone has there own signal, so to call it, on the sixth dimension and you need to get the 'signal' correct to effect only that person. An aura like that one requires a broader set of 'signals' to work on. If the 'signal' is exact for an aura I'm not effected that much, but with a broader set of signals I'm effected in the same way as well. The effects seem to be pertained only to that room, however." Nuema stood up out of the chair feeling better than she had a few minutes ago and walked over to the door to Kurama's mother's room. Her eyes widened. Kurama had followed her.
"What is it that you see?"
"The room, its coated in that aura. Dark threads of aura are scattered everywhere. Its worse than I thought it would be originally, its become a black hole for spirit energy." Nuema backed away from the room, scared slightly by what she saw. How long had this been happening? How long could she possibly last? Nuema looked over at Kurama, who unfortunately couldn't see a thing out of place, but his eyes betrayed his concern. Nuema closed her eyes and breathed deeply, trying to concentrate. Her own psychic's aura formed around the dark aura, tainting it with a faint yellow glow.
She was using a lot of energy to do it, but she got the dark energy to disappear. Nuema opened her eyes and smiled seeing the room cleared and even the aura around the woman was faint. She fell forward but stopped herself. Kurama looked over at Nuema.
"What happened?"
"I, got rid of most of the aura, she should be able to recover for a little while before it comes back."
"What about you?"
"Heh, there's a forest is there not? Besides you have a lot of plants in your house." Kurama didn't understand the statement but saw some energy sparkles flying in from all over the house and drifting to either Nuema or his mother. Hundreds would be a better term than 'some'. Nuema stood up. "I've done as much for your mother as I can. We should get the project done."
"Would you teach me how to do that?"
"What, replace spirit energy from an outside source?"
"Yes."
"Sure. Over the weekend, along with another skill you should be able to learn."
A few hours later the project was done and Nuema had to go home. It was almost sunset. Nuema ran to her house, almost as if the reddening sky would burn her up if she stayed outside for too long.
There were two voices ringing in the forest just as the sunset ended, yet there was still light out. In the center of the forest Hiei and Shiei were arguing, being silent while glaring, yelling again, and so on.
After a few minutes of this, Shiei and Hiei walked in opposite directions. Shiei jumped into a tree while Hiei stayed on the ground. After a few minutes Shiei came to Nuema's house. She opened the window to Nuema's room and jumped in silently.
Nuema looked up from the picture she was drawing. It took a lot of effort for her not to wince. It was extremely apparent to her, at least, that Shiei was pissed. There was almost a red cloud of anger around her.
"Konnichi'wa, Shiei."
"Hn."
"Tell me, what happened to you to make you so pissed?"
Shiei crossed her arms and sat on the floor looking disgruntled at the very thought. "Hn. Take a guess." Shiei's flaming red eyes gave Nuema a brief glare before looking at the floor to her side.
This time Nuema did wince at Shiei's anger, and she might have tried to make a sarcastic comment, but she figured Shiei was too pissed to tolerate it. She went back to drawing while pretending to think. After a moment or two, "Hiei, Hiei pissed you off."
Shiei growled and looked up at Nuema and glared, "Hn."
"What did he do?"
"He sat down next to me during sunset, stupid baka."
Nuema looked dubious but was facing the wall as the look might have earned her getting hit by a fire ball, "You were actually awake enough to tell that?"
Shiei glared at Nuema's back, "What's that supposed to mean? Of course I was awake! And look at me while you're talking to me!"
Nuema turned around in her seat to face Shiei's glare, this time she remained neutral to it, "You've always had a knack for zoning out during a sunset, someone could yell in your ear and you wouldn't know it."
"So?"
"I'm just saying maybe you sat next to him and don't remember."
"Now why would I do that?"
"Not on purpose, obviously. Maybe both of you zoned out, and sat down where you were, not noticing the other. Hiei is so similar to you, I'm willing to bet he zones out as well."
Shiei looked thoughtful for a second, "I guess that could be true..." Her eyes narrowed again once she realized what she had said, "but it was most definitely Hiei's fault."
Nuema shook her head, recognizing Shiei's trademark stubbornness, "You know, Shiei, someday you and Hiei might kill each other in one of your arguments, and you'll be too stubborn to admit you died."
Shiei glared at the statement, most would have flinched from it for usually it meant an untimely and painful demise, but Nuema had gained her cool back and her quick silver eyes remained calm, "Watch what you say, ningen."
"I'm just saying you're stubborn."
"Hn!" Shiei opened the window again and left. Funnily enough the temperature in the room cooled off a good fifteen degrees.