Disclaimer: I do not own anything or anyone used in the making of this fiction besides Kila.

(Chapter 18: Good-byes and More History)

Brett went to go find Jess, but instead found that she was talking to Shadow and Learan quietly.

"Well, I have to leave, and I could say that I want company..." Learan said, trailing off.

"Why do you have to leave?" Jess asked, looking at her.

"I got a call from some friends, and they want me to go travel with them for a while," Learan said with an apologetic look at them. "I'm leaving later today."

Shadow nodded, understanding. Jess frowned but nodded. "Yes, but I don't think it'll be that easy to get rid of him..."

"What're you talking about?" Toca asked, popping up behind Brett and scaring all four of them.

"Nothing. Just that Learan needs to leave for a while to go visit some friends," Jess said sadly.

"I can go with her. I need to go visit my little brother," Toca said, rolling his eyes.

Learan nodded. "Alright. I was planning on leaving later today."

Toca nodded, and there was silence for a few moments.

"Anyone told Kila yet?" Brett asked quietly.

There was a pause.

"No, not yet..." Jess said hesitantly.

"No need," Kila's voice came from in the trees above them, rather cold. "I heard everything."

They all looked up, startled, to find Kila sitting in the tree, playing with her cat, Koto. Brett frowned; Kila looked like she was trying to keep away from them...

"Oh..." Learan said quietly. "So, um..."

"I wish you luck on your journey. Travel safely, and never go off on your own," Kila said with a small smile before standing, picking up her cat, and disappearing. It seemed that she was mastering her powers rather quickly.

Brett sighed. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna go find a hotel."

Shadow nodded and the others followed him, leaving Learan and Toca alone to talk about plans.

Kila was sitting at the very ouskirts of the town, up in the higher branches of a tree. She sighed and looked down as Rei started to climb up the tree and stopped a few branches below her.

"Hey," she said quietly, glancing down at him.

"Hi. Are you ok?" Rei asked, looking at her with concern.

Kila nodded. "Yeah, just thinking..." she said quietly, looking down at her lap.

"About what?" Rei asked quietly.

"Earlier, I saw a kid being picked on... He was just a kid, but he was a beginning trainer... An older trainer was picking on him and was about to have one of her bishies attack him," Kila said, frowning, looking deeply upset.

Rei sighed. He had thought Kila would be rather sensitive to things like that. He looked up at her and asked, "What did you do?"

"I stopped her, of course," Kila said immediately.

Rei smiled at her. "Then you've done all you can. You can't stop them permenently, but even if you do stop them for a day, an hour, a minute, you help someone out. You make someone's life happier than it would have been."

Kila hadn't thought of it that way. She smiled. "Thanks Rei."

Rei nodded. "The others are looking for you. Shadow wants to talk to you about something or other..."

At that moment, a Saiyuki Goku raced below them, with Shadow running after him, screaming, "GIVE ME BACK MY POCKY YOU DAMN MONKEY!"

Kila and Rei both sweatdropped at this and shook their heads. Koto apparently decided it would be fun to jump on the bouncy head with the fun hair ((aka Goku)) and ran after them. Kila cursed slightly and ran after her cat.

Koto jumped down on Goku's head and started playing with his hair. Goku was so surprised that he stopped, and Shadow didn't stop in time. She slammed into him and they both went tumbling to the floor. Kila jumped down and landed gracefully beside them.

She picked up her cat without a word and raised an eyebrow at Shadow.

"He stole my pocky!" Shadow said indignantly while retrieving aforementioned pocky.

Kila chuckled. "That's so like you, Shadow," she said with a fond smile.

Shadow blinked. She then stood up and looked at the cat. "Thank you," she said with a grin to Koto, who meowed in responce.

Kila laughed. "So, what did you guys want?" she asked, heading back into town with Shadow.

"We were gonna tell you which hotel we're staying in, but now I can show you I guess," Shadow said with a grin.

Rei dropped down next to them and the three of them walked almost silently towards a hotel. Shadow opened the door and Kila and Rei walked through.

"Where're our rooms?" Kila asked, looking back at Shadow.

"Up on the fifth floor," Shadow said, motioning for them to follow. "Hiei and Yoko are already up in the room you and I are sharing, and Battosai is somewhere."

"I know where he is," Kila said with a small smile. They got into an elevator and headed up to the fifth floor, where they walked down the hallway a short ways before coming to their room.

Shadow got out a key and opened the door, handing Kila the other key. Kila stepped into the room and found Hiei, Yoko, and Battosai awaiting her in the room. She smiled slightly at them, then sat down cross-legged on one of the beds.

Shadow shook her head a bit as she entered, seeing Goku and Gojyo immediately get into a wrestling match.

Kila rolled her eyes as she saw them, then closed her eyes and relaxed her body.

Hiei glanced over at her with a raised eyebrow, wondering what she was doing. Yoko, too, looked over at Kit, curious.

Suddenly, they all looked up when they heard a knock on the door. "Come in," Shadow called, and Learan and Toca walked in, their bags all packed and they looked ready to go.

"Well, we're going now..." Learan said, trailing off when she saw Kila.

Kila nodded. "Alright. I hope to see you again soon. Don't forget to call every once in a while," she said with a kind smile.

Shadow nodded. "Yeah, I wanna hear from you whenever you catch a new bishie!"

Learan nodded, smiling. She and Toca left, leaving the room unusually quiet.

Kila shifted uncomfortably, and Shadow coughed slightly.

"So," Shadow finally said, breaking the akward silence, "what are we going to do now? Just stay here for a bit or wander around again?"

"We're going to stay here for a few days," Kila said, grateful for this distraction. "I thought a few of you guys might want to try out your skills in the tournament. I'm not going to enter. For one, I don't have enough badges, and for two, it's WAY too noisy for me. I'd probably faint from the noise before even getting a chance to do anything," Kila said with a tiny smile.

Shadow nodded. "Well, I'm not going to either. These guys are too lazy to do much of anything anyway." She grinned at her bishies' protests.

Kila chuckled quietly to herself. "Do you know about Meg and the others?" She asked.

Shadow shook her head. "I don't think Jess will. She'll probably want to just watch."

Kila nodded. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm hungry."

This statement was immediately met with several cheers and shouts. Kila started laughing, seeing that Yoko and Rei were both nodding their approval, and Shadow's bishies were the ones that were making all the noise.

"Alright, lemme go tell the others," Kila said with a grin, ducking out of the room. She went to the other couple rooms and told the others of their plans. They all agreed to meet downstairs in five minutes. Kila returned to her room and told Shadow, who nodded and they both went downstairs, some of their bishies trailing behind them. All of Kila's bishies except Hiei had retreated to their bishi-balls, and most of Shadow's bishies had retreated as well.

Soon afterwards, they were all assembled and downstairs and ready to go out the door. So, they set off down the street, trying to find somewhere to eat.

Kila looked around rather uninterestedly until she heard a commotion ahead of them. There was apparently a disagreement between a Tasuki and a Yusuke. Kila sweatdropped. Tasuki had his fan out and was threatening to use it on Yusuke, who was sneering and claiming that he could do more damage with one finger.

Kila snorted, gaining both bishies attention. "How about you two both shut up and go back to your trainers?" she snapped at them, pushing her way between them and into the restaurant.

The two boys stared at her in shock, then shook themselves and moved away from each other, muttering darkly under their breath.

The rest of the group quickly followed Kila inside, where she was getting them all a table. After waiting a minute or two, they were all shown to a very long table. They all sat down and some people let a few bishies out to eat as well.

Kila sat at the very end of the table, leaning against the wall that was right next to her. She looked around at her friends and their bishies, all eating and chatting. She sighed. If only her memories would leave her alone she could be like them...

She looked up when she felt someone touch her hand and smiled slightly at Hiei. When Hiei gave her a concerned look, she merely shook her head.

Shadow looked over at Kila and saw that she looked like she was thinking hard. "What're you thinking about?" she asked quietly, looking at the girl.

Kila blinked. "Nothing much," she said with a small smile. "Just... It's nothing. Nevermind."

Shadow raised an eyebrow, then looked at Kila's untouched plate of food. "You should eat."

"I know I should, but I'm not hungry," she said with a flicker of a smile.

Shadow rolled her eyes. "Jeeze, Kila. You're even more stubborn than Kouga."

"That's me."

Shadow chuckled and nodded. "Alright. But don't blame me if you starve."

"Oh don't worry, I won't," Kila said with a joking smile. "The first one I'll blame is him!" She pointed at Hiei, laughing.

Shadow started laughing too, and Hiei rolled his eyes.

So they spent the rest of the evening, joking around and generally having a good time. When it started getting dark outside they figured they should probably head back to the hotel. On the way back, Kila somehow managed to sneak away from the group, which no one noticed until they were back inside.

"Damnit!" Shadow cursed when she saw that Kila was gone. "Where the hell did she disappear to!" She quickly whipped out her bishi-dex and tried calling Kila.

Kila heard something ring and blinked, then looked down. After the third ring, she figured out it was her bishi-dex and popped it open, answering the person calling with a, "Yo."

"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!" Shadow's voice came from the other end. Kila nearly dropped the thing from surprise.

"Wandering around town?" Kila suggested hopefully. Shadow's glare was enough. Kila sighed. "Fine. I'm roof-hopping currently, trying to find something good to do. I don't feel like sitting around on my butt right now."

"Hyper-attack?" Gojyo suggested with a grin.

Kila shrugged. "Possibly. Most likely bordom-attack." She grinned.

"Well, I could help you with that..." Gojyo said suggestively. He was elbowed out of the way by Shadow, and the two quickly got into a fist-fight, with Goku taking the dex and grinning at Kila, who sweatdropped.

"How do I know you guys again...?" she asked herself.

"Sheer luck," came Hiei's dry voice from the other side.

"Oh shut up. I didn't ask you," Kila said, though she was smiling to take the sting out of her words.

"You shut up and get back here, missy!" came Shadow's muffled voice.

Kila sighed. "Yes, Mother," she said teasingly, and quickly closed the Bishi-dex before any of them could see her hurt look. "I miss you, Mother..." she whispered to herself. A gentle breeze blew by, carrying her words away and twirling them into the silent night sky as the sullen figure disappeared back to her temporary home.