Disclaimer: Don't own YYH or characters of such show, and Katrina Kon is only a fictional character.

Chapter 15: I Left Genkai, But Not Beauty

It's a braaaaannnd neeeeeeeeeew daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay---

The radio never finishes its song. I throw it out the window before the opera lady singing busts her diaphragm. It is a brand new day, but it's also an early new day. I wonder who the hell turned on my radio. Whoever did had better keep a low profile...

I grudgingly dress, hating my radio's guts/mechanical parts. Jeez, if you absolutely have to sing, god knows why that would be, you should do it in complete solitude. Whether singing is good, bad, high, low...SHUUUUUUUT UUUUUUPPPPP ALREADY! I look over a Keiko in the next bed in our room, sound asleep. How could she have slept through that? How I envy her!

Hating the world, particularly Keiko, I go downstairs to eat my breakfast in the main temple training gym. As I sit down, I stare at my plate. It's heaped with piles of---vegetables. (This is the part where the readers gasp in horror. ...That's your cue...c'mon, GASP!!!) I mean, carrots and radishes and lettuce and celery and just about every other type known to mankind. Why vegetables? For breakfast?

Genkai sashays by. I wanna slap that happy grin off her old, wrinkled face.

"Why are you so happy? And what's with the vegetables?"

"Oh, Katrina, I'm just so proud. Someone finally spurred Yusuke on to train harder! NO one has ever done that, even when he wasn't Spirit Detective!"

I look at her uncertainly. What's she smoking? I mean, I didn't know she remembered how to smile. "And the vegetables?"

"Well, after your duel with him yesterday, I thought you'd be hungry. Vegetables are energy food, you know. Very healthy to eat!"

"They're horrible food," I say. "Sorry, but I'm not a veggie person. And---" I cut off worriedly as I see Genkai start to swell.

"DON'T......EAT.....VEGETABLES?"

Oh no. The last thing I need is a homicidal old hag on my back. "Actually, I-I lied. I love them..." To my extreme, extreme relief, she shrinks back down to the size of an ordinary old hag.

"Good girl," She tells me genially, as though nothing had happened. Then, to my dismay, she turns all business-like again. "All right, Katrina, I want to see you in the courtyard. And please, hurry. This will be the finishing lesson. I want to teach some more Jiu-Jitsu and Tae Kwon Do."

"All, right," I groan. I don't know which I'm dreading more---vegetable breakfast or the last long martial art lesson.

I groan again and get started. To my surprise, I manage to choke everything down except for the radishes. Now, I can eat cabbage and green pepper, but radishes---NO. They are bitter and awful and red as blood. But Genkai will make me eat them or kill me if I don't, so I do the only reasonable thing---put them in my pocket. I run outside to the courtyard.

"Not that way, Katrina, try it again." Even Genkai looks worn out.

"I am trying..."

"Just do it again, then. We don't have all day!"

I try the ax kick again. It's a complicated move that requires quite a limber leg. You basically have to throw up a leg as high as your head and then bring it crashing down on your opponents shoulder, and in my case, a cloth dummy. My legs just don't bend that way. I always recieved about a 5 on that machine where they measure how far you can reach to your toes.

"Katrina, you can control your panther form, camouflage perfectly, perform near-perfect martial arts, and the only thing keeping you from finishing Judo is a simple ax kick?"

I bite back a sharp remark. She's right. She's always right. Today was exam day, and I passed everything she just said, except for the ax kick.

I try again fruitlessly, then turn to her. "Can't you be a little bit more encouraging, Genkai?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"If you need to be coddled to do the thing right, you might as well not even have learned it at all."

I glare at her furiously. "I will do this, Genkai, you got that?"

She smirks, which makes me even madder. "Show me."

"I'll show you," I mutter under my breath.

This time I really concentrate hard as I perform my stretches. What is the hag's problem anyway? I glare at her, and sweep up my foot into a perfect ax kick right on, instead of my practice dummy, Genkai's shoulder. She falls to the ground, not unconcious, but obviously in pain. I feel mad gleeful triumph, then it is quickly replaced by concern.

"Genkai, are you all right? I just got mad, and I took it out on you, and I'm sorry!" I bend down to look her in the eyes. All right, I'm not really sorry, but I'd rather apologize than die.

I can see a vein throbbing in her head. Never a good sign. As she is about to start shouting, Keiko and Kuwabara arrive. They also notice the vein,(that's how big it was) and wisely step back.

"Katrina...I just want to say one thing before you leave with your escort party bound for school, all right?"

I nod and brace myself for some screaming. Nothing happens. I open my tightly closed eyes uncertainly.

"First of all, YOU DO NOT HIT THE SENSEI!" There it is! Beloved, sweet, old Genkai.

After several more moments of shouting, most of which I cannot repeat, I flinch, obviously.

"Secondly..." Her eyes soften slightly. "That was one fine ax kick. Congratulations, kiddo. You're free of me for a while."

I beam until she slaps it off my face. Keiko calls my name, and soon I'm riding in a very small wagon, back to school. I guess that's because no one is allowed to drive yet. Still, whoever heard of mythic heroes riding in a very cramped red wagon?

Sad.

When I wake up the next morning, I'm in my own dormitory bed. I almost cheer, because I won't have to see Genkai again.

As I climb out of bed to get into my uniform, I notice Mie, in the bed next to mine, is already awake. I look at her pitifully, seeking forgiveness, but she just glares at me, and mutters something like you-did-it. Then she rolls over on the side not facing me.

But not even my ex-best friend totally alienating me can extinguish my mood. All I can think of is free, free, free, almost to the point of blank stupidity. Maybe I am already there, come to think of it.

The morning flies by uneventfully. Yusuke and Mie refuse to look me in the eyes, but all of my other friends can't seem to help doing the opposite. They must be wondering why they didn't see me for break at all. I have no idea how to answer their questions, either. At lunchtime, they all confront me.

All at the same time, they ask: "WHERE WERE YOU ON VACATION?"

"Uh, well, heheh, didja miss me?"

"Katrina, what's going on here? You are so secretive lately!"

"I took a lot of walks outside..." As I despair, Keiko comes to my rescue. "C'mon girls, can't you give the girl a break? She only signed up for the Karate team, which they took to a real live old dojo in the west. It was like a field trip, you know. I went with her, and we saw so much cool stuff! And I reckon we can fight now. This one thing we saw..."

As Keiko is saving my butt, I notice something out of the corner of my eye. Mie is watching us from her table with a most peculiar expression on her face. I know she was listening. When I catch her eye, she loftily looks away, but the calculating expression is not gone from her eyes.

Who is Mie, anyway?

I decide it's time to end my feud with Mie. It was cute at first, but I want it off my mind. That's why I memorized a speech of what I'll say when she comes back from last period. It's basically along the lines of, I'm sorry I made you mad can you forgive me I would have thought you would have known I wouldn't have tried to hurt Keiko and I'm really sooooorrry. I just hope she'll accept it, though I'm not very hopeful.

Aha, there she is. Now for the make-uping process. She steps through the door and then I start to jabber. But she cuts me off.

"Kasumi, don't say anything. I've been a real bitch lately, and I wanted you to know I'm sorry. It's just that I've been getting kind of jealous lately. You make A's on your report card, A's on your projects, you're popular, you're pretty, you're really nice...I mean, it just all got to me. I'm not you and I can't be you, so I got really frusturated with myself. Also, I know that---"

A teacher who had been hammering on the door to get us to shut up now screams, "LADIES KNOCK IT OFF OR YOU WILL SEE A DETENTION!"

We ignore her. "What was that? What else do you know about me?" I ask.

"Nothing." She answers nervously. "Sheesh, it's kinda hot in here, do you mind if I open a window, Kasumi?"

"Sure. And could you call me Katrina? I've already asked everyone else to."

"Ka-tri-na. OK, I got it."

We smile at each other and snuggle under the covers in each of our beds. I hear her snoring pretty quickly, but I lie in bed thinking about what qualities she said she was jealous over. I mean, pretty? No sir. Smart? That was because of Keiko's tutoring. Popular? I have as many friends as she does. Nice? Uh uh. And what was that she was about to say she knew? That I still sleep with a teddy bear called Mister Meister? That I have no dad? That I...Oh well. I'll think about it in the morning. I roll over and fall asleep.

BUMP. THUD. Cursing. Who is doing that? Could it be that teacher again?

I check my new, un-cursed alarm clock. Great, it's 2:36 AM. As I hear more thudding, I get scared. (I always have had a slight fear of the dark!) I hesitantly peek at the doorframe, where a familiar squat figure stands. Damn. What is the Featherbrain doing in here? She is breathing rapidly, and her eyes are glowing ivory with something close to insanity. I brace myself because I can't get out of bed before she'll reach me. I just can't. My bed is right next to the door.

She thuds in softly, but ironically, she skips my bed and heads for Mie's. I watch in horror, completely powerless. For some reason, I can't move at all. Like I'm paralyzed. Genkai told me a little about this paralysis feeling. How did she say to cure it...?

I watch, terrrified. She holds up a shiny object---A KNIFE! She wrenches open the hangings of Mie's bed and thrusts violently. I hear a strangled cry and I suddenly see power coursing through Beauty's knife to her body in greenish waves. She laughs like the murderer she is. Murderer...

Something inside of me snaps. I will save Mie. I won't be paralyzed. Mie will die if I give in to it.

NOW I remember what Genkai told me. 'If your will is strong enough, you can break through any barrier...' That's just what I'm doing. Concentrating...c'mon, c'mon...

I did it! I can move again!

Furiously, I lunge at Beauty after throwing off the covers of my bed. She gasps and releases the knife. She tries to move away but I'm too quick. We wrestle furiously, and I see beads of sweat appear on her face. She's much stronger now than last time, though. It must be the power she accumulated from Mie. But suddenly, her powers reach their limit, and with the last bit of strength in her fould body, she turns into the 3-eyed crow and escapes my arms. The coward flies out the open window Mie opened earlier this night. DAMN! I'll never catch her now. But I have more pressing matters to deal with.

I arrouse Keiko from the next room and have her look at Mie with me. "Oh god!" Mutters Keiko.

Mie does look a mess, all right. Bleeding all over her pajamas, she looks nothing less than dead. She's obviously unconcious with pain.

Keiko starts to cry. "We can't tell anyone in the school, they won't believe us," she blubbers. "We have no way of reaching Kurama or anyone either, and we'll be charged of assault, and-and-and possibly murder..." She feels Mie's neck. "She has a pulse now, but later..."

"Don't talk like that, Keiko," I say. Mie couldn't be dead. She wouldn't die. Just...no. She was not dead. She was not dead. I tell Keiko all about Beauty absorbing energy from Mie's body. "Keiko, I think she got the wrong bed. She wanted me, and---"

"Wait a sec. You said she absorbed energy from Mie? As in, like, life energy?"

"I suppose, yeah...why? What difference does it make?"

Keiko looks confused. "Then she should be dead now, if she was a human. Kat, what if she's not?"

I shook my head vigorously, refusing to think about that. "Mie's just...Mie, Keiko. Here, I'll call Hiei on the Commir."

I whip it out from my uniform pocket, and I also feel old, cold radishes. I grimace, but I press the red button and Hiei literally materializes in front of Keiko and I.

"Some chaperone you are," I bend over to snap in his face. "Look what Beauty did to Mie!"

He blinks, and crosses the room over to Mie's bed. A fleeting expression of concern appears on his dwarfy rabbit face.

"I'll bring her to headquarters. You guys come too."

We both look unsure. "What are we supposed to do?" Asks Keiko.

He greatly pronounces rolling his eyes. "Just grab onto me!"

"Arright, arright.." We both do so. And we are whisked away to Genkai's temple.

A/N Like it now, guys? It's gonna get better!