Disclaimer: I think you know by now. Anyway, (sigh) Katrina is a fictional character and Katrina is a fictional character. And I don't have a very original title here, but oh well.

To Signed reviewers only:

AnimeFreak54: You are too kind. Your review kindness is matched only by that of RebelWriter. (Sniff) YOU'RE ALL TOO KIND!

WHile I'm talking about RW, here is my word to you: Thanks for being so nice all of the time!

RoseMaiden: Thanks for saying my story is...erm...interesting. You're also too kind. (rolls eyes)

Spunkykitty: Since you like my story so much, you must have really good taste! Lol y don't you put up a story yourself?

SilentViolence: Hehe, you may be my bro, but thanks anyway.

Dumbbland83: Did I spell it right? Anyway, thankies for the review!

FrozenSerenity: Thanks. Sometimes I don't even understand Katrina myself.

Kumaru Yeoman; Thanks for your thanks on the warning review.

Smiles4100: Well, you reviewed my old What Happened To My Life, so I wanted to thank you for that right now.

Cya, and read up!

Chapter 17: Only One Will Live, Only One Will Die

But my worries were by no means over yet. I found that out but a week later. At this time, I was preparing for bed, after a long night of working with Keiko on a new science project. Even though I'm on Christmas vacation. It basically has to do with chemistry and why the noble gases can't bond with anything and what's the difference between a stable and unstable atom---damn. I don't even remember what Keiko drilled into me this whole night! I would have loved to go on the wrestling field trip for boys. All right, I'm not the best wrestler, and I don't think highly of the sport, which is only a couple of fame-hungry jocks pretending to kill each other. but at least they didn't get a project...

I throw myself onto my bed, a hopeless mess. What is happening to me lately? I'm falling apart. And I even know Mie is going to be okay...so what could it be? This shouldn't be happening.

Mie would be okay. She would. She was recovering fine. Hiei had said so. She would be all right.

I'm drilling this into my head like one of Spinach-Jelly's lessons. Drilling it so hard, in fact, that I don't even notice my mirror heating up. Suddenly it feels like a streak of fire and knocks me back to Earth. Rather hard, in my opinion. I hastily pick it up, wondering if my caller has given up and left already.

"Speaking," my voice comes out a whisper.

"About time you picked up!" Snarls an all-too-familiar voice. I see Hiei glaring at me through the other end. I smile my apology at him and he turns slightly red. I'd turn red, too, if I saw myself looking at me like the way I am now. "Listen, Yukina's made another discovery with this whole energy sucking knife thing.'

"Really? Tell me! ...I mean, no. I can tell by your tone of voice that I don't want to know."

He grimaces. "Yeah, you probably don't. Beauty used an illegal maneuver, where she took Mie's powers and transferred some of hers to Mie. Beauty, must be destroyed to destroy the "poison" inflicting her."

"Wha-what? How does it work?"

"Okay, to put it into small terms, Beauty placed some of her essence in Mie's frail body using the illegal move, called the Hundrun Maneuver or something, while drawing out Mie' essence. Sort of like a life/energy switch."

I nod, understanding.

"So, now that Beauty's weaker essence is swimming aorund inside Mie, her soul is being starved."

Wait, what? "Rewind!" I've never seen Hiei as a scholar. The result is frightening.

He snorts impatiently. "Mie's soul is used to living off of a certain amount of life/spirit energy. Because Beauty was both older and weaker, therefore having less Spirit/life energy, Mie's soul isn't getting the amount of power it is used to, so it's dying. Over a longer period, Mie's soul could supposedly adjust to the decrease in life span, but not this fast. Katrina, Mie's getting worse. So slow that we couldn't realize it. but now it's getting serious." He shows me a picture of Mie on the couch. Her knees are drawn up to her chest as though she can't breathe.

"DAMNIT, SO HOW DO WE STOP IT???"

"Someone must kill the holder, in this case, Beauty. Once she is dead, whatever misplaced essence in Mie's body will leave it, whereas her normal essence will return. Then she will be healthy again. Kurama, Genkai, and Yukina would take Beauty out themselves, but they must watch over your friend. Yusuke and Kuwabara can't, they're on that stupid wrestling field trip. Botan can't fight, of course, and I have other affairs to attend to."

"What affairs?"

"None of your business, ningen. There's just you left to fight her. Genkai knows you've been trained well, so she'd like you to do it. It's your choice though. Beauty's death---or Mie's."

I drop the Mirror. A cold, glittering hate fills my lungs, living in the air I breathe. I pick it up again. My hands shake with anger. How could this jerk even think I would sacrifice my friend? "That's easy, you jerk. Beauty dies."

Hiei twists his mouth nervously. "Some words of advice : Beauty is always going to try to intimidate, or get you mad enough to let her escape carelessly. This isn't another battle with Yusuke, Katrina, because she is a real demon. They all have lots of stamina. Try to corner her tomorrow."

"Or tonight..."

He nods. "Or tonight. But you got time. Mie's death should result in about several days."

"I've made up my mind. See ya, Hiei." I switch off my Mirror. If that calculation was incorrect, Mie might not live till tomorrow. I have to kill Beauty tonight. But I do feel sick at the thought of killing. What will it be like?

I shake myself. I have to.Wasn't I always the kickass type in America? Why not here?

But I wan't fighting demons back then.

But what can I do?

She can't do this to Mie. How dare that asshole lay a hand on her. But why "poison" Mie like that? She could get all the power she wanted just from one thrust of that foul knife. What was the point of poisoning her too?

I don't even realize it when I reach her room. I peer inside, a little apprehensive. I have been mad, but never enough to kill. Again, what will killing be like?

There she is. The ugly stupid weird crazy insane strange awful unattractive odd horrible terrible no-good very bad evil little bitch herself. Rage wells in my heart again. She's the reason Mie is dying.

I open the door so hard that it slams against the wall. She jumps and turns around to stare at me.

"Why, are you here, kitty?" Yup. She knows who I am, all right.

"Just wanted some tutoring," I say sarcastically through clenched teeth. "You poisoned my friend, you animal. You had all of the power you needed, yet you still wanted to take her life. WHY?"

"She wasn't all I needed, Katrina. She was an exponentially weaker demon in comparison to you. (ohhhh she used a BIG word) I thought I was stabbing you. Of course I couldn't have you blab who had done it. So I needed you dead. And the power wouldn't have been mine to keep anyway, so it didn't matter.. But, due to a hatred of the smell of radishes, I decided to take her out instead, hoping she was you. For I hate radishes above all, they poison me..." She puts her hands over her mouth in horror, lowers them, and continues. "I got the wong girl, that was all. How unfortunate..." She pretends to be sorry.

Those radishes, that I stuffed in my pocket that same day! They saved me! If I live, I'll eat vegetables every day for the rest of my life.

"Why did you come here, then?"

"To avenge Mie's pain. You'll pay for that, you bitch."

"Such a good person." I notice her look side to side. "Like your father."

I stare at her. "What do you know about him???"

She smiles sinisterly, and morphs into the crow the fastest yet. Ironically, she doesn't fly away. "We'll fight in the gym, dear. You won't get that secret out of me, though. But here's a hint: it has to do with my employer." She soars out to the gym through an open window. I jump on the window frame and leap out like the panther I am. I jump on the rooves of the school after her. She soars into the huge gym this school has, which is an entirely separate building. I follow her close behind. Then she morphs back into a human and becomes a crow again, when we are standing on opposite ends of the gym. I guess this is a futile attempt to try to psych me out.

"You aren't running away. Why?" I ask. This is a new side of her. And why did she say she had an employer? And what did she mean by ' the power wasn't hers to keep anyway?' Could someone else be pulling the strings in this whole twisted, sick operation?

"I'll prove to you I'm the better demon. That's why."

I'm confused. "But you're weak!"

"Mie had power, girl. Not as much as you, but more than enough to crush you with, when combined with my own powers." She starts to change. She's growing bigger and bigger before my eyes, from a small figure to a dragonish creature. Her feathers become scales, her head grows, her beak becomes a mouth full of 6 inch long teeth, and her wings expand to form dragonfly-like bat wings where once was ugly black feathering. I'm sensing power, which is really increasing incredibly rapidly. How could Mie, sweet little Mie, have concealed that much energy?

But she didn't, I realize. I just didn't know how to look for it.

Beauty is laughing devilishly. "Who's superior now, girl?" She laughs even more.

I stare at her in awe mixed with fear. A fully fledged dragon, 23' long with green scalage and lacey bat wings (for all of you pokemon fans, she resembles the legendary pokemon Rayquaza). Even in the dark, I can tell her exact shape by a greenish light being emitted by her long body. Now, she's definitely a force to be reckoned with. I become aware of my shaking hands.

"Well," I say coldly. "You are a giant flying lizard. I'm petrified." i hide my hands behind my back as I do so. Genkai taught me to never let enemies know when you're afraid. Now, I definitely need that skill.

"You should be. Before I had Mie's power, I was weak, very weak. But with this wind power, I can become anything at will. And---"

"Save it for someone who cares!" I say harshly. "Get on with it!"

"As you wish." Without warning, she lunges for me with her gigantic head. I leap out of the way just in time and her muzzle hits the floor. I eye the crater she just made. That might have been me.

She lunges again, and I dodge again. Then I lunge with a huge leap into the air and she runs/flies out of the way. I land on all fours. Several more futile attempts... Is this how it's going to be? Neither of us can touch the other, so how can one of us win?

"You're pretty fast," she says, panting.

"You too." I agree.

"Not fast enough, though."

"Wha---" I don't get the chance to say anything else. Her giant tail whips out of nowhere and strikes me in the middle of my body, around my waist area. God, that hurt.

I hear chuckling. It's me. I transform much quicker this time. When I open my eyes, I see the nighttime world through the sharp night-vision of the panther. My coat also helps me blend into the dark. At seven feet tall, my clothes all ripped off, Beauty is looking a little shocked.

"So you're a cat." She doesn't sound quite as cocky as before.

"Yep." I charge, and make a clean slash on her neck. She yelps in pain. She growls, a deep rumbling roar, and lunges for a counter attack. I dodge easily, admiring my newfound strength. She tries again and I dodge again. Then I make another clean hit on her tail.

Her eye twitches and she draws in a huge breath of air, as if sucking for something else. Something happens to my body. I notice immediately. I'm no longer hairy. I'm a girl again. A naked girl.

"Did I forget to mention that I have the power to suck energy from others if I have enough energy myself?" She siles meanly.

Not good. Sooooo not good. How can I beat her as a human girl? I rack my brain for anything that might help. Anything... A vision comes to me. Genkai dancing, pointing at my plate...

In my struggle to remember, Beauty hits me double in the head with her noggin and her tail, one after the other. I hit the wall on the opposite side of the gym. The bitter scent of her scales reminds me of something I hate...Radishes! They're poison to her!

I try to search for my uniform. It's on the other side of the gym. Crap. That's where the radishes are! They are my only chance.

I desperately run to my uniform. "RUNNING WILL GET YOU NOWHERE!" Beauty taunts.

Almost there...

"ASHAMED OF BEING NAKED, ARE YOU?" she says, obviously aware of what I'm going for.

She really doesn't remember!

She tries to crush me 3 times with that massive tail, but I leap over it each time. Almost there---

Damn! Beauty leaps in front of my uniform, grinning a dragon's grin. It's not something that is comforting to see unless you're two thousand or more miles away. She laughs, and swings at me again, this time with a small, yet sharp claw. I jump out of the way so I only receive a glancing blow, which still hurt a lot, by the way. She uses my recovery time to try again, but I'm prepared. I camouflage.

"WHAT?! I drained your energies!"

"You did," I whisper for effect. "I had some in reserve." This is actually not true, though. Camouflage doesn't require spirit energy, just like Hiei's speed doesn't require spirit energy. It comes in the package with the panther power. I leap over her tail which is resting on the ground and---

GOT IT! I search through the pocket of the skirt, and-THERE THEY ARE! I pull out the greasy, moldy rotten things and hide them in the palm of my hand. I make myself visible again. Then I act like I'm pulling on my clothes.

It doesn't take her long to discover where I am. Without warning, she lunges. I knew she wouldn't give me time to get changed, so I counter-lunge at the same time. If I can get to that slash on her neck...

As she ducks her head down to try to squash me into the ground, I leap up onto the top of her head and run like all hell to her shoulder wound. She roars, seeing what I'm trying to reach, and thrashes, trying to throw me off. I hold on to a bony plate on her back with my hands and toes. I inch toward it and when I get within touching range of the gash, I throw in the old radishes. Then I leap off and land on my butt, instead of waiting for her to throw me. She screams in agony as an acid-like blue subsance pours out of the wound, dissolving her body. Finally the acid engulfs her, and she emits one final shriek and vanishes. I see a white thing streak out from the dissolving mess, but I assume that was Mie's power.

She's really gone.

I whoop for joy, and pull on my ripped clothes, which don't cover much up anyway now, and trudge back to my dormitory. I'm so glad ordinary people can't hear demon battles or shrieks of demons. I call Kurama on the Commir and tell him I won, then switch off in the middle of one of his sentences. So damn tired...

I wake up in bed. I'm still in my ripped excuse for a uniform, but I'm not in my dorm. I'm in the room Genkai reserved for me and Keiko. Keiko is also in the next bed, sleeping of course. It's as though nothing ever happened. I walk downstairs, holding the sheet over my body to cover most of myself up. I see Genkai, who looks up at me and beams. Kurama, Kuwabara, Yukina, Botan, and the rest are all studying me with proud looks on their faces. Plus one more...

"MIE!"

She runs towards me at the same time I do her. "You're freakin' alive!"

"Well, you saved me! Kurama filled me in on all of it, how you defeated Beauty last night, everything, you know!"

"Don't thank me," I say ruefully. "Thank my hatred of radishes."

A/N Adventure 1 comes to a close. Now we can get back to her dad:) But even so, I have over 50 chapters completed, so it might be a while.