Disclaimer: I don't own yyh or the demon with the button (I forget his name). I only claim onto THE FICTIONAL character Katrina and any other characters in the plotline, which is also mine. Thanks!

Chapter 21: A Battle

"So, did you guys do this to Botan here?"

They don't answer me. They seem incapable of human speech. But no matter.

Without fair warning, they all charge, forming a lethal circle around me. Typical demons. Can't say I'm surprised. Placing Botan on the ground near me, I allow my fingernails to transform into curved claws and slash at them all viciously, or at least anyone who comes within two feet of me. They fall to the ground pretty fast. I don't balk at killing demons anymore. With the death of Beauty, I realized they are nothing but scum and deserve to be cast to the deepest bowels of hell.

"Who's next?" I yell triumphantly. In my stupid glory, I don't notice the shadow until its too late. I am majorly punched in the back. I crumple to the ground on top of Botan, and I hear a little grunt out of her. I swear my spine snapped. I look up into the cold eyes of my cowardly attacker. Seven feet high, though rather skinny, the blue creature leers down at me.

"Give me the girl," it says in a deep voice.

"No," I answer, realizing he must mean Botan. "Fight me for her."

He grins malevolently. "Bring it on, sweetie."

Hiei and Koenma's POV:

"I don't know where such a moron could have gone."

"Now Hiei, we both know she's more than competent on her own. Don't worry about her."

"Look, I don't care if you're the Grim Reaper or Santa Claus: DON'T BOSS ME AROUND!"

"Bossing you around?" Koenma rolls his eyes. "I was merely saying she could handle herself. Botan is the Grim Reaper and Santa Claus is an underpaid indebted high school dropout named Nick. Just last week he was on me again about the problem of fleas in his reindeer...You wouldn't be...worried...now would you?"

Silence. "Nnnnnnnooooooooo. Whaaaaat maaaaakes youuuuuuu saaaaay thaaaaaat?" His voice is very dangerously slow.

"The great Hiei, master of mass murdering and various crimes, the sad teeny orphan boy, has a little crush on Ka---" Koenma wisely stops. He sees Hiei looking at him with eyes like chips of ice, as well as a well placed hand on his katana. He was also well aware that Hiei would do anything if pushed to it.

Back to our Heroine: (god that sounded like Pokemon)

I face this demon and size him up. He actually doesn't look that tough. Smart, though.

I think about this until I realize what a fool he is. He first runs at me like a charging rhino. I sidestep him easily and land a nice elbow on his back.

"Like your own move?" I taunt.

"ARGHHHHH!" He runs at me again, and I punch him in the jaw. Again, he goes down. This is way too easy. He should have been a lot harder.

It becomes a routine, he runs, I hit, but after the sixth time through, I start to feel guilty about hitting such a weak guy, evil demon or not.

"Okay, I didn't want to have to do this, but here goes. You should have been easier." The weakling barely stands up and pulls out a tiny button hooked up to a wire underneath his jacket. "Do you know what this is?"

"No," I say truthfully.

"As soon as I press this little button, my little demon friend wipes your lovely little mother off of the face of the Earth. You don't want that to happen, now, do you?" (A/N, yes, this is the thing that Kurama killed in the Dark Tournament, don't ask why is is alive again:p)

I stare in shock. Of all the stinking, cowardly, scummy things to do... "Wha---you're lying." I mean, that is a possibility. Chances are in its favor.

"Shall we try it out, then? Then we'll see who's kidding or not."

"NO!!!" That is one chance I cannot take, no matter how unplausible it sounds.

"All right then, let's make a trade. Hand over the girl, and I give you the controller."

"Why do you want her?" I ask, to give myself thinking time.

"None of your business, child. Give her here!"

I stare into space to consider my options again. I can't let Botan go, if he wants her. But he can't kill my mother! I feel a strange burning sensation at the corners of my eyes. And he definitely won't give me the controller. He'd kill my mom anyway.

"Do we have a deal? Give her to me." He notices the tears. "Duh wittle baby is scawed," he says in a sick baby voice.

I am being a crybaby, and that's getting me nowhere. But what the hell can I do?

Then it hits me. I'm surprised I didn't think of it before.

First, I make like I'm going to pick up Botan.

"There's a girl. Give her here." He stretches out his arms.

I call upon my orb of power and make myself invisible, dropping Botan on the floor before he can reach her. Then I dart around to his back. His look is much like that of Yusuke's when I tried it out on him so many weeks ago.

"NOT FAIR! I-I'll press it, w-wherever you are! I will!"

"I don't doubt you," I whisper eerily. "But I'd hold tight onto it, if I were you..."

"S-stop! Come out!"

"Heheheheh," I've been working my way in circles around him, and now I'm right next to him. I lunge, and rip it out of his hands, as the thumb is ready to spring. Then I let him watch the remains crushing itself into a very, very fine powder. Once the last chps fall to the ground, I make myself visible again.

I see his look of terror and revel in it. I kick him to the ground, and flex my claws over his neck. "That was very stupid. Using my mother to get what you want. Do you know how scummy that is? You worthless piece of---"

He nods, terrified. "WAIT, STOP! YES, YES, YES!!! I'M SORRY! I'LL EVEN TELL YOU WHO I WORK FOR!!!!! HIS NAME IS SEN---"

But apparently, he couldn't say anymore. For his eyes just roll up in his head and he stops breathing. He vanishes, as most demons do when they die. I guess his master must have killed him to prevent being revealed. Smart but totally cruel thing to do to a follower.

A small noise awakens me from my thoughts. It's Botan, and she looks like she's waking up.

"Nrrrrrg."

"Botan. Botan. Botan, can you hear me?"

She stares at me, as if trying to figure out who I am. "Oh...Katrina."

"Yeah. Yeah, Botan, it's Katrina."

"Separated...from Mie and Keiko...find them."

"Botan, who slashed you?"

"OHHH," A dazed look enters her eyes. "Someone...BIG....Ape-like...I found out... stuff...Rhi...Rhihadidit..."

"What are you talking about? Where are Mie and Keiko?" But I might as well talk to a tree. Botan has drifted out of consciousness again.

I sigh, and hoist her up onto my back again. That's the last time I plan to obey seemingly harmless, cute little lights.

Now considerably more tired and drained of power after my battle, Botan seems 10 times heavier. And the fog is not letting up one bit.

Finally, I can't go another step. I sink down on the marshy ground, laying down Botan near me. Boy do I need a good sleep...

55555555555555555555555555555555

Well, I'm still in one piece, and so is Botan, which kind of surprises me. I figured we would have woken up in a cage. I yawn and stretch. I have no way of knowing how long I slept, but judging by the fact that my legs are still cramped from walking so much, it couldn't have been long. I check Botan's slash. It isn't bleeding freely anymore, but it still looks nasty.

As I stand up, I realize how hungry I am. The only thing louder than my stomach right now is the call of an elephant. Do you know how pathetic that is?

I think it is my stomach that saves me, because as soon as it growls, Hiei materializes in front of me with that incredible speed of his. He looks back and forth at me and Botan, many times, then holds both of our wrists without asking and speeds us away.

When my feet hit the ground again, there is no more evil green fog. I'm in a surprisingly well kept little office, and at a desk in the center sits the young king. Koenma, that is. All of the rest of Hiei's friends are there, including Keiko and Mie.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO BOTAN?" Someone shrieks piercingly. Yukina, as usual. "GOOD LORD, I'LL DO THE HEALING!" Without further ado, she sweeps Botan down the steps to what I assume must be the hospital wing.

Hiei roughly sits me down in the chair facing Koenma. I get right back up again, and run up to my school friends. Mie and Keiko look unscathed. But I notice a hardness in Mie's eyes; a coldness; that surely could not have been there before.

"Yo, how'd you guys get here, if Botan got so beat up?"

Koenma speaks. "'Yo,' that's why Hiei put you in the 'special' chair. Sit."

I glare at His Royal Diaperness and his tone, and sit as directed. "SO?! Shall I wait for explanations for all eternity?"

Mie speaks up, her eyes still uncomfortably hard and cold. "All right, all right, don't fly off the handle. Botan was our escort, and we took a different Spirit Portal, up in Northern Japan. We got there way before you guys did. We were traveling for a while, and everything was going fine, with us anyway, until we met this beast." She shudders. "We couldn't see it until it was almost upon us, because of all of that god-be-damned fog. And this thing is HUGE. Musta been 20 feet tall, at least, with loads of white hair and these bright yellow eyes. We knew we had to sneak away, but we got caught. It grabbed Botan around the back and flung her hard. She didn't even move, so we assumed the worst. It took our shock at getting discovered and Botan's "death" and used it as time to swipe and almost got Keiko with a massive clawed hand, but I kinda, I dunno..." Gee, she sounds very rehearsed.

Keiko cut in. "She's being modest. She saved both of our lives." Mie blushed. "She engulfed us in this like tornado shield thing, and we were lifted into the air. It couldn't touch us inside of this thing at first, but after a while, it started to break through."

I smile at Mie. "And you thought you were weak." She smiles happily. For someone so shy, she really is enjoying all of the attention. And rightly so; she self deprecates enough for 3 people.

Keiko continues: "We tried to get Botan, but we couldn't because the hairy demon was in front of her. So Mie just made a super gust and blew her body away, somewhere in the fog, and carried us away in the tornado. Then we just laid low in the fog after Mie's power burned out, in case the demon was still looking for us, and we searched for Botan. But we couldn't find her. Then Hiei found us, and took us here. That's all. We never found Botan. I feel like I abandoned her."

Koenma brushes this aside. "No, you did the right thing. If you had tried to carry her away in your windstorm, all three of you would have been killed. The best thing was just to get her away, and that was what you did. Now Katrina," He surveys me the way one would survey a leg of deer in the grocery store, "What happened after you found Botan?"

I tell them all, and it takes about 15 minutes. Koenma sighs. "You wouldn't be the first to be attracted to those lights. The demons lure prey that way. You're just so happy to see some light in all that fog that you'll do anything to go closer......"

"And Koenma, what was with that fog anyway? I thought the Spirit World was supposed to be a lot more bright. But that's just me, you know."

He sighs again. "Well, it did use to be grand. Ever since that demon, the same one that captured your father, took over, lots of demons started to break out of prisons. The combinations of their evil power polluted the air rather quickly."

"Mie, was that demon you fought, the one that slashed Botan, you know? Was that him? The big man?" I ask.

"No, it couldn't have been. The coward would never risk exposure. The only exception was when he picked a fight with the gang and your dad," he says calmly.

"One of his henchmen, then?"

"All demons are his henchmen nowadays."

"Crap. How can we defeat him with such an army?"

"We, Katrina, are all asking the same question." Everyone stews in thought.

Keiko is the one to break the silence. "Well, I'm going to check on Botan. Mie, Katrina, you guys feel like coming?"

We both mumble yes's and follow her down a small stairwell. Then we enter a huge room, set up like an American hospital. There is a little room concealed by a door marked LOUNGE. Botan and Yukina are easy to pick out, with their vivid blue hair. We cross the room over to them, Mie way in front.

"YUKINA!!! Will Botan be all right?" I glance at Keiko. I know she'd never forgive herself if she had survived an encounter like Beauty's, but Botan didn't. Mie is still silent, but as she looks upon Botan, I catch...a smirk?

As soon as she catches me watching her, she asks an annoyed question with her eyes. I look away. I keep forgetting that it's super rude to stare in Japan. Maybe it was a trick of the light. She wouldn't be happy about such an event, right?

Yukina looks up, obviously strained from healing. I notice her white brand of magic is weakening, slowly but surely. "She's still in danger. She's lost a lot of blood...and Kurama..." she raises her voice considerably, "...SEEMS TO HAVE FORGOTTEN HE SHOULD BE HELPING ME HEAL THIS POOR GIRL! SEEMS HE'D RATHER BE DRINKING TEA!"

I hesitantly open my eyes and uncover my ears to find that the other healers are giving Yukina less than friendly looks. Kurama is also running in from the lounge, with several eggplant-like herbs.

"I like tea," he mutters under his breath. I fight the urge to laugh. Kurama, Kurama. His green magic goes to work on Botan's mangled back, and Yukina takes a break. She pulls us away.

"You know what, girls? Kurama is a nincompoop!" Coming from her, that is an insult of deepest hatred. She stalks off angrily into a corner of the room.

I roll my eyes at Mie and Keiko. "Well, Kurama wasn't the one who screamed himself into a near-coma when I brought Botan in, though, was he?"

We all snicker. "Well, I suppose we aren't needed here. Let's go." We all walk off, leaving Kurama to his muttering, and Yukina to her pouting.

Now I'm finally on a real mattress, in clean, clear air. When Koenma insisted that we all go to bed at 7:00, I didn't even protest. There's no way I'm going to sleep anytime soon no matter what time I go to bed. I have way too much to think about. For instance, Botan said she had found out stuff, right before she passed out for the second time. My theory is that she somehow heard part of the huge demon's plan while she was looking for Mie and Keiko, though it must not have been important when she heard it, and didn't sneak away quietly enough, and ended up getting them all near killed. He must have slashed her and figured she was dead. Then maybe the blue demon was a way of trying to find her. But if Botan wakes up, she could be a real informational mine. And what was that smirk on Mie's face about? And what is with her odd attitude?

Wait. Not if she wakes up, when she wakes up. Because she will. She will...

5555555555555555555555555555555

A/N Well, I hope you don't mind that this is going to be a long story, (sixty some chapters) at the rate I'm going. BUT SUX FOR YOU!!!!!! YOU CAN'T HAVE ANY! AH HA! Nothing you can do-o! (blushes) Umm, please review and make me even happier!