Disclaimer: Well, I don't own YYH, and I don't own the real person Katrina Kon, if there is such a person.

Chapter 23: New Respect (Back In The Dorm)

"I DON'T NEED TO BE RETRAINED! I DON'T!"

"Katrina, please try to understand---"

"OH, I UNDERSTAND PERFECTLY! You want Genkai to kill me!"

A harassed, sleep-deprived Yusuke enters the room. "My god, what happened?"

Oh. He must have seen my room. Several rather large objects have been battered, mostly due to me. I tend to throw things when I'm mad. And I am mad. My own brother has betrayed me! He sent me to the hag of the black lagoon!

SO that's what has caused the standoff, me versus Kurama, Genkai, Keiko, Mie, and Hiei.

"Look, I don't see what's so hard about this! I trained under her forever, and I'm not looking forward to doing it again!"

"Katrina," says Kurama smoothly, "You're making a big deal over nothing---"

"ME?!" I yell, shocked to the core, "Which two people were just fighting yesterday over whose hair was better looking?"

Kurama and Hiei both flush. Yusuke, on the other hand, laughs. "Vanity?" He jeers. "You guys were fighting over vanity?"

"Oh, that was nothing," says Kurama, He shoots me a death glare, followed quickly by Hiei's.

Yusuke must have seen those murderous glints, because he suddenly suggests, "Hey, guys, why don't we eat? What do you think, Katrina?"

I open my mouth to say No of course I don't want to eat now, but he stares at me imploringly and I give in.

"Oh all right, you begging fool. I'll eat."

I follow him downstairs with my nose in the air. I still can't believe they think I need retraining. Of all the injustices…

"---that about?"

I notice he's speaking to me. "Uhhh…what?"

"I said," he said, sounding irritated, "I asked why you were all behaving like baboons."

I laugh coldly. "They're just pushing me around. Making me train under the witch again."

"Seriously?" Then he laughs. "Sucks for you. Nice knowing ya."

I glare at him. "Would it kill you to be more supportive? You had her too."

"That's how I KNOW your funeral will come soon. I'm happy."

I refuse to talk to him again. I eat my breakfast in silence then go to those soothing gardens, ignoring anyone who tries to talk to me. I need some thinking time, alone, that is.

As soon as I get there, I breathe in the perfumed air. One could really get high off of this stuff. I sit under what looks like a sakura tree, and just think to myself.

Soon, my angry thoughts turn into peaceful meditation. It's just so quiet and still and lovely and cool---

My stomach awakens me to the real world again. But when I open my eyes, by some cruel twist of fate, there is Keiko. Walking in through the glass door.

The unhappy look on her face changes to contentment as she breathes in the scent, but when she sees me, it almost comes back. But not anger. Just hurt. And maybe a little touch of embarrassment, too.

It is this moment that I can't decide whether I want to scream or to apologize to her. Both seem very appealing. I'm no expressions expert, but Keiko seems to be having the same inner war.

So we're just standing, staring at each other, 10 feet apart.

Then Keiko gives me a tiny, hesitant smile. No one else would have seen it any farther away then I am. But this one tiny smile is just telling me, the way no words could, that things just might be all right. I smile back. Her smile broadens. I'm definitely not ready to forgive her, but…oh what the hell…

"I'M SORRY!" We shout at each other at the same time. I couldn't take it anymore. It just wasn't worth it.

But those feelings could have been caused by these damn plants…

Oh well.

If she is shaken or upset by having not talked to me in days, Keiko does hide it well. She chats to me about this and that, (I'm not paying close attention) and all I have to do is say 'Yeah,' or 'That's right' every once in a while.

Soon, I grow tired of listening to her yak, so I interrupt.

"Keiko, what would you do if you had Genkai for a tutor?"

She shrugs. "I guess just go with it, I mean, you really can't cross her. If you do, you won't like what happens."

"WHY?! WHAT HAPPENS?"

Keiko laughs. "Yusuke says she gives you tougher ordeals. But if you listen to her, she can be sweet."

That is going a bit far. "Sweet. If by sweet you mean not killing me, then yes. If by sweet you mean rewarding me once in a while, no."

"Yeah, but she's just an ornery person. I know Kurama told you about Tiguro, but did he ever say what he was to her?"

"Noooo." Now she's got me in a trance, I gotta hear more.

"It's really sad. Tiguro and Genkai were in the Dark Tournament on the same team…You know what that is, right?"

"Yesyesyes tell me more!"

"Genkai and Tiguro were more than friends, if you know what I mean. She might have married him if not for… well, Tiguro was once a human, but a demon turned him into an immortal demon at his request, a few yearsbefore their team won the Dark Tournament. He ran from death, and so Genkai stopped respecting him. The fact didn't help that she found out he only liked her for her beauty."

I cut her off. "Genkai…beautiful?"

"Yeah she was 'the fairest in all of the land' or whatever. Anyway we soon learned that Genkai was forced to enter the Dark Tournament again by Tiguro, along with Kurama, Hiei, Kuwabara, and her apprentice, Yusuke Urameshi. It was in this time period that she gave most of her power to Yusuke, and Tiguro, sensing weakness, fought her in an unfair match and killed her."

It takes a second for the shock to hit me. "A GHOST has been teaching me?"

"No, no, Botan brought her back from the Spirit World, so the Supreme Bitch lived again."

"That stinks."

"Nah, no one else has power anywhere equal with hers. She's quite a powerful ally. Even Koenma fears her."

I need time to fully soak this up. "I'm going to go to my room and feel sorry for myself. Care to join me?"

"I'll stay here, thanks." She grins.

"All right, but you don't know how good feeling sorry for yourself can be."

"I prefer to keep it that way."

"See ya."

"Bye."

I walk back up all those flights of stairs to my room, and then close the door tightly behind me. I notice Mie standing there.

"Hi," I say shyly.

"Hi," she replies, more curtly than usual. "So, you two made up? You and Yukimura?"

What's up with Yukimura? "You sound disappointed about it."

"It's nothing. NOTHING AT ALL." There's a definite edge to her voice now.

"What's your problem?"

"You don't know?"

"Why else would I be asking?"

"Figure it out, Kat." She flounces into the bathroom without once looking back.

Jeez. What was that about? It's just one damn problem after another in my life.

A/N Well then…REVIEW! This was a pointless chapter, so bear with me.