Disclaimer: Don't own YYH or the real person Katrina Kon.

Chapter 33:

I wake up. Sore from fainting. Traumatized by cruelty.

My life could not get worse. I never thought Genkai was cruel. Now I know better.

I don't want to go out with him. I don't. I'm not ready for boys. I had hoped I never would be. But wait, couldn't I just say I have to watch Lahri or someone? Couldn't I? Couldn't I?

No. I don't want to be a jerk to Hiei. And doing that would qualify as being an A plus jerk.

NO. My only option is to do so. I'll have to live with it.

I mean, I was wrong of me to take Genkai's body, I suppose. I knew she'd get me back. I just never imagined this.

I notice everyone who was in teh mess hall is gone. I go back to my room.

I have gotten dressed. Not in nice clothes, just my ordinary school uniform. She may have forced me to accept this date, but she can't force me to enjoy it. Genlkai came in a second ago and told me what to expect. Now, thankfully, she's gone.

I step downstairs, all of those winding stairs,which was where she told me he'd be waiting for me. I feel very apprehensive. I hate my life.

He shows up. Oddly, he's carrying a katana with him.

"Hi Hiei."

"Hn. Shall we go to the gym?"

"The gym?"

"Where else would we go for a training session? Wasn't that what you asked me for two days ago?"

Wait. What? "What?"

He glances at me. "You asked me to help train your sword skills, right?"

The reality sinks in. I gasp, and he looks at me oddly.

Genkai has totally played me. Not a real date, just a training session. Now my feelings are all really confused. Am I mad for her only playing a joke, cruel it may be, or am I mad for some other reason? "Er…yeah. That's right."

He eyes me. "Hn. Glad you remember. To the gym."

I feel so stupid. Why didn't I see it? Where can you go for a date when there is demon fog outside?

We enter the gym after walking down all of the long spiral staircases, and he unsheathes his blade once we are in the middle of the floor. Then he tosses one lying on the ground to me.

The gym looks surprisingly similar to Genkai's room.

"Okay." He looks a little uncomfortable. He looks as new at teaching as I am at the ancient art of sword-fighting.

"Well then." He looks at me. I look back. Then we both start to smile. "Okay, I'm a wreck," begins Hiei."I have never done this, or wanted to do it. How about you?"

"I don't know a damn about blades."

He takes a deep, shaky breath. "Heheh. Okay, well, you hold it like this." The midget strides over to me and grabs my fingers. He turns very slightly red. I can feel myself color as well.He's obviously not used to being around girls, just like me and guys. He arranges my hand around the sword similarly to the way a child would hold a baseball bat.

Then we spar, only we both use harmless wooden swords. Had he been using a real sword, I would have been dead many times over. He hits viciously and quickly, whereas I look and feel like I'm holding a club.

Finally, I drop to the ground, panting, having just got a sharp nick on the head. My sword falls from my hand. He still stands. "Hn. Very good."

I say gloomily, "As compared to what? A chipmunk? And will you sto pwith the whole Hn thing?"

"For a beginner."

I look at him. He smiles. "Okay, it was awful, but you'll get better."

Yeah right. "How'd you learn to fight like that? You're a modern samurai!"

"I had to live somehow. No parents, you know. I had to protect myself."

Wow. "Were you an orphan?"

"Close enough." His eyes cloud over. "Abandoned." (This is the part where the readers gasp, so gasp! GASP!)

"What? Why?"

"Picture this. When a fire demon is born to a village of ice demons, they usually don't care for you much."

"That's what happened to you?"

"Yep. That's why Yukina is my younger sister, yet an ice demon. My parents wanted me, at least that's what she says. All of this story I got from Yukina. But the marei, the leader, wanted me tossed. The village was in the sky, high above. You can imagine what it felt like to be pushed off the edge and fall down to Earth. The impact nearly killed me. I think what saved me was this pendant that the marei gave me before she shoved me off." He takes a chain out from under his shirt. The charm sparkles with the power and color of the ocean inside.

When I try to touch it, he hastily puts it back in his little black cape thing. "After I survived, I lived on my own. I learned not to trust anyone, and I hated Earth's inhabitants, from the bacterium to the ningen."

"Then why are you trusting Koenma, or Yusuke, or me?"

Hiei's silent for a long while. "Because Yusuke defeated me in a match."

"He did? That scrawny punk?"

"Don't rub it in. It inspired me to grow stronger, so I entered the Dark Tournament with the whole bunch. I carried them all the way through." He smiles cockily. "Then...I didn't hate everyone. I finally realized what a child I'd been for all of my 16 years. I especially was drawn to people like me." He gazes at me meaningfully. "Well, here, I'll show you how to improve your technique."

The entire night is then devoted to my development. In fact, by the end of the period, I must say, I'm getting kind of good. Still st no means, Hiei level, butI have improved. I can now block andperform basic attacks.Hiei agrees. He starts me on harder stuff.

Later..."You can go now. We can do this another time, if you like."

"NO. I WILL MASTER THIS SUCCESSION TECHNIQUE!" I find that I am yelling. This move is complicated. You leap into the air and release a barrage of strikes on your target, in my case, Hiei. All I have managed to do so far is give Hiei a good whack on the head, and that didn't hurt him much.

"Another time," he says firmly. "Go to bed."

If I'm honest with myself, I do want to go to bed, even though I hate having someone so much smaller than me have more power. So I run out the gym door. With my eyes almost shut from exhaustion, I don't notice Lahri until it's too late.

I help her stand up. "You okay?" I say coldly. I have not gotten over my annoyance of her.

"Yes." She puts her hand behind her back hastily.

"What do you have there, HONEY?"

"Wha-NOTHING."

I'm through with her games. Tiredness isn't improving my mood. I grab both her hands roughly with one of mine and rip out the object. It's a little glass vial, with some kind of pill rattling around inside.

"Now what's this, my dear?"

"Umm…my medicine."

"A Farina drug, now? You wouldn't have found this in Genkai's dresser, now, would you?"

She stares at me in horror. All of a sudden, I feel a surge of hatred for this girl. Totally unexplained. I pin her to the wall by grabbing the front of her shirt, and she writhes under my grasp. "If you ever, ever, ever, sneak into her room again, I will personally feed you to the sharks…piece…by…worthless…piece. Got it?"

She nods her head quickly. I drop her on the ground. Then, of all my luck, Kurama comes in. "Kat, what are you doing to this girl?"

"Asking her where she got her medicine from."

"Medicine? What medicine?"

"A Farina compound." I hold up the bottle to demonstrate. Now I know whereGenkai's pills went. Lahri had been in her room that same day.

I see Kurama putting two and two together, as only he can. I think he also knows she's been in there. He sits down with her. "Lahri, why did you have Genkai's Spirit chemical?"

I get the impression that she is doing some fast thinking. "Well, Mie said that she needed it brought to her, so I decided to."

"How did you know where to look?"

"She told me."

"Ahhh, okay." At least he isn't being fooled either. "Well, I'll take it back to her room. And go to bed…everyone else is."

He turns his back, and she gives him a most unflattering look when his back is turned. I receive the same treatment, and she walks back to her room.

Instead of going to my own room, I walk to the gardens to sleep. No one will mind. Man, I so need to relax after what just happened.

Back in the gym:

Genkai walks in. She sees Hiei sitting, stroking his sword.

"Why are you so happy?"

"I dunno if I am. Why?"

"Did you have fun?"

"Get outta my face."

She laughs softly. "Did you?"

"I dunno if I was a good teacher."

"I think she got a pretty good lesson, though."

Very quietly, Hiei walks out the door, leaving behind a smiling Genkai.

55555555555555555

I wake up in my bed. Someone must have moved me from the gardens, but I really don't care who. I'm just so exhausted from getting so beat up last night.

Ugh. Training again today. Oh well. Genkai will get hers today.

As I am thinking, I hear someone come in. It's Hiei. He freezes when he's sees I'm awake.

"What?"

Silence.

"What?" I ask, a little more forcefully this time.

"The first thing is that aparently, Lahri told the truth about Mie wanting the Farina drug."

"Wow. Now go away."

"I just came in because you're wanted in the gardens. By Lahri. Kurama and Genkai will be there too."

I groan. "Okay."

He walks out, and I pull the covers up again.

A/N Thanks to all my loving reviewers, keep it up!