Shade- Merry Christmas everybody! I am giving you this chapter as a gift

Readers- YAY!

People- Boo

Shade- Why do you boo people?

People- We miss our home, back in People Land

Shade- O.O? You guys have a home?

People- nods

Shade- Well, in that case… I send you back to People Land to make you happy!

People- YAY!

Shade- Enjoy it, you deserve it with all the crap I have been giving you this year

People- Thank you Shade, you are very kind

Shade- You're all welcome, now, jump in the portal see your families in merriment!

People- Weeeeeeeee!

Shade- Please enjoy my gift to you

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Chapter 25: Fire gem: Power drainage

The gang was running to the east and the source of all the mayhem in Tokyo. They dodged flying people who were running in the opposite direction, obviously from the worst part of the chaos. They kept going to see how strong of a demon there was actually controlling the gem. If a single demon was in fact controlling the gem's powers, they knew that this demon was incredibly strong.

"What's that?" Kuwabara yelled over all the screaming pedestrians.

"It looks like the outline of a demon next to something big." Yusuke answered for him. They all kept running at a moderate speed so the could stay together.

Once they made in better visual aid of the wreckage they could see a demon, though it looked like a human, standing on a large machine with fire burning not even five feet away from his body. And in the machine, through the flames, they could see the fire gem and its energy light from its core glowing brightly.

"Who are you?" Kurama yelled at the demon. He was covering his face from the heat of the blazing fires that didn't seem to singe the other demon at all. The demon slowly turned around to reveal green eyes and blonde hair. Karuka's eyes widened greatly.

The demon smiled towards her and said, "My name is Teremoto."

"Teremoto? What kind of third rate demon name is that?" Hiei spat out in anger towards him.

Teremoto only laughed. He jumped down from the machine he stood on that also held the gem in it and walked straight through the fire towards the group. Obviously, he was a fire demon. When he emerged from the flames his features became clearer. His hair was not blonde, but light brown, a little lighter than Karuka's, and his eyes were a mix of blue and green in one. He smiled as he walked towards them revealing long fang like teeth. That meant that he was a half breed. He was two inches taller than Kuwabara, which meant that he towered over the rest. He stopped in front of them with his arms crossing his chest, still smiling, and had a look on his face that said 'what are you going to try and do now?' Everyone stood up a little straighter as the mans presence seemed oddly to cool off the area. They figured he had a special coat of something that kept him from getting burned or at all hot. Yusuke was the first to speak.

"How in the hell did you do this? Are you controlling the gem?" He asked him. The demon lowered his head, seeming to cover a laugh. He looked back up to answer Yusuke.

"No, it is quite impossible to ever control one of the elemental gems. However, reducing its affects is possible as you can see." He turned his head around and pointed his hand towards the machine that he had the fire gem trapped in, and while he was turned around Yusuke took this precious time to attack him.

Yusuke jumped at the demon with great speed and power, but the demon sensed his warm body enter his cool territory and quickly turned around to block. Although, Teremoto did not block with his body, he blocked with fire. Seeing this, Yusuke quickly dodged and got out of the way, except his loose shirt tail got hit and he was now on fire. Frantically, Yusuke put out the fire on his shirt before it could spread. He quickly got back to his group.

"How did you do that?!" He yelled at Teremoto who still was smiling.

"I have a special boundary line I made around my body. Every time something hotter than me comes within two feet of me, a fire wall builds it way around me instantly. Making sure I can never be attacked." He said, proud of his work. Suddenly he went alert.

"Where is the girl?" He said sternly.

"What are you talking about fool?" Hiei asked him.

"The girl you imbecile, she was right there and now she is gone!" Teremoto tried to turn around to find her but she was no where to found.

"I am sorry, but you are mistaken," Kurama started to say, "but there was no girl with us. It is just us four here, plus you of course." He smiled deviously at Teremoto.

"What are you guys talking about?" Kuwabara asked him. He was not in on the secret. He, of course, was too wondering where Karuka had gone so he looked around as well.

"I think being in this heat for too long has messed up your brain cells. You are seeing mirages now." Hiei continued, smirking inwardly to himself.

"Don't mess with me you idiots! She was here!" Suddenly a noise came from behind Teremoto and he quickly whirled around to see what made it. Nothing was there. Nothing but the machine and dozens of fires he had created. He slowly started to think that he was going crazy thinking that there was a girl when there probably was never one in the first place. And then he remembered something his leader had told him.

"The girl, her name is Karuka, will be a devious one in the group. She will find a way to distract you. She, too, is a shadow demon as me. Make sure she does not have the opportunity to turn into a shadow, for she will take advantage of it to get what she wants."

Teremoto quickly learned of the plan of this group. Finally calming down and realizing he was not insane, he took the time to feel the energy around him. His calm and smiling face worried the others, especially Hiei and Kurama. Teremoto scanned his area and found the energy of a shadow demon behind him near the machine, and the gem. He took fast action on this.

"I would advise you, Karuka, to not try and take the gem from its place in my machine." He said without turning around. He was right about Karuka's motives, she had frozen in place as she had come out of her shadow form right in front of the gem and was now reaching for it. She stared in disbelief that he knew she had moved. She figured that Kurama and Hiei confusing him enough to believe she was never there would have been enough. Sadly, it was not. She stayed in her place, as if she were etched in stone, still having her hand reaching out to the gem. She watched as Teremoto slowly turned around.

"There is now way to remove that gem without freezing the world. Not even your shadow powers can help it escape. As we speak, it is creating more and more fires to be released on this feeble city.

"One question Teremoto." Karuka started. She said his name as if she had known him all her life. She lowered her hand from jutting out towards the gem.

"How can this machine reduce the gems power to creating only small fires?" She asked.

"He, he. It is quite interesting actually." Teremoto started to walk towards Karuka through the fire that could not singe him. He left the guys who could not walk through the fire to watch their silhouettes converse with each other.

"You see, my machine can hold a vast capacity of energy. You see where the gem is placed inside of it?" Karuka turned her head slowly towards the gem and saw that it was lodged into the molding of the machine.

"The machine makes the gem dispense its power, although, it also reduces it by capturing most of the fire energy and imprisoning it inside. If you would like to check, the outside of the metal is incredibly hot." Teremoto told her, smiling as she tested it. She lightly touched the outside with her finger and brought it back in pain. She looked at the tip of her finger and saw it red and singed. She stuck it in her mouth to relieve the pain. Teremoto only chuckled.

"I told you Karuka. You should have listened to me." She looked at him in anger and disgust as you could see from her facial expression. Her finger stayed in her mouth since the pain did not seem to go away quite as fast as she wanted.

"And if I remove the gem, it will be destroyed?" Karuka asked without looking at him.

"Yes." He nodded. Karuka looked down.

"I don't believe you." She said. Teremoto looked at her surprised, as did the gang since they could still hear what they were saying.

"Why is that?" He asked calmly.

"Because you are not a man to be trusted." Karuka lifted her head to reveal her now yellow eyes. Teremoto raised an eyebrow at this. His leader had said nothing of changing eyes within the shadow family. This confused him. On the other side of the fire, the guys could se the blaring glow of her eyes. None of them knew why her eyes did that, and they were not thinking it was because she was angry. She seemed always angry to them.

Karuka seemed to float towards Teremoto which scared the bejeebers out of him. It had been that she made her feet change to shadows and she could just glide toward him. Suddenly she disappeared and instantly showed up behind Teremoto. She tried to punch him in between the shoulder blades, but she had forgotten about his fire wall effect and burned her hand. She jumped back holding her hand in pain while Teremoto just turned around and laughed with his annoying smile.

"It seems you forgot about my defense… and offense." He walked towards her so she was left to scatter away as to not be burned again. How could she attack him with that defense? She thought hard for an answer.

'He said anything hotter than his own body heat would spark the effect of the fire wall. With all these flames around, my body heat can't get any where near his cooled body. What the hell can I do?!' Karuka then disappeared from sight again as Teremoto was trying to get her too close to him so she could burn. She basically had to go on the defensive.

"There's nothing she can do! I felt his body heat before and it was incredibly cold!" Yusuke said.

"She'll never get to Teremoto's own level." Hiei said wondering how she was going to get out of this one as she usually did.

"I'm afraid she'll need to work fast, and without the use of her right hand. It's been burned badly. For now we'll have to leave her here and try and put out these fires. The gem is still casting them out and if we don't work fast they'll take the city down." Kurama informed. They all agreed and trusted Karuka to find someway to beat this guy. But even if she couldn't there was nothing they could do because of the massive fire that separated them from the other two. When they got the other fires under control they would try and take down the separating one between them.

"Find your eyes quite mesmerizing Karuka." Teremoto said as he still walked closer to her. That only made them glow even brighter with rage. She jumped away again fearing the piercing pain she would feel if he got too close. How could she prevail? Nothing came to mind.

An evil smile, different from his other, creped its way onto Teremoto's face, and Karuka could see he had something in the works for her. Being distracted by her thoughts she saw Teremoto disappear and fire blaze in her face. She screamed in agony from the pain which caused the other four to turn around in worry. All they saw through the fire that divided them was a tall silhouette standing next to another that was on the ground screaming.

"We must hurry!" The boys ran off to find a way to eliminate the fire and get to Karuka.

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Shade- nervous laughter>

Readers- evil glare> that was the worst Christmas present ever!

Shade- Should I mention this is a two part gift? The best part will come in the second half… ok

Readers- Glare>

Shade- Hey! At least it is there ok? I worked hard on this and that is what counts right?

Readers- Well your thought was good but deliverance was HORRIBLE!

Shade- It'll get better… at least I am updating

Readers- Yeah whatever but update soon!

Shade- Yes of course. Happy Holidays everyone! I know everyone is probably reading this in the 26th but I wrote it on Christmas. I'm gonna go to my Uncle and Aunt's house in a half an hour for dinner. All my cousins will be there and they are all really old. Like, 15 and 20 years older than I am… weird huh?

Well any who,

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!