Shade- This is the second half of my Christmas and now New Year's present. I hope you enjoy it.

People- Shut up

Shade- You're back?

People- Yeah

Shade- Did you have a good family reunion thingy?

People- We'd rather not talk about it

Shade- Ok

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Chapter 26: Fire gem: Interaction

"Dammit! How the hell can we find enough water to put out that goddamn fire wall?!" Yusuke yelled as the four guys were running around to find a LOT of water.

"Yusuke."

"AHHH! Dammit Koenma! Will you stop scaring me like that! This is a serious matter! That freak demon is destroying the city and he's got Karuka!" Yusuke yelled at the baby as he floated in the air above him.

"I am aware of that. That is why I'm here." Koenma stayed afloat in the air with his hands behind his back.

"Unless you can pummel a wall of fire I don't care! You are in our way!" Hiei outbursted, getting annoyed at the baby's interruption.

"Well Hiei, I can't. But I can help you." Koenma said, fiddling with something behind his back.

"How Koenma? We don't have time to waste!" Kuwabara yelled as well. All the guys started to worry since Karuka's screams had died out a little while before.

"Dammit!" They whipped around hearing Teremoto's voice break the tension and seeing a bright light. The new Karuka had done something that pissed him off, and that was good.

"She's done something." Kurama spoke. None of the guys turned back around to Koenma, they had forgotten what he was talking about anyways.

"I hope she's okay." The guys still looked through the blazing fire to see what they could but nothing was really working for them. They could barely see even one silhouette through the thick flames.

"Excuse me, but if you want Tokyo to stop burning, I advise you to turn around." Koenma said. He now was on the ground and walked over to them.

"Well How?!" Yusuke yelled.

"This." Koenma took the item that he had hidden behind his back for all to see.

"The- the Hamisha gem?"

"Yes."

"What can that do for us?!" Hiei yelled, getting madder and madder at the time restraint. He, from time the time would glance back at the blazing fire to check for life. ()

"Put the fires out."

"But to do that, we'll need to flood Tokyo and that's not something I think we can do right now."

"That is why I am worried."

"Dammit Koenma! Will you stop wasting time and just explain yourself?!" Yusuke yelled once again, saying what the other three were thinking. He put the Hamisha gem in front of him and started to explain.

"If we replace the fire gem with the Hamisha, the machine will do the putting out by using the power. Although, we cannot take the risk of removing the fire gem. For what Teremoto said might be true, and the whole world would freeze."

"Well what else can we do? That's the only thing that seems plausible now." Kurama still pondered of other plans to go through with that wouldn't result in ruining the world.

"What the hell?!"

The gang could hear Teremoto's voice again. This time it held fear in its words. But suddenly, a burst of flames blew from the area inside the wall of fire and knocked them away, stopping their thinking of what had happened. They landed 50 meters away from where they stood before and they saw something they were all too familiar with.

"Karuka?"

"What's wrong with her?!" The guys were on their backs watching what was in front of them. Karuka was on fire, from head to toe. Although, she didn't seem to care. She stared off into nothing without feeling a thing on her body. The reverie she was in overtook her conscience so she would react to nothing. She seemed dead. But her eyes made her look shocked. She didn't move. Teremoto was on the ground, though regaining strength and getting back up. He stared at Karuka as well and tried to see how she could break the wall of fire he had on her. He was speaking rude things to her while she was burning, but nothing, as he could see, was rude enough to push her buttons. But something, he must have mentioned something that set her off.

"Do it." She whispered. Everyone looked at her in surprise. Her eyes were their disfigured yellow, but showed no anger. They stayed in their surprised state of shock, at something she hadn't been reminded of since she was little.

"What?" Yusuke and Kuwabara asked in unison.

"She means switch the gems!" Hiei grabbed the Hamisha gem from out of Koenma's hands and sprinted to the machine. The fire wall that divided them before was destroyed by the blast.

"Hiei don't!" Koenma yelled after him reaching an arm out to the bare air. He didn't know if removing the fire gem from the machine would work or freeze the world like Teremoto had said it would. Karuka did not believe him when he said that, but was that enough proof to believe he was wrong when so many lives were at risk.

Hiei sped past Teremoto and Karuka and stood at the front of the machine in the wake of the fire gems powers. It continued to cast fires on the city, and Hiei never thought twice of what he would do. He grabbed the fire gem and tore it away from the machine. Quickly, he replaced it with the Hamisha gem as the machine was about to burst from the absence of power. The Hamisha gem fit perfectly into the machine.

"No!" Teremoto yelled. Suddenly, a crack came from the sky, and it began to rain a heavy rain. The reduced power of a flood is a rain fall. Just as the reduced power of a large fire is, well, a small fire. Hiei looked up at the dark, cloud covered sky. He looked around, and saw the fires slowly being put out. Finally, he turned to Karuka. She still was staring into nothing with the same stunned look on her face. What could Teremoto have done or said that would affect her like this? A cold wind blew through area making Hiei slightly shiver. He turned around as he heard Teremoto groan in pain. He was shocked at Teremoto's appearance. He actually looked warm. In fact, he looked like he was burning up. The answer came to Hiei's mind. He new now that this demon was half fire, and half reverse demon.

A reverse demon is very scarce specimen. Mainly because if you got them in the opposite of a situation that they give off, they are very easy to defeat. In this case, Teremoto was half reverse, and his other half was fire. And fire was what he used to interact with the reverse factor. He made it so the temperature of the weather reversed his own body temperature. Therefore, warm weather made his body cold, and cold weather made his body warm. The fire shield was a factor of his fire genes that interacted perfectly with his reverse side, letting him have a wall of fire engulf him, serving as both a defense and offense. Too bad all of that has now backfired.

Hiei smiled and walked over to Teremoto's feet. He stood only five inches from him.

"What? How can Hiei do that?" Kuwabara asked. Yusuke was wondering the same thing, Kurama was piecing the problem together in his mind, and Koenma was in sheer shock that the world was not frozen solid. Kurama spoke to answer the question.

"With the rain, it has lowered Hiei's body heat because his prior temperature was above the rains, and it has raised Teremoto's because it is warmer than his own. Right now, they are at the same temperature." Kurama told them so they would understand. They did, and looked back to Hiei.

"Well it looks like your plan has backfired horribly." Hiei said smiling down to the trembling half breed.

"I will let your death go fast because you didn't know what you were getting yourself into." Hiei unsheathed his Katana and swiftly drove the tip into his abdomen, and drew the reddened metal back out. By this time, the others had gotten up off of the ground and were walking through the rain towards Hiei and Karuka.

"I- I can't believe that worked. I completely thought Teremoto's words were true." Koenma said.

"Yeah, well you gotta be willing to take chances once in a while, right Hiei?" Yusuke said in enthusiasm, slapping Hiei on the back.

"Hn," was the only thing that came from his mouth as his eyes floated to Karuka's motionless body. He walked over to her and looked into the deep yellow of them. If you looked long enough, you could see that they were sort of golden. And if you looked deep enough, you could see the scars that were marked on them from the horrid things she had seen in her life. The surprised look was chiseled onto her face. Something had affected her, and they didn't know how to get her out of her trance.

"What should we do about her?" Kuwabara asked as he too got near her face to see something. Everyone was crowded around her seeing if they could see why she was like this. Abruptly, Karuka's eyes closed, hiding their yellow glow. This set back a couple of the guys. They waited for her to do something, and she did. She collapsed.

Out of instinct, Kurama caught her in his arms. He carefully picked her up in his arms, making sure to not touch her burnt hand. He stood back up to the rest of the group.

"Should we go back?" Kuwabara asked.

"That would be the better thing to do. We should leave now and let the people fix all this up and not start asking about the sudden… uh… everything." Koenma said. The boys started to walk away from the dead demon (who would be picked up by spirit world helpers so the humans wouldn't ask about a slain demon) and the remains of Tokyo when an all too familiar voice was heard.

"Put me down Kurama," came the voice of Karuka from his arms. He looked down in surprise but her head was pointed to the ground. He slowly let her down, making sure she was not hurt. Her eyes had gone back to their pale green and she did not look anyone in the eyes.

"Go." She said. They stared at her for a second, but finally obeyed. They started walking off. After they went about a hundred feet Karuka started to follow.

"What do you think is wrong with her?" Yusuke asked.

"I don't know, but doesn't she always act like this? I say she's a drama queen." Kuwabara put in.

"I highly doubt that you, in your short, pitiful and wasted fourteen years of life, have faced anything close to what she has. I would rethink your own position on her emotions and just let them be." Hiei defended. He looked forward knowing that he had created them to stare at him, but, truthfully, he didn't care.

"Okay shorty, jeez. I didn't think you cared about her." Hiei's eyes sort of widened at that. Cared about her? Did he really? She had tried to murder him, though she also saved his life. Which, still, has him dumbfounded of why she ever did that. She also let out a secret of hers, one close to her heart. Her torn, scarred heart. One that involved her family, which Hiei knew if anyone brought that up to her, she would snap their head off. He concluded for now, that everything was confusing. He let the remark slip his mind after that.

Although, Karuka had frozen in place once again. Hiei's out lash to the buffoon quite surprised her. She knew that Hiei was aware of the horrible childhood she had, but she didn't think he actually cared. She, as Hiei had done, discarded the problem from her mind, and continued walking.

-Spirit World-

Karuka sat in an artificial tree that Koenma had made for her to be comfortable in. It mimicked the demon world for her so she would feel more welcome, and safe. She sat pondering about Hiei. So, he remotely took her life into consideration. She wouldn't say cared, because she didn't figure someone like Hiei would be that deep. She tried to stop thinking of him, and focused one Teremoto.

He was a pawn in a great plan. His powers were rare, and could prove fatal to many. Though, it could backfire with the simplest of mistakes. Something he had said, it just set off horrible things.

-Flashback-

"How do you feel?" Teremoto was standing above a burning Karuka. She did not answer him, she only struggled to stand up. She got to her knees and staggered to get to her feet.

"How does it feel, to be burned by the fires of hell?" He drug out the last few words for a feel of horror. Although, the words stabbed Karuka in the heart. Her eyes shot open making the yellow glow cascade over Teremoto, pushing him back.

"Dammit!" He yelled. He fell back, surprised that she had the strength and ability to cast him away. She had frozen in place. Memories over flooded her mind. Fires of hell. The image of her father screaming in pain from being burned to nothing, and watching, graphically, his soul being separated from his body. She was burning right now. Though she felt no pain, all the pain that she should have felt was being sucked into her necklace. Them. They kept her safe. From everything but her past.

Teremoto had temporarily been knocked out, and when he looked back up at Karuka he was astonished that she just stood there, burning alive, though seeming to not be suffering.

"What the hell?!" He yelled. He didn't take the time to start wondering of why this was happening with her, so he instead tried to attack her while she was under some trance. He created a fire ball with his hands and threw it at her. Although, he did not realize that fire that covered Karuka's body was acting as a shield like his own. When the fire ball connected with Karuka, something caused it to blow up, and a huge energy blew away from her body, throwing Teremoto away, and breaking the wall between her and the rest of the group.

-End flashback-

She sat on the tree with her eyes closed thinking about it. A single tear descended her face as she let the emotion take her over. She really didn't care at the moment. She didn't care about her crying, she didn't care about her probation, or her former plan to get out early. She was too affected by the past occurrences to care about really anything at the moment. She opened her eyes and watched the setting sun. It looked so peaceful, so soft, and quiet. Oh, if only. Her desires were interrupted as she had gotten so used to that happening. She peered down and saw Hiei staring at her.

"Hm," she thought.

"He never let himself be this obvious before." She thought as she jumped down from the tree knowing he wouldn't go away without something he wanted.

"Stump." She said, acknowledging him.

"Hn, woman." He returned. She scowled, not liking where this was going. She waited for him to talk of the reason he wanted to speak to her.

"Explain to me how you could withstand being on fire like that." Hiei asked. Karuka wondered about that. Did he really care?

"Over my lifetime, I've learned to endure the pain of being burned." She said, closing her eyes while rubbing her upper arms where her black bands were.

"Care to be more elaborate?" He asked her. She opened her left eye and looked at him quizzically.

"You seem to really care about people being elaborate Stump." She had opened her other eyes and gotten slightly closer to him.

"Does that matter? I told you to elaborate." He demanded. Karuka's eyes got slender.

"You don't tell me to do anything. You ask." She said, now getting closer and poking his nose. Hiei didn't know what, but she made something in him obey her when she wanted him to be polite. So he was.

"Hn, can you elaborate?" He asked in complete disgust of the strange power she had.

"Why yes, I can. But I won't." Hiei face faulted.

"Well why not?" He asked. He saw her eyes glaze over as she took quick glances to her arm bands. God, did everything to this girl have to be painful?

"It is none of your business Hiei." She said, using his proper name as opposed to her nickname for him.

"Hn." He said dropping the subject. This slightly surprised Karuka that he gave up, and saw the pain that the issue brought to her. This made her slightly smile.

"You know Stump," she started, returning to the nickname, "you can be kind when you want to be." She still smiled at him, though he just glanced at her. She brought her hand to his face, and grabbed his chin. Slowly, she moved her head to his face, and lightly kissed him on the cheek. She let go, leaving Hiei thoroughly surprised, and red faced. She slowly walked away towards the artificial cliff she visited ever so often, faintly smiling.

"Stupid kind genes I got from my mother."

--

Shade- I told you!

People- Told us what?

Shade- … something that involved liking this chapter as a gift or something

People- yeah, ok

Shade- Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

People- Even though it's 3:00 in the morning on January 2, 2005

Shade- Shut up

Stump- Hey? Why does that name show up

Shade- coz that's what you are

Stump- So, you're not a shade

Shade- Well I think Fourteen year old girl who is going to fail her speech class because the teacher and assignments suck ass is a bit wordy

Stump- yeah whatever

Shade- Please review! And I hope everyone has a wonderful 2005! (I'm lying, I hope everyone feels pain and misery just like me because no one deserves to be happy)

People- Chocolate muffins?

Shade- No, the ones I had lately were all stale

People- Oh

Shade- Oh, one more thing! I would like to thank Darkgodess29 for suggesting that if the Fire gem were destroyed everything would freeze over. That gave me an idea that I'm probably gonna use, so thanks!

Extra note (god, I keep rambling): If people would check my bio, I have a 'coming soon' section, and there are two stories that I am thinking about writing and posting. So, if you guys could read those summaries and tell me if you like them and which ones, that would be cool. Buh bye,

Shade