Chapter 3:

"Where's Kuronue? I want to say hi to him too! I missed him while I was gone. Come on, Kurama! Where's Kuronue? Where's my brother?" I saw this sad expression appear on Kurama's face as he set me down, "Where is he, Kurama?"

"He died, Kochou. A long time ago." Kurama looked at the ground as he said it. I drew my breath. "No. Not Kuronue. Not my big brother." I whispered as I sank to my knees in shock. Kurama tried to explian what happened. "There was nothing you, or I, could have done to prevent it. The string on his necklace broke and when he tried to get it back, he was attacked and killed. Believe me. If I could change what happened I would have done it a long time ago."

"Miodreth, I thought you said you had no other siblings?" Koemna questioned. "I don't have any blood siblings. But Kuronue was like the big brother I never had. I loved Kuronue like a brother." I whispered into Kurama's shoulder, "I can't believe he's really gone."

"YUSUKE URAMESHI! YOU PROMISED ME THAT YOU WOULDN'T COME BACK AND FIGHT AGAIN THIS YEAR, YOU BIG OAF!" screamed this brunette, human girl at Yusuke. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING HERE!" "I had to. I'm on the guest team again this year and you know what happens if I refuse to be on the guest team." Yusuke tried to explain to the girl. Lieing through his teeth. I got an idea to make her shut-up, she was making my headache worse than it already was. I got up from the ground so that I could meet the girl 'properly'. "Kurama. What is that girl's name? The one who's yelling at Yusuke."

"Her name is Keiko. She's Yusuke's girlfriend. Why? You look like you got one of your 'ideas.'" Kurama replied. "That's because I do, and I plan on getting her to stop yelling. It's giving me a headache." I explained as I walked up to Keiko, making my stripes reappear as I walked. "Hello there," I smiled cheerfully, "You must be Keiko! Yusuke has said so much about you. I'm so glad to finnaly meet you!" I said almost too cheerfully. "Who are you? And what did Yusuke say about me?" Keiko asked suspiciously as she glared at Yusuke. "Oh, he's just gone on and on about how beautiful you are, and how he missed you, and how much he liked you, and all of this other crap. But, I am so glad you're here. Maybe he'll finally shut-up and focus!" I could see Yusuke looking a little dumbfounded as Keiko asked, "Is that true Yusuke?" He quickly regained his composure as he nervously said, "Of course, Keiko, why wouldn't it be? Heh heh." "Fine then." She turned her attention back to me."You didn't answer my first question: Who are you?"

"Miodreth Avonii, at your service." She looked almost shocked. "You know who I am?" I asked, puzzled. Very few humans know who I am. And most of them are considered crazy, old, or they're dead. So, needless to say, I was surprised that this young, sane girl knew who I was. "I know who you are. I did a reasearch paper on you once, for my Myths and Leagends class. But I though you died over 400 years ago."

"400 years ago I went missing, yes, but I didn't die. What you don't know is that about 50 years later, I met this guy right here and he taught me how to do his job." I smiled as I poked Kurama. "You were a good student. You learned things very quickly and you were always eager to learn something new." Kurama said as I smiled. "Didn't you ever stop to think that maybe it was my teacher who hepled me to learn so fast?" I giggled, "Anyways, I got to be so good that Kurama made me his partner and we pulled off some of the greatest jobs in history. And we had fun doing them. Well, at least I did." "Eh, someone had to." Kurama smiled.

"Kurama, can I talk to you for a sec?" Yusuke asked. "Sure. I'll be right back, Kochou." Kurama told me. "O.k. just don't be gone too long." I called after the boys. Hiei and Kuwabara followed. I guessed they were having some sort of meeting.

After I got to know Keiko a little bit better, I heard Kurama shout, "NO WAY! THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!" then he went back to murmering to the guys when he realized Keiko and I could hear him.

After a few more outbursts from Kurama, the boys came back to where Keiko and I were in a heated discussion about school uniforms (I was against them because I firmly believe that they take away a student's ability to express themselves in a unique manner). "Kochou, the guys want you to…" Kurama stumbled. "We want you to fight with us since we have an opening. So what do you say! Wanna join the team?" Kuwabara asked for Kurama. It was kinda scary the way he asked it, as he had gotten all up in my face."You don't have to Kochou. I tried to convince them that you probably wouldn't want to, it being your first day back in the Makai after 15 years." Kurama tried to explain. "As soon as you get out of my face, Kuwabara, I would love to. I wanted to fight alone this year, but I missed the sign ups. Now I'm glad I missed them because I would have had to fight you guys and miss out on an opportunity to make new friends. And find old ones." I smiled. Then I saw Kurama's face, he was not a very happy camper. "Let me guess, you don't want me to fight?"

"I just don't want you getting hurt, or worse. I don't want to lose you the way I did last time." Kurama said as he gently grabbed my shoulders. "Well you aren't going to lose me like last time. Besides, I don't have to worry about keeping a low profile around you now. I can use all of my powers to fight. Not just my awesome hand-to-hand combat skills, Kitsune. And I've been dying to try out a new skill that I learned." I smiled at Kurama as I grabbed his arms in return.

"By the way, when is our next fight?" I asked the guys. "Our next fight is tommorow at noon, but we'll have a practice fight later so that we can see how you fight." Yusuke responed. "Cool! Now I get to show-off!" I smiled as we walked toward where we were to practice. 'And I get to kick all their butts!' I thought to myself. 'We'll just see about that.' Said a voice in my head. 'Don't worry, Hiei, I'll go easy on you.' I snickered. "What's so funny, Mio?" Koemna asked. "Nothing." I answered innocently. Hiei was trying to scare me by giving me a 'deat glare' but it just cracked me up even more. "Now you have to tell us, Kochou." Kurama stated.

"Hiei's just intimidated by me, that's all." I chuckled. "I get first dibs on you, Avonii. I want to kill you personally." Hiei seethed at me as he walked ahead of everyone. "Aww, did the widdle shwimpy get his feewings hurt?" I teased. "Um, Avonii-kun, you don't want him to get mad at you. He already wants to kill you as it is. And believe me, when he gets mad, he gets pissed off!" Yusuke warned me, "Good, I could use a nice challange. And please, call me Mio." I said stretching my arms over my head as we walked into the practice area.

I took off my cape and handed it to Kurama. "Will you hold this for me? This shouldn't take long." I said. "Be careful, Kochou. Don't underestimate Hiei, he's extreamly powerful when he wants to be." "More powerful than me?" I winked as I took my place. Hiei stood across from me trying to stare me down, again. "BEGIN!" shouted Koemna. In a flash Hiei was gone and appeared right behind me, so I just elbowed him in the stomache before he could do anything. He doubled over as I sped over to the other side.

"What's the matter Hiei? Can't stand the heat?" I said as I turned my hands into fire balls and went in for the punch. He saw me and doged my punch as it went into the ground making a huge hole where Hiei was supposed to be. He took his katana out and made it burst into flames. "That's what I should be asking you." he tried to go for my gut but I just let my claws slice his katana in two and take it off the handle.

"What the?" Hiei looked at the handle in his hand. "You mess with the tiger, and you get the claws." I said as I showed-off my now two-foot-long nails. "Now it's time for you to cool off." I said as I made a giant water ball appear between my hands as my claws disappeared. "You honestly think you can hit me with that?" Hiei smirked. "Not directly." I murmmered as I threw it at him. When he thought he doged it, it came right around and, with him completely off guard, hit him right in the back of his head. Knocked him unconcious too. "Oops. Didn't mean to hit him that hard." I said as I walked over to make sure Hiei wasn't dead. I stopped mid-way and asked, "Kitsune, could you check to make sure I didn't kill Hiei?"

"Don't bother. I'm not dead." I heard Hiei mumble, trying to get up. "You were smart asking Kurama to do what you were about to do. Now you're in deep trouble." Hiei had already taken off his bandana, revealing his third eye, and a black aura surrounded him. "Aww crap." I said as I smacked my forehead. "That's right. Surrender now before I unleash the dragon." "That's not what I was saying 'Aww crap' about baka."

"I didn't want to do this, but it will be worth the price of your head. I'll just use one arm, so that there will be something left to remember you by. TIME FOR YOU TO DIE, MIODRETH AVONII!" Hiei shouted through the roar of the dragon. His eyes were overly wide, and his shirt had burned off. It would have been hilarious, if he wasn't trying to kill me. "STOP! GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM, DRAGON OF THE DARKNESS FLAME! DON'T MAKE ME FORCE YOU BACK!" I shouted at the black dragon that was staring me in the eyes. When it didn't move, I just put my hand on my hip, cocked an eyebrow, pointed in some random direction and said, "Now." The dragon turned around, went up into the sky and disappeared. "How? How did….How did you…" Hiei stumbled, stunned. "How did I make the dragon listen to me?" I finished for him as he nodded his head up and down. 'Simple. The creation listens to its creator.'

"But I summoned it."

"You summonded it but you didn't create it. I did." I whispered into his ear. "Now give me your arm so that I can heal it properly."

Hiei lifted his arm, still in shock. I closed my eyes and grabbed his arm with both my hands so I could concentrate. A blue aura surrounded Hiei's arm as his burns healed. When that was finished I opened my eyes and let go of his arm as the light dimmed.

"You have earned my respect, Avonii-sama. I have to admit, I doubted that the legeands were true. I also thought they were exageratted but it turns out, they were true all along." Hiei admitted. "Well good for you. By the way, you might want to get your katana fixed before tommorow. And call me Mio." I smiled. I turned to see the humans in shock, "You…you…you beat Hiei." Kuwabara stammered. "Yeah. So?"

"Yusuke and Kuwabara think Hiei and I can't be beat." Kurama explained. "Well now they know that I can kick both your butts whenever I want to." I teased. "Is that a challenge?" Kurama smiled. "No. It's just a simple fact Kitsune. Besides, I had to convince the dragon that I was more powerful than him so I had to send out a huge amount of Spirit Energy. I'm whipped, I need to go rest so that I can fight tommorow." I yawned. "Then let me walk you back. Where are you staying?" Kurama asked. "Well, I was going to stay out here in the forest, but now that I know this place is crawling with demons, I was planning on staying with you guys." I smiled. "How? There aren't enough beds." Kurama informed me. "I know. That's what a couch is for. And right now it sounds really good." I yawned, again. I was slowly falling asleep while I was walking, that wasn't good. Kurama eventually carried me the rest of the way. By the time he set me down, I was sleeping like a baby.