Okay, thanks to all the reviewers! You are so cool!
Makenna: Okay, thanks for the description, and while I'm sorry, Keiko does not die, it will not be a Keiko x Yusuke pairing. I think you knew that. And I'm sorry you hate her that much.
QueenofAngstyFics: I'll try to keep one chapter coming out every day, at least for weekdays. On weekends, I can't promise anything. I'm glad you like the story – to tell the truth I write them each day at school and type them up between eight and nine each night, so I have no idea what is going to happen. You seem to be a master at this stuff – if you have any ideas, tell me. Thanks for reading!
Shadowfox017: I'm glad you like it! Thanks for reading, hope you like this chapter.
Yeah, yeah, I don't own anyone but Kage. So what.
Okay, well, here goes…
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He opened the door to find the room covered in blood.
"Keiko!"
She was slumped in her chair, blood pouring from an impression in her skull closely resembling a boot mark. There were also assorted injuries all over her body, but Yusuke barely noticed those. All he saw was his best friend with a head wound.
"Keiko, come on, you gotta wake up!" He lifted her from her chair and, cradling her gently, set her on her bed, and frantically grabbed the phone, which was covered in blood, and set in an askew position beside her chair. She had probably dropped it when they attacked her. With growing panic, he punched in the first number that came to mind: Kurama's.
"Minamino residence, Suuichi speaking." As calm as ever, the fox answered the phone.
"Kurama – it's Keiko." Noting the sound in the Ma-zoku's voice, the color drained from Kurama's face.
"Are you at her house?"
"Y-yeah."
Kurama hung up without even so much as a goodbye. He fled from his house and ran full force to Keiko's, calling out to Hiei as he went.
Yusuke went to Keiko. Damn, he thought, damn it! If you want your revenge on me, that's fine, but why are you hurting my friends? Keiko didn't do anything to you!
Kurama ran up the stairs, a nagging suspicion growing in the back of his mind, and at the same time a black blur occupied the window.
The kitsune rushed into the room, a concerned expression filling his emerald eyes. He took in at a glance all the blood in the room, and how Yusuke was: kneeling by her side and holding her hand, a bloody phone dropped by his side. Hiei was standing in the window. Oh, Keiko, why? What did you do? The nagging suspicion finally made itself known: what if they were hurting their friends just to get to them? Even more concern tinted his eyes as he headed toward Keiko.
Yusuke turned to Kurama. "Come on, Kurama! What do I do?" His eyes were filled with fear and panic as he searched Kurama's face, as if expecting to see the answer written there.
Kurama cradled the brunette girl and walked downstairs, taking each step one at a time, cautious not to jolt her. Going outside, he almost bumped into someone, because of his careful watch on the street and on Keiko.
It was Kage.
"Oh, excuse me, Kage." Kage looked over and gasped.
"Oh, gosh! Wait a moment, Kurama." She sounded physically pained, and Yusuke had a fleeting recognition of the voice – it was the same one that she had used when he said that Kuwabara was injured when they were in the arcade.
"Kage—" started Kurama, still calm, but almost unbearably urgent, and with good reason! "I really don't have time."
Her expression turned scolding, and her eyes flashed. "Kurama, take that girl inside, now."
"Kage --!" he broke off as she pushed him gently into the house and toward a couch. "Kage, what are you --?"
"Lay her down on the couch, gently." Her tone was commanding, and, shocked, Kurama did what she said. Yusuke ran up behind her.
"Kage what the hell are you doing? She needs medical attention!"
"That's what I'm here for." She knelt by Keiko and laid a hand on her forehead and the other on her stomach. A glow began on the black-and-white girl's forehead, in the shape of a star, and Keiko began to heal, slowly.
"No…" a whispered, disbelieving noise slipped from Kurama. Even Hiei's eyes widened, though almost imperceptibly. He would never have admitted that he was surprised, but this shocked him greatly. Yusuke was ignoring Kage as he held his best friend's hand. Suddenly Kage stumbled backward, almost falling over as Kurama caught her shoulders.
"Hey, whoa, are you alright?" he looked concerned as he searched her face for clues.
"Yeah…I'm okay, but that's all I can do for now. An evil karma surrounds her, and it is hard to penetrate. She shouldn't die immediately, but I'd still call the hospital and tell them she's been attacked. A burglary, maybe?"
"Alright." Kurama walked to Keiko's downstairs phone, and began telling the emergency operator what had happened, with some major revisions.
While he was doing that, Yusuke walked over to Kage.
"Thank you so much. But you know, I have a question."
"Typical, Yusuke. Don't even let me say you're welcome. Anyway, go ahead." She rolled her eyes as she said this.
"What kind of demon are you?" As he spoke, she mouthed the words with him. It wasn't as if she didn't know what he was going to ask, anyway.
"I'm guessing Unicorn, but I'm not getting my hopes up. I mean, I heard they were extinct. But still, that's what I'm guessing is at least part of it. I think there's something else, too, though, because I'm not nice all the time, like I heard Unicorns are." She looked like she had practiced this speech and gave it all the time, although with her eyes no one could really be sure. "Anyway, I have to go. I am NOT going to be here when the ambulance arrives." Her eyes flashed.
"Um, okay. Thanks, though!"
As she slipped through the door, she turned and winked. It was quite unnerving, actually, with her eyes. "For what, the quarters?" She slipped out the door to avoid further questioning, and closed it soundlessly behind her.
Yusuke was baffled. "What in the --? What did she mean? I mean I know I owe her 50 cents from the arcade, but…"
Kurama, having gotten off the phone, walked over. "I believe it was her way of saying, 'keep it quiet'," the redhead explained, but his mind was elsewhere. He knew she was part Unicorn, whether she admitted it or not. The odd part was that he didn't know what the other part was. It was familiar, but he couldn't tell quite what it was. Something extremely powerful, and he didn't quite understand that he hadn't met one in his past life as Yoko. He also got the feeling of flight, and dark power. Why a Unicorn would mate with something as dark as this, he didn't understand.
The ambulance pulled up and loaded Keiko onto a stretcher. Leaving Yusuke to ride with her and answer questions this time, he began to walk home, worried about his family. Hopefully they were only attacking closely related people, or they forgot about his family. He also worried about Kage and her friends, Allie and Ryu. He resolved not to let them get hurt because of the Reiki Tantei's problem.
Kurama jogged the rest of the way home, apprehension building in his heart. Something was wrong, he could almost smell it, and it made his nose itch. However, upon reaching the Minamino house, he sensed nothing out of order, and all auras were safe. There was also no smell of blood. He was walking to the back of his house to enter through the window – it would not fit to walk into his house all bloody – when he sensed a portal.
What the hell? What's a portal doing here? He ran back and looked cautiously around the corner of his house, hiding himself in the creeping ivy.
He saw blood patter onto the ground, not human…
He saw a hand emerge first, then a body. The body of Kage's friend, Ryu.
She fell out of the portal and hit the ground with a slump, saturating the ground beneath her upon impact.
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Far away, in the dark, a deep voice said evilly, "Happy Birthday, Suuichi. Like your present?"
