It was the second night after my encounter with...him. I had no idea what he wanted me to do, but wouldn't it be possible to simply open the door and let him out into the open air? Something inside me, though, said no. Somehow, that would just be too easy. Whatever it was, this prison of his was intertwined with some sort of enchantment that was far deeper than anything I knew or understood.

"Still thinking things over?" Jakiri asked, sitting down next to me.

"Yeah," I shrugged. "I guess so."

"You shouldn't overthink things," Sakore said, taking a place on my other side. His violet eyes gleamed with concern for me, but at the time, I deemed it fatigue, not ready to deal with the emotional task of opening up to new friends.

"I'm not," I pouted. "I'm just trying to figure out what he wants me to do."

"Who exactly is he?" Sakore asked. "Is it someone we would know?"

"I'm not sure," I admitted. "I met him in my dream, but it all seemed so real. It couldn't have been a dream...it had to be real."

For a split second, the two exchanged looks, looks that I couldn't exactly read. However, Jakiri picked up the conversation flawlessly.

"Was there a woman with wings involved?" she asked. "Did anyone refer to the Plane of Luminescence?"

"Uh-huh," I said, nodding my head and feeling very stupid for not having known where I was. "She said I was in this plane you're talking about. She took me to a very small room where I met him." At the mention of my unknown friend, both Sakore and Jakiri leaned in a little closer.

"What did this man say?" Sakore asked fervently, and there was that gleam in his eyes."

"He told me he had been very close to my mother, and that he had some connection to me," I continued, quickly growing weary of the constant interruptions. "We talked for a short while. At first I thought he was cold and unfeeling, but then, when I couldn't hold back the tears, he...he hugged me until it stopped. Then I was slipping away from him all too quickly." Jakiri's eyes went wide with shock, but Sakore only closed his eyes and laughed jovially.

Jakiri looked at her friend, and they both leapt to their feet. They embraced each other, laughing and crying at the same time. "Is it true?" Jakiri asked, looking Sakore in the eye. "Is it really him?"

"Of course!" Sakore shouted. "Who else could it be?"

I sat there in a dumb stupor, staring at the two of them as they danced around. It seemed to go on for hours, until I got up and declared that we should get going. Both agreed in a hurried manner, and packed up the few blankets and other objects we'd been carrying the entire way.

"Hiei!" Jakiri called. "Quickly now. We have some wonderful news to tell Katie!" From his perch in a tree, Hiei gave a small "hn" and jumped down.

"Why do I have to follow you three bakas around?" he demanded testily. "I swore my oath to Kurama, not to Katie!"

Sakore just listened to it all and shook his head. My fox ears picked up some slight muttering he uttered, but otherwise, everything was blank. Slowly they twitched, flashes of black and gold. My tail started to sway too. I suppose I was settling into some nervous habits, because I heard footsteps in the distance. "Someone's coming!" I shouted, backing up a few paces.

"Run!" Sakore shouted, and followed his own instructions, dashing off as quickly as Hiei. Jakiri's back sprouted wings as she ran, and she flew ahead of them. As I followed, my legs moved naturally, the baggy clothes presenting few problems as far as wind resistance.

Even though I was keeping up, I was still the slowest one in the pack. Something came up behind me and lifted me up by a fistful of hair. Screaming hysterically, I felt my scalp burn as I squirmed incessantly, trying to free myself. "Let go!" I screamed, and a throaty voice laughed behind me.

"Ha!" it taunted. "Just a stupid half-breed. You'll make a pretty prize, though." It turned me around to face whatever face it had.

When I first laid eyes upon that face, my first instinct was to vomit. Green, tattered skin was peeling away from its face, and greasy black hair popped out of its skull in tufts. Dirty, broken fingernails were buried in my hair. Just seeing him made me feel sick. To think that he wanted me as some slave was even more repulsive.

Before I could take those thoughts any further, Sakore jumped forward and launched a wave of black thorns at the creature, making all of them dodge me. Jakiri beat her massive wings once, and ice enshrouded it up to the wrist. The hand that held my hair loosened its grip, and I fell roughly on my bottom.

"Just a low-class demon," Hiei commented, "not even worth our time." The frozen corpse stood there, still as horrid as before. This was my first contact with a hostile demon. Somehow, I hadn't imagined it being this frightening. In my dreams, I had thought that I would fight him off and win, but instead my friends had to fight him off of me.

A feeling of utter inadequacy swept over me. Mother would have made short work of such a demon, even if he had taken her by surprise. Most likely, Father would have outrun and outwitted such a dumb beast. But I, I cowered in my pathetic state and forgot any way I knew how to fight. Even trying to spit on him would have done better than what I had done.

"I'm sorry," I said, plodding along the road in a crestfallen manner. "I shouldn't be here. You had to come out here to save me because I got captured by Fehreil, and now I can't even defend myself. You all should have just left me to rot in his palace." Sakore fell back by my side, and grasped my shoulders gently.

"Keiryi," he said. "Not everyone has natural strength like your parents did. Some people have to earn it. You still have years to become what you were meant to be."

He was right, but I didn't want to listen to him. I was convinced that I was worthless. I had abandoned Hiro and Mikari while they were struggling with Yukina's illness, and I had just gotten captured by my insane grandfather's likeness. There was no hope for me, no redemption. I would be forever entwined in failure and inadequacy.

"I was a waste of your time," I told Sakore. "You should never have bothered coming to save me."

"Listen," Sakore demanded, shaking me a little violently. "You won't quit like that. You are all your mother has left, and I don't think you want to see her fall apart like she will if you stay like this. This is not the Keiryi we know and love. If you're still in there, come out. Please, come out!" He lunged forward and leaned his head against my chest. Tears fell slowly, dripping off onto me.

"What is it?" I asked, and something inside me suddenly lurched. I looked down, and saw my usual red hair resting on my shoulder. Sakore's forehead was now pressed against my chin.

"What happened?" I asked, starting backward. Sakore caught himself on his hands and knees and slowly got to his feet.

"You're back to normal," he said, shocked that I had transformed so quickly. When it happened though, it had seemed so natural. Now that I actually tried to find what had done it, the answer eluded me ever so easily. I felt as though I could try and try and it wouldn't happen again.

Jakiri stared at me with a very curious, blank look. Her eyes measured and weighed me, making me feel like some animal. "You're back to your normal form," she commented casually, smiling at me. "That means we can go back now." It all seemed so simple. I hadn't known before that Jakiri was able to take us home whenever we wanted. So, in a short time, I was sitting on the grass of our sparse lawn...just thawing from winter.

Outside, Mother looked at me while watering the plants and smiled in surprise. With a giddy scream, she ran over and embraced me, lifting me up easily. "I love you so much, Keiryi," she said, burying her head in my hair and rubbing it in. "Every moment you were gone, I missed having you here! Please, tell me what happened!"

"I think the details can wait until later," Jakiri said tenderly, with a smile that said it should be put aside so as not to dampen the occasion.

"Well," Mother said, "I believe I have a visitor." I looked around, trying to find the aforementioned visitor, but all of it was to no avail as a petite girl with dark green hair stepped out of the shadows. She wore a lime-green sundress with a ruffled bottom and sleeeves that looked just the same. Yellows vines and flowers went everywhere on the dress, and it brought out her vivid green eyes.

"Greetings, Katie," she said, addressing my mother and ignoring me.

"Hello again, Yuki," Mother responded, and they went into the house to talk.

I followed unnoticed, and sat on the stairs to listen to them talking. "It's terminal," Yuki said in an urgent tone. "I tried all the tricks I know, but I couldn't find a way to heal her. Aside from that, she's a very good Koorime specimen...it's a shame to see her go."

"Thank you for trying Yuki," Mother replied, and I knew she was no longer smiling by the tone in her voice. Before I could catch any more of their conversation, I ran over to the phone and dialed the Kuwabara household.

"This is the Kuwabara house," I heard Hiro's voice say. "Speaking?"

"It's Keiryi," I blurted, finding myself suddenly short of breath. "How is your mother?"

"Ri," he said, trying to calm my wild emotions, "nice to see you too. Mom's...not doing well. Dad's been really upset for a few days now, and I don't know how much longer Mikari can make it."

"I'm sorry," I shouted into the phone. "I'm sorry I left you to deal with all of that on your own! I should have been there helping you watch her."

"There's no helping that, now," he said demurely. "Mom's dead now."

For a moment I just held the phone in shock. How could Yukina be dead? What had happened to her that was so terrible? The last time I had seen her, she had been sick and abed, but not on the verge of death. Whatever she had been going through...Yuki had said it was terminal, and I guess she was right.

"It's okay, Ri," Hiro said sympathetically, trying to console me. "You had other things to do, and you didn't say when you would come back, just that you would. Please, don't feel bad just because you couldn't be there. Honestly, you really couldn't help it." My voice was ready to break with tears, but I still kept on talking.

"I...have to go," I choked out. "See you later." Before he could say goodbye, I hung up, pressed my forearms up against the wall, and started crying.

"Keiryi?" came Mother's voice. "Keiryi, what's the matter?"

"I...I h-heard a-a-about Yu-yukina," I sobbed, trying to get myself under control. Fortunately, Yuki had already left, so I didn't have to worry about embarassing myself in front of her. Mother enveloped me in her warm embrace, brushing back my hair and trying to wipe away the tears. Everything was so backward now, and I hardly knew what to think.

"That's what Yuki just told me," Mother replied. "Except she wasn't quite so emotional about it."

"Hiro doesn't want me to worry," I confessed, "but I feel so sorry for him. How can he live without her? She's always been by both their sides and now she's gone...just like that."

We stood there for a while, and I leaned against my mother, feeling something different than anything I ever had before. More clearly than ever, I could tell that she really loved me, and she wanted to have me there by her side all the time. It wasn't temporary, either. Somehow, I knew this sense of safety would last me an eternity. When I was in the times of darkest desolation, I would think of that one moment and instantly find at least a little comfort. If there was no one else left in the world, I could fall back on my mother with confidence. For once, I felt an unconditional acceptance that I had never found before...

A/N-And that, mes amis, is chappie ten! Pardon me for taking an eternity to get this chapter out, but I kind of abandoned the project for a while, and then decided to come back to it. When I got an e-mail telling me about a new review to the first Midnight Rose, I figured I'd better start this one up again before you guys start chasing me with pitchforks!

Peace Out!

Miari