Last Chapter: Hiei continued trying to reach Botan, even resorting to the desperate measure of singing her favourite song to her, but still failed to draw her out. Both Hiei and Botan's increased frankness revealed a few truths about their friends around them in the process. As Hiei continued to weaken, Shizuru determined to kill the Lure alone, but she still had some doubts about Ayame's ability to contain the Lure.


Chapter 33: Nothing Can Stop me

"I can't do this," Hiei said.

"Oh shit," Shizuru muttered under her breath.

"What?" Botan asked.

"I see what it is now," he said quietly. "But… I can't do it."

Botan started to say his name, but her voice trailed off as Hiei slid himself off the Lure's fingers and fell to the ground, landing hard on his back with a literal splat, sending stray droplets of blood spraying outwards. Everyone around him leapt back to avoid the splatter, except Yukina, who stayed where she was, resulting in several small red dots appearing on the white winter coat she was wearing. She looked down at them, watching as they soaked into the fabric.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" Shizuru asked her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Why did he stop?" she asked. "And why won't he let me heal him?"

Hiei gathered himself up to his feet and started to stumble away from the group, and, to everyone's surprise, Ayame leapt into his path to block his progress.

"Please don't walk away!" Ayame gushed.

"You may think I am weak right now, but I can still destroy you with one flick of my wrist, Boring," Hiei growled at her.

She made as though she had a counter-argument, but when he took another step forwards, she wilted out of his path.

"Damnit," Shizuru cursed under her breath.

She nodded at Ayame, who, thankfully, appeared to understand her meaning, as she nodded back, and followed as Shizuru marched after Hiei. Taking long strides, she quickly gained on him, and was soon able to reach out a hand and grab his shoulder. She started to pull him around, but snatched her hand away when she realised that one of her fingers was sinking into one of his wet wounds. He turned around with a grimace, glaring up at her.

"What the hell are you doing?" she asked, determined not to let her mistake distract her.

"I saw it," he replied, his voice quiet and a little uneven. "I saw what it takes. It can't be me."

"Let me help you," Ayame offered, stepped forwards to stand alongside Shizuru.

"What is it?" Shizuru asked Hiei.

He shook his head, averting his eyes downwards.

"Tell me what it is!" Shizuru demanded. "Whatever it is, you have to do it! And if not, then someone else has to – but either way, you have to tell me what it is and who can do it if you can't!"

"Oh, I think I know what it is," Ayame said.

"Shut up, you," Hiei growled, lifting his eyes to glare at her.

"Sorry," she said, backing behind Shizuru a little.

Shizuru glanced back and forth between Hiei's bloodied, irritated and tense face, and Ayame's pale and anxious face before eventually deciding that Hiei was not going to relent easily, and Ayame would be an easier target.

"What is it?" she asked the ferry girl.

"I think he has to use the actual word.," Ayame said, stealing nervous glances at Hiei as she spoke. "I think he has to say that he–"

"Stop," Hiei cut her off.

Shizuru looked back and forth between the two of them again before nodding her head.

"You have to tell her that you love her," she concluded.

Hiei averted his eyes again with a grunt that made his entire upper body jerk.

"But you're too damn repressed to actually say it," she added.

"It's about making a connection with her," he said quietly, his eyes still on the ground.

"A connection that's stronger than the one the Lure has made with her," Ayame added.

Hiei turned his head, fixing his eyes onto her.

"Yes, that's right," he said.

Shizuru frowned. Despite him having just agreed with Ayame, he still sounded as though he was berating her somehow.

"A connection," Ayame said again. "Something she spoke about in between times the Lure has caught her is that she's ashamed of the fact she was fooled by the Lure, ashamed that it took her again, ashamed that she actually went back to it because she wanted to. We have to try to tell her that we all love her, that we miss her, that we want her back. That we don't care that the Lure fooled her. Is what I'm saying making any sense?"

Shizuru nodded.

"Then why are you looking at me like that, Worthy?"

Shizuru frowned.

"You're looking at her like you want her to stop talking," Hiei added.

Shizuru glanced back and forth between them before making a muttered apology and moving away from them. As she walked, she fumbled in her pockets, pulling out a cigarette and her lighter. She stopped long enough to light the cigarette, before walking on blindly as she stuffed her lighter back into her coat pocket. She only stopped when one of her feet dropped down below her with a splash, and she let out a shuddering gasp as the cold water soaked through the leg of her pants to her leg beneath. She looked down, and saw her own face looking back up at her, in the pool of the rice field she had inadvertently stepped down into. She took a shivering, long, draw on her cigarette, before stepping her other foot down into the water. It was only ankle deep, and did not breach her shoes. She tucked her long coat around her legs and crouched down, tossing her head to throw her long hair around over one shoulder. She waited for the ripples around her ankles to settle, giving her a clearer view of her reflection.

She wondered if her father was right: if she really did look so much like her mother. It pained her that she could not remember her mother's face clearly enough to compare. The only clear memory she had of her mother's face was of the very last day she had seen it, and that was hardly a vision she wanted to linger in.

"Shit," she muttered, taking another drag on her cigarette. "This is just… Shit."


For several hours, everything and everyone had been silent. After Shizuru had rejoined the group, Hiei had returned to his prone position trying to connect to Botan, but, other that his wounds deepening and widening, him losing more blood, turning paler and looking closer than ever to death, nothing had happened. Shizuru could not be sure if he had forgotten their promise that he would break off when he failed to connect to Botan, or if he had just become desperate.

Ayame sat down beside Shizuru and smiled at her. The ferry girl had been gone for some time, but Shizuru was not really sure why or where she had been. She gave Shizuru a questioning look and Shizuru sighed in response.

"I feel like I'm losing," she admitted. "Again. It's the same monster, the only difference is that this time, it has a face."

"We can still win," Ayame softly replied. "I believe in you, Worthy."

"You and I aren't the ones who need support right now," Shizuru said sadly, looking up at Hiei. "It's him. If he doesn't survive this, we all lose."

"I did offer to help him," Ayame said. "He refused my help. You heard him refuse my help."

"Yeah, he probably was right though. You need to conserve your energy. You need to be ready. I'm not sure this thing can't fly."

"That's alright. We can still pursue it if it does."

"It's not that we can't pursue it, it's more that something moving across three dimensions is a lot harder to pin down than something only moving across two dimensions."

Ayame nodded, but strangely looked quite confident despite Shizuru's sombre tone.

"Do you really think Dango might die?" she asked.

"I don't know," Shizuru answered her, shaking her head. "He feels so far away right now. Before I could feel his energy, but I can barely feel him at all now."

"Maybe that's just because he's… In there?" Ayame suggested.

Shizuru shook her head.

"I don't know what's harder," she said softly. "Feeling his energy slipping away, or when it felt strong. When it was strong, it was that same feeling. That feeling of fighting because I had to. That feeling of trying not to feel anything, even though I was overwhelmed by everything. That feeling of trying to win something I had already lost. He hasn't accepted it's over, but maybe it already is."

"But he's so strong," Ayame said. "But then again, there is so much blood."

"I didn't think I'd ever have to watch this happen again," Shizuru said, despite knowing Ayame would not understand what she was talking about. "And it is worse the second time around. It's worse because I already know how it ends, and I feel even more helpless, and I'm more able to help this time and I should be able to help, but I still just have to watch."

"Is there really nothing else we can do?" Ayame asked.

Shizuru looked up at Hiei's pale, prone form, and then at Botan's colourless, serene face.

"There's one thing I haven't tried yet," she said. "I didn't want to have to do it in front of my brother, but we're running out of options. I think… I think I'm going to have to tell her the truth. I think if I can make a connection – Dango said he needed to make a connection – I can bring her back. I just… Didn't want to ever have to relive this. I've never spoken about it before, to anyone. I just try not to think about it most of the time. But I think reliving it, retelling it, is the price I have to pay to end this."

Shizuru stood up and moved over to Yusuke, who was sitting with Kuwabara, as Kurama was taking a turn to film the Lure. Without explaining herself and without hesitation, she snatched the half-finished cigarette from Yusuke's hand and lifted it to her lips, taking a long draw on it. She held the smoke inside of herself until her eyes watered before sighing it out and passing the cigarette back to Yusuke, who accepted it back as silently as he had given it up to her. She nodded a thanks to him, and he nodded in reply. She then looked down at Kuwabara, wiping away a tear from the corner of one eye.

"You okay, sis?" he asked her.

"No," she replied. "But… I'm sorry, okay?"

"Huh?"

Shizuru turned her back on him and moved over to stand beside Hiei. She grabbed one his ankles, which was level with her shoulders thanks to the Lure's fingers suspending him in the air.

"Hey, Dango, can you hear me in there?" she said to him. "I don't know why you went quiet, but if it's because you can't say that word you don't like, can I have a turn? I think I know a way to make the connection. Can you… Can you pass a message to her from me?"

"What are you doing?" he grumbled.

"I need to speak to her," Shizuru insisted. "Is there a way you can… Patch me into her?"

Hiei growled.

"You need to get closer," he muttered.

Shizuru looked about herself, but could see no logical way to raise herself up to his level.

"Let me help!"

She turned to see Ayame running towards her, holding out her oar. Shizuru held up her hands to stop the ferry girl, who slowed to a halt, looking confused.

"It's dangerous to get too close," she warned.

Ayame nodded and carefully placed her oar into the air, where it hovered steadily.

"Get on," she said to Shizuru.

Shizuru hesitated.

"I will need to get a little closer, but I can lift you up there," Ayame said.

Shizuru gave her a hard look.

"Let me do this, Worthy!" Ayame insisted. "Let me help!"

Shizuru sighed. She really had no other choice and Hiei's worsening condition put a time limit on everything they did, and so she nodded, beckoning the ferry girl to come closer. She then sat onto the oar, clutching at it tightly when it started to raise her up a little unsteadily. Once her face was level with Hiei and Botan's, she waved at Ayame to hold her steady.

"What do I have to do?" she asked Hiei.

"Touch me," he replied.

Shizuru started to reach a hand towards him, but hesitated as she tried to find a part of him that was not bloody where she could rest her hand.

"You need to make a physical connection to me, and you need to concentrate," he insisted.

"Right, okay," she said, before taking a deep breath and placing her right hand on his shoulder.

"Concentrate," Hiei instructed her.

Shizuru nodded, looking directly at Botan and focusing on her. As she did so, she got that sensation that came from staring at one point too long, as her periphery vision began to grey and blur, until soon all she could clearly see was Botan's face. It remained that way for a moment, before Botan's face slowly changed, from grey and lifeless to bright and alert, her lips gaining colour again, her eyes open and bright. She was standing at the edge of the rice fields.

"Hiei?" she said, her voice clearer and more alive than it usually sounded when she was speaking from the Lure's hold.

The sky was dusky, and in the distance, the sun was rising, light starting to pour down into the valley of the rice fields.

"Hiei?" she said again. "Hiei, are you okay? Can you hear me? Hiei?"

"Botan?" Hiei responded.

When he spoke, Hiei appeared to Shizuru, at her side, slightly in front of her, looking every bit as bloody and deathly as he did in reality.

"Hiei, you're hurt!" Botan cried.

"Don't-don't think about that," he said.

His Jagan eye was covered in his bandana, but it, like his clothes, was stained with blood. His eyes were open and looking over at Botan with a sense of desperation.

"I need you to listen," he said. "Carefully."

"I'm listening," Botan replied.

Botan drew in a breath and her gaze shifted, her eyes looking directly at Shizuru.

"Shizuru?" she whispered.

Shizuru started upon hearing Botan say her name, the feeling of looking into her eyes and seeing them bright and lively momentarily overtaking her senses.

"Botan sweetie, can you hear me?" she recovered.

Botan nodded and Shizuru paused again, stunned that she had been successfully drawn into Botan's world, shocked that she could actually communicate with her.

"Can she hear me?" she asked, turning to look at Hiei, needing his reassurance that she was not just imagining what seemed to be happening.

"Yes," he answered, something about his tone strangely reassuring.

"I can hear you, Shizuru!" Botan quickly added.

Shizuru moved her eyes back to Botan and smiled, letting out a small, breathy laugh, her eyes blurring a little in a way she hoped Botan would not be able to see.

"Sweetie, I have to tell you something," she said. "And it's really hard for me to tell you this. It's something I've never told anyone. I never wanted to tell anyone. But I need to tell you. Now. Before it's too late."

"Too late?" Botan repeated.

Shizuru nodded and squinted her eyes in an attempt to stop them from tearing up any more than they already had, trying her best to stop any tears from escaping them.

"I've lied to you," she said sadly. "I've lied to everyone. Well, I don't know if it's exactly a lie, it's more like everybody made an assumption, and I never told them they were wrong. Everyone thinks that Kazuma and I inherited our spiritual awareness from our dad," she continued. "Because our dad is pretty aware. He's certainly more aware than the average human. And spiritual awareness is an inherited trait. But our dad wasn't the one who made us strong. If anything, he was the one who made us weak. Because my dad, my brother, me… You put us all together, and it would still be nothing compared to the gift my mom had.

"My mom was so gifted. She drew spirits of all kinds to her. And, just like most other people who have that sort of gift, she sought out others who shared her gift. That's how she met my dad. In college, they both joined a group of people who all thought they were psychics. My mom and dad were the only two in the group who could actually see spirits and demons, and that was what brought them together. My mom was never scared of her gift. At least, not until she had me. She said she never thought about it until I woke her up one night crying, and she found a demon in my room. She started to panic. And it got worse after she had my brother. My dad sent her to counselling, but it didn't help, because nobody believed her or understood what she was seeing. So my dad treated her the only other way he knew how: he introduced her to pot."

Shizuru paused, turning her head away from Hiei to look down at her brother, finding him on his feet, staring up at her with glassy eyes of sadness and disbelief. She swiped her free hand at the corner of one eye to clear away an escaping tear before continuing.

"I'm sorry you had to find out like this," she to him softly, before turning back to Botan. "They did it together. And when my mom got high, she felt calm. And my dad thought that was the end of all their problems. The truth was, that was just the beginning. Over the years, gradually, really, really gradually, my mom would get more mellow than my dad, and she would be affected a lot longer than he was. It built up so gradually, that he didn't notice it. The first sign he got that something was wrong was when he noticed she couldn't straighten one of her legs one day. She wore stockings most of the time, so the veins in the back of her knees were an ideal place to inject heroin unnoticed. The pot had helped her, but it was never strong enough, she said. She'd gone out looking for something stronger, and she found it. The crazy thing is, that first night my dad found out, he agreed she could continue doing it. She convinced him she had it under control, that it gave her peace, it let her be a "normal" mother to her children. He loved her so much and he was so laid back, he just went with what she said."

Shizuru looked down for a moment, letting her long hair fall over her face. She snivelled a little, gripping at Hiei's shoulder to steady herself before lifting her head again and forcing a smile for Botan's benefit.

"Then she started spacing out," she continued. "For long, long periods of time. I would come home from school, and she would be lying on the couch, all her equipment on the floor around her. Most of the time she'd vomited on herself. I would tell Kazuma to go find the cat and bring it in, and I used the time to clean her up, hide her stuff, throw a blanket over her. I never let my brother see it. He wouldn't have understood. And it was around this time my dad started to switch off too. He didn't want to admit how bad it was getting. He didn't want to tell her no, to tell her to stop, but at the same time, he didn't want to see her the way I almost always found her. So I had to start hiding it from my dad too. I would come home, clean her up, cover her up, hide her stuff, send Kazuma to feed the cat and do his homework, and I would do the housework before my dad came home from work. That was about the time I started to fall behind with my own homework and my own school work. Pretty soon, I could tell in the morning what sort of day it would be. I would know if I could go to school for the whole day, or if I would need to sneak out early, or if I would need to just walk Kazuma to school and turn around and go home.

"I was ten years old – which is crazy when I think about it – when it happened. The day started out pretty bad. My dad didn't say anything. I made breakfast for him and for my brother and myself, I made a lunch for my dad and my brother, I saw my dad into his car and I walked my brother to school. I went straight back home. And when I got home, my mom was passed out on the couch. I was expecting that. What I wasn't expecting, was that she'd stopped breathing."

Shizuru felt a hot, fat tear roll down her cheek and did nothing to stop it, despite Botan gasping and covering her mouth with one hand.

"I was ten years old," she said. "I was just a kid. I tried to revive her. I tried so hard. I called for an ambulance, and they had to call our neighbours in to help get me off, because I never stopped trying. But it didn't work. She was gone. My dad came home from work. The only thing he said to me was that he wanted to tell Kazuma. He didn't want me to do it. And he did. He told Kazuma that mom's heart stopped beating. That was all he said. That was all he needed to say to a kid. And, that was probably the last thing my dad said for months. He stopped functioning. He would stay in bed all day. I took over getting my brother ready for school, looking after the house, shopping for groceries. I missed most of school, and, over the next few years, I failed my way out of school altogether. I always wanted to be a mechanic. I was gonna work on motorbikes. But I didn't have the education or the time for it any more. I had to take any work I could get, because my dad couldn't hold down a job for the next several years. I never spoke about it, because my dad couldn't handle it, and my brother didn't understand it. And I wanted to protect them from the pain I felt.

"Now you probably think you know why I'm telling you this, but you're wrong. Nobody else here is saying anything, but I know what they're thinking. And what they're thinking is the reason why I've never told anyone any of this before: they think I'm mad at my mom. They think I hate her. They think I resent her. I lost my childhood, right? I lost my dream. I was forced to become a wife to my father and a mother to my brother. I was forced to become an adult overnight. I must hate her, right? Because she chose to do heroin. Nobody else made her do it. It was totally her own decision. She researched it, went out and found it, and abused it to the point that she lost herself and then we lost her. But that's the thing, Botan. I'm not mad. It doesn't matter that she was an addict: she was my mom, and I love her. And Botan, sweetie, I would give anything to bring her back. I don't care what I went through, or what I lost. I just want my mom back.

"I pretend that I'm okay with it, but really, it was tough growing up with two men. I didn't have a mom to talk to about all my problems. And that's why I value so highly the relationships I have with the girls in my life. When you were talking about us, when you said we're like sisters, that meant so much to me, sweetie. Because I feel that way too. You, Keiko and Yukina are so important to me. We are a complete unit, the four of us, and if even one of us falls, the whole dynamic changes. We all need each other. We all need you, Botan. And we're not mad at you. We love you. And we just want you back. Please, Botan, I lost my mom to addiction, please don't make me lose you the same way. Please just come back to us. Nobody's mad at you, nobody blames you. We all love you and we all just want you back, with us, being your usual, zany, voyeuristic, random, feisty, cheerful self."

Shizuru swiped her free hand at both sides of her face to clear the tears she was freely shedding.

"I love you too, Shizuru!" Botan wailed.

Shizuru smiled, her spirit lifted by the fact that her efforts had apparently paid off, as she had clearly made that necessary connection with Botan.

"Botan, sweetheart, can you see me?" she asked.

"Yes," Botan said, nodding her head enthusiastically. "I can see you!"

Shizuru held out her left hand, palm upturned.

"Can you see my hand?" she asked.

"Yes!" Botan said.

"Then take it," Shizuru said. "Take my hand, and come home with me."

Botan nodded and reached out her hand towards Shizuru's. As she stretched out her fingers, Shizuru became aware that they were too far apart to physically reach each other. She stretched her hand out further and Hiei whimpered in a way she swore she would never admit to hearing as he hauled himself forwards, clearly impaling himself further into the Lure's fingers in order to bring Shizuru closer to Botan.

Hiei let out a strange sound and his shoulder slumped a little under Shizuru's hand. She tightened her grip, determined to maintain her connection to Botan, whose hand was almost within her reach, their outstretched fingertips very nearly touching. Just as they were about to make contact, Botan suddenly looked panicked, and a sickening feeling washed over Shizuru. Botan looked down at the reflective waters of the rice fields before looking up, her eyes large in alarm. Shizuru glanced up, a pang of horror tugging at her senses as she noticed one of the Lure's fingers was free and arcing above her head.

Up close, it looked horrifying.

Its fingers were in fact hollow inverted V-shaped claws, the underside of which were lined with hooked teeth. They would glide into flesh easily, especially given how sharp the very tip of the talon was, but they would tear flesh mercilessly when they were dragged back out.

Every time Hiei had come off of the Lure's fingers, it must have been horrendously painful for him: and yet he had never hesitated to put himself back into that situation, time and time again.

"No," Botan said faintly, shaking her head.

"It's okay sweetie, don't look at it," Shizuru said, looking at Botan again. "Just take my hand. Just come with me. It can't hurt you, I promise you are safe. Please just take my hand."

Botan renewed her effort to reach out to Shizuru again, but as her fingers came close, the shadow of the Lure's finger crept up Shizuru's arm. Botan looked hopeful, and so Shizuru tried to stay focused on that, determined not to let the Lure win, not to let it take someone else she cared about from her.

But then the tip of its finger, the pointed, thin, tip, touched the base of her palm, just above her wrist.

"Come on, Botan!" Shizuru urged. "Just a little further!"

"No," Botan gasped.

From the corner of her eye, Shizuru saw her skin bend under the pressure the Lure started to apply, until finally it burst, the thin tip pushing in under her skin. It was so thin, so sharp, all she could feel was a slightly scratching, an odd, sickly feeling, as though something was scratching her wrist from the inside. She swallowed as she started to feel a tight, tugging sensation, and, as the skin around her wrist started to tear painfully away, she looked down, seeing a black bulge under her skin, sliding up her forearm towards her elbow, her skin stretched painfully tight against, and the skin at her wrist tearing and bursting as the ever-widening claw pushed into her.

Shizuru cried out and gripped her hand into Hiei's shoulder, trying to keep herself connected to Botan's world, determined not to let the pain distract her from her task.

"Let go, you idiot!" he shouted at her.

She managed to cry out a broken "no" in reply, but the sound of her cries were painful to even her own ears, and she started to become hysterical as the tip of the Lure's finger passed the bend in her elbow and her hand fell back with a crack, her wrist breaking as the thicker, more triangular part of the Lure's finger began burrowing into her.

"Stay back!" Hiei yelled over his shoulder.

Shizuru was too focused on her pain and on trying to stay in Botan's world to care who he was shouting at, though she guessed it was probably just about everyone else around them. She let out a ragged sob at the realisation that she could no longer feel or control her left hand, and, immediately after, Botan let out a horrifying scream and launched herself towards Shizuru. For a moment, Shizuru thought that Botan was going to literally jump out of the Lure's trap, but what happened instead was even more unexpected: Botan grabbed both hands around the Lure's finger, her face becoming wild. Shizuru sobbed and shook her head desperately, but Botan clung on, white light flaring around her hands as she let out a roar of determination and began twisting her hands. Shizuru shook her head more frantically as she saw one of Botan's fingers start to bend painfully back at an unnatural angle.

Botan and the Lure screamed in unison as both of their fingers tore off.

Shizuru and Hiei fell to the ground with a thump and Shizuru squinted, the brightness of daylight returning around her momentarily blinding her.

"Holy shit, what just happened?" Yusuke said at her side.

"Hurting the Lure hurts Botan, remember?" Kurama reminded him.

Shizuru opened her eyes and blinked a few times before looking down at her left arm. Most of the Lure's finger was still embedded into her, from halfway up her bicep all the way down to her wrist. A length of it protruded from the bloody wound at her wrist, where it eventually ended in a ragged edge.

"I don't know which one of you is more stupid," Hiei groaned, pushing himself up onto one elbow and holding up something in his free hand.

Shizuru blinked her eyes to focus on it, at first struggling to make out what it was as both the object and Hiei's hand were coated in blood.

"She literally just tore off her own finger!" Yusuke said, peering incredulously at Hiei's hand.

Shizuru paused, frozen on point as she realised that Hiei was holding one of Botan's fingers. She looked at it for a long moment before looking down at the severed finger in her own arm and then finally up at the Lure, which had shrunk back to nurse the stump of its missing finger. Botan was wrapped up securely in webbing again, but there was a small dark stain at one side, where she was clearly bleeding from losing her finger.

"Botan!" Shizuru wailed, trying to lift herself up.

Her right hand clawed at the earth and pushed her up, but her left arm was shot with a debilitating pain, and she cried out, collapsing onto her back again.

"Stay still, I'm going to heal your broken bone, and then we can work on the best way to get that out of you," Yukina said, dropping to her knees by Shizuru's injured arm.

"Don't touch me!" Shizuru yelled, swinging round her free hand and grabbing a handful of Yukina's coat by her throat.

"I'm trying to help you!" Yukina complained, grabbing Shizuru's hand in both of hers and trying to pry it off of her coat.

"No!" Shizuru said sternly. "You need to conserve your energy! Do you hear me? You're going to need that energy for something much more important, do you understand?"

"No!" Yukina argued. "You're just being stubborn!"

"Shizuru, you should accept her help!" Keiko added, kneeling down beside Yukina. "Please! This is awful!"

Shizuru shook her head and released Yukina to point upwards as, unbelievably, Hiei jumped at the Lure again.

"He's going to die," she said. "He needs your help more than I do. You need to save your energy to help him."

Yukina looked up at Hiei, her hands slowly falling to her sides. Shizuru let her free hand fall to her forehead, closing her eyes and breathing heavily. She felt Yukina move away from her, and a shadow passed over her.

"Yukina!" she heard her brother say urgently. "What are you doing?"

"Shizuru is right," Yukina answered him. "I only have enough energy to heal one of them. And it has to be him."

"Shizuru is my sister, Yukina!" Kuwabara argued.

"And Hiei is my brother!"

Shizuru opened her eyes abruptly, lifting her hand to look over at Kuwabara as he stared back at a defiant Yukina.

"He just doesn't admit to it because he's so stubborn," Yukina continued. "Just like your sister is stubborn. And Botan is stubborn. And Keiko is stubborn. And so are you, sometimes, Kazuma! You are all too stubborn!"

Yukina glared around the others without a hint of irony as Shizuru and Keiko exchanged sceptical looks.

"Please, don't fight!" Ayame said to Yukina and Kuwabara. "And don't worry: I can heal Shizuru! It's not a problem for Yukina to save her energy to heal Dango!"

Kuwabara looked a little confused, but appeared to accept this solution. Ayame turned to Shizuru and smiled, but Shizuru shook her head and held up her hand to halt the ferry girl's progress.

"Nope, no, not you either, Boring!" she warned. "You need to save your energy for something else too!"

"What do you mean?" Ayame asked.

Shizuru sighed, looking up at the Lure, which was glaring at her accusingly.

"You know what else," she eventually said, moving her eyes back to Ayame and giving her a hard glare.

Ayame paused for a moment before a knowing look dawned on her face and she gave a soft "oh" of realisation.

"Please say you will at least let me help you," Kurama said, kneeling down by Shizuru's injured arm.

She eyed him over with thinned eyes.

"I can apply a natural antiseptic and anaesthetic, it will take away the pain, stop the bleeding and help the skin to heal, but you're going to need something stronger to fix your broken wrist," he explained.

"I don't need to heal anything," she replied. "Can you get that thing out of my arm though?"

"Yes, of course," Kurama replied.

"Then do it."

Kurama started to move his hands over Shizuru's arm, but stopped when Kuwabara rounded on him.

"You can't just rip that out of her, Kurama!" he cried.

"I wasn't going to," Kurama calmly replied.

"Hey, baby bro?" Shizuru said.

Kuwabara met her eyes.

"Look, I know this hasn't been an easy time for you," she said to him. "I'm sorry we never told you the truth about mom before, and I am really sorry you had to find out like this."

He nodded solemnly.

"And I'm sorry we never told you Hiei is Yukina's brother," she added.

"Wait, you knew?" he echoed.

Kuwabara looked around the others.

"We kinda all knew," Yusuke eventually admitted to him.

"I didn't!" Keiko said.

"Yeah, but everyone else did," Yusuke replied.

"Even Botan?" Keiko echoed.

"Botan knew?" Kuwabara wailed.

"It's probably the only time she's successfully kept a secret," Shizuru admitted.

"Calling it a "success" is perhaps a tad generous," Kurama said. "After all, she practically blurted it out several times."

"I knew long before Botan told me!" Yukina said indignantly.

"Which time?" Shizuru asked, managing a small laugh in spite of her pain.

"The first time," Yukina replied, smiling a little in spite of her irritation.

Shizuru sighed.

"Okay, fox boy," she said, moving her eyes to Kurama. "Do what you have to do – but do not damage that thing. I want it intact."

"Any particular reason why?" he asked.

"I want a weapon," Shizuru plainly replied. "Hiei said a sword isn't strong enough, but for how bad this thing hurts, I figure it will be."

Kurama looked a little confused, but set about retrieving jars of green paste from his coat pockets regardless. Shizuru closed her eyes and tensed as he began applying the paste around her torn skin. He worked gently, and, to her relief, the paste acted very quickly to numb her pain. Once the majority of her physical pain had passed, she opened her eyes and shifted her attention to Hiei and Botan, feeling a little defeated to find them still and silent, lost to the world, as though what she had done had made no difference: but, when she moved her eyes to the Lure, and saw its stump of a finger, she smiled. It had one less weapon to use against Hiei, and, finally, it was suffering.

And soon, she was going to kill it, using one of its own fingers as her weapon.


Next Chapter: Hiei finally frees Botan, but it takes everything he has left to give to get there. Shizuru and Ayame pursue the Lure as it flees, but this time, it isn't so keen to depart, and Shizuru shortly finds herself facing down the demon in a fight for her life. Chapter 34: You Hold the Key