I dedicate this chapter to Commander Spork, great war hero of the Salt and Pepper Wars, now MIA. He was my right hand man. He was a great leader among sporkians. He may be lost, but not forgotten.

I also dedicate this chapter to the real-life VT, who you, the reader, should be thanking as she is the one who is always pushing me to write this story as well as helping me come up with great ideas!

blah -typed

blah -telepathy

'blah' -thought

(blah) –translation

Farewell Butterfli

By Ryoken

Mizu woke up with a start. The real world came back to her with a sudden lurch. She had been dreaming. Dreaming about Hiei, but…what? She shook the sleep from her head, and suddenly felt a renewed headache coming on that reminded her of her injuries.

Groaning, Mizu sat up and saw Hiei lying slumped sitting up against the wall, as though asleep. She went to stand up when Hiei's eyelids flew open, startling her back into sitting down.

"What's wrong?" He asked, not moving from his spot.

"Nothing. Just thought I'd walk around, clear my head," she replied.

He seemed to think about it a moment, then shook his head. "That would not be wise. You're still recovering from-"

"I'll be fine! Really! Just wanna walk around the fire a few times, geez!" She said, standing up. The rush of blood to her head made her woozy and off-balance, forcing her to sit back down.

"I told you you weren't well enough," he smirked. His gaze fell from her face to the tunnel entrance next to him. It was as though something had caught his attention.

"What is it?" Mizu asked.

"They shouldn't have made it so far…" He whispered quietly to himself. "I underestimated them."

"Who are you talking about?" She asked, concern lining her voice. He looked back at her, deep in thought. It was a few minutes before he replied.

"Our…guests," he said.

"What guests?"

He went over to her and placed a hand on her head. "I'll show you; close your eyes." She did as she was told. In an instant, her vision hovered over the forest and she could see people walking along a path. There were three boys, and a girl, all of which looked familiar, especially the girl, who was doing some sort of strange march. "These people…are coming for you," Hiei said, bringing her mind back to the cave.

"Coming for me? What for?" She asked, not sure she wanted to know.

"To take you back," he said bluntly. She seemed confused. "There's so much you need to know, that I want to tell you," he said. "But I can't. Not yet. I know this is all so very confusing, but you must believe that what I say or do is for everyone's well being. Can you give me a little faith?" Mizu looked at him curiously, wanting to know more about what he was talking about, but nodded, if not a little concerned.

Seeing the look on her face, Hiei smiled and cusped her face with his hand. "Thank you. Don't worry; I will not let any harm come to you." He hesitated a moment, wanting to do something more to comfort her, but decided against it, and left the cave.

"What the hell is going on…"

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"Oh you have GOT to be kidding me…" Yusuke said. In front of the companions, down a very serpentine and steep path, were glowing arrows. They seemed to head in the general direction that the cave at the bottom of the path was.

"Let us follow the yellow brick arrows!" VT shouted, and indeed, the glowing arrows were made from yellow bricks.

"Are you sure we should follow the arrows? I mean, they could be leading us into another trap," Kuwabara said, using the brains that got him into a university.

"Nooooo, we must follow the arroooooooooooooooooowss!" VT said again.

"This is stupid, I'm just gunna take the shortest route there, straight on through!" Yusuke declared with a grin. He started stomping confidently off in the general direction of the house.

"I suppose we should make sure he doesn't get himself into anymore trouble," Kurama sighed as he and Kuwabara followed Yusuke off the path.

"But we must follow the-" VT began to say, pouting. Torn between following her lovable companions, except for Kuwabara, in her opinion, and following the arrows, she finally made up her mind that sticking together would be for the best. "Guys, I think we're being followed…" She said. A faint swoosh sound followed by a CRASH ensued, and soon a rumbling sound began to draw near. When the sound became loud enough, the four could see the dangerous monster finally closing in on them: a boulder covered in grotesque spikes, pointed and fragmented teeth and bones, krises (wavy daggers), normal daggers, knives, can openers, forks, and even (gasp) the dreaded sporks.

"Whoever set these traps must've been running out of resources to be using sporks," Kuwabara said, his voice panicky as they began running straight down the hill.

"I TOLD YOU WE SHOULDA FOLLOWED DA PATH!" VT scolded as she flailed and ran.

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"Now where are they," Hiei thought quietly to himself. He soon heard the answer to his question in the form of yelling and a rumble. He looked to his left and saw the four teens racing by him, the boulder trap bounding down the hill after them. "Well, at least they weren't all a waste of time," he snickered. Then when he looked where the four companions were running to, the smirk was wiped off his face instantly. "Reim!"

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"What in the name of Kami-sama is that noise?" Mizu pondered. She got up to go out of the tunnel when Hiei appeared in front of her. He seemed in a panic.

"We have to get out of here, NOW!" He shouted. Wasting no time, he picked her up bridal-style and barely escaped when the barreling boulder rammed straight into the mouth of the cave. The sudden impact, however, started up a whole new rumbling sound, one that came from above them. They, including the "guests" who had been running from the boulder, looked up to see an impending avalanche rushing towards them. They all scrambled to their different ideas of safe ground: a tree, ground that was further up the slope, but their ideas were all swept away in the mass of sand and rocks that crashed into the surrounding area. After a few minutes, the rumbling ended, and the scene of destruction was complete.

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As the dust started settling, coughing, and a sneeze or two, could be heard from the rubble.

"Is everyone alright?" Came a calm voice, followed by a cough from the others.

"Yeah, I think so. Kuwabara? VT?" said another voice. The question was answered by two different coughs.

"Well, at least we got to the cave..." Kuwabara said. VT hit him upside the head. "Hey, what was that for!"

"MIZU WAS IN THE CAVE!" She shouted angrily. Then her face went into a thoughtful expression. "Or at least we think she is...was...whatever!" VT turned to start looking through the debris, calling out Mizu's name.

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In a different area of the rubble, something stirred. A woman in tattered jeans and a ripped shirt with bandages and new scratches emerged from a pile of pebbles, dust and sand falling off her back. She coughed a few times and wiped dust from around her eyes.

"Hiei," Mizu called out softly. She coughed some more. Crawling on hands and knees, she went through the rubble, softly calling out Hiei's name. She suddenly saw a hand wrapped in a bandage and recognized it as Hiei's. Filled with renewed worry, she fumbled over to him and pushed what rocks and debris she could off of him, but a large branch of a tree was pinning his body from the chest down. She could see that he was barely conscious.

"Hiei? Hey! Stay with me, Hiei!" She whispered harshly, trying to keep him conscious.

"They're coming…" He managed to murmur. Mizu looked over her shoulder and saw the familiar looking girl approaching. When the girl saw Mizu, she shouted behind her, alerting her associates to her whereabouts.

"Damnit. Don't die, Hiei, or I'll kill you," she said. These people…the boulder had come from the same direction as they did. Somehow they were responsible for the rockslide that had nearly killed Hiei and her!

"Well it's about time we found you, Mizu…Hey, what's with the mad face?" The one in green asked. But she didn't hear him. Something inside her had snapped, and things were about to get ugly.

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"MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIZZUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" VT screeched as she opened her arms wide and pressed forward to glomp her dear friend. But she was suddenly thrown back by an invisible force before she could close half the distance to her and went crashing into some of the rocks. As VT sat up, a look of confusion and pain crossed her face.

"What the hell? Hey, what's the deal, Mizu!" Yusuke yelled, obviously just as confused.

A sudden glow of dark blue came over her eyes, and Mizu lifted her right hand, palm facing the four. VT yelped in surprise as pain came to the surface across her left arm. She looked down and saw a thin layer of blood trickling down her arm. 'Mizu…What…What did they do to you…?' VT thought. She yelped again as more of the stings came, grazing her arms, legs, and face.

"HEY, knock it off, Mizu! That's enough!" Yusuke shouted. He was about to make a move of his own when he almost fell on his face. Surprised by his inability to move, he looked down and saw that vines had grown tightly around his ankles and were not about to let go. Kurama and Kuwabara, noticing the direction Yusuke was looking in, looked to their own feet and saw that they too had been ensnared in the plants. "If you think this is helping, VT, it isn't! Make em let us go!"

"I can't do that, Yusuke," VT said solemnly. Her hands dropped to her side and turned into fists. "Mizu isn't herself."

"Well, no duh! That's why we gotta take her down-"

"No! This is something I've got to do on my own. I don't think you'd be of too much help with something like this," she said with a sad smile.

"But-!"

"Let her do this, Yusuke," Kurama said gently. "I think I understand what it is she means to try. However, it would be wise to free us, VT."

She turned her head to glance at them, and gave them a slight grin. "And it would be unwise to have you interfere." She snapped her fingers and the plants around their feet grew into large protective nut-like shells, enveloping the three Spirit Detectives and muffling anything they said.

'Amazing…I've never seen such a thing…' Kurama awed. He tried to reach out with his spirit energy to bring out his rose whip, but he couldn't access it. 'Hmm. The same as Yusuke…What is going on around here…'

"It's just you and me now, Mizu," VT said. "What did they do to you? Why are you acting this way?" She pleaded. But her only answer was more of the stings slicing her skin.

Suddenly, water started to seep up from the rubble and float into the air surrounding Mizu. At first they were only spheres about as big as her hand. But then they all started to morph, and became floating shuriekens. VT raised her crossed arms in front of her to brace herself for the pain that was sure to come when they all started to spin and throw themselves at her. The shuriekens, sharp as they were, bore deep wounds into VT, wounds much deeper than the grazing stings had left. Some of the shuriekens further opened the wounds made by the grazes, others did grazing of their own, and some stuck themselves deep into VT's blocking arms and legs, sticking out of them like thorns. Her clothes had many rips and tears and blood was soaking through.

Fearing for BOB's safety, VT threw her beanie with the rubber duck inside to the side near some debris. It was fortunate that she picked that moment because no sooner did she do so, a coil of water, solidified enough to pick up objects, wrapped itself around her middle, pinning her arms. The coil, which had been summoned straight out of the ground behind VT, lifted her high into the air. It kept her there for a few moments, giving VT a decent view of her surroundings and the debris below her, until the coil began throwing her into the rocks, crashing through plaster and wood, breaking her bones and tearing flesh. By the time the coil had dragged her through most of the debris, VT was a bloodied mess, but alive.

"Please…don't do this…Mizu…" She pleaded. But Mizu couldn't hear her words. The coil slightly unwrapped itself from VT and hung her in front of Mizu, who hadn't taken a step since the battle had begun. Mizu then changed tactics. Instead of using the water at her disposal, she simply began punching and kicking VT in the face, the stomach, the side, with no emotion in her expression. Her glowing eyes flared fiercely with each hit that she made.

"Damnit, Reim...you have to stop…" Hiei murmured, watching the entire battle from where he was pinned. 'She mustn't die…'

'I mustn't…I can't keep control…anymore…what IS this…!' VT thought as her power threatened to take control over her body. It suddenly became too much for her mind to handle and the power surged forth. Just as Mizu's eyes glowed a dark blue, VT's eyes blazed a dark green.

Caught off guard, Mizu jumped back from VT, preparing herself for an attack. From behind VT, large thorny plants quickly grew from the ground and the poisonous thorns shot out from the stalks towards Mizu. But what VT hadn't seen were a pair of hands made from water rising up from behind the stalks to choke the remaining life out from her. Mizu began to dodge the thorns, but they were attuned to her own energy signature and nothing but a direct hit would stop them.

'NO!' VT thought. Re-restraining her bubbling powers that yearned to protect itself and therefore returning her eyes to normal, VT ran to the left, where Mizu was standing, about to dodge, and shoved her out of the way of the thorns just as they were coming to ingrain themselves into Mizu. At the same time, the hands caught VT by the throat and lifted her off the ground, choking her, as were their instructions.

'She…saved me…?' Mizu thought.

Weakened by the earlier attacks, VT barely managed to raise her hands to her throat. Out of instinct for survival, she tried with what little energy she had left to pry the hands off of her, but it was no use. In a matter of moments, VT's consciousness faded and her hands dropped lifelessly to her sides.

The glow of Mizu's power in her eyes vanished, and the watery hands that had been choking VT plopped to rocks and splattered back into a puddle beneath the wreakage, dropping VT to the ground like a rag doll. Mizu, released of the strange powers that had possessed her, fell to her hands and knees, confusion set in her eyes.

Suddenly, the strange plants enshrouding the three boys withered like a rose and dissipated into the soil, freeing them. Seeing their comrade beaten to a bloody pulp, they raced to her limp form, calling out to her.

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Mizu's gaze stared hard into the dirt in front of her. Why. If these people had intended to harm them, why weren't they doing so? Had she assumed too much about their connection to the boulder? She raised her head and looked at the three gathered around the limp form. Mizu slowly got up from the ground and started to cautiously approach them. The one in the green suit spun around to face her, a death glare plastered on his face. The boy came up to her and gripped her by the shoulders.

"What the fuck, Mizu! She was your best friend!" He shouted, shaking her.

"My…friend…?"

"YES! What the hell is the matter with you!"

"Who…Who are you people…?" Mizu looked up into his eyes as tears began to flow down her cheek, confused and alone.

The tears defeating him, the boy couldn't keep that angry look on his face. He put an arm around her shoulders and led her to the others. "I'll explain on the way back to human world." He seemed to suddenly recall something. "Oh hey, you wouldn't happen to know where that damn Hiei is, would you?"

"Oh god, I forgot!" Horrified, Mizu ran through the debris to the tree she had seen Hiei lying under, the boy in green and the one in blue following hastily. He was conscious, but just barely, and wearing a painful scowl on his face. He looked up at Mizu, not saying a word, but looking as though he was disappointed in her.

The boy in green bent down from the waist and sniffed once or twice. Then a maniacal grin overtook him. "Well, well, if it isn't a demon in a demon! How quaint," he said, chuckling. "Must be a parasite demon!" He took off his jacket and handed it to Mizu. "Take that over to VT, I'm sure she's gunna need it."

The name struck a chord in Mizu's memory. She nodded slowly and hurried to where the boy in the pinkish suit was trying and failing to heal her injuries.

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Hiei grinned. "Do either of you really think you can defeat me without any of your spirit energy, let alone while I'm in this demon's body?" His voice had melded into that of the parasite and Hiei speaking at the same time.

"Considering your own predicament, I think it shouldn't be too difficult," Yusuke replied.

Hiei grinned and laughed. "Then why don't you try to defeat me in my true form!" His laugh became obstructed as something was working it's way up his throat. Suddenly, hundreds of black and gray-colored butterflies that had wings with jagged edges flew from his throat. Once the last had gone from him, Hiei's eyes rolled back in his head and became unconscious. The butterflies in their flock swirled in a tornado-like fashion and, like a vampire with bats, formed a humanoid body.

The strange demon stood a head above Yusuke with silver hair that was gathered in a loose ponytail that came to the small of his back. He wore a black tank top and a black trench coat that was cut into jagged strips at the bottom. His pants were a dark gray and wore leather boots that came up just below his knees. His skin was pale, his ears pointed, his nails sharpened, and he had large black and gray translucent fairy-like wings with the same jagged feature, on his back. And of course he had the common pointed fangs.

The demon smiled confidently, baring his fangs. "Come then, show me how I will be so easily defeated," he said softly.

"I'll take him! SPIRIT SWORD!" Kuwabara shouted. But the sword didn't form. "What the-!"

The demon laughed at Kuwabara's stupidity. "I did say that you couldn't use your spirit energy, now didn't I?"

"How the hell did you do tha-!" Yusuke began to ask when the demon suddenly lurched forward and punched the two in their stomachs, sending them flying into the rubble.

"Now then…"

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"Will…Will she be alright?" Mizu asked the boy who told her his name was Kurama.

"If we can get her out of demon world as soon as possible, she might stand a good chance, but-" Kurama was saying as he was suddenly hit out of nowhere into some nearby rubble. Mizu looked up to see a strange-looking figure towering over her as he took hold of her lower wrist and gently but swiftly pulled her to her feet.

"Reim," Mizu's eyes opened wide in surprise at the name coming from this stranger. "I know you don't recognize me, but I hope you will remember what I asked of you," he said. Then he looked very sad at her. "Forgive me." He suddenly picked her up by what was left of the collar of her shirt. "I'll make this as painless as possible." He then retracted his arm back and threw Mizu like a rag doll into a nearby pile of rocks.

Mizu could only see blurs as he knelt down beside VT and took up her hand. He placed one of his hands on top of hers and began chanting unintelligible words. She wanted to stop him, but she couldn't move her legs. She heard a shout from the right and when the demon turned around, he changed into the flock of strange butterflies and took off. The boy in green and the one in blue came from around the corner and began coming to her, but Mizu could see nothing but darkness as she passed out from the pain throbbing in the back of her head.

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Okay, that's it! Read and review! The next chapter's gunna be a bit more uplifting and funny!