Chapter 3:

Kurama started, his slumber dashed away by the incessant jingling of his communicator's contact jingle. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and flipped open the communicator. Koenma's voice rang out:

"Kurama, I need you here NOW! No, twenty minutes ago! Aw shoot, I don't know if all the time in the world could help us now, just COME ON!"

Kurama held the device away from his ear until the vocal tsunami subsided, then replied, "Yes, I will be there shortly. However, I have some strange events to report. I believe there are on-"

"I DON'T CARE WHAT THERE MIGHT BE! WHAT I HAVE ON MY PLATE RIGHT NOW BEATS ANYTHING YOU COULD COME UP WITH! THERE'S JUST NO TIME! Forget coming here, I'm sending Botan, it'll be quicker. Pack up some stuff. You'll be staying here temporarily. Good bye!"

Click

Just like that, Koenma was gone, and Kurama was almost dumbfounded. Something must be terribly wrong. Time to earn his keep, and besides, maybe this assignment would finally get him off the hook. He quickly threw his clothes on and stuffed a few essentials into his school book bag.

And at that point he felt it. Something was downstairs.

Something big...and powerful...

This must be what he was so worried about, Kurama mused to himself.

No point in running away from this one. Kurama slowly opened his bedroom door and walked down the stairs. A girl was standing in his doorway. He was taken aback. Could he have been fooled? His eyes darted back and forth, trying to piece the situation together.

"...Youko Kurama?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yes...I am Kurama", his gaze narrowed. What did this girl want? Something wasn't right.

She lowered her head and closed her eyes.

"Tell me why you are here, and how you know wh-"

He didn't get a chance to finish as a beam of shining spirit energy erupted from her body towards him. Kurama was engulfed by the spiritual deluge and slammed backwards, breaking through the drywall. He struggled back up, his eyes dangerously cold.

"Nice attack, it caught me off guard I will admit."

From his hair he pulled a rose, glowing and beautiful. A soft fragrance filled the room. With a flick of his hand, the rose elongated into his deadly, thorned whip. He wasted no time in launching a relentless barrage of lashes.

The girl had predicted this. Her arms began to glow blue, and spirit energy surrounded them in the shape of blades. She threw herself at Kurama's whirling whip, blocking strike after strike and adding her own attacks into the midst. They danced that way for what seemed like hours to Kurama, a fiery jig back and forth where one misstep meant the end. Kurama stopped attacking, only blocking while he searched for some way to gain the upper hand. She moved with an un-human like speed and precision. Kurama sensed what was going on inside her mind. She didn't think about how she was fighting, or what was going to happen next; she just fought. Someone had been inside her mind, programming her like one might program a machine.

The girl sensed a lull in his actions, and took her chance. One of the reiki blades dissipated, and she launched that fist towards Kurama, spirit energy propelling the hand to impact cruelly with his nose. Everything seemed to move in slow motion at that point. She heard a crack, and watched his eyes glaze over as he flew backwards with the force of the punch. She focused on the pure, beautiful energy she had been collecting from him and reformed the blade around her arm. Whirling around, she followed his trajectory, slashing him once! Twice! The attacks landed with such speed that he could not defend himself. She stopped, floating in the air as he continued backwards.

"SHINING VORTEX SLICER!"

She began to spin in circles, slowly at first, but quickly building up to hurricane-force speeds, sending arc after razor-sharp arc of spirit energy flying at the defenseless Kurama. Blood spilled and flew from his battered body as he finally impacted with a sofa, breaking under the force of his impact. He could only lay there and pant harshly, trying not to lose consciousness. The girl halted, watching him groan and bleed mournfully. He returned her gaze, his eyes full of pain but no sign of defeat. He gasped.

"L-listen...I know what has b..been done to you. We can...h...help..."

His strength gave out, and he could only lay there, coughing up blood pitifully.

She pondered something for a moment, before closing her eyes to focus inward. With a yell, she let out a massive wave of energy. It spread slowly, consuming and destroying the house in its advance. When the expanding force hit the kitchen, the gas range sparked, and exploded. The wave dissipated, and she stared at the inferno that sprang up, watching it begin its consumption of the small house, before she disappeared out the still-open door.

Kurama looked up, his vision fading. The house burned like a wildfire, but he had not the strength to move. He heard a voice, far off in the distance.

"Kurama? KURAMA? O..Oh no! H-hang on! We're getting out of here!"

The peaceful darkness crept up, and he gave himself over to it.

Kyle slowly exited the plane, savoring the chance to stretch his legs walking across the pavement. He headed for the terminal, not wanting to waste any time. To him, it wasn't just walking away from the plane, or flying away from his home for that matter. To Kyle, it had been getting away from the dark thoughts that threatened to encompass him, and leaving them behind, going forward to start the next section of his life.

That's how she would have wanted me to feel...

He shook off those ever-pleasant yet sad memories before they could emerge from the waters of his mind. As he entered the terminal, he saw his bags on the conveyor to his right. Picking them up, he also spotted the man who matched the picture in his knapsack. He was older, his hair thinning on top and graying all over, but his eyes were sharp, the eyes of an observer, a studier of things. The man spotted him and walked forward, offering his hand warmly.

"Kyle Greene, good to see you, it has been far too long!"

He took the offered hand, gazing into the face of his mother's trusted friend and colleague.

"It's nice to see you too, Dr. Takemori. Thank you for being here to help me take care of things."

"It was the least I could do. I know no words can ever possibly mean enough, but for what it is worth, I am very sorry about your mother's passing. She was a dear friend, and back when we both worked in the GeniSys labs, all she would ever speak of was how proud she was of you. Ha, she practically made me swear to look after you if anything ever happened to her. But listen to me chatter. This rambling, I'm sure, is doing nothing to help you feel better. Let's go, we have a bit of a car ride ahead of us, plus all this damned paperwork to go through."

Kyle wanted desperately to be alone at that moment. But he followed the man, trusting him as his mom did. He could sleep on the ride there. He wasn't sure why, but Kyle felt himself growing hopeful that he might see Suichi again, through a dream. He really needed a friend.

"Will ya just give us a straight answer, you loon?" Yusuke was losing patience with this reikai doctor Koenma had brought in. "I don't care if you don't know anything for sure, just tell us what you're thinking at least!" He broke his eye contact, seething as he looked upon the mess that was left of his friend.

Kurama was in a sad state. His luxurious long, red hair was scorched and seemed dull in color. Cuts, burns and bruises covered his arms and torso. His soft face hung still in a state of lifeless suspension, and his breathing was extremely shallow.

The doctor sighed, people never understood, they just wanted to know everything, right then.

"What I'm trying to say is that we don't know if he'll make it. It all depends on whether he survives these initial injuries or not. If he does, he should be fine. But right now there's no way to know. We've done all we can. He most likely would have died already had it not been for the quick thinking of your friend. Now, if you'll please excuse me, I must be going. I will be back later. Let's see how much longer his luck holds."

Yusuke resisted the urge to slug the doctor (Keiko had really been getting on his ass about his temper lately. She would find out. She always found out), and ran his hands through his hair instead. Kuwabara simply sat in the corner, lost in thought. The doctor left, and as Koenma was still debriefing Botan on the matter, it was just them for the moment. Three friends, one stuck in that place between the living and the dead, fighting his way back to the surface.

"Come on, Kurama, you can't give up on us right now..."

Kyle was pleasantly surprised by his first few days at Sarayashiki Junior High. Although he felt alienated from the other students, that didn't really matter to him. He was used to being alone. Besides, one of his teachers and Dr. Takemori made sure to keep up with him, and he knew he would have someone to contact if needed.

He had made one friend already, and that was enough for him. In fact, he was standing outside, waiting for her now. She was American, like him, and his age, too. They were planning on spending the afternoon studying at his place, a small flat that his mother had left behind money to buy and pay for, at least for the moment while he finished school.

Kyle couldn't help but wonder where Suichi was, though. After they repelled the onslaught of the foul demons invading his dream, Suichi had expressed such an earnest excitement in wanting to meet Kyle in person. Apparently, they had a lot to talk about.

"Hey, Kyle, you ready?" a voice called out to him. He turned in its direction and saw a young girl (no, she was a young woman, as his mom probably would have said to him) walking his way and waving. Her almost shoulder-length brown hair blew backwards in the slight afternoon breeze, and he could almost make out her green eyes from where he was standing. He smiled and waved back, matching her stride as she caught up to him, and they began to walk home.

She had not been one to give herself over to emotions, at least not after her operation (she wasn't sure about before, but the master assured her that her previous life was irrelevant), but she could not help but to feel a sense of triumph at how easy this assignment had been so far. She mentally compared Kyle with her internal checklist she had memorized:

Blue-green eyes? Check.

Shaggy, blonde hair? Check.

Average frame and build; around five feet and eleven inches; wearing a pair of somewhat road-worn green All-Stars? Check, check, and check.

"Hey, Anna, how are you?" he asked.

Anna, why did I pick that name when he asked for one? IT was just the first one to pop up I guess.

And of course that energy, that strange power emanating from him. It was so pure to her, and so foreign. Probably why the master had him targeted. Her job was to get close to him, find out some info, and eventually, subdue and bring him in. How clichéd, she mentally sighed. She had been getting bored lately with her assignments. Bored, and, well, other things.

Remorseful, for one. After decimating Youko, she'd had the strangest urge, to run over, and hold him and cry. It vanished just as fast as it came, but she couldn't get that image out of her head. Dangerous thoughts. She was a machine. Pure focus and precision, and she needed to stay that way.

By now they had reached Kyle's place. It was a nice little four-room flat. Living room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. Much more of a western-style place. None of the sliding doors, although the table was low down to the floor. He offered to make some food, and she accepted.

Maybe this won't take too long, she thought to herself.

And before she knew it, hours had passed. There was an almost unreal difference with Kyle when he was in a secure place, and in his comfort zone. He joked and joshed about once or twice a second, it felt like, and he had her laughing like she never had before (at least, not that she could remember). Something seemed to break down inside of her, and her composure slipped bit by bit until it finally took a detour out the window. They laughed and ate and chatted about everything. Some biology was even studied. Kyle turned out to be a captivating lecturer, explaining random functions of hormones and enzymes in the human body. The evening finally began to wind down. They retired to the sofa, watching game shows since nothing else worthwhile seemed to be on. She was just getting drowsy, and slightly leaning her head on his shoulder when the lightning bolt struck inside her mind.

A horrible wave of pain, pure sickening pain rolled over her. She instinctively curled up into a ball and fell off the couch, whimpering, as the fire inside her began to swell, and grow.

Kyle was down beside her in a flash, his face a picture of horrified concern.

"A-anna? Anna? What's wrong? Are you okay?"

She could only stare back pitifully, it simply hurt too much to speak. She sobbed, rolling around, digging and ripping at herself with her hands as the pain, which felt ten times worse than the one she had experienced upon waking after the surgery, wracked her body with spasms.

"Please make it stop oh god why won't it stop PLEASE HELP MAKE IT STOP!" she screeched out, to no one in particular.

Kyle had no idea what to do, he could not think of a reason for what could be causing so much extreme spiking pain. As her sobs and cries intensified, he felt like his soul was being slowly ripped out of him, and he did the only thing he could think of.

He lunged forward, grabbing her tightly in an embrace, pulling her head into his neck while she struggled. He held her as tight as he possibly could, willing with everything he had that whatever she was feeling leave.

For Anna, something magical happened. Slowly, ever so slowly, the pain calmed and quelled and slowly began to go away. It was a miracle, she would rather die than hurt that bad ever again. She could only lay there, sobbing exhaustedly into Kyle's shoulder. After a while, she looked up at him, into his soft eyes, so worried even now. She felt so many strange emotions flowing, unfamiliar ones, alien ones. She leaned up, forcing her lips onto his.

He tensed slightly, out of surprise more than anything, but relaxed and returned the kiss. She hung onto him with a death grip, not wanting to lose any space between them, not knowing why but wanting more and more from him. Her hands grasped and pulled at his back, trying to force his body onto hers as much as possible. She was a slave to the emotions she worked so hard to banish now, and she gave herself over to them. He pulled off his shirt, and then hers, tossing them aside as Anna ground her hips deliciously into his. She unhooked her bra, exposing her breasts and moaning lustily as he gently massaged one, both of them still locked in an ever-more passionate kiss. He tenderly lifted her up and carried her to his room as she whispered in his ear, driving him crazy.

"Ohh, fuck, come on Kyle, don't keep me waiting, not for this..."

He lowered her down to the bed softly and climbed over top of her as they continued to kiss slowly, deeply. They stared into each other's eyes as they succumbed to the feelings raging around inside them, and Kyle took her, took everything she had to offer, and more.

NFTA: Hi guys, sorry if the random sex scene seemed, well, out of place, or irrelevant or whatever. It's just how I pictured things working out in my mind. Also, sorry again for the late late update. College has a bad habit of taking your recreation time and murdering it ._. as always reviews/criticism/unabounding praise are all appreciated greatly.