(Li-Sanya's POV)

When I woke up, it took me a moment to remember where I was. Looking around, I saw three shapes more or less grouped together. I could just make out Botan's blue hair and Keiko and Yusuke's faces. The only one missing was Kurama.

Thinking about Kurama, I remembered the knife wound. Looking down, I could see blood still on my clothes, but the wound itself was healed. I frowned slightly; Botan would have been drained after healing Yusuke and possibly Keiko, too drained to heal me to this degree, anyway, and Yusuke and Keiko had no healing powers that I knew of, so that left Kurama.

Just as I came to that conclusion, I saw some movement across the nearly empty room. I tensed, automatically placing my hand to where my dagger usually was before remembering that I had lost it a few days ago to some mugger dude. So I prepared my aura sword instead. If whatever had moved was going to attack and was counting on me being too injured to fight, they'd get one heck of a surprise.

In fact, I was so prepared to strike that when Kurama spoke, I nearly killed him anyway.

"You can relax, I'm not going to attack you after spending a considerable amount of energy healing you." Kurama stepped out of the shadows, carrying several blankets. "If you're feeling up to it, you can help me with these." He continued, indicating the blankets with his head.

I nodded and got up, letting the aura sword dissipate. For a moment, I felt a bit of dizziness and had to steady myself against the wall until it passed. Kurama looked at me, a slightly worried expression on his face.

"Of course, if you're not, you should rest." He said, I shook my head.

"No, I'm feeling fine. I just stood up too fast." I said quickly, not wanting him to think of me as weak. I smiled slightly to show I really was okay. Kurama looked doubtful, but didn't say anything more.

I helped him place the blankets over Botan, Keiko and Yusuke. When we had finished, we sat down against the wall, slightly worn out. We were both silent for a moment, then I turned to Kurama, still not entirely certain about something.

"So, you were the one who healed me?" I was already pretty sure of the answer, but I wanted to be absolutely certain.

"Yes, Botan was too drained after healing Yusuke after using her energy to protect him for so long." I nodded; that had been what I had expected to hear. He turned to look at me, seeming curious about something as well. "Hey. Earlier, before we got here, you called me a fox. How did you know I was a fox demon?" I glanced at him, surprised. Then I remembered; I hadn't told him who I was, or what.

"I could see it." I replied quietly, not looking at him. He returned the surprised look.

"You could see it? How?" He asked, incredulous.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I just look at some one and it appears like a color in their aura and I know. It just happens."

He was quiet a moment before turning to me again. "So, who are you? And what are you?" He said quietly. "No human could have figured it out on their own that I was a fox demon. Besides, you said you'd tell me after we were done here."

I sighed, figured he'd remember, especially since foxes have good memories (or, at lest the ones I knew did). "So I did." I said just as quietly, still not looking at him. "So I did." I took a deep breath to gather the courage to say what I hadn't told anyone for the past 478 years. "My name…My name is Li-Sanya."

Kurama blinked, then scowled slightly as he realized what that meant. "Li-Sanya? But wasn't that the name of-"

"-The Makai queen?" I finished his sentence. He nodded. "Yes it was and still is, though I no longer hold that position." His scowl deepened.

"But Li-Sanya died over 500 years ago!" He protested. I shook my head slowly.

"No, she didn't." I said slowly. "She only set it up so it would seem like she died. The body that was buried was one of the maids assigned to me, given my appearance." I smiled slightly. "It was trivial work for the most powerful demon in the Makai, though I'll admit that there was a certain thief king who was rumored to be almost as powerful. Though, it's now said that he died about fifteen years ago." I said thoughtfully. Looking sideways at Kurama, I raised my eyebrows innocently. "I don't suppose you knew him, did you?" Kurama tried to hide his surprise and apprehension, and failed.

"How did you know?" He asked, settling on a simply confused look.

"Oh, the Makai Queen knows all." I said mysteriously. Then I switched back to being serious. "But seriously, if I was still the Makai Queen, I would probably have to fight and, possibly, kill you if you turned out to be as strong as the rumors say. Lucky for you, I'm not. Not anymore, though I suppose if I try, I could get the title and position again." I had been smiling slightly to take the barb off my words, but now my face fell. "Or, rather, I could if I had all my powers."

Kurama's expression became confused again. "You don't have all your powers?" I shook my head.

"Nope. Right now, I currently have…oh, only about a twentieth of what I started out with today and that was only half of my original power." I said simply and casually. Kurama's eyebrows skyrocketed.

"What?! How could that happen?" He exclaimed, leaning forward slightly. I looked at him.

"You can't figure it out?" I asked, frowning slightly. I had thought this guy was the former thief king, so he should have at least figured it out by now. Maybe I had been wrong…

"Well, yeah, but I mean…who could do that? And to you!" He now seemed worried as well, probably since whoever had reduced my powers had to be at least as powerful as I used to be.

I sighed. "A curse doesn't have to be cast by someone more powerful than the victim." I explained slowly, as if to a particularly dense student. This was obviously new to him. "As long as the victim does not have sufficient barriers against that particular curse type, or even the curse itself, just about anyone can cast the curse." I closed my eyes, remembering. "I was asleep when he came. As usual, I had the barriers up around my quarters and especially around myself, but he still managed to get in. Before I was fully awake, since the breaking of my barriers had woken me, he had put these on me and cast the curse." I held up my wrists, the two thick black bands glinting dully in the moonlight. "I never did see his face, but I remember his voice…I'll never forget it…" I trailed off, lost in the memory.

I blinked, trying to clear the sleepiness from my eyes so I could see my unwelcome visitor more clearly. "What the-?" I was cut off by his kneeling next to where I was propped up on several large cushions. He placed his hands around my wrists. They felt warm, almost hot, as if he was burning with fire. As they started to glow, I suddenly realized what he was doing and I started to defend myself, but it was too late, the curse had been cast. The demon stood and I could see his red eyes glinting in the shadows, reflecting the dim light of the candle still burning next to my bed.

"There now, that didn't hurt did it?" Then he laughed, a deep chuckle that chilled my heart and sent a shiver up and down my spine. "Or, at least, it hasn't yet!" Then he was gone, the window's curtain swinging in the breeze as he left out the window, the same way he'd come in.

I stood to call my servants in, but as I opened my mouth, I felt sharp pains coming from my wrists. Looking down, I saw thin strands of black energy crackling around the bands that were now wrapped around my wrists. The black energy started to travel up my arms and I collapsed to the ground, in pain and unable to call out for help. Eventually, I simply passed out from the agony.

"These cuffs limited my powers, cutting them to about a quarter." I continued after a moment. "But a curse like this had to have several key components, to help keep the curse in place, and one major key that would activate or deactivate the curse and be the hinge point of the curse. The lesser components were fairly easy to discover and counter, so today I had about half of my original power, but the rest was locked away with the major one, and, although I know what it is, I can't counter it. It's impossible for me." I sighed as I finished talking and I glanced at Kurama to see his reaction. I was a bit uneasy about how he'd take it, seeing as I hadn't even told anyone my name, much less how I had fallen out of power as the Makai Queen, for over four and a half centuries. Why I had told him, I had no idea, but it felt like a great weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. I didn't have the feeling that I had a great and terrible secret anymore.

Kurama stared at the floor, obviously thinking pretty deeply about something, and, although I could have easily entered his mind to figure out what he was thinking about, I was content to simply let him think for a while. Finally, he sighed and looked back up at me.

"Well, interesting though that is…" He began and I bit my lip slightly, "…It still doesn't tell me how you knew my name." I blinked, caught off balance.

"Uhh…your name?" I was still a bit confused; I'd been expecting something like, "Prove you're the Makai Queen," or something.

"Yes, my name." He repeated. "I don't believe I've ever met you, so I wouldn't have told you my name, and even if you had found it out in the Ningenkai, the name you would have probably gotten from a description of me would be Shuichi Minamino, my human name, and that's not what you've been calling me." He said in one breath.

"Oh. That." I said, finally understanding. "Well, that's easy. Botan told me your name and gave me a description." He seemed a little put off by this, since he'd probably been expecting some other odd way that I had know his name like I'd known what he was.

"Oh, okay." He blinked. Then something else seemed to occur to him. "So, how did you know Botan?"

"Oh, we've been best friends for about…75 years, now." I said flippantly, waving my hand in the air. He ducked as I waved my hand through the space his head had previously occupied. "Oh, sorry. Anyway, she tells me just about everything, so I've known about you guys since the beginning."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and, actually, I was there when you saved your mom." I told him casually, wanting to surprise him even more. I succeeded. He didn't even make the connection that if I had been there, then I would've gotten his real name from that and not from Botan like I'd said.

"What?! How did you know about that?!" He exclaimed so loudly, Yusuke groaned and rolled over. He immediately lowered his voice. "Tell me."

"I can change my appearance, you know." I said, just as casually. "Just because you didn't see me doesn't mean I wasn't there."

"Huh." Was all he said. I frowned at the thoughtful tone, not knowing what the reason was.

"Hey! It's not like I was stalking you, you know! I was actually following Yusuke at that point." I informed him, crossing my arms defensively.

"Whatever." He said. Then he yawned and, looking surprised, glanced up at the sky. We had talked through the night. "Huh, it's morning already. We'd better wake these sleeping beauties up." I grinned.