DIMS: Ok, chapter three is up.

Mara: I think they can see that.

DIMS: Go away Mara, I'm irritable enough without your sarcasm

Era:(whispers) she hasn't gotten to sleep before midnight in nearly two weeks)

DIMS: What she said.

Botan: (comes in through door) You sure look grumpy.

DIMS: (looks at her in rage) (takes baseball bat from dimensional pocket) DIE YOU HAPPY PERSON!!!!

Yusuke: Eh...chapter start

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When we got to the temple there was no time for Morashino to get settled in. We found Genkai collapsed in the dining hall, covered in her own blood and hardly breathing. She said in between her gasps that Keiko had been kidnapped. "We've got to save her!" Yusuke said.

"I'm not coming," I stated flatly.

"Mara!" Yusuke almost begged. "Please, we need you! Keiko needs you!"

"But I hate Keiko," I said. I turned and helped Yukina tend to Genkai as the others followed the energy trail of the demon.

Hiei's POV

We started the search for Urameshi's obnoxious girlfriend. I understood Girl's loathing of her. She always needs to be saved and she always wants to get her way. We followed a trail of Youki through the forest. It seemed too easy.

"This is too easy," Kurama said, "Almost as if someone set this path knowing we would follow"

"Who cares as long as we get to Keiko!" Yusuke yelled and ran on. At the end of the trail was a cave. In that cave there was a demon, a very big and powerful demon.

Mara (Girl)'s POV

I hear the sound of battle coming from the mouth of the cave. I had left Morashino in the care of Yukina and a freshly healed Genkai and left in case they needed me. 'Idiots,' I thought, 'they didn't notice the side entrance. Fools!' I went in through the side door and found Keiko tied up. I unbound her quickly. The ropes had cut into her skin and there were large red welts when I removed it. As soon as her mouth was uncovered she began talking as though her life depended on it. "Mara! What are you doing here?"

"Shut up fool." was my sharp reply. I walked cautiously, followed by Keiko, into the adjoining room and saw Hiei, Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama fighting a large and powerful demon. It was like a huge green lump with hundreds of purple warts on it. It shot energy out of the lumps that bounced around until it hit its target. I told Keiko she might want to find shelter, so she ran back into the other room. I dredged up an enormous amount of ki. "Dragon of the Darkness Flame," I whispered under my breath, knowing that that was the only thing I could do that would be of any immediate help and understanding the consequences. As the dragon emerged, I yelled out, "Duck and cover!"

The other four, seeing the black dragon in the air, took my advice and hid behind some rubble. The dragon hit the enormous creature and it was instantly incinerated, leaving a monster size char in the wall behind it. The dragon disappeared, but its affects did not; my arm was severely burned. Yusuke and Kuwabara stared. They seem to be doing that a lot lately aren't they? "Are you sure she's only ten?" Yusuke gulped.

"She's only ten!!" Kuwabara exclaimed in shock.

"Yeah. I'm ten. I was born exactly ten years, six months, one week and two days ago." Kuwabara looked at me with googley eyes

"Wait, Where's Keiko!" Yusuke said worriedly, afraid that his precious girlfriend had gotten caught in the blast.

"Calm down detective," I said, yawning and concealing a wince as I shifted my burnt right arm, "She's in that room over there," I said, pointing with my uninjured left arm.

"Is that arm of yours alright?" Kurama asked when Kuwabara and Yusuke had gone to check on Keiko.

"Fine," I said curtly.

We headed back to Genkai's temple and I had to drag Kuwabara since he had fallen unconscious. Kurama had several broken ribs to worry about, Master Hiei was so badly injured he could hardly walk, and Yusuke was limping due to a broken leg. When we reached the main entry hall I dropped the dead weight with a grunt, took Morashino, and headed off to my rooms.

Not to my surprise Master Hiei followed me to my room and closed the door behind him. I put Morashino down on the bed and turned to face my mentor. "You can stop pretending," he said, looking meaningfully at my charred arm.

"Am I all that transparent?" I asked.

"No," he said smirking, "I just know how painful using that technique for the first time is."

"Right." I went into the bathroom and pulled out a large about of gauze and a small tin of burn ointment. As a wise person once said, "When working with fire, keep a supply of burn ointment handy." I applied the ointment to the burns that extended from the tips of my finger to my upper arm around halfway between my elbow and shoulder and bandaged the area thoroughly. I rolled my sleeve back down and put my cloak back on. Hiei had left a few minutes ago after inspecting the bandages to make sure they were applied properly.

I took Morashino by the hand and led him down to the dining hall. Everyone was already there and there was an extra chair between Keiko and Kurama. I lead the little one to the chair, but when I turned to leave he said, "Norsana,"(meaning, "Don't leave me,") and gave such a pleading look, that I turned around and said, "Larsion,"(meaning, "Okay,"), picked him up off the chair, sat on it, and placed him on my lap.

"So you'll be joining us for dinner then?" asked Keiko in a sugary sweet tone and a look on her face that clearly showed she thought she had won the battle. Ha! She may have one the battle, but she will lose the war!

"Hn," I said simply as I plotted the annoying onna's demise.

Just then Yukina put several platters of food on the table and took her place between Genkai and Kuwabara. I took a small amount pork off of one of the platters and put it on my plate, cutting it into small pieces for Morashino. I fed him the pieces one by one until he said, "Morta,"(meaning, "I'm, full). I took the remaining scraps of meat (there was only about four pieces left) and ate them. I noticed he was squirming in my lap so I excused myself and took the plate to the kitchen, washed it, and put it away. I walked out to a small garden on the side of the temple.

I pulled out a small rubber ball I had found in one of the cabinets and handed it to Morashino. I then jumped into a tree to keep watch over the child. He played contentedly for a while, but gave me sad looks every couple of minutes. Finally it got annoying. "Dragos?"(Meaning, "What") I said.

"Moshina topelar cora,"(meaning, "come out of that tree and play with me.") he said I raised and eyebrow at the kid's nerve for ordering me around, but just sighed and jumped out of the tree.

"Moresh notali motemo." (Meaning, "if you are as strong as you are smart mouthed then you should be a good fighter.) I told him.

He grinned and said, "Moltamei," (meaning, "I used to be a pretty good fighter back home) then he gave a sad look. I asked him why he hadn't fought when the demons back in his village threatened him and he said it was because they had somehow locked all of his energy away temporarily with a seal. It had broken soon after I had knocked them unconscious. I decided it was his bedtime and took him to my room. After putting him on the bed and turning off the light, I arranged with Genkai and Hiei for him to train with them along with me and to spar with the rest of the gang. I used Morashino being in my bed as an excuse to Keiko to sleep in a tree, which she hadn't let me do in a very long time.

The next day Morashino began his training. We started off the day with some basic exercises with ki, which he excelled at. With Yukina he learned to heal wounds, while I practiced on some people who had come to the temple for healing.

When the time came to spar, Kuwabara made the mistake of going easy on him. That day made me believe what he had said about being a great fighter. That day we also learned that he was a fire demon. Kinda odd, but I don't think he was around many of his kind. By the time most of his kind were seven, his age, they had already developed a short temper, but he was calm and kind. Over the next few weeks however, that would change and his true fire demon temperament would show itself. At one point I caught Yusuke thinking, 'Great, three Hiei's, (Morashino's personality was changing to one similar to mine and Hiei's at that point) what else does Satan have in store for me before I die!'

"I would recommend you don't think so loud," I told the startled spirit detective. Then we got our little revenge on him. He was stop, drop, and rolling for quite some time. But that is neither here nor there.

When he started training with Hiei for the first time I was worried for the boy. That quickly changed however when we saw that he was almost as fast as I, at around eighty-five percent of my strength when I was his age, and extremely well balanced. He had already mastered some basic fire techniques and Hiei began helping him sharpen those.

All in all, everyone was very impressed, and everyone became attached to the small fire demon, even if he did have a bad temper. Keiko hated me for changing his personality so drastically, but it really wasn't my fault. All fire demons share a similar personality, but she wouldn't listen to that, she said it was crap. Then I did her a favor and cut her hair, but I don't think she liked me using flame as my shears, no matter how effective it is (evil grin). That was why, when he disappeared, everyone was upset.

Botan: (is unconsciuos)

DIMS:( looks like Sasuke in the episode where they tried to find out what was behind kakashi's mask.) Review, now, or I'll send Era after you, along with Mara.

Kotori(see dark angel) glares at reader: review if you value you life.