Note from author: All right, so some of you may be confused. If you go back and read chapter 8 or 9 somewhere around there of the first part of the story (The Bat's Human Rose) you will note that Kuronue compares her to another human that he knew named Deshiri that he had fallen in love with. :3 See all my stories interweave. I promise. I'm not just pulling the diary entry out of my bum. In fact, I may (going to stress MAY) do a 'Diary of Deshiri' after finishing this story so that all you faithful readers can read from beginning to end. Though I may not since I've been so busy lately. So when you comment, go ahead and put 'Aye' or 'Neh' on the idea of finding out more about Deshiri. ROSEY

Chapter 17

It was the next day before any of them realized that she was missing. Kuronue had spent the evening thinking over his memories. Sorting them out and trying to figure out if he was feeling the love for Hiromi or Deshiri or for the new Hika. During this thinking he hadn't even remembered Inane as demonic senses came back to haunt his human mind. Why were they always the wrong species? Deshiri and Hiromi had been human when he was demon and now Hika was a demon when he was a human.

Charlie and Hika had decided that they were going to train the evening away, as Hika had done every night since the demon's attack. Any romance that might have happened was stopped when Ryota joined them to ensure that they didn't get all lovey dovey.

Kuronue noticed that the girl wasn't at school when he waited by her locker. He had determined sometime during the night that he couldn't take Hika away from something that seemed to make her so happy. He would watch from afar with his renewed memories. With this realization, he had also determined not to tell her that he remembered everything about his past life. That would only make it harder on the girl and that was the last thing that he wanted.

Eventually the man that waited for Inane realized that the girl hadn't come to school. He frowned and straightened, going to his class slowly, worry penetrating his mind. This worry only grew as she didn't come to class and then didn't appear at lunch either. Instead of hanging out with Charlie and Hika, he ran to Inane's house and checked in with her mother. She had never returned home the night before. The only reason her mother hadn't panicked was because she had gotten a call saying that she was with Kuronue. Kuronue shook his head and ran off; searching the places that he knew the girl would go to if she wanted to be alone.

Hika was just getting out of her last class and going to join the track team for their afternoon practice when a man stepped out in front of her. He had the same smile she had come to associate with the demon on his face. "I see you haven't found your lost friend yet," the demon possessed man said as Charlie came up next to the girl, wanting to see if the girl was okay.

"What do you mean?" Hika asked, "We aren't missing any friends."

"You aren't? Huh. Then I suppose that little girl'll never be coming home. I guess I'll have to tell her that you don't consider her a friend. And here my Lord Ethan told me she was one of your closest friends. He must have been mistaken," the man mused with a smile before he stumbled back, the possession ending. "What-?"

Hika didn't wait for him to say anything else. She and Charlie exchanged looks and then took off. Just as they were leaving the school grounds, Kuronue came running, out of breath. They didn't even have to exchange words to know what they were going to do. Each of them ran in a different direction. Hika pulled out her cell phone and called Ryota. They had to find the human. She was the only innocent part in the whole group. They were all fighting to find the girl—Hika's mother, father, Night and Takji along with the four youths of the group. No one could find Edmund though so he wasn't included in the search party.

Kuronue felt horrible, as if by remembering everything about Hiromi, he had left Inane unprotected. While he knew now that he didn't 100% love Inane, he did care for her from the human years that he had spent with her. He would protect her as much as he could and try to be happy with her.

As all of them ran around town, trying to find some hint as to wear she was. Hika and Kuronue finally ran into each other in the forest that they had been searching. As they ran into each other something happened. The moment they moved towards each other, both asking if the other had found anything, their surroundings changed. Standing between them was Inane, staring straight ahead of her at a demon that was about two times the size of Hika's body in all aspects.

"So there were only two of you? Too bad. I was looking for a better snack amount," the creature said before lashing out. His hand slammed directly into the human's stomach, sending Inane sailing against a crop of rocks behind her. As she slumped forward, another demon crawled over the top of the crop of rocks and took the girl's arms to hold her up so that the new arrivals could see the battered way that Inane's body was. After almost twenty-four hours in Demon World, the girl was battered, bruised and halfway to Lord Koenma's grasp.

"Inane!" Kuronue cried out, taking a step towards her only to see the demon holding up open a mouth full of scissor sharp teeth and neared the human. Hika slowly let her wings appear behind her, flexing them a little. While she hadn't flown in so long, she had noticed that the tear in her wing had slowly—very slowly—started to heal. It was maybe two inches smaller than it had been when it had happened.

"Now, why don't we all relax a little and we'll see about letting this human go back to Human world with all her limps intact," the demon asked with a grin.

"How about I take you and use you as demon fodder?" Hika snarled, "You can't seriously think that we would believe you!"

"No, of course not," the demon nearest Inane said. And with that he bit the human in the shoulder. Inane let out an ear piercing scream as the teeth pierced her shoulder.

As if they were Hiromi and Kuronue again, they moved as one, reaching each demon at the same time. Hika went at the larger demon, using her speed to circle it and start to attack. Kuronue ran for Inane, pushing the demon away with the spirit energy he had. His eyes were dark with hatred for the demon as he started to beat the demon away. When he was sure that it was at least unconscious, he ran to Inane and cradled her body. She writhed under his touch, gasping for air as the venom released into her body worked its way to her lungs and then her heart.

PS: Yes I know it's short. Don't worry. :3 Another one will be up either later today, or tomorrow.