Chapter Four: Monster-Part Two

The vibration from my phone instantly caught my attention. I looked to see that Clara was calling me, and with a single gesture and a mumble to Genkai, I stepped a few feet away from the group and answered.

"Hey."

"Hey, listen, I told Gran that you were with your mentor... teacher person, so whatever you're doing you better stick with that story."

I scoffed and shook my head, trying to shake off my nervousness and hide my anxiety.

"Whatever, I understand. I... actually have a question for you."

There was a long pausebefore my sister finally broke it. "Yeah?"

"Your tutor," I started, voice trying it's best to not shake along with my body. "What... What was his name?"

(-)

"What the hell are you doing?"

I propped myself up on my bed, watching my frantic sister trot around to prep herself up. Makeup, hair, and an outfit other than her Meiou High uniform made me think that she was going out to one of the many parties she attended from time to time. As she was fluffing her long, golden-blonde hair, she looked at me through the vanity we both shared in our room.

"I'm going to a tutoring session, Nat. He's a T.A. at Meiou and he's personally helping me with my Math and Science." A sickly sweet smile was plastered on her lips as she conducted a mini modeling session in the mirror, casting different facial expression while primping her final touches. Standing up, she put on her denim jacket and stood in front of me. "How do I look?"

Examining her with a skeptical face, I met her excited, bright, blue eyes with my own to give an honest answer.

"...Like you're trying to get laid by an older guy."

"Perfect!"

Rolling my eyes, I started to protest against her shenanigans when we heard the doorbell ring, along with squeaky shrill of joy coming from Clara.

I started to protest but there was no stopping her at this point. I sighed while pushing myself off of the bed to head down stairs and see what she was fussing about. This man better not have any ideas about doing anything to my sister or I was sure he would've answered to me if he did.

Walking down the stairs, I heard the chatter of my Gran and Clara speaking.

"What time will you be home, sweetheart?"

"Oh, I'll be home in a couple of hours. No later than eleven!"

"Okay, oh! Natalie, come meet the nice young man who'll be helping your sister!"

Once Gran spotted me and gestured for me to come closer, it was almost as if I couldn't. Invisible hands had anchored my feet down on the ground and were not letting go. The more I looked at him, the more I was sure those hands were tightening.

He was intimidatingly tall, probably 6'3 at the least. He had a soft, tan tint to his skin and a strange jewel embedded on his forehead. Slicked back black hair, and eyes that portrayed a Devil-may-care look about them. His energy was strong and suffocating... I wanted to run back to my room and hide.

He gave a small, faux, gentle smile. "Natalie, isn't it?"

My name sounded curdled in his mouth, vile and violated. I could feel that he was up to no good when he was in this house. Swallowing the bile and regaining my cool as much as I could, I gave a curt nod.

"You must be?"

(-)

The memory, the first time I'd ever seen him, kept playing over and over in my mind. I couldn't remember his name, but only God knows that's because it would be too easy to do so. Clara would question me about it until I gave her an answer. This time, I'd have to force her to forget about it.

"Oh... Well, his name is—" I dropped my phone as the sudden affliction of another territory came about.

This time it felt like needles lightly jabbing me from the small of my back to the top of my neck in one swift motion. It was everywhere, even in the oxygen we breathed. Whoever it was, they were not to be messed with. I gasped and looked down at my phone to see the battery had fallen out of it... again. I didn't care for it and instead turned to the rest of the gang, who were going full ninja and started looking everywhere.

Backing away from the area I was in, I went straight to Yusuke's and Yana's side.

"You feel that?" Yana inquired. "Someone just opened up their territory!" I was fighting against maintaining my alert stance and making so many rude comments to him about being obvious.

"There's another psychic like us runnin' around the hospital..." Again, Kido, we didn't need the facts we already knew to be stated.

"I-It's that Doctor guy! We're inside a hopsital—of course he'd be here! He's coming to finish me off!" Murota grabbed at his face once again in desperation.

I let out a pent up sigh and kept scanning the area for any creepy looking doctors.

"Of course we'd fall right into the trap we intended to avoid..." I grunted out, beating myself up for the fact that though we didn't exactly know where our next enemy would be at, Doctor was a pretty good nickname for someone to be hanging around the hospital.

Though as I kept a watch-out everything was normal with nothing out of place, but it was like finding a needle in a normal, not out of the ordinary, haystack.

"Make a circle," Yusuke finally spoke once again. "Face outward. We won't let anyone sneak up on us this time."

We followed his lead and did as we were told. All six of us were in a sloppy excuse of a circle, but a protecting one at that. All around us were civilians—the sickly, the dying or the injured, but no sign of any psychic doctors bent on destroying us.

Quick moments passed us before I heard gasping coming from Moruta and Yana. I looked to my right and examined Yanagisawa's disgruntled face before he raised his hand. A Makai insect latched onto his hand and within seconds the liquid within its stinger had been injected into my boyfriend-thing.

"Ugh!" I gasped while smacking his hand with my pack of cigarettes. It evaporated—yes, evaporated, guts and all—and left Yana with a patch of teal-green skin on his hand.

"I-It put something in me!" he shouted while trying to squeeze his hand.

"Yana—" I warned, watching it start to spread. "Yana, wait! It's spreading!"

Too late. Whatever the bug injected into his system had both him and Moruta on the ground in pain. I was dragged to the floor by the weight of Yana, trying to take a better look at the infected area.

"What the hell happened?!" Yusuke snapped.

"Bugs! Makai insects have poisoned both of them! I just watched it happened! Oh shit..." I replied, feeling Yana's forehead.

"He's burning up!" Kido exclaimed.

"So is Yana-" I replied.

"My whole b-body is aching..."Yana mumbled, grunting in pain.

"Those weren't the same parasites we saw in town!" Genkai's voice broke over my panicked state and drew our attention to her.

"Then what were they?" I questioned her, wasting no time with trying to get to the bottom of this.

"It's a virus..." Moruta spoke, clutching himself while looking up at Yusuke and Genkai. "I—I heard his thoughts—he's going to infect the whole hospital!"

I cursed harshly under my breath, standing up while trying to comfort Yana the best way I could. To my horror I found that those weren't the only insects left within the building already.

"There's more coming. Kill as many as you can!" Genkai warned, leaving us to fend for our own safety.

Once the bugs swooped in, I instantly started swatting, clasping them and even throwing a punch here and there. Mostly I was dodging and making sure none had landed on me. The ruckus continued until we were interrupted by a nurse.

"Is there something wrong?"

Hell yeah there's something wrong. She was completely and totally surrounded by the insects and totally clueless to the fact that she was swarmed.

"They'll make a meal out of her!" Kido claimed.

"Get them off of you!" Yusuke shouted at her, hitting another bug out of the way.

To my astonishment, both Kido and Yusuke actually thought she could see them.

"Remember what I told you, you idiots?! Normal people can't see shit!" I whispered harshly to them.

"Goddammit, I can't even help someone out! We have to do something about this!" Yusuke retorted.

"Our only hope is to find the psychic who did it. Let's move out!" Genkai ordered.

On command we started running away from the scene. Guilt washed over me as I left Yana and Murota there, but at the same time they were already infected with the 'd be useless, a liability, and nothing more could possibly be done to them now.

"Hey, candy stripier, those two guys need medical attention!" Yusuke hollered as we ran past her down the hall.

I followed close behind, but thanks to the smoking habit I had, I wasn't a very fast or even remotely physically fit to keep up with the lead of them.

"You realize how many doctors are in here?" Kido shouted to us, I couldn't help but let out an exasperated scoff and answer him.

"We'll just have to beat the shit out of all of them, right? 'Cause that's how you handle a situation like this!" I sarcastically suggested.

"You took the words right out of my mouth, Montgomery!"

Even in times of trouble, Yusuke Urameshi was still as sassy as ever.

"Just don't hit too hard!" Genkai spoke. "I hate crippling civilians!"

"Got it!" We replied in unison.

Though I was hoping she wasn't being as serious as she was acting, the chances of that being a joke were slim to none.

"Kido, Nat, if you've got any doubts in your mind, now's the time to bail. It's life or death." Yusuke announced.

I looked between the two boys, Kido giving his ultimatum to Yusuke and saying he would stay.

I let out a chuckle before shaking my head. "I ain't backin' down now, boys. You might as well drag me out of here if you don't want my help!"

"That's what I like to hear!" Yusuke smiled back at me.

"This doctor may not work here; maybe a nurse could spot an impostor." Genkai spoke again.

"I'll take care of that you guys!" Kido took the initiative to take the job, and I was very thankful they didn't assign it to me.

I'm not a coward, I'll stand up to just about anyone, but that doesn't mean I'll be foolish either. My playing field was best suited to kill these fuckers and try to find a way out for everyone.

"I'll check the upstairs!" Yusuke took that initiative quickly.

"I'll keep a look out on the second floor, trying to kill as many of these things as possible, alright?" I called after them when I rounded the corner. The last thing I heard was Genkai.

"If anybody finds him, or if anyone needs help, make a noise we'll all hear. Either scream or blow something up!"

Kurama

"You three stay back and watch for developments, I'll go take a look around."

I did not wait for anyone to object. It was too late when Kuwabara started making protests to me leaving.

Our group arrived to find the hospital was completely and utterly quiet. No doctors, nurses, police or anyone there to give sign of life. It merely confirmed my suspicions that whatever was going on affected everyone in the hospital. I decided to take the lead to scout out the area and find the other group. I hoped that they had things under control, but that showed poorly with the silent building.

Advancing closer to the building, I concluded that it wasn't safe to enter from the main entrance and decided to head to the top of the roof where I could potentially sneak up on whatever force was over the hospital.

Taking out my Rose Whip, I used my weapon as an easier means to stalk up the building. It wasn't too big, but it wasn't small either. Considering the circumstances, I figured this route the best to travel.

Once on the roof top, I felt I had stepped into an unfamiliar territory.

A psychic is definitely behind this.

Inspecting further, I finally spotted the hospital roof's entrance and pursued. I wasted no time headed down the stairs, staying precautious while venturing down.

Fourth floor.

Third floor.

At the second floor, I immediately came to a stop and looked around. A strange territory overlapped the previous one I entered, and as I started to pay attention to it I could almost say I knew the territory well enough.

'Could someone from Yusuke's group have opened up one of their territories?' I thought to myself, furrowing my brows.

I had the feeling that it was the one member I didn't want in trouble. I couldn't imagine her fighting by herself because she wasn't a fighter at all. Just someone who was graced with an extraordinary ability. Without further thinking, I made the decision to follow the territory and opened the door. I was ill prepared for Makai insects to be on the other side.

Without a moment to miss, I used my Rose Whip to take care of them, leaving the hallway of the second floor to be nearly desolate. The haunting energy of the territory was the only thing to keep me company.

Looking around to study the quiet hallway before focusing on the territories energy, I was able to pinpoint it was coming from my right, and with that realization I took off once again. The closer I moved in on this energy the more familiar to me, but at the same time it was quiet foreign.

'It's her energy but... it can't possibly be her'

Quickly turning multiple corners it then felt as if I was on top of the energy itself. Finding her only confirmed my suspicions about the foreign energy and caused great worry for both her and myself.

She stood there with her hand raised, palm flat as if she had struck something with it. I noted the remains of the Makai insects on the ground at her feet but that struck even more questions. Her abilities couldn't have produced such an outcome, so how did she achieve it?

"Natalie..." I called to her and watched as she slowly lowered her arm and stared back at me, eyes showing an expression I've never seen from her.

A wickedly satisfied grin held its place on her lips and for a moment I nearly questioned if this was the same girl. I gripped my weapon a bit tighter and took a step closer. Something wasn't right with her.

I stopped in my tracks to catch the sudden change in the air. The energy was fleeting and the expression on the girl in front of me was changing along with the energy. An expression that conveyed she had an upper hand slowly melted into one of a trance. Once all traces of the energy were gone Natalie swayed and focused on the person in front of her, me.

"K-Kurama?"

The girl who I had never heard stutter showed me a side of fear that I'll remember for a while. She looked around her, and in my bewilderment I found clarity. I understood what was happening to her in that moment and knew I'd have to speak to someone about it soon.

"It's alright," I reassured. "I'm here."

"I-I... I don't know..." She tried to explain, but the words wouldn't come out properly.

I waved a hand to dismiss her of her explanation. I held my hand out for her to take. "We'll figure it out later; right now we have to get to the others."

Author's Note:

Yeah, hopefully that explained a few things from the last chapter. I decided to cut them into two sections because if not it would be way too big. I hope you liked it! I know this took forever to write, but I'm almost 20 years old and I've been dealing with a lot more than I thought would happen to me. I'm okay though! I'd like to personally thank OwlLoveYou for helping me edit this chapter in my frenzy of still trying to get back into the swing of things. I'd also like to thank Sarah No Account and Counting Sinful Stars.

To Sara: Thank you so much for helping me understand my weaknesses. they will be very helpful for future chapters. :)

To CSS: It'll come into play. I hope this chapter explains things and makes you question what important play Sensui has for Natalie.

Thanks again!