Chapter 11

Parents and Secrets Unfolded

I awoke in Hiei's arms, but it seemed that he was already awake. He was kissing my neck.

"Down, boy," I said, not really meaning it and turning so I could kiss him on the lips. He smirked and kissed me back. We did that for a few minutes, and then he laid me down on the ground and got on top of me. "What is this, your mating season?"

"Hn. No. If it were, you'd already be pregnant."

"Is that supposed to be comforting?" I asked. "Yeah, I'm definitely not ready to have children yet."

"Exactly." He leaned down and pressed me to the ground, kissing me fiercely. Suddenly, he stopped and looked back toward the temple, a disturbed look on his face.

And then I felt it too. A massive surge of energy was emanating from the temple, and I heard Natalie scream. Hiei picked me up bridal-style and raced off toward the scream at top speed.

"Where's that energy coming from, Hiei?"

"It's Kurama. He's transformed into the Spirit Fox."

"Oh, SHIT!"

He put me down as we reached Kurama's bedroom door. He kicked it open and we saw Natalie in a corner, huddled up in a ball, and Youko Kurama advancing on her.

I was really mad.

Without thinking, I called on the winds and felt them like a cyclone in my veins. It was enough to rip the slender tissue apart. I focused on the fox in front of my friend and pegged that turbulent force at the silver-haired bastard. The force of it sent my foe spiraling backward to hit the wall, crash right through it, and send him tumbling on the ground outside until he hit a tree, unconscious. Then I saw Natalie.

"NATALIE! Omigosh, are you okay? Did he hurt you? I warned you about this!" I was talking so fast that even I couldn't understand what I was saying, but somehow she did. I embraced her, trying to comfort her, but she shook me off and stood up, shaking.

"I-I'm f-f-fine, Sarah. H-He d-didn't hurt m-me." I could tell that she was dealing with some major emotional pain right now. After all, she loved Kurama like I loved Hiei, and, in a way, he betrayed her. I looked out at the unconscious silver figure.

"YOUKO! YOU'RE SO FRICKIN' DEAD!" I leapt out of the hole in the wall and, with speed I never knew I had, ran over to him with every intention of beating his guts out. But, before I got the chance, he changed back into the redhead we all knew would never hurt Natalie. My fist stopped short of his nose and I stood back.

"Smart Fox," I muttered under my breath. Kurama opened his eyes, took in his surroundings, and suddenly his eyes widened and he yelled "NATALIE!" and raced off back to the room. I followed him, and found Natalie in Kurama's embrace, trying to fight back her tears of fear. Kurama was saying things like "I am so sorry, Natalie, I tried to hold him back" and "Please, forgive me, you know I would never do anything to hurt you." Natalie simply nodded and cried into his shirt-front.

He looked up at me with now-emerald eyes and gave me a look that said he desperately wanted to prove himself.

To me.

I just nodded and said "It's okay, we know it wasn't you. Just take of her. Have you seen Hiei?" The spiky-haired demon was not in the room. My question was answered as he came back, followed by everyone else.

"What the heck happened here?" asked Yusuke. "We felt Youko's energy and heard Natalie screaming."

"Then why weren't you already here?" I demanded, still enraged.

"Because Hiei's still considerably faster than us," replied Genkai, taking a look at the remains of the wall. "But it looks like we have more pressing matters. How is it that you are destroying my temple?"

"She manipulated the winds and blew Youko through the wall," answered Hiei for me. "That's why I left to get them," he said, turning to me. "Then, she used them again to propel herself toward the Fox while she was running. She was almost as fast as me."

My jaw dropped. "…Say what?"

"You heard me, Onna." That was said a little harshly. I frowned at him, slightly hurt by his scolding tone.

"No need fer yellin' wee dragon," Jin said in my defense. "You should be congratulatin' the lass. Such winds should have torn 'er to pieces. That's some might 'a control, dar." He smiled at me, and I smiled back.

"Thank you, Jin."

"Jin" Genkai interrupted, "I think it's time you started teaching her how to control this. Meanwhile, I'll need to inform Koenma about this. He might find this a bit interesting."

"You mean because I'm not supposed to have these powers until I'm nineteen?"

"Yes."

"I'm kind of curious about that myself."

"In the meantime, eat your breakfast and start training with Jin immediately. We don't want a tornado on us the next time a threat makes itself known."

I nodded, and everyone (minus me, Hiei, Jin, and Genkai) headed to the kitchen, while Genkai hopped back through the hole in the wall.

"And I expect this wall to be fixed by the time I get back." And with that, she sped off, leaving me, Hiei, and Jin.

"Firs' things firs' now," said Jin, breaking the silence. "Sarah, did ya feel a might bit strange when ya used yer powers?"

"Now that you mention it, yeah. It felt like the winds themselves were in my veins. Like they would rip me to pieces if I didn't get rid of it soon."

"Ay, I was afraid 'a this. The power 'a the winds can be mighty strong. I'm impressed that ya were able tuh channel it like a real pro, lass." He put his arm around my shoulders and gave me a noogie in a friendly gesture. But Hiei didn't like it and growled warningly.

"Relax, Hiei. He's just a friend," I comforted, still smiling. He still didn't seem satisfied. I nudged him and said "Never knew you to be the jealous type, Bajito."

"Hn. Don't call me that," he said.

"I wouldn't if you wouldn't call me Girl," I teased. Looking back at Jin, I saw he was trying hard not to laugh at us.

"If you two lovebirds are dun, we should start a'trainin' like the wee Master said," he said, gaining control of himself.

"Right. But can we eat, first?" I asked, my stomach growling.

"A'course. I'm a might bit hungry meeself!" said the wind-master, patting his bare stomach. I laughed, grabbed my koorime's arm and ran down the hall. Jin flew past me, saluting.

"Don't you ever walk!" I yelled at him.

"Nope!" he said merrily.

After breakfast and training, I came into the living room and crashed onto the couch as everyone else was eating dinner. My muscles were throbbing. Not to mention many new blisters (that had already been healed up thanks to Yukina). I rolled over onto my stomach and rested my head on my folded arms with every intention of falling asleep. I closed my eyes and started to relax when someone came in and locked the door. I pretended to be asleep and fidgeted a little. Next thing I knew, someone was straddling my thighs, putting their hands on my waist, and licking my neck.

"Hiei, you're way too horny for your own good," I said in what I hoped was a sexy voice. However, I didn't move, enjoying the sensation of being under him. He let go of my waist and moved my hair out of the way and started to nibble on my ear.

I turned over to face my fire demon and let my body rub up against his as I did so. Crimson eyes stared down at me before I lifted my head to meet his, wrapping my arms around his neck. As he fed me his tongue, I could feel his fingers running along the bare skin just above my waistline, sending chills throughout my body. I ram my fingers through his spiky black hair and was thankful he hadn't put his shirt back on after my training. I could feel him sweating and something else told me that he was aroused.

Now I was getting horny. I wrapped my legs around his and flipped him over so I was on top of him (it's a big couch…) and started kissing his jaw while running my hands over his abs and chest muscles. I brought my mouth down to his throat and felt his voice reverberating through it as he half-growled half-moaned-

"Now who's horny?" He flipped me over again so I was back on the bottom and kissed me fiercely and passionately. I had never felt so…amazing before.

Suddenly, I heard something at the door, and looked up to see that Hiei had heard it, too. He promptly jumped off of me and lunged at it. I turned just in time to see Yusuke and Kuwabara get their heads bonked together.

"I thought you locked it," I said.

"Hn. So did I."

I sighed and got up off of the couch (which we had somehow managed to stay on) and walked over to the two unconscious and swirly-eyed doofs. I shook them until they woke up, then, as they started rubbing the back of their heads (which now had a huge lump on them), I slapped them both.

Hard.

"AIIYEEEEEEEE! What the heck was that for?" yelled Yusuke.

"For being idiots. Why do you think?"

"Oh yeah," said Kuwabara, a stupid grin crossing his face. "You two were really gettin' to know each other weren't ya, Nabors?"

I slapped them again.

"HEY!" protested Yusuke. "HE'S the one that said it, not me!"

"Whatever." I said, still pretty peeved that they had ruined our moment. "Where are the others?"

"They're outside, ready to start training again," voiced Kurama, who stepped over the loons and came in. "And by the way, it appears we have more guests."

"More?" I asked, confused. I ran outside and saw a tall, cute, yellow-haired man standing next to a bluish-purplish-haired samurai.

"Oh, great. Two more totally self-centered fighters who love to bask in the love of their fans," I said, putting on an exasperated face, then smiling and saying "It's nice to meet you guys."

"Umm, Sarah?" asked Natalie, coming up next to me. "Who are these guys? The blue-haired one came here as a little crow-like thing on the tall one's shoulder and then transformed into this dreamy guy."

I started laughing along with everyone else, then turned to her and answered her question. "The tall one is Suzu…excuse me…the 'Beautiful Suzuka'-" I made quotations with my fingers and rolled my eyes "- and the other guy's name is Shishiwakamaru, and he's part imp."

"Shisha waka who-ha?"

The samurai chuckled. "Hmhmhm. Call me Shishi."

"Thank you," my friend said, hand behind her head, embarrassed. "I remember the guys telling me about you guys now. You-" she pointed to Suzuka "-were an Old Bloke at the Dark Tournament who turned into a freakish clown who thought he was 'beautiful'. You look better now without the face paint and clown-clothes. Trust me. And you-" she turned to Shishi "-tried the Banshee Shriek freak sword on Master Genkai and had your own pathetic fan club. What kind of self-centered yahoo has his own fan club!"

Kurama cleared his throat, chuckling slightly. The others started laughing, too. Yusuke helped out the now incredibly confused Natalie. "Shuichi Minamino happens to have a rather large fan-club back at his school."

I asked the question that had been nagging me for a while. "So, wait, why are you guys here? Jin's here to be my teacher and Rinku, Touya, and Chuu are just a part of his group, but why do you guys need to be here?" Everyone's face except for mine and Natalie's got very serious. Hiei was just sitting in a tree with his eyes closed, and I could tell he was thinking and…

Worried.

"Sarah," started Yusuke "I don't know how to tell you this, but…someone else is after you."

"Yeah, I know. You already said that."

"No, you don't get it. It's someone much stronger and she happens to be…" he faded out.

Kurama jumped in. "Your papers say that you are adopted."

"Yeah, so?" Then I got it. "You mean…it's my mom…my real mom." Everyone nodded. "But…how…?"

"Apparently she's from our universe and knew of your…inheritance," said Suzuka. "She's a famed cut-throat and she's said to be the highest class of demon there is."

"An S-class?" Heads bobbed. "Oh, shit. Wait, does that mean that I'm…half-demon!"

"No, and that's what we're curious about," explained Shishi. "She appears to be a demon but she emits no demon energy."

"Then how do you know what class she is?"

"We believe that it's just her level of strength that makes her a Super-S-Class," Kurama cut in.

"So, wait, she's not demon?" I asked, genuinely confused.

"Honestly, we're not sure what she is. We simply know that she is neither demon…nor human," the redhead finished.

"So…she could be a spirit for all we know?"

"Anything is possible at this point."

"So," I turned to Shishi, Suzuka, Touya, Rinku, Chuu, and Jin, "these guys are like bodyguards?"

"Basically," said Rinku, smiling with one hand behind his head (as always) and flashing a peace sign at me.

"So basically I need to do some kick-butt training if I wanna have any hope of beating her?"

"Basically," the yo-yoist repeated.

"There's one thing I don't get. Why is she after me and how do you guys know that she is?"

"She sent Koenma a telepathic message," said Hiei, hopping down from his tree. "She explained that on your nineteenth birthday, she was going to come see you and that if we knew what was good for us we'd stay out of her way."

"So where's the threat?"

"In the last part, smart one," said Natalie.

"But do we actually know that she's going to try and hurt me or something? It sounds like she just wants to see me, and thinks you guys won't let her because of her status."

"We know because of her file." I turned to the speaker, teenage Koenma. "Turns out she tried to kill you when you were just born so she could have the raw energy of the Phoenix right then."

"But…" I prompted.

"But your father interfered. He somehow managed to get you back to your universe, which is the one he was from, and gave you to an adoption agency."

"What happened to him after that?"

"…He died of an unknown and incurable disease."

"Lovely." My voice dripped with grim sarcasm.

"Sheesh," said a small voice next to me. "I've known you all my life, Sarah, and I knew that you had some hard stuff to deal with, but…this…is almost…unimaginable. I mean, you're one of the nicest most fun people to be around. No one would ever suspect that your life is so…different…and interesting."

"Thanks Nat, but it's not like your life is any less interesting."

"Yeah right. You're the one who loves to fight, has unwanted psychic abilities, a creepy family history, special powers no one knew about…need I go on?"

"Yes, because, you can heal people, are trying to learn how to fight even though you don't want to, are able to deal with such a weirdo friend, are super talented, are accepting this situation a lot better than most people would, and probably have some freakish deep dark secret that you didn't even know you knew, too."

"I wish."

"No, trust me. You don't."

"You're probably right."

"Of course I am."

"Come on, now, we gotta git started," said Jin cheerily, "Times a'wastin' don't'cha know."

So we trained and trained and trained until I was completely numb all over. Hiei, Jin, and Shishi (who was helping me learn different styles of sword-fighting and how to recognize them) decided that I'd had enough for the day, and let me walk over to where Natalie was training. I was amazed at my friend! She was using throwing knives and trees with a small dot on them as targets. I watched as one by one she threw the knives, dodging Kurama's whip all the while. She only missed a few. And she had only a few cuts and scratches where she hadn't been able to avoid the thorns on Kurama's Rose Whip. I stared at her, mouth dramatically agape, as she came over to me, breathing heavily.

"Well, whaddaya think?"

"That was incredible Natalie! I didn't know you had it in you!"

"Yeah? Well, neither did I. So how about your training? Are you get'n any better?"

"Loads. I'm also losing the feeling in every part of my body."

"I can heal that for you."

I gaped at her again.

"Yukina taught me how to heal minor wounds and relax muscles."

"YES, PLEASE!"

"Lay down." I obliged as she held her hands a couple inches above my stomach and a reddish-gold light filled the space between her fingers and my now-hard abdominal muscles. A heating and cooling sensation filled my body as I got that pins-and-needles feeling and I could finally move without being in excruciating pain.

"Wow. Impressive. So that's the color of your Spirit Energy?"

"Nope. That's my healing energy. My Spirit Energy is the same color as my eyes. Hazel blue."

"Nice." I watched as she healed her own cuts and then glanced over to see my teachers and hers talking. Natalie saw this, too, and decided to take advantage of the situation. An evil and sly grin crossed her face as she looked between me and Hiei, who was currently speaking to Shishi.

"So, how's Hiei?"

"Huh?"

"You know what I mean."

"…"

"As in, is he a good kisser?"

"…I'd tell you this…why?"

"Awww, pleeeeaaase?" She said, gaining the attention of the others. She widened her eyes and puckered out her lips.

"Awww, the puppy-dog face?" I said, making my own sad face.

"Uh-huh."

I pointed to my own now-straight face. "Get-over-it face."

Everyone chuckled. Natalie lost the puppy-dog look and got an evil grin instead. I knew that look.

"Natalie…no…no no no no no NO absolutely not NO…Don't do it…DON'T NATALIE…HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" She crept closer to me and finally started tickling me like mad. I was laughing so hard that I was crying. "St…STOP…STOPSTOPSTOP OKAY OKAY OKAY…HAHAHAHAHA STOP IT! OKAY, I'LL TALK I'LL TALK JUST STOP!" She stopped and I had a chance to breathe, gasping and trying to stop laughing.

"What just happened?" asked Rinku.

"Sarah is SUPER ticklish! Just tickle her and she'll do whatever you want.

There were dispersed "Is that so?"s and "Really?"s and thoughtfully evil looks throughout the group, each imagining what they could do to me.

"No!" I screamed. "No one but Natalie can tickle me and live to tell the tale. You tickle me, you die!" Just then, something came up from behind me and started to tickle my sides. I screamed with laughter again and thrashed around, yelling for them to stop. I saw that it was Yusuke and I punched him as hard as I could right in the jaw. He flew a few feet before falling to the ground, swirly-eyed.

"Like I said, you tickle me, you DIE!" I said again, and everyone gulped and nodded nervously in unison.

"Don't think I've forgotten about you missy," said Natalie, elbowing me in the side. "So…?"

"Yes, he is. And what about Kurama?" I asked coyly.

"Duh! He's the BEST!"

"So, how far have you gone with him?"

"SARAH!"

"What?"

"They're still listening to us." Sure enough, the guys were all staring at us and then at Hiei and Kurama.

"I know. So you guys went that far, huh?" I grinned mischievously.

"SARAH!"

"WHAT! I just wanna know!"

"Oh yeah? What about you and Hiei?"

"Probably not as far as you two."

"…"

"HA! I KNEW it!"

"Okay, we should really change the subject."

"Yeah, probably."

"…"

"…"

"Sooo…Sarah, how's your training going?" Everyone face-faulted.

I sighed. Then…

It all happened at once. Scenes flashing through my mind. A sword flashing back and forth. Blue hair swishing violently. Clanks and shinks, and pluds. Metal hitting metal. Metal hitting flesh. Blood. Open eyes. Lifeless.

Death.

I came around and saw that I was now staring at the sky. I sat up to see Hiei and Natalie looming over me. Everything came back to me and I frantically looked around, finding the man I was looking for. I just stared at him.

So it was his future. Very near future by the look of it. I stared at the man with sad eyes.

"Shishi." My voice was barely more than a whisper. I could see the shock in everyone's eyes as all shifted to the blue-haired samurai. He looked as calm and overconfident as ever. I shook my head disbelievingly. He seemed to finally understand.

"You saw me?"

I nodded.

"…Die?"

I nodded again, looking at the ground.

"…When?"

"I'd give it three weeks at most."

"…How?"

"Fighting. You died by…" I didn't want to bring myself to say it.

"By what?"

I still couldn't say it and made several strange noises before just bringing my finger across my throat, meaning decapitation. I didn't see even the slightest flash of fear in Shishi's eyes. In fact, he looked…

Content.

"It's the way of the samurai to die in combat," he said.

"Do you know who…did it?" asked Chuu, looking totally sober for once.

"No, I didn't see anything but flashes of stuff. And they all had only Shishi in them."

"We won't let that happen, now will we?" said Yusuke, making a fist.

"Yusuke, all of my visions have always come true. There's nothing we can do."

"Not for lack of trying at least. And besides, it's not like we haven't done the impossible before."

"Listen to the detective, Onna," said Hiei, coming up to me. "This fool is extremely lucky and is always able to defy all odds. And with something as vague as a psychic premonition-"

"EXCUSE ME!" I yelled. "VAGUE! You think my premonitions are VAGUE!"

"Sarah," Genkai stepped in, "visions of the past or present are irrefutable normally. But the future is never completely certain. There are too many paths that can be taken."

"All of my future premonitions have come true!" I was angry that they didn't believe in me. This was one of the things that I couldn't explain, I just knew.

"That may be so, but those could have easily just been coincidences."

"I know what I'm talking about!"

"You're just a child. You don't know half the things that I have learned in my lifetime. You're just like all the other dimwits; confident that everything you feel to be true is true."

Honestly, I could have slapped the pink-haired bitch right then. "You may be a psychic," my voice was dangerously low and soft, "but you can't even dream of the things I have seen and know. You're an amazing person, Genkai, and I respect you. But just because you've lived longer and experienced more than I have doesn't mean you know more about my power than I do. Heck, you don't even know as much about life itself as I do."

"And how is that?"

"Because to know one thing, you must be expert at its opposite. And I see the opposite of life on a daily basis up close and personal. I have experienced it more than three times as much. How many times have you?" I knew the answer and glared at the old hag, daring her to test me further. She didn't. "Look, it doesn't matter. The point is that we need to be on constant guard, especially now that we know who to protect."

"I don't need protection, girl."

"You sound like Hiei when he's being stupid."

"Hn. And when have I ever done anything stupid?"

"Does the word 'hot' bring back any memories?"

"…"

"Well, let's just quit for the day and get a fresh start tomorrow, eh?" said Jin, trying to cheer everyone up.

"Sounds good." Everyone said.

Hours later, I made an excuse to go back outside and take another walk. Hiei didn't bother hiding this time and walked behind me. When I got the water's edge, I sat down and hung my head, thinking. Hiei stood, still behind me.

"I feel like an idiot." I finally voiced my thoughts.

"…"

"I acted so immature…thinking I knew more than Genkai. She's been dead herself, and I said I knew more about life and death than her. I can't believe I let myself act so foolishly."

"You may know more than Genkai and you may not. Neither of you can know that for sure." He came to stand next to me, looking straight ahead.

"I guess…still, I shouldn't have been so rude to her when she's trying to help me."

"I agree."

"…I'm sorry. I'll go apologize to her."

"Do what you want."

I went back to the temple, thoroughly ashamed. Hiei stayed and thought about how the next few months would be.