Chapter 12
Return of the Black Angel
For the next three weeks, we continued our normal schedule: me and Hiei meditating as soon as we woke up, eating breakfast, training, resting, training, eating lunch, training, lessons (teaching us everything we need to know about high-ranking demons), training, dinner, training, relaxing (FINALLY), and sleeping. Kurama and Natalie were doing the same thing. I had finished taking the medicines Kurama had given me and they seemed to have cured my asthma as well. Then the day that marked the end of the third week came, and everyone could feel something coming.
"Today's the day," I said at breakfast.
"Sarah," said Natalie, "are you absolutely sure that he was dead?" She had asked this several times before, knowing the answer but not wanting it to be true. Over the past few weeks, she had grown to like Shishi. She loved listening to his stories of being a samurai. I did, too. She was the only one who had yet to accept Shishi's rapidly approaching death.
"Natalie, you must deal with it," said Shishi, "If I've been able to come to terms with it, then you can, too."
Not necessarily, I told Hiei telepathically. He just stared solemnly at the air in front of him. I wasn't surprised to see that he wasn't much bothered by any of this. As I kept telling Natalie, it was the death a warrior like Shishi would want. Most likely, that was why no one else was…well…as saddened or worried by it as Natalie was…although there were a lot of somber faces around.
Once breakfast was done, we headed out to the forest for training. But instead of splitting up as usual, we stayed in one group. Shishi explained that this was not for his own protection, but for ours, because if it could kill him, there was no telling what it may take to bring this demon down.
So we continued training for the next two hours until suddenly…
"It's coming," said Genkai.
"How fast?" asked Shishi, undeterred.
"It will be here in approximately eight minutes and forty-two seconds," replied the pink-haired master.
"Well then," the samurai responded, not even the slightest change in his face, "we should finish our training, Sarah." I nodded grimly, understanding. I was using Hiei's katana against his Banshee Shriek Sword. As we parried off, I matched his sword blow for blow, blocking, striking, and balancing as though it were second nature to me. Pleased with my progress, Shishi grinned as I knocked his sword from his hand and held the tip of the sword to his neck graceful as a cat.
"Well done," he said as I lowered my sword. "Now for the final test." We all knew what this meant. He had taught me exactly how to deal with it. The question was…
Was I strong enough to handle it?
I braced myself as Shishi picked up his sword and pulled the hilt from the blade, revealing a horrible corpse-like screaming face. "BANSHEE SHRIEK!" Instantly, dozens of soul-like monsters erupted from the mouth of the corpse-face. Speeding toward me were some of the stronger "shrieks" he had. I focused on my sword and poured some of my energy into it, combining it with a purification energy I had discovered in me. Once that was done, I refocused on the rapidly-advancing spirits and struck the first one, which evaporated into nothing. I did this again and again, pouring more energy into my sword as I did so. I threw strike after strike skillfully and fluidly, always cutting them right down the middle. The last one plummeted into my blade and vanished, leaving me near drained of all energy. I stood my ground though, staying in position for a moment after my last strike. Then, I stood up and handed Hiei his sword, stainless because of my purification energy. He accepted it and smirked at me (in a congratulatory way), and I received whistles, claps on the back, and cheers from my friends.
Shishi walked up to me with a content smile and handed me his sword. I looked at him questioningly.
"When I die, I want you to use this sword." I started to protest, but he covered my mouth with his hand. "You have proven yourself to be a remarkable swordsman and able to handle the Banshee Shriek's most powerful attacks. It only seems fitting that the pupil should receive what the teacher can no longer carry…In other words, just take it bitch." He smiled at his sort-of semi-joke and took the sword from my hands. "But I'm gonna need this for now." We all laughed somewhat nervously. I bowed to him.
"Thank you Shishi-kun."
"Don't call me that."
"Yessir."
All the sudden, a dagger pierced my shoulder from behind. I roared in pain and fell to the ground. Everyone reacted at once, but a wall of bamboo-like plants shot through the ground, trapping everyone inside it except for me and Shishi, who was nowhere in sight. Hiei's katana shattered against the plant barrier, as did Kurama's rose whip. Yusuke's reigun and Kuwabara's Spirit Sword were useless as well. To cut things short, none of their weapons worked. A voice chuckled menacingly as a freakishly tall (like 13-foot) demon stepped out of the shadow. Everyone gasped as a dark blue Youko appeared out of the brush. He had nine tails and carried an air of superiority, age, wisdom and power that everyone could feel. When he spoke, his voice was so deep that it reverberated throughout my body. It was lower than Bui's.
"Hmhmhmhmhm. We finally meet sweet one." He was talking to me, calling me…HOLD UP!
"Don't CALL me that!" I shot at him, glaring as hard as I could. He laughed, sending vibrations through the air around me.
"What…you don't recognize me?" he asked, still smiling.
"What're you talking ab…Shishi, NO!" I couldn't finish my sentence as Shishi came leaping through a clear drape-like thing. I recognized it from his previous attack against Kuwabara in the dark Tournament. He appeared just over the Youko's head and bore down on the blue creature, shouting, trying to slash at him. The Youko drew a sword from his belt and clashed it with Shishi's, blocking it and pushing him over to the side. Shishi landed gracefully and launched back at him, opening his sword so that the Banshee Shriek was uncovered. Several of the soul-like creatures roared from it, but the Youko batted them aside as though they were nothing to him.
It was just a distraction. Shishi was behind one of them and as soon as the Youko destroyed that one, the samurai cut off his left arm. The demon fox roared in pain and rage. "You'll pay for that, whelp."
"What did you just call me!" yelled Shishi, blocking as the fox swung his sword at him with his remaining arm.
"A whelp. Would you prefer son-of-a-bitch?"
"WHY YOU…!...UNH!"
"NOOOOOO!" Natalie's voice rang clear above everyone else's cries as Shishi landed next to me and beside the Youko. The only remnant of his head on his body were the bluish-purple hairs on his blood-stained white kimono-like shirt. His eyes remained open as the Youko knelt down to pick up his disembodied head by the hair.
"What a shame. He was such a pretty boy, too."
"SHUT UP!" I had never seen Natalie so outraged before. "SHUT…UUUUUP!" As she said this, black streams of light erupted from her body, shattering the plant barrier. A horrible black fog filled the place. Everyone shielded their eyes from the fog. Through it, I could see Natalie's hair going wild, her eyes glowing black, her face turned up toward the sky. Suddenly, two black angel wings erupted from her lower back, two more in her middle, and yet another pair just between her shoulder-blades. Her body glowed, and where there had once been a T-shirt and white jeans, there was now a long black gown with the smallest of trains that fitted to her perfectly. Her hair turned black and lengthened greatly as her skin turned pure white and her eyes turned yellow (meaning they glowed yellow, not the irises turned yellow). Her fingernails sharpened and lengthened into claws. She snarled, showing off her new fangs and perfectly red lips. She was a dark beauty.
"DIE!" she yelled before throwing a long bolt of black lightning at the Youko. It pierced his heart and he fell to the ground, eyes wide in shock. The black fog cleared, revealing everyone else's startled faces. Kurama was staring at his love with mixed emotions; pride, admiration, confusion, and even fear of what had happened to her. No one could have possibly imagined the next thing the Youko said.
"Huh. You truly are your mother's daughter. We'll meet again, Meeha." Then he closed his eyes, dead.
Meanwhile, black flashes of lightning were terrorizing the sky and Natalie's eyes continued to glow as her six seraph-like black wings kept her airborne. Her face was pressed into a scowl and she still looked inconceivably angry. Suddenly, when she realized that the Youko was dead, the entire atmosphere changed. There was no longer a threatening air about her, and instead of the black lightning, there were now only soft breezes blowing through. Her wings turned white as did her hair even her dress and she drifted down to Shishi. There was such a look of sadness in her eyes that it was overwhelming me as well. I felt myself begin to cry as she gently placed the severed head on the fallen body and suddenly bit into her wrist with her long fangs. She smeared the blood over her hand and caressed his neck where the injury was. Her blood mixed with his and glowed. The shocking part was that I couldn't decide whether the glow was white or black; light or dark. We then watched in awe as she spread her arms and wings; first the middle, then top, then bottom pair. She opened her mouth and a strange musical note came from it as she began to glow even brighter. A strange white mist appeared, hovering over Shishi's now one-piece body. Natalie – or whoever this was – flapped each pair of her wings once, forcing the mist down onto Shishi's body. He closed his eyes and began to breathe.
***
We now sat in the living room, watching the blue-haired man sleep as his chest deftly rose and fell. Natalie had returned to normal and had blacked out as soon as she was back in her original form. Kurama carried her back to his room and cared for her wrist and a few other injuries she had gained while trying to break free of the bamboo prison. Hiei stood next to me, while Genkai, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Suzuka, Chuu, Rinku, Jin, and Touya were seated around Shishi, discussing the afternoon's events. Koenma and Botan had arrived as soon as they heard about the…incident.
"Koenma-sama," Botan said to the teenaged-Koenma, "I swear to you that the only unusual thing our resources could dig up about her was her healing powers. They couldn't have possibly missed anything."
"I know, Botan, and I don't doubt that," replied the young ruler in a very thoughtful voice. "And I may be jumping to conclusions, but I think I have an idea of what exactly miss Natalie is."
"What is she, Koenma?" I asked in a demanding voice. "In all the years I've known her, she has never shown ANY signs of what happened out there today. That was the first time she'd seen anyone die, so I would understand if the distress triggered it, but I just don't see how someone as calm and happy as Natalie could turn into something as enraged and powerful as that…thing." She was my best friend, more than a sister to me, and what I had seen out there scared me to death.
"I believe that she may be the real Black Angel."
Silence.
"Wait…" I said softly. "Wasn't that the nickname Sensui gave himself?"
"Indeed it was." Koenma sat down on one of the couches and held his forehead in his hands as though he had a migraine. "Sensui believed himself to be the ultimate judge of humans and demons alike, and therefore named himself the creature who is prophesied to be that judge. It is said in many different legends that a creature who is neither man nor demon, angel nor devil, would cast the final judgment of all living things. This creature possesses all the…properties…of both Yin and yang inside him…or rather, her…self. The description you gave me of what happened so vividly depicts this…being…that I cannot see any other way. No other explanation for this than that she…Natalie…is the true Black Angel."
Everyone sat there, speechless. This possibility had never occurred to any of them…ever.
"So…what happens now?" asked Yusuke.
"I can't even begin to fathom what her appearance could mean for the rest of us. She has more power than even my father, King Yama. I have no doubts that he will want her destroyed, like he did Yusuke when he found out that he was a dangerous half-demon."
"But I wasn't dangerous," Yusuke pointed out. "I proved all of you wrong and ended up creating a peace treaty between the demon and human worlds."
"I know, Yusuke, but I'm afraid that Natalie's case is much more important and…volatile…than even yours was."
"So what do you suggest, Koenma?" I asked, fearful of what he would say.
He said nothing for several agonizing moments, and then he looked me straight in the eye and said-
"I have no choice…"
No one in the room even blinked.
"…My father will no doubt be sending assassins out to finish her soon. I'd give it less than a few months. I can probably hold off the information from getting to him until then, but I can't promise any more time than that. I acknowledge the fact that he was wrong with Yusuke's case, but I know nothing about how this could turn out. Natalie and her alternate self are so different and seem to have no control over each other whatsoever. I suggest that you get a move on and get as far away from here as possible and not to make Natalie angry or distressed, as that could bring the Black Angel back out. And there's no telling what could ensue if that happens. Yusuke, I'm counting on you and the others to keep them safe. We still don't even no that much about the White Phoenix, and I don't want another problem on top of this one coming up."
"Where do you suggest we go?" asked the Spirit Detective.
"I'll have a portal to the Makai set up for you. It may not be the safest place from other dangers, but it is definitely the safest place from my father, and the best place for you to continue training and grasping control of your energies."
Koenma told us to meet him in the forest by the stream in two days, which should give Natalie and Shishi enough time to recuperate and deal with this news. Then, he said his farewells, asked Botan to stay with us and keep him up to date, and departed. Genkai decided that once Shishi was at full-strength again, he, Suzuka, Chuu, Rinku, Jin, and Touya would have to leave, and Genkai herself would stay at the temple when they crossed over into the demon world. So it would just be me and Natalie and the original four detectives. No one questioned why, knowing the old hag must have her reasons, but we all wondered what she had in mind when she said that training would cease until Natalie awoke, and then it would step up several notches.
After everything had been settled, and dinner had been eaten and put away, I went in to see Natalie. Kurama was sitting in a chair next to the bed. Having been informed of our earlier conversation, his brows were knitted together with worry and suppressed anger that anyone would want to "get rid of" his beloved.
"Hey," I said, walking up to him. "How's she doing?" Her face was white, angelic even. Irony was so cruel sometimes.
"Better," said the fox. "Her fever's gone down back to normal, and she seems to simply be asleep now."
"That's good."
"…"
"…I'm so worried." I barely whispered my thoughts to him.
"As am I." He mirrored my thoughts.
"…You should get some rest. We have a lot to do soon."
"That is true. A little rest couldn't hurt you either."
"Yeah, I was just about to back outside, but I wanted to see her." I had thought I would just be able to peak in and go out, but looking at her made me realize that I couldn't bear to leave her now. "Actually, is it alright if I sleep in here tonight?"
He nodded. "Of course."
"Thanks."
Hiei…
What is it, Onna.
I'm gonna stay in here tonight. Do you mind?
…No. I'll be there in a minute.
Thank you, Hiei.
Whatever.
I gave a slight smile as I ended our telepathic conversation. That's Hiei for you; always ruining a sentimental moment by saying something like "Whatever." Oh well. Sure enough, I had barely finished this train of thought when he appeared in the room. I sat against the wall next to Kurama's chair and he sat next to me, allowing me to lean on his shoulder. It was amazing how much he had changed since I had gotten here. Before, he never would have even come into the room to comfort me, much less let himself be used as a pillow. I guess the walls around his heart were melting away as it grew warmer. I was happy that I was able to help him like this, but still worried about what would happen in the next few days.
"Aishiterou," I said. He stiffened when I said that.
"Onna...do you even know what that means?"
"Yeah. It means 'I love you' right?"
"..."
"What?"
"It's a different kind of 'love' when you say it like that..."
Totally not catching on, I asked "What do you mean?"
"Well...let's just say that it's not something you would say to your mother...hopefully."
"OH!" I could feel my face burning up. "...Well...I'm not exactly going to take it back."
"..." He shifted so I had to sit up, then he captured my lips with his and let his fingertips trail down my neck. I practically shivered physically, loving every feeling he was giving me. I had a feeling that if Kurama and Natalie hadn't been in the room, things would have gone much further.
We all completely forgot that we hadn't seen a certain ice-demon all day.