Doctor, Doctor!

Machiko

I was starting to get uneasy myself. Suddenly an energy wave hit me, and judging by everyone else, they'd felt it too!

"Let me guess," I glanced at Genkai, "one of our psychic targets had just activated his territory?"

Every guy agreed with me. I cocked my head. "Since we're in a hospital, I'll place odds that this is Doctor's current hideout."

And…Murota started panicking. I was seriously considering going into my standard form and hitting him.

"Everyone make a circle, facing outwards," Yusuke ordered. "We won't let anyone sneak up on us this time!"

We got into our circle, and I flexed my hands, wishing that I dared just shift my hands into their demonic state. I could – being stuck in my room for most of my life, I'd had lots of time to practice how I shifted. I always had to alter symmetrically, and I blame the wings for that rule, but it was a small price to pay for just being able to spot-shift.

Suddenly, both Murota and Yanagisawa got tagged by insects! When Murota told us that "Doctor's" thoughts were to infect the whole hospital, Genkai told us to take out as many of the bugs coming as we could!

"Request permission for a partial shift!" I snapped.

"Permission granted, if it'll keep you from getting hit!"

Stripes ran down my arms from elbows to clawed fingertips, and we started taking out bugs. About the only problem with this was that anyone who took notice of us would think we were crazy.

We tore past a nurse and ran down a hallway, leaving our two other teammates behind and getting the bugs to follow us. We decided to split up and try to find this Doctor.

"If you find him," Genkai told us, "make some kind of noise we'll all hear – either scream or blow something up!"

I laid a bet with myself that Yusuke would blow something up.

I was with Kido, and Genkai was with Yusuke. I returned my hands to normal before we encountered a nurse. I let Kido do the talking, until a doctor walked in. He told us to leave before he called the police on us. I cocked my head as Kido continued on his vein about how a criminal was posing as a doctor here. The guy seemed to take us seriously, and took control of the situation. Then the nurse gave us a tip – rather on the late side, as the doctor had taken Kido's shoulders to escort him out of the room. "Yes, but…why are you here, sir? You're working the late-night shift!"

I never saw what he did to Kido, because I'd jumped up to snatch the shoes off my feet in midair. I never wore socks, in case I had to pull a quick-shift like now. No tail, just the feet…

Kido fell down, the nurse screamed, and Doctor spun and sliced her chest open! He turned to where I had been, but I was already running away.

Yusuke

I found Kido on the floor, and the guy trapped me by my shadow. That was confirmation enough that the Doctor was here. But how could he tell me…

Then Kido's shadow started moving on its own to write a name in his own blood! Kamiya. The guy was even in the room!

"I take it that's you!"

I barely blinked, and every other doctor in the room was sliced open and falling down! Then the guy lunged for me!

"Hey, Kido, not to be bitchy or anything, but could you get off my shadow?!"

I leaped out of the way just in time!

"That was cutting it close! …Hey, where's Machiko, anyway?"

Kamiko

We got back into town, and it looked like there were even more of those bugs than when we first got here!

"Hey, Kamiko," Kaito asked me, "what's with your arm?"

I glanced at it. It was gaining speckles in a couple of odd colors, and the speckles were moving. "Oh. That. That's what happens when I'm in a circumstance where someone else would say their skin was crawling. I'm just glad I'm able to keep it fairly muted, so that most people don't notice."

Then we had to go find Yusuke's group, because since our follower had left, that meant that the other group was being targeted!

"Kamiko," Boton asked on the run, "how close are you to your sister?"

"We have a connection that's outright telepathic if we're in the same room. It hasn't gotten strong enough to be a good substitute for a phone yet, but I can pull emotions from that line."

"So, how's she doing?"

I blinked once, thinking about that connection. "Something's got her spooked, and frustrated. The frustration means she's probably in a public area where she can't take her standard form. Spooked…"

"I get the feeling," Kurama spoke up, "that Machiko doesn't spook easily."

"She's never actually seen combat in anything except movies. If something had happened in full view, then she would have been set on edge."

"Hey," Kuwabara craned his neck around to look at me, "does that mean you haven't actually been in combat either?"

"Yup."

Machiko

I actually ended up taking on my standard form while I was running around. I had no choice – there were bugs everywhere! At least anyone who could see me like that was unconscious.

Then I rounded a corner and nearly ran into two girls and a flying penguin-thing! "Whoa! Steady!" I spun around both of them and let my tail clock about five bugs that had been following them.

"Hey, thanks!" the taller one said.

"No problem, let's keep moving! I'm Machiko, and you don't seem too surprised about what I look like."

"I'm Shizuru, and this is Keiko. We've seen some pretty strange people in our time. Are you a demon?"

"Half-demon. I came here with a boy named Yusuke."

"Is he all right?" Keiko asked. The whole time we were talking, I was using something of a sixth sense and smacking chasing bugs with my tail.

"He was when we split up. I don't know where he is now. Not to make a pun, but there's a mad doctor in the house, and he's the one who made all these bugs."

We managed to get an elevator. I slumped down to the floor. I was…a little tired. For all that I had a pretty high level of endurance, I wasn't used to pushing myself for very long. That stemmed from the fact that I didn't get out much.

Then Keiko started shivering! Apparently a bug had gotten in with us, on the one person who couldn't see them.

Kamiko

When we got to the hospital, Kurama decided to go in alone. I took off after him. "Kurama, I'm coming too!"

"Kamiko…"

"My sister's in there! Don't talk me out of it!"

After a moment of silence, he smiled. "Well then, you'd best do everything I say."

"Of course! You're the one with the experience!"

"The front entrance won't be safe…neither will the back!"

I suddenly spread my wings. "Grab hold!"

After a second of surprise, he dropped back. "I'll get on after you take flight."

I saw the sense. Leaping into the air, I flapped a couple times to try to gain some height. Kurama's sudden weight – technically on my tail, he hadn't quite gained enough height for my back – caused a little trouble, but I managed to keep climbing. "Get on top of the building!"

I labored upwards until I reached the top. He let go and had a neat landing on the building. My own landing was less than graceful (for "less than graceful," read "bellyflop"), but at least nothing was broken.

At least part of the reason for the awkward landing was the entering of a psychic's territory, which I hadn't exactly expected.

"Are you all right?" Kurama asked, holding out his hand.

"Yeah…a little flattened, but I'm okay." I put away my wings, since I wasn't likely to use them, and accepted his hand as he helped me up.

"We'd best remain cautious."

Machiko

We'd picked up Genkai in the elevator, and then rode back to ground floor, where we left Shizuru and Keiko in the elevator with the flying penguin and went out to combat more bugs. "Bring them on!"

Kamiko

We slashed through some bugs in an elevator that two girls and a penguin-bird had fallen out of. One of the girls had apparently been stung.

"Kurama?" one of the girls said.

Kurama apparently knew them. "What on earth are you two doing here?"

"Hey," the same girl looked at me. "You look kind of like Machiko. I mean, you have the same kind of tail."

"You've seen Machiko? Is she okay?"

"She's fine. She ran off with Genkai. Oh, I'm Shizuru, and this…come on, Keiko, hang in there!"

Machiko

Genkai and I helped Yusuke corner the Doctor. I was enjoying myself, and had chosen the vibrantly-striped demonic version of myself, minus the wings which would have torn my shirt and taken up too much space in a hallway.

Finally, Yusuke managed to throw the jerk out the window – first floor, so he'd survive – and outside his territory. I returned to something more normal in appearance, and we reunited with Boton, Keiko and Kuwabara.

"Hello, where's my sis?" I asked.

I got my answer as soon as I turned around.

"Well, this certainly is a reunion," Kurama said as he came up with Kamiko by his side and Shizuru and Keiko following them.

"Hey, girls! How's Keiko doing?"

"Just fine now, thank you."

We all left – except Kaito. He was going to stay and make sure Kido got good treatment.

"Hey, Stripey, where'd you run off to after you left Kido?"

"I..." I stopped. Then I bowed my head. "I...ran... If I could have, I'd have run all the way out of the hospital. I'd never seen death firsthand before. If I hadn't nearly run into Keiko and Shizune, I would have left the hospital."

"Doctor slashing that nurse freaked you out, huh?" He didn't sound as scornful as I'd been worried he would.

"You have no idea."

Kamiko

"Ow…" I rubbed my chest.

"Hey, sis…" Machiko leaned around to stare at my back, "did you actually use your wings?"

I grabbed Shizuru's coat from her hand and flung it across my torn shirt. "So what if I did?"

"Hey, congrats! I knew you were going to have to fly sooner or later!"

"Wait a minute," Kurama turned around and stared at me. "You mean that was your first flight?"

I cocked an eyebrow at him. "The dying-duck wobble-climb and the wipeout landing didn't tip you off?"

"I thought the wobbling was because of my weight."

I shook my head. "I've never had opportunity to fly before today. Opportunity, or reason. Or…desire, actually."

Keiko glanced at me. "Hey, are you okay? Your, um, your hair just turned pink."

I glanced at her with a smile. "Where Machiko's got crazy stripes, I'm a chameleon. Pink means either shyness or embarrassment. This time, I'm a little embarrassed."

"Oh."

"I've relaxed somewhat about my policy of keeping my color changes out of my hair, hang on…" I focused my hair back to golden.

"That's pretty!"

That one remark made my face turn completely rose-pink bordering on crimson. I don't get compliments often. "Thank you, Keiko."

"What's it look like when you're angry, Kamiko?" Kuwabara asked.

"I actually ran a test about that once, getting myself to feel certain emotions and seeing what happened to my hand." I glanced at Murota. "You want to field it?" Thanks to a passing thought from Machiko, I knew he was a mind reader.

"Huh? Uh, okay." He looked at my head for a minute, and then started talking, saying what I was thinking. "If it's dark, that means it's definitely an emotion. Dark red is anger, and dark blue means she's sad. Grey is exhaustion, bright red is full embarrassment. Green means she's not feeling too well, and white means she's scared."

Boton clearly was curious. "What about black?"

Then it was his turn to go pale. "Black…black's when she's really, really angry. Your kind of angry, Yusuke, the kind where she could kill someone. Nobody wants to see black if she's not camouflaging with it or faking a wardrobe." Then he realized what he'd just ended his sentence with and apparently double-checked that particular train of thought in my head.

We're running a poll on how long it takes Kuwabara to figure that particular point out on his own, Murota; don't blow it!

"Uh…right." His nose was bleeding, though.

Men!