First Time Truly in Pain

Machiko

I raced pell-mell after Yusuke, who had hijacked a bike and was chasing the jerks in a jeep who had Kuwabara. Just because my wings were tired out, didn't mean my legs were!

After a bit, I picked up the speed, passed Yusuke, and ran in front of him. "Hang on, Yusuke, you're about to hit a faster speed!" I twined the tip of my tail just below Yusuke's handlebars and started running even faster, dragging Yusuke along. A glance backwards told me that he'd taken his feet off the pedals, which were now spinning too fast for him to use safely, and was mostly paying attention to steering.

"Smart move, Yusuke – save your strength for the fighting!"

Kamiko

I lay on the floor, partially pinned by some rubble and bleeding in several locations. I was camouflaged…kind of; several of my injuries were making perfect disappearance difficult. It had only been through Machiko's warning and my intervention that Shizuru had avoided getting seriously hurt.

But…I was starting to fade out.

Machiko

We raced up hills after the jerks. I was gaining a little, never being more than a couple car-lengths behind them. Kuwabara yelled something about being in a pickup truck full of psychic cannibals.

"Hey, Stripey! Is this your only speed or something?"

"Burn rubber too fast, and that bike will crash or we'll both go out of control. I picked a pace I can hold indefinitely, while they're bound to run out of gas sooner or later."

"You can hold this speed forever? What happens if they speed up?"

I grinned back at him briefly before returning my attention to the road. "I guess I'd have to speed up, too, huh?"

Then we started going downhill. I jumped upwards, unwinding my tail from the handlebars and landed gripping Yusuke's shoulders with my feet. "Wheels pick up speed on declines better than roadrunner-feet. I'll hitch a ride with you now." With that, I leaned forward to lend my weight to our momentum.

Kuwabara and Yusuke started shouting a bit back and forth. Once we leveled out again, I jumped back into my original position and started running again. Yusuke yelled something at the people in the front seat, something along the lines of "pull over or I'll run you off the road." Granted, I was "driving," not him, but it struck me as a good idea.

Then…I think Sniper shot Yusuke's bike! I lost enough speed to let the pickup get ahead of us again, let go quickly and left my tail extended out for Yusuke to grab.

At least he managed to catch it.

"Throw down a good yank, Yusuke – you've got to get a hold of my shoulders or you'll be dragged across the road!"

I felt a great deal of pressure on the tip of my tail…then he let out a primal yell and I felt for an instant that I was going to get yanked off my feet…and then his left hand slammed down on my shoulder, his right hand soon letting go and catching my other shoulder. "Giddyap!"

I ignored the horse reference and turned on the speed. "We're going to have to confront Sniper sooner or later anyway, but I want to get a bit more distance before I start trying to stop, or all my fur will get rubbed off when we hit asphalt. Just try to make sure I don't get hit!"

He took the hint. When I spared a glance at him over my shoulder, I saw that even though he was still streaming behind me like a banner, he was looking upside down at the guy. Every time Sniper fired off another shot, he'd squeeze one of my shoulders tighter, and I'd veer that way.

We dodged for a bit…then…Yusuke gripped both of my shoulders tightly. "Jump – he sent five at us!"

For an instant, it was like time slowed down. I gathered myself…pushed off the ground…Yusuke got pushed against my back…I saw the shots hit the road ahead on either side of me…one, far right…two, far left…both about where I'd have been if I'd veered…three, lined up with left leg...four, lined up with right leg…both for if I hadn't moved…

Where's shot number five?

I got my answer a bare second later. A sharp pain lanced up my spine!

I shrieked, and my landing turned into a tumble that separated me and Yusuke. Both of us lost our shirts, and the fact that I'd gone demon-furry under my clothes was probably the only reason I didn't lose any skin…I also lost a bit of fur with that wipeout. Fortunately, my bra was durable enough to where I wasn't indecently exposed after that.

We stopped rolling, the pickup truck got away, and Sniper shot past us both, catching us inside a territory and…doing…something…to both of us.

When he stopped, Yusuke asked, "What'd you do to me?"

I stood up shakily – I may have been able to hold the previous speed indefinitely, but I'm not used to holding speed for so long – and looked back at my tail.

My tail's probably about as long as I'm tall, maybe a bit shorter than that. I'm five foot something, so that means it's at least four feet long. And the last couple feet of it was completely unresponsive; the point where it stopped obeying my brain had blood pouring from a small hole, right on a line between a black stripe and a white stripe.

Bastard hit my tail!

Then my stripes got disrupted by bull's-eye target spots! Fortunately, Sniper chose to demonstrate by shooting at Yusuke, because I was too distracted to deflect if he'd shot at me.

Sniper drove off, and Yusuke ran after him, shouting, "Hey, get back here! You don't scare me!"

I stood there a bit longer, shaking and staring at the marks.

Kamiko

When I woke up later, I was back in the apartment with Botan, Seaman, Genkai, Koenma and Kurama. I was lying on my stomach on the bed. And…while my wings were still torn up pretty badly, nothing else was bleeding; plus, my coloration had returned to something resembling normal.

"There you are," Genkai drew my attention. "I wasn't sure what good healing would do on your wings when you can put them away, so I didn't try."

I blinked at her. "Only my wings were hurt, not my DNA; putting them away will heal any injuries. It's the same with my tail." I glanced back at my tail and twitched it. It seemed fine.

"Your tail was self-explanatory."

"I'll put my wings away when I'm sure I've got the endurance for the pain that's definitely going to come from that." Then I stared around at them. "But…who found me?"

Kurama turned around. "I did. I caught the scent of blood and followed it to you, and threw the rubble off of you."

I pushed up onto my elbows. Something felt a little odd when I did that – not pain, not like it was anything to actually do with my body, but like something had slipped off my shoulder.

Suddenly, Kurama, Koenma and Seaman were having slight trouble controlling their expressions. I…had a guess as to what had happened. I looked down.

A faint strip was dangling by one end…and the entire bra structure on my left side had slipped dangerously.

A memory surfaced: I'd hit Shizuru in a flying tackle…the rubble came down…several sharp rocks sliced through my wings…and across my left shoulder…

That particular sharp rock must have severed my bra strap. "Aw man…now I have to mend that, and my other one's at home." I tugged the thing back into place – it wouldn't stay very well. Only elastic would have made it a perfect fit, and I couldn't include elastic.

Seaman explained to the others why Kuwabara was the new target. Everyone started working on plans. I cocked my head. "Something happened to Machiko: she's agitated. I think she's been injured; I'm not sure how – hang on..." I focused on tuning myself to my sister.

Then my colors changed. One spot: about halfway down my tail, a small red spot appeared.

"Her tail got hit?" Kurama sounded somewhere between surprised and impressed. "That would have taken some careful aim."

"It gets worse: without her tail fully operational, she can't run anywhere near as fast, and she won't be able to bank worth….anything. She'll practically be a sitting duck."

"Hold on," Botan sounded surprised. "What else is happening to your color?"

I stared down. Bull's-eye target marks had appeared in very specific locations: stomach, right arm, left arm, right ankle, left ankle…heart.

Besides those marks, everything else went white with fright. "She's in someone's territory, and she really is a sitting duck! She's been marked by someone else's spirit energy!"

Everyone divvied up. I stayed in the room, for now…but I told them that I'd catch up with them as soon as I mended my bra strap.

Seaman made his choice and went to join up with them. Kurama would welcome him, I knew he would – he's such a sweetheart.

At least now I could take off my bra to properly mend it.

Machiko

I caught up with Yusuke…granted, I ran headlong into him.

"Watch it!"

"Sorry…I…I'm…"

"You're scared silly, that's what you're trying to say, right?"

I snapped back. "Well, I'm sorry I never had any chance to practice combat before this! I didn't have any training grounds to go to for technique refinement, or any back alleys where it was fight or die!"

Yusuke slapped me. Then he grabbed my shoulders. "Hey, I'm not exactly thrilled about this myself. But you've got to hold it together, or you'll just get killed that much faster."

I sighed. "What I was going to say was, I can't control my running with a hurt tail."

He stared at me. "You're kidding me. One bad shot to your ass, and now you can't hit Mach Five?"

I nodded. "I can technically heal my tail by shifting to human form, waiting for a few minutes, and shifting back; but I'm even more vulnerable as a human than I am now, and besides, I think the rock or whatever he shot is still in there so I don't dare try it!"

"Dammit!" That was mostly directed at the situation, so I ignored it.

We found a field, and nearly got hit by blades of grass! I had to twirl my tail about, trying to deflect blades of grass with my nearly-useless half like I'd been smacking bugs last time. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite as good with a busted tail. I'm still not sure how it was hurt – had my spine gotten severed down there, or had that rock gotten lodged in a bone? Or in between bones, or whatever?

Anyway, I did get hit by two blades of grass…in my ankles.

As I fell to the ground with another cry, Yusuke glared at me, though I figured it was because of our situation. "Just stay down now! If you're on the floor, your remaining targets can't get hit!"

"Mmmk'y." I didn't even bother lifting my face. I just lay there. Fabulous – I can't heal my ankles like my tail, I don't have another form that's missing legs!

I heard a lot of Yusuke's yelling and general destruction, so apparently Sniper had decided that he was going to throw stuff at the spirit detective and ignore me.

That suited me just fine.

After a minute, though, something did occur to me, and I looked up. It looked like he'd destroyed whatever had been thrown at him. "Yusuke…do you have a minute?"

"Huh?" He came over and listened.

"Just being down won't save me. Anything could hit me in the back." I spread my wings and gained my claws. "You've got to get me into the air. If I'm moving, I'll at least be able to defend myself a bit better. All my remaining targets are on my upper body, which means that if the missiles are coming at me from the front, I can deflect them with my hands like you're doing."

"Your tail's used for steering when you do that, right? It'll be risky."

"As long as I stay airborne, I'll be fine."

"Okay…" He studied me for a second. Then he reached down and grabbed my neck. Hauling me up, he grabbed hold of my waistband with his other hand. "You ready?"

I partly spread my wings. "Yeah."

He launched me upwards as if I was a toy plane.

I spread my wings fully, caught air, and lumbered into the sky. My legs weren't useless, just my feet and ankles, so I was using them to steer and just letting my tail dangle.

I could feel blood running down the outside of my tail, though, and over my claw-like feet. I wondered how long I could manage to keep this up.

And knives were being thrown at us this time.

"Too bad you didn't think of this when Sniper was throwing rocks! You could have had a practice round!" Yusuke yelled.

I struck at knives left and right, smacking each one broadside and slashing them. My claws could best metal, and I was managing to destroy them.

Heart, stomach, both shoulders; heart and stomach, I'm dead…shoulders, I'm as good as dead…

Finally, the knife barrage ended.

I was barely staying in a hover. I was bad at hovering, my wings weren't designed for it: climbing, soaring, power-dives, parachuting, general travel and turning on a wingtip in a space barely big enough for me, sure, but not hovering. (I did my research on that last one; I have bat wings, and a bat can make a turn like that. I haven't had the opportunity yet to do so myself.)

(And I hope I live long enough to try.)

Kamiko

Once my bra was mended and my wings reset, I flew out to find the others.

Kurama had arranged for us to meet up with…someone. I'd still been airborne when he said that, so I never caught that. I'd power-dived to meet them from the air, camouflaging as I went so that nobody could see me coming, and landed in front of Botan with a snap of wings.

She jumped, as did Seaman and Koenma. Kurama flinched, and Genkai didn't even do that. I let my color return to normal as I put away my wings and tail. "Did anyone remember my shoes?"

"Ah…no. Nobody thought of them."

"Ah, well. Fake dragon-boots it is." I glanced down at my feet and focused. Instead of golden, I designed them in a couple shades of very dark gray. "There; now they won't draw too many stares and remarks of 'are those real?'"

A short laugh, and Koenma went off to make some preparations. I hoped we were all up to this challenge.

Genkai glanced down. "Kamiko, what's with your ankles? Did your sister get hurt again?"

I looked at the red spots that I'd left there for wanting to show them. "Yeah. You'll have to heal her when we find them, Genkai, because that's a spot we can't heal using shifting tricks."

"Understood."