An Upset Stomach

Kamiko

Okay, okay, saying that white is always fear for me is stretching it – I have two different color-reactions for fear: vanishing into my surroundings, and some color that completely contrasts with my surroundings that's trying to make me look too dangerous to mess with. White was generally the go-to for my "I'm dangerous, keep away from me" look, but it comes with an extra trait that hadn't appeared just yet this time, in no small part because nobody had officially given me their attention yet. I was white instead of camouflaged because…the energy in this particular cave was strange – it was keeping my camouflage from working properly.

Sensui was just talking about his movie. Eventually he stood up and turned around, but his attention was on Yusuke, so I didn't react any further.

The demons waiting on the other side of the portal were more worrisome. C-class demons were doing their best to grab Kuwabara, who was tied up in a boat practically right next to the portal.

Then Sensui "encouraged" the demons to pull back again, and delivered some shot at Hiei and Kurama. If I was reading it right…he'd just implied that the two had started out as lower-class demons without any intelligence. Somehow…I doubted Hiei was just going to take that. Kurama I was less sure about.

Weirdly enough, neither demon reacted.

After a bit of talking, Sensui's eyes roved over to me. "Now…I wonder what class you might be."

One of my feet slid backwards, dragging furrows into the ground with its claws. And the final touch to my "I'm dangerous, keep away from me" look appeared.

Multi-colored eye-spots opened all over me. I knew from experience – test runs, technically – that those eye-spots could and would "blink" at random intervals individually or in pairs, adding to the creep factor and hopefully making everyone or everything that would attack me think twice about doing so.

Funny thing about those eye-spots…I actually can see through them…kind of. It isn't perfect, and I have to be thinking about it.

He smirked, and let his gaze drift elsewhere.

Then he called Gourmet from the boat and the guy landed next to him. I couldn't believe what Sensui said next – if we managed to kill this guy, we'd get Kuwabara back!

Gourmet started walking towards us.

I was shuddering. My third eyelids had closed, so that I wouldn't have to blink and potentially expose myself to a sudden danger.

I heard Kurama mutter to Yusuke under his breath. Something about not trusting Sensui's words, making a push for Kuwabara the first chance and in the meantime play along.

Then Gourmet started talking to Seaman – saying stuff that there was no way he should have known!

Next he turned to Kurama and started saying something that was apparently right out of the fox's head! How Kurama was still torn up with guilt about Gamemaster, and embarrassed about how he'd had to do that!

When did he – he got Murota, didn't he?

"Bingo! Haven't you been wondering where he's been since the hospital let him out?"

I flinched, my base color starting to take on a green tint. If he keeps that up, I'm going to be sick!

"Eating my teammates?" Yusuke growled. "That's on my Ass-Kick List!" He started forwards…

And Kurama stopped him! "I'll take this one, Yusuke. Don't argue, for I am not in the mood."

Kur…a…ma?

"Ooh…kay?"

Kurama stepped forward. For a few seconds, Gourmet and Kurama just stood there looking at each other.

Then Kurama reached under his hair and yanked free…a rose?

So that's why he always smelled like roses. I wondered about that, it's not exactly a common cologne scent for a boy.

Kurama closed his eyes next and went completely still. Gourmet looked a little bewildered.

Suddenly Hiei appeared in my field of vision! His feet landed lightly on my hips and his hands snapped forwards – his left hand seized my right bra strap so that he'd stay upright and his right hand covered my mouth!

…Mind-reading isn't something I can only do with Machiko. But with everyone else, it requires a combination of physical contact and eye contact.

And at that moment, Hiei was doing both.

"I don't know what Kurama's going to do, but sometimes his fighting can get rather graphic." With the word "graphic," I got the sense of every bloody-fight-scene movie I'd ever seen or heard of. "With what your color's doing right now, if you see something of that sort, it's likely you'll either throw up or pass out, and that's a distraction that Yusuke and the other humans on our side don't need. Just keep looking at my eyes."

Oh.

Then Hiei's hand left my mouth and started towards my other bra strap.

"Steady with that one, Hiei, that strap had gotten sliced recently, and the mending was a rush job. I'm not sure how secure the stitches are."

Hiei's hand didn't change direction, but he grabbed my shoulder instead of the strap.

I heard some strange sound behind me, followed by a loud thud.

"Can I look now?" I asked softly.

He looked over his shoulder. "Depends: how are you on decapitation?"

I swallowed, starting to feel a little bit sicker.

His eyes tracked back over to me. I saw reflected in his eyes that my face was a darker shade of green than before. "That's what I thought."

I let my eyes fall shut. "You can get down now, though."

I felt his left hand's fingers walk up to my shoulder, and then his weight left and I heard his feet hit the ground a bit away as if pretending he hadn't done that.

I'll ask him why he suddenly took an interest in my well-being later.

"He took out Gourmet so quickly! I didn't see the whip until it was all over!"

I fought to keep my eyes shut – I didn't want to know what had happened.

"Rely on impulse," Kurama spoke, "and not even your thoughts can betray you. Now come out, Toguro!"

Huh?

"Did you think I wouldn't notice? I could smell your stench since we entered the cave!"

Then the strangest-sounding laughter started resounding through the cave!

"Kamiko!" Hiei snapped.

His timing was pretty good – I was just about to open my eyes, and his snapping my name got me looking at him instead of in the direction of the laugh.

The next set of sounds had me fixing my gaze squarely on the side of Hiei's head, keeping me from seeing what was going on.

"Very good, Kurama," an unfamiliar voice echoed, "your powers have certainly improved even in your human form, though I must say, the red hair's not as pretty as the silver!" And then more laughter bounced off the walls.

"You can look now, if you want," Hiei said in an undertone, "but I wouldn't recommend it to a virgin fighter like yourself. You're likely to find it…disturbing."

I glanced. And then my head wrenched back around and I stared outright.

Gourmet's body was standing, its original head sliced off and leaving only the lower jaw. But another head had grown from the new opening, one with a gray face and matching wavy hair.

I felt an odd sound come from my throat. Glancing at my hand, I saw that my color was quickly going into green-gray.

I…think Toguro was explaining to us what had happened to him, with Sensui participating in the story. I wasn't listening. I was fighting to keep my stomach under control…and it was a losing battle. What didn't help was I couldn't look away.

Then Kurama spoke again. "That is enough."

I agree. I spun and ran to another side of the cave. I had no choice but to lose my lunch.

Obviously, while I was doing…that…I missed the next part of the show.

I heard Toguro yell something about "the fox thinks he can finish me," but I remained in my corner, leaning over a rock and trying to settle again.

After a bit, deadly quiet came into the room.

I turned around and started walking back. There was a smokescreen taking up a lot of the space over there.

Every step was unsteady, and then I ended up sitting down without ever making it even as far as Seaman. Man, I hate it when something makes me that sick to my stomach!

After a bit, Toguro started making a lot of noise.

"That freak's screams are all I hear!" Yusuke complained. "Either he's beating the snot out of Kurama, or someone found out where he's ticklish!"

Then Kurama emerged from the smokescreen and walked over to me. "Are you all right, Kamiko?"

I swallowed once. "I…I'm fine. Just…seeing…that…was too much for me."

He held out his hand. "Here; on your feet."

Once I was up, he kept supporting me over to the others. As we went, I looked at my hand again. My color was returning to…huh. I still had my blinking eye-spots, but my base color was returning to gold. Apparently, somewhere during that mess, I'd stopped being the level of terror that had caused the white to begin with.

"I'd sure like to know who he's screaming at," Yusuke glared at the smokescreen again. "I've got a few ideas."

I'll bet. If I never see that form again, it'll still be too soon.

Then the smoke cleared.

There was that hideous form…held in place by some strange tree-thing!

I spun and hid my face in Kurama's shoulder, gripping his shirt. Thanks to brief glances from certain eye-spots, I could see my base color had gained a tint of green again with that sight.

"It's the Sinning Tree," Kurama said, as he started rubbing my back.

"The Sinning Tree?" Yusuke repeated. "Sounds a bit heavy."

"It ensnares the mind with visions of wickedness, while it sucks away your life."

"Wow, that's freaky."

Seaman asked, "He still thinks he's fighting you, even now while he's all wrapped up?"

"Yes."

Yusuke had the next question. "But how'd you get him hooked up on it?"

"I used my Rose Whip to plant the seed inside him when I ripped off Gourmet's skull."

I shuddered against him, and he actually put his arms around me. That had been some imagery I hadn't needed.

And I hated Yusuke's joke: "Wow – talk about planting ahead!"

"Clever," Hiei snidely remarked. "The smokescreen wasn't just to hide your whereabouts – it was a catalyst for the tree's hallucinations to take effect."

"I didn't want to leave things to chance," Kurama wrapped up, tightening his grip on me a little. Then he started walking, leading me somewhere I couldn't see. "The tree won't stop until its host is dead. As you said, Toguro, your regenerative powers make you unable to die. You will suffer for eternity here, torn between your hate and your agony…and so be it. Rogues like you deserve to be damned."

I wrapped my arms around his chest and clung tightly, feeling my shaking ratcheting up a notch. I…wasn't exactly scared at that moment, weirdly enough. I…I couldn't analyze my feelings. They were too complex. I could only imagine what it looked like from the outside.

Kurama

I looked down at the top of Kamiko's head when she hugged me. The eye-spots had vanished, but her colors were shifting through a few different hues. She was clearly very emotionally disturbed right now. I remembered what Murota had said about her colors when he'd plucked the thoughts from her mind. It hadn't been a complete list, not by any stretch of the imagination, but fear-white was involved, along with…hm – rose and violet.

That was definitely strange. Rose-pink she'd said meant either shyness or embarrassment…and Murota had said red was full embarrassment, so pink stood a better chance of meaning shy, but…what did violet mean? And this was the strangest time to be shy.

"Kamiko?"

Her colors stopped rotating when I spoke. Then scarlet dominated, and she let go and leaped backwards. "Sorry…sorry…didn't mean to…um…ahem…" she couldn't make eye contact with me.

"Remember to breathe, Kamiko," Yusuke remarked. "I hear it's in style right now. And not so you'd notice, but there's kind of a demon tunnel we need to get closed?"

She glanced towards the portal again. Her color returned to the white with rainbow eye-spots, and her jaw was set in determination.

"Right. Let's do this."

Her voice trembled. I remembered Genkai saying that Kamiko didn't know how to fight. But she was clearly choosing not to let her fear control her.

She's braver than she gives herself credit for.

But will it be enough?