A/N:Hey sorry about the wait everyone! That is, assuming there still is anyone reading this. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, its characters, or its plot! The quotes from this are obviously from the show, so I don't own those either! In fact, from now on I probably will only be given credit for the parts when they interact with my OC(s). Now that that's over, slight review of last chapter.

Last Chapter: Katsune was having a down day at school; Kurama being the only one who seemed to notice confronted her about it. After telling him exactly what was going on, and that she knew who he was it wasn't taken lightly. Feeling sympathy for her, he told her he would help; but can he?

Ch 9

Healing and Hurting

I walked over to the bed my mother was occupying. "Mom…" I said in a weak, shaky voice. "I found him, I found Yoko Kurama." For some reason, the name Yoko seemed to bother Shuichi-I mean Kurama, er…whatever. For a brief moment I wondered why the name was so unsettling to him, but that quickly passed as I focused on my mother once more. Kurama – as I've decided to call him – walked over to my mother. I watched as his calculating gaze studied her condition, and I started to become somewhat nervous. I watched as the expression on his face changed; first to one of confusion, then to one of amazement. His reaction sparked my curiosity…just what was he thinking?

Kurama's POV…

I walked over to her mother, and studied her. I used my demon energy to sense the poison that was infesting her body. It was strong, and she should have been long dead by now. 'How has she survived this long?' I wondered to myself. It was then that I sensed her demonic energy, which had been fighting off the poison all this time. Needless to say, the poison was prevailing. It was amazing she could survive this long. I looked over to Katsune, her face clearly expressing worry. "I think it would be best to have Botan heal her. Your mother's demon energy posses a healing trait, and it's been fighting off the poison. However, it's weakening; if Botan were to use some of her own healing powers, I believe it would make your mother's stronger, and it could fight off the poison getting rid of it for good." Katsune stared at me, clearly impressed. 'Interesting…'

Katsune's POV…

"So, it would be like her energy would be feeding of Botan's? Sort of like…putting gas in a car?" He nodded. "I see, do you have any way to contact her?" I asked him, after hearing his suggestion.

"No need I'm already here!" Botan said cheerfully as she came in the door.

"Why?" I asked. I hadn't told her about this, and I don't think she would come here for any other reason. Then again, Botan always knew where to find us. I guess it was because Koenma had that screen thing…

"Well I thought I would come help out!"

I nodded, "Or in other words, you saw what happened and decided you would come to cheer me up but ended up being able to help?" I asked unsure, sometimes Botan really did come because she knew we needed her help, but most of the time it was just dumb luck that she showed up when we needed her. But hey, who's complaining?

"Yeah, that's about right." Botan smiled, and then walked over to my slowly weakening mother. "I'll to my best to help her," She paused, and I knew nothing good could come from it. "But I can't guarantee my strength will be enough." I smiled, that wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

"Don't worry Botan, I'm sure you'll have strength to spare!" Trying to be bubbly and optimistic like Botan, well let's just go with it didn't suit me; especially when I was feeling so down, and worried, and all in all negative at the moment. I felt that there were way too many ways this could go wrong. "I-Is there any way I can help?" I asked hopeful. Botan looked over to me, seemingly pondering something.

"Your spirit energy…"

I raised an eyebrow, "What about it?"

She continued, "It's green right?" I nodded slowly, wondering what that had to do with anything. "It could be coincidence, but green spirit energy has been known to hold healing abilities. Why don't you give it a try?" I nodded excitedly. As I stood by my mother, I breathed in deeply.

"Here goes something!" As I tried to heal her with Botan, I remembered what she had told me.

Flashback

"I'm not sure if this works for everyone, but the way I heal someone is to think of how much I want to save them." I nodded, that made sense. "Just think of how much you want your mom to live and send your spirit energy towards her, I'm sure it will be no problem!"

End Flashback

I focused my spirit energy into my palms; it felt somewhat strange as the tingling sensation flowed rapidly through my body to get there. It was sweet and soothing, very unlike it usually was. Having always been on the offensive, it's always felt aggressive and even somewhat painful sometimes. It flowed from my hands to her body. The energy was still a lovely mint green color as it had always been, even though it felt so…different. I could feel her spirit energy fighting off the poison. It was poison made from spirit energy, something I had never seen or heard of before. "Who could have caused this?" I asked Kurama, although my attention still fully on my mother. Kurama's strategy was working, our energy was strengthening hers and she was slowly breaking down the poison. I looked over to Botan, noticing she was sweating. "You can rest now, I can finish up. Don't push yourself too hard." I smiled, and then Kurama answered my question.

"I can't say for certain…" I looked over to him. "But it's possible the cause is a demon I once knew." I frowned. A demon would certainly explain it, but I wanted to know exactly who so I could kick. Their. Ass. I got the feeling that was the reason Kurama didn't tell me who, he probably felt I would die right away if my mother couldn't even fight it. He was probably right too, so I calmed myself down and went back to focusing 100% on my mother. Botan came back over, and began to help again.

After a few more minutes, she said "Alright that should be good! It will probably take her a day or two to completely get rid of the poison, but now she has the strength to do it!" I turned from Botan to look back at my mother, and I smiled contently. I then sat (read: fell dramatically) down on a chair in the room, somewhat exhausted.

"I'm going to stay here tonight; I don't want to leave until she's better." They both nodded in understanding, although a bit worried.

"Are you sure you don't want us to stay?" Kurama asked, and although it was tempting I knew they had their own problems to take care of.

"I'll be fine, I'm sure you both have some things of your own to take care of anyways!" I smiled, but Kurama still seemed unsure. I watched as Botan flew out the window, and Kurama left through the door, once they were gone I turned my attention to my mother; her expression seemed to loosen up a bit. The pain that once completely consumed her body seemed to be weakening. My eyes started to feel somewhat heavy, but I willed myself to stay awake, at least a little bit longer.

.

.

.

"Ugh, where am I?" I had a splitting headache, and the room was pitch black. "Hello!?" I called out. "Is anybody there?" Again I got no answer. 'What happened?' I tried to remember just what I was doing before I ended up here, wherever that was. 'That's right! Kurama helped us heal my mom, and then I was sitting by her side and…oh, I fell asleep.' As I thought about this, I waited for my eyes to adjust. When they did I saw four silhouettes, all but one having a strange shape to them. "Who are you?" I asked, only to receive a chuckle from the one who looked somewhat human.

"We are the 4 Saint Beasts." My eyes widened at that statement.

"What do you want with me?" This time it was all out laughter.

"I thought you might want to see them," I gave him a look of confusion and he showed me what you might call a crystal ball. Inside, I saw all four of them, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and even Hiei! They were all struggling under the weight of the ceiling!

"NO!" Snickers from all four of the beasts filled the room in an echo, and I had an urge to slap them. I turned my attention away from them and back to the ball, a bat eyeball thing seemed to be explaining something to them, and provoking them. I then heard Hiei and Kuwabara arguing.

"Boy I'd like to get my hands on that bat thing." Kuwabara noted, and the ceiling dropped a little.

"Stay focused on the weight or you'll kill us all!" Hiei warned.

"Oh sure, blame me. I bet I'm holding up a lot more weight than you are!"

"Shut up Kuwabara!" I'd know that was Yusuke even if his voice was changed and I wasn't looking through a crystal ball!

"Well I'm not about to die for the sake of you worthless humans." And I felt an uneasiness and sickness rise up in my stomach.

"Don't you even consider it Hiei." Kurama intervened, and some slight relief rushed through me. I watched as the sickly little bat laughed maniacally, which really pissed me off. After it was done laughing, it started to tease them and put thoughts in their head.

Telling them what he thinks he knows they're thinking, "The best is your eyes. Seeing the gears of thought turn in desperation, thinking, questioning yourself. 'How long can I hold this?' 'Will I die this way?' 'Will one friend betray us and escape while we flatten, or should I be the one?'" I scrunched my face up in anger and disgust.

"Just, ignore that punk, stick together." A short pause. "And if anybody tries to run I swear I'll drag them back myself!" Kuwabara's admirable nobility was showing once again.

"Hah, and I suppose you think it'd be noble if we all died as a team." Hiei scoffed.

"That's right!"

Yusuke shut them up and came up with a plan, telling Hiei to go flip the switch because he was the fastest. Kuwabara seemed to disagree.

"You crazy!? We can't trust that guy! Just look, he doesn't care at all about us!" With a smirk Hiei replied, "Your ugly friend has a good point detective."

"Who's ugly!? Come 'ere you mouse!"

"Are you sure you wanna trust me? I've already vowed my revenge on you; maybe I'll handle that now."

"Yeah but I don't think quick deaths are your style." Yusuke argued. He then continued to explain the plan, warning Hiei not to trip and telling him he trusted him. I noticed Kurama smile as Hiei ran for the switch, however Hiei hesitated. "What are you doing Hiei!?" I couldn't help but call out. Kuwabara started freaking out, and Hiei laughed telling them they were fools. I soon realized that he was just acting, as the bat thing told him about a boulder and then he pulled the switch. The rest of them came running, worried he was crushed. "Yeah!" I let out a victory cry, and an annoyed grunt came from the saint beast that seemed to be in charge. I walked up to him, "Hey, you're the leader right?" No response, "What's your name?" I continued, but still got no response.

He then grabbed my wrist, "You don't seem to understand the situation you're in girl." He scoffed, seemingly disgusted at my gender. It hurt, his tight grip, and it seemed somewhat electrifying. It made me uneasy, scared even.

"Guess not, but you don't seem to understand yours either." I talked back. "They're powerful, and you will fall." During my earlier moment, when I was celebrating victory, one of the beasts had gone down to 'greet' them. I noticed him fighting with Kurama, apparently his name was Genbu, and he was made of stone. I heard Kuwabara freak out about how he was 'a talking rock.' As I watched the fight, I couldn't ease the turning feeling in my stomach. 'Don't die.' I thought, 'Just please, don't die.' I watched intently, so intently I didn't even notice the leader had let go of my wrist. Soon enough, Kurama was holding a red stone in his hand, causing him to be put back together…wrong. Yusuke and Kuwabara were laughing so hard they had tears in their eyes. I ended up laughing too, especially when they started with their smart ass comments. I watched as the roar of the next beast caused the ceiling to start breaking apart.

They made a run for it, "This is dangerous." I heard Kuwabara say.

"No shit." I couldn't help 'replying.' All my comments seemed to be amusing the beasts in the room. I thought for a moment, about Kurama's fight. 'He uses plants…' I sat in silence. 'He's a kitsune like me right? So, maybe he can help me…' Apparently Mr. Beasty (read: the leader of the Saint Beasts) got bored, and decided to tease me.

"You got awfully quiet all of a sudden." I could practically hear the laughter in his tone. He grabbed my wrist again, "You're half demon, correct?" I didn't want him to know he was right, but the shock of him even asking caused me to widen my eyes slightly although only for a split second. As he saw this, he realized he was correct. With a teasing smirk, he grabbed my other wrist so that they were both held above my head in his hand, and lifted my chin up ever so carefully with his free one. "Why side with these pathetic humans?" I couldn't help a growl from escaping me as it ripped up my throat.

"I'm not all demon, I have a human side to. Ever think that, maybe, just maybe I favor that side more?" Poison, venom, hate, anger, murder; they were all dripping off every single word I said. He looked somewhat annoyed.

"Katsune Matsumoto, was it? Yes, you prefer your mother's last name, correct?" I scrunched up my nose, as the anger ripped through my body in a harsh, hot, burning feeling.

"You son of a bitch!" I hissed. He laughed, and laughed, and finally I couldn't contain myself. I slapped his stupid, annoying face, as hard as I could. "You piss me off. Now you disgusting freak!" There was a slight pause, and he didn't look pleased. Not that I cared. "Let. Me. Go!"

A/N: Hope you enjoyed! School's almost out so I'll be having more time to write! Also I decided to start making a new paragraph every time the speaker switches. So now not only do I need to go back through every other chapter to fix spelling and grammar but also make it like this. Anyways, we've finally gotten into the actual story! Looks like I'll be re-watching Yu Yu Hakusho for the 9th time! YAYZ! Looking forward to it!