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Of Petals and Thorns

Chapter 3

"You're at the hospital?!"

"Please, keep your voice down," Kurama held the phone a few inches from his ear as Botan's voice caused his ears to ring. He and Mrs. Yamashita had been waiting for six hours , which had given him the time to call his own mother and school to explain the situation. "I'm not the one who required medical attention." He glanced towards the ER unit that had a it's light on. When he had seen her in Mrs. Yamashita's arms he thought that she was merely sleeping, bu the woman's panic told him otherwise. His thoughts swam back to the car ride...

Flashback Start

"I can't believe this, I thought that she was doing better!" Mrs. Yamashita's grip tightened on the steering wheel as she glanced at her daughter in the rear-view mirror.

"Has this happened before?" Kurama asked, checking for a pulse and finding it faint. She nodded and explained that this had been happening for about a year now. His interest peaked when she mentioned that Asuka had been acting strange the other day. Now that he thought about it, she had been acting strange. He blinked as a strange scented wafted the car through the open driver's window: vanilla. His head shot up, searching the street, but it was completely deserted. Odd, he thought. There should be people rushing to work and students rushing to school.

"It's you..." His eyes widened as a figure appeared in the center of the street ahead of the car and the vanilla grew stronger. Under his fingertips he felt the pulse pause as the voice echoed in the car and Asuka's breathing grew erratic. It was hazy and clouded, but a pair of slanted animalistic copper eyes that bore into his own emerald orbs. They were soft and filled with moisture the closer the car came. "You are here..." His mouth opened as he attempted to shout a warning for it to get to safety but snapped closed as the mist faded. Looking to Mrs. Yamashita, he found that she was not aware of what just happened.

Flashback Ends

"Kurama?"

He shook his head, turning his attention back to the phone in his hand. "Sorry, what was that?"

"I was asking if you had found anything about that weird colored rose." He shook his head and replied that the closest thing that he had found was a fact that the apparition was a part of the feline family. There was sounds of shuffling and he sweat dropped as Yusuke's voice replaced Botan's. "Do you have nay idea how many cats there are in this city?!" The Spirit Detective was right; there were countless cats living in the city. The light above the ER doors turned off and Mrs. Yamashita's sudden jump to her feet caught his attention. He said that he would call later and slipped the phone into his pocket as a doctor appeared.

Mrs. Yamashita rushed to him, questions flowing from her lips faster than Kurama thought humanly possible. The doctor sympathetically bowed his head as he gestured for them to follow him through the doors. "It's a shame to see her here," he shook his head as they came to a stop in front of a room and turned his attention to Kurama. "I understand that you were checking her vitals on the way here, very smart thinking on your part. Would you mind telling me about her condition on the way here?."

Kurama nodded. "Her pulse was faint and faltered every once in a while, there was at one point where it stopped." Mrs. Yamashita gasped when he told of her daughter's erratic breathing. "It leveled out after about a minute though."

"Thank you for the info. Here's the hard part," Mrs. Yamashita wrung her hands as the doctor ran a hand through his hair. "During the past few hours, she has slipped in and out of a coma state. There were a few times where her heart stopped and we needed to perform CPR or administer adrenaline." With his head hanging, he pushed a button and the blinds opened. "She's stable for now, but it doesn't look as if she will be leaving anytime soon."

Kurama's eyes widened as Mrs. Yamashita clutched her heart as her legs buckled, quickly catching hold of her arms. He couldn't blame her for her reaction though as he too looked into the room. Among the machines and wires laid an unconscious Asuka that looked paler than a sheet of paper. His eyes were drawn to her face as her lashes twitched and his breathing stalled as her eyes opened to reveal the same animalistic eyes from before. They were unfocused and watery, but they held no malice or ill-will. If anything...they were filled with sadness and despair. He helped the Mrs onto the bench near the window but his eyes never left the girl as her eyes closed and the hazy mist from before appeared above her still form.

His head swiveled as the voice from before echoed through the hallway. "Why?..." The voice shook slightly and he was able to pick up feminine ring in it. "Why did you leave?..." And then the mist vaporized into nothing.

...

"So what are you saying?" Yusuke raised an eyebrow. They were now gathered in the waiting room and Mrs. Yamashita was in her daughter's room. "That the apparition is a cat-girl hybrid?"

"It's not unusual," Kurama pointed to himself. After all, he was the White Fox who had the ability to transform into human shape. A lot of demons and apparitions had that ability, which didn't make their case any easier. "Besides, I'm confident that Hiei and myself would be able to track them down soon enough. Though I admit it won't be easy since they have yet to reveal their physical form."

Kuwabara thumped his chest and earned a glare from a few of the visitors at the next table as he proclaimed that he himself would find the apparition first due to his spiritual awareness. They yelped as Hiei appeared behind them, who smirked as they slipped from their seats and moved across the room. His eyes were locked on Kurama's briefly before establishing a telepathic link and sending him an image of the street that he had been observing. Meet me here when you can, he sent, then disappeared.

There's a twist! Please let me know in the comments! Xoxooxxxoxoxo!