After a few more minutes, Naomi could tell she was reaching the edge of her control and stopped, then swayed a bit. She hadn't realized how tired channeling so much energy was making her, and the block of ice she'd formed didn't seem big enough to be worth it. It was only about up to her waist, and maybe half-again as wide and long. The blue stripe in her hair shrank again, until it was very narrow indeed; maybe only a finger-width rather than the inch and a half it had originally been. The tiny streaks vanished completely, leaving unbroken brown.

Hiei noticed that too and grunted. "Sit," he ordered her, already coming up with ideas to help her. This would be interesting, at least. He watched her, making sure she obeyed, before he looking at the chunk of ice. It didn't melt immediately, which was good. But she was too exhausted to do anything else. So not useful.

Naomi sat down against the tree like she was told and wrapped her arms around herself. She did what she could to suppress the sudden fit of shivering, though. When she used up too much energy, her body temperature fluctuated, which made her feel like she was cold. She hated to admit to it, though, since she was usually so resistant to the cold. She just had to give her body time to regulate itself again, but until then, she would put up with feeling cold.

Hiei raised the temperature around them by several degrees, seeing her shiver. "You need to raise your physical endurance first," he said, looking down at her.

"Yeah, n-no kidding," Naomi replied. "'M n-not built f-for high-capacity output." She gradually stopped shivering, but the stripe in her hair stayed small. It would take a while for her to regenerate her energy. She glanced up at him. "There's only so much I can do... Being a half-breed doesn't exactly bring the word 'powerful' to mind."

"Perhaps not," Hiei agreed. "But I have seen people with less do more." He glanced in Yusuke's direction. "You think I started at this level?"

"You're also not half human," Naomi said. "That already puts you at a distinct advantage." Naomi usually tried not to let her lineage bother her, and succeeded most of the time, but this was one of those times that she was a little bitter about it. She'd been picked on and made fun of quite a bit growing up because she was a half-breed.

"So surpass expectations," Hiei pressed, watching her. "You can be as good as you want to be. Do not be what they expect you to be, because they expect it." He was almost surprised at himself for being so helpful, but he'd been similar to her, once.

"You say that now, when you've probably got enough power to level a whole city, if you wanted to," Naomi said. She pointed at the block of ice, which was already cracking as it warmed up and started to melt. "That's all I can do without something to work with, and I probably couldn't even chill a glass of water right now if I wanted to." There was a world of difference there, and Naomi just didn't see any way to even start to bridge that gap.

"So you practice. You train. You work through it." Hiei looked at her. "It will take time, but you can make yourself better."

Naomi didn't say anything else. She was in one of her 'I'm being bitter' moods, and it would take her a little while for her to come back out of it.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked after a moment. It didn't make any sense to her.

Hiei shrugged. "You have more potential than you know," he said. Besides, he was bored. And she almost reminded him of himself when he was much younger.

The simplistic answer wasn't the one Naomi was looking for. She wanted an actual reason, and that didn't seem to be a good enough one, to her. From what little she'd observed, he didn't seem the be the kind of person to do such things on a whim, so there had to be a reason behind it. She just had no idea what it was. Regardless, she didn't push the issue, and instead just leaned back against the tree to try to relax a bit.

Hiei shrugged and went back up to his perch, though he did make sure she didn't pass out or anything. And he kept part of his attention on Kurama. Was the fox really just going to dance around the girl? Really? He snorted. Stupid fox.

Every so often, Kurama glanced over at Hiei and Naomi. It was a little intriguing to see what was going on, actually. He'd never seen Hiei take an active interest in anyone like that.

"I think Hiei has taken a bit of a liking to your friend," he said to Osanna.

Osanna blinked. Really? she wrote in the patch of dirt she'd found just for that purpose. He better be nice to her.

"I think he is, actually," Kurama replied, glancing over at the two again. "At least, as much as he usually is." He turned back to Osanna. "It will be interesting to see where that leads."

Osanna nodded and settled back again, half-closing her eyes. She had seen Naomi earlier, and she wanted to make sure her friend was okay.

Kurama definitely noticed the lower levels of youki after whatever Hiei and Naomi were 'discussing.'

"Will your friend be alright?" he asked Osanna quietly. He didn't have much knowledge in the way of half-breeds and how they tended to work.

Osanna nodded. She just needs time, she wrote in the dirt. This had happened a couple times before, to both of them at varying points. It didn't take Osanna nearly as long to tire out, but the results weren't quite as debilitating.

"Does this always happen when she overextends herself?" Kurama asked. Now he was just curious, and besides, it was an excuse to keep talking to Osanna. Not that he should really need any excuses, but still.

Yeah, pretty much. She gets like that after she's used too much energy. She'll be back to normal within a couple hours, probably. When she's feeling better.

Osanna looked over at him to make sure he understood what she was saying.

Kurama nodded. That made sense. He leaned back against the tree, relaxing a bit, and then looked over at Osanna. "One of the simple joys in life: relaxing under a tree with wonderful company."

Osanna grinned and nodded, trying to force down a little blush as she sat there, relaxing with him. She had to admit, she certainly liked the company.

---

Naomi rubbed her eyes a bit and blinked as she looked around. Wherever she and Osanna were, it was very different from that Risembool place where they had been last. She glanced around. Speaking of Osanna...

"Osa?" she asked, going over to where she saw her friend. "Osa, you alright?"