Wolfie: Hello again everyone! This is another Fanfic that I've been working on for a few years. I started it early in high school and just never got around to putting it online. It's a bit different from my original but I think this one is definitely better. As always let me know what you think.
Disclaimer: I do not own YuYu Hakusho, the characters or the original plot line. Ember and the other OCs as well as this plot line is completely mine!
Chapter 1: Escape to Freedom
An officer knocked on the door of 3205 Red Sun Drive. A girl of about sixteen stood next to him with a trickle of blood flowing from her lip. She would have wiped it away but the officer had handcuffed her hands behind her and held on tightly to one arm.
The girl was only average size for her age, had black hair with deep violet highlights and dark blue eyes. Her appearance revealed the power she had gained from constant weight training and exercising. It had left her toned but not highly muscled, just the way she wanted it.
"Can I help you?" A man asked as he opened the door. His hair was pitch black with few highlights to give it a natural look, brown eyes and stood nearly a foot taller than the girl. They didn't look anything alike. He was obviously a drinker as his breathe always smelled of liquor and he never seemed to be able to stand upright on his own for long.
"Are you Jake Malone?" The officer asked, receiving a nod from the man. The officer gave him a skeptical look but continued. "Is this your…" he was cut off as the man realized she was there.
"She's my step-daughter and has been nothing but trouble since her mother died." He sneered at her. The look spelled out trouble for the girl tonight after the officer left. "Thank you for going through the trouble of bringing her home. I work all day and can't always make it to the school on time to pick her up. She tends to wonder off if I'm not there on time. Normally she gets home before dark though."
"It's understandable Mr. Malone. As this is the first time I've had to deal with her she's not getting charged with anything. But I can't make any promises should this happen again." The officer said. Jake nodded and glared at the girl.
"Room, now! I'll deal with you after this nice gentleman and I are done talking." He swayed a bit as he yelled and she caught the scent of whiskey on his breath. It was never good for her when he drank whiskey. She nodded and hurried up the stairs as soon as the officer had taken the cuffs off of her. She wasn't afraid of him, she just didn't know how many times she could 'fall down the stairs' before the school got suspicious.
'I've got to leave tonight.' She told herself as she wiped the blood off her lip and grabbed a duffle bag out from under her bed. 'It's too far this time. He'll kill me tonight if I don't leave.'
She argued back and forth about going even as she started shoving clothes, money and the few supplies that she had stashed for such an occasion. It was clear that she needed to leave.
Grabbing a sword and some knives out of a secret compartment under her bed, she took one last look around her room. She grabbed a wolf plushie that her mother had given her before jumping out the window onto a tree branch that hung just below it. Jake didn't believe her window could open more than a couple inches so never took the trouble to cut the branch down.
As soon as her feet hit the ground, she readjusted the bag and began running. She could hear the officer still talking to her 'father' at the front door so avoided that route and took one through the back of a neighbor's yard. Just as she had jumped the fence she heard the officer leave and her step-dad shut the door. It would only be a matter of minutes before he discovered that she was missing.
She was sliding out the back gate to the yard as she heard her step-father calling her name. She cringed and quickly made her way down the street, trying desperately not to draw attention to herself. 'I can always go stay in that cave by the lake. No one ever goes there anymore so it should be safe.'
She had found a cave that was deep in a forest. It wasn't very big but people had forgotten about nature's wonders and had given her the perfect escape from reality. The cave itself wasn't very big. About seven or eight feet high and maybe twenty feet or so long. Ivy had grown over the entrance, hiding it fairly well unless someone was looking for it specifically.
It began raining just as she stepped through the cave. Fortunately she had stockpiled a small amount of firewood and covered it with a special powder to keep bugs and spiders out of it. She took this powder and reapplied it to the entrance of the cave in hopes of keeping anything nasty out. Once done, she started a fire, pulled out her sleeping bag and made herself a cup of instant ramen. Once she was sure the fire was going good she laid down and fell asleep.
In the morning the sun shined through the ivy curtain she had and woke her up instantly. It took a moment for her to remember what had happened before she put out the fire and made her way to her first day at a new school. She had transferred without anyone realizing what she had done in an attempt to start a new life.
She went to the pond, which was complete with running water from a waterfall flowing into it and a small stream leading away from it. The water was never stagnant for very long and she could always drink from the waterfall if necessary. After she was washed, changed and had a bag and supplies ready she left her cave and headed to the new school.
Once she arrived at the school she made her way to the office to get her class schedule. Upon arriving at the secretary's desk she was forced to wait a few minutes while the poor lady had to deal with an enraged parent on the other side of the phone. Once the secretary hung up the phone and finished grumbling, Ember made her presence known.
The secretary looked up, startled, and put on a friendly smile. "oh hello, how may I help you today?" She looked at the lady for a moment before answering. The lady looked genuinely interested in helping her, besides who else was around to talk to. Not to mention she didn't want to hurt the poor lady's feelings after the phone call she had.
"I'm here to get my class schedule and a locker. My name is Ember Basira." She answered confidently. The secretary nodded and searched through her files. She printed out a sheet with her name, classes and available locker on it. With a smile she handed it to her and wished her luck on her first day.
Ember thanked her and walked out examining the schedule. She headed to her first class, which was English. Not her favorite subject but it could be worse. As she entered the teacher glared at her thinking one of her students had come in late.
When she recognized Ember as being a new student she forced the girl in front of the class and had her introduce herself. The teacher nodded permitting her to take the last open place next to a boy with a ton of gel in his hair and an obvious attitude. "Urameshi, I know I'll regret asking this, but would you please show Miss Basira around the school today?"
"Bah, I don't see why you're asking me to do it." The boy said and received a smack from the brunette behind him. "Agh, alright alright I'll show her around. Geeze Keiko you didn't have to smack me." He grumbled and Ember gave a hint of a smile.
"Good, I hope we won't have any problems then." The teacher said before turning back to the lesson at hand. Keiko and the boy know as Urameshi, though Ember thought she heard Keiko call him Yusuke, got into an argument about manners and helping people. Ember slowly tuned them out as she paid attention to her daily lesson.
After class Keiko introduced herself and Yusuke. Surprisingly both of them took the time to show her around the school and made sure she knew where all her classes were. Anytime Yusuke made a rude comment Keiko would force him back into line one way or another.
At lunchtime Ember left her class to go have a light, and inexpensive, lunch in a comfortable tree at the edge of the lunch area. While she was eating Yusuke and Keiko had a hushed argument under the very tree she was in.
"But Keiko I can't study with you tomorrow. Koenma's got me working on a case again." Yusuke whined. Ember could just see the fire emitting from Keiko's eyes at this statement. Yusuke either didn't or just chose to ignore it.
"Yusuke Urameshi, there is nothing more important than your education!" Keiko lectured him. "I'm sure Hiei is fully capable of handling any mission that Koenma is giving to you."
"What?!" Yusuke yelled, receiving a couple of glances from a nearby group. He told them off and they turned their heads back to their food and books. "But Keiko, the fate of the three worlds is at stake and besides, it's as good of an excuse as any to get out of having to listen to those boring teachers rattle on all day."
"So this really is a 'get out of school for a day or two' scheme?" Keiko growled. Obviously Yusuke did this often if she was going on about it so much.
"What? No! You don't understand Keiko." Yusuke stumbled over what he was saying. He seemed to have a bit of growing up left to do. "There's a powerful demon loose in the human world. Koenma says that she doesn't even know what she is. It's going to take all of us to find her and protect her from another demon who's out to find her. Not to mention protect the human world from her uncontrolled powers."
Keiko was not impressed, but she did show concern for the fact that a girl being in the dark about her heritage and being in danger for it. Before she could say anything the bell rang to call an end to lunch. "Fine Yusuke, but when this mission is done you are going to hit the books hard."
The two left for classes and Ember sat there pondering for a moment. 'Demons? Human world? What is going on here?' She thought to herself as she dropped out of the tree silently. She shook the thoughts from her head and hurried on to her next class.
After the final bell rang Ember walked to her locker and dropped off all the books she had picked up. Before she could open it Yusuke called out her name and she looked up. She looked around to see him running towards her. She ignored him and hurriedly put her books away, turned the other direction and began walking.
He hadn't exactly done what that girl, Keiko was it, had asked of him. On top of that he had too high of an opinion of himself most of the time and she hated that in people. "Ember wait up!" Yusuke called sounding out of breath. She rolled her eyes and, against her better judgement, stopped to let him catch up to her.
"What do you want Urameshi?" She asked trying hard to keep her voice neutral. Despite his aloof attitude and his laziness he did make an attempt at befriending her. She was willing to give him a few minutes of her time for him attempting that much. 'I doubt he's got many friends anyways. From what I've heard he's just a punk kid who ditches school and gets in fights. I guess he isn't that much different than me or at least who I used to be.'
Yusuke stopped in his tracks at her attitude and gave her a confused look before shooting off his mouth. "Well I was going to ask you if you wanted to hang out with me and Keiko after school but if you don't want to then whatever. It was Keiko's dumb idea anyways."
She knew she hurt his feelings after he did take the time to show her around earlier. He even did an ok job at it, she could at least find her way around for the most part now. "oh, I, uh can't today. I kinda have a few things to do after school. Thanks for the invite though."
She turned and gave him a slight wave. She wasn't used to anyone inviting her to hang out. Most of the kids at her last school had avoided her. Mostly because they were afraid of her step-dad. Well that and because she was always having to defend herself she never let any of the other kids get close enough to be her friend.
While she was walking back to the cave she kept getting an eerie feeling that she was being watched. Nothing much just the hairs on her neck standing up and a slight itch between her shoulders like someone had her in their sites and was waiting for some signal to attack.
Fed up with acting too afraid to look she waited until she was on the edge of the forest before suddenly turning around and finding her stepfather behind her. He had walked so silently that she never even noticed him. He was so close to her that she automatically took a step back and hit something solid.
Quickly turning to the side so she was facing both her stepfather and the 'wall' she recognized the second person as one of Jake's slimeball friends. And not one she particularly cared for. He always looked at her like she was a piece of meat. She hadn't seen him since Jake's old gang was dispersed due to the high amount of police raids. Too bad neither of them had been involved.
"Go away Tony. I'm not going back." She growled hoping to catch one of them off guard. Unfortunately they were both highly amused. She backed away from them and they followed her step for step until she had backed into a tree. The spread out just enough to block her escape.
"It's time to come home you little whore." Jake chuckled. "That's what you'll be when my boys are done with you. You certainly deserve it. Tony here volunteered to be your first. He promised to be real gentle."
Ember started to panic and prayed silently for help. She'd rather die than go back and be raped by all of Jakes worthless friends. 'Somebody, anybody, please help me.' She thought to herself before resolving to fight as long as she could.
She rolled her shoulders and allowed her pack to drop to the ground gently. Stepping away from it she prepared to fight for her very life. Leaping at the two men she fought with everything she had. She was nearly defeated when a voice called out from behind the two men. A voice that was new but very familiar. "Hey Assholes! Leaver her alone!" The voice called out and she new she was saved.
Wolfie: Okay so a bit mean to leave my new story off with a cliffhanger. I was going to add a slight bit more but I thought this was a better stopping point. Please R&R and I'll try to put up the next chapter as soon as I can.