Chapter One

She hated living. But she loved it too. She loved it far more than she hated it. After all, what use was killing herself? She didn't have the courage to live but she also didn't have the courage to end it. She was the worst kind of coward.

So when it wasn't by her choice that she died, she felt relieved. Relieved in the fact that she hadn't done it herself. No one could blame her for it.

But then there was a spark. A spark of regret.

What about my family?

It's said that you can never really fully appreciate things until they're gone. And it was never truer for her until now.

As she felt herself bleeding out on the sidewalk, hearing the fading shrieking of people, she wanted to live. Never before had she wanted to live so strongly. And yet here she was. Dying from a gunshot wound to the chest.

"Do you believe in second chances? "a warbled voice asked in the back of her mind.

Melanie woke with a start. She looked around and saw nothing in the white expanse. She patted her chest. No wound.

"Hello," a voice greeted, sounding more like static than a voice.

"Hello?" Melanie asked.

"Do you believe in 2nd chances?" the voice crackled, making sure that Melanie knew it from before.

Melanie tilted her head. Was it right to answer truthfully?

"Yes," came the static.

"Then I guess... yes in a sense," she replied.

"In a sense?" the voice seemed displeased.

"I think you have to earn a 2nd chance. You have to work for it."

"Noble, indeed," the static hummed, thinking it over.

"Are you God?" Melanie asked.

"Not in your sense, no."

"What do you want with me?"

"You seem a lot more pro-active now than you were when you were alive."

"I'm dead so I guess... I don't know."

Melanie wasn't sure she really liked the static voice.

"I'm not really sure I like you either. But I think you're interesting."

"How? I'm so average."

"And that's where you're not quite right. But that's neither here nor there. I'm bored," the voice crackled again, tacking on a mechanical whirr at the end that sounded like sigh.

What does that have to do with me? Melanie thought.

"I'm going to give you a 2nd chance. With a new body. In a new world. Exciting, yes?"

"What if I don't want it?"

"Then too bad. I'm giving it to you anyway."

Eyes blinked open as the wind rushed through trees.

"Where am I?" Melanie mumbled, sitting up and looking around.

She was sitting in a patch of cool grass in the middle of a forest. Thick brown trunks sprouted up from the ground and branched off into leaves of dark green. The branches of the trees seemed to run together, allowing only minimal light onto the forest floor. As she looked down at her body, she noticed she was wearing some non-descript brownish-black pants and a simple black tee. Her feet were bare. And very pale.

Melanie hoisted herself up and absently noted that her body felt lighter. She followed the sound of running water and soon came to a brook of clear water filled with fish.

There was a grumble of hunger from her stomach as she remembered the taste of her mother's steamed fish.

As she approached the water, a slightly warped face in the babbling liquid made her stop.

A face as pale as untouched snow with big bright blue eyes stared right back at her. A messy mop of pure white hair sat on top of the person's head.

Melanie touched her face and the image mimicked her.

That's me? she wondered.

"You'll have a body of my making in this new world," the static told her, sounding like it was smiling. "It's one of my nicer creations."

"Do I have a say in it?" Melanie found herself asking.

"I've already added some features that I'm sure you'll appreciate, considering your identity before you were killed."

Melanie frowned. What did that mean?

"It means you can change gender."

What?

"You can change gender at will. Or be neither. Your choice."

Oh. Ok. That was something Melanie did actually appreciate.

"See? I'm nice."

Maybe.

So that was what the voice meant. It didn't matter what gender she chose. The face was so androgynous.

What am I right now?

Melanie patted her chest but found nothing. Reluctantly, she patted her crotch as well. Nothing there, too.

"Am I neither, or a girl?" she wondered aloud.

Quickly glancing around to see she was alone, she pulled on the waistband of her pants. Nothing.

Literally nothing. No vagina, no penis. Nothing.

So I'm neither right now. Let's try being a girl.

Melanie watched as her crotch began to pull apart and form a vagina.

She patted her chest again, found that there was now some soft mounds (about a B cup) and smiled a little.

"Ok, I'll admit. This is cool."

Right now I feel more like a guy now so...

Melanie felt her crotch area grow and get heavier. Her chest also flattened and gave way to harder muscle.

"Better."

"Something doesn't seem right. What kind of body is capable of changing genders on command?" Melanie asked, feeling wary of this seemingly great deal.

"A demonic one."

Melanie felt her breath catch. How, she wasn't sure, since she wasn't really capable of breathing at this point in time. "Demonic?"

"Not your silly interpretations of demons, no. More like... super-powered humans with something to prove," the static... giggled?

"And- hold on- you're just giving me a demon's body?"

"I made the body," the static pouted. "And yes, I'm giving it to you. Not for free, of course, but it's not like you'll have to do anything special."

"Again, what if I don't want the body? What if I don't want a second chance?"

"Of course you want it! I mean, I'm giving you a free pass! You keep your memories and everything! You get a powerful body, the ability to change your body to fit whatever you're feeling, no one knows you, and best of all! You get all this for the low, low cost of keeping me entertained."

Melanie frowned. "Keeping you entertained?"

"Well, when I say that, it's more like I'll appear in your dreams to give you advice every so often that you're free to take or not take. After all, if you did everything I told you, it wouldn't be entertaining, am I right?"

"Right..."

"So what'dya say? Want to have a go?"

At Melanie's face the static sighed. "I'll give you a free week long trial, how's that? You can do whatever you want for that week and at the end, I'll contact you and ask if you want to keep going. If you decide you don't want to, then I'll let you go. You can... go wherever you human souls go after you stop breathing. If you want to stay, the terms are exactly like what we discussed, ok?"

"Why are you so set on ME?" Melanie asked. "Surely, if you wanted someone interesting, then you could've had anyone you wanted. Why do you keep giving me a chance?"

The static sighed again. "No one else is as interesting as you! I've been watching you since before your death, and I was fascinated. You were so despondent to everything. You were so tired of living, even though you'd barely lived at all!"

Melanie scowled at that comment, but the voice continued.

"You wanted to die, but you were so afraid to kill yourself! Hating pain and all that. You were indecisive, which attested to the fact that you were constantly switching between genders, you didn't go out and make friends, you smiled when you really didn't want to and-"

"ALRIGHT!" Melanie yelled. "I GET IT. I'm a terrible person." A sigh. "But that just makes me wonder more. Why did you pick ME?"

"Because a truly good person is so BORING! I want someone corrupted! Strange! Someone who knows more than they let on."

Melanie sat for a while in the green grass and listened to the birds chirp and the water gurgle faintly.

"Now it's really true when I say I'm a demon," she murmured.

Blue sky stretched out above, barely seen through the dense leaf cover.

"Even though it said it was a different world... it still looks and feels like Earth."

"He" lifted a delicate pale hand and grasped at a butterfly slowly fluttering along.

"I've got a week to decide whether or not I want to live..."

The hand opened to reveal the butterfly flapping its iridescent wings slowly.

Hey everybody and welcome to Bad Apple! (No intentional reference to the song whatsoever) This is my 3rd story on FF and has been an idea for a while now. I just recently fleshed out my new OC, Melanie. And if it wasn't obvious, Melanie is bi-gender (switching between genders depending on how the person feels) She will gain a new name to fit her new body in the next chapter. So yeah. My first Yu Yu Hakusho fiction ever. Yaaaay...? Uh, so I don't know if I want to do romance or not (as is a running theme with me) so no pairings for now. Um so yeah... have fun and leave a review? *cough*

NEXT TIME: NAMING PROCESS AND SHOPPING

DFTBA (Don't Forget To Be Awesome)