This is a story based on my friend's original character, along with mine and our friends' original characters! While it takes place within the Yu Yu Hakusho timeline, it won't follow the story exactly.

Warning: This story is a slow burner!

Reviews and critiscisms are encouraged and welcome!

This fanfiction now has its own DeviantArt account!: YYHTheLostChapters

Go there to see drawings of what the characters look like! But be warned- there are spoilers for events past Chapter 1, so enter when you've caught up!

I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho, including Hiei, Yusuke, Kurama or any other character in the Yu Yu Hakusho anime!

Chapter 1: Invitation

Flames crackled and popped in the warm fireplace of the otherwise dingy hotel lobby. Flein crouched closer to the bright fire, trying to absorb its heat before she would have to go outside and brave the chilly night air. In most cases the sight and warmth of fire would comfort her, but in some cases it reminded her of home. Of course, she had arrived to her destroyed village long after it had already burnt to the ground those long years ago, so she had the fortune not to have seen the flames slowly disentigrate her home. Still, she would sometimes picture it on quiet nights like these, wondering how bright the flames were, if there were any survivors, what the nice old lady who raised her was doing at the time the Spirit Defense Force destroyed her whole life.

Flein shook these invasive thoughts from her mind and secured her loose knit cap over her head. It was one of the many things she had to adapt to- hats. After escaping to the human world, she learned quite quickly that humans did not react fondly to her cat ears, nor her tail, which was presently curled uncomfortably under her jeans. Several times she was misled into thinking that humans tolerated her demon appearance, considering the most she got were confused glances and annoyed glares. However, it escalated into chaos as soon as any of them tried to touch her ears or tail, or tried to convince her to "take off that costume", as they liked to put it. Nowadays, Flein learned to avoid as much of that conflict as possible, even for the sake of her own discomfort. Although she has adapted fine on her own, the thought of human contact for any prolonged period of time made the hairs on her ears and tail stand up.

Picking up her bag with her old sword hidden inside, Flein walked out of the hotel doors and into the chilly night air. Even on nights like these, it was hard for her to sleep like everyone else. She thought that after 4 years of being in the human world, her body would have eventually adapted into a diurnal cycle, yet she was walking the streets in the middle of the night again.

"Meow."

Flein stopped short when she heard the noise, her shoes scraping the sidewalk. If the noise were any louder, she might have jumped 3 feet in the air. Milliseconds after realizing the sound wasn't deadly, she turned to find a dirty brown cat lazing about on a grungy cardboard box. Its eyelids drooped a bit, its gaze staring at her knowingly.

"Hey there, little guy," she cooed, kneeling down to stroke the cat on its head, brushing over his ears in which pieces had obviously been bitten or chewed off over the years. One look in his eyes was all she needed to know what he wanted. "You're hungry, aren't you? I'd give ya food if I had any . ."

Suddenly a scream erupted into the air like a sharp knife through flesh. The cat retreated behind a dumpster before Flein had barely finished her sentence, and Flein herself almost jumped out of her skin this time. Another scream shrieked like a siren and invaded her ears like sharp needle points. Flein instinctively ducked low into the shadows and listened, realizing the screams were coming from the dark ally nearby a convenience store. The screams sounded as if it were one of a woman's, one being tortured or killed at that. Every cell in Flein's body was screaming to not go into the ally, and she wasn't one to ignore her instincts. She started to slink off in the opposite direction, when she distinctly heard a terrified and raspy voice yell, "What are you?! HELP ME! It's a MONSTER!"

Flein was about to slink faster except she stopped in her tracks as she thought over what was said.

Monster? Flein knew well that this city had frequent crime involving druggies, rapists, and murderers, but they were all human nevertheless. It wasn't often that she heard of anyone being mistaken for a monster. She had a bad feeling that this wasn't just a typical crime.

A rank and stifling odor met her nose, and sniffing the air proved her guess to be true: This was the unmistakable smell of a demon. Being surrounded by humans for years made this smell an overwhelming contrast to the air around her, and perhaps because she wanted to do the right thing, or maybe because she was used to wiping out demons to protect her village, she regrettably knew she had to do something.

Sneaking along the edge of the wall, Flein peeked around the corner of the dark ally and squinted her eyes. The night had grown quiet again, and she thought that perhaps maybe she was too late to save the woman. However, the demon's retched sink still coated the air. Peering into the dark, she could make out a large hulking outline with two- maybe three?- horns looming over. She silently thought how grateful she was to have good night vision, and stealthily tip-toed closer to the giant form. She could hear a strange slurping noise, like someone sucking something mushy through a straw.

"I'm too late to save her," Flein thought, trying not to feel too disappointed. Getting emotional now would compromise her chances of taking out her murderer.

Making her way to the beast took minutes that seemed like hours. Thoughts raced through her mind as his form grew bigger and bigger as she got closer, the slurping sounds getting louder.

"How did this demon get here? It's obviously a lower classed demon . ." she thought, her fingers flexing in preparation for her kill. "If more come here . . it'll jeapoardize my safety I worked so hard to maintain . . I can't let that happen!"

Just as the muscles in her legs tensed like a spring about to launch from the ground, the demon's head swiveled around to look at her, a huge trunk-like nose trailing down to the lifeless body at his feet. However, he noticed her presence far too late.

Seething pain seared across his face in the form of four quick slashes, blood pouring from his cheek and eye and blinding him from another attack to the stomach. The demon bent over, clutching the left side of his face and his midsection, in which Flein's claws had been in moments before. While he was busy gurgling in pain at his unexpected injuries, Flein casually dropped her bag to the ground and unzipped it to reveal its contents.

"I haven't used this old thing in a while. This might not be as clean of a cut as it should be" she said, talking more to herself than the moaning demon before her. She grabbed the sword by its base and pulled it slowly from her bag, admiring the comfortable and nostalgic feeling it caused when she held it in her hands. After unsheathing it, it took only one quick stroke to silence the demon, its head rolling towards a nearby dumpster, its long trunk of a nose following after.

Flein sheathed the sword afterward, regretting that she only got to use it once after such a long time. As she was returning the weapon to her bag, she glanced at the human woman's body laying limply on the concrete, her intestines and other internal organs revealed to the world. While she normally didn't particularly care about humans one way or the other, she wished she could have slayed the demon a bit sooner. Of course, that would require more explaining on her part.

"Well done."

A voice broke Flein's contemplative silence, and she swirled around to face its source.

She was surprised to find a shapely woman behind her, long red hair flowing to just under her hips, thick make-up covering her face. She wore a skimpy red dress that had the amount of revealing flesh directly equivalent to the amount of smugness displayed on her face. Right away Flein could tell she was a demon as well, a higher class than the one she had just killed. Flein tensed her body, preparing for an actual challenge this time.

"No need for that," the woman spoke in a sultry voice. "I'm not here to fight. Although I couldn't help noticing you are quite skilled at it."

"Who are you? What do you want?" Flein asked bluntly. She didn't want to waste time having small chat with this demon, who was setting off alarm bells in her head.

"I am Ruka, of the Dark Tournament committee," she said, unfazed by Flein's unwillingness to calm down. "I assume you know what the Dark Tournament is."

"Noooooo . ." Flein said slowly, wishing she would get to the point. Suddenly sleeping in the hotel lobby seemed like a better idea.

Ruka sighed impatiently before continuing. "The Dark Tournament is a fighting competition for skilled demons, such as yourself. It's a tournament held on Hanging Neck Island and competitors fight to the death, the prize being a wish for whatever the winners want."

"A fighting tournament? For demons? Hmm . . sounds like fun . ." Flein murmured, letting her guard down a little as she considered the possibilities. "Wait . . You didn't just release that demon out here in order to test my strength, did you?"

"Is that really of any concern to you?" Ruka purred, her smile giving away her intentions. "In any case, you should sign up soon if you want to compete in the tournament. You'd put up an . . interesting fight for our spectators." She turned to walk away, before stopping and looking back again. "Oh yes, I almost forgot. You also require four other fighters in order to compete. I suggest you choose them wisely. Good luck." Before Flein could respond, the mysterious woman disappeared into the darkness.

Flein picked up her bag and waited a few seconds, in case any other demon decided to pop out and have a conversation with her. She wasn't normally a person to go out of her way to join big events, but the chance to test her skills on other demons was too tempting to ignore.

"Hanging Neck Island, huh . . Guess I should find out where this place is . ."