Note: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho; I only own my character Nina. Don't like, don't read.

"Oh my God, is that the new girl?"

"She doesn't look right."

Nina ignored the words coming from the other student's mouths as she made her way to her homeroom class. She was different, unique. Her uniform was the same as the others but with her knee-length black hair and pale skin, it just looked to different.

"Oh my God."

"I hope her ugly ass ain't in any of my classes... She just looks freaky."

"Where did she come from?"

She continued to block their words from her mind, "Dumbasses. I swear."

Thankfully, she made it to her homeroom and found the teacher.

"Oh! You must be the new student! Would you like me to introduce you to the class?"

"No, sir." She replied, her soft voice barely being heard.

"Well, if you need anything don't be afraid to ask."

She nodded and went to her seat after it was pointed out. She sat down and took out her book, it seemed like time was going so slow and she couldn't stand it.

The people around her continued their whispers as she flipped through the pages of her book.

"Mythology," her teacher began, "Does anyone know some of the stories that involve the ancient gods and such?"

Nobody said anything and the teacher went on with a long speech about gods and goddesses.

"Now let's move to the goddess, Aphrodite. Can anybody tell me how she came to be?"

Nina raised her hand, "Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, was born from the sea foam after Zeus dropped his seed there." Mythology was one of her many loves. But the other students laughed at her words

"Quet, class. Correct, Nina! Can you tell us of one of the three infamous stories of Aphrodite?"

"The story of Pygmalion and Galatea. Pygmalion was a woman hater but ended up making a statue of a beautiful woman and fell in love with it. He became obsessed with it, and started to worship the statue. He brought it presents and fancy clothes and stuff. So he prayed to Aphrodite for a woman like his statue to come into his life so he could marry her. Later on, the statue came to life and the two were married."

"Correct!"

After the teacher began on some other stories, Nina noticed a few other students looking at her but said nothing. Beside her was a pretty boy that had all the girls surrounding him before the class began. Now he had his gaze set on her and it was freaking her out. She was pretty sure he was going to say something to her like the other students had but never even uttered a word to her or about her.

Something about him made her feel uneasy. Nina had the 'gift' that everyone else in her family possessed and was overly sensitive to the paranormal and she was sensing something strange about this guy that was sitting next to her.

Once it was time for lunch, she managed to get a small bag of crackers from the vending machine before people started their whispers and taunting. The table she was in front of at the moment was full of very pretty girls, a few boys, and the red haired guy from her class earlier. The entire table was talking about the 'scary new girl' except for him. He just kept his eyes on her.

Nina, of course turned her head and started towards the library, eating a few crackers from the little bag.

'That guy that keeps staring at me,' She thought, 'He's kind of starting to creep me out. He's so gorgeous, there is no way he is human.'

All of the girls did, pretty much, love him and constantly fought and argued over him.

When she made it to the library, she went straight to the section that had short stories of Mythology and the paranormal.

"Can I ask where you came from because you look like a demon out of a horror movie."

It was one of the girls in her 1st period class.

"Where I came from is none of your concern."

"Well, you aren't pretty at all."

"And who gives you the right to judge who is the prettiest or the ugliest? You may have a beautiful face along with a sexy body but inside you are even more hideous than the demon you claim me to be. Maybe you should be careful who you say certain things to. Not everyone will be as nice about it as I am. Keep it up and you will be hurt one day."

"Holy shit!" Yusuke had been preparing to skip class by hiding out in the library with a bag of Doritos and a Mountain Dew when he heard all of this going on. No one ever came to the library, not even the teachers. It was obvious the girl had followed Nina there to harass her. "That's the girl Kurama was talking about, isn't it?" He spoke to himself, "Pretty sure it is…"

After that, the day went by and she made it home. Her older brother was in the kitchen when she entered the apartment.

"Jeremiah?"

"How was your first day of school?"

"Horrible."

"I'm sorry, Sis." He held out a plate to her, "I made some snack food, want any?"

She shook her head then ran to her room, throwing down her bag and curled up in a blanket in hopes of going to sleep so she wouldn't have to remember the day's events.

…

It was raining when she went back to school the next day. Being antisocial, Nina came to the classroom early. So very thankful it was empty, she went ahead and placed the homework assignment on the teacher's desk then sat down at her own. The entire area was quiet so a book of Edgar Allen Poe's most famous stories was taken out.

Small claps of thunder outside made the windows of the school shake a bit but this kind of weather was always a major comfort to the girl. Thunderstorms were beautiful in her eyes. Lightning and hurricanes, blizzards and tornadoes, they were all deadly beauties Mother Nature had to offer the living. They were beautiful but everyone would hide from them, which was the good (and safe) thing to do. The sisteen year old felt she could relate somehow.

"You have great taste in books."

Nina jumped and looked up at the same red head from yesterday. The same gorgeous guy she had a feeling was a stalker of sorts, he had to be.

"Forgive me if I startled you."

"Uh... No, it's okay." She looked down at her book and watched him from the corner of her eye. "You aren't with your admirers?"

"I prefer peace and quiet." His hand came into view, "My name is Kurama."

"Uh... I'm Nina." She didn't take his hand. "No offense but I'm probably not going to be here long enough to remember your name. We move a lot."

"Understandable. But that doesn't mean you can't have a pleasant conversation with someone else every now and then." Now at his desk that was beside hers, his eyes still watched her. She was actually beyond beautiful. The others were just jealous, it was plainly obvious. That, and the fact that most people would always tend to call the more darker students 'freaks' just because they were ignorantly afraid of them, "Your knowledge on mythology is rather impressive."

Not looking away from her book, she responded softly, "I grew up reading nothing but mythology and earth science books."

"Do-"

"Kurama!" A random black haired boy ran in and nearly knocked him out of his chair, "Dude! You have to check out the new girl! She put that brat Kelsey in her place yesterday! It was great!"

"Yusuke Urameshi," Kurama began with a cough, "Perhaps you would like to meet Nina."

Yusuke turned and just noticed the girl he spoke of was in the room with them, "Oooh, hey... Uh... I saw you yesterday in the library. Man, that was awesome!"

"I had a feeling someone else other than that ignorant little girl was there. Your crunching was loud enough to raise the dead in that place."

The bell rang and Nina sighed. Putting her book back into her bag, she took out the text books and waited for the teacher and students to come running in.

…

It was after school when she was walking on the sidewalk with her book bag on her back. Her mind was focused on Kurama. It was so hard to keep him off of her mind. She needed a distraction.

Her eyes looked up and as if by some miracle there was an ice cream sign on the little building beside her. A strawberry ice cream cone was purchased and she sat down at one of the higher tables with the chairs that had the rather long legs. The rain was still falling from the dark sky and it was rather chilly already outside, but she didn't care. Ice cream was always good, even if it was cold outside.

"Nina?"

'Son of a...'

The very thing she was trying to get off of her mind showed up right beside of her. This was just perfect...

"Hey..." Her manners were always polite even if it was to someone she really didn't want to talk to. "Care to join me?"

His smile was sweet and kind as he bowed quiet thanks before sitting down in the chair. "It's good to see you again."

"Okay, cut the nice guy stuff. What gives?"

"Beg pardon?"

"Guys are never nice to me, especially the pretty ones like you. There is always some kind of trick or prank behind it, and not the good kind of prank either. I need to know... Are you talking to me and being nice out of a dare or something?"

Kurama smiled softly, "Actually, you seem to be a very interesting person. I'd like to get to know you better."

"Huh... Okay..."

He smiled, "Seems like you have been around the wrong kind of people."

"Yeah, well... Sorry but my people skills are horrible. I've never exactly had 'friends' before."

"Well, I'm glad to be your first."

"What about second and third?!" Two voices randomly came out of the blue and she recognized one as the guy from earlier. The other voice was rather raspy and came from a tall brown haired boy. He was the one who spoke next, "Holy crap! Y-you didn't s-say she was pretty!"

Nina blinked her body still as she just looked at the new guy.

"Nina, this is Kazuma Kuwabara. I believe you have already met Yusuke."

She was too busy trying to not laugh at the blushing Kuwabara, "I, uh... Yes, we met this morning. It's nice to meet you Kuwabara."

His trembling hand reached out to shake hers.

"I should go now. My brother will be worried if I don't get home soon. It was very nice to see you two again and it was nice to meet you." Then she ran out of the ice cream shop and down the sidewalk. The three left soon after, not really saying anything until Hiei appeared in front of them.

"Hey, shrimp!"

"Can it, Kuwabara. Kurama, another half breed." Though his voice was full of hate, a smirk graced his face as he spoke. "I thought you better than that."

Yusuke and Kuwabara were silent until they realized he was talking about Nina. Thinking the fire demon meant a bad thing, Kuwabara went off first in an attempt to stand up for her, "What the hell do you know about making friends with people, huh?!"

Kurama wasn't really paying attention to the conversation the other three were having. His emerald eyes were too busy facing the direction Nina had gone.

…

Oh, it felt wonderful to be home! The first thing she was going to do was take a long, hot bath! She had been feeling awfully weird lately. Something was going on with her body that she couldn't quite understand. She knew half of what the deal was but it still confused her. Nina just assumed it was that 'time of the month' again for the most part.

Relaxed in the hot bath, she laid back and thought about this new group of people she had met. Kuwabara was such a sweetheart and this Yusuke guy just reminded her of Johnny Knoxville.

But Kurama…

He was gorgeous! Not to mention the fact that he was popular and actually wanted to talk to her willingly! Of all of the schools she had been in, even though they never stayed in one place for long, no one had even tried to be her friend. Much to her surprise, she was hoping she'd run into him again sometime this weekend.

…

'This can't be right…' After last night's hot bath and some sleep, Nina decided to plan a search for a good book store which was now in effect. But the directions she had printed out left her going in circles. A candy shop was found, but it wasn't what she had been searching for. Needless to say she bought some candy before walking away to attempt the book store trip once again.

Not many people were out so she really couldn't ask for directions. She just couldn't shake the feeling that she was possibly in a bad part of town.

"Nina?"

'Kurama!' She turned around and smiled when she saw this foxy redhead walk up to her, "Hey! Thank goodness! Can you help me?"

"Sure, what's wrong?"

"I need help finding this-"

But she was cut off by a gunshot. The bullet going just passed her head. A panicked expression made its way across her face when she whirled around and felt the second shot hit her in the stomach. 'Oh no! They found us!' She fell backwards where Kurama caught her. At least, she thought it was Kurama. Everything seemed to flash silver before she blacked out.

…

"W-where are they?" That was the first thing she said when she first started to regain consciousness.

"They are gone for now, but I am afraid we have to leave again. This time we are going back to the demon world. It will be safe there." Nina's brother was beside her; holding her hand. On her other side was Kurama, Yusuke, Kuwabara and a brown haired girl she had never seen before.

She must have looked confused because Yusuke introduced her as Keiko. Thankfully, she was very nice and sounded concerned about her. The wounded girl looked up at her older sibling who nodded to her, "Well, after what I witnessed when I came up on the scene… I think it's safe to trust this group, don't you?"

"Huh?" Nina looked over and saw x-ray scans on the table next to her. Her new friends were in there when the doctor came in and explained how complicated the girl was because of all of her organs being on the complete opposite side of her body. Her pale fists cringed slightly, "W-what scene?"

That very soft and polite voice that belonged to the one and only Kurama spoke next, "You fell into unconsciousness before Yusuke and the others arrived. Your brother was with them. There… Was quite a fight with these men. It is obvious that more will come. But I must ask why they are after you."

Jeremiah sighed with his arms crossed as if he were deep in thought for a moment. "These people are demon hunters. Nina and I are half breeds. Part human, part naiad. These people have been after us since they killed the rest of the family. Our mother came to live with our father in the human world and this group found them. Since naiads are very rare, they are hell-bent on killing us for money. The same group was kidnapping ice maidens for their tears not to terribly long ago."

"Damn rich bastards!" A cringe in Kuwabara's hands along with his mumbling made them realize he knew just what they were talking about but they asked no questions.

Kurama turned his green eyes to gaze at Yusuke with a look of determination, "Maybe Koenma can help them out."

"I don't see why not. They could help us out and all. Can't naiads control water and shit?"

"Language, Yusuke."

"Ah… Well, can't they?"

Jeremiah nodded, explaining that he was able to but Nina was not, "She just turned sixteen so her powers should be waking up any time now."

"I thought naiads were part fish." Kuwabara scratched at his head and Yusuke fwapped him on his back with a laugh.

"Dumbass, you're talking about mermaid people."

Jeremiah seemed a bit uncomfortable and Kurama noticed, "Yusuke, naiads are mermaids. They can take the form of a human if they need to do so. Surely you have paid attention in history classes at school when they taught about the different mythology."

"Uh, not really."

"Of course." Keiko gave her boyfriend a strict expression of disappointment, "I can't believe you aren't worried about making good grades!"

"Hey!" He defended, "I have a lot on my plate, man! Being a spirit detective and what not!"

The red head shook his head and looked back to Nina and Jeremiah who were softly talking to each other. Agreeing to go to the demon world, Nina looked at Kurama with sad eyes.

"No need for such a sad face. We will see each other all the time after the next two weeks."

Not only was it summer vacation for schools in the human world but they had preparing to do for the Dark Tournament.

"This is going to be fun."