Disclaimer: I do not own any Yu Yu Hakusho characters, except for the characters I have made up.
Spirit Shifters are a particular breed of demon that has always been treated as the vermin of demon-kind. They are cunning tricksters who are capable of molding themselves into whatever they desire: other demons, animals… humans. In addition, the abilities of whatever they change into are enhanced a hundredfold. However, the ability to change forms is looked down on by the rest of the demonic community. It is shameful to be born a Spirit Shifter, to be able to do nothing more than mimic another's shape. Yet, it is this life that was chosen for Ayame.
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It was a particularly cold night in the dead of winter this year. It was not yet snowing, but a blizzard threatened to break out at any given minute. The thick, puffy clouds hung low over the mountains whose pointed tops looked as if they could pop the clouds.
A woman clothed only in a long black cloak stumbled into a small, rural town whose name she didn't care to learn. She walked hunched over a small bundle cradled carefully in both her arms and wrapped in several blankets; at a glance, one might have assumed it was her own clothing. Her bare feet made no noise on the grass which was kinder to her feet than the rough asphalt of the road. She pulled the bundle closer to her chest and sheltered it with her cloak as a gust of wind brought the first snowfall of the night.
As the wind died down, snow began to fall more steadily around her. She glanced over her shoulder into the darkness nervously, as if expecting someone to jump her at any moment. In fact, she was indeed afraid that she had been followed. She continued forward, looking over her shoulder every few steps and jumping at any sound of cracking wood or crunching snow. In between glances, she would look ahead at the houses lined neatly along the street around her. Upon first entering the town, the houses were spread wide and it would take several minutes until she reached the next. But, as she walked on, she found that eventually the houses formed a cozy little neighborhood in the side of the mountain where they had been built.
Finally, the woman seemed to come to a decision and walked up to the nearest house. It was a very modest looking house and with only one floor and a small yard, it was perfect. No lights were on inside or outside the house as she crept up the porch. The wooden steps creaked lightly as she made her way up, but no one stirred. She made her way to the door and laid the bundle of cloth she had been cradling on the doormat. From a hole in the cloth, one could make out the pale face of a child. She kissed the babe on its forehead and pulled the edges of the blanket tighter around its face. All the while, it made no sound and watched her in silence. The woman kissed her infant one more time and stood up, shaking. The time had come for her to give up her child and while she didn't like to do so, she knew it was for her daughter's sake. The woman took one more, long look at her child before pounding loudly on the front door and taking off, silently, into the night.
Less than a minute later, a man who looked to be in his late twenties came to the door. He looked alarmed at having been awakened at such an hour, and even more alarmed that a baby lay on his doormat. He knelt down and picked up the baby gently, cradling it very carefully in his arms. He looked around for its mother, or father; whoever left their child on his doorstep. Finding no one nearby, he called into his house for his wife.
"Sawako! Sawako, come quick!" A woman came rushing to the front door in her pajamas. She gasped as she realized the bundle in her husband's arms was a baby.
"Takeda! Where could she have come from?" The woman whose name was Sawako seemed excited.
"Whoever left her here is gone, didn't even leave a note." The man, Takeda, paused as he looked over the child, looking for any scratches or bruises. But the infant was unharmed. "We need to get her inside, there is a blizzard coming and an infant will not live very long out here. We will search for her parents tomorrow." Takeda paused as he toyed with another possibility in his mind. "Sawako, what if this is a blessing? We have not been able to conceive a child."
Sawako paused, lost in her own thoughts. "If she has no home, will we raise her?" She looked at her husband, pleadingly.
"We will" was all that the man said as the two walked back into their home.
A short distance away, a stray dog had been watching the couple from under the neighboring porch. It growled in approval and dashed out from under the porch at a sprint, making its way out of the town. Once it was a safe distance away from any other houses, it jumped into the air. At the height of its jump, its shape began to change. Its whole body became small and its front legs bent back into wings while its back legs curled up into talons. A raven now hung where the dog had been. It pumped its wings as it took flight. Away from the town it soared. She had to get as far from it as she could, to protect the child she had abandoned. It could not know what it was, or what was hunter them both. So to protect the infant, she must get far away from there and sever all ties to her. Even if she died now, she would die knowing her daughter was safe. That was the dream she and her husband had had for their child, but he died so that they could get away. She was happy now, even if she didn't have her daughter, she knew her child was safe.