disclaimer: i do not own yu yu hakusho

i was going through my old files on my computer found this story.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Koenma stared idly at the ceiling in his office. Mountains of paperwork was stacked high on and around his desk.

He just sighed when the blue ogre, George buzzed him on the phone.

He picked it up chewing on his pacifier,

"What is it now George?"

"Sir! The special forces of spirit world have just captured a girl in the Makai!" He said nervously.

"And, the catch males and females alike in the Makai all the time. What's the big deal?"

"NO! Sir Koenma! Sir! It's a human girl. Not just any human girl, the renowned thief the Youko Kurama's human!"

Koenma's eyes widened in shock. A human girl in the Makai working with demon thieves. Could it be a Human from the Forgotten Realm?

"Bring her to me immediately, George. A-S-A-P! I mean now! I have to know what's going on myself."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Moments later the doors to his office open wide and in stumbled a blood-soaked beautiful and wild human girl indeed.

Her long dark waves cascaded down to her waist and hung forward covering her face as her head hung limply . She wore only a tightly fitting waistcloth and chemise. She was adorned with exotic jewelry such as armbands and anklets. A tattoo written in an ancient language ran up her right shoulder.

Her hands were bound in front of her with power limiters cuffs, one of the "officers" of the special forces pulled her roughly down to her knees.

"Knee before Lord Koenma , you are unworthy to be in his presence." He had wavy blue hair and blue spirit world uniform.

Koenma flinched at his harshness. She was no threat and he sensed nothing evil or sinister coming from her.

"That's enough. You can go"

The blue-haired man looked up at him in surprise.

"But, Lord, She is dangerous. She killed to other Special Forces officers. It took everything we had just to--"Koenma broke in "Good riddance. Now I said get out!"

Koenma was in his grown-up form as he pointed the man through the door.

The man bowed and turned on a heel.

"George! Come take notes! I have some questions to ask her! I want to see she gets a fair verdict on her sentence. I will give it personally."

George appeared almost instantly with a pen and note pad in his hand.

Koenma looked up at him, "Good, now get her a chair and me ,too"

After the chairs were in place, Koenma walked over to her and knelt down by her side.

She had not moved from her kneeling position, head hanging low, hair falling all around her.

He grabbed her chin softly.

"Look up at me. We aren't going to hurt you."

Koenma let out a grasp as deep dark eyes met his own gold. She was truly stunning.

He touched her wrist and the power-limiters snapped open and fell off with a clatter to the floor.

"Come let us sit." Lifted her gingerly on to the high-backed maroon chair.

He watched her intently as she stared blankly at her hands in some sort of trance.

He sat down in his own chair on a foot or two away from her. Even torn up like she was she was mesmerizing. She must have fought pretty hard.

Then in a whisper she spoke.

"I cannot feel him." Her face remained void of any emotion.

"Feel who?May I have your name?"

"Aimee."

"Aimee, Do you know where you are or who I am?"

Her eyes moved slowly up to look at his face .

"I know that I have been captured and I will be punished. But, I can't find any feeling in me to care what happens to me any longer."

"So, you admit to being a thief."

"I have spoke nothing of being anything."

Koenma watched her stared into the space beyond him.

"Are you quite alright?"

"I cannot feel him."

"Feel who? I don't understand."

"Youko. Have you captured him,too?"

At this Koenma pondered on telling her where the Youko had gone. Would she follow him? But, to lie to her and tell her the Youko Kurama had been killed, he believed, would take any of this girl's will to live right out of her. Or, the little bit of 'will' she had left.

"No, he escaped into the human world."

The first sign of emotion broke across her face: relief.

"Who are you Aimee?"

"I am a child of the Forgotten Realms beyond the Makai."

"Do you know that your people were only a legend until they found you and brought you here?"

"We live secluded and hidden by the Lake of Severance, cut off from the Makai and forgotten by our human brothers and sisters." She signed.

"You are the Youko Kurama's bondmate?"

"I was."

"I see." The bond must have been severed when the Youko crossed into the human world. The reports said she was just fleeing from the special forces until they heard a scream and she went berserk killing two and injuring more.

"Will you tell me about the time you spent with the Youko and his thieves?"

"You-- want me to recall my past until now." Her dark eyes flickered onto mine.

"Yes, if you would."

"I have spent almost a millennium with Youko. If I were to recall everything we would be here for another thousand years."

"Well, tell me the most important things."

"I have lost most of my memories because Youko and I shared the same mind for so long. I will tell you what I can recall." Her eyes were distant.

"Where do I begin? I remember many things so vividly even though my memories are gone from the breaking of the bond."

"Go on." Koenma and George waited patiently for her to continue….

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The days were turning cold, setting in with fall and the change of season. The leaves were changing colors to molting browns and golds, the smell smoke of fires glowing with warmth against the chilly night air floating in with the fog. The birds of the forest were roosting with their quiet cooing in their perches and the night predators began to awake with the sinking of the sun.

The few remaining farmers of the harvest were checking there crops one last time--- making their final preparations, in the days to come their crops would be brought in for the winter and a celebration would come under way.

Everything was quiet----beautiful, in the villages with the golden autumn sun setting on the horizon line, or so it seemed, but than again appearances are deceiving.

A cold blast of air blew in from the surrounding mountains as I pushed back my sweaty, dark hair from my forehead. I leaned harder on the hoe as I yanked one of the last stray weeds from the ground with the tool.

I paused momentarily afterwards, closing my eyes slightly and just to let the breeze cool, after a day of hard labor in the fields I felt worthy of the break.

I was a sight to see. My pale-featured face, cheeks reddened from the sun, as the dark purple-black strands of wavy hair, which escaped from my bandana of brown floral, swirled around me in the breeze. My brown homemade skirt and soft beige; cotton, sleeveless blouse was also smeared from the toil.

Usually, I was sent into the woods and rivers around the village to gather nuts, berries, herbs, and for the occasional fishing escapade. But a dark cloud had fallen on the fortune of the village, and after the last demon raid a plague had taken most of the villagers ill. I and only three others were not stricken with the demonic illness.

So, I was one of the few who were left to get the crops ready in time to harvest, before the first frost. Hopefully the rest of the villagers would be well enough to help harvest, if not…I didn't want to think about what would happen, if there was an if not.

I turned my back on the cornfield and began to walk stiff-legged back to our house, which sat on the border of the village. The human villages of the demon world suffered, no matter how prosperous the village was, the yearly raids because of bands of demon thieves brought plagues and death that kept most villages poor.

My immediate family was killed not even six months ago by a raid; they were becoming more and more frequent and people were beginning to talk. I was young, but I had become a "woman" long ago and I had sixteen almost seventeen winters to my name.

Burdens where making my life complicated, I had long wanted to see the demon cities of the Makai , I should have been on my way already. I had planned to go with the boy that I'd fallen in love with two summers ago, but he was gone.

I knew he was dead; I just couldn't face it. We'd made plans many years before we knew that we'd love each other to go together. But when I'd discovered my secret new, amazing view of the boy I'd seem as an older brother most of my life it had made things more worth wild.

Now, every time I thought of him, there was a large whole in my heart where he should have been. I should let go, go alone, he was gone now.

I knew my dream was foolhardy and if I were found out, as human, demons would kill me and eat me. But I was good at hiding my humanness; after many years spent in the forest filled with demons you don't forget those things that you learn.

But, How could I leave now, my grandparents were sick, near death. And my love, Nathaniel, disappearing in the last raid, I felt even more torn as to what I should do. I loved my grandparents dearly for all they had done since the death of my family and Nathaniel's disappearance, which still weighed heavy on my heart.

They had taken me in, and loved me when I had no one else. I had to find away to help them, and, if I could, the rest of the village or else I would be very alone.

I strolled up to the patch of dozens or so cottages huddled together surrounded by patches of fields. They were all pale colors of faded baby blue and beige, there was no smoke coming from any except some on the opposite side of the village, probably the two remaining survivors like myself.

One of the last blue cottages was my grandparent's, the white one next to it would have been Nathaniel and mine by now, but I wouldn't let my self get distracted by sorrow just yet. I had no time to mourn if I didn't do something soon, they would all be dead.

I strolled into the yard, opening the rickety whitewashed picket fence, and trudged up the haphazardly stones of the walkway. A clothesline to my left, hung with fresh sheets I'd washed earlier and set out to dry, they fluttered in the wind next to me touching me softly as I passed. To my far left, past the sheets, an outhouse, and a wood shed for food and storage in the wintertime.

I reached a wooden door with peeling paint, and turned the knob and opened it, quietly strolling in, as lively as I could I entered the dimly lit room.

It was a one room, wooden floored cottage with the three beds lined on the back wall, opposite the door, concealed only by thin curtains. On my right was a black wood-burning stove and a wash bin and to my left was the only window open in the room, letting in the filtered, bottle-tinted light of the setting sun.

On the far right, a curtain was wide open, the rest being closed, revealing a rough looking, blue man on his hunches with a stethoscope in hand listening to beating heart of a feeble old woman.

It took me a minute to register what was going on at the sight of the unknown figure, but relief surged through me when I realized who the half demon was. The doctor.

"Doctor! Oh, thank goodness! You are here." I plodded quickly over to his side. He turned to silence me with his yellow cat like eyes.

After a few more minutes at the back of the room looking as though I could cry.

"Can you help them." I pleaded with clasped hands in front of me.

"I'm sorry, milady Aimee, but the I don't have the cure. I believe I know what could possibly cure them, but I have no guarantee that it will work, it could do the exact opposite. The herb I thought of, I have nothing of the sort in my medicinal bag of mine," he tapped his little black leather skinned bag,' And it doesn't grow anywhere near hear. It must be moist and humid conditions for such a plant to grow and the only place I know that it grows naturally is to the south of this village on the edges of the Makai. Even if you were to journey there and back, the village will be dead by then. Maybe a few local demon florist might grow it for sell, it can be a deadly weapon to one who' s knows how to use it.'

"Then how―how will I save them?" my eyes were brimmed with tears and my eyes found the floor. I couldn't loose them not like I lost Nathaniel. I couldn't lose.

"Well, Aimee, child, I am sorry. There is nothing I can do except maybe, end their suffering swiftly." The doctor shook his head.

"No― no, anything but that. Is there nothing, nothing at all that I can do? I can't just sit here and watch them die?" I was shaking with desperation; I tried to conceal it by placing my shaking hands behind my back, while gazing longingly towards their beds.

I couldn't let the village die; I couldn't let them down.

"Well, now, I do know of one who grows it not far from here. But you would be a fool to ask him such a favor. He thinks humans of a lower race and he would likely kill you upon sight, if the rest of his thieves don't first. But he would know the cure and probably have the plant in which you seek to heal your village."

"How do I find him? Tell me! I have to try." I had the doctor by the sleeve pleading for direction.

The doctor raised and eyebrow, I was a very pretty girl when I was worried.

"I can't possibly, that would be suicide. But for a price, " The doctor touched my chin with his finger gently.

In an instant, there was knife at his throat and I was behind him with another at his back.

"Watch it, doctor." My voice was cold. " Tell me how I can reach him and who this person is."

"Urgh. He is the Spirit-fox , Lord Youko Kurama. Look for the Sighing Oak not far from the lake. If you get half way close enough to him, give him my regards." In another instant the doctor was out the door leaving the cold air to rush in.

From a distance I heard him shout, "Did I forget to mention, Aimee, He's a Demon thief."

I walked to the door and closed it. I leaned with my back to it in thought. So, I would have to face the same kind of mongrels that killed my family. I would get it and leave; I had to do this.

My eyes jumped to the corner of the room as a faint moan came from the old woman. She'd been sleeping the whole time.

My mind was made up. I couldn't waist anymore time; I had to go now, before the remaining sun evaded me. I checked the window, the sun was just touching the earth; I had at least three more hours of sunlight left. There and back, without any delay.

I grabbed the bridle hanging on a hook on the door and ran out, skirt flowing behind me.

review if you like.

XOXOXO