Hi Everyone, this story has been in my head for about 6 months and I finally decided to write it.
The events follow the ending of the anime and they will take place about two years after the First Demon tournament while Enki is still king in Makai.
This is my first story so any reviews/observations/advice will be greatly appreciated.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho.
Chapter 1
The spirit world spread vastly before her eyes as she climbed up the mountain. She stood up high on top of it, gazing far into the distance at the King's palace. Millions of ferry girls were flying on their oafs from the palace, entering the clouds around them.
Ahri jumped up ahead hiding in the shadows. Her energy was camouflaged to resemble one of the grim reapers. The sky above her spread in the color of sunset in different shades of purple, orange and red. In front of her, a stoned path was leading directly to the palace greeted by a big gate. For normal visitors and spirits that was the main and only entrance. For Ahri, that was just a mere obstacle which she tried to avoid.
She was more than familiar with the architecture of the palace. This wasn't her first time stealing from the spirit world. In fact, in the recent months, she made a habit of sneaking into the Enma's palace to investigate their secret files. Price Koenma was the perfect librarian when it came to books related to the demon world. Ahri had to admit that his personal library was more than fascinating. She could make a fortune in Makai by just selling one of his books. The woman had never been caught until now and she was quite set on keeping this record.
She let her energy flow turning her whole body into water. Her pale skin and dark braided hair became a liquid uncolored shape and merged with the surrounding clouds. The camouflaged woman searched around the palace until she found the room she was looking for. Her demon energy was undetectable in this form allowing her to pass through the second barrier surrounding the palace. Each room had small ventilation holes into the walls so she snuck up through one of them finding her way into the palace.
After making sure the perimeter was clear, she cracked the code and open the lock to the archive chamber. The file room stored books, historical data and infinite amount of documents of the souls in the human world, living and deceased. Ahri entered the room and found herself transported in a complete new dimension, surrounded by millions of rows with library shelves. Each row was higher and longer than her eyes could see. Finding a file in that room was looking for a needle in a haystack.
"The room looks different than last time" She scanned the place looking at her watch. Based on her calculations, she had ten minutes before the ogres will come to update some files. I have to hurry. She walked on a corridor placing a hand on each of the shelves facing each other. Her power spread rapidly like a virus across the entire library engulfing everything it touched. Her mind was like a computer searching rapidly every title it found. The woman was consuming an immense amount of power with her search it was the quickest way to find something. Her efforts paid off soon as she quickly found the documents she was looking for.
The thief took quickly each document out of its shelf reading it frenetically.
Maya Fukimura, age 3, deceased in 1973, fire accident, Soul status: unknown
Hiro Miyasaki, age 5, deceased in 1973, fire accident, Soul status: unknown
Mira Haiashi, Age 6, deceased in 1973, fire accident, Soul status: unknown
Each file was related to a child who died in a mysterious fire accident. Her eyes read each of the twenty five documents she took, all stating the exact same thing about the children. There was no apparent obvious connection between them. She placed all the documents in her backpack living an exact copy of them in the shelfs. Making copies was one of her tricks to remain uncaught. It would take years before someone would notice those files are missing and she would be long vanished by then.
Her hands lingered longer on the last file:
Ahri Kioyama, age 4, deceased in 1973, fire accident. She opened the file and looked at the picture of her young self, smiling happily in the arms of her parents. Soul status: unknown. She flipped through every page quickly seeing an envelope falling out of the document.
Her eyes scanned the unusual object picking it up. Her watch warned her now that she had one minute left so she put the file back taking the envelope with her. But when she looked at what was written on it, she froze.
Still haven't found what you are looking for thief?
Her mind deduced immediately the meaning of those words. Someone knew she was there. Her eyes scanned her surroundings in panic but there was no one was in sight. She couldn't feel any unusual energy. Her watch vibrated warning her of the short time. She only had thirty seconds to escape and run away. Not enough time to make it to the exit undetected.
I have to stay calm and think. Someone was here before. Was it someone from the spirit world? Her eyes turned to a crimson color examining the surroundings. No, it isn't the spirit world. Someone else came here and looked at the files, someone with strong demon energy. Her eyes identified some unusual energy prints walking down the aisle. The traces were hidden enough to remain undetected by ogres and obvious enough to find for a specialized thief like her. She followed them until she had reached the most guarded area of the archive room. This area contained the most important files of the spirit world. The security here should have been very hard to penetrate but today not even the barrier was put on.
She couldn't feel any energy or life form from the room but the voices of ogres were getting close to her.
"I might as well hide in there." Ahri entered the room, seeing a library with names of Koenma and his personnel. She stopped in front of the files of the old spirit detectives scanning each of their file quickly, copying them with her powers.
I can feel someone else was here before me. It's the same demon energy. Another envelope fell from Kurama's file with her name written on the front. There was no doubt that whoever this was, the demon planned for Ahri to find the envelope.
Nothing else attracted her attention, but since she was there she used the opportunity to scan the room. If I am to be caught might as well be caught stealing something worthy. But none of the files were actually that important. The information was even more irrelevant than the normal rooms. She remembered how many barriers this kind of rooms had in her past visits. Even with all her knowledge she had never been able to cut through one.
This is strange. The information of the spirit detectives should have been very well guarded. But this was fairly easy to find. Even so, there is nothing else here of the same value. Not even the STD or the past spirit detectives which should be in the same category. This is far too easy. Someone set me up for a reason.
Ahri anticipated that she might have to fight the spirit world in order to escape the palace. But, none of the guards had actually showed up. She did see some personnel walking normally after she left the archive room, but her escape was even easier than in a normal day. This made her run away from the palace as fast as possible.
She was careful to hide her tracks and her energy, but ever since she left the room, Ahri had the constant feeling that she was being followed. Since they didn't catch her in the palace, she did not want to make it too easy for them to catch her later. So she took more precautions and escaped the spirit world as fast as possible. She felt the safes in the human world so she used a portal to take her towards the centre of the city so that she can blend with the crowd.
Her instincts had been right. Someone watched her from the distance until she entered the metro station and disappeared from his sight. A large evil smile appeared over his face as he was following her from the top of a building. Very soon the girl will become the worst nightmare of Youko Kurama. Everything was going according to plan.
The woman wasn't relieved until the feeling of being followed started to vanish. She kept looking around for anyone suspicious, but as soon as she had entered the train she felt she was safe. The documents stolen from the spirit world were still in her backpack. But Ahri was more interested in the envelopes she found. Therefore, she ran home as fast as possible so she can study them in silence.
The first envelope had an old news article from her birthplace with the fire that took place there. Ahri already knew the article by heart. A mysterious fire burned her village into the ground destroying everyone in its way. Only one little girl escaped completely unharmed. The few adult survivors were transported to the hospital and were in critical state. The cause of the fire was still unidentified.
Ahri scanned the article again trying to understand the message behind it. Her analytical mind was more preoccupied with the writing on the envelope:
Still haven't found what you are looking for thief?
The letters were from the demon world. She could understand the message, but what was the reason for writing it in those letters? That language was becoming less and less common in the demon world and most of them used now the human writing. She opened the second envelope which she found next to the document of Kurama.
Inside it there was a demon world advertisement offering a reward for Youko Kurama's head. The picture was coloured showing his human form in his battling uniform. The boy looked younger so the photo had most likely been stolen from first the demon world tournament.
Even now, after all the years of him living in the human world, some demons wanted revenge on Youko Kurama. Most rumours were saying that demons did not even survive long enough to attempt to kill him. That is how terrifying and cunning he was. But once in a while someone stronger appeared someone who wanted him dead badly enough to offer an enormous reward. For Ahri the reward was a promise to fulfil her most desired wish.
Ahri was not interested in money or jewellery. The demon world treasures had no power on the girl as she had long given up living in Makai. But there was something she wanted badly enough to give her life for it. Something she has been searching for years across all the three worlds and she was never able to find it until now. And in order to get it, the demon asked her to kill Youko Kurama.
That was her next objective. She had to confront the strongest and most feared fox demon in Makai and she had to win. She took out the file which she stole from the spirit world, examining his name and the picture on it. Her hands were trembling while reading the paper.
Youko Kurama! Who could have thought that we will have to face each other so soon?