disclaimer: I DO NOT own Yu Yu Hakusho.
only my Ocs and twists to the plot.
now ON WITH THE STORY!
Chapter One—The Death of Zelman Kendrick
~Black Butler ending theme song, 2nd season~
Zelman Kendrick fell to his knees, then flat on his back; from which he groaned at the pain of falling on both his injury and the sharp gravel and stone beneath him. He coughed up much blood that stained his hands and the right side of his torn up clothes and body as he had turned to relieve his stomach and throat of the building pressure. After the deed was done, he switched to lying on his back once again. His hair stuck to his sweat drenched skin and his dark eyes were hazy and blurry as a result of the sudden dead end drop from his fully enraged and burning adrenaline rush from moments ago.
Turning his head to the left to see the damage done, his expression stayed impassive as he found the dismembered body of the giant scum monster he had miraculously slaughtered with a sword, the hilt of which laid next to him, still in a white-knuckle grip and the blade that was still embedded somewhere in the monster's torso.
Zelman shook his head, no, that was no monster he slain, it was a demon. A demon that bared little resemblance to man or beast; the boy gripped the broken sword tighter in his hand; the very thing that had killed someone so dear to him.
The body of which laid not too far from him, the man's chest had been brutally slashed open with blood splattered everywhere, his right arm was twisted in an excruciating way and the other from just below the shoulder down was just gone, each of his legs were pinned down with short but sharp metal poles stabbed through his quads and shins. His face was no longer twisted in agony as it had been when Zelman first arrived at the scene; his eyes were closed and the teenage boy didn't need to be a genius to figure out that the man, his father, was dead.
Turning to face the sky again as black spots started to appear in his vision, he silently prayed to whatever god or goddess there was, wishing to be able to join his father soon. As more blood flooded out of his body from the fatal slash on the back right side of his torso, and his conscious started to fade to black nothingness, Zelman allowed himself to smile the slightest, close his eyes, exhale deeply and in the next moment...
He died.
The first thing he heard was giggling. It was feminine and chipper, but set him a little uneasy. He opened his eyes to see something that he definitely didn't expect. He honestly expected to see a skeleton in long dark robes and chains with a large death scythe, not a young girl with sky blue hair in a ponytail, pinkish-purple eyes, and pale skin dressed in a pink kimono with a red obi sash, white socks and sandals.
"Hello there~!" She beamed down at him.
"Uh... Who are you?" Though he had a feeling that he already knew the answer.
She giggled as she sat on what he now noticed was a floating oar. "Botan's my name, pilot of the River Styx and the best ferry girl of Spirit World. I believe in your culture they call me the grim reaper. Ring a bell?"
Zelman could only nod, still curious as to why the grim reaper is a cute little girl but he didn't voice it or show it on his face. "So you're here to take me to, well where ever I'm going now that I'm dead."
"Actually," Botan said. "I'm taking you to my boss, the Great Prince of Spirit World, because you have been deemed a special case."
Zelman nodded and slowly stood, glancing down at his dead body before sitting on the oar behind ferry girl, even though he easily towered over her with his 6'4 height. Once settled on the wooden oar, they took off into the sky; the wind ruffled long black hair that had electric yellow outlining the bangs and the same color on the end of Zelman's hair. Which Botan did ask if it was natural or dyed and Zelman answered that the colors of his hair were natural, strange as it was.
After arriving in Spirit World and walking through the palace to an office, Z was a bit taken back when he saw what looked to be a young toddler dressed in a red and blue shirt, matching colored hat with "Jr." written on the brim, yellow pants and black shoes. He was sitting behind the desk. Zelman would of snorted and made a sarcastic comment, but decided against it.
"Welcome to Spirit World." The toddler spoke from behind the blue binky in his mouth, at which the tall brunette had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing. "I am Koenma, the Great Prince of Spirit World. I suppose Botan already told you why you are here?"
Z nodded. "She said I was a 'special case' that you needed to see personally."
"That's correct, Mr. Zelman Kendrick." Then Koenma pressed a button on his desk that made a screen roll down in the front of the room and the lights darkened. Zelman sits on the edge of the desk and Botan leaves the room.
A video begins to play across the screen, it was of when Zelman was younger, when he was forced to live with his cruel relatives in England. The movie showed various moments of physical, mental, verbal, and emotion abuse that had been directed at the child, many times resulting in numerous injuries and bruises. Zelman in present time had looked away several times, flinching when an angry yell was heard that was followed by a crack, smack, whoop, bam, or pop; the sound was always followed by a cry of pain. If one looked at any of the images of the young child after he was left alone, one would see all the tears he would shed before crawling away to a 'safe' spot and black out from exhaustion.
Then there were the moments shown after he had finally got the courage to run away from that hell hole at the age of 10. He lived and stole on the streets for a good couple of years, until mid-December when he was 15 and a young policeman by the name of Chris Kendrick adopted him. Chris himself at the time was only 28-years-old, but he took the child in, gave him a home and a sense of family that he had for the next two years.
"Please stop." Present Zelman whispered as he sat with his head in his hands, tears were threatening to fall cause he knew what would come up next if the video continued. Plus all the painful memories that the tape didn't show were starting to flood into his mind and consume him.
Koenma did as asked and turned off the video, the screen then rolled back up and the lights turned back on. Then the young ruler stood up on his desk to look up at the teenager still sitting on the opposite edge of it.
The toddler coughed into his fist before speaking up, "As I mean to point out Mr. Kendrick, even though you went through so much pain and suffering at such a young age, your soul is still pure. That's what makes you special. Your true nature is so pure that it's almost like a priceless treasure compared to most humans today."
Zelman scoffed under his breath, reflecting on the numerous amount of times he stole in his slightly younger years. "Yeah, right."
Koenma sighed. "I know what you're thinking, but even then your soul was pure and strong. You only stole to survive, not to gain power or for the thrill of stealing."
The teenager let out a quiet laugh as he glanced down at his clothes: the blue jeans, the orange t-shirt that said "Camp Half-Blood" after one of his favorite book series, black jacket and black and blue sneakers. "I'm pretty sure that since you've seen all my life up until the moment I died, need I remind you that I did slaughter a demon before dying of blood loss myself?"
"Zelman, you went into a blind rage and did that to take vengeance for your fallen father-figure. Don't be downgrading yourself over something your couldn't control."
Zelman turned and raised an eyebrow at the child. "Isn't it still wrong to just take one's own vengeance?"
Koenma sighed and nodded. "I agree that it is wrong, in most cases, but it is not wrong for a human to kill a demon, but it is a crime for a demon to kill and human."
Zelman's eyebrows knit together in confusion. "That makes no sense."
A new voice interrupted them.
"That's what I said."
Zelman turned his attention to the door and saw a boy with slicked black hair, brown eyes and much shorter than himself at 5'8, dressed in a green uniform. Koenma took the opportunity to speak up as the green dressed boy walked into the room to stand a few feet in front of the desk.
"This is my Spirit Detective of Human World, Urameshi Yusuke. Yusuke this is Shikyo Kurogane."
The taller brunette turned to the toddler and blinked. Once.
…
…Twice.
…
… And three times!
"What the hell?"
Yusuke looked at the older teen, confused at his confusion.
Koenma picked up a folder off the desk and handed it to the older teen. "After doing quite a bit of digging around, I found that your real name is Shikyo Kurogane, your alias: Zelman Kendrick was given to you by your late adopted father. Evidence shows that you didn't remember what your name was while living your aunt, uncle, and cousins. I believe that you'll be happy to know that I found another relative of yours, from your mother's side."
Then the Spirit World Ruler pulls out a picture of two women, one was in about mid-20s and average height with brown hair that has hints of light pink in it, dark grey eyes, fleshy peach skin and a radiant smile. The other was a bit older and shorter, with shoulder-length pink hair, brown eyes and fleshy peach skin as well. She is the first woman's mother.
"Who are they?" Yusuke asked.
Koenma, kind of ignores Yusuke as he says, "The younger lady is your mother Kurogane. Her name is Kairi, she had died shortly after your biological father took you away. The other is her mother, your grandmother, Genkai. She is still alive and lives in a temple in Japan; where you were originally born."
Zelman—or rather Kurogane—took the photo from him and holds it delicately in his hands as he stares down at the image. Yusuke didn't completely understand what was going on; since he had just recently finished his first big case; but he did understand enough to know that Kurogane came from a bad situation and this news of a real identity was a real life-shocker for the older brunette. While this was going on, Koenma pressed a button and called for Botan and the blue-haired grim reaper showed up in a jiff.
Turning back to the currently, dead, teenager. "Since your body received so many injuries and the fact that you bleed to death. I'll be giving you a new body, it will look like your old one so you won't have to worry. It will just be enhanced a little with demonic and spirit energy."
Kurogane's head shot up and he sat back a bit in surprise. "Wait… you're, bringing me back to life?"
Yusuke looked surprised as well, but inwardly felt glad that the other teen was being given a second chance.
Koenma nodded. "Yes. But I do want you to do me a favor in return. I want you to become a Spirit Detective alongside Yusuke here and help with cases that I will assign. I even told your relative and they said that they are willing to take you in."
Kurogane smiled a little. "Thank you. And I think I can agree to that."
Yusuke looked excited. "Finally! Now I'm not alone on these dumb cases anymore!"
Kurogane laughed at the younger teen. He had a feeling this boy was going to be fun to be around.
"Also, Botan will help you handle some of your powers that you will receive with your new body, so you can at least be able to defend yourself when I can full resurrect you."
Kurogane stood and gave a small bow to the child-appearing ruler, thanking him again. Before saying goodbye to Yusuke and that he looked forward to working with him, before following Botan from the room to a bedchamber where the teen could rest until his new body was ready for his resurrection.
~Blood+ opening theme song~
End of Chapter One.
Read and review please! ^^
