Shigure was shocked to be perfectly honest when he had been face to face with his competitor. Mukuro had said it was meant to be a fight to the death, a battle over his position as one of the demon lord's strongest.

He had been furious at first. Angered greatly that someone had the gall to threaten his position and had been more than willing to take the demon's life.

But that had been before the pair reached the training grounds and he saw his opponent.

Battered and beaten, the round pale face was all too recognizable. A frowning mouth left gaping slightly in surprise, ruby colored eyes widened in shock. The black tang top and black pants were clinging to his muscular, tiny body. The two belts had multiplied to four and the wards were off from both the dragon tattoo on his right arm and the open Jagan eye.

The eye he was all too familiar with. But the dragon was something new entirely.

His flame shaped hair was as dark as he remembered, though slightly matted, the white starburst was crimson with the life's blood that had once resided within the veins of the attackers now littering the floor in pieces and chunks at their feet. He was breathing heavily, tired from using so much energy in so short of time.

The surgeons eyes flitted from plane to plane, taking in every feature and scratch on the little youkai that he had once known so well. One whom he still knew well, before his eyes were captured by the black cord wrapped around the muscled neck. The cord hung loose on either side, each sloping down to mold over his collar bone before twisting into a single twine. Between his pectorals was a single, glowing stone. Perfectly rounded the smooth gem was such a spectacular shade of light blue that it rivaled and took advantage of the ningenkai blue skies.

It was beautiful and at first he thought it was the one Hiei had been searching for.

"'Why do you want this Jagan eye? What do you seek from its power?'"

"'I seek my mother's hiroseki stone. And my sister.'"

Soon after when Shigure confronted him about finding his gem Hiei proved him wrong.

"'It's not mine.'"

Those three words was all the surgeon needed to hear to know that his sister had been located, and possibly talked with.

"'I told you already. I never intended on telling her I'm her brother.'"

Oh Hiei. You shouldn't try and hide the truth from me. You can't. I know you. I know your emotions and masks almost better than you do yourself. You pain yourself by not telling her the truth, though there is more to it then what you pledged to me.

He knew the half breed was afraid. Afraid of rejection. Afraid that his twin would prove all of his fears and self doubts correct. Give him a justifiable reason for hating himself.

Poor child, he just didn't understand how wrong he really was about himself.

Shigure still remembered that day. When they first met.

Hiei had demanded for Shigure to give him the Jagan implant and he had refused, noting the small frame and child age group. There was no way such a small being would want to go through such immense pain for power alone.

And so he told him.

"'A runt like you would never stand the agony of the implant.'"

And then he turned away to finish cleaning his plate. The sound of a metallic clang of a blade being withdrawn from a sheathe echoed throughout the hut and the surgeon spun around to witness the spray of metallic blood as the child plunged the sword through his own palm.

"'I think I can handle it.'"

And he didn't doubt it. No doubt the chibi could withstand pain, and he most certainly wasn't afraid of it as he pulled the metal out of the temporary home his hand had made without so much as a grimace.

But he needed more than just a display of a tolerance to pain. His clients needed to amuse him with an interesting past. And it better be amusing or there was no way he would even consider the operation any further. And so Hiei had told him.

Had told him about being born on an island, his first physical feelings from the outside world being cruel, icy temperature and how he longed to go back in his mother's womb, to wrap his tiny arms around his tiny sister who wanted to clutch back at him. How his mother smiled sweetly at him with love and care before he was torn away and wrapped up in rags, ward after ward after ward covering his tiny infant form so his fire demon heat was even more vulnerable to the cruel climate. How he was handed to another Koorime, listening to his mother's screams and the elders disgust and hate filled words. And Rui's silent request before she handed him his stone and dropped him, let him fall all the way down to the ground where he landed in a cold river.

The river water nearly drowned him, the black hiroseki stones inside of his soggy bundle of wards bumping up against his soft skin, eyes wide heart still beating madly with fear. Soon after he was plucked up out of the water by a bandit who's eyes gleamed once they landed on his stones before he ran off to a large, round male who was called Katiza. Said demon was the leader of the band of bandits, and kept Hiei amongst them for one sole purpose. His stones.

He was a goldmine, a fortune that would be considered sacred amongst all bandits and high level youkai. Even if he was treated badly through the process of harvesting said black gold.

They tortured him. Whips, daggers, swords, throwing stars, ice, spinning wheels, acid, and their natural powers that varied all the way from psychological damage to having one of his limbs torn from the inside out, and still they kept one ward stitched to the back of his neck.

When he was six he finally got sick of it. Tears of pain ebbed away to silent cries that led to soundless nothings to small growls of fury and humor. When they left him alone for one night he grabbed a sword and peeled off the ward, taking away a layer of skin in the process but that didn't matter. What did matter was the Forbidden Child's immense pleasure in listening to the horrendous screams and wails the bandits made as he doused them in boiling hot fire thanks to his now freed demonic powers.

Then his stone was stolen. Ripped away from him and he had no choice but to listen to his heart and go where his mother was, where he was born, and where he had been thrown away from.

There he found that he had a twin, a sister who was the exact opposite of him. A female to his male. An ice element to his fire. A full Koorime to his half breed. Her acceptance to his rejection. Her purity to his abomination. She, who ran of her own free will to he, who was thrown away at birth.

But, like him he learned that Yukina hadn't had a long time with their mother. Though she had two years with their kaasan she still didn't have that much time with her.

The female killed herself. A dagger to the heart, her pain for her lost son too immense to allow her life.

Just one more thing to add onto his list of self hatreds and one more reason as to why once his goals were completed, his life would be empty and meaningless, all he would have next to do would be to die.

And the need to find both of those things, his stone and his sister had led to the need to get the implant and Shigure felt inclined to do so for him.

After the surgery Shigure somehow managed to convince the little hybrid to stay with him. To regain his strength to be able to stay alive. And during that one year Hiei stayed with him, even though the little fire demon stayed the same, violent, crude, and angry, Shigure felt his fatherly instincts getting stronger and stronger.

And then they separated.

It had been five years since they had last seen each other, and already Hiei was stronger now than he was before he came to him seeking for the implant. With new tricks and ideals to boot.

And when they went against each other…Shigure smiled with the memory. How Hiei sacrificed his arm, only to cut off Shigures's and then how the surgeon cut him in half before feeling the intense pain of a blade slicing through his skull.

Never had he felt more proud of another being. Though he felt angered at himself for causing his death.

Now though, Shigure continued to grin softly up at the being within the regeneration tank. His wounds had long been healed and now he was staring at the child he considered to be his son with pride and caring. Hiei was being healed, both stones around his neck his natural eyes softly closed in hibernation with the Jagan staring back at him. The purple eye seemed to glitter at him, recognizing the implanter.

Now that Hiei was going to live he was going to be given a reason to live. He was positive Mukuro would give him a legitimate reason to survive and he had been told about how he had found friends with the fox, mazaku and humans, even if the little demon would refuse to their being his friends.

The demon who had once fit in with no one in all three worlds, the demon who had once belonged in no world, the demon who had no one to call family and friend…the demon he considered to be his son now had a place. Hiei now had friends and family and would eventually find a new purpose to live. He now found a place to fit in and now he had everything he was searching for.

Or perhaps not everything. He still needed to locate himself after all.

Shigure continued to softly smile and placed a large hand on the glass that separated the two youkai. He was confident now that his child would find everything he was looking for and the damaged child would have his wounds healed and soon be filled once more.

Silently he prayed his thanks to all the gods in Reikai. They were finally making things right for his son.

A broken soul, healed.

Yeah…Shigure's not really his dad but he just feels like he is. K?

Review please

Ja ne