A/N: Unless otherwise noted, this story is from Tori's POV, though I will bring in other POVs to show the others' perspectives.

Disclaimer still applies. Why wouldn't it?

Yay for long chapters. As in, ten pages on Word. Yeah. Just read, 'kay?

I woke up to the loud bell of a train that was crossing the tracks near the place I stayed. Sitting up, I peered groggily at the clock hung on the wall opposite from where my bed was. Groaning as the time registered in my mind, I flopped back down on the pile of blankets that made up my bed. 6:41 was way too early to be getting up.

I closed my eyes again, hoping sleep would reclaim me, but all I got was the loud flush of the toilet down the hall as one of the other tenants answered nature's call. Finally resigned to being awake, I propped myself up again and reached out to drag a clean set of clothes over to the bed, loathe to feeling the cold cement floor with my bare feet. Only after I was completely dressed did I ease out of my cocoon of blankets.

Even with my socks on, I still winced as the burning cold seared my feet. Hurriedly I slipped on my shoes and grabbed a hairband. Putting my hair up as I walked down the hall, I nodded to the man who was returning from his bathroom visit. He didn't return my nod, but I wasn't really expecting one; for the most part, the others that were staying here ignored my presence, acting as if I wasn't even there. As I walked out the front door, I sent a wave to the clerk behind the scuffed desk, knowing she'd note that I was leaving even if she didn't turn her head to acknowledge me.

Outside, I stretched and surveyed the neighborhood around me. The section of town I was staying in was not the best, but it certainly wasn't the worst. Turning to the left, I started down the street, tucking my hands deep into my pockets and adopting the casual stroll I used when I was outside in public.

I made it to one of the more populated areas of the city before I even saw someone I recognized and when I did, I almost wished I hadn't. The boy I saw leaning against the brick wall a short ways down the street was no other than Yusuke Urameshi, rumored to be the toughest punk at Sarayashiki Junior High. The rumors told me that the other punks in the area left him alone, for fear of getting a beating they'd never forget. There were also rumors that he'd died and come back to life, but I had discarded those as nonsense. How could anyone come back to life once they died? I hadn't had the opportunity to talk to him personally, to see if the rumors were true, but then, I had no desire to do so, either. Hoping he wouldn't see me, I continued to walk on down the street, avoiding looking at him directly.

Just as I drew even with him, though, my hopes went sailing out the window as I heard him call out. "Hey! Girl!" I turned slowly to face him and watched in trepidation as he pushed off the wall and came towards me. Another boy I hadn't seen earlier came with him. I considered turning and running, but even if I had wanted to, I couldn't; my legs were locked with fear and wouldn't respond.

Then he was standing right I front of me and I didn't have any more time to consider any other plans. He casually looked me over, as did his tall friend, and I tried to return his gaze as coolly as I could. "I've heard rumors that you're…different." He said after a moment. I found my voice and answered him, trying to keep the tremors out of it.

"I don't know what rumors you're talking about." It was the truth, I hadn't been aware that there were rumors about me at all until he had said so. Urameshi's eyebrow went up.

"They say you can…do things to people." My eyes narrowed in sudden suspicion. I didn't use my…techniques…all that often and I always made sure no one was watching. If anyone found out that I was able to tell what people were thinking if I tried, I'd be whisked away to a circus somewhere to be gawked at by billions of people. That or kept closed away by some paranoid rich freak for his personal gain. Nothing could be worse for me.

"Again, I don't know what you're talking about." I replied, the lie coming easily to my tongue. Lies had been a major part of surviving for the past year and I had progressed to such a level that I could even fool the old man who lived in the room next to mine. Urameshi's other eyebrow joined the first in a doubtful arc.

"Hmm. What do you think, Kuwabara?" He addressed the other boy for the first time. I glanced at him. He was a tall boy, with bright orange hair and a pug-ugly face. He seemed kind of familiar, but when I tried to figure out why, I came up with a blank. He narrowed his eyes as he looked at me.

"Huh." He said finally. "I don't know, Yusuke; I can't tell. Bet Li, Kurama or Hiei could, though." Urameshi nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, you're probably right." He seemed to be thinking for a moment, then gave me a rather disconcerting grin. "Bet they'd want to meet her, too." Kuwabara seemed to get a joke I hadn't heard, because he grinned and nodded.

"Yeah, bet they would." I glanced back and forth between them, not sure what they were talking about, but pretty sure it wasn't something good. I was so busy thinking about this that I didn't notice Urameshi's clenched hand until it was halfway to my head and then I didn't have any time to react. The next scene I saw was blackness.

When I finally swam up out of the blackness, the first thing that returned was my hearing. All around me there were several people and I could distinguish about four different male voices and two girls. One of the boys, I thought it was Urameshi, was talking.

"But, Kurama! She wouldn't have come with us if I hadn't!" That was definitely Urameshi. The answering voice I assumed was the person Urameshi had called Kurama.

"That still didn't give you a right to hit her, Yusuke." Kurama's voice was slightly deeper and had a softer quality to it that Urameshi's lacked. Kuwabara decided to pipe up at that point, supporting Urameshi.

"Yeah, Kurama, even if we had asked her, she still wouldn't have come." I heard Kurama sigh, but the voice that spoke next wasn't his.

"Would you bakas shut up?" The voice sounded kind of like Kurama's, but it had an edge to it that probably would have cut steel and there was no hint of kindness in his voice. Both Urameshi and Kuwabara squealed as something swished through the air. A girl's voice sounded from next to me.

"All of you shut up! You're distracting Yukina from her work." I instantly liked the voice; the girl had just the right amount of steel and softness to make anyone jump to obey her or to make anyone trust her. The boys immediately fell quiet with muttered apologies.

"Sorry, Li."

"Sorry, Li."

"…Sorry." The only one who didn't apologize was Kurama. Another girl's voice came from right above me, this time a soft, almost feather-like, sound.

'Thank you, Li." This girl I assumed was Yukina. As she spoke, I felt light hands touching my head and a wonderful coolness that spread throughout my skull, which I had just realized had been hurting like heck. Finally, I could open my eyes and when I did, I saw a girl, Yukina I assumed, looking at me with a concerned expression. When she saw I was awake, she smiled at me and sat back up. "She's awake now, but don't speak too loudly, I don't want to have to repair her eardrums as well." Everyone else nodded and crowded around my bed to introduce him or herself.

Kurama turned out to be a fairly tall guy with long red hair, emerald eyes and a kind smile. Li turned out to be actually Li-Sanya, but she insisted on being called Li and she kept on messing with a strand of her long, golden hair. The other boy I didn't know was Hiei--Li told me when it became apparent that he wasn't going to introduce himself--and he had spiky black hair, intense red eyes and was carrying a sword. Unlike the others, he didn't do anything except give me a rather odd glance before turning back to look out the window where he had stayed. Yukina had long light blue hair and red eyes that matched Hiei's. I wondered briefly if they were related. One of the two people I couldn't place a voice with was Keiko, a brunette with inquisitive dark eyes, seeing as she hadn't spoken until now. The other was introduced as Botan and I had a hard time keeping myself from staring at her (also blue like Yukina's, but a much brighter shade) hair. All of them seemed to be older than I was, though not by much for some. Once they finished introducing themselves, Urameshi asked me my name, causing my tentative smile to disappear.

I was quiet a moment before I answered, not looking any of them in the eye. "I don't know what my name is." I told them quietly. They stared at me. Keiko piped up.

"Do you not have a name?" She asked, not in a mean way, just curious. I shook my head.

"I had a name at one time, but now I can't remember what it was. Someone I knew called me Tori, though, so I've been using that name." I didn't catch the odd glance Hiei sent my way again because I was staring at the bed covers, but I did catch the fairly awkward silence that followed my statement. Looking up curiously, I saw that they were all looking at Hiei, who was now staring at me. I stared right back at him, not intimidated by his glare. Suddenly, I heard his voice in my head.

Who are you? My eyes went wide with surprise. As far as I knew, no one could talk telepathically, even me, but Hiei had done just that. Hiei frowned and repeated his question. Who are you?

By now, everyone had caught on that there was something going on between Hiei and I and they were now looking back and forth between us. I tried to answer the boy in the same way and I must have succeeded because his eyes went wide.

I don't know what you're talking about. His surprise lasted only a split second before his face resumed its former glare.

It's a simple question, baka onna. He answered. Who are you? I frowned, but it was in concentration, not in anger.

I don't…remember… I said finally, after having scoured my brain for an answer. Hiei's frown grew deeper.

May I? I didn't know what he was asking permission for, but I nodded anyway. A second later, I began to remember things I hadn't remembered in a long time as the memories rose unbidden to the front of my mind.

A pair of blurry faces…laughter…hands showing me how to do something…"Like this, Kaminari!"…The discovery of my hands glowing…the fire…smells of burning flesh and hair…strong hands picking me up off the ground…crying…"Mama! Da!"…Red eyes…the feeling of safety…a voice asking me if I was alright…something about no memories…an old man calling me Tori…

I gasped as Hiei loosened his hold on my mind and freed me from the trip down memory lane. Everyone immediately looked at me but I ignored them, my attention focused on Hiei. I stared at him, looking him in the eye. Those red eyes, now familiar, stared back at me. I barely registered Li sitting down on the edge of the bed and asking me if I was all right. I nodded, but my attention wasn't on her.

You…you saved my life… I felt like a two-ton boulder had just hit me. Everything except Hiei seemed to be unreal, not really there, like in a dream. Except, I knew this was no dream.

…I…I guess I did… He didn't sound like it was something he usually even thought about doing. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, hoping to make everything stop spinning. I felt a feather touch on the edge of my consciousness.

Here. A delicious wave of coolness swept through my mind, leaving it clearer and more focused. And…don't say anything about this to the others, please. I nodded distractedly, turning to look at Li's concerned face.

"I think…I think I need to rest for a while…" I said, not having to fake the dazed tone. Li nodded and stood up, looking at me in an odd way. She shepherded the others out of the room with minimal fuss and was going to force Hiei out as well, but he must have told her something, because she stopped and nodded before turning back around and closing the door behind her. I lay back on the soft pillows, absentmindedly comparing them to the thin, lumpy ones I was used to.

What Hiei had shown me were memories from before my fifteenth birthday, from the time I couldn't remember. Though they had been incomplete, they told me more than I had known before. I had had a family and people who cared about me. My name wasn't Tori; it was Kaminari, though I found I preferred the former when I tried it out. Sighing, I closed my eyes; everything had gone so fast, it was hard to keep up with everything that was happening. Seeing Urameshi, getting knocked out, meeting everyone here, learning about my past, or some of it anyway, and finding out that I knew one of the people I had never met before.

Something settling on the bed made me crack one eye open. I looked up at Hiei's closed face, wondering if he ever showed any emotion besides anger for more than two seconds. Hesitantly, I reached out to touch his shoulder. He caught my wrist just before I touched him, gripping it tightly.

"Don't…touch me." He said quietly, not looking at me. I pulled my hand back and he let it go, his arm dropping back to his side again. Looking around the room, anywhere except at him, I took a deep breath and let it out, unable to think of anything to say. When my gaze finally came back to Hiei, I was surprised to find him looking at me with an odd expression on his face.

His hand reached out slowly as if he was going to brush something away, but just as he was going to touch my cheek, he pulled back and looked away. I frowned slightly, not understanding.

"What are you doing to me?" He muttered so low that I barely heard him. Then he turned back to me, his eyes full of confusion. "You're not normal…" He whispered, almost to himself. I tried to search his face for clues as to what he was thinking, but it remained impassive. "You're anything but normal…not human, but not really demon, either…" My confusion deepened; I had no idea what he was talking about.

"Hiei…? What are you talking about?" I was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable and I started to reach out to touch him, to bring him back to his senses, then remembered that he had said not to. I withdrew my hand, but he wasn't paying attention.

"Talking about…? She doesn't know…? No, she doesn't know…" He was making even less sense than ever, now. Disregarding what he had said, I reached out again, this time more surely and grasped his shoulder, shaking him slightly.

"Hiei! Stop it; you're making no sense at all!" I kept my voice to a low hiss, but it seemed to get to him. He started and stared at me for a second before he seemed to realize what he was doing. Ignoring my hand on his shoulder, if he knew it was there at all, he put a hand to his forehead and closed his eyes.

"I'm sorry." He said finally, glancing up at me from under his hand. "I don't know what happened…yes, I do. I went into a Fire Trance. I'm sorry. It won't happen again." He started to get up, but I pressed down on his shoulder, making him sit again. He looked at me in surprise. I raised an eyebrow at him, ignoring the part of me that was drowning in the flood of new things.

"Not so fast. First, you're going to explain just what a 'fire trance' is and then you're going to explain why I'm not normal." I put a little steel in my voice to show him I meant it, forcing my heart to stop beating so loudly. He sighed and bit his lip. Despite his apparent uncertainty, I got the feeling that if he had really wanted to, he could have left right then and I would have been powerless to stop him. It wasn't the most reassuring thought.

"A fire trance is… a state in which fire demons can sometime foretell the future, tell someone something about themselves, or other such stuff." He took a deep breath, but something occurred to me and I held up a hand to stop him.

"Fire demons?" I asked, starting to wonder if Hiei was just plain crazy. "You mentioned demons before, when you were talking about me not being normal." I frowned. "Are you saying demons actually exist?" He sighed again and rubbed his forehead, as if I was giving him a headache.

"Yes, demons exist and before you ask, yes, I am a demon, a fire demon." He looked at me again. "Do you want me to answer the question or not?" I nodded mutely, more than a little startle by this revelation. "Fine. Now, a fire trance comes unbidden and demons can't control it once it happens. They don't always remember what they say either. Lucky for you, I do." I blinked, willing him to get on with it. "When I said you weren't normal, I meant that you weren't human but you weren't fully demon. In fact, I have no idea what you are." He paused and seemed to get an idea, because his eyebrows went up slightly. "But…I'll bet I know someone who does or can find out." He glanced at me. "Stay here a moment; I'll be right back."

He got up and left, then, and I didn't stop him this time. As I watched him go, I got the feeling that he didn't normally talk this much to anybody; he'd seemed rather withdrawn and terse when the others had been in the room. Then he was gone and I leaned back, thinking about what he'd said. He'd been talking about demons, had said that he was a demon himself. I frowned. Was he serious? Demons didn't really exist, did they? Then again, there was the fact that he could speak telepathically. Thinking about that, it occurred to me that I had been talking telepathically, too, when I knew that it was impossible. If they did exist, were any of the others demons? Botan and Yukina both had had blue hair and it hadn't looked like they had dyed it. Then there were Hiei's red eyes. Rolling over, I buried my face in the pillow, more confused now than when Hiei had started to 'explain' things.

Footsteps outside the closed door alerted me to Hiei's return and by the sound of it, he wasn't alone. To my surprise, when he opened the door, Li followed him inside, carrying a large, red leather book. I stared at it curiously, wondering what it was. Hiei stopped by the bedside and pointed to me while addressing Li.

"She's not from the Ningenkai and she's not completely demon." He said shortly. "What is she?" Li frowned at his tone, but obediently sat down on the bed and peered at me shortsightedly.

"Hmm, you're right." She said, sounding surprised. Hiei just growled and rolled his eyes as if she'd pointed out the obvious. "Let's see…no human blood…demon blood in there…dragon if I'm not mistaken…and…" Here she frowned. "That's odd…I don't recognize that." Pulling the leather bound volume in front of her, she took a good last look at me then turned to focus on the book. Embossed in gold lettering, the title of the book was written in curving script that made it hard to read upside down. Even so, I managed to make out 'Guide', 'Makai', 'Persons', and 'Therein.' Even more confused, I watched as she unlatched a simple buckle that held the book closed. She muttered something and the book glowed for a second before returning to normal. My eyes went wide in shock; books didn't usually glow, no matter what you did to them. Maybe Hiei's talk about demons was true after all.

The book's cover lifted as if in an invisible wind and several pages flipped as well. It finally settled on what looked to me like a blank page, though Li was staring at it as if it actually had words on it. She traced lines invisible to me with a finger until she came to something that seemed to shock her. Slowly, she looked up at me, her eyes full of awe. Closing the book without looking at it, she reached out to touch my cheek, as if to make sure I was really there. Next to the bed, Hiei was practically out of his mind with impatience.

"Well? What did it say?" He asked quickly. Li turned to look at him, then back at me and addressed him while still looking at me.

"She's half demon and half…this is the weird part…half elemental." Hiei froze and stared at her incredulously.

"Elemental?" He echoed, as if it was the craziest thing he'd ever heard. I looked back and forth between them, not sure what they were talking about except that it had to do with me. "Which one?"

"Fire."

A/N: Dang, that's a lot of action in one chapter. Not only does she get abducted and have memories uncovered, she gets told she's not even human. What a day. I'm certainly glad I'm not her, though in a way, she is me...I really need some sleep.

Thus ends the first chapter in The Fire Lord. Hoped you enjoyed it. Be on the lookout for the next chapter in the next few days.

Haliaetus