For all of you have read this and not reviewed, know that you are stabbing me repeatedly in the heart with a knife. And dead people can't finish fics!!

And to all of you have begun guessing who her father is – kudos to you! :mutters to self: Not that it was that hard.

Ahem… now back to the story:

Chapter 3

She craned her neck in every direction, trying to find where the feeling was coming from. The night was well upon her now, and the forest was filled with the sounds of rustlings and the strange noises of the dark. Her feeling, however, was not indicating one of those noises – it was telling her that something, or someone, was coming towards her. It also informed her that whatever it was was looking for something.

Crouching and hunching on her perch, she pressed herself expertly into the shadows of the tree and waited for the thing to get closer. Some perverse sense of curiosity insisted that she see exactly what this intruder was and what he wanted.

Whatever it was, it was being very stealthy; she knew it was only about fifty yards from her tree and she still couldn't see or hear anything. After a few minutes, her eyes caught a hint of movement to her right on the ground.

Her sense was firm about it being only one person and she quickly sorted out the facts. There was no one else about – according to her strangely accurate instinct – and people did not sneak about in about in the dead of night unless they were stalking something – Or they might not have the senses I do and think they're not alone, offered the ever helpful voice in her head.

In any case, she was fairly certain that whoever it was was looking for her, though she couldn't have said how she knew it.

There!

Finally, the trespasser had shown himself – if you could call a fleeting shadow showing himself – and she focused completely to identify him as hostile or just wary of his surroundings.

Well, he was definitely looking for something, he kept glancing down at the bottoms of trees as though he thought someone would be sitting there, peeking into the larger hollows of some of the trees, and looking up into the branches of the trees. The question was, was he looking for her?

She had no intention of finding that out the hard way!

She slipped up higher into the thick limbs of her tree, nestling herself in the shadows. If she waited long enough he might go away and leave her alone – she had no wish to get into a fight with someone whose abilities she knew nothing of. She found herself running her fingers nervously over the hilt of her katana, reminding herself that it was still there and ready to defend her.



The stranger passed into a moonlit area and she caught a good glimpse of him.

A man with long black hair, large black eyes, and huge bat-like ears. He was dressed differently than she was, in a long tunic belted with a soft cloth belt to hang almost to his knees and light pants that hung loosely around his legs with a sweeping robe over the entire ensemble. And there was something about him that put her teeth on edge.

Her fingers gripped the hilt harder.

He came to her tree and looked up and around the trunk.

She held her breath, her hold on the sword so hard her knuckles were bone white.

After an insanely long minute, he passed her tree and went on to the next.

She didn't relax at all as he continued to search.

Whoever he was, he seemed to be growing tired of searching – his looks were becoming quicker and his movements more impatient.

All the better for me, she thought bracingly to herself. Now, if he would just leave.

No such luck.

When he was just barely still within her sight, he turned with a snarl, marched into the center of a nearby clearing, and began to yell.

"NIIRA! I KNOW YOU'RE OUT HERE! SHOW YOURSELF!"

Niira? Was that code for something? Or was it – her heart clenched – could it possibly be… her name?

Argh!!

A stab of pain shot through her skull just as –

"C'mon Niira!" laughed a voice.

She blinked and found herself holding a black and white ball. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

The laughing boy rolled his eyes as another boy – not nearly as handsome as the first – came up behind him, howling, "Don't tell me the great Niira doesn't know how to play soccer!"

"Daisuke," said a soft voice reprovingly – a girl's voice – "The games in Demon World are different than the ones here."

She felt a light flush crawl up the back of her neck and tried to ignore it, haughtily saying, "Hmph, we have far more important things to do in Demon World than playing foolish human games."



Another light female voice chuckled brightly. "Well, you're not in Demon World now; you might as well learn something about Human World."

She scoffed. "Why do I need to know anything about Human World?"

The first male voice grinned. "Well, this game is fun and if you don't want to play you can just stay on the sidelines."

She scowled and crossed her arms over her chest, trying to hide her growing curiosity. "What exactly is this game, soccer?"

"Well," he took the ball from her and set it on the ground. "The whole point is that you kick this around and try to get it into the other team's goal. There's one person who guards the goal on each team and he –"

"Or she!"

"Or she," he nodded, "Is the only one who can touch the ball with his – or her – hands. The rest of us can't. Got it? Still want to play?"

She tried not to shift uncomfortably. She did want to play, very much so, but she didn't know if her father would approve or not. But then… her father wasn't here – he wouldn't be back until tomorrow…

"Alright, I'll play."

"Good," said the second female voice happily. "Now we need to pick team captains!"

A third young boy's voice spoke. "Let's have Rai and Daisuke be team captains."

"Alright!" crowed the second voice – did this moron ever know when to be silent? "You just wait Urameshi! My team'll grind yours into the dust!"

There was a wild laugh from the first boy, "As if –"

OW!

Godsdamnit, her head hurt!

She opened her eyes and immediately tried to scramble backwards – the stranger's face was less than a foot from hers. She was on the forest floor – apparently she had fallen off during her episode – and the man was leaning over her. With a growl, she shoved him away, simultaneously drawing her sword and leaping to her feet.

"Whoa! Whoa!" yelled the guy. "If this is about that one time I asked you to show me your tits, I was only joking!"



She had no clue what the hell he was talking about, but she didn't like the look in his eyes. The fear and confusion she could handle, but that darker gleam just made her stomach clench. "Get the hell away from me."

"What the hell is your problem?!" he demanded. "Lots of girls love it when I ask them that!"

She flexed her hands on her katana and slipped into what she somehow knew was an offensive stance – legs apart, chest balanced between them, sword medium distance away from her body, and her chin high and proud.

"C'mon Nii," he said, sinking into a fighting pose as well. "Why don't you just relax and we can discuss this like civilized demons?"

An irrational surge of anger swept through her. How dare you call me Nii, you arrogant, perverted jackass!

His eyes hardened. "I don't understand why you keep rejecting me. Don't you know who I am? I am the son of the mighty Yomi – one of the greatest fighters in all of Demon World!"

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Had this idiot come looking for her simply to hit on her? If so, he was in for a rude awakening – she didn't know much about herself, but she did know that she had absolutely no wish to be used as some spoiled brat's sex toy.

"You're just the daughter of a pathetic swordsman who was so desperate for power he had to get a fake eye!"

Okay, why was she getting so hot under the collar? She didn't even understand what this man was talking about – she couldn't even remember her father – yet she was still getting very angry.

She found herself wishing this guy wasn't such an arrogant lowlife so she could ask him about her father. He seemed to know about him.

Ah, what the hell? She scowled darkly at him, "What do you know about my father?"

The demon glared at her. "I know that he's a fool."

Her anger surged again but she kept it under control. "I'll ask you one more time, what do you know about my father?"

"I don't want to talk about him!" whined the man. "I want to know why you keep telling me no!"

He grinned seductively. "It would just be one night and I promise you would enjoy it."

Okay, this was starting to piss her off – no, it had passed the starting point, she was seriously pissed – and she was seriously thinking of just charging and slicing this bastard's head off.

"C'mon," he crooned, stretching out his hand.



She attacked, vertically slashing at his hand, three quick strokes in a Z formation to his throat, chest and abdomen, and four strikes at his legs, all while bolting past him.

The demon jerked back from her attacks with inhuman speed, though not fast enough to escape deep slashes – unfortunately, none of them life threatening.

"You bitch!" he screeched, losing his head completely at the sight of the blood seeping through his shirt.

She fought back a smirk. He always lost his cool when something didn't go his way and once he was in the middle of one of his rages, he was an easy opponent.

He lunged at her, and earned a cut to the face that had actually been directed at his jugular.

With a lightening quick flick, she had the fool on his back and her katana going for his throat –

"That will do!"

She stopped, but not before giving her opponent a sharp strike across the throat with the blunt end of her sword to keep him out of her hair for a moment.

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw a girl – her age perhaps – standing a few feet away. An odd sense of familiarity came over her and she found herself looking over the girl carefully.

The girl had long dark red hair and sapphire blue eyes that gleamed in the dark of twilight. Her face was gorgeous, with her large eyes, slender cheekbones, dainty nose, and full mouth. She wore a green Chinese style blouse with red roses embroidered climbing up her right side and neat black pants and soft black shoes. "Shura, what have you done now?"