Hello loyal fans! Thank you for waiting! Tell me Hiei's not OOC! No, actually, go ahead and tell me.

Chapter 10

She lay on the roof of the temple while her father stood a little ways away from her, his head thrown back to observe the stars.

She had quickly decided that there was no way that she was going to spend the night under that roof again and walked off to sleep on the roof, making a quick pit stop for her katana. Her father had soon joined her, not saying a word.

She didn't bother trying to start a conversation; she knew – in that instinctive way she knew so many things – that he wouldn't be much of talker, not to mention that she wasn't in the mood to pull bits of information from an unwilling informant.

Instead she turned her thoughts to something more interesting.

The voice in her head. Was it really the voice of her subconscious? It spoke – in the mental sense – either as if it was she and other times it spoke as another entity entirely.

Was that normal?

It didn't sound normal.

But then… what about this situation sounded normal?

Hmmm…

"What happened?"

"Huh?" She looked around at her father, rather startled by his sudden and voluntary question.

"What happened to you? You were given a simple mission. Deliver a message to Koenma. How did you manage to give yourself amnesia?"

She felt a stab of annoyance. "I was attacked. I think. I woke up surrounded by hostile demons."

"Where was this?"

She arched an eyebrow at him, "I woke up with amnesia and you expect me to know where I was?"

He scowled a bit. "Fine. What happened after that?"

"I wandered around for a while, before I came to a river. After that I went looking for a place to stay the night –"

"What were you looking for?" he asked suddenly.

"A tall tree with either a high fork or a strong branch," she answered instantly.

Then blinked.

How had she known that? "Huh?"

"I taught you that years ago," he said with a slight shrug. "Do you remember?"

"Yes." And she did. That realization filled her with surprise.

"What else?"

She considered whether to tell him or not. On the one hand, he had attacked her and she didn't like to overly divulge information. Then again, he was supposed to be her father according to her painful, sporadic memories and she was fairly certain that she could trust him… as much as you could ever trust a father.

What the hell.

"I ran into a demon who seemed to think I wanted to sleep with him. I was about to deal with him when Hanako showed up. Then a gang of demons showed up and I had an episode and I don't know what happened after that."

"A demon wanted to sleep with you?" He repeated sharply, eyes narrowing.

"Yeah. He was a real idiot."

"Black hair? Black eyes? Bat ears?"

"Yes…"

His face twisted into a very ugly expression that made her wary. "Shura."

She immediately felt rather sorry whoever this Shura was. Then again…

"I asked you to show me your tits –"

"Try to leave some of him left for me to deal with."

"First come, first served," he growled. "I needed to talk to speak with him and his father anyway."

"Damn." She sat up and looked him. "Are you leaving then?"

"For the moment." He arched an eyebrow. "Try not to give yourself a brain bleed while I'm gone."

"Goodbye… Father."

"Goodbye, Niira."

He turned away from her.

"Oh," he turned back to her. "One more thing."

He walked over to her, crouched so he was at her level, took her hand and pressed something into her palm. Closing her fingers around the object, he looked straight into her eyes. "Look after yourself and look after this until I get back."

"When will that be?"

"Three days."

He straightened up, strode over to the edge of the roof and was gone.

She stared after him before looking at the thing he had given her.

It was a small round stone attached to a thin leather string to form a necklace. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

She remembered this.

She remembered this.

It was her father's tear gem.

She wondered if this was a good sign or a bad one.

"What's this?" Niira asked, reaching out and tugging at the pretty stone her father wore around his neck.

"It's a Tear Gem. Ice apparitions make them with their tears."

"How come you have one?" She nestled herself deeper into his stomach. "Did Aunt 'Kina give it to you?"

"No, my mother did."

"Was it a birthday present? Rai says people get stuff on their birthdays."

He looked at her strangely and placed his hand on her forehead. "You have a fever."

The little girl looked blearily up at him. "I do?"

"Yes."

"Yes it was a birthday present?"

"What? No, you have a fever. I just told you that."

"Oh… where did all the fireflies come from?"

He gaped at her. It was a very funny thing to see.

But what was so surprising?

There were little white lights dancing in front of her face.

Niira reached a hand to touch one. She had never seen fireflies like these. Nope. Never in all of her four years had she ever seen…

"NIIRA!!"

She flew to her feet as though a firecracker had gone off beneath her ass. Snapping her head from side to side, she searched for the source of the yell.

There on the ground in the soft light of dawn was a small girl with brown hair and dark, clever brown eyes. Flashing a devilish grin that bore a great resemblance to Raizen's, the child yelled again, "C'mon Niira! You're not gonna stay up there all day are ya? Come down here and tell me if you know who I am or not!"

She couldn't decide whether to laugh, gape, or ignore this outrageous outburst.

She decided upon the latter. "I'm going to assume I know you."

"You assume correctly!"

She leapt down from the roof and took a closer look at the strange newcomer. The girl appeared to be about thirteen and was dressed in blue jeans and green tank top, her hair drawn up into a ponytail.

"I'm Rai's sister, Hotaru. Nice to meetcha. Again."

"Raizen has a sister?" she asked, noting the strong pale gold demonic energy warping lazily around her – and the approach of a familiar energy signature.

"Yup," chirped the girl. "Sadly for him, I got all the good looks in the family – EEEEK!"

"That's what you think, runt," Rai quipped lazily, ignoring his sister's screech as he hefted her up onto his shoulder.

She didn't know quite what to make of this so she fell back to her failsafe method of dealing with confusing antics. She ignored them. "What are you doing here, Raizen?"

"It's Saturday," he shrugged. "We always come and visit Grandma on weekends."

"Rai's in a good mood 'cause he got an A on his chemistry test so his grade hopped up to a B. Mom finally gave his cell phone back," Hotaru informed her, completely unperturbed by the fact that she was hanging upside down with her face in her brother's back.

She blinked and glanced at Rai. "Should I offer congratulations or ignore this completely?"

"How about you quit it with the sarcasm and we'll consider my reward delivered?"

"How about I continue to speak sarcastically and ignore this feat of yours?"

"That's okay, too. How's it going, Nii?"

It was her turn to shrug. "I can complain but I'm still alive."

"That's always good to hear."

"Hello!" Hotaru yelled. "Girl being held hostage here!"

"It's not being held hostage when no one cares if you're released," Rai told her calmly.

"RAIZEN URAMESHI! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

They all jumped as the shrill voice cut through the mostly still morning air.

A slender human woman in her late thirties was marching towards them, hands on her hips. Rather pretty, though slightly wrinkled about the eyes, the stranger had brown hair and soft brown eyes that were currently glowing dangerously.

She was just stunned at how such a creature that would seem harmless normally could so resemble a hungry manticore.

Raizen looked rather terrified. "Uhhh… Hiya Mom!"

"What are you doing to your sister?"

"Nothing…" he said in an innocent tone that fooled no one.

"Put her down this instant." From the woman's controlled tone of voice, she was wondering if the woman was preparing to tear someone's throat out – most likely Rai's.

Rai set his sister down and started backing away from his mother as she moved in for the kill.

"C'mon, Nii," Hotaru hissed, running up to her and tugging on her hand. "You should meet Daddy."

The two made a quick getaway as there was a sudden explosion of yelling behind them.

'Daddy' turned out to be a tall, good-looking man in his late thirties with an insane amount of demonic energy seeping out of him. He was an exact replica of Raizen – fast-forwarded about twenty-five years – and grinned good-naturedly as she walked up to him.

"Hey there, Niira. Still amnesia-y?"

"Yeah. You are?"

He gave a mock pout, "You mean you don't remember me?"

"Would I be asking otherwise?"

"I don't know… you can be a real brat when you want to be, Gorgeous."

"What did you call me?"

He looked rather surprised. "I've always called you –"

She groaned. "What about amnesia do you not understand?"

"Okay, okay. I'm Rai and Taru's dad. Name's Yusuke Urameshi. Nice to meetcha. Again."

Déjà vu.

"Likewise." She inclined her head slightly.

"Well, I've known you since you were a little kid. Since you were a baby. I know your dad too. Hell of a fighter." He grinned at her. "I'm glad you're still okay."

"If you can call this okay."

"Don't be stupid," Hotaru snapped. "If you're not dead or dying, you're okay."

"And even death's not so bad to be honest," Yusuke laughed.

She decided against questioning that interesting statement. "In that case, I'm fine."

"That's good," he said with obvious sincerity. He turned to his daughter. "C'mon, Taru, let's go rescue your brother. I think your mother might have drawn blood by now."

As the two began walking away, Yusuke called back, "If you want to hang around, we'll be sparring in the woods after we finish our rescue mission."

She watched them go. Did she really want to stay? She definitely wanted to wait for her father to pump him for information…and to give him the gem back.

Reaching into her pocket, she closed her hand around the small round stone and slowly drew the necklace out. It was beautiful and she loved looking at it…but it wasn't hers. It was her father's and he treasured it above all else.

But she was just borrowing it, she reminded herself. She was going to give it back to him as soon as he came back.

A sudden heart stopping thought hit her like a brick wall, had he given her this to keep because he didn't think he was going to survive whatever he was going to do.

She had barely thought this that she nearly burst out into outright laughter. The day her father did anything so sentimental was the day she would strip down to her underwear and make love to every man she came across.

My amnesia must have affected me more than I thought if I'm thinking that.

Tell me about it, came a familiar snide voice. For a few moments I thought you might actually be seriously questioning your father's ability to fight.

Where have you been? I haven't you for a few hours.

Did you miss me?

Hardly.

Someone's coming.

She had the feeling of soft fur and could almost smell a hint of roses in the air. "Hello Hanako. Kurama."

"Good morning, Niira," Kurama greeted quietly. "Are you here for the sparring?"

"Are you?"

Hanako giggled. "Yes, so is Hiroki."

Another strange feeling of pine needles and fresh herbs came over her just as her sixth sense warned her of the presence of another.

A handsome young man with dark brown hair and familiar emerald green eyes appeared beside Kurama.

She looked him over critically. "Are you supposed to be Hiroki?"

"Yes," the young demon said politely. "It is good to see you again, Niira."

She gave him a brisk nod, before turning her attention to their energy signatures.

All three of them had lazy green energy that curled around them like vines seeking purchase. Each of them however had different colors streaking through their green energy. For Kurama it was rich silver, for Hanako it was a dark red, and for Hiroki a smooth dark blue.

Others…

She turned around in time to see that overgrown idiot Daisuke Kuwabara with his gentler – and far more tolerable – sister, Hina and a small boy with jet black hair and brown eyes who bore a rather alarming resemblance to her own father coming towards them.

"Hi, Niira," the young boy said. "I'm Haru, Hina and Daisuke's brother."

"Little brother," inserted Daisuke.

"In age. Not in mentality," Haru deadpanned.

"Why you little –"

Yup, this boy had most definitely taken after his uncle.

"Hey guys!"

It was Hotaru. "Mom's stopped yelling at Rai! Let the games begin!"

I get the feeling this chapter's not as good as it could be. Any thoughts? REVIEW!!!

And just to clear up any confusion:

Hiei + Unknown = Niira

Yusuke + Keiko = Raizen and Hotaru

Kuwabara + Yukina = Daisuke, Hina, and Haru

Kurama + Undecided = Hiroki and Hanako