Long awaited update! Just a quick little warning that this one is all dialogue and not much action but for good reason! It will explain everything regarding background info and finally, finally, FINALLY set the story into motion. And I mean it this time, bahaha. So please just bear one more chapter with me here and I promise definitely more action coming up. Thanks!

I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, Darker Than BLACK, or any of it's characters. I only own my OCs.

Everyone had settled in the warehouse. Some took seats on the various crates and others remained standing. Yoh stood in the middle with Kurama not too far in front of him. Yusuke had sat down on a crate next to the exit and Hiei stood leaning against the wall where the light from the single ceiling lamp couldn't reach him.

"I believe you were about to explain in further detail on who exactly you people are." Kurama started.

"Yes, as I said before we are contractors. Essentially, our bodies are that of a human with the exception that we do not have souls."

"No souls? Wait, how is that possible? Doesn't that make you like a zombie or something?" Yusuke had interrupted. He was leaning back on his hands on top of the crate but had leaned forward now that they had caught his interest.

"No. Our bodies are alive and fully functional. It's just that after we die, be that naturally or not, there is no soul that exists for your Reikai to escort us in the afterlife if you will. We simply cease to exist."

"Why is it that I've never heard of you guys before?" Yusuke asked.

"That's quite the explanation you're asking for."

"Just answer the damn question." Yusuke shot over his best stink eye. Yoh sighed. This was going to be a long night he could tell.

"Before I go into that let me give you a bit of a background story, and mind you that the only reason I'm telling you this is because we need your assistance."

"Go on." Kurama had walked over next to Yusuke and took a seat next to him.

"We work for a group called the Syndicate. It's an organiza-"Yoh was interrupted by the noise of a plastic wrap being torn open followed by a loud crack. He didn't have to turn around to know what was going on.

At the pause Yoh had taken, all three men turned to look behind the grey haired man and their eyes first fell on Shin. He had ripped open a bag of chips and was munching away rather ravenously not caring that he was rudely interrupting their conversation. Another loud crack was heard and the three pair of eyes snapped over to the source. They found Rin with her back turned towards the group. She was doing something they couldn't quite see as majority of her body was obscured by the darkness.

"Hey, what the hell..." Yusuke started ask but a muffled grunt came from Rin as another loud crack came from her direction.

"Her bones are breaking." Kurama's eyes narrowed as he observed Rin's back.

"Not just breaking, she's breaking them herself." Hiei was easily able to observe what the young woman was doing without having to even look. He could hear her stiff breaths as she pause each time to break one of her bones and the muffled grunts that followed.

"What? Why in the hell would she do that?" Yusuke got up from his crate and walked towards Rin, but Yoh had stopped him before he could get any closer.

Yoh turned his head to side enough to see Rin behind him. "Rin, please." She grunted as her hands dropped to her side. Yusuke's eyes flashed to her hands noticing that she had removed her gloves, but it was the sight of the three fingers on her left that had him widening his eyes.

The proximal phalanx of her pinky, ring, and middle finger were broken, all three were bent backwards in a forty-five degree angle. Yusuke gasped and pointed to her hands. "What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you hurt yourself like that?"

Rin ignored the man and whispered Mei's name as she walked towards the door. Mei hopped down from her crate and followed closely behind her. Just as Rin lifted her right hand to open the door, the same black blur that had attacked her earlier appeared before her to block her path.

"And where exactly do you think you're going?" Hiei had his arms crossed; looking down at the woman whose height only came up to his eye level.

"Outside so that I won't interrupt," Rin stepped to the side to walk around Hiei, but he had done the same, again blocking her path.

"I don't think so." Rin looked up at Hiei unfazed. If she was annoyed with him it didn't show. "Yusuke," Hiei spoke not taking his eyes off Rin.

"What?"

"They agreed to answer all of your questions, correct?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Ask him why she is doing this."

"Uh, why is she doing that?" Yusuke asked pointing at Rin.

"It is her payment for using her abilities." Yoh answered without missing a beat.

"You mean all of those sparks that were coming from her body?"

"Lightning, Yusuke." Kurama said. "You contractors are more than just humans without souls. Tell me, what is the price of a soul worth for you people?"

Yoh shifted his gaze from Kurama to Rin whom was looking back at him. He nodded his head and Rin turned around to face Mei. She handed her left hand over and Mei grasped it with both of hers. A soft white glow emitted from their hands. Everyone, including Shin who had finished his bag of chips, watched as the small girl continued hold onto Rin's hand. The light dissipated and when she finally let go the three demons saw that Rin's fingers have all been healed. Rin wiggled and flexed her left hand before slipping her gloves back on.

Mei watched and waited for Rin to finish. When she finally let both hands drop to the side Mei took the opportunity to quickly reach inside Rin's coat and pulled out a dagger. Both Yusuke and Kurama, of which the latter had stood up at some point, got into a defensive stance. Hiei, however, had remained unmoving and just observed as Mei took the dagger and slid it across her left palm without a flinch. A nice stream of blood started to flow from Mei's hand. She quickly took her other hand and cupped the injured one underneath so that the blood wouldn't spill onto the floor. At this point Jin was already making his way towards her with some cloth bandaging in his hands. He came up to Mei and took her hand without asking and started to wrap it up.

"Wipe the blood on the bandage for now. We'll change it as soon as we finish up here." He said softly. Mei did as she was told and wiped her cupped hand on her bandaged one.

"As you just witnessed and probably figured out by now Mei has healing abilities, but must draw blood as payment for using them."

"And Rin's payment for using hers is breaking her own bones." Kurama confirmed resting a finger on his chin, "Interesting."

Yoh silently confirmed Kurama's statement as he watched the two women walk back. "Our kind is kept secret from the masses. We are capable of murdering in cold blood, smothering unnecessary emotions with logic and rationality. Our abilities, however, are gained at the cost of our souls and our humanity – we Contractors are thus named because of our involuntary compulsion to pay the price each time our powers are used, which can range from eating particular foods and completing meaningless tasks, to self-harm and changing our bodies in peculiar ways."

"And Shin over there, I take it that eating a particular food is his compulsory action to pay the price?" Kurama was slowing drinking everything in.

"No, just the act of eating is his price. Anything is fine as long as he can eat it."

"And yours?" Kurama lifted an eyebrow in question, "What is your ability and what does it require of you to 'pay the price'?"

Yoh went silent for a few seconds. He was debating if he was revealing too much and they haven't even asked about their assignment yet.

"Answer the question." Hiei barked.

"I am able to see glimpses of the near future. I pay my price by tying knots."

Hiei was heard scoffing as he made his way back to the dark corner. Kurama ignored him and continued with his barrage of questions, "And the other two?"

Yoh risked a glance at the two men behind him. Both gave him a glare but made no move to stop him. Yoh sighed, he was going to have to explain everything to them especially now that they knew they were dealing with demons. "Shin has the ability to control the air around him and Jin has the mental capability to access every bit of information in the world."

Now this had stumped the trio. "What? How does that work?" Yusuke asked. "Lightning, healing, and air I get, but how is he any different from be a brainiac? Access information? Like hacking?"

"I have a separate entity that can traverse any digital network, online security, and even the world-wide web. There is no piece of digital data that can escape me." Jin used his middle finger to lift his glasses up higher on the bridge of his nose. "Now that we are done with the extensive introductions, weren't you going to ask us about this assignment? If possible, I'd like to get this moving as I also have questions for our Leader here." He looked at Yoh sending him a look that demanded an explanation.

"Not quite. Not only can your kind's abilities range from telepathic, to elemental powers, but you're also capable of supernatural feats such as his. I'll take that as what separates you from us." Kurama had now completely taken over asking the questions. Yusuke didn't mind at all and Hiei seemed to be fine with it as well. He was learning all he needed anyway without having to do the work himself. "So tell us of this assignment you all are working on and why it is that you require the assistance of my colleague here."

Only a couple of hours had passed since the interrogation started, but Rin felt like they were going at it all night. Yoh had just finished filling in the trio about their assignment regarding Shizen.

Kurama's eyebrows furrowed, "So this Shizen that you are after, you think him to be a demon?"

"Yes." was Yoh's answer.

"And because of that you decided the best approach was to enlist the help of a hanyou such as Yusuke because your kind has been forbidden to make any sort of contact with demons?"

"Correct."

"But Yusuke is still a demon."

"He is also part human."

"So you thought it would easy to appeal to his human half."

"Yes but mainly because Yusuke serves as the perfect median. It is too risky for us to go after a demon like Shizen, of which I am positive that he is one. Contractors such as us are no match against him. I predict once we find him he won't come back with us willingly or silently. Thus, causing a disturbance that may attract the attention of Reikai. When they find out that we have broken the mutual agreement then that Spirit King of yours will seek to eliminate every last one us contractors till none of us is left. And should the Syndicate decide to retaliate then a war will be on our hands and thousands of innocent human beings will be lost. Yusuke's human half will allow us to work through him without having to actually deal with Shizen ourselves."

"You plan to use Yusuke as a cover up should Shizen ever attract the attention of Reikai and if this Syndicate of yours finds out that you have in been contact with any sort of demon you plan to use his human half as an excuse. And since your Syndicate doesn't want to evoke the wrath of Reikai they would probably just let it pass since Yusuke isn't a full demon anyway. But my question is this, how can you be so sure that this Shizen is a demon?"

This had grabbed everyone's attention especially Rin's. She had always wondered why Yoh was so adamant on the idea that Shizen was a demon. There was never proof that he was, but everything regarding how they have been going about on assignment was based on the theory that they were after a demon. Rin and the others waited patiently to hear the explanation that would answer the question everyone was waiting to hear.

"I had a premonition of him before we were even given the assignment."

"And you didn't even bother to mention it before they gave it to us?" Shin was on his feet, his whole body tense from the rising buildup of anger. "Do you realize what you have done?"

"I-"Yoh made to explain, but was quickly interrupted by Jin before he even had the chance.

"You've sealed our fates. Regardless if we accomplish this assignment or not, we will be executed, whether by Reikai for breaching the agreement, or by the Syndicate for withholding information and revealing us entirely to them." Jin had his head in his hands now. He was starting to develop a head ache from everything Yoh was revealing. "And you didn't mention it to us before this encounter because you knew we would back out. By bringing all of us to be in the same room as these demons you have forced us to continue to cooperate and to keep our mouths shut if only to prolong the inevitable."

Silence followed. No one dared to utter a word as the tension in the warehouse started to double. Yusuke looked at Kurama to see if he had any idea what was going on. Kurama just shrugged continued to look at the group of contractors silently.

"Tell us, why did you go to such lengths only to eventually bring us to our deaths? Why did you keep this to yourself until now?" Jin wasn't looking at Yoh or anyone for that matter. He just sat, staring at the floor in front of him.

"I can't tell you. At least not until it happens."

"Another one of your premonitions."

"Okay, I've just about had it with the whole execution, war, and innocent lives thing. What the hell are you people talking about? Why would Reikai or your stupid little Syndicate want to kill you off just because you had a conversation with us?" Yusuke's patience was wearing thin. He was almost at the end of the rope with these people. There were too many secrets and he wanted everything out now if he was going to help them. "You have been talking around it since we started. If I am going to let you use me then I want to know everything and I mean everything. No secrets, no half-assed answers, everything! Now tell me why Reikai or your Syndicate would want to kill your asses. And if I catch you or any of you trying to smart mouth me, or beat around the damn bush then I'll blow this place up!" Yusuke had yelled that last bit and everyone besides Kurama and Hiei flinched at his tone.

Yoh had been wasting time trying to expose as little as possible hoping that his answers would satisfy the ex-detective. But Jin was right, he was only delaying the inevitable. No amount of caution could reverse time and take back what had already been done so the best option was to tell everything in order for Yusuke to cooperate. "You'll want to take a seat for this," he said as he walked over to a crate next to Mei and sat himself down, the others following suit.

"A few centuries ago in North America there was a small mass of people with abilities very similar to ours. These people were an anomaly during this time period and anything outside the norm was taken into great offense. In order to survive these people suppressed their powers and only used them in dire situations. That changed, however, when one particular one was born with the gift of growth.

A young girl whose name has been lost throughout the years was born into a poor family. They farmed for a living but their crops never amounted to much, receiving very little for whatever they could produce. Then there was one year when a natural disaster made its way into the town. It completely ruined the soil on the land ridding the family their only chance of survival. It was in this distress that awoken the girl's abilities. No one really knows the details, but one day she was seen doubled over in a field of her family's crops. Everything they had ever tried had grown, there in full bloom.

Her family took advantage of their daughter's gift more than they should have. After their fourth harvest someone had witnessed the girl use her abilities to grow another set of crops. Word got out eventually and the town's people came took her." Yoh looked up from the ground and looked at Kurama specifically. He figured the red head was the intelligent one of the group.

"Do you know of the Salem Witch Trials?"

"Yes, I have." The words weighed heavy on Kurama's tongue. He was starting to understand the connection the question implied.

"Wait, a witch trial?" Yusuke asked from his seat.

"Salem witch trials, Yusuke. It was a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in the late 1600's. Many of which were women."

"She was executed shortly after her trial of which I've been told didn't even last a good part of the day. There were too many people that played witness, majority of them were ones that purchased their crops." Yoh paused to see if they had more questions before he continued. "When one of your reapers came to retrieve her soul they found nothing. So she went back and was told to just let it pass. After all, what was one soul?

Not too long after the girl's death a group of people were also accused of witch craft. A series of trials followed of which resulted in twenty deaths; more than half of them were people with abilities like us. This time, when Reikai sent in their reapers to fetch the souls of the convicted they found that the soul count didn't match up with the number of bodies.

No one knew where their souls could have gone, little did they know that those bodies never had them to begin with. Reikai was in a mess from what I've heard. This was the first time anything like this had happen. There weren't any precautions, set procedures, or known consequences; afraid that word would get out about Enma's lack of control over the situation at hand he issued a man hunt. His men, if you could call them that, disguised themselves amongst the town folk and were a great influence and reason why many more were accused and executed for their 'witchcraft'."

"Who would have thought that such a prominent time of history had something to with your kind and Reikai." Kurama commented. "It seems Koenma has been keeping a lot more from us than he has lead on."

"It's not the first time that's for sure." Yusuke snorted in the background obviously not too happy about how in the dark he was in yet again and from Koenma of all persons.

"More of us were born into this world eventually. No one knows how or where we came to be. There isn't a specific gene that allows a human to give birth to a contractor. It just suddenly happened."

"You mean no alien space ship decided to land and release their sperm spawn so that they could slowly take over the world?" Yusuke paused awaiting reactions towards his crack of a joke but no one responded; Hiei rolled his eyes.

"Yusuke, I highly doubt now is the time for humor." Kurama looked at Yusuke with a bit of concerned look.

Yusuke rubbed the back of his neck to hide his embarrassment and mumbled, "Right, my bad." Kurama looked back to Yoh and gestured with his hand for him to continue.

"Normal, human families that gave birth to contractors would usually take it upon themselves to rid of the infant, and contractors that gave birth to normal beings would just surrender them to society or leave them abandoned; afraid that once they grew up they would come to realize who their parents were and turn against them."

"You mean there's no telling what or how a contractor is born? It is simply just?" asked Kurama. He was quite perplexed at this point.

"Correct. It's completely random. We've done the research and nothing abnormal about it showed up."

"Wait a second. If you guys are supposed to be a secret society then what happens to the normal people that give birth to you? Wouldn't that expose your race?" Yusuke was starting to grasp the words spilling from Yoh's mouth. These people were like a whole 'nother world that was hidden from them till now; like how Reikai and the Maikai were before he had died the first time.

"There are thousands of us here just in Japan and hundreds of thousands all over the world. We learn to blend into society and mold ourselves to fit this world's norms. We have people in places you wouldn't even think that take care of situations like that."

"What do you mean by 'take care'? Yusuke grounded out the last couple words. He was worried about how that sounded.

"If you're thinking if we do any kind of bodily harm then you're incorrect. The parents are notified of the child and what they are and are given choices. They can either keep the child and remain quiet about it all the while being compensated, or they can give it up and we erase their minds of the events and replace them with different memories."

"You people are capable of that?" Kurama interrupted.

"Yes, as I have mentioned before, contractors have abilities that range all over the place. There's no limit or cap to what kind of abilities we are capable of."

"What of the ningens that fail to follow your orders when they agree to keep the child?" Hiei spoke from his dark little corner.

"Damage control. We seek them out and take the child away from them, erase their memories, and clean up whatever messes that may have concurred in the meantime. It happens more often than one would think."

"You guys have it all planned out don't you." said Yusuke. It came more as a statement than a question. "No wonder you've been able to keep under wraps for so long."

"With the conditions we were given we had no choice."

"What conditions, may I ask? And from whom?" This was what Kurama had been waiting for. This next explanation would be the meaning behind all of their sneaky tactics.

"The Reikai ruler saw us as a threat. When they had come to realize that we had no associations with demons and that they were essentially killing off humans they ceased their activity with us and decided to meet with the Syndicate's council members. The Reikai basically has no holds on us. We are not tied to the consequences that come after death. It gives us an excuse to live whatever kind of life we wish without the fear of oblivion. So the ruler sought to take that very freedom away from us." Yoh paused and interlaced his fingers with both hands resting on his lap. He looked down at them and began to repeat what every contractor knew.

"A deal was made that if the Syndicate could keep its control over its people and keep us from exploiting our kind to the public then we would be spared from complete obliteration. Because we are the perfect human weapon we mustn't reveal ourselves to the ones that desire us. And because demons naturally have such raw instincts when it comes to dominance that included your race as well. The Reikai ruler didn't want problems stemming with us to deal with it because he simply just can't. There are no souls for him to punish. The only resort would be to kill and if word got around that the Reikai ruler was killing off massive amounts of humans then it wouldn't look too good, would it?"

"No, it wouldn't." Kurama said under his breath. It was almost unbelievable that a secret this big had been kept from him. He was as well known, notorious thief for kami's sake!

"Now do you understand why we need to capture this man and why we need your help, ex-detective? It is imperative that we do this without the knowledge of our superiors as well as yours."

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about. I sure as hell don't have any superiors and if ya asking me, I'm pretty pissed off, so count me in."

"And as for you two, I need some sort of assurance that you won't go revealing to anyone what I just told you. You are demons and I cannot just erase your memories."

"You have my word. In fact, I'll even assist Yusuke in whatever way should he need it. Hiei?" Kurama turned around to look at the fire demon behind him. Hiei's eyes were seen glaring back.

Hiei had only intended to take the girl and question her regarding the trespass, but what he found was much, much more interesting. Perhaps working with these people and discovering what they were, how they worked, and what other abilities they were capable of could prove extremely useful in the future. "Give me the girl and you won't hear anything from me."

"What? What do you want her for?" Yusuke half-yelled at the demon.

"You forget that I have obligations to attend to and right now that involves her and quite possibly you. If not for your negligence and lack of observation this wouldn't be a problem."

"Why her? What did she do? And what the hell did I do? Actually, now that we're on the topic you never did say why you ended up here anyways. What gives?"

"I told you, business."

"Yeah yeah we get that, but what kind of business? I'm associated with these people now, if you got something to say best say it now so we just deal with everything right here right now."

Hiei gritted his teeth. He was not in the mood to explain himself, but since Yusuke was so persistent... "Fine," he said as he got off the wall and made his way into the dim lighting. "I'm here because someone used your portal unauthorized. Whether they came here or went to the Maikai is unknown. I had only intended to question you regarding it, but that's when I found her following you and your ningen around." Hiei sent a glare in Rin's direction whom was still minding her own business on the crate. Everyone turned to look at her, waiting for an answer.

Rin looked up and made eye contact, her dark blue sapphires meeting his crimson orbs. "In regards to your portal I've done no such thing."

"You're lying. That portal was reeking with that sorry excuse of energy you got wrapped around your body. You're the only one I've encountered with the same pattern. I noticed it earlier whenever you attacked me with that... ability of yours."

"Hold that thought! I've been wondering about this. What's up with your guys' energies? It's not something I've ever felt before." Yusuke interrupted. His curiosity getting the best of him. Hiei glowered at Yusuke for interrupting him.

"Yusuke's right. Your spirit energies are not that of what I am familiar with. It's unique... As if it has a shape of its own. Do all of you have the same pattern of spirit energy? I am unable to measure it right now except for Rin's."

"That I can't answer because I don't know. We contractors don't worry about spiritual energies. Our abilities don't derive from it. As long as we pay our price our powers are limitless." Yoh replied.

"Well, shit. That's pretty damn sweet if you ask me." Huffed Yusuke while smiling.

"Yes it is, but when you take someone like Rin into account there are limits. Whereas someone like Shin could realistically have limitless powers."

"Enough of the small talk. Give me the woman now so I can finish my interrogation and get this over with. The least amount of time I spend in this god forsaken world the better." Hiei snapped.

"Hiei. You are in no position to make requests like that at this time." Kurama said in a voice as if disciplining the fire demon. Hiei's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. He always hated that tone.

"No, it's quite alright. I've said everything I know unless you have other questions?" Yoh got up from his crate and dusted his pants. The others followed suit seeing as they were just about finishing up.

"That will be all... For now. I'm sure more will arise along the way and I trust you would be willing to answer them."

"Of course." Everyone besides the trio of demons and Rin made their way to the sliding door and exited the warehouse. Yoh was the last to walk through the door and just before he stepped out he glanced back at Rin. She looked at him and nodded her head in assurance. Yoh took one more sweeping look at the demons before turning around and leaving.

Hiei walked up to Rin with his arms crossed and his eyes hard. "Now, back to business."

There it is! All out into the open. Thanks for reading and hope to hear from you next time!