Urameshi Atsuko is borne to a prostitute and a lowly underworld agent.

Neither had room in their lives for a child—so they dumped her on the streets to be raised by rats or returned to the dirt from which she came.

Infant Atsuko spent the first hours of her life screaming.

She screamed for mama, for papa, for love, for care. She screamed so maybe a rat would hear her and take pity on her, she screamed so maybe those who came to collect garbage would perhaps see her and collect her too.

She screamed because she thought it would spare her of her suffering, but in hindsight, Atsuko wished her infant self had shut her mouth and died quietly.

She was collected by a hideous creature.

"An infant," it rasped. "A human infant, how lucky I am…"

And how unlucky she was, for she spent the next five years being fattened up, then drained of blood, then fattened up, then drained of blood. A recyclable pig, that's what she was. She was dinner and she was free and a lowly demon sold her blood to those too lazy to set foot in the human world, yet curious of the cuisine of their lords.

She wanted to die.

And one day, the opportunity came.

"A hundred gold pieces."

"S—sir?"

"For the whole thing, I'll pay a hundred gold pieces."

It did not take even a second for the lower demon to agree.

Within an hour she was washed, wrapped, and neatly displayed on a serving tray. Her buyer stood beside her, addressing a bandaged figure in a dark cavern.

"It is fresh," the buyer said, gesturing at her prone form. "The youngest meat I could find. Perhaps it will suit your stomach, my lord."

The bandaged creature did not shift.

"Leave it there," it ordered. "And get lost for a bit."

"As you wish, sir."

The buyer departed. The bandaged creature did not move. Lying on the serving tray, she managed to find her voice.

"Kill me," she rasped.

The bandaged creature cocked its head.

"Excuse me?"

"You…eat me…now."

"Why the rush?"

"…Cold…Want…Die…"

"Why shouldn't I take my time? You cost a pretty penny. I should start with your legs and work my way up, one pound of flesh at a time."

A flare of rage.

"Not…toy!" she growled.

A chuckle.

"You're human," the bandaged creature scoffed. "You breed like rabbits and taste marginally better. What makes you think you're more than a lump of meat?"

On the serving tray, she writhed. It did her no good at all, other than making the tears trickle down at an angle. The bandaged creature brushed a hand against her cheek and licked its finger. She cried harder.

"I'm not…a toy!" She cried. "Everyone…like me. Everyone start as…lump of meat!" The bandaged creature stilled. "Everyone born…lump of meat! I…no different. I just like you. And I…I want…to die. I deserve it by now!"

The tears poured.

By the end of the day, five-year-old Atsuko found herself dressed in a rag and dumped on the streets of the human world.

This time, she had a fighting chance.

Two Decades

It was not the most glamourous place in the world, but it was comfortable. Two bedrooms. A living room. A kitchen. A full fridge, a TV, and a soft sofa. Atsuko lounged in a pile of blankets and only stirred when the full brunt of the midday sun bore down on her eyelids.

"Ugh," she groaned, dragging herself into a sitting position. Instinctively, she reached for a pack of cigarettes. As she did, the door slammed open. A young girl stared at her in disbelief.

"Ma!" Yusuke cried. She was fourteen-years-old, hair cropped short, and perpetually wearing the boys' uniform. "Did you just wake up?" She narrowed her eyes. "And are those cigarettes?" She stomped forward, ready to whisk the pack out of her mother's hand, presumably to smoke them herself.

Atsuko raised an eyebrow and swerved out of reach.

"Yes and yes," Atsuko deadpanned. "I'm a grown woman, I'll do what I want, thanks."

"Ma!" Yusuke protested. "That's not good for you!"

Atsuko stared at her flatly.

"You have absolutely no right to talk. Shouldn't you be at school?"

"I got angry and skipped," Yusuke shrugged. It took a bit of grappling, but she managed to snag a cigarette from the pack. Atsuko rolled her eyes.

"Five a day," Atsuko reminded her.

"You have no right to talk," Yusuke mimicked in a squeaky voice.

"I'm old, you're young. I'm already being very generous because I know life can be shit sometimes."

"It is," Yusuke said. "Life fucking sucks." She plopped herself down at the edge of the sofa, looking at her mother out of the corner of her eyes. Atsuko looked her up and down. Her hair was unkept, her uniform was dirty, and her breath stunk of smoke at the age of fourteen.

"You've got food, entertainment, and all your limbs," Atsuko remarked. "Do your worst." She pulled the blanket back over her and turned on the TV.

"Is that it?" Yusuke snapped. "Do your worst? That's all?"

"Yes." Atsuko said flatly.

"You're just gonna smoke and watch TV all day?"

"Yep."

"Don't you have work to do?"

"I always get the bill paid."

"What about finding a real job?"

"You want one, you look for one."

Yusuke sprang to her feet.

"I'm going out," she snapped.

Atsuko shrugged and returned her attention to the TV.

"You know where the door is."

The door slammed shut. It was slight, but Yusuke's hands shook as she stomped her way into the streets. That annoyed her, so she clenched her hands into fists and kicked a nearby rock. It flew into the face of a boy squatting along the street, smoking much like herself.

"Hey!" he snarled. "The fuck was that for, you punk ass bitch?"

"Huh?" Yusuke taunted. "Did you say something? Say it a bit louder, it's my first time hearing a pile of shit talk."

There was a roar and there was a fistfight.

It didn't last long.

"Weak motherfucker," Yusuke spat. Three punches in, the boy realized she was that Yusuke Urameshi and he hightailed it out of there.

"Freak!" He shouted as he scrambled away. "You're a freak! Fucking gross, gorilla bitch!"

"The fuck?" Yusuke snarled, and she stalked after him, ready to give his face another pounding. "You want me to introduce you to a gorilla? I'll make you see gorillas in the mirror every day for the rest of your life, shit for brains!"

"Urameshi Yusuke!" cried a familiar voice. "You better not be fighting again!"

Yusuke swiveled her head. The boy hastened to escape as a brown-haired girl in a prim uniform strode towards the delinquent, looking at her accusingly.

"Ugh," Yusuke groaned. "It's the ugly naggy hag." The tension left her fists. Her hands unfurled and she stuck them in her pockets, adopting a casual posture as though she hadn't planned on rearranging someone's face.

Yukimura Keiko crossed her arms and marched up to the delinquent girl.

"Don't call me that! It's rude!"

"Yeah, yeah, princess fussy wussy can't hurt her widdle ears…whaddya want? Why ya always following me around?"

"Because you're a troublemaker and your trouble reflects on me as the class representative! Every time you fight, you drag our school's name through the mud, which means you drag my name through the mud, which means I have to come stop you from doing anything stupid!"

By this time, Keiko was nose to nose with the delinquent girl. Making use of her greater height, Yusuke looked straight down and blinked.

"Whoa there," she said, and she pulled the collar of Keiko's school uniform. "Miss goody two shoes has a nice pair. Does that bra come with a matching thong?" Without pausing a beat, Yusuke lifted Keiko's skirt. Her underwear was pink and plain, granny style. "Damn, you really are an old hag…what kind of shitty mismatch is this…A thong would go way better with those tits…"

"URAMESHI! YUSUKE!" Keiko screamed, and she slapped the shit out of the delinquent girl.

Yusuke maintained a wide grin, even with a red handprint glowing on her face.

"Later, granny pants!" she snickered as she ran off and vaulted over a fence.

"Wait! Yusuke, Mr. Takenaka wants to see you! Yusuke! You can't keep skipping school like this—think about your future! Yusuke!" Keiko shouted after the delinquent girl to no avail. Eventually, she had no choice but to give up as Yusuke pranced over several rooftops and faded into the distance.

"Yusuke…"

Several blocks away, Yusuke smiled to herself. Pissing off the class rep always felt good. There was something hilarious about watching the prim and proper Yukimura utterly lose her shit and start screaming her name in the streets. It also did not hurt that Yukimura had a very round, very perky li'l butt. The symmetry of them squishy spheres made her brain happy, okay.

"What you smiling about, Urameshi?"

"Booty." Yusuke said bluntly. She turned. A big bloke with orange hair approached. Kuwabara Kazuma, her self-proclaimed rival. She sighed.

"What—Girls shouldn't talk like that!" Kuwabara exclaimed.

"You talk like that all the time."

"But you're a girl!"

"So fucking what."

"It's weird."

"You know what's weirder? Your face. It's just so irritating I have this crazy desire to smash it to pieces…"

"What's that? Those are fighting words, you punk!"

"That's the point, doofus…Come and get it!"

Something resembling a fight later, Yusuke whistled as she wandered about town in a highly improved mood. She's had a good workout and a good ass-grab. The day wasn't too bad. Tomorrow, she might go to class, if only because she hadn't completely given up on her future. Also, Kuwabara had vowed to challenge her again and she wanted to see how bad the class rep would freak out when she starts to fight right in the middle of class. She snickered at the thought of it.

There was a bouncing sound.

"Huh?"

A rubber ball rolled in front of Yusuke. She looked around. On the other side of the street, a little boy looked at her expectantly. She frowned and walked over.

"Hey, kid! This yours?"

The kid stared at her despondently. He looked really young, probably not old enough to speak well. When she waved the ball in front of his face, he continued to look at her with a sort of 'dance monkey dance' expression. Yusuke squinted. She wasn't one to back down from a challenge.

"Grahhhhh!" "Blurrrgggh!" "Flubbdaddubdubdub!"

The little kid started laughing, which brought a smile to her face.

Still got it, she thought to herself. She placed the ball in the kid's hands.

"Alright kiddo, take care. Maybe play somewhere else, the cars here are dangerous."

The kid blinked at her as she waved goodbye.

Yusuke walked across the street, intending to return home. She made it to the other side. Then, she heard a noise.

Bounce.

Bounce.

She turned.

The kid had kicked the ball into the middle of the road. The kid, who looked too young to have more than two brain cells, walked after the ball with wide-eyed innocence, right into the way of a speeding car.

"Hey!" Yusuke shouted. "Watch out!"

She lunged.

As the car crashed into Urameshi Yusuke, a forked tongue flicked past the child's lips.

It grinned.

"Atsuko-chan," it said. "I smell Atsuko-chan."

Beneath a pile of blankets, Urameshi Atsuko startled awake. Words from a decade ago echoed in her ears.

"You were cursed from the start," that thing had told her. "Since hundreds of years ago, your family was cursed to interact with demonkind. There is no escaping it. Whether it's you, your child, or your child's child…One way or another, you will be brought into the fold of demonkind."

She crushed a packet of cigarettes. They were not enough to quell her turbulence. For fourteen years, she had thought she was free. That her spiritually unresponsive, psychically incompetent daughter had no possible way of walking the same path she had.

And yet.

Atsuko left the house and stared at the night sky.

A reaper in pink hovered beside the soul of her daughter.

Where there is a reaper, there is a detective.

Where there is a detective, there are demons.

Where there are demons, there are ways.

There were ways to strip her of the human life she's built, and bring her back to a world where she was a lump of meat to be eaten. There was a way to bring her back, just like that thing had promised. No matter how many years it took, what bizarre events it took, there was, without a doubt, a way.

Atsuko laughed.

Then, her face twisted.

"Fuck."