Disclaimer: I will only state this once, so listen closely…I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho. The original owner is Yoshihiro Togashi so thank him for providing us with such a wonderful anime.
"Fast Shadow" by Shimoku
CHAPTER 1: "Raised in a Pack of Thieves"
To find a baby slowly floating on a river, barely conscious, is a very unusual experience. It could either be a good thing or a bad thing. The thing is, there was a child who had been found floating on a river. There was such a child, where a pack of thieves retrieved him from the river and raised him as if he were part of the whole gang. And this boy always carried a tear gem with himself. The thieves had named this boy…Hiei, meaning "Fast Shadow." Although he didn't know anything about his past at all the boy had made it a personal mission to find his original homeland. He wasn't very fond of the thieves, since most of them treated him like trash. But there was one particular thief, Tenek, who showed compassion for the boy, though he rarely admitted it.
But as rough as they were with him, Hiei did have some things to thank the thieves for. With many years of hard work, most of which was assigned by the thieves, Hiei was able to learn how to defend himself and fight for himself. He gained excellent thievery skills and was taught in the art of agility. For thieves, agility is a very important aspect. Without agility, you wouldn't be able to run from a crime or steal anything in the first place. However, Hiei seemed to be rather gifted when it came to agility. In fact, he surpassed even the greatest of the pack, making many thieves jealous and want to hurt the boy even more.
A rather hard and working day was ahead of the pack of thieves, as they planned to invade the land of Koorime, an ice land, and steal some of its deepest and most cherished treasures. Hiei, who was busy helping the thieves pack some food for the long trip, was rather grumpy that morning. Not only were the majority of the thieves there bullying him again, but he had also had that dream again where he found himself being thrown down a river fall. He found this dream rather disturbing.
But maybe he should have left all of his thoughts on that dream for a later time, as he had accidentally crashed into Roboro, one of the pack's toughest demons. Hiei dropped every cinch of food he had been carrying and stepped back to look into Roboro's eyes. "Well, if it isn't little teeny tiny Hiei, trying to carry more than he can bear. You should leave such hard work for real demons," said Roboro, a very nasty glint hidden in his eyes. Hiei bent down to pick up whatever he let fall, but Roboro pushed him back even further. "Chose to ignore me, eh?" And as Roboro pulled out a very large axe, the audience around them couldn't help but notice the sudden smirk across the eight-year-old boy's face.
Hiei was gone the very moment Roboro brought down his axe to swing at him. Everyone looked up at the nearest, yet tallest, tree and found the boy casually sitting on one of the tree's branches. His smirk growing wider, the boy finally said, "Try that small trick of yours on an under-class demon; like you, for example. Always wanted someone to get rid of you for me."
Though Hiei had won that battle, he had yet to win the war. No matter how many demons he killed or taunted, the dissatisfaction was always the same: loneliness, sadness, and anger. As much as Hiei wanted to join the pack on their trip to Koorime, Tenek refused to let the boy go. "I would let you come if it were up to me," Tenek told him. "But remember that most of the others dislike you very much and rather leave you here alone with a few of the pack. And trust me, I know you can't take on the whole pack even if you wanted to."
And so, Hiei was left to sit alone by the riverbank and cope yet again with a new anger for Tenek, sadness, and even more loneliness. Sometimes, it had occurred to him why he was in this place in the first place. These thieves were hardly any family at all, and how could he consider them to be? About ninety-nine percent of the pack hated him. And it made him lonely, not having a person to care for or someone to care for him. Not having family. Tenek had watched the boy in the riverbank from afar, feeling sorry for him. But then again, he had a trip to attend to and so he had to leave Hiei sitting all alone.
Pulling out the necklace that held on to his tear gem, Hiei could think of nothing more except wonder about who had given him such a beautiful thing. His biggest bet was on Tenek, though a part of him doubted it. Tenek was the nicest of all of the thieves, but even Tenek himself had his limits. He never gave Hiei any of their stolen treasures and still treated Hiei like any other demon in their gang. In fact, the only things that Tenek ever did to help Hiei was give him more rations of food than the leftover ones that Hiei was always assigned to. And the only other thing Tenek ever gave him was someone to talk to. Not many times did they speak, but once in a while they would sit around the river and speak of just about anything. Hiei especially loved to talk about how ugly some of the thieves in their gang were and Tenek wouldn't hesitate to give him the right to make fun of them at all.
But Tenek would never give him a tear gem.
Tucking the gem aside, Hiei had perhaps the most paranoid idea. But if Tenek wouldn't allow him to go to Koorime with them, then he'd just have to find a way to get there by himself.