Demoness

Chapter Something-or-other

Keiko woke with a shock from her dreams and looked up into the eyes of the boy standing over her. Two dark brown eyes were staring down at her face, and the third, was now a mere slit on the boy's forehead. He was drawing back and tying a white bandana over his third eye so it wouldn't be seen.

"What did you do?" asked Keiko, still in shock.

"Helped you along." said the short boy, turning to leave.

"Wait… What's your name? What did you do to me? Where am…"

"I am Hiei." Hiei said, on his way out the door.

Keiko leapt to her feet and ran into the hall, but Hiei was gone. Nervously wandering the halls, Keiko found a new exit, this one leading out into a lush forest area. Confused by the sudden change of scene, Keiko looked around in awe and soon found herself wandering the jungle. Something about the place felt evil, but for some reason that didn't bother Keiko a bit as she made her way trough the thick underbrush to a clearing. In the clearing she saw several beings chatting together. One was probably between six and seven feet tall with one eye and a horn protruding from the orange skin of his forehead. Its two companions were both of blue skin, one with three large horns sprouting from the top of its head, and the other with no horns at all, but long hair that seemed to be made of snakes. Keiko watched them for several minutes before making herself known.

"Hello…" she said shyly, looking at her feet.

"Hey boys," said the orange demon, "it looks like a little human got herself lost in the woods. Maybe we should help her back home."

"Would you? I just woke up here and I can't find my way home and…" Keiko rambled on, despite the serious feelings of alarm that had been rising since she made herself known to the demons.

The orange demon held out hand for Keiko and Keiko stepped forward, reaching for his hand. She was just about to take it when she saw his teeth glistening, and his claws raised to strike.

"You won't hurt me will you?" asked Keiko nervously, still ignoring all the instincts in her body that urged her to run.

"Of course not." said the demon, his arm still outstretched.

Keiko took the demon's hand, and as soon as she did she realized her mistake. The clawed hand came down and ripped across her right shoulder, leaving four huge gashes behind. Keiko broke free and with speed she didn't even know she had, Keiko leapt back into the middle of the circle of demons. The three advanced on her, and instinct took over. Keiko lashed out with an inhuman speed that shocked the demons as well as herself, and in seconds, all three demons lay dead at Keiko's feet. Scared and surprised, Keiko fled into the forest again.

In a matter of days, Keiko had killed over a hundred lower level demons. The carnage no longer bothered her, and she found herself enjoying it, especially after a self-taught lesson in torture allowed her to find food. As she got better with torture she discovered what she had become, and who Hiei was. The gashes on her shoulder healed quickly as she learned, but they left behind a scar like no other; forever reminding Keiko of her first encounter with the demons. She stopped trusting and fell into a life of killing to survive. Often times she would rest in a clearing full of the newly dead just so she wouldn't be attacked in her sleep. After a month had gone by, she met up again with Hiei.

"I've been looking for you." Keiko said with a laugh. "If I had known you were so feared I would've been more careful in our fortress."

"You're cocky." Said Hiei, "That is something I didn't expect."

"You are older than me by a few hundred years. That I didn't expect." retorted Keiko.

"You sound like the spirit detective you so love." said Hiei in disgust.

"Who?" asked Keiko.

Hiei smiled slightly at this new development. "How far back do you remember?" he asked.

"What does it matter?"

"No reason." said Hiei grinning wickedly as evil thoughts swirled through his brain.

"You've found her?" asked Yusuke with a shout.

"Yes Yusuke, we've found her." said Koenma calmly. "There is something you should know…"

"It doesn't matter." said Yusuke, "What matters is I find her."

"YUSUKE!" called Koenma, but he didn't get an answer. Yusuke was already out the door, and probably half-way to the demon world.

Keiko sat in a tree devouring her meal when the human walked by. He had his short black hair greased back, and wore a green uniform of some kind. Keiko shrugged silently to herself as she watched him go by. After she finished eating, she took off and followed the human through the forest. He fascinated her, and she wasn't quite sure why. It was as though he was familiar. Something about his cocky, 'world doesn't matter' attitude as he strode through the forest reminded her of someone; someone deep in her memory. He seemed somehow important, but she couldn't say why. He was just a human after all. So why was she following him? She had no idea.

"Who are you?"

Keiko looked down at the human boy where he had stopped and turned to look at her. How had he sensed her? It didn't make any sense at all, especially for such a powerful demon as Keiko. No human could sense her presence, and he couldn't possibly have seen her hidden in the shadows. Caught off guard, Keiko felt the boy hit her with incredible force, and the two went flying towards the ground. Flipping the boy off of her, Keiko twisted in the air to land on her feet, feeling the human land hard a few feet in front of her.

"Keiko…" he said in shock, dropping his fighting stance.

"How do you know my name?" asked Keiko, her distrust of the human suddenly growing as she stepped back.

"Keiko it's me, Yusuke." The boy replied, walking towards her as though they'd known each other for years.

"I don't know any humans." said Keiko with a laugh, fear making her even cockier than usual, "I've never been to the human world."

"Yes you have!" the boy, Yusuke, half shouted, waving his hands in frustration. "You were born there!"

Keiko shook her head and laughed.

"Don't you remember me?" he asked, his face hard but his words questioning and almost sad.

Keiko laughed again, stepping back from the human once more. "Why would I remember something as low as a human?"

This did not go over well.

"Low! What'dya mean low! You were human once, and just because you went demon doesn't mean you're better than I am." cried Yusuke, his hands balling into fists, trembling with the effort not to strike her.

Keiko laughed once more. Her? Human? That was a laugh. She had been a demon for as long as she could remember, but then she had to have been alive for more than a few months. Still, the thought of being a human was just to absurd.

It was then, with all the speed he could manage, that Yusuke employed the only attack he every used no Keiko, running around behind her and grabbing her rather hard. The demon automatically slapped Yusuke across the face, throwing him back several feet and rounded on him before she even knew what she was doing. Eyes widening, Keiko watched memories of her human life flow before her eyes as Yusuke sat slowly up and watched her.

"Keiko?" he asked after several moments' silence.

"Y-Yusuke?" answered Keiko, turning startled eyes down to look at him. "I'm, sorry, I'm so sorry."

Yusuke actually managed a bit of a smile as he stood and made his way briskly over to Keiko, hugging her close.

AN: Well, I did post the next chapter. It's written better than the first few (however many there are before this…), but I'm still not loving how it's coming out. Oh well. As long as you guys don't mind I guess I don't mind. Hopefully the writing will improve in the future. Sorry to the reviewers, but I can't reply in this chapter because of computer issues and such. Thank you for reviewing. It's really the only reason I kept trying to write this story. Thanks for reading.

T.K.