Forgotten

Summary: "It's like… like I don't know who I am anymore. Who I belong to…." ANGSTY Hiei/OC

Author's Notes: Well, I just burnt my tongue on my coffee…. That has no effect on the story whatsoever; I just thought that I'd state that. Okay, so reviews have been kind of… lacking? I don't know… maybe my expectations are too high. Well, maybe as the story progresses, more people will be interested. If you've read my bio, then you know that there's a possibility for a sequel to this fic. Well, what I've decided that I'm going to do is go ahead and put a preview for a sequel at the end of this fic, and see what the reviewer response is. But that's still a ways off yet, so let's not get ahead of ourselves. Now, to my dear reviewers:

samuraiduck27: You're so sweet! I'm glad you like this fic so much! And I promise that the "hmm" yokai will be explained. Just not yet. .

demonchild22: Hiei's my favorite, too. Thanks for reading and reviewing the fic; I hope that my work satisfies!

Moojuice Nne: Erm… I hadn't planned on any hotdog roasting in this fic… it kind of seems out of place. It would be interesting though… I can just see Hiei setting a random public park on fire….

Taylor: Thanks so much for the review! I hope you like the rest of the fic!

Thanks so much, my dears!

Part Four: One Thousand Nights


"Fifty-six, fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty, six—"

"For God's sake, onna, shut up," Hiei snarled at Akiko as she lay curled up on the ground, trying to sleep. "What the hell are you doing, anyways?"

She turned onto her back to look at him as he reclined in a tree limb above her head. "Counting sheep," she replied softly, pulling her chin to her chest. "Didn't you ever count sheep?"

"I generally avoid doing things that don't make sense."

Akiko sighed. "You're really not friendly, are you?"

The fire yokai snorted. "You're a bit slow on the uptake," he scoffed.

She rolled onto her side and pulled her knees as close as she could to herself, rolling her body up into a tight little ball. "Are you sure we can't find some building that we can stay in?"

"You ask that every night," Hiei sighed. "Do we ever stay inside?" He heard the girl softly mumble something to herself. "Did you just say that you're scared?" Hiei questioned coldly. Silence met his question; Akiko curled herself up as tightly as she possibly could. "Honestly, even you can't be stupid enough to be afraid of the dark, can you?"

"I'm not afraid of the dark," Akiko whispered. "It's just… all of the really horrible stuff that ever happened to me happened when I was outside after midnight. But I guess that really doesn't matter to you, does it?"

"What 'horrible stuff' could've happened to you?" Hiei scoffed. "What do you even know about horrible things?"

Akiko studied him for a few moments a slight frown on her face. "I don't want to tell you," she finally said. "You wouldn't care, anyways."

Hiei rolled his eyes. "Why Kurama ever had to find you…. Look, I'll make a deal with you," he said, meeting the girl's emerald eyes. "Tell me what happened to you—how you ended up where you are and… and we'll stay inside somewhere tomorrow night." Akiko didn't respond. "And," Hiei continued softly—almost gently—"I'll tell you how I ended up here."

Curiosity gleamed in her eyes, and she pulled herself up into a sitting position. "Do you really mean that?" she inquired. "You'll tell me about yourself?"

Hiei nodded reluctantly.

"Okay," Akiko said. "I'll start with my dad."


Old Mac Donald had a farm, Eiye eiye oh

And on that farm he had some—

Kurama pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, flipped it open and held it to his ear. "Hello?"

"What's up, Kurama?" Yusuke's voice asked.

"Nothing, really," the kitsune responded. "Why? Has something come up?"

"No, nothing like that," Yusuke replied. "Hey did you know Hiei's back?"

"Yeah. I spoke with him a week ago."

Yusuke chuckled. "And here I thought ol' three eyes was never gonna come back here. What got him to change his mind, do you know?"

The kitsune winced. "It's not really a pleasant circumstance," he said slowly. "From what he told me, most of Makai thinks that he murdered Mukuro, and now he's got quite the price on his head."

"Man," Yusuke responded. "Did Hiei kill Mukuro?"

"As to that," Kurama stated, "I have no idea."

"Big surprise… he never was much for bearing his soul. Hey, Kurama, what do you say we meet at the café on Third and have coffee? Catch up on things."

The kitsune looked at his watch. "At this hour?"

"Yeah, why not?"

Kurama shrugged. "Alright. What time?"

"My shift here ends in ten minutes, so we'll say twenty minutes from now."

"Okay. I'll meet you there."

"Oh, and Kurama, one more thing: can you buy? My paycheck doesn't come till Friday. Thanks, BYE!"

By the time Kurama got his mouth open to reply, Yusuke had hung up and only a dial tone remained.

"Well," the kitsune sighed, returning his phone to his pocket, "if that's not typical Yusuke…."


"So tell me," Yusuke said as he drained his coffee cup. "What's Hiei been up to since he got here? Nothing that'll get him arrested, I hope."

"No, no," Kurama chuckled. "He's stayed out of trouble, from what I can tell. Actually, he's been looking after someone for me."

"Hiei playing guard dog?" Yusuke questioned, raising his eyebrows. "That's a new one. Who's he looking after?"

"It's kind of a long story, Yusuke."

The black haired man shrugged. "It's not like I don't have the time."

Half a smile creased the kitsune's face. "Alright. I ran into this girl two weeks ago; she couldn't be more than fifteen or sixteen. I can't really say why, but she gave me an odd feeling. And aside from all that, she really needed some help: I don't think her home life was too great. So I asked Hiei to find her, and now he's keeping an eye on her for me."

"I'll bet he's thrilled with that," Yusuke laughed. "But this girl. What do you think she is? A yokai, maybe?"

Kurama shook his head. "No, I don't think she's a yokai. But she's certainly not a normal human."

Yusuke leaned his chair back on two legs. "I'm supposed to meet with Koenma in an hour. Why don't you come along? Maybe he'll know what the deal with this girl is."

"You know, Yusuke, that's not a bad idea."


Koenma sat cross-legged in his desk, eyes closed in thought. "Akiko Mishimi…" he mumbled. "I know that name." The deity opened his eyes. "Kurama, you're familiar with the 'angels,' aren't you?"

"Angels?" Yusuke questioned skeptically. "Like white robes and halos?"

Kurama shook his head. "They're where that idea came from, I'm sure. But they're not quite as benevolent as the storybook angels. Well, not anymore, at least."

"They've secluded themselves from all other life forms for centuries," Koenma stated. "Ever since Paciencia left."

"So what's all that have to do with Akiko?" Yusuke asked.

"Paciencia and Akiko," Koenma began slowly, "are the same person.

"Paciencia was one of the priestesses of the angels. Back when they still lived in the human world. It used to be just like the stories you hear of angels—they guarded humans and performed benevolent acts, all kinds of great things."

"So what happened? What made them change?" demanded Yusuke.

Koenma heaved a sigh. "A great war began in the human world, several centuries ago. A group of the angels were killed in the crossfire. As you can imagine, the angels weren't too pleased with that. They used their powers to end the war by completely obliterating all of the participants; then they withdrew to a separate reality. Paciencia was against this action. She believed that humans—and demons too, but that's beside the point—were basically good; they only did terrible things in extreme circumstances. She refused to abandon the humans, so she stayed in the human world.

"Angels' bodies don't function like humans' do. They feed of the purity of other angels—they have to live in groups to survive. And Paciencia was left alone in the human world. It wasn't long before she died, but she had enough power to insure reincarnation. She continuously returns to life as a human, and will do so until she can somehow convince the others of her kind that she was right. And Akiko—"

"Is Paciencia's reincarnated form," Kurama sighed. "That would explain why I couldn't put my finger on what she was. But what now? What should we do about her?"

"Bring her to me," Koenma stated firmly. "I'll tell her what she is, and she can decide what she plans to do."


"So," Hiei began, his eyes closed in thought and his mind trying to decipher all that the girl had just told him. "You were abandoned, abused, raped, a runaway, sold, and then ran away again?"

Wiping the tear streaks from her face, Akiko nodded. It had been easier to tell him everything than she had thought it would be: it was almost as if… as if maybe he did somehow care.

The fire yokai studied her for a moment, noting for the first time her fragile but determined appearance. "We have something in common, you know," he said plainly, jumping easily from the tree limb and landing beside her. "Both of our lives have really sucked."

A ghost of a smile flickered across the girl's face. "So, are you going to spill your guts now? You said you would."

"And I will," Hiei smirked. "Just not tonight. You need to sleep." He tossed his black cloak over her as she lie back down.



Author's Notes: Yeah. Don't ask me why Kurama's cell phone ring is "Old Mac Donald." So this was the "transition" chapter, I guess. Next chapter's going to be interesting, I think. Normally I would make some more comments here, but it's like, ten after seven in the morning on a Tuesday, so… yeah. I'll start part five later today; hopefully it will be ready to post by the weekend. Read and review, please!