Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or it's characters. I do own Arissa and Alexia. And I own the twins.

Warning: Hints of slavery, the worst part of it for girls. Don't read if you don't want to know!

AN: I don't know the name of the boss of the bandits that 'adopt' Hiei so I'll give him a name.

Chapter Six

Four days later Genkai dismissed Arissa early, saying "Good job, you're learning faster than I expected of a first timer." The old lady said. "I think you've earned yourself a break. Go on." She said, motioning for Arissa to leave.

Arissa bowed then quickly took the golden opprotunity and rushed to her room. Once there she changed into some new clothes she had asked Botan to buy along with the portable boom box that was now resting in a corner of her room. After she was dressed in the black tight fitting shirt with the arms that reached to her elbows and the black spandex pants that reached to her calves, she grabbed the boom box, quickly put a cd in it and rushed outside, picking up her black tennis shoes on the porch.

Once outside she looked around, trying to find a suitable place to dance without having to worry about being spied on. She didn't find one but she did find a trail into the forest. Hoping she would find a grove she took the small dirt path, leaving the temple.

Hiei saw her head into the forest. Knowing that random youkai lived there, he thought it wise to follow the girl to keep her safe.

Arissa traveled several minutes before she happened on a large grove. "Perfect." She said as she sat the boom box on the ground. She went through her warm up stretches then bent down and messed with the cd player, programing it to play a certain song then she pressed 'play'.

Arissa took in a breath and stood in her beginning stance. Suddenly Train's "Drops of Jupiter" blared out of the radio. Arissa leaped and twirled to the music, pulling out all the stops from classical dance moves, like jettes and pirouettes, to acrobatics, like handless cartwheels, and her own moves.

Hiei watched the girl dance, again that faint memory stirring. "Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day, dance along the light of day..." Hiei's eyes narrowed as the girl leaped to land twirling, her leg up behind her, almost posing like a ballerina. The song and her dancing were waking that long repressed memory despite Hiei's attempts to repress it even further.

As the song ended Arissa stopped in a pose, feet in the fifth position, back arched backwards, head raised to the sky, and arms wide, bent at the elbow and slightly raised to the sky. Hiei's eyes narrowed even further as the memory came back to him full force. -But I thought she had 'risen' back to the stars. How can she be back?- Hiei contemplated this as the girl started to dance to another song.

That evening Kurama came by, Hiei caught him before he could step inside the temple. "Kurama, I need to talk to you," he said. Kurama nodded and followed the fire apparition into the forest.

After several minutes walking the two paused in a small open area. "What is it Hiei? I can tell something heavy is on your mind." Kurama said after awhile. Hiei sighed and looked up at the darkening sky. "I met a kakou hoshi apparition before, several decades ago." He said quietly. Kurama waited for him to continue. Hiei sighed again. "Her name was Larissa. She looked almost exactly like Arissa's demonic form. I met her one night while I was about to pull a heist..."

/Hiei looked down at the large castle. -Feh...the security is pathetic.- He thought, smiling. -It should be easy pickings.- "Do you like my master's castle?" A quiet melodic voice asked behind him. Hiei hardly jumped to show his surprise and shock at someone being able to sneak up on him. He turned around slightly to see a petite silver skinned girl, probably early teens, with long light pink hair and magenta eyes staring at him innocently. His eyes narrowed as he took in her skimpily clad form. She was in nothing but pink guaze, gauzy leggings and a small pink sheer breast band with gauze sleeves attached. Very skimpy clothing for mid winter. "Who are you? And aren't you cold?" His voice was unusually soft. Normally his reply would be scathing if he did give a reply before he killed the one that snuck up on him. But something in the girl's eyes caught at his heart and squeezed out what ever gentleness he had in it. The girl nodded emphatically, then her eyes widened in shock and she shook her head. "Nno. No! I am just fine sir. I need nothing. I have everything I want!" She said hastily. Hiei's eyes narrowed further. She had sounded as if that responce was an ingrained reply. He then noticed the faint scars on her body and the fading bruises. "Are you a slave?" He asked quietly. The girl shook her head. "No, I am a dancer for my master. He treats me well!" She said hurridly as she noticed Hiei's scowl. "Tell the truth! He beats you doesn't he?" The girl started to shake, "Please sir, don't hurt me! I'll do what you ask! Are you a friend of my master's? I will preform the honor of taking your bed! My master grants the courtesy to all his friends! Just don't tell him I met you here! I'll even accommodate you here!" She cried as she started to take off her clothes. Hiei growled and took of his cloak and wrapped it around the girl. "No! I'm not a friend of your 'master'. I'm here to take you away from that monster!" Thoughts of stealing any treasure from the castle vanished and only thoughts of torture to the bastard that exploited this child swarmed through his head.

Against the girl's protests Hiei vanished. Soon she heard screaming ring from the castle from several voices. The screaming lasted for thirty minutes before it stopped. The girl held her breath and a split second later the dark man was by her side again. She shrunk away from the blood spattered man. Hiei's eyes softened, "Don't be afraid." He whispered gently. "You're free now. That monster's dead. You can go home." The girl started to cry, not sure of what to make of the term 'free'. Hiei knelt next to her and held her as she sobbed. After a while he asked her, "What's your name?" "Larissa." Hiei smiled, "That's a beautiful name. How old are you?" Larissa stiffened. "I don't know exactly, only that I've been with my master since I was young for ten years. I overheard him say he found me when I was a toddler." -That would make her at the most fourteen.- Hiei thought, glaring some more and wishing he had inflicted more torture on the bastard youkai. -Thirty-nine years younger than me.- He looked down at the quivering girl in his arms. He remembered having been on his own as a young child, but he had reached A-class by the age of five and didn't have to worry about predators that would take advantage of a young child, he also had the bandits. But this child was completely defenseless, her energy level barely registered as D-class and the bastard that he had just killed registered as B-class. He sighed, vowing to himself to protect this girl from anymore harm. "Come, let's get away from this place and get you some proper clothing." Larissa looked up at him. "Thank you master, I will do all that you ask of me." Hiei stiffened and pushed the girl away from him and held her at arm's length. "No! You obey no master, you follow no orders that you don't want to. You now have a choice in all that you do. If I do 'ask' you to do anything it will only be for your health and protection. You no longer have to subject yourself to anyone's whims, especially men. Understand?" He said, half angrily. She nodded though Hiei could see the confusion in her eyes. He sighed. "Don't worry, I'll take care of you."

They traveled to his 'family's' lair. A blue troll stood guard at the entrance, his large club at the ready. His beady eyes widened when he saw Hiei walk out of the forest carrying a small girl. "Hiei? Who's that?" He asked. Hiei walked past him, "Someone who needs our protection. Tell Krissi that she needs clothing. I'll be with the boss." The troll nodded and yelled at a young rat youkai running past down the hall.

"So Hiei, I hear that you've put someone under the protection of bandits without my approval." The large youkai said as Hiei laid the sleeping girl on the large pallet in the corner of the central room reserved for the boss of the bandits. "Hn, it was needed. You would have given her protection if you had met her the same way I had." He said. Shou just shook his head and came to look at the girl. She was wrapped tightly against the cold in Hiei's cloak, only the top of her head could be seen. Shou gently opened the cloak and nodded his head when he saw her. "Yes, I actually was planning a rescue mission for the girl. I guess the castle caught your attention and you decided to drop in for a profitable 'visit'?" He asked dryly. Hiei gave him a quizzical look. "What do you mean 'rescue mission'?" Shou sighed as he gently tucked the girl under the numerous skins used for blankets. "A few days ago a man came to us and told us about a castle that had a young girl and the master of the castle was selling her body. Lucky for us, well for her, the man that talked to us was honorable and wanted to get the girl out." Shou paused. "He seemed to act outraged at the treatment of the girl, more so than you would expect. Come to think of it, he looked like her, his skin and hair that is. I've never seen an apparition like him before. And I had completely forgotten to ask him. He paid us great money to get her out." He clapped Hiei on the shoulder, "Good job little tyke. I can safely assume that you killed everyone in the castle?" He laughed at Hiei's glare. "Wouldn't you?" Hiei asked. Shou nodded, "Yes I would, remember, I have a daughter out there somewhere. I'll treat this girl like I treat Sara. Now I think I'll go get food. Hungry?"

It took several weeks for the girl to become used to the new 'freedom'. Hiei every now and then heard that she would sometimes offer to 'preform the honor' of having sex with someone that did her a nice thing. With the help of the rest of the bandits Hiei was slowly teaching the girl the meaning of 'freedom'. Hiei stayed close to Larissa, teaching her other things besides 'freedom'. He taught her how to read and write. Only a few of the bandits actually knew how to read other than theive's code and maps. He also decided to teach her how to fight. He could sense that the girl had the potential to become a higher class, she just needed training. He and a fellow bandit, the bird apparition Krissi, trained her in daggers and other small weapons. Larissa was at first clumsy in the moves until she found a rythm in the blocking and attacking. She then showed that her skills as a 'dancer' would help majorly in her skills as a fighter.

When she wasn't training she was dancing, accompanied by the minstrel-bandit Rent. Hiei often watched her, finding a peace that he was only now beginning to find in the hiruseki stone his Koorime mother had shed for him on his birth. She was a lovely sight. Krissi had sewn special clothes for her made out of fine pale white leather to complement her silver-purple skin and soft pink hair. Her breeches, boots, jerkin, shirt and long coat were made to be close fitting yet flexible enough for the agile girl to move about as she pleased in her dancing. Over the past few weeks Larissa had become a child of the bandits, dearly loved and someone they were feircely protective of. Some poor sap had made the mistake of throwing her a lewd comment one day while they were in one of the towns under the protection of the bandits. He soon found several knives close to his vital points, drawing slight blood as he was threatened to never even look at the young girl ever again or he would no longer have a reason to look at a girl from that point on.

"What's the matter Hiei?" Larissa asked innocently, pausing in her dancing. Hiei shrugged, "Nothing, just thinking." Larissa 'hn'd, her favorite saying that she had picked up from her rescuer, then looked up to the first stars twinkling to life in the evening sky. Hiei saw her skin and eyes start to glow in imitation of those stars. A thought occurred to him. "Larissa? Do you know what type of apparition you are?" The girl looked at him and shook her head. "No, I'm sorry." She cringed reflexively despite her best efforts. Memories of punishments from not being able to give the master what he wanted still haunted her. Hiei's eyes softened. "Don't worry, you'll never be harmed again." He assured her softly as he always did. Larissa nodded./

"...It turns out that the bastard that had forced her into slavery didn't know what type of apparition she was. He had only found her in a burned down settlement on the edge of the Forest of Fools. He picked her up because of her skin and gender, he was sure he would make a pretty penny." Hiei growled as he paced the small clearing in contained anger, the thought of what had been forced upon the young girl still enraged him and he again thought about how the bastard that had caused it had gotten off easy. Hiei had only diced him up fourty-two times in a split second, when he should have tortured the bastard.

Kurama let the fire apparition fume in silence for a few minutes, then he pressed him for the rest of the story. "When did you find out what she was?" He asked. Hiei paused then sighed, a sad and distant look in his eyes. "One day man related to the man that had paid Shou to rescue Larissa showed up..."

/Larissa was dancing in the river, playing in the cool water and basking in the warm summer sunshine. Hiei sat on the bank, smiling and watching his love splash and sing one of her little songs, presenting herself in all her glory to the wonderful elements that she seemed to have such a close tie to. It had been four years since he had rescued her. Over that time she had managed to fully encompass the meaning on 'freedom' and was now the most free spirit Hiei or any of the bandits knew. Through the four years Hiei and Larissa had become close, their friendship heathily blossoming into love. After fifty-seven years of life Hiei had finally chosen a mate. Larissa saw him smiling and laughed, "Come Hiei! Come water-dance with me!" She giggled and pulled him to his feet to start to drag him into the river. Hiei laughed, "Let me get undressed first. I really don't want to go back to the lair soaking." The silver-skinned young woman smiled and waited impatiently for him to discard his clothing, then she dragged him into the deepest part of the river, the water reaching up to their necks.

After swimming for fifteen minutes then drying for just as long they darned their clothing and headed back to the lair. Shou was at the entrance, waiting for them, a sad look in his face. "Hiei, Larissa. A man has come to see you darling. In the conference room." He said carefully to the two he had come to think of as his children, but especially to the girl. Hiei gave him a quirked eyebrow. -Why does he look that way?- He thought suspiciously. Larissa, the trusting creature that she was, just nodded and happily skipped inside, tugging Hiei behind her.

In the large room that consisted of a large stone table and wooden benches sat a tall man. Hiei and Larissa gasped. His skin, hair and eyes were just like Larissa's. He stood upon seeing the girl. "Hello Larissa." He said softly as he bowed. "I have been looking for you. My brother informed me that he had found you but he could not help you. He had only enough time to ask these gentlemen to rescue you before it was his time to rise. Once he told me I had immediately fallen to find you, my love." He came and took her hands and kissed them. Hiei growled, "What do you think you are doing with Larissa?" The man looked down on him, in both sense of the word. "And who are you?" He asked arogantly. Hiei took Larissa's hands from the stranger to hold between his own. "I'm her mate." The man barked out a laugh. "My good sir," He said, making it sound insulting, "But you can't be her mate, for she already has one. We have been 'mates' since before she fell to this Star forsaken planet." He turned to the visibly confused and upset Larissa. "Oh, my poor dear. You may be in your true 'humanoid' form, but you don't have any of your memories do you? You don't even know what you are." He put his hand on her forehead and closed his eyes. Larissa gasped and backed away from him. Hiei immediately jumped in front of her, sword drawn. "No! Hiei don't! What he says is true!" She cried, tears streaming down her face. Hiei looked at her, bewildered. Larissa saw the look in his eyes and shook her head. "I'm sorry, but what he says is true..." She repeated, then she ran out of the room.

Hiei turned to the stranger and growled, then followed his silver love out of the room. The man sighed and looked beyond the ceiling. "I must train her soon. She will rise with me."

Hiei found Larissa by her favorite looking pond. He sat beside her on her sunbathing rock and held out her coat that he had snagged of the peg by the entrance for her. For some odd reason a down pour had started. "Love, what's wrong? Please, tell me." He said quietly as she took the coat. She didn't answer him, only sat there in silence. After a while she gave a shuddered sigh. "Hiei...I am a Star... a star apparition or Kakou Hoshi. Kirst, that man, opened my memories. I am a Star that is living in the form of an apparition, my true form is metaphysical. Something happened when I 'fell' from the heavens. I lost my memories. I inhabited the body of 'Larissa', or her original name 'Aron', when she was four. Her village had been ransacked and she had died but her soul remained. When I 'fell' I merged with her soul and brought her back to life. Then that bastard enslaved me, then you rescued me when I was fourteen. Now Kirst has found me." She finally looked at Hiei, tears in her eyes. "Hiei, please know this, I truelly love you." She turned away. "But I belong to someone else." He opened his mouth but she shook her head. "No! Please, I have to leave you, I have to leave with him and return home." She got up to leave. Hiei rose up with her and grabbed her hands. "Why! Why, Larissa? Please tell me why. You know I love you, I've never loved anyone else." Hiei said desperately, instictively knowing what was about to happen. Larissa shook her head. "Please Hiei, let me go! You once said that I had the right to choose, that I was 'free'. I once thought you were the only one for me. But my heart still belongs to Kirst. Please, if you love me, let me be free," she said through her tears. Hiei searched her face, then nodded, hearing his heart break. He let her go and backed away. "Then be free. I never meant to chain you to this life," he said hoarsly as he held his own tears back. Larissa nodded, turned to leave then turned to Hiei and kissed him quickly before she ran back to the lair. Hiei stayed where he was, trying to collect the peices of his soul./

"..." He walked to the far side of the grove and stared at the sky, hearing once again her words echo through his head, 'Please, if you love me, let me be free.' Kurama stood where he had been standing for the past half hour in silence, giving Hiei his space to brood over the painful past. Hiei sighed and bowed his head. "Those were the last words we ever exchanged. I stayed in the forest until night fall, when I returned she had already left with Kirst, supposedly to 'rise'. After that I spent more time roaming the forest and earning the title of a viscious and ruthless killer, trying to drown the memories. I guess I succeeded. Soon the bandits grew tired of my ways and abandoned me." He placed a hand above the area where he hid the two hiruseki stones, his and his sister's. "After awhile I too became tired of my ways and longed to find the peace that I had felt at one time in my life, though I couldn't remember where, it had been close to fourty years later. I began to stare into my hiruseki stone, finding that peace. Then one day I lost it. I made up my mind to find it and my homeland and family. You pretty much know the rest, I recieved the Jagan, visited the land of Koorime, found out that Yukina had left, then spent four years looking for her before I stumbled across you." He shrugged.

He started to walk away, then paused and gave a weak laugh. "You know, I had begun to think I 'loved' Mukuro. I guess after hearing her background my memory of Larissa and all my feelings about her became entangled with how I looked at Mukuro. Now that I remember, I realize I mostly look upon her as a mother."

He again started to leave but Kurama stopped him. "Hiei, do you feel that Arissa has the spirit of Larissa?" He asked. Hiei didn't turn around. "I don't know."