Sato Sakura wasn't brave, or beautiful, she was just too smart for her own good. She was of average height, with bright red hair, cropped short to make life easier for her. She went to your average high school; like most, it was renowned for its sports. But she didn't care about that. All she cared about was her books. Books were the only way for her to escape her sad excuse of a life. She could easily imagine herself a member of a perfect family, taken out of books, for other then her imagination; she was alone in the world.

True, every day she was surrounded by a group of kids just like her, trying to find a family and be adopted. She didn't worry about that anymore, she was far past the adoptable age, and everybody was looking for little kids, not 16 year olds. She had been an orphan since she was six, her parents were killed in a freak accident while on vacation in Europe. The day after their funeral, she was shipped off, back to her home country of Japan.

Sakura slowly walked down the street, thinking about how pathetic her life was. She was so deep in thought that she didn't notice the pair of boys sneaking up behind her. One tripped her, causing her to spill all the papers she had in her hands. The other boy saw and grabbed a photo that was among the papers.

"Ha I got it, let's go!" He cried out. And with that, the two of boys peeled off.

"No!" Sakura cried out as she struggled off of the ground. As soon as she was on her feet, she took off, forgetting the bag and papers on the ground. She tried to catch up to the boys, but couldn't until she saw them duck into an alley. Putting on an extra burst of speed she was able to catch up.

She ran headlong into the alley, trying desperately to find the two boys. Instead she found a lot of trouble. The two boys were in fact just a small part of a rather large notorious gang that ruled the area.

"Well, looks like we caught us a little cherry blossom, boys." The largest, also probably the leader, her mind deduced, sneered. The other large, mean looking boys chuckled. Sakura looked around, just noticing the fact that she was surrounded.

"Looking for this?" He said, holding up a photo of a happy couple standing behind their daughter.

"Give that back!" She yelled, at seeing the only photo she had of her family.

"What, this little thing? I don't think so. It's ours now, to do with what we want to. In fact… Bonzo, give me your lighter." Sakura could only watch in disbelief as one of the thugs, Bonzo apparently, handed over a lighter. The leader took it and held a corner of the photo over the lit lighter.

"What are you going to do now, little cherry blossom?" Slowly the corner started to blacken and curl up.

"No! Stop it!" Sakura cried out, not noticing the tears streaming down her face.

"No, I don't think so." He replied with a smirk on his face. Sakura lunged forward, attempting to save her photo.

"Oh, I see our little cherry blossom wants to save her precious photo. Unfortunately, it belongs to us now, as a fee for even being alive. Now we can't have you trying that again, can we?" As fear for her life forcing her to watch as the photo slowly turned to ash. As the last corner burned, Sakura bowed her head, silently crying. Slowly, she became enraged at the gang, for destroying the only thing she had left of her parents.

"You bastards, you just can't help ruining people's lives!" She cried out, a resounding smack floating through the air. He slowly lifted his hand to his face, feeling the spot where she had hit.

"Now that was a really stupid thing to do. Apparently you haven't learned yet. So let me teach you a lesson. Boys grab her." Two of the thugs stepped forward, grabbing her arms and twisting her arms behind her back. The leader stepped forward, giving her a sharp kick to the ribs. More tears sprung to her eyes, as she heard several dull cracks as her ribs broke. The man just kept hitting her, over and over again. After a while the thugs dropped her, and the whole gang started to join the fun.

After what seemed like an eternity the leader said, "I think she learned her lesson boys, now lets go." Dully, through a pain filled haze she heard them leave. It was another half hour till she could even try to move. Slowly she made her way back to the orphanage. She limply made her way to her room and collapsed on top of the covers, sobbing.

Little did she know that that day, Seto Kabia was visiting, to see what his many donations to his former orphanage had done to improve it. The very honored, and flustered, caretakers were leading him around the orphanage, showing off all the improvements made.

"Chiba-san! Chiba-san! Sakura-Chan is hurt! She's not breathing, and looks pretty beat up!" One of the older girls cried out, as she ran up.

"Tomo, go call 911 and tell them what's happening. We'll need an ambulance." Mrs. Chiba called out as she ran towards Sakura's room. "Kayko, go get the first aid kit!"

Sakura heard nothing, saw nothing, smelled nothing but darkness. All of a sudden, she saw herself floating above the bed as emergency services rushed around her body, desperately trying to save her.

"What's happening to me!" Sakura cried, but no one seemed to hear her.

"You're dying dear." A strange voice said behind her. Sakura spun around, expecting a figure in a black hooded robe holding a scythe. Instead she found a blue haired girl wearing a kimono and riding an oar?

"WHAT!! How can I be dying?"

"That gang beat you to an inch of your life. It's a miracle in it's self that you made it here. Oh, my name is Boton, and I'll be your ferry girl today. So what's your name?"

"Um, Sakura Sato, why? What's going to happen to me? What's a ferry girl?" Sakura babbled on as Boton flipped through a small book.

"Let's see Sato, Sakura, where are you?" Boton mumbled to herself as she continued through her book. Suddenly she put the book back into her kimono and pulled out a compact.

"Koenma-sama, we have an issue. There isn't a spot for the spirit I'm supposed to collect… All right, I'll bring her."

"Boton, what's going on? What's wrong? And who's Koenma?"

"Well it doesn't appear that you are supposed to die today Sakura, so the Spirit world doesn't have a spot ready for you. So we're going to go on a little trip."

"What!!"

"Grab on, we're going for a ride!"

A.N. Well that's the first chapter. I had the urge to write, so this was written in one night. Have fun reading this and please review.

Yu-Yu-Hakusho, Yu-Gi-Oh (that will come later), and any other random anime/book that I bring in don't belong to me; they belong to their writers and respective companies.

1/21/2007- I've decided to go back and edit the story, so some things can be clarified, and some plot things fixed.