Disclaimer: YYH is the property of Yoshihiro Togashi. If I were him I would be creating more manga, not writing fanfiction.

A/N

Promise I'm not responding to a reviewer here: just wanted to say "thanks" to Zariah whose link I could not reach because it said 'invalid URL' on the page I was redirected to.

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The Psychic and Her Charge

Silence reigned.

The room was small, but comfortably so, the walls a plain wood native to the forests of Japan. No decoration adorned them. The exits consisted of the not so large window—at present closed—and the shoji screen door.

In the center of the room a young woman slept peacefully. Rather, induced into sleep by a powerful drug.

At last, her thoughts drifted hazily into her conscious mind once more. Slowly, ever so tantalizingly slowly, she was pulled from her slumber into the living world once more.

Suddenly her eyes snapped open, revealing bright, gray eyes, nearly a silver in color. In one fluid motion she got up off the futon on which she had rested and did a full three-sixty of the room.

Empty.

Completely and totally devoid of anything.

'Good,' she thought.

Next, she strode to the door, and cocked her ear against it, listening for any sounds. None. She pulled back the screen, stepped out into the hallway, and closed the door silently behind her. She began walking away from the room, but stopped.

The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. She felt like—no, she knew someone was watching her. She quickly looked back over her shoulder, to find absolutely nothing there. The silence and emptiness of the place was beginning to fray her nerves. Total silence was never a good sign.

As she walked along the many corridors, she felt like she was being directed, pushed, in certain directions. Just to make things interesting she went in the opposite direction of where she was "wanted" to go. Soon, though, she became bored with her game and began choosing her own way out of what was clearly a maze.

'Whoever built this place,' she thought with awe, 'definitely did a good job of building it to confuse intruders.' Except she was not an intruder. She had been deliberately placed on that futon, in that room. She was sure the red-head named Kurama had been behind it. He was good—excellent, in fact; highly intelligent, he could match wits against an assassin whose job it was to be intelligent. She would have to keep a close eye on him in the future.

After what seemed like ages, Asha found herself at a set of massive doors. She would not be able to open them without a sound. It would be open, out, and run. Hopefully before anyone was truly alerted to the fact that she was gone.

Asha had managed to open the doors just enough so that she could slip through when she heard footsteps—running footsteps. It had taken a moment to really register that fact that they were there, and even then, if she had not been trained as an assassin, trusting her every instinct, she would have thought she imagined them.

Out the door she went, flying down the steps into...snow?

"Damn!" Asha could not help but express her great frustration aloud. For indeed it was snow. Knee deep and powdery, the perfect instrument to hinder her and her attempts to flee from wherever she was.

By this time, a few lights had been lit inside the building, and the doors were open. Asha could see a streak of darkness coming toward her, backed by the golden light from the windows. Almost too late did she realize it was one of her pursuers from a few nights before. She turned and ran. For a few seconds she thought that the snow would hinder her speed, and that she was caught (again), but she made it to the safety of the tree line...and immediately sprinted in the opposite direction.

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Hiei was startled for a moment. Had he been the girl he would have continued into the forest. He cast his thoughts aside and picked up his chase of the assassin.

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'That forest is old,' thought Asha. So old it's primitive, and crawling with low class demons. I am not going in there.'

Asha launched herself onto a beam holding up the buildings great roof. She knew she could not escape her pursuer on the ground, or hide on the roof above, for he could also reach her there. Her best bet was in the middle, where combat—and running as well—was not an option. She knew she had trapped herself, but she had bought precious time.

"Hiei," an old, waspy voice rang out. "It's useless to keep up the chase. Our shinobi isn't going anywhere."

"Hn. Genkai." The dark one came to stand behind a short woman with faded hair, that once must have been bubble gum pink.

"Genkai?" Asha called. "As in the Genkai? Winner of the Anokoku Būtsukai? Master of the Spirit Wave? You're a lot shorter than I thought you would be."

"She sounds like the idiot."

"The assassin is more intelligent."

"You flatter me, red eyes, but you're no Goliath either."

"Goliath? What is this 'goliath'?"

"Guess you didn't bother to take a Western Mythology course in high school, huh?" All Asha received was a blank look from Hiei. "Okay. My humor is wasted on the Japanese. Goliath was a giant in a myth. A kid named David killed him with a stone, with a little help from his god."

"Whatever. Now will you come down from there or I'll--"

"Genkai? Hiei? What are you doing up so late at night? I went to Asha-dono's room, but she wasn't there." (A/N: Japanese grammar and English grammar do not mix well.)

"Hey, kid."

Yukina looked up, watching as the black clad assassin shimmied her way down the beam onto the terrace.

She walked a circle around the ice maiden, noticing her eyes, her facial structure, her stature. The slightly bewildered Koorime turned with her. Then Asha did the same to Hiei, but he was far less enthusiastic about it. The assassin made sure to keep her distance. She looked up at his crimson eyes, then looked back at Yukina, then at Hiei once again.

"Well I'll be damned..."

The next moment Asha was pushed up to the self-same beam that had been her protection not minutes earlier, with a sword pressed to her throat.

"Breath a word, and I swear my katana will cleave you in two."

"Cheery sort, aren't you?"

"Hn. You're a fool."

"Let me guess at what's running through your head: 'just like the Detective,' right?"

"Hn." Hiei sheathed his sword, and flitted off into the trees.

"Fine then! You can't run from your problems forever, you know!"

"Shut up." Asha dodged a slap to the back of the head. "Get back inside the dojo."

"Moving, Genkai-sama. I'm moving."

"At least she has a shred of respect," muttered Genkai to Yukina.

But the Koorime was otherwise preoccupied. What had the assassin meant? And why had Hiei been so threatened by her inspection? So many questions, so few of which could be answered by the one who called herself Asha.

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A/N

Intriguing, no? For those who find it easy to write Hiei (or know when or when not he is being portrayed in character) could you tell me how I'm doing so far? And I realize it's rather trite to have the OC figure out the Hiei/Yukina sibling connection, but it may or may not become important. If anything it simply shows how perceptive Asha is while seeming completely oblivious.

It also serves as an instrument to demonstrate that Yukina is not completely imperceptive, and that she does notice some things that go on around her.

Cheers, R&R.