This is the Underworld. It was once a part of hell, but with the passage of time it fell into disuse. Eventually those who were hated or guilty of some sin began to drift down and live within the Underworld, and over time they developed their own society - thus the Former Capital was formed.

There within the Former Capital was a building. The area around the building was filled with signs that sprouted from the ground and walls like mushrooms - signs that warned trespassers away. The signs made it clear to the denizens of the Underworld who lived here, and not a single one of them dared to approach the building. There were rules in the Underworld. Even if it was simply a hole in the ground, if a place was claimed by someone it was left undisturbed by others as much as possible. Everyone had their own space and drew an invisible line around it. That was the unspoken rule of the Underworld. The resident of this building had decided to make it easier for everyone involved by placing signs to mark their territory. Even mail deliveries did not intrude beyond that line - mail was left in a box outside and automatically transported in. That's how much the people of the Underworld wished to avoid contact with others.

She was in the building that lay beyond the signs.

Kawashiro Mitori. Her hair was more pink than red, tied up in her trademark side-tail. A lock stood out on the front of her red shirt, and on her back she carried a bag filled with more signs. She is the older sister of Kawashiro Nitori and one of the few half-yokai in Gensoukyou. Because of her nature she was disliked by both humans and kappa, leaving her with nowhere to live but down here in the Underworld.

She always has a sour look on her face. Her smiles are rare, and even when she eats food that she finds delicious her expression doesn't change. Though she will say "That was good," her expression made her words feel empty.

Mitori "Mnfufu"

But it was different now.

As she did her work she smiled widely and rubbed a hand idly across her stomach.

Yuugi "What are you grinning about?"

Her friend Yuugi came up from behind and lightly placed a hand on Mitori's back.

Mitori "Uwa! N-N-N-Nothing! I'm not grinning!"

Yuugi "You were. Anything that isn't a sour look is easy to spot on your face. "

Mitori "Ugh... And hey, if you're coming at least ring the bell first! If you sneak up behind me of course I'm going to be scared!"

Yuugi "Yeah, I did. No matter how many times I rang it I got no response, so I let myself in."

Mitori "Oh... crap. I was so focused on my work I must not have heard it."

Yuugi "I guess I understand why you were grinning, even if you won't tell me."

Yuugi turned to look over her shoulder. Strapped to a carrier on her back was a baby. The baby had silver hair and small horns growing from its forhead. It was sucking on a finger as it slept soundly on Yuugi's back.

Yuugi "I never once thought that I would be a mother."

Mitori "Your case was particularly spectacular."

Yuugi became pregnant before Mitori, but she didn't realize her condition at all. Seeing all of the other women with their swelling stomachs while Yuugi's stomach remained the same size as always, she had assumed she wasn't pregnant. Because of this she never even went to see Eirin for a check.

But then one day, at the usual bar after having a few drinks, she stood up to pay her bill and something fell from between her legs. She stepped back to see what it was and found a baby with its umbilical cord still attached laying underneath her - the cord stretching up towards Yuugi's own body.

Yuugi "Oh no, Mitori... I just had a baby."

Mitori "PFFFFFFFF!"

Mitori, who had been seated next to Yuugi, spat a mouthful of her drink in her surprise.

The other youkai in the bar turned at the noise Mitori made and stared dumbfounded at the bundle in Yuugi's arms. The atmosphere changed from cheerful sociability to confusion.

"Is Yuugi holding a baby?!" "Is that onee-san's baby!?" "It can't be!" "Who is the father!?" "That's one of those half-youkai I saw in the paper!" "You have to be joking!" "Forget about that, call an ambulance! Hurry!" "There aren't any ambulances down here! And nobody is going to bring one down here!" "There aren't ambulances anywhere in Gensoukyou!" "A doctor then! Someone call a doctor!" "There aren't any real doctors down here!"

Mitori "Bring hot water! Hot water in a wash basin!"

"I'm getting it now!" "Hey, the baby isn't crying... it's not breathing!"

Mitori "H-H-H-Hurry and spank it on the back or the butt! Make it cry!"

"Someone go to the surface and find us a doctor!" "Let's just take Yuugi to the surface!" "Go get a cart for her!" "You got it!"

Yuugi "Would you all shut up!"

After that Mitori used the tranceiver to contact her sister Nitori, who then contacted Shameimaru and told her to get to the bar. Drawn by the promise of an exclusive scoop, Shameimaru rushed to the bar and found the kind of scene she dreamed of unfolding before her eyes. When she tried to take a photo Mitori stopped her, and then Yuugi punched her for good measure. After that they rushed Yuugi and her baby to the Eientei.

Eirin was just as shocked as everyone else. Who could have expected this to happen. While Eirin knew such a thing was a possibility, she would never have thought to see it occur in real life.

Yuugi had been just as pregnant as the others. But oni are born tough, unlike other youkai. And on top of that Yuugi was a drinker who trained her body. If she didn't keep up with her training her body would have grown weak from her drinking. Only a handful knew of the intense training routine that Yuugi maintained.

Yuugi's clothes hide it, but her abdominal muscles are powerful and toned, so even when her pregnancy entered the final stages she still didn't show the typical lump. She didn't even notice her own pregnancy. A secondary effect of her muscle definition was the ease with which she gave birth. Her child slid out of her in one swift motion, pushed out by her core muscles.

After being checked out it was clear that both mother and child were in good condition. The umbilical cord was cut and Eirin spanked the baby's bottom until it finally cried out. The baby's wrinkled skin smoothed out during this time to reveal an adorable child.

With the chaos and commotion that had taken place at the bar Yuugi hadn't been able to think about what this meant, but now she was holding her own child. The horns on the baby's forehead made it clear that it had oni blood, but the silver hair was not Yuugi's - the child had taken after both parents. A few days later Yuugi began to produce milk, to the relief of everyone, and the baby chugged it down. Yuugi had a feeling the milk chugging would turn to alcohol chugging later in life.

Yuugi "Ah, it's about time for milk."

The baby had woken and tugged on Yuugi's hair to signal its hunger. It was an act that would make a tengu or kappa break out in a cold sweat, but Yuugi only smiled. At home the baby drank from Yuugi directly, but when outside Yuugi instead relied on a milk bottle.

Yuugi "Just a second."

Yuugi took out the bottle and went to give it to the baby, when...

Mitori "Hey, Yuugi, do you think I could do it?"

Yuugi "Hm? Yeah, that's fine?"

Mitori "As you can see, I'm soon to be a mother as well... I just thought it might be good to have some practice feeding with a bottle."

Yuugi "It's not really something that requires practice."

She held out the bottle to Mitori, who took it and proceeded to gently take the baby into her arms. She moved the nipple of the bottle closer to the baby's mouth and the baby reached out to pull the bottle the rest of the way so it could begin drinking.

Mitori "Oh wow, it's drinking so fast."

Yuugi "Yeah... it's definitely my baby."

Mitori "I hope my baby is this lively..."

Mitori had always been alone. Ever since she was born.

Born to a human mother and a kappa father. A half-youkai. A rare breed in Gensoukyou. The odds of a half-youkai being born are incredibly low. Probably lower than 1 in 100 odds. After all, it's the creation of life between two different species - human and youkai. The odds are akin to the likelihood of a male calico cat being born.

But Mitori was born. From a human mother. Her mother had been horribly shocked. Things were not going well between Mitori's mother and father, but once she had become pregnant she at least hoped for the child to be human - but her hope was betrayed. What she gave birth to was a child that carried the blood of human and kappa, a half-youkai.

Her mother's wish had been half granted, but if the child wasn't pure human it meant nothing. Even if it was his blood that made her half-youkai it was something to lament. Though her mother never said anything outright, Mitori could tell by her mother's attitude and tone that she was suffering an incredible pain. Mitori knew that her mother had not wanted to give birth to her.

But still her mother raised her. She didn't marry, instead choosing to live alone as she raised her half-human daughter. When Mitori was hungry she was fed, when she was dirty she was bathed, and when she was tired she was read a book. To anyone looking at them they were a normal single-mother family.

But that was only an appearance.

In truth it was all an illusion - a deception to fool herself. Mitori's mother tried to convince herself that her daughter was human, and everything she did was an attempt to make that lie real. However... living that lie could not last forever.

And then Mitori's mother died.

Leaving Mitori behind.

She had died of fatigue and over-work. Her attempts to lie to herself required such a tremendous effort and created such an incredible strain that not even sleeping or using medicines could ease her pain. Instead her health was slowly worn away and her lifespan shortened. Her human lifespan was already short in comparison to her half-youkai daughter's, but with this burden on her soul Mitori's mother died young even by human standards.

Mitori could only think... If not for me she would still be alive. If I had never been born she would still be with my father. Mitori may not have known the truth, but her own experiences did nothing to contradict these ideas. The world seemed a cold place to her.

The humans shut her out for not being a pure-blooded human, and the kappa didn't recognize her as kin. Nobody would accept Mitori and let her in, so it was perhaps natural that she would find herself heading to the place where all of the other outcasts end up - the Underworld.

But even in a place where everyone was an outcast, nobody was particularly welcomed. Even among them a person of Mitori's mixed heritage was a never-before-seen rarity. Nobody knew how to interact with someone like Mitori, so she ended up an outsider even to the outcasts. So she had attempted to maintain a distance that wasn't too close or too far, but it proved unpleasant. Even though they were strangers, people would get a bit too close, and if Mitori attempted to close that gap they would back away. Such obvious avoidance left a sour taste in her mouth. It felt as if countless bugs were crawling across her skin.

Even here nobody needed her or welcomed her. But having descended to the Underworld once meant returning to the surface was out of the question. It was too bright there for her. Up there with Nitori, the only person that didn't reject her. It would be better to stay down in the dark depths of the Underworld.

So that's what Mitori did. Nitori asked if she'd like to live together on the surface several times, but Mitori turned her down. She appreciated that her sister accepted her, but she could do without the rest of what the surface had to offer. She feared that she would only make Nitori an outcast like herself.

The only person that Mitori could trust was the oni Yuugi. An oni wouldn't bother with lying. And with Yuugi's personality that was even more true - she would speak her mind without restraint. That bluntness was strangely not unpleasant.

Then Nitori told her about Rinnosuke the half-youkai and she couldn't believe her ears. Not because there was another half-youkai, but that a half-youkai would still be living above ground. Likewise Rinnosuke had a hard time believing in Mitori's existence until they met.

The difference between Mitori and Rinnosuke is that Rinnosuke was not alone. When he ended up on his own Yukari took him in and he gained Ran as a mother. Together with Keine they became a family. Meanwhile Mitori had a mother, but she was always alone - and had decided to remain that way forever.

But that resolve had reached a sudden and unexpected end.

Yuugi "Is it really okay... returning to the surface?"

Though she hadn't been involved by her own choice, she had ended up having sex with Rinnosuke. And the lovemaking had lasted for several days, resulting in pregnancy. Then Mitori had married Rinnosuke, and because of that she would be returning to live with him and the others on the surface.

Mitori "It'll be okay."

Yuugi "Even if people did celebrate with us, that was only a temporary thing. It doesn't change who you are. They still won't accept you. Nitori is up there, but the rest of them... they won't make life easy."

Mitori "I know that."

"But I think it will be okay."

She looked up. The ceiling blocked her view, but her gaze went far beyond it.

She was looking up at someone while feeling the child inside of her.

Mitori "Because I'm not alone anymore."

Yuugi "So you're not conflicted at all."

Yuugi laughed and ran a hand through her hair.

Yuugi "Well, I'm worried. So I'll go with you."

Mitori "You could, though I don't know if we could spend much time together once on the surface."

Yuugi "Don't try to put me off, aren't we allies?"

Mitori "Now you're sounding like my sister. And we're not allies, we're friends!"

Mitori's smile was bright and beautiful.