Mutt: I got a review! Sweet! And I posted this story only a half hour ago (check the date. If this is still up ina few month's time, don't quote me here, dur). Now, I'll post the next chapter once I get five reviews. Sorry, but I would really like to know if people are reading and not just skimming. You know?

Reviews are welcome! Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.

"Calm down Calm down," he assured me calmly with an idle wave of his little hand. "You are a guest here in the Spirit World." The pacifier was bobbing in his mouth at every word he said. I didn't know whether to laugh out of amusement or to shout in anger.

Were they seriously pulling my leg or something?

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions," he guessed as he cupped his hands and sat back. As much as I wanted to I didn't say a thing. "Keako, you do have questions. Now is the time to ask them."

Crossing my arms, I sat back and crossed a leg over the other. "Yeah. Suppose I have a few." I tried to let the sarcasm flow.

For some reason, as I sat there in the sunlight, I felt strangely empowered. I took a second to look at my clothes. My pants were torn so badly they looked like shorts now and were plastered horribly with blood and dirt. Goodie. Then there was my shirt. If you could even call it a shirt anymore.

I was adorned in nothing but rags now.

Yet I felt like I could take out an army.

I felt confident.

That was strange.

He cleared his throat then looked straight at me. "To begin, you're here strictly for safety purposes."

"Huh, that was seriously unexpected," I replied quickly.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Shrugging, I gestured toward the fearsome four in the corner idly with my head. "Well, them for starters. They seemed to have something other than safety on their minds." I lifted my hands a little to show the bloody bandages. "Your rescue patrol needs to go back to training."

"Some things got out of hand," he defended. "I failed to inform them why they were sent out to capture you."

"Yeah, that would have been nice information to tell them. You might have spared me the couple heart attacks and wounds."

"You never had a heart attack," the gelled haired guy retorted.

I glanced at him. "I was being sarcastic retard." He glared back at me.

"Enough you two," Koenma said before gel-head could say anything.

"I'm getting a headache," I admitted finally with a sigh. Nothing was being explained, and if nothing was going to happen then… "Look, if nothing's going to happen then will you kill me already? Or, whatever you're planning to do with me."

"No one is planning on killing you. We have you here to keep people from killing you." Koenma sat high in his chair, his chin barely above the desk. "You see, I know everything about you, Keako. Who you are. Where you came from. What you are. Why you are running."

I was in the midst of glaring various sizes of daggers at him. For him to declare such lies. No one knew about me. I made sure of that. Wherever I went, I made sure not to leave a trace of my being. I made sure to remain a shadow in the corner of peoples' eyes. No one ever heard my voice or saw my face.

To everyone in the world, I was nothing. That was the way I liked it.

Something clicked suddenly. An abstract word Koenma had said that made no sense.

What I was.

What was I?

"When you say what I am. What, pray tell, do you mean?" I hated how curious I sounded, but I had to know. Were these guys in league with them or were they just some crack-pot loonies trying to sell me some major bull? "Obviously I'm human. There's nothing to know."

"This chick is delusional," I heard gel-head whisper to the orange haired guy.

I was going to say something, but Koenma interrupted me. "Keako, where you're running from. Do you remember anything about it?" When I didn't say anything, he tried again, "Do you remember your parents at all?"

Clenching my fists, I held them down in my lap as I curled slightly in my seat. I had no parents. I've been running for all this time alone because I knew I had to. I never questioned it. It was instinct. When I was ten some men showed up and tried to capture me. They said they had orders to return me home. I knew this home they were talking about meant death, so I ran.

Anything before my tenth year was a mystery to me. It was all fuzz. Whenever I tried remembering, all I got was darkness. Sometimes a few flickering images like cage bars and needles, but none of it made sense to me. Well, I got these other things. Small episodes of pain.

I wasn't about to tell all of this to some guy I didn't know.

"Keako, I need you to answer my questions."

"What if I lie?"

"Would you?"

"Depends."

"Do you remember your parents?"

"No."

"Do you know if they were killed?"

"I don't know."

"Do you remember where you came from?"

"Not really."

"How about where you were born? A home town?"

"Hells if I know."

"How about friends? Do you have any?"

"I prefer being alone."

"Do you fear being found out?"

"What's it to you?"

"Do you have a home?"

"Would I tell you?"

"Have men been following you?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Is that why you don't have a home?"

"If I said yes, would you shut up?"

"Do you remember anything about being harmed? Abused? Tortured?"

I looked up at him, my eyes wide and pleading. I wanted him to stop. These things he was asking. They were too much! From what I did know, things I found out, I wanted to keep them buried. If I forgot about my past, then it should probably stay forgotten!

"Stop asking me these questions! I'm the one who needs things answered!"

Koenma stared at me for a long time. He seemed to be thinking things over. His expression was blank, but I could see the trouble in his eyes. For a baby he was pretty easy to read. "Think hard, Keako. I know only little of where you were from. You got away from there somehow." I closed my eyes, trying to block everything he was saying. He knew nothing! "How did you get away, Keako? How are you here today?"

Strange images flickered behind my eyelids. I watched them in awe. They seemed so familiar. So real.

Wait…

I knew these images.

"I think…I flew," I answered softly. Opening my eyes, I looked up at the sky. What I said was absurd, but that was what the images were telling me in my mind. "That can't be, though. Humans can't fly. I must have been falling. Falling for a long time. Like off a cliff."

"A cliff?" One of Koenma's eyebrows quirked slightly.

"Yeah. I think someone was with me." I closed my eyes again and thought hard. I tried to bring up the image again. Nothing happened. "I don't know. I can't remember."

"Do you know how old you were?" Koenma asked.

I couldn't help but let out a small chuckle. "You know, I'm not even sure how old I am now." That was the truth. I just picked a day and stuck with it. Not like it mattered, I suppose. "But I must have been young. Really young. Five maybe? Just a guess."

There was silence for a long time and I could just sense the tension and awkwardness building in the air. The hair on my arms were beginning to stand on end and I realized if someone didn't say anything I was going to take the whole room out!

"Keako, I'm not sure how to tell you this without you freaking out," the toddler started.

Now I laughed. "Look, not too long ago I leaped off a cliff, was knocked out, captured by ugly horrible monsters, and kidnapped again! If I haven't broken down by now, trust me, I'm perfectly fine!" Pft, fine my ass. I'm moments away from having a mental breakdown! Those monsters were horrible…

"Those monsters you encountered before are called demons. Demons are-"

"I know what demons are pacifier breath," I cut him off stiffly. I just wanted him to get to the freaking point! "Now, on with it! What's so amazing that I have to know?"

He took a deep breath and sighed. When he seemed to compose himself, he looked at me seriously and said, "Keako, you are a demon." I heard what he said loud and clear, but for some reason the words just weren't sinking in.

He wasn't done, though. "A half-demon for that matter. It took a while to pick up even the faintest signature from you. You were severely below the radar. That's why it took us a long time to track you down."

I moved my lips for a little while, trying to form some type to words to express myself. My mind was drowning in the amount of questions I needed to ask. Finally, I asked, "Me? Me? I'm a demon? Me? There's no way. You're off your freaking rocker."

He shook his head as if he were disappointed in me. "I knew you'd freak out. I'd expected a little more from you, though."

"Screw you! Now stop yanking me around! What am I really here for?"

"You're here for protection," he replied quickly. "And I'm not yanking you around. You, Keako, are a half breed. You are part crow demon and part human."

All the blood flowed to my head in an instant. "Shut up!" I glared at him and growled, "Stop lying to me! I'm not a crow demon!"

"You're only half," he corrected.

"I don't care!" Now I was standing, my legs shaking underneath me as I clenched my hands into lethal fists again. "This is not something you want to bullshit me about. I've always dreamed of flying, and this is just like you spitting in my face by saying this." When he didn't say anything I smirked and gestured to my back. "All right binky boy. If I'm at least half crow, then where in the hell are my freaking wings?"

He was about to say something, but I interrupted him again by letting out a choked scream. I cradled my head roughly with both hands as a tremor of pain hammered into my skull. Hot searing pain ruptured me of all senses and I keeled over onto the hard marble floor. Abstract voices whispered behind the keening of my mind.

Dropping. Wings. Falling. Project Wing. Men. Cages. Needles. Pain! These were only the few words I could make out as more voices joined in with the haunted mantra. I couldn't decipher them over the sound of someone screaming.

It was me.

I was the one screaming.

"What's going on?" The voice belonged to the obnoxious sounding orange haired guy. "Is she okay? Hey! Get up! Stop screaming! Are you okay?"

Stop talking! I was sick of his voice so I punched blindly into the air, trying to hit him.

"Ow! Hey!" This voice belonged to gel head.

When the pain ebbed away, I looked up at everybody through slit lids. "That hurt." I hated these episodes. They were always the same. Weird whispers from God knows where. I had no idea what they were all about.

"Keako, what was that?" Koenma asked. His eyes were wide with concern.

"Just an old childhood illness," I replied with a slight slur. His guess was as good as mine to tell the truth on what those strange things were. Sitting up, I scratched my head and looked at him funny. "Do you have some weird obsession with continuously saying my name? Speaking of which, how long have you been following me to even know my name and all of this crap?"

The others, except Hiei, were standing around me. Their eyes shown bright with as much concern as Koenma's had. What did they care if I was hurting to not? What was it that I mattered to them? Nothing. That's what mattered. I wouldn't care if they were hurting. Truth me told, I wanted them to hurt right now.

Especially redhead. He hurt my hands!

"Does it hurt to live alone?" Koenma asked suddenly.

"Huh?" I asked unintelligently. It took me a second to realize he totally ignored my question. That baby had balls.

He shuffled through some papers and stamped them quickly. "Keako, I hereby order you to remain with Yusuke and the others until we find out everything about where you came from and who these men are that are after you." After a few more paper shuffles and stampings, he set them aside and looked at me. "It'd also be best for you to remain there until your memory fully returned. I've made the arrangements here so everything is all right."

After a few seconds of awkward silence I was on my feet and shouting at the top of my lungs. "Now you hold on just a minute! No one orders me to do anything! And who the hell are you to say what I will and will not do? I am not staying with these guys! They tried to kill me!"

"Are you done yet?" he asked after I huffed a few times.

"No."

"Too bad. And I'm Koenma, ruler of the Spirit World. I believe my say somewhat outweighs yours." I was shooting daggers again. He gave me a sympathetic look. "I'm only trying to help you, Keako. Can't you see that? These men who hurt you, they somehow messed with your demonic capabilities obviously. That would explain your wingless figure and faint energy signature. We're here to provide you protection from them harming you anymore."

Feeling exhausted with the whole situation, I sat down on the ground and held my head in my hands limply. I could feel another attack coming on, but it was hanging on the bridge of my mind. Can I go to sleep now? Just let me be alone! I'm better off alone.

"Do you remember anything? Anything at all?"

More fragments of scenes flickered in my mind. Cages, needles, empty sunken faces of children. I saw the fear in their eyes. Blood, knives, IV packages. Men dressed in white lab coats. They were leaning over the children. Doing terrible, obscene things to them.

Then I saw my pursuers. The ones who've been hunting me down since I was ten, maybe even before then.

I knew the name of this place. I knew I should fear and avoid this place at all costs. My pursuers told me they wanted me back. They wanted me back so their masters could finish the job.

"Death Row," I whispered.

"What was that?"

Lifting my head a little, I peered at him through my raven black bangs. "I said Death Row. That's what they call it."

"Who's they?"

"The ones who want me back. They keep telling me they want me back so bad men can finish what they left undone." Making sure I had Koenma's gaze locked in mine, I continued, "Koenma, this deal about me being a demon is too farfetched. If you could only see my pursuers. They're not entirely human, but they're not demon either."

"Then what they?"

"From what I've seen in broken memories, some type of genetically created beings. Mutants, to be exact."

Koenma shook his head. "That can't be. There's no such thing."

"There is such thing. Over my travels, I've seen a lot of weird things." As I spoke, more memories seemed to emerge out of nowhere. "I know this much Koenma. Do not doubt me. You asked me what I remembered earlier. Well, I remember being subjugated to some kind of torture." I crossed my arms over my chest and held tight onto my shoulders. "I remember others. I'm not the only one."

We sat in silence for a long time. It seemed Koenma was thinking things over again. Finally, he said, "Go with Yusuke and the others for now. Just until we find something better for you." Not wanting to fight it anymore, I just nodded and stood. "I know admitting these things just now may have been painful, but it was for the best. There is something not right going on in the Ningenkai."

"Whatever."

"Kurama, Yusuke, Hiei, Kuwabara, take care of her," he addressed them with the order. "You may leave."

Okay, redhead is Kurama. Gel-head is Yusuke. Ugly is Kuwabara. And creepy there with the sword is Hiei. Got it. After I memorized my captors, I remained silent and vigilant. I didn't know whether to move or not so I just stood there. My shoulder started to tingle slightly. "Don't touch me." Glancing behind me, I saw Kurama standing there with his innocent emerald eyes.

He smiled calmly and let his hand fall. "We'll take you home now."

The air seemed to freeze in my throat as my heart skipped a beat.

I remembered him. Him. Those words. How I hated those words.

"We'll take you home now," his voice deep and malevolent, every word seeming to ring with the sound of funeral bells.

I shuddered on remembrance.

"Hello?" he sought for my attention. Looking up at him slightly, I didn't say anything. "Let's go." Worn thin and exhausted, I did not fight off his gentle grasp on my arm. Just this once I'd go with the flow.

I'd escape later.