Note: Old fanfic that really needs more editing, haven't been on in a bit and decided to re-upload some things.
Keiko's dark eyes were fixed more internally then out as she walked down the sidewalk. Who was that girl Yusuke was with? The blue haired girl was wearing their school uniform but she didn't remember seeing her before...
She barely glanced at the small dark figure she passed.
"You must be Keiko..." The deep male voice stopped her in her tracks, she blinked and turned to answer, when her eyes fell on the boy though, they widened. An eye in the center of his forehead caught her full attention and she had a moment to think it was the most beautiful purple she'd ever seen, then his whispered word brought the darkness of sleep crashing around her.
Keiko woke with a start, gasping. She was on a cold concrete floor, boxes were stacked everywhere, so she assumed she was in a factory or storage place. Her school satchel lay on the ground beside her and she saw a group of people standing motionless a bit away.
"Don't bother."
Keiko almost screamed when she turned to find the dark boy by her side, where he hadn't been a moment earlier.
"Don't bother," he repeated. His dark ruby eyes were cold.
"They're under my control, they won't even acknowledge your presence. And don't try to escape, I'm faster."
"Who are you? Why...why are you doing this?" she pulled her satchel to her chest, comforted to have something so familiar.
"I want the other treasures the Reikai Tantei, the Spirit World Detective, has. You're his friend, he'll exchange them for you."
"W...who? I don't know any detectives..."
A corner of his mouth lifted into a smirk.
"His name is Yusuke."
"Oh, him," a flicker of her former irritation rose up. "Maybe you should've kidnapped his girlfriend Botan, I'm sure he would come MUCH faster. He didn't even TELL me...I helped bring him back from the DEAD, you think I'd at least deserve to know he'd decided to..." Keiko sniffed and pulled her knees to her chest, laying her head on them she hid her face as she began to cry.
She heard a movement at her side at felt her chin lifted to meet dark red orbs.
"Crying doesn't help. Tears don't make things happen or stop, it's a lesson you should learn quickly in life." He released her chin and she watched his turned back a moment, thoughtfully.
"Tears...they don't change things. Sometimes though...sometimes it's alright to cry, because...because nothing else can wash the soul, because nothing else comes from so deep..." The brown haired girl murmured, voice older then her age. The boy's dark head snapped back around at her as she spoke in carefully measured words. "Tears are the blood of the soul..." Keiko turned away from him, suddenly finding the piercing red eyes almost too much to bear.
"Why has the boy made you cry?" The soft question startled her. Usually saying such things seemed to make people look at her oddly.
"I love him, and he was with someone else," she said turning back to the dark man-child. His eyes regarded her steadily.
"Love is foolish."
"Don't you care for anyone?"
"No. When you care, it lets others hurt you." His voice was sure and tinged with bitterness.
"Then you must be very lonely. Sometimes...a lot of the time, caring hurts, but that doesn't mean you stop trying."
"What do you know of pain, you're just a child..." he turned from her then, eyes fixed somewhere in the darkness.
"I...When I was very little..." Keiko stopped, feeling her throat close on the words she'd never spoke aloud. Why share with this shadowy boy when she'd never shared with anyone else? Why share at all, since he seemed to care so little for her problems anyway? She swallowed hard and continued, looking straight ahead into her memories, feeling the boy's eyes on her again. "When I was very little, maybe three, my mother told me..."
"I'm tired of this Keiko!" A much smaller Keiko's eyes widened as her mother walked into her room.
"I...was just playing grown-up Mommy..." Keiko said, her eyes wide from under the big brimmed hat she wore.
"Get out of my stuff! I told you not to bother it!" Her mother snapped, yanking Keiko towards her roughly and beginning to take off the too big clothes the child was in.
"I was careful, Mommy!" Keiko said softly, begining to cry.
"I leave the house a few hours for a date and come back to find you making a mess of things. I'm tired of it Keiko. I never wanted you. You just happened because I didn't take a pill right. I'm not ready to be a mother, I'm just twenty! Damn it!" She tossed the things on the bed and glared at Keiko, it was a speech the little girl heard often, but it still hurt.
"I'm sorry, Mommy."
"For being born? Yeah, well me too..." Her mother turned away, picking up a phone book beside the bed. "And maybe it's time I did something about it..."
The next day, Keiko was woke up and fed a nice breakfast, something that her mother had never done for her, then bathed and dressed in her nicest clothes. Then her mother had driven to a temple orphanage a few blocks away.
"I got a kid I don't want, what do I do?" The woman she spoke to blinked at her in shock a moment, before shuffling out the right papers to sign. A little later, Keiko was led away by another woman; she looked over shoulder to see her mother, only to find she'd already left.
"My parents now...They came and got me a few weeks later. They're not always perfect but...they want me. Sometimes...sometimes I wonder where she is. If she ever thinks about me...and why she didn't want me..." Keiko closed her eyes, feeling tears squeeze out to trickle down her cheeks.
"Why...why did you tell me this?" The dark deep voice questioned softly, hesitantly.
"I don't know, I've never told anyone. Not even Yusuke, and he's been my best friend since I can remember. " She opened her eyes, blinking away tears, to find the boy a bit closer.
"When I was born..." he stopped, voice cracking as though in an intense pain. "I was born among a race of ice women who didn't need men to breed. I was conceived through a union with a man. My twin...was female, so she was allowed to stay, but I...I was a Forbidden Child. I was taken to the edge of a cliff and..." he turned away, something restricting his chest till it was painful.
"No!" Keiko's outraged voice brought his head around again. Tears trickled down her face, but her eyes were dark and angry. "How could they do something like that? Just because you were different?" Her tears flowed suddenly faster and she looked down. A gentle, callused hand tilted her head back up, a look of confusion on his face.
"You...cry for me?"
"Yes, because...because I'm sorry I couldn't have stopped it. Because someone could let such a thing happen...Because..."
"You couldn't have been, it was years ago..." his voice wasn't as harsh as it had been, and he'd moved to kneel at her side.
"I...It doesn't matter, SOMEONE should have been! No one should have to feel...to feel a mother throw them away. You didn't do anything...you were just born." Keiko's hands were clinched into fists on her satchel, her entire body was tense with anger.
"Why do you...care? You don't even know me..." Hiei's voice genuinely curious.
"I know that it hurts...And I know it never stops hurting, no matter what you do."
"How can you know so much about me? How can you see my soul, you're just a human..."
"Maybe...but, I'm a human who hurts like you do, but I haven't stopped feeling. Or learned to learn to stop crying..." Keiko trailed off, looking into his face, noting just how much of a child still lurked there.
"I don't want to kill you," he said suddenly, his red eyes serious. "I thought I could, or make you a monster...but...I should kill you. You make me feel, and that's dangerous."
"Maybe...or maybe it just feels that way, because you haven't cared in a while. It's always scary. If you care, you let a person near you, you can get hurt. If you don't though...you might not hurt, but you won't…you won't really LIVE either." She watched him think that one over as she looked over at the army of people to her side. "What are you going to do anyway? Use the treasures to take over the world or something?" His short snort made her glance around.
"Something like that."
"Then what?"
"What?" He sounded startled.
"If you take over the world, then what?" She asked again.
"I'll find my sister." The dark resounding voice was hesitant.
"Your sister?"
"She...was kidnapped, I've been searching for her," he looked away.
"Oh, but...then? What are you going to do with the world?"
"You ask too many questions!" he snapped turning away.
"You don't have to do this you know, to find your sister. I mean…won't you get into some sort of trouble?" Keiko actually felt worried for the boy…man.
"Yes. I'll probably be sent to a high security demon prison if I'm caught."
"Doesn't that worry you? Who would find her then?"
"Why do you care?" he snarled standing suddenly.
"Because...because I don't want you to go to prison. I want you to find your sister." His eyes met her serious ones and he didn't see any trace of mockery.
"Even...even if I wanted to stop things I couldn't now. In a little while that boy will be here..."
"Yusuke works for whoever's after you?" Keiko looked thoughtful. "I can help then, he'll listen to me. Or I'll slap him until he does."
The girl's dark eyes were determined. He hesitated, thoughtful suddenly, then his eyes snapped up, looking just beyond her.
"Listen to her, Hiei. She's right, and you know it." The redhead walking towards them was so beautiful it was almost startling. Even the pink uniform he wore couldn't detract from his looks.
"Kuruma..." Hiei hissed, drawing his sword and stepping between the boy and Keiko.
"I'm here to talk, Hiei. Don't make me fight you."
"What do you want?"
"For you to give this up. Koenma has already offered me a reduced sentence, sort of a...working parole." Kuruma said stepping closer, hands in his pockets as Hiei sheathed the sword.
"And if I don't want to give up?"
"You already know the answer. I owe this Yusuke my mother's life, I'll fight with him against you if I have to. But I don't want to."
"What exactly would this...parole require?" Hiei said softly after a moment.
"You can ask him in person, after we take the girl home," Kuruma said smiling softly.
"My name's Keiko," 'the girl' said standing, "and I'm coming with you. I wanna vouch for Hiei." Kuruma blinked, looking between Hiei and the girl a moment, a question in his eyes. He smiled after a moment.
"Why not? It can't hurt, can it?"
"The meter just went dead," Yusuke said shaking the watch. Botan was leaning over his shoulder to tap it when her own watch started beeping, she pressed a button on the side and a small screen lit up.
"Yes, Lord Koenma?" she chirped politely.
"Botan, tell Yusuke the third treasure has been recovered, Hiei turned himself in. Keiko's here with us, I'll send her home shortly, so tell Yusuke not to worry." The screen then flickered and went off.
"That's it?" Yusuke sounded outraged. "No fight? He just turned himself in?"
"You should be happy Yusuke, it makes your job easier…." Botan said with a smile.
"I guess..." Yusuke growled, not sounding happy. "But I was looking forward to fighting him..." Yusuke grinned at Botan's exasperated look.