Broken

Chapter 1: In the Beginning

AN: Hey this is my very first fic so I would of course appreciate constructive criticism. No flames please! You know like the ones where people say "You are a horrible writer with no talent and should never ever write again!" I don't review other people's stories that way and I sure as hell don't want anyone reviewing my story that way! Anyway, enough with my rant. Please read and review! ON WITH THE STORY!

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho. I only own the idea for this story and the OCs in it!

Our story begins in a thick forest behind Sunset Shrine on the outskirts of Tokyo, Japan. Trees within the forest which, to the naked eye, seem as if they are as tall as the buildings in the city not so far away. The forest is silent, almost gloomy, until a sudden crashing noise sounds from deep within the forest.

A small body crashes through the underbrush, stumbles, and takes off running deeper into the forest. Thick tears trail behind her as bushes, twigs, and thorns scratch at the child's exposed skin. A light blue dress and a pale, short, cream-colored jacket identifies the child as a little girl. She appears to only be about three feet tall with raven colored hair that would reach to her shoulders if she were not running. Her eyes were squeezed tight in a vain attempt to keep the tears at bay. Distant yelling could be heard from the opposite direction that she is running.

Suddenly, she tripped over a large root sticking out of the ground near a particularly large tree, startling the occupant of said tree. The girl flew forward and landed hard on the forest floor face first and skidded to a stop few painful feet away, directly under the large tree.

She laid still for a while. She then shakily rose to her knees, crawled over to the large tree, and leaned her back against it, pulling her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them and hiding her silent tears from the rest of the world.

A small, dark figure, somewhat bigger than the girl, jumped down from the large tree in one movement to stand directly in front of her, all of this going unnoticed by the oblivious girl. Piercing, ruby red eyes watched her in poorly-veiled curiosity. The newcomer now identified as a boy a little taller than the girl and seemingly just a bit older, silently studied the 'intruder'. The dress she was wearing came to about her knees, and the jacket covered most of her upper body and was currently unbuttoned showing a white flower pattern on the dress. Smudges of mud and dirt, along with blood from her many cuts and scratches covered her and her clothes.

He waited "patiently" for the now-sniffling girl to notice his presence. After a few minutes he cleared his throat, and those previously curious eyes shone with unveiled irritation.

A small gasp came from the girl as her head shot up to look at the boy in front of her, revealing stunning sapphire eyes that had till this point been hidden. Ruby and sapphire clashed as they stared into each other's eyes. 'Those eyes…' thought the little girl as she continued to stare, 'they look so sad…so lonely.'

A young, but cold and emotionless voice broke through the girl's thoughts.

"You're under my tree."

Confusion clouded the girl's eyes as she looked behind her at the tree she was currently propped up against. She looked back to the boy and now took the time to finally study him. He appeared to be maybe a year older than her and an inch or two taller. His eyes, however, seemed to hold wisdom far beyond his years. He was wearing black, baggy pants and a black tank-top. He had two white belts strapped around his small hips, one straight across and the other tilted a little downwards on one side.

Strong, lean muscles could be seen from through his form-fitting shirt. Her gaze then moved up to see a stubborn jaw, on a somewhat child-like face. Pitch black hair with a white starburst in the middle stood straight up atop his head, seemingly defying gravity. An impatient growl jolted the girl out of her observations.

She quickly wiped the tears from her face and stood up. Completely ignoring his previous statement she proceeded to dust some of the dirt from her dress. She then suddenly looked up at him just as he was about to completely lose his temper and gave him a large, toothy grin.

"Hi! My name's Kagome, what's yours?" the girl, now known as Kagome asked with innocent curiosity, seemingly forgetting about her earlier sorrow.

She appeared to be completely unaffected by the boy's change in expression from one of irritated indifference to one of shocked confusion.

Finally realizing that he was looking at her like she had two heads, the boy quickly changed back to his former stoic expression. He folded his arms over his chest, turned his head to the side and seemed to glare into the forest.

"Hn…Hiei."

If possible, Kagome's grin widened even more and she clapped her hands together gleefully.

"Great! Well Hiei, you're gonna be my new best friend!"

Hiei's reply was to just stare at her dumbly. He blinked in shocked confusion as millions of questions seem to fly through his head.

'…What?'

'Her friend?'

'She wants me to be her friend?'

'Why?'

'That's right; she's just a human so…she doesn't know what I am.'

His eyes narrowed slightly.

'There's no way I will be friends with a pathetic human.'

As he was just about to voice his reply Kagome suddenly grabbed a hold of Hiei's hand and began pulling him along all the while talking a mile a minute.

"You'', comeooooonnnnnnnhurrrrryyup!"(Translation: "You're gonna be my new friend whether you like it or not. So now I'm gonna show you one of my favorite spots in the whole wide world, come ooonnn huuuurrryy up!")

Hiei just stared dumbly at her smaller hand gripping his slightly larger one in a vice-like grip. He was shocked that she would have the courage to actually touch him, let alone attempt to drag him to her so called "favorite place in the whole wide world." Even though he could have pulled away from her at any time he didn't. Truthfully, deep down, though he would never admit it on pain of death, he was happy, whatever small amount of happiness that was, for the warmth and trust that this tiny girl was willingly giving to him.

Hiei was dragged out of his thoughts as Kagome abruptly stopped and smiled that large, toothy grin up at him before turning her attention ahead of them, causing Hiei to follow his gaze ahead of him. After getting over his shock at the fact that such a small human was able to drag him so far without him noticing, he took in his surroundings.

Hiei's eyes widened in awe at the sight before him. The two of them were standing atop a large hill overlooking positively the most beautiful valley Hiei had ever seen. The lush, green field was decorated with an enormous variety of flowers of every color, the most abundant being rare blue and white flowers. To the left was a small lake. The glistening, clear water was currently being disturbed by beautiful snow white swans swimming on the water.

In the middle of the clearing was an enormous sakura tree. It must have been hundreds of years old because the size of the trunk was as wide as six Hiei's standing side by side. The branches were unnaturally low. In fact they were so low that a little girl Kagome's size could easily climb up through the branches almost to the very top. Colorful butterflies and beautiful birds flew around the field. Hiei stood awestruck at the magnificent sight before him.

A giggle to his right broke Hiei out of his stupor and he looked over and down at the ecstatic, beaming girl next to him.

"Sooo…you like it?"

A short "Hn." was all she got in response.

Kagome giggled again and took off running down the hill towards the enormous tree, laughing happily all the way. Hiei just stared after her for a moment. Then a small, almost unnoticeable, smile tilted the corner of his lips and he took off at a run reaching the tree at the same time that Kagome did.

Expertly Kagome began climbing up the branches happily. About half way up the tree she stopped and settled onto a particularly large branch, hung her legs over the side and smiled imploringly down at Hiei. She silently patted the spot next to her and beckoned for him to climb up and sit with her.

On the ground Hiei was just about to use one easy jump to get to the branch, but hesitated.

'Would she be afraid if I simply jumped up there?'

Suddenly a conversation from long ago came to mind. A conversation, that he could never easily forget.

~Flashback~

"Hiei, listen to me and listen well."

A younger Hiei looked up at the older man sitting regally on his left. The man was large, probably about four to five times larger than Hiei himself. His long, black hair with strands of dark gray showed his age. His eyes were a dark brown, almost black, and they showed the wisdom obtained from living such a long life. But even with his old age he still managed to look to be in his mid-forties. He stared down at Hiei, waiting to confirm that the small boy was listening.

"Yes, Sensei Yamehara?"

"This lesson is normally learned through pure experience, but I believe that you need to learn it as soon as possible."

Takeda Yamehara moved his gaze to stare ahead of him as a look of sadness seemed to overcome his eyes and his voice became firmer to emphasize the next lesson.

"Never, under any circumstances, allow a human to get close enough to your heart to learn of what you are."

Surprise flashed in Hiei's eyes before he forcefully pushed it back down. The statement made by his sensei was a strange one considering how rarely Hiei has ever seen, let alone interacted, with humans.

"Why, Sensei?"

Takeda's eyes slightly narrowed and misted over in memory. After several minutes of waiting for his reply Hiei thought he wouldn't answer. Takeda lowered his head so his bangs covered his eyes and spoke in the coldest voice Hiei had ever heard from the old warrior.

"Humans…" he paused a moment in order to collect his scattered thoughts and put them into comprehendible sentences that the young Hiei would understand. "Humans are disgusted by anything or anyone that is different from them; that goes double for us demons. Those that know of us at least."

Sensing Hiei's obvious confusion he sighed and continued. "You probably know this by now, but the world we are in now is called Makai, or the Demon World. There are also two other worlds that are separated from this one by a barrier known as the Kekkai barrier. The other two worlds are known as Ningenkai, the Human World, and Reikai, the Spirit World. The Kekkai barrier is controlled by King Enma of Reikai and his son Prince Koenma. These two control who may pass through the barriers into the other worlds. Some demons from here in Makai are able to pass through to Ningenkai using rips in the barrier. Not so many of them stay there and live peaceful lives, but those that do are put under many rules made by Reikai, and on top of that they are constantly monitored by Reikai.

The humans are none-the-wiser to all of this. They either believe that demons are just tall tales or extinct. In the rare cases that a demon is discovered by humans the situation never turns out for the better. The humans, whether they were good friends or just acquaintances with the discovered demon, when they find out of the demon amongst them they are disgusted, frightened out of their minds, or hateful. In these cases the demon must return to Makai for good and the human's memories are erased." He paused for a moment to think about his next statement.

"I myself had been one of the unfortunate demons to be discovered by a human I had cared for. And I was betrayed. Humans are disgusting, untrustworthy creatures who care about no one or nothing but themselves. You, Hiei, as the Forbidden Child are already despised by your own kind and your hardships are far from over. I am telling you all of these things so, in the future, you will be cautious of humans. Never, ever let a human know what you are or allow yourself to fall in love with one of them; you would be setting yourself up to be hurt."

Takeda looked towards Hiei with somber, serious eyes. "Do you understand now Hiei?"

Hiei looked his sensei in the eye and said seriously, "Yes, Sensei Yamehara, I Hiei, will never, ever trust a human."

Takeda nodded his head and turned to look into the distance to watch the setting sun.

~End Flashback~

"Hiei, are you alright?"

Kagome's soft, concern-filled voice broke Hiei from his memories and he looked up indifferently to the branch where Kagome was seated.

'She doesn't have to know.' Hiei thought to himself resolutely.

He easily began to climb the branches to sit next to the now beaming girl.

'Besides, there's no way that I will ever come to care for some pathetic human.'

With that he reached the branch, hoisted himself up and seated himself a few feet from Kagome and hung his feet over the side as well. Kagome, however, wouldn't have any of that, and as soon as Hiei got situated she moved to sit up against his side, bringing a small, almost unnoticeable blush to his cheeks.

The two children (well technically one child and a hundred-something year old demon that hadn't yet reached his maturity and just looked like a child) turned their heads towards the horizon to watch as the sun began to set and the sky turned into a beautiful canvas of oranges and vivid red. As the sun finally set over the horizon Kagome leaned over and gave Hiei a quick hug, completely shocking said boy.

"Bye Hiei." she said and began climbing down the tree expertly. Once she got to the bottom she turned and started to run the way they had come to the clearing. After running a little ways from the tree she suddenly stopped and turned around to yell, "I'll see you here tomorrow, right Hiei?"

Without waiting for an answer she turned around and started running again, supposedly to go back home.

Hiei watched silently as she disappeared through the tree line.

"Hn."

A small smile slowly appeared on Hiei's face getting bigger as he thought about his new "friend".

"Yeah…tomorrow."

Chapter End

AN: Thanks for reading the first chapter of Broken. I don't know when I'll be able to update, but I will try to do so ASAP! Please R&R!