Raised

Chapter One

A young woman, who went by the alias of Piper, smiled as she moved down from the hill. There was a playful and bubbly spirit showing in her every step. The small field below the hill was covered in barbs to form a grid of destruction that most people would never be able to see. She weaved through them not with ease persay but with years of practice, her body moving much like a dancer swaying to the music. The crackle of energy sounded off behind her as others attempted to follow. The splatter of blood being atomized before it even got to her. It was unfortunate that the people had chosen to follow this woman because it meant that their lives were going to be in vain.

Once she got to the end of the field she stopped and looked back. Just as she thought. Not a body left to try and pursue her anymore. Their blood and spirit energy was left to water the garden, quite literally. It was a pity that they had a die for her to see this once more.

Still, Piper couldn't help but feel that it was going to be nice to go home.

Within minutes the landscape transformed from barbs and thick, snaking vines to beautiful human sized flowers. They looked like something straight out of a tropical paradise mixed with some unearthly dream. Which was made even sweeter by the attractive smell that spilled from their centers - a deadly trap for those foolish enough to think they were simply sweet flowers.

The fact that such beauty was brought about by so much suffering was truly frightening.

Piper stared out at the flowers as they wiggled and stretched under Demon World's sun. Seeing the plants like this was enough to still her giddy spirit into something much deeper. It was like a feeling had gripped her heart with such ferocity that fidgeting or even smiling was too much of a movement. It wasn't painful, in fact she would have to say that it was the best feeling in the world. She was going home.

Koenma stared at the screen as he sucked on his pacifiers in worry. What he saw on the screen worried him beyond reason. He could see all the different colors splashed on the flowers and even the blood as it soaked into the ground. Those flowers had not bloomed in nearly twenty-five years. That wasn't a lot of time as far as he was concerned but it's appearance once more, the manner in which it was brought about, was what he was concerned about. A lot of his father's men had gone into that field hunting what they thought was a threat to the world's shaky security.

If they had the Kekkai barrier still up then maybe Koenma wouldn't feel so stressed out about this event. As it was, they didn't have that fall back. If this threat, whatever or whoever it was, decided to try and cross into the human world the only thing that Spirit World had to stop that from happening was man power. Which had already proved ineffective.

"George rewind the tape."

"But sir, you have the remote control," the blue ogre said as he stared at the Prince with confusion.

Koenma jumped out from the seat of his desk. "I'm trying to figure out how to stop a murderous demon from getting loose in the human world! On top of all this paperwork! If I tell you to rewind the clip for me, Ogre, you will rewind it for me! Or I will have you lined up for punishment, do you understand?!"

No one could say that Koenma had a weak pair of lungs on him from the decimals his voice could get up to. Knowing that Koenma would make good on his threat, George hurried over and grabbed the remote. He rewinded to the part right before the group of people were torn to shreds by the shrubs.

When the saw what had come right before that...Koenma's binkie fell out of his mouth.

"This...this is impossible!" Koenma said with wide eyes.

"Sir?"

"She can't be alive! She just can't be! She has to have been dead already! The barrier is gone Ogre, do you know what this means?"

George watched the Prince of Spirit World go red in the face as he popped his binkie back into place. He really had no idea what it meant. Only that the young woman on the screen looked human enough to him with rusty colored brown hair and fair skin. The thing that got to him was the eyes - they were what gave away the fact that she wasn't as fully human as she appeared. He'd never seen a human with purple eyes before.

"Ogre! Get Botan! Get Botan now!"

"Right away sir," George was only too happy to comply with that order.

Once he'd gotten the blue haired grim reaper, Koenma proceeded to talk at an unusual high and fast pace. It wasn't until Botan got him to repeat what he was saying for the fourth time that any of it was understandable.

Botan's lips pursed together as she raised a finger to her lips. "You want me to get Urameshi, Sir?"

"But sir! You said that the old team should never be-" the poor guy couldn't catch a break as a stamp was thrown at his head.

"I know what I said," Koenma snapped as he sucked on the pacifier with worry. "But this is serious. We need all the help we can get locating this girl and hopefully taking her down…"

"Is she that much of a threat sir?"

Koenma nodded solemnly as his eyes fixated on her image upon the screen. If he could do this before his Father found out then everyone was going to be a whole lot safer...