Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho.

Summary: He was a monster. She was a slave, a half-reigen half-human girl he bought from a poor old man. She couldn't possibly mean anything to him.

Chapter 0: Prologue

For as long as she could remember, Botan had always been in this cold, dark room.

The concept of living or how to live was foreign to her. The iciness of the hard surface of the floor, the darkness crawling around her, and the sound of her father smashing glass and yelling out a string of savage curses at her were the only thing she knew. The metal handcuffs around her wrists were the only other thing she could feel, having been there for ever since she was a little girl. She was an adult now, but she didn't know how to smile. Had no interaction with any other living beings whatsoever either. The only person she could talk to was her father, when he wasn't busy hitting her after drinking too much alcohol.

From time to time, he would bring her food and water, and she would devour them greedily because sometimes, she would go on for days without eating anything. When he was generous, he would let her eat once a day for a few weeks before he would let her starve again.

Her father had never bothered to pay her any attention, only seeming interested in filling up his system with alcohol and getting drunk just to drown out his sorrows after her mother left. She didn't, and couldn't remember when he was actually nice to her. He would keep her locked up in the basement for the whole day until he would get a little too tipsy and decide to come in, beat her up, and humiliate her, watching in sadistic glee as she cried and begged him to stop, but he wouldn't care, and then he would go back up the stairs and leave her bleeding and bruised, small body curled up in a ball. Back when she was younger, she used to fight back, biting his hand whenever he tried to lay a finger on her, but that didn't do anything to help her - instead, it only made her father an angrier man and hit her even more. Growing up, she learned to take it and let him do whatever he wanted. She dreaded hearing the door creak open, loathed the light that blinded her as the wooden material was pushed open as his tall, big shadow loomed over her and he stepped into the room. She hated it, but she learned how to live with it.

But one day, when the familiar blinding white greeted her again, when she tensed up her body almost instinctively and waited for his fist to come into contact with her gut, he stopped right above her and stared down at her with a blank expression, devoided of the harsh resentment that darkened his blue orbs that she was accustomed to seeing. Instead of landing a backhanded slap on her cheek like she expected him to, he crouched down and stroked her hair, creepily patting her head as if he cared. Botan didn't know what to do; she shut herself off and banished all emotions away to make living with a monster a lot easier but watching as a certain tender, loving and almost soft look that bordered on adoration enter her father's usually cold eyes, she started to feel a little bit happy that maybe he would start treating her like his daughter again. That maybe they could be a perfect family again, even if her mother wasn't in the picture anymore. Her empty pools of purple glistened with unbearable joy as her vision blurred, tears beginning to form at the corners of her eyes. It hurt, being bounded and beaten all the time was too painful to bear anymore. She wanted him to love her again.

But then, an almost unnatural, surreal smile teased at his lips, as he simply uttered the words,

"I'm gonna take good care of you from now on, kiddo. After all, I'm gonna sell you off to someone big and rich and get a lot of cash. And then we won't have to see each other again."

Hope gone, the tears dries up quickly as they came as her eyes darkened once again, as reality came slapping her hard on the face and kicking in the stomach like a cruel bitch.

Of course. She knew it was all too good to be true. He couldn't have changed, he was never going to. She was stupid to think he would suddenly start acting like a father now, after all this time.

Alas, she had forgotten how warmth felt and she knew for certain now that she wasn't going to feel it again.


True to his words, his father actually did take care of her, albeit only for the fact that he wanted to auction her off as a slave in a shady underground business to earn some pocket money. Botan didn't really care, couldn't be bothered to. It wasn't as if she had anything else to live for either. It didn't matter. She was just going to get used until she dies anyway.

The blue-haired girl studied herself in the mirror, the mental note that she didn't really recognise herself intruding her line of thoughts. She couldn't see herself back when she was in the basement because there was no light, no windows nor mirrors, but she knew she was skinny and was pretty sure she looked awfully disgusting. But now, she seemed like she hadn't been a punching back for her entire life - touching herself up, she didn't feel as unhealthily slim as before, nor could she see the scars and bruises on her body that clear as day anymore. They were still there, of course, but not enough to be noticeable or painfully obvious. She seemed normal, as if her whole life had been normal, even if it hadn't. It took him a year, but her father finally managed to make her look at least a little bit desirable.

The door opened with a familiar creak that echoed and reminded her sorely of her basement door, before it closed behind her with a low yet frightening thud. From the mirror, she could see it was her father, and he was smiling at her, even though she knew he didn't really give a shit about her.

"He's downstairs," he started, beaming almost all too happily for her taste. His disgustingly blue orbs that held a bit too much excitement was evident as crystal as they darted up and down her form, inspecting her from head to toe. "You look pretty. I'm sure he'll like you."

Botan paused at that, a flinch escaping her even as she tried not to let it get to her, a falter in her mask of composure. He sounded so genuinely happy that try as she might, she couldn't ignore how badly her heart ached - because she knew he wasn't happy for her, he was happy for himself because now he could finally live in all the glory and wealth he had ever wanted and would be rid of the child that he had never attempted to love at least once.

If only he was sending her off to marry a nice man, then maybe his words wouldn't have sent a sharp, stabbing pain throughout her entire body. If only he was nicer to her and treated her at the very least like a human being, then maybe she wouldn't have stood there, glowering down at the floor and resisting the urge to kill him as she hated him for all that she was worth. If only he had been a father, she would have been happy to hear him say that.

But, Botan tried to shove all those thoughts away, attempted to bury the negative feelings in the deepest parts of her mind as she - reluctantly and with utmost disgust - wrapped an arm around her father's as he opened the door and guided her downstairs.

They entered the living room - she forgot how it looked because she hadn't been here for the longest time, but was sure that the liquor bottles on the floor weren't supposed to be there. A cough, demanding her attention, caused her to snap out of her reverie and tilt her head up, her eyes meeting a pair of gold, fox ears on top of a silver head and tail swishing violently behind his back as if she had offended him somewhat.

"Your daughter just got here and she's already dismissing my existence," His voice was smooth, almost rich like silk, and it sounded nice even as it was heavily laced with subdued anger, his golden orbs glaring down at her with an intensity that, if he had the capability, could have reduced her to cinders. His head was tilted back as he eyed her up and down. "Having a pretty face does not mean you will get excused for showing no manners whatsoever, little girl," he growled at her when she still gave no response.

Botan blinked and the silver-haired man visibly grew more annoyed. He grumbled something about teaching her a lesson and putting her in place before he practically threw a brown bag, heavy with money and wealth, on the wooden table.

"I guess she will do. I'll drill proper manners into her tiny brain until she finally learns how to respect someone myself," he scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest, eyebrows now creased into a deep frown that marred his handsome features.

Her father bent down and scurried on to his knees, begging for forgiveness on behalf of how she was acting - she didn't feel like she did anything wrong though - but was promptly ignored by the man who simply brushed him off like a mere speck of dust in the air, waving a hand at him as if to say: I don't give a damn, I don't want to hear it from you. But he gestured towards her with an arched eyebrow, as if he was expecting her to go down on all fours and lick his shoes clean as a sign of asking for his leniency, but the girl merely blinked, to which he heaved a sigh of exasperation in return.

"I suppose I will reprimand you later," he sighed, almost as if dejected, throwing his hands up in the air as an implication of defeat. Botan continued to ogle at him with child-like curiosity, blinking at him in awe fascination as he rolled his eyes in disgust at her father practically crawling towards the money with drool leaking down his chin.

"Humans, as always, are foolish creatures," he snorted, granting her father one final look of revulsion before he turned towards her. He regarded her for a moment before making a small noise at the back of his throat that threaded between the line of an irritated grunt and a frustrated sigh as he strolled towards her in calm, slow steps.

For some reason, it made her anxious. Botan half expected him to put a collar on around her neck, to the point that she even anticipated the feeling of leather tightly coiled around her throat- that she was taken aback by surprise when he snatched the back of her knees in his palms, seizing her in a tight grip so as to ensure that she wouldn't fall to her butt, and in one swift motion, lifted her off the ground. Letting out a startled yet, Botan instinctively enveloped her arms around his neck as he carried her to the door, kicking it open instead of asking her father to open it for him or putting her down first like a normal person would. Shock still radiating off of her, the girl tried to rearrange the jumbled mess in her head as she tried to process what was going on. Before she knew it, the man was moving at a speed of lightning, feet gracefully thumping against the ground as he jumped effortlessly from roof to roof.

"Um, you're not a human, are you?" It had been a lot of time since she had said a word, she almost forgot that she wasn't, in fact, speech impaired: she had never seen another person other than her father after all, and it wasn't as if they were capable of properly conversing with one another.

The impenetrable mask of composure fractured for a second and his eyes grew slightly wide before he directed them towards her, as if he hadn't expected for her to speak. She couldn't blame him, she was shocked to hear her own voice as well after all the years of torment.

His cool face slipped back on almost immediately though, so fast that she wondered if there was even any indication that she caught him off guard in the first place. A low, guttural growl rumble through his chest and she felt it vibrate against her shoulder as he skipped from tree to tree. She hadn't even realized they were in the forest.

"So you do have a voice," the sentence came out as instantly as the growl, almost as if it was a second impulse. His stare was cold as he spared her only a brief, fleeting glance before fixing his attention right ahead. "For a moment, I thought you were incapable of talking and was considering feeding you to my plants. I do not need a useless human in my domain, after all, and to answer your question," Botan noticed his locks of silver seemed to glimmer under the dim shadow of the trees and wondered how wonderful it must feel to touch it but dared not to, "no, I am not a human. I am a demon, and you would do well not to compare me to those lowly beings."

"Oh." Now she understood why he had those fox ears on his head. She thought it was weird.

"What's your name?" he abruptly asked her.

"My name?" Botan echoed it as if it was a dream. She was suddenly reminded that no one had called her by her name for as long as she could remember but kept that small detail to herself as she noticed him growing impatient with her lack of reply. "Um, Botan."

The demon's features were unreadable, but she could have sworn one of his delicate eyebrows raised at her as if with a tinge of interest before he scoffed out his name,

"Youko. My name is Youko Kurama. Do well to remember that."

And with that, she was now made aware of her new master's name. He didn't seem exactly friendly and she didn't know how he would treat her or where he would let her sleep until they reached his home, but for the moment, she did enjoy the calming sensation of the wind gently blowing against her skin. Her eyes fluttered close; she didn't know who he was, but his arms felt safe for now.

She was finally free. And it had been a long time since she was outside indeed.