Bloodlust

By Moonraker One

NOTE: This chapter was meant to be a short teaser, merely uploaded to see the reviewer response to it. If I get enough reviews, this will be continued.

PREFACE - Keiko's experience

I've known him my entire life. Well, I guess that's not saying very much since I'm only fourteen, but he's the same age as me, so I guess it makes it even. People say he's evil…I don't believe them. He is a real jerk sometimes and others a complete pervert, but deep within, I can see a glimmer of good. That's the yin and yang thing, right? That everyone has some good inside them? I mean, that one time they almost convicted him of murder, he was found innocent, and all the charges were dropped, so that means he didn't do it. I hate all these assholes who judge him just because of what he is and how he goes about his life, but can you really blame someone for what type of blood they have or what their spirit consists of? Can you really blame Yusuke Urameshi just because he's a demon? I mean, he was born that way; it's not like he had a choice. And sure, he beats up a lot of thugs both his age and Yakuza, but he always treats his victims with respect and he never kills unless they deserve it, so can you blame him?

People say he's a bad influence on me, but I say they just don't know him. Some people say I'm in love with him, or that I'm attracted to his wild demonic spirit, but they're all idiotic teens. He doesn't exactly strike me as the type that I'd want to sit down and have tea with, but he's not the evil monster that he's made out to be. Maybe you could just say that we're so different we're alike. I mean, for a stupid teenage boy, he's really clever and he always gets A's in all his classes, probably because he uses his demon powers to read the teachers' minds or something like that. So, no one ever judges him by his intellect, 'cause I've seen him in street fights and you'd be amazed at how fast he can calculate his enemy's next move.

I've talked to his mother, but she doesn't have a whole lot of things to say about him. She gave up drinking a few years ago, and people still judge her by the way she struggles to avoid the bottle, even today. People judge her because she's only twenty-nine, which means that she got pregnant and gave birth at age fifteen. I don't judge her for that…I mean, who's perfect in this world? What makes them so much better because they waited longer to have children? What makes them so much better because they made a few less bad decisions and had a little brighter future? Atsuko doesn't seem like she's doing so bad. I mean, she lives in a good apartment because her son provides money for them to live like middle-class people, even if his methods of obtaining that money are questionable.

I guess you could say that for a demon, he's a really nice guy, even if he is an asshole on occasion.

CHAPTER ONE - "My mother is NOT a whore!"

A gunshot rang out for hundreds of yards surrounding the dark alley in which the shot originated. Many dozens of pedestrians who'd heard stopped what they were doing, and as human nature drove them to, they ran for fear of their lives. Only a select few were brave or stupid enough to look down the alley at the two figures standing opposite each other. What they saw was surprising; the taller, older-looking figure, had drawn his pistol in desperation and fired off a single shot. The shorter figure, the one who looked like he was no older than fourteen, did not flinch; he took the shot head on and it had no effect on him. Once the bullet connected with his chest, it crumpled like a biscuit, falling to the ground with a klank, and the skin that it had impacted seemed unaffected, not even a bruise. The shorter figure then approached the taller one closely, taking him by the collar of his coat and lifting him a foot off the ground with one hand.

"I'm not convinced that you heard properly," the kid said. "My mother is NOT a whore!" The older figure, the man with brown hair, trembled with fear.

"I…I…I'm s…sor…sorry, Yusuke!" he pleaded for his life. "I never said…said she was!"

"DON'T LIE TO ME, BASTARD!" Yusuke shouted. "You slapped her on the cheek, and that's enough for me." He threw the man to the ground with one simple motion, and extending his other hand's index finger and thumb like a pistol, fired a beam of aura straight through the man's shoulder. The man screeched and fell to the ground, panting. "I'll let you live," Yusuke warned, stepping on the man's stomach as he walked past him. "But if you EVER come near my mother again, you're dead!"

A young woman, watching the entire scenario go down from a safe point on the other side of the street, began to follow Yusuke on foot, holding an oar in her right hand, and a powder make up kit in her other. The palm-size make up kit actually served as a communications device, and the mirror on it began to flicker until the picture of her boss came in clear. "I'm following him, just as you ordered, lord Koenma," she said into it. Her boss, a toddler-looking young man who served as the judge of the dead when his father wasn't around, Koenma had sent her in to monitor the young demon after his last watcher decided to quit. "I have good news: he shot the man through the shoulder, so it wasn't a killing blast."

That appeared to be good news at first, but Konema had a secondary concern. "But," he argued, "this one STILL wasn't strong enough to oppose Urameshi? This is the third undercover operative we've sent in to get information on this demon! How powerful is he?"

"Sir," she countered, "we've tried seven different aura viruses on Yusuke Urameshi, and none of them have had any effect on his power! He's still an upper S….oof!" She hadn't been watching where she was going, so she looked up to see what she'd ran into. When she saw a pair of slightly peeved eyes and a menacing grin staring back at her, she began to quiver mildly.

"Hello, any chance you're talkin' about me?" Yusuke took her by the neck, and grabbed the make-up case with his other hand. He smiled into the screen. "Why, if it isn't my good old friend Koenma, judge of the dead! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT WITH ME!"

Koenma did not seem deterred or intimidated. "Yusuke, you are ranked as a demon with upper S level power, just a hair below super S. We have to make sure you don't kill anyone."

"You obviously misunderstand," he answered without hesitation. "I kill whomever I please; it just so happens that I haven't met anyone that pissed me off that much, although several have come JUST THIS close." He turned to the girl with light blue hair he held by her neck. "Botan, isn't it? Even if he sends you to track me down, you'd best leave me alone!"

"Yusuke," Koenma heatedly shouted, "if you harm one hair on her head, you're banished to hell forever!"

"Sounds like fun," he quipped, ending the conversation by crushing the makeup kit in his hand. He released the frightened guide to the spirit world. "Go back home and quit following me."

"I…ha…have…to know…" she stammered, visibly shaken by her confrontation with him.

"For your information," he told her, "I'm on my way to meet some friends of mine."

"G'bye!" she uttered, and hastily hopped aboard her oar and flew away towards spirit world.

"Damned spirit guides," he uttered silently as he continued walking. "Eighth one this week sent to watch me." He continued his calm walking pace, completely and safely ignorant of everyone passing by, not paying attention to anyone. A small tension in the air built up as he passed a dark alleyway. He'd been suppressing his power in his normal, human looking form, with his short, slicked back hair. He'd only used his demon form once, and that was when walking through a forest packed with lesser demons. His visibly demonic form was unmistakable; his hair hung to his ankles, and was wider than his body. He had several large natural tattoos on his chest and arms, and his power raged to its fullest. In his human-looking form, he could only go to upper B. But as he passed the alleyway, with his power suppressed to C-level, a pair of energy signatures came to his visible area.

"You sure this's the one?" a shorter figure announced to the taller of the duo. As they came out of the shadows, the one with the reddish hair regarded Yusuke with a slightly apprehensive demeanor. He seemed to know something.

"Yeah," he said. "This's Yusuke Urameshi."