Past Life

Written by Justine JBV / Chibi Botan

Chapter One: For my Brother

Faithful to its name, the Dark Temple seemed to be covered with gray fog, casting darkness to the place.

A girl, about fifteen years of age, stood at the foot of its one-hundred-stair-entrance with an anxious look on her face.

"I must not be scared." The girl told herself.

There's no turning back. She has traveled a long distance, barefoot, just to get there. She sighed, absently brushed the stray strand of sky blue hair that was blown by the chilly air and started up the stairs.

She stopped mid-way. An old woman stood at the top, staring at her intently with dark, all-knowing eyes. The old woman's hair was long, fixed in a neat bun at her back. She was wearing dark cloak, which she could not figure out if black or navy. Ah, it didn't matter.

"Good evening," she greeted warmly, her purple eyes lighting up a bit, screaming of hope and fear at the same time. "I am-"

"I know who you are." the old woman cut in. "You shouldn't be here."

The girl blinked, and sighed silently. "I need your help. You see, I've been to your dojo…"

"I know you've been there. Didn't my people tell you that I do not entertain uninvited strangers? Especially hard-headed children like you. Leave now."

She bit her lip. She's been at the old woman's dojo twice to seek help. But the people there sent her away.

The guru doesn't want to speak to you. That is what they said. She didn't even get to the gate. The guards kept her from entering. From the market, she got directions to the guru's home. The Dark Temple is where she lives. So here she is now, begging for help.

"Guru, please, I need help... my brother needs help." She was feeling hopeless, and she knew it shows.

"I am sorry." the guru turned her back on her. The girl's vision started to be blurred with tears. "I cannot give you the kind of help you wanted." And she walked towards her temple, away from her.

For a while there, the girl stood staring at her feet, her tears freely flowing, an image of a young boy nagging on her mind.

I'm doing this for him.

Suddenly, she ran past the Guru. The guru did not look surprised, but stopped on her tracks when the girl stood defiantly in front of her.

"Please, just hear me out..." her stance was deviant, yet her voice openly showed her desperation. "I came from the Eisha Village, and that's very far, just to speak to you... Don't you think you should at least her me out?"

"No." She answered firmly.

She sighed again. "Guru, please...You are my only hope..."

The Guru shook her head. "Young lady, what you wanted is far too dangerous. A girl like you should not think of these things. Go home to your sister. I bet she's worried, since you have disappeared from your home for two days ago."

She was genuinely surprised. "How did you know all that?" All she said to the people at the dojo was her purpose for looking for the Guru. That she needed help. She didn't give too much detail.

"I am the Guru. I know everything," came her reply. It was said without any hint of false pride. She said it like it was the most natural thing.

"Well, if you know everything," the blue-haired girl said once she recovered from her surprise. "Then you know how to help me."

For the first time, the Guru smiled. It was a bitter smile. "You don't know when to give up, don't you, Botan?"

She knows my name… my real name. What else does she know?

To be continued… Thank you for reading!

Hello, dear readers. I have left only two author notes in this fanfic, so I hope you don't mind that the first one is long. :)

First of all, I want to thank you for reading this! I wrote this last November last year, finished the drafts last March, but it still took me some time to publish. This is my first fan fiction, although I finished several other fics before this. I think that my writing style changed a little by now, as when I went over this recently there were things I wanted to change in this story, but I decided against it. This is my first work, first idea, so I guess I'll just preserve the story as it was first meant to be.

Note for Yusuke/Botan fans – As much as I wouldn't want to spoil my own story, I think I need to give a little bit of a warning – if you are a hardcore fan of YB, you might not like the ending of this fic. Well, that would be a spoiler if I told you why, wouldn't it? So I can't say... What I will tell you though, is that I am NOT against YB, and that I respect both characters and everyone's preferences in terms of pairings. So I am not bashing anyone here, I promise you that. If you still go on reading this until the end, thank you very much.

Revised as of October 8, 2009 – Removed the lengthy author notes (except for the first and last chapter), fixed some spelling errors, updated the format, etc. Feel free to send me a note should you find questionable things. I'm always willing to learn from my errors :)

Disclaimer (applies to all chapters) – I do not claim ownership to Yu Yu Hakusho. I am merely a fan paying tribute. All characters from the anime and manga are property of Yoshihiro Togashi and Shonen Jump. I own the plot of this fic, and also my OCs. I doubt anyone would want them ;)