Author Notes: This is my first time writing a fanfic. What happened was that someone took my email and password and deleted this story. Needless to say, I got rid of whatever I wanted to get rid of, changed the password and the email, so that no one can use that account. I created a new account as killermsmurf01224. So now I am reposting the story. Constructive criticism is welcome, but since this story is already completed, nothing is going to change. (However, constructive criticism will help me on the sequel). Please review because how fast I repost the chapters is in direct correlation with how many reviews that I get. 'kays? Enjoy the story.

Disclaimer: I do not own nor make any attempt to claim any of the Yu Yu Hakusho characters as my own. Please don't sue me.

Part One: The Mission:

This is Yusuke Urameshi. He is fourteen years old and is the spirit detective for the planet Earth. After regaining his life he was given the title of 'spirit detective'. Now he tracks down demons that have crossed the boarder into the living world and are causing trouble for the humans. In his most recent mission, Yusuke, along with Botan and Kuwabara, went to save the lovely Yukina, an ice maiden. Having accomplished this mission, Yusuke plans to get some rest, but it won't last very long.

Yusuke was walking in the park. The bright sun was hanging lazily in the sky as clouds slowly made their way across the big ocean of blueness. Settling down on a park bench, he stretched out and said, "Ahh! Finally, a weekend with no missions, no Koenma, no demons, no Botan…" He was just about to go to sleep when he heard, "Yusuke!" Yusuke groaned. "I spoke too soon."

The little chipper ferry-maiden was floating across the grass on her oar. "Hello Yusuke! Guess what I have for you!"

Yusuke grumbled, "Another mission from Koenma."

"Bingo!" She smiled, "Koenma wants me to bring you to the spirit world so that he can discuss the mission. Come on, let's go!" Botan grabbed his hand and they started to rise from the ground. Soon the world became a lot smaller. Yusuke hung on for dear life.

"Urameshi! Where do you think you're going?" Yusuke and Botan turned to see the "number one" thug at Yusuke's middle school come running towards them. "This isn't another case is it? 'Cause if it is, I'm going to be a part of it. You weren't thinking of leaving me behind were you? I'm not a baby you know."

Yusuke sighed. "We know you're not a baby. Come on. Grab my foot." Kuwabara grabbed Yusuke's foot and the oar began to rise again. "You're deciding to do this mission even before you know what it entails? Or are you coming along for the ride for another reason." Yusuke grinned, 'Ten to one he's coming along just to see if he can see Yukina.' He watched at Kuwabara yelled back at him, "Are you crazy? I'm doing the mission because I'm bored!" Yusuke replied in an unbelieving voice, "Riiiiiiiiiighhhht."

Botan turned to both of them. "Will you two stop bickering for a bit? You'll need to hold on pretty tight as we go through the tunnel warp. We'll be traveling pretty fast and I wouldn't want either of you to get stuck between dimensions because there's a chance we wouldn't be able to find you again." Both boys nodded and increased the intensity of their grips. "Here we go!"

Aniya made her way back from the Arena. She smiled to herself. 'That was a pretty good day, considering I broke the record for the number of victories in one day and the demons I fought were supposedly the strongest and toughest as they come. I hope they recover and come back for another fight." Turning down a remote dark alley way, she worked her way around dilapidated obstacles, dumpsters, trashcans, the regular card-board boxes, until she found an old metal door. Looking both ways to make sure that no one saw her, she lifted a covered hand and a blue light outlined the door. The door then swung open, only to fall off its rusted hinges. "Damn, I'm going to have to get that door fixed, or find a new place to hang out." Putting the door back on, she raised her hand again and this time the door was outlined in green light, symbolizing that the door was now locked.

She put her sword on the table nearby and proceeded to take off the outer layer of her armor. "That feels better. I probably should make new armor too because this stuff is getting beaten up." After a couple of months in the Arena, any armor was practically in pieces. Aniya walked over to what was once called a couch, and dropped onto it. Resting her eyes, she suddenly realized that something was wrong. 'There's something missing. Someone's been here.' She jumped off the couch and used her senses to see if anything was missing. 'Sword…here…armor…here…extra set of black clothes…here… stone…' She trailed off. 'The stone, it's gone!' She looked around for the remainder of a magical presence. There was only one person who could see her hide-out, get in without getting killed, break the code, steal the stone, get out again and leave no trace of a magical presence.

"Katomi. You are going down."

Yusuke, Botan and Kuwabara arrived at Koenma's palace. They walked through the many rooms, where there were thousands of ogres running around with huge piles of paper work. Kuwabara, who had never been to Koenma's place before, was staring wide-eyed. "Guys…I'm getting the tickle-feeling…really bad…" Botan and Yusuke looked at him and sweat-dropped. Yusuke replied, "Well, this is the spirit world…gee…wonder what kind of people we'll meet there…hmm…spirits maybe?" Kuwabara looked like he was ready to punch him. "It's not funny. It's been a while since I've been around so many demons at the same time. So shut up!"

Botan sighed, "Will you two boys stop fighting already?" They stopped in mid-punch and continued to walk behind Botan. Yusuke noticed something, "Hey, Botan…this isn't the way to Koenma's room." Botan turned and smiled, "Bingo! He's having you meet in a special room this time." Yusuke looked confused but followed the blue-haired ditz. It was a good thing they had Botan to guide them because they would have gotten lost in the maze of hallways that they had to walk down. Both boys were getting tired of walking around when Botan suddenly stopped. "Here it is. Come on, I hope we're not late."

The trio walked in and Yusuke and Kuwabara stopped in their tracks and sweat dropped. "You dragged us all the way to an indoor garden to receive the assignment? Urameshi, I'm not sure about this toddler you accept orders from. I think he might be off his rocker." Kuwabara stopped and started to chuckle, "Off his rocker…toddler…ha, that's funny!"

"I don't think so." Kuwabara turned around to see Koenma floating in mid-air behind him, pacifier and all. He jumped and said hurridly, "I didn't mean it, I was only joking. See it's a joke, it's funny, right?"

Another voice popped out from some bush or tree. "Seems like ugly-face just got stupider."

Kuwabara turned to face the voice, "No one asked you, shorty! And who are you calling ugly and stupid?" Hiei and Kuwabara continued to bicker as Kurama appeared out of the shadows. "Hey Kurama, what's up?" "Nothing much, Yusuke." Koenma came over. "Now that we're almost all here, I can begin to talk about the mission."

Yusuke did a double take, "Wait…what do you mean, 'almost' all here? I count five, and that's all there is…five."

Koenma nodded, "But this time, Botan won't be going with you on this mission. This mission is different and will require some outside assistance, that's why I've contacted someone to help you. Now we have to wait for him to get here and while we wait, I'm going to give you some background information for the mission."

"Kuwabara, Hiei, cut it out. Okay, Koenma, let's hear it."

"A long time ago, there were demons and humans living together on the earth. As you can guess, this caused a lot of problems because the demons and the humans rarely saw eye to eye and so there were many fights. Eventually the demons became fed up with the humans and decided that they should just kill them whenever they wanted. There was one demon, Sukeisa, who wanted to end all human freedom. In short, he wanted to take over the world."

Yusuke snorted, "Okay…what demon have we met that hasn't wanted to take over the world."

Kuwabara turned, "Shut up, Urameshi!"

Koenma continued, "You see, Sukeisa was different. He had extraordinary control over his spirit energy. He had so much control that he was able to use it in special ways. With his magical powers as a ruse, he gathered demonic followers left and right. Soon he found that he had a huge army. This army seemed invincible with Sukeisa behind their backs. The army plundered, murdered, and tortured people and towns. No one seemed to be able to defeat them. It was impossible, because rumor had it that Sukeisa was immortal and there was nothing that could hurt or kill him. The future looked pretty bleak for the humans.

"Then a solution presented itself: there was one thing left in the world that could defeat Sukeisa, a dragon. Back then, dragons were huge creatures that were truly immortal unless they were killed in their sleep. Since there hadn't been any need for the dragons to awake, they had retreated to their secret caves. Sukeisa had sent his best hunters and had all the dragons killed, including the young and any eggs that were around. However, they missed one dragon. This dragon was the oldest and wisest of its kind. He realized that he would not be able to survive a battle against Sukeisa because Sukeisa had powers that could hurt and possibly kill a wakeful dragon. So, in order to survive, he created the Astoria stone."

Kurama blinked, "I have heard of such a stone. It is said that it is a weapon that will do whatever the possessor asks of it. If this means to destroy the world, it can do just that."

Koenma nodded, "That's right. This dragon had planned to use it against Sukeisa. The only problem is that using the stone requires a lot of energy and the dragon was gambling on the fact that it could be used to get rid of Sukeisa. The dragon and Sukeisa had one last fight, with everything leaning on this one final battle. The dragon released the powers of the Astoria stone. It did not destroy Sukeisa, instead, it merely contained him in an eternal sleep. Before the dragon died, he created what he called a 'dracon' or 'dragon child'. The 'dragon child' would awaken when the time was right and finish what was started those many years ago."

Yusuke looked confused, "So what is this dragon child supposed to do? Fight some old Sukeisa? Sounds easy enough for me."

Shaking his head, Kurama answered, "No. The dracon would be the guardian of the stone. There was another legend, one of a fierce power."

Kuwabara jumped in, "I remember that one! They say that sometime in the future, when the stars or something are aligned in a certain way, that a gateway to the past will open and all the spirit energy from the demons back then will be available to the demons here in the present."

Kurama agreed, "That was when the dracon would have to guard the stone so that the enemy could not use it. You see, the stone can only be used by a demon of extrodinary power. There are only a few demons left in the world today that can harness that kind of power. Even then, it might not be enough because the special spirit energy called "magical power" is needed to wield the stone as well. No one left in the world, save for the dracon has magical power. But if the powers of Sukeisa from the past are sent to the Sukeisa that is currently asleep, not only could Sukeisa break the spell, but he could become more of menace than he was before."

"Okay, so how is this related to us?" Yusuke demanded, ever impatient.

"The stone has been missing for ages, so we thought that it had never exsisted. So about fifteen years ago, when spirit world intelligence suddenly detected the stone, we were quite shocked. It was astounding that the stone had just suddenly appeared in our vaults."

Aniya was furious. 'How could Katomi do this? Never mind, I didn't ask that question. I know why and how she could have done this.' She knew perfectly well about Katomi and her 'special powers.' 'She was my goddamn tutor!'

Back when Aniya had been wandering the streets of Tokyo, she had been at a lost end. She had no idea where to go, because she was hunted. One day, she had met a lovely woman who was very nice.

"Hello, my dear. Who are you?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"I just asked. Asking for someone's name isn't a crime, is it?"

"I guess not…"

"Go on, what's your name?"

"Aniya."

"Aniya. That's a pretty name. Did your parents give you that name?"

Little Aniya stared up into the lady's kind, black eyes. "I don't know. My parents left me at an orphanage when I was only an infant. I never knew my parents." She looked down at her black boots. Tears threatened to form in her eyes, but she willed them to remain within her. 'There, that ought to convince her. She'll think that I;m trying not to cry, and she'll feel sympathy for me. They fall for it every time.' She'd never cried in all her seven years.

The lady bent down and lifted Aniya's chin. "Well, Aniya. My name is Katomi. Would you like to live with me? I can teach you to become something great. Come home with me and I will teach you magic." All the while, Aniya was thinking, 'Okay bitch. Whatever. I'll learn what I need to and then I'll leave you, but not before I nab a bunch of your stuff.' On the outside, a sad little Aniya blinked hopeful eyes, "Do you think I could? I mean, I wouldn't want to be an annoyance."

Katomi laughed. "I'm sure that you'd make me a fine apprentice. Then when you get older, I'll take you with me when I go on missions." Aniya followed the lady to her rich home. 'This will be fun, stealing things from you.'

For the next several months, Katomi looked after Aniya, training her to use magic, spirit energy and martial arts to fight. What she did not know was that Aniya had long since known all that there was to know about magic, spirit energy and martial arts. Katomi never seemed to notice that Aniya was surpassing her in every skill. Becoming more developed than her.

Kuwabara was the confused one now. "Wait, you just said that it was in your vaults. So why is there a problem? You have the stone, so nothing can happen, right?"

Koenma shook his head. "Well that's when it got kind of messy."

'I have to get rid of the little brat. She is getting better than me. What can I do? I know…'"Aniya?"

"Yes, Lady Katomi?"

"I have a special job for you."

"Okay."

"There are a bunch of people who took something from me a long time ago. It means a lot to me, and I want you to get it back for me."

"What, you mean steal it?"

"It's not really stealing. More like taking it back. It's a very pretty stone. If I can get it back, then I can finally recreate my family's coat of arms. You know about the missing stone on the shield. It was taken many years back and I wish for it to be returned to me. This mission will complete your training."

"Thank you Katomi-sama." Katomi watched as the little girl walked away. 'True, she may be talented in the martial arts and with her spirit energies, but with any luck, she'll be caught by the authorities, especially if I notify them. Then I can go in and take the stone for myself.' Katomi grinned. 'Good-bye Aniya. I hope you like the punishments they offer in spirit world.'

'That's right, she sent me off on that damned mission. Of course she knew that I would get caught by the security. Or so she thought. Proved her right that I made off with the stone without them even noticing. It was then that I left stupid Katomi all by herself. Then I joined the Arena.'

Aniya was shaken from her memories when a small lizard creature suddenly appeared. "Sani? Is that you? I haven't seen you in years." She held out her arm as the tiny winged lizard sat on her arm. "I thought I set you free." Then she remembered. "Damn. It must be that stupid Koenma. She opened the little scroll attached to Sani's neck. She opened it and inside it read:

Black Dragon, remember the bargain we made.

Aniya crumpled up the piece of paper. "A bargain is a bargain." She grabbed her armor and face mask and ran out of the abandoned warehouse.

Yusuke exploded, "You mean that some thief just made off with the stone?"

Koenma nodded, "Trust me. There was nothing compared to the punishment that I was about to face if the stone wasn't returned. Even the artifacts of darkness were mere trinkets compared to the stone. So I set agents working on it immediately. Of course, this thief was very hard to track. In the end, we found him. We made a bargain with him. If he protected the stone for us, then in return we would leave him alone. But, if he ever lost the stone, then we would be forced to send a team after it and this guardian would be forced to join the team."

Kuwabara didn't looked happy, "So, the stone's been stolen and we have to work with some stupid freak? Does this freak have a name?"

Koenma looked at Botan and nodded. Botan replied, "We don't his true name. All we know is that he goes by the name of the Black Dragon."

Hiei jerked. "The Black Dragon, as in the Black Dragon that fought in the Arena for years?"

Koenma nodded, "I believe so. Why do you ask?"

Hiei looked sharply at him, "Do you have any idea who the Black Dragon is?" Seeing their blank looks, Hiei continued: "The Arena is a place for the demons to train. It's not in spirit world or the human world. The Arena is a non-ending tournament, in a sense. A demon signs up and once takes the oath, is paired off with other demons to fight against. Only the toughest survive. It's a training place for the worst criminals, thieves and killers of the demon world. The Black Dragon is the best. He can fight faster and harder than anyone. He's odd though. He never talks and never shows his face. The only thing you see is his entire black outfit. He's never lost a fight. He lives solely to fight in the Arena."

Yusuke looked at Koenma, "Are you serious? We have to work with someone like that? How can we trust this guy not to kill us? This guy doesn't sound like he should be part of the team. I mean, how do we know that he won't betray us?"

Koenma was looking at a little winged lizard that had landed on the arm of his chair. "Ah, Sani. Did you find…? And the answer…? Very good. Thank you." He released the little lizard from his arm. "Sani has reported that the Black Dragon has decided to remember the bargain that we made. He should be arriving soon."

'Damn that stupid Koenma. He knew that I would have to go along with the stupid bargain.' Aniya remembered the day that she had been found. She had just finished fighting and was congratulating herself on a particularly good day. She had been eight at the time. After only several months, Aniya had reached the top of the ranks in the Arena. She came up with a new name for herself. The Black Dragon.

On that day, she had been walking home when suddenly Katomi appeared in front of her.

"The Black Dragon, I presume?" Aniya nodded. "I believe you have something of mine…I want it back."

Aniya shook her head and stood her ground.

"Give it back you bitch!" Aniya had been forced to fight with her right then and there. Of course, it was just her luck that there was a rule about no fighting on the premises unless you were in the actual arena and it was truly her lucky day because there were plenty of security people on duty to witness her breaking the rules. She had to face the consequences: she was brought to spirit world.

As Aniya ran to Koenma's palace, she remembered when she was brought there seven years ago.

The Black Dragon, also known as Aniya, was brought before Koenma in a teenage form. She didn't hold with authorities much but she decided that if she ever wanted to go back to fighting in the Arena, she would have to act good.

"You are the Black Dragon?" Koenma had asked. Aniya nodded as a reply. "I have a bargain for you." Aniya's ears pricked up at the thought of getting out of spirit world and back in the Arena . Koenma continued, "Now, I know and you know that it was you who was in here a year ago and you stole the Astoria stone. Now, we know that you've broken some of the rules. We noticed that you are an accomplished fighter and have taken good care of the stone this year. Here's the deal: you can continue to fight in the Arena if you protect the stone for us. There is one set back: if the stone is ever stolen, I will send people to help you retrieve it, regardless of whether you would want to retrieve it or not."

"The bargain was made so that the stone would be protected, no matter what. So if the stone was stolen, the Black Dragon would not be able to just shirk his duties and continue on with his life. He would have to protect the stone. Quite frankly, I believe that the Black Dragon would protect the stone, even if he was not forced to do so," Koenma concluded. He noticed that the blue ogre had entered the room. "Ah, ogre, please send in the Black Dragon." The ogre nodded and went to the door. When he returned, there was a small black figure following him. "Koenma sir, the Black Dragon."

A/N: How was it? At this point I would like to thank Diana-sama and Terris for reviewing my story before it was taken away. You guys are great! Review and maybe I'll post the second chapter real soon! Nijert! (That's the noise I make all the time at school. Don't mind me). KS01224