<Part 2>

 Koenma and George were both draped over Anja, trying to keep her from disturbing Enma. In her current mood. . . it was not a good idea for her to see him.

 "Anja, please!" Koenma pleaded, his teenage form still not enough to hold her back, "Be rational! Father will not. . ."

 "He had better!" Anja hissed pounding open the thrown room doors.

 Enma glanced up from his books and his eyes widened slightly at the sight that greeted him. "How may I help you Anja?"

 "You may give me my family back you sadistic bastard!"

 Enma was taken aback by her passionate order. "Not I can not."

 "WHAT!"

 George let go of the seething girl and ran from the throne room, Koenma stepped back from her. "Anja please. . ." The godling pleaded.

 "I don't deal with middle men when it comes to my family so butt out Koenma!"

 "Anja." Enma frowned, "Once a soul is gone, it is gone. Your family has already been reassigned to new bodies."

 "But why all of them!" She seemed on the verge of tears or destroying everything in her sight, which one it was, neither of the two men were sure. "Why did you take them all? Every member of my family that I really loved and cared about you took from me!"

 "It was their time."

 "Then why not mine?!"

 "That question isn't mine to answer, I only do what the God above me says."

 Anja clenched her teeth, the muscle in her jaw lumped, "Well then, tell me
where they are." She said softly, a deadly peace to the command.

 "All have been reborn but your mother. She has completed her task and found the true meaning of being whole." Enma smiled sympathetically at the girl, "I can not help you find your family members new selves, they must find you if they wish."

 "And my mother?"

 "Gone through the spirit gates into a beautiful eternity."

 The fight seamed to drain out of Anja but she stood tall even so. "You took
them all from me. What kind of God takes a person's whole family and doesn't even let them say good bye?"

 "I can not answer that."

 "Then Damn you who could?!"

 Enma shook his head, "Little fledgling, it is time to learn to fly." And with that enigmatic sentence, he and his throne room disappeared and Anja found herself standing outside her house. In America. She sobbed with the pain that flooded her chest as she realized that never again would Ivane or Granite, or Serah pass through the door. Never more would she help her mom in the kitchen, or sit at the table as her dad helped her with her homework.

 When she opened the front door a horrible emptiness filled her. The house was the same. Untouched, but the spirit was gone. The smell of her family was airing out and the sounds were all gone. She had never felt so empty inside. The house seamed to be a representation of her soul.
As she entered the living room she dropped to her knees and the horrible wail that had been stuck knotted in her throat burst free. Tears raging over her cheeks as her cries echoed through the home that had once been so full of love and laughter and life.
 

 She sat like that for what must have been hours, just crying until she had no more tears inside of her. Then she looked up at the wall of photos over the couch. She saw the smiling faces of her loved ones, baby Serah and her wide innocent eyes, Ivane with his long chestnut hair, Granite with his jersey and mussed hair. She choked on another lump in her throat and realized the tears weren't spent yet.

 Night came and she found herself in her parents room, curled in a fetal position in their bed. How many times when her father had worked night shifts had she come up here to sleep, just to cuddle with her mother and baby sister, and to know she was surrounded by love? "Momma." She sobbed harder and buried her face in the pillow that still held her mothers scent. "Momma."

 With the daylight came the sound of a door opening, and Anja awoke looking around her, "It was all a dream!" She cried happily running downstairs to share the horrible nightmare and embrace her mother as she was assured everything was fine. When she got down through, she was greeted by a short Japanese boy. He was familiar to her. Shuuichi! Kurama's brother!

 Wait, Kurama. . . what was she doing home unless, "Oh God." She gasped as fresh waves of sorrow crushed her empty hopes, "I wasn't dreaming." She bit her lip trying to contain her pain then turned and took out her anger on the wall behind her. She punched the wall until her knuckles bleed and a large whole opened clear to the other side of the brick. When her anger deserted her she leaned she forehead against the wall then turned and slid down into the corner.
 

 Shuuichi stared at the copper haired goddess who walked out from his exchange parents room. He watched as realization hit her once again and he watched in horror as she beet her fists bloody against the rough brick wall. This must be Anja.

 When she was done and fell into the corner with sobs and hiccups the boy slowly approached, "daijoubu desu ka?" No asked softly.

 "No I'm not all right! Damn it they're dead!" She cried and buried her face in her hands, "My whole family, Aunts, Uncles, everyone is gone. Do you think for one fucking minuet that I could ever be all right now?!"

 Shuuichi was startled by this outburst and fell back on his butt. "Gomen nasai!" He cried holding up his hands in surrender.
 

 The girl wasn't paying attention, she had gone back to crying again.

 "Wait a minuet how. . .?" He got up and walked to the phone in the kitchen and dialed, "Ohayo. Yes, is Shuuichi there? Arigato." He waited until he heard a familiar voice.

 "Moshi moshi."

 "Ohayo, Shuuichi?"

 "Hai."

 "It's me, your brother."

 "Shuu-chan! What is happening there? Are you ok?"

 "Hai niisan, I am ok, but Anja showed up last night and. . ."

 "Anja!?"

 "Hai, and I don't think she has stopped crying since she got here."

 "Hold on."

 Shuuichi could hear Kurama speak to someone in the room with him, ‘Hiei
go check on Anja in her room.'

 ‘She isn't there'

 ‘Shi Mat ta!' "Shuuichi?"

 "Hai?"

 "Keep her there."

 "Hai Shuuichi but how. . .?"

 "Can't explain now, just keep her there!"

 "Hai niisan."

 Kurama hung up the phone and look at Hiei and Kuronue with concerned eyes, "Call Yuusuke, we need Botan here now."

 "What's going on?" Kuro asked worried. He picked the Chibiera up and set it on his shoulder carefully, "What happened to Anja?"

 "Knowing Anja she and Enma had a chat and now she's ended up in her house in America and she's been crying herself sick."

 "I'll get Yuusuke." Hiei said as he left in a blur and displacement of air.

 Kurama and Kuronue looked at each other in asking, both asking the same question. ‘What do we do now?'
 

 Anja walked through the house. She was like stone, nothing seamed to get through. Taking a few pictures, her parent's original wedding rings, and a few things she knew had meant a lot to them and to her, she stuffed them in a bag and left the house. Never to come back to the pain it held.

 "Anja! Anja wait!" Shuuichi called after her.

 She didn't even slow down.

 "Anja please, don't leave! Where are you going to go?!"

 "Away." She said in a hard tone.

 "The funeral is today, don't you want to go?" Shuuichi almost pleaded, "Your other family members might need you!"

 "They aren't there." She looked strait ahead and kept on walking, "The house
blew up at a family reunion. Everyone was there, my family is gone." She growled, "All of them."

 Shuuichi stopped walking and stared after her, "all. . .?" Then he realized why she had been crying. She wasn't just orphaned, she was all alone now. He ran to make up for his pause, "Anja! Anja matte! You can live with us! With me and my family in Japan! They will take you in! You can have my room."

 She smiled, but it was just a mockery of the shining grin she had worn before, "I know I always have a place with you chibi-Shuu." She nodded, "It isn't that."

 They were out in the desert now and the sun was beating hotly on Shuuichi, though Anja seemed not to care.  "Then what?"

 She stopped and pulled a pomegranate of a small, bush like tree and bit into it, peeling the skin back from the seeds. "I don't know."

 Shuu grabbed one of the odd fruits too and kept pace beside her. "I have wanted to meet you." He admitted, "You are like a legend in the school here."

 Her eyes stayed fixed on the fruit, "I hated it there. The only way I bore it for so long was my family." She spit out a tiny seed, "I hate small town schools. You differ in the slightest and they call you a witch."

 "I don't think you are."

 "I am though." She muttered, "That's what made it so hard."

 Shuuichi laughed but Anja's face didn't change, "You aren't joking?"

 "A little." She admitted, "I am a Doren, not a witch, technically though, witch just means wise woman. It isn't a bad term."

 They walked in silence for a while until they reached a cliff over looking the sea.

 "Wow!" Shuuichi gasped at the view.

 Anja just stood looking out over the waters. Great spirits. She prayed inside her heart, Please watch over my loved ones, my family, in their quests in their new lives. And let my mother know how much I love her.

 "Anja?"

 She sat down then, in the sand and rock, and wouldn't talk, and wouldn't move.

 "Anja the sun is setting, we need to go back."

 She didn't respond."
 

 "Anja! We have to go!"

 She closed her eyes.

 Shuuichi didn't know what to do! He hoped his brother would arrive soon.
 

 When they got to America, Kuronue headed strait toward Anja's Ki signature while Kurama and Hiei went to wait at her house.

 Hiei could feel the remnants of a strong love and companionship around him. The feeling of a close family that he had missed while growing up. He also felt Anja's sorrow, it covered the who house, entwined with the love as if trying to keep it together even as the Ki that made it had all but gone.

 Kurama looked at the wall of pictures, separate photos taken at school showed her family one by one, but in the center of them all was a photo of all of them, playing on the beach. Their closeness was visible in the way everyone glomped over everyone in a tangle of limbs smiles, and wild eyes.

 Kurama hugged Hiei close to him as he thought of what Anja had lost, "I don't know what I would do if I ever lost you."

 Hiei looked up at him and rested his head on his loves hard abdominal, "Don't think about it too hard, It will never happen."

 Kurama smiled and sat one the floor with his love in his embrace, and waited for Anja and Kuronue to return.
 

 Kuronue approached Anja quietly, "I knew you'd be here." He said softly.

 No response.

 "Shuuichi, your brother is back at the house, why don't you go say hello?"

 Shuuichi looked at Anja once more then reluctantly nodded and walked away.

 "Anja." Kuronue went to his knees beside her, "Anja look at me."
 

 She wouldn't listen.

 "Damn you Anja! Don't block me out!"

 "I'm already damned." She said softly. "You can't damn me again."

 "Nani?"

 "I have lost my family, I am damned to a lifetime alone."

 "But you aren't alone Anja. You have me. You have Kurama and Hiei.
Kurama told me Hiei has never taken to someone as fast as he did you. You're like his sister, his family. And you have all the Reikai Tantai. They all love you."

 "I wasn't even here for them." Her voice was empty, "They died and I hadn't even seen them for months. I never did write those letters I promised."

 "Anja, it's passed." Kuronue pleaded, "It is all right to mourn them but don't block the world out. You are so alive. Don't let this kill your life."

 She looked out at the sea. "I always told my mom, ‘you have to help me raise my kids when I have them, I could never do as good a job as you did'. And she would laugh and tell me yes I could and we would start talking about something else. Neither of us ever thought she wouldn't be here to see her grand kids."

 "Your family wouldn't want you to stop living. Your mother is still with you."

 "Serah wasn't even five years old yet. Her birthday was next month."

 "Anja. . ."

 She turned to Kuronue with tears shining in her eyes as the weak wall she had managed to erect came tumble down. "I miss them so much!" She fell into his arms, burrowing her face into his shirt to hide the tear filled eyes from sight.

 "Ah Anja." He hugged her closer and sighed, "I don't know any words that will stop the pain of loss."

 She sniffled and sobbed, "Why couldn't I just block out the world? Hiei can, but I couldn't block it out."

 "Hiei doesn't block his pains Anja, he just hides them very carefully, but
with them his other emotions are hidden too. You love the world too much to close it out."

 "But I miss them Kuro. And it hurts."

 He lifted her chin gently to make her look at him, "Anja, it is ok to hurt, just don't let the hurt rule you."

 "How?" She sounded so small and so lost.

 "I'll help you." Kuronue promised, "So will Hiei and Kurama. We all love you Anja."

 "I love you too." She breathed brokenly.

 Kuronue smiled and lifted the broken and sleepy girl into his arms then
walked back toward the town.

 Canon dropped down into his human's chest and he laid down to sleep there, quietly playing the lullaby she had once sang to him on his flute. He didn't realize in but that was her mother's lullaby for her, and upon hearing it, and relaxed enough to slip into sleep.
 

 When Shuuichi announced that they were coming, Kurama and Hiei both ran out the door to meet them.

 "Is she. . .?"

 "She has worn herself out, she's exhausted." Kuronue said in a hushed tone.

 "She didn't want to come back here." Shuuichi told them, "Maybe you
should go before she wakes up."

 "No." Anja's voice was soft as she squirmed out of Kuronue's arms, "I have to get. . ." She reeled unsteadily and Kuronue caught her before she feel.

 "What Anja, what do you need?"

 "FireStarter."

 "Who?" Kurama asked.

 "Not who." She mumbled and dug in her pockets producing a set of keys on a dagger and skull key chain.

 Kuronue took the keys and promised her, "I'll get her." and he handed Anja's limp body to Hiei.

 "What is FireStarter?"

 Kuronue opened the garage door and rolled out a huge motorcycle, a
beautiful black and silver bike with brown leather and indian bead designs all over it. It  looked custom built. "It was her brothers pride and joy." He explained. "He and her father would spend hours on this."

 He reached up onto a shelf and pulled down a brown leather jacket and a leather covered helmet and gloves, all matched the brown leather, beaded accessories of the bike. "These are her riding things."

 "How are we going to get that back to Japan?"

 "We aren't leaving it. She wants it because it holds so much of her brother."

 "The Makai." Hiei said softly so Shuuichi couldn't hear.

 Kurama nodded and turned to his brother, "Are you ok here?"

 "Yes, they put me with another family, I just came to say good bye." He smiled sadly, "They had become like family to me."

 Kurama nodded. "Go home then Shuuichi, Anja is ok now."

 His brother nodded and ran off and Hiei opened a portal in the shadows.
"Well?"

 Kuronue turned to his Youko form took Anja back from the little Koorime and Kurama led the bike as they stepped into the dense jungles of the Makai. "I don't like this." Kuronue said softly, "Anja is too weakened to fight now if we are attacked."

 Kurama nodded and turned to his Youko form as well. A ningen, one A class
Youko and an S class Youko and Fire Youkai were less apt to be attacked than three ningen and one fire Youkai. They made their way carefully toward the rift that would lead them to Tokyo.

 "Kura." Kuronue said quietly

 "Hai Kuro."

 "We are being followed."

 "How many?"

 "Too many."

 Hiei growled, "Liege-less?"

 "No, Yomi. They wear the crest of Yomi."

 Kurama seamed a little more sure, "Yomi is fine."

 Right as he said that they were attacked.

 Hiei darted through the Youkai, cutting them down mercilessly with his
sword, almost with a manic glee to see their blood.  Kurama pulled a rose from his hair, "Rosewhip!" The whip uncoiled and he sliced through body after body with it's thorn covered length.

 Kuronue took shelter in a near by tree with Anja and Canon, but when his comrades seamed to be tiring, he jumped down into the fray, scythes spinning through the army attacking the with deadly accuracy, he wielded one as a blade, in case any got too close to him, and he always stayed in sight of the tree where he had left Anja. A whisper of leaves caused him to look up and he saw a Youkai grab Anja's sleeping form and blur out of sight, Canon was flung to the ground. "NO! ANJA!"

 Hiei looked up and caught sight of the kidnapper. "I'll find her." He said and sped after the Youkai.

 Kurama and Kuronue finished off the rest of the Youkai and then moved in the direction that Hiei had gone. When they came to a rift Kurama took the bike and Canon back to Tokyo convinced Anja's little Youkai pet to stay and guard the bike for him, and quickly returned. He and Hiei got back at the same time.

 "Yomi has her."

 Kurama looked startled, "Yomi eats ningen! We have to get to her!"

 Hiei nodded and they set off for Yomi's castle.
 

 Anja awoke feeling very uncomfortable. She realized why when she found herself dangling from chained wrists a foot from the floor. A foul stench reached her nose and she cursed. Where am I!

 She swung herself up to perch on the bar she was hanging from, the sharp
movement cutting the skin on her wrists and making them bleed.

 It looked like she was in a kitchen! There were huge pots of gross smelling stuff all around her and a big Youkai was chopping something up at the table. She couldn't see what it was because his back blocked her vision but she could tell from the waist in the bin next to him, whatever it was used to be human. "Yuck!" Anja gagged, "If I die I don't want it to be like that!"

 The cook must have heard her because he turned to face her naked form.

 "Do you speak ?"

 No answer.

 She tried in Japanese.

 No answer.

 "Great."

 Just then a tall boy in a long black coat walked in. He had three horns growing out of his head that she could see and tall, pointed, elfish ears parted his long black hair. "Yomi wants his food raw tonight." The boy said.

 The cook nodded and moved toward Anja.

 "Oh Hell no."
 
 
 

~tbc~

Raihne