Black Shadow

Council of Elders

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A pin-drop could be heard in the room. That’s just how silent it was. Kira looked at the floor, she’d only prove herself even more of a fool if she looked up. These people, she figured, she would probably be spending a good amount of time with. But nothing would ever happen if they were all mutes. She felt the gawking faces on top of her hood. They had not the will power to talk. Knowing her age, but not her power. No one voiced their opinion.

But that was all about to change.

“A woman!”

“No, you fool! Can’t you sense it? A mere child, a girl. A disgrace.”

“Ryo, I assure you, if this is some kind of sick joke—”

“Monsieur, I do not joke when it comes to the Council.” He looked down at Kira, who was now glaring at the one who saw her as a disgrace. Her face was shadowed, and the only part you could make of her were two fierce sapphire eyes. “This is your new recruit, the one who will someday defeat Yusuke Urameshi.”

“The Spirit Detective!”

“You make us laugh, Dragon-Boy.”

Kira looked at the man, the same one who thought she was disgraced.

“Kira,” He put emphasis on her name, meaning death “show the Council just exactly what you can do.”

There was a glimmer in her eye. It was faint, but it carried the tone of murder. Normally, she didn’t like following other’s orders, but this time, she could make an exception. “As you wish.” She raised a hand towards the demon she so despised. Her fingers fanned out, her eyes glowed with a violent radiance. And soon, the youkai was painfully sandwiched against the hard, stone wall, and the table they all leaned on.

The table dropped, suddenly. A candelabra was brought up in air, the burning candles flew, leaving only metal spikes. Leaving the man against the wall, she pounded the device into his chest, until she was absolutely positive, he was dead.

His blood flowed like precious wine over the floor, velvety and sweet. The elders said nothing, astounded beyond belief. Kira smirked, with no regrets, and put her hand back down. The room was silent much more, this time, quieter than ever.

No one had ever seen a power such as hers before. Nor the lust to kill, and faint scent of grief that washed over most predators, had no effect on her. She was happy, and they all knew it. The elders knew that she would be useful, with proper training. The Council could teach her beyond the basics, and on to much more intricate magic and power. The fine arts that defined the skill of war.

She was their next recruit.

Whispers joined around the men, deciding, and coming to a decision. “We have decided, that you will be accepted into the Council.” Kira’s hand fidgeted, waiting for the precise moment. “Provided you let us train you further.”

“Know what, old man?” Kira asked the speaker. “I’m fine, just the way I am. You all, however,” she looked around “are wasting space.” She vanished, leaving only an after-image in her wake.

It was less than a second, it had to be. Ryo blinked, and the entire Council of Elders was on the floor or lying slack in their chairs. Stab wounds littered their bodies, and some had cuts right across the neck, some had no necks.

“Kira!” Ryo scolded harshly, as she licked blood off her katana, a half smirk, half smile, danced on her lips. The robe was somewhere among the dead. Her outfit was simple, black pants and a black tank top; both were easy to maneuver in. And both would allow her to blend into the shadows, undetected by a lower-class demon. Black boots adorned her feet. She worked her hair into a simple chopstick bun at the back of her head, to keep it out of her way.

The murderer licked her sword clean of blood. She tasted the fear in her victim’s hearts on their precious blood she had taken by force. She frowned momentarily. There was one thing that the elder was right about, though. She’d never be able to accomplish anything on the basics. She needed to learn more about this gruesome sport.

“Kira…” Ryo looked into her hatred-filled eyes. He was disappointed, however. There was neither regret nor remorse. He didn’t find pain or hurt, either. What he found was the lust to kill. “Kira, you can’t do this.”

“Do what?” She snapped. “Kill? Is that not what you brought me here for in the first place? To kill others?” Ryo opened his mouth to confirm the statement, but Kira cut him off. “Let me tell you something, I have waited too long for this. Now that my chance for revenge is finally here, no one can stop me. So stay out of my way,” Her misty eyes glimmered. “Dragon-Boy.”

And then she was gone.

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“Yusuke, this is very complicated.” Yusuke looked up from his chair in front of the toddler’s desk. He was currently the only one here, the others had yet to arrive. “There is this…Council.”

“Council…” Yusuke repeated slowly.

“They call themselves the Council of Elders, and they’ve taken some of the top criminal names under their wing. They are a devious bunch, who are hard to fool.”

Yusuke cracked his knuckles threateningly. “Aw, come on. I can take them.”

“It’s not that Yusuke,” The door opened, revealing the other three members of the detective team. “They’re all dead.”

“Dead?” Kurama asked. He watched as Hiei took his signature place on the windowsill. Of course he and the hiyoukai knew what subject they were talking about. And although Hiei would never admit to it, he was surprised as well. Kuwabara on the other hand…

“Who’s dead?”

Well, it might take a little time to get him to understand.

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After a half hour, the carrot-top understood, which was a record in Hiei’s mind. Although he was only half-listening, still trying to comprehend the fact that the Council was dead.

They had once tried to take him under their wing, telling the hiyoukai he could be a valuable asset in destroying the human race. Naturally, Hiei refused. No one bossed him around. If he was going for world domination—which was currently top on his to-do list at the present time—he wanted all the fame and glory for himself. He wanted the entire world to bow to him, not him and others as well.

True he wasn’t exactly going to destroy the human race, for the most part, anyway. For one thing, he would make the weak ningens serve him in whatever ways he wished. However none was worthy for him to conceive an heir with. The mere thought of his offspring coming out of a human female disgusted him to no end. Love was a foolish game played by softhearted and weak-minded fools.

However…

He looked at the Spirit Detective out of the corner of his eye. He was currently talking to Koenma about this and that and what not. He did remember the fight with Suzaku, who on this team didn’t? How Kurama was injured by the rock monster called Genbu, how Kuwabara was almost fried to a crisp in Byakko’s “lair”, how he himself so easily took down the foolish Seriyu, and…how Yusuke took down their leader, because of his affection for Keiko.

Hiei really didn’t understand it, and the fox would tell everyone in creation if he went to the kitsune for love advice of all things. No, not advice, just a need for a mere understanding of the awful world the toddler had punished him into.

But that girl…The one he had spotted just shy of two weeks before. The black haired one with the chilling blue eyes. He smelled blood on her, massive amounts, in fact. He decided to follow her at a distance, merely out of curiosity for the race he would someday be ruling over. When he caught visual sight of her, he found that there was not blood pooling around her, as his senses led him to believe. Which meant she had a massive amount of bruises.

Now why in the world you wear a short skirt like that when you had bruises you needed to hide?

He walked softly behind her, his footsteps making little to no noise at all. She stopped dead in her tracks and her ears perked. She dropped a pencil purposefully, anyone could see to that. And she picked it up, but not while getting a good look at his after-image his speed had left behind.

She was quite interesting indeed.

The giant door opened harshly, sure to leave holes or at least dents in the walls. In came Jorge, the trusty ogre that Koenma kept around for as long as anyone could remember.

“Koenma, sir!” He yelled, although he didn’t have to. All eyes—including Koenma’s—were trained onto him, or rather, the file in his hand. Hiei strained his eyes from the windowsill to get a good look at the file, but Jorge moved before he could concentrate on the name.

“We’ve found the murderer, sir.”

“And I suppose that’s his file?” Jorge didn’t move from his place at the door. “And tell me, shouldn’t you be bringing him up so we can…” The demi-god searched for the proper words. “Chat?” He added finally.

“Well,” Jorge started, how should he go about telling them this…?

“Spit it out!” Koenma yelled.

“We haven’t actually found the murderer, sir. We just found her file.”

Koenma looked…surprised more than mad. At the moment all the things he was going to yell at the ogre flew from his head as he singled out the second to last word. “She?” He spoke finally. “It’s a woman? Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“How are you so sure?” Koenma leaned his head on his hands.

“Her…trainer, if you will, is here now.”

“Bring him in.”

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Was this what it was like to be free? Kira would never know, she had nothing to compare the sensation with. There was no parents to boss her around, no school that demanded the time she could be spending in the open air. If this was freedom, she’d have gladly died for it long ago.

However, there was one thing restricting her. And that, oddly enough, happened to be her parents.

The parents she had momentarily thought she was free of, began haunting her. She’d have to go back there sooner or later, if not to gather things that are needed to survive, then for revenge.

The momentary floating-sensation of the portal to Ningenkai enveloped her. And soon as she was in, she was back out again. This time sitting on the roof of the Elementary School building. She watched young children at play, unknowingly hating every one of them for their ability to be so free at a young age, while she had to fight for it all her life.

Even as a baby, her parents had been none too kind, they would strike her to get her to shut up, or ‘accidentally’ not feed her. Somehow she always managed to survive, and somehow wishing that she didn’t.

Her toddler years were probably the most horrible years of her life. She was underage, the police forbid families from leaving their young ones home alone, or risk paying a huge fine. Therefore, they took her to work—the strip club. They’d throw her in the back, and tell her to be good. The men constantly harassed her, touching her on every ounce of her body. She didn’t know why they did it, she just knew it was wrong. She tried desperately to defend herself, but she soon realized that was a bad idea. They locked her in the lockers, covering up the air holes until she couldn’t breathe. Normally she fainted from lack of oxygen.

Then there were her Grade School years. It was then that she learned about anatomy, and she wished she hadn’t. From that day on, she always had a thing against men. They were vile creatures…evil, even. There was her father, for instance, and the men at the Club. Maybe she was being stereotypical, but that’s just the way life was. And even just a few short weeks ago, Yusuke and his friend were prying into her business. She wasn’t blind, she knew that he was looking for something on her.

Yusuke must have told him about the bruise he had seen that day. That had to have been it. Otherwise, Suuichi had no other way of knowing. It was all too confusing!

But if that had been the case, she realized both of them had been talking about her behind her back! If she hadn’t got so caught up in the memories of her past and almost got run over by a car, none of this probably would have ever happened.

That was going to be her first rule as an independent woman, trust no one. She began ticking off rules in her head.

Fear nothing, you’ve already experienced every kind of pain imaginable.

Train until your just shy of passing out.

Close your heart, let no one inside.

Kill those who betray.

Feel sympathy for none of your victims.

Murder those who pity you.

Defeat anyone who stands in your way.

Which meant only one thing, and oddly enough, she was glad for it:

Kill Ryo, and whoever he consults with about the… Kira licked her lips. Council…

A/N: yay! Finally done! Review people!