Chapter One

Today was different. Wrong. Kuwabara just couldn't put his finger on what or why. It was like a calm, so thick you could touch it, that exuded the eerie promise of something vile. The calm before the storm. It wasn't even his heightened spirit awareness that told Kuwabara that. His spirit awareness was telling him nothing at all. It was a gut feeling. Pure instinct was warning him that something was coming. He just didn't know what that something was. And that frustrated him to no end.

Kuwabara wasn't particularly worried though. Why should he be? He was the strongest human in the world and, while he couldn't compare to Kurama or Hiei and definitely not Yusuke, Kuwabara was more than capable of taking care of himself. Even among the Demon Realm there weren't many that could challenge him anymore, and those that could, wouldn't. Enki was their king now, even if the tournament next week would potentially change that, and even the S-class demons heeded his laws.

At first Kuwabara was skeptical of the supposed peace between worlds. Demons had spent centuries—millennia—hunting, killing, and even eating humans. Would they really just stop because some upstart punk (Urameshi of course) organized an epic King of the Hill free-for-all? But to Kuwabara's everlasting shock, they really did just stop. Well, mostly.

There would always be demons causing problems in Ningenkai. The low-class demons especially. They were driven by an insatiable desire to maim and destroy to the point where Kuwabara actually felt pity for them. Not enough to let them live, but he did make it a point to kill them as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Of course, technically, Kuwabara didn't need to do even that much. Along with the Border Patrol in Makai, Enki had created a Human Defense Committee in the human world for renegade and trouble causing demons. They were sort of like the new Tantei team on the block, except they answered to Makai instead of Reikai and were arguably more brutal and less interested in their job than anyone on Koenma's team ever was. Except maybe Hiei but, come on, it was Hiei.

There were six main divisions of the Committee, one for each continent (Antarctica naturally excluded), and a seventh sub-division that was only for emergencies. Kurama was the committee chair, sort of like the chief of police, which was good for him because that meant he could stay in Ningenkai with his family. Yusuke was on the Committee too and one of the three official members of the seventh division. The second was Kurama and the third was Hiei but the three of them were only called in if it was absolutely necessary. As the new (reserve) spirit detective—instated by Koenma following his forceful retiring of his father, Enma—and liaison from the human world, it only made sense that Kuwabara would join them on the few occasions they were deployed.

Division Seven wasn't called in often, only once since the Committee was first formed three years ago, but they had lost nothing between them during their time apart. As infamous as they were during their time as the Reikai Tantei, Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei, and Kuwabara were now legendary as news of their cases, many previously unknown, came to light. They still trained together regularly—even Hiei due in part to blackmail that Kuwabara was positive only worked because the small fire demon secretly wanted to join them—and their team work, which had always been surprisingly good, was now flawless.

They complimented each other's fighting styles and strategies so well that many believed they could read each other's minds. While not exactly the case, the boys had formed an unbreakable empathic link, forged from shared trials and mutual trust. They were best friends, soul brothers—no matter how much Hiei may vehemently deny it—and Kuwabara had their backs without question because he knew, no matter what happened, that they would always have his. Even Hiei.

At present, however, Kuwabara was the only one still currently in Ningenkai. Everyone on the Committee, including Yusuke, Kurama, and Hiei, were in Makai preparing for the upcoming tournament, and had been for the last month. Unfortunately, there were some lower class demons that were not dumb enough to participate in the tournament but still smart enough to make trouble in Ningenkai. So, while everyone else on the Human Defense Committee was given leave to prepare and train, Kuwabara decided to stick around the human world to protect it until he knew all of the dangerous apparitions went back to Makai to watch the tournament. Because of that, Kuwabara wouldn't be heading over until after the preliminaries were over.

Fortunately, there hadn't been too much trouble, and to be honest, Kuwabara hadn't really expected any. He mostly stayed behind just to play it safe. Well, that and it was still early March. Kuwabara still had two weeks of school left until graduation, but thankfully, he had perfect attendance and a well worded note from Shizuru that would make it alright for him to miss both the last week of school and the graduation ceremony so he could make it to the tournament.

He wasn't going to fight of course, not this year at least, he just wanted to be there to cheer on his friends. Despite Yusuke and Kurama's assurances that they didn't mind, Kuwabara never really forgave himself for missing the tournament the first time around.

A sudden shift in the wind made Kuwabara pause mid-step as he crossed an open alley on his way home from school. His sense of smell wasn't as strong as Kurama's but he had picked up enough over the years to be able to distinguish between the various apparitions. In general, humans had a subtle musk that reminded Kuwabara of hard work and fragility while demons had a harder, more metallic sent, like old blood on a sword. Spirit folk, like Botan and Koenma, had a light, airy scent with just the faintest touch of death clinging to them.

The death in this airy scent made Kuwabara cringe and cover his nose. This smell made Kuwabara think of slaughtered, sunbaked corpses cooling in a summer breeze. It was absolutely disgusting.

Was this the 'wrong' he'd been feeling since he woke up that morning? That heavy and oppressive calm that weighed on his heart and mind without ever alerting his spirit? That thick, undeniable evil that made his knees feel weak and his heart suddenly race? Could he even handle this—whatever it was—on his own?

He didn't want to chance it.

Kuwabara was reaching for the communicator in his pocket when deep inside the alley, someone suddenly screamed and he realized abruptly that it didn't matter if he could handle it alone or not, any backup he called would never make it in time. Using the communicator would only eat up time he didn't have and that was utterly unacceptable. Calm, death, and evil be damned! He was Kuwabara Kazuma and he refused to turn his back on someone in need!

Dropping his school bag, Kuwabara raced down the alley, reaching out with his spirit awareness to find the source of the trouble. He couldn't sense anything, and that worried him, but the smell of death was growing stronger as the sounds of a struggle reached his ears. Kuwabara took a sharp right down a branch alley and held out his hand, calling his spirit sword to life as he ran. It wasn't his jigen-to—Kuwabara had yet to fully master that weapon and he didn't want to hurt the person he was trying to protect by accident—but it was strong enough to handle even the toughest B-class apparition.

"Someone please help me!" The person screamed and Kuwabara gritted his teeth as his temper began to rise. That was a woman's voice. Someone was attacking a woman! And brutally by the sound of it.

"Raahhhhhhhh!" Kuwabara yelled, racing into the open lot with his sword held high. "You damn punk! I'll kill you!"

But no one was there. No one, that is, except for a woman in a pale white kimono tied with a blood red obi. Her long black hair hung loose down her back and shoulders with her dark bangs obscuring her eyes from view. She looked completely unharmed and vaguely familiar as she stood amongst the garbage strewn lot, holding a wicked looking scythe that reminded him of the classic grim reaper. A soft, almost malicious smile turned up the corners of her red, red lips as she spoke.

"Welcome Kuwabara-san." She said and he recognized her voice as the one that screamed earlier and . . . someone else. But who? "I knew you would come if I called."

"You make me sound like a dog." Kuwabara said, eyeing her warily with his sword still alight in his hand. It was true that his code made it impossible for him to fight girls, but this woman seemed dangerous. If worse came to worst, he at least wanted the option to disarm her if necessary. That way he could get away and call Koenma about this apparently rogue ferry-girl.

The woman laughed a low, barely amused laugh. "Aren't you though?" she asked and it took Kuwabara a moment to realize she was responding to his dog comment. "You've always been on a leash Kuwabara-san. All that changes are the hands that hold it."

"Who are you?" Kuwabara said, ignoring her comment and the light sting it bought. "And what do you want from me?"

"I am no one you need to remember Kuwabara-san." She said before hefting her heavy scythe with disturbing ease. "I'm afraid you won't be around long enough for it to matter."

She disappeared from view and Kuwabara brought up his sword for a clumsy block, except he couldn't tell where she was coming from because he still couldn't sense her. And why the hell did she seem so familiar? A memory of indigo, a soft spoken voice, and elegantly tied hair crossed Kuwabara's mind and his eyes widened.

"You—!"

The sharp, tearing feeling of the scythe ripping through his body cut him short as he howled in pain. Kuwabara's consciousness faded rapidly as he glared at the woman. He had to tell someone, they needed to know. They trusted her . . .

Opening his mind completely, Kuwabara called to the only person that could actually hear his mental voice. Hiei—!

The scythe was brought around again, and Kuwabara knew no more.

Kaliea: Hey guys! You probably thought I was dead or something, huh? Well unfortunately I'm just a lousy updater. Things have been pretty crazy lately, though, so I hope you'll cut me some slack ^-^; Anyway, this story is obviously much darker and grittier than anything I've ever done before but I hope you'll bear with me as I attempt to do my best to write it. I don't know why, but the idea just wouldn't let me go. Of course, this also means that I have yet another story to neglect but hopefully that won't be the case. Maybe. And for those of you who are still fans of my other stories, I'm working on the next chapters of Holding Out For a Hero and Shades of Gray. I can't promise they'll be out soon, but I do promise that I am working on them. Thanks for all of your continued support! And don't forget to review!