Summary: She is twelve and running for her life.
Notes: Speculative fiction, set at least 15-ish years after the end of the series. No pairings.
She is twelve and running for her life. Uncle Hiei would mock her, demanding to know what she is so afraid of, and Uncle Kurama would ask if she has forgotten all of her lessons in how to fight. But neither of them is here right now; no one is here to help her. She is twelve-years-old, and she has to save the world.
It had been spur-of-the-moment. A whim. Uncle Koenma had been unsure if he could bother her father about the latest demon problem, she had asked about it, and it hadn't sounded too hard, so she'd said she would do it. Trust me, she'd grinned and laughed, because she was her father's daughter. The ruler of Reikai had looked at her a bit askance, said she was too young. She'd asked if he'd told her father that, all those years ago. A sad look had crossed his face, just for a moment, before he'd grumbled about her being right and whatever, take the case, here's what you need to know. So she had headed out onto the streets of Tokyo, determined to get the job done.
It honestly hadn't been too hard at first. She'd tracked down the demons and started beating them up, no sweat. Then the boss had arrived, and he was strong, stronger than she'd thought he would be. And now she was running for her life as he chased her down the darkened streets on the edge of the metropolis, a place where no one would hear her scream, where no one would look too closely at another corpse. Another foolish girl, going where she shouldn't've gone.
Luck and instinct save her, just as they've saved her father so many times before. She trips and tumbles and comes up crouching in just the right way: Spirit Gun! She doesn't know where it came from, she just knows that it works, and the demon is dead dead dead, and the job is done and over and she can go home. She shakes in that corner for a long time, sobbing and retching, before cleaning herself up. She'll never let herself get that weak again; not after a case.
Back to Reikai, and a worried, fretting Koenma who was afraid he'd trusted too much too soon. She reassures him, says she'll take the job permanently. Only don't tell anyone else, not just yet. She lets him think it's because she's embarrassed or some such shit. Really, she wants to tell them on her own terms, when she's positive she won't shame herself again after a case.