Prologue
Heavy clouds partially shadowed the dawning sun's light creating vibrant bursts of crepuscular rays, as heavy silvery fog danced mystically in the morning light. Like spectral ghosts four silhouettes silently emerged from the thick haze into the sparse light. The leader of the group was a lean male with the appearance of a twenty-three or so year old human. He had tame, yet spiky onyx hair and dark sangria red eyes. His clothes were all black, from his black wife-beater to his relaxed fit jeans all the way down to his leather mid-calf boots. There were also two ninjatÅ strapped in an 'X' shape on his back.
Walking beside the weapon wielding male, matching him stride for even stride was a slender young woman, who appeared to be no more than eighteen in human years. Her long waist length shiny onyx hair was free from any bonds and fluttering gently behind her as she walked. She wore a dull black satin floor-length medieval styled dress with matching flats. The young female demon had complete heterochromia. Her left eye was the same sangria red as her companion's while her right eye was a lovely, bright shade of bondi blue.
Two vicious almost non-humanoid looking guards flanked the two onyx haired demons. Their non-human eyes were alert as they watched their surrounding with an almost feral intent. The two guard's physique greatly outsized that of their ward, yet the two smaller demons hardly paid any attention to the two hulking shadows that loyally followed their every move. The large demons wore bulky armor, with large spikes on the shoulders, arm gauntlets and shins.
"I loathe having to attend those useless political conferences." Hiroshi, the spiky onyx haired demon mumbled moodily, as he walked beside his little sister who listened attentively to his every word. "Listening to those idiotic old fogies piss and moan about any and every diminutive problem they have is nothing but a waste of my time and they never have anything of importance to say." He growled lowly, making Enamaya, the smaller female demon, hide a humored smile as her brother continued to rant about having to attend his duties. Most of his tirade was true, she would admit that much.
"You're right; they are a bunch of dumpy old buzzards." Enamaya announced with a firm supportive nod. She also found the conferences exceedingly boring, but she had never openly shown her tedium while in the presence of the council. Hiroshi however, had no problem showing his aggravation or his displeasure to be in their presence. When her elder brother's disbelieving sangria red irises landed on her she gave a small embarrassed smile and giggled nervously under his stare. A light blush dusted across her pale face and she quickly turned away from her brother.
Hiroshi's disbelief quickly turned into a sly fanged grin. "I knew we were more alike than you let others believe, May-May." He practically cooed using his old nickname for her as her cheeks flamed brighter. "Oh shush." She muttered gently smacking his well-toned bicep and quickening her pace to escape the pompous smirk she knew her brother was sending her way. Hiroshi chuckled at his sister's embarrassment and shook his head, easily keeping up with her quickened pace with his longer stride. "No need to be embarrassed about it, Maya." Hiroshi chuckled. "I used to call you that all the time." He softly reminded her as they continued their steady trek towards their home.
"That's true, but that was over a century ago bubba." She told him using her old endearment. Hiroshi grinned halfheartedly. He had missed times like these. Maya was a woman of the council now, as reluctant as he was to admit it and she acted the part as well, most of the time. He knew that they had their duties and such, but those duties separated him from her far too often. It seemed like the only time they ever had together anymore was when there was a damn conference.
Hiroshi, or Kagemusha no Hiroshi, as he was so infamously known to all of Makai was Lord Hiei's true heir, being that he was male and the eldest of the two siblings. However he was quite reluctant to take the position. He liked his freedom too much. Hiroshi had nominated Enamaya for the position every time they convened since she had come of age, as she was also the offspring of the infamous Jagan wielder. He knew she would be a far better ruler than he ever could be. He was a frontline fighter and hated the thought of paperwork and long hours in front of a boring council of idiots. Maya had the patience he so obviously lacked and though she was kindhearted she still had the steely resolve of their father to govern unruly demons.
"Say," Hiroshi started, but paused as he ducked under a low overhanging limb. Maya's heterochromatic eyes turned to acknowledge her elder brother silently. "Is there something going on between you and that snarky brat?" Hiroshi asked directly, his keen sangria eyes narrowed and stern as he searched his little sister's face for any sign of a lie. "No," She shook her head with a soft feminine giggle. "No, there is nothing going on between Lord Shura and myself. Is that why you and father have been so tense lately?" She asked with a humored smile, when she heard Hiroshi growl softly.
"You shouldn't call him that," He snarled viciously as he aggressively swatted away the branch in his face with the back of his hand. "He doesn't deserve that title, he never even earned it! He just inherited it without a challenge, the little spoiled bastard." Maya's bright eyes dulled slightly at her elder brother's fierce tone. She could understand her brother's anger over the young horned demon taking the title of lord without a challenge, when Hiroshi had to fight nearly to his death just to be accepted as the heir apparent. However there was question of their true blood ties to the now ruling Lord of Mukuro's lands, while there was no question of the young lord's bloodlines.
Shura didn't actually rule Gandara, yet, as his father, Lord Yomi was apparently still unsatisfied with his son's abilities or rather, his supposed lack thereof. Maya had met the young spitfire of a demon Lord many times over the last couple centuries and though he could be quite the incredibly rude and spoiled brat even now, he was decent enough company to keep on occasion. Hiroshi however could not stand the mere smell of him, let alone settle being in his presence for any amount of time.
"Speaking of which," Maya turned to look at her brother with a mischievous smile curling on her soft lips. "What's going on between you and Miss Suna? I've noticed that her scent is more pronounced around and on you as of late." Hiroshi's head snapped around to watch the smile on his innocent little sister's face turn into a full out almost devilish grin. "I don't know what you're talking about, Maya. Suna and I haven't spoken in over six years." Maya's heterochromatic eyes dropped in sadness when she heard her brother's gloomy tone. He wasn't even looking in her direction but she knew her brother had a far off look in his eyes. He was thinking of her: his beautiful, yet fierce warrior woman of a lover. Suna was an earth manipulator, who specialized in controlling sand, as her name implied. Maya loved the older demoness like a sister and looked up to her a great deal, but Suna was as free as the wind and about as tamable as a wildfire and that was what kept Hiroshi and her apart.
Suna, in Maya's opinion was everything the younger fire demon was not, but sometimes wanted to be. Suna was also quiet infamous in the Makai, as she was the leader of a small, yet powerful group of bandits. Maya knew that if she didn't exist Hiroshi would have left to be with his beloved a long time ago. The thought of her brother leaving saddened her, but she knew he would be much happier with Suna and not cooped up in a large castle with the council members constantly breathing down his neck about him not properly attending to his duties as the heir apparent.
As if sensing her sadness and guilt Hiroshi suddenly turned to meet his sister's gaze, his dark red eyes were soft, yet stern. "Stop thinking like that Maya. You mean more than the three world's together to me. I am happy here with you. It wasn't your fault, so stop thinking that way. Suna left me, because of me. We split because of our own volition and differences, no one else's."
Maya turned her watery gaze away from her brother's sincere, yet obviously heartbroken face. She couldn't stand to see him hurt or unhappy, especially if there was anything she could do to help. Love was a bittersweet thing in Maya's eyes, though she had never felt that emotion from nor to another in ways a lover would, she still saw what it did to those around her. Hiroshi had never been as happy before as he was when he and Suna were together, but she had never seen him as sad or broken as he was when she left him.
"I know," Maya softly uttered as tears threatened to fall from her eyes. The tears though heavy on the rims of her eyes, would never fall. She had been taught long ago to never cry, unless she was back at the castle alone in her room with the door securely locked. Her tears would often, but not always harden into precious gems due to her estranged Ice Maiden blood. In many ways, Maya was a lot like their sweet, genteel aunt, Yukina. Maya was a good healer, she was miraculously and for the most part innocent and free of blood stained hands. But mostly she was kind and gentle.
She was a truly pure being, in Hiroshi's eyes and nothing would ever change that. She lacked his and their father's deep rooted hatred and bitterness. She was his most prized accomplishment, as well as their father's. It had come as a great surprise to the younger fire demon when the Jagan wielded had actually admitted this fact aloud, but Hiroshi believed him, as their father wasn't the type to lie about such things, especially where his little girl was concerned.
Hiei hadn't become soft in any way before or after admitting such a thing either. Their old man was still quite young, by demon standards anyways and had been almost too young when he had given him and Maya life. Hiroshi couldn't stop the sneer that twitched at his lips at the thought of their sperm donor. It may have been a bit childish, but even after all the centuries that had gone by Hiroshi was still harboring a deep anger towards the elder demon.
Maya wanted to comment on her brother's anger towards their father, but refrained because they had had the very same argument countless times before. Hiroshi would forever be angry at the demon that in his mind had been the catalyst to their mother's mental collapse and insanity. Maya couldn't remember her mother, but was told that she had her mother's bondi blue eye. Maya hardly ever asked about or brought up her mother due to both her father's and her brother's feelings.
"I miss the good old days," Maya suddenly announced forlornly as Hiroshi moved a tree limb out of her way. "Back when we all lived together in the living world at Master Genkai's temple," Hiroshi watched the torrid of emotions flash across his sister's eyes with a frown as she continued to speak. "Back when everyone was still alive and young," Hiroshi had to look away from his sister when she turned to look at him with such heartbroken eyes he felt his own heart crack.
"Yes," He admitted softly after a prolonged silence, "I miss that too, May-May." He could feel Maya's soft, yet penetrating gaze on him and let his dark red eyes flicker over to briefly meet her mismatched ones. She was smiling sadly at him and he gave her a faint upwards curve of his lips to silently show her he understood. "Well enough about that. Did you hear that the old fox was going to pay us a visit soon?" Hiroshi asked with a soft huff and a petulant scowl that could almost be considered cute.
Maya's whole face and attitude suddenly brightened and a wide childishly happy grin broke out upon her lips. "Really, Uncle Kurama is coming back?" She asked practically bouncing up and down on her feet like a hyper child begging for sweets. "It's been so long since he's visited." She muttered wistfully, silently noting that it had been nearly three full years since she had last seen her favorite 'uncle' in the flesh. Of course, with the next annual Demon World Tournament quickly approaching all of the older and stronger demons were beginning to gather again. It wouldn't be long before she would get to see everyone together again. Though all of them gathering for the sole purpose to fight one another was not her ideal view of a happy 'family' reunion she understood and accepted their reasoning for enjoying the brutality.
Hiroshi rolled his eyes at his sister's childishness over something as unimportant as a visit from the fox but didn't say anything negative. "Yeah, apparently he's going to be visiting for awhile. From what I heard, he should show up any day now." He confirmed with a stiff nod. Unlike his sister and sperm donor, Hiroshi wasn't very fond of the spirit fox, especially since he had permanently returned to his original form. The human form of Kurama wasn't so bad, but the original was a whole other story. There was just something about the silver kitsune that rubbed the young fire demon the wrong way, though he had yet to actually pin-point just what that something was since there were so many things that he disliked about him to begin with.
Hiroshi was abruptly brought out of his thoughts upon hearing his little sister's unsuccessful attempts at stifling her laughter. He gave her a curious raised eyebrow at her sudden unexplained bout of laughter. Maya choked out a barely identifiable apology, with her slender, petite hand over her pale pink lips. It was futile attempt to hide the wide smile that stretched across her prettily flushed face. Hiroshi stared at his hysterical sister for a few moments, before he rolled his eyes at her rare show of immaturity and playfully swiped his palm across the side of her head in a mock act of slapping some sense into her. "There's something wrong with you, you know that right." He muttered with a well concealed smirk and casually leaned his body backwards easily avoiding her lighthearted almost tug at his hair.
Hiroshi grinned in earnest as he gently tugged at Maya's long onyx hair, before quickly stepping just out of her reach. Maya laughed and lunged at her elder brother when he practically danced away from her, his back towards their destination and his grinning face towards his sister, challenging her to attempt to catch him. Maya wholeheartedly took up the challenge, as she hiked up her long dress skirt just above her ankles before taking off after him. The two hulking guards paid little attention to their playing wards and instead kept their attention to the flush, misty forest around them, always alert for any sign of a threat towards the two young heirs of their lord.