Chapter 1—Life as a noble spy
"But mother!" cried the eighteen year old young woman, her eyes ablaze with defiance. "I don't want—" Slap!
The young woman stumbled back holding her cheek as she stared wide eyed up at her mother. She should have known better. She averted her eyes, her hand falling to her side. She would never be allowed to continue her spy duties for Lord Koenma at this rate.
The young woman had been protesting her arranged marriage to another samurai's son. Her father was off fighting currently so it was up to her mother to set her up for marriage for her. Hiromi was to marry her father's best friend's son—a young man that made her want to vomit every time he came around or to stuff her ears full of sand every time he spoke. And here she was being expected to marry him.
All Hiromi wanted to do was to spend her life working for Koenma. Now that was a life Hiromi could like. It was full of excitement and danger. She was part of the system of spies he had recruited to work in both human and demon world. She got to cross over to the demon world and track particularly dangerous demons when she was free from duties here in the human realm.
Her mother's sharp words brought her out of her misery long enough to get her angry again. "You will do as you are told Hiromi! I don't care what you want. Bishamon is a great young man and his father is wealthier than we are. It would do our house honor for you to marry him!"
"But he's a brattling, cares nothing about possible battles. His father has to bribe him just to hunt. Not to mention—" Hiromi told her mother angrily before her mother's flashed and she rose her hand in a threat that Hiromi knew her mother would fulfill if she didn't stop speaking.
"Go to your room and get ready. Bishamon will be arriving with his own mother soon. I do not want you wearing those disgusting commoner clothes in front of them!" her mother demanded before turning away to go back and finish getting ready for the amazing arrival of the amazingly stupid Bishamon.
Hiromi glared after her mother and turned around, stomping the rest of the way to her room. If only Koenma could pop up with an important mission and save her from this misery. As she closed the door behind her—slammed more like—she looked down at her clothes and frowned. There was nothing wrong with what she was wearing. She had just returned from a run through the village and was wearing one of her oldest, most commoner looking kimono—a solid blue that played off her own blue-grey eyes and black hair. She was the only one in her family to have them now that her great-grandmother was dead.
She sighed and moved along; pulling out one of her more 'appropriate' kimono's in order to get ready for the hellish meeting about to occur. Its black material was flaked with a purple-pink color to resemble cherry blossoms. She shrugged off the blue kimono and pull on the black one.
"My, my, what a beautiful sight for one such as me," came a male voice that Hiromi knew all too well. She kept her back to the individual, a crooked smile filling her lips. When she pulled on the kimono and had the belt tied, she pulled her hip length black hair out of the material and began to tie it up in a pony-tail that would keep all of it except her bangs and two strands that framed her face out of the way as she spied. She did not feel the need to turn around until she was done because she knew that the man that was staring at her had no intention on her honor.
Hiromi turned finally as she stuffed her dagger into the sleeve of her left arm. The man before her was American in every way—from the blond-brown hair to the white skin to the deep hazel eyes that watched her with mischief present.
"Edmund, it is a pleasure to see you as well, though I don't think that you are supposed to be in our country. Weren't you just in Demon world for a special assignment or some such thing?" She replied casually as she went over to grab a decorative comb in the form of a rising sun and a tree that she slid into her hair near her pony-tail.
"I was. But I felt a longing to get the tar beaten from me by you once again, dearest Hiromi-san." Edmund replied before he walked over and took the comb from her hair and put it so that it was in a better position to hide the twin daggers that were disguised as decorative chopsticks in her hair.
"I do suppose I could give you just what you seek, if you'll help me get out of this arranged marriage." Hiromi said sweetly, batting her lashes at the man before laughing and swatting his hand away so that she could go back to putting on the appropriate make-up. "Or maybe you have a mission from my lord Koenma you'd like to pass off to me? I would love you forever if you did."
"Not a mission that I'd like to pass off, a mission directly from Lord Koenma himself. He's been kind of busy with a lot of paperwork so he sent me instead." Edmund said, grinning at the ecstatic joy that fell into place onto Hiromi's features. He had thought she would feel that way.
"Oh, please Edmund, get me out of here before I punch some innocent absent minded suitor!" she said, grabbing his arm that he offered to her with a laugh. And with the relaxation of her body she found herself falling into a portal to the Demon World, Edmund holding her to him so that they did not get separated before they landed.
"So tell me!" Hiromi pleaded with a grin as they fell through the portal. She was relaxed as if she was floating from one stair to the next, having preformed such jumps often enough before.
"There is a demon bandit and his partner that hasn't surfaced in a while—Yoko and Kuronue I believe their names are. It is said that they are going to strike in half a day's time. My mission is to get you to a place where you can follow them and discover their hideout. They've never been caught before and Koenma wants at least some information on them. Your mission is to follow them and discover said hiding place and return. If you can get a size of their operation, that would be nice, but it's very dangerous and Koenma doesn't want you to risk anything this time." Edmund said, practically transforming from the laughing school boy to a hard professional that was reporting to a colleague.
"Apparently Yoko Kurama has a taste for human women flesh and Kuronue has a ball with tormenting them with some kind of mind control he has." Edmund continued as they touched down in demon world. She was so focused on getting the information that she didn't notice when they began to start walking, his arms protectively around her, into a demon town outside a large fortress.
"Then I'll follow them and make sure not to be seen. You may tell Koenma that I will return with the information in three days if not sooner. And could you ask him to find some way to send a mind wiper to my parents? I was supposed to be there for a wedding arrangement ceremony of some kind. It would be best for all that I was supposed to be off visiting a relative in a neighboring village or something." Hiromi replied, having also changed her demeanor into one of someone that expected trouble, but was ready for it. A spy with a mission at last. She had been antsy ever since the last mission.
"Then I will leave you here at the inn." Edmund said, stopping outside a demonic tavern, wings sprouting from his back as he stepped back. While he wasn't human, she trusted him with her life—only because Koenma trusted him and he had saved her hide once from a horrible fate.
She turned to see him fly away, her heart lifting little. She wished that she had wings like his—black, glossy, elegant. She smiled icily. That would be the day. The day that she was given wings would be the day that she fell in love with a demon. She turned her head to look at the tavern and exhaled a breath she found she'd been holding as Edmund flew away.
Hiromi closed her eyes for a moment, pulling up the spirit energy that allowed her to hide her human 'stench'. She wasn't as powerful as some of the spirit detectives that she'd met, but it was enough to make people leave her alone. She looked around once more with her blue eyes and entered the tavern without a word. Midnight would come eventually to demon world, and the fox and bat would strike.