Koenma stared angrily at the paused video before him. He was leaning far too close to the screen than was appropriate for his eyes. The scene before mocked him. No, she was mocking him. There was never a clear image of her face. She was smart enough to keep her face away from any of the cameras. She was smart, fast, and dangerous, a very deadly combination for a woman. Because they couldn't get a clear image of her, he couldn't very well place a name on her. Yoko Kurama, King of Bandits, eat your heart out.

"Sir?" George the ogre stood with a file and another video tape in his hand.

"Not now."

"But sir."

"Not now ogre."

"But sir, we might have found something." He handed the prince the other VHS tape.

Koenma turned, snatched the tape from him, and replaced with the one that had been playing. Sure enough on the new video, the thief was strutting down a dimly lit corridor decorated with the bodies of security guards. Ogres were sprawled out on the floors like rag dolls. Some had bullet-sized holes in them, others were sliced up. Playing cards were scattered everywhere. Some were stuck inside the back of one dead ogre.

"Watch closely," George pointed his clawed finger at the screen.

Koenma swatted his hand away so he could see better. This woman had become the bane of his existence. She always hid her face, which was a clear indication that she was that good. She used thin plates of metal sharp enough to tear through an ogre's flesh like paper and paint them like playing cards. She had earrings she could turn into guns. And once the deed was done, she would saunter out of the safe or high security vault. What really ticked him off was the fact that she looked so pleased with herself afterwards. All other cases were on hold until she was caught.

A miracle happened. So god or goddess of fortune smiled on him that day. The woman in video dropped something, she stooped down to pick it up. It must have been a hair pin because she pushed it into her hair while the cursed ruby medallion dangled from the crook of her arm. This was her first and last mistake. As she cocked her head slightly to put the hairpin back where she wanted it, she accidentally showed her good side towards the nearest operating camera. Pausing the video, Koenma could finally glare at the smooth, perhaps now not so smooth, criminal.

She was young. Her age was a little difficult to estimate because of her sophisticated make-up and her ridiculous high heeled shoes, but he could guess that she was in her early to mid-twenties. Her copper hair was worn in a half-braid down her left shoulder and much of it covered that side of her face. A black fedora tilted just a little helped keep some of her hair in place while pins did the rest of the work. The suits that she wore couldn't have been expensive, not if she knew she could get blood on them. It was either that or she had several suits in the same color. Alas for the dry cleaners who could benefit from her business, the thief's speciality seemed to be in killing opponents at a long distance. Her long range arsenal of weapons made her a priority to catch.

"We have a face now, great. Do we have anything else?"

George handed him the thin folder. Koenma flicked it open, but was sorely disappointed in the contents of the folder. There were about three pages inside. A photograph taken from the video footage was paper-clipped to the first page. This first page contained the basic physical characteristics that the ogres could pick out from the video. The video evidence gave a somewhat vague description of the culprit. She was Japanese, or at the very least Asian. If it wasn't for that hairpin, they wouldn't have found that out. Her hair had been bleached and dyed that rich copper color. They estimated her height to be no more than six feet, but that was also accounting for the high heels. Her eye color was dark, possibly dark green, brown, or black. The video camera couldn't get close enough to distinguish the color of her visible eye. Her speciality was long-range weaponry. She seemed to favored her special 'playing cards' as well.

The rest of the report went on to connect her to a string of robberies in the last several months. At each scene of the crime there were three things: playing cards, bullet holes, and a missing treasure. Her motives were widdled down to greed and nothing more. However, many of the items that were stolen were ones that would imbue its owner with power and no normal demon would pass up the chance to use something like it. Yet, according to the report, there was no indication that the thief was using the magical items. Was she just hoarding them or did she plan to sell them on the black market to unsuspecting humans and power hungry demons? If she wasn't using the items for herself, then at least Koenma could sigh with relief that she wasn't one of those demons that stole things to become more powerful. That didn't seem to fit her MO. She was moved by greed, not power. It did make more sense if she sold the stolen items to those who would use them for nefarious purposes.

Koenma slammed the folder closed. He grabbed it and waved it in George's face.

"Is this the best we have? This woman's been a real thorn in my side for the past six, seven, months! She's good. Too good, and until you bring me something remotely useful you're going to be transferred over to feeding the corpse-eaters!"

"B-but sir, those things can only eat..." George nearly jumped twelve feet into the air.

"Dead bodies, yes." Koenma said grimly, glaring at the ogre. "Imagine that."

George swallowed hard, sweating as only a nervous wreck would.

Knock, knock

"Come in," Poker Face adjusted her hair so that the left side of her face was hidden.

The bathroom door creaked open. She had no sense of embarrassment even as she continued to lather herself up with a sponge and expensive jasmine soap.

"Did I come at a bad time?" Her guest asked.

"No, no, sweetie. Just have seat over there, Mr. Sakyo." She pointed her suds-covered arm to the pastel covered arm chair sitting in the corner of her enormous hotel bathroom.

"I can wait outside if you want."

"Oh no, I couldn't have that, Mr. Sakyo. If you came all this way to see me, I would hate to waste your time by making you wait."

Sakyo shrugged his shoulders. He made his way towards the chair she pointed to and sat down. Rummaging through his suit jacket, he pulled out a cigarette and a lighter. He was about to put it to his lips when Poker Face turned to him.

"I'd rather you not smoke in my hotel room, Mr. Sakyo. Paying extra for that privilege is such a pain. Do you think you could wait until after our business meeting to have a smoke?"

He took the cigarette and lighter away for now. "Do you know why I called on you?"

Poker Face giggled and put away her sponge in the fancy soap dish hanging on the wall just above the marble tub with golden lion-clawed feet. The water sloshed around her as she moved to lean a little bit against the edge of the tub. Her lean body was covered from the neck down in bubbles and slippery suds. He would be liar if he said that he wouldn't have his way with this woman. She folded one arm across her chest while the other was thrown off the edge. Water dripped down from her arm and body as she leaned forward.

"You mean you didn't come all this way for a friendly visit? That hurts Mr. Sakyo, it really does." She chuckled.

"I have a job for you."

"Oh."

"And it's not the usual kind..."

Poker Face sighed playfully. "I keep telling you, no matter how much money your offer, I'm not going to sleep with you."

"Would you, even if you weren't paid?" Sakyo decided to play along. Business with this woman went so much easier when she was in a good mood.

Poker Face gave him a long once-over, eyeing him from head to toe. She looked appreciatively, but never gave an answer other than a seductive, confident smirk.

"I would like you to do something else for me. I need you to gauge the strength of a certain group I'm interested in."

Bored now, she went back to washing herself.

"Oh. What kind of group?"

"A rag tag team of teenage boys who hunt demons."

"Is that all," she laughed. "Doesn't like much fun."

"There's two humans on this team, but there is a demon you would be interested in."

"What makes you say that?" Slowly raising her leg above the water and stretching to wash her foot with the sponge.

"The other two are demons. A fox demon trapped in a human body and the other is a fire apparition with a jagan."

The sponge slipped out of Poker Face's hand. Not that she noticed.

"A jaganshi, you say." Her smile widened immediately to where Sakyo thought her face would overstretch and snap out of place. "Well, why didn't you say something earlier?"

Sakyo rose from his seat and crossed the length of the bathroom. He stopped directly in front of the tub and stared at her face. His hand reached out, fingers lightly touching her right cheek. His fingers tried to dive underneath the veil of hair, but she was much too fast for him. Poker Face caught his wrist and held it in a vice grip. With her other hand, she grabbed onto his silk tie and pulled him close to her face. Their lips were so close they might have kissed.

"No one looks underneath there." Her wide smile made her appear all the more insane, especially when her eye was pealed open wide.

"Call me curious."

"You know that curiosity killed the cat?"