A/N: The last time that I updated this story was almost 6 or 7 months ago. Sorry for keeping you waiting. This is a somewhat morbid chapter.
Warning for this chapter! If you can't stand violent scenes then skip the beginning part.
Chapter 7: Discovery
Kill, Ayane, kill that demon that took your loved ones away from you. Just one plunge directly over its heart...Make your parents proud and avenge their death! NOW! DO IT NOW! Jiroshi screamed at Ayane. The ten-year-old Ayane looked at the demon in front of her, tied to a pole. He was struggling against the ropes and cursing at the human in front of him.
"Hah! A pathetic human girl! I'm supposed to be scared of you! You wouldn't have the guts to kill me if you wanted to!" he directed the comments to Ayane.
She had tears running down her face and a dagger drenched in deadly demon poison in hand. She was so scared as she looked at the pathetic demon, who was still too stubborn to shut up. She sensed that he was truly afraid but he was too proud to admit defeat. He was one of those...demons that killed her parents. The demons that were afraid that the infamous demon hunter family would go after them.
"You killed my mommy a-and da-daddy. Why would you?" she asked weakly. With hatred running through her veins, she stabbed him in the arm with as much force she could muster. He screamed in pain as the demon poison seeped deeply into his slimy green blood. "HOW COULD YOU!" she screamed with her eyes closed. She lost all of her control and started to stab him repeatedly in different spots on his body. Meanwhile, her teacher, Jiroshi stood close by, smirking at his protégé's bloodthirsty behavior.
"AHHHHH!" the demon screamed louder with each stab he took. Finally, Ayane opened her eyes and looked the demon directly in the eyes. The demon shuddered at the coldness in her amber eyes. "Read my lips. You and your entire race will regret the day that you crossed AYANE ANDA!" She slammed the dagger straight into his left eye and into his brain until blood rained down. The demon's screams died as he hung lifeless against the ropes.
"Good girl, Ayane," Jiroshi said, walking over to her and patting her on the back. "You are, indeed, ready to rid the worlds of all demons."
Ayane's eyes widened at the sight in front of her, looked down at her blood stained hands and slowly threw the soiled dagger on the ground. She covered her face with her hands and started to shiver all over. "What...did I just do?"
"You just did a good deed by killing one and imagine how many good deeds you can do if you kill them all..."
A week later, when Ayane was walking down the street one day, she looked sadly at the ground. She still couldn't believe that she's a demon hunter. Why couldn't she just stayed a normal ten-year-old girl? She broke out of her thoughts when a colorful ball with a bright star design on it, landed next to her feet. When she bent down and picked it up, a boy toddler ran up to her and called, "My ball!"
Ayane smiled sweetly and was about to return the ball. When his chubby little finger touched hers, she sensed the demonic aura around him. She looked at the adorable little boy in horror. They're even as young as this boy! "Ayane, imagine how many good deeds you can do if you kill them all..." Her teacher's words rang in her head. She look down at the boy with a feeling of guilt churning in her stomach. The light-brown haired toddler smiled at her while thanking her for giving back his ball. But how can I possibly kill a boy, who's practically too innocent to even kill anybody? I can't do it! She slowly released her hold on the ball...
"You're welcome. Now go back to your mommy, okay?" Ayane said, smiling.
"Hideo! There you are!" the toddler's mother said, running up to them. Ayane could sense the heavy aura around the woman. Another one of them! The child is innocent but how many people have the mother killed? "Ayane, none of them are innocent. They all need to die." But if I kill the mother, it would be like what the demons did to me. They took my parents away from me!
"Oh, thank you!" the mother said, bowing at Ayane. "Thank you so much for finding my son! I turned around for one second then he disappeared on me!" While the mother was still talking, Ayane just smiled and nodded as she slowly stuck her hand in her jacket pocket.
"You're very welcome," Ayane said, bringing her hand out. She extended her palm and took the woman's hand in hers, shaking it up and down. The woman was surprised at this gesture but shook Ayane's hand. Sizzling sounds could be heard from the enclosed hands. Hideo looked on in confusion when he saw that his mother's face showed a pained expression.
"You're very welcome," Ayane repeated. "Demon..." She took her hand from the mother's crumbling hand which was slowly turning into ash.
"Wha?" the demon mother said in shock. Ayane looked at her with that same hatred she showed the previous demon, she faced. She took out a small jug of demon repellent for the lower class demons. The light purple would do nothing to Ayane as she wasn't a demon but is like acid to a weak demon. The demon looked on in horror as Ayane gave Hideo the small jug. With a friendly smile and a sweet tone, Hideo couldn't tell that Ayane was making him drink poison.
"NO! HIDEO!" she screamed as the rest of her body turned to ash. The eye was all that remained before Hideo opened the jug and started to drink... "HIDEO! MY BELOVED SON!"
"AH!" Ayane shrieked as she bolted straight up on the bed. She breathed heavily as she surveyed her surrounds. The same old room that Yusuke let her sleep in. She heard light breathing as she turned to face Yukina, who fell asleep in a chair. She sighed as she brushed her long ebony locks out of her face. The sun rays penetrated the light curtain and hit one of Ayane's eyes. She looked at the lime green numbers of the digital clock on the dresser next to the bed.
It's 6: 30 in the morning. What a big change in my dreams. Instead of the nightmare of my dead parents, I have a weird dream of talking to a shadow (A/N: The Hiei dream) and a memory of my past killings. Ayane's bare feet hit the cold floor and walked past the slumbering Yukina. Those were some of the easier killings. With her uninjured arm, she opened the window wide enough for her body to squeeze through. She grabbed her dark navy jacket before jumping onto the ledge.
Once I find out Hiei and Kurama's weaknesses, I'm going to kill them then finish the others off...
After Ayane disappeared, Yukina was having a nice dream until her head drooped. Blurry eyed, she rubbed her eyes and looked around the room. She just remembered that she stayed up all night, watching Ayane sleep, just in case, she needed something. Yukina was about to close her eyes and slumber again. Something caught her attention though...An empty bed.
"Ayane-san! Where is she?" Yukina panicked. She went on her knees and looked under the bed, hopefully, she could find Ayane there. A light breeze greeted her instead.
A breeze? That would mean that the window's open. Sure enough when the innocent koorime looked up, she saw that the window was wide open. The curtains were fluttering in the breeze as she rushed to look out the window. She turned left and right but couldn't see Ayane anywhere on the ledge.
"Ayane-san! Please come out wherever you are!" Yukina yelled.
Meanwhile in Koenma's office, Yusuke was standing in front of the toddler's desk, yawning behind his hand. He tried to keep awake as best as he could but his head drooped forward and he started to snore lightly. Irritated, Koenma threw his stamp at Yusuke's head.
"Hey! What'd you do that for!" Yusuke exclaimed, holding onto the handle of the stamp. He was fully awake now.
"Ahem. As I was saying, Yusuke, we have gathered some information about the legendary demon hunter that you're to protect. Take a look at the screen behind me," Koenma said, looking behind him.
George, the blue ogre, switched the lights off as Koenma began to narrate the first slide. "This title of this slide is the "Anda Files". In the years when demon existed, there were also humans, who sworn to rid the worlds of youkai. These kinds of humans were known as demon hunters. Their main duty were to protect the human world from the bloodthirsty demons. Although, it was a popular profession, there were only three infamous demon hunter clans. One of the them was the Anda clan. The others are of no importance so you don't need to know their names." He pressed a button on his remote and the image changed from the title to an image of the first man that made the Anda clan famous. He had brown shaggy hair, wore wild animal furs and had a whip in his hand.
"This is Ichiro Anda, the first of the Andas to become a demon hunter. He was known for torturing demons to death. They say that he had a secret maneuver to killing dozens of demons at once, which is why the Anda clan became well-known. However, it wasn't until many years later when one of his descendants, Lisa Anda, began to develop easier ways and more efficient ways to kill demons with repellents and deadly poisons. There is also a rumor that she also created a secret weapon that can eliminate demons of S class or higher." The screen changed to an image of an attractive woman of thirty years, wearing small square glasses with black hair tied up in a ponytail and piercing amber eyes.
"That woman looks strangely familiar to me," Kurama muttered to himself as he studied Lisa's picture.
"Hmm...A comment that you would like to share with us, Kurama?" Koenma asked when he heard Kurama's comment.
"You know what's weird?" Yusuke suddenly said, wincing at the screen. "She looks just like my cousin."
"You have a cousin?" Koenma asked, surprised.
"Why does everyone keep reacting that way whenever I say that?" Yusuke said.
"So...how long did you know that you have a cousin?" Koenma asked.
"About a week."
"You just found out that you have a cousin this week!" Yusuke just shrugged his shoulders and said, "So what's your point?"
"I think that Koenma is suspecting that Ayane-san isn't your cousin at all," Kurama spoke up. "Koenma, what was your sole reason for us being here?"
"Well, I wanted to tell you that I made a mistake and found out that the only demon hunter left isn't a man. In fact, it's a teenage girl who's probably the same age as you."
In dim lit pub, Ayane sat with her boss, Jiroshi, in a dark corner so they wouldn't be overheard. Although, Ayane is still sixteen-years-old, anyone could easily mistaken her for a twenty-year-old with a little make-up. Her eyelids were tinted with light purple eye shadow while her lips had a hint of scarlet.
"So how are things in the Urameshi household?" Jiroshi asked softly before taking a sip of wine.
"Jiroshi-sama, I found out who's Hiei and Kurama but I haven't figured out their weaknesses yet. Though Hiei looks easy enough to take down," she smirked, bringing out newly concocted demon poison onto the table. Immediately, Jiroshi's eyes glared at the contents of the small glass jars. Ayane didn't notice but in the past, she observed that he would never touch the jars. It had no effect on humans at all, only demons.
"Don't be foolish!" he snapped, moving his hand away from the poisons. It's almost as if he was afraid of them... "Hiei is one of the higher class demons and he's infamous for killing. Especially with his Jagan eye, you would have no chance against him unless-Ayane! Put those poisons back into your bag!" He backed away from the table.
"But Jiroshi-sama, I just wanted to show you my new deadly poisons. They're made from ingredients that I just found out to be more vile to demons than my grandmother's poisons," she said, swirling the contents of one of the jars before his face. Trying not to be suspicious, Jiroshi said calmly that he was allergic to them.
"Sorry, Jiroshi-sama," she said, shoving them into her black bag.
Back at Koenma's office, Yusuke and his friends realized that Ayane was probably the demon hunter that they needed to find. Yusuke thought that they would be happy but the atmosphere wasn't as cheery.
"Why's everyone so down?" he asked. "Isn't it good that she came to us? That means that we don't have to look for her ourselves."
"Yes, but Yusuke, why would she come to you unless...she wanted something," Botan said worriedly. She turned to look at Kurama and Hiei, who was in the corner.
"What do you mean?" he asked. Then he followed Botan's gaze. It finally registered to him.
"She wants to kill Hiei and Kurama!"
"Urameshi, isn't she at your house?" Kuwabara asked. "With Yukina!"
A/N: Another one of those short chapters but at least, I updated. What's going to happen next? I wonder. Please review.
