Character(s): Hiei.
Prompt: I Ain't Gonna Be Just a Face in the Crowd ("It's My Life" by Bon Jovi)
Summary: Fame is all well and good until you get it and look back on the regrets.
Notoriety
Hiei had never wanted to fit in. He wanted to be the strongest, the fastest, the toughest; the best. You couldn't be the best if no one knew who you were. So he provoked fights and slaughtered his way around Makai. He was careful to never fight anyone too powerful, content to slowly work his way up to a higher level.
Then he had gotten the Jagan implanted. All of that hard work, and Hiei was suddenly a D-class. But the Jagan was more than just useful; it could make him stronger than he had been before. He just had to work his way his back up to that level and then push himself beyond it.
Stealing from Reikai with Goki and Kurama had seemed like it was the chance of a lifetime. Notoriety and power in one move. But then Yuusuke had gone and ruined it all. When Hiei was being truthful, he knew that there had been more problems than one annoying Reikai worker, but it was so much easier to blame the detective.
Being a lapdog for Reikai had been humiliating, but it had allowed him to build his power back up quicker than might otherwise have happened. He was aimed at enemies and then released, and those fights against stronger and stronger demons helped boost his youki into B-level standing.
Training with Mukuro and participating in the Makai Tournament had propelled him solidly into A-level status. It had also spread his name around as someone a smart demon didn't want to mess with. Hiei, Master of the Jagan, was now one of the top demons in Makai, just as he had always wanted.
Perched on a tree that overlooked Genkai's temple, Hiei couldn't help but think it was funny that he couldn't have the one thing he wanted more than acknowledgement.