The air was deeply disturbed. The smell of blood and ash tainted the Makai World air while at the same time, the screams of terror and pain echoed throughout the small city in between the borderline kingdoms of Yomi and Mukuro.
High up on the balcony of a tall building, stood Amaya. She surveyed the city with its bright, multi-colored lights flecked all around. Down below, demons of all ages ran past her building from the right, crying out in fright for their lives. Some were even wounded badly. Amaya watched each demon under her hood with impassive eyes. They were not her concern. She turned her head towards the direction they ran from and spotted amidst the swirling city lights thick, black smoke rising up from one of the high buildings identical to the one she stood on. The building which the smoke came from was on fire. The flames gave the dark night sky an eerie red glow, combined from the faint red light coming from the full, red moon behind it. Dark clouds above either signified that a storm was forming or that the black smoke was cumulating into something that would have the potential to kill all the inhabitants of the city.
"That is my concern," Amaya whispered. She stood straight, observing the hellish scene before taking off into a run. At the edge of the building, she leaped into the air and rolled onto the roof of the next building. She kept up this pace, this rhythm, for three other buildings until she skidded to a stop on the building next to the one on fire. She stepped closer until she met the edge of the roof and crouched low. Down below, demons scattered the streets, many trying to run away from the cloaked figure slaughtering the majority with a bloody machete, smaller than a katana but much larger and deadlier than a knife.
"It's Nightfire! Nightfire! Ruunn!!" the demons yelled.
Amaya glared at the imposter, hating him yet wondering how the shape shifter could possibly change into her without having touched her. Amaya stood up and sucked in her breath. She stepped off the ledge and came hurtling down in a pencil dive. The ground, with the spilt blood of demons, came at her, and she bent her legs to cushion her fall. The ground under her feet vibrated from the velocity she had descended from. Amaya swung her short hair away from her line of vision and straightened herself. Instantly she spotted the culprit: her imposter. The shape shifter was dealt yet another unfortunate demon a blow with the machete, creating more of a bloody mess. It was silent now, save for the crackling of the great inferno that would eventually turn the building into nothing but ash.
Amaya walked towards the shape shifter and turned them around. Her blood red with obsidian flecked eyes stared back into her own. The imposter's eyes widened in surprise and took a step
back.
"How did you become me?" Amaya asked coldly. She began to walk calmly towards the culprit, menace and vengeance in every step. Far away, the sounds of sirens were coming closer towards their location.
The shape shifter matched her step for step as he walked backwards, away from the frightening ex-assassin. He thrust out with his other hand a simple kunai knife, but Amaya could recognize it as her own.
"You shouldn't be leaving your toys for others to play with," the demon said and threw the knife at her feet. He had stopped moving away and now held his ground. He seemed to have regained his confidence and was smirking under the hood.
Amaya fixed her cold eyes upon him. "You may have my powers, but that does not mean you know how to use them," she spat. Amaya lifted her hands and slowly pulled back her hood. The shape shifters eyes, her eyes, widened knowing what would come next: his death sentence. "Now you shall see the face of death," Amaya whispered.
Then she was out of his sight. The demons heart rate rose higher and higher as he spun around, vainly trying to look for Nightfire. His hood fell off in the process. He could not find her; he could sense her spirit energy everywhere and it distracted him on where was her exact location. Then, he could sense her coming to his left. The shape shifter spun on his heel and swung his machete out in front of him.
Amaya flipped over the sharp weapon just in time, only receiving a shallow cut across her chest as she sailed over his head. She reached out and felt the warm metal clasp that held the necklace around his neck. In the second before she landed on the ground behind him, she unclasped the chain and took the artifact. As she knelt behind the shape shifter, he yelled out in anger and fear as he changed back into his regular body. When Amaya turned back, she encountered blond, blue-eyed demon cowering under her gaze.
She disappeared once more and reappeared behind him. "Who sent you?" she asked.
The demon closed his eyes and let the grip on his weapon slacken knowing death was knocking on his front door. "K-Kisei," he stuttered.
That was all the information that Amaya needed. "Very well then," she said. Amaya closed her hands over his ears and shouted, "Nightmare Syndrome!"
The demon screamed out in agony and clasped the black glowing hands. His blue eyes rolled back so the whites were showing and then turned black. His mind was full of tormented images so horrible and powerful that he subconsciously felt the wounds being inflicted on his body. He was losing his mind. An image projected from those murderous hands was of a middle-aged man. His lungs were bursting and he was spitting up blood. The shape shifter tasted the metallic liquid coming from within him, and then his heart, with a last image, burst.
Amaya removed her hands from the corpses head and let the body drop in a bloody heap at her feet. She looked down at her blood-stained clothes in disgust. "Messy demons," she murmured. Snapping her fingers, her clothes were clean again. The small cut she had received from the shape shifter didn't need any special attention. Amaya held up her new accessory. The purple amethyst stone gleamed with the other blue gems on the pendant. Amaya pinched the purple gem with her thumb and forefinger. The tracking device fell to the ground in pieces.
Amaya placed the necklace around her and covered it with her cloak. For a moment she looked around at the destruction, and then at the body of the shape shifter. She snapped up her head at the closer sounds of wailing sirens; her get away signal. She disappeared into the surrounding darkness, away from the crime scene. Her real work was just starting.
A cloaked figure walked down a narrow alleyway. The Makai red moon tinted the night sky with supremacy; the flames from the burning building were gone. A single slender finger ran along the jagged left wall until it passed through a section near the dead end of the alley. The fleshy, feminine lips curled up at the corners, and Amaya walked through the wall.
The underground tavern was a humble, yet secretive establishment where a traveling demon could rest. Or find get the latest gossip from willing, but price-demanding resources. The owner was a well known demon called Khan. He was an A class demon that, if occasion arises, can kick ass; especially those who disrupted his alcohol business. There weren't many demons that could consume alcohol, but it was all a cover up anyway for top secret gambling and a chance for demons to rough-house. Khan didn't mind the rough-housing that much as long as it didnt get in the way of his real business of making money off travelers.
No one recognized Amaya as she stepped into the especially crowded room, the first and top floor of many underground. The source of the excitement, as she drew closer towards the bar, was a crowd pleasing death match between two drunken demons. Bystanders had formed a circle around the battling demons, both of expertise in the element water, and half were jeering at them while the other half took bets to see who would be the victor.
Amaya shook her head at the antics of moron demons. Really now, why must they have to go towards barbaric ways of entertainment like that? she half wondered as she slid onto a stool at the bar.
Khan, the owner, was the first and only one to notice her. "Well, haven't seen you in a while," he said conversationally. Khan had known Amaya ever since she was a rookie at her assassin job, and he knew her pretty well. He was not afraid of her. "I heard that you got finally captured by the Spirit Detectives."
Amaya tilted her chin up defiantly, bi-colored eyes flashing. She smirked, "You should know better than to listen to the grape vines that talk of me."
Khan chuckled. He was still young; 450 years old in demonic years, but in human years just a mere 27. He was 12 human years older than Amaya. "Nightfire, don't you be playing me like that. Remember, I was the first person that got to know you. So I know all your tricks," he told her.
Amaya rolled her eyes and threw a glance at the crowd surrounding the battling demons. It seemed to have grown larger with more spectators. She turned her attention back to Khan. He braced himself on the clean bar counter and leaned forward, waiting.
"Okay, I did get captured by them," Amaya said in a low voice so as not to be overheard. "I made a bargain with that prince toddler to not kill them and help with their missions for the rest of my life in exchange for not sentencing me to death - don't you give me that look Khan! I'm serious!"
Khan ran a hand through his jet black hair and sighed. If anyone could compare those two, Amaya without her cloak and in humane form with Khan, anyone could mistake them as brother and sister. "I just can't believe you got off that easy, he said in disbelief. He shook his head and fixed his mud brown eyes at the younger demon. "And so why are you here?" he asked cautiously.
"I need your help," Amaya said quickly. Who knew how much time she had wasted there? "The Spirit Detectives are at the tournament. Surely you have heard of it."
Khan nodded.
"All you, or I should say I, need to know is the whereabouts of Nightwing is."
Khan looked at Amaya like she was crazy, but the dead-serious look in her eyes told him otherwise. Nightwing was a name feared by many demons. Some say he was the male counter-part of Nightfire; both spawned from the same nest of destruction and blood. Koenma would have surely kept massive records on the demon-slayer. Two years ago he had found a portal to the Makai, and it took a good part of three months to track him down. Yet it wasn't before the mass killing of 6,000 demons or more. Amaya knew only what she had learned over the four years he had been at his work; a year before she started her assassin job. All she knew was that he had a bitter vendetta with the demons and that he was an exceptional fighter. The only real problem besides his cooperation, that was key to her plan's success, was that he was a human.
"Are you sure you want to know?" Khan asked.
Amaya ignored his concern. Before the Spirit Detectives, before Yukina, Khan was the only demon who had ever showed her what caring meant. She always knew there was a soft spot for him waiting to be bait for hungry carnivores against her hard shell, but no one will ever find out. Not on her life would she be sent down in shame because she allowed her cold heart to warm up. "Cut me the crap and tell me where he is," she demanded.
Khan sighed in aggravation. "Fine, fine. If you want to die, go ahead! All I have heard is that he resides in America in a city the humans call Boston, he said the last word in discuss. Obviously he wasn't too big a fan of humans. He had a special prejudice against them because of the infamous, underground Black Black Club."
Amaya tilted her head to the side, thinking hard. "Do you know anything about a demon named Kisei?" she asked finally.
Khan thought a moment, and then nodded once. "I've heard a whisper of a low level A class elemental demon named Kisei. He isnt well known in the Makai; hasn't even made a real name for himself here, if you know what I mean." Khan let out a breath and fixed Amaya a questioning look.
"I had to kill a demon, and he told me he worked for a demon named Kisei," she replied bluntly. There was no use beating around the bush with Khan. He was a strong telepath that trained her to harness her own telepath abilities.
Khan nodded. His brow was knitted in a furrow, like he had a burden on his mind.
Amaya smirked and slid off the seat. She turned around on her heel. Roars of approval and disappointment rose, but over her shoulder she told Khan over the din, "I am not going to die Khan. I can't die. Yet."
