Imouto

Amai: For authenticity (and because I'm finally learning more), I've thrown a few Japanese words into this story. -Chan and -kun are hard to translate, so just remember that they are for friends, -chan for females (and occasionally males, but only if you're being cutesy) and -kun for males. All others will be translated at the end of the chapter. Also, the names are in traditional Japanese format, last name first.

Before we start the chapter, it's time for (insert drum roll here) REVIEW RESPONSES!

Sillyningengirl: You know what the sad thing is? I WOULD paint my house like that. How do you think I got the idea? But at least your room is red and blue. I was nice about the guys' room colors.

Yavie Aelinel: Now that I know what your name means, it's even cooler. I'm a big Tolkien fan too! But I wasn't expecting anyone to want to be like Mizuki. I thought I created her to be annoying. (Scratches head and thinks) (Shrugs and gives up) Well, hope this chapter is as good as the last!

Okay, and a shameless plug here: Would anyone read my other Yu Yu Hakusho fic, "Once Upon a Dream-Time"? It hasn't gotten any reviews yet, and I'm sad. :(

CHAPTER THREE: Arrows and Pizzas

Hiei was sitting on his bed, meditating quietly and minding his own business, when he first heard it.

Stomp! Stomp! Stomp-stomp-stomp!

The ceiling above him was being pounded to some sort of rhythm. When he listened closer, he could hear music with the same beat as the pounding. 'What is going on?!' he thought angrily, his face forming a grimace. Now that it had his attention, he couldn't ignore the pounding or the very annoying music that went along with it. It was coming from directly above him. There was only one thing to do- go upstairs and see what it was.

Hiei threw open the door to his room, making a loud SLAM that caused Kurama to poke his head out and see what was going on. "That damn pounding," Hiei muttered as an explanation before stomping up the bright blue and yellow spiral staircase. Once he was up there he could hear the music even more clearly, and laughter too. He made his way over to a closed door that was painted in rainbow stripes and said "Mizuki" in bold white letters and white Hirigana [1]. The music, laughter, and pounding noises originated here.

Hiei slammed open the door to see Botan and Mizuki in front of a big-screen TV, hopping around on floor mats with arrows on them. The TV screen had arrows sliding upwards, and the speakers were blaring music. The song had no words, but a tune that Hiei was sure would get stuck in his head for days to come, with all his luck.

"Da da da, da dada da, da da da, da dada da, daaa, da da da da da da, da dadada da da..." Mizuki was singing along with the wordless song, and quite loudly. [Amai: For my fellow DDR fans, if you don't recognize the song already, it's Candy! YAY!] The girls were having so much fun that they either didn't notice or chose to ignore Hiei's entrance until their song was over. That gave the fire demon plenty of time to seethe. His bedroom WOULD have to be right under the annoying girl's with her stupid arrow- stomping annoying-music thing.

When the song was done the girls decided they needed a short break, and now Mizuki paid attention to Hiei. "Konnichiwa [2] Hiei-kun!" she said brightly, bounding over and patting him on his spiky hair, giggling loudly. "To what do we owe the honor of your presence?"

"Your arrow-stomping thing can be heard down in my room," Hiei said coldly. "It is loud and annoying."

"Arrow-stomp... oh, you mean DDR! It's fun, you should try it!" Mizuki said, nodding vigorously. Botan began laughing at the thought of Hiei playing Dance Dance Revolution, and the fire demon glared at her with all the venom he could muster.

"Hey Botan-chan, wanna go raid the fridge for munchies?" Mizuki asked, looking back to her blue-haired friend. Botan nodded and Mizuki quickly turned off DDR. Then the two girls ran downstairs, leaving Hiei still standing in the doorway to Mizuki's bedroom.

In the kitchen, Yusuke was already seated on one of the tall barstools and digging into a large bowl of ice cream. "You didn't eat the last of it, did you?" Mizuki asked, looking pointedly at Yusuke's bowl.

"How could I eat the last of the ice cream when you have nearly-full gallon buckets of seven different flavors, not to mention a bunch of individual cups?" Yusuke replied almost sarcastically. Mizuki laughed and assured him that she'd been joking before going over to the freezer and seeing what was in it.

"It's almost dinner time, who's up for frozen pizzas?" she asked upon finding a few. Botan and Yusuke agreed, as did Kurama who had just come downstairs to see where everyone had disappeared to. Mizuki sat down at the table with the other three after popping two of the pizzas into the oven. Hiei was still unaccounted for, but everyone just guessed that he was back in his room now that there was no more music and pounding to disturb him.

"So if you're Koenma's imouto [3], why haven't we ever met you before?" Yusuke asked. "And how come you're not a toddler?"

"I don't know why Koenma-anchan [4] likes to be a toddler. It's so much more fun to be a teenager!" Mizuki sighed. "But my anchan doesn't like me much. He says I'm annoying. He won't even admit to most people that we're related."

"I've known Mizu-chan for years, but we haven't seen each other in forever," Botan added. "Since she lives over here in America and I've been spending most of my time in Japan or Demon World helping you guys, our schedules haven't exactly coordinated."

"What made you decide to live in America, Mizuki?" Kurama queried, leaning forward on the table.

"I found a spot that I liked. Unlike in Japan where Daddy wanted me to live, here in America there's plenty of land for my gardens for less money. Land in Japan is expensive 'cause there's not much of it." Reminded of her plants, Mizuki got up and grabbed a watering can which she quickly began filling in the sink. She walked over to the huge yellow-trumpet plant in the corner and began to water it, talking baby-talk to it as she did. The plant rustled and wiggled, making Kurama, Botan and Yusuke stare. "Oh, it enjoys attention, so I talk to it while I water it," Mizuki said, shrugging as if a plant that could move and respond to her was nothing out of the ordinary. "It's called a Tiger Trumpet because the mature blooms have black stripes on them. It comes from Demon World."

"I've heard of those. But don't they need blood in addition to water?" Kurama asked.

"Actually, meat puree mixed with water is even better for them. It's made mine the biggest one on record." As if it knew it was being talked about, the plant wiggled around again.

"You are really strange," Yusuke commented, meaning Mizuki. The girl just laughed and agreed; it wasn't everyone who had a blood-drinking plant that responded to speech, after all.

"So, Mizuki-san, when did you first encounter an assassin?" Kurama asked. The kitsune hadn't forgotten the reason the Spirit Detectives were all here, and he intended to get the information.

"Don't call me Mizuki-san. I hate formalities. I'm Mizu-chan," Mizuki said while she put away her watering can. "But it was this morning, in this very room. I had taken my breakfast outside to eat in the garden because it was sunny, and I was bringing my dishes back in. Those windows," she pointed to the three large windows behind them, "were all open, so I guess that's how he got in. I had my back to the windows, putting the dishes into the dishwasher, and I thought I heard something so I looked behind me. There was a man with two katanas. I screamed, and I must have startled him because he ran away so fast that I couldn't even see where he disappeared to. I immediately teleported to Koenma's office to ask for help. I was scared silly!"

Kurama nodded slowly, but Yusuke had another question. "What makes you so sure that this was a demon?"

"Well, I was pretty sure he was a demon when I first looked at him. He had blue hair that was about shoulder-length, and I could see the points of his ears through it. Also, his face was mostly covered, but what I could see of the skin around his eyes seemed to be purple or blue and his eyes themselves were very obviously red. And when he ran that fast I was positive."

"Were there any other distinguishing features?" Kurama asked.

"Well, he wore all black and his face from the nose down was covered by a handkerchief or something like that tied around it. I did get a good look at his one of his katanas though; he only had one out of the sheath. The hilt was silver with a dragon engraving wound around it. I don't know why that stood out so much, but it did." Mizuki seemed to be continuously glancing towards the windows now; she was plainly jittery the more she talked about that morning.

"And you're sure that you don't know of anything you might have done?" Yusuke prodded.

"I stay home most of the time, so I don't think I could have made anyone angry, at least anyone who would know a demon assassin. I've never been to Demon World in my whole life, even my plant was brought to me by Tousan [5]. The only thing I can think of is that I'm King Yemma's daughter. Tousan has enemies; people who would love to kill or capture me to make him angry or afraid. But as far as I know they're all locked away. It's never been a problem before." By now Mizuki's face was getting pale, and every trace of her characteristic cheeriness had disappeared. Yusuke seemed to have more questions, but Kurama elbowed the boy in the side to call attention to Mizuki's condition. Fortunately he took the hint, and the kitsune brought about a quick change in conversation.

Hiei came downstairs when the smell of the cooking pizzas began to flood the house. Botan was cutting the first while Mizuki pulled the second out of the oven. Yusuke and Kurama were still seated at the table, having a discussion about something that the fire demon could care less about. He sat silently at the table just as a plate with a slice of pizza was set in front of his chair. Hiei noticed that Mizuki still wasn't quite her normal color and her eyes were still darting about nervously. "What's wrong, onna [6]?" he asked before Kurama could stop him.

"Nothing at all," Mizuki replied flatly. Not another word was said until after everyone had finished eating.

Translations

1: The phonetic Japanese "alphabet"

2: Hello

3: Little sister

4: Older brother

5: Dad

6: An insulting term for "woman" that is similar to "bitch"