Just 24 hours ago Spirit World had been doing wonderfully. The last few years of Koenma's reign had been filled with peace. The scars left by his father's mistreatment of demons had begun to heal, and the demon world tournament system that was begun by Yusuke continued to prove effective as there had been no attempts at rebellion in the few years since it began. The tournament also served as a distraction for demons, especially those of a lower class who lead less luxurious lives. Though Koenma was sure that the detective had not been thinking about that when coming up with the idea of the tournament.
24 hours ago Koenma had been filling out paperwork as he usually would when he had gotten a report of an A-class demon in the living world. That was rare but not an impossible occurrence, and so he had dispatched a few members of the SDF to handle it. Shortly after the first report, a second one had been made and so he sent another group. By the end of the day, the entire SDF had been deployed as numerous A-class demons had cropped up in the human world. None of them had ever reported back and reports of the A-class energies transforming into S class confirmed his worst fears. The entire SDF had been wiped out within a single day.
Koenma found himself making a call to Enki, the current king of the Demon World. He was lucky that Enki was in charge as he was far more agreeable than Mukuro or Yomi. Outside of those 3 no one had come close to winning any of the tournaments so far, though Koenma was sure that eventually, Hiei would become a true contender, and he was not sure how he felt about that.
Hiei walked the halls of Mukuro's palace, a meeting with local governors in the territory had been called as was tradition near the end of the year, to recap the events of the last year and establish policies going forward. Hiei found it to be incredibly boring, but as Mukuro's second-in-command, it was required that he attend. Hiei sat opposite Mukuro at a long table while half-heartedly listening to the conversation going on. Hiei really couldn't care less about what the governors were saying, most of it was just sucking up to Mukuro anyways. She was adept at handling that on her own and handle it she did. Until Hiei heard something that made him question reality itself. The sound of Mukuro's laughter rang through the room, purely humorous laughter without a hint of sarcasm or falseness. Mukuro herself seemed surprised by this.
"Hiei, search for foreign energies in this room," Mukuro stood after she issued the command, her tone of voice was far lighter than it usually would be. Hiei stood immediately and opened his Jagan eye, searching the room briefly.
"There appears to be energy focused around you, but I can not sense any danger to it…" Hiei placed a hand on the hilt of his blade, looking around. None of the governors would dare to use any sort of powers against Mukuro if they even could do so, which none of them did.
A burst of energy shone through the floor directly under Mukuro and a moment later a blinding flash followed it. Mukuro of course dodged, the king looked more inconvenienced than worried.
"Take care of the governors Hiei," Mukuro slammed a palm into the large wooden table that everyone had been seated at, sending it skidding across the room into a wall. It would leave a dent but outside of that the table and wall were fine, much better than if Mukuro had fought with the table in the way, she was quite fond of it after all. The dust cleared and revealed Mukuro's opponent. The demon was of a masculine build, with near snow-white skin and long dark hair that fell over their shoulders.
"I thought I'd weakened you enough to land that first attack, but I was wrong," The intruder began, "Still, for you to dodge it means something does it not?"
Mukuro did not let herself become enraged at the taunting as she usually would, she was a rare case where allowing herself to become enraged in a battle was a benefit after all. Rather, she could not find it in herself to feel anything negative at all, all she felt was happiness. It was fake happiness and she knew it, but she couldn't even bring herself to feel disgusted over that at the moment.
"If you think sealing my rage is enough to defeat me you are naive," Mukuro flicked her wrist and caused a web-like dome of cuts to form around her and her opponent, trapping them within a small area. The intruder took what appeared to be a human fighting stance whilst Mukuro simply stood there. The intruder was quick, Hiei immediately ascertaining that he held power roughly equivalent to that of a weaker middle S-class demon, nothing Mukuro couldn't handle. Though Hiei also had no idea how much Mukuro had been weakened by the spell placed on her emotions.
The intruder attempted to strike Mukuro several times, each blow coming within a tenth of a second after the last, but even with this speed, Mukuro seemed unfazed. The attacks were not random, however, it was clear that the intruder had a plan in mind. Hiei noticed it when Mukuro nearly nicked herself on one of the cuts she had created. This seemed to surprise Mukuro far more than it normally should've, and the intruder managed to strike her in the jaw during her moment of shock. Her emotions were being meddled with increasing strengths it would seem. The strike to the jaw was followed up with a flurry of attacks that would've incapacitated most fighters. Even Hiei had to admit that he was a bit worried, Mukuro couldn't even block most of the blows in time. The worry was quickly dissipated as Mukuro landed a single blow to the intruder's stomach, forcing him to keel over.
"Speak, tell me what foolish reasons you had for attempting this, you are strong enough to know the true difference between you and me, and yet you still attempted to kill me," Mukuro gripped the intruder by the throat as her rage returned, the fabricated happiness leaving her. The intruder laughed, though it quickly turned into a cough as it became apparent that Mukuro's singular punch had fractured at least a few ribs.
"To be honest I was hoping I'd weaken you more than I did, but I guess I was foolish. Oh well, I guess you'll just have to torture me if you want the full story," The intruder grinned before Mukuro slammed her fist into his face, cracking the floor beneath him and sending him to a lower level in the castle.
"Make sure he's alive, I want to torture him later," Mukuro declared as soldiers rushed in to follow her orders.
Hiei looked at Mukuro as she left. He was very aware of the fact that she detested having her emotions played with, and having fake happiness given to her must've been insulting to her. Hiei decided she needed space and so he figured that he would seek out his usual source of information on strange powers in the demon world, the fox.
Hiei found himself having been pulled into some wretched meet-up with the old members of the spirit detective team. It had been over a year since he last saw Yusuke and over 2 years since he last saw Kuwabara. Hiei had missed the group being together, though he would never admit it, he had learned to trust them during the Dark Tournament and the Sensui incident.
"Ok what's so important that Koenma had to gather us all here, and where's Botan, usually she's the one to herd us all together," Yusuke grumbled while he kicked some rock. They had been gathered at Genkai's temple, though with the size of the temple it was debatable if Genkai even knew or cared about them being there, especially since they were still in the forest surrounding the temple itself.
"Yes I was thinking the same, perhaps he did not expect Hiei to respond so quickly?" Kurama glanced at Hiei, who just scoffed.
"I was already on my way here, it means nothing," Hiei stated.
Kuwabara and Yusuke laughed at that, but Hiei ignored them. A device in Yusuke's pocket began to make some horrific ringing noise, and the detective fumbled around with it before answering. He projected an image from the device that gave the illusion of Koenma's desk being right in front of them.
"Ah I see you are all gathered, good," Koenma was in his older form for once, he seemed troubled, "I must ask of you all that you keep this information between us for now, the fewer people that know about what happened the better."
The group all nodded in agreement before Koenma continued. "Just over a day ago, the entire SDF was eradicated near-simultaneously," Koenma said this with a grave tone, but Hiei couldn't help himself from chuckling.
"Of course, they were killed, even the lowest S-class could've taken them out on their own, they were useless," Hiei stated this matter-of-factly.
"You aren't wrong Hiei, but I must ask that you keep those comments to yourself, many in the spirit world are mourning their loss, and even so this could be far more dangerous than anything you have faced before," Koenma was surprisingly serious, Hiei was starting to get a bit worried.
"C'mon pacifier breath, it can't be that bad right? I mean we beat Sensui so we can beat anyone right?" Kuwabara looked to the others in the group for confirmation.
"I'm not so sure, I also have information that both Mukuro and Yomi were attacked by opponents who managed to gain the upper hand against them, even if it was for a brief time. Yomi's opponent died, however, but Mukuro kept her's alive, as I'm sure you know Hiei," Koenma directed this statement at Hiei.
"That is why I came here in the first place," Hiei looked at the projection of Koenma, "Are you implying these attacks were all linked?"
This time it was Kurama who spoke, "I would not be surprised if they were. While both Yomi and Mukuro do have plenty of enemies, not many would think to exploit their weaknesses very well."
"Why not? It's kinda dumb to not exploit their weaknesses," Kuwabara was for once the voice of reason, it was idiotic to not exploit the weaknesses of Mukuro and Yomi, though Hiei and Yusuke would never admit to that as they saw such things as below them.
"Only idiots would attack the kings directly, those two are by far the strongest in Makai," Kurama looked towards Koenma as he said this, "Or am I wrong? Even in my days as Yoko, there were vast amounts of lands that I never traveled to."
"I'm not worried about either of them being in danger, but I am worried about Spirit World and the human world being in danger," Koenma suddenly looked off into the distance as Jorge could be heard speaking to him. All 4 members of the group knew what Koenma would say before it happened though. "I'm sure all of you felt that, it's the energy of an S-class demon, close to you all as well…"
"Yeah of course I felt it," Yusuke grinned and cracked his knuckles, "How about we go handle this clown and you can have your goons interrogate him."
"Yusuke, I have no goons to do the interrogating anymore," Koenma looked vaguely annoyed at having to state this.
"Kuwabara and I will return to the temple and ensure that Genkai and Yukina are safe, you and Hiei should be enough to handle this enemy," Kurama spoke with certainty, the level of energy they were sensing was nothing they hadn't fought before.
"All right! C'mon Hiei, let's go kick some ass!" Yusuke grinned before he began sprinting in the direction of the energy, Hiei easily followed him. A perk of being as strong as they were was the fact that it was easy to get anywhere they wanted to get to on foot. They quickly arrived and found the source of the energy.
"Botan? The hell are you doing here? When did you get so strong," Yusuke lowered his guard when he saw the ferry girl, but Hiei felt something wrong. His feeling was confirmed when Botan turned towards them both with an utterly terrified expression on her face.
"...No… why did you two come alone…" Botan sounded more broken than Hiei had ever heard her, she was always annoyingly optimistic in the past. A moment later Hiei saw a flash out of the corner of his eye and he barely managed to raise his sword in time, a clang sounding out that signified the clash of two blades. Yusuke was less lucky and suffered a cut across his chest, but he'd partially dodged it.
"Who the hell is that? What did you do to Botan you fucker!?" Yusuke grit his teeth and Hiei looked over at him. He remembered how angry Yusuke had been at the prospect of the only non-combatant being taken advantage of when they were under Genkai's trial, but the energy radiating from him was far weaker than it should've been. How foolish, it seemed that the detective had been neglecting his training in the human world.
"I didn't do anything really, I just shared a few words with her," Their assailant was a decently tall man of a lean but muscular build. He had bright yellow eyes and long spiky brown hair that fell over his shoulders. He was dressed in a dark blue nagagi kimono with white hakama pants and a black haori. A sword scabbard was tied to his left hip, and he held a traditional katana that had a gleaming blue blade. "How was I to know that she had such a weak disposition."
"You bastard," Yusuke ran at the man and Hiei followed, but in a moment Yusuke was cut down.
"You're out of practice spirit detective, I never thought my first battle with a Mazoku would be so disappointing," Their opponent's energy began to rise and Hiei realized that he had been concealing his full power. Yusuke struggled to get up as he bled from a deep cut on his chest. Hiei stared at the man, he had barely seen the blade move. He had been able to see every movement of the man clearly except for the swing itself.
"Detective, take the ferry girl and get out of here, I can handle this alone," Hiei tore off his bandages from his arm as well as the bandages on his forehead, revealing his Jagan eye.
"You won't be taking her anywhere I'm afraid. She's not exactly important to our plan or anything but taking her would piss Koenma off so it's exactly what I intend to do," The man grinned and in less than a second he was right behind Hiei. Hiei moved just quick enough and swung his sword to block the blow. "You're the only one of your group who hasn't gotten weaker Hiei. Come on, show me some fun."
Yusuke went to get Botan at this moment before a large slash traveled through the ground in front of him.
"Yusuke, just forget about me… you both need to run," Botan sounded as if she was begging.
"Why's that Botan? We can take this guy it's no big deal," Yusuke launched a spirit gun at their enemy as he was clashing blades with Hiei, but the projectile was deflected into the sky.
"You don't understand, Koenma needs to hear about this, this man is-" Botan suddenly stopped speaking as a sword pressed against her throat, the man had suddenly appeared in front of her while Hiei appeared beside Yusuke.
"Now now, my old name isn't important, these days I go by Yato. It's a far better name than what I used to have wouldn't you say?"
"Botan who the hell is this guy!" Yusuke sounded a bit worried now, the man had moved faster than he could see.
"He's a spirit detective from a few hundred years ago, he was considered the strongest there ever had been at the time and he answered to King Enma-" Botan blurted this out before Yato turned his blade on Yusuke and Hiei.
"Damn did they put me in the ferry girl textbooks or something?" He grinned behind him at Botan. Hiei took the opportunity to attack Yato but Yato was able to block the blow.
"You're a relic of the past," Hiei could sense something demonic in the man. He figured that he had undergone something similar to the Toguro brothers, extending his life span.
"And I've come to kill the past," Yato disappeared and immediately reappeared behind Botan. He raised his blade and the next second seemed to last forever. Hiei tried to move quick enough to stop what he saw coming. Yusuke screaming and trying the same. Botan shed a single tear as her life was presumably about to come to an end. The attack never came, however. Yato sheathed his blade and gripped Botan by a wrist, disappearing pulling her with him, and reappearing a good few meters away as Hiei reached the space where they just were.
"Where do you plan to go with that dead weight?" Hiei readied his sword for another strike. Botan winced upon Hiei's insult and he did feel a bit bad about it, but he didn't have time to care about his habits at the moment.
"Mmm, probably home. I want to leave Koenma some time for him to suffer in frustration, then I'll strike again, and slowly piece by piece I'll tear away his life until there's nothing left," Yato spoke as if he was discussing weekend plans with a friend. "Oh before I forget, I was supposed to let you guys in on some super-secret stuff. You see, I'm neither the leader of my group nor am I the strongest. There are a ton of us in fact, all above S-class. The strongest of us probably has around a 50/50 chance of taking down Mukuro or Yomi in a fight."
Hiei's eyes widened at that information. Even he had not reached Mukuro's level yet. She and Yomi were the only two creatures in Makai who he was not confident about his ability to at least take down alongside him.
"Let's see what else did they want me to mention… oh yeah right, if you hold funerals for any of the SDF we will launch a frontal assault on Spirit World. We would all surely die but so would Spirit World. We want each of them buried in unmarked graves," Yato tapped his head as he seemed to be thinking still. Despite his demeanor, Hiei could see no openings in him. He was perfectly guarded. "And uh… yeah I think that's it. Best of luck to you two, I don't really care about you guys suffering or anything. I'll return your precious ferry girl when this is done as long as none of my comrades kill her, so you all may as well just sit this one out."
"Not a chance pretty boy," Yusuke clenched a fist at his side while saying this.
"Huh? Why not? I only care about Koenma and Enma, I don't care about anyone else," Yato sighed, "But I've overstayed my welcome, I can't give away too much yet."
Hiei, who had remained silent during this whole exchange, took this moment to strike. Just as Yato was turning to leave, Hiei flashed to him and swung his blade before Yato even noticed him. That's when it happened again. Hiei saw every movement of Yato's until the moment the sword started to move from the sheath. At that moment, his arm disappeared in a flash and Hiei just barely managed to block the strike. Yato grunted a bit and immediately disappeared with Botan. The second he was out of sight his energy faded as it became hidden. Hiei could hear Yusuke scream obscenities behind him and felt the tremor of the ground as Yusuke slammed his first into the Earth.