My hands were red. Sticky, wet, and red.

Where had the blood come from? Whose blood was this?

I looked up into Botan's horrified face.

And then I was lying in bed. Just another nightmare. Another memory.

I buried my face into my pillow as there was banging on my door.

"Yo, we're gonna be late."

It was Goten, my younger brother.

"I'm not going," I grumbled.

"It won't kill you to go to school five days in a row," Goten said.

"It might," I whispered to myself.

"Mom on the other hand might kill you," he continued.

I sighed. "Gimme five."

I sat up and sighed. At least school was a distraction from work. A full week might've been what I'd needed after what I'd endured two weeks before. I didn't want to think about it anymore. If I spent all day screwing around I wouldn't do anything but think about it.

I dressed and grabbed my school bag, last night's homework sitting undone inside of it and walked downstairs.

My dad was sitting at the table, still eating. Goten was chugging down a glass of orange juice. My father, Goku and my brother looked exactly the same. Goten was still only 13-years-old and would probably grow another foot before the year was out, but their faces were the same, they had the same spiky and unruly hair.

My older brother, Gohan, and I favored our mother, Chichi. I was shorter and leaner and had straight hair that came just past my shoulders. I had bangs which my mom hated, but I think she hated them because it made me look less like her. Which was the whole point of them. My dad said that it would be harder fight because my bangs would be in my eyes all of the time. I was determined to prove that I could throw a punch without being worried about my bangs.

My mom, my teachers, and Koenma all said that I was "obstinate." And maybe they were all right, but that was part of my charm.

"Breakfast?" Dad asked.

I shook my head. "Not hungry."

My mom put her hand to my forehead.

"Not sick," Mom said.

"No. Just not hungry," I said.

"Weird to see you not hungry," Dad said. "Ever since you got back from that assignment."

"I told you, I think she needs to take a break from all this Spirit Detective business. She's just a kid after all," Mom said.

"I'm fine, Mom. Just because I'm not hungry doesn't mean I can't be Spirit Detective," I said. "Gohan has been through way worse."

That was always my excuse. Gohan had been through and dealt with much harder stuff than being Spirit Detective entailed. But I wasn't sure how true that was anymore.

"Yes, and your brother's mental health is absolutely stunning," Mom said. She kissed the top of my head. "Go to school. And Kairi if I get one call about you skipping-."

"I know, I know. I'll go," I said. "Relax."

"You do not make it easy to relax," Dad said. "You get into a lot of trouble."

"That's kind of the pot calling the kettle black there, Dad," Goten said.

Dad paused and looked around the kitchen. "Wait. Are you teasing me? I know cookware can't talk."

I nodded. "And on that note, let's roll."

My father had been raised in the woods. Mostly by himself until he was 10-years-old. He wasn't very bright as a result and a lot of social things went over his head. But what could you do when you were from an alien planet and crash landed on Earth as an infant and then were dropped on your head down a giant ravine before your brain was fully developed?

My dad was from an alien planet (which no longer existed) called Vegeta, and from a race of mostly extinct warriors called Saiyans. The Saiyans were hired muscle for a guy called Frieza. The Saiyans went around to different planets, clearing of them of all lifeforms, and then handed the planets over to the highest bidder.

Fucking horrific right? I didn't tell people that story.

My dad had been sent to Earth as a child and programmed to destroy all life on Earth, but he was found by his adoptive grandfather (for whom my older brother Gohan was named) and, after my dad fell down that ravine as a child all of his programming (and probably a little extra) got wiped. His grandpa taught him martial arts, and now my dad was basically the strongest being in existence.

I didn't tell people that story either. Sometimes people knew him as that guy that competed in the World Martial Arts Tournament a bunch of times (and was truly a sight to behold). Some people knew him because he also trained under Master Roshi who was also a well known Martial Artists. Others knew him because my older brother Gohan was married to Videl, the daughter of the current "strongest man alive," Mr. Satan.

But mostly, he was just my dad. Nothing had tried to annihilate humanity in almost a decade, my dad's days of throwing caution to the wind to fight big bad aliens were behind him. There were plenty more Earthly threats that needed to be dealt with anyway.

And that's why there was the Spirit Detective.

I'd kind of stumbled into it, honestly.

My dad had a habit of, well, dying. So he'd trained in Other World with some pretty top tier fighters, one of them being Supreme Kai. From there it was all the trickledown effect.

While the Kais ran business in Other World, there were the gatekeepers of Other World. First you had to go through Spirit World, and what an entity the Spirit World was. Aside from being the gatekeepers who determined where souls went when they died, they also were the gatekeepers between the Living World and Demon World.

What lives in Demon World you ask? Why demons of course. Demons also lived in and were governed by Spirit World, but not many of them. A lot of demons slunk over from Demon World or Spirit World and made trouble for humans here in the Living World.

And that's where Spirit Detective came in. I helped Spirit World keep demons from running around and causing trouble for humans.

I was 11-years-old and there'd been all kinds of rumors about people going missing near a river in the city late in the evenings. Being the curious and always capable of stumbling into trouble, I went to check out this river late in the evening and, lo, stumbled upon a water apparition. She tried to take me, drown me, and then eat me, but instead I kicked her ass because I was strong like my dad and could easily kick most people's asses.

So Koenma, Prince of the Spirit World, asked if I, the daughter of the greatest protector the world has ever known, might like to handle demons on a full time basis. My mom said no. My dad said I could do whatever I wanted to do.

My dad spent his whole life protecting people. Gohan and Goten had all had the opportunity to show their worth. Why couldn't I do it too?

So here I was, three years later, Spirit Detective. And part of me was wondering if my mom was right. What if I was just a kid and that was too much? But if I didn't do the dirty work, who else would?

Goten and I walked out of the house.

"You sure you're good?" Goten asked. "You have been pretty mopey since that last assignment. And you've got circles around your eyes. You should try some concealer."

"I am fine, thank you," I said. "I'm not resorting to wearing makeup just because I'm tired."

I was tired because I was still having nightmares every night about things I couldn't even remember happening. But from Botan's, my assistant, report, they were thing that had most certainly happened. Things I'd done without a doubt.

I adjusted my bag on my shoulder and looked down at my hands. For a minute I thought I could see them, still stained with blood. I blinked and it was gone.

I definitely needed the distraction of school today.

888

To say that I went to school far from home would be an understatement of colossal proportions. Were it not for our abilities to fly at ridiculously fast speeds (unaided by vehicles at that), it wouldn't be possible. Gohan had gone to school at Orange Star High when mom finally stopped homeschooling him when I was eight. Goten and I took a different path for our education.

We went to school in West City. It was very far from home. But, my dad's best friend, Bulma, lived in West City and she had a son my age, Trunks. His father, Vegeta was also a Saiyan. The prince of all Saiyans as Vegeta's father (also named Vegeta) was king of their home planet (also named Vegeta). It was insisted that we go to school together. Grow up together. Be friends. Be a little more socialized than Gohan was.

I strongly suspected ulterior motives on the part of Bulma and my mother, but any time I made this accusation I was met with vehement denial.

Goten and Trunks were best friends. They were thick as thieves. The very definition of ride or die best friends.

On the other hand, Trunks and I were also very good friends, but I tended to keep at arm's length considering the ulterior motives I suspected our parents had.

And because I kind of thought there might be something to their ulterior motives. And recently Trunks had become very not shy about caring whether or not our parents had ulterior motives.

Trunks was ridiculously good-looking and I kind of hated him for it.

He was leaning against my locker, his phone in hand when I arrived. I groaned.

"You know, I bet if you guys went on one date you might not be so grumpy all of the time," Goten said. He was also hip to our parents ulterior motives.

"Isn't your locker elsewhere?" I asked.

Goten stuck his tongue out at me, before throwing a hand up. "Yo!"

Trunks looked up from his phone and waved back. Goten ran off to his own locker as I approached Trunks.

"Why are you blocking my locker?" I asked.

Trunks reached into his pocket and pulled out a granola bar. "Your mom said you didn't eat."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm fine. I told her I was fine."

"Yeah, yeah, eat the granola bar," Trunks said, attempting to shove it into my hands. "You look like crap."

"Oh, thank you," I said, pulling my locker open.

"I just mean you look tired lately. Like you're not sleeping well," I switched out my shoes quickly and slammed it shut. "Or eating well." He held out the granola bar again and I took it, if only so he would stop shoving it in my face. "You don't seem to be doing great after that human trafficking thing."

My last assignment as Spirit Detective had been to shut down a bath house that was a front for a demon run human trafficking ring. I was currently doing everything in my power to repress the whole assignment.

"Well, it sucked," I said. He opened his mouth to speak. "And no. I still don't want to talk about it." He sighed. "Have you seen Yusuke at all today?"

Trunks sighed again. "That guy really bugs me."

"Yeah, well he doesn't hassle me about how much I'm eating or sleeping or if I'm going to class," I said.

"It's a miracle he's even here today," Trunks said.

Yusuke Urameshi was as big of a delinquent as they came. He cut school, picked fights (and usually finished them too), slept through class if he even bothered to show up. He was kind of an asshat, and kind of a perv, but he was also my best friend. In kindergarten we'd gone swimming at a rec center for a field trip and when a girl taunted me about being afraid to get in the water and then pushing me in, Yusuke had been the one to pull me out of the pool and giving the girl a piece of his mind. We'd been bros ever since.

"Besides, he doesn't know what you get up to when you're cutting school," Trunks said. "Then even he might be concerned."

"Who knows," I said. I held up the granola bar. "I will eat this if you get off my case about it."

"About which thing?" Trunks asked.

"All of them," I said. I stepped around him and headed down the hall. I'd almost made it to the stairs, when an arm grabbed me.

"No, no, no, you are cutting."

I groaned. Unfortunately, the only other person I was remotely close to in this school was Keiko Yukimura. She was at the top of our class, student body president, and all around good person. She and Yusuke had been friends even before we started school. Yusuke came with Keiko. And I was much better at being forced to behave than he was.

"I wasn't cutting," I said.

"Uh-huh," Keiko said.

"I was going to look for Yusuke," I said.

"Right. And when you found him, were you going to bring him to class?" she asked.

"Absolutely," I said. Keiko grabbed my ear and yanked it hard. "Ow! You are so mean."

"You know, you actually have half a brain whereas Yusuke doesn't," Keiko said pulling me into class. "If you ever bothered to apply yourself-."

"Oh, my god. Please don't talk to me about applying myself, Mother," I said as she forced me down into my desk.

"Come on, Kairi. You could at least try," Keiko said. "You've been here all week and you've been a total space cadet. If you didn't care, you wouldn't show up."

"I come to school out of fear that my mother will instead homeschool me," I said. A very real threat that I encountered a few times a year when my truancy got out of hand.

"So you're just going to sit here and not try? What are you going to do with your life?" Keiko asked.

I shrugged. "I'm 14. I've got time to figure it out, right?"

"Yeah, but no one hires idiots who drop out of middle school," she said.

"Yusuke Urameshi, please report to Mr. Takanaka's office immediately."

"Well, I'm here, aren't? Eighty percent of life is just showing up, isn't it?" I asked.

Keiko gently, pityingly, smacked my forehead. "The other twenty percent is probably applying yourself though."

"I apply myself to other things," I said.

"Like what?" Keiko asked.

Fighting demons, I thought to myself.

"Doing good deeds," I said. A half-truth.

Keiko scoffed. "Didn't you get suspended three weeks ago for punching someone?"

"It was a good deed. He was an asshole and deserved a punch in the face," I said.

Keiko sighed as the bells chimed over the PA signaling the start of morning announcements.

"I just worry about you," she said.

She walked to her desk at the front of the classroom.

It felt like all anyone ever did was worry over me. I was perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I was having a few stressful weeks, but I'd manage. The world wasn't ending after all. Eventually I'd get over all the business at the bathhouse. I just needed to be left alone in the meantime. Spirit World wouldn't have anything for me to do for weeks.

I listened to the drone of morning announcements and when they ended, everyone erupted into chatter. I looked over at the empty desk beside me. Yusuke's desk. Not that he was ever in it.

"Yusuke Urameshi, report to Mr. Takanaka's office immediately."

Mr. Takanaka wasn't messing around today, apparently. Still, Yusuke was here. And I knew where I'd find him. I rose from my seat and walked out of the classroom. I headed all the way upstairs to the roof.

There he was, reclining back against a wall, a cigarette tucked between his teeth, wearing a green jumpsuit instead of the standard navy blue one that was required of the boys.

"Those things'll kill you, you know," I said.

Yusuke looked over to me. "I'm here for a good time, not a long time."

"Keiko will kick your ass if she sees you with that," I said.

"Keiko's going to kick my ass anyway," he said, but he still stubbed the cigarette out on the concrete beside him before pocketing it. "Heard you've been a model student all week."

"Yeah, sleeping in class instead of at the park for once," I said. I hadn't slept in class at all, even though I was tired. I didn't let myself doze. I was afraid of what I might see.

"I didn't have shit else to do today," Yusuke said.

"I'm sure Kuwabara's looking for you somewhere," I said. "He always needs his ass kicked."

Yusuke chuckled. "True, but it gets a little boring after a while, you know." I nodded in agreement. Yusuke gave me a once over. "What's eating you?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You look like my mom after she goes on a weeklong bender," Yusuke said. Atsuko Urameshi was a probable prostitute and definite alcoholic. She was funny though. "Everything good?"

Yusuke didn't know anything about my life as Spirit Detective. Didn't know about my dad being a Saiyan. Didn't know about Trunks or Spirit World or Frieza or anything. He was pure. He was human. He was my safe space. I didn't have to worry about all of the craziness inherent in my own existence when we hung out.

But there were times I desperately wanted to tell him what was going on in my life. He was the only person I thought about talking to about the bathhouse. But I couldn't tell him anything.

I shrugged. "You ever think it's better to just forget that some things happen than to talk about them?"

"I think the cool kids call that trauma," Yusuke said. I rolled my eyes. "You being serious?" I nodded. "You're never serious."

"I know," I said. "That's why I wonder if I should just push it down and forget about it."

"Well, I don't think you ever really forget," Yusuke said. "But if it's fucking bothering you and you don't want to deal with it, that sounds like a problem for Future Kairi. Today Kairi should probably take a nap. You look like shit."

"Yeah," I said. "I probably look like I got hit by a car or something," I said. I sat my bag down and laid down on the ground, looking up at the sky, Yusuke sitting silently beside me. "I kind of wish it could always be this peaceful."

"Yusuke Urameshi, I know you're at school today. Please report to my office!"

"And then there's this asshole," Yusuke said. "Wonder what he wants?"

"Probably to tell you that you're throwing your life away," I said. "I already got the lecture this week. From him and Keiko and Trunks."

"I would love for your boyfriend to tell me to get my life together," Yusuke said.

"He's not my boyfriend," I said, rolling my eyes.

"You say that now," Yusuke said, "but we shall see."

"Yeah, and we'll see about you and Keiko," I retorted.

Yusuke scoffed. "Please. I'm definitely gonna marry that girl. Your teasing can't hurt me."

"I'm going to go to sleep now," I said.

"Trunks and Kairi, sitting in a tree," Yusuke teased. I hit him in his arm. "Ow! You know you and Keiko hit the hardest?"

"Yes," I said. "Because you annoy us the most."