Hinote Kyou Mizu

Book 6

Cold

Chapter 1

The fire demon, known as Hiei Jaganshi, looked out the window as he had so many times before. This peaceful life he led now agreed with him somewhat. He enjoyed the calm he had routinely, spending time with his wife, Amaya, and daughter, Hinote. Yet, he still looked forward to the times when Koenma would call his mate into duty, her status as spy for the Junior Lord of the Spirit World now changed to actual detective, after the toddler lord decided he needed people in more places.

While his water mo-zaku mate was technically the detective, she was the leader of a team of people like the other human world detective Yusuke. Hiei accompanied her to the Makai on every mission along with Kurama who tagged along with both the Urameshi and Saikoubai teams. Hiei did not enjoy particularly being the lapdog of the Junior Lord, but he took no chances that Amaya would not come back. He had never been forced to act, but always waited in the shadows, watching to make sure his daughter’s mother returned home safely.

He smiled when he thought of his daughter. Hiei himself was entrusted with the training of the children born to Kurama, Yusuke and himself, the three demon males agreeing he was the one with more time and less access to the human world. While had trained both Hinote and Ryu, Urameshi’s son, Hinote was definitely the better of the two. Ryu had demon blood, but his had not awakened in eighteen years, and most likely wouldn’t. While his mother enjoyed this fact, he didn’t and it didn’t help that his Sparring partner could control the heat and cold in the room on a whim, or turn on the kitchen sink and make it rain.

He chuckled quietly at the memory, remembering when his daughter was four years old and could just move the step stool in their kitchen up to the sink by herself. She was so proud because she could get a drink without asking her parents for help. Hiei still had to help get her down, the little girl sitting on the counter and singing nursery rhymes or yelling out ‘DADDY, I want down!” until he came and got her. Hinote didn’t learn you could climb back down the step stool until Amaya showed her how. They had no problem after that, until it began to rain.

When Hinote had learned to get up on the counter and get a drink, her parents began leaving a cup for her so she could get one by herself overnight. And she did once in a while get her own drink in the middle of the night, but in the mornings they would find water covering the kitchen, from the floor to the counters to the ceiling. Her parents were stumped as to how she made such a mess. Amaya stayed up late and watched her one night, thinking she would just play in the water; instead she turned on the water and made it flow up, her hand on the faucet, smiling and laughing as it rained down all over the floor and countertops.

Amaya was amused by this. Hiei was not. It had marked the end of their daughter getting a drink by herself at night. And it marked the beginning of Hinote’s formal training in the use of her inherited powers.

Hiei remembered how, when his daughter was five, she had a hard time saying some words, mostly names. While He and his Mate were always Daddy or papa, and Mommy or mama, others just some different combinations, some of which actually stuck. Yukina was ‘Auki’, shortened Aunt Yukina; Yusuke was ‘Suke’; Keiko, ‘Kei’; Kurama, ‘Wama’; while Kaida’s name stayed the same and Kuwabara was simply named Bozo. Apparently an inherited trait, Hinote liked the orange haired man as much as her father did.

The fire demon remembered back to the time when Hinote was just seven, small for her age, but making up for it with her mother’s attitude and father’s tenacity. Kurama once called her “a dragon in a rabbit’s body”, especially when it came to a certain loud mouthed fool.

At the time, Hinote had been watching her father and Kuwabara have an argument. Hiei was doing well to try to seriously not beat the orange-haired man into the carpet and leave only a grease spot. Yukina and Amaya were on the couch, Yukina holding Hinote in her arms, the girl curled up in the ice maiden’s lap, having taken to crying whenever Kuwabara was in the room. The loud-mouthed man tended to scare the little girl by being too loud for her taste, the young demon child always shying away from him since she was born.

On this occasion, Kuwabara and Hiei had been fighting over who would take care of Yukina the next year, her 100th birthday coming up. Amaya had offered to care for her and Yukina preferred the young mother, knowing she had been through birth and therefore trusting her instincts. But ‘dear Kazuma’ had other ideas, didn’t feel like listening to what Amaya had to say and for some reason Hiei had gotten the brunt of his disappointment. The fire demon remained calm, for once trying to reason with the taller man, for the sake of his sister.

As they sparred verbally, Hinote had approached her father, cautiously keeping away from Kuwabara. As she got close, the orange-haired man actually tried to shove the short fire demon, who moved out of the way. Hinote saw this, knowing the man had intended to hurt her father. Unfortunately, the demon girl’s her temper got the better of her.

“Don’t hurt my daddy!”

The four adults heard the girl’s scream as she ran forward and landed a swift and solid kick with a green and blue sneaker right in Kuwabara’s crotch, lowering the man to his knees, eyes bulging and hands clutching his crushed manhood, falling on his side in pain. The only sound coming from him being the obviously pain filled whine from deep in his throat through his tightly closed mouth.

“Hinote!”

Amaya’s voice chided her daughter as she stood with Yukina and checked on the man on the floor. Hiei scooped the little girl up, holding her to him, whispering in her ear a ‘good girl’ as they waited for Kuwabara to recover. Hiei was surprised when Amaya and Yukina hadn’t even asked Hinote to apologize, her mother even treating the girl to ice cream, a treat she was rarley allowed since she always tried to remake the ice crystals before she ate it.

That next year Yukina did become pregnant, giving birth to Harime, a lovely little girl who turned out to have none of her mother’s sweetness. Now ten, she acted like a spoiled rotten brat, despite her all her mother’s efforts. Hinote tolerated her, having been told the truth of Yukina and Hiei. The young fire demon felt strongly about her family, treating her cousin well, being friendly, but steering clear of the little ice maiden if she could help it.

His thoughts followed to Ryu Urameshi, the son of the other current Spirit detective, Hinote’s first friend and now boyfriend. They had been together since they were almost a week old, the boy being a slight three days younger than his almost pure demon girlfriend. Hiei liked the Urameshi boy, even if he was the incompetent detective’s son. He was a decent fighter, made Hinote happy, treated her right, and he understood she wasn’t like other, human girls. Hinote’s last boyfriend had been a complete jerk; they had broken up after a week. Ryu had avenged his friend in a fight that got him kicked out of school for weeks. He had finally gotten the courage to ask the girl out last year, Hinote accepting before he got the word ‘girlfriend’ out of his mouth. Hiei had a high respect for the young man, both as a fighter and as someone who protected his daughter when he couldn’t. He tolerated this young man, and knew he was the best one to understand and take care of his daughter.

“Hey! Demon! Hey. Snap out of it.”

Amaya snapped her fingers in front of her spaced out demon mate. “You alive in there? You were in the zone. Everything alright?”

He nodded, standing up and putting his arms around her neck. “Just thinking about Hinote, Ryu and Harime.”

Amaya scowled, the demon woman about as big a fan of ‘Yukina’s brat’ as her daughter. “Don’t lump our daughter and Ryu in with that little pain in the ass. How she came out Yukina, I will never know.”

The male demon smirked, pulling his mate close to him, lips to her ear. “We raised a strong, hot tempered demon girl who fights for her own beliefs. Poor Harime is the same, but her beliefs are all centered on herself”. He pulled back, looking at his mate. “They are cousins, but they are very different sides of the same coin.”

Amaya smiled, kissing her mate. “Thank you very much, Captain Obvious.” She pulled away from him, walking off into the kitchen. “Call your daughter and see if she is bringing that male of hers home for dinner or not. I need to know how much food to make.”

Hiei complied with the request, not liking the human technology, but accepting if he ever wanted to find his daughter, this was the best way to do it.