Chapter 1

Friday

"Wake up!" Goten yelled, banging on my door.

"What?" I asked.

"You're going to make us late for school," he said.

I groaned into my pillow.

"I don't want to go today," I said.

"Kairi, it's Friday. Attending an entire week of school won't kill you," he said.

"It might," I replied.

"Kairi!" Goten shouted.

"Alright. I'll be down in five minutes," I said.

"Thank you," he said.

I sat up in bed and pushed my black hair from my face. I hated school more than anything else in the world. I hated it more than I hated demons; I hated it more than I hated people constantly trying to blow up the planet; I hated it more I hated having to constantly stop the aforementioned threats.

Being a teenager is hard enough without having to battle demons for the safety of the entire planet. But no matter how much I loathed it I had to do it. I had this unbearable hero complex where I had to save people. It wasn't my fault, it was definitely a genetic trait I inherited from my father who'd saved the planet many more times than I had on much larger scales than beating up mediocre demons that get bored on occasion.

What job could I possibly have that caused me to face such evil?

I was a Spirit Detective. It's not unusual that you've never heard of the job before. The Spirit World likes to keep it under from people in the Living World – they'd absolutely freak out if they discovered that there were demons running about in a dimension placed so closely to ours that they can get through and make mischief.

I'd only been a Spirit Detective for 6 years. Considering I was 14 that would mean that I'd been fighting demons since I was 8 years old.

No, fighting demons isn't a child's job at all. It's very dangerous; a lot of the missions are unsafe but when you're gifted with highly abnormal strength and was lucky enough to be born into a family of martial artist the rules don't typically apply to you.

Despite the fact that my boss, Koenma, prince of the Spirit World, had a tendency to act like a child I actually rather enjoyed my job. Well, I liked it better than school.

I never did well in school. I was always getting into fights and getting suspended and pissing teachers off and scaring the other students. I was born a problem child; my parents didn't know what to do with me.

Today, like most days, I got up and got dressed in my little blue sailor suit, complete with dorky yellow ascot ribbon and a pretty little skirt.

It was hard to be threatening when you looked like me. I wasn't drop dead gorgeous but I was pretty good looking. I had long black hair with two streaks of white in it, blue eyes, and a slim yet athletic build that would make a super model jealous. I was relatively short though. It wasn't unnatural shortness I just wasn't as tall as I'd like to be.

I grabbed my school bag and headed out of my room and downstairs to the kitchen.

My dad was up, eating breakfast, as he always was.

"Morning, Junior," he said.

"Good morning, Daddy," I said.

I may've been a problem child but my parents couldn't have been more proud of me for saving the world. Especially my dad. While mom would've liked for me to get my education in, I wasn't into it. My dad didn't care. He'd had a sixth grade education and then stopped learning. He wasn't very bright but he knew how to love and I knew he loved me.

"Finally! Can we go?" Goten asked.

"You're the only kid I know who's in a rush to get to school," I said rolling my eyes.

"Well some of us actually care about whether or not we pass or fail," Goten remarked.

"I do care about passing. Otherwise I wouldn't be in the appropriate grade," I said. "I'm lazy, not stupid."

"Stop fighting you two," Mom said.

I rolled my eyes again.

"I'll see you guys later," I said.

Goten and I walked out of the house and went to the back yard.

"We've got to go even faster to make up for the time you wasted," Goten said.

"Oh, please, I've over slept way longer than this," I said.

"You wanna race?" Goten asked. I smirked.

"You bet," I replied. "Ready. . . Set. . . Go!"

Goten and I shot up into the air and flew all the way to the roof of our school, in West City.

I touched down on the roof first.

"And Kairi wins again! In your face, Goten," I said.

Goten landed next to me and stuck his tongue out.

"Oh, shut up," he said.

"What took you guys so long?" a voice asked

We looked over to the door on the roof to see our friend Trunks sitting there, brushing his light purple hair from his face. Trunks was absolutely gorgeous, this was an undeniable fact. He gave all the other girls at our school a reason to hate me by only showing me any attention. I didn't like Trunks that way but it was nice to know that he wasn't going to go out with a skank if he was hung up on me. He was my oldest childhood friend and no one would dare treat him badly on my watch.

"It's her fault," Goten grumbled. "Over sleeping and all."

"Hey, at least I showed up today," I pointed out.

"Well try to stay here all day," Trunks said.

"Will do, though I can't promise I'll be attending any of my classes," I said.

"Mom is going to destroy you," Goten warned.

I scoffed. "What's she gonna do? Ground me again? It's not like I have any friends that I'm going to go hang out with. I mean I have you Trunks but you live so far away. . . I just don't think it's worth it."

"Gee, I'm glad our friendship means so much to you," he said rolling his eyes. "Besides, we all know I'm not your best friend."

"Nope. Position would be filled by moi!" a voice said from the bottom of the stairs

I looked down to see my best friend, Yusuke Urameshi.

"So we both showed up today," Yusuke said.

"Hey, I've been here all week thanks this lovable, little dork I call my brother," I said throwing an arm around Goten. "I've done homework and everything."

"Wow, you were Miss Dedicated Student then, huh?" he asked.

"Yeah but now it's Friday. It's time I took a little me time. Wouldn't you agree?" I asked.

"I do indeed," Yusuke said. "Thanks for making her get up this morning, Goten."

"Yeah, yeah," Goten said.

Goten was never really impressed with Yusuke. He seemed to think he was a bad influence on me but he put up with simply because Yusuke was my best friend.

Trunks on the other hand hated Yusuke. They'd been enemies since they'd met in kindergarten.

"And Briefs, how's it going?" Yusuke asked.

"Cram it, Urameshi," Trunks said through clenched teeth.

"Now, boys, play nice. Trunks you've got a reputation to maintain and Yusuke you wouldn't want to waste your daily butt kicking session on my buddy Trunks here. You've still got Kuwabara, remember?" I asked.

Aside from the fact that I was sure Trunks would absolutely mutilate Yusuke in a fight, Yusuke did usually spend his days beating up on my friend Kazuma Kuwabara – an ugly fellow with a heart of gold. Again, a bully, an outcast, just like Yusuke and me.

"Yeah, you're right. Besides, I wouldn't wanna bruise Kayko's little pet toady," Yusuke said.

"Whoa man, wait a minute. If Kayko heard you say that she'd totally slap you right across the face," I said.

"Well it's not like she's here to discipline me," Yusuke said.

He turned around and then WHAM! Right across the face the small hand of our best friend, Kayko Yukimura. She stood there, leering at him, looking absolutely terrifying for a girl not much taller than me, with pig tails and pink ribbons in her hair.

"Yusuke, you jerk!" she shouted, as she often did.

"Hi, Kayko!" I said cheerfully.

"Don't play all innocent, Kairi. I already know you're not going to go to class today. It's going to bring our class average down and it's going to make me look bad as class president," she said.

"I think I've heard this speech before," I said.

Kayko went to hit me and I winced. Kayko was a sweetheart but I don't think I knew anyone who could hit harder than her.

"It's alright, Kayko. I'll keep an eye on her," Trunks said.

Kayko brought her hand down.

"Thanks, Trunks," Kayko replied. She turned back to Yusuke. "The next time you decide to go and try and insult me behind my back you ought to make sure I'm not listening."

"I'll make a note of it," Yusuke said, rubbing his face. "Geez, you hit hard."

"I know," she said. "Now go class."

"Yeah, yeah," Yusuke said. "Homeroom. Very exciting."

Yusuke, Kayko, and Trunks were all in my homeroom. Kuwabara was as well but I was sure he wasn't in school today.

"Goten, you'd better get to class as well," Kayko said.

"You got it," Goten said. "See you guys later. . . Yusuke."

Goten walked down stairs and to class. Kayko turned to the rest of us.

"Shall we?" Kayko said.

"I still need to go to my locker," I said.

"Yeah, me too," Yusuke replied.

Kayko and Trunks both leered at us.

"You guys had better get to class. Wouldn't want to ruin your attendance record would you?" I asked.

Trunks sighed. "Come on, Kayko."

Kayko shook her head and followed Trunks down the hall. As soon as they were out of ear shot we walked back up to the roof and sat down.