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Yomatsu Hara-Sakai, Continuation:
Part 3
by Korogi
Yusuke slid to a dusty halt,
sprawling forward as his toes slid to the endof a deep hole cratered in
the middle of the fish market. He threw his weight backwards clumsily,
stepping back to clear the hole, clearing it's encircling edge before it
crumbled under is weight. The entire roadway before him had been
blown clean through for about three city blocks. The underground
subway lines and sewer systems were completely exposed ... buried water
and electric lines had burst, spraying water and sparking debris around
him.
"Good heavens ... " he whispered,
dropping to his knees. "All the people... "
"URAMESHI!!" a bellow came behind
him. Yusuke spun completely around.
Kazuma and Shizuru Kuwabara
bound up the destroyed remanent of Tokyo's fish market, each trying
to out-run the other. They both slowed to flank Yusuke as he
turned to peer over the edge of the crumbling hole. Together, the
three of them awed over the sight, leaning down to stare into the black
hole that was all that remained of half of mid-town Tokyo ... half of mid-
town's population.
Shizuru bent down to the edge of
the gigantic hole, running her hand slowly around the edge carefully.
She felt a faint aura of psychic energy, pulsing just within the rock ...
the same type of energy her brother radiated when he returned from Yomatsu.
"This was meant for you guys ... " she announced quickly and uneasily,
breaking off a chunk of the partially-melted concrete and handing it up
to her brother.
Kazuma took it up carefully,
turning the concrete over in his hand. There was a very slight psychic
residue, fading slowly from the concrete chunk, evaporating as he turned
it over in his palms. "This is insane. If who ever the hell
did this wanted to get to US ... why didn't they just come after US in
the first place, instead of ... "
Yusuke stood slowly to his feet,
cutting him off, dusting the plaster from his pants. "K'so!
They didn't have to take half the fish market with them!"
A black breeze whizzed through the
center of their conversation, materializing into Hiei, stationed tall over
the edge of the hole. He glowered, baring his tiny fangs, muttering
something under his breath neither one of them could make out as he peered
over the edge.
Moments later, Kurama rushed to
the scene, stopping and hunching over, hands on his knees as he caught
his breath.
"Hmph," Kazuma declared under his
breath. "How'd I know those two would show up together."
Shizuru smacked him roughly in the
stomach, hissing at him to be quiet as Kurama began across the broken asphalt,
watching the edge closely, meeting up with Yusuke and Hiei.
Yusuke wiped imaginary sweat from
his forehead, glancing to the hole, trying to put the urge to pulverize
something in the back of his mind. "Shizuru says this blast was meant
for us." He turned his dark eyes up to Kurama, his face searching for some
sort of justification for the mass destruction.
Kurama exhaled quickly, strands
of his red hair, flapping before his vision under the onslaught of his
soft breath. He watched as Hiei turned from the enormous hole, glaring
down Kuwabara, then turning to him, a slight hint of worry crossing the
normally stone face.
"Well ... " came a voice from behind
them all. In order, each turned around to see Koenma walking solemnly
up the broken road, hands deep in his pockets. " ... I see you're
all here." He switched the pacifier in his mouth. "Guess what
... "
The group groaned collectively.
Koenma nodded. "This one originated
in Yomatsu," he cringed at the last word, chewing on the pacifier intently.
"Then we'll go kick some demon ass!!
Yo-mawari can clue us in to whoever did this!" Kazuma declared easily,
clenching a hand into a fist.
Koenma shook his head. "No
good ... as Shizuru said, this blast was meant for you guys. If Keiko
hadn't have wanted to go out for coffee ... " he glanced to Yusuke, "...
and if Shizuru hadn't rode to Shinjuku ... you'd be a couple people short
right now." He paused a moment, glancing up to Kurama. "It
hasn't been confirmed ... that is IF it can be confirmed ... but Yo-mawari
might have already been targeted."
Kurama and Hiei each gasped respectively.
"Ya mean he could be DEAD?" Kazuma
shrieked.
"Like I said ... it hasn't been
confirmed. I'm still not sure if Yomatsu-spirits cross over in Reikai
or not. And besides ... " he stopped and caught his breath.
"My father wants us all to go to Yomatsu and investigate personally.
Strange energies have been showing up in Makai ... and even in Reikai.
We're all being targeted, one by one."
Kazuma groaned. "I knew it."
The group all looked at him.
The dirt rained back down to settle
on the charred earth under the cool, Yomatsu night, blanketing everything
in a thin layer of brown ... not that it mattered.. The trees glowed
with dying fire embers, the ground smoldered with intense heat, a huge
hole about the size of a city block blemished the once lush Yomatsu forest,
blown clean through the ground a good 30 feet deep.
The Makai portal opened a few yards
off, spilling dim, yellow light to the charred ground beyond. It
swirled gently before opening, increasing the yellow light.
From the yellow brilliance, a figure
stepped out, tall and lean, wielding a long, glowing sword, swishing it
through the air, listening as it warped the fabric of existence before
him. Kuwabara Kazuma inhaled deeply as he set eyes on Yomatsu Hara-Sakai
yet again ... stepping out of the portal, followed closely by the others.
His mind worked frantically, remembering every detail of his dream that
night ... every single intricacy.
"Oh good lord .... " Kurama whispered,
surveying the scene before them. The terrain for miles in every direction
was completely leveled, burnt to black cinders. And directly before
them was an exact blast hole of the one they had just left in Tokyo's restaurant
district, smoldering.
Aside from him, Hiei cursed,
low and shrill, pushing forward past Kuwabara. The red eyes searched
the terrain, scanning every inch with a hidden intention. There was
a hint if tension in those eyes, echoed by Kurama's nervous breaths behind
him and just over his shoulder. Hiei brought a hand up to the bandanna
tied firmly around his forehead, running a finger gently over it, feeling
his jagan underneath.
Koenma glanced around quickly ...
as if there was much to see. "So? Where is he? Where's
Yo-mawari?" He shifted nervously, glancing around the devastated
forest.
Kurama reached down to Hiei, laying
a hand on his shoulder, his green eyes never leaving the terrain.
The yokai removed the bandanna, tossing it up to Kurama without another
word.
Hiei closed his 'visual' eyes tightly,
feeling the jagan opening on his forehead. Sudden pictures flashed
quickly to his eyes as his mind began to flow through existence, creating
a flow and blur of quick images. Like a wild bird, his mind's eye
flew .... he received images from the surroundings ... of the four guys
around him, watching him closely, of the devastated terrain spreading out
around them , of the life that was once in perfect harmony in this section
of Yomatsu His mind flew quickly over the blast sight, scanning quickly
... searching.
Yusuke shifted nervously, rubbing
an arm roughly. His skin crawled as he watched on, a sudden chill
breathing down on him. The air seemed to grow colder suddenly ...
then quickly, the coldness lifted, replaced by the humid heat of Yomatsu.
He raised an eyebrow and glanced around ... but everyone was intently watching
the little koorime.
Hiei suddenly moved, disappearing
without warning from his post, leaping down into the hole below, hopping
easily from side to side on the sheer, crater wall.
Kurama bent over the edge, shadowed
by the other three, leaning over him like a pile of disembodied heads.
"What is, Hiei?" he called down, watching the little body dart left and
right as it made its way down the crater.
"He's alive!" the low voice rang
back up. "He's down here!"
Kurama breathed a sigh of relief,
bending to sit by the rim, dangling his feet over the edge. "I'm
coming down!"
Hiei found the bottom of the
hole, landing easily, crouching down to scan with all three eyes, mentally
nit-picking every inch of the crater floor. Above him, sliding clumsily
down the edge came Kurama in a mass of falling
dirt and rocks. The little yokai turned
his attention to the beautiful man, watching him with a smile as Kurama
carefully descended, stumbling down. "The fool ... he'll kill himself
one of these days."
He sniffed harshly, what could possibly
pass as a laugh as Kurama met roughly with the floor of the crater.
He stood quickly, trying to hide the clumsy entrance he made after Hiei's
almost balletic descent, dusting himself off as he began across.
The two met half way and continued
down the crater floor together silently, Hiei following where his senses
took him.
"You DID say he was alive, right?"
Kurama asked quietly, looking down to his short companion. He forced
back a smile as he reached out to swat a disobedient strand of the yokai's
hair.
Hiei shrugged. "Yeah ... "
he lifted a finger. "There."
Kurama looked down the small finger,
bending over Hiei until their cheeks touched. The terrain looked
the same in all places, barren and black ... until a section of it moved
... and groaned.
Hiei stepped calmly forward, crouching
down beside the moving mass of charred earth, Kurama joining him.
With a confused glance, the two looked at each other for a moment, then
down to the plot of earth, each mirroring the others movement. The yokai
reached a hand down and patted the earth almost lovingly. "Yo-mawari.
S'that you?"
"No, it's the fair maiden
Wilhelmina," the plot of earth growled back, moving under his hand.
"You're not funny," Hiei sneered,
reaching down to dig through the earth.
The plot moved by itself as
Yo-mawari sat up from the earth, shaking the dirt from his hair and body.
He brushed his face clean, opening the black onyx eyes to look directly
into a set of brilliant green ones. "uh ... Kurama!" Yo-mawari stumbled
back on his butt before gaining his composure, tossing dirt chunks out
of his long, black hair. He smiled kindly ... and exact likeness
of Kurama's own brilliant smile and sat up on his knees.
Kurama nodded but said nothing,
the two staring back and forth at each other. Beside them, Hiei sat
back on his rear, crossing his arms over his chest watching the two with
an almost amused glance.
Yo-mawari moved first, extending
a hand out to Kurama in friendship. "No hard feelings?"
Kurama cocked his head at the man
that was his new-found brother. "I'm not sure I know what you mean," he
said excepting the hand tightly, never leaving the onyx eyes. Kurama
stood, helping the young man to his feet, dusting off his shoulders as
he rose.
The other shrugged, glancing down
to Hiei, then back to Kurama. He squeezed the hand slightly and smiled
again. "Brother?"
"Brother," Kurama agreed with an
equally beautiful smile.
Kuwabara and Yusuke were both hunched
over the crater, Koenma behind them watching on in an all-too proud stance.
"I wonder what those two are doing,"
Kuwabara moaned, board, crumbling the edge of crater with his hands.
"Probably down there all over each other .... OUCH!!!"
Yusuke retracted his fist from Kuwabara's
side, his eyes closed shut in all seriousness. "Shut up!" he hissed
back, gathering himself to his feet. He brushed his jeans and white
T-shirt off and stood tall.
Koenma looked to him quickly,
never moving from his stance, guarding over the crater. "Yusuke-sama
... I keep getting a bad feeling about all of this." He scanned the
barren terrain intently.
"You too, huh?" Yusuke shivered
as his skin crawled again, feeling colder and colder. His skin dimpled
and tightened, a chill running down the length of his body, down his back
and around to his chest.
Koenma shivered too, and the two
looked strangely at each other. "You think it suddenly got cold too?"
Koenma asked.
Kuwabara jumped up from edge
of the crater suddenly, sending a panicked mass of dirt tumbling around
him. "What did you say!?" the eyes widened, looking them both straight
in the face as he too felt the cold air rush in.
Yusuke and Koenma each gave
him a look, Koenma wrapping his scarf around his shoulders. "I just
said it was cold. Why?"
Kazuma stepped before them
and turned around, scanning the terrain around the crater. He noticed
the trees now, all bent out in a radiating circle from them ... he felt
the air grow colder ... felt a small ripple in the climate ... and his
dream began to flood his mind.
"What is it?" Yusuke whispered,
joining the tall, young man at his side.
He shook his head, raising a finger
to his lips, demanding silence. He searched thin eyes through the
air, reaching a hand out to shove Yusuke behind him. "Stay back,
you two," he ordered quietly.
"Kuwabara ... what are you ... "
The air churned suddenly and Kuwabara
tensed, shoving Yusuke roughly back into Koenma. The temperatures
plummeted, fogging the terrain from the steaming ground almost instantly.
The mist rolled in quickly, grey and blanketing, thin enough to see through,
but thick enough to edge their vision in a dull grey, choking out the rest
of the dead forest..
Yusuke recovered his balance with
Koenma's help and stepped forward
beyond Kuwabara's commanding arm. "What?
Tell me!"
The mist churned ... it whriled
... "Don't look ... " a voice rolled in.
"Damn it!" Kuwabara cursed.
"EVERYBODY BACK!!!"
Kurama laughed slightly as
did Yo-mawari, the two walking side by side behind Hiei as they headed
back to the wall of the crater in conversation. They both seemed
to enjoy each others stories ... their own accounts of what happened after
they were separated at birth. It seemed Yo-mawari had lost all touch
with his yoko form about the same time Kurama fled his own body to that
of Shuichi Minamino's ...
Hiei stopped suddenly, causing the
two brothers to nearly plow him under, Kurama catching the yokai by the
shoulders before he fell flat. "What is it?"
Hiei stared off intently to the
top of the crater above them, standing like an unmoving bolder.
They all looked up to find a grey
mist covering the top of the crater above them, the grey mists beginning
to roll down the sides of the crater, bringing with is a cold rush of air,
dumping near-freezing temperatures on them.
And then, they heard the voice surround
them. " ... Don't look ... "
"What was that?" Yo-mawari sneered,
tossing locks of black hair behind his shoulder.
Hiei hissed violently, drawing out
his sword to his defense. "Something's not right here."
"Good guess, little meijin," Yo-mawari
shadowed the action, drawing the long, slender katana to his defense ...
... And they heard Kuwabara yell,
violently. "EVERYBODY BACK!!!"
.... a loud thunder rolled through
the air.
"Kuwabara!!" Kurama leapt from the
floor of the crater seconds after Hiei blinked from view, calling up the
Rose Whip to help him in his ascent.
"Rei-ken!!" Kazuma bellowed,
reaching forward to grasp thin air. Before him, a lightning-like
light burst into view ... the spirit sword, hovering obediently in the
air as he wrapped long fingers around the hilt.
Koenma and Yusuke stood back
to back, watching around them as the thunder rolled in around them.
"Kuwa ... what in Meikai's goin' on here."
"Believe me, Urameshi ... ya don't
wanna know!"
"Yes I do!!
Yo-mawari and Kurama respectively
leapt over the rim of the crater to find Hiei poised beside Kuwabara, each
threatening the air before them with their weapons. Kuwabara seemed
deep in concentration, glaring off into the demolished forest, echoed by
Hiei's constant snarls.
"What is it!!" Kurama insisted,
joining their sides. He looked to both of them ... but they ignored
his question, focusing all attention before them.
Kurama reached out and touched Hiei
lightly on the shoulder.
The youkai hissed in protest.
"It's out there," he growled.
"What, meijin?" Yo-mawari raised
the long, slender katana before him, pointing its glowing tip to the forest.
"You-ki ... but ..."
An enormous clap of thunder shook
them to the ground, tossing them all back into a pile. The ground
shook beneath them , as if an earthquake was busy trying to make itself
known ...
... then the ground fell silent
....
... but there was still the thunder
.. something roaring off in the distance...
"Fire!" Hiei gasped as the waves
of you-ki flooded over them.
The roar grew suddenly louder as
the Yomatsu night-horizon was easily set ablaze with a flashfire, eating
slowly but effectively through the dead forest.
Yo-mawari gasped as Kuwabara
cursed loudly. "I know this attack," he cringed at the sudden dump
of you-ki that radiated from the slow-moving fire.
"Dai-Warugi!"
"Who?" Ko-enma growled.
"The ruler of Yomi no Kuri ... the
most powerful demon in all the Underworld regions. He's doing this."
"He wouldn't happen to be some orange-skinned
two headed ... THING would he?" Yusuke put in urgently.
"Yeah ... why?"
Yusuke raised a deadly finger, glowing
with ready energy at the fire.
Before it walked a snarling beast
with two heads ... orange skin glinting in the raging fire ...
"Holy shit!" Kazuma cursed.
He looked quickly behind him, fearing what he'd find mentally. Just
off in the distance he saw the cliff ... then heard the waves crashing
beyond ...
"... You can't hide ... "
the mist whispered.
"Who said that?" Kurama tightened
his grip on the Rose Whip, watching as Kuwabara tensed.
"...We'll find you ... "
Kazuma growled loudly at the fire,
cutting through the air with the sword. "FINE!! We'll do this
the hard way!" he yelled. "Everyone follow me!"
"Kazuma-san, have you lost it?"
Ko-enma drilled, watching as Kuwabara fled from the fire towards the cliff.
"Well, anything's better than standing
HERE!" Yusuke yelled. "Come on, Junior! "
"Urameshi!! " Koenma spat, turning
to follow the fleeing group
Hiei was the first to slide to the
edge of the cliff, feeling both Kurama and Yo-mawari reach out and grab
him by the shoulders before he toppled over.
"So what now, Einstein?" Yusuke
sneered.
"We jump," Kazuma said simply, leaning
over the edge.
"Are you NUTS????" the group yelled
collectively, the roaring fire breaking tree trunks in half behind them.
"...Sleep ... "
"Yup ... we jump!" Kazuma pointed
to the mist which seemed to concentrate above them. He reached a
hand forward and laid it on Yusuke's shoulder. "Trust me on this
one."
Behind them, the fire roared forward
along with the beast ... adding an unneeded exclamation point
to the whole 'Jump' theory.
"Exactly WHAT do you have to go
on?" Yusuke demanded.
"A dream."
"A WHAT???"
Kuwabara shook his head. "Too
long to explain ... we don't have time ... and you're gonna hate me for
this one!" and he shoved Yusuke over the edge, watching with a crooked
smile as the young man plummeted downward, his screams echoing up to their
ears. "Sorry, pal ... "
"YUSUKE!!" Kurama fell to
the edge of the cliff, extending a hand down to the rocks below, watching
as Yusuke plummeted to his almost certain doom. His eyes grew wide
and gold, anger and vengeance beginning to tug at his human heart.
"Kuwabara! You MONSTER!!" he screamed.
"Trust me on this one!" Kuwabara
tried desperately to defend his actions. He took Ko-enma by the collar
and flung him easily over ... then reached for Yo-mawari.
Kurama leapt, flipping the tall
man to the ground easily, landing him roughly back-first on the ground,
the fire behind them smashing through the crater plot. Kuwabara shook
the stars from his head to stare back at gold eyes as Youko Kurama hovered
over him, threatening.
"K'rama! I'm serious!
Just listen to me!"
"ENOUGH! Do you realize what
you've just DONE???" the fox screamed at him, tightening his grip on Kuwabara's
shoulders.
"We're gonna all be french fried
in two seconds!!" He tried to reason with the demon hovering over
him ... but the eyes grew more and more deadly, sparking with the unmistakable
power of you-ki. "Ok! If that's the way you're gonna be ... " Kuwabara
rolled quickly, flinging the both of them off the cliff in a single fluid
movement, quicker that the yoko's reflexes could handle.
"KURAMA!!!" Hiei fell to the
edge of the cliff, watching as the two fall out of view. He gasped,
mouth hanging wide open as he stared over the edge, seeing the two body's
disappear into the crashing ocean below. He forced his eyes closed
shut as Yo-mawari met with the cliff edge too ... letting his mind fly
...
"Oh god ... they can't be dead."
Hiei gasped, throwing his eyes wide
open. "THEY'RE ALIVE!!"
Yo-mawari turned his black gaze
to his master, then over his shoulder to the fire. "Are you sure?"
Hiei grasped the man's arm, forcing
back a relieved smile. "Come on!"
"You're kidding, right little meijin?"
Hiei glared at the man. "Jump
the cliff, Yo-ma!"
"Hai, meijin," he said obediently,
stepping morbidly to his feet like a well-trained soldier. He took
a deep breath, hesitating, before moving forward and stepping off the cliff.
Hiei got to his feet and leapt just
as the fire raged to the end of the cliff...
