Hiei looked up at the giant palace that stood before him in spirit world. He walked up to the call button and said, "I'd like to speak to King Yama."

"Who's this?!" The voice on the other end demanded.

Hiei glared at the button and said, "Hiei the swordsman of demon world. Is he there or not?"

"You're a demon?" the voice asked.

"What part of 'of demon world' didn't you understand?" he asked angrily.

The door opened and revealed a long hallway that looked like a giant throat. He looked down to the very end and used his speed to make it to a smaller door almost instantly. He looked around the door and found another button. He pushed it again and asked, "Is King Yama there?"

"Wait, you're the demon that was just at the main gate, how did you move so fast?" the voice on the other side asked.

Hiei said, "That's not important. Is he there or not?"

The door opened and revealed dozens of ogers running around the room. A green one ran up to him and pointed a device at him. "You, you're Hiei, right?" he asked, not looking at him.

"Yes," he replied, annoyed. The screen showed "550" on it. "What does that mean?"

[If you remember in the last season of Yu Yu Hakusho it shows demons at different numbers, Kurama was at 8,000, Yoko Kurama was at 152,000, and Yusuke was at 800,000 by the end of the show, for comparison.]

"That you're powerful," he answered, "and that King Yama will see you." He turned around and started walking away.

The oger lead him to another giant doorway and left him there alone as the doors opened. King Yama sat on his throne on the otherside. "Why have you come here?" he asked.

"I hear you keep track of every demon that enters human world," Hiei explained, "so I was wondering if you knew where a certain ice maiden was." Strange energy filled the air suddenly.

"You're correct," King Yama said slowly, "I do keep track of every demon in the living world."

Hiei's vision started to turn fuzzy. "What is this?" He asked, getting on his knees.

"A fire demon with the jagan eye," King Yama said, "very interesting and he came straight to me. You're having a hard time seeing and hearing this now, aren't you?"

His hearing started to distort as his vision faded. The ground came up to meet him as he passed out.

When he woke up he was chained to a wall, in a small dark room. He was gagged but his jagan was wide open. Can't breathe, he thought painfully as he felt the walls closing in on him. In reality the walls weren't moving at all. "You're so tired," King Yama insisted, "you feel like you haven't slept in days, weeks even. Your eye lids are getting heavier and you're getting more and more relaxed."

No, Hiei thought as he jangled the chains, I'm getting out of here. What? His eye lids really were getting heaviler.

"Every muscle in your body is so heavy you can't move them freely," he continued, "you let them hang in the shackles they're in. You close your eyes as your lids are too heavy to hold open and relax every muscle in your body."

Stop it! Hiei commanded himself, I'm so tired...no, he's hypnotizing you. Why is he doing this? I have to get out here. Where's Yukina? He closed his eyes and relaxed completely. Why am I complying. Get out...but I'm too tired.

King Yama said, "When I tell you to wake up, you'll have an uncontrollable urge to take over living world and have every human bow at your feet. You'll meet a demon named Goki in the hallway and you'll conspire with him to steal the Artifacts of Darkness from King Yama's vault. You'll round up countless humans with your jagan eye, cut them with the shadow sword to turn them into low level demons and make them do as you say."

Why would I do that? Hiei thought to himself. I won't do it. I'm only here to look for Yukina. Control the humans of living world...steal the artifacts...what was I saying before? Yukina! Who's...why can't I think clearly? Who's Yukina? I have to steal the artifacts of darkness.

The chains that were holding him down disappeared and he fell to the ground. With his eyes closed he couldn't see anything, but the floor he laid on moved upward and the room brightened. "Wake up!" King Yama commanded.

Hiei jolted to his feet and saw King Yama on his throne. Hiei turned around and left. In the hall Goki stood there. "Who are you?" Goki demanded to know, "The name's Goki."

"Hiei," he answered, "we should steal the artifacts of darkness." Where is this coming from? he thought to himself, Why am I stealing from spirit world? Why did I come to spirit world in the first place?

Goki said, "A little birdy told me King Yama's leaving tomorrow. We should do it then."

"We'll need reinforcements for sure," Hiei insisted, "even if he's gone it'll still be heavily guarded. We shouldn't take chances."

"Have someone in mind?"

"Yoko Kurama," he answered. Kurama, why am I bringing him into this? Why do I want the artifacts? To control humans? Hiei thought.

Goki laughed and said, "That fox has been dead for years."

"Want to meet him?" Hiei asked, "He's alive and well, in the living world. We'll need his help, we have an orgy of guards to get through in order to penitrate the vault, let alone leave spirit world."

Goki gave him a funny look before saying, "Alright, I'll meet you just outside of Tokyo in the living world."

Hiei jumped up to Kurama's window and pryed it open. A very surprised Kurama sat at his desk in his room. "Hiei?" He asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Join me," he insisted, "in my quest. I met a demon named Goki in spirit world and we're about to storm King Yama's vault. Forget being a human and become the great legendary bandit you were back in the day. What do you say?"

"The vault?" he asked, "Hiei are you okay?"

Hiei asked, "Are you saying you've never had an interest in the artifacts of darkness?"

Kurama said, "I didn't say that...but the forlorn hope might give me what I need." He thought to himself for a moment in silence.

"The forlorn hope?" Hiei asked, "You mean the mirror?" The shadow sword, echoed in his mind.

"Yes," Kurama said slowly, "you want to steal from King Yama's vault without knowing it's contents? That's not very Hiei of you at all. What's wrong with your eyes?" He looked into them but he could hardly see the crimson color they usually were since they were so small.

"Are you in or not?"

Kurama sighed and said, "Alright. It seems to be my only option."

"You need to meet Goki," Hiei said.