Standard disclaimers apply. I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of the related characters referenced in this story. The characters Sin and Emina are not mine, either: Sin belongs to KitsunexShi and Emina belongs to EminaKotek-nightmare. Both of them are totally awesome and you should TOTALLY READ THEIR STUFF.
Prolouge...
The forest was quiet, absolutely still underneath the constant cloud cover. Occasionally, lightning would crackle overhead, disturbing the unnatural stillness for a brief moment. Then the quiet would return.
Ordinarily, in this…particular forest, there would be a great cacophony of sounds to be heard by a casual observer, as he was borne to the ground and torn apart by any number of animals, monsters, apparitions, or even the more aggressive plant life. In fact, these woods were famously inhospitable to travelers, and it was no surprise to hear, at any given moment, a sudden scream of a distant victim. Occasionally, you might hear something a little more normal, like the chirping of a songbird for example, but once you turned to look at it, you would quickly discover that it was merely a distraction set up by a hungry kardacii, who would reduce your standing in life from "upper-middle class" to "today's lunch special."
But even in your final moments, especially in your final moments, you would never be lacking for something to hear.
This made the current silence very unusual.
There were two distinct possibilities: either the denizens of this particular stretch of forest had been scared off or into silence by something that had just passed through, or by the source of a low rumbling that had been drawing nearer for the past few hours, and was only just now arriving.
There was a loud crackle as trees were crushed and broken by the enormous thing that thundered past.
Six massive legs slammed rhythmically into the ground, propelling what looked, at first, to be a giant, mechanical beetle through the dense vegetation. It stood as tall as an apartment building and as long as a city block, and was fronted by a massive "head," with two large, domed viewports serving as eyes and a set of pincers that chewed through any obstacle like it was made of tissue paper.
It was the mobile fortress of Mukuro, and its distinct silhouette looming on the horizon was enough to strike fear into the heart of even an A-class apparition.
Years earlier, before the first Great Tournament, Mukuro had been one of the three Kings of Demon World. Known for savagery in combat and a ruthless personality, she kept almost no order at all within her borders. But what laws she passed, she enforced from within her fortress, which could reach any corner of her territory in a matter of days. Its bowels could house hundreds of the strongest warriors, and it could embark for months without requiring additional fuel or provisions. It could unfurl six heavy artillery cannons from its colossal flanks, extend an electromagnetic pulse-emitter from its back which could knock out all electronics within six-mile radius, and it could lash out at attackers with more than sixty anti-infantry turrets poking out from every part of its steel carapace. It was the ultimate in military might, and its existence alone had kept Mukuro in power for centuries.
Now, following the first and second Great Tournaments, the giant insect served as a sentry, guarding Demon World against any threats, both foreign and domestic. It constantly patrolled the edges of Demon world in search of any humans who may have stumbled upon it accidentally, or demons who were attempting to defy the laws the Champion had enacted. Mukuro had agreed to its assignment without protest: she had no use for it now. Her political ambitions had vanished with the first tournament, and with the appearance of a certain small, red-eyed demon that had participated.
He stood now atop the head of the mobile fortress, peering out over the trees with a large, almond-shaped eye in the center of his forehead, which was giving off a faint purple glow. He stood roughly four-foot-ten, not counting his hair, which stood rigidly outward from his head in defiance with all practical laws of physics, and gave it an odd, spork-like quality. The frontal slope of his hair was shot through with a jagged arch of white highlights, which contrasted the surrounding black rather sharply, along with his long black cloak, and loose black pants tucked smartly into his black boots. The tip of a sword sheath could be seen peering out from beneath the hem of his cloak.
His normal eyes were closed in concentration, while the surgically-implanted Jagan eye continued to search.
A day earlier, this eye had detected an enormous power surge that had nearly brought him, Mukuro, and several of the more sensitive patrolmen, to their knees. They had been able to pinpoint the direction the surge had come from, but due to the unusual nature of the surge, the distance was impossible to calculate. The fortress had immediately changed course to investigate.
There was indeed something…odd about the surge. Any demon, or human for that matter, capable of such an incredible feat of power would have to have an energy signature you could practically see from space. Such a powerful entity was generally no trouble to track, although few would dare to actually look for it. And the surge definitely had a signature, indicating that the source of the energy was an individual, not a collection of weaker beings. But after the surge, the source of the energy seemed to…fade. Subside. Vanish. Like whatever had caused the surge had…shrunk.
It was as if the creator of the surge had a variable power level, and had gone from above an A-class to well below an E-class almost immediately following the end of the surge.
The man frowned. Technically, such a feat was possible. One's energy level could change, although, barring actual transformation, this was usually a gradual process. However, if there was a transformation, it would account for the sudden unexpected surge where no surge should have been, and for the sudden disappearance of the surge's source.
But if you had suddenly become that powerful, why change back…?
"Hiei? Did you find something?"
The man opened his crimson eyes and looked over at his companion. "No, Mukuro, there isn't anyone or anything for miles that could have produced an amount of energy even CLOSE to what we felt."
Mukuro returned to thoughtful silence. She was a beautiful woman, or rather, she should have been. The entire right half of her body, besides the hand, foot, and lower leg, was a mass of dark scar tissue. Her modest clothing hid it well, all except her face, which she chose to hide behind a crude mask of cloth and string, with a tinted lens to hide her damaged eye. The only visible evidence of the injuries were the few sharp scars that ran over the dividing line on her face.
She stood from her seated position, almost a foot-and-a-half taller than Hiei. "Well, continue searching. I'll head inside and see what our scanners can tell us. Perhaps we've yet to hit the surge zone yet."
She squeezed Hiei's shoulder gently as she headed into the fortress, a gesture that would have cost any other, human or apparition, their hand, if not several other things. This time, however, Hiei did nothing other than allowing himself the smallest hint of a smile.
He stood in solitude, feeling the wind against his face as the giant beetle rumbled forward at tremendous speed. He closed his normal eyes again and stared outward with the Jagan…
Trees. Nothing but trees. A few animals, here and there, E-class mostly. A couple of D-class. One C-class apparition passing across our path: his mind says that he wants nothing to do with us. He has no idea about the surge we're following. He's actually a little relieved to see us: he's hoping we'll deal with the human he just saw-
Human?
Hiei squinted with the Jagan, peering intensely around where the C-class had been moments ago. Trees, rocks, animals, plants, everything became transparent to his all-seeing Jagan, until finally-
There, about three-hundred yards ahead, was a human.
Hiei stared at the figure. He strained the Jagan's sensory abilities to their limits, and it still told him the same thing. He mentally shook himself and looked out again.
The human was still there, standing about six feet tall, wearing a long black coat and carrying some sort of staff in his hand. Further details were hard at such a distance, in such poor light as was present in the dense jungles of Demon World, and Hiei couldn't even make out the man's face. All he could tell was that he was striding away from the fortress at a good pace, as if he had some clear goal he was after.
Ordinarily, the Jagan was unhindered by such things as light quality, but that was because it relied on the being's own energy to provide it insight.
In this case, the subject contained no energy. According to the Jagan, this human did not exist. The static flow of environmental energy flowed right through him, like he was a part of the air itself.
But there was clearly a man striding purposefully away from the fortress, pushing his way through the undergrowth. Any type of astral projection would have simply phased through it. Whatever this man was, he was solid.
Keeping his Jagan firmly fixed on the man, Hiei drew a small communicator from the depths of his cloak. "This is Hiei to fortress control: we have an unidentified human ahead of us, at a distance of approximately three hundred meters, wearing a long black coat and carrying a stick of some form. Prep a protection team to secure-"
Without warning, the man halted, and turned to look back. The shadows hid his face, but Hiei was struck by the strangest sense that he was staring directly into the Jagan…
Enough of this shadow business, thought Hiei. He needed to know what the man looked like. He began to inspect the man's mind-
He pulled back almost immediately. The man's mind held no thoughts. It was like opening a door and finding the room within engulfed in white-hot flame.
The communicator crackled. "Hiei? Sir? What were you saying? You stopped talkkzchzckzczkzc-" the voice faded into static.
On the man's shadowed face, two eyes suddenly appeared, glowing with a sharp yellow light that was intensifying by the moment. Hiei's Jagan finally registered an energy signal from the man, although there was something very, very wrong with it…
Hiei snapped into the device. "Stop the fortress! All forces prepare to engage-"
He was cut off as the giant fortress was brought to a dead stop. There was a loud screeching of metal as the beetle's structure strained to cope with the jarring change in motion.
The whole fortress shuddered. Hiei was hurled forward, bouncing hard across the rough metal surface, until he slammed into…
Rock?
After the shock waves had dissipated, Hiei opened his eyes.
From his perspective, all he could see was the top of the beetle's head, which was covered in ripples and dents from the sudden stop, and a vertical wall of…earth…
He got stiffly to his feet.
From the looks of things, a mountain had materialized directly in the beetle's path, with not even enough of a warning to react to it.
He stepped back a few paces from the mountain. It peaked a few meters up.
He clicked on his communicator while he stared up at the expanse of rock. "Control, damage report."
He heard nothing but static from the device.
"Dammit, Control, do you read-"
"Demons! Your time has come!" thundered a voice.
Hiei looked around. Odd: the voice seemed to emanate directly from the mountain itself-
The rock exploded outward, blasting Hiei back. He tumbled backwards for a few paces before managing to regain his footing and look up.
The man stood outlined in a neat hole in the rock, long coat flowing dramatically behind him. Hiei noted that his eyes had resumed their normal appearance, and that his energy level seemed to be slightly lower than the average human. He stood about five-foot-seven, with youthful features and dark blonde hair.
Hiei looked into his eyes, and saw nothing but pure, righteous hatred reflected in them. They glared at Hiei as if his very existence was a sin against everything good and just in the world. It was an almost…familiar emotion to Hiei, who had, himself, harbored such a resounding hatred of the whole human race only a few short years ago.
Hiei pulled off his cloak, revealing a heavily-bandaged right arm and a remarkably built physique for such a small figure, and drew his katana. Tossing the sheath aside, he addressed the man. "I'm only going to say this once," he said sharply, "surrender or die."
The man cracked a smile that was totally devoid of goodwill. "Funny," he said in a dark, baritone voice, "I was just about to offer you the same warning. Only I wasn't going to give you a choice!"
A healthy yellow glow returned to the man's eyes. Hiei's Jagan was still adjusting to comprehend the man's strange energy, but by his judgment, the man's power level was at around a mid C-class.
Ignoring the confusing power readings, Hiei responded, "Very well. I'd rather not give you the choice either."
With uncanny speed, Hiei shot forward towards his opponent, bringing the katana around in a slice that would have removed the man's head. The man parried the blow quite easily with his staff, as Hiei had predicted. The sword whipped around to the man's other side faster than he could possibly move his staff to block.
The man caught the sword in his free hand without sustaining even a scratch, and swung Hiei full into the mountainside, knocking the wind out of him.
As Hiei fought to get his breath back, he felt his sword wrenched from his hand. Unable to lunge for it, he had to duck a blow from the staff, which hit the rock with an explosion of energy.
Hiei rolled upright and bounced quickly over a swipe from the staff, only to watch as the man swung in a full circle, maintaining his momentum, batted him out of the air with the other end of the weapon.
Hiei was thrown backwards, landing roughly where he had started from originally.
The man still held Hiei's sword in an entirely unscathed hand. As Hiei watched, the man's eyes flared brightly, and he snapped the Katana in one hand.
Hiei looked on grimly. The man's power was impossible to calculate. His power class was solely dependant on the amount of energy he needed. It changed to match the power of each attack he threw. There was no way to judge what his upper limit might be.
The man looked past Hiei, saw something, and vaulted backwards to perch on the peak of his instantaneous mountain.
Hiei turned as Mukuro and several demon warriors ran up to him. "All our electronics are shot." said Mukuro. "What exactly are we facing?"
Hiei turned back to look at the figure crouching on the mountaintop. "I'm not sure." he said. "Something powerful, I can tell you-"
"What you are facing, Demons," shouted the man, "is your doom!"
Without warning, Hiei felt the man's power rise from C to B-class as he thrust his arm forward. A pillar of rock grew straight out of the mountainside, smashing into the hull of the fortress and putting an enormous dent in the steel. The apparitions scattered as the impact sent tremors through the giant beetle.
"Ok," said Hiei, examining the rock, "Now you're really starting to piss me off."
Suddenly, the fortress rumbled beneath him as the damaged thing began to grudgingly make its way backwards off of the large mountain it had collided with. Hiei's communicator squawked with static as someone tried to send Hiei an explanation or warning of some kind.
The man laughed at the retreating insect. "Ah, running already? No, that won't do at all…"
Hiei felt his power level rise from B to A-class. He heard his communicator explode at his hip.
"Move!" he shouted, and the apparitions leapt forward off the enormous fortress.
There was a rumble like nothing Hiei had ever heard before. It seemed to come from all around, from the very earth itself.
And then, the rumble gave way to the single loudest noise Demon World had heard in almost 500 years.
The force of the explosion threw the apparitions forward into the mountain, then removed the top thirty meters from the mountain's peak.
Hiei tumbled through the avalanche, desperately trying to gain some sort of foothold. He managed to bring himself shakily to a stop roughly a hundred meters above the mountain's base.
Smoke filled the sky above them, but whatever remained of the fortress was concealed behind the mountain they were standing on.
Hiei's ears were ringing so loudly, he couldn't hear a thing. He turned about to find that most of the demon warriors had tumbled all the way to the base, where they were met by the man with the staff.
Hiei watched as the seemingly silent engagement took place, roughly a dozen A-class demons taking on a single human. As they encircled him, preparing to attack as one, the man's eyes flared up again, and he struck the ground mightily with his staff.
Hiei's Jagan was nearly overcome by the amount of strange energy the man released. All around the man, the earth rose up in columns and spikes, knocking demons every which way and spearing three instantly. One demon found himself launched into the center of the ring, towards the man, who caught him one-handed by the throat, summoned a stone spike before him, and impaled the warrior upon it
Though the apparitions had the man grossly outnumbered, they found the earth itself to be against them. Boulders would come flying from underground to intercept a lunging demon; caverns would open up to swallow one who had just risen to his feet. Of the dozen or so apparition warriors that had escaped the destruction of the fortress, only three managed to actually reach the man: all three were dispatched with relative ease when they met up with the man's whirling staff.
Hiei looked about, and found Mukuro: she had halted her decent several meters above him, and had now leapt to her feet, charging downwards at the man. Hiei joined her as she sped past.
The two mighty apparitions hurtled towards the man, who stood silently at the base of the hill awaiting them.
His eyes flared up again, brightly this time, and Hiei was again struck by a wave of strange energy readings from his Jagan. The ground began undulating beneath them, tripping Mukuro. Hiei kept his footing using his incredible speed, and continued to charge.
Then, suddenly, he found himself charging uphill. The man had created another mountain, which had borne him upward to tower above Hiei. Having given himself the height advantage, it was now the man's turn to charge, screaming, down the slope towards the waiting apparitions.
Hiei met him halfway, shouting "Fist of the Mortal Flame!" His right hand became enshrouded in an orange fire, and he drove it hard into the stomach of his opponent.
The man was thrown up the hill a short ways. Hiei leapt after him to perform the finisher, but the man rolled upright and caught Hiei square in the chest with a stab from his weapon. Hiei was knocked to the ground, stunned, as the man dove forward, energy level surging from A-class to almost an S-class.
Hiei sprang up and backwards away from a set of razor-sharp stone spikes that leapt up out of the ground.
He landed lightly next to Mukuro, who had gotten to her feet. They stared upwards at the figure, whose eyes were now hissing slightly with the sheer amount of energy they emitted.
The man raised his staff and plunged it into the ground. A line of spikes erupted down the mountainside, heading for the apparitions, who stepped to either side.
The two demons sped up the slope, dodging, avoiding, or smashing their way through the various stone formations that exploded from the earth to confront them.
As they neared the man, Mukuro clearing a short pillar and Hiei slipping between a set of black stone spears that jutted out towards him, he raised his staff high into the air and brought it to the ground with a resounding boom.
A dome of rock rose up and enveloped him.
The two demons waited for a moment. Cautiously, they started forward. When they got close enough, Hiei drew his fist back to smash the dome to bits-
At which point the dome exploded. Shards of sharp rock cut deep into Hiei's skin, and he saw blood spatter away from Mukuro as she suffered similar injuries.
As the demons tried to regain their senses, the man leapt from the dust cloud and attacked, smashing Mukuro over the head once, twice with his staff, and then blasted her back into a pillar with an explosion of rock from the ground.
He turned and headed for Hiei, who was back to his senses, and who returned that charge in full.
Quite unexpectedly, the man leapt straight up in the air.
Hiei stumbled as the earth suddenly bore him upward towards the man, who was already coming down at incredible speed. The force with which the man collided with Hiei caused the latter to cough up blood.
Stunned, Hiei was unable to stop the man as he picked him up by the throat, leapt from the pillar, and drove his head into the mountain as they landed, leaving an impact crater several meters wide.
The man rebounded backwards off of Hiei, who was unable to properly coordinate his body at this point. He landed lightly, and thrust his hand upwards with a roar of rage.
Hiei felt the ground beneath him rumble and-
"Hiei!"
He felt a pair of delicate hands grab him and hurl him roughly out of the small crater.
There was a louder rumble, followed by a series of sharp, knife-like noises, and the sickening crunch of stone meeting flesh.
Hiei got roughly to his feet, and looked back.
A pair of enormous, stone jaws had erupted from around the crater, trapping their victim, and then riddling the chamber with dozens of razor-sharp spikes.
Eight of the twelve spikes had found their mark, and three had hit multiple times.
Hiei looked at the form suspended from the rock.
"…Mukuro?"
There was no reply.
"Mukuro!"
Still nothing. Her one good eye hadn't even had time to close.
There was a sudden, deadly silence, broken only by the man's breathing in the background.
Hiei couldn't move. His body was frozen, unresponsive, and unable to look away from the sight of Mukuro's body, frozen in place by its stone entrapment, arms outstretched as it had thrown him to safety.
Several thoughts attempted to get through to Hiei's body, but he heard none of them.
From his position farther down the hill, the man began to laugh again.
"Do not pretend to feel sorry for this one, little demon. I've simply sent it back to the demon homeland. I've sent it back to hell. And soon, you can join it, if you like. I think I've still got one ticket left…"
A single thought finally registered with Hiei's body.
In an instant, Hiei was upon the man, delivering blow after blow at speeds the natural eye was incapable of following, pouring every last ounce of his remaining energy into hitting the man even harder after every sequential strike.
Dimly, he noticed the man begin to retaliate. He didn't bother to block the blows: he couldn't feel them anyway. His Jagan had been overcome by a sort of haze of energy, so he couldn't even judge the man's power level anymore, but he didn't notice that. He didn't even care that the man was somehow managing to simply take every punch Hiei threw. He just kept hitting the man with all his might.
Minutes passed, with the combatants hurling titanic blows at each other. Half the mountain was reduced to rubble as certain attacks missed their mark. Each hit was accompanied by a resounding boom, and Hiei's lightning-fast attacks were creating almost a solid wall of sound.
Hiei delivered a punch to the man's chest that caused the trees many meters behind him to sway. The man staggered from the blow, but still managed to swing a punch of his own. Hiei ducked under it, slamming his fist into the man's stomach, and then threw an uppercut into the man's jaw, sending him to the floor.
"Who are you?" he shouted at the man. "Tell me, human, who are you?"
He lunged at the man, but was intercepted by a column of earth that rose from the ground. Hiei rolled upright, still facing the man. "Tell me, so that I can know exactly who I am about to kill."
"I have no name." replied the man in a raspy voice as he started to rise.
"Liar! Tell me who you are!" Hiei dove forward again, faster than the man could react, and slammed him back into the ground.
Hands around the man's throat, Hiei growled into his face, struggling to concentrate through the angry red mist forming around vision. "Tell. Me. Who. You-"
Both of the man's hands hit Hiei's chest like pile drivers, then grasped Hiei's shoulders and forced him off. A leg connected with Hiei's ribs, sending him flying away.
"You want to know who I am?" asked the man.
He got to his feet and stalked towards Hiei. "I am the Final Reckoning. I am the Judgment. I am the End."
Hiei stood up, still seeing through red mist of fury. "Well isn't that just perfectly self-righteous of you-"
"Evil creature!" The man lunged forward. Hiei leapt. They collided in midair, hurling attacks at each other.
"I have come here, demon, to cleanse the world of your presence," screamed the man as he struck Hiei again and again, "to extract payment for the crime of your existence! I am because you shouldn't be. I exist so that you will cease to exist! I am the end of your life, the end of your world! I am the Apocalypse! I am the Armageddon! Do you hear me, demon? I am Armageddon!"
Finally, Hiei was aware of a single, powerful haymaker connecting with his temple. He was next aware of hitting a thick tree at speed, and watching the remains of seven others crash to the ground behind him.
He fell slowly to the floor.
He could dimly perceive the man walking up to him, face hidden in shadow.
He nodded to Hiei, who was losing consciousness. "Well fought, demon. You have shown me that I still have much strength yet to gain, that I have much, much more work to do if I'm to compete with the strongest members of your blasphemous race. For this service, I shall consider your ticket to hell invalidated. However, we shall meet up again, you and me, and at that time, your ticket will definitely be non-refundable."
He turned and strode away as Hiei blacked out. "Farewell, demon…"