Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or the characters.


A lovely rose always has thorns

Chapter One

Hiei could sense the demon somewhere in the dark ocean. He wasn't the only one either. Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama all felt it too. Everyone stood by the ocean shore with anticipation, waiting for the demon to appear. Hiei couldn't help but smirk as he sensed how low the demon's power was.

"Why are we here again, Urameshi?" Kuwabara asked stupidly.

"You fool, you've forgotten already? We're here because a demon has been terrorizing humans and it's our job to exterminate it." Hiei replied before Yusuke could answer.

"Shaddap, shrimp. I didn't ask you." Kuwabara snapped.

"You two should stop fighting and be alert, the demon is getting closer." Kurama advised softly.

Hiei obediently stopped and glanced at Kurama. The fire demon wondered how Kurama could always be so calm, clever, and elegant.

There wasn't much time to ponder however, because the shape shifting water demon emerged from the ocean and charged at Hiei from his left. The demon had scaly blue skin with gills on its neck and its only weapons were the sharp claws that were the length of the demon's hand.

Smirking, Hiei drew his katana. "Let me handle this one!"

Yusuke and Kurama backed away to give him some room but Kuwabara stood firmly where he was. "No way! I want my share of this demon and I'll imagine it's your head." Kuwabara cracked his knuckles.

"Just stay out of my way!" Hiei ordered.

"Tch, yeah right."

The demon lunged at Hiei, but he dodged it easily. The blade Hiei wielded sliced open the demon's right shoulder and the crimson fluid dripped down Hiei's sword and splattered on the ground. It shrieked in pain then made another attempt to injure Hiei.

"Watch out, Hiei!" Yusuke shouted from the sidelines. "Koenma warned us that this demon has the ability to sense its opponent's weakness and then use it against them!"

Hiei dodged another blow without much effort. "I'll make a note of that." He said even though he didn't think he had a weakness, so it didn't worry him at all.

The demon hopelessly tried to injure Hiei but the fire youkai was too fast. This fight is too boring, Hiei thought, how could a demon so weak cause so much trouble for the pathetic ningens? Oh scratch that…

Seeing that it could not inflict injury on Hiei, it turned to the others for a slower opponent. The water demon caught sight of Kurama and launched itself towards him instead. Kurama was too busy watching Hiei to notice the change in the demon's target so it collided with Kurama and knocked the wind out of him. Then its sharp foot-long-claws stabbed the redhead in the stomach. The fox demon coughed up blood and was too weak to scream.

Hiei froze in fear. No not Kurama! He screamed in his head.

"You're gonna pay, you bastard!" Hiei raised his sword.

The demon yanked its claws out of Kurama's flesh along with some of his innards. The weakened Kurama fell to the ground and before Hiei could strike the demon with a final blow, it sensed Hiei's one and only weakness…

It took on the appearance of Kurama, making Hiei stop dead in his tracks. Hiei hesitated; he could never strike Kurama… not even a fake one. But only a moment's hesitation was needed for the fake Kurama to pull out a rose and attack with razor sharp pedals and thorns. The pedals easily sliced through his body and Hiei yelled in pain while blood seeped down the front of his clothes his front.

"Rose Whip Thorn Wheel!" The real Kurama shouted after gaining some of his strength back.

Badly injured, the demon looked around to everyone, and gave a sad look at Hiei. Angrily, Hiei struggled to get to his feet and stampeded at the demon. Panicked and cornered, the demon gathered all its spirit energy as a last resort and released it at everybody within a certain radius. A blinding flash and blood curdling scream made everyone fear what they would see when the light vanished.

When everything cleared, the demon stood almost dead and Kurama, Yusuke, and Kuwabara were unharmed. There was nothing left of Hiei, except for his sword which stuck up out of the ground by the blade. The dying demon had blood oozing from wounds and patches of read hair were missing from its head. In its present state it looked like a very ugly cross between Kurama and a water demon. Everybody was overcome by shock that Hiei was dead.

Yusuke shook with anger and glared at the demon standing before him. "You… you bastard! I'll send you to hell!" Pissed off, the spirit detective charged up his spirit gun and aimed for the demon's heart. "Die! SPIRIT GUN!"

Another blinding flash ensued and when the light was gone, so was the demon…

TO BE CONTINUED


I hope the chapter wasn't too short. I'll have the next chapter up soon. Please review or you might not know what happens next!