Disclaimer: ...does anyone read these? Or care about them? Well, besides me, that is. Well, might as well please the dorks like me: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho! I don't even own the title; I stole that from "The Hollow Man", by T. S. Eliot.

"...I wonder...if what the boy needs is a good helping of cold anger."

"Cold anger?"

"Oh yes, don't you know that distinction? Tribal mothers always tell their children that there are two kinds of anger...hot anger...the inclination to fight, the drive to sink the knife into the flesh, the energy and initiative of fury...cold anger...the cold simmer, the ceaseless grudge, the talent to avoid forgiveness, the sidestepping of compromise...the universe is changed, once again, for cold anger requires an eternal vigilance in all matters of slight and offense."

-Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, by Gregory Maguire

Some say the world will end in fire

Some say in ice

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favour fire

But if it had to perish twice

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice

-"Fire and Ice", by Robert Frost

There was a reason why Youko Kurama was the most feared bandit of all time, and would almost certainly never be replaced. Even now, when the new, human-like creature was hardly feared by any, the silver fox was still regarded with horror...and with respect.

There was a reason why none of his new teammates would ever truly match him, however powerful they got. In fact, all three had technically surpassed him by now, but he was still greater. In the millennia to come, history might forget them...but never him

Hiei had had potential, in the beginning. He might have been a suitable replacement...but as time went on, he changed, whether he admitted it or not. Maybe it was when he found Yukina...no, it had started before then. It had started way back, on the first case. He denied it then, and he denied it still, but he was different.

Yusuke was another hopeless case. Yes, he was technically one of the most powerful beings in all three worlds, but he was not, would never be, the greatest. He still had his huge weakness: he had to care. He had to need; he had to feel. He had to have a personal stake in a fight; he could never think clinically. He needed someone to protect, someone to remember. He could never cut himself off from his emotions, and if he could, he would never do it, because they were his greatest strength.

Kuwabara was a human, and thus hindered by the natural limits of his kind, but that was not why he could never achieve true distinction. Well, it was not the only reason why. He was compassionate. He cared about everyone and everything. After all, this was a thug who took in stray kittens! He loved his friends, his family...he loved. He would never be able to stay aloof.

For that was Youko's true strength, really. It was not his power; he had plenty of that, but he was by no means the strongest of the land. It was not even his cunning, although that was what made him such a dangerous enemy. It was his wrath. It was a common misconception that his calm, his lack of rage, his coldness had meant that he was in a perpetual state of serenity. There was nothing farther from the truth.

He was in a perpetual state of anger. However he had spoken, however he had seemed, he had been angry. He just felt it in a different way. He did not scream or rage; he felt no fury; he felt cold. He could view his hatred dispassionately, below the surface. He never boiled; he simmered. His was a vengeance of the worst kind; no one could disturb him. His revenge would come, eventually. His anger never, ever cooled; for what could cool ice?

The root of this aloofness was simple: he did not care. He had detached himself from passionate emotions. It was this that made him feared. It was this that made him immortal. He was dangerous, implacable, because he had no soft spots. Nothing made him tick.

In fact, what had been the final undoing for the fox was the loss of this control. One hot feeling had melted his ice; no, it had never melted. It had weakened. And this weakness...it made all the difference. That one little fervent emotion had destroyed him. It had allowed him to make the mistake that led to his eventual downfall. One tiny speck of fire...

It was that fundamental difference that separated them. Love, hate, rage...they made fools out of everyone. They made men into fools, fools who would throw themselves into fights they would never win, fools who died young. To survive, you had to resist those sentiments. You had to stay aloof, detached. You had to care for nothing but yourself, and not even care for yourself that much. You certainly could not need anyone else.

And that, reflected Kurama-or was it Shuichi now?-was why he would never return to his former greatness.

A/N: Okay, I'm expecting the OOC bombs to drop at any moment. I just felt like it had to be written. Sue me. Actually, don't; that would be bad.

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