Yu Yu Hakusho: Korudokesu

by Super Sly

Four years have passed since Yusuke Urameshi returned to Human Realm. Since then, Spirit World has appointed a new Spirit Detective named Romano Hideshi, a true prodigy. But now that a new threat looms over the three realms, how will humanity's final line of defense be able to hold up against the impending hour of darkness?

10:52 AM

The Young Spirit Detective watches from afar as the citizens of the Human World go about their business, completely oblivious to the constant, lurking danger which may befall them at any moment.

A small grin forms on the sides of Romano Hideshi's mouth. He anxiously awaited the arrival of his assistant, excited for another day working at his "Dream Job".

"Come on Botan... Where are you?" He thought to himself out loud, twitching in anticipation. Hideshi checked his watch again, 10:53 AM. "You said five till eleven Botan, so I'll hold you to that!"

The good-natured Spirit Detective smiled as he gazed over the commuters in the streets from his high vantage point atop his apartment building.

A few moments later, a familiar figure appeared in the bright, day-time sky. The figure was, as usual, riding her oar and headed towards Hideshi and an alarmingly fast rate. Even still, Botan wasn't quite moving fast enough for Hideshi.

"What took you so long Botan?" the young, dark-haired boy slyly remarked to the staggeringly beautiful woman riding her magical flying oar while wearing her light pink robes.

"I'll have you know Romano, that King Yama is very busy right now! More and more demons keeping piling into the Human World now that King Enki is planning to seal the passageway between Earth and Demon World by next week."

"And that just means more excitement for me!" Hideshi jubilantly replied.

Botan sighed slightly as she retrieved the list of names King Yama had presented her with earlier this morning for Hideshi to track down. "You're always so reckless, you do realize that?"

"I know," Hideshi said as he eyed the list like a child were to watch a new toy as it were passing the checkout register at a store "and that's why I'm so effective at catching these guys!"

"Just promise you'll be a little more careful, will you?" Botan asked as she slowly handed the list over to Hideshi.

"Yea, ok mom!" the young man smartly replied as he took one cursory glance at the list of names, then jumping to his feet, ready for action. "I'll have these done for King Yama by the end of today! See ya babe!" Hideshi called back to Botan as he raced across the rooftop of his apartment building, then leapt off the side of it onto the streets below.

All Botan could do was watch and shake her head disapprovingly. If only it were that easy with Yusuke...
She thought to herself before turning back towards the sky on her oar, racing back towards Spirit World.

"Alright then, let's actually look at this thing..." Hideshi said shortly after landing feet-first onto the asphalt-paved alleyway beside his apartment building. The ambitious Spirit Detective retrieved the list of names and information pertaining to the demons he was to track down today from his pocket, unfolded it, then began to read out loud.

"Ginobly Atakashi, upper A class demon. Leader of the Ginobly Demon Gang. No reports exist on his whereabouts at this time... Blah, blah, blah... Ok then, let's have a look at another here..." Hideshi shuffled around the papers containing information pertaining to the other demons.

"Raiza, another member of the Ginobly Gang. Recent Reports suggest he's hiding somewhere here in the Mavo area of Japan. Awesome! That means I won't have to look for too long and I can get straight to kicking ass!" The Young Spirit detective cheered excitedly.

"Hold up there young man," An ominous voice echoed from out of nowhere in the alleyway "Are you sure you'll be able to defeat me? What does your cute little 'report' have to say about my strength?"

Hideshi's eyes lit up excitedly. Yes! He's right here! I can skip the whole searching part altogether! This is gonna be a great day! he thought to himself as he read from the report again, this time a little louder. "Raiza, Lower B class demon. Whipping boy of the Ginoby Gang." Hideshi smiled mischievously as he added that last insulting line to the end of King Yama's report.

"Well then detective," the voice echoed again from out of sight in the alleyway once again "It would seem as though your report is hilariously inaccurate in two aspects... For one, I'm nobody's whipping boy, as you'll soon discover!"

"Yea...sure." Hideshi scoffed "And what was that second inaccuracy?"

Raiza laughed maliciously as he began to materialize from a brick wall parallel to where Hideshi stood in the alleyway. The demon then reared his ugly head, one which was humanoid, yet had the eyes of a beast. His mouth curled into a devilish smile which stretched all the way to the side of his tattooed face. The demon also brought out a shiny, red apple from behind the wall. The demon grinned at the boy a bit more before taking a large bite from the apple and speaking to him with a mouth full of the fruit. "I believe that your accomplices in Spirit World have severely underestimated me. I'd consider myself an upper B class demon, maybe even an A class..."

Hideshi just stood his ground and confidently smiled to himself, still retaining his cocky attitude, yet keeping a strange element of maturity behind his smile.

"I don't know what to tell you there Raiza, if it makes your last moments any more enjoyable, I'll give the benefit of the doubt and kill you with an attack I usually reserve for A class apparitions."

"Foolish boy! You're a human! You have no such power! Humans are weak and feeble creatures! And I shall break you as such!" Raiza angrily leapt out from the brick wall, his entire being coming out into open view. It was then that Hideshi saw it, what Raiza was carrying in his other hand. He waited until the demon raised up the knife above his head, letting it glisten in the rays of the sun before reacting.

Hideshi took what appeared to be a defensive stance for a moment, but then, in the blink of an eye, it was over...

Blood ran down Hideshi's arm as he raised it up skywards. He had managed to make contact with the demon, who began coughing up blood. "W-what did y-you do to me?!" the demon demanded as he remained suspended on the Spirit Detective's arm.

"Why don't you take a look?" Hideshi said in a cold tone, completely stone-faced as Raiza's blood began to drip onto his clothes some more.

The demon turned his head towards where Hideshi's fist made contact with his stomach, then saw the gruesome scene. "N-no!" he turned his face away from the horrendous sight, twitching in fear and pain.

Hideshi took an admiring glance at the work he had done and smiled to himself a bit. Raiza lie on top of his fist, half impaled at the stomach. Hideshi's fist glowed with a white, spiritual aura as he removed Raiza from his awkward resting position atop his arm.

"Now then Raiza," Hideshi maliciously said as he knelt down to face the demon as he lie on the ground bleeding to death "I'll gonna need you to tell me... Where's Ginobly?"

The demon looked away in horror from the spirit detective, he squirmed around a bit as if he were trying to get away, but he couldn't, his body had suffered a mortal wound.

"Fine... If you won't tell me, I'm sure there are some other demons on this list who will..." Hideshi said as he stood back up, then turned to walk away from the dying demon.

"N-no! Wait! You can't leave me like this!" Raiza called back towards Hideshi, who had his back turned to the monster as he strode away.

Romano Hideshi took a couple more steps, then stopped in his tracks to turn his face towards the demon once more.

"You're right..." Hideshi said as he quickly snapped his fingers, igniting some of the spiritual energy his fist had left inside Raiza's gut, the energy had the appearance of white fire as it engulfed the entire demon's body.

Raiza gave one final shriek and the fell silent as the spiritual energy swallowed up what was left of his body and turned it to dust.

Satisfied with his work, Hideshi turned away again, and resumed his hunt for Ginobly and the rest of his gang.

Romano Hideshi, following a lead in one of his Spirit Detective reports, has arrived in Old Singha Town in search of the second member of the infamous Ginobly Gang, Caffa.

"How strange..." Hideshi said as he rounded the street corner "Caffa is reported to be an A class demon, yet it can't feel his energy, nor is my apparition detector picking him up. So where is this guy?"

A large, dark cloud began forming a little ahead of where Hideshi was standing, ominously spreading over the area at an alarmingly fast rate. A few moments later, discolored raindrops began to fall heavily over the town, sending many to find shelter immediately while some others attempted to brave the rain and go about their business.

Hideshi looked around himself, the rain cloud had not yet spread to where he was standing. It was then he realized how fishy the whole thing seemed to him. "Wait a second," he thought to himself out loud, looking skyward "that's the only rain cloud in the sky. And why is it...brown?" Hideshi's train of thought was cut short by loud screams of agony erupting in the streets.

Now everyone was running for shelter, some seething in pain while doing so. "What's going on here?!" Hideshi blurted out as the rain finally began to spread to where the Spirit Detective had been standing.

He felt a single rain drop fall onto his hand, and once the burning sensation began, he knew exactly what was going on. "Damn it!" He exclaimed as he began to run away from the cloud's ever-expanding radius.

As he rounded the corner again, Hideshi began hearing maniacal laughter. He turned towards it's point of origin to meet a dark-eyed humanoid creature with abnormally sharp teeth.

"How do you like my acid rain Detective?!" The creature spoke as it reared itself closer towards Hideshi.

Hideshi stopped in his tracks to face the demon. "So I can assume you're Caffa?"

"Oh yes!" the demon proudly proclaimed "I am the demon of poison and smoke! And you're about to be nothing but a puddle of radioactive tissues detective!" the beast then leapt up onto the top of a multistory building and began to run along it.

"Bad move buddy! You can't outrun my spirit gun!" Hideshi shouted towards Caffa as he raised his index finger outward to take aim at the demon.

Caffa let out yet another laugh, which protruded large amount of smoke from his mouth, concealing him from Hideshi's view.

"Damn it!" Hideshi swore loudly as Caffa disappeared from sight. He had little time to be sore over this however, as he began to feel a searing pain in his arm. The rain had caught up with him once again, and this time, Hideshi was unable to react in time. The rain began cascading over his body, searing every fiber of his being.

Out from the smoke cloud above him, Caffa emerged and dropped down to the street below.

The demon smirked at Hideshi as he dropped to his knees in pain, the acidic rain pouring over him. "How does it feel detective? Knowing that your end came form something as harmless as a little rain? It must be humiliating! Muwawawa!"

"Oh it hurts Caffa... But not as much as what I'm about to do to you!" Hideshi exclaimed before grabbing Caffa's wrist in his hand and pulling him under the cloud of acidic rain.

The demon's laughter of delight quickly turned to shrieks of pain as the rain washed over him, burning his skin.

"Doesn't feel too good now does it Caffa?!" Hideshi shouted angrily as he raised his index finger up towards the demon once again. In a single flash of light and a small explosion, it was all over for Caffa. The now headless demon's body fell to the ground, completely devoid of life.

As the smoke ceased to billow from what was left of the ugly demon's head, so did the toxic rain which plagued Old Singha Town.

Romano Hideshi stood up, still a bit weak from the effects of the rain, but nonetheless ready for whatever the Ginobly Gang had left in store for him.

"This is my last lead..." Romano Hideshi reminded himself as he was about to enter the warehouse where he would find the third member of the Ginobly Gang, Akimursu.

"If I mess up and kill this guy here without questioning him, I'm not gonna have any solid leads to finding Ginobly. And that would really suck..."

The young Spirit Detective paced around the warehouse a few more times, keen to survey the surrounding area before launching his assault on the inconspicuous-looking structure. No other demons seemed to be around. Hideshi was beginning to doubt that Akimursu was even in this complex. Then again, he did feel an abnormally strong demonic presence coming from within that building. It was strange though, seeing as Akimursu was only an upper C class demon.

After scanning the perimeter for the final time, Hideshi was confident that he and Akimursu would be alone if he were to enter the warehouse.

Hideshi picked the lock to a small, one-person door and entered as quietly as possible, suppressing his spirit energy. The warehouse was full of all different assortments of crates and machinery such as forklifts to move them.

Inside, the warehouse seemed to lay silent. But only for a moment. Out from a far corner of the structure, Hideshi could hear someone talking in a deep, demonic voice.
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That's got to be Akimursu! Hideshi thought to himself as he crept around the maze of crates, silently moving closer towards the sound of the demon's voice.

After a few more steps towards the sounds of his voice, Hideshi could hear Akimursu a bit more clearly. But then, he began to hear another voice, this one much more soft-spoken and mellow sounding.

It's a woman! Hideshi came to the realization just as he rounded his head around the corner of one of the large crates. And sure enough, now in pain sight, there was a human girl standing a top a large stack of crates, engaging in conversation with Akimursu.

Something about this woman struck Hideshi as oddly, familiar...

Even though her back was turned to him, he knew he had seen her before somewhere...

In his bewilderment, he was careless and allowed himself to be spotted by Akimursu. "Look! It's him! The Spirit Detective who killed Caffa and Raiza!"

This, in turn, caused the woman to also turn towards Hideshi. Instantly after seeing her face, he began to wish he had never accepted this case...

No... It can't be! Wendy!? Hideshi thought to himself, paralyzed with fear for what the girl he once knew had become.

She had the same face, the same body structure, the same hair. Yet she was very different...

Most notably was her left arm, which had been enlarged several times it's normal size and had a demonic and dangerous look to it, as if her nails had become talons.

Wendy appeared in a trance, staring blankly into Hideshi's concerned eyes. It was at this moment he began to remember their past together...

Wendy Itsūba and Romano Hideshi had been friends for as long as either could remember. They both stood up for one another whenever one was being bullied because of their small, fragile statures.

While usually the bullies would end up beating on both of them, they at least had each other to help them heal.

It wasn't too long before both Wendy and Romano came to their teenage years, still sticking close by one another, but now something was different. They began to feel something more than friendship for one another.

Eventually, the two realized that they had fallen in love with each other, and became even more inseparable.

The true test of their relationship came when Hideshi became diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at age 15. At first, he had to spend several days in the hospital to get his sugars back on track and to run some tests on him. Wendy never once left his side the entire time.

However... Not everything lasts forever...

The Summer before their last year of High School, Wendy's parents had to move out of the country to Korea for work purposes.

Romano and Wendy tried to make things work long-distance, but it proved too difficult for them and eventually, things died off. Hideshi stopped calling her after he feel into his slump of depression after being rejected from the Police Academy because of his diabetes.

This was the first time Hideshi had seen Wendy in three years, and now they had been reunited, but as enemies.

Hideshi had sworn to either arrest or slay demons in the human world when he became Spirit Detective. Wendy, now under the control of Ginobly's gang, now set her sights on killing the Spirit Detective.

Romano Hideshi knew what he had to do, but the question remained: Would he ever be able to forgive himself if he did?

Hideshi stood his ground, facing the woman he had once loved, her hand now disfigured to that of a Demon's. It didn't take him long to see what was up. Either Ginobly or Akimursu had taken possession over her mind. She was now as just as bad as any other demon who illegally entered the Human World.

He didn't even get the chance to take a look for very long, as Wendy immediately leapt from her position, her claws stretched out and ready for attack. Hideshi did too little too late, he was still in shock. All he could do was take a single step back as Wendy's demonic claws raked into his skin across his chest, leaving deep, bloody gashes.

The detective fell to his knees, gasping for air through the pain. All the while, looking onwards, Akimursu smirked wildly, barely able to contain his laughter. "You're a bit slow? Aren't you detective?" The demon stated in a taunting tone.

Romano Hideshi fell face-forward into the pavement of the warehouse, struggling to stay conscious as he bled to death all over the floor. He then felt someone come up from behind him, grab the back of his shirt, and lift him back up so he could view the horned demon as he descended from his position upon the crates.

"The boss is gonna be so happy when he founds out I was able to get rid of you! You should have heard him before you got here! He was hotter than a hornet about coming all this way from Demon World, past the Makai barrier, and King Enki's security forces just to have two of his gang members killed! I may not have been as tough as Raiza or Caffa, but I was certainly smarter than them. You see detective, we did our research as well. We knew all about your past an how this presumptuous little whore was your woman a good while back. I was the only one who thought ahead and decided to take control over her body! And now she's mine... I wonder what I'll do to her after you're dead and gone..."

Akimursu's words brought out a terrifying rage from deep within Hideshi. "You bastard! Don't you dare touch her!"

"Oh please detective! What are you going to do? Bleed on me?" the demon mocked Hideshi as he struggled to even stay conscious. He then felt as a presence pulled his head back, allowing him to see Wendy's face.

"How's about I give you one final look at your lover before I send you to your grave Detective?" Akimursu said in a devilish tone with a wife grin as the detective looked back on his one and only childhood friend, tears beginning to well up in his eyes at seeing what she had become.

Evidently, this triggered something in the deep bowls of Wendy's consciousness, as she cast Hideshi aside and swiftly and silently slashed her claw across Akimursu's throat. The demon was dead before he hit the floor. And Hideshi felt as though he would soon join him...
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Wendy snapped back into reality as soon as Akimursu's body fell to the floor, surrounded by a pool of his own blood. His control over her died with him, but at the same time, Wendy did not yet feel...normal...

She looked down at her arm. It was still a disgusting charcoal black and many times the normal size of a human hand. The nails of her claws ran red with the blood of the demon Akimursu and Hideshi.

She feel to her knees beside Hideshi, frantically trying to wake him up, calling his name as a loudly as she could, somehow hoping that he would be alright. She didn't even notice her hand return to normal size, she was too concerned for her lover's well-being.

When he wouldn't respond, she'd just shake him harder, attempting to get some sort of response out of him. Anything would do.

"Romano! Romano! Please don't die!" She cried out in between sobs of misery as she continuously shakes his entire body. "P-please... I love you..."

"Hehehehe... Stupid girl..." A deep, villainous voice echoed from an unknown point of origin within the warehouse. "He's not going to wake up! He's dead as stone! All thanks to you..."

Wendy continued to sob loudly, placing her face onto Hideshi's blood-stained shirt to muffle her cries of agony.

The voiced continued to delight itself in her misery. "I suppose that weak fool Akimursu is good for something after all! He did just take out my only real threat here in the human world! Then again, it was you who killed the Spirit Detective Hideshi? Wasn't it? Hehehehahahaha!"

Wendy finally looked up from Hideshi's chest, her face was covered in blood and her eyes were filled with tears, and then terror.

There, standing across from them was a tall man with long, dark hair and a large sword at his side.

The creature smiled maliciously at Wendy for a moment, then gives a small laugh and starts stepping towards her.

Wendy did not know what to think of this man, in fact, he terrified her past the point of all thought and reason.

"Hello there my dear," the man have a small bow as he introduces himself in a menacing voice "My name is Ginobly Atakashi..."

Hideshi suddenly found himself lying on his back. Surrounded by shadows. The Spirit Detective looked down at his chest, the deep, raking claw marks from Wendy's demon arm still bled pure, red blood.

Hideshi sighed as the darkness seemed to be swallowing him. There was a single point of bright light, high above him. But he knew he would never reach it. He felt just like he did after the fire... He felt as though his life force was draining away from him...

He knew he was going to die again...

Hideshi saw as the shadows began to creep up on him, slowly waving their menacing tentacles towards him. Death was terrifying, yet Romano Hideshi didn't show any sign of fear. All he had left to feel was regret...

He had finally been reunited with Wendy again, only to find she had become a slave to demon kind.

He remembered how she did even hesitate to rip her claws across his chest. He remembered how it felt, seeing the woman he loved tearing his flesh apart like all they ever had was for nothing...

While she killed him, all he wanted to do was hold her, like he used to when they were children. Hold her and try to make her feel better...

Even now, as he faced the reality of the situation, Romano selflessly thought of Wendy, and what would become of her now that he was going to die...

His questions would be answered by the most blood-curdling sound he had ever heard: a muffled scream coming from the light above him. He knew it was Wendy.

Feeling a certain drive about him, Hideshi forced the shadows of death away from him with pure will power. He needed to make sure she was alright... Towards the light, he plunged, feeling his life returning to him.

***

As he slowly came to, Hidehi opened his eyes to a frightened-looking Botan, using her healing powers on his open chest wounds, causing them to recede and slowly close.

"B-Botan?" he asked weakly, glancing up at her.

"I'll spare you the lecture about being too reckless until later Hideshi, right now we've got a situation..." She said as she uncomfortably glanced over to where Wendy was, caught in the grip of a very tall, long-haired man, who he could only assume was a demon.

Wendy continued to struggle for breath as she screamed out Hideshi's name in the stranglehold of the man.

"No!" Hideshi shouted as he sprang to his feet, temporarily forgetting the pain in his chest to rush to Wendy's side. "Let her go!" he shouted towards the demon angrily.

The long-haired man grinned at the Spirit Detective menacingly. "Ah! It's you! Romano Hideshi... Spirit Detective... It's a pleasure to meet you at last..." the demon's smirk continued, even as he cast Wendy's limp body to his side. She shut her eyes tightly and coughed loudly in an attempt to catch her breath.

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"I've heard so very much about you... Allow me to introduce myself before I gut you. My name is Ginobly, now that introductions are out of the way, shall we get this party started? Don't worry though, I'm not going to make the same mistake Akimursu, Caffa and Raiza made, I'm going all out from the start, 100% power! Prepare yourself detective!" The demon excitedly tensed up his body as clenched his fists at his side, ready to fight. Ginobly's power began to swell at such a level that a blood-red aura began surrounding his body. The demon laughed hysterically as his power shook the entire warehouse.

However, his increase in power was nothing compared to his opponent's. Hideshi stared down at Wendy as she struggled to reclaim her breath. The sight filled him with an uncontrollable rage, sparking a deep, gold aura to surround his own stature. Hideshi then turned his gaze to Ginobly, his eyes giving away his intentions. Only one of them would walk away from this battle...

After a few brief moments of exchanging glares at one another, the Spirit Detective made his move, his speed was so fast, Ginobly could not trace him with his eyes, which left him completely defenseless as Romano delivered a powerful blow to the towering Demon's gut.

As Ginobly crouched over in pain, Hideshi quickly raised his leg up towards the demon's face, kicking him straight in the eyes, making Ginobly stagger backwards.

The demon cried out in pain, covering his face with his hands. However, Hideshi continued his barrage on the creature, firing off punch after punch into Ginobly's abdominal region, forcing him back towards the wall at an even greater rate than before. It was obvious who had the upper hand in this battle to the on-looking Botan and Wendy.

"H-he's doing it!" Wendy exclaimed excitedly as she watched Hideshi beat Ginobly back.

However, Botan said nothing. In fact, she looked on with a look of horror at the amount of power her partner was using against Ginobly. "Hideshi's spirit energy is about equal to that of a low S class apparition alone, but now that he's using the sacred energy too... He's more than likely stronger than even Yusuke now!"

Wendy glanced back at Botan as she continued talking to herself, sensing something was up by the look of terror on her face.

"Excuse me Miss? Are you alright?" she asked of the Blue-haired woman carefully.

"Y-yes... I'm fine... I'm just afraid for Hideshi and someone else I know's well-being..." Botan admitted difficultly.

"What do you mean? Hideshi is winning over there!" Wendy exclaimed, flabbergasted that this girl would be concerned for Romano when he clearly held the cards in this fight.

"Yes, I can see that... But there's more to it than that... Hideshi's line of work forces him to fight stronger opponents every time he reaches a new pedestal of power. Now that he's virtually unbeatable, it seems likely he'll soon be tasked with defeating someone I care about very deeply..."

"Oh..." Wendy said, believing she understood what she meant. "What's your boyfriend's name and why does Hideshi have to fight him?"

Botan's tone then changed to bitterness and anger with the young girl. "He's not my boyfriend! He's my former partner!"

"O-oh...ok then, a couple girls at my school have tried out that friends with benefits thing too! I see how it is!"

After making this remark, Webdy earned herself a good crack on the head with the end of Botan's oar.

Finally, Hideshi had beaten Ginobly to the point where he was lying on the ground, blood rushing from the corner of his mouth and his nose from the beating Hideshi had given him. Now as his opponent lie helpless on the floor, Hideshi's body began to feel weak, almost as if the energy was being drained from it. He stopped beating on Gonobly and began panting in a tired manner, even though he actually hadn't used that much power against the demon.

Ginobly's eyes slowly creeped open and he saw Hideshi's current condition. This brought a smile to the long-haired demon's face as he watched the Spirit Detective's golden aura start to fade. "Well detective, it seems as though you're at the end of your rope... How unfortunate... I'm just getting started..."

Hideshi couldn't help but laugh at Ginobly's statement. "Yea right, cut the bullshit, a few seconds ago you said you were maximizing your power against me and I still was able to hand you your ass!"

"Perhaps in this form, yes..." the demon said calmly as he started to slowly rise to his feet. "But you have yet to see my true form! Where my power is no longer suppressed!"⠀

"W-what?!" Hideshi gasped at what Ginobly had just revealed to him. In his current situation, the more power Ginobly can summon, the lesser Hideshi's chances become of defeating him.

"Here, I'll prove I'm not bluffing!" The demon began to charge his familiar red and black aura around his body once again. This time, the powerful demon energy seemed to consume his human-like appearance, dissolving it away into a new, more terrifying transformation...

The demon's skin became pale white like marble. His hands became black with sharp claws at the end if each finger, similar to Wendy's demonic arm. And from his back, Ginobly sprouted a pair of night-black wings which seemed to radiate energy.

"Now then detective, look here and face your doom!" he demon said in a new, deeper and more demonic voiced which was echoed with a tone of evil.

Perhaps most frightening of all for Romano Hideshi was Ginobly's new power. For as much energy as the Spirit Detective was losing, he felt as though Ginobly could easily close the gap between them, if there still existed a gap at all...

Hideshi didn't even see Ginobly move as he clawed at his chest, creating new wounds which now lie on his old ones from Wendy.

Romano Hideshi began spitting up blood again, but before he had a chance to fall to his knees, Ginobly attacked from his back, leaving similar claws marks which oozed with blood.

"What happened to all that confidence you had just a minute ago detective? Is my true apperenve really that frightening to you? Or could it be you've realized how far apart out powers now are?" the demon taunted as Hideshi lied down of the floor of the warehouse, his blood soaking into his clothes once again.

Wendy and Botan looked on in horror as Ginobly then began to violently kick Hideshi while he was down, contributing to his ever-increasing pain. Soon, watching her lover in pain got the better of Wendy's emotions, and her hand turned a charcoal black once again and grew a considerably large size.

Without any regard for her own safety, Wendy lashed out at the winged demon with all her might.

Ginobly easily saw the girl coming and threw her away from him by swinging his forearm into her gut, stopping her dead in her tracks.

"Stupid bitch... You can't harm me! I'm the most powerful demon who ever walked the face of the Human World! And you're only partially demon... What chance did you think you stood against me? Why did your frugal little strike achieve?!"

"A distraction!" Hideshi shouted from beneath the demon's feet as he extended his index finger towards Ginobly's face. "Spirit Gun!" he shouted as a blindingly bright beam of light shot from his fingertip, making direct contact with Ginobly.

The entire warehouse lit up with pure, white, spiritual energy, blinding all the occupants for a brief moment.

One question burned into Wendy's mind while trapped in the rays of light produced by Hideshi's spirit gun: When the light died down, would it all be over?

As the light from Hideshi's spirit gun began to fade, Wendy found herself staring at a terrible sight which answered her question.

Not only was Ginobly still standing with minimal damage, he also had an unsettling glow about him. As if he were now gaining more power than he had ever had before.

The demon's eyes grew dark, his pupils shot a blood-red color. And now he had his sights set on the poor Spirit Detective who lie on the ground, a vast majority of his Spirit Energy now gone...

"That was a very good try detective... But not good enough!" the demon gave a high-pitched shriek before he lunged at his helpless opponent, pinning him down in a chokehold against the blood-stained concrete floor.

As Hideshi looked back up at the gruesome-looking demon, he saw the hatred in his eyes. Romano Hideshi knew he had inflicted some damage to the creature with his attack. 'If only I could muster just a bit more spirit energy...' he thought to himself regretfully 'I might be able to knock this guy flat on his ass...'

"Today's the day you die, detective!" Ginobly proclaimed as he tightened his iron grip on Hideshi's throat, slowly chocking him to death. Hideshi felt the pressure Ginobly's hands were putting on his windpipe, he also knew that if he didn't do something soon, he would be history...

"Humans are so...fragile..." Ginobly grinned as he counted down the seconds until Hideshi would pass out from lack of oxygen.

6...5...4...3...2...

As Ginobly's grip around Hideshi's throat tightened, the Spirit Detective began to see the shadows roll in once again, for the second time today. Why am I even resisting anymore?... he thought to himself, even if by some miracle I make it out of his death lock, Ginobly will still easily defeat me in my current state...

Hideshi slowly began to shut his eyes, pessimistic thoughts still crossing his mind as his life energy faded away. This must me the end... Goodbye Wendy... I'm sorry I can't be with you once again...

As Hideshi waited for the end, he felt something drip into his face. A warm, thick liquid. Curiosity stuck Romano even as he lay moments from death. He opened his eyes to the surprising sight of a limp arm attached to his throat, and Ginobly howling in pain as he clutched the stump of his arm, black blood oozing from the wound.

Just a few feet away, Wendy stood with an aggressive stance. Her left arm was no longer several large, black fingers with claws, but rather in the conformed shape of a sword.

It seemed that Wendy had somehow figured out how to manipulate her demon arm to take on a different form through sheer willpower.

"Damn you! You little bitch!" Ginobly shouted at Wendy as he staggered backwards, still clutching at his severed arm.

Wendy transformed her arm back to it's normal human form before rushing to Hideshi's side, ripping Ginobly's severed arm from his throat to give him breathing room.

Hideshi was still very weak and battered, but he still managed to stand to his feet with the help of Wendy. He then watched in horror as Ginobly's arm stump began producing a thick, black sludge, different from his blood. This sludge began to take the shape of some sort of hand.

That was all the Spirit Detective needed to see... He knew it was now or never to stop Ginobly.

"Wendy... Go with Botan and get as far away from here as possible..." he stated firmly to her as he stepped past her, determination in his eyes.

"W-what are you doing?!" he she exclaimed as he confidently strode past her, fear welling up inside her. She held a very high concern for Hideshi's well-being.

He simply turned his head to face her as he walked away, gathering the last of his Spirit and Life force energy into the palm of his hand. Moments later, a bright, glowing orb of spiritual energy began to emit light from his palm. "Probably something really stupid... It doesn't matter though... If I die here, at least I'm taking this bastard with me..."

"H-Hideshi..." Wendy's voice began to trail off as she watched her sole childhood companion trudge towards the recovering demon, his confidence completely unaffected by Ginobly's slowly regenerating arm. It was only then that she realized why he had intended to do, and why he had ordered her to leave with Botan.

Just before Botan could seize the girl and force her onto her flying oar, Wendy hastily rushed at Hideshi, tears forming in her eyes. "No! Romano! Don't do it!" she ran to him and embraced him, burying her tear-stained face into his back between the shoulder blades.

"Please don't do this! There has to be another way!" She pleaded as loudly as she could, wanting to avoid the conclusion of this battle to be her lover's suicide.

Hideshi slowly turned around to face her, his face solemn and expressionless. "I'm so sorry Wendy... There is no other way. Just go, leave me here. There's no reason why you and Botan should die with us here..."

"B-But... Hideshi, I-" Wendy's words were interrupted as Hideshi used his free hand to close the gap between them to kiss her passionately. He knew he had to make it count...

...It would probably be the last they ever shared...

Memories began flashing through Wendy's mind. She saw herself and Hideshi when they were still young children, holding hands outside the school playground. That's when he made the promise... The promise to protect her, no matter the cost.

That's exactly what he was doing now...

As Wendy was still caught up in the bliss of the kiss, Hideshi thrust her towards Botan violently. "Botan! Take her now and get the Hell out of here!"

The blue-haired grin reaper nodded and immediately pulled Wendy onto her oar and flew off through one of the broken windows of the warehouse, all the while, Wendy was calling his name out of anguish.

"I love you Wendy..." Hideshi said in a soft, almost inaudible voice "and I'm doing this for you..." Turning towards Ginobly, who was still struggling to reform his arm. He held up the orb of spirit energy he created earlier up to eye level, then over his head, primed to throw it at the injured demon.

Ginobly's eyes then widened in fear as he realized what was about to happen. "No! Don't you do it! You'll regret it!"

"Spirit Grenade!" Hideshi shouted as he allowed the orb of energy to slip from his grasp and then detonate as it was about to make contact with Ginobly.

In the very next instant, the warehouse exploded in a blinding white light. To Wendy, it signified the death of the only man she would ever love...

The light began to glare even brighter than before, it's rays protruding out like the tongues of flames, waving and flickering...

Wendy was forced to look away from the spectacle, as the light from Hideshi's Spirit Grenade now shone brighter than the sun in the sky above them. Botan kept looking forward, not even daring to look back at the remnants of the warehouse. She was a realist, she knew what she would find upon looking back, and the thought filled her eyes with tears.

H-Hideshi... Why couldn't you be more careful?... The situation should've never come to this... Botan's tears fell even more wildly now, yet she tried to keep herself from sobbing in fear of making Wendy feel even worse. I'm so jealous of her Hideshi... I've always felt something more towards you, and so has she. The only difference is that you held her close to your heart while I stood back like a coward, too scared to admit how I truly felt... You made that sacrifice for her; you were trying to protect her... And now you're gone... And I'm never going to get the chance to tell you how I feel. Not that it would ever matter... I don't deserve your love like she does...

After flying away from the scene of the explosion for a few more moments, the blinding white light began to recede, and all that was left behind to two women were the burning remnants of the destroyed warehouse.

Neither of them dared to look back now...

The thought of what they might see terrified them to keep their sights set straight ahead.

About a whole minute passed as Botan and Wendy flew away over the vastness of the ocean, both keeping to themselves. The silence was deafening...

This carried in until Botan saw the speck against the horizon which made her heart stop in paralyzing fear. In accordance with her nonexistent heartbeat, the magical oar also ceased to move, which snapped Wendy out of her upset trance to bring inquisitive thoughts forward from the depths of her mind.

"B-Botan? What's going on? Why did we stop?"

The grim reaper sat there, straddling her oar with an expression of absolute terror emblazoned upon her face.

Realizing it must be something she had spotted out in the distance, Wendy leaned to her right a bit to get a glance over Botan's shoulder. Then she saw them...

About a hundred yards out, suspending Romano Hideshi by the collar of his shirt and his jacket in his hand, was the nightmarish form of Ginobly.

"Hideshi!" Wendy exclaimed excitedly, a smile breaking across her face. She began to squirm around sporadically, barely able to contain herself. "Botan! There he is! He's ok! Quick! Go get him!" She urged on her driver, pushing forward on her shoulders, trying to get her to move.

Botan still just sat there, immobilized with fear at the sight of the tremendous monster Ginobly, flying with his black wings giving him leverage over the surface of the ocean.

"Botan?... What's wrong?" Wendy questioned after she gave no response to her demands at all.

"...Wendy... This is clearly a trap... Ginobly is trying to bait us with Hideshi so he can kill us too..." Botan whispered in a scared tone to the girl sitting immediately behind her.

"I don't care Botan! Please! Just go out there and get him! I'd rather die with him in my arms than die alone!"

You and me both... Botan silently thought to herself as she began weighing out the risk associated in moving towards Ginobly's position.

"You're both a bunch of fools..." A familiar, deep, sadistic voice echoed from immediately in front of them before the figure of Ginobly clutching Hideshi appeared before the two women. "If I had intentions of killing you, I would have just destroyed this entire pathetic planet. That was Lord Karr's plan in the first place..."

"Lord Karr?" Wendy questioned in a frightened whisper.

"Aye, he's the reason I've become so powerful. Loyalty to Lord Karr brings infinite power and all that comes with it! Even in my present state," Ginobly nods towards his still-severed arm with a loathsome tone hinted in his voice "I just had more than enough power to turn this entire rock to ash! All thanks to Lord Karr!"

"...T-Then why haven't you already?" Wendy asked, afraid, but still wildly curious about all that Ginobly had to say.

The demon allowed a small grin to cross his face. "Because both myself and Lord Karr are curious as to what this Spirit Detective can really do. So I've decided to give him three weeks." Ginobly finished his sentence by tossing Hideshi's limp body over to the two women, who reacted quickly and caught him as gravity began to pull him down.

Ginobly then raised three of his black, demonic fingers up in front of his face, the repeated himself. "Three Weeks. If Hideshi isn't ready to give me a good fight by then, everything on this planet dies! Understood?"

Botan looked back towards the demon and gave him a small nods as Wendy held the unconscious man tightly against her chest.

Ginobly returned the nod and then vanished just as quickly as he came. Presumably to return to Demon World...

Three weeks?! Hideshi is going to need at least a month in intensive care at Spirit World just to be able to stand again in his current condition... Botan thought hopelessly as she glanced down Romano Hideshi, lying in Wendy's arms.

We're doomed... Ginobly is going to destroy everything...

"How will that help?" a muffled, female voice asked Hideshi slowly came to. The Spirit Detective could not only hear their voices, but he also began to grasp at his other senses now. He could feel that he was lying shirtless on a sleek, polished surface, probably a table of some sort, with some thick gel lining his body.

He sniffed the air and could pick out several fragrances from all different plants invading his nostrils.

Hideshi could even see traces of light peering through his closed eyelids. He tried to open them, but felt far too tired to do so.

So he continued to lie there until a hand began to elevate his head from the back. It was then he began to taste something... Something citrus... Repulsive to the Detective's taste buds.

Suddenly, Hideshi opened his eyes and leaned forward with a start, spitting the liquid of from his mouth in sheer disgust.

As he began to gather his thoughts again, Hideshi saw that he was indeed sitting up on the surface of a table. He didn't recognize the house, nor which room he was in. As his vision became clearer, he saw that there were four figures standing around him at the table. He didn't recognize two of them, but the others were clearly Botan and Wendy, shocked expressions lining their faces.

"Well then..." a man with long-red hair said as he bent down to pick something up off the floor "That's one way to revive a dead man..."

"Where am I?" Hideshi asked before Wendy lunged at him, wrapping her arms around his body in a tight embrace. He touch sent a sensation of pain down Hideshi's spine and he howled with pain in reaction to her touch, which caused Wendy to back away quickly. "S-Sorry..." she muttered quietly.

"Don't worry detective," the red-haired man continued, retrieving a spilled carton of Orange Juice off the floor "You're in good hands... My name is Shuichi Minamino, or as you may know me, Kurama."

Hideshi looked in the man's way, his eyes widening in surprise at the man's revealed identity. "Kurama?" he asked, as if he didn't hear that right the first time around.

He simply smiled politely and placed an arm around the shoulder of a nearby brunette woman with short hair. "And this is my Wife, Kisa."

'Could this really be the Demon Fox Kurama?!' Hideshi thought to himself in panic. 'No way... Why would he reveal himself to me? He knows he wanted for arrest, so why would he bring the Detective of Spirit World into his home?!'

"I'm sure you're wondering why I aided in healing your wounds..." Kurama continued, taking his arm off of Kisa's shoulder to gather several different roots and stems of various plants off of the dining room furniture "Truth be told, it wasn't solely based on anything heroic or selfless. In return, we have a favor to ask of you."

"A favor?!" Hideshi growled, a bit angry that a demon would ask him for a favor. "What makes you think I'll listen to you demon?! You're under arrest by the order of King Yama!"

"In your current condition, I wouldn't recommend making such bold statements..." Kurama continued in the same, mellow tone as before. "Besides, I think what I'm proposing will interest both our parties."

"What are you saying demon?" Hideshi shot back, glancing over at Kurama's wife, who looked a bit shaken up by his yelling.

"I'd like to turn Kurama in for my own immunity." the red-haired man stated.

"...Wait...What?" Hideshi replied, confused as to what the demon was saying.

"Tell King Yama that if he promises to stop hunting me and my wife down, then I shall never used my demon energy ever again, and most certainly never turn into Yoko Kurma anymore."

Huh? He won't use his demon energy? Is this guy for real? He can't be serious, I'd trust a demon as far as I can throw one, but he just seemed...sincere... Hideshi thought to himself, giving ample consideration to what Kurama was proposing.

"Of course, you don't have to decide anything as of right now, but please take it up with King Yama when you see him? It would be greatly appreciated..." Kurama bowed his head a bit as he spoke.

Suddenly, Botan grabbed ahold of Hideshi's arm gently, pulling him towards her. "Come on Romano... We have to go see King Yama. He wants a full report right now!"

"What?! Now?! You've got to be kidding me! I just woke up! I should be dead in a pile of blood and he wants to see me now?!" Hideshi cried out, furious at King Yama's lack of apathy.

"Hideshi... It's about Ginobly..." Botan whispered, which changed Hideshi's mood drastically.

"Y-You mean he's still alive?"

"Yes... You did a number on him from what I could tell, but he's still out there. And he says that unless you can fight him again in three weeks, he'll destroy the entire world!" Botan explained in a frantic tone, still scared about what Ginobly had said earlier.

"...Fine... I'll go..." Hideshi agreed, and started to slide himself off the table and onto his feet. He instantly felt a deep surge of pain and began to collapse. Luckily, Botan's reflexes kicked in just in time to stop him from falling over. After realizing that she was holding him in a way so that his head was positioned next to her chest, the grim reaper blushed lightly.

Hideshi quickly corrected this by gaining his balence once again and standing upright, using Botan as a crutch. "Sorry Botan..." he muttered. "Wendy, you go home now, I'll meet up with you later." he nodded towards the dark-haired girl.

"Sorry Romano..." she said quitely. "But I've got to come with you..."

Hideshi gave her a puzzled look, not fully understanding what she had just said.

Botan looked over at the confused Detective and decided to clarify. "King Yama would like to see her as well." she then handed off Hideshi onto Wendy's shoulders. "Take him to the oar outside, I'll be out in just a minute." Wendy nodded understandingly and then made her way outside with Hideshi.

Botan then turned to Kurama and Kisa, and gave them a small bow out of respect. "Sorry about all that... We'll be sure to bring up your request to King Yama..." Botan stated in a somewhat dismissal tone.

Kurama nodded, then peered around her to see the Detective and Wendy mounting her oar.

"Botan? Do you love him?" Kurama suddenly asked, much to the surprise of Botan.

"H-How did you...?" she stuttered.

"I can see the way you look at him. I can tell..." he explained with a small smile on his face.

"...yes..." Botan admitted as she stared down at the floorboards "I really do..."

Hideshi heightened his spiritual senses as he approached the mouth of the cavern. The amount of Demon energy radiating from with was overwhelming. Yea, he thought to himself as he approached it's entrance It's definitely in here...

King Yama's orders echoed back to him within his mind, haunting his conscious.

"Hideshi, I need you to travel down to demon world to speak with King Enki about this Ginobly character, certainly there is something they can do to stop this menace..." the large, bearded ruler of Spirit World commanded as Hideshi stood before him, still relying on Botan as a crutch while Wendy was forced to wait outside his office.

"Sorry your majesty," Hideshi spoke in his most rebellious yet respectful tone "But I just got back from almost... Ya, know... Dying. I'd like to take at least a few days off before getting back out into the field..."

Botan had never recalled a time when anyone's face lit up with such unadulterated rage. She began to wince long before the master of Spirit Realm began to shout. "How dare you question a direct order with so much at stake?!"

Even Hideshi was taken aback by King Yama's booming voice. In fact, he was so startled that he had to take a few steps backwards to recover his stance.

"Now go out to Yanori Cave, IMMEDIATELY, or else I'll throw you back to Human World so fast you"ll smash a hole straight through the whole planet, and Ginobly won't have to bother coming over to destroy everything!"

And so now here I am, trekking through one of the most miserable looking places on Earth, about to enter into a cave to Demon World where every single thing that moves is gunning to tear my throat out. And I've still got a bad limp... Hideshi thought to himself as he continued to stare down into the cave.

He took his first steps inside, every motion his body made echoed throughout the cave. Hideshi swore he could even hear his breathing inside there. These sounds were all accompanied by the most tedious and unnerving dripping sound the Spirit Detective had ever heard. The sound kept ringing in his ears, originating from an undisclosed location. It almost seemed like it was everywhere, yet nowhere at all.

Damn it Botan... where the hell is that portal? I don't like the feels of this place...

Hideshi turned around, taking in the vast expanse of the cave around cave was completely dark besides the small amount of light omitted through the mouth to the cave, so it was difficult to see. That made this cave all the more unnerving for the Spirit Detective.

There were only three things Romano Hideshi feared in this world; The Ocean, Wendy's temper, and things jumping out at him in the darkness. He at least found comfort that Wendy wouldn't dare be anywhere near this cave. She was scared to death of bats, something Hideshi used to commonly make fun of her for. He now realized how cruel it was to place rubber toy bats in her lunch box at school, and he still had yet to apologize for it.

Hideshi's heart skipped a beat as he heard a loud sound echo through out the cave. It was much louder than the sound of dripping water, it almost sounded like... footsteps...

The Spirit Detective knew he had to cause to be scared the way he was, he knew he could kill pretty much anything on Earth which may be lurking in the shadows after him... and the entire planet along with it...

Even still, the fear of the unknown was still prevalent in his heart, as he backed towards the mouthy of the cave, towards the light.

The sounds of the footsteps began to multiply and grow louder, as if to cue in that whoever was there was coming closer. Knowing it was probably Botan or someone else from Spirit Realm, but not wanting to take any chances, Hideshi formulated his hands into the position of his spirit gun.

Out from the shadows, barely illuminated by the light peering in from the mouth of the cave, Hideshi saw two men dressed in silver uniforms. The two agents gave Hideshi a salute, before retrieving written orders from a space between their armor and their shirts.

"Greetings Detective Hideshi, we've come to bring you these orders from King Yama and to open a portal for you to traverse to Demon World." the one soldier nodded to his college, and the other began to read off Yama's orders from the paper he retrieved from his armor.

"Romano Hideshi, you are ordered to travel to Demon Realm by the order of King Yama to inform King Enki of the inter-dimensional criminal Ginobly Atakashi and his ferocious power, which presents a threat to all three realms of existence. You are first to gain clearance from the Border Patrol of Demon World, and then make your way to Enki's Palace. This is a non-confrontational mission. Just issue the warning, make sure measurements are being made to stop Ginobly, then return back."

"Seems simple enough... Too bad I can't make some of those demons shit themselves while I'm there... Oh well... At least I should be back for dinner tonight, it's Taco Tuesday at the Yokoni's tonight."

"That's... Charming, sir..." one of the soldiers responded before he and his partner began to open a portal between the Human and Demon World.

On the other side of the pond, in demon world, the border patrol begins picking up on a small portal forming between the dimensions. "Commander Hiei! There's been an inter dimensional disturbance on the south side of the border, section 118! Do you read?" A small, transceiver radio blared to life atop a small tree branch beside a peacefully-resting small demon. Hiei let out an annoyed sigh as he picked up the speaker to his radio.

"This is Commander Hiei. Go fuck yourself and send Simur to deal with this little pest who's trying to cross..."

"But sir!" the radio blared back, "no one's trying to leave, there's someone breaking in! A human! And his Spirit Power is incredibly high!"

Hiei set down the speaker for a breif moment as he relished the idea of what was coming next. With a small smile on his face, he picked up the speaker again and called in to the Border Patrol Officer. "That's more like it... Tell the other men to stay out of my way. The Spirit Detective and I have a meeting scheduled for today..."

The Spirit Detective's feet sank into the soft vegetation of Demon World's bog. The smell of the place was putrid, but Hideshi barely noticed as his spiritual senses became overloaded with the massive amounts of demons residing in this land.

Hideshi sat still as he took it all in... Never before had he ever felt so many demonic presences in one place. For the first time ever, he felt slightly...overwhelmed.

"I see that the great Spirit Detective is immobilized by fear!" a taunting voice called from the dead, twisted tree limbs which hung overhead the Detective.

Romano replied in an equally challenging tone. "Sorry demon, but you must have never seen a human truly terrified. I'm just excited."

"Excited? About what you fool?" the voice called out again.

Hideshi's mouth widened into a sly smile. "Well demon... I'm excited for the first dumb ass demon to try and jump me so I can start kicking ass!"

Hiei couldn't help but snicker as he emerged from between the branches. "How unfortunate for you Spirit Detective... That the first Demon to 'jump' you will be me!"

Romano saw him now, and recognized the world-famous demon almost instantly. "Hiei Jaganashi... S class Demon and former right-hand man of Mukuro. Yes... This will be interesting..."

"It a bit unfortunate you should have to fight me Detective. You had such a reputation around Demon World as being the terror of the Humans." Hiei taunted as he removed his long, black cloak from his body, leaving him with his usual combat pants and a light-blue training shirt on.

"And what makes you so confident you'll win this fight Hiei?" Hideshi raised an eyebrow as he questioned the short demon standing atop the tree branches. "Last I checked, you're an upper S class demon. By all accounts a very strong one, but still... I think I've got enough spirit energy in the tank to match up to you."

Hiei laughed a bit as he drew his sword. "Your data is as lacking as your power detective! For I have long since trained myself rigorously and have surpassed the classification of a mere S class into a full-fledged Mazoko Demon!"

He's bluffing... Hideshi thought to himself, then again, so am I... Unless I can call upon that sacred energy I used against Ginobly, I'm screwed...

"Are you ready for this detective?!" Hiei shouted as he leapt from the tree line, hoisting his blade above his shoulder and then swinging downwards, loosening his grip to allow the blade to dash from his hand towards where Hideshi was standing. The detective took a cautionary step to the left, saving him from being impaled to the ground by Hiei's sword. No doubt that's a distraction... he thought to himself as he shifted his focus back on Hiei, who sure enough, had his fist ablaze with crimson flames running down the length of his arm.

"Fist of the Mortal Flame!" Almost instantly after making contact with the ground, the fire from Hiei's fist spread out all around him, creating a searing ring of fire which burned everything it touched to a crisp. Fortunately for Romano, he saw Hiei's attack coming and was able to react just in time, leaping over to a nearby tree branch.

Hideshi did not even have time to catch his breath before he felt the entire tree begin to shift downwards. "Damn it Hiei! Why do you have to be so damn fast?!" He said before leaping onto another nearby tree, just in time to see the one he had previously been standing on fall to the ground with a crash.

"I don't enjoy killing trees detective," Hiei's taunting voice echoed from some discreet point "especially if it isn't in the name of progress... We can't make paper from that, I'm not clearing out any space for a home, a have no rocking chairs to be built...hell, I missed even bringing you down..."

"Guess you'll have to be a little faster next time Hiei!" Hideshi called out for the demon loudly, keeping a ready stance for whenever it may strike.

"Fool... You should already know there are none faster than I am." Hiei's sadistically calm voice said from directly behind Hideshi as he felt a sharp, cold object press against the side of his neck. Hiei's sword...

Hideshi felt the cold blade rest against his shoulder, lightly touching the love of his right ear. The feeling left a chill running down the Spirit Detective's spine.

"Well then detective... Now that your at my mercy, how about you begging begging for your life?" Hiei said with a smirk, realizing at Hideshi had no way to counter him now that he was a single motion from severing his head.

There was deafening silence from the Detective for a moment, then released a few small, quiet snickers. This quickly escalated to laughter the demon Hiei could not understand.

"Sorry Hiei... But Romano Hideshi bows to no one. Spirit Armor!" he shouted as his entire body lit up in an explosion of white-colored flames, which quickly melted Hiei's sword to ore and forced the demon to stagger backwards, away from the harm the spiritual flames may cause him.

The armored Detective glowed with the white light of his flames for a few more seconds before they completely subsided, all at once. Since the spirit armor took so much out of the detective, he panted tirelessly and sweated lightly from his brow.

Hiei took notice as he dropped the hilt of his melted sword to the ground below them, grinning wildly. "My, detective," Hiei taunted as her reached his left arm up to his forehead to remove his white headband "Are you tired already? We're just getting started here!"

Hideshi watched as Hiei's white headband fell down towards the ground below them. From his forehead, Hiei's Jagan eye slowly opened, presenting it's evil, purple-colored aura along with it.

It wasn't just Hiei's physical appearance which became more terrifying though. Hideshi felt the demon's power skyrocket as his Jagan eye stared back at him. Not nearly as high as Ginobly's power, but still quite intimidating all the same.

"Now detective! Shudder with fear as I present to you the power of a Mazoko Demon!" Hiei triumphantly shouted as his aura shout out around him, overwhelming the already-tired detective.

D-damn it... I used way too much power on the Spirit Armor. I'm on half-tank...max. he thought to himself as he watched Hiei's power grow even higher as he began to unravel his bandaged arm, revealing a menacing-looking dragon tattoo.

I've got to find some other way to beat him... I can't hurt him now... No way... So maybe if I push his buttons right... Think Hideshi! What does Hiei care about more than his stupid pride?

"I hope you've enjoyed your stay in Demon World detective, I'll give you an express pass straight back to Spirit World! Dragon of the Darkness Flame!"

As soon as he had called it forth, a gigantic black dragon, seemingly structured entirely out of flames sprung from Hiei's arm directly towards Romano Hideshi.

Because of his exhaustion, Hideshi had to act on instinct. Right now, his instincts were telling him to run. The problem was that the overbearing and terrifying presence of the Dragon of the Darkness Flame made his feet turn to stone. The detective could only stand in awe as the gigantic monstrosity cast itself down upon him, it's jaw unhinging, ready to take a bite of the detective.

Damn it! Last chance Romano! You've got to think! What do you know about Hiei that you can use against him?

The dragon was a mere meter away before the thought finally came to Hideshi. "Hiei!" He shouted frantically "I know about Yukina! I can find her!"

Almost at the last second, the dragon made a drastic divests ion of it's course, floating away from Hideshi's face, just an inch and a half away.

Hiei stood before the detective now, an unamused look emblazoned on his face. "... You have fifteen seconds to tell me where she is, or else you will die."

'Great bluff Hideshi. Luck must really be on my side today... Even with his Jagan eye, Hiei can't find Yukina. The problem is, neither can Spirit World... She's been missing for about a whole month now... And now I need to make up some BS story to Hiei about where she is... Damn it...'

"Well Hiei," Romano stated, trying to keep his cool "My reports suggest that Yukina is out in the...uh... Glacial Village!"

"You're about as terrible a liar as you are stupid detective..." Hiei shout at Hideshi angrily. "You think I haven't already looked there using my Jagan eye?! I know Yukina isn't there! Either your reports are wrong, or else you think I'm enough of an idiot to believe such a lie!"

"Look Hiei... Let's try to work this out like men." Hideshi said, trying to keep his composure "I know that's where she was last spotted, so she can't be too far. I'll personally go to the Glacial Village and then bring her back to you to prove that she's alright."

"Enough of your useless groveling detective! You've delayed the inevitable for long enough! It ends here!" Hiei shouted as he moved his right arm backwards a bit, steering the dragon back towards Hideshi.

Well, it was worth a try... the detective thought to himself as he prepared a spirit gun for the beast. A lot of good this'll do, but maybe if I use everything I've got left I'll be able to survive this one dragon...

Just as the black dragon reared it's head and readied itself to strike again, a loud, female voice called out. "Hiei! Wait! He's not lying!"

Around the dragon's head came Botan, flying upon her magical oar. She landed near the short, spiky-haired demon before dismounting. Hiei recalled his dragon back to his arm and then turned towards Botan and had a quite conversation out of earshot from Hideshi.

A few moments later, Botan ran over to Hideshi with her oar and then whispered to him as quietly as possible. "Follow my lead..."

Hiei quickly followed suite, stepping in very close to where Romano and Botan were standing. "So detective, you're little assistant here says she may have some new evidence to suggest where my sister is. She also explained to me that you have a two-week deadline to meet, so I'll give you three days."

"Three days for what?" Hideshi asked, a bit confused.

"Three days to find Yukina, or else I'm coming after you!" Hiei retorted.

"You're being ridiculous Hiei! Ginobly is literally giving us only two weeks to get ready before he blows up the entire Earth!" Hideshi lashed out, furious now that Hiei knew the situation, yet he wasn't backing down.

"Ridiculous? No, just stubborn... I don't much care for Human Realm, but my sister is of indescribable value to me... I you bring her to me, I'll let King Enki know about Ginobly and this Lord Karr character and see what he can do about them. I think that's a fair deal coming from someone who should have mercilessly decapitated you the moment you passed over the border and violated Demon World law."

Hideshi thought about it for a brief moment, then groaned and reluctantly accepted Hiei's offer.

He then hopped aboard Botan's mystic oar and began flying off with her towards the portal Yama's men had previously created.

"Mind telling me what the hell we do now?" Hideshi shouted at Botan as she flew them through the portal and out the mouth of the cave again.

"Don't worry Romano! Were stopping over at Spirit World now to pick you up some winter gear! Because now you're headed for the Glacial Village!" the Grim Reaper said with a smile as she looked back at the Spirit Detective, who had a bit of an annoyed expression on his face.

"Great... Off to go and freeze my balls off..."

As Hideshi rode behind Botan towards the Glacial Village, he couldn't keep his mind off of how cold it was, even with several layers of winter gear on.

"Botan? How much longer till we're there? This wind is really starting the freeze my bones!" he complained loudly to be heard over the sound of the air Botan was flying through.

"Not to worry Romano, we'll be there in about an hour or so!"

"A whole other hour?!" The spirit Detective exclaimed, shocked at how long the trip would take them to complete. "You've got to be kidding me..."

"I'm afraid not Romano... Remember we're traveling to a whole other section of Spirit Realm here. It's not like your typical trip to the super market!" Botan replied, trying to keep herself in high spirits.

"Whatever... I don't even see why we should rescue this girl, she's a demon like Hiei. Dealing with her will be nothing but trouble."

"Oh Romano, stop it! Yukina is a very nice girl, and besides, she and Hiei don't even share the same father, so she can't be even a half demon!"

"How does that even work?!" Hideshi questioned. "If everyone in the Glacial Village is a female, how are they able to reproduce? And also, I thought Hiei and Yukina were twins?"

"Well, they are. Yukina was born the natural way, which is why she is a girl, whereas Hiei was born unconventionally, which is why he is a boy and is practically a full-blood demon."

"But, wouldn't that mean she's got some of Hiei's father in her?"

"Hmm..." Botan pondered for a moment, but found no satisfactory answer. "I don't really know Romano, I'm no genetics expert..."

The spirit detective then perked up a bit. "Aha! So I am right! She could very well be a demon and we just don't know it yet!"

"Ugh!" Botan groaned, giving up on trying to argue with Hideshi. This is going to be a long road trip...

The Ice apparition girl ran as fast as she could across the icy floor of the cavern where she was being held. She slipped and slided in places, but she knew she couldn't fall over or stop trying to find a way out.

Yukina didn't have to feel it out. The dragon was awake now, and she had to find a way out before it found her.

She tried navigating towards the source of the faint light which lit the walls of the cave. It was distant, but she knew she had to find it. The dragon's heavy breathing echoed throught the cavern, it had an audible tone of rage accompanying it.

It was a loud snarl from the dragon, which was quickly gaining ground on her which caused Yukina to slip and fall face-first to the icy floor. She grunted loudly as the pain and chill of the cave overcame her body. Tear began welling in her eyes as she desperately tried to crawl across the ice towards that opening she saw the light entering from.

Brother... I need you now more than ever! Please... Come and save me! she thought to herself in anguish.

Miraculously, she was able to push herself back up into her feet and keep trudging forward, despite the pain she had begun to feel in her ankle from the fall. 'Is it broken? Sprained? Doesn't matter, I can heal it after I escape!' she thought to herself with determination as she trudged closer and closer toward the light, all while the dragon's cries of hatred and fury growing louder behind her.

She rounded a corner in the cavern and saw what she dreaded most: a slope of ice and snow leading up towards the light.

"No..." she whispered to herself in utter anguish at the sight of the slope of ice. Realizing there was no way she's be able to scale it, even if both her legs worked.

She slowly turned around, facing the direction of the dragon's angry cries. Her heart immediately stopped as soon as she saw a massive puff of icy air flow from around the corner.

Then a snout...

Then several rows of sharp teeth...
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

As Botan and Hideshi finished their long journey through the mountains surrounding the Glacial Village through the bitter-cold wind, their visibility grew as well, and they could finally start to make out the rows of small houses and other architecture.

"Please tell me that's what I hope it is..." Hideshi said through his chattering teeth. He hated the cold, he always had, and that alone was pushing his temper throughout the entire mission.

"Bingo!" Botan proclaimed as she also spotted the Glacial Village lying below them.

"Good! Now lets get down there and find a space heater before I have to blow up this entire mountain for warmth!" Hideshi proclaimed angrily, as he had finally had his fill of this journey, and it had only just begun.

As they transcended downwards towards the snow-covered earth, Hideshi noticed something peculiar. "Hey Botan? This is supposed to be the usual weather for these gals right?"

"Well, yes... There is no summer here in the Ice Apparition realm. To them, this is just like any other day."

"Well then riddle me this grim reaper: where the hell are are the villagers?!"

Botan turned her head and looked in all directions, all over the village. "You're right Hideshi! I cant seem to find anyone!"

The Spirit Detective suddenly felt a chill, not the kind the subzero weather would give him though, this was something far more suspicious... He quickly dismounted Botan's oar, digging his boots into the snow. "Keep yourself elevated Botan," he advised her "I'm going to go in and investigate."

"Please be careful!" she called out to him, but he did not appear to be listening to her, he was now too busy searching the the missing villagers.

As Hideshi continued his search, he found no traces of anyone, but he knew that something unnatural was here judging by the massive claw marks and footprints implanted into the snow. As he studied the village even further, he saw that some of the villager's houses appeared to be frozen in a solid lock of ice, while others remained untouched. Looks like some sort of demon did this, or maybe one of them went rogue and decided to start freezing up the place... Or both...

As the Spirit Detective began observing the interior of some of the abandoned houses, he found that all of the villager's possessions appeared to be untouched, suggesting the inhabitants left in a hurry. Well, that pretty much seals the deal that this was a deliberate attack against the village... Now all I need to do is find the Villagers and Yukina and kill whatever it is that's been tearing shit up around here...

As he was still absorbed in his thoughts, Hideshi heard a loud scream erupt from outside in the village center. "Botan!" He quickly rushed outside, preparing himself for the worst. Please be ok! He pleaded to some outside force as he rushed to where he had left Botan, silently praying for her safety.

As he arrived on the scene, Hideshi spotted Botan slowly backing away from something lying on the ground, which evidently had her terrified. The Spirit Detective rushed forward to asses the situation, only to find an old woman, lying face-down on the ground, blood pouring from the lower portion of her mangled legs. "Botan, what the hell is happening here!?' he asked his assistant in a state of panic, rushing to the old woman's side to inspect her injuries and make sure she was alive.

"I-it was the most terrifying thing I've ever seen... I was just standing here when this woman starting dragging herself across the ground, shouting something at me in some sort of foreign language..." Botan explained, still shaken up by the scene. "I-is she...?"

"Yea, dead..." Hideshi stated as he took his hand away from the old woman's neck after checking for vital signs "She lost a lot of blood out of her legs... And these aren't like any wounds I've ever seen before..." he hunched down and inspected her legs further. "They almost look like... Teeth marks... Almost as if something big was just gnawing at her... playing with it's food or something..."

"Ugh!" Botan remarked in disgust as Hideshi described the woman's wounds to her.

"Well... Now I know that something definetly attacked this village, something really big..."

"What do you think Hideshi? Could it have been a demon?" Botan inquired.

"No way, we would've known if a demon this big and powerful bypassed the Kakai barrier into the Human World... I think we're dealing with something more internal..." Hideshi stated.

"B-but there aren't any creatures that I know of who reside in spirit realm who could've done this..." Botan shuddered as she took another glance at the woman's mangled body.

"I've got a pretty good idea..." Hideshi stated slowly, as if he were just figuring it out as he spoke.

"What is it?" Botan asked.

Hideshi took a look atop one of the icy walls which covered the side of the mountainous regions surrounding the glacial village. He pointed upward in the same direction as he was facing. There, barely visible through the snowy conditions and the ice-wall covering it up, was the large mouth to a cave. "Whatever made it up there obviously had the ability to fly due to the lack of claw marks on this ice wall... Also, when I was out in the village, there were several homes which were completely frozen, almost like they were put in an ice cube tray..."

"What are you saying Hideshi?" Botan asked.

"Call me crazy Botan, but I think we're dealing with a dragon who breathes ice rather than fire..." Hideshi said as he looked down at the old woman's corpse again. "That would explain these huge teeth marks..."

Botan looked back at him for a moment, pondering whether or not his hypothesis could possibly be correct. "Hideshi... If that really is a dragon, then we're definitely going to need backup... Aside from Mazuko demons, they are the most deadly creatures in the known universe..."

"Yea, well I just whent toe-to-toe against a demon who could've whooped even Hiei's ass just two days ago," Hideshi stated bluntly "and unless we can find Yukina, there's no way we'll be able to get past short stuff out there in demon world. We only have about two and a half weeks left before Ginobly turns everything to ash and our only real, reliable backup is out in Demon World, so we don't really have much of a choice here... We've got to find Yukina and the rest of the ice apparitions before that dragon decides to chow down on them like he already did to this old bird..." he stated while motioning his head towards the body of the old woman.

"I-i don't follow what you're saying..." Botan stated, a bit confused.

"In simple terms, I want you to fly me up to that cave so I can kick some lizard ass." Hideshi said, pointing towards the cave on the ice wall once again.

Botan sighed, a bit annoyed by Hideshi's overly-aggresive conviction and willingness to act. "Hideshi please, it might not even be a dragon, it could just be a demon of some sort..." she pleaded, delivering no reaction from the Spirit Detective.

"Botan, I already told you that I don't think a demon could do all this. But if it is a demon, then I won't need any backup, demons are my specialty. Now how about that cave?"

Botan groaned once more before summoning her flying oar to take him up to the cave, producing a smile on the Spirit Detective's face. "There, that wasn't so hard, was it?"

Yukina slowly walked back into the corner with the rest of her village. The young, white-haired man watching her every step, making sure that escape would no longer be an option for her.

"Miss Yukina..." He spoke in his slow, sadistic voice which all the women of the Glacial village came to dread "You're quite lovely if I do say so myself... In fact, we have quite a bit in common, don't we?" the man known only by the name Tatsuo stated as he slowly moved towards her, like and animal stalking it's prey.

"We're nothing alike!" Yukina defended herself, not wanting to be subject to the young man's controversial words.

"Oh but you see, you're completely wrong on that note Miss Yukina. You see, we're a bit different from the rest of your fellow ice apparitions. You know kindness and compassion, while alll the other women here are heartless monsters who decide the best way to deal with children born of actual love, is to throw them off the side of a cliff. Hence how I came to hate our village!"

Yukina was stunned at this reveal, as well as all the other ice apparitions. "Wait a moment," one called out from the crowd "You mean you're Yukina's half-demon brother?!"

Tatsuo just smirked for a moment, obviously finding the whole claim somehow humorous. "Fortunately no, however I was brought into this world under similar circumstances when my mother and father made love, conceiving me. She at least was able to give birth to me in secret and then hide me away so that cruel elder of yours wouldn't order me dead."

"Wait! If you're not my brother, than who is?" Yukina asked.

"How the hell should I know?" Tatsuo remarked "Frankly my dear, I believe your brother died a long time ago. I pity him and all the other males this village has senselessly slaughtered! That's why I've come back, to get revenge for myself and all those other poor souls whop were either ordered to death, or grew up without a home or parents!"

"If you hate us so much, why don't you just kill all of us already and not just our elder?" another ice apparition questioned the boy.

He smirked wildly as she asked this question, it was the one he was waiting for. "Well then, perhaps it's time I reveal my true intentions to you all. You see, all the other villages of ice apparitions allow for mingling and mating. They even have male apparitions leading the village as elders! This run-down, backwards society has it all wrong though... You think that just because our species can produce female offspring without a male counterpart, it's morally acceptable to drive out all the men and allow for society to continue on producing strictly female babies. I don't believe in such a thing, I believe all live is sacred, no matter what choice an elder or parent makes for a child, it still does not justify murder! That's why you are all here! To be my... 'guests' while I impregnate each and every one of you with the new generation of the Glacial village! A steady mixture of males and females! Who will be taught the importance of sexuality between the opposite sex to benefit society and allow the split spectrum of males and females to continue on forever!" Tatsuo raised his arms to his sides like a pair of outstretched wings as he finished his speech to his captives inside the cave.

But right then, in his moment of glory, a loud, interrupting noise came from the entrance of the cave, which sounded like a large explosion. "Knock, Knock..." a somewhat sarcastic voice echoed throughout the cave.

"How very subtle Hideshi..." Botan groaned with sarcasm after the spirit detective blasted through the ice wall with a powerful, yet extremely loud spirit gun.

Hideshi just turned to her with a happy look on his face, amused with what he had just done.

She turned her head away from him, acting as though she was displeased with his playfulness. In reality, her thoughts were saying something totally different. Why does he have to be so cute?! I want to smack him sometimes, yet he always makes me pull back my hand with that smile of his!

"Alright Botan, I'm going in!" Hideshi warned before jumping directly off her oar and into the frozen cave. "I'll be back in about fifteen minutes with some fresh dragon meat for dinner tonight!" he called out and waved cheerfully before running down inside to the deepest bowls of the cave, keeping a look out for any dragons or demons.

Eventually, he found himself facing a wide-open area in the middle of the cave, wide enough to fit an entire hotel inside. As the Spirit Detective looked around, he spotted several women with light-blue hair cowering in the corner.

"Alright then... Find the villagers: check..." Hideshi said in a pleased tone as he rushed towards the group of ice-apparition women.

But as he approached with intents of saving them, the women only backed away from him in fear. "Hey come on ladies... I think I'm rather handsome myself..." Hideshi said in a slick tone of voice as he approached the crowd of women.

They murmured to ech other as they studied the young man approaching them. "He's the spirit detective!", "Has he come to save us?", "How can he? He used to fighting demons, not dragons!", "He's our only hope though..." were among the whispers Hideshi was able to hear the women speak to one another.

Suddenly, one of the younger women forced her way through the crowd, presenting herself right in front of Hideshi. "Excuse me," she uttered in a scared and nervous tone "a-are you the Spirit Detective Romano Hideshi?"

"The one and only." Hideshi introduced himself to the young girl, who despite the look of terror, was quite pretty "And who might you-" he tried to ask before being cut off in an embrace from the young girl, tears rolling off her face and then transforming into shiny pearl-like stones before falling to the icy ground below. "Thank you so much for coming! We thought no one would come and rescue us!"

"Uhh... No problem... But if it weren't for Yukina, I'd have never made my way here." Hideshi admitted as he uncomfortably tried to slip out the the girl's forced hug.

"What? Me? Why?" the girl looking up at him, feeling confused as to why he would come to the Glacial Village looking for her.

"Well... Technically your brother sent me..."

"You know my brother?!" she exclaimed, a happy expression beginning to show itself on her face.

"Well... There aren't many demons who don't nowadays..." Hideshi mumbled to himself a bit.

"Please! You must bring me to him! I have to meet him! Please!" Yukina practically begged, pulling on Hideshi's winter jacket excitedly.

"Wow. Seems like you two haven't seen each other in a while..." Hideshi said uncomfortably as he tried to force her off of him, with little success.

"Hideshi!" a familiar sounding voice shouted from overhead. It was Botan.
"Watch out!" she exclaimed, giving Hideshi just enough time to react before a gigantic, scaly claw smashed down onto the icy floor directly where Hideshi and Yukina were standing, barely missing them.

The monstrous-sized dragon stood over the spirit detective and the ice apparitions menacingly, exhaling it's frosty breath from his nostrils, looking especially angry at the unwanted guests trespassing in his domain...

The dragon roared viciously at the young Spirit Detective, his subzero breath forming ice crystals on the seams of his coat as he crosses his arms in front of his face in an attempt to defend himself.

Yukina stared at him, wide-eyed at what she had just witnessed. She had heard stories that the new Spirit Detective was unkind and lacked any sense of compassion, yet here he stood before her, standing between the all-too familiar dragon, right away he had saved her from being stomped on.

This is Romano Hideshi? She thought to herself It can't be! He's far too heroic and handsome to be the bad man everyone makes him out to be...

As the dragon finished his mighty roar, which left Hideshi with a thin sheet of frost covering the front side of his body, it reared it's head towards the Spirit Detective and let out a threatening growl.

"... My turn..." Hideshi said, glancing over his halfway frozen arms at the dragon, a vicious look in his eyes. In a single swift motion, Hideshi delivered a devastating punch to the side of the deagon's snout, causing it to rear back in shock and pain.

"Did he... Just punch a dragon...?" one of the ice-apparition women slowly exclaimed to herself, not able to fully believe what she had just witnessed.

"He's a bit of a badass like that..." Botan said in a sweet and admiring tone of voice as she watched her partner take his stance against the mighty beast.

"Wow, for all that talk about how tough you dragons are supposed to be, you're wincing quite a bit. But that was only one good punch too..." Hideshi taunted the dragon, preparing himself to attack it once again.

Sensing his aggression, Tatsuo turned his eye towards him once more, filled with rage. "You shouldn't have done that, detective!" The dragon appeared to "speak" as it turned his head to face Hideshi again.

This thing can talk? How is he able to do that? He's not even moving his mouth! Hideshi thought as he watched the beast lower itself to the ground.

"Now detective! Prepare yourself to witness my true power!" immediately after saying this, a large amount of energy which was unlike anything Hideshi had ever felt before came cascading over him and the rest of the cave. The output felt like hurricane-force winds, as Botan struggled to stay on board her oar through all the power.

Well shit... He's stronger than me... Hideshi thought to himself as he struggled to keep his footing on the icy slick surface of the cave with all the energy blowing in his face.

"Now die!" The dragon exclaimed loudly before exhaling a steady stream of what appeared to be some form of icy steam. Hideshi didn't have nearly enough time to dodge, and was quickly frozen in a block of ice in a matter of just under a second.

"Hideshi no!" Botan exclaimed frantically as she saw her partner become completely encased in the ice, thus spelling out the Spirit Detective's fate. The tears came in slowly at first, then in streams as Botan clung down onto her oar, feeling empty inside as the reality of the situation sunk in... Hideshi was dead...

Tatsuo stomped forward in his dragon form, admiring his work. "Excellent..."

Yukina rushed forward without thinking, directly in the path of the dragon, standing protectively between the frozen Hideshi and the monstrous beast.

"Out of my way Yukina!" Tatsuo growled, "He's not worth defending anymore! He's dead!"

"Wrong!" Yukina shouted defiantly. "You froze him too fast! He's still alive inside, I can feel it!"

"Well then... We'll just have to fix that, won't we? Now stand out of my way, or else I'll smash both of you into pieces!"

Brother... Please... Yukina silently begged for salvation from her unknown brother once again I need you, Hideshi needs you! Botan needs you! We all need you!... W-wait... Who are you...? Are you?... No, wait! You're not my brother! You're- aghhh!

"Well then Yukina," The dragon Tatsuo stated as he raised his claw up once again "looks like you've made your decision!" The monstrous, scaly claw of the dragon began transcending down upon them, casting a shadow of death.

"You're right..." Yukina stated in a malicious tone with a wry smirk emblazoned on her face. "I've decided there won't be any more Miss Nice Yukina... Now I'm out for blood!"
Yukina then raised her arm to meet the dragon's crushing claw, and by some miracle, was able to stop it with her own hand.

"W-what?!" Tatsuo exclaimed in utter shock as he felt his claw become stopped by Yukina. His large, reptilian eyes looked down in horror as he saw the once gentle face of Yukina, now laced with diamond-shaped, demonic tattoos, and blood-red, glowing eyes, full of hate.

Ginobly Atakashi stood alone, overlooking the barren landscape from the balcony of Karr's palace. He let out a sigh as he watched the lava flow from the small cracks in the ground, leaving a spider-web of glowing rock which seemed to expand on forever.

He was eventually shaken from his moody phase as he felt a familiar, yet frighteningly powerful presence behind him. Please don't be let it be him... he silently pleaded as the snow-white form of Yojiki emerged from the shadows and out onto the balcony.

"Good evening Ginobly," the cheerful-natured demon smiled as he revealed himself "whatever are you doing out here all alone?"

Ginobly released a sigh of relief at the sight of Yojiki. "Thank Karr it's you... I thought for a second it would've been-"

"My brother? Kudjo? Maybe even Damakain?" the blue-eyed demon rattled off suggestions.

"That first one, yea..." Ginobly answered in a tired tone, now far more relaxed.

"Hmm... Yes, well brother is asleep so I'm in control as of right now..." Yojiki studied Ginobly for a moment, taking in the way his eyes had dark circles encompassing them. "You look tired my friend. Have you been sleeping well?"

"No, actually..." Ginobly sighed again as he thought of his aliments which forbade him from sleeping.

"Is it the Spirit Detective?" Yojiki questioned.

"...yea... I'm worried about what's going to happen... I still have about twenty days to prepare, but without Lord Karr granting me any new power, I fear my victory is not certain..."

"And why do you say that? I thought the Spirit Detective was equivalent to only a normal S-Class demon?"

"He is... But when I fought him, he had this unbelievable power awaken inside of him... At that moment, he became far more powerful than me. Even after I transformed into my true self, I was still outclassed by that latent power... I only survived because he did not know how to control it, and therefore, it slipped away from him..."

"Hmm..." Yojiki pondered, parting a lock of his long, white hair to the side of his gentle face. "Ginobly? Do you... hate him?"

"Excuse me?" the demon asked, turning his focus away from the landscape and back to his superior.

"Do you hate the Spirit Detective Romano Hideshi?" Yojiki asked again. "Does his power make you jealous enough to feel the same hatred that I feel for my brother? That Damakain feels for those bandits? The same hatred you felt towards your father? Do you hate him Ginobly?"

The demon paused for a moment, deeply reflecting on what Yojiki had just asked him. "I..."

"You know, Lord Karr will probably give you back some of your old power if your hatred grows strong enough." Yojiki reminded him.

"My power... Like the power I used to slay my father..." Ginobly said as the memory of his father's death crossed his mind. "Yes... Yes! Even if I do not hate him now, I will learn to hate! Romano Hideshi shall become my worst enemy! I will find something about him to make me hate him just like I hated myself and my father! Then I shall ask Lord Karr to restore my power to it's prime! And then I'll be on the same level as you and Damakain once more!" Ginobly said as he turned to face Yojiki once again, a look of determination sculpted to his face unlike any he had previously worn before.

Beware Romano Hideshi... Ginobly Atakashi shall soon become your greatest adversary ever!

Unbeknownst to Ginobly or Yojiki, Romano Hideshi stood perfectly still at the moment. Frozen solid while a young, frail girl from the Ice Apparition Realm suddenly awakened a massive latent power hidden within her demon genetics.

"Man, I would hate to be you right about now Tatsuo..." Yukina spoke in her new, deep and echoing demonic voice. "Although she doesn't know how to control it, or even that she has this power at the moment, my daughter has enough fire energy built up inside her to make the sun jealous... More than enough to melt your puny ice-dragon body!" Yukina sprouted a devilish grinas she spoke before throwing the dragon's claw off of her own hand and delivering a devastating blow to the gut with the other, follewd by a barrage of blows from both fists, each sinking in a fair amount into the Tatsuo's gut, causing the mighty dragon to wither around in pain as she struck him.

"T-this can't be right!" Botan exclaimed as she watched Yukina lay the beat down on Tatsuo. "Yukina just jumped from an upper E class to some high level of S class demon! She might be about as strong as Kurama or even Yusuke now! What's going on?!"

"It's her father!" one of the ice apparition women gasped out in horror. "The invincible fire demon, Kiogê!"

At the mention of his name, the demon possessing Yukina stopped pummeling Tatsuo for a moment to give an evil glare to the cowering women in the corner of the cave.

"Ladies, you wouldn't believe how flattered I am that you know of me! For those of you who don't know, my name is Kiogê, lord of the fire realm!" the demon gave a sort of now using Yukina's body before raising Yukina's arms from her sides and looked down at them. "And this lovely young woman is my daughter, Yukina. Oh wait! I also have a son? Where is that boy? Hiei? Hiei!?... Oh, silly me, I almost forgot. You threw him into a ravine when he was just a baby!"

"Lord Kiogrê! Please, allow us to explain-" one ice apparition spoke up, trying to defend herself and her village, but was cut off.

"Silence! There is no justification in murdering an innocent child!"

Directly behind Yukina, the monster dragon raised it's head once more and then, in pain, let out a deafening roar at the young girl being possessed by her father. "Shut it you," the demon said as Yukina extended her arm out, summoning a fireball of energy in the palm of her hand "unless you wished to be cooked rather than buried..."

"You dare try to mock me demon? You only had be surprised before is all, now that I have my guard up, there's no way I can lose!" the Dragon roared once more, breathing it's chilling cloud of ice all around the young girl's body. Massive amounts of steam were produced as Tatsuo's ice breath collided with Yukina's fireball, hiding both her and the dragon from anyone's view.

There was a long moment of still air before two normal sized figures began to show themselves as they walked out from the cloud of steam, one dragging the other by the throat.

As they emerged, it was revealed that the figure still on it's feet was Yukina, and Tatsuo, in his normal form, her unfortunate victim.

"Pssh..." the demon let out a noise of disgust as he gazed down upon the battered form of his adversary. "How pathetic... This fool was on the brink of death in his dragon form, so he turns back into an ice apparition to try and save himself before going unconscious..." Kiogê observed as he watched the young man's wounds heal on his humanoid form. "This is a coward's tactic. It may be effective in restoring his physical body by using the shift of transformations, but it also leaves him vulnerable, especially if he's knocked out..." Kiogê then threw Tatsuo down on the icy floor of the cave, directly in front of where Hideshi stood frozen.

"It just wouldn't be right for me to kill him though... You women may have tried to murder my one and only son, but he survived, and it all made him a better man anyway... This guy however, had his whole livelihood ripped away from him just because he was born to a father as well as a mother. It's only right he should be able to exact his revenge and kill you all..." Yukina's mouth then formed into a devilish grin however. "All except one, the woman I don't believe he wants to kill. Which of you is his mother?!" the demon asks in a demanding tone.

For a few heartbeats, there is silence, until one of the ice apparition women stepped forward towards the demon haunting Yukina's body. "I-I am..." she admitted, appearing to be choked up, as if she were holding back tears.

The demon looked her up and down with Yukina's glowing red eyes, studying her closely. "I applaud you m'lady for being so bold as to claim this man as your child, despite what your fellow villagers may think of you... But even still, your people tried to kill my son and prevent Yukina from ever meeting him, and that is unforgivable and I desire revenge. Revenge which shall be paid back with your blood!" the demon said madly as Yukina extended her index finger towards the woman."You know why this setup here is perfect?" she suddenly grins evilly.

The ice apparition nods her head. "Yes... You hate me most of all... For I am Rui, the woman who cast Hiei into the ravine as a child... Tatsuo is my son..."⠀⠀⠀⠀

The demon-tattooed girl smirked widely as Rui admitted to her crime. "Yes Rui, you are the lowest of your people... Not just because of what you did to my son, but also because you were just as guilty as Hina, having a child born to a mother and a father! You knew what you did would destroy your friendship with Hina, and that she would forever be saddened by the passing of her son, so you tried to make amends by offering to let Hiei kill you first when he arrived back at the Glacial Village, seeking revenge. Yet, he chose to spare your miserable life because he felt your kind to be 'dead inside'. It was quite the opposite, as you were actually the happiest of all the ice apparitions in your village, to have a son, born out of love while all the other children were born out of your natural biology... It almost tempts me to kill him right in front of you to crush everything you've held so dear..." Kiogê turned his gaze back down upon the badly beaten Tatsuo, who was slowly regaining consciousness as his wounds began to heal.

"M-mother..." he groaned as he tried to prop himself up.

Rui's eyes welled with tears as she watched her son wither in pain, trying to rise back up to his feet with immense difficulty.

"Yes... The look on your face would be a perfect satisfaction to the boundless hatred I've accumulated for you and your people for what you did to Hiei... But it would be almost hippo critical to extract revenge in the name of my son when this boy has been through the same hardships as exile..."
Yukina's evil eyes traced their gaze back onto the frightened Rui, intimidating her with their deep, soul-piercing gaze. "I will not kill your son... But blood must be spilled..."

At the simple raise of Yukina's finger, Rui's body became engulfed in flames. However, the kind woman did not scream, nor show any other signs of pain as the crimson flames are away at her physical form. All she did was give her son Tatsuo one final, loving stare.

"N-no... No! Mother!" Tatsuo exclaimed in agony, tears flowing from the sides of his cheeks. He finally mustered the strength to stand on his own feet and then run towards the woman as she burned alive. But by the time her reached her, the flames intensified, and Rui was quickly turned to ash, which scattered about the air of the ice cave, the last remnant Tatsuo would ever have of his mother...

"No... No!" Tatsuo exploded in anger, his tears running down his face like miniature waterfalls, his anger seeping up from deep within, giving him power. "Y-you... You bastard!" Tatsuo exclaimed loudly, his dragon energy exploding around him in a red-orange aura. He turned his face towards the demon who killed his mother, now possessing his own daughter's body.

"I'll kill you! I'll fucking kill you!" Tatsuo shouts at Kiogrê as he starts assuming his dragon-form once again, his body growing larger, wings sprouting from his back.

"You won't boy... And most certainly if killing me means harming my daughter. If you want someone to take your aggression out on, why not kill the very people responsible for all of this?" Kiogrê pointed behind Tatsuo to the cowering group of ice apparition women. "I know killing them was never the plan, but why would you ever want to start a new colony with them as the mothers to it's first generation? They wouldn't even allow good women such as my love Hina, or your mother to care for their children. If anyone here is evil, it's them and their wicked policies on life and death. Kill them Tatsuo. Make just a despicable mark on your kind's history!"

Tatsuo paused for a moment, taking what Kiogrê said to him into serious consideration. The monsterous dragon then turned his massive head towards the crowd of cowering women, his eyes filling with hatred at the very sight if them. "Kiogrê is right... My mother was yet another causality brought upon by you! Blood must be paid back in blood!" the dragon roared, raising his claw high above the women's head's ready to bring it down and crush a handful of them in his palm.

"Stop! Tatsuo! You can't!" Botan exclaimed, jumping between the dragon and the ice apparitions. "Think of how your mother would feel if she saw you kill all of her friends!" she pleaded, hoping her words would reach him.

"Friends?! These women are no friends of my mother! They forced her to live separated from me, and to cast countless children over the edge of a cliff to their death! These aren't even women! These are monsters!" Tatsuo's mighty dragon form snarled as took a few steps forward, intent on extracting his revenge on them.

However, stubborn Botan refused to step out of the way. She continued to stand her ground, intent on trying to save the villager's lives, whether they deserved to live or not.

"If you will not step aside, I shall slaughter you along with all these unworthy sinners!" Tatsuo leaned his monstrous, reptilian head backwards a bit, charging up his frosty breath.

"Hideshi..." Botan said fearfully towards the frozen stature of her friend and love interest "Please... Please save us!"

Inside his icy prison, Hideshi could hear nothing, see nothing and not even feel the massive amounts of energy Tatsuo or Kiogrê were putting out. He just stood there... Still as a statue...

It almost felt like he was asleep...

That's when the nightmares began...

Hideshi trotted down the sidewalk, blood covering the upper regions of his body. He knew this nightmare all too well... For it had already happened to him several years ago...

"I can't believe it... He was my friend... I trusted him! And now mom, dad and Ikono are dead... Because I let him do it... I trusted him too much... I can never live with myself..." he whispered silently as the wailing siren of a fire engine began to howl behind him.

And that was it... As far as he would go into the painful memory... For the sound of the shrieking siren suddenly transformed into a familiar voice, calling out for help.

"Please save us!"

Botan!

All of a sudden, Hideshi's vision returned, and from the near-transparent ice, he could see all the ice apparitions and Botan, looking upon the dragon in fear as it tilted it's head back, gathering energy for it's ice blast.

No! Botan! Get out of there! he tries to plead with his partner inside his mind, but could not convey the message to her vocally. He then shifts his attention to the dragon.

No! Don't you touch her! Don't... You... Hideshi suddenly felt overcome by a familiar feeling as he began to regain feeling in his arms and legs. He felt his spiritual energy rise into a whole other world of power, changing his white aura to a gold-tinted one as the ice finally began to crack apart and fall off from his body, effectively freeing himself.

Tatsuo suddenly stopped charging up his ice blast as he began to feel the massive power radiating from behind himself. W-What is this energy?! It's massive! Even larger than Kiogrê's!
The dragon turned his head behind himself to find that it was in fact, not Yukina's body radiating the massive output of energy, but rather the Spirit Detective, Romano Hideshi, encased by a new power which paled his own.

The Spirit Detective stared back at the dragon, the remnants of his icy prison lying at his feet, his eyes conveying a look of pure hatred.

"Impossible! You were meant to stay frozen for much longer! No one can pierce my ice!" Tatsuo growled in disbelief.

"Yea, well , I guess you didn't reduction that you'd be fighting someone as powerful as me either... So it looks like we're one for two on that one..." the detective's face broke out into a small grin as his newfound energy swirled around him fantastically.

W-Wait... Hideshi wasn't this calm the last time he used the sacred energy... Botan thought to herself in amazement, recalling Hideshi's fight against Ginobly. Could he have really learned to master it in such a short time? It's never been done before! He may be even more powerful than we'd originally thought...

"Now then Reptar, I'm gonna kick your ass!" Hideshi spoke with his usual, cocky voice.

"Don't you dare underestimate me detective! I'm still stronger! And I'll show you!" the dragon growled as if began channeling it's dragon energy up through his body, though his aura was clearly inferior to the crimson-gold aura radiating from Hideshi's body.

"Ya know, that's really impressive... I'd be shitting my pants if I weren't worlds above you right now!" Hideshi gave the dragon one final smirk before dematerializing and then rematerializing again directly in front of Tatsuo before delivering a sharp, sinking blow into the half-dragon's guts.

The mighty ice dragon wailed in pain, swinging it's head back and forth as it clutched it's stomach, effectively doubled over.

This display of pain did not stop Hideshi however, as he followed suite with a round-house kick which knocked the mighty beast against the icy wall of the cave violently. "Don't tell me that's all you've got..." Hideshi taunted as he watched his opponent try to regain his foot placement.

"Rah! Not even close!" the dragon blared out as he lunge at the spirit detective with his sharp, black claws. Tatsuo moved so fast none of the other ice apparitions could follow his movements as he madly swiped at the sprit detective, attempting to score a killing blow, but to no avail. Hideshi was able to dodge each and every one of Tatsuo's slashes with extreme ease.

Eventually, the spirit detective grew tiresome of dashing Tatsuo's claws and managed to snatch one of them by the finger as it came down upon him. Tatsuo didn't have enough time to say anything, let alone react as Hideshi slung the entirety of the massive creature over his shoulder with impressive strength. Before Tatsuo's massive dragon form could hit the icy floor, Hideshi violently punted the creature as it came down, sending him back upwards with enough force to send him flying through the ceiling of the cavern, creating a massive skylight formed from his outline.

Tatsuo's beaten dragon form tumbled through the icy outside air before straightening out in mid-air, stabilizing himself for a flight through the falling snowstorm, away from the mountain he had just been kicked out from.

"Oh no ya don't!" Hideshi shouted out at the dragon before jumping straight up from the icy cavern through the skylight, gaining impressive elevation as he attempted to control the directionality of his fall so he would land feet first onto Tatsuo's back.

The dragon howled in pain as Hiseshi's feet made a horrible-sounding noise as they bent the massive beast's spine forward, immediately causing the dragon to lose feeling to his wings, setting them into a state of free-fall. It was probably for the best, as Hideshi placed his hands on the joints of his wings to the dragon's back, and then began pulling them tightly until they both popped out, leaving large trails of blood flying through the air freely as it escaped the dragon's wounds.

"Not try give it away too much that I'm a nineties kid, but have a nice trip, I'll see you next fall!" Hideshi taunted as he lifted off from the dragon's back with his feet into the air, watching the creature plummet down to the Earth below... Directly towards it's death...

Hideshi however, harnessed the power of his sacred energy to encase his body and allow him to gently float back down towards the mouth of the ice cave, where Botan and the other ice apparitions were looking on. In Botan's arms lie an unconscious Yukina, her demon tattoos and glowing eyes now missing from her face.

"H-Hideshi?" Botan asked uneasily as the spirit detective approached the crowd of women.

The young man smiled at her warmly. "I figured it out Botan, how to summon all this power... I have to feel driven to protect something I love or care about..."

Botan stood in silence for a moment, Hideshi's radiance making him seem even more attractive to her. "And in this case, that precious thing was you..." he finished, still retaining his small smile on his face.

Botan's eyes began to welt up with tears, feeling overcome with emotions. To her, this was like a dream. She promptly dropped Yukina's unconcious body down onto the floor of the ice cave and then ran to him, her arms open wide. "I love you too!" she shouted without thinking of what she was doing before embracing him and his golden aura in her arms.

"...Wait, what?" Hideshi asked as his radiant energy began to fade, and him mind began to become more conscious of his surroundings. "Botan? Why are you hugging me?"

She glanced up at him, utterly shocked at how quickly he forgot what had happened just a mere few moments ago. "Hideshi? Don't you remember what you told me?" she said with a slight, yet worried smile, silently praying he was just teasing her.

"Uh... Actually... No... I remember killing Tatsuo, but a lot of that was a blur..." Hideshi admitted as he tried to remember how he had acquired that power and what exactly had happened in the time he was utilizing it. "It was kinda like when I fought Ginobly, I remember waking up and striking him down before I caught hold of my senses again and then he was this monster thing and... Well, you were there..."

"Yea..." Botan sighs in disappointment "I was there..."

Tatsuo barely felt anything at all as the blizzard buried him in a thin layer of snow and ice which felt like a massive weight on his body. For the first time in his life, he felt cold. Not due to the inclimate weather, but beause of the defethe had just suffered at the hands of the Spirit Detective Romano Hideshi. The reality began to settle in quickly, as he realized his plans to convert the glacial village had finally come to an end...

Mother... I failed you... I failed you, Hina, Hiei, and all the other mothers and children who fell victim to this corrupt society... I'm sorry that i wasn't strong enough...

The two gaping holes on his shoulder blades where his wings in his dragon form used to be where oozing his hot, red blood, changing the color of the pure white snow which would soon make his grave.

It's a shame my powers of regeneration doesn't apply to lost limbs... Tatsuo thought to himself pitifully. How ironic, at birth, i could not save myself from being thrown from that cliff... And even now, when my powers were at their peak, I still cannot save myself from the cold, unfeeling cliff-side.

Tatsuo turned his gaze toward the cliff he was to be thrown fro as a chld, and for a breif moment, has a faint memory...

"Please Rui," an ice apparition woman who appeared to be several months pregnant said as she followed Tatsuo's mother into an ice cave similar to the one Tatsuo took his kidnapped victims to "Please let the twins stay here with Tatsuo! I cannot bear the thought of anyone finding out about them..." The woman stopped trailing behind her for a moment and began to shed a tear from her left eye, the thought of losing her children leaving a tremendous weight on her heart.

Rui stood still holding her child in her arms. The son she was able to keep a secret from her entire village. "Hina..." she began and then sighed. "No Hina... I can't afford the risk..."

"R-Risk?! What risk?!" Hina demanded, outraged at her friend's response.

"Your children were born from the evil fire demon Kioge... Mine were born of a dragon, yes. But he was the sweetest, kindest man in all of Spirit Realm..."

"Wait, you think my children are going to be blood-thirsty monsters just because their father was a fire demon?!" Hina shouted in an angered tone, provoked by Rui's unkind words.

"Please Hina... He murders good, innocent people for his own sick, twisted pleasure... Kiorge's children may be no different, and I don't think I can trust them around my Tatsuo..." Rui states as she looks down upon her child lovingly.

"Rui..." Hina said as tears began to form in her eyes.

"You'll just have to find another place to hide the children." Rui says, giving the cold shoulder to her best friend in favor of the safety of her child.

The tears came faster now as Hina turned back around, breaking into a fit of crying as she turned around and ran out of the cave, sobbing loudly as she went.

A few weeks later, Hiei and Yukina were born, and it was discovered that Hiei was obviously a powerful fire demon while Yukina remained inconspicuous due to her innocent, normal appearance. The unfair circumstances lead Yukina to survive while Hiei was sentenced to death by being from the side of a cliff. Rui was selected by the village elder to carry out the deed. Upon throwing the child from the cliffside, Rui asked for Hiei, upon his return to the Glacial Village, to kill her first for what she was about to do. The greif held heavy on her heart until the very end of her life...

If only she had allowed for Hiei and Yukina to stay in the cave with Tatsuo...

Now her only child lay helpless, his face buried in the snow as his boy shivers and his blood runs thick. I don't understand... I did this all for their own good... That damn elder was a corrupt leader who started a sick and twisted religion of controlling the village population. I was going to free them from their enslavement...

The blood came running out almost as fast as the tears, which quickly froze into Tatsuo's cheeks as he drew his final breath of icy air from the land he called home...

***
Yukina slowly awoke, the faint light of the Sun illuminating the Ice Realm's sky filling her pupils as she stirred.

What happened? Was that all just a dream...? Yukina thought to herself as she sat up in the recovery bed she had been laid down in.

"Good to see you're well..." a familiar male voice commented from the corner of the room, diverting Yukina's eyes towards the voice's origin. There in the corner stood Hideshi, Botan and a few Glacial Village members.

It wasn't a dream! There really was a dragon! We were all abducted!

Yukina shuddered a bit at the thought of being in that cave with Tatsuo. She reflected on what it was like being chased about the cave, trying to escape, only to realize that it was impossible. The spirit detective took a few hollow steps towards her, and all of a sudden, she began to feel relived in his presence.

"Yukina," he spoke in his smooth, somewhat deep voice "Do you remember what happened in the cave?"

Her eyes widened a bit as he asked her this question, which she was unable to answer except through slightly shaking her head from side to side.

Hideshi sighed a bit, but nit in disappointment, more out of relief. Good, I wont have to arrest her or kill her now. All that's left to do is deliver her to Hiei.

"Well then, that's alright Yukina, you were struck on the head with a chunk of ice from the ceiling of the cave. But everything's fine now, I've taken care of Tatsuo. He won't be bothering you or anyone else ever again."

"Oh... Thats good..." Yukina said solemnly. She actually pitied her capture a bit, for he had experienced all the same things her brother had. Wait a second! My brother!

"My brother! You know where my brother is don't you?! that's what you said!"

Hideshi breathed another sigh of relief. Good thing she's still on board to come with us...

"Yea. Me and Botan can take you to him now if you'd like." Hideshi offered.

"Yes! Please! where is he? Who is he?! How far away does he live?!" Yukina began asking the Spirit Detective a barrage of questions.

"Calm down Yukina! We'll take you to him right now if you feel up to a trip to Demon Realm."

"Demon Realm? What is he doing there?!" she asked in a surprised tone.

"Uhh... Because he's a demon..." Hideshi answered awkwardly.

"Oh... Right..." Yukina blushed a little in spite of realizing how stupid her question must have sounded to him "Sorry..."

"No, its alright, but we should get going here pretty soon..." Seeing as we have three time constraints now... Hideshi thought to himself in a spiteful manner. First Gionbly, then short-stack, now we've got these ice bitches forcing us to take Yukina with us to Demon Realm by the end of the day. Did nothing Tatsuo say and fight for reach those empty little heads of theirs?

"Yes!" Yukina agreed excitedly, her eyes widening with happiness as her journey to uncover the identity of her esteemed brother was about to come to an end. "I'm ready now! Let's go!"

Hideshi nodded as the young half-demon girl climbed out of her recovery bed, planting her feet into the floor. He then turned his gaze towards Botan. "It seems we're all ready to go, get the oar ready."

The grim reaper nodded in understanding as she headed outside, past two angry-looking ice apparition women.

Yukina did not notice their expressions as she passed them by, smiling at them sweetly, as she was aft to do. "Goodbye friends, I'm off to meet with my brother. I'll be sure to stay in touch!"

The women stood still looking at Yukina, stone-faced and disgusted. They knew what she really was, even if she didn't. And as Hideshi and Yukina walked past them through the door to follow Botan, they each had the same thought of what Yukina's fate should be now that she has been uncovered as the offspring of Kiogrê and an Imiko Child...

Banishment.

⠀⠀⠀⠀
On their way to Demon World later that evening, it became apparent to Hideshi, Botan and Yukina that they would not reach their destination before the sun settled on the horizon. So the threesome sought out shelter from their aerial vantage point above a heavily forested and mountainous region of Human World.

"Down there!" Hideshi said pointing towards a large, flat plateau to the right of where they had been flying. "We'll make camp down there for the night and continue on in the morning."

As they descended back down onto the rocky, mountainous surface of the plateau, Yukina sighed disappointedly. She had kept in all the excitement of seeing her brother all day, and ha expected to see him by the end of the day.

Hideshi stepped off of Botan's oar and stretched a bit, still tired from the trip. "Botan, Yukina? How about you two set up here for tonight and I'll go down into the forest below to sleep?" Hideshi suggested as he looked over the landscape from his vantage point.

Yukina nodded and bowed to Hideshi, then looked up at him again. "Alright..." she muttered in a tone which expressed her disappointment.

Botan looked puzzeled at this proposition. "Wait Hideshi, why aren't you sleeping up here with us? We could use you for protection against wolves and bears and... And... Uh... Things..."

Yukina giggled and looked up towards Botan and smiled "It's okay, we will scare them off!"

"Right, and besides Botan, I'm pretty sure none of us packed pajamas, so I can only assume we'll either be sleeping nude or in our underwear. I wouldn't want to intrude in your privacy." Hideshi added to Yukina's reassuring statement.

Yukina blushed for a second and hid her innocent face before they could see how red her face had become.

"Oh yea... I didn't even think about that..." Botan said as she suddenly realized all the sense Hideshi's statement made. Even still, her mind immediately filled with regret for her implied agreement. But that's the whole reason I wanted you to sleep up here...

"I'll be right down at the foot of the mountain if either of you need me." Hideshi said as he approached the ledge of the plateau. Preparing to leap down to the forest below, he turned around to give the two girls a small smile and a salute before leaping off the side of the cliff.

Yukina watched him go and sighed as she sat down and looked over to her side, studying the rocky surface surrounding her on all sides.

"What's wrong Yukina?" Botan asks sympathetically as she notes her sigh of disappointment, taking a seat to her side.

"It's nothing..." Yukina sighed and licked up a handful of pebbles in her hand, holding them up towards her face to study them.

"You can tell me..." Botan offers, genuinely curious as to Yukina's current disposition.

"Well... " she sighed as she looked away from her handful of pebbles towards Botan "I really wanted to find my brother..."

"I know sweetie, but we know where he is! And he's waiting for you right now in Demon Realm! You'll get to meet him tomorrow!" Botan said in her usual, cheery voice, trying to get Yukina to cheer up.

It seemed to work, as Yukina's expression quickly changed from one of regret and despair to one of excitement, as convey by the small smile formed by the corners of her mouth.

"So Botan..." Yukina suddenly asked her friend, now in a slightly better mood "What's Hideshi like? I know he's very kind... Courageous... Not to mention handsome too, but what else is he like?"

Botan's smile widened as Yukina inclined about her very favorite topic of discussion she had among her fellow reapers. "Well Yukina, your right all the way about him so far. But what you failed to note are his eyes..." Botan seemed to fall into a trance as she began to think about Hideshi's sliver eyes which changed to a beautiful color every time he wore a different colored outfit. "His eyes are like the most beautiful diamonds money can buy... So dreamy and intoxicating..."

"Yea," Yukina blushed lightly a bit as Botan described Hideshi to her "I-I've noticed them too... It's like, whenever he looks at you with them it just..."

"Makes you want to melt..." the two blue-haired women said with a hefty sigh at the same time, reminiscing on their mutual crush.

"And his hair..." Botan brought up "Don't even get me started on his hair! So soft and sleek... It waves in the air as we ride on my oar from job to job... I just can't get enough of it!"

Yukina smiled as she stared out towards the sunset, remembering Hideshi's handsome features as if he were some fantastic epic hero or a handsome prince. Then again, he did save her from a dragon, just like some sort of fairy tale...

As so the two girls talked of Hideshi for the rest of the afternoon until the sun set on the horizon, prompting Botan to fall asleep, still exhausted from their long day of travel.

Yukina smiled at he sleeping friend and began to softly play with her hair in a way which wouldn't disrupt her slumber. "Goodnight Botan..." she whispered to the sleeping reaper affectionately.

⠀⠀⠀⠀
As night fell and the stars overtook the sky, a light chill came over the Spirit Detective as he sat alone by a small fire he had built for himself at the corner between the forest ground and the plateau's rocky side.

He held his hands close to the fire, trying to warm them as he watched the scarlet and orange sparks rise up and kiss the night sky before succumbing to the darkness of night and fading away.

It would like to set this fire under my ass... Hideshi thought to himself as he felt the seat of his pants become wet from the moist ground which he was sitting on.

Besides the crackling of the fire and a few crickets chirping out a mating call, the night was silent, devoid of anything to frighten Romano Hideshi. He had almost debated going to sleep when he felt it...

What the Hell?! No! That can't be real! There's no way that much energy even exists! Hideshi's mind began to race as the enormous demon energy crept closer towards his position. I-It's like a whole army of Ginoblys!... The Girls! Hideshi suddenly remembered his helpless travel companions and was quick to rush back up the side of the plateau, as fast as his body would allow him to climb.

As he reached the ledge overlooking the forest, the large demon energy seemed to completely fade away with the two girls now in sight. What?! Where did it go?! It was right down there and now... It's just vanished!

Several meters away, Yukina averted her concentration from playing with the sleeping Botan's hair towards the ledge of the plateau. There she him, the Spirit Detective, eclipsing the full moon with the outline of his body. She then began to feel her heart race, like he really was the subject o some wild dream she was having.

The young ice-apparition girl slowly stood up, then made her way towards Hideshi, the moonlight guiding her towards him. "H-Hideshi?" she called out towards him, gaining his attention.

"Yukina! Did you feel that energy just now?!" Hideshi asked her frantically. What am I even asking her for? Of course she must have felt it! It was absolutely tremendous!

"What energy?" Yukina asked with a puzzled look on her face.

She didn't feel anything? How can that be? Did I just imagine all that? Hideshi thought to himself.

"H-Hideshi? Are you ok?" Yukina asked him, stepping closer towards the Spirit Detective. "You look kind of pale..."

"...No, I'm fine Yukina... Really... There's nothing to worry about, just go back to sleep..." he uttered, still wrestling with his thoughts on the energy he felt.

"Romano..." Yukina started to speak, stepping in closer to the Spirit Detective, shortening the gap between them. "You know, I never got to thank you for all this... Saving me from the dragon and taking me to my brother and all... I really, really appreciate it..."

Come on Yukina! You've really got to appeal to him here! the Ice Apparition coached herself as she got closer to Hideshi.

"Yea well, it was nothing! I was just doing what I normally do, being a Spirit Detective and all..." Hideshi said as he faked a smile to hide his concern "Having the job in itself is it's own reward..."

"Oh... But, maybe you deserve more of a reward..." Yukina says, placing her hands on his broad shoulders as she starts invading Hideshi's personal space.

"What?" Is all Hideshi is able to ask before Yukina forces herself onto him, claiming a kiss from the handsome Spirit Detective.

Hideshi's eyes widen as Yukina relishes the moment, loving the feeling of his soft, warm lips against hers. The Detective immediately takes ahold of Yukina by her forearms and creates space between them by pulling her away from him.

"The Hell was that?!" Hideshi interrogated loudly, causing Botan to stir in her sleep, even though she was quite a distance away from them.

"I love you Romano Hideshi..." Yukina said in a trance, stars still in her eyes from that magic moment which had transpired just a few moments ago. Her mood quickly swung over as the reality that he had separated her from him quickly settled in. Yukina began to panic, feeling like a junkie going through a relapse, and Hideshi's kiss was her drug. "Quick! Take me! Just take me now!" she began to beg him, beginning to try and remove her clothes in front of him.

"Woah!" Hideshi shouted, quickly grabbing Yukina's hands and pulling them away from her cloathes before she could remove any articles of clothing. "Yukina..." he said in a slow and sympathetic tone, "We can't..."

"W-Why not?" she asked, frantically trying to remove her hands from his restricting grip. "A-Are you worried about waking Botan? Because we can just go down in the forest below and she'll never have to know! O-Or I can wake her up and have her join us if that's what you want. Just please... I need you!" Yukina begged, her infatuation with Hideshi getting the better of her moral conscious.

"No Yukina!" Hideshi rejected her, then sighed sorrowfully. "You don't understand... There's someone else..."

It took a few moments for what the Spirit Detective had to say to register in Yukina's young and overly infatuated mind. "O-oh... I see... I'm... So sorry..." she said as tears began to form in her eyes. Before Hideshi could do or sag anything, she broke herself from his grip and immediately ran back towards Botan, sobbing quietly.

Hideshi watched her go, feeling terrible regret for not only breaking Yukina's heart, but also lying to her in the process.

"My, my Mr. Hideshi, did you just turn down a threesome with those two lovely ladies?" a mellow, yet quite voice shot through the darkness from behind Hideshi.

As the Spirit Detective turned around to face the owner of the voice, the feeling of that massive energy came over him again. There, standing tall with a happy smile on his face, stood a white-haired man carrying a long, silver scythe in his hand.

T-This is him? The one giving off all that energy?! Hideshi thought to himself frantically as the man continued to smile at him disturbingly. "Hello Detective, my name is Ono Yojiki! And I come with a message from Ginobly Atakashi!"

The white-haired demon named Yojiki smiled kindly despite his outrageous power and sinister message from Hideshi's adversary.

"Ginobly means to tell you Hideshi, that you stand absolutely no chance against him, for he shall soon have his former power unlocked by our master, Lord Karr." Yojiki paused delivering the message for a moment, studying the shocked and terrified expression on Hideshi's face. "I'm sorry, but are you alright?... I meant no suggestion of your sexual orientation with that threesome remark..."

Still no change to Hidehi's silent expression of horror. "Hmm... Oh I see! You've never felt a power quite like mine before, have you?"

Hideshi quietly shook his head no, still in awe that someone could be so powerful.

"I thought not... Well Romano Hideshi, you should probably get used to this kind of power, seeing as this is what Ginobly aims to achieve by the time you arrive in Demon Realm.

"What?! But... But that's impossible! No one can have that huge of a jump in power in just over a week!" Hideshi cried out in disbelief.

"You underestimate the power of Lord Karr, Detective." Yojiki said slowly, seeming to enjoy every word as it rolled off his tongue. "If Ginobly had as much faith as you do in the power of demon energy at it's highest potential, than he wouldn't be offering you this warning, or my help..."

"Your... Help?" Hideshi questioned, almost ready to have a panic attack.

"That is correct, he asked me to actually give you advice on how to fight him rather than let you go into the fray blind. He thinks it'll be more fun to fight you that way..." Both Yojiki and Hideshi paused for a moment, looking over to their right at the two girls. Yukina was still sobbing uncontrollably while Botan shifted around a bit in her sleep.

Satisfied they weren't watching them, or even listening to them for that matter, the two men continued their conversation. "Anyway Detective, my advice to you is to make yourself presentable an likable to Ginobly as you fight him."

"What?! What does that have to do with anything?!"

"It has a lot to do with a lot of things... Lord Karr grants us power based on how much hatred we carry in our hearts. For example, I absolutely despise my twin brother so much so that we would do anything to kill one another. Therefore, since we have so much hatred built up, Lord Karr grants us out massive power, which you are now feeling. However, if one of us were to die, the other would inevitably lose a vast majority of his power due to a lack of hatred for that person. So we form the most uneasy of alliances, one where we would like nothing more than to slice off the other's face and arms, and also one where we must pledge to keep one another alive for power's sake... You must use this to your advantage. As of right now, Ginobly wants nothing more than to find some way of hating you so much that his original power is restored by our master. That is why you must not anger him or appear hostile to him. Treat the fight as one of personal respect for one another."

"And then he'll lose his power?" Hideshi asked.

"If you mange to make him like you, yes. At least a good majority of it. However, the difficulty would be saving your planet in the process of fighting him..." Yojiki said, resting his chin on his thumb an forefinger in thought.

"Save my planet? But I thought you said he'd lose most of his power!" Hideshi retorted.

"Oh yes, he will. However, his strength will still be equivalent to that of Mukuro or Yomi, the Mazokus of demon realm, which will be more than enough for this fragile little rock..."

"What ?! You've got to be kidding me!" Hideshi exclaimed "That's impossible! No one has that kind of power!"

"No one you say? Not even yourself?" Yojiki retorted, his smile growing wider. "Romano, you do realize that if you really wanted to, you could exterminate all life on this planet with a single shot from that Spirit Gun of yours. Which just goes to show how little humans grasp about how powerful we can be. They're all like animals at the farm, living their lives from day to day, never realizing that all it would take would be for someone like me to tap the point of his scythe on the ground and then- Well, you get the picture..."

Hideshi paused for a moment, relapsed in thought. I could do that?... Kill us all? Even the Spirit Detective was amazed at how great his powers had grown since his death several months ago.

"Now I must go." Yojiki proclaimed, raising his scythe to the air. "Remember what I have told you and keep it in mind for the next time you and Ginobly meet in combat.

"Now wait a minute!" Hideshi called out as Yojiki's body began to become transparent, allowing Moonlight to seep through his body.

"I'm sorry detective, I have no minutes to spare, I sense my brother is about to wake up. And believe you me, you don't want to meet him!"Yojiki said as he finally vanished into thin air, taking with him the overwhelming feeling of his power.

'Damn it..." Hideshi thought to himself. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse...

As the morning sun rose on the horizon, casting it's golden rays atop the surface of the flat plateau, Hideshi let out a small sigh of relief as he finally stood up out of his crouching position.

He had been up all night watching and waiting to see if the demon Yojiki would return to finish him and his companions off.

Despite the worry which occupied a majority of his thoughts, Romano Hideshi also couldn't help but feel guilty about lying to Yukina last night in saying that he was seeing someone else.

Damn, I feel like a total asshole... What Yukina was trying to pull was a little over the edge, but that doesn't excuse how I lied to her about Wendy...

***

"Hideshi, we need to talk..." Wendy said as she pulled her old lover aside after being debriefed in King Yama's office.

"Not now Wendy," he tried to wave her off, still staggering about from his fight with Ginobly "I've got a shooting pain in my side and I've got to go to demon world tomorrow to talk to their King about stopping that creep we met at the warehouse. Plus the fact that I-"

"Romano, I can't see you anymore..." Wendy interrupted him.

Hideshi raised an eyebrow at her looking slightly confused, yet on the inside, his stomach was doing backflips at what she had just said. "W-What?" he asked her, trying hard to fight the feeling of wanting to vomit.

"Romano, you're a great guy and all, and we shared some really special moments, but I can't be with you with... This..." Wendy raised up her left hand, which was at it's normal size, yet could just as easily be called forth to the massive-sized demon claw she used earlier.

"What does that have to do with anything Wendy?" Hideshi asked as if she had just given him some ridiculous excuse. "I'll still love you, no matter what you or or hand looks like!"

"No Hideshi... You're missing the point... This infection... It's spreading..." Wendy said as she held her arm in her left hand and stared down at the tiled floor beneath her. "From what Koenma told me, that demon who made me this way and possed me was named Akimirsu, and he had been working on the committee of something called the "Dark Tournament" for decades. He was the one who granted fighters who desired such things as immortality or power their wishes by transforming them into demons if they weren't already. I guess he was pretty good at what he did too, because Koenma said he once created the two most powerful demons this side of reality, and I was supposed to be number three. He just didn't get enough time to finish operating on me by the time you arrived..."

"Wendy..." Hideshi said, almost at a complete loss for words.

"The doctors who ran tests on me give me two months before it takes over my other arm and I lose my mind to become some blood-thirsty monster..." Wendy's eyes began well up with tears, emotions of true heartbreak and crisis washed over her. "I-I wanted to be with you... When you came to rescue me, and I saw your face... I was terrified at what I had done, but I couldn't help feeling happy that you were with me once again..."

Wendy paused her antic disposition for a moment to sob and bawl a bit before continuing. "But I should have known that happiness would fade away, this world is too cruel to allow such feelings to last for very long... Hideshi... Know that I'm not doing this because I don't love you anymore, but because I'm afraid of what I'm going to become will ruin everything we ever had..."

Wendy then starts to back away from her former lover, tears streaming from he eyes down onto the tiled floor below. "I'm so sorry..." was all she said before she turned away from him and ran, afraid that whatever he would say next would make it even harder for her to leave.

Hideshi did not pursue her. All he could do was reach out his arm and stand completely frozen at what had become of his love-life; a few tears and a girl running away from him.

Nothing Ginobly could have ever done to him would pain him as much as the heartbreak he was now feeling as the girl he spent his whole childhood with ran away, and left him alone...

***

As Koenma stretched the final length of the dark, forested area towards the cliff which hung over the Ravine of Dreams, he realized just how large of a risk was taking.

If Hideshi knew I was going out like this, he'd probably beat me till I lead him to him. And then that's when things would get messy... That's why it has to stay between the three of us... Not even Botan can know, I'm pretty sure she's switched over her loyalties to him. I just hope she doesn't do anything stupid which will get her fired...

Koenma knew the rules his father had set for the grim reapers well. They were not allowed to fall in love with anyone, especially not a human. Otherwise, they would be exhiled from Spirit World and stripped of their immortality.

Botan is smart, but still very young and naive... I can tell by the way she looks at Hideshi that she harbors feelings towards him. It almost seems like she doesn't care what happens to her, as long as she can have Hideshi...

The clearing was now in sight for Koenma, who rushed towards it, eager to escape the dastardly woods which had surrounded him since he arrived in human world.

There he sat. The man he was looking for, right where he said he'd be. He sat alone on the stump of a tree, his back facing towards the ruler as he overlooked the massive ravine in front of him.

"You're a bit early..." the man said as he heard Koenma approaching.

"How much did Genkai tell you?" the ruler asked as his teenaged form loomed over the grassy area separating the two of them.

"That the new smart-ass detective has moved up the ranks a bit and is killing upper A class demons now." the man said as he tore a piece of bark from the stump he was sitting on and casually cast it into the ravine.

"Well then, you're in fire need of an update..." Koenma said grievously. "The situation with Romano Hideshi has just become much more dangerous for you. It seems he much stronger than we originally anticipated..."

Koenma's words sparked interest in the mountain man, as he picked up his gaze from the ravine below, then turned his head around towards Koenma.

"How much stronger?" Yusuke asked, finally turning to face the prince.

Koenma stared at his old friend, baffled at his new appearance.

Yusuke was still sporting his old haircut and green jacket, yet his face was very different. Instead of his chin being clean-shaven as it usually was, Yusuke was sporting a thick, black goatee.

"Uh... Yusuke..." Koenma stated, a bit startled at the former Spirit Detective's new look.

"Yea yea, I know, Keiko hates it, but I think it's fitting to the whole 'rugged mountain man' look... Well," Yusuke turned back towards the ravine "there used to be mountains here..."

"You haven't changed much, have you Yusuke?" Koenma asked, observing Yusuke's boyish behavior.

"I guess you could say that..." he said as he rose up from the stump which he had been sitting on the whole time. "So, tell me more about this new Spirit Detective, the way you and the old hag have been talking about him, it sounds like he's out to get me."

"No Yusuke... He's dead-set on killing you, along with anyone else in Human Realm with even partial demon blood... He's on some sort of crusade to 'cleanse' the Earth, make it a pure and safe place for mankind to live."

"Huh... Sounds pretty nice minus the part where me and Kurama get axed..." Yusuke said as he stretched his arms a bit.

"I think he's a demented psychopath. He's even told Botan once that after he's done exterminating all of demon-kind, he's going to kill himself."

"Nice guy... Builds a perfect world, slits his wrists before he has time to enjoy it..."

"Yusuke, I need you to stay up on your training out here, be extra cautious and never, ever let your guard down. Romano Hideshi may be crazy, be he's also smart and very powerful."

"How powerful are we talking here?" Yusuke asked, looking Koenma's way.

"He recently encountered a demon by the name of Ginobly Atakashi. This dude is some seriously bad business... He makes Yomi and Murkuro look like pushovers."

"Well then I'm not too worried about that..." Yusuke grinned confidently.

"Hideshi was able to tap into his sacred energy while battling him... We estimate anywhere from 10 to 25 percent. If he was able to maintain that field of power, he would've crushed Ginobly in a matter of just a few seconds..."

"Hmm... That could pose a threat..." Yusuke admitted.

"Especially now that he can maintain his sacred energy power, and call on a lot more of it!"

"Well shit... Hey, wait a second! What about Botan? She's assigned to him, maybe she can find some sort of weakness!" the old Spirit Detective suggested.

"I don't foresee that happening Yusuke... Botan is madly in love with Romano Hideshi, and she'd do anything for him. I'm afraid she can no longer be an ally in any of this..."

"Well then... We're screwed aren't we?"

"Not unless you can do something about it Yusuke..." Koenma said "You may have been officially removed from your position as Spirit Detective, but I still consider you to be the best man for the job... Now is your time to prove that to everyone else... By the end of all of this, there can be only one Spirt Detective..."

***

"We're almost there, the portal is still open, and straight ahead." Botan announced to her two passengers as they rode her oar behind her.

"Right." Hideshi nodded "I can see it..."

Seated behind him, Yukina sat in silence, still ashamed and heartbroken at her behavior and rejection from last night. Hideshi turned his face towards her, genuine concern plastered upon his face. I really hope she's out of this funk by the time we reach Hiei...

Yukina sat there quietly, staring at her knees and reflecting. "Hideshi? Botan?" She suddenly spoke up as they approached the portal to Demon World.

"Hmm?" they both answered her simultaneously.

"Hiei is my brother... Isn't he?" she asked, looking up at them for the first time since they left the plateau.

They both expressed surprised expressions as she somehow figured it out. They held those expressions for several seconds of dead air until Hideshi finally spoke. "H-How did you figure it out?"

Yukina looked down again and sighed as she prepared to give her explanation. "There was once a time I thought it was him... Back when Yusuke, Kurama and him were going to Demon World. You remember that Botan?"

Botan simply nodded a silent response, her mind more preoccupied with thinking about how furious Hiei will be upon hearing that she and Hideshi admitted the truth to Yukina.

"Back then, I thought for sure he was the brother I was looking for... And so I gave him my stone as a way of telling him that I knew... But then he just took it with him down to Demon World saying he thought my brother was dead... So I assumed I was wrong. But then I thought on it a little more... Hiei never came back from Demon World, and if he really never did look for my brother, then how could my brother from Demon World possibly know he had a sister, let alone send the Spirit Detective to find me if it wasn't Hiei..."

"Huh... Smart girl..." Hideshi complimented her. "Well then, I guess there's no point in hiding it anymore, you're absolutely right, Jaganashi is your twin brother!"

"Romano!" Botan lashed out at the Spirit Detective as he revealed the truth so blatantly.

"What?! She already figured it out! Besides, it's not right to keep the truth about her family from her! Despite whatever Hiei says, she deserves to know the truth! I'm just kinda disappointed that no one else stood up to the plate and told her, especially not Hiei..."

"Romano! You know full-well he couldn't tell her!" Botan retorted.

"What?!" Yukina suddenly picked up her head again. "W-What couldn't he have told me...?"

Botan sighed in frustration. "It's because of a deal he made when he obtained his Jagan Eye... He received the eye and all of it's power in return for promising to never tell you that you were his sister. That's why none of us ever told you! We were afraid of what the eye would do to Hiei if he violated his contract!"

"So that's why... He could never tell me himself, and he thought it'd be wrong if he had someone else tell me..." Yukina nodded as she pieced the puzzle together. "Alright then! Let's go onward to Hiei!" the ice apparition girl shouted triumphantly as they approached the portal.

At long last, brother and sister were about to be reunited as one...

The Dark Clouds of Demon World gathered overhead as Hiei Jaganshi watched the portal to Human World with great intensity, his Jagan eye open and tracking Hideshi's every movement as his sister approached.

"I do hope you're not getting nervous Hiei," a mysterious, female voice called out from the tree line I his immediate right "After all, isn't this what you always wanted? For her to realize the truth?"

Hiei turned his head to face the origin of the voice. Not surprisingly, it was the Mazoku Demon Mukuro, leaning against the old, dead tree's trunk as she watched him wait.

"I wanted her to happy... Me telling her that her brother is a cold-blooded killer would only diminish that happiness from her soul. That kind of disappointment is soul-crushing..." Hiei answered as he returned his gaze towards the portal.

Mukuro's exposed eye narrowed and her mouth turned downward into a frown. "You and I both know that's a load of bullshit. You could've very easily told her now that Shigure is dead! The contract is over and done with, you have full authority over the Jagan eye now, it cannot harm you. It is your own cowardice which held you back!"

Hiei's face turned to one of disgust as he also displayed a large frown in spite of Mukuro's insults. "What was holding me back is you!" he retorted defensively. "You keep me trapped here as your slave, despite everything I've done for you!"

Mukuro sighed at Hiei's ignorance. "If that were true, you would have killed me by now Hiei... I don't see you as a slave, nor a subject. In fact, I see you you as an equal to myself, both in terms of social status and power..." She waited until Hiei's face went pale in spite of what she had told him.

How? How could she know about my secret training?! I kept myself absolutely secluded!

"There's no point in denying it Hiei... Your power has risen to a level rivaling my own, and I for see that you shall soon surpass me as your Jagan eye begins to strengthen it's bond with your physical body... If anything, you shall soon be the one who looks down upon me... Your powers are great Hiei, far beyond my wildest imagination..." Mukuro confessed, causing Hiei's jaw to slowly drop open in shock. "I just hope that when you finally reach your peak, you'll still remember me..." She said as she turned away from him, preparing to leap away down to the ground below.

"Wait Mukuro!" Hiei halted her just before she left him. "...This doesn't change anything... When I broke your chains, I only erected more upon myself... You realize there is only one way I can feel truly free from your control?"

Mukuro simply chuckled at this notion. "Hiei, there are no chains... Not for me or you... But if you truly feel in your heart that my death will satisfy your craving for freedom, then so be it... I can't change your outlook on that, only your innermost emotions and moral compass can do that now..." And just like that, Mukuro left, vanishing into fog just as Botan's oar traversed through the portal.

...Am I truly free to go with Yukina? Or is this some sort of manipulative trick...? Hiei thought to himself as the image of the one person he held dear transcended down upon him. Yukina... Whatever the case may be... I will be free... For both of us...

All three of Hiei's demonic eyes locked onto his estranged twin sister as she deceived from the skyward portal towards him, barely able to contain herself.

Botan's oar was still a good meter and a half off the ground when Yukina leapt off and ran towards the tree where Hiei had sat in wait. Seeing her run to him with tears welling in her eyes an her arms outstretched brought forth some distant emotion Hiei had never known. This was his first experience where someone looked at him the way Yukina was.

She longed to be with him...

She didn't hesitate or stop her stride in any way, shape, or form. It was just her, running towards him, making the entire world around them seem to darken into some sort of desolate pit, and Yukina's expression of happiness was the light to illuminate the pit Hiei knew to be his soul...

He was so lost and transpired by her that he didn't even realize it until they were embraced that he had been running towards her with the same enthusiasm.

...So this is what it's like to be held...? Hiei's thoughts broke through his inner silence as his sister began to weep against his chest. ...This is what's been missing in my life... A sensation of... love...

Abandoning all thoughts of his pride and solidarity, Hiei held his trembling sister closer to him as he too, began to cry tears of joy at their reunion.

"Y-Yukina... I'm s-sorry... S-so sorry I never told you!" Hiei cried out to his kin, despite her being right there in his arms. He was desperately seeking forgiveness, and this desire evaporated all fear he had of his Jagan eye, or the demon who had implanted it...

There was now light filling the void...

Making them both feel complete as brother confessed what he had hidden from his sister since their separation at birth...

Sitting still upon the floating oar just a few meters away, Botan and Hideshi sat in silence, observing the twins as they reunited.

"...Botan?" Hideshi's voice broke the silence, "We should go, us being here will only ruin the moment. Besides, we've got work to do..."

"R-Right..." Botan said as she wiped some tears from her face using the sleeve of her kimono, but they kept running over faster than she could wipe them away. The emotional moment transporting before them was poetically simple, yet perfect in every way.

Hideshi sighed and retrieved his pocket handkerchief from the inside of his hoodie's pocket and held it out to Botan in an offering manner. "Here, no point in you soiling your kimono with a few tears..."

She looked at his kind gesture with widened eyes, and then back to him. At that moment, all doubt Botan ever had about Hideshi seemed to fade away... He was now indescribably perfect in her eyes, and the constant thought of being without him which had plagued her mind previously now became absolutely unbearable.

Hideshi raised an eyebrow after Botan continued staring at him for several uncomfortably long seconds.

"What do you want, a kiss?" he asks her a bit sarcastically, snapping the young reaper back into reality.

"Uh... No... You're right, we should go seek an audience with King Enki now!" she said as her oar jerked forward, propelled by their sudden movement forward, leaving behind the two siblings, still clutching into one another, not daring to let go for fear they would be separated once more.

Hiei's resolve to maintain his unicellular goal in life had only been hardened with this reunion. And so he swore again and again on his honor that he would do whatever it took to keep his sister, the one precious thing in all of creation to him, safe from harm's way...

King Enki's palace was very much a contrast to Koenma's in Spirit World. The hallways were dark and narrow, adorned by several horrendous statues of creature the likes of which neither Hideshi nor Botan had ever seen before.

Despite them being welcomed in an lead about by a trust worthy looking demon named Yaito, Hideshi felt uneasy as he walke down the halls following their escort. What does King Enki need all these guards for? Hideshi thought to himself as he walked past several large, and well-equipped armored guards. They were posted on every corner it seemed, patrolling the corridors up an down carefully. Botan felt a bit of concern too as the massive demons passed by her line of vision. She stayed very close to Hideshi as they continued down the hallway, following Yaito to a spiral staircase at the end of the hall.

"His excellency's office is just upstairs," the light blue demon said politely as he turned and smiled back at them "no need to worry about disrupting him, the front security office already alerted him that you were coming!"

"What, you're not coming with us?" Hideshi asked as the light-blue skinned demon with blood-red eyes passed him by up the other end of the hall.

"No I am not, King Enki requested to see you two alone to discuss this urgent matter of yours in private for... Security reasons. Good day!" the demon smiled and waved slightly before making his way back down the hall again.

As soon as he was out of sight, Hideshi began walking up the spiral staircase, Botan closely following. "It almost seems like he knows why we're here..." Hideshi mumbled to Botan as they advanced higher up the stone steps.

"That might explain all the guards..." Botan shivered as she continued to follow him all the way up to two large, metal doors with knockers projecting the faces of two demons adorning them.

Hideshi gave a small knock with one of the bronze rings and the door immediately opened to the figure of a tall, fat demon with red skin, horns protruding through his head, and a light-blonde head of hair with matching goatee.

"You the Spirit Detective?" the large demon asked staring down at Hideshi with a small smile which seemed out of place due to his hulking frame and wife-beater shirt.

"Uhh... Yea." Hideshi answered, uncertain of what to think of this new greeter. "Is King Enki inside?" he said, trying to tilt his head and look past the large stomach of the demon inside of the King's office.

"Well... Sorta, he's kinda inside, kinda in the doorway!" the demon bellowed before laughing humorously.

"Botan? You sure we're at he right address, because this guy looks nothing like if expect him to..." Hideshi asked his reaper partner as he uncomfortably watched Enki laugh in spite of his own joke.

"Hideshi!" Botan said as she slapped him across his back. "Don't be rude!"

"No, no. It's quite alright!" the demon king said smiling warmly as he opened the doors to the inside of his office wide open. "Please come in, I hear you have a message for me from King Yama!"

Both Botan and Hideshi slowly stepped inside and allowed for Enki to close the door behind them before the Spirit Detective began speaking. "Yes, we've come with a warning your majesty. There is a demon hiding out here in Demon World who recently found his way into the Human Realm."

Botan nodded, then continued the explanation. "Sir, this demon is so powerful, a new scale of power had to be created in order for is to properly classify him! His name is Ginobly Atakashi, and we humbly request you do everything in your power to hunt him down and bring him to justice!"

Enki's smile slowly faded upon hearing the news. "This Ginobly fellow... Did he mention anything about a 'Lord Karr'?"

"Yes! He did! So you already know about this?!" Hidehi asked as Enki mentioned Ginobly and Yojiki's master's name.

Enki sighed and lit up his pipe before continuing. "Unfortunately... I know Karr all too well... Legends tell of an ancient creature who was born shortly after the Demon, Human and Spirit Worlds were divided. He emerged from a place called 'The Void' and had such a tremendous power that he threatened to destroy all of creation with his awesome power... It took the entire ancient demon council years to create a seal to hold him down in the deepest pit of Demon Realm, where he sits dormant, to this day. The legend says that this creature had the power to bestow unimaginable power among those demons who held intense hatred in their hearts. I suspect that this Ginobly demon of yours is one of his followers if he has so much raw power..." Enki took a puff of smoke from his pipe before continuing the story. Several thousands of years ago, back when my friend Raizen and I were in the prime of our youth, a small fraction of Karr's power leaked out from the seal made by our ancestors, and it shook all of Demon World like an earthquake normally would do. Only Raizen's power could match this small portion Karr expressed, and so he descended to the deepest pit of Demon Realm and repaired the seal, barely making it out with his own life. I had never seen someone so exhausted when he came back to us..."

"Raizen...? Isn't that Urameshi's ancestral father?" Hideshi asked Bitan as the demon's name started ringing a few bells in his head. She simply nodded in response to his question.

"Well then... If he's as strong as I heard and he was barely able to seal this freak away, something tells me this whole thing isn't gonna be sunshine and rainbows..."

"Don't worry about it too much detective, I'm sending a legion of my finest magic-wielding troopers to Karr's lair as we speak to deal with him. His followers are another story though... It seems as though Karr has amassed quite a cult following of spiteful demons looking for power over the centuries. We are preparing for a full-scale civil war for control over Demon Realm. Not all my troops are as powerful as Karr's, but we still outnumber them a hundred to one. However... If what you told me about this Ginobly guy is true... It seems that Karr has his five Premiere Sons..."

"Premiere Sons?" Botan questioned.

"The stories say that Karr always selected five demons with massive hatred in their hearts to receive more power than all the others... Ginobly may be one of those five."

And Yojiki is another... Hideshi thought to himself, tightening his fist thinking about the calm exterior of the demon who possessed that absurd power level. And with my luck, the other three will even tougher, or on the same level as that freak... And I'll be the one who'll have to fight them...
⠀⠀⠀⠀

Romano Hideshi was in a bind...

He had already spoken to King Enki on the matter of Ginobly Atakashi, and he had told him there was absolutely nothing he could do, especially not in less than two week's time.

Nerves began to get the better I the Spirit Detective as he paced around his apartment, Yojiki's warning burning into his mind all night...

It was very late, but despite the hour, Romano felt totally awake and nervous... The thought of Ginobly gaining even more power troubled him deeply...

He was so arrested in his thoughts that the knock on his door almost made the detective jump out of his clothes in fright.

He cautiously approached the door, preparing for anything as he leaned forward, looking through the peep-hole to the outside hallway, which was surprisingly lit for this time of night.

Outside, he spotted Botan and his neighbor, Mr. Amoko standing outside his door, the ladder looking very upset to be awoken in the middle of the night. Hidehi sighed out in relief that neither of his guests were Ginobly, and unlocked the door and opened it enough to peek his head out. "Yes?" Is all he says as he looks out at the two of them.

"Romano, next time you want to booty-call one of your girlfriends over, make sure you tell her where you're apartment is so she's not waking me up at three in the morning wondering which is yours!" Mr. Amoko stated in an agitated whisper so as to not wake anyone else on Hideshi's floor.

"W-Wha-" Hideshi was about to correct Mr. Amoko in his assumptions about Botan before deciding it was best to just let it go. "Yes sir... Thank you for showing her up..." he says as he seizes Botan by the wrist and pulls her inside rather aggressively. "I'm so sorry, it won't happen again..."

Mr. Amoko grunted a bit as he turned away from the door and headed back to his own apartment for the night.

Hideshi quickly closed the door as soon as he rounded the corner, out of sight, then turned to Botan, his eyes expressing his sheer irritation with her disturbing his neighbors. "Nice place you've got here Hideshi..." Botan said in a chipper voice as she navigated herself out into Hideshi's small living room.

"The hell are you doing here Botan?" he tries to say angrily, but can't muster the right emotion due to how exhausted he had become.

"Well Mr. Grumpy, I thought you'd like to know that we've found someone who may be able to help us against Ginobly!" Botan said cheerfully, making Hideshi's eyes widen a bit.

"R-Really?! Who?!" he said, excitement cracking his voice a bit. To him, and good news was God-sent by this point.

Botan smiled a little wider as he expressed his enthusiasm.
"Kuroko Sato, the world's first Spirit Detective! She's offered to train you a bit so that you can learn to harness your sacred energy potential!"

"Wait a sec, she can use sacred energy too?!" he questioned.

"Well... No... Remember Hideshi, it normally takes someone forty years to learn how to harness that kind of power. You were only able to obtain it because you're so unnaturally gifted. But Kuroko has been studying up on it and knows literally everything there is to know about sacred energy! I think she'll be a great help to you!" Botan said enthusiastically.

Hideshi, whose brain was too tired to question what Botan was saying, decided to just let Botan's excitement become infectious. "That's great! That's just so... Absolutely great!" was all he could make up as the reduction of stress caught up with him, making him drop to the floor, exhausted out of his wits, and fall into a deep sleep.

Botan sighed, and then giggled a bit as he began lightly snoring on the floor. She knelt over and then dragged him back into his bedroom, and sat him down onto his nice, soft bed. He didn't even shudder a bit as he slept, giving the impression he had been awake for days since they rescued Yukina and spoke with King Enki.

Botan looked down at Romano endearingly. "You've been stressing yourself out too much lately Romano... I wish you were strong enough to not let all this worry you..." she then turns her attention to the other, empty side of the bed. "Just like I wish I had the strength to tell you how I feel about you... How I've felt since the first day we met..."

Botan's eyes began to well-up with tears as she reminds herself that he will never love her the way she loves him. "Romano... I'd abandon everything if it meant I could be with you... I'd give up my position as a reaper, my immortality... everything... Just so I could lie there, next to you at night... Be there when you wake up in the morning... Live with you the rest of our days... Start a family..." she wiped the tears from her eyes, knowing full-well he couldn't hear her, and that even if he could, it wouldn't change anything. At least in her mind...

She knelt down and softly kissed the resting Spirit Detective on his forehead for a long moment before returning to her normal stature, and then walking away from him towards the door.

Before she left, she gave him one final glance, and then whispered "I love you..." before sighing and leaving his bedroom.

***

"W-Why...?" the demon Soketsu groaned in agony as he weak eyes glanced upwards at the demon who had mortally wounded him, and killed all of his companions, whose bodies where strewn about across the field of demon world, their blood staining the land.

The tall, long-haired demon looked down at the pitiful Soketsu, the right side of his face covered with the multiple black, searing symbols created from this demon's energy.

"'Why' you ask?" the broad demon smiled sinisterly as the weakened demon asked him that question. "It's because while you're inferior to me in every way, my Master, Lord Karr, considers you a threat to our armies in this coming war. You and all these other old friends of Raizen were far too dangerous to be kept alive... Now King Enki has lost his trump card... His armies will be helpless as they fall to the holy and almighty power of me and the other Premire Brothers! And then, Lord Karr will be free once more, and put the demon race back where it should be! Your ideological King will fall, and the remaining Mazoku shall die soon after we have established out grip over Demon World!"

"N-No... You're wrong!" Soketsu rebutted weakly "You can't be the pinnacle of strength! Even if you're stronger than Raizen ever was, I know that soon, someone new will arise and defeat you! It's just a matter of time!"

The demon named Damakain tilted his head back and laughed confidently. "You fool, there is no force in the universe stronger than my master's full power! And all of creation shall soon know that too!" Damakain returned his chin to a comfortable angle from his chest and gave Soketsu the most evil look any demon could ever give one of his own kind. "I'm done playing with you now..." Damakain said, raising an open palm to Soketsu's face as he writhed in pain below him. "Take comfort in knowing that you'll never have to experience the terror of Lord Karr's reign!" the demon boomed in a loud and deep voice as the black symbols covering Soketsu's face began to seer into his skin, burning straight through his face, past his skull and then deep into the demon's brain...

When the screams finally stopped, the Premiere Brother tuned away from the corpses of his victims, then began the long trek back to Lord Karr's castle, eager to report that Raizen's friends were no more...

Meanwhile...

"King Enki! King Enki!" Yaito shouted as he burst through the doorway of King Enki's office in a frenzy, obviously very shaken up by what was transpiring just a few levels below where they now stood. "The general! The one leading Karr's army! He's here! He's downstairs picking us off one by one! Even the elites can't touch your highness! What shall we do?!"

The large King sat back in his throne with a sad look upon his face, as if everything that was transpiring downstairs was all his fault. "Yaito... I'm sorry my friend... I sensed his coming, but his power is too overwhelming... There isn't anything we can do..."

"K-King Enki..." the blue skinned demon said in a defeated tone, on the verge of tears from his ruler's lack of confidence in the situation, regardless of how hopeless it really was.

In one corner of the office, the queen of Demon World, Kokou, sat in grieving silence. She had just felt her friends die... All of them... Soketsu, Shu, Kujou, Natsumi, even Saizou... They had all been killed at once. She knew her husband had sensed it too, and that without them, no sufficient aid would come to save them from this predicament.

The King sat up from his thone solemnly. "Yaito... Take Kokou and get away from here, I don't care how far you need to take her, just make sure the two of you escape with your lives..."

"B-B-But K-King Enki!" Yaito babbled in a protesting voice, which was matched by a glance of concern from Kokou in the corner of the room.

"There is no time for deliberation Yaito!" the demon king boomed, silencing his servant's stuttering. "Go now! While you still can!"

"Not giving him much of a head-start, aren't we your majesty?" a malicious, croaking voice taunted from the doorway. Standing there by his lonesome was a horrific grey demon with slicked-back white hair which accented his piercing, bright yellow eyes. Even more horrific than this demon's appearance was the amount of blood covering his body, all several different shades and colors, implying he had slaughtered many demons to get to this point in Enki's castle.

At the very sight of this horrendous creature, Yaito stumbled back away from the door, then turned away from the marauder, attempting to make a break for it.

The demon simply smiled from ear to ear in the most evil and vicious grin the walls of the Demon King's castle had ever seen as he watched the cowardly Yaito run away from him. With the simple flick of his wrist, the grey-skinned invader's demonic energy flooded over Yaito's body, and in the next instant, his entire body exploded outwards, as if it had been pushed apart from the inside. Mushed organs and sprays of blood scattered all over the walls and floor of King Enki's Throne Room, bringing with them all the pungent odor one could expect to smell coming from the inside of a demon's body.

The demon's grin intensified as he snickered at the puddle of bones and blood which served as the remains of Yaito. This sight, coupled with the looks of shock and despair on Enki and Kokou's faces were all too amusing to this vicious creature.

"And that, your majesty... Is just a small percent of my power. All thanks to my master, Lord Karr!" the demon said as he finally put his arm back at his side and turned the piercing gaze of his glowing yellow eyes back onto the Demon King. "Now do you see what you're up against...? You have no chance of defeating me or my Grand Army! For I am Kuroko! The greatest military genius to ever grace the battlefield!... And being among the top five most powerful demons in all existence shouldn't be a comfort to you either..."

Kuroko stepped back a bit, his sinister grin still implanted upon his face. "Remember this day Enki, for this day marks the beginning of the end of your reign! If I alone could terminate your entire castle's security force in a matter of just a fm few seconds without having to extenuate myself in the slightest, what chance do you think you have against me and my brothers? Heheheh... Farewell King Enki," the demon Karoko said a he turned to walk out the set of double doors leading out of his office, his glaring gaze still meeting the King and Queen "the next time we'll meet, you'll be nothing but a corpse for my master's regime to bury for the worms to feast upon."

And with that final, threatening statement, Kuroko's bright yellow eyes reverted to a blood red color as his view shifted down the spiral staircase of the Demon King's ruined castle.

***

Alone in the dungeon, his back to the door, Ginobly sat in meditation, trying desperately to coax his thoughts into formulating enough hatred for Romano Hideshi to be granted his original power. The pain his raw emotions conveyed onto his heart were beginning to become unbearable. No... I can't hate Hideshi... I hardly know him. Willing myself to hate him is pointless... the demon thought in the most inner portion of his id, driving himself to grief for what he was trying to accomplish.

Wrestling with his emotions, Ginobly did not even notice the tall, pale figure of Yojiki standing in the doorway until his superior let out a long and exhausted yawn. "Ginobly? Are you still down here? Have you any idea what hour it is?"

"It doesn't matter brother... In order to train my hatred onto Romano Hideshi, I must spend every waking moment channeling my negative thoughts towards him... If you're about to fall asleep, I recommend you lock yourself in your room before your brother awakens..." Ginobly said, not bothering to turn towards Yojiki.

"Oh, don't worry about him, worry about yourself. You gave that Hideshi boy three weeks, and now you're down to three days before you two fight again. And if you don't mind me saying this, you look rather pale..." the demon said as he stepped closer to Ginobly's meditation circle, which was really just a pentagram drawn on the floor with blood.

"I am fine brother, I just haven't slept in a long while is all..." Ginobly said, fm finally opening his eyes. They appeared red to Yojiki, but not the sort of red a demon's eyes turn from insomnia, more like the red which shows someone that you had just been crying.

"Ginobly..." Yojiki said, taking notice of his friend's antic disposition "What's the matter with you?" The pale, white demon knelt down on one knee to get on Ginobly's level.

"... I..." Ginobly said, struggling to express his inner feelings. "... I... Don't want to hate anymore..."

"..." Yojiki sat in silence as Ginobly's words echoed throughout the meditation room. He was taken aback by what was just said, but decided not to show it and just allow for him to continue.

"My father... I killed him... And hatred was my motivation... I killed so many people out of sheer hatred and... It's just been enough for me... I've had my fill of hating people long enough... My power had granted me my one desire... The death of my father... Everything else was just Karr's agenda. My whole purpose in serving him was finished far too soon... And so I grew weak, and I desperately tried to find some way of generating that much hatred for someone, even if they were innocent..." Tears began to well inside of Ginobly's eyes as he remembered all the sins he commuted out of mislead feelings towards others. "My father had to pay for what he had done... But after he was gone, I had nothing left to truly hate in my life, so I just... Let it go... You must understand Yojiki? You're wise..." Ginobly reasons in a cracking voice through his tears.

"..." Silence from Yojiki as he stood up slowly, yet keeping his gaze trained on the demon beneath him. "... I understand that you're a bitch..." a much more gruff voice spoke out through the sound of Ginobly's crying as The toe of Yojiki's boot made contact with the side of Ginobly's chin, making the mighty demon fall backwards onto the stone floor in pain.

Ginobly glance up at Yojiki as he held his chin in his hands carefully. His eyes widen into an expression of fear as soon as he saw that Yojiki's body was now sporting black clothing instead of his regular white apparel. It was the other brother, Neji Yojiki who was now awake...

"Stop whining about what a weak mess you are and do something about it! Lord Karr grants us power based on our hatred right? Well then, sit down! Shut up! And hate that damned Spirit Detective with all you've got!" Neji Yojiki said disgusted as he stomped towards the exit of the chamber. "And don't expect me to save your sorry carcass when the Spirt Detective arrives and you're not strong enough! I'll let him disembowel you for all I care!" and with that, the crueler of the twin brothers slammed the door of the meditation chamber shut, leaving Ginobly alone on the cold stone floor, weeping for an answer to his situation...

***

As Keiko left through the front door of her secluded cabin, she listened very closely to the forest surrounding her, trying to find some sign of her husband. "Yusuke has to be done training by now... The explosion noises have stopped..." she quietly said to herself as she set out into the wilderness.

Keiko Urameshi didn't have to look far to spot signs of Yusuke's rampage. In fact, there was barely any ground to cover seeing as he had apparently turned a large portion of the forest into ash during his training. The ocean of evergreens and other wildlife had been turned into a sea of smoldering ash by Keiko's demon husband.

As her feet sank into the thick layers of warm, black ash. Keiko spotted the person he was looking for, sitting in rest as grey ash still clung to the air around him.

Yusuke's hair had grown out down to his waist, turning an egg shell white. His shirtless and muscular physic was covered in dark-blue, demonic looking tattoos. "It's the mark of my ancestor." he had once told Keiko "The fact that my hair changes color and these tattoos show up just goes to show how much like him I am becoming."

The prospect of her husband becoming a demon often terrified Keiko, so much so that she had begged him to cease his training and give up on becoming the Demon King for her. Yusuke, choosing her over what his ancestor Raizen would have wanted him to become, accepted her terms, an ceased his training immediately.

That is, until recently...

Roughly a week ago, Koenma had returned to warn Yusuke about the newest Spirit Detective, and a new demon known as Ginobly Atakashi, who had threatened to destroy the Earth.

Against Keiko's protests, Yusuke began his training once more, becoming ever more powerful each passing day... And more demonic...

"What are you doing out here Keiko?" Yusuke asked, turning to we as he sensed her presence. "I'm not done training yet, tomorrow is the day! I have to be ready!"

"Yusuke..." Keiko backed away, afraid of her husband's temper and feeling a sensation of fear as he looked at her with eyes which were not his own, but those of a demon.

Yusuke sighed as he saw the reaction he drew from Keiko. The demon powered down and metamorphosed back into his human appearance before standing up and heading towards her. "Keiko... I'm sorry... I know I promised if stop being a demon for you, but this is the fate of the world we're talking about here! And if that new Detective comes looking for me, odds are he may try to kill you too. I have to be ready for anything... So I can protect you..." Yusuke gently placed his hand on Keiko's stomach as he spoke. "And our family..."

"Yusuke..." Keiko repeated, tears beginning to well in her eyes as she embraced her husband tightly. "Just promise me you'll come home... I can't live without you..."

Yusuke stood in silence, realizing the gravity of what Keiko was asking him. Can I really promise that...? What if this demon is too strong for me and Hideshi...? he thought to himself, leading to a prolonged moment of silence as he embraced Keiko. His doubt was clearly showing... This was a promise he did not dare make, for fear of breaking it...

Several hundreds of miles away...

"Again Romano! This time you need to just concentrate it like it's your normal Spirit Energy!" Kuroko Sato instructed her pupil. Romano Hideshi was turning out to be quite a powerhouse as far as his sacred energy was concerned, but the first Spirit Detective still had her doubts. 'He can utilize maybe 75% as it is now... But if there are others who are even stronger than Ginobly, he's going to have to figure out how to summon the remaining 25%...'

Hideshi sighed as he summoned his sacred energy's aura around him, using only about 20% of what he was capable of in an effort to keep Kuroko alive. Hideshi closed his fist out in front of him and allowed all of his energy to encapsulate itself into his hand. "Here goes..." he warns as he rushes toward his teacher at an incredible speed, his fist containing his sacred energy drawn at his side as he closes in.

Kuroko, anticipating the attack, makes an expert-level defensive pose against it. It didn't do her much good, as she had already trained Hideshi on how to move around such maneuvers early on in their training.

The fourth Spirit Detective simply side-stepped the first, and then delivered his fist into her left ribcage, just below the breast. His fist sunk in about an inch and a half, penetrating her clothing and her skin and creating a loud, crushing sound as he delivered the blow.

Kuroko immediately coughed up some blood, then looked at Hideshi angrily before back handing him away from her. "Stop pulling your punches Romano! I can heal myself no matter what as long as I have my Spirit Energy! There's no reason to hold back!"

"I'm sorry Mrs. Sato... But what if I hit you too hard and kill you instantly?" Romano questioned, concerned for his new teacher's well-being. He had to admit, this was one of the few teachers he had ever had who he actually liked as a person. Kuroko was firm but fair, always expecting the best, but never disappointed with him whenever he had made a mistake, even this far into their training together.

"Romano..." Kuroko said slowly, as if she had suddenly been offended for some reason. "I have been torn in half, eaten alive and then vomited back up, I have even had part of my head blown off and never once did I die because of my ability. I owe my whole career to it! It always helped me then, and it'll help me now!" she winced in pain a bit as the open wound on her side began to glow brightly with spiritual energy, quickly healing itself back to normality.

"Geez Mrs. Sato..." Romano said bending over to get on eye-level with the wound she had just healed. "Why don't you just teach me how to do this? If nothing else, I'll just be able to outlast them then..."

"You don't need it Romano... Your sacred energy slowly heals you from any wounds you may suffer in battle without utilizing your spirit energy."

"Yea, but what if I really need it in a pinch or something? You heal a lot faster than I ever will, so if I get my heart torn to shreds, the sacred energy probably won't help me much there..."

Kuroko sighed. "Honestly Romano... I'm not sure I know if I can teach it to you... I learned how to do it naturally." She finished, trying to hide a small smirk forming at the corner of her mouth.

"Oh come on Mrs. Sato! You know you can teach it to me! So why don't you!" he shouts at her accusingly.

"Well..." she pondered it for a bit. "Nope! I think it makes me unique!" she said, her face breaking up into a smile as she simultaneously pounds the lower-half of her fist down into her outstretched hand.

Hideshi didn't exactly see her sense of humor as something amusing... As soon as he pulled himself up off the ground, he began to feel something inside of him. The hollow, empty feeling which made his heart race and his legs go weak. "M-Mrs. Sato? I-I think my sugar is getting a bit low..." Hideshi says as his hands start to shake a bit.

"Understood... Go inside and get something to eat. In fact, why don't you just head to bed?" Kuroko said, taking notice of the sun setting on the horizon over the mountains surrounding her secluded home. "You've got a big fight ahead of you tomorrow... It's time to show them what this past week of training has done for you."

"R-Right..." Hideshi nodded her off, more concerned about fixing his low blood sugar rather than the fight ahead of him tomorrow.

Kuroko Sato watched him go back down the path towards her home, staying behind to deal with the prying eyes which had been watching them.

"He's gone now... You can finally come out Botan..." she said, folding her arms in front of herself and grinning slyly as the startled grim reaper fell out of the tree she had secluded herself in.

"Hahaha... Sorry about that!" she laughs in an embarrassed and fearful manner.

"It's alright... I know what it's like to be in love..." the female spirit detective said as she helped Botan to her feet.

"W-What?! How did you figure that?!" Botan shouted in concern.

"Oh I dunno... Stalking someone for a whole week and then writing about him in your diary is a pretty clear indication to me that you're obsessed with the man... But honestly, who could blame you? He's quite the looker and a real lady killer too!"

"Hey! I wasn't watching him all week!" Botan protested. "I did leave for about an hour once to warn Kurama and Kuwabara about tomorrow!"

Kuroko sighed a bit, stifling a laugh at first, but then growing a bit more serious. "Botan... If you love him, you have to let him know by tomorrow... Because I don't need to tell you there's a chance he-"

"Won't come out alive..." she finished her sentence. "I know..." she said grimly, not wanting to believe it to be true, but facing the fact that it is a very real possibility...

The posse of demons slowly trudged on the rocky ground of Demon World. Today was the day. The deadline for humanity and demon-kind alike. The fate of an entire species was about to be decided today, as well as the future of another.

Kudjo had already ordered his troops to attack King Enki's borders earlier that morning, the battle was predicted to be over by noon that same day, regardless of whether the General was there to lead his troops or not. Victory was all but confirmed by this point thanks to the efforts of Damakain in eliminating Raizen's old friends as possible allies in the resistance against Lord Karr.

And so now, all four Premire Sons were walking in time with one another, towards the bright, purple spiral of energy swirling against the blood-red demon sky. It was there that Ginobky Atakashi expected his opponent, Romano Hideshi to arrive and settle the score between them, and decide the fate of humanity. The light-purple robes of the long haired demon swayed in the breeze as he and his cult brothers finally came to a halt outside the portal leading into Human World, silently waiting. 'Do not disappoint me, Romano Hideshi...' the demon thought to himself as he anxiously looked skywards up at the portal.

After a few minutes of dead-air, the ever-impatient Kudjo Kuroko began one of his complaining rants. "Where is he?! I don't smell any human! If he's not coming, go ahead and destroy the Human World Ginobly! I'm sure it'll be all the same to Lord Karr!"

"Hush now Kudjo..." Ono Yogiki said, raising the head of his scythe a little higher in a silencing motion. "I'm sure Hideshi will be here soon, he's not the one to back away from a fight... He should be here in about half an hour or so... In the meantime, since you're so antsy, why not go to Human World and tangle up some more humans for the farm? We should have enough already to supply out needs for food in definitely already, but one can never be too careful..."

"Make sure they are young, but not too young as so they aren't fertile for reproduction..." Damakain reminded his associate with a stern look and arms folded in front of him. "You should also grab our associate on the outside too. He may be of some use in removing any Kakai barriers Spirit World will try to set up..."

The grey-skinned demon sighed heavily. "Fine... I'll bring you back your filthy humans..." Kudjo took a few steps towards the portal, preparing to jump inside when a strong scent began to waft through the air. The others quickly took notice too.

"Hmm... Two different smells... One like a grim reaper's, and another... Human..." Yojiki stated as he closed his eyes, pondering the scents.

"It's him!" Ginobly snarled at the spiraling portal, anticipating his opponent's arrival.

"Now's your time to shine Ginobly. Tear his heart out and give it to me as a momento as the last human to be killed before the age of Lord Karr..." Damakain said in a dark tone, smirking to himself a bit.

"Fine..." Ginobly agreed, stepping forward, his back now turned to his brothers. "But I get to eat whatever is left of him..."

"...Gentlemen, perhaps we should give Mr. Hideshi and Atakashi some space?" Yojiki suggested to Damakain and Kudjo, who both responded with nods before the threesome retreated to a nearby cliff overlooking what would soon become the battleground for the two titans to settle the score.

Yojiki watched empathetically from a distance, knowing all too well the uncertainty weighing on Ginobly's heart. Ginobly... Your hatred hasn't grown at all for Hideshi, hasn't it? I realize that your feelings would be misguided but... Is there a 'but'? What if you were onto something? What if hate truly isn't the pathway to power...?

Down below, Ginobly stood with his arms folded tightly against his chest, waiting for Romano Hideshi to emerge from the portal. He had finally come to his resolve about this upcoming fight... And he intended to see it through to the end...

Excitement sent shockwaves through Ginobly's body as the figures of two people on board an oar silhouetted themselves against the spiral portal, then emerged through the energy field to reveal a terrified-looking blue-haired young woman riding up front, and a determined-looking young man wearing a brown hoodie straddled on behind her. His eyes met the demon's and immediately, the whole world stopped as the two stared each other down, fire glowing in their eyes...

Hideshi maintained his serious look as he dismounted Botan's oar, grabbing ahold of the wide, flat end of it and dangling above the ground below him, not once breaking eye contact with his enemy.

Botan knew this may be the last chance she would ever get to tell him how she felt. Yet the tension in the air made her words run dry as Hideshi slipped down off of her oar, sticking the landing on the hard ground below. Botan watched him drop down below, knowing that her last chance had just slipped away from her. The only way she'd ever be able to get to tell him now would be to survive a battle with four of the universe's most powerful demons. She had faith in him and his abilities... But inside, Botan was unable to shake a sinking feeling in her gut that something very, very bad was about to happen...

"So... You decided to face your death like a man..." Ginobly said in a slightly taunting, yet still very serious tone as Hideshi approached him, the sparks flying between them being evident to everyone of the onlookers.

"Just so long as you promise me a fair chance to hand you your ass..." Hideshi retorted coldly, holding his piercing glare on Ginobly.

"How do you mean?"

Hideshi pointed out towards the cliff overlooking the battlefield where three figures were watching them. "They don't get involved, and nobody else gets involved on my side of the field. Deal?"

Ginobly's face broke out into a small smirk as Hideshi proposed this condition. "Not much on your side to worry about..." the demon said as his gazed traveled skyward to Botan as she hovered in the air, close to the portal, prepping to make her escape.

"She's not as harmless as she looks... Under the right conditions, she'll find the motivation to kill..." Hideshi returned Ginobly's taunting smirk, making sport of the rematch which was about to occur.

"Is that so?... Very well, your terms are agreed to, just so long as I have a bit of insurance!" the mighty demon cried out this final word summoning a large amount of condensed energy into his palm, then simultaneously, casting it out towards Botan.

"Ahh!" the grim reaper shouted in terror, hiding behind the sleeves of her komiko as the bright red light of Ginobly's deadly attack shone brightly upon her as his energy wave came ever-closer towards her by the millisecond. Botan tightly shut her eyes instinctually waiting for the condensed energy to swallow her, spelling out her doom.

A few seconds passed, and yet she felt nothing...

Botan slowly and bravely moved her arms away from her face to see what had happend.

There, directly in front of her, Romano Hidehi was seemingly floating in mid air, when in fact he was only caught in a delayed free fall with his legs tucked in against the underside of his body as he right arm rested at an extended position away from his body.

Far down below them, Botan could see what was left of Ginobly's demonic energy sparking in vibrant, crimson lightning bolts around a deep, crater-shaped indentation in the rocky ground.

It all suddenly clicked in Botan's head. Hideshi just... Swatted away his energy...?

A new, hardened drive showed itself in Hideshi's eyes as his gaze rested back down onto Ginobly. "I'm gonna have to kill you extra slow for that one..."

Hideshi's reflection of his blast caught Ginobly off guard, but only for a moment. "Hehe... I'll riddle you full of holes before that!" the demon retorted, smiling manically, filling the palm of his hands full of red, sparking energy similar to the blast he had just shot at Botan.

Hideshi had barely just landed on the ground from his free fall when Ginobly began to barrage the detective with shot after shot of condensed demon energy, his blasts replicating the shape and motion of bullets exiting a machine gun, only much more powerful...

The Spirit Detective, rising to the challenge, waved his arms about the air in front of him wildly, frantically knocking Ginobly's shots away from him down onto the ground at his feet, scorching the earth in small patches as they made their final resting place around him. Hidehi was keeping up, but only just, for as soon as the long-haired demon picked up the pace of his rate of fire, he began missing a few of the demon's shots, causing them to complete their motion and detonate against Hideshi's torso, generating a small puff of smoke an dust for each successful shot which landed.

As the shots began to make contact more and more often, Hideshi began to lose his poise and rhythm, becoming swallowed in a continuous cloud of grey smoke and dust until he was no longer in sight.

"Heh... So much for 'killing me slowly'!" Ginobly laughed as he watched his adversary vanish in the smoke cloud. A loud, voracious laugh which persisted until the small, warm glow of a blindingly white light began to piece through the veil.

"You're a bitch..." was the insult Romano Hideshi gave Ginobly just before firing off the spirit energy he had just channeled into his index finger.

The mass of blinding energy expanded in size until it was twice the size of Ginobly's very being... And it was heading straight towards him, not giving him anywhere near enough time to dodge. All he was able to do was raise his arms in front of him in a crossing "x" shape pattern while he tucked his chin tight against his chest, bracing for the impact.

The massive blast made contact with Ginobly's arms, immediately singing through the sleeves of his light purple robes before pressing hard against his arms, forcing the demon's feet to skid against the ground, leaving small entrenchment a of dirt to compile where the friction of his feet drug against it.

Thankfully for Ginobly, Hideshi's Spirit Gun was rapidly losing energy against his arms, making it easier for the demon to withstand the blast.

"Hey Botan..." Hideshi said in an almost casual tone as he turned his head skywards towards his assistant "You may wanna get the hell out of here. Cause as soon as he breaks away from that blast, the real fight begins..." he said, keeping his eyes trained on the Demon struggling with his burst of energy.

"Hideshi... I..." Botan choked out, trying to confess her love for him, but finding herself unable to speak the words. This may be the last chance I get... So why am I hesitating so much...?

"Botan! Go! I'll see you again when this is all over! I swear! Just go!" Hidehi shouted at her angrily, his Spirit Gun shrinking against Ginobly's crossed arm formation to the size of a small rock now.

Holding back tears as she looked away from him and slipped into the spiraling portal in the sky to the other side, Botan finally realized why she hadn't told him what she had intended to. It wasn't because of nerves, or because of paralyzing fear. No... This time, he finally understood. Telling him how she felt would basically be the equivalent of saying goodbye to him. Letting him go from her life as the Premire Brothers tore away at the man she loved.

"I will see you again Hideshi..." Botan whispered to herself, flying away from the portal, leaving it far behind her as she made her way towards Spirit Realm aboard her magical flying oar.

Meanwhile, back in the pits of Demon World, the energy which had bound Ginobly's arms had just dissipated into nothing but thin, light smoke, smoldering from several dark burn marks, covering the demon's arms. He slowly raised his head to look up at Hideshi with a look of utter hatred. "You'll pay for that..."

Ginobly traced Hideshi's skyward glance to see that his associate had just left Demon World through the portal opening to the other side. "Heh... Don't get any ideas detective... You're not leaving!" The long, dark-haired demon shouted as he extended his palm outwards towards the portal, releasing a steady column of his signature crimson energy out at it, completely vaporing the portal in an instant, cutting off Hideshi's only means of escape.

Unfazed by this motion, the detective returned his eyes to the tall demon, staring him down. "Who's running...?"

"You will soon learn to fear me, Romano Hideshi..." Ginobly uttered in a deep, menacing voice, staring down his opponent like a hungry falcon would stare at a field mouse.

"You can cut the act, we both know you're not the hard-ass you make yourself out to be... You're weak because you rely on your hatred for power." Hideshi exchanged.

"Heh! What's that got to do with anything?!"

"Pretty much everything. It just proves how much of a coward you are. You lost the thing you hate the most, and so now you have to direct your feelings onto people such as myself. You don't hate me because I'm human, you hate me because you fear me! You know what I'm capable of doing with my power, and you're too much of a coward to face me any other way than by pretending to hate me for absolutely no reason at all."

"Rawh! Watch your mouth! You don't know anything about me and the hatred in my heart!" Ginobly shouted, extending an outstretched index finger out towards the Spirit Detective.

"If this is what you call hatred, then I'm sorry to say this, but you have no idea what true, unyielding hatred feels like... The kind of hatred I feel for your kind!" Hideshi began shouting, losing his cool temper. "What your race did to me is inexcusable! The sin you all thrive upon makes even the lowest of humans look like saints!... I've been slacking though... Before we fought, there was never a demon I encountered who I didn't kill. Now, there are have been about 5 I haven't slaughtered. Some I intentionally let go since they seemed decent when compared to demons like you... That being said, I think it's time we make this universe a better place for everyone and get down to eliminating one more wicked soul from Demon World!" Hideshi finished his speech extending his finger outwards towards the demon Ginobly.

"... Humph... You should know I don't much care for crazy bastardized like yourself who go out on these wild crusades without any chance of success..." Ginobly smirked at Romano as he let out his frustration. "But if you insist on killing me... Let me at least end these games we've been playing by getting down to business!" Ginobly's eyes rolled into the back of his head as he began to hunch over and channel his demonic energy all around himself, sprouting two long, sleek, black horns from the temples of his head. Ginobly's purple robes began to combust under the sheer power his body was giving off until they burned away into nothing around him, his pale body exposing itself.
⠀

"Ginobly has transformed into his land form... This battle should start to get more interesting now..." Yojiki said, scythe in hand as he looked down at the battle from his position atop the cliff with Kudjo and Damakain. "It's time for Hideshi to show us how much a human can improve in three weeks..."

Hideshi stood in Ginobly's presence as the demon's power erupted to ungodly high levels. For the first time in this entire battle, Hideshi began to feel his heart race rapidly, similarly to when Ginobly transformed in their battle on Earth. However, this time it wasn't because of fear, or some feeling of being overwhelmed.

Romano Hideshi loved a good fight, he always had. But going into this battle, he was afraid to unleash his sacred energy as soon as the threat of battle first came about. I don't want this too be over too quickly... I need to make this bastard and his chorines pay... he had thought to himself.

And so he held back substantially... Only using his base Spirit Energy to fight Ginobly up until this point. But now, as he watched his opponent transform in front of him, the need to hold back immediately disappeared...

No more half-assing it... It's time to bring out the big guns... Let's see how 15% does on this bitch... Hideshi clutched his fingers in his right hand together tightly as Ginobly finished his transformation into a black horned, black clawed creature who physically still resembled Ginobly for the most part.

"Impressive..." Hideshi said with a small smirk as he admired Ginobly's new power. It was massive, even larger than before, still nowhere near the same level as Yojiki or the other two, but still well beyond the level of any other demon he had ever taken down.

"You like it Hideshi?" Ginobly hissed in a slow and intimidating voice. "This is my land form... It's designed for speed and melee attacks. It's a bit different from my sky form... But I've slaughtered just as many my enemies in this form..."

"It doesn't matter how different it is... I'll be kicking your ass if it's land, sky, water or toilet form, I don't discriminate." Hidehi laughed to himself a bit as he began to surround his physical body in a thick, golden aura.

"What's he doing Yojiki?" Kudjo asked his brother atop their vantage point, watching Hideshi's body shine brightly and his power rise rapidly beyond what should be possible for a mere human.

"Are you ready that much of a dumbass?" Damakain asked the demon general, puzzled at his comrade's idiotic question. "Yojiki literally told us just about an hour ago about how this human can utilize the sacred energy! That's why Ginobly gave him so much time to train! To see exactly what the human race was capable of!"

"Oh... I must not have been paying attention..." Kudjo acted embarrassed and belittled by Damakain's comment, despite being angered internally by his superior's insults. He just knew better than to get on Damakain's bad side, especially with the massive gap between their power levels.

"Humph... Whatever the case, Ginobly definetly bit off more than he can chew in this scenario... Hideshi has already well-exceeded his maximum output..." Damakain folded his arms in front of himself, giving the battle going on below him a criticizing look. "It would probably be best if we just ended it now, save that scrub's sorry carcus..." The long haired demon extended one of his bulky arms outward, towards the spirit detective encasing himself in sacred energy below him, a cloud of black demonic symbols traversing the length of his arm towards his open palm.

"Damakain..." Yojiki sighed, bringing the curved blade of his scythe out in front of the demon's arm. "Please don't... Ginobly picked this fight for himself. If it also means his fate is sealed now, than so be it... You killing the Spirit Detevive wouldn't serve to do anything except percent the death of a liability to Lord Karr's legion."

"Uh...Y-Yojiki?" Damakain stammered in a surprised and somewhat fearful tone. He was usually never this cold, especially towards Ginobly. Only his brother would have ever said something like that! Damakain lowered him arm, backing off for fear of Neji Yojiki awakening.

"That's more like it... Now Damakain, how about you just sit back and enjoy the show?" Yojiki suggested with a sadistically straight face, placing the base of his staff back down upon the rocky surface of the cliff.

I guess Neji didn't get his nap today... And now he's awake at the same time Ono is... This'll certainly be... Interesting... Damakain thought to himself, taking a seat to watch as the fight continued below them.

"You're an insufferable child!" Ginobly shouted angrily at Hideshi, briefly flashing his demonic fangs before rushing at the golden-aura covered Spirit Detective.

Hideshi's eyes slanted a bit as he took on a more serious persona, watching his opponent lunge at him. He too, rushed forward, arms extended outwards, preparing to intercept the demon's attacks.

As the two warriors clashed, their fingers interlocked, entwining their hands together, both pushing their power onto one another. Hideshi's eyes met Ginobly's as his golden aura clashed with his crimson red, sending sparks in every direction. Both fighters held a look of determination and bloodlust. Neither one wanting to release their grip on the other's hands.

Despite keeping up with the push of Hideshi's sacred energy, Ginobly was internally struggling to summon enough energy to push back against Hideshi's overwhelming level of power. This is 15%?! the demon began to think to himself frantically Impossible! No one can match me and my power at a mere 15%! He must be using more than that! What I wouldn't give to know exactly what he's thinking in that head of his!

🎶 Everyboooody! Rock your boooody! 🎶 Hideshi sang to himself, casually pushing back against Ginobly's power, the 15% clearly not being very strenuous on his body. 🎶 Backstreets back! Alright! 🎶

"Hehehe... Can can see that fire in your eyes dying out..." Ginobly taunted Hideshi, clearly lying to try an break the detective's morality. "How much longer can you hold on Romano Hideshi?"

"... Do you know who Bruce Lee is Ginobly?" Hideshi asked the demon casually, dropping his false look of determination.

"W-what?" the demon asked, astounded that the detective would ask such a casual question in the heat of battle.

"Do you?" Hideshi repeated his own question completely ignoring Ginobly's bewilderment.

"I-I've heard of him..." the horned demon admitted. This whole moment was very awkward for him because he was still pushing out his maximum power against his opponent, and yet he was showing a side of his personality he would've never expected to see, especially in a battle.

"Good!" Hideshi said with a child-like smile as he jerked his hands downward pulling Ginobly's arms down with them. Before the initial shock of this moment was even over for Ginobly, Hideshi already brought the tips of his right index and middle fingers into contact with the center of his chest. "Good! Than you already know how much this is going to hurt!" Hideshi said cheerfully as he closed his fingers back with the others, making a fist. Using only the distance allotted by his index and middle fingers, Hideshi delivered a crushing blow directly into Ginobly's chest cavity, pulling off the famed one-inch punch perfectly.

The demon Ginobly's jaw seemed to unhinge as he coughed up massive quantities of blood from his damaged chest cavity, causing the horned monster to stagger backwards in pain, clutching his chest. His usually delayed demon heartbeat had seemed to completely stop... He could no longer breathe, the blood seethed up from his mouth, through his teeth, then down his chin, painting it a shiny red.

"Oh come on Ginobly..." Hideshi stated to his demon adversary with a confident persona as he took another combative stance. "Don't be a pussy!"

"I..." Ginobly choked out through all the blood which ran up into his throat "I h-hate you!"

"Sure you do... Now tell me, have you ever heard of a sport in Human World called 'football'?"

"Die human!" Ginobly screamed at Hideshi, angrily unleashing a wave of his crimson demon energy directly at the young man, consuming his entire body in the harsh, red light.

"Ha! Ever hear of the Demon Sport of human hunting?!" Ginobly stated, trying to act coy as he started to regain his posture from the blow Hideshi had delivered to his chest.

However, the demon's confident new attitude was short lived, for as the red wave of light died down, the Spirit Detective stood before him, completely unscathed. "... That was very rude... I was trying to tell you about something humans like to do for fun. Well, some of us anyway..."

"N-No!" Ginobly stuttered in amazement "How can you still be standing have all that energy crash down on you?! You should be dead!"

"Americans call it 'soccer' for whatever reason. I don't know, they're pretty weird..." Hideshi thought out loud, clearly more concerned about his exposition of the game of soccer than the fight he was currently in with Ginobly.

"Cocky bastard..." Damakain sneered as he saw Hideshi thinking to himself when he should have been fighting his opponent. "Ginobly didn't notice this aspect of him in his report to Lord Karr..."

"That's because Romano Hideshi usually doesn't act this way." Yojiki explained. "Romano's exterior personality is very serious, almost cold... But he almost has a soft, humorous spot he usually only ever shows to people he knows and trusts. The Sacred Energy is actually a reflection of the limitless power a human can potentially posses, but also reflects the innermost aspects of that person's personality. In Hideshi's case, it brings out his sarcastic, playful side. If his friends are being threatened, he'll become extremely defensive of them, even more so than normally. If you touch a nerve with him, you could easily make him cry. Sacred Energy is a simply fascinating phenomenon..."

***

"Now you see Ginobly," Hideshi said as he tightened his fighting stance "The object of football is to kick a ball into a goal post and earn a goal for your team. And there's supposed to be some bitch called a 'goalie' or something who blocks out the ball or something, I don't know, I don't follow sports... Anyways, let's play a little game where you're ass will be the ball, and I'll kick it as hard as I can with my foot and send you flying into the goal post, a.k.a. that big rock thing your buddies are standing on over there. Then hopefully you all get crushed and then I get to go home and watch my soaps. Sound good?"

"I think you're even more of an arrogant fool than I originally thought! I am not a tool for you to sport with! As I'm sure you're about to discover!" Ginobly shouted angrily, raising a clutched fist up towards his face. Slowly, his black-fingered hand became surrounded by several rings of dark energy which laced together into an energy cover for his fist.

"Rahhh!" the Demon sprang forward, shouting angrily at the detective holding his ground despite having the substantially-powerful demon Ginobly rush towards him with his full strength and demon energy behind him. There arose a loud slamming noise which could be heard all the way up upon the cliff's edge by Yojiki and company as Ginobly's demon punch landed a direct blow onto the side of Hideshi's face.

For the first time since he activated his sacred energy, Ginobly had been able to afford a reaction from the Spirit Detective in the form of his head jerking backwards and at an angle from the crushing force of the demon's blow.

Unfortunately for Ginobly, that was at he able to do, as Hideshi's face quickly broke out into a confident smirk, even with his black fist pushed up against the side of his face. "Hehe... I'd like to say you hit like a girl, but that would be sexist, so I'm just gonna be forward with you and say that last punch didn't do jack shit against me."

"H-How...? You should be dead! Did you even feel that?!" Ginobly exclaimed, astounded at how well the twenty-year old took his fist to the face.

Hideshi's smirk expanded at the sight of Ginobly's astounded expression. "Well of course I did sweetie... But only for about a microsecond..."

"W-Wha-...?" Ginobly stuttered, at a loss for words at Hideshi's statements.

"Obviously somebody didn't do his homework on sacred energy didn't he?" Hideshi said as he grabbed ahold of Ginobly's wrist, forcing his arm away from his face. "My sacred energy gives me several different nifty perks. One of which is the ability to turn off my sensation of pain after my body initially feels it. Now that's not saying my face won't start feeling sore after I deactivate this aura... Hell, I might even go lights out from it..." Hideshi smiled and shut his eyes momentarily, tightening his grip on Ginobly's wrist. "Of course... You'll be dead long before that happens..."

In a single swift move, Hideshi lifted Ginobly's entire body into the air, several dozen inches off the ground by his wrist alone before beginning to barrage the Demon's chest and stomach region with blow after blow with his free hand, keeping Ginobly raised in the air from each contact's force.

Ginobly's mouth began to rapidly ooze out blood each time Hideshi hit him. He could feel his energy rapidly dropping as he was hit over and over again, his body becoming battered and bruised to even higher levels of severity with every contact.

"Now then..." Hideshi said with a child-like, yet disturbingly sadistic tone, "Let's play some football!" The detective quickly let's go of Ginobly's wrist as he is still hovering in the air, the spin-kicks the heel of his right foot directly into the side of the demon's jaw, sending him flying backwards, a trail of blood flying from his mouth as his limp body flies towards the cliff where Yojiki and the other Premire brothers were standing, just like Hideshi said.

"Time to leave..." the white-haired demon smiled slightly as he leapt off the side of the cliff onto the ground several hundred meters away, were he perceived he'd be safe from any flying rubble. Damakain and Kudjo joined him there in the very next instant, just barely avoiding the massive crash Ginobly's body made against the cliff, completely crushing it into small rocks and boulders, burying the demon underneath them, left to be forgotten under the layers of rock and dust.

Ginobly laid down on the dry dirt ground of Demon Realm. His entire body pinned under the weight of several thousand tons of rocks and boulders. The land smelled of blood and bodies which Ginobly knew to not be his own. Lord Karr... I've disappointed you... Again...

Ginobly Atakashi thought back to all the other times he had let his master down... My father's murder... letting Hideshi live and the Human World stay intact... My diminishing faith in you... I'm not worthy. Not like Yojiki or Damakain... They know true hate at it's finest. I have done nothing but disappoint you because- the demon's thoughts came to a halt, thinking back on the way he had been treated the whole time he had served under Karr. Wait... My power... It was afforded by hatred! And after I completed my revenge... I became nothing but your empty slave! Ginobly's anger began to erupt as the stones above him began to shift, and the ground below him began to shake. You've been using me all along! The demon's power began to rise at an unprecedented rate, the stones above him being vaporized into nothingness by the sheer magnitude of his power as he began to slowly stand up, the field of rocks and shards I mountain becoming swallowed in the demon's crimson energy and dissipated into nothing in a massive column of demonic energy.

"I-Is that? Ginobly?!" Kudjo stood in awe at his comrade's rise in power.

"Good... He's finally starting to show us the new power Lord Karr granted him! Romano Hideshi will have to stop pulling his punches soon enough!" Damakain sneered as he watched Ginobly's ascension.

Yes, there would be much to look forward too... If Lord Karr had actually granted Ginobly any new power... Yojiki's thoughts trailed on as he watched his friend's power rise rapidly, knowing every once of it was his own. Ginobly... You must be pushing yourself far beyond the usual limit of your power...

Romano Hideshi, save Ginobly, was the only being in that area who was not impressed by what he was witnessing. "You were hiding all this? Geez Ginobly, and here I was worried about killing you with one blow..." Hideshi said, crossing his arms in front of himself, clearly not impressed.

"Die Detective! Die all of you!" Ginobly shouted angrily, the aura surrounding his body becoming more violent and unstable the shorter his temper became.

With blinding speed, Ginobly rushed toward's Hideshi, violent intentions filling his head. Savagery had finally overcome his rationality. Halfway there, Ginobly leapt into the air, cupping his hands together, charging a powerful, surging orb of energy between his palms. "Now take this!" he screamed as he unleashed the powerful wave of energy upon the Spirit Detective, who continued to hold his ground. Hideshi only sighed and raised his hand out in a haulting position as Ginobly's energy blast descended upon him.

Sparks flew rampantly as Ginobly's blast met with Hideshi's palm, demonic and sacred energy wrestling one another violently, both fighting one another like the flames of opposing fires.

"It's over..." Hideshi said glumly as he channeled a shockwave through his arm and out his palm, tearing apart Ginobly's blast into nothing but crimson, smoldering ashes floating gently down onto the ground harmlessly.

"... Alright then Ginobly... Let's finish this already..." Hideshi stated, his tone changing to one of impatience.

"Well then... It seems our guest has plenty of 'surprises' up his sleeve... Wouldn't you say so Yojiki?" Damakain said in a sarcastic tone, trying to convey an unspoken "I told you so" to his comrade.

"Yes Sasuke... Romano Hideshi hasn't let Ginobly get any footing on him this entire battle..." Yojiki rested his chins in his hand as he observed the scene in front of them with a pensive mind set. "His sacred energy gives him more than enough power to deal with poor Ginobly... He won't last long at this rate..."

"Which is exactly why we should intervene! We cannot allow one of Lord Karr's most prized warriors to fall to the hands of a mere human! It would not only be embarrassing, but it would also mean that we would be the ones to face Lord Karr's wrath!" Damakain pleaded, trying to reason with his associate.

"I'll get in there and stop this..." Kudjo said, beginning to trek towards the two warriors interlocked in battle.

"Please General, give them just a bit more time... No matter what we do now, Ginobly's death is inevitable."

"Huh? What's that mean?" Kudjo asked, looking back towards his superior and ceasing his advancement towards the battle ground.

"If we were to kill Hideshi before he slays Ginobly, Lord Karr would kill him anyways because he has become more of a liability by this point..." Yojiki explained. "Ginobly's hatred and aggressive feelings have been slowly diminishing day by day. In the eyes of Lord Karr, he's becoming dead weight who continues to make mistakes which give all the rest of us a bad name. Not to mention how ridiculous it is that Lord Karr has primer sons such as me and Damakain with immeasurable demonic energy, while also having Ginobly, who is quite weak by comparison... Let's just let him die with some honor..." Yojiki finished, reverting his gaze back towards the ongoing battle, not sensing the new presence arrive until he was very close behind them, riding behind one of the larger pieces of rubble from the shattered cliff-side.

Damakain sensed him too, and was quick to point out his presence to Kudjo Kuroko, who seemed to be the only one who had yet to feel him nearby. "A snake is the grass huh? Show yourself stranger! Or else I shall kill you where you stand!" Damakain threatened, extending his palm out towards the large chunk of rubble, the small black symbols beginning to spread up his arm once for as he directed it towards the energy they were feeling.

"Sorry fellas..." a voice called out from behind the boulder while the form of a man's arm and leg began to peek out from the side curvature of the rock. "I don't care much for sneaking around either... But I just got here and would like to watch this slaughter-feast go down before I have to start throwing fists with one of you..." Yusuke Urameshi wore a wide smirk as he came into view of the three demons, who each gave him a look of oddity.

"What? Has the betting already closed?"

⠀⠀⠀⠀ ***

"You won't be 'finishing' anything Romano Hideshi!" Ginobly spat at his opponent, locking his eyes of determination with the detective's. "You've held a significant advantage this whole fight, but only because I've allowed you to! Now it's time to even the playing field!"

Ginobly clenched his fists in front of himself tightly as his body became cloaked in the same, crimson-red as before. The horns on top of his head began to retract back into his cranium while two large, black wings began to sprout out from his back perpendicular to his spine.

"Let's see how you do against an opponent who is airborne Hideshi! With no way to hit me! I bet you'll drop that cocky attitude of your's real quick!" Ginobly laughed manically as his familiar sky form began to lift his large body off of the ground into the blood-red sky above, his black wings eclipsing the sun menacingly...

Romano Hideshi stood his ground, unwavered by Ginobly Atakashi's monstrous transformation, despite the history he had with it.

"At last! The mighty Romano Hideshi is silent with fear!" Ginobly rejoices as he ascends skyward, high above the ground of demon realm. "Your fear is understandable Romano Hideshi. After all, the last time we met, this form almost killed you!"

"That was three weeks ago... My power has far exceeded yours... So you can do your worst, but in the end, I'll be the one standing over your body..." Hideshi replied, looking upwards at his enemy, a fierce look in his eyes backing up his harsh words.

"Hehe... You just don't know when you're outclassed Detective! I clearly have the advantage up here, but if you're in need of a more hands-on lesson..." the demon Ginobly smirked wildly as he drew his wings back and forth, whipping up gusts of violently fast winds which buffeted against the Spirit Detective's body.

Hideshi raised an arm to sheild his eyes from flying debris as Ginobly continued to whip us his hurricane-force winds. The spirit detective buckled his knees, bracing himself against the ground as Ginobly continued to flap his wings, creating wave after wave of destructive wind gusts. "Aren't we having fun yet?!" Ginobly shouted at Hideshi, trying to be loud enough for him to hear. "This is where I'll dig your grave!" Ginobly's wings suddenly stiffened, then the long, black feathers came cascading down upon Hideshi like a flurry of knives. Carried by the tidal force he had previously created, Ginobly's feathers swung around Hideshi's body with enough velocity to cut through solid steel.

As the feather blades began to cut through Hideshi's body, leaving bleeding scrapes, the severity of the situation finally hit him. But it was already too late... He was trapped...

"Got you!" Ginobly cheered triumphantly as Romano Hideshi's entire being became immobilized by the whirlwind of black feathers surrounding him.

Hideshi looked back up at the demon through the rapid gusts of wind and the torrent of black feathers cutting through his skin. "Not entirely..." Romano Hideshi stated calmly, shutting his eyes to the sight of the darkness created by the feathers flying rampant around him in the wind.

"What do you mean? You can't move! Unless you want to be cut to ribbons that is..." Ginobly sneered, confident in his ability to win.

"You fool! Just end him while you still have the chance!" Damakain shouted out towards the battle, although he was sure the sound of the winds would drown out his words.

"Hey buddy, I jut tuned in here, how about filling me in on what's been shaking?" Yusuke requested of the long-haired demon, tapping on his shoulder light-heartedly.

"Quiet half-breed scum!" Damakain turned back towards Yusuke, swatting away his hand angrily.

"Damakain, please..." Yojiki pleaded with his associate to control his temper. "Mr. Urameshi, as I'm sure you've probably gathered by now, Romano Hideshi and Ginobly Atakashi are locked in the middle of a standoff as of right now. This is solely because Mr. Hideshi is only using approximately 15% of his true potential against Ginobly." Yojiki explained to Yusuke.

"Oh good..." Yusuke sighed in relief. "I thought this was all he had..."

"Was that sarcasm?" Kudjo whispered to Damakain, who was quickly ignored by the hot-tempered demon.

"Yojiki! We have to step in now!" Damakain demanded. "If we don't kill Romano Hideshi now, we'll have to deal with both him and this idiot!"

"Hey now," Yusuke started, barely containing a small grin in anticipation for his next sly remark "Don't talk about your teammate like that!" the former Spirit Detective said as he extended his thumb out from the side of his fist to gesture at Kudjo.

"Ugly?! What do you call that hair of yours?!" the grey-skinned demon replied.

"Gentlemen..." Yojiki sighed, extending his arms out towards the three demons in a calming gesture. "Let's all get our wits about us. Now Mr. Hideshi, why don't you and General Kuroko go and settle this little quarrel of yours like men? Somewhere over there on the other side of the rubble would be preferable..." Yojiki extended his index finger out towards a flat plain of land about a quarter of a kilometer away.

"Sounds good to me! Come on Kuwabara!" Yusuke teased the demon general before bounding away towards their destination.

"I'm not sure what this 'Kuwabara' is, but it sounds like an insult..." Kuroko said to himself quietly as he began to rush out towards the same field, matching Yusuke's running pace, his fur cape flowing behind him elegantly as they ran.

Romano's body began to twitch as he felt another feather slice against his abdomen. 'These feather's would shred me apart if it were just my Spirit Energy... But it's barely making any head way with 15% sacred energy... I'll just turn it up a bit... Maybe 20%?'

Ginobly watched the Spirit Detective intently, waiting for him to make his next move. Suddenly, before his very eyes, Hideshi's body became shrouded in an even thicker and brighter aura, causing the feathers around him to disintegrate into ashes and the hurricane-force winds to dissipate. Then, the Spirit Detective did something even more shocking.

Raising one foot off the ground and raising his body up with the other, Hideshi's body began to rise through the air. Slowly, inch by inch... And just like that, Ginobly lost his advantage of flight...

Ginobly floated in the air, jaw hinged open at the sight of Hideshi taking flight, their eyes finally meeting on an even level despite not being grounded.

"H-How?! How is that possible?! Humans can't fly!"

"Haven't you figured it out yet Ginobly? My sacred energy unlocks several abilities you and some others would say are impossible. However, with a power that feels like this, I wouldn't underestimate it one bit..." Hideshi said as he admired the golden aura encasing his arms.

"..." Ginobly feel silent, unable to continue the facade that he wasn't impressed by the sacred energy's power.

"I'm gonna level with you Ginobly," Hideshi stated as his body began to rise up again, higher and higher into the air "When I first came in through that portal, my stomach was churning... Not because of you though. It's Yojiki and that other guy..." Hideshi said as he pointed towards the general vicinity of Yojiki and Damakain, failing to see Yusuke or Kudjo as they approached their destination. "You tried to become some sort of terror residing in my nightmares, but you're really a whole lot of nothing. A mere shadow of what you once were! You could have been like them! In fact, you once were! But you squandered your hatred and became the weak demon you are today. The same one who's getting his ass handed to him by a twenty-year-old human using only twenty percent of his full strength!"

Ginobly sat silent, the Spirit Detective's words cutting through his self-esteem like a knife...

He's right... Hatred isn't the true path to power, at most it serves as motivation to better oneself... Even still... I am Lord Karr's servant till the end, and I must abide by his word, no matter what... Ginobly's dark fingers sharpened at the tips like the points of knives as he too began to rise through the air, tilting his gaze upwards towards the Detective.

Don't take this personally Hideshi... I'm just a coward who's afraid to lose anymore than he already has... And so, I must defend everything I've ever worked for, even at the cost of my liberty... And maybe even my life...

Ginobly lunged at Hideshi wildly, leaving all sense behind as he began to frantically swipe his hands around, hoping to hit the detective at least once. Unfortunately for him, Hideshi's sacred energy made him just a little too fast for the demon to hit, despite his best efforts.

"Ginobly's is getting desperate..." Damakain remarked as he observed the winged demon's tactless attacks missing their mark each and every time. "He normally wouldn't attack like this... There's absolutely no strategy involved in the way he moves..." the tall demon remarks disapprovingly, his arms folded in front of him as he stood at ground level to watch the battle overhead.

Ginobly soon realized that no matter how frantically or unpredictable his movements may have been. I'm just a little too slow... he thought to himself as he observed Hideshi's swaying motions and how they enabled him to easily dodge each and every one of his attacks with ease. I'll just have to tighten my range then! Ginobly concluded as he began to stiffen the movements of his hands to a smaller area at Hideshi.

The change came with just enough of an air of unexpectedness to catch Hideshi off-guard long enough for one of Ginobly's razor-sharp fingertips to cut across the Spirit Detective's arm, creating a small, bleeding gash.

Holy shit... He actually managed to get me... Hideshi thought as he used his energy to create a shockwave to quickly propel himself away from Ginobly so he could inspect the wound without the possibility of being scratched again.

Covering the wound on his left arm with his right hand, then quickly pulling it away, Hideshi saw that the wound was bleeding out a quite a decent amount.

"Hehe..." Ginobly smocked as he saw the disgruntled look on Hideshi's face as he looked down on the blood which was now staining his palm. "So it seems you're not invincible after all detective!"

"Quit acting like you just won the lottery!" Hideshi retorted "You merely scratched me, I've been beaten by high school bullies way worse than this..."

Ginobly's gleeful smile did not fade, despite Hideshi's insult and the hard truth carried by them. "It doesn't matter... I know how to make you bleed now, and so consequently, I also know how to kill you!" Ginobly shouted excitedly, eagerly extending all five fingers of his right hand towards Hideshi. "Now let's pick out that heart of yours!" he screamed, his fingers extending far beyond their natural length, their sharp points honing in on Hideshi's chest as they rapidly expanded in their length.

Hideshi watched in anticipation as Ginobly's black fingertips reached out towards him like the head of several sharp spears, waiting for the right moment. Wait for it... Not yet... Now!Just as the tips of Ginobly's fingers were about to extend out and make contact with Hideshi's ribs, the young detective quickly snatched up the demon's fingers in his own hand, closing it into a fist around them and applying pressure. Lots of pressure, very slowly too.

The sounds of breaking joints and bones was only contested by Ginobly's wails of pain.

Hideshi relaxed his grip on Ginobly's fingers, allowing them to slowly slither away from him, back to their master like deadly serpents.

Upon taking their proper solidification, Ginobly's right hand looked like a mangled mess of broken, black fingers. "You...You... Bastard!" Ginobly screamed through the pain as he extended his left palm out towards Hidehi and began to fire several successive and rapid-fire shots of demonic energy at the detective. Even though each and every one of the crimson energy bullets hit their mark, none of them could do even so much as to faze the Spirit Detective, who was looking a bit more annoyed now than he was amused like he was before.

"Ginobly's power is spiking!" Yojiki noticed as he watched the blasts leaving Ginobly's arm growing more intense with power each time a new one was fired.

"Don't get too excited..." Damakain said in a pessimistic voice, his arms still folded in front of himself as he held his look of disinterest "Sure Ginobly's hitting him a bit harder, but Romano Hideshi still has him beat in terms of power, at least a hundred to one..."

"Yes, but if Lord Karr is fueling him with more power, we should expect to see some results!" Yojiki argued, losing a bit of his composure as he tried to remain optimistic.

"Don't think so..." Damakain returned. "Look at him Yojiki, he's not gaining anything from Lord Karr at all! He's merely raising his own power out of will to do so, I doubt he'll be able to climb much higher than this..." Damakain finished his analysis with a smirk, confident in Ginobly's defeat.

"Why don't you die?!" Ginobly exclaimed angrily, watching as his demonic energy blasts burst harmlessly against the Detective's body. He quickly ceased his shooting and formulated a new strategy. This is it! It's all or nothing now! were Ginobly's final thoughts before channeling his energy directly into his night-black wings, the energy taking the form of searing, red-hot flames which stretched out like two towering infernos sprouting from the demon's back.

Hideshi, startled by this move, quickly takes a defensive stance just a moment before Ginobly's wings slam together with him caught in the middle of the fire-bombs. The air crackled in a spectacular display of crashing, burning energy. Sparks few in every direction, clouds of flames flew out like birds fleeing a nest at the sight of a snake. It was both beautiful and chaotic.

Ginobly felt no resistance between his wings, just a body...

It's over... I did it! It took everything I had, but I did it! the demon thought jubilantly as a grin of celebration glazed itself across his face. "Hahahaha! Burn detective! Burn all of you humans! BURN!"

"Could you keep the volume to a minimum please?" a voice spoke from between the two burning black wings as Ginobly celebrated his victory.

"W-What?!"

"I said, you have a big mouth. The key is to know when you should shut it!" Romano Hideshi's somewhat deep voice called out as Ginobly's wings began to pry apart, the Spirit Detective pushing them outwards, away from his body, the golden light of his sacred energy peaking out as the space between them increased.

"N-No! This cannot be!" Ginobly wailed as his face broke out into a look of horror as he spotted the Spirit Detective's face once more.

"It's over Ginobly..." Hideshi said with a tone of finality as he disappeared in a quick flash of light before reappearing directly in front of Ginobly, not giving him any time at all to react before driving his knee directly into the winged demon's stomach. Ginobly lurched forward, blood flying out from his mouth as Hideshi's maneuver began to pain him tremendously.

Without even enough air left in him to cough, Ginobly began to free-fall backwards, somewhat propelled by Hideshi's knee to the gut.

Romano watched and descended downward with the broken demon as his winged form crashed down onto a flat circle of land, encompassed by a few, vertical stones protruding from the earth.

No more chances... I'm ending this... Now...

As Ginobly lie on the ground, awaiting his inevitable demise, he felt something begin to stir inside of him, then he felt all the energy begin to leave his body, leaving him completely drained and devoid of his former power. The drainage was low and painful for the demon... His wings shrunk back into his spine and his muscular physic began to shrink at an alarming rate. Ginobly rolled oven onto his stomach wailing as the pain consumed him.

"It's time..." Yojiki said gravely as Ginobly reverted back to his normal, humanoid form.

"Lord Karr has forsaken him... He is now destined to die..." Damakain stated as the Spirit Detective Romano Hideshi landed on the flat circle of land a few meters away from where Ginobly lie, his back turned to him out of frustration and shame.

"Now do you see Ginobly? Your hatred was never real and neither was your power. You were nothing but Lord Karr's slave and unless you admit that now, you will holding that title..." Hideshi said boldly as he watched the once-proud demon begin to raise himself up on his hands and knees slowly, coughing up blood.

He is right... There is no honor in serving Lord Karr... I'm nothing more than a slave... But at least that's something to be remembered by if I'm about to die! Ginobly's thoughts ran as he looked down at his left hand and willed the fingertips to turn into the sharp, pointed black knives.

"Don't try it..." Hideshi warned Ginobly, ready to defend himself of he had to.

"I'm sorry..." Ginobly whispered softly as he turned his body towards the Spirit Detective, then leapt directly at him, his claws extended out in front of himself.

There were two sounds...

Just two more sounds other than the deafening silence...

The first was of Ginobly's claws missing their mark as Hideshi shifted himself away from the demon's final attack.

And then the second was the sound of bones snapping and flesh tearing as Romano's fist made contact onto Ginobly's chin, forcing it backwards with enough force to throw Ginobly's head backwards at a disgusting angle. His throat turned dark blue as his neck snapped, and the internal bleeding began.

Ginobly Atakashi was dead before he ever hit the ground...

Romano Hideshi was now victorious...

He had just defeated his adversary, Ginobly Atakashi. Now, as he wiped the demon's blood from his hands, he approached the others beings who had accompanied Ginobly to their fight. As he came closer to the two tall demons with their backs turned to him, he began to notice the absence of the third demon, Kudjo, and immediately held his ground, preparing himself with a combative stance as he tried to feel out where the grey-skinned demon may have gone. Is this an ambush?... Probably. They had plenty of opportunities to set one up... Romano looked around him at all angles trying to get a feel for Kudjo's energy.

Glancing behind himself, Yojiki spotted Hideshi as he looked around frantically for his comrade. Oh my... the white-haired demon thought to himself humorously as the young Spirit Detective raised him guard up for an opponent who was not going to attack. 'Poor boy. I wonder how he's good to react when Yusuke and Kuroko start to fight.' The good-natured demon chuckled a bit to himself, but then focused back towards the circle of stones where Ginobly Atakashi's body lie. ... You know why I didn't intervene don't you? I'm so sorry my friend, but I could feel your suffering and I wouldn't want you to feel like a slave for the rest of your existence... Yojiki haunted his sympathetic thoughts for a moment, as he could feel Damakain's eyes locking onto him.

"...What an idiot..." Damakain mumbled as he looked back at Romano Hideshi while he was still paranoid and searching for an opponent who was well over a kilometer away from him, and much more focused on another enemy at the moment.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
"This is far enough..." Kudjo Kuroko stated as they came to the mid-point of the large, flattened field. The demon immediately stopped running, and Yusuke followed suit, stopping a few meters ahead of him, giving him an adequate space cushion between them for their fight.

"Finally... I thought you'd never stop running..." Yusuke said as he stretched his arms out to his sides, warming up his joints for combat.

"And why is that, Son of Raizen?" Kudjo said as he began to loosen the draw strings of his fur cloak.

"Well you've got a mother don't you? I just thought you'd go on crying and bitching off to her." Yusuke said with a smirk.

"Your insults will not affect me boy! Besides, my mother is dead anyway!" Kudjo said as his heavy clock fell to the ground, stirring up dust as it made contact with the earth.

"Oh, good!" Yusuke began stating with a smile "Tell her I said hi when I kick your ass down to Hell!"

"You underestimate the power of Lord Karr?!" Kudjo exclaimed interrogatively.

"Do you underestimate the power of Raizen's bloodline?"

"Hehe... You still think your ancestor to be the most powerful demon who has ever existed? Well you're dead wrong boy... Toshin Raizen in his prime would only be able to barely match my power! And if you think he could compete with Yojiki or Damakain, you're sorely mistaken!" Kudjo rebutted to Yusuke, allowing some of his power to leak as he spoke, backing up his words.

"Huh, so those two are the big cheeses? Which one is stronger of the two?" Yusuke pondered as he tried to feel out the demon's immense energy which was clearly suppressed.

"You need not concern yourself with that now Son of Raizen, I am your opponent!" Kudjo reminded Yusuke, spilling out more energy as the former Spirit Detective continued to insult him by turning away.

"Yea, but I just wanted to know who I should fight after I kill you. Hideshi is probably going to be picking his opponent soon enough too and I don't want him squandering any opportunities for me."

"Insolent fool! Do you seriously think that you will be able to defeat me by yourself?! Perhaps you weren't listening when I said your ancestor could only barely compete with myself! You'd need a whole army to even scratch me!"

"Well I'm glad you brought that up General..." Yusuke said with a slight grin as he looked back towards Kuroko "I actually have some friends who have just arrived here in demon world, and from what I'm sensing, they're tearing shit up out there!"

"What?!" Kuroko bursted out in disbelief. 'He's bluffing! Clearly! The armies of Lord Karr are invincible! No few demons could ever hope to defeat them in combat!'

"Think I'm kidding you?" Yusuke asked with a mischievous look upon his face. "Why don't you just heighten those senses of your's?"

Kudjo, despite feeling that Yusuke was only bluffing, decided to humor his suggestion. But when the demon widened his sensory powers, he was met with a reality all too unexpected and unwelcome...
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ***

Several Kilometers away from where Yusuke and Kudjo were confronting one another, the battle for demon world was taking a tremendous turn.

Even after a majority of King Enki's greatest soldiers were killed by the muradaus general just prior to Ginobly's engagement against Hideshi, the grand army of Demon World fought valiantly against the forces of Lord Karr. Despite their best efforts however, their powerful adversaries carried the upper hand. That was, until the fire-demon Hiei Jaganashi arrived from the Living World escorting the red-haired Kurama and the psychic Kazuma Kuwabara to the battlefield.

Each of these three individuals had a demonic class ranking of at least an upper S, a sharp contrast when compared to the inexperienced and underpowered demons of Clan Karr.

"These foolhardy demons who call themselves 'warriors' are hardly worth me wasting my time..." Hiei said with a slight hint of boredom in his voice as his blade cut through the abdomen of an enemy demon, adding another layer of demonic blood to his bandaged arm.

"Well Hiei, if you're so determined to find a more worthy opponent, perhaps we should finish off these lesser demons here to move out and aid Yusuke in his fight against the Premier Brothers?" Kurama suggested as he slashed his rose whip through the neck of one of Karr's demons, decapitating him.

"Heh, at least then I might have some sort of a challenge!" Hiei stated with a loud voice so that the hordes of demons rushing towards him could hear his insults just before his blade claimed their lives.

"Suit yourself shorty!" Kuwabara spat at Hiei as he slashed through hordes of oncoming demons with his spirit sword, dealing sever damage to some, but only minor injuring others as his orange, glowing blades swung into his adversaries. The lack of kills on Kuwabara's part prompted more and more demons to lunge out at him, considering him the weakest target. 'That's it!' Kuwabara grinned as the hordes of demons came barreling towards him. "Come to Papa!" the human warrior taunted as his orange blades disappeared from the palms of his hands and were replaced by a shimmering, light-green color sword of greater length and far superior power.

Kuwabara's ploy of acting helpless worked to perfection as several followers of Lord Karr fell dead at his feet. "Hehehe... That'll learn you to mess with the great Kazuma Kuwabara!" the physic boasted as more oncoming demons fled away from him, tails between their legs.

"Well done Kuwabara!" Kurama praised his comrade as he himself finished off an armored demon with his rose whip.

"Humph... It was a dirty trick... He shouldn't feel any sort of honor in these casualties..." Hiei stated flatly, clearly unimpressed with Kuwawabara's killing streak.
"Oh yea shorty?! How many of these guys have you killed so far?!" Kuwabara challenged Hiei.

"Four hundred and thirty two..." Hiei stated with a tone of boredom as another demon wielding a sword charged towards the short demon. It would prove to be his final mistake, for as soon as he was within swinging range; Hiei decapitated the foul creature with a single stroke of his sword. "Make that four hundred thirty three..."

High above the battlefield, hidden away in the tallest tower of his black castle, King Enki and Queen Kokou watched as what was left of Lord Karr's men made a full-scale retreat away from the action, fear plaguing their eyes as they watched their comrades cut down by Hiei and the others. "It's a good thing we have allies like them to depend on... Enki sighed as he observed the bloodstained battlefield with saddened eyes.

"We had friends who would have been able to dispatch these animals in the blink of an eye... And they were all slaughtered by that monster and his 'sons'..." Kokou spat as she looked at the bodied of Lord Karr's men with absolutely no pity whatsoever. "They all deserve to die like this. It's demons like them that ruined the dream we had started when you first took over... The perfect world... where humans and demons and spirits would be able to exist in harmony; all of that was ruined because a few were unable to accept the changes..."

"Kokou..."Enki sighed. Not fully agreeing with his wife's point of view, but realizing that to a certain extend she was right.

The Kakai barrier being taken down... Genkai's compound being destroyed... And now this war here in Demon World... When will it all just end?"

"... Don't blame them for everything Kokou..." Enki proclaimed slowly, his words deep and meaningful. "I should share in part of the blame... My leadership has been far too weak... The border patrol has been effective, yet our people still burden the citizens of the Living World... I should have allowed for Mukuro to defeat me in the Demon Tournament... at least then my people would have a more enforcing leader... Why, I'd even be happy if she participated in the second tournament to contest me... Instead, I won myself a second term, and a lifetime of grief..."

"Don't say such things Enki!" Kokou snapped, "You're a great leader! And the fact that these fools are lying dead and you're still in power proves it! Your people love you! Hell, I love you; you fat fool!"

Upon hearing these words from his wife's mouth, Enki's period of self-pity came to an abrupt end. "Kokou? Y-you mean that?! What happened to your infatuation with Raizen?"

The light-green haired demon queen blushed a bit as she prepared her next statement mentally. "Raizen liked his human women too much... You've always been by my side, through our ups and well... Our downs..." Kokou said solemnly, glancing out the window once again at the blood-soaked battlefield. "And you did all that despite me thinking Raizen and I were destined for one another... If that's not love... Then I don't know what the hell it is..."

"Aha! My Queen!" Enki shouted boyishly, extending his arms outward and puckering his lips, preparing to embrace his wife with a kiss.

However, despite her confession of love, Kokou pushed Enki away from her before he had a chance to get his arms around her. "Hold up perv! I said I love you! You're still nowhere near handsome enough to kiss! Now that new Spirit Detective on the other hand..." Kokou smiled to herself. "Boy, if he didn't have that girlfriend, I'd rock his mortal world..."

"W-What?! Romano Hideshi?!" King Enki exclaimed in a surprised tone.

"Oh yeah... He's one hunk of man if ever I've seen one..." Kokou described Hideshi similarly to how Botan or Yukina would. "But that lucky blue-haired girl..." Kokou's tone changed to one of jealous loathing as she thought of Botan angrily.

"Huh? But Kokou," Enki stated to explain, "Botan and Hideshi aren't together like that... They're just partners in the Spirit Detective business."

"Oh!" Kokou's eyes lit up excitedly. "So he's single huh?"

"...What have I done? ..." Enki wondered out loud as Kokou's true intentions became visibly clear on her face.

"King Enki!" a frantic-looking military officer came bursting into the room, practically kicking over the double wooden doors. "It's the armies of Lord Karr! They're regrouping! And they've got a new power with them! This one is huge!"

"Larger than Hiei's?!" Enki exclaimed in disbelief.

"Well... No sir... But Hiei, Kurama and the human have already departed the battlefield... We're defenseless against this new demon..." the officer admitted to the royals.

"Why would they do such a thing?! Surely they would have been able to sense that kind of power!" Kokou exclaimed in a tone of disbelief at the audacity of the threesome.

"They most certainly did..." Enki proclaimed with a small smirk. "But they didn't just leave us helpless... Can you feel them? The cavalry is coming..."

***

"Damn you Urameshi! How dare you disgrace the Grand Army of Lord Karr?! You shall pay with your life!" Kudjo spat at a grinning Yusuke angrily. "You think yourself to be all-powerful, but the truth is that you're nothing compared to me! The mighty General Kudjo Kuroko! Honorary General of Lord-" Kuroko's words were cut short as Romano Hideshi, fully encased in the power of his sacred energy lunged forward, smashing a devastating fist into the gray-skinned demon's jaw line, blasting him away from the two Spirit Detectives towards yet another rock formation about a kilometer away from the selected battleground for him and Yusuke.

The partial-demon stood in stunned silence for a moment as Hideshi touched back down onto the ground, his feet skidding across the earth, the friction attempting to slow down the detective's body after his high-velocity punch. When the young detective came to a halt, he raised himself back up onto his feet, glaring back at Yusuke.

"...Well... That was unexpected... But not totally unwelcome." Yusuke uttered as he returned Hideshi's glaring stare. "He sure does like to hear himself talk doesn't he?"

"Yusuke Urameshi... Public enemy number one of Spirit Realm and outlaw demon of the Living World..." Hideshi addressed Yusuke in a serious tone, disregarding the former's half-humorous rhetorical question.

"Present!" Yusuke replied cheerfully, his glare changing to an amused expression.

"I've been hunting for you ever since I be-" Romano Hideshi caught himself mid-sentence, trying not to laugh out loud, but losing his composure and uttering a chuckle. "Hehehe... Oh God damn it Urameshi! You and I are supposed to be bitter enemies and yet here you are making the same, stupid wisecracks that make me laugh my ass off!" Hideshi said though a chuckling voice, raising his hand to his face. "'Present'... That's just like what we used to say in middle school to be smart asses when the sub would take attendance!"

"You also tell em' that the absent kid was dead?" Yusuke asked, his smile expanding on his face as he and Hideshi shared this bonding experience.

"What in Lord Karr's name is going on?!" Damakain blurted out, frazzled by the recent events that had just transpired. "First Hideshi goes 100% and shoots past us to knock Kudjo's lights out, then he stares down Urameshi like they're going to tear each other apart, and now they're laughing at each other?!"

"So it seems..." Yojiki responded calmly and collectively. "Humans are quite the strange creatures..."

"Either that or they transferred to Louisiana!" Hideshi laughed as he continued his little chat with Yusuke, both of them completely disregarding the fact that Kudjo Kuroko was rising to his feet several hundred meters away, clutching his jaw in pain as he growled at the two Spirit Detectives.

"You friggin bastards..." Kudjo stated as he edged towards his two adversaries, his rage building and his true power leaking out "This is why I hate humans... You think you can go off and insult the greatest strategic mind in all of Demon World and walk away scot-free? You're damn wrong!" Channeling his energy into the palms of his hands, Kudjo shaped his golden, sparking energy into a shape which crudely resembled an arrow.

"Now you shall both realize how insignificant you truly are!" Kudjo raised his hands to direct the tip of the sparking arrow towards the two Spirit Detectives. "Lighting Arrow!"

Those were the last words Hideshi and Yusuke heard before the sky lit up with a barrage of similar arrows, each one sparkling in unison with large quantities of Kudjo's demonic energy, and all of them focusing in on their two targets as they fell towards the Earth.

"We'll talk some more later... Right now I've got to hand this geeb his ass." Hideshi stated, nodding his head casually towards the cloud of arrows falling downward, targeting them as they did so.

"How about you leave him to me just so long as you take care of these things." Yusuke suggested as the arrows came ever closer.

"That's way too easy for me, how about this? You start kicking his shit in, then I'll tag in when you start feeling tired. Ok dear?" Hideshi said mockingly.

"Oh if we weren't supposed to kill each other we'd get along just great!" Yusuke stated as he extended his index finger to the sky and the multiple falling arrows, Romano following suite after noticing what he was doing.

"Spirit Gun!" the two shouted in unison, firing their spiritual energy directly from their fingertips into the sky with intentions of destroying each and every one of Kudjo's arrows as the two beams collided in a magnificent explosion, reflecting on both individual's powers. Their rushed plan went off without a hitch, and every single one of the arrows was vaporized into nothingness.

"You figure that was a distraction too?" Hideshi turned to Yusuke, averting his gaze from the fireworks they had just created. "Way ahead of you!" Yusuke assured him, easily jumping out of the way from an angry Kudjo, who had him arms extended outwards as he lunged towards them.

Spotting his failure to attack Yusuke, Kudjo quickly spun towards
Hideshi, closing his hand into a fist and driving it into his gut. The
handsome detective did not even shudder though, despite the blow being greater than any Ginobly could've hoped to create. "Please don't insult me General..." Hideshi remarked, taking a hold of Kudjo's wrist as the wisps of his sacred energy billowed about his stature "If
you're going to fight me, fight me seriously... Without holding anything
back..."

Hideshi then released the gray-colored demon's wrist from his tight
grasp, and then took a step backwards just as Yusuke began to charge up his own energy directly behind him.

Sensing this sudden burst of demonic energy formulating itself from behind, Kudjo Kuroko spun to face Yusuke, eyes wide with fear as he felt his power surging. 'But how? How is this possible?! This is far
more than what we anticipated for him to be capable of! Its almost as
if... No! It can't be!'

"That doesn't feel too much like Urameshi's energy..." Yojiki commented to Damakain as they watched the fight intently.

"No, it most certainly doesn't... It's almost reminiscent of King
Raizen's power... I wonder if Urameshi has somehow inherited all of Raizen's power?" Damakain replied, holding his straight face and
composure.

"Interesting... You really think it's possible even though Toshin Raizen is dead?"

"Lord Karr was able to pass down his power to us wasn't he? I don't
think it's too far-fetched for that fool to somehow bypass the realm
of the living and the dead to give Yusuke his power."

"Well if he did, he just saved him about 300 years of intense training
to match Kudjo's power..." Yojiki stated in amazement.

"Yes... That was quite the jump in power. But the question remains as to whether or not Yusuke can really compete with the likes of Hideshi and Kudjo in this battle..."

"Well as you already know Damakain, a battle can swing either way, despite any gap in power. However, if I were gauging the outcome of this fight solely on the premise of the combatant's energy... I'd say that as it stands now, Hideshi definitely has the most power, and
thanks to his sacred energy, it'll only be growing more powerful. As
for Yusuke... I can't say for sure, but it seems as though his power may
plateau at a level above Kudjo's 100%."

"So what you're saying is that Kuroko is screwed, but this will be an interesting opportunity to see what these Spirit Detectives are made of?" Damakain asked bluntly.

"Not at all Damakain... You must have forgotten about what the good
general can do with those eyes of his."

"I didn't forget Yojiki, I was just wondering if you remembered his
signature technique seeing how you failed to mention it in your
analysis."

"Of course not. Those eyes are the whole reason Kudjo needs to die in
the first place..."

***

"You do think they'll be able to handle it won't you?" Kurama asked,
glancing behind himself as Hiei and Kuwabara as they rushed across the
dry surface of Demon World, heading towards the immense energy they were sensing.

"How should I know?" Hiei remarked, clearly not concerned with the sizable task he had left for Enki's reinforcements to deal with.
"You're the one who trained them, so why don't you tell me?"

"Well of course I'd like to stay optimistic about the whole ordeal,
but I just thought I'd ask for a second opinion..." Kurama stated in a somewhat defensive tone to counteract Hiei's brash comment.

"Humph..." Hiei turned away from Kurama, turning his attention back
towards an exhausted looking Kazuma Kuwabara who was still struggling to keep up with the two demons. "Kurama, lets stop for a moment so the oaf doesn't run himself to death."

"Right." Kurama responded with a nod, slowing his running pace before
coming to a complete stop, Hiei quickly making his way to the
fox-demon's side.

"Actually Hiei, I'm glad we've stopped for a moment." Kurama
confessed, turning his body to face his shorter black-clad
counterpart, "I have something to ask you... This may not seem the most appropriate time to discuss this, but-"

"Then don't." Hiei cut off Kurama rudely, clearly in no mood to talk.

"Hiei... What's the matter with you today? You're never this
short-tempered with me." Kurama asked in a critical tone, noticing how
short Hiei's temper had become.

"I have a lot on my mind and a lot of killing to do... Don't bother
asking what, because I have no intention of telling you..." Hiei spat,
turning his head away from Kurama, refusing to make eye contact with
the red-haired demon.

"It's about your father isn't it?" Kurama asked gently, trying not to
push the wrong buttons on Hiei.

"Who the hell told you?!" Hiei demanded, sure that he had not
discussed his father's whereabouts with anyone save Yukina.

"Botan told me all about Yukina and the cave when she came to recruit
me and Kuwabara to this case. You want to meet with him, don't you?"
"It's actually quite the opposite..." Hiei snapped, turning his back on
Kurama now. "By the way, the next time we meet with that bubbling
idiot, remind me to slice her apart and scatter her limbs across the
Fields of Gore."

"Hiei... He's part of your family. The fact he took possession of Yukina
is proof he knows who you two are, and may indicate that he wants to
reconcile for all the years he could have spent as a father..." Kurama
suggested.

"To Hell with him! I'm not exactly the forgiving type Kurama! Besides,
you have your own problems to deal with at home."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Kurama asked, his own temper being tested despite knowing exactly what Hiei was talking about.

"Your wife? Has she forgiven you yet for what you've done?" Hiei asked
in a nasty tone, fully aware of how offensive this question may be to
Kurama.

Turning back to face him, Hiei could see the expression of anger,
Kurama was trying to suppress. "I believe I've already told you Hiei..."
Kurama said in a seething tone, trying to control his temper. "That
wasn't me... It was all him... I just couldn't control him..."

"You do realize that he is who made you who you are, don't you
Shuichi?" Hiei reminded Kurama's human side.

'He's right you know...' Yoko Kurama's voice echoed through Shuichi's head. 'You and I have become ever more separate, and the longer you continue to resist me, the larger the divide between us becomes. Shuichi... Don't make me do something irrational like what I did to
Kisa! Break your promise to Hideshi and let me out! I need to feed
just like every other demon!'

'No!' Shuichi resisted, grasping the sides of his head as he wrestled
with the demon residing within his own thoughts. 'I've already broke
my promise by using your energy to fight against Karr today! And I
swear it will be the last time I ever do so!'

'...Then... she will die...' Kurama stated in a threatening tone of voice,
slowly crawling back into the depths of Shuichi Minamino's conscious.

Kurama stood there for the longest time... His jaw hinged open until
Kuwabara's voice snapped him back into reality.

"Come... On... You guys... We've got to help Urameshi..." the exhausted psychic swordsman managed to wheeze out between pants of exhaust as he
passed by Hiei and Kurama.

"Heh. Let's get moving Kurama... I refuse to have that oaf beat me to
the battlefield." Hiei remarked to the red-haired demon before rushing
off after Kuwabara, leaving Kurama to bring up the rear now and try to
clear his head before the upcoming battle against the dreaded Premier
Brothers.

***

The ground shook ferociously as the gigantic demon stomped forward
from the ranks of Lord Karr's recently regrouped army. The shockwaves
from this monstrosity could be felt even from the spire of King Enki's
castle as the five-story demon wielding a spiked club in his right
hand and a large sack in his other. The creature had and impeccably
ugly and deformed face. The demon had a murky color brown skin, which
could be associated with muddy waters. Apart from that, he had a
jet-black beard with bit of dead skin clinging to it as if they were
true life forms, clinging on to save their own life. The rest of the
demon's features were equally disturbing. His eyes were bulged out
from their sockets and extremely blood-shot; the skin around them was wrinkled and scarred from battles.

Many of King Enki's fled at the very sight of this creature, not only
because of his frightening looks and size, but also because of his
immense power. He felt just as strong, if not stronger than King Enki
himself!

"I am Jurosi!" the threatening demon cried out as he watched the other
demons from King Enki's side of the battlefield flee in horror. "I am
the mightiest of Lord Karr's army, save the honorable Premier
Brothers! I wish for a true warrior to come and face me! Send as many
fighters as you like! If you manage to defeat me! My men will
surrender, and this battle will be yours!" Jurosi proclaimed, certain
none of King Enki's men would accept such a suicidal mission.

However, despite his overwhelming Demon Energy, six black-cloaked
warriors stepped forward towards the impressive demon. "We will gladly accept your challenge Jurosi," one of the cloaked figured stated as he stepped forward beyond the rest "Or, you could cease any further
bloodshed by simply surrendering to us now."

"You puny fools!" Juroshi said in a shocked tone of voice "Do you
really think you can measure up to me? Jurosi!? The demon that hunted the horrible Wargals to extinction? The ancient being who has been known to crush his enemies to dust then devour his humans?! You truly
have no clue about me, don't you?!"

"Truth be told, no... But you do sound like you have the quite the
resume..." the same demon spoke to Jurosi from under the shroud of his cloak. "But now hear out our names and achievements if you please, itsonly fair considering how long we listened to your ramblings."

"Hahahahaha! Very well puny demon! I enjoy hearing the life story of my enemies before ending them! So lets hear it!" Jurosi laughed
heartily, leaning downwards the make eye contact downwards at the
cloaked figures, smirking at them for their apparent lack of judgment.

"Very well, who would like to start?" the cloaked figure turned to his
comrades, looking them over, waiting for one to step forward and begin their introduction to Jurosi. After a brief moment of silent
deliberation, the largest of the black-clad figures took a step
forward and removed the cloak covering his body.

"The drunken power from down under! Chu!" an eccentric, dark-blue
haired demon said flamboyantly and with a grin as he introduced
himself.

Not a moment passed before another cloaked figure removed his own shroud of identity, exposing him as bright red haired demon with a
single protrusion sprouting from the center of his cranium. "Hiya
biggy, Jin be my name, please don't wear it out before a give you a
chance to give you a real swift kick to the nilly!"

"That's... special, Jin..." the first cloaked figure said with a tone of
embarrassment in his Irish-accented counterpart's over-the-top
introduction to their threatening-looking enemy.

"I guess I can go next..." a prepubescent voice spoke from the
smallest-statured of the cloaked demons as he stepped forward, sliding the black cloth off as he came closer towards the giant Jurosi. An expression of surprise crossed the hideous face of Jurosi as a small boy with light brown, spiky hair slipped out a confident smile emblazoned upon his face as he edged closer and closer to Jurosi.

"What is this?! A child?! You dare to contest my power with that of
a mere child?! You people are insane!" Jurosi shouted, clearly
insulted by Renku's presence before him.

"I wouldn't underestimate the boy," a new-cloaked figure said stepping
forward, pulling down his hood as he spoke to reveal the handsome and
well-known face of Shishiwakamaru "He can be especially dangerous due to his unpredictable mind..."

"Thanks Shishi!" Renku happily smiled upwards towards his comrade, who held a rather disinterested facial expression as he drew his famed
Banshee Shriek Sword from its sheaf at his side.

"Whatever kid," he replied dismissively, his voice occupied with bad attitude "Just don't go thinking I'll let you take this kill from me.
I have to become stronger, and the only way to show true strength is
to mercilessly slaughter all opponents foolish enough to cross paths with me!"

"Hmm... Seems like you're still a bit disconcert with losing the Demon
Tournament, aren't you Shishi?" a flamboyant-sounding, male voice
spoke from behind the guise of one of the final two cloaked figures,
who immediately began to unfasten the waistband tying the garb to his
body. Elegantly allowing the black cloth to flow off from his body,
Suzuka took up a graceful-looking position, only adding to the
theatrics of his antics. "Jurosi! Prepare to be marveled! For I am the
beautiful Suzuka, and I'm gearing up to hand you your ass!"

"Whoa, not one for the trash-talking that Suzuka guy is..." Jin noticed,
as he looked onward at his teammate's display abnormal personality.

"Hehehe..." Suzuka laughed a bit, embarrassed. "Sorry, I must've just
got carried away... We don't normally get to fight strong guys like this anymore."

"You're absolutely right on that point, Suzuka." The final cloaked
figure stated as he slowly and calmly removed his black garment,
revealing a modest-looking demon with strange, lime green and teal
colored hair combed over to one side. "Kurama and Hiei must have been extraordinarily eager to come to Urameshi's aid if they actually gave us something to deal with."

The demon's eyes narrowed as they met with Jurosi's, a smirk forming
at the corners of his mouth. "Hello there, my name is Toya, I'm the
leader of this rag-tag team of demons. This will be your last warning: surrender now, or die..."

Jurosi looked over the faces of the strange and mismatched group of demons, barely able to stifle his laughter at Toya's empty threats.

"Perhaps I mistook you all for actual fighters..." the gigantic demon bellowed, howling with hearty laughter "It's obvious to me now that you're all nothing more than a bunch of comedians! I recognize you lot from the Demon World Tournament! As I recall, you all fell to demons of a similar class to my own!"

"We've improved since then!" Chu snapped at the towered demon. "Now we're all at least as strong, if not, stronger than you! And you'll be taking on six of us mind you!"

"Oh, you're so right!" Jurosi began speaking in an obviously sarcastic tone of voice "Forgive me, my logic isn't as strong seeing as I'm not off-my-ass drunk right now! The way me and my sober mind see it, I've got six ants trying to bite at the heels of an Ogre who just so happens to have the backing of Lord Karr!"

"Your faith in that false profit will be your downfall!" Shishiwakamaru stated, unsheathing his sword, pointing it's sharp tip directly at the over-confident giant.

"You dare speak of the master of all demons in that manner?!" Jurosi shouted, his tone changing from sarcasm to anger upon hearing Shishi's insult towards his master. "Fine then! I'll kill you first!" Jurosi bellowed one last time as he raise his broadened ax high above his head, swinging it downward at the blue-haired demon ferociously.

Shishi made a simple side step maneuver to avoid the hideous demon's blade as it shattered the ground he had just been standing upon into tiny fragments of earth.

"Hmph... You make this too easy..." Shishi said through narrow eyes and a wide, toothy grin just before springing atop the great demon Jurosi's massive arm, running upwards towards his shoulder.

Seeing what Shishi was trying to do, Jurosi lifted his broadened arm from where his ax rested as began to jerk around his arm violently in an attempt to shake off the handsome swordsman. Shishi countered his movements perfectly by jumping in sync with Jurosi's jerking movements, allowing him to continue gaining ground.

Beginning to feel frustrated with Shishiwakamaru's tenacity, Jurosi dropped the sack he carried in his other hand to free it up in an attempt to swat the smaller demon from his arm.

However, seeing the gigantic demon's sack fall to the ground from the corner of his eye, Shishi was able to anticipate this action and make a move to counter it. Just as the looming shadow of Jurosi's other palm began to darken and expand in such a gloomy and ominous way to suggest that the creature was about to smash him, Shishi raised his sword high above his head, the tip ready to intercept Jurosi's palm.

A breif moment passed, but then it became obvious that the hideous, shopping mall-sized demon had not fallen for the trick. "Hehehe... Sorry small one, but I'm ugly, not stupid!" Jurosi bellowed with laughter as his changed the posture of his fingers so the nail of his index rested in his thumb.

Shishi, still startled that his plan didn't work, was unable to react and counter Jurosi's flick to his exposed stomach. It may have just been a simple maneuver of his fingertips, but Jurosi's flick slammed into Shishiwakamaru's stomach like a freight train, sending him flying off from Jurosi's arm, screaming and howling with pain as he tumbled back down to the ground below.

"Heh... Anyone else care to die today?" Jurosi smiled down at the remaining fighters before him, his teeth dark and rotting, mirroring his soul.

"Woah..." Hideshi stares in astonishment as Yusuke completes his transformation, his aura of demonic energy surrounding him, opening the sky and shaking the earth as the ancestral tattoos of the demon Raizen began to formulate around his body. Yusuke's teeth began to resemble fangs as he howled with a strange sense of delight from the effects of his transformation. His eyes turned from a gentle brown to a blood-red color all while his dark hair became silver, falling down onto his back like a make-shift cape.

"T-this is im-impossible!" Kudjo stammered as he watched the former Spirit Detective's power rise to his own level, and then beyond.

"Heh... Whadda know?" Hideshi smirked now at Yusuke's monstrous transformation "Looks like he's finally received all of his inheritance... I guess having to kill him is going to be a lot more difficult than I thought. That is, if I decide to kill him..."

Wait a second, what the hell are you saying Hideshi? Of course I'm going to have to kill him, it's been your primary objective ever since you started working as the Spirit Detective! Just because he and Yukina and Kurama weren't so bad doesn't change the fact that they're all demons and they all have to die!... Or do they?...

If these demons are really as bad as I've been lead to believe, then how is it Botan is still alive? She was Urameshi's assistant long before she was mine... He never harmed her, nor did Kurama, or even Hiei... They all seemed to be like some sort of a family... They each cared for one another, supported one another... They all loved each other in that way... How can merciless demons feel and express that sort of emotion onto each other, let alone the ice apparitions, grim reapers and humans...

But... If Botan cared for Yusuke and the others like that, why did she allow me to carry on with my goal to kill them all? Would she have stood by and let me?... She would! She never stopped me before! She wasn't even concerned with Kurama's safety when she brought me to him to heal from my fight with Ginobly! So does that mean she... loves me? Considers me part of this family she once had? Or is it something more than that?...

Hideshi was napped back into reality as Yusuke finished his transformation, his power was absolutely overwhelming...

"Well then, he doesn't just have the power of Raizen... It seems as though young Urameshi has also adopted his ancestral father's look..." Yojiki observed as the more ferocious-looking Yusuke stepped forward, towards a terrified-looking Kuroko.

"Ack! N-no! This cannot be!" the once-mighty general stated in a frightened tone as Yusuke crept closer towards him, wearing a sinister, fanged smile his ancestor once wore when he backed his enemies into a corner like Yusuke was doing now. "There just cannot be two humans as powerful as I! Its just unnatural!"

"You'll find there is nothing 'natural' about me!" Yusuke grinned even wider as he saw Kuroko give him a look similar to that a frightened child would have as he wet himself in fear, "Don't worry, you won't have to get used to it, you won't be around long enough to adapt!"

The fearful expression of Kudjo's face grew even more terrified as Yusuke issued his threat, but then, as if it were connected to a light switch, his expression drastically changed, along with the color of his eyes... All fear had disappeared from his face all at once, the mighty General now wore a smile of confidence as his once-red eyes now shone with a piercing yellow light. 'Hehe... Poor Urameshi... You should have killed me as soon as you transformed. And shame on you too Hideshi! You could've killed me as well if you put your mind to it! But now it's too late for both of you... Now I am unstoppable!"

"It's happening isn't it?" Damakain asked Yojiki as he studied Kudjo Kuroko's eyes from a distance.

"Yes..." Yojiki responded, "Prepare yourself Damakain, for we may have to intervine..."

"And why should have done it then?" Hideshi asked, stepping to Yusuke's side to face the cornered demon.

"You don't see it yet fools? The change?" the grey-skinned demon uttered, barely able to keep himself from outright laughing.

"Change? All you seem to have done is swap out your peepers."

"Yea," Yusuke agreed with Hideshi with a slight nod "You don't feel any stronger to me!"

"Hahahahahaha!" Kudjo erupted with laughter as the two Spirit Detective stood before him, utterly confused. "Idiots! You had to activate your powers, so what makes you think I mine come about naturally just by blinking my eyes?!"

"What kind of nonsense are you spouting now?!" Yusuke asked angrily, becoming agitated by the general's refrain "I'm tired of this! Hideshi, lets just kill this bastard and be done with it!"

"Quit playing coy with me boys! You two should know how this power works better than anyone! After all, I learned it from you!"

"What the hell does that mean?!" Hideshi shouted interrogatively.

"You see these eyes?" Kuroko asked, pointing to his newly-colored eyes with a sense of pride in his voice "These little beauties can study any opponents techniques or transformations, and then, after they've learned everything there is to know, presto! I have the ancestral powers of Raizen and the sacred energy of the prodigy Romano Hideshi!"

"W-what! There's no way!" Hideshin stated in disbelief, unable to accept that he and Yusuke had just given their opponent all the power he needed to destroy them all.

"Don't believe me yet? Fine! I'll just show you!" Kudjo shouted as his body erupted with energy, tripling his already impressive power. The demonic tattoos of King Raizen began to carve themselves into the flesh of the demon general just as the golden aura of sacred energy spiraled around him, surrounding his body with the intense might that came with it.

"Damakain! Quickly, let's go!" Yojiki ordered as he clenched his white scythe in his fist tightly against the shockwaves radiating from Kudjo.

despite their intense force however, the two demons lunged forward, determined to murder their fellow Premier Brother for fear he had become too powerful.

"You see humans?!" the grey demon cried out, "There is nothing you can do against the almighty might of General Kud-"

The demon was cut short as a loud voice called out from above and behind "Urameshi!"

The general turned his gaze behind towards the sound's point of origin, saw the bright green light as it swung down upon him, and then saw nothing... Nothing at all except blackness... His soul sucked away into the inevitable void of death...

There was nothing but absolute silence across the battlefield save six new feet touching the ground.

The General's power surge had disappeared, both Spirit Detectives and Premire Brothers alike stood by silently in sheer amazement as the dust from the cyclone of power began to settle.

Kudjo Kuroko was a statue. Standing very still, not twitching a muscle, not taking a single breath. The slice in the dimensional fabric ran downwards, directly through his body- from the top of his head all the way to the end of his pelvis. He had been cut with perfect symmetry...

Then, as quickly as the wide gash appeared, the universe began to heal itself, shrinking the slice down to nothingness, demonstrating just how precise Kuwabara's blade had cut through General Kudjo Kuroko. It's almost appeared as though he'd hadn't even hot him for a moment, that the feared demon may not truly be dead.

However, after a few more moments of silence, with Kazuma Kuwabara rising to his feet, the two symmetrical halves of Kudjo Kuroko split apart and fell to the ground apart from one another, his entire anatomy on full display from both views.

It was all over... Thanks entirely to Kuwabara's dimensional sword.

"K-Kuwabara?!" Yusuke stammered, still in his full demonic form.

"Hey Urameshi! We thought you could use some help! So here we are!" the red-haired young man proclaimed as Hiei and Kurama stepped up behind him, the ladder looking relived to see Yusuke and Hideshi both still alive. "Thank goodness we arrived when we did..." Kurama sighed as he stepped forward to greet the twosome.

"What... Was that...?" Damakain asked, his jaw open wide in astonishment at what had just transpired.

"It seems that the good General is unable to issue any more commands..." Yojiki stated quietly, just as shocked as Damakain was. "That boy... He posses a dimensional weapon! He can tear thorough the fabric of the very universe to create a cut so fine and precise that nothing can withstand it! Not even rays of light! That's how he was able to slay Kuroko. The power he holds in his very hands is the very definition of infinite..."

Damakain stood idly by, studying Kuwabara and his dimensional sword. "...Fine... I'll deal with this..." Damakain said as he stepped forward, slowly making his way towards his new opponents.

"You may be signing the same death warrant Ginobly and General Kuroko did if you're planning on taking them all on..." Yojiki smiled smugly at his counterpart, who now had his back turned to him.

"You need not concern yourself Ono..." Damakain stated dramatically "I'm more than powerful enough to deal with Urameshi and Hideshi, fast enough to dodge any maneuvers that boy can use with that sword. That leaves Hiei and Kurama... And neither of them would ever stand a chance against Ginobly..."

"Don't disregard them just yet Damakain. Remember that they can both be extremely deadly in their own rights." Yojiki warned as his comrade strode away from him, his back still turned to the demon.

"So am I..." Damakain muttered under his breath just as he summoned a strange, black symbol into the palm of his hand which glowed with a distinct and bright red light around it's borders, which he raised over his shoulder for Yojiki to see.

Yojiki nodded in understanding at the sight of Damakain's palm. So... He plans on killing at least one of them right off the bat...

"Koenma sir! Botan has returned!" Jorge Saotome alerted the toddler-sized Koenma as he sat behind his desk, intently watching the monitor, which was now displaying a live-feed of Hideshi's struggle against the Premier Brothers down in Demon Realm.

Koenma's eyes protruded with surprise upon hearing the news that she still had not yet been permitted in. "What are you waiting for Ogre?! Let her in!" the toddler-ruler shouted from behind his desk.

In truth, I hadnt even noticed she was gone until now... I guess it all just slipped my mind as soon as all the excitement began... Whatever could have taken her so long...?

A few moments later, a large double doors leading into Koenma's office began to open, and from them emerged a very, very distraught-looking Botan. The usual cheerfulness in her eyes was erased with a look of misery. She had obviously been crying the whole way there. "Koenma! W-where is Hideshi?! Is he alright?!" she started, beginning a long line of questions, all pertaining to Romano's well-being.

"Botan! Please calm down and have a seat so I can explain the situation!" Koenma ordered the grim reaper, a bit frustrated with her moodiness.

"S-sorry sir..." Botan stammered, a bit ashamed of her frantic behavior. She obeyed the child-god's orders and took a seat across from him at his desk.

"Now, to start off, everyone is fine... Hideshi has already killed Ginobly. Of course, he screwed around with him until the very end, where he finished him off with just one punch."

"Just one punch?!" Botan asked, astonded by her partner's increase in strength. "That's all it took?!"

"Like I said, Hideshi wanted to be an ass and toy with him for awhile before putting on his big-boy pants and putting him away, but yes, a single blow and down went Ginobly Atakashi..."

Botan breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh goodness, I'm so glad... Imagine if Romano could put any monster he meets down with a single punch, then he'd undoubtedly be the strongest man to ever live!"

"You'd be surprised how many people would protest you on that statement..." Koenma said lightly under his breath, conveying a strange sense of annoyance as he spoke. "Anyway Botan, Yusuke arrived on the scene shortly after you left and engaged the second Premier Brother, Kudjo Kuroko."

"Yusuke is there too? I dont remeber you telling me to inform him of the Ginobly crisis. In fact, none of us even knew where he was! He and Keiko just vanished off the face of the Earth after the attack on Genkai's home."

"Well Botan... Truth be told... I lied to you, and to my father... Intelligence found him just a month after the demon resort was destroyed in a secluded part of the wilderness. I didn't want anybody to find out because then it would come full-circle and Hideshi would go after Yusuke..."

"Lord Koenma... You hid information from King Yama pertaining to Yusuke?!" Botan questioned, unsure of why Koenma would do something so out of character.

"I know Botan, but I just can't accept that Yusuke was behind the attack... Why would he of all people go and destroy Genkai's home and kill all those demons? It doesn't make any sense! There's no motive! If I told you or Hideshi where he was, he'd probably kill him! Then I'd have to answer to my father as to why his 'golden boy' is dead! I had to pick the lesser of two evils Botan! For both Hideshi and Yusuke's protection!"

Botan sat back in her seat and sighed. She knew that Koenma's justification for secluding Yusuke was right, but she still had doubts as to who committed the crime at Genkai's old place. "Sir?' she began, looking back upo to meet Koenma's eyes "If Yusuke didn't do it? Then who? It wasn't Kurama, otherwise there would be traces of abnormal plants there, Hiei was still in demon world, and there's only one other being this side of the barrier strong enough to have done something like that, and while I don't like to admit it, it just had to be Yusuke!"

"Or Hideshi..." Koenma spoke with conviction in his voice, as if he had already figured it out long ago. "What?! Hideshi?! No! Why would he do such a thing?! He wasn't even strong enought at the time to do something of that scale! You must be mistak-"

"Botan!" Koenma shouted, cutting her off. "You know better than anyone why Hideshi hates demons so much. You also know how disgusted he gets whenever he's around one. How the urge to kill sets in... He's obsessed with wiping out the entirety of the demon race! In many ways, he is to them what Karr is to us now! He's the only one who's got the motivation! Please try to understand!"

"No! I refuse to accept that! Romano is the sweetest, kindest person I've ever met!" Botan shouted defensively, rising from her chair and glaring down at Koenma with eyes full of fury.

"...Would you say the same things about him if you weren't so blinded by love?" Koenma questioned, silencing Botan's defensive comments.

She silently pouted back down into her seat without another word, turning to face the monitor and watch the events down in Demon World as they unfolded.

Botan... Don't throw your life away because of him! Please! Don't keep pursuing him, it'll only end in hurt, and what's worse is I'll have to remove you from your position as Grim Reaper... It's forbidden for you to love... You know that!

"Whoa now! Watch yer toes!" Jin exclaimed as he narrowly escaped a swing from Jurosi's mighty club, the weapon barely missing it's opportunity to crush the wind demon. "Cut the chatter and pick an area and punch it Jin!" Suzuka shouted back as he leap upwards to the mid-section of Jurosi and began to attack him in his guttural region, with little real success.

"You call yourselfs warriors?! This is an insult to me and my valiant brothers!" Jurosi bellowed as the five remaining fighters for King Enki scattered around him wildly, attacking the giant and any way they could in a feeble attempt to cause him enough pain to topple him.

As long as we keep him at bay and he doesn't kill any of us, this fight isn't going anywhere, we need to find a weakness to this guy before he gets in a lucky blow... Toya strategized possible outcomes in his head as the mighty Jurosi turned his head to take note on where all of his opponents were relative to where he would be able to strike them. This guy is a lot smarter than he looks though, we're going to have to pool all our attacks together! "Chu! Jin! It's time for the sextuple strike!"

The two demons called out by their team leader stopped in their tracks as he heard the ice apparition issue his command. They both locked eyes and nodded in unison, understanding the command. "Let me go grab Shishi!" Renku shouted as he heard Toya's order, rushing off into the distance towards his fallen comrade at a surprisingly swift pace.

"What are you maggots planning...?" Jurosi muttered to himself, spotting the large blue-haired demon and the energetic red-haired demon stopping their evasive movements while Suzuka and Toya continued to dart around him, striking him at or around his lower calf regions.

These two are clearly trying to distract me while the little one goes for the swordsman and those other two just stand around and wait. But what are they waiting for? The other guy I flicked away? What for? He should be practically dead by this point, so why would they plan on using him in this 'sextuple strike'? Is this some sort of misdirection? Do they intend to only hit me with what they have?... Regardless, this battle will soon be over and King Enki will have six new graves to dig... Jurosi reached downward to the sack he dropped to the ground a few moments earlier, bringing it up to his chest and peering inside at the glittering, spherical objects contained within it. Try to showcase my little 'party trick'!

"Kuwabara! Behind you!" Yusuke exclaimed as the tall, dark demon known as Damakain seemingly teleported behind the young human.

"Huh? Gah!" Kuwabara reacted upon seeing the evil demon directly behind him, a deadly-looking symbol emblazoned upon his palm, radiating a blood-red light. Wildly, he swung his emerald-green sword at the long-haired demon, attempting to dispatch him with a single strike just as he did to Kudjo Kuroko.

Instead, as soon as Kuwabara's blade came down upon him, Damakain vanished behind him and using his free hand, delivered a devastating chop to the back of Kuwabara's neck, knocking the swordsman to the ground, unconscious.

Yusuke, Kurama, Hideshi and even Hiei, stood in stunned silence, flabbergasted by Damakain's exemplified speed and power.

"Oh damn... He must be pretty strong," Damakain remarked as he looked down into his palm at the demonic symbol emblazoned upon his palm " that stile was meant to decapitate him. Perhaps only using 1% was a bit too low?"

"That monster! His strength is unfathomable!" Kurama gasped in amazement at the sheer power Damakain's aura demonstrated.

"Yea, you should've seen the last guy..." Hideshi remarked, referring to Kudjo Kuroko after replicatingthe powers of himself and Yusuke. "So now that the ginger is dead, are we gonna die?" he asked, staring down at Kuwabara's limp body lying face-down in the dirt.

"We need to move him out of harm's way!" Kurama turned to Hideshi, speaking with a serious tone to counteract the present Spirit Detective's passive voice regarding Kuwabara's condition.

"I'm afraid gentlemen, I cannot allow that..." Damakain said striding forward menacingly, casting a dark and gloomy shadow over his soon-to-be-victims. "I've seen what this boy can do with his spirit energy, and quite frankly... It frightens me... The power to split dimensions like that could be extremely deadly. If only your friend here were fast enough to use it properly. He could have already have both me and Yojiki on the ground dead, then the lot of you could go back to your pitiful world of weaklings..."

Hideshi stirred a bit at the mention of Human World by Damakain, but he did not quite know why. Why is it that I started to feel so upset when he mentioned home? I knew coming into this that I probably wouldnt make it out alive, but why is it then that I feel so energized? Like I need to protect something back home?! Did I leave behind something precious to me?...Someone...?

Ridiculous! I dont have anyone left, the demon saw to that years ago! I remember now how I felt prior to becoming the Spirit Detective... I was suicidal... I leapt into that burning building without hesitation, even though I knew I would die. I saved that kid's life, but then the burning beam came down on me, and I thought it would be curtains from there...

Never in a billion years did I think I would ever get the chance to find meaning in my life after it had already ended. Once I became Spirit Detective, everything changed, it all became about hunting demons and killing each and every last one of them for what they did to me... I thought thats all I would ever be cracked up to be.

But recently, things began to change... Saeger... Yukina... Hiei... and even Ginobly... I felt mercy towards them all... But why? My eyes have been opened... I realize now they are just like me, or any other human. There are good demons and bad demons, just as there are good and evil humans... When though? Did it all change with her...?

We're still going home freak-show, and I'll be taking your hide with me!" Yusuke boasted confidently to Damakain.

"Are you so sure Urameshi?" Damakain smirked slightly from the corner of his mouth, the symbol on his palm glowing bright red with his demonic energy. "The way I see it, you've already got two fighters down and I have yet to get even remotely serious..."

"Wait? Two fighters?" Hideshi questioned, looking around and only seeing Kuwabara lying on the ground.

"Oops... My mistake, I counted a bit too early..." Damakain said with a sadistic smile as the symbol flew from his extended palm out towards the four remaining combatants.

It flew by far too fast for any of them to track, even Hiei, with his heightened sense of speed was unable to spot the blood-red sybol, even after it passed by himself... then Kurama...then Hideshi...and squarely into Yusuke's chest.

The three others turned to see their comrade stare back at them, his eyes blank, almost lifeless as the red symbol burned into his chest, sparking with the intensity of Damakain's energy sparking against his skin, etching itself in, deeper and deeper, causing small trails of blood to leak from the symbol inscribed onto him, matching it's already blood-red color.

The former Spirit Detective collapsed onto all fours, short of breath, clutching his chest, his own blood staining his hand as small sparks of energy erupted from the wound, causing the wound to open wider, splitting apart his chest.

"Yusuke!" Kurama shouted as he saw the half-demon collapse, rushing to his side, trying to aide him in any way he could, despite the situation being hopeless.

"Kurama, even with your healing expertise, you'll never be able to help him..." Damakain stated, relishing in watching the former Spirit Detective struggle.

"...Kurama... Move." Hiei ordered as he came back towards Yusuke, unsheathing his sword with one hand, and summoning a fireball of darkness flames in the other.

"Hiei... What are you doing?!" Kurama exclaimed, watching the shorter demon run the blade of his sword across the flames, setting the sword aglow with the darkness flames.

"Don't make me say it again Kurama..." Hiei warned as he moved his word into a striking position "get out of the way now, or else Yusuke will die..."

"Arggh!" Yusuke wailed in pain as the symbol seared his skin, burning and cutting, deeper and deeper into him.

Darkness flames? How did he know?! Damakain questioned as he observed Hiei's technique.

Kurama hesitated for only a moment, then stepped away from Yusuke, immediately afterwrds, Hiei swiped his burning blade across Yusuke's chest, lighting the symbol on fire with the darkness sword's flames, destroying the symbol, and charring Yusuke's skin, providing some alleviation from the bleeding.

"There... Just in time. He'll live... Though I doubt he'll have the strength to stand for awhile. At least now I know who you are..." Hiei turned towards Damakain, changing his tone.

Oh... It seems as though Damakain's little secret is out... Yojiki laughed to himself a bit. How fortunate for them that Hiei knows how to harness the darkness flames. Not that they stand a chance, but it may delay their inevitable deaths for a little while...

"Heh... I'm surprised Hiei... That anyone would've been able to recognize my breed of demon..." Damakain smiled to himself, a bit flattered that Hiei, or anyone for that matter remembered his people.

"How could I forget those stories...?The star demons were legendary back in their day..."

"Hiei?" Hideshi began to ask "Who are these 'Star Demons'?"

"They're an ancient race of people whose power is said to be derived from the stars in Demon Realm's sky. I almost never believed on those legends until I came across a market full of goods that were obviously stolen by bandits... There, sitting in a display case, was the severed hand of a demon the shopkeeper claimed to belong to a dead Star Demon. There were still multiple symbols on it, the likes of which I've never seen before. Even from behind that glass, I could feel the power radiating from them... It was otherworldly to say the least.

"The shopkeeper told me all about the Star Demons and their power over demonic symbols. It got me so interested, I decided to look into it myself... During my studies was when I first heard of the darkness flame techniques, and how the properties of the black fire could be used to cancel out the effects of the symbols and destroy them."

"Heh... Lucky break then... Had you not known that, Yusuke would probably die." Hideshi said, looking over to the crippled mass of the Spirit Detective lying in the dirt. "Though I'd hate to admit it, I'm going to need all the help I can get on this case... Even if it means having to temporarily pardon Yusuke for the time being..."

"Go ahead, call on as much help as you want, whoever comes will probably be of no help to you..." Damakain stated flatly, approaching the foursome will murderous intentions in his eyes.

"Hiei, can you watch over Yusuke?" Kurama asked his demon cohort.

"I'm nobody's bodyguard Kurama..."

"I realize that, but if Hideshi dies now, he's going to be the only chance we've got!" Kurama tried to reason with Hiei.

"...Fine..." Hiei reluctantly agreed. "But only until he gets back on his feet... I'm not going to play babysitter for this fool if he can help himself!"

"Don't worry about it!" Hideshi called back to Hiei as he stepped away from the group towards Damakain. "He won't be needed! Because I'm about to rearrange this guy's face!" he stated confidently, a cocky smirk on his face, obviously directed towards Damakain.

"Ha! You think you have what it takes Detective?! I've seen everything you're capable of already! And let me tell you; I'm not impressed!" Damakain retorted, confident that Hideshi was merely bluffing.

"Don't sell me short Damakain! I've still got plenty of tricks up my sleeve!" Hideshi said, re activating his sacred energy aura, enveloping it around his body like an outline.

Oh... His aura is exceptionally different now. It feels almost... material. Tangible, as though I could reach out and touch it... Damakain thought to himself in surprise upon feeling Hideshi's new energy.

A slight smirk crossed the Spirit Detective's face as he saw Damakain's expression soften in slight surprise. Time to eat your words demon! The aura surrounding Hideshi sparkled for a brief moment before dispersing away from his physical form, compiling itself into several glowing particles of energy, each one orbiting their point of origin similar to an electron surrounding an atom's nucleus.

To Damakain's amazement, when the particles of energy reconvened on Hideshi's body, they did in fact, take a physicl form in the shape of a sectioned armor chest plate, accompanied by a long, sheathed weapon attached to his hip. His light emanating aura may have faded, but all the combatants could still feel the potent taste of the golden sacred energy.

"Alright then Damakain... Come at me with anything you want!" Hideshi smirked with confidence as he stood before the long-haired demon. "So long as I have my warrior armor, any damage you try to inflict on me will be rendered useless while I'm free to kick your ass all over the place!"

Hideshi's warrior armor serves several specific functions for almost any situation. In other words, the warrior armor is the most versatile of the sacred energy armors he was able to manifest in his time training with Kuroko Sato. His also developed two other types of armor in this time period, the special-defense armor and the dash armor.

As one could reasonably assume, the Special- Defense armor's primary function was to protect Hideshi under any and all circumstances, no matter the sacrifice he had to contribute in terms of mobility and attack power. The armor was a thick layer of metal the likes of which had never been observed by any human before. It was far stronger than diamond and weighed about the same as a tiger tank. If Hideshi wishes to move at all while this armor is active, he must set up yet another layer of sacred energy aura around his body, and even then, it would be incredibly difficult and strenuous to even take a few steps. Despite this disadvantage, the special defensive armor is designed to act for like the shell of an egg rather than a suit. The armor was shaped like a massive Franklin stove, complete with a helmet, gauntlets, and leg protection made of the same resilient material as the chest piece. The suit in also climate controlled, meaning Hideshi can survive temperatures hotter than that of the center of the sun, or colder than -270 degrees Celsius. While confined inside this armor, Hideshi could even survive in the vacuum of space indefinitely. Essentially, nothing short of Kuwabara's dimensional sword, or the threads of the Makai Barier would be able to piece this armor.

The second set of armor Romano had formulated was the dash armor. While it was really nothing more than a few gold-colored metal bands holding a thin white cloth to his arms across his shoulders, the dash armor gave him speed which would make even Hiei jealous, while not providing any real physical defense. When asked by his teacher why he had chosen such an open style armor, Hideshi replied "If they can't hit you, what do you have to defend against?" In actuallity, Hideshi's intentions by designing the armor in this way were to lure his opponents into a false sense of superiority, thinking that the Detective was a vunerable target.

Using the advantages of both his dash armor and his special-defense armor allotted Hideshi the ability to craft the all-around warrior armor, which he presently wore against Damakain. It wouls sheild him from a majority of the demon's attacks, while still giving him a boost in physical attacks and speed. The sword was just a last minute addition which Hideshi claimed was soley for the purpose of "style". Once again, Romano Hideshi proved to everyone why you should never trust anything he says. The sword actually proved to be the deadliest portion of his new armor for the secrets contained within it's sheath.

Damakain silently admired the construction of Hideshi's armor for a moment, trying to find and weak points to exploit. Unfortunetly for him, he could not find any through just glancing it over. "Indeed you have surprised me, Romano Hideshi... I did not think you intelligent enough to construct such a magnificent suit of armor..." Damakain admitted.

"I'll hold my temper since you followed up that insult up with a compliment..." Hideshi smirked, crossing his arms smugly.

"However," Damakain stood before Hideshi, his voice conveying a feeling of forewarning "do not think that you stand a chance now! You may have manipulated your energy into a physical armor, but I can still sense your energy... It's quite weak when compared to my own." Damakain's eyes sparked with intensity as he summoned his massive demonic aura.

Drawing his fist back took the demon Damakain a mere .06 seconds. The time it took for his fist to fall through with the punch was approximately .72 second, and that was only because there was still a sizable gap between him and Romano Hideshi. The time it took for the full force of Damakain's fist to slam into Hideshi's face, creating a chain reaction which sent him to the ground, nursing his bruised jaw in his hand was was approximately 1.05 seconds. In that time period, while the end result was still Romano Hideshi lying in the dirt, he had more than enough time to anticipate this movement, and come up with a small, counter strategy in the depths of his complicated mind.

Ok... It looks like he's about to hit me... Yea, definitely a straight right jab to my face, I can see it from here... He's coming closer now... He looks funny when he's running... Does he have a clubbed foot or something? No! Wait! Focus! I need to counter this!... Who was it back in high school who had the clubbed foot? Agh, this is going to bother me all day if I don't figure it out... Maybe it was Jax? Oh shit, I goofed...

"You seem to get distracted a bit too easily..." Damakain said, his expression one of pleasant surprise as he saw Hideshi lie on the ground the way he did after being hit only once. "I thought for certain that you would have been able to block that strike... I'm actually a disappointed..." subtly, Damakain relaxed his other hand, which had been strectched out and inflicted with yet another bright-red symbol, different from the death symbol, yet similar for two of the observers of the fight to noticed which he had intended to use.

So that was your plan Damakian... How interesting... Ono Yoiki smirked subtly as he watched the battle transpire in front of him. He had known Damakain for several years now, and he had learned a wide variety of Damakain's star symbol techniques. How shattering to his spirit that would be... I suppose that sadism of yours and your drive to kill is why you're the only one of us to ever earn brother's respect... Yojiki thought tenatively as he touched the back of his head, his fingertips only gently running across his silver hair at first, but then his hand closed into a hostile fist, remembering what lied dormant underneath that thick layer of white hair.

Neji... After Lord Karr has conquered the three realms of existence... I swear on our family's grave that I will kill you, and finally be free of this atrocious nightmare!

Ono and Neji Yojiki were conceived as twins by their parents, members of the elite Yojiki mercenary family. However, tragedy stuck as their mother's pregnancy progressed...

The twins became conjoined, melding their bodies into a single body. All that remained of the twins was their faces, plastered to either side of the body's head, never to be seperated.

After their mother gave birth to the horrid baby, it was discovered that while one side of the baby's head face awake, it's face crying and eating; the other would sleep soundly, shifting positions as soon as the other brother fell asleep. The arms of and legs of the conscious bay would turn round horrifically, their skeletal structure breaking down and building itself back together so that the brother in command would have full control of the body.

While proving difficult to raise a child that necessarily never slept, Ono and Neji parents somehow managed to raise their mangled child until the age of six, when the personalities of the two brothers came into fruition.

Ono was a sweet, good-natured boy, who felt nothing but compassion for others.

Neji on the other hand, was violent and murderous, not holding so much as a shred of empathy for anything living thing he came across. He would torture animals, destroy other's property, and was constantly fantasizing of a more efficient way of harvesting his favorite food: human flesh.

Ono attracted good-hearted demons and spirits wherever he would go during the day. But when night fell, Neji would murder his brother's friends as they slept. His tendency for violence and sickly sadistic ideas attracted the attention of equally low filth. One of which was a demon lord named Kaitou.

Kaitou used his power of manipulation to tempt the easily-corruptible boy into murdering his entire extended family and working as his personal assassin. Neji did all of his killing exclusively at night, murdering thousands of Kaitou's personal enemies. Though it seemed like no one could stand in the way of Neji since he struck only when is targets were asleep, there was a single annoyance he could never free himself from, his conjoined brother, Ono.

The two hated each other for numerous reasons, may it be that Ono wanted revenge for the deaths of his clan, or that Neji was just sick and tired of sharing a body with his twin brother.

However, the two never dared to try and kill the other, for fear they would actually be killing themselves in the process. After all, both boys felt that they should experience the world for themselves, inside their own body, on their own terms, finally able to rest...

Yes... I must find a way... Not only for myself... But also for Lord Karr's sake...

"That hand..." Hiei stared out blankly at Damakain's open palm, where the mysterious symbol had just vanished from the demon's skin after missing his chance to use it by striking Romano down.

He tried using his first strike with his fist as a distraction, hoping Hideshi would focus on a manuver to counter it. While his focus was on that, he would attach that other symbol to the Detective, and it would have meant curtains for him... Hiei scoffed for a moment, reminding himself of how Hideshi had saved himself. That fool... His own stupidity saved his life! Any other fighter wouldn't have allowed himself to become so distracted!

"Ouch..." Hideshi rose back to his feet, a bit disorientated by the pain. "Sorry about that, my mind kind of wandered off for a second..."

"Tch... You're a fool Romano Hideshi! I could expect that kind of clumsiness from a rookie fighter or maybe even one of your human psychics, but a Spirit Detective? You surely must realize that a title like that comes with certain expectations... If youre meant to be the strongest of your race and I knock you down with a half-assed punch, what does that have to say about humans other than they are are just weak, meaningless animals for us to slaughter!"

"Yea yea... Ive heard the whole 'Demons are the best, humans are just food' thing several times before..." Hideshi said, getting back up on his feet, brushing the dirt from his armor. "I'm also aware of your human farms... To be honest, they're one of the reasons I'm here... To shut them all down!"

"Come now Romano Hideshi, would you really deny us demons a open source of food?" Damakain smirked, thinking of the plan Lord Karr had been enacting with the help of his followers.

"H-Hiei..." Yusuke tugged on the leg of his companion as he began to feel his conciousness return.

"Oh great, now I've got another fool to deal with... What do you want Yusuke?" Hiei crossed his arms in front of himself, grunting in annoyance for having to be bothered by the recently awakened Demon hybrid.

"Help me up will ya?" Yusuke ordered, the strength just barely returning to his voice. Leading Hiei to sigh heavily in annoyance, taking the former detective under his arms and helping him to his feet, all eyes now on him.

"Have a nice nap Urameshi?" Damakain asked smugly, proud of the seared hole he had left in Yusuke's chest.

"I can't really complain... But instead of talking about that, why don't you tell me about these human farms? I'm actually kinda interested..."

"Humph, you mean you never knew of what Lord Karr had been planning until just now?" Damakain said in a tone of voice that conveyed both amazement and humor. "Fine then, I suppose there is no harm in telling you..."

Damakain, turned his body towards Yusuke and Hiei, projecting his voice towards the two demons, though not exclusively so that Kurama or Hideshi wouldn't be able to hear what he had to say.

"The human farm initiative was created several years ago, the product of Ono's brother's imagination actually... As you may know, humans are considered a delicacy down here to us demons. No one demon can go too long without tasting human flesh, so when that foolish King, Enki, outlawed the consumption of humans, we foresaw the action for what it really was; an order that would mean each and every demon would eventually die of starvation unless we switched to an alternate food source. This was basically the equivalent of your human governments ordering a cease to all consumtion of meat, it was absolutely outrageous! So, since getting a hold of human meat was not such a difficult task, Neji brought forth the idea of capturing humans on the brief trips we would sometimes be able to take to human world. Using our outside source to bypass the barrier, we captured dozens of humans! Once back at our farms, we implemented selective breeding, killing off those of lesser-quality meat, while leaving the others to breed future generation of humans for us to devour! Each and everyone of those human's offspring will possess the desirable taste we demons crave! Essentially, we solved the issue of human consumption overnight, preventing our species extinction!"

"That is the sickest, and Most disgusting thing I had ever heard of, so that's while I'm still here, to shut down not only the farms, but Lord Karr as well!" Hideshi shouted angrily, clearly expressing his rage towards the demons.

"Actually, it's not a bad idea..." Yusuke said, throwing his hat into the conversation, about to spark a conflict between himself and it's members.

"W-What the hell did you just say?!" Hideshi turned around to face Yusuke, shocked that the former protector of humanity would agree to such a sick and twisted idea.

"I'm saying it's not a bad idea, a demon has go to eat too, but I don't think either of us is exactly in favor of them having free reign to run around and eat whoever they'd like. This way, it'll keep the demons out of Human Realm for good." Yusuke reasoned, genuinely believing the farms would be a good idea.

"Yusuke..." Hideshi began, seething with anger "You bastard... How could you allow this?! They are abducting and killing innocent people! Humans just like us!"

"I'm not totally human Hideshi..." Yusuke sighed, reminded of his fate as a hybrid demon. "And I'm only saying that this is a good idea because it would save human and demon lives. We've tried living together before, but that didn't work out, so maybe this is the best way for us to live apart, with absolutely no risk of war. If it means we have to sacrifice a few million for the sake of billions, so be it."

Hideshi clenched his fist in anger at the former Spirit Detective. Yusuke, you've turned your back on humanity... You would allow humans to be killed and treated like this? Yow swore to protect them, all of them... No matter the cost, none of them were to ever be left behind...

"Urameshi... It's a miracle the world was able to survive with you as it's protector... You'd risk the lives of good, honest people in favor for security for everyone else."Hideshi's eyes ignited with anger, feeling a searing hatred burn inside his stomach, energy rising with the intense emotions he was feeling. It didn't help that the sacred energy actually had a profound effect in heightening his emotions, just like in the cave against Tatsuo. This moment was actually bringing back memories of that day to Hideshi, who suddenly began to remember how he felt when he was enveloped within his sacred energy.

Wait a second... The last time I used this energy was when... When Botan was in danger... And after I snapped out of it, I was holding her. But why? The other time I transformed was because of Wendy, but I wasn't thinking of Wendy at that time... In fact, the only person I was concerned with was Botan... Does this mean that she's just as effective of a trigger for the sacred energy? She's definitely a good friend but I never would've said that I care for her that way... But now that I think about it... Botan has always been there for me, she's never once let me down. She's what has gotten me through the darkest parts of my life since my resurrection...

...

...

...

...Is that what it means to truly be in love? To feel the deepest, uttermost devotion for someone to the point where you'd do anything for that person, even if it costs you your own life?

Then maybe that's why she looks at me differently, and I look at her differently too...

Am I? Is she? Are we? In love...?

Yusuke had prepared a rebuttal argument against Hideshi, but stoped short as he saw the current Spirit Detective's facial expression change.

He looks totally zoned out, like he's thinking about something really, really hard... It's cutting his focus! This isn't good! If Damakain kills him now, I definitely wont be able to even hit him, let alone defeat him! And then there's still that other creeper over there... Whether he sees my way or not, I'm going to have to keep Hideshi alive if I want to beat these guys...

Damakain's eyes expanded hungrily as he saw Hideshi become consumed by his own, internal conflict. How delicious! I've pitted them against one another at and ideological stand point, and now this one has tensed up! I couldn't ask for a better opportunity! I must make my move now!

Damakain positioned himself to pounce on the unsuspecting Hideshi, preparing to strike a fatal blow to the side of the Spirit Detective's head. A fraction of a second later, there was blood on the ground... and a lot of it...

Fortunetly for Romano Hideshi and his allies, while they were all distracted, one of them was paying close attention to Damakain just as he was ready to strike.

About a meter away from the Sprit Detective, Damakain stood by, halted in his advancement, long, prickly weeds, entgaling themselves around his legs, tearing into them with their long, sharp thorns, holding back the demon's rampage before it could even begin.

"W-What?!" Damakain shouted in disorientation as he found himself entangled by Kurama's thorns.

It was at this moment Hideshi snapped back into reality, turning towards Kurama with a shocked expression.

"Just go ahead! Now's your only chance to do some damage!" Kurama ordered, desperately trying to keep the thorned weeds rising, entangling themselves around the mighty Sasuke Damakain's ankles.

Hideshi nodded, immediately understanding what he had to do. "Alright then, lets switch from defense to offense!" Hideshi's aura then disappated from around his body, the armor he conjured being manipulated back into the spheres of sacred energy, surrounding his body much like had done before.

The glowing spheres of energy then came to a rest around the detective's wrsits and closed fists, transforming themselves into tangible, metallic matter which resembled two sets of some sort of gauntlet, both of which connected to one another by a heavy chain.

'What the hell are those atrocities?!" Damakain shouted, fear gripping his voice as he felt the pure power contained within Hideshi's fists.

"Think of it as armor for your hands you can use to grind your enemies' skeletons to dust with..." Hideshi said, lifting the heavy gauntlets to his face for closer inspection. "I'd call them a set of Spirit Gauntlets, but since that's a little too expected, how about we go with 'Demon Smashers'?"

The powerful human, drew one of his powerful Demon Smashers backward, eager to test their power on the nearly-helpless Damakain, who tried to raise his arms to defend himself, but to no avail, as Kurama extended the weeds to constrict themselves around Damakain's arms, tightly holding them down to his sides. "Not happening you son of a bitch!" the red-haired demon cried out to Damakain as he continued to infuse more and more energy into the thorns, causing them to grow longer and sharper against the Demon's skin.

Seeing that his opponent was now helpless, Hideshi let lose all of his anger and anxiety onto the demon, letting his Demon Smashers pound against Damakain's face and stomach, hitting him at an alarming rate despite the Smashers' weight.

Equally surprising was how much damage Romano was dealing against the dark-haired fiend. Damakain's body became bruised and battered each time one of Hideshi's demon smashers bashed his body. Blood even began to fly from the open jaw of the Premire Brother, further demonstrating just how powerful Hideshi's attacks truly were.

"Incredible..." Ono Yojiki gasped in amazement, seeing how much damage Romano Hideshi's attacks were doing against his comrade now that they were being boosted by the sacred energy in a tangible form. This is definitely a surprise... I knew Hideshi's spiritual power was great for a human in terms of pure energy, such as his Spirit Gun or Spirit Grenade, but he was severely lacking in physical power. Impressive, he figured out a way to marry his raw energy and his physical power in such a way that there is no barrier separating the two, almost as if both were a single extension of Romano Hideshi himself.

As usual, Ono Yojiki was correct, this was the extent of Romano's sacred energy summoning itself in the form of tangible matter. When a psychic uses Spirit energy, they are indeed using energy from their own body, however, Spirit energy has no mass and is not made of any of the four different forms of matter, hence it cannot usually be used to benefit a physical body on a structural basis. There are very few exceptions to this rule, one of which was the Younger Toguro brother, whose physicality was expanded upon by utilizing his spirit energy, but hiss body was not altered in any way.

Demon energy however, works in a very different way to Spirit energy. Where spirit energy originates from a living person's life energy and spiritual awareness, a demon's energy comes from blood, whether it be from their own bodies, or by the consumption of humans and other enemies, which is way Toguro's body muscles were able to expand on a physical basis, versus an enhanced basis.

The same is true of Sacred Energy, seeing as the energy can only be obtained by a pure-blooded human psychic who has transpired the normal reaches of Spiritual Awareness, granting it's users the ability to preform god-like feats, such as creating energy and matter utilizing their energy, which is why Hideshi was able to enhance himself on a physically structured way by using the generated matter for offensive purposes.

Hideshi's Demon Smashers do come with a few small draw backs. One of which is the weight of the Smashers. Each Demon smasher weighs approximately 220 Kilograms each, meaning that, just like Romano's Special Defense armor, he has to use some of his sacred energy in reserve to give himself the power to lift the gauntlets and use them for attacking purposes.

Also worth mentioning is the chain that bounds the two gauntlets together, only allowing the two metal fists to be separated about a meter apart at a time, giving them a limited range. This chain cannot be separated under any circumstances, or else the Smashers themselves will deactivate.

This is actually very bad... Yojiki stood by idly, clutching his sycthe tightly in his hand as he watched Damakain take his vicious beating. If Damakain goes down to this, there's a good chance Hideshi has something else up his sleeve that I wont be able to forsee... Damakain, I need you to stay alive so I can scout out my opponents! In combat, there is nothing deadlier than an unpredictible opponent!

As Yojiki's grip to his scythe tightened, Damakain's conscious began to fade, the pummeling hits from Hideshi's demon smashers were taking a toll on his body. Little did he know however, that the weapons were also exhausting Hideshi's physical prowess as well. Damn, I didn't think these things would tire me out so much! I'm gonna have to take a chance here and just let him have it all at once!

The spirit Detective ceased hitting Damakain for a moment, then began to liquefy his sacred energy from his left fist once again, leaving the right demon smasher and it's attached chain in tact. "What the hell is that fool doing now?" Hiei questioned, looking onward while still supporting the injured Yusuke's weight. "I imagine whatever it is," Yusuke answered, pulling Hiei's arm out from under him, comfortable enough to stand on his own now "it's gonna be meant to finish this guy off..."

In the very next instant, the golden energy converged onto the remaining right smasher, combing with it to form a monstrosity unlike either of the two hostile demons had ever seen metal-like gauntlet which once surrounded only Hideshi's fists and wrists, now engulfed his entire arm, increasing it's weight, but also it's potential energy. The chain that had once bound the two separate smashers together now coiled itself around the length of the new,. larger smasher, like a serpent trying to suffocate it's prey.

"Sorry demon, but this looks like the end of the road for you! Super Smasher!" Hiddeshi cried out as he used every once of his already-impressive strength, coupled with his sacred energy to swing the massive bulk back around himself, before swinging it forward, letting Sasuke Damakain have it.

Streams of blood rushed from Damakain's legs as Hideshi's super smasher knocked him free from Kurama's throns, the plants doing their last spout of damage to the demon, even as he was freed from their entanglement.

Despite this however, Hideshi and Kurama's faces wore grim and startled expressions as they watched the demon fall through the air, only to stick the landing onto the ground using his hands, and then back-flip himself back onto his feet, ready to strike once again, wearing a maddening expression upon his face.

There was no more time for words as the great demon leaped forward, his eyes fixed themselves on Hideshi. All Romano had time to do was to transfer the sacred energy from his right arm back into his warrior armor, and step backwards, barely escaping the scarlet symbol emblazoned onto Damakain's palm.

Time for a surprise, Hideshi thought to himself as his hand found the hilt of his sheathed sword which came standard with his warrior armor.

He's going to try and cut me?! Damkain anticipated as he watched the Spirit Detective grasp the hilt of his sword, calculating the trajectory of how he could unsheathe it and swing a lethal strike with the exposed blade. Figuring it would most likely be directed at his neck, Damakain swung his head away from where the detective's blade would come, avoiding any injury more severe than a possible severed ear, granted the craftsmanship of the blade.

As the two combatants feet finally touched the ground again, Hideshi removed the hilt from it's sheaf to reveal that his sword was in fact... fake...

What?! There is no blade? Damakain thought in frantic surprise, seeing the detective pull nothing but the hilt of a sword out from the sheaf at his side. There was no danger at all from the sword itself. However, from within the sheaf came a golden ray of pure sacred energy which pierced directly through the abdomen of Damakain, who had no time at all to react since he had been counting on there being a real sword cotained within Hideshi's sheaf.

The fake sword had done it's job well, and had proven to be quite the effective weapon against an unsuspecting foe. The purpose of the sheaf was to collect spare energy not being used by Hideshi to maintain his armor, and the hilt acted as a cap to that stored energy. So when Hideshi withdrew his sword, the enemy was meant to think that there would be an actual sword used by him to strike them down. In reality however, ducking one's head or tilting it to the side would be a fruitless motion to counter the attack, as the ray of energy would rush forward, from the masking sheaf to piece it's foes. In true Romano Hideshi manner, this attack was aptly named...

"Style Sword!"

Ono Yojiki stood by in horror as he watched the ray of golden light impale his comrade, whose face wore a surprised and very worried expression, but only for a mere moment. As the light faded into nothingness, leaving behind a sizeable, bloody hole straight through Damakain, the demon broke out in psycotic laughter.

"What the hell?! Is this guy a masochist or something? Because if you are, I am sorry, I didnt mean to turn you on!" Hideshi cracked a joke before watching with bug eyes as the wound in Damakain's gut began to close, leaving behind only the dark stain of his blood.

This caught Hideshi so off guard he didnt even notice the demon's palm until he had already landed it onto the chest area of his armor. "Break!" Damakain cried out madly as the scarlet symbol inside his palm activated, shattering Hideshi's armor around him into tiny pieces which fell to the ground harmlessly. "Awh shi-" the detective tried to curse but was swatted away by Damakain's other powerful arm, knocking him to the ground a few meters away.

"Finally! An opening!" Damakain shouted victoriously as he summoned another death symbol into his right palm, then directed it towards Hideshi as he lie face-down away from the demon.

"No!" Kurama instantly reacted, summoning his rose whip and immediately using it to tightly wrap itself around Damakain's forearm. The fox-like demon within took over from there. Using his heightened reflexes, Kurama roughly yanked back on the whip, slicing it deep into the demon's skin, then into his veins, then his bones...

When it was all said and done, the right arm of Sasuke Damakian lay on the ground, severed by Kurama's rose whip. The death symbol fading from it's palm.

"Oh..." Damakain simply said as he looked down from his bleeding stump of an arm down to the severed hand lying upon the ground, staining it with his demonic blood. Using his remaining hand, the demon grasped his arm by it's bloody base, and then lifted it towards his stump. "A good effort," he complimented as he turned towards Kurama "but only a minor set back..."

"...You don't mean to reattach that arm, do you?" Kurama asked, his eyes narrowing in on Damakain, skeptical as to what this opponent's strategy may be.

"But of course..." Damakain said as if it were a casual affair. The long, dark-haired demon lowered the bloody hand down onto it's stump, making the two ends touch a small smirk, several small, black symbols chained together around where the two ends of Damakain's arm. In a matter of seconds, the limb was then repaired, good as new with all of it's previous nerve functionality. "You like this technique Kurama? It's the same I used to heal this-" Damakain explained, gesturing to his blood-soaked abdomen where Hideshi had previously pierced him.

"Damn it! He can heal himself from even the most mortal of wounds!" Hiei cursed Damakain's ability. "...Which means that I'm the only one who can defeat him... My darkness flames are the only counter we have to his star symbols... Damn... If I were only stronger... I was hoping Hideshi or Yusuke would be our saving grace, but if it's someone like me who is leagues below both of them... What chance do we have...?"

"Do you intend to do harm to Romano Hideshi now that your arm has been reattached?" Kurama asked Damakain, his head held low, the shadows covering his eyes as well as the rest of his feminine face.

"Heh, kind of a stupid question... Of course I'm going to do harm to him, I'm going to kill him!" Damakain spoke of the unconscious Spirit Detective with blood lust in his voice.

"Well then... I'm afraid I cannot let you do that..." Kurama stated dramatically, clutching his rose whip in his hand tightly. "He means a lot to a very close friend of ours, and I'd very much like to bring him home to her. So if you intend on hurting Hideshi, just know that you'll have to kill me first, or else you'll be fighting without any limbs..."

There was a long pause of complete silence as Kurama finished his explanation of his resolve to keep the Spirit Detective alive. However, after a few seconds of dead air, Damakain laughed quietly to himself, breaking their silent exchange. "Alright then... Kurama, you got to ask your silly little question, now I believe it's my turn..." Damakain said with a sneer. "So let me ask you, Yoko Kurama..."

With blinding speed, the demon interrupted his own question to close the gap of space between himself and Kurama, the former holding the latter up into the air by his throat in a tight stranglehold. "Why havent you transformed yet?! I know you're capable of so much more than this! So tell me! Why haven't you shed this pathetic human form to face me yet?!"

Kurama sat helplessly at the end of Damakain's outstretched arm, his fingers tangling themselves tightly around the red-haired human's throat so that he could only barely choke out the answer Damakain wanted "...because I made a promise... to my love..."

"Hiei! Let's go! Now!" Yusuke shouted, blinded by rage, shooting himself forward towards Damakain recklessly as he saw his friend in peril. However, Damakian had long anticipated this move, and had already prepared a counter for it. "Swarm!" he cried out as he caught Yusuke's fist in his free hand, channeling his energy into the palm of his hand where a scarlet star symbol was now making contact with Yusuke's fist. After calling the attack, thousands of small, red symbols came cascading down Yuske's arm, down his shoulder and onto his chest before expanding outwards, surrounding his entire body, leaving an intense, burning sensation wherever they crawled on his skin, causing Yuske to fall to the ground in agonizing pain for the second time since they had engaged Sasuke Damakain.

"Do my insects hurt you Yusuke?" Damakain asked sadistically, glancing down at the suffering Yusuke as his red symbols continued to crawl around upon his skin, burning him wherever they touched. "That pain will only get worse as they grow darker in color... Once they turn black, they sink down into your skin and then you will die... It's a slow, agonizing death, intended to make you suffer for as long as possible!"

Mmm... I was wondering when those symbols would come about... Yojiki thought to himself, the grip on his scythe now relaxed. What he says is true... Those things are as nasty as can be and can continue torturing their victim for up to thirty minutes until they finally die due to the excruciating pain. It's like being set on fire and burning to death, only slower and far more intense... Everyone else would be lucky to die from any other symbol attack...

"Bastard!" Romano Hideshi stated as he quickly leapt to his feet, catching Damakain off guard as the Spirit Detective attempted to throw a punch at the tall demon. The fist made contact, but had very little effect as it came to a rest on the side of Damakain's jawline, for the demon still stood, strong as ever, before him.

"You're like a dog off his leash and it's irritating me..." Damakain stated as he pressed the index finger of his free hand against Romano's wrist, drawing a circle around it, leaving small,dark, chaining symbols behind. "Lets fix that shall we?" the demon stated as he immediately cast Hideshi far away from himself, the restraining end of his chain of demonic symbols still being held by him.

"Want to join in on the fun Kurama?" Damakain asked sadistically as he held the half-conscious demon by the throat before retrieving the rose whip he had previously drooped on the ground and wrapping Kurama's ankle in it. After he was secured with the whip, Damakian cast Kurama away in the same fashion he had done to Hideshi a few moments prior.

An evil smirk crossed the Premier brother's face as he began to violently wave his arms about, snapping and whipping both Kurama and Hideshi's bodies around like two rag dolls, slamming them into the ground and surrounding stones as forcefully and violently as he could.

Damakain's fun did not last long though, for just a few moments later, both captives were freed by a rush of black fire consuming a long, slender sword.

"Hiei..." the aggressive demon's eyes narrowed onto the black-clad demon, watching the darkness flames burn around the length of his sword. "You're the one I wanted to fight the most..."

"It'll be the last mistake you'll ever make in your pitiful life..." Hiei warned as he positioned his sword into an attack position, ready to take on the Premier Brother all by himself.

"Hiei. Are you really so bold as to make threats against me? You may have the darkness flames under your control, but my techniques are far more refined. I could kill you with any number of my star symbols, we could make it an exercise in creativity." Damakain taunted as his palms began to flow full of demon symbols, each serving some strange, unknown purpose.

I'm may be faster than this fool, but I won't be able to keep up if he pitches all those attacks at me all at once... Hiei thought to himself, keeping his ignited sword at the ready, waiting for his opponent to strike first. I'm going to have to use the Jagan eye to foresee his movements... Just as he finished this thought, Hiei immediately removed his headband from his forehead, which had concealed his Jagan implant.

A Jagan eye? Damakain thought in astonishment as he watched the shorter demon's forehead split apart horizontally, revealing the purple iris of Hiei's demonic third eye. How interesting... Maybe fighting him won't be quite as boring now...

Miles away, while there was pleanty of excitement occurring in the fight between Team Urameshi and the Premire Brothers, Toya's Strike Team has had their hands full with the towering demon Jurosi. However, Renku could be seen returning to the battlefield, Shishiwakamaru leaning on the much shorter demon's shoulders for support.

"Toya! Look!" Chu cried out to the team's leader as he spotted Shishiwakamaru and Renku returning from the forested area Jurosi had flicked him into.

Toya nodded in response then called out to the rest of his team. "Everyone! Renku and Shishi are back! Sextuple strike!" Simultaneously, the other five demons nodded their heads in understanding, they had prepared for this event, even if one of them was injured, they would still have this final trump card to deal with their opponents.

He's back!... But he looks pretty shaken up... Jurosi observed of the injured Shishiwakamaru, who seemed to be putting up a fight just to stand on his own two feet. I have to assume he's not very important to this maneuver! Either that, or he can complete his task, even without his full strength! I'm going to have to use the mints, finish this all off before it gets to be too much for me to handle!

But which one do I use? The ice mint won't have any effect, Toya has already demonstrated his ability to control ice at a whim. The enhancer mints won't do either since Jin's power is similar to Toya's. In either case, I'd just be dealing damage to myself rather than my intended targets! That just leaves my dragon mints and my toxic enhancers... Using either of those are risky... Hell, using anything involving my breath is a risk when dealing with Jin... I should have dealt with him ahead of time...

To better understand the thoughts of this demon, one must take a look into his past and his special abilities.

Jurosi Bocogano was born the youngest of twelve children to family of Mautekuma, or Mountain Demons. Young Jurosi discovered his passion at a very young age when a small plastic bag full of candy from the Human World mysteriously found it's way onto his mountain home. Intrigued, the Young Jurosi tried eating a gumdrop, and immediately fell in love with the sweet tastes and textures of the delicious treat. Becoming so intrigued by his finding he dared to wander off into the Human World for answers, Jurosi learned through observation of a candy factory how to craft the delicacies.

Taking what he had learned from the human world back home, Jurosi began crationg his own blend of candies, attempting to recreate what he had tasted from the human world using ingredients found in the Demon Realm.

After years and years of practice, Jurosi finally developed his own form of Human World candy. But when he presented it to his demon associates, they all shunned him for his ridiculous fantasies of bringing something from the Human World to the land of demons.

Essentially, the other demons has told Jurosi that he had just wasted his entire life devoted to a dream that could never be. Depressed and left with nothing to go back on, Jurosi continued doing the one thing which made him happy, crafting candies. In an experimental twist, Jurosi discovered that he could weaponize the fruits of his labors by utilizing his own demonic energy and by manipulating other factors in the candy-making process.

Hence, he was able to create the mints he now carried into battle with him, each of the four different types of mint able to affect some aspect of the giant's breath.

The light-blue mint chilled the temperature of the demon's breath so that it would feel like being caught in a blizzard in his exhaled onto an opponent.

The orange mint preformed the opposite effect, raising the temperature of the demon's breath to unnaturally high levels, transforming the giant's exhales into a firey stream.

The gaseous green mint did the opposite function to any other sort of mint by actually making Jurosi's breath smell unbearably bad, causing those who inhaled it to feel nauseous and even die for lack of oxygen.

Finally, the enhancer mint utilized Jurosi's inner demon energy to add some power to the demon's exhales, creating the force of a typhoon from their power.

However, none of the mints in the demon's sack could help him under his current was about to face down the most powerful attack in Enki's entire kingdom. As Toya and the rest of his team formed a circle around the wind master Jin, they prepared themselves to unleash the power of their "sextuple strike".

Guess the best thing now would be to gamble on using the flame mint... If they move a little too slow, I can surprise them with it, and probably incinerate them all at once!

However, unfortunately for Jurosi, just as he began to reach into his sack for one of the fiery-orange mints he constructed, the strike team began their attack with a massive burst of cyclone-level air currents radiating from Jin's body. "Now see here biggie,"Jin smiled up towards the slightly disfigured face of Jurosi "this be the first step to a successful sextuple strike! First be first, I have to get a good ol' whipper goin', but since this here just ain't fast enough, I've gotta use a wee bit o' dat demon energy o' mine!" Jin explained before giving the giant an example of how his demon energy coincided with the speed of the air currents he could create around himself. He developed this technique after losing to Souketsu for "only being able to move as fast as the wind could carry him". Taking this criticism to heart, Jin figured out a way to manipulate the speed of an air current created by his body using his own demonic energy. This enhanced air was far faster and deadlier than any naturally occurring air current which could be created by mother nature herself. Hence why the miniature cyclone being formed at the feet of the mighty Jurosi was so powerful. "After I done me job, its time for these other guys ta add their own special ingredients to da mix!"

Jin noddded to his encircling comrades, giving them the go-ahead to start adding in their own powers to Jin's already tremendously powerful cyclone. They all responded with the same nod, almost in unison. Chu started things off by gathering his energy into the palm of his hand, the result being a yellow, glowing orb of pure energy, surrounding by faint sparks of electrical energy. "This here is my new and improved Super Electro Ball! It's got enough power to stun an entire army!" Chu proudly stated before tossing his creation into the vortex, the super electro ball's energy being strectched and spread out as the wind carried it around until the ball's energy laced the entirety of the cyclone, causing the wind tunnel to copy the electric-yellow color the orb had been giving off.

Shi Shi was next, adding in a chorus of a thousand souls by spinning the hilt of his sword about in his hand, summoning several gruesome skulls encased in a pale, smoky aura, each of which was then carried away, into the cyclone Jin had created.

"Here's a little beauty you can add to it!" Suzuka stated as he opened his hand, releasing a bright-colored rainbow into the vortex, changing it's color, but not it's electrical properties.

Finally came Toya and Renku. The elder of the two blew from his hand a breath of ice-cold air, while the younger, and naturallly more enetergetic of the two pulled a handful of confetti from within his pocket before casting it inside as well, completing the attack. The multi-colored and multi-powered sextuple strike was now ready, and for Jurosi, this meant that there was no way out...

"Come on already! Make your move or else I'll get straight into chopping your head off!" Hiei spat impatiently at Damakain, who stood idly by, admiring Hiei's now opened Jagan eye.

"So sorry Hiei," the demon finally spoke, returning his gaze to the short-tempered demon "I forgot that you all are in a frantic hurry to die for whatever reason..."the palms of Sasuke Damakain's hands began to glow with an evil, scarlet light as he spoke, readying himself to strike.

"Had I wanted it, you would have been dead by now, and I'd have moved on to cutting apart your friend over there..." Hiei nodded towards Ono Yojiki, who continued to watch passively as the battle ensued. Hiei then turned a confident grin towards Kurama and Hideshi, who were jus now getting back up onto their feet after being whipped about by Damakain. "Hey! Why don't you two make yourselves useful to me and start softening up that crybaby over there?!"

"Hiei?" Kurama responded, a interrogative tone of voice plaguing the Hiei's name as he stated it.

"You heard me Kurama! Get your plants ready and weaken whitey over there as much as you can! Just don't die will you? You can use the Spirit Detective as a meat-shield if it comes down to that, but just dont get in my way while I crush this fool. He's all mine..."

Hiei, what's come over you? Have you completely lost your mind? You know that it will take all of us to even have a remote chance of defeating Yojiki! Yusuke and Kuwabara are still down, we can't afford to suffer any more casualties! So far, we've only been able to defeat the first two Premire Brothers by Hideshi and Yusuke's overwhelming new level of power and by Kuwabara's dimensional sword technique. But these two are different from the other two... Damakain and Yojiki are just on a whole other level! It's honestly a miracle we've survived as long as we have against this demon. If you face him alone, you will die, even with all of your darkness flames...

"Oh my, does this mean I'm going to be able to start racking up some victims already?" Yojiki stated as he swung his scythe downward into an attacking position, pointing the blade directly at two combatants Hiei had signaled out. "I'm sure they'll both make for delicious meat for Lord Karr upon his awakening..."

"Woah, slow down there pal, nobody is gonna be eating me, alright?" Romano Hideshi stated as he returned back to his feet, taking a defiant stance against Ono Yojiki and his sinister scythe. "First off, I don't have the blood sugar regulation the rest of these pricks do, so I'd probably taste a little too sweet for your boss! Secondly, I'm gonna kick your sorry ass long before he ever gets a chance to even try a Costco sample!"

All Ono Yojiki could do was laugh as he watched the Detective struggle to maintain his composure. "Please don't try to act so tough Hideshi..." Ono requested with his sinister smirk. "You talk big, but your body language tells me just how fearful you truly are... Look at you, your palms are sweaty, your heart is racing! You can barely stand on your own two feet and your hands are shaking! Face the truth Detective, you know deep down you don't have what it takes to beat me and Damakain, let alone the rest of Lord Karr's-"

"Shut the hell up will you?!" Hideshi blurted out angrily as he grabbed his own wrist tightly in an attempt to keep them from shaking. "I'm not afraid of your pasty-white ass! I just need to treat this low!"

"Low?" Koenma asked, turning to face Botan raising his eyebrow questionably after hearing what the Spirit Detective had to say over the monitor.

"Oh shoot! I totally forgot to give him his emergency protein bar before I left! This is very, very bad!" Botan exclaimed with a tone of frustration angled towards herself.

"You mind filling me in on whatever it is you're talking about?" Koenma asked, completely in the dark about the whole situation.

"Well sir... Remember how Hideshi was a diabetic while he was still alive? Well that didn't exactly go away after he returned to his mortal body..." Botan began to explain, fighting the urge in the back of her mind to travel back down to Demon World to rescue not only Hideshi, but the rest of her friends who were now in severe trouble. "So what's going on now is a low blood sugar for Hideshi. I'll admit, he could explain the whole thing better to you than I could, but for the most part, Romano's body can't produce insulin, so therefore his body does not naturally control the levels of sugar in his blood from eating certain foods. Instead, he relies on external sources of insulin to regulate his sugar levels, which is why he wears a pump."

"A pump? You mean like the kind you draw water from the ground with?! Where the hell does he keep that?!"Koenma asked, surprised that Hideshi would constantly carry such a burden on himself and be able to conceal it so well.

"No sir... It's not at all like a water pump... It's actually a small, discreet little box he clips onto is waist which contains insulin, which he pumps through a tube into his abdomen, regulating his body's sugar levels the same way a healthy pancreas would." Botan tried to explain, seeing the frustration on the toddler-sized ruler's face as she attempted to do so. "Anyway... The pump doesn't always do it's job correctly, sometimes Hideshi's average blood sugars levels could spike, while other times, it could fall down to a dangerously low level, which is what we're experiencing now... This low was probably brought on by all that physical activity he was doing while fighting Ginobly and Kudjo."

"Hmm... So the insulin is designed to reduce Hideshi's blood sugar for after he eats something containing sugar such as candy or starches, but exercising the body is also a good way to lower the amount of sugar in his blood stream?" Koenama asked, trying to piece this whole puzzle which was Romano Hideshi's health together.

"That's correct sir, and that's why Hideshi is in trouble right now! If he doesnt treat this low by eating something and disconnecting his pump soon, he could actually go into a sugar-induced coma and die!" Botan exclaimed.

"Well shit... Who would've guessed that our worst enemy in this fight was actually the one within Hideshi's own body?" Koenma said as he sat in his chair and slumped his head down. "Now there isn't any hope at all for Hideshi, the team, or any of us... If he dies, then it's all already over..."

Feeling the weight of his diabetes settling in, Hideshi collapsed to his knees, his legs feeling far too weak to continue supporting him. Damn it! Of all the times I needed this stupid body of mine to work, it fails on me now! he thought to himself angrily, feeling all the life within him drain away...

Kurama took notice quickly that this sudden collapse was not out of fear for Ono Yojiki or Damakain, but that it was far more severe than that. Hideshi's body seems to be in complete disarray! What could possibly be causing this? Poison? When did either of them have time to stick him with some? No, that's not the case at all... Remember what Wendy told you? Kurama flashes back to when Botan frantically brought Hideshi to him after his first fight with Ginobly.

"Wait, you're giving him orange juice?" the dark-haired girl asked him as he approached the unconscious Romano Hideshi, who lie with his back on the table.

"Well... Yes, juice is an excellent way to help replenish the blood he lost while fighting that demon..." Kurama stated as he set the carton of the citrus drink on the table beside him.

"Well... Ok, just don't give him too much ok? He's a diabetic and his body can't tolerate too much sugar..." Wendy informed Kurama as she looked down upon the fallen Spirit Detective with concerned eyes which perfectly matched those currently on Botan's face.

Kurama nodded in responce, glancing over to his wife for a brief moment. " I understand..."

That's it! Kurama's eyes open widely as the sudden realization washes over him. He quickly sets to work, immediately summoning a small tree, it's branches sprouting small, bright-colored fruits. The fox demon frantically picks the one which ripened first and immediately rushed to Hideshi's side, supporting him upwards with one arm while feeding him the fruit with the other. "Here Romano! It may not be the best solution, but these fruits are notoriously sweet and are loaded with natural sugars which quickly disperse into the body after consumption!"

After taking a mere, single bite from the apple-like fruit, Hideshi's whole body instantly began to feel better after the overpoweringly sweet fruit slid down his throat into his stomach. "H-holy shit!... Is that stuff even fit for consumption?" he asks after tasting how sweet the fruit really was.

"Under normal circumstances, no. But in your case, it definitely did the job just fine..." Kurama stated as he happily watched Hideshi rise back up to his feet.

"...Kurama... This is twice now that I owe you for saving my life..." I already promised you immunity, but now I'm afraid I can't offer anything else in return..." Hideshi hung down his head, ashamed that he was unable to offer any kind of reward to Kurama.

"Well Hideshi, there is something you can do if you really feel you owe me that much..." Kurama said as he rose back to his feet, smiling at the man he considered a 'friend' by this point.

"Really?" Hideshi was taken aback for a moment, not able to fully process Kurama's words for a moment.

"Yes, a small favor... For a friend..." Kurama thought back to the concerned look upon Botan's face as she waited by Hideshi's side, concerned for his well-being like only a true lover could have. "Give Botan a chance once we get out of this... She truly loves you Hideshi, and you're a good man. I think you two would be perfect for one another..."

Hideshi stood in stunned silence for several long moment's processing everything Kurama had just told him. So it's true? Botan... Really does care for me in that way...

"Hey!" Hiei shouted over to Kurama and Hideshi as he watched them talk to one another. "If you're quite finished, I'd like you two to hop to it and start fighting Yojiki!" the short demon cried out impatiently.

"Yes, and I'd like to start cutting you two apart as well, so please gentlemen, indulge me..." Yojiki said as he shifted hands on his scythe, preparing for combat.

"Both of you can shut your traps!" Damakain suddenly bursted out in angry frustration. "I'll be the one who kills them all! I'll be the one who feeds them to Lord Karr! I will be the one who gets the glory!" As Damakain's temper rises, so does his power level. The symbols glowing all over the palms of his hands glowed brighter than ever now as he ordered Yojiki to back away. "They're mine!" he exclaims as he begins to fire off the deadly star symbols from the palms of his hand, shooting them out towards Hiei at an alarmingly fast rate.

Despite Damakain being one of Karr's elite Premier brothers, his speed was still no match for that of Hiei Jaganashi, who easily cut through each of the star demon's stellar symbols, causing them to burn away into nothingness after impact. Essentially, the rapid-fire demon symbols flying through the air were completely harmless when used against Hiei. Damakain was not oblivious to this fact however. In fact, he had already prepared a counter-strike for this exact situation.

The tall-statured demon began to channel his demonic energy around his body, taking time to slow down to launching of his symbols to do so. This'll be enough, I'm not so much of an idiot as to try and convince myself that I can defeat Hiei in any other way. All of these other pigs will die upon my stellar symbols, but it appears im going to have to get a bit more physical if I want tot defeat Hiei...

Immediately after crafting this thought within his sinister mind, Damakain sprang forward amidst the last few star symbols he had shot at Hiei. Here he comes! Hiei thought to himself as his eyes widened in anticipation of Damakain's motion forward. Hiei was able to easily dodge the angered demon's lunge forward, for he had already seen it coming after Damakain had slowed down the throwing of his demonic symbols. Does he take me for a fool, or is there someth- Hiei was unable to even finish his thoughts, for after Damakain leapt past him, he had quickly swung his leg, enhanced by his massive demonic energy, straight into the demon swordsman's side, knocking him down to the ground, forcing Hiei to nurse the would as if it were a small, screaming child crying against the side of his abdomen.

"That will take care of him... At least for a short while..." Damakain muttered under his breath as he watched Hiei struggle to hold onto conciousness on the groung, fighting the pain in the area where Damakain had just kicked him.

"H-Hey asshole..." someone stated weakly from behind Damakian, tapping his shoulder weakly. As Damakain turned to see who it was, the right side of his face was greeted by a minuscule-strengthend punch from Yusuke Urameshi. He had used every once of the enrgy he had left behind that punch, so it at least slightly hurt Damakain, but no more than the equivalent of a child slapping a grown adult in the face.

Damakain's eyes narrowed in annoyance as he spotted the barely concious Yusuke holding his fist steadfast against his face. "What an annoyance... I guess you need more spiders..." Damakain stated as he pressed another scarlet symbol up to Yusuke's exposed stomach, infecting his with another swarm of his star-symbol spiders, each of them burning just as intensely as the others. Yusuke fell without a sound, too weak to even scream now...

"Hmm... So let me get this straight, you won't let me kill any of these guys, even the one's you refuse to finish off?" Yojiki asked Damakain, seeing yet another fighter knocked to the ground without being killed by Damakain.

"Shut up... I have something planned for all of these fools..." Damakain snapped at Yojiki as he took Yusuke's limp form and tossed him next to Hiei on the ground.

"Ready yourself... Alright! Let's go!" Kurama suddenly shouted to Hideshi just before the two of them lunged forward at Damakain at the same time, hoping to catch him off guard. No such luck...

Damakain merely had to wave a handful of energy to thrust both of his adversaries backwards, the twosome joining the pile being formed on the ground at Damakain's feet.

"You seem to be confident in your abilities..." Yojiki observed as he dragged the unconscious Kazuma Kuwabara by the ankle before adding his mass to the pile of bodies. "Here, since you seem to be making some sort of collection out of them..."

"Thanks," Damakain nodded to Yojiki before placing both of his palms together, charging energy between his open hands, crafting a new demonic symbol. "You may want to stand back, because this one is the boom..."

"What?! Hideshi blared out, rising to his feet in exclamation, preparing a spirit gun to defend himself. "Over my dead body pal..."

"I would've gladly arranged that for you Romano," Yojiki interjected as he suddenly appeared behind the spirit detective without any notice "but since Damakain is being quite obstinate about him being the one to kill you all, I'm afraid this is only... curtains!" With that final word, Ono Yojiki pressed his ring finger directly into a pressure point on Romano's neck, immediately cutting off circulation to his head and rendering the young man unconscious.

"Alright then..." Ono turned to Damakain after Hideshi fell to the ground. "You may fire when ready..."After stating this, he disappeared, just like a flash, no doubt racing away to another location far away from the blast radius. Sasuke Damakain didn't care, so long as he would be the one credited for the kills.

Another sinister smirk crossed the demon's face as he moved his palms away from one another, generating a large, glowing stellar symbol which floated between his hands precariosly, shrouded in a thin layer of white light. "What I hold in my hands are the keys to you meeting your makers! So long suckers! Boom Symbol!"

In the very next instant, the massively over-powered symbol for an explosion flew from Damakain's hands and landed upon the pile of humans and demons alike. What was left after the explosion of blinding-white light was nothing but smoke, debris, and a larger crater in the same shape and pattern of the symbol Damakain had been holding in his hands.

The team was nowhere to be seen...

Not even their spiritual presence could be felt...

It was now all over... Karr had won the day...

"Oh no! Damakain! What have you done?!" Yojiki asked melodramatically as he studied the crater left behind by his comrade's explosive symbol "You've completely destroyed them! Now we won't have any delicious treats to offer Lord Karr upon his resurrection!"

"I-I don't understand... I had them all out cold, but even still, that blast was only meant to kill them and maybe char them up just a bit... That explosion symbol was never meant to actually wipe them all out!" the long-haired demon stammered a bit nervously, worried he may be punished for destroying his master's food.

"Hmm... I did notice you were holding back. Before I bolted away of course... And you're correct! Under normal circumstances, all five of them would've died, but their bodies would remain intact. However, there was but one small oversight you made." Yojiki stated with a mischievous smile.

"Huh? An oversight? What do you mean? They were all out for the count! I saw them! Hell, if it weren't for you sticking your fingers into Hideshi's neck, I would've been the one who knocked them all out!" Damakain shot back at his smiling companion.

"Hmm... Well since you're being such a prissy-poo about the whole thing, I'm not going to tell you where you screwed up or where they all are now." Yojiki teased Damakain, barely able to stifle a laugh as he spoke.

"Quit being such a jackass and tell me what you know!" Damakain shouted, getting angry with the purer side of Yojiki.

The answer came to Damakain just as he prepared himself to take ahold of Yojiki and shake the answer out of him.

Of course! I forgot Kurama! I had only repelled him away using my repulsion symbol! Hideshi was able to get up just fine, so why couldn't I see that Kurama would as well?!... That may just explain what happened... He's a fox, and what do foxes do? They burrow! He dug a hole underground and drug all of his companions down it just before my explosion symbol hit!

Surely enough, in the center of the misshapen crater created by Damakain's blast was a lone hole which dipped down into the depths of the the ground indefinitely.

"Raaagh! Damn it all! I'll kill that fox!" Damakain shouted in humiliation as soon as he spotted the hole.

"Oh? So you already figured it out huh? That was faster than I had expected!" Yojiki chirped, pleased that he had actually witnessed their opponents dodging Damakain's attack when he hadn't.

"Shut... Your... Mouth!" Damakain seethed with rage, his demon energy building around him, his power level began to skyrocket.

"Oh dear..." Yojiki stated fearfully as he quickly backed away from Damakain, feeling his power grow the way it was. I had better get out of here while I can... When Damakain releases his full power, he's just as terrifying as Neji!

Damakain's energy arose to a pinnacle no one had ever felt before. The heavens and the earth began to shake under his tremendous power. The waves of his building energy could be felt across all of creation.

"Crap... Looks like we're out of time down here..." Romano Hideshi stated as he continued to rub the back of his neck with some of the ointment Kurama had given him from the various plants he had lining the walls of his underground bunker.

"It's alright! This place has served it's purpose well! I'm glad I planned ahead and ordered my plants to construct this stronghold as soon as we arrived!" Kurama said as he finished applying the same ointment to the awakening Kazuma Kuwabara. "Hiei, how are you doing with Yusuke?" Kurama asked as he turned his head to face the three-eyed demon, who was holding palms filled with darkness flames over Yusuke's body, attempting to burn away the spider symbols covering his body.

"I'm only half-done, the other half will take some time, which judging by that ungodly energy I'm feeling from the surface, is a luxury we can no longer afford!" Hiei spat angrily as he felt the same demonic energy the rest of them were.

"Huh? Hey guys? Why is it so hard to breathe?" Kuwabara asked as he started to come to.

"There will be time for questions later!" Kurama said in a panicked voice. "Right now, we had better get back to the surface, before Damakain destroys the entire Demon Realm with his rage!"

Up on the surface, a few meters from the holde Kurama had dug, Damakain began to activate the deadliest of the star demon's symbols. His palms and underarms were now pitch-black, running all the way up his arms to his shoulders.

He then began to move and settle his arms in three different locations on his torso, each time, leaving a similarly dark imprint on his bare skin, as if he had covered his arms in ink.

First came his abdomen...

Then his chest...

And finally, his hands rested on either side of his face, his fingers positioned to point towards his ears and his palms set at his chin.

After these imprints were made upon his skin like tattoos, the darkness covering the undersides of his palms and arms began to fade, and the imprints he had left on his skin began to lift from their resting position, then moving about freely. Three extra sets of arms upon Damakain's body, each with a root tied to the demon's spine, giving Damakain complete control over them.

These arms were known as the "Spider's Shadow". Only the most skilled users of stellar magic could master this technique. Each arm acted independently of one another, just as normal arms would do. However, the spider's shadow arms were far stronger than the users normal arms. Using these arms, a child could rip a bulldozer apart in a matter or seconds. Under the use of Sasuke Damakain, their potential was nearly unlimited.

However, what made the spider shadow the deadliest of all star demon symbols was their ability to conjure stellar symbols of their own. So now, instead of the stellar symbols originating from only two possible places (Damakain's palms), the symbols now had the ability to be conjured from eight different points.

These arms could also expand and extend at Damakain's will, however, doing so would result in utilizing a size able amount I Damakain's demonic energy. This was, the spider shadow's biggest drawback. Using the arms for over a minute has proven to be quite strenuous on the body, leaving it devoid of a good portion of it's demonic energy.

"Get out here fox!" Damakain shouted down Kurama's hole, his voice alone shaking the walls of their bunker.

"We're out of time... Let's go then..." Kurama nodded to the others before summoning vines to carry the five warriors back up to the surface.

Waiting for them, directly beside the hole was Damakain, looking particularly pleased to see them all again. "Welcome back gentlemen. You sure did have me worried... Worried I wouldn't be able to feed you to my master!"

"Why the hell are you so damn obsessed with eating us?!" Hideshi blared out at the multi-armed demon angrily.

"Romano," Kurama spoke up "it's for our power... Whenever a demon devours a human, part of their spirit energy becomes trapped within them, almost like a small piece of that human living on forever inside of that demon."

"Uh... So wait, he wants to eat us so he can become even stronger?! Where's the ceiling for this guy?!" Kuwabara asked, horrified at the level his opponent was already at.

"With Lord Karr, there are no 'ceilings', the limitation of your power is predetermined by Karr himself! And his energy is infinite! You ants can't possibly hope to compare to the power of Lord-"

"Shadow Slash!" Hiei erupted with rage, un sheathing his sword and immediately sending a wave of darkness flames in the shape of the sword's pattern through the air.

Damakain did not even attempt to counter it, he just let the flames crash against his body, leaving only a small, diagonal cut down his chest. Apart from that, Hiei's surprise attack had absolutely no effect on the demon.

Damakain sighed in annoyance after Hiei had cut him off with his fruitless attack. "Now Hiei... Do you truly want to be the first one I kill?" As he made this threat, Damakain unfurled his upper left spider shadow arm, extending I to take a hold of Hiei's metallic blade before applying pressure between it's fingers, snapping the blade in two like a toothpick. Damakain sneered as Hiei watched helplessly, his side arm being destroyed right in front of him. A look of horror filled all three of the demon's eyes as he realized just how outclassed they all really were by Sasuke Damakain.

The sadistic, eight armed demon laughed maniacally as he watched Hiei's hopeless expression. "That's it! That's the look I've wanted to see since we began!" Damakain cheered jubilantly "Just for that Hiei, I'll kill you last! As for the rest of you..." Damakain's smile widened as he opened each and every one of his palms outward towards the sky, a glowing white symbol occupying each of them. "I'll show you what a star demon at maximum power can really do!" the maddened demon cried out one final time before unleashing all eight of the glowing white symbols into the sky.

Despite the white light they gave off, Damakain's demonic symbols actually turned the sky inky black, as if it were now night time in Demon Realm. From the darkness came several white, twinkling stars, radiating their stellar energy upon the battle ground, strengthening Damakain's spider shadows and demonic energy, whilst also giving the demon a strong, nostalgic feeling. This is it... These are my most cherished memories... the demon thought to himself, struggling to hold back tears. This sight made him feel happy inside, for he remembers being a small child amongst his people, gazing upwards at the night sky, learning to harness his power. It was the only bright spot in this demon's otherwise dark past.

From inside, Kurama and the others got the sensation they were under some sort of projected image, similar to a planetarium. Their assumptions were correct, for from the outside, Yojiki could see the whole entire dome, dark and laced with bright spots.

"Damakain has finally activated his star dome..." Yojiki observed "Then as long as he's underneath of it, he's absolutely invincible... Hideshi and the others will not be able to escape... Their graves will be dug under the stars."

This is a good thing Ono, the pests have been dealt with! Lord Karr's reign shall now be uncontested! But why do I feel sympathetic for these creatures... They were my enemies! Enemies of Lord Karr! They deserve to die!... Even still, this doesn't feel right... The idea of Damakain tearing them apart limb for limb, humiliating them in death no longer appeals to me... Especially not Hideshi. That wouldn't be the death he deserved... No, Ginobly definitely wouldn't want to see him die that way... He respected Romano Hideshi... He would want him to die on his feet, be the man he knew he was! Ono Yojiki painfully recalled that night in Karr's castle where he stumbled upon Ginobly Atakashi, weeping because he could not beat to kill such a man. That was the moment where Ono's true nature came back to him-compassion. Only to be quickly silenced by the same evil which had tainted his soul to begin with, Neji Yojiki...

I'm so sorry my friend...

"Everyone! Stay alert! I don't like the look of this..." Hideshi shouted to the others in a commanding voice, trying to take control over the situation. His eyes darted around, trying to determine what was about to happen. However, against the darkness of the dome, he could not see the spider's shadow hand as it silently caught the Spirit Detective's throat in it's grip.

Hideshi struggled for air helplessly as the demon Damakain raised him up off his feet, slamming his body against the wall of the stellar dome, slowly choking him to death.

"No! Hideshi!" Kuwabara exclaimed as he saw his ally pressed against the wall of the dome in a stranglehold, only being able to keep his throat from being crushed by using resistance in his sacred energy. "Alright buddy! That's it!" Kuwabara took a defiant stance against Damakain, letting the rage escape his body in the form of pure spirit energy "I'm gonna clobber ya! No more foolin' around!"

"Heh... It's cute when you humans resist death..." Damakain smirked at Kuwabara, sensing his spirit energy and knowing just from that observation that he was no threat to him.

"I'll make you eat those words punk!" Kuwabara exclaimed as his hands began to glow with the dim, green light of his dimensional sword.

However, before Kuwabara could take even a single step towards Damakain with his sword, he was met with three of Damakain's spider shadow arms, closed into tight, powerful fists, each one delivering devastating blow after blow onto Kuwabara, pounding the physic swordsman into the ground.

There's only one chance left to finish this now! Kurama thought to himself, ignoring his friends in peril for the opportunity to land a killing blow against Damakain. He seems to think that cut Hiei put into his chest is nothing to be concerned about. Little does he know that's all I need to plant my death seed inside his chest cavity!

Using Kuwabara's beating and Hideshi's stranglehold as a distraction to Damakain, Kurama nimbly sprang at Damakain, the death seed ready to be thrown into the demon's chest at a moment's notice.

He still didn't even notice him, even when Kurama was right on top of him. This is it... Everyone is counting on me! Kurama thought to himself as he threw the seed directly towards Damakain's chest.

The throw was perfect. It had a direct pathway into the chest cavity of Sasuke Damakain, and it most certainly would've hit it it weren't for his spider shadow arms. Just before the seed could plant itself, one of Damakain's arms was able to catch the seed, then crush it into dust in it's grip.

Kurama stood idly by, watching in horror as the demon Damakain made a mockery of the fox-demon's death seed, crushing it as if it were a cheaply-made plastic toy. "Didn't think my reflexes were that fast huh? Well, just add that to your list of mistakes you've made so far in this fight Kurama..." Damakain smirked maliciously at the red-haired human containing a demon inside before using one of his remaining free spider shadow arms to tightly grip onto Kurama's right arm. The sounds of breaking bones could be heard immediately, followed closely by screams of agony from Kurama as Damakain began to anchor the demon down, twisting his arm mercilessly.

Now all the combatants opposing Sasuke Damakain were handicapped in one way or another. Yusuke by the demon's spider symbols, Kuwabara by being beaten mercilessly, Kurama through the demon's marauding grip on his right arm, and Hideshi by stranglehold. The only fighter left on his feet was Hiei, who was neither paralyzed due to fear, nor apathy for his comrades. What he felt was something totally different, an emotion one could not easily describe. Whatever it was, Hiei knew deep down, that he had to surpress it. For the sake of his friends... For Mukuro... For Yukina...

Whatever conflicting emotion he had against the strange feeling, Hiei definetly brought it to the surface in a big way, for it caused him to lash out in such a way that he, or any reasonable fighter for that matter, would do. Using only half a sword, he lunged forward, using all of his speed, and swung it directly into the side of the mighty demon's neck, cutting through it mainly due to the force and velocity behind the swing.

As Hiei landed on his feet, crouched downward, clutching onto what was left of his sword, his heart racing by the flood of emotions which overtook him and guided his attack. The warrior knelt downward silently, taking a few moments to slow down his breathing before finally turning back to see the product of his work.

Hiei sighed heavily in relief as he saw that Damakain's body now stood by itself, his head detached from his neck with nothing but a bloody stump left rose to his feet, intent on immediately claiming victory. However something immediately seemed amiss to the Jagan demon. Wait... Why is that fool Kuwabara still being beaten over there? Why havent the spider symbols faded from Yusuke yet? Why are Kurama and Hideshi still caught in the spider shadow's grip? Can the arms act independently of one another? No, Damakain was clearing willing their motions this entire time, they couldn't possibly possess that much reliance on their owner and then just turn around to be free-thinking! But that would mean...

"Whats the matter Hiei?" a voice called out from the forward side of Damakain's headless body, obscured from view by the towering demon's body mass."Your heart rate declined there for a second, only to accelerate again. I wonder why that is?" The mass turned towards Hiei, revealing a horrifying sight. There, cradled in Damakain's arms, was the demon's head, smiling at the look of terror now on Hiei's face.

"You seem suprised, did you really think it would be that easy to get rid of me? Please Hiei... I'm a Premier Brother! There's literally no possible way a little shrimp like you could ever even hope to come close to killing me!" the head taunted Hiei as his body lifted him back onto his shoulders, his palms immediately activating healing symbols to repair his neck, reattaching his head like he had never even been decapitated. "But you know something Hiei? There's a few things I don't like about you... Namely, that Jagan eye of yours. It's just unsightly..."

Damakain turned his head about as he spoke, readjusting it to his newly-reformed neck. "You know Hiei, when I dont like the look of something, I just get it out of my sight..." the demon said slowly and maliciously as he channeled some more of his demonic energy into his palm, generating another black symbol within it.

"Sealing Symbol..." Damakaian said in almost a whisper as he allowed for the demonic symobol to fly from his palm, directing it into Hiei's Jagan eye. Once again, the strange emotion flooded over Hiei, and he was unable to move. His joints froze up, his half-sword was kept in his grip, useless with the proper handling. He maintined that same, statue-like position all the way until Damakain's sealing symbol collided with his forehead, it's magic going to work in sealing the demon's powerful Jagan implant, preventing it from use. This time, Hiei fell backwards, feeling absolutely powerless as his Jagan eye abandoned him, leaving him to lie there and await his death at the hands of Sasuke Damakain.

Just a few meters away, still caught in the demon's strangle hold, Romano Hideshi was giving up all hope as well, feeling the life drain from him as he began to lose all the air from his windpipe.

This is how it ends for me? Again? Crushed under a burning building the first time, then strangled to death by some crazy voodoo demon? At least the second time I got to live I made something out of myself... I'm sorry Botan, if I really were able to get out of this, I promise you, we could've spent the rest of our lives together... Images of his past experiences with his assistant, and then fantasized images of what their lives together would've been like flashed briefly inside Hideshi's head, making his smile as he finally shut his eyes, presumably for the final time. One final interaction played through his mind as the shadows of death came back for the Spirit Detective.

"What do you want? A kiss?"

Meanwhile, as Hideshi felt his own life slipping away with visions perpetrating his thoughts, Hiei lie on the ground, his own internal struggle just beginning.

"My son..." a deep, disembodied voice called out to Hiei from the dark void which shaded the demon's Jagan eye upon his forehead. "Is this really your limit?! Are you truly about to die to his heathen? Someone who is nothing but a low-class demon from a village of witch doctors?!"

"Father...?" Hiei answered the voice with a soft, breathless tone, his heart racing upon hearing the voice inside his head. It was definitely distant from him, but also familiar, like he was meant to know his voice, despite never hearing it before in his life.

"You obviously haven't embraced your true self... The fire demon side of you..." the voice continued, ignoring Hiei's verbal response. "If you had, this fight would've been over long ago. You and your sister obviously have a lot to learn if I have to continue doing this..."

"What?! What are you doing?! Stop! I don't need your help! Aggghhh!" Hiei cried out as his body spontaneously erupted in flames directly in front of Damakain, who stood by, bewildered by what he was witnessing.

"Is he... doing this to himself?" the demon wondered out loud as he watched the demon burn. "No... These flames... They don't feel like Hiei's aura summoned them here... Somehow they feel more... divine..."

Just as Damakain uttered the final word his his wondering statement, the seal holding Hiei's Jagan eye shut broke apart in a magnificent display of purple light, illuminating the entirety of Hiei's forehead with the glow radiating from where the eye lie.

"What the hell is going on here?!" Sasuke Damakain shouted in bewilderment at the marvel he was witnessing right in front of him. Behind him, he could hear former screams of agony turn to slight laughter as Kurama studied the scene before him. "You're witnessing a legend in the making Damakain..." the fox smiled with a small bead of blood running from the corner of his mouth. "This is no longer the Hiei you once knew... You sealed his Jagan eye, and evidently, it didn't like that very much, so it decided to break your seal!"

"What?! Impossible! How is he able to break my seal without darkness flames?!" Damakain shouted in a curious frustration as he watched Hiei burn under flames which were clearly not his normal darkness flames.

"No... He didn't need flames... In fact, it wasn't Hiei who broke your seal at all... It was just the work of his Jagan eye. You see Damakain, Hiei's Jagan eye has a mind of it's own since its not an original part of his body. By sealing it, you've made it quite angry, and so now, its begun to unleash its true power! Hiei told me about this before, he believed it was only a myth, but it's said that on very rare occasions, such as the one you've just created, a Jagan eye may 'awaken' or unleash it's power to the fullest extent!"

The stories Kurama were told happened to be true, to a certain extent...

Hiei's Jagan eye, like any other Jagan implant, had very special powers which could be used to enhance a demon's combat prowess. However, what wasn't commonly known, is that there were actually three different colors of Jagan Eye.

Hiei's eye, the purple and most common color, gave it's user the ability to see things acrost far distances, trans-mutate one's body, and even take control over other's minds, while still giving it the user a large boost in demonic and spiritual power, depending on the user.

However, now that Hiei's Jagan eye had awakened, it gave him a new power. By shutting down the rest of his senses, and looking solely through his Jagan eye, Hiei possessed the power to predict future events, a full three seconds before they occurred. In combat, it would prove to be very effective.

However, this was not yet the most dangerous metamorphosis Hiei's body was currently undergoing. He the flames grew larger and more violent, concealing Hiei's small form beneath them, they slowly became darker in color, turning from orange to red, then purple, then dark blue, and then into the signature grey hue of the darkness flames.

Fearful that his spider shadow arms may be caught in the blazing inferno eruptinmg directly in front of him, Damakain shifted away from the pyre of darkness flames, causing him to have to sacrifice grip on both Hideshi and Kurama whilst also ceasing to barrage Kuwabara with his punches.

From the black smoke, flashes of green flame began to erupt around Hiei's now-standing body in addition the the already-present grey ones. This new change in lighting allowed for Hiei to be more-clearly seen through the darkness of Damakain's stellar dome. The sword which the eight-armed demon had previously broken, now glowed with the intensity of melting metal as the green flames began to surround the hilt and what was left of the blade.

Kurama and damakain looked on in utter amazement as Hiei's sword began to come back into view, now glowing green rather than the previous red color. What seemed to be even more strange, was that it was actually back in the shape of an actual sword, length, slightly curved structure, point, all factors which made a sword now were exemplified by this glowing mass of metallic ore Hiei now held in his right hand. The sword seemed to begin cooling down immediately, returning the strange green glow of it's blade to the proper silvery metallic color.

As soon as the blade was completed, Hiei's original pair of eyes began to open , as if the demon had sensed the blade's reconstruction was now complete. In Hiei's eyes, there were no pupils, no irises, not even any whites. They just glowed with a blood-red intensity which seemed to convey some ultimate feeling of rage. As the flames around the demon's body began to burn even more intensly, four diamond-shaped tattoos could be seen emblazoned upon Hei's chest and face, eerily similar to Yukina's transformation against Tatsuo.

These were the marks of King Kiogre, father to Hiei and Yukina...

What is this?! Hiei's power has exploded! Where has he been hiding all of this! This power cannot be his! He's even stronger than me and Yojiki! Damakain began to panic as he saw he new demonic face of Hiei Jaganashi illuminating the stellar dome he had created.

In the next millisecond, everything changed. The tables were flipped as Hiei rushed forward at Damakain without a single word, wildly smashing the demon against the side of his own dome, the force was great enough to shatter the outside wall, allowing for the natural light of Demon World to seep in, causing the simulated stars to fade in the night sky.

"A way out!"Kurama exclaimed as soon as the opening was made. He quickly turned to Hideshi, who was lying stomach down, propped up for support by his elbows and knees, hardly able to believe he was still alive. "Hideshi quick! Grab Yusuke and lets get out of here!' Kurama shouted at him trying to snap him out of his trance of disbelief. Seeing as the rest of the dome was now cracking and was about to collapse on top of their heads, it was a reasonable request. Hideshi shook off the feeling he was having and focused on grabbing his predecessor while Kurama took ahold of the badly beaten Kazuma Kuwabara. The four made it out just in time, as the dome began to collapse behind them.

They're alive?! They actually made it? Ono Yojiki turned his head in disbelief as he watched Kurama and Hideshi run from the dome collapsing in front of him. They made it... That means... That means... I still have a chance to kill Romano Hideshi!

Just as Ono's resolve to kill the young Spirit Detective grew once again, a nearby energy flow disrupted his train of thought. It was Hiei.

A few hundred meters away, Hiei finally haulted his assult on Sasuke Damakain, stopping in his tracks while the mighty demon continued to stay in motion, rolling over on the ground until the friction between it's dusty surface and his body finally set him to a stop. It took the brutish demon a few seconds to finally prop himself back up with the assistance of his Spider Shadow arms. "Bastard! You think you've got power now?! I am Sasuke Damakain! Strongest of Lord Karr's Premire brothers!"

Hiei scoffed at what Damakain had just told him, finding it absolutely ridiculous that he claims to be the strongest of demons, while he was standing in the presence of someone who now far outclassed him.

That simple scoff was enough to trigger Damakain's temper, erupting him into a massive fury. The Demon lost all restraint at started attackking Hiei with all six of his spider shadow arms, each one throwing a punch at him with alarming speed. Over and over the fists flew, it was as if Damakain had transformed his fists into machine guns. Hiei took each and every hit, smirking the whole time, holding back laughter, even as he was beaten to the ground, the relentless punches being shot at him over and over again, mercilessly, with absolutely no sign of stopping.

However, whatever spirit that was in control of Hiei's body at the moment must have grown bored with the masochist entertainment it had provided for itself. Finally, it had enough of Damakain's fruitless attacks, for it immediately tightened it's grip on it's new sword, forged within the drakness flames, and with a single swipe, severed each and everyone of Damakain's spider shadow arms, causing them to fall to the ground and burn with the same intense grey fire which Hiei had now seemed to have total mastery over.

Damakain was frozen, completely paralyzed now with fear as he watched Hiei Jaganashi rise to his feet. His fear did not come from the fact that Hiei had just disposed of all of his deadliest weapons with ease. What was trully terrifying to Sasuke Damakain was the lack of damage on Hiei's body. Save the diamond-shaped tattoos on his chest, Hiei seemed to come out from the other demon's barrage completely unscathed.

Hiei's attention now drew towards his right arm to yet another tattoo, one which had been there before the fire-demon's transformation. The Dragon of the darkness flame mark, curled around Hiei's arm like a serpent would coil around it's master's.

Damakain's face turned pale white as Hiei's open palm began to glow with the intensity of the grey-colored darkness flames which summoned the stout demon's deadliest attack. Damakain sat still, watching, waiting for the end as Hiei drew back his hand, only to then thrust it forward, expelling the dragon of fire from his palm towards him.

Even from the large distance away where Kurama, Hideshi, Yusuke and Ono Yojiki now stood to watch the ensuing fight, they could feel this dragon's heat as it radiated from across the distant battle field. The dragon itself was glorious, towering over all others which Hiei had previously summoned. His awakened Jagan eye glowed with excitement as the dragon danced around from it's point of origin before finally unhinging it's jaw, bearing it's fiery teeth to it's helpless victim as he just stood there, waiting to be devoured by it's awesome might.

I am going to die... The head comes closer.

I am going to die... The monster bares it's teeth.

I am going to die... The dragon is directly in front of him.

I... Will not die! Damakain's resolve came back to him just in time, his demonic energy rising to it's maximum potential, flooding the entire battle field and several other areas surrounding it with an ocean of his demonic energy, which gave him the strength to act against the dragon of the darkness flame. Using his fond memories of the night time sky to fuel his desire for life, Damakain wrestled the beast of darkness flames, his arms acting as a barrier between himself ant the deadly creature.

After holding back the beast for what felt like hours, despite it only being a few seconds, Damakain discovered that all his efforts were for nothing... The dragon gave one final, mighty roar, then exploded in a dark blast of it's own fire, consuming everything immediately surrounding it, including Sasuke Damakain.

Miraculously however, as the searing pain swept through his body, Damakain felt a strange sensation in his gut, as if something were trying to reassure him that he would survive this blast, that he would still be breathing when the pain finally washed away. The last star demon closed his eyes shut, and imagined that he was gazing up at the stars. And although he knew deep down it had never happend, he saw his small daughter sitting next to him as they watched the stars together, feeling empowered by their gracious, sparkling light. I must win... Damakain now thought to himself Not only for myself, but for the glory of my master Lord Karr, who has promised me the night sky...

When the Premier Brother finally reopened his eyes, he saw the form of Hiei standing before him, his Jagan eye glowing with a purple intensity while his natural eyes displayed their blood-red hue.

The tri-eyed demon stared down at his opponent, who was lying on his back, appearing to be far too weak to even move. Damakain simply smiled as he stared back into the cold, mono-colored eyes of Hiei, knowing that this would be his final stance.

"You think you've won already huh? You think just because I'm lying down on my ass now you've toppled the mighty Damakain...? Look at your feet and think again!" he challenged Hiei, standing up in excitement as the ground directly beneath the demon began to glow with a white, phosphorous light, the explosion symbol...

The maddened demon outstretched his arm, desperately trying to channel his energy out towards the symbol through his fingertips. Hiei would give him no such chance.

In what seemed to be the shortest measure of time possible, Hiei had closed the little bit of distance between himself and Damakain, his silver sword swinging through the demon's right hand, severing the demon's fingers, index through pinky, causing them to fall to the ground in a bloody mess. Blood trickled from the side of Damakain's mouth as soon as they were severed, but the real damage came from when the tip of Hiei's sword swung back around, piercing the demon straight through the middle of his chest and then out through the back.

The damage was definitely severe on it's own, but the silent Hiei only made matters worse for Damakain as he activated his sword of the darkness flames inside of the great demon, even if it was only for a brief moment.

The widened hole in Damakain's chest and the smell of burning organs lead Hiei to believe that his work was now done. He retrieved the blade from Damakain's chest cavity, then sheathed it back just as the massive spray of blood from Damakain's exploding heart came from the exit wound in the demon's back. It was at this moment that the glowing intensity in his eyes and the demonic tattoos of his father began to fade from his body, leaving Hiei without a single ounce of strength left. And so he fell, face-first into the dirt of Demon World, his entire being subject to a now needed, and well-deserved rest...

As soon as the blood ceased to flow, Sasuke Damakain fell backwards to the ground, dying without a single word, not even a thought. All he had left was the same vision he had his entire life- a starry night sky.

Somehow, it brought him peace as he inhaled his final breath, dying like he had always dreamed to. Under the stars...

((Sorry guys, this story is still not yet complete, I will be updating as soon as I complete them. Thank you for reading up to this point, sorry if I did something wrong on this site as far as posting my story, I'm really new to this site's format, so please give me some time to adapt. TYSM!))