Chapter Three

Bond of the Ma-zaku

Yusuke opened his eyes to find he was no longer in Genkai's temple, but in a place that looked awfully like the Demon World.

"What the hell?"

He started to walk forward, but felt his body constrict together, forcing him to fall to his knees. He grit his teeth and tried to get loose, but the harder he struggled the harder it was for him to breathe.

At least I can breathe. Must mean I'm not dead.

Suddenly, a figure started moving towards Yusuke. It looked like a man: a demon man. His long white hair blew through the foul smelling breeze of the Demon World, as well did his light green bandana. His fingernails were razor sharp claws, and his bare upper body was rippling with muscles and tattoos that looked strangely familiar to Yusuke…but it wasn't those that told him who this man was.

It was those eyes.

Raizen.

Not the Raizen that he had once known. That Raizen was barely a fraction of his former self. This was the Raizen of legends; the one that became one of the three kings of Demon World.

"Why?" Raizen asked, looking at Yusuke, but also past him. Yusuke tried to move his body around to see, but found it was nearly impossible.

"Why, you ask?" replied a voice from behind Yusuke. It was a voice that sent chills down the young man's spine. "Why do you continue to live as you are? You could be so much more, Raizen!"

Raizen glared at his enemy. "You're wrong. This isn't the way to gain power, Shenzen!" He parted his claws, as if ready to attack the one called Shenzen.

Yusuke felt his body tighten for a moment, then release. He could move again! He instantly rolled onto his feet and leapt a few yards back to get a good look at Shenzen, and it caused Yusuke to almost fall back down.

Shenzen could have been Raizen's twin. He had the same eyes, same build…even the same tattoos. The only thing different about him was his hair, which was jet black instead of white and a lot shorter. A red bandana was wrapped around his head, and a black cloak whipped in the wind behind him.

"And what's wrong with exploiting the fact that Yakumo is no longer in existence?" asked Shenzen, and the name he mentioned caused Yusuke's eyes to widen with surprise.

Yakumo was the lord of the Netherworld, a forth world that was apparently like a Hell for demons that was sealed off by King Yama ages ago. Yusuke had faced off against him right after the Dark Tournament, using Yakumo's Power Sphere to blast the demon into oblivion.

But what does he have to do with Raizen and this Shenzen guy?

"We are the Ma-zaku, Shenzen!" Raizen exclaimed, taking a step forward. "Think of the pride of our bloodline!"

"I think only of the future," said Shenzen. "And it appears as though you will not be a part of mine."

Both Raizen and Shenzen charged one another at lightning-like speed, but Yusuke did not get to watch the fight unfold. His vision blurred, and when he could focus again, he was no longer in the Demon World, but that of the Human World.

He was standing in the middle of a blizzard, somewhere high in the mountains. He could feel the cold nipping at his face and it was getting hard to breathe at such a high altitude.

Through the flurry of snow, Yusuke could make out the same two figures of Raizen and Shenzen, both badly injured and breathing even harder than Yusuke.

"You…won't defeat me…Raizen…" stuttered Shenzen, by far the worse off of the two. Yusuke felt a ping of pride that his ancestral father was so powerful.

"I already have, Shenzen," said Raizen. Yusuke squinted, and saw that Raizen had a look of sadness in his eyes.

Are they more than blood-kin?

Raizen bolted forward and grabbed Shenzen with relative ease. He then bolted up into the air over a hundred feet, and then slammed Shenzen into the icy ground below, drilling him through it. Yusuke ran to the spot to see Raizen standing on top of Shenzen, his demonic energy so powerful that Yusuke felt as though he may have to back off.

"I won't kill you, Shenzen. You'll be forced to live in this ice prison for eternity," said Raizen, with a voice as cold as the surrounding weather.

He jumped out of the snow hole (Yusuke instinctively jumped far back) and let out a terrible roar. The snow and ice began to crumble around, collapsing inside and burying Shenzen alive.

Looking a little out of breath, Raizen placed his hand on the freshly laid snow and a red aura surrounded his body, until finally a red stone tablet appeared under his hand. A shining black seal was formed with a demonic word written on it. Yusuke had learned a bit of the demonic language, and this word was one of the first he had learned:

Ma-zaku.

"I wish it didn't have to come to see, brother."

The icy tundra disappeared, and Yusuke was once again inside the stone room, with his ancestral father sitting on his stone throne.

"Now you know, Yusuke," said Raizen, sounding and looking like he had when they first met.

"Shenzen was your brother," said Yusuke quietly, feeling his father's remorse running through his heart. "Why did you have to seal him?"

"Shenzen was power hungry, and had absorbed much of Yakumo's Power Sphere. I believe you encountered Yakumo a few years ago."

"Yeah, and he was no cake walk back then, but I was only fresh out of the Dark Tournament when he attacked. I could handle him now without much problem," said Yusuke with a small smile.

Raizen laughed. "I wish that were the case, my son. Unfortunately, Yakumo was no Shenzen. If he had absorbed all of the Power Sphere, I'm afraid it would be me in that ice prison, not him."

"But he didn't!" retorted Yusuke. "You beat him and sealed him away, right? So what's the problem?"

"Yusuke, have you not realized it yet?" asked Raizen, his voice growing a little irritated. "That was over three thousand years ago. That place was in the Human World; a mountain called Everest. You've heard of it, correct?"

"Who hasn't?"

"Humans have caused much damage to their world, Yusuke. It has caused a lot of the snow to melt, and make it easier for someone to find Shenzen's tomb."

"You're saying…" but Yusuke couldn't finish his sentence. Raizen did for him,

"Shenzen's prison has been found, Yusuke. The seal was there to alert me if this happened, but I am no longer a part of this world…but you are."

Yusuke's eyes drifted the floor. "Raizen, I…don't know if I'm strong enough," he admitted in defeat. His fight with Hiei was more than enough proof of that. The two used to be on par with one another, but now…

Raizen seemed to catch on to this and smirked, "You're my son, Yusuke. You've inherited the power of the Ma-zaku. Your friend seems to have caught on to how a Ma-zaku's power works," his smile grew. "You just needed a good kick in the ass to jump start it."

Yusuke couldn't help but laugh, "Hiei always seems to be there when I need that, that's for sure."

"You'll need to keep your friends close," said Raizen, serious once again. "Ask the Spirit Fox about how to strengthen the seal on Shenzen's prison. With your Ma-zaku blood, you should be able to do it. I'd rather see that happen then force you into combat against him."

"Don't think we can take him?" Yusuke asked, trying to sound confident.

Raizen looked at Yusuke, sorrow in his eyes, "I'd rather not see my family forced to fight one another once again."

And Raizen, like before, disappeared into the darkness…

Yusuke sat up slowly from the cold floor of Genkai's temple. His shirt and jacket were gone from the powerful blast of the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, but his body seemed fine. It only took Yusuke a couple seconds to see the markings of the Ma-zaku had appeared on his body.

"That happened the moment I unleashed my attack."

Yusuke turned to see Hiei sitting on top of the rubble of the collapsed rooftop.

"Is that so?" asked Yusuke, standing up. His body felt off balance, as if he had acquired a new limb or something.

"What did Raizen tell you this time?" asked Hiei, talking as calmly as he had been right before he blasted Yusuke.

"That his brother, Shenzen, is awakening. We have to stop that from happening, or we're all screwed. We need to find Kurama."

"I see. Then I suppose we should get going," Hiei threw on his black robes and walked past Yusuke and out into the moonlit pathway.

"Hold on a second, Hiei!" called Yusuke, running over to him, "How did you know how to awaken the Ma-zaku blood inside me?"

Hiei rolled his eyes. "Mukuro told me…and she had been informed by the spirit mage Rito."

"Huh…" said Yusuke, and then smirked, "So you're a follower of that nutcase as well, huh?"

Hiei let out a chilling laugh, "Hardly. I don't believe in psychics."

"Wait…so why the hell did you attack me?"

"You were being annoying."

"And the Darkness Flame?"

To that Hiei merely shrugged, "We should get going. Kurama is in London right now. Pack your things and meet me there. I'll make sure to leave a trail easy enough for you to follow."

And in a flash, Hiei had disappeared into the night, leaving Yusuke to stare with a dumbfounded look on his face.

"Note to self…don't ever act like a whiney bitch in front of Hiei ever again…"

Yusuke got home a little after 2 AM, exhausted and just wanting sleep. The end of the world could wait for him to at least get a few hours of shut-eye, right?

He was running by a few things in his head while he drove home. He'd have to borrow money from his mom for a ticket to London, but that would be easy enough. He'd just tell her it was to go see Keiko or something. After that, he'd make some calls to find out exactly where Kurama was at. He knew Hiei would leave him some kind of trail, like he said, but being at the three-eyed demon's will was not something he felt like doing.

He flopped down on his bed and looked at his tattooed arm.

If it's anything like last time, they'll just fade away…I'd rather not explain why I decided to get a full body tattoo over night. At least I didn't grow four feet of hair this time…

Yusuke rolled over on his side and looked at his phone and answering machine. A number 1 was blinking red. He raised a brow, wondering who would have called him at this time of night. He reached his hand over and pressed the Play button and closed his eyes.

"Hi, Yusuke! I figured you'd be home by now." It was Keiko. "I hope you're not getting into trouble." More like the world was getting into trouble, but whatever. "It's almost one in the afternoon here, and I'm getting packed to fly over to Nepal for an archeological dig in the mountains! It's really exciting, Yusuke! It's something that hasn't ever been seen before! Anyway, I gotta go I'll call you when I get in." There was a pause, and then, "I love you." Click.

"Oh, Keiko…if only you knew what was happening…" said Yusuke, far to tired to think, and quickly fell asleep.

Yusuke, who knew next to nothing about geography, had no idea where Keiko was actually going to…and the consequences her and her team may bring…