Chapter 9
The Beginning of the End
We soon found out that the elevators were not operational, not that we'd have advised our selves to take them. Shura had to know we were coming now, and what better way to get rid of someone then drop them 50 stories to the ground. We made our way up the long stairway of the Empire State Building, moving at a jogging speed. We didn't want to over extort ourselves before even getting to the top.
Once we reached the twentieth story, we stopped to take a break. I leaned against the wall to catch my breath.
"I hate running…" I grumbled, exhaling and inhaling slowly.
"I hear ya…" Derek agreed, crossing his arms over his chest as he took his place next to me, also leaning against a wall. Koenma had gone to a crouched position, and Kurama stood as though all that running was nothing.
"Let's continue…I have a bad feeling about stopping here…" And as though it was a cue, we heard an explosion coming from the center of the floor. I went inside without hesitation, and was slightly amazed at what I saw. Derek followed after me and his jaw had dropped. There, with about ten demon bodies around her, was Jade. She was wearing the clothes that I had seen her in the first time we met, and her hair was done in a ponytail. She blinked and looked at us, and smirked.
"Well look who it is; Derek and Corey. Good to see you could make it." She gave her innocent smile, which caused Derek to chuckle lightly. I gave him a dark glare,
Just what we need… I looked back at her and grinned as well, "Well, Thief, what're you doing here? I thought you weren't going to do anything about Shura."
"Well…" she said, smiling at Derek and not even looking at me (which made me glare at her again), "I owe your friend here something." She said with a glimmer in her eyes. Derek blinked and then stood straight up, and walked over to her, smiling,
"Thank you for coming. I…we…appreciate it."
"The hell I do!" I shouted at them, but they were just staring at each other.
"I hope you're not counting this as our date." Derek said to her, causing her to laugh.
"Perhaps…I am going outa my way to help you all." She winked and leaned in, kissing Derek on the cheek and making him turn bright red.
"Okay!!" I yelled, moving towards the two of them and separating them, "I swear to God you two choose the stupidest places to kiss!" At this time, Kurama stepped forward and looked at the three of us.
"Who are you, young lady?" he asked, hands at his side.
"Oh. I'm Jade. You must be Kurama, right? I've heard a lot about the great spirit fox demon."
"Yes. Well, Jade, could you please go and assist Liz outside with the demons. I'm sure you can be a great assent to her and the military." He smiled kindly at her. Jade nodded at him and looked back at Derek.
"Be careful, okay?" she asked him, taking his hand, making them both go a little red in the cheeks.
"I will…you too, 'kay?" she nodded, reached over and kissed his lips quickly, and then took off back down the stairs, leaving Derek in a bit of a daze.
"Well…" I interrupted the quiet, "Shall we continue on our mission to save the damn world?!" I yelled at Derek to snap him out of it. He stirred and then nodded, and the four of us once again began up the stairway to Shura.
We continued up the stairway, going past the floors with ease. Surprisingly, there weren't any demons coming down to stop us. This made me feel a little uneasy, but at least it was saving our strength.
I'm coming for you, Shura… I thought to myself as we ran.
And then, we made it to the top floor.
We pushed open the doors to the final floor of the building and walked inside. As I looked, it didn't take long to notice how different it was from any of the other rooms. One difference being that it looked way to demonic to be made humans. Spiked pillars were coming up from the ground, and two fountains of red liquid were coming from either side of a red carpet. I shuttered, thinking of what the liquid was. As we walked down the carpet, at the very end stood a golden throne. I stopped dead as I stared at the creature before me, who was sitting on it. He had long brown hair that was braided into a rat-tail, and he wore robes that looked like he was royalty. He had four pointed ears, two on each side. As his gaze fell upon us, he merely gave us a sadistic grin.
"Welcome to my palace." He said, his voice sounding still young, but it made me shiver, "I'm in the process of re-decorating, but once I get rid of those damned humans at the bottom, I will be able to make it look much better."
"So I take it you're Shura!" I yelled, gripping the hilt of my sword tightly.
"Correct, human. I am Shura, son of Yomi. So, I take it you're Spirit World's last line of defense. How pathetic…" He stood up and then looked at Kurama, and grinned even more, "Kurama. It is good to see you again. I haven't seen you since I was a young boy. How is your family doing?" Kurama's persona suddenly changed from calm to anger.
"You should know quite well that they have all passed on, Shura. Human's don't have as long to live as demons." Although his voice was calm, the icy glare he gave Shura frightened even myself, "This is where your rain of terror ends, Shura." He withdrew his rose that he had kept securely in his pocket, transforming it into his Rose Whip. Derek and I nodded to each other and readied our own blades.
"Do you honestly think you three can beat me? You're all only A-class demons at best, while I am a SS-Class. Fools." Koenma then took his time to step forward.
"Hello, Shura." He said calmly, hands in his pockets. Shura stared at him, as if trying to figure out who he was, and then it dawned on him.
"Koenma…lord of the Spiritual World. The pleasure is all mine. What brings the son of King Yama here, to this place?" he asked, standing firm.
"I've come here to help my friends defeat you." He said, softly. Obviously, we didn't want to tell Shura what we were planning to do. I finally took a step forward.
"Enough of the formalities! Let's do this!" I glanced over at Derek, then Kurama, who both nodded. We then proceeded to rush Shura from three different angles. My spirit energy blasted through the Tetsaru, and it gave it a blue aura. Derek snapped his fingers, and flames erupted around his own katana. Kurama merely moved forward with his Rose Whip. Through the corner of my eye, I saw Koenma take a step back and take out his pacifier.
Good…he's preparing the Ma-Fukan. I thought to myself, and then turned my full attention on Shura, who hadn't moved at all. Glaring and gripping my blade, I swung at him with terrible force.
"Take…this!" I yelled as my blade made contact. For a split second, I thought I had already taken him down with one hit, but then the reality set in. Shura didn't move at all, but my sword merely hit him as if it was a wooden stick. He held up his hand and a red ball of energy started growing in it. My eyes widened, and just before he attacked, Derek had leapt down and hit Shura's extended arm with his fiery blade.
"Erupt!" My friend yelled, and flames blasted out of the katana from every direction, catching Shura off guard. I took that time to jump back and switched my sword to my left hand, extending my right hand and index finger. The blue spiritual energy grew in it as I charged the Spirit Gun. Shura had immerged from the flames, unscathed again, and gave Derek a mighty kick into the ribs, sending him flying into the nearby spiked pillar, utterly destroying it. He lay motionless there.
As Shura turned his attention back onto me, he moved to attack with his fists, but this time it was Kurama who came to my aid. The rose whip grappled his right arm and he pulled it back.
"Demon traitor!" Shura yelled and with his left hand, palm out, blasted an array of red demonic energy directly at Kurama, who managed to avoid the full extent of the blow by rolling to the left, but his left right arm got hit by attack. His sleeve was destroyed, and his arm was burnt, but he kept holding onto the whip. Luckily, that was all the time I needed.
"Spirit Gun!" I shouted, as I unleashed the energy that was being built up in my finger. The blue bullet, which I had charged into a blast as large as a teacher's globe, erupted from my finger and directly at Shura, whom was hit by it had point blank. "Got 'im!" I yelled out in excitement, but it was quickly cut short as a blast of flaming energy hit me in the chest. My body went hurdling into the ground and sliding across it, causing rubble to be brought up as I did. I forced myself to sit back up and stared in disbelief at Shura, who's had a singe mark on his robes.
"Well…that was unexpected…" Shura said, walking towards me, "Who would have thought that you had so much kick." Holding out his hand, a golden ring began to form around it. "This is my Demon Cyclone attack. One hit with this will probably kill you." And he began to laugh. He laughed like a lunatic, and all I could do was sit there in shock.
Move, you idiot! I yelled at myself, trying to get up, but no muscle would move. This…always happens! Why can't I get up and fight, goddammit! It's just like with Cross Blade! Before I could give myself anymore self pity, it seemed like Shura was about to attack, but I was wrong. Coming from seemingly nowhere, Derek had re-joined the fight. His katana, which was incased in flames, shined brilliantly.
"Ignite!" Came a word from his mouth and, catching Shura off guard, he slashed the air, and flames blasted from the blade in a pointed array and straight into the side of the demon's face. The hit was good, and he went skidding across the floor, but did not fall. I got up fast and Derek and I both held our blades at ready. Shura turned his attention back to the two of us and growled low. His face had a burn mark on it. From behind him appeared Kurama, gripping his whip still.
"You…damned people…" He muttered, but then something caught his eye. He looked over and saw Koenma, still charging the Ma-Fukan. He held up a single finger in a fashion that looked like he was going to use the Spirit Gun. Koenma, who had his eyes closed for concentration, merely just stood there.
"Koenma!! Watch out!" Derek yelled, trying to get the prince of the Spirit World's attention, but it was to late. Shura fired a red demonic bullet out of his finger, much smaller then my own, and it hit the pacifier in Koenma's mouth, which not only forced Koenma down, but destroyed the binki.
"No…" I muttered out, seeing our last shred of hope being destroyed. Kurama quickly moved to Koenma, to see if he was all right. With a quick examination, he looked back at Derek and me.
"He'll survive…but we have more pressing matters to attend to." Derek and I moved over to Kurama, and stared down Shura, who was laughing again.
"You fools! Did you honestly think a barrier spell was going to get me? Ha!" He then began to power up, sending shockwaves of demonic power through out the room.
"Dammit…" I said quietly, watching this happen. I moved forward to get ready to fight, when Kurama held out an arm to stop me.
"Wait." He said, calmly. I blinked and looked at him,
"What Kurama?" I asked.
"Yea, shouldn't we all fight him at once? Maybe…we'd stand a chance, ya know?" Asked Derek, who I could also see was frightened, but who could blame him? I couldn't, that's for sure. I was just as scared as he was. There we were, facing certain doom, and Kurama stood there perfectly calm.
"I will fight him in one-on-one combat, and try to weaken him as much as possible. Then, you two will have to finish him off."
"But…Kurama…no offense, but your not that much stronger then we are right now." Derek explained, "I seriously think we should do three-on-one." Kurama looked back at both of us and smirked.
"Trust me on this one." He then moved forward about ten feet, closing the gab between Shura and himself to about fifteen feet. Shura looked amused,
"So, Kurama, you are fighting me alone, eh? Are you going to bring him out?" he asked. Kurama merely smiled back at him,
"I believe so…I told your father that I never let anything go forever, and now seems as good a time as any to prove that." And with those last words, a smoke appeared around Kurama's body, encircling him in it. I couldn't see anything, but after a few moments of this smoke, Kurama's energy skyrocketed.
After about a minute, the smoke cleared, and a new being stood there where Kurama had once before. It was still Kurama, but his appearance and power had changed dramatically. His red hair was replaced by silver, and he wore a sliver robe. He was bare foot, and had white fox ears in replace of the human looking ones he had before. He no longer had a whip, but a vine blade that wrapped around his right arm and extended for about three feet. He stared at Shura with red eyes.
"Now…let's do this." He said quietly, his voice darker and sounding slightly raspy. The voice reminded me of a cold-blooded killer.
"Wh-what? How? Huh??" I asked, bewildered by the transformation.
"Youko." Came the voice of Koenma from behind me. I turned to look at him.
"Youko?" I asked, still as confused as before.
"The Silver Fox demon, Youko. Kurama's original form. You see, Kurama wasn't born in the half human body he had. He was once what you see before you, a powerful fox demon. He was attacked, but before his soul was taken to the Spiritual Realm, he sent it to the womb of a human woman, and thus was born as Suichi.
"During an event called the Dark Tournament, Kurama gained the ability to transform back into this state with a certain item, and soon learned to do it on command. In the Demon World Tournament, he said he was never going to use it again. Apparently, he told Yomi different."
"So…we actually stand a chance now?" Derek asked, trying to force a smile on his lips.
"Perhaps…originally, Youko Kurama would be able to rival Shura's power, but Kurama hasn't brought him out in 75 years. His skills will be rusty, and he probably is nowhere near as powerful as he was before. He is an S-Class demon, but Shura is still stronger. We can only hope that Kurama can weaken him enough for you two to beat him." I nodded slowly and turned back to watch the battle that was about to unfold.
"Good luck, Kurama…" I said under my breath.
Kurama and Shura were still staring each other down, until finally Shura spoke.
"You've gotten weak, Youko. You used to be much stronger. In those days, you might stand a chance, but I'm afraid you're still no match for me now."
"Is that right?" Youko Kurama asked, a slender smile on his face. "I still have a few tricks up my sleeve, Shura. Even if, for whatever reason, I cannot defeat you, there are still two more people who can." He turned his head and looked directly at Derek and me, and then back to Shura. "Ready?"
"Of course…I might actually be able to flex my muscles now!" Shura declared, his demonic energy flowing freely again. It was matched by Kurama's own energy, and electricity ran through the air.
"No more stalling!" Kurama shouted, and ran at Shura with incredible speed, and the second round for the battle of the world began.
