Skipping ahead to the story today...enjoy!
(A/n: just so you know so the entire story can progress...Kurama's wearing khaki's, a teal button down, and a black trench-coat *sweet!!*, Yusuke's wearing jeans a white tee-shirt, Hiei's wearing his normal pants and gray-ish undershirt *no cloak lol* and Ryooki's wearing black pants, a green button-down, and a brown suede jacket, cuz he was trying to look as much as a normal person when in the human world as physically possible...remember, Kurama, Yusuke, and Hiei are supposed to look about forty-five-ish and Ryooki like twenty-ish...lol...okay go!)
Chapter 12: The Demon World...Fight or Die
"Get down!" Ryooki whispered brashly, stabbing his sprawled, open palm over Yusuke's chest and shoving the Detective to the ground. Yusuke stumbled foolishly, Kurama eyeing him strangely and Hiei growling in frustration tuned to match the fox-wolf leading them.
"Get down and STAY down! If you don't they'll see us!" Ryooki snarled through his tightly wedged fangs at the embarrassed Yusuke, who, after a moment of immediate shock, glared chocolate daggers at the annoyed demon.
Shadows wove over the four in dramatic contrasts to the light just beyond their dared reach...Yusuke was pinned to the rugged terrain of the mossy ground with Ryooki's foot to his stomach, the hybrid refusing to ease off until the Detective obeyed his warnings subconsciously. Trees hid them well, and the moss underfoot stifled the wriggling of Yusuke's repeated attempts toward escape from Ryooki's pin.
Kurama would have chuckled at the sight had the situation been anything less than Grapko, but it hardly was so. Hiei's corrosive eyes rolled in frustration, and at Yusuke's bitter words, the flame Koorime bashed his heel against the Detective's head, knocking the breath from his mouth and instantly killing the words almost escaped.
At this Kurama managed to smile meekly, and shake his head, but laughter had yet to take him...Yusuke began on a loud tangent involving swear after swear, but was silenced when Hiei repeated his former action and Ryooki applied all the more pressure to the Detective's stomach, both at the exact same instant and both performed without either demon flashing Yusuke the decency of a glare.
Yusuke wriggled madly but to no avail, and, whimpering pathetically, allowed his head to collapse in defeat. Hiei smirked slightly at having broken the Detective's spirit, and Ryooki sighed in annoyance. Kurama had been smiling gently by this time, the entire scenario rather funny to have witnessed...but he was the first to prick.
"Duck..." he breathed faintly, a blank look thwarting his face, and his eyes wide. He instantly dove for the mossy forest floor, and a shot of fiery redness tore through the air for Hiei's back. The flame Koorime blurred to the ground, beside his partner, and both awaited for Ryooki to do likewise. But he didn't.
Brother of Kurama had grown intense with anger and frustration, and the sight of the energy orb roughened his rage. His bound his palms around it, much to the surprise of both humanoid fox and flame Koorime...they both had subconsciously agreed to fighting in stealth, to hide and attack the foe off guard...but Ryooki played it direct...he was tired of these Hell's Shadows stalking him, and he was going to slay every single one to get in his way.
Ryooki clenched fiercely to the orb, and, with a last jerk, squished it into shreds of stray energy...one of which sprayed onto Yusuke, who was still pinned limply under the hybrid's foot. He roared in pain as the burning ki singed to his face, and he beat at it dramatically. Kurama eyed him with a groan, Hiei growling and rolling his eyes.
"He's showing as much cowardice towards minor physical injury as Kuwabaka!" Hiei hissed. Kurama eyed his partner sternly at the flame Koorime's obvious disrespect, but both nearly instantly pricked at the sense behind them. Two flaming ki orbs shot out of the musky forest air, and their targets were for each one of the partnership. Kurama and Hiei side-glanced narrowly, and, both allowing a breath of a smirk to grip to their lips, they kicked to a stand, and sprinted in opposite directions.
"So much for the silent first attack," Hiei smirked as he rounded the tree masses, sticking to the bowels of the eeriest shadows.
"Well, at least this way is more interesting...he can try to defend," Kurama smirked right back from his distance away from Hiei.
Both ki blasts jerked to follow after their assigned target, Hiei's snaking sharply in random directions around the forest trees, and Kurama's shooting in a near perfect line through, each merely mirroring their mark's movements.
Hiei growled slightly in the farthest depths of his throat after a few moments, having yet to shake his blast off. He kicked off into his trademark leaps, his form no more than a sting of black against reality, and landed nimbly to an aloof tree branch...but his assigned blast simply tore through the air and shot straight for his heart.
Kurama rounded tree after tree, sprightly bowing every so often to subconsciously grasp various herbs and picking at his finds with brilliant finger-work and only a third of his attention...his sprint dimmed not a speck, but he grew gradually frustrated as the blast quickened in sync to his inhuman speed. His trench-coat flapped violently behind him, blacker than black, and he resembled a smear. *BATMAN!!! lol*
And then there was Yusuke...who was still stepped into the dense, mossy earth. He growled angrily and roared in frustration, clawing at Ryooki's leg, but the hybrid was far too busy with tiny ki orbs to even ease off his captive.
Blast after blast stung the air, split-second intervals between each and all coming from every physical direction. Singes of energy snagged to the Detective's exposed face, and he'd claw insanely at it to smolder and stifle the pain...Ryooki was jerking in every possible direction, swatting, smacking, clawing, punching, and grabbing at every blast.
The attacks to Ryooki varied dramatically from those pursuing Hiei and Kurama...Ryooki's were child's play, distraction...but to come in contact to those stalking the flame Koorime and the fox humanoid would mean instantaneous death...and the two knew this well.
Kurama eased his concoction into his pocket for later use...for the dire circumstances to come. Presently he sprinted steadily back to the spot of the first attack, rounding back and leading his blast onward.
Hiei, to the opposite end of the forest as his partner, had instantly sensed Kurama's motion...they could decipher the other's plan, merely by a single step...their partnership had been honed dramatically over the years, so a slight jerk from one could silently decide a main tactic for both as a unit...though a six year interval of time had separated them, neither had forgotten how to read the other's body language with eerie precision and stealth.
Both sprinted steadily for the beginning clearing, where Ryooki still defended to attacks, and Yusuke still struggled under the hybrid's footing. Kurama and Hiei were mere yards from the other, and both locked stern eyes for their partner.
Kurama grit his teeth firmly in hope, and Hiei in frustration...a fraction of a blink, and they passed each other...the blasts stalking them sliced and ki shot in violent sprays, burrowing deeply into the dense trees surrounding and sparking flame every which way...Kurama and Hiei both skid against the moss of the forest floor, sliding to roughly-smooth stops...Hiei clutching to his Katana's hilt, and Kurama grasping firm to his Rose Whip...each had destroyed the other's stalker.
Kurama and Hiei bowed slightly in exhaust...sweat beading to their brows, but that was merely the run...the real pain struck to their chests...the impact of their weaponry to the ki orbs shot against their flesh...skin was cracked and blood was spilled...not much, just enough to know...that this fight with Grapko...was no longer a mere battle...it was an all-out war.
The stunning shower of iridescent energy blasts raining down on the now angered Ryooki, suddenly ceased, the fox-wolf tensing as he jerked to find the source of the attacks with his keen eyes.
"Nice to see you all have a spark to you," a voice sang lowly...it was masculine, enticing, persuasive, and sensual...not unlike that of Yoko.
Ryooki jerked to face the source of the voice, and found it chuckling in the bowels of a demonic throat...clad in black and stealth to match those of shadows...an Elite of the Hell's Shadows.
"Greetings, Traitors."
"Hn...you can hardly label me a traitor, you imbecile...his only problem with me was that I was born," Hiei smirked narrowly. Kurama smiled calmly, pressing his eyes shut. Ryooki gnarled his clutch into Yusuke's collar and hoisted the Detective to his feet, his expression matching that of his brother.
"Come to think of it...he hates us for that very reason as well," Kurama snickered with his eyes closed casually...Ryooki snorted in agreement.
"Truly...family counseling, anyone?" Ryooki chuckled, ripping his claws free from Yusuke's shirt.
"You know well your crimes," the Elite was hardly amused by them, but the three demons shrugged his stinging words off.
"We've nothing of guilt," Kurama sighed through a lazy smile. The Elite's burning ice eyes narrowed ferociously at him, but jerked to glare at the flame Koorime.
"He does specifically." the Elite growled at the morbid Dragon, who eyed him narrowly with dangerously corrosive ruby glares.
"...hn..." was all the Dragon cared to muster as his response...miraculously, Yusuke had managed to remain quiet...even Ryooki, who had known Yusuke for no more than a collective two hours since they first met nearly thirty years prior, was surprised at how quiet he had strained to stay.
"Feeling sickly, Detective?" Ryooki inquired softly...until he good a true look at Yusuke...his eyes dimmed from reality and seemed to vacuum nothingness...he lacked a soul in the bowels of his eyes, and he gaped aimlessly...at the Elite soldier.
"What the-?! Shadow! What trickery is this?!" Ryooki scowled, jerking Kurama's attention...both he and Hiei had noticed Yusuke's dimmed awareness...but not to this very extent.
"Hypnotism," the Elite smirked a smirk only visible through such choking shadows when riddled with hate and pride.
"What?!" Hiei blinked in frustrated-awe, jerking to face the shell of what was once a very foul-mouthed Detective. "Ningen! Wake up!"
"That won't work," the Elite smirked all the deeper, tossing Ryooki and Hiei's stomachs. Only Kurama remained reasonably calm, let the utter fact that his tail swayed in his anger.
"...indeed..." Kurama's eyes narrowed in disgust. "...you're powers could hardly work on we three of Demonic descent...so you attacked the more human of us."
"Wow, you ARE good, Yoko," the Elite smirked deviously...then, with a single twitch of his icy eye, Yusuke lunged Kurama from behind.
The humanoid was only caught half-off guard...he fully suspected Yusuke to attack any one of them, at any time...they collapsed to the ground, skidding against the smooth moss. Yusuke, on top, gnarled his fists taut, and, with an expression blanker and so lacking in emotion than concentrated horror could allow, Yusuke stabbed into Kurama with punch after punch. The fox was stunned at the dramatic increase with his teammate's speed, and could only block half the attacks with only just-so defense.
Hiei leapt for Kurama's aid...but was met to the stomach with a kick even more hard-core than Urimeshi could normally muster. Hiei fell back in a wavered collapse, half in blunt pain at the kick, and half in awe of the increase in strength come corruption.
Kurama struggled hard against Yusuke, and finally managed to whirl them both over in the moss. Leaves and twigs snagged into his mane and tail, and dust raided his eyes, but Kurama tightened his fist and bashed it to Yusuke's jaw, jerking the Detective aside a good foot.
The humanoid whipped to his feet, gracefully dragging Hiei to a stand in the process...they both stepped back in stance beside the still Ryooki, and watched intently for Yusuke's next move.
The Detective's facial expression was glazed with vagueness...as if even Kurama's strike didn't hurt! He didn't blink, he didn't twitch...his countenance was a vacuum, sucking all emotion in the immediate air closest to it. His face was so involved and deep with emotionlessness it was scary. He jerked this horror of an expression, if it could so be labeled, to his partners...his friends...and stared at them with abyss eyes.
A deep, pulsing rivet of laughter rang through the air...the Elite was hearty in frivolity in this situation.
"Stop laughing you beast!" Kurama roared as Yusuke eased slowly to a lazy stand, emotion completely sucked dry from his character. "Bring him back to normal!!"
"Feh," the Elite sneered, and Yusuke dove again, this time at Hiei. The flame Koorime didn't bash into the forest floor as Kurama had, but nearly did. He blocked punch after punch, practically floating backwards the speed of their motions kept him up in the air in such a way. Yusuke, all the while dead of feeling, punched and kicked with a speed inhuman and unimaginable, even shocking in the eyes of Hiei.
A good one to the stomach, a swat to the back of the neck, kneed to the throat and bashed against a tree under the influence of fifty bashes, and Hiei collapsed in tatters. Redness slipped from his gaping mouth and he moved no more.
"HIEI!" Kurama sprinted for his partner's side...but the valley of his collarbone met to the Detective's elbow, sending the wind from Kurama's tangible reach. He was thrown back as his neck throbbed in intense pain, and Yusuke, eyeing him with those blank, horrific eyes, swept his leg across in a near perfect attempt to buckle against the humanoid's knees.
But Kurama, the sly, cunning fox, sensed his motion, and instantly thrust back in a flip, avoiding the graze of his partner's leg with clarity and only his precision...but the fox had torn the gashes to his chest in doing so, and landed half-lopsidedly...Yusuke pounded in for the attack.
A clear sweep under the knees, twelve swats to his mid-back, twelve punches to his stomach, and one kick straight in the middle between his rib-cage and stomach, and Kurama fell unconscious in pain. Scarlet escaped his nostrils and sprawled lips, and breaths were stolen from him.
The Elite was almost in hysterics in his laughter...until they were severed short. Fear gaped the demon's icy eyes wide, quivering at the lashes...he could feel Ryooki's intimidating breath on his neck.
"...H-how, how d-d-did y-you g-get up here-ere...?!?" He stuttered...Ryooki was to the ground, Yusuke's next victim, but a blink ago...and now he was a breath to the Elite's side, smirking a deadly, dangerous smirk.
"...thought you were safe up here in your little tree..." he smirked...the Elite's eyes grew all the wider in total chaotic fear. "...but you didn't count on me ignoring the Detective." and that last seething remark was the last the Elite ever heard...for three fox-wolf claws snapped through his throat, and his blood sprayed through the air.
The corpse plummeted to the ground, a ribbon of crimson slipping in a graceful stream after it. Ryooki grunted after it in disgust, licking his fingers tenderly of the demon's blood.
Yusuke suddenly blinked baffled eyes, emotion, feeling, and life glazing over the prior vacuums of solitude that had decked his face. He cracked his neck to his shoulder, and looked around in confusion. He gaped in horror when he noticed Hiei, the Dragon propped in a sit against a bruised and battered tree...the Koorime was unconscious, his arms limp between his sprawled legs...blood ran every which way.
"HIEI!" Yusuke roared, sprinting to his friend's side. He steadied Hiei firmly, but shook gently. "Hiei...Hiei wake up! What the hell happened to you?!"
"...you...you, dumb...ass..." Hiei whispered coarsely, attempting to pry free, but collapsing to the ground. Yusuke smiled slightly, knowing Hiei must be alright to a main extent.
And his glimpse locked onto Kurama...sprawled on the mossy ground, his hair disheveled in wild, frayed locks. His trench coat, the blackest of black, held to it a red sheen, visible even against its shade...blood. It laced from his nose and lips, and he was in tatters.
"Go...help, Kitsune..." Hiei demanded weakly...before collapsing unconscious. In massive reluctance the Detective tore from the Dragon's side, and he ran for Kurama, bowing beside him in fear and worry.
"Kurama! Kurama please wake up, buddy! Come on, Kurama!"
Slowly emerald eased visible under sagging lids, but a breath of relief escaped Yusuke's nostrils. "You're okay!"
"In a sense..." Kurama coughed, cracking his neck...he caught a glimpse to his coat, and sighed in utter annoyance. "...oh dammit! It's such a nuisance to get this jacket dry-cleaned, and now I get it all bloody!...Botan isn't going to like this..."
Yusuke eyed the man propped against him in pure shock, then collapsed in laughter, dropping the weak Kurama. The red head bashed to the dense ground, a look of confusion about his meek face. Hiei, clutching tenderly to his stomach, rolled his eyes in annoyance, grunting coarsely in the depths of his throat.
From above Ryooki watched on in slight awe, and smirked. "Hmm...they really have what it takes to battle Grapko?"
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Hey...what did you think? Eh? REVIEW! Tell me your favorite part, please! Lol...mine was when Hiei and Kurama were running through the forest, and they instinctively knew what tactic to pull...I LOVED that part lol...but, yeah, haha...okay, well, review! Latr.
(A/n: just so you know so the entire story can progress...Kurama's wearing khaki's, a teal button down, and a black trench-coat *sweet!!*, Yusuke's wearing jeans a white tee-shirt, Hiei's wearing his normal pants and gray-ish undershirt *no cloak lol* and Ryooki's wearing black pants, a green button-down, and a brown suede jacket, cuz he was trying to look as much as a normal person when in the human world as physically possible...remember, Kurama, Yusuke, and Hiei are supposed to look about forty-five-ish and Ryooki like twenty-ish...lol...okay go!)
Chapter 12: The Demon World...Fight or Die
"Get down!" Ryooki whispered brashly, stabbing his sprawled, open palm over Yusuke's chest and shoving the Detective to the ground. Yusuke stumbled foolishly, Kurama eyeing him strangely and Hiei growling in frustration tuned to match the fox-wolf leading them.
"Get down and STAY down! If you don't they'll see us!" Ryooki snarled through his tightly wedged fangs at the embarrassed Yusuke, who, after a moment of immediate shock, glared chocolate daggers at the annoyed demon.
Shadows wove over the four in dramatic contrasts to the light just beyond their dared reach...Yusuke was pinned to the rugged terrain of the mossy ground with Ryooki's foot to his stomach, the hybrid refusing to ease off until the Detective obeyed his warnings subconsciously. Trees hid them well, and the moss underfoot stifled the wriggling of Yusuke's repeated attempts toward escape from Ryooki's pin.
Kurama would have chuckled at the sight had the situation been anything less than Grapko, but it hardly was so. Hiei's corrosive eyes rolled in frustration, and at Yusuke's bitter words, the flame Koorime bashed his heel against the Detective's head, knocking the breath from his mouth and instantly killing the words almost escaped.
At this Kurama managed to smile meekly, and shake his head, but laughter had yet to take him...Yusuke began on a loud tangent involving swear after swear, but was silenced when Hiei repeated his former action and Ryooki applied all the more pressure to the Detective's stomach, both at the exact same instant and both performed without either demon flashing Yusuke the decency of a glare.
Yusuke wriggled madly but to no avail, and, whimpering pathetically, allowed his head to collapse in defeat. Hiei smirked slightly at having broken the Detective's spirit, and Ryooki sighed in annoyance. Kurama had been smiling gently by this time, the entire scenario rather funny to have witnessed...but he was the first to prick.
"Duck..." he breathed faintly, a blank look thwarting his face, and his eyes wide. He instantly dove for the mossy forest floor, and a shot of fiery redness tore through the air for Hiei's back. The flame Koorime blurred to the ground, beside his partner, and both awaited for Ryooki to do likewise. But he didn't.
Brother of Kurama had grown intense with anger and frustration, and the sight of the energy orb roughened his rage. His bound his palms around it, much to the surprise of both humanoid fox and flame Koorime...they both had subconsciously agreed to fighting in stealth, to hide and attack the foe off guard...but Ryooki played it direct...he was tired of these Hell's Shadows stalking him, and he was going to slay every single one to get in his way.
Ryooki clenched fiercely to the orb, and, with a last jerk, squished it into shreds of stray energy...one of which sprayed onto Yusuke, who was still pinned limply under the hybrid's foot. He roared in pain as the burning ki singed to his face, and he beat at it dramatically. Kurama eyed him with a groan, Hiei growling and rolling his eyes.
"He's showing as much cowardice towards minor physical injury as Kuwabaka!" Hiei hissed. Kurama eyed his partner sternly at the flame Koorime's obvious disrespect, but both nearly instantly pricked at the sense behind them. Two flaming ki orbs shot out of the musky forest air, and their targets were for each one of the partnership. Kurama and Hiei side-glanced narrowly, and, both allowing a breath of a smirk to grip to their lips, they kicked to a stand, and sprinted in opposite directions.
"So much for the silent first attack," Hiei smirked as he rounded the tree masses, sticking to the bowels of the eeriest shadows.
"Well, at least this way is more interesting...he can try to defend," Kurama smirked right back from his distance away from Hiei.
Both ki blasts jerked to follow after their assigned target, Hiei's snaking sharply in random directions around the forest trees, and Kurama's shooting in a near perfect line through, each merely mirroring their mark's movements.
Hiei growled slightly in the farthest depths of his throat after a few moments, having yet to shake his blast off. He kicked off into his trademark leaps, his form no more than a sting of black against reality, and landed nimbly to an aloof tree branch...but his assigned blast simply tore through the air and shot straight for his heart.
Kurama rounded tree after tree, sprightly bowing every so often to subconsciously grasp various herbs and picking at his finds with brilliant finger-work and only a third of his attention...his sprint dimmed not a speck, but he grew gradually frustrated as the blast quickened in sync to his inhuman speed. His trench-coat flapped violently behind him, blacker than black, and he resembled a smear. *BATMAN!!! lol*
And then there was Yusuke...who was still stepped into the dense, mossy earth. He growled angrily and roared in frustration, clawing at Ryooki's leg, but the hybrid was far too busy with tiny ki orbs to even ease off his captive.
Blast after blast stung the air, split-second intervals between each and all coming from every physical direction. Singes of energy snagged to the Detective's exposed face, and he'd claw insanely at it to smolder and stifle the pain...Ryooki was jerking in every possible direction, swatting, smacking, clawing, punching, and grabbing at every blast.
The attacks to Ryooki varied dramatically from those pursuing Hiei and Kurama...Ryooki's were child's play, distraction...but to come in contact to those stalking the flame Koorime and the fox humanoid would mean instantaneous death...and the two knew this well.
Kurama eased his concoction into his pocket for later use...for the dire circumstances to come. Presently he sprinted steadily back to the spot of the first attack, rounding back and leading his blast onward.
Hiei, to the opposite end of the forest as his partner, had instantly sensed Kurama's motion...they could decipher the other's plan, merely by a single step...their partnership had been honed dramatically over the years, so a slight jerk from one could silently decide a main tactic for both as a unit...though a six year interval of time had separated them, neither had forgotten how to read the other's body language with eerie precision and stealth.
Both sprinted steadily for the beginning clearing, where Ryooki still defended to attacks, and Yusuke still struggled under the hybrid's footing. Kurama and Hiei were mere yards from the other, and both locked stern eyes for their partner.
Kurama grit his teeth firmly in hope, and Hiei in frustration...a fraction of a blink, and they passed each other...the blasts stalking them sliced and ki shot in violent sprays, burrowing deeply into the dense trees surrounding and sparking flame every which way...Kurama and Hiei both skid against the moss of the forest floor, sliding to roughly-smooth stops...Hiei clutching to his Katana's hilt, and Kurama grasping firm to his Rose Whip...each had destroyed the other's stalker.
Kurama and Hiei bowed slightly in exhaust...sweat beading to their brows, but that was merely the run...the real pain struck to their chests...the impact of their weaponry to the ki orbs shot against their flesh...skin was cracked and blood was spilled...not much, just enough to know...that this fight with Grapko...was no longer a mere battle...it was an all-out war.
The stunning shower of iridescent energy blasts raining down on the now angered Ryooki, suddenly ceased, the fox-wolf tensing as he jerked to find the source of the attacks with his keen eyes.
"Nice to see you all have a spark to you," a voice sang lowly...it was masculine, enticing, persuasive, and sensual...not unlike that of Yoko.
Ryooki jerked to face the source of the voice, and found it chuckling in the bowels of a demonic throat...clad in black and stealth to match those of shadows...an Elite of the Hell's Shadows.
"Greetings, Traitors."
"Hn...you can hardly label me a traitor, you imbecile...his only problem with me was that I was born," Hiei smirked narrowly. Kurama smiled calmly, pressing his eyes shut. Ryooki gnarled his clutch into Yusuke's collar and hoisted the Detective to his feet, his expression matching that of his brother.
"Come to think of it...he hates us for that very reason as well," Kurama snickered with his eyes closed casually...Ryooki snorted in agreement.
"Truly...family counseling, anyone?" Ryooki chuckled, ripping his claws free from Yusuke's shirt.
"You know well your crimes," the Elite was hardly amused by them, but the three demons shrugged his stinging words off.
"We've nothing of guilt," Kurama sighed through a lazy smile. The Elite's burning ice eyes narrowed ferociously at him, but jerked to glare at the flame Koorime.
"He does specifically." the Elite growled at the morbid Dragon, who eyed him narrowly with dangerously corrosive ruby glares.
"...hn..." was all the Dragon cared to muster as his response...miraculously, Yusuke had managed to remain quiet...even Ryooki, who had known Yusuke for no more than a collective two hours since they first met nearly thirty years prior, was surprised at how quiet he had strained to stay.
"Feeling sickly, Detective?" Ryooki inquired softly...until he good a true look at Yusuke...his eyes dimmed from reality and seemed to vacuum nothingness...he lacked a soul in the bowels of his eyes, and he gaped aimlessly...at the Elite soldier.
"What the-?! Shadow! What trickery is this?!" Ryooki scowled, jerking Kurama's attention...both he and Hiei had noticed Yusuke's dimmed awareness...but not to this very extent.
"Hypnotism," the Elite smirked a smirk only visible through such choking shadows when riddled with hate and pride.
"What?!" Hiei blinked in frustrated-awe, jerking to face the shell of what was once a very foul-mouthed Detective. "Ningen! Wake up!"
"That won't work," the Elite smirked all the deeper, tossing Ryooki and Hiei's stomachs. Only Kurama remained reasonably calm, let the utter fact that his tail swayed in his anger.
"...indeed..." Kurama's eyes narrowed in disgust. "...you're powers could hardly work on we three of Demonic descent...so you attacked the more human of us."
"Wow, you ARE good, Yoko," the Elite smirked deviously...then, with a single twitch of his icy eye, Yusuke lunged Kurama from behind.
The humanoid was only caught half-off guard...he fully suspected Yusuke to attack any one of them, at any time...they collapsed to the ground, skidding against the smooth moss. Yusuke, on top, gnarled his fists taut, and, with an expression blanker and so lacking in emotion than concentrated horror could allow, Yusuke stabbed into Kurama with punch after punch. The fox was stunned at the dramatic increase with his teammate's speed, and could only block half the attacks with only just-so defense.
Hiei leapt for Kurama's aid...but was met to the stomach with a kick even more hard-core than Urimeshi could normally muster. Hiei fell back in a wavered collapse, half in blunt pain at the kick, and half in awe of the increase in strength come corruption.
Kurama struggled hard against Yusuke, and finally managed to whirl them both over in the moss. Leaves and twigs snagged into his mane and tail, and dust raided his eyes, but Kurama tightened his fist and bashed it to Yusuke's jaw, jerking the Detective aside a good foot.
The humanoid whipped to his feet, gracefully dragging Hiei to a stand in the process...they both stepped back in stance beside the still Ryooki, and watched intently for Yusuke's next move.
The Detective's facial expression was glazed with vagueness...as if even Kurama's strike didn't hurt! He didn't blink, he didn't twitch...his countenance was a vacuum, sucking all emotion in the immediate air closest to it. His face was so involved and deep with emotionlessness it was scary. He jerked this horror of an expression, if it could so be labeled, to his partners...his friends...and stared at them with abyss eyes.
A deep, pulsing rivet of laughter rang through the air...the Elite was hearty in frivolity in this situation.
"Stop laughing you beast!" Kurama roared as Yusuke eased slowly to a lazy stand, emotion completely sucked dry from his character. "Bring him back to normal!!"
"Feh," the Elite sneered, and Yusuke dove again, this time at Hiei. The flame Koorime didn't bash into the forest floor as Kurama had, but nearly did. He blocked punch after punch, practically floating backwards the speed of their motions kept him up in the air in such a way. Yusuke, all the while dead of feeling, punched and kicked with a speed inhuman and unimaginable, even shocking in the eyes of Hiei.
A good one to the stomach, a swat to the back of the neck, kneed to the throat and bashed against a tree under the influence of fifty bashes, and Hiei collapsed in tatters. Redness slipped from his gaping mouth and he moved no more.
"HIEI!" Kurama sprinted for his partner's side...but the valley of his collarbone met to the Detective's elbow, sending the wind from Kurama's tangible reach. He was thrown back as his neck throbbed in intense pain, and Yusuke, eyeing him with those blank, horrific eyes, swept his leg across in a near perfect attempt to buckle against the humanoid's knees.
But Kurama, the sly, cunning fox, sensed his motion, and instantly thrust back in a flip, avoiding the graze of his partner's leg with clarity and only his precision...but the fox had torn the gashes to his chest in doing so, and landed half-lopsidedly...Yusuke pounded in for the attack.
A clear sweep under the knees, twelve swats to his mid-back, twelve punches to his stomach, and one kick straight in the middle between his rib-cage and stomach, and Kurama fell unconscious in pain. Scarlet escaped his nostrils and sprawled lips, and breaths were stolen from him.
The Elite was almost in hysterics in his laughter...until they were severed short. Fear gaped the demon's icy eyes wide, quivering at the lashes...he could feel Ryooki's intimidating breath on his neck.
"...H-how, how d-d-did y-you g-get up here-ere...?!?" He stuttered...Ryooki was to the ground, Yusuke's next victim, but a blink ago...and now he was a breath to the Elite's side, smirking a deadly, dangerous smirk.
"...thought you were safe up here in your little tree..." he smirked...the Elite's eyes grew all the wider in total chaotic fear. "...but you didn't count on me ignoring the Detective." and that last seething remark was the last the Elite ever heard...for three fox-wolf claws snapped through his throat, and his blood sprayed through the air.
The corpse plummeted to the ground, a ribbon of crimson slipping in a graceful stream after it. Ryooki grunted after it in disgust, licking his fingers tenderly of the demon's blood.
Yusuke suddenly blinked baffled eyes, emotion, feeling, and life glazing over the prior vacuums of solitude that had decked his face. He cracked his neck to his shoulder, and looked around in confusion. He gaped in horror when he noticed Hiei, the Dragon propped in a sit against a bruised and battered tree...the Koorime was unconscious, his arms limp between his sprawled legs...blood ran every which way.
"HIEI!" Yusuke roared, sprinting to his friend's side. He steadied Hiei firmly, but shook gently. "Hiei...Hiei wake up! What the hell happened to you?!"
"...you...you, dumb...ass..." Hiei whispered coarsely, attempting to pry free, but collapsing to the ground. Yusuke smiled slightly, knowing Hiei must be alright to a main extent.
And his glimpse locked onto Kurama...sprawled on the mossy ground, his hair disheveled in wild, frayed locks. His trench coat, the blackest of black, held to it a red sheen, visible even against its shade...blood. It laced from his nose and lips, and he was in tatters.
"Go...help, Kitsune..." Hiei demanded weakly...before collapsing unconscious. In massive reluctance the Detective tore from the Dragon's side, and he ran for Kurama, bowing beside him in fear and worry.
"Kurama! Kurama please wake up, buddy! Come on, Kurama!"
Slowly emerald eased visible under sagging lids, but a breath of relief escaped Yusuke's nostrils. "You're okay!"
"In a sense..." Kurama coughed, cracking his neck...he caught a glimpse to his coat, and sighed in utter annoyance. "...oh dammit! It's such a nuisance to get this jacket dry-cleaned, and now I get it all bloody!...Botan isn't going to like this..."
Yusuke eyed the man propped against him in pure shock, then collapsed in laughter, dropping the weak Kurama. The red head bashed to the dense ground, a look of confusion about his meek face. Hiei, clutching tenderly to his stomach, rolled his eyes in annoyance, grunting coarsely in the depths of his throat.
From above Ryooki watched on in slight awe, and smirked. "Hmm...they really have what it takes to battle Grapko?"
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Hey...what did you think? Eh? REVIEW! Tell me your favorite part, please! Lol...mine was when Hiei and Kurama were running through the forest, and they instinctively knew what tactic to pull...I LOVED that part lol...but, yeah, haha...okay, well, review! Latr.