Chapter Five: The Will to Fight On
The remaining four walked aimlessly among the wreckage. No matter where they looked there was no one alive but them. Yusuke's head was hung low and his arm was around the tearful Keiko. Kuwabara didn't dare break the silence and was mourning his own loved ones. Hiei was lagging behind. You could see in Hiei's eyes how angry he was. He would probably kill the first thing he saw whether it be a friend or foe. There wasn't even a single bird in the sky that morning. Yusuke had been deep in thought… It didn't seem like Koenma was doing too much about the situation from Spirit World. But nonetheless they needed to regroup and strategize.
"Hiei, Kuwabara." Yusuke stopped his trudging and faced the other two. "We need to retreat to Reikai for awhile."
"Yeah…" Kuwabara agreed.
Hiei nodded but was paying more attention to their surroundings. "We have company…" Hiei drew his sword as lower E class demons appeared from their hiding places in the ruins.
"Ke he he heh. Look what we found! Fresh meat! And I was under the impression that they were all squashed like the little parasites they are." One of the demons snickered.
"Who's up for some major ass kicking?" Yusuke asked the other two, and they nodded, ready for battle.
"These three humans should taste much better than that fox demon we ate a couple of minutes ago." Another demon piped up.
Hiei growled and his anger became too much to control. "I'll kill you all and send you to HELL!!!" Within the blink of an eye, Hiei had cut down all the demons with his unsurpassed speed.
Keiko had been backing away from the others in order to stay out of the way of the fighting and stood in the shadow of a halfway crumbled building. Kuwabara jerked his head to the top of the building where some more demons had appeared. "Keiko, look out!" Kuwabara started running towards her. The demons pushed large concrete slabs from the building off the edge to fall on Kuwabara and Keiko. Hiei slaughtered the demons on the roof but the debris fell anyway. Keiko screamed as the concrete fell and a large cloud of smoke rose around them.
"KEIKO!!!" Yusuke yelled. "KUWABARA!!!"
When the dust settled, neither Keiko nor Kuwabara could be seen, only a large pile of rubble in the place of where they had been standing.
"NO!" Yusuke started punching a close wall until it crumbled like dust. A blinding blue aura surrounded the emotion conflicted spirit detective. "THAT BASTARD SHAID IS GOING TO PAY FOR EVERYTHING HE'S DONE!!!"
Hiei would've told Yusuke to keep his cool and not get angry but he couldn't because he did the same just a few minutes before. "We better get to Reikai now." Was the only thing Hiei could say.
Later at the Reikai Palace…
"What happened to this place?" Yusuke could barely see anything through the darkness. "Ow! I tripped over something!"
Hiei took off the white bandage around his forehead, revealing his Jagan eye. "You tripped over a dead ogre…"
"Joy…" Yusuke said sarcastically. "I'm guessing that bastard, Shaid, got here before us. I swear I'll kill him…" Yusuke gritted his teeth in frustration.
"Hn." Hiei nodded even though Yusuke couldn't see it. Through the darkness, they made their way to Koenma's office. From what they could see, cabinets were tipped over, papers scattered everywhere, and Koenma's desk was an absolute mess. His chair was turned, facing away from them but suddenly turned around with Shaid sitting in it and he propped his feet up onto the desk.
"Name calling isn't very nice you know, Yusuke." Shaid sneered.
"You should talk…" Yusuke sneered back.
Shaid laughed. "The time for me to fight you is not now." Yusuke yelled in frustration as Shaid vanished in the shadows once again.
"Damn it! Not again! How can we even kill this stupid demon when all he does is run?!" Yusuke shouted angrily at the chair Shaid had vacated.
"What's the point anymore Yusuke…?" Hiei muttered.
"Huh?" Yusuke snapped out of his sudden fit of rage.
"What's the point in fighting any more? You've lost the ones you care about most… Keiko… and Kuwabara." Yusuke couldn't read Hiei's features in the darkness but something about his tone sent a shiver down his spine. "And Kurama…" Hiei's voice cracked. "Kurama's gone!" Hiei spat bitterly.
Yusuke put his arm firmly on Hiei's shoulder but the angry fire demon jerked his shoulder free. "Hiei… don't beat yourself up for this… we will make Shaid pay for this…" Yusuke reassured him.
Hiei didn't listen. "I could have stopped Shaid from murdering Kurama! Shaid's speed can never match mine! But I was too stunned from the sudden assault to react in time! Now I'm just making excuses…" Hiei sighed grimly.
"I told you, don't beat yourself up over it… " Yusuke noticed he didn't seem to be able to get through to Hiei.
"That fool Kuwabara is gone as well… your beloved Keiko was killed along with him… and everyone else in Reikai was slaughtered too…" Hiei was fingering the hilt of his sword delicately. "Face it, detective… there's nobody left to save. What we're doing is pointless!" Hiei snarled.
"Hiei! Listen to me! Shaid deserves all of our hatred, frustration, and everything else!" Yusuke growled. In the darkness Yusuke heard Hiei's sword being drawn and what little light there was reflected off the blade revealing that the sword was hovering over Hiei's heart. "HIEI DON'T!!!" Yusuke tried to get near Hiei, to stop him but with a blast of Hiei's energy he forced Yusuke back against the wall to just watch in horror as his comrade committed suicide.
"I can't bear to live in any of the three worlds anymore! I'd rather be burning in one of the seven hells with Kurama!" Hiei thrust the blade into his heart, making him spit up blood but he didn't die instantly…
"HIEI!!!" Yusuke shrieked, wanting to help against any hope of saving Hiei.
Hiei could no longer force Yusuke back as he slumped to the ground. "Just… kill Shaid… " Hiei whispered and his eyes were disoriented and cloudy. "I see you… Kurama… you're waiting… just as… you… promised…" The fire demon's crimson eyes darkened and his head flopped to one side.
"HIEI!!!" Yusuke yelled in anguish. "YOU BASTARD!!! YOU LEFT ME!!! DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU!" The enraged detective couldn't stop his tears this time… now that everyone was gone his composure had cracked… A forever had gone by when Yusuke found the strength within him to lift himself off of the ground in Koenma's destroyed office. The blinding blue aura surrounded Yusuke once more while our detective trudged through the halls of the Reikai palace. A wooden door creaked open loudly, allowing Yusuke to pass through. Inside the room was a large pile of dry wood. Yusuke knelt down next to the pile of wood… it was perfect for burning. Yusuke dragged his feet to the top of the mound and kicked it down so it was level and in a large circle. This would be his grave after all…
"Well, well, now…" Shaid appeared and approached Yusuke. "I wasn't expecting you to be all alone by this time. But I guess that's how the demon dies." Shaid was almost grinning under his hood.
"What do you want you monster?" Yusuke growled.
"Ah, about that, I'm just here to witness the death of my adversary."
"Is that so…?" Yusuke made the shape of a gun with his right hand and charged up his spirit gun for Shaid. Shaid dove back into the shadows of the ground.
"You can't defeat me so easily, Yusuke!" Shaid cackled.
"Says you!" Yusuke aimed at the wood and not at Shaid. Shaid hadn't noticed that he had dove into the shadows of the wood, which quickly caught on fire. Before they knew it both of them were surrounded by flames. The blazing light forced Shaid to take his physical form in the center of the flames.
"W-what are you doing?! You'll die as well!" Shaid stammered, afraid for the first time.
"I'm gonna drag your sorry ass down to hell with me. Might as well get used to the heat for it's gonna be even hotter down in hell." Yusuke smirked.
Shaid's cloak caught on fire and the heat of the flames easily consumed the shadow demon's form, reducing it to ashes with one last piercing shriek from Shaid. The flames burned Yusuke's flesh and he felt himself falling to the ground in the middle of all the flames. Fiery red turned to ash black.
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Yusuke was standing in a field of green; completely different from the makeshift fiery hell he had created. There was a single tree in the field. Hiei sat in the high branches of the tree making snide remarks to Kuwabara who was too scared to climb and yelled at the small fire demon. Kurama was laughing at the spectacle. Shizuru, Botan, and Keiko were all chatting at the base of the tree. Well… everyone had waited for him at least. Yusuke grinned.
THE END
Well, this is my second finished Yu Yu Hakusho fan fic. Hope you enjoyed it. See ya'll next time I write!