I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho (what's the point of these disclaimers anyways?)

Kido, in his t-shirt and boxers, climbed into bed but couldn't sleep. And it wasn't because his father wasn't back from whichever bar he was at; that was nothing out of the ordinary. And it wasn't at all strange for him to be home alone. Obviously, he was still wondering about what had happened to Seichi. What had turned him to stone? And what was that ball of light?

Yana, Kido, and Kaitou had left the arcade in silence. All three knew that what happened to Seichi had been Kaitou's doing, even if it was accidental. Kido had wanted to say something to help his friend, but what could he have said when he didn't understand what had happened? The best he could do was walk Kaitou home and give him a reassuring clap on the shoulder.

Kido shot up, startled, as he heard the crash of breaking glass outside his bedroom. Forcing himself to stay calm, he grabbed his cell phone and ran towards the bathroom, the nearest room that could be locked. He ran for the hallway, using the darkness as cover. If there was one thing that Kido was good at, it was concealing himself in the shadows. It was how he fought the punks that were out for his blood.

"I know someone's in here," said the man who'd broken in. "I can't see you, but I can smell you."

Kido ran into the bathroom and locked the door. He flipped open the phone and turned it on.

Suddenly, a large muscular man reduced the bathroom door to splinters. "Heheh. There you are." The big man snatched the phone from Kido's hand and crushed it. Kido stared up at him, his mouth open in shock.

"Come on," said the man. "I won't hurt you if you're useful. Now, come sit with me in the living room." He hefted Kido by the neckline of his shirt and tossed him onto a couch.

The man flipped on the lights and sat across from him. "Name's Goki," he said. "And you're Mr. Kido, correct?"

'No use lying,' thought Kido. He nodded.

"I was near the arcade today," said Goki, "and I sensed something happening. You and your two friends were the only ones I sensed with particularly high energy. One of you stripped that boy of his soul. Was it you?"

"W-what are you talking about?"

"That ball of colored light," said Goki. "It was a human soul, and a particularly tasty one at that. You see, I'm a Kyuukonki, a soul-eating ogre, and I want the boy that stripped away that kid's soul. You know why? Because if I don't have the soul stripped away, I have to eat it along with the person's body." Kido gasped in revulsion. Goki ignored it.

"It's an inconvenience," Goki continued. "Like gristle on a piece of steak. I used to have an artifact that could remove the soul for me, but it's locked away somewhere secure and I don't think my former partners would be willing to help me."

"You're nuts!" Kido shot at the man, regaining some of his courage.

"Don't speak to me like that!" Goki roared. "Now tell me, are you the one who took away that boy's soul?"

"No!" said Kido. "And even if I were, I would never help a monster to kill humans."

"Then you're useless to me!" Suddenly, Goki stood towering over Kido and casting him in shadow as he transformed. A main of hair bristled out of his head, and bony horns formed on his forehead. "Dinnertime!"

Kido shut his eyes, waiting for the fangs to close around his body.

They never came.

Kido looked up and saw Goki in the exact same position as before, arms in the air and a confused look on his face. "I can't move! What the hell did you do, Kido?"

He couldn't move. Kido made a dash for the door, but as soon as he moved, Goki was freed from his paralysis and grabbed at him. But as Goki blocked out the light hanging from the ceiling, he froze again.

Kido wasn't going to pass up this chance. He reached up and grabbed Goki's nose and mouth, ignoring his muffled cries of "No, no!"

"I'm a Kyuukonki!" Goki begged. "I have to eat human souls. It's how I was made. I can't help it! Please, Kido!"

"I don't care what you are," Kido answered. "Humans gotta fight for humans."

Kido kept his stranglehold on Goki's face for many long minutes before the ogre finally stopped struggling. After waiting to be sure the creature was dead, Kido backed away but realized that the dead body was still held rigidly in the same position. When Kido finally moved off to the side, the ogre's corpse crumpled onto the ground.

"His shadow," whispered Kido. "He can't move if I'm touching his shadow."

XXXXX

RIIIIINNNGGG!

Mitsunari Yanagisawa awoke reluctantly. He heard the door to his father's bedroom open. "Damn phone company should just stop service at this time of night," Yana's father grumbled.

Yana's father, Ichiro, grumbled on the cordless phone for a moment before bringing it to his son. "Mitsunari, it's Asato Kido. He says he has an emergency or something. Hang up when you're done." Yana's father left the phone with his son and went back to sleep.

"Kido?"

"Yana, you're not going to believe this," said Kido breathlessly.

"After what happened today, I'll believe almost anything."

"I know what Kaitou did. That ball of light was a human soul."

"Are you serious?" Yana asked.

Kido quickly related his meeting with the creature Goki and learning about his and Kaitou's powers.

"So there's a dead ogre in the middle of your living room right now?" asked Yana.

"Yeah. I'm getting the hell out of here. I know a motel I can stay at."

"What should we tell Kaitou?"

"We'll need to talk about that later but I doubt he'd be too unhappy about removing Seichi's soul." Kido paused. "One more thing. Goki said that the three of us had unusually high energy. If Kaitou and I have new powers, then you probably do too."

"What should I do about it?"

"I don't know, Yana. I don't fuckin' know. I'll talk to you later."

"Yeah, see ya."

Yana turned off the phone and returned it to its charger. On the way back to his room, he heard quiet sobbing coming through his mother's door. For the past few weeks, Yana's mother, Naoko, had been sleeping in a room separate from Ichiro. She insisted on the room, saying it was safer. When asked what the room was safer from, her only response was "Them."

Yana inched open the door. "Mom?" he whispered. "Are you okay?"

"Close the door!"

Yana shut the door behind him. Naoko sat up in bed. "Who are you?" she asked.

Yana felt a pang in his heart. "I'm Mitsunari," he said for the trillionth time. "I'm your son."

Naoko let out a sudden gasp. "They're coming back!" Her sobs got stronger. "They're coming back."

"Who?" Yana asked in frustration. "Who are they? What are they?" Yana finished in a near shout.

"Everything in the world has little cracks in it. They crawl through those cracks in the wall even though this wall is safer than the other one. Sometimes they crawl on my bed and across my face. I try to lie still because if they know I'm awake…" She broke down into another round of sobbing.

"Mom," said Yana, "There's nothing here but you and me!"

"I wish you could see the things I can see."

'So do I,' thought Yana.

"They're in the house. Go away!" She waved her arm at her son, telling him to leave. Yana grabbed her hand, trying to reassure her.

A sudden jolt of energy shot through Yana's body. His body began to shift and squirm, breaking and making bonds. Yana doubled over, scared and nauseous. He shut his eyes, waiting for the sensation to stop.

When the strange feeling subsided, Yana opened his eyes. He fought not to scream as the terrible, unearthly things slithered and crawled into his mother's bedroom. They climbed all over his mother's shivering body. He could not see them, but he could sense them.

Not hesitating, he grabbed his mother's limp body and dragged her out of her room. "Help! Help!"

Ichiro barged out of his room. "What's going on?"

"Dad!" shouted Yana. "Help! Those things are in her bedroom!" All Ichiro did was stare blankly at his son and wife.

"Dad!"

"What…what is this?" Ichiro stammered.

"What?"

Not knowing what to do, Ichiro ran back into his room and locked the door.

Yana glanced down at his mother. As he saw his own body, he thought, "What is this? What happened to my body?" Setting his mother down on the floor, he ran into the bathroom and looked into the mirror.

Staring back at him was the frightened face of his own mother.