A/N: I wish to bash my head against hard, blunt objects…

14. Release and Betrayal – Final Attack

"Psst!" a voice from the shadows whispered.

Hiei's eyes shot open and greeted the pale mint morning light. Reishi was kneeling in the open tent flap, waking Kuwabara and Hiei up for the betrayal. Hiei shuffled in his thin blanket, waking up Killer in the process. Reishi leaned over and poked Kuwabara hard in the nose to get him up.

"Don't… eat that pizza, sis… It's my… chocolate fudge sundae… gonna kill that Urameshi…" Kuwabara sleep-moaned, turning over on his blanket and snoring. Hiei and Reishi rolled their eyes, and Reishi poked Kuwabara again.

Kuwabara finally sat up, rubbing his eyes and looking very sleepy. "Unh… it's too early…" he whined.

"Be quiet!" Reishi commanded sharply. "It's time…"

"Huh? Time for what? Breakfast?" Kuwabara asked, bewildered.

Reishi ignored Kuwabara's question and motioned for Hiei to give Killer the soul-carrier to her. Hiei obliged, handing her the little fuzzball. Killer didn't try to bite off Reishi's fingers (Kuwabara pointed this out) as she stroked him gently to calm him down. Killer was at last content, and he purred a very bird-like purr. Kuwabara crossed his arms indignantly, complaining that Killer never purred for him.

"Okay… it's time…" Reishi whispered.

Hiei and Kuwabara watched Reishi with intrigue as her nimble fingers quickly tapped in a long and difficult code into a tiny microchip placed in Killer's neck. The two were amazed at Reishi's skill of punching in the code so precisely on such a small device – even Hiei hadn't noticed the little chip on Killer! After a moment's wait, Reishi had finished the code, and for a moment, nothing happened.

Then Killer began to glow. He was surrounded by an interesting neon green color, suspending in midair by the power of the glow. He looked just as he did when Koto had first found him – floating in the neon gel-like substance in a cylindrical cage. Hiei and Kuwabara's eyes were locked on the bird; the end of the world was coming to an end… for Jiusenki's plan was being thwarted at that very moment.

Killer started to expand. His body grew steadily larger and larger, blowing up like a balloon. He was now as big as Hiei's head – including the hair – and glowing even more brightly than ever before. He was ready to let the souls escape…

A light wind began to blow, encircling Killer like a cyclone. Millions of tiny white specs flew out from Killer's body. They were hardly visible; only Hiei's Jagan was able to see most of them. To Kuwabara and Reishi, the souls were just a white blur rushing past them. The souls of the entire Ningenkai were being released back to Earth, their fragile spirits returning to their bodies which had now reappeared where they had been left back on Earth.

Their betrayal was going smoothly. Reishi smirked with satisfaction as the last of the souls whizzed out of Killer. Kuwabara was doing an odd sort of victory dance, hitting his fist against the ceiling of the tent, and Hiei was doing nothing, sitting perfectly still.

Then Jiusenki burst in. He tore the tent away, leaving the four of them out in the open (Koto had spent the night in Reikai's main building to lead Koenma and his army out to their hideout). His face was livid with rage, the normally sickly lavender color of his face now a deep, disgusting maroon. His massive muscles bulged dangerously, and if he were a teakettle, he would be steaming and whistling worse than Bob Knight.

"What are you doing?" Jiusenki yelled, his words jerky and furious.

"We're doing exactly what it looks like we're doing," Reishi answered much more calmly than she felt. She was terrified of the huge, malicious dragon demon with anger problems, but she would not let Jiusenki push her around anymore! She would finally get her revenge! "We have set the souls free."

"And your plan has failed," said a voice behind the dragon. Jiusenki turned around and found himself face-to-face with the teenaged Koenma, followed by Koto. Koenma glared at the dragon demon and continued, "Koto informed us all about your little plan, Jiusenki, and I must say, very clever. You see, you picked a very good time to attempt all of this, as we were swamped with paperwork left over from the Dark Tournament and didn't notice all that was going on in the Ningenkai. But now your plan has been foiled! You won't become ruler of any world now!"

"Rrrawr!" Jiusenki growled, angrier than Koto or Reishi had ever seen the testy dragon youkai. "You may have foiled my plan, but I'll become ruler of Makai! Just you… wait… and… see!" With a final angry move, Jiusenki had quickly slipped his hand in and out of his pocket, and pulled out something shiny and lethal… a revolver.

Before anybody could stop the mad dragon demon, Jiusenki fired three shots from the revolver in a pitiful attempt for revenge. The bullets traveled so fast and there was so little reaction time; no one could dodge. The three expertly-aimed bullets had pierced someone right in the heart.

NEXT TIME – RETURN OF THE SPIRIT DETECTIVE – TIMELY ARRIVAL AND UNTIMELY DEATH!

A/N: I should probably note that this story takes place before I knew about the Sensui saga. Also, this fic doesn't make a whole lot of sense either. Why in the hell would a demon such as Jiusenki use a human weapon anyway? Oh well. Enjoy the cliffie and please review me!

--crazykitsune17--