Disclaimer: I still don't own Yu Yu Hakusho. Wow, ain't that sad?
Well... I think it was chapter... uh... eight or something along those lines that got the most reviews. Ten of them. Come on people. That was forever ago when the story will still sorta... boring. Please put in some more reviews? I know that there are at least fourteen people that read this daily, you've got this story on your favorites, author alert, story alert and other for this story. What's up with that? Anyway, a HUGE thank you to the reviewers! I am so sorry that this is out so... late. I was away for about two weeks and wrote half of this then typed the end, or the other half. Well, another "THANK YOU" to;
Bluespark Yeah... hard. I've found, just recently, that when you get into the 'action writing!' mood, it gets easier to write. Huzzah!
Ilikeyaoi Thank you for understanding the whole time issue! Here's an update, a whole two pages longer than it was supposed to be, just for you! Ha, two whole pages... Big whoop, ne?
IwuvMyKenshyPoo Heh heh heh... you'll see!
Agent Dark Moose Eh, not too much action here, but some! Woo! Thank you so much! Wow am I glad at least your name doesn't come up showing a spelling error... that's so annoying... Thanks again!
YokoYoukai Thank you! I'm really glad you all liked the last chapter so much! Kuwabara can be used as comic relief... or someone to bash. I prefer comic relief. It's not his fault he was made... not so smart.
MikaSamu Woo! Another comment on the action! Wow yall make me happy. Thank you!
Kuranga108 Hey! You're name doesn't show up as a spelling error either... wonder why? Anyway! I am so happy that the previous chapter was interesting. It was my goal, to you give guys a 'treat' of sorts. Love the feedback, people!
WARNING:
1. This story will contain Shonen-Ai in later chapters (will be mild), if you don't like it, don't read it.
2. Rated for reasons: Language and future scenes (blood, etc.)!
You have been warned!
-
CAPTURED
-
Youko sighed and looked into the water intently. His reflection shown back at him, but he wasn't interesting in it at the moment. Where the hell was Kuronue?
One second he had been there, and then the other he had suddenly disappeared... Had the chimera actually gone on and left Youko behind...? Certainly he wouldn't have. The pair had been through so much together, it was much to late to back out of their tight bond as friends now.
Maybe someone captured him. Like being kidnaped.
Was Kuronue so unaware of his surroundings that he had been snagged by some stupid bastard? Surely not. I mean, this is Kuronue.
Youko didn't know what he was supposed to feel. He felt alone. He hadn't felt alone in forever. If you've ever had your best friend taken away from you, or you had to leave them behind... you'd know the feeling. The sense of being useless, with nothing to do. What was the point of being a thief without Kuronue there to make fun of and such?
That was stupid. Youko had been thieving since before he knew Kuronue even existed. If he had done it once, he could certainly do it again.
Right?
All Youko know was that if it didn't feel right being alone now, what was it supposed to feel like when he actually went on another heist?
It just... wouldn't be the same.
( Chapter 15 - The Beginning )
"Hello, again, my little youko. Missed me much?" Karasu said, airily, stepping into the front room where Youko, Hiei, and Kuronue were present.
"Go to Hell." Youko snarled, his hand automatically reaching upward towards his hair. He raked his fingers through its confines, not pulling out a seed but making sure the one he needed was there.
"Well wasn't that a cheery greeting?" Karasu asked no one in particular, "I don't intend to go to Hell until quite a long while has passed. Though... I really don't think I'd end up in this so-called 'Heaven', would I, Youko? I'm sure you'd know..."
"Does five minutes seem long enough for you?" Hiei growled, on his feet, hand gripping his katana's hilt tightly.
"Not really. I planned on maybe five-hundred more years, actually. Preferably more. It doesn't matter as long as I get there sometime, don't you agree?" The crow swept his violet eyes across the room. His hair was in its customary dark color, unlike when he was having 'fun' all those years ago with Youko. The mask he had worn when Youko was still in his company had been discarded, his mouth and nose visible to all. His hands slid into his pockets. "Well, ohayo, Kuronue. Almost healed up I see... still a bit wounded. Seems you're not back up to one-hundred percent. Pity. You were most useful around the fortress."
"Hn," Hiei gave his usual answer seconds before Kuronue started to speak.
The bat had taken to his feet also, "You say that as if you expect me to come back to you or something. Don't count on that happening."
"Really? Well, I have to say that's your decision." Karasu said, his gaze still taking in the room, "This is a rather pathetic sort of 'home-base,' don't you think? Did Koenma construct it or did his cheap, disgusting, weak 'detective force' do it for him?" He trailed off as a door, in a room separated by a wall from where the four demons were standing, banged open and hurried footfalls clambered around the corner into the room.
Kuwabara stood there, catching his breath. Behind him, breathing easily, came Yuusuke. The detective looked pissed off, presumably Genkai's doing, muttering something about Karasu hurrying his fat ass up. The two Tentai stood in the room, looking at the ground for a few minutes, then looking around at their companions. At first, they seemed completely oblivious to the 'visitor' - who wasn't really welcomed, but there non the less - in the room, but then Kuwabara (who had a brain and occasionally used it at the right times, for Kuwabara can be smart, just not that often) pieced together where exactly the splintered, broken chunks and pieces of wood littering the ground were from.
"What the hell happened to the door?" He asked, looking towards Hiei suspiciously. Then his gaze went over to the door. Still in the doorway stood Karasu, and Kuwabara looked at him, mouth slightly agape. "Hey... Urameshi?" He said, tentatively, "D'ya think that's Karasu?"
Yuusuke looked up at the crow demon before them. His eyes instantly hardened, and his hand unconsciously curled into position for his famed attack, the spirit gun.
"Yeah, Kuwabara. I'd say that'd be Karasu." He said, glaring at the newcomer, "You could've at least knocked, ya know. Now I'll have to go build another damn door."
"Knocking's not really my style." Karasu said, sizing up the two Tentai. The Urameshi one, Yuusuke, seemed tough... cocky, arrogant, and stubborn. His reputation was known well in the Makai... The other one - Karasu didn't quite remember his name... - was stocky and tall. He looked to be slightly stupid, and seemed to rush into things... Urameshi was definitely the stronger of the two human Rekai Tentai. "Koenma's detectives, are you? Well, he certainly could have picked better..."
"What's that supposed to mean!" Kuwabara said back, his hands sliding into position for his sword, "I'll have you know that I am Kuwabara Kazuma the Great! Back home I was a great hero! I, Kuwabara Kazuma, will defeat you!"
This, as you can see, only proved Karasu's guesses about Kuwabara's personality right. Well, the crow didn't know him personally yet, and he did not intend to either, but no demon cared for cheap heartwarming attributes like a big heart, caring ways... When you're heartless and cold, you don't need to care or have big heart. Especially if you didn't have one in the first place...
"Shut up, asshole. No one cares 'bout what people thought back home. This is Makai, not Ningenkai. Besides, that isn't even true." Yuusuke retorted, turning his glare, however pathetic it was in Hiei's eyes, to Kuwabara. "You couldn't even take on a girl."
"Neither would you! You don't hit girls, remember? And at least I have an honor code to uphold!" Kuwabara protested, hotly.
"Ooooh, a big bad honor code ain't scarin' that ugly demon in the doorway away! And I can too hit girls... but only if they're mean, ugly, stupid idiots bent on takin' over the world!" Yuusuke shot back.
"Are we finished, now? And ugly? You don't look much better yourself, human." Karasu sneered, his cold eyes turning to Yuusuke.
"Yeah... well... you wanna know somethin'?"
"Not really." Karasu said, turning to examine Youko.
"Well, I'm gonna tell you anyway. You're really startin' to piss me off. That isn't a good thing."
"Anyone can piss you off." Hiei suddenly chose to speak, "So stop trying to act dramatic. It isn't working."
"I really have to agree with this... demon here. There's enough drama going on at the moment as is... seeing as my little fox won't come back quietly with me."
"Your fox?" Youko snorted, "When did I become you're possession, Karasu?" The fox spat the name out.
"You've been MY fox since the day you decided to steal from my fortress. It was bad move on your part, if you don't want to come willingly with me now."
"It was not my decision! That was Kuronue's! Damn it, Kuronue look what you've gotten me into now!" Youko said, sounding indignant, "And I am not coming back with you, you fucking bastard."
"What!" Yelped Kuronue, it was his turn to sound slightly hurt, "Only after you said there was nothing to do! I suggested we go! You're the one who plowed on through the place..."
"Therefore, if you hadn't suggested it, we wouldn't be in this mess!" The fox snorted back. The chimera resorted to grumbling, calling the fox many colorful and pretty names.
"Now, now, children. You needn't fight." Karasu chided, coldly taking another step into the room, "And 'fucking bastard,' dearest? That stings, you know. And it is certainly a switch of names... Wouldn't you agree?"
"Go to Hell," The kitsune repeated, sliding into a fighting position.
"I plan to. Just not now. Because, as you can see, five minutes is up. I'm still here. And when I do go down, I plan to bring you with me."
"Five minutes...? What's that gotta do with anything?" Kuwabara muttered, from the sidelines.
"Nothing that concerns you, baka. Stay out of this." Hiei snarled at Kuwabara.
"And you think this concerns you?" Youko asked, sparing the hi-youkai a quick glance.
"Yes! What did you think, you stupid fox? I'm the one who got sent to capture you in the first place!"
"Oh," Karasu said, suddenly remembering Hiei's position of the whole ordeal, "That's right... Why didn't you just press the button on the communicator? It would have saved everyone some trouble."
"Hn." Hiei resorted to his normal reply.
Truth be told, he wasn't sure if it knew why he hadn't contacted Karasu when he found the fox. Things had just happened too quickly... the fox running out of the forest, meeting with Yuusuke again, Kuronue appearing out of no where, when was he supposed to use it? He took the device out of his pocket and looked at it intently. Summoning up a small bit of ki, he torched the item in his hand. He dropped it to the ground.
Karasu watched his device burn on the ground, he frowned slightly "It doesn't matter. I'm here now. Why don't you just hand over the fox like you were paid to do?"
"I haven't been paid yet."
"Of course." Karasu said, cooly, "Well, I can pay out now if you'd just hand him over..."
"I'm not his possession either!" Youko snarled, "No one is handing me over to anyone."
"We'll see about that." Was all Karasu said. He turned his violet eyes back to the youko, removing his gaze from the device that now lay in a cindering pile of its own ashes, "We'll see about that." He repeated.
"And we'll see about that," Yuusuke cut in, "Why don't you just leave now? You're not going to get what ya want."
"Says who? You?" Karasu asked, never moving his eyes from the fox, he was intently looking over 'his possession' after their long time apart, "A measly human? One of Koenma's pathetic lackeys? You, from Ningenkai? You're going to defeat me, detective?"
"Shut the hell up!" Yuusuke yelled, raising his hands to aim his index finger at Karasu.
"Oh, I'm so utterly frightened. The famed Urameshi Yuusuke... Going to kill me now?" The crow let out a chilling laugh.
The laugh gave no sign of ending soon, and as Yuusuke was already mad because of Genkai, then Karasu, and now Karasu even more...
"REI GAN!"
The blue bullet of energy surged toward Karasu, catching him at the shoulder. The crow let out a short howl of surprise, finally removing his gaze from Youko and placing it on Yuusuke. He stumbled back a few steps to be just barely inside the house. He lifted the hand on his other arm to the wound, lightly touching the bleeding abrasion. The blood flowed slowly downward, it started to form a small puddle of crimson on the floor. The crow examined his blood-stained fingers, bringing them gently to his mouth, tasting the coppery blood.
"Interesting..." He murmured, "Still, not as good as yours, my devious fox."
"You're lucky I'm pissed off," Yuusuke remarked, his fist shaking slightly before his hands unfolded from their attacking position and went to curl up individually by his sides, "'Cause otherwise I wouldn'a missed."
"Well, isn't this reassuring?" Karasu asked no one in particular, "But, really now, detective. Don't be a fool. You know you can't defeat me, not as you are now... still untrained. Maybe if you underwent some serious training... but now? I think not."
"Does it look like I give a sh-"
"Shut up, detective. You're not helping matters any. No one is." Kuronue spoke, any hints of indignation or childish play-fighting that happens between good friends gone, "What do you want Karasu?"
"Isn't this obvious?" The crow asked the chimera, "I mean, you're all making such a big deal of it already... I want you, Youko Kurama."
"Well, you aren't going to get him." Kuronue answered for the fox.
"Yeah," Kuwabara put in, just to say something and sound important, "You and what army, eh?"
Karasu eyed the ningen with distaste, it was evident in his voice, eyes, facial expression... Karasu just downright did not like Kuwabara. And, I'm very sorry to say, not many people did, and or, do.
"You'd be surprised by what you don't know or sense, human." The crow spoke, "If you actually had a spiritual sense that amounted to anything, you'd notice something once in a while."
"What's that supposed t' mean? Are you callin' me weak?" The human retorted, sounding furious at being insulted.
Karasu rolled his eyes, "Really now, human, can't you sense it?"
"Sense what?" Kuwabara asked, now suddenly suspicious.
"Them."
"Who...?"
"My God," Yuusuke huffed, "You idiot! Focus your energy! Don't you sense all those reenforcements out in the woods?"
"What..." The human took a moment to focus his energy, "Holy... cheese." He spoke for lack of a better word.
"Exactly." Yuusuke said, rolling his eyes, then turning them to Karasu.
"There's... so many of them... at least a hundred. Urameshi... how the hell are we supposed to take on this many... demons? The energy doesn't feel... right...?" The tall ningen sounded uncertain.
"There's are reason for that... They're not demons." Kuronue said, a thoughtful look on his face.
"Yes... they're humans." Youko added, eyeing Karasu suspiciously, "What kind of 'army' do you have, you damned crow?"
"I was wondering when you'd figure it out," Karasu said, soundly elated about something, "These are my precious little pets - besides you, of course, my youko - who fight for me. I took them from one of those pathetic ningen villages planted around the Makai. Humans don't belong here. If Koenma thinks measly humans are going to 'fix' the demon problem, he's sadly wrong."
"Go on."
"Yes. Anyway. I captured them from one of the villages near my fortress. Rather sorry sort of defense they had. They were easy to capture. Of course they were humans when I got them, and their energy is still reiki, but I've fixed them up so they're actually worth something in a fight or battle. I added just a small hint of some concoction to their bloodstream, turning them into... zombies, if you will. Now they do everything and anything I command them too.
"The only downside is that they aren't as strong as I would have liked. Still, that won't matter now. You're right, for once, human, there are exactly one-hundred of these creatures stationed in the woods awaiting my commands. I'll set them free to kill everyone here if you don't come willingly. I mean everyone... even the people you might have hidden somewhere within this dump."
A small sound of worry escaped Kuwabara's throat, what about his darling Yukina? What about Shizuru, his sister? And all the others? Surely they didn't deserve to die on behalf of that fox over there...
"Why are you telling us your secrets...?" Kuronue asked. It wasn't safe to trust the crow, it never had been. However, given the situation, extra caution was needed.
"Well, it won't very well much matter, will it? I'd expect you to be dead as the outcome of this battle. A dead man can't speak."
"Unless we tell Koenma when we go up to Rekai..." Kuwabara butted in.
"Oh, yeah," Yuusuke snorted, "Like that lazy assed toddler is gonna do anything about it."
"Enough simple chit-chat now. It's time to get down to the serious business, do you agree?" Karasu didn't wait for any replies, "Are you going to come along easily, Youko?"
"I think not." The kitsune replied, snarling.
"Very well," The crow didn't sound disappointed, in fact he sounded more... happy. "Have it your way. Attack."
Hiei presumed the last word was a command to Karasu's lackeys.
Manipulated human zombies... disgusting, even for Hiei.
The controlled humans came marching out through the woods. Their legs moving in perfect sync, yet sloppily at the same time. Karasu stepped aside to entering what looked like a stare-down between him and Youko. The zombies came crashing in the walls, not paying attention to the now open doorway.
Yuusuke could be heard muttering about now having to build a new house, and then ordering Kuwabara to tell the others underneath the house to go into hiding so they wouldn't be hurt. The taller human left somewhat grudgingly, but went off anyway to make sure that everyone would be safe.
"So," Kuronue said to no one in particular, "How much does it take to kill a zombie human?"
Hiei smirked and leapt forward drawing his katana, swinging it across and landing neatly as the head of one of the zombies fell to the ground harshly.
Yuusuke stood with his mouth agape, looking at the humans lifeless head. "But... Hiei... damn it! It was a human!"
"Not anymore." The Jaganshi said, going after three more zombies with one hack of his katana... wait. Hiei didn't hack, but swung gracefully, with the grace of a practiced swordsman, "They might had reiki and look human, but they're not. They're not even living. Did the term 'zombie' mean nothing to you?"
"But..." Yuusuke could, and would, beat up and/or kill any demon that came his way and needed to be dealt with... but these were humans. Ones of his own kind... it didn't matter that they weren't living now.
"Detective, please. Now is not the time to worry about this... do you want to die?" Kuronue said, some urgency creeping up into his voice.
"No!" Yuusuke said.
"Then get to work. They can't feel it, they aren't alive. Get. To. Work." The chimera spit out as a duo of the 'humans' went to climb all over him. The bat used the long nails attached to his fingers to tear through the flesh, throwing the zombies off of him and freeing himself from their grasp. Their blood ran down his arms, dripping down from his elbow. Yuusuke looked at the demon and nodded. There was no time for this now. Maybe later. Not now.
Kuwabara came up, slashing his orange-yellow sword from side to side as he fought off humans threatening to get down into the other parts of the hideout. Yuusuke came to his friend's aid, shooting his spirit gun at the rock the peered out from just behind the doorway, causing stone to cascade down behind Kuwabara, blocking off the entrance that led to the others and keeping them safe.
Kuwabara lightly nodded to his companion and surged through the crowd of zombies.
"Go outside!" They heard Kuronue's voice, "They'll follow us out there. There's no room to fight in here."
The others agreed, leaving the house, pushing through the masses of human zombies trying to reach the outdoors. As they got there, just as Kuronue said, the remaining zombies within the house came out and continued their assault on the two Rekai detectives, Hiei and Kuronue.
It was then that Yuusuke noticed it.
"Hey... guys!" He hollered above the sounds of battle raging around them. Though the zombies may be controlled by the crow, they still shouted, screamed, and yelled insults and cursing and undistinguishable things at anything they could see. "Where are the fox boy and the crow?"
Hiei looked up from where he had just punched a zombie and thrown it over the crowd, then stabbing another one through the heart with his katana. Seeing that Yuusuke had a point, neither Karasu nor Youko were visible, the hi-youkai looked around quickly.
Then he heard a shout. It came from a distance, not from where the fight with the controlled humans was taking place, but elsewhere, a kilometer and then plus some away. The thing that got Hiei a little bit shocked, a little bit angry... and a little bit scared... was that the cry had belonged to Youko. The fox and crow were alone somewhere, and the crow was doing something to the youko. Hiei left towards the sound of the shout, leaving the others with one yell of departure.
"Shimatta!"
-
So... not too much action, but there was some. I seem to always end on some sort of cliffhanger, don't I? I guess that's the style in this story... I'll try to get the next chapter out soon, but there are no guarantee's. I might had to break it into two parts... well, maybe not... Hmm. Well, thanks for reading, reviewing, and everything else!