Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or it's characters. I do own Angela.
REVISED AN: As in 16 and 18 I've adjusted some time details.
Legend:
Music
Noise
-Telepathy-
-Thought-
/Flashbacks/
/Visions/Dreams/
Chapter Nineteen
"Alright! Surround them and attack! Don't hold back! When Hiei unleashes the Dragon get retreat!" Mukuro shouted to the six patrol units. In front of them were three large shadow creatures, standing two stories high. "Do you hear me!"
"Captain!" everyone responded.
Mukuro nodded. "Now lets go!"
Mukuro led two teams to attack the one on the right. Yomi lead two teams to attack the middle and Hiei lead the last two teams to atack the one on the left. As Hiei pumped up his power, colorful blasts, explosions, and earth shaking attacks were hurled at the three monsters. Their screams ripped the air, but so did several others in the patrol units.
"Alright!" Hiei yelled. He stood where the dragon would attack all three. Everyone jumped back. "Dragon! Of! The Darkness! Flame!" The dragon surged forth from Hiei's arm and rampaged towards the three shadow creatures. It incinerated the first and did serious damage to the second one but the third had jumped out of the way. "Damn!" Hiei cursed.
"Again!" Mukuro yelled.
The patrols started to attack the monsters again, two teams on the seriously injured one and four on the unscathed one. This time the patrol units were able to kill one without the dragon. Hiei attacked the last monster with the rest of the patrols, wanting to wait until he was sure his dragon could kill it. He had use most of his demon energy with the last dragon.
Finally, deciding that the beast would be killed Hiei jumped back. "Everyone get back!" he yelled. They obeyed. "Dragon! Of! The Darkness! Flame!"
The beast screamed as it disolved into ash. "IT'S NO USE! YOU CAN'T STOP ME! WITH THE BLOOD OF THE ANGELS, I HAVE RETURNED!"
Hiei stared where the beast had been for a long time, eyes wide. -What did it mean? It didn't mean that?- Hiei thought worriedly. -I've been gone four months now. I haven't had any contact with anyone in Human World. And I haven't shared anymore dreams with Angela. Is she safe? Or did something happen to her?- Hiei looked to Mukuro. "I have to go," he said, not bothering to tell her where or why.
But she knew. -I know what you're thinking Hiei. I know you worry about her and how you have to make sure she's safe,- she thought. She nodded. "Go."
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"Angela! Angela are you here?" Hiei called as he walked into the shrine a few days later.
Yusuke ran in from the side. "Hiei! I'm sorry!" he said, guilt in his voice.
Hiei's eyes narrowed. "Why? What happened?" he asked suspiciously.
"It's Angela..." Yusuke found himself pushed against the wall as Hiei grabbed his shirt collar and shoved him.
"What happened to her? Where is she?" he growled.
"We don't know," Kurama said as he came in.
Hiei glared at him. "What do you mean?"
"A month ago, Yusuke and I had to leave for Europe to investigate odd disappearences of psychics. A few days after we had left Yukina saw Angela walk into the woods. When she didn't come back by the end of the day, Kuwabara went looking for her. He couldn't find her." Kurama hung his head. "He had no way of contacting us so we didn't know until we came back a few days later. I tried to follow her scent and what was left of her aura. I wound up in a heavily dense area in the forest. All I found there was this." He held out a necklace. Hiei's eyes widened. It was his hiruseki stone that he had given to her. He took the stone, his eyes dark.
"We got a hold of Koenma to see if he could track her down, like he was able to track her down before we went to America. He couldn't. There was no sign of her aura. He blames himself for not noticing earlier, but at the time of her disappearence a whole shit load of psychics disappeared in France. He was too busy looking for them to notice," Yusuke said, eyes downcast. "After he couldn't find her aura, he looked for her soul."
Hiei immediatly dropped Yusuke and backed away, shaking his head. -No...She can't be...-
Kurama shook his head. "He couldn't find her soul either. Which means she's still alive."
"We tried to get a hold of you, but we couldn't reach Demon World. Every messenger we sent was attacked by shadow creatures. And Koenma didn't want us leaving Human World because of the shadow creatures here," Yusuke said.
Hiei looked at his gem, then he put it back on and tucked it under his cloak. "Did Yukina see this?" he asked.
Kurama shook his head. "No, your secret is still safe."
Hiei looked around. "Where are the others?" he asked.
Kuwabara walked in. "Yukina and Shizuru are in Spirit World for protection," he said as Botan flew in behind him, with Hinageshi and Ayame.
"We're here to take you four back to Spirit World. Koenma needs you badly." Botan said.
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"We have a serious problem on our hands," Koenma said when they arrived.
"More disappearences?" Yusuke asked.
Koenma shook his head. "No, it's more serious than that. Several large masses of shadow creatures have appeared in several places in Human World. Take a look." He turned on the tv.
The tv was in split screen with three different screens. Each screen showed masses of shadow creatures. One area looked to be in an abandoned town, another was in an abandoned temple, and the last, with the most shadow creatures, looked like an eerie graveyard without the graves. In this area there was on odd thick fog.
Koenma pointed it out. "That area we've had a hard time with. The SDF, observing from afar, have had trouble concentrating when they observe it. Their minds would start to wonder or their eyes would water, things like that. We don't think it's natural. What we do know about it is that it's in Louisiana in America, and that it's on the remnants of an old plantation in the middle of nowhere." Koenma looked at them very seriously. "There's more bad news. The shadow creatures killed everyone in those areas, but their souls never crossed over. Now they're rising from the dead." He clicked the remote and the tv zoomed in on the first two areas. It showed corpses walking around among the shadow creatures. "We don't know why, but I fear that the shadow creatures are building an army for the Great Darkness." He handed them papers. "This is your mission. I want you two," He pointed to Kuwabara and Yusuke. "To gow to the first two places with a group of the SDF and wipe them out." Yusuke and Kuwabara nodded. Koenma looked at Hiei and Kurama. "I want you two to take a larger group of the SDF and head to the third place. That's where the largest amount of shadow creatures have appeared."
Kurama nodded but Hiei shook his head, saying "I want to find Angela first."
Koenma shook his head. "No. At the moment the safety of the world comes first." Hiei's eyes hardened. "Hear me out," Koenma said. "Angela's disappearence is similar to the disappearences of the psychics, which is still happening. I think if we solve this mission, we might be able to get a clue as to what happened to them and Angela." Koenma looked pleadingly at Hiei. "We need your help Hiei. Please. I promise we'll do everything in our power to find Angela after we've beaten these shadow creatures."
Hiei glared, but he thought about it. -If there's a chance we might find out more about Angela's disappearence and get closer to finding her, then I must do it. No matter how much I want to find her now.- He nodded.
Yusuke looked at him. "Hiei, have you used your Jagan to find her?"
Hiei nodded. "I can't sense her."
"Then this is our only chance at finding anything about her," Yusuke said. He wanted to look for her now as much as Hiei.
"When do we leave?" Kurama asked, eager as well to find Angela. -The sooner we get this mission done, the sooner we can look for her.-
"Now." Koenma said.
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"I like your mode of transportation." Yusuke told one of the SDF officers once they arrived at the abandond town. Yusuke surveyed the town. "Well, where are they?" he asked. As if summoned by the question, numerous shadow creatures appeared around them.
"Well, boys. Time for the fun to begin," Yusuke said, powering up. Tattoos appeared on his face.
"Demon form already?" Kuwabara asked as he materialized his sword.
"Makes the battle go faster. Lets go!" Yusuke said, giving an evil grin. He launched into the nearest bunch of shadow creatures, fists flying.
Kuwabara started slicing through another. Each SDF officer took their own bunch of monsters and started hacking, slashing, punching, kicking and blasting away at the beings. After several hours the shadow creatures had been eliminated.
"How's everyone?" Yusuke asked the captain of the SDF.
"One casualty, several gashes, a broken arm, and a severed leg," was the reply.
"Well, I guess we should count our selves lucky. It could have been worse." Yusuke looked around. "Now where are the zombies?"
"We observed that they only come out at night," The captain replied.
Yusuke looked at the sun. "Well, I'd say we've got an hour to recover."
They rested until night fall. When nightfall came, they formed a circle. They waited. And they waited. They waited for almost two hours, but there were no signs of the zombies. Yusuke risked one of the SDF to scout around. He came back saying that there were no zombies.
Yusuke thought for a second. "Well, I guess we should go deal with the other shadow creatures. We'll come back and check to see if the zombies return." He looked at the captain. "Let's move it." The captain nodded.
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This time when they went to the temple they made sure to land in the forest away from the temple and observe what was going on and create a strategy.
"Strange, there aren't any zombies here either," Kuwabara said, looking through the bushes.
Yusuke shrugged, "Makes our job easier." He looked at his group. "Now, we'll sneak up on them and try to surround them, go in pairs, if you can't handle them get your ass outta there and find another group to attack. Maybe this way we'll get out with less injuries and no fatalities. Got it." Everyone nodded. "Then let's go."
Kuwabara and Yusuke teamed up, knowing that they were best together. "You ready?" Yusuke asked.
"You bet," was the cheerful-like responce.
"Then let's kick some ass!"
Kuwabara rushed in, slicing and dicing, making a path into the mass of shadow creatures while Yusuke punch and pummeled any who got near. The fought like that for what seemed like forever. Kuwabara making a wide clear area by hacking the creatures and Yusuke getting the ones that got away from the sword.
"Reminds me of the time we were in Maze castle and had to fight our way through a mass of those green dudes!" Yusuke shouted.
Kuwabara nodded. "Yeah! But we've gotten much stronger since then. This will be a peice of cake!" It wasn't really, but they didn't care. They focused solely on the fight.
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Hiei and Kurama observed the area carefully from afar. "It seems like the whole area is packed with zombies and shadow creatures," Kurama said. "Do you think that what Koenma feared is true? That they're building an army?"
Hiei shrugged. "It doesn't matter."
Kurama looked at him. Hiei seemed to be distracted. "What's wrong?"
Hiei looked at the plantation. "I sense something over there," he said, pointing to an area that was oddly clear of zombies and shadow creatures. "I think something's there but it's shielded."
"Can you make it visible?" Kurama asked, studying the clear area.
"Yes," he replied. He concentrated hard, his jagan glowing under his bandana.
After several minutes, a large mansion-like house appeared. Half of it was in rubble. Kurama looked closely at the part that was still intact. "There are people in there, and I think they're humans, but I can't smell them," Kurama said.
Hiei shook his head. "And I can't sense them. I made the house visible but I left the shield up."
"That's good." Kurama looked at the zombies and the shadow creatures that started to mass around the house. "I think it's about time we saved them," he looked at Hiei.
Hiei nodded. He turned to the SDF. "We're changing the plan. We'll cut a path to the house. When we get there, we'll surround the house and attack the creatures and zombies. Remember, we don't know how strong the zombies are." Hiei tore his bandana and his cloak off revealing his bare chest and the sword he normally hid underneath it. Hiei powered up, his jagan glowing brightly. He turned green and several eyes appeared on his chest, back and arms, his nails turned black and became sharp while the whites in his eyes turned yellow and his hair flared out.
As the SDF stared at Hiei in his demon form, Kurama turned into Yoko Kurama. Instead of a tall red head with green eyes, they found a taller man with silver hair, fox ears, and gold eyes. An SDF officer with blue hair stared in shock. "You're that fox demon I chased. But how did you...?"
"Hn, forget it. We've got more important things to do," Hiei said as he turned to the house. "Lets go."
Cutting a path wasn't easy. Hiei slashed at the zombies and shadow creatures to clear a path but more would take their places. Kurama sliced through them with his whip while Hiei got ready to move forward and slash through the monsters that tried to fill the places of their comrades. The SDF were having trouble keeping the path cleared as well. Too many times an officer would become surrounded and cut off from the others. The progress was slow and disastrous. They lost several men by the time they got to the house.
"Abort the plan! Try to find a way in!" Hiei called to the remaining officers.
He and Kurama ran to the side of the house, looking for a door. They found a little room that stuck out from the rest of the house. It was more like a porch with walls and windows than a room. They tried to enter it but the shield was still up. Hiei risked lifting the shield for a few seconds to get in. It took several seconds. The zombies and the shadow creatures were almost upon them when he managed to lift the shield. He and Kurama burst through the door, Hiei quickly letting go of his hold on the shield. It immediatly fell back into place. The shadow creatures that were half way through the door disolved as the shield sliced through them. Hiei slammed the door shut for added protection. He sighed.
Kurama looked at him. "I've never known you to run," he said.
Hiei looked at him. "I have to survive so that we may find Angela."
Kurama nodded. They heard running feet head towards them from beyond the door that led to the house. It banged open. A woman stood there, a white energy ball in her hands, ready to strike. Kurama and Hiei gasped, as did the woman. Hiei recovered first. "...Angela...?"