Yin Yang

Chapter Eleven: Frozen fire

Yusuke groped frantically for Kuwabara's arm as he fell level after level, through the perfectly square hole which was cut through all six floors of the former parking structure.

Sharp air whipped his chocolate hair and the boy flattened it self-consciously as he found his friend's arm. The boy turned to his fellow vigilante sharply, his orange tuft shaking as they flew past the sign signifying the fourth floor.

"What!" He yelled over the whooshing of the atmosphere. Fear could be heard in his voice and it shone in his deep brown irises.

"We're not dead just yet!" Yusuke, too, had to yell over the atmosphere. The zombie-people, meanwhile, had slumped hopelessly, or perhaps asleep. Upon closer examination, one could see that the latter was true.

"What d'you mean, Urameshi? Of course we're dead! We're three floors away from do-"

"Shut up, will ya? Now listen, use your Reiken and we're all set."

Kuwabara's eyes were suddenly hopeful. "Y'mean... We can rescue Yuki-chan?"

Yusuke sighed and panic rose in his chest as the two passed the second floor sign. "Yes, if you hurry up!"

"Okay, then, hold on!" The orange-haired boy summoned a crackling orange blade in his hands and Yusuke tightened his grip on the boy's arm, almost cutting off Kuwabara's circulation. Kuwabara gave Keiko's boyfriend an odd look, as though to say "Be a man!" and he, Yusuke, loosed his grip, but only slightly. Kuwabara rolled his eyes (Yusuke closed his) and yelled, "Sword get long!"

They flew upward on the spear-like aura weapon, just escaping the large cage that the crowd around them fell into with a dull thud. Quite a few of them, Yusuke thought bemusedly, probably lost consciousness.

They two boys landed, luckily enough, atop a cushioned area of the platform where Cruesa had spoken. Unluckily enough, the demoness had not yet left, her servant in her shadow, both literally and figuratively.

"I'll save you, Yuki-chan!" Kuwabara yelled valiantly, if not somewhat desperately. Yukina did not respond. Cruesa eyed the two venomously; the charisma with which she addressed the crowd seemed to have dissolved into nothing.

"So..." The dark-skinned demoness drawled and her voice was no longer casual and fun, as it was before. It was now dark and sour, as though she deeply regretted the vigilantes' presence. No surprise there... Yusuke mused as he steadied himself to look a little tougher, although he was still shaky from Kuwabara's poor control. Cruesa laughed eerily and somewhere deep in Yusuke's mind, the former Spirit Detective remembered a laugh like it. The notion was just as soon pushed to the back of his mind, and there it remained, present but dormant. "You're Yusuke, are you? Pretty pathetic for a Spirit Detective if you ask me."

"No one asked you!” The boy snapped. The woman's insult had struck an emotional chord and she knew it, if the growing grin on her pretty face was any indication.

"Well, you were fired, so..."

"Shut up, hag!" Yusuke yelled angrily as he began to glow with his usual blue-white aura. He took another step toward Cruesa as anger crossed his face. "Now tell us: what is your plan?" His hazel eyes burned with the promise of vengeance as he thought of all those people who had been unwittingly lured into a steel trap, all those mothers, wives and girlfriends who had been unknowingly left, unwillingly abandoned by those they cared for. Keiko's face rose into his mind, and it did nothing to improve his temper. "If you won't tell..." He left the sentence hanging in the air.

"We'll make you!" Kuwabara added rather unnecessarily but still threateningly. He, too, was surrounded in an aura, this one his own orange one. He held fast to his javelin, prepared to attack.

Cruesa merely laughed.

Emerald eyes sparkling in malevolence, she whispered with superiority, "Is that a threat?"

"No," Yusuke retorted, also quietly, also with malevolence. "It's a promise, and one I intend to keep."

"Well, sorry, but you won't be doing that," Cruesa responded coolly as she lifted two slim fingers and pointed one each at both Kuwabara and Yusuke. They stepped back slightly, each on his guard against whatever the powerful demoness could throw at them. Cruesa's grin widened, although it curved downward a little, as though she was puzzled yet glad. "That won't help, fellas. I'm a lot more powerful than the both of you combined, and you don't stand a chance." This was not, to Yusuke's surprise, spoken with arrogance but rather flatly, in a matter-of-fact tone. The woman now held a ball of bronze energy in-between her two fingers. "Sorry, but this's how it's got to be. Too bad, 'cause you're kinda cute..." She smiled sadly at Yusuke, and Kuwabara was rather disgruntled. "... For am unemployed half-breed anyway."

The roof was flooded with bronze light and the vigilantes suddenly found themselves bound and, in Yusuke's case, gagged with ropes of crackling bronze energy. Kuwabara, much to his dismay, had disengaged his Reiken in the chaos and could not summon it again, due to his restraints. Cruesa surveyed the situation coolly through some loose reddish-brown strands in her dark face. She pushed the hair aside and motioned for Yukina, who had been watching indifferently the entire time, to approach her.

"Yuki, sweetie, I hate this soul-sapping thing, so would'ja take care of these two for me?" The dark-skinned, green-eyed demoness gave a sad smile to Kuwabara and Yusuke again questioned the ideal that this woman was one of the "bad guys." "Sorry, kid, but love really does hurt." And with that, Cruesa walked off and out of sight, toward the elevator.

As Yukina approached her former friends, the boys' attention was diverted, so they did not notice that Cruesa never entered the elevator, but instead hid behind the wall of the elevator's area and listened intently.

Yukina looked down as Kuwabara first, hands surrounded in a turquoise aura, eyes coldly apathetic.

"Yuki-chan... Please..." The ningen pleaded, hoping very much for a reaction, and hoping it was a positive one.

Yukina's mouth twitched.

"Sorry." The whisper was barely audible, but Kuwabara heard it clearly. His eyes met Yukina's, but all the brown-black connected with was frozen fire.

Five minutes later, both boys lay limply on the platform. Yusuke sported a large purple bruise.

"I knew that one was feisty," Cruesa commented calmly as she steep out from behind her hiding place. Yukina did not respond. The demoness frowned and prodded further. "I meant what I said, y'know. I ain't no sadist."

A tear-shaped gem of the purest crystal hit the ground, followed by two more.

"He loves me," Yukina whispered tearfully, looking mournfully at the boy's soulless body. "The ugly one, he's called Kuwabara. He's always trying to impress me."

"I noticed," Cruesa replied dryly. Yukina giggled shakily.

"It's not that hard to see, if truth be told." Yukina turned to face her mistress, looking downcast. Her eyes were no longer frosty, but wet, as though her crimson irises had melted the coldness. "But... I have nothing in return." Cruesa smiled comfortingly and summoned her slave's chain telepathically.

"You're so lucky you got me, kid. You'd been slapped right then and there for weakness, were I Melodia. C'mon, kid, I got a meeting to keep and fiery boss to pacify."

A/N: Short, I know. But at least it's to the point. R+R, as always. Ja mata ne!