Socrates' Final Act


L.A.: (is collapsed on the floor)

Amu: (shakes head) That's what happens when you allow yourself to go on a writing frenzy.

L.A.: (twitches) My hands…cramping…

Amu: (sighs) What's she's trying to say is that along with updating this story, she added two new stories. The first is Simple Musings 2: The Return of the Gnome and the other is a Kingdom Hearts fic. called Oddball. Check them out and leave reviews if you're bored.

L.A.: (is passed out)

Amu: Er…okay then, on with the chapter!

Out-Of-Control-Authoress: Thanks for the review! Oh, I'm so glad you liked the Hiei kiss. I always get nervous when I write romance scenes. I'm afraid I'm going to ruin the entire story.

Pop-virgo97: Thanks for the review! At least this time I updated faster. Yeah, I spent one and half hours (not even kidding) trying to work with that scene without totally losing Hiei's character. I'm glad it worked.

White Rose Fox: Thanks for the review! I'm glad you liked my story!

Angel of Randomosity: Thanks for the review! Meh, that sounds like a lot of work. Amu's on her own. (Amu in background: What you abandoned me? You're the worst authoress ever!)

UpperClassK9: Thanks for the review! Yeah, Socrates likes Sira but not in the: I want to marry you and make babies way. More of the: You are my toy and I will do what I want with you way.

Kariko: Thanks for the review! Yeah, my writing tends to have a lot of dialogue. I've been trying to work with adding description so hopefully it is getting better.

Rosewhip889: Thanks for the review! I'm glad you are enjoying it.

Valinor's Twilight: Thanks for the review! I'm glad you liked it.

DaAmazingMeepers: Thanks for the review! I'm so glad you liked it. Like I've said before, I stress out when I do romantic scenes because I'm worried I'll ruin the character.

The Wild Thing That Was: Thanks for the review! Yay, I'm glad you liked it.

Spidey meets Wizard-Theif: Thanks for the review! Hmm, that would be an interesting machine. I would feel sorry for the poor dogs. Spidey, glad you liked it and the foxes. They're my favorite too. WT, to answer your question, yes, you should worry about Youko…

Dragongirl8507: Thanks for the review! Yay for the happy dance of ultimate doom (does own version of happy dance) Glad you liked it.

Angel61991: Thanks for the review! Glad you liked it.

ChojisGirl: Thanks for the review! You stayed up till 5 am to finish reading? (feels honored)

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho. I just own my over-exhausted mind.


Someone was brushing a strand of hair out of her face when Tori woke up. It was a rather pleasant sensation until her mind started working. Alarmed, her eyes shot open. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw who was sitting at the edge of her bed.

Youko Kurama grinned. "So, you are finally awake."

"I thought you went far away," Tori said as she unconsciously pulled her blanket closer to her.

"Shuichi thought he had gotten far enough," He said. "But, I am a fox demon so I have a great sense of smell."

"Uh-huh," Tori said, suddenly feeling nervous. The famous fox demon thief was sitting at the edge of her bed, pondering her like one would ponder a prize. Most girls would be squealing right now in excitement. Right now, she just wanted to get out of the room. This was probably because he could take her at any moment and there was nothing she could do about it. She wasn't sure why this upset her. Maybe it was because she felt it would be cheating on the other Kurama. But then again, they weren't serious so why did it matter?

"You know," Youko leaned forward. "Shuichi's taken quite an interest in you."

"I like the red-haired version of you better than the white-haired," Tori blurted out.

"Oh, how cute," He said as he leaned even closer. "You're nervous."

A blur of silver rushed in between them. Akira stood protectively in Tori's lap.

"I'm being a nuisance that I can plainly see," He glared up at Youko, "but, personally I'd rather not have the discussion about the bird and the bee."

Though embarrassing, Tori was glad that Akira had chosen to intervene.

Youko and Akira glared at each other for a long moment before Youko leaned back. "Hmm, it's seems I've been overruled."

Tori had a feeling that it hadn't just been Akira who made him back off.

"Pleasant dreams, Tori," He said. He disappeared a moment later. Still suspicious, Tori checked around her room before determining that he was indeed gone.

"Come back to bed," Akira whined as he went back to his place at the end of her bed. "I already feel like I am dead."

"Thanks for the help back there," Tori said. "You do know that it's called the birds and the bees though."

Akira just grunted as he closed his eyes.

With an exhausted yawn, Tori collapsed on her bed. Being involved with demons can be so stressful, she thought as her eyes slowly fluttered closed.


Sira was in a foul mood. She hadn't been able to fall asleep after the incident with Hiei. She stared moodily in the mirror as she brushed her hair. Haku sat on her bed, cocking his head curiously.

"It was just a kiss," Sira muttered as she slammed her brush on o a table. "It wasn't even that good."

She noted that she felt as if she had butterflies in her stomach whenever she thought of him. "I'm just hungry." She said as she stomped out of her room with Haku trotting behind her.

Tori and Yukina were already in the kitchen, busy chatting away.

Sira pulled herself into a chair and rested her head on her arms.

"Somebody didn't wake up on the right side of the bed," Tori teased. She seemed very pleased that Sira was tired. "Did you not sleep well?"

Sira looked up and glared. "Hn," Her eyes widened as her hands went over her mouth.

Tori stood stunned. "Did you just…"

Sira shook her head. "No."

A grin slowly appeared on Tori's face. "You did, didn't you?"

"It was your imagination."

Tori crossed her arms and smirked. "You just hn'ed me."

"Lies!" Sira quickly slid off her stool and bolted.

"Oh no," Tori said as she quickly ran after her. "Something happened last night and you're going to tell me."

"Leave me alone," Sira yelled back. She nearly collided with Kuwabara but managed to avoid him.

"What the hell is going on?" He asked as Tori ran by.

"Sira just hn'ed me," Tori said with glee.

"Get this crazy person away from me" Sira said as she bolted out of the door. She stopped short as she stared up, wide-eyed at the sky.

"Not until you… Whoa," Tori said as she stopped and stared as well.

The sky had changed from its beautiful blue self to an ominous purple hue.

"Are you guys okay?" Yusuke called out while Kuwabara and Yukina followed him.

They stopped when they saw the stupefied girls.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine," Sira said sarcastically, "Just one question. Why the hell is the sky purple?"

"Good question," Kuwabara said as the others stared up at the sky as well.

"It's a spirit barrier," a voice said behind them. "It blocks people from using their spirit energy."

Socrates floated before them. He was smirking and had a copy of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness tucked under his arm. Sira didn't miss the irony.

Kuwabara smirked. "Heh, like that can stop us." He held out his hand, calling his sword. Nothing happened.

Socrates laughed as he landed. "You're going to have to fight on skill alone." He brandished a sword. "But, I do believe I have the advantage."

The girls watched in horror as Socrates, Yusuke, and Kuwabara began to fight. Yukina ran back inside, probably to find Genkai.

Kuwabara and Yusuke were good fighters, Sira had to give them that. She knew though, that they wouldn't last forever. Plus, it was rather obvious that Socrates wasn't affected by the spirit barrier. He moved with incredible ease and was even able to shoot a few balls of spiritual energy at them.

Think, she winced as she saw Yusuke narrowly miss the sword. There's got to be something we can do.

Sira felt something bump her leg. Looking down, she saw Haku and Akira standing protectively beside them.

"Any ideas," Tori asked.

They winced and covered their ears when the static sound filled the air once more.

"Someone needs to turn that radio off," Sira said. Both girls' eyes widened as they stared at one another.

"That sound must be coming from the machine generating this barrier," Tori said.

"Hey Akira, Haku," Sira said. "Do you think you can smell it out?"

Akira's hair on his back was raised. "Are you living in a fog? I am certainly not a dog."

"At least try," Tori said.

Haku sniffed the ground. He let out a howl as he bounded off into the forest.

Without hesitation Tori, Sira, and Akira followed. Haku led them on a twisting path through the forest. Sira was beginning to think that Haku had no idea where he was going until he came to an abrupt stop in a clearing up ahead. With his tongue hanging out, he wagged his tail proudly.

A strange looking machine stood in the center of the clearing. It looked like a giant boom box with five antennas sticking out at odd angles.

"Good job Haku," Sira said as she patted him on the head. "If your job as a spirit beast fails, you could be a bomb sniffing dog."

Tori cautiously crept forward and peered at the machine. "Question is how do you turn it off?"

The girls looked around the machine but could not find any knobs or buttons.

"Maybe the antennas?" Tori said as she reached out to grab one. She immediately recoiled when the antenna crackled. "Or maybe not."

"You know," Sira said slowly, "I'm surprised Socrates left this unguarded. I mean he should have expected us to come and look for it and…"

She was cut off by two loud thumps.

Both girls slowly turned around. Two giant brown spiders stood before them. They had giant rib-like bones jutting up from their backs and forming together on top like a cage.

Tori turned and glared at Sira. "You just had to go and bring that up."

"Why did it have to be spiders," Sira said as her eye twitched. "Why couldn't it have been giant butterflies?"

They scooped up Akira and Haku, closed their eyes, and screamed as the spiders charged at them. When they opened their eyes again they were each in the bone cage on top of the spiders.

"I had a feeling you would try and stop me," Socrates said as he stepped from the shrubbery. "So, I brought the cage spiders as an insurance policy."

"Well, that's an original name," Sira muttered sarcastically.

"What did you do to Yusuke and Kuwabara?" Tori said with a glare.

"They're a little preoccupied at the moment," Socrates said with a sly grin. Tori hoped that didn't mean that they were dead.

"Now," He said. "I think we should leave."

He was interrupted by the machine catching on fire. The machine short-circuited and the sky returned back to normal. A plant shot up from the ground and wrapped around Socrates as the cages split open.

The cage spiders let out a howl before retreating into the forest.

Tori found herself in Kurama's arms while Sira was in Hiei's.

"Hiei!" Sira said excitedly. Her smile quickly turned into a frown. "Oh wait, I'm mad at you."

Tori looked up at Kurama in confusion. "But how?"

"I don't know how but Genkai was able to open a hole in the barrier big enough for us to get in" Kurama said.

"Wow," Sira hopped out of Hiei's arms. "Genkai didn't just sit and read her newspaper? I'm impressed."

"You better hope she doesn't hear that," Tori said.

Socrates let out a growl as he fought with the plant.

"Hey!" Yusuke yelled as he and Kuwabara ran up. "You guys alright?"

"What happened to you?" Sira asked.

"The idiot threw smoke at us," Kuwuabara grumbled. "Had a time getting away from it."

At that moment, Socrates broke free from the plant. With a triumphant yell, he raised his sword over his head.

"And now I shall…" His face became ghostly white as he brought the sword to his face. "Master, please, I haven't failed just yet."

"He thinks his sword is his master?" Sira said with a raised eyebrow. "And, everyone thinks I'm odd."

"If you just…" He tried to drop the sword but he couldn't let go. "But, I checked for spells. There was nothing." His eyes widened. "No… no!"

To the horror of everyone around him, Socrates erupted into blue flames. His back arched so much that it looked like it would snap. He swayed back and forth for a moment before tumbling to the ground. The flames finished their work, leaving no trace of him.

"What just…happened?" Tori said slowly.

They all jumped as a deep booming laugh echoed around him.

"He got fired."

The boys stood around Sira and Tori trying to pinpoint where the voice was coming from.

The voice sighed. "Never send underlings to do your job." It laughed once more. "Now, it's my turn."

A bright light filled the area nearly searing their eyeballs. Then there was nothing but darkness.


Amu: Dun...dun…dun…

L.A.: And now, you are all going to hate me because I left you with an even bigger cliffhanger.

Amu: You're so going to be sent back to cliffhangers anonymous.

L.A.: (glares) Anywho, read and review!