Kagome and Shippo waited by the entrance of the cave with Genkai, the boys she had trained, and Botan while Hiei, Yusuke, Kurama and Mitari went in ahead. It wasn't long before they came back out again.
"Our way is blocked," Kurama said.
"We need seven people to get into Amanuma's game, which we're going to have to beat if we are going to reach Kuwabara and Mr Sensui," Mitari said.
"What's the game?" Kagome asked. "I know a couple from playing Souta."
"Goblin City," Yusuke answered.
"I know that one," Kagome said with a smile.
"Yeah, me too, and I'm pretty good," Shippo added.
"I have defeated it multiple times," Kaito contributed.
"I have a whole damn room full of games, I know that one," Genkai said. "Botan, Yano, you two wait here."
With that, the increased group ran into the cave, following the lamp weeds that Kurama had laid out the first time they went in. They were eight though, and while no one was willing to go back, it was agreed that Kagome would wait outside the game.
"Sure took you long enough," Amanuma said when the doors opened up to let them in.
"You're kidding me!" Yusuke yelled. "The great Game Master is a brat kid?"
"Don't think so little of me. Let's play, shall we?"
The first game was tennis, and Mitari won it quickly, though he was sweating by the end of it from the way Amanuma was talking to him. The second was a classic fighter pilot, which Genkai took control of easily. As she had said, she could have beaten it with one hand stuck in a vice.
"You know what Master Genkai? I want to play against you in one of those sometime," Shippo said as Genkai returned to stand with them.
Yusuke beat the fighting round, then Kaito lost the master trivia after a good beginning and Hiei attempting to break them all out in the middle, only to fail. Kurama however was considering the reasoning of the game's purpose.
"Well, I'm not dead, but I guess as long as we keep up with the restart, rather than giving up, that's going to continue," Kaito said.
"I get the feeling Kagome is going to be needed after the game," Shippo said solemnly.
Hiei walked past him towards the wall.
"Hey, where are you going Hiei?" Yusuke asked.
"I know as much of games as I do of hugs and puppies, and I care for them even less," he said, reiterating a statement he had made at the Dark Tournament when the detective was absent – when a game of Janken had been used to decide who would get to take the first battle with Shishiwakamaru – though not in so many words. "Wake me for the end of the world," he added, dozing off, hands behind his head and sword at his side.
"Actually," Shippo said, "that's a good idea. Me too," he said, taking a seat a little to Hiei's left and bowing his head over folded hands. If Kagome could have seen him then, she would have gone a little nostalgic for how InuYasha used to sleep sitting up, his hands tucked into the sleeves of his haori.
"Right. Guess it's all you now Kurama," Yusuke said. "Is there any way you can whoop this kid's ass?"
"Actually, I'm more worried of defeating Amanuma, than not."
"You want to translate that?"
"As Hiei and Kaito have demonstrated, he's made it so that everyone within his territory is subjected to the rules of the game. As long as we continue to play, we live, if we give up we die. However, should we win then Amanuma must also follow his game-counterpart's fate. He is merely a pawn in Sensui's shadowy grasp," Kurama said.
Shippo and Hiei slept through the public revelation of Amanuma's death should the child lose the game, and Kagome was not even in the territory to not watch was Kurama justified killing the boy, and then won the game, thereby killing the child. She was abruptly awoken from the nap she had been taking just outside the territory when it disappeared however.
"Kagome, how are you at reviving the recently dead?" Kurama asked, his fury momentarily contained as he spoke to her.
"On a scale of one to ten?" she said her brown eyes narrowed in her own fury as she saw the boy on the floor. "A very long way away from brilliant. Shippo, Master Genkai, Kaito, will you stay and help me? You guys go on ahead. This is going to take me a while, if it works at all. Don't forget to leave your lamp weeds so that I can follow you afterwards," she insisted.
Kurama nodded and moved to the next passage. It was time to keep moving.
Kagome pulled the Shikon no Tama from her neck and pressed it over the boy's heart, her hands spreading their healing through the boy at the same time. "Kaito, I need you to breathe for him," Kagome instructed as the other boys continued on. "Master Genkai, if you could perform the spirit wave technique, I will guide it to tie his soul to his body and try and restart his bodily functions. Shippo, I think I'll need some of your energy as well as my own and the Shikon's, since I'm not using a wish to make this work." She would never, never make a wish on the jewel. Wishes never worked out right.
The three nodded.
"Is there anything else we can do?" Shippo asked quietly, laying his hands over Kagome's.
"Pray," Kagome said simply, directing energies and reaching for the boy's soul.
Koenma arrived, in his older form, when they had been at it for three solid minutes, and was awed to see how well the human girl was doing with a little extra energy. The boy was almost revived from their work, but it would take genuine Spirit World authority to make the revival a permanent one like Genkai's. Koenma knelt opposite Kaito at the boy's head, then lay a palm over his brow and chanted gently, fixing the soul in place as it was supposed to be, rather than having it only three-quarters stuck back as it had been before.
"Welcome back to the land of the living kid," Kagome said, taking the Shikon back and slipping it around her neck once more. "Master Genkai, Kaito, will you take Amanuma out of here?"
"You're going after them?" the old woman asked, as Kaito picked up the boy, who though confirmed living, had yet to open his eyes.
Kagome, Shippo and Koenma all nodded.
"Right then, come on Kaito, let's get the kid out of here," Genkai said, leading the boy and his burden back up out of the cave.
"Thank you Miss Kagome, Shippo," Koenma said. "You had him almost completely recovered. You probably would even have been able to completely revive him on your own."
"But he wouldn't have been the same afterwards from being out for so long," Kagome said, letting Shippo pull her onto his back to carry her, the way that InuYasha used to. "He may not be the same again as it is."
Koenma nodded solemnly.
~oOo~
Shippo carried Kagome faster than Koenma could run, and the two of them arrived at the cave in time to see Kurama kick a headless body towards a seated, smoking Sakyo. Sensui at least had the grace to stand in the presence of his foe, while another figure with blue-green hair just watched the tunnel, and a tied Kuwabara sitting in a boat just in front of it.
Getting down from Shippo's back, Kagome immediately marched straight up to the suited man.
"You're a real jerk, you know that?" she demanded, her finger in his face.
"What ever do you mean Miss Higurashi?" Sakyo asked.
"Remember that girl you took care of during the Dark Tournament? About so tall, dark blonde hair, honey-coloured eyes, smokes like a chimney?" Kagome prodded.
Sakyo smiled fondly. "Yes, I had hoped to find her again."
"Her name is Shizuru Kuwabara. That idiot's older sister," Kagome hissed, pointing to Kazuma in the boat. "I think you may officially be on her shit-list if you keep this up."
Sakyo frowned. "It won't matter for long. Soon, the world will be ruled by fear, and demons of immeasurable power and god-like intelligence will walk the planet."
"What idiot have you been talking to, to think that any demon has 'godlike' intelligence?" Kagome demanded.
"I am quite certain little girl," Sensui said, "that the A class and S class demons have such superiority over the human race."
"No, they just have a superiority complex," Kagome said, turning to him. "Trust me on that, met some of them."
"How? The Kekai barrier has been in place for several hundred years," the sea-green haired one asked.
"Mr -?"
"Itsuki."
"Mr Itsuki. The barrier wasn't there all of five centuries ago, and I had the opportunity a couple of years back to get to see what a world is like where demons are as every day as any other sentient creature you happen to name," Kagome said. "It's how I met Shippo, it's how I first met the Yoko Kurama. I repeat, most of the really powerful demons are not superior in every way. Some of them are physically powerful, some of them can out-think the very brightest, there are one or two in a hundred of the really powerful demons who have it all – and they mostly don't give a damn about invading the human world. As for this thing," Kagome continued, marching up to the television with Chapter Black playing. She pressed the stop button and then ejected the tape. "Here, happy Armageddon Hiei," she said, tossing it to him.
The tape met his sword blade, surprising everybody.
"Damn, my sword must have slipped," he commented, re-sheathing the weapon.
"Kagome-Kaa-san, are you done being angry now?" Shippo asked, a curl in the corner of his lips that said he was amused by her behaviour.
Kagome closed her eyes and took a deep breath, opening them, she walked up to the rest of the team. "Yeah, I think I'm good now," she said.
"So are we doing something about the tunnel now that you've had your yell?" Yusuke asked, dripping sarcasm from every word.
Kagome ducked her head, an embarrassed smile on her face, about to apologise when suddenly the ground opened up beneath them. Yusuke got spat back out by whatever it was that had caught them, and Itsuki joined them with Kuwabara, who he pushed in their direction and Mitari freed from his bindings. Sakyo, Kagome saw, had left the cave. Why, she didn't know, but she did know that he would run into Genkai and the others before he got too far.
"Where are we?" Kuwabara demanded.
"Somewhere that you cannot interfere with the fight between Yusuke and Mr Sensui," Itsuki said, appearing near them. "After all, even if we are on different sides, safeguarding this fight is still the reason that we are all here, is it not?"
"And here I thought we came to stop the portal from opening," Shippo grumbled.
"Do not begrudge them this fight," Itsuki said gently. "They both deserve to see it to it's end without interference."
"And you want Kuwabara to see something that will bring forth the power within him that will enable him to get out of this place, because like the Kekai barrier you want him to cut down, like Mitari's territory that he has already escaped, your pet is an alternative dimension," Kagome said quietly, almost so that she was the only one who should have been able to hear it, as she folded her legs and sat on the insubstantiality.
The demons heard her though, and when Itsuki nodded, their eyes became wide.
"And now we watch," he said as two portals opened, allowing them to see the fight beyond, but not reach it.
"I am going to sleep until something drastic or disturbing happens," Kagome corrected, mildly frustrated that her usual habit of just being able to walk in and out of any barrier didn't seem to work with alternative dimensions. "I used a lot of energy reviving Amanuma, and I'm guessing that I'm going to need it again before long."
Kurama moved to hold Kagome in his arms while she slept, and he watched, careful not to break her bow. Shippo also wrapped his arms around Kagome, enjoying being close to his mother as she slept, and mindful of the quiver on her back. He couldn't remember exactly when she had started carrying them every time she left the shrine – unless it was to a date with Kurama where she picked him up from his school – but it had been at least since she had come back from the Dark Tournament.
When two minutes later Sensui performed a splintered rushuyuken, Kurama asked Shippo if that counted. Shippo shook his head. When two minutes after that, Yusuke used his torn wet shirt to lock his fist with Sensui and cancel his ability to block, and then Sensui transformed his hand into the barrel of a gun, and it became known that Sensui harboured multiple personalities, Kurama again looked to Shippo. Again, the boy shook his head. When Koenma arrived just in time to distract the gun-fisted personality from blowing Yusuke's head off, Kurama was beginning to wonder what Shippo and Kagome classed as 'drastic or disturbing', as the brown fox shook his head again. When Koenma withdrew his pacifier and began the mafuken spell, Shippo watched intently, but made no move to wake Kagome, even when the gun was once again pointed at Koenma, or when Yusuke stopped Koenma and knocked him out and demanded for the top man inside Sensui's skull, and finally got Shinobu.
The manic laughter and the golden glowing energy had Shippo shaking Kagome awake.
"Five more minutes," she begged sleepily.
"No Kagome-Kaa-san," Shippo said urgently. "This you need to see."
Kagome blinked her eyes open and looked out. "Don't even give me a recap," she said. "I don't want to know. That's a 'sacred' aura. Congrats to him for cutting forty years of training down, but otherwise, it's just a pain in the rear and proved that he's completely self-righteous."
"Kagome?" Shippo asked.
"It was in the books Kurama brought for me when we first met him," Kagome said, answering the unspoken question. "I've actually made a start in training towards it myself recently. Not particularly interested in the power, but the discipline is still good."
Everyone watched from the edge of their metaphorical seats, and even Hiei started to sweat, until Koenma was able to cast his mafukan. Yet Sensui was able to block its power and disintegrate the godling's dummy and blow a hole in the ceiling.
"Oh right, I'm killing you. Forgive me I got distracted," Sensui said as Yusuke stepped up.
"No," Kuwabara denied. "Yusuke wouldn't trust us to finish this without him."
"Maybe that's just it," Kurama realised, partially horrified. "Think about what you did for Yusuke in his fight with Toguro."
"Genkai's spirit orb," Kuwabara said.
"Yes, he possessed the power, but didn't know how to tap into it," Kurama confirmed.
"Then maybe we should kill Kuwabara again," Hiei suggested.
"No, Yusuke's maxed out. We're the untapped ones," Kurama protested. "We have the power, but not the strength of mind to reach it, not without the pain of loss."
"So," Mitari said, "could we save him?"
"Wait Urameshi! You don't have to die! If you really think I have the strength, I'll find it! Please just give me the time, I swear!" Kuwabara yelled, trying to reach his friend. "Urameshi, you can't go this way! Think, what I did in that fight I did it for you! I did it for you! But you can't! You can't!" The young teen was reaching hysteria. "Urameshi!"
"The breaking point," Kurama lamented softly.
Kagome moved to wrap her arms around Kurama briefly, firmly. This was a time when comfort would do nothing to help him. She hugged Hiei the same way for a moment. He never wanted comfort, but the manifestation of sorrow would push him a little closer to the edge that he was nearing. For Kuwabara she could do nothing but watch with sympathy, and she retreated to hold Shippo.
"I won't ever forgive you! Not if you go out like this! There's nothing wrong with guy's needing each other. For me you're – you're!" Kuwabara was crying. It was heartbreaking to watch just as much as watching Yusuke walked towards the man who was going to kill him. "You always gotta be there Urameshi, don't you get it? If you're not, then who am I?"
"You will let us out now," Hiei insisted, turning to Itsuki and removing his cloak, his energy crackling around the warded bandages on his arm. "And I might just let you continue to have the ability to breathe."
"Hiei is right," Kurama added, drawing his rose. "We will face Sensui in a four-on-one fight,"
"Six," Shippo and Kagome corrected.
"All we need is for Itsuki to let us out," Kurama said.
"You'd still fail," Itsuki told them.
"What?" Kuwabara demanded.
"However many times you multiply zero power, you still have zero power," Itsuki told them.
"I'm insulted," Shippo growled.
"I'll show you zero power!" Kuwabara said, making to charge.
Kurama stopped him. "If we would have so little bearing on the fight, then why keep us here?"
"Well, while you were never a threat for defeating Sensui, you could, perhaps, with teamwork, run away," he said. "Carrying Yusuke on a shoulder as you escape the cave, deflecting Sensui's attacks."
"No," Kuwabara objected. "We don't run."
"Maybe you don't, but you should ask your more strategic friends," Itsuki suggested with a smirk as he stepped back. "Hiei, Kurama, I sense that neither one of you is far from becoming an A class demon. In fact, Spirit Fox, I believe you once were."
All three of the demons were grinding their teeth. Hiei and Kurama for being read like that, Shippo for being passed over. He was powerful and he knew it, the ease with which he cast illusions, even from great distances, his sword skills, hell, his lessons from Kurama when he was just a kit. It seemed that he had been masking his power too well, but he had to, if he was going to continue to live with his family in Human World, and live there peacefully.
"Maybe you plan to escape with your lives now and prepare for the first wave of demon intruders, then make yourselves strong, defeat Sensui as a team and proceed to damage control."
"You're clever Itsuki, but you've guessed wrong."
"Don't try your bluffs on me Hiei, I know your kind too well. Just stand here and do the only thing you can: watch Yusuke die."
"You're a soulless freak!" Kuwabara yelled.
Mitari quietly tugged on Kuwabara's arm and whispered to him, saying the same things that neither of the humans had heard Kagome say when they were initially trapped.
Kuwabara started the struggle to make his new sword as he watched Yusuke getting pummelled, crying between memories and pained attempts, finally getting the sword up.
"I've done all I can, finish him Sensui!" Itsuki yelled.
Then with a stroke of his sword, they were all out, and Kuwabara yelled for Yusuke to get out of the way. Yusuke just smiled at them, and took the blow. Kuwabara's instant reaction was denial, but the hole in the heart was pretty hard to deny for long.
"Miss Kagome, you saved that kid before right?" Kuwabara asked when he found that his friend had no more heartbeat.
"I think that was my allotted miracle for the month, and I had a little more help than is sticking around right now, especially since you're all going to go after him," she said, kneeling heavily beside Yusuke's prone form. "I'll try though."
"Are any of you brave enough to lead the way? Attempt to finish what your late friend could not?" Sensui asked.
"Sure, bravery's the only thing we got left," Kuwabara answered.
Hiei and Kurama charged, their energies jumping.
"Hey, don't start without me!" Kuwabara called after them.
"Kagome?" Shippo asked.
The girl smiled gently at her son. "Go with them," she insisted. "Show them all what you've been hiding."
Shippo nodded and stood, running after them as well.
"Here's a one-way ticket for you straight to hell, you bastard!" Hiei yelled, unleashing his dragon of the darkness flame as he ran.
Kagome gently began mending the holes in Yusuke's body as the three demons who mattered the most to her, and a human boy with more heart than head, charged into the portal and towards the demon realm beyond.
Koenma knelt opposite her in confusion while Mitari stood watching, grieving and lost.
"I don't get it!" Koenma said at last, leaning over Yusuke's body to rest his ear against the boy's chest, now that the hole was patched up.
"He's too young to be dead," Mitari lamented.
"No, I mean that even though his heart has stopped, his ghost has yet to rise out of him," Koenma said.
"And that's not normal?" Mitari asked.
Kagome stood, Yusuke's injuries patched, and went to look for his other shoe.
"It usually emerges immediately. Last time Yusuke died, his ghost just popped right out of him."
"Wait, if he's come back before, maybe he's not really dead!" Mitari was clinging to hope.
"No, trust me kid, he's dead as a doornail. His soul is just MIA," Koenma answered.
Kagome returned with Yusuke's shoe and put it back on his foot. "Don't worry you two," she told them. "His soul is right where it's supposed to be: inside him. Just let him catch up with that before you go expecting a response."
As she spoke, a bright blue light flew down into the cavern, splitting up into several figures.
"Who are these jokers?" Kagome asked, pulling her bow from her back and gripping it tightly in the event of a threat.
"They're called the Spirit World's Special Defence Force. They're the best of the best, and Spirit World's last line of defence. My father only calls upon them in the most desperate of situations, and I guess this hole qualifies. He depends on them, unequivocally, to get the job done," Koenma answered. "Which means my father has given up faith in my ability to do so," he added, shocked and hurt by the admission.
Kagome lay a comforting hand on his shoulder, but said nothing as they watched the soldiers in their grey uniforms move, the one with the big mustache giving orders out before approaching them.
"Great, he brings the ugly ones to talk to us," Kagome muttered.
"Lord Koenma sir, are you alright?" the leader said.
"Well I did bite my tongue," Koenma admitted wryly.
"Please return to Spirit World at once where you can recuperate."
"Recuperate from biting his tongue? This guy does not get humour," Kagome whispered to Mitari.
"I'm not going anywhere. This is my mess and I'm going to clean it up."
"Forgive me your highness but I'm afraid that I must insist, for King Enma has declared this a state of martial law. Meaning, for now, my jurisdiction supersedes yours. I'm sorry about this sir."
"I know what martial law is captain, I'm no idiot. But you are if you think for a second I'm going to back off without a fight."
Kagome rolled her eyes. "I think he's an idiot anyway," she said to Koenma in a clear voice, not caring if it was rude to talk about the man as though he weren't there.
"If you refuse to vacate, you'll have to witness something very painful."
"Are you threatening me now captain?"
He sighed, but didn't answer.
"Hey Goldilocks, get out of the way," sneered the soldier standing at the captain's right, raising his hand and gathering his energy, blasting it at Mitari.
"Stop! He's just a kid!" Koenma insisted.
"No one will get in the way of our mission, to kill Yusuke Urameshi," the captain stated.
"What?" Koenma demanded.
"Spirit Detective Yusuke Urameshi, a direct descendant of the Mazoku," the captain answered.
Kagome rolled her eyes and went to help Mitari back to his feet. "Narrow-minded pigs," she muttered to herself.
"You're out of your mind!" Koenma objected.
Kagome looked sharply back to Yusuke from the corner of her eye, and hid a smirk before going back to sit beside him, arranging her miko robes comfortably around her, checking the string on her bow and counting her arrows.
"That is a violent accusation, and to level it in front of his corpse? It's ridiculous! His mother may act like a monster, but his parents were human. I had an ogre do a background check," Kurama objected.
"True, as were his grandparents and great-grandparents but if you continue back much further," the captain alluded.
Koenma didn't want to believe it. "The atavism of the Mazoku," he said.
"That's affirmative sir. It's through that rare phenomenon that we think Urameshi inherited his demon blood, and if we're right – which by all signs, we are – he's a genetic time bomb, just waiting to trigger. The first time he died, he wasn't strong enough to awaken the beast within him, which is why he came back as a human when you revived him. Inadvertently though, through his training as a spirit detective, we've amended that deficiency. Now there's nothing to stop the Mazoku gene from rearing it's ugly head."
Kagome wanted to laugh, but bit her cheek instead. She, unlike all the men standing around talking, had noticed that Yusuke had entered his first and most subtle stage of revival, and probably could hear every word they were saying. It would take a little bit longer before he revived completely though. Not that she was going to warn them.
"Except for us," the captain continued. "And if your father, King Enma, had not detected trace amounts of that same energy shooting out from Urameshi at the Tournament – well, we could have defeated one rogue spirit detective, only to give rise to another, more powerful one. Thank goodness we arrived in time to prevent it."
"He needs to learn to lighten up," Kagome muttered quietly to Yusuke's still form. "And learn more about your character."
"And my father is certain about all of this?"
"Yes. Forty-four generations ago, before the Kekai separated the worlds, that's when the Mazoku planted the seed of evil that's now ready to bloom within him, which is why we must destroy his corpse!"
"You'll have to do it over my dead body," Mitari said, stepping up. "You should all be ashamed of yourselves, insinuating that he's a monster, or a traitor, or anything other than what he really is: a hero. Who do you think he's been fighting for? Who do you think he selflessly gave his life for? And this is how you reward him? It doesn't matter what's in your blood! All that matters is what's inside your heart," he insisted.
The same big nosed jerk with the lousy sense of humour appeared behind the boy, again attacking and shocking him with his energy and dropping him to the ground. "Yeah, like we're gonna trust you as a good judge of character. We know all about the last spirit detective you got involved with, and as far as I'm concerned you're still an enemy of this mission," he said, dragging the boy back to the wall.
"Control your men captain," Koenma growled. "I understand the severity of the situation, but regardless of your thug's opinion, Mr Mitari has proved to be an honourable ally of my spirit detective outfit. As for Yusuke, if what you're saying is true, then it's my fault for not spotting it, and I won't let him suffer for it. We will find another solution captain, because that is what civilised people do!" Koenma insisted.
"Forgive me sir," the captain said, bringing his own hand up to shock the godling, immobilising him and dragging him away to the wall.
"This is treason," Koenma whispered.
"Miss? We require you to step back now. I'm quite sure you heard all that was just said," the third member of the small party said to Kagome, showing respect to her gender and priestess robes, but also unable to approach any closer as she had set up a barrier around herself and Yusuke.
"I heard," she answered. "I've known Yusuke had demon blood since the moment I got a good look at him on the boat to the Tournament. I'm not budging."
"Captain!" he called suddenly. "Look at Urameshi! He's glowing!"
"Good boy," Kagome said as his body rose on its own. "Show 'em what a half-breed can do."
"Damn, it's time!" the captain yelled. "That's not spirit energy he's emitting, it's demon energy! The resurrection has begun!"
"The resurrection is nearly complete," Kagome corrected quietly.
All the SDF soldiers jumped to the task of trying to confine and destroy Yusuke.
"Fire!" the captain yelled, even as a large bird flew down the hole Sensui had made earlier. "Stop pissing your pants and fire! Keep on firing!"
Between the giant bird's wings blocking the energy attacks, and Kagome's own barrier, the SDF didn't make much of a dent in the boy. Seeing this, the SDF slowly stopped their attack out of pure fear for what they were about to face.
"Man you people sure know how to make a guy feel welcome," Yusuke said as the smoke from their attacks cleared.
"Aw, give them a break Yusuke, they're soldiers. They don't know how to throw a proper party," Kagome teased, standing up beside him within Puu's new impressive wingspan.
Yusuke chuckled. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
"We're too late! The mazoku is alive!" the captain's fear was nearly palpable.
"Puu, puu!" the large bird chirped happily, nodding.
"Hey little buddy," Yusuke said, holding his hand up to pet his spirit animal. "I see you've been drinking your milk while I've been away. You know even though I was dead I could still hear some of what you guys were sayin'?" Yusuke said to the captain. "So then, I'm some kind of evil vicious monster."
Kagome bit her lip and determined not to laugh. He was playing it up, she could tell, she had experience from watching InuYasha's big tough-guy act, as well as further exposure to Yusuke's own version.
"My teachers have been saying that for years, I just thought it was an figure of speech," he said, stepping forward towards the soldiers and flaring his energy.
Kagome moved closer to Puu and stroked his feather's happily. Those SDF guys were really stupid to miss something so obvious. Would the spirit beast be so happy and friendly still if Yusuke really was evil? Puu was a reflection of Yusuke's inner self, and that was final.
"You see Koenma sir how strong his demon energy is?" the captain insisted desperately.
"No, not Yusuke," Koenma said quietly, clearly in denial at what he was seeing.
The ugly soldier who had been picking on Mitari flinched back and began to beg. "Your supreme evilness, I am your humble servant, please allow me to do whatever it is you desire!" he cried, the hint that to do so he might be allowed to live clear in his desperate tone.
"Thanks, weakling, but for what I desire I don't need any help, for what I desire is ending the world and everyone in it!" he growled, a wicked grin on his lips. "For I am the mighty Mazoku, Lord of Evil!"
Kagome was clutching her stomach with one hand now while the other was pressed to her mouth to prevent any laughter from escaping. He was so playing this to the last degree! He should have been an actor, with the way he was hamming it up.
"And now, after hibernating for a thousand years I will finally reveal my true form!" he declared, and began to laugh, maniacally, showing off his new fangs.
When the SDF started running, Yusuke chased them, pulling faces, before he went back to stand near Kagome and Puu, posed like he was some kind of demented ballerina.
"Psyche! Man you guys are gullible!" Yusuke yelled, laughing chuckling at his joke.
Kagome finally let some of her own laughter through.
"I can't believe they really fell for that," she said, wiping a tear from her eye. "Clearly, they don't know you that well."
Yusuke chuckled. "Ha, yeah. Hey Koenma, you didn't really think I'd turn bad right?"
"Well I, uh, no," Koenma said. That he'd been worried was clear, but he hadn't wanted to believe it.
"Anyway, I'd better push off to demon world. Sensui gave me a death sentence as a gift, and I'd be a jerk if I didn't return the favour," Yusuke said, looking at the portal.
"Hiei, Kurama, Shippo and Kazuma have already gone ahead," Kagome said. "They aren't expecting you, but it was your party first, so you can't really crash it."
"Good one Kagome," Yusuke said, smirking.
"But you can't go anywhere! You have to be quarantined!" the captain insisted.
"You even think about stopping me, and I'll bite off your head, mustache and all!" Yusuke snapped, baring his fangs again.
Kagome sniggered when the captain backed off.
"I knew you couldn't hide your true character. You've transformed into a demon menace."
"Look jerk, give me a break, it's called a running joke. I'm the same. Yusuke Urameshi, fearless protector of the good stuff, with a healthy kickin' ass fist and a general hatred of authority," the boy declared happily. "And nothing as trivial as a violent death and a few drops of demon blood mixed in with mine is gonna keep me from helping out my friends and saving the world, and kicking the bad guy's ass."
"So what are you waiting for? A gold embossed invitation? Let's go already!" Kagome said, climbing onto Puu's back.
"Hold on, I'm coming with you!" Koenma said, laughing in relief as he moved towards the large blue spirit beast as well.
The captain grabbed Koenma's robes.
"But sir! You will be disobeying a direct order from King Enma! Besides this hostile beast -"
Yusuke'd foot abruptly cut off the captain's triad. "Pass this to King Enma for me!" he said before the man fell over.
"I didn't even hit him hard," Yusuke chuckled jumping up onto Puu's back with Koenma.
"Koenma, I've tried to save you!" the captain called.
"You can tell King Daddy that, and that he can disown me or fire me or put me up for adoption!" Koenma answered.
"You didn't fix up Mitari Kagome?" Yusuke asked, spotting the out cold boy against the wall.
"And leave your mostly-dead body for them to get close to? No, he'll have a headache when he wakes up, but he's fine otherwise," she promised.
"Well, we'll be back for him soon. Let's go to demon world Puu!" Yusuke yelled.
The large bird took off with a triumphant cry, and once they were through the portal into the pseudo space, Koenma felt the need to inform his spirit detective of a somewhat important detail.
"Now Yusuke, you do understand that there is a chance we won't be able to go back?" he called up.
"Yeah, shut up. I can't worry about that now! Remind me after we've beaten Sensui!" Yusuke yelled back.
Kagome and Koenma both chuckled at the bone-head's single-minded determination.
"You are as irrational as ever!" Koenma said.
"Like I'm gonna give that up! It's the only thing that makes this job any fun!" Yusuke answered with a grin. "Come on Puu! Faster!"
"Which reminds me, you were going to see about getting me a spirit beast," Kagome said, a hopeful smile on her face.
"Huh? Oh, uh," Koenma fumbled a moment. "I couldn't get permission to allot one to a living person, I'm sorry."
"That's rules for you," Kagome said, disappointed, but figured one spirit beast was probably enough for Tokyo to handle at any given time. Pulling out the Shikon no Tama she checked that it was still as pure as ever. It glowed a bright and healthy pink. "I'm going to need to put a barrier around that so the demon's don't know I've got it," she said quietly before shoving it back down her kimono front.
"Hey tool brigade! Get out o' the way!" Yusuke yelled, causing Kagome and Koenma to look up and see the Kekai barrier, and the hole in it. "And get some cool uniforms while you're at it!" he added as Puu swept over the SDF soldiers on border guard and they went through the hole.
~oOo~