Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Bindings (My Kitsune 5) ❯ Bindings ( Chapter 6 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Makai (time: unknown)Baby Nyx
Yusuke's visit to the demon world.


"Stupid demon." Yusuke slapped dirt off his pants and made his way back to his duffle bag. Along the way he gave the demon who attacked him a final pissed-off kick that sent it skidding a few feet out of his way. It was out cold and didn't even twitch a muscle as it went skidding and rolling for a few meters.

"Why won't any of you bastards believe me? Geez, everytime I say I'm Yusuke Urameshi, you bastards go on a warpath. It's almost frickin' sunset again and I haven't made it to the border of my kingdom yet." He slung his bag over his shoulder "I swear, next demon who gets in my way, is gonna wish he was never born." He went back to the path he was following and resumed running.

He's been running for 2 days now trying to get to the border of his kingdom closest to Yomi's where the great earthquake happened. He heard it really tore the place up uprooting ancient trees and changing the landscape.

He would have made it before sunset if it wasn't for that class A demon who tried to collect a passage fee through his own forest, now, he'll be lucky if he made it by night fall.

The demon had raised a barrier when he tried to pass, and when Yusuke identified himself the demon had laughed and said he was Reizen himself. Of course Yusuke felt the need to "defend" his revered ancestor's honor.

So with a great excuse to fight, he soundly trounced the poor demon who was probably related to Byakko the white tiger. He was just as huge and just as full of himself, except his fur was a nice Bengal tiger gold.

And of course he didn't stand a chance, he just delayed the tired prince from getting to his goal sooner and put his kind that much closer to the endangered species list.

"Oh wait... shit! Was that the guy Enki enlisted to guard that pass? Where the fuck am I anyway! He said something about a demon watching something, near somewhere..." Yusuke racked his brains for instructions from 2 days ago and failed to come up with anything concrete.

"Well if he's working for me then he should know who I am!" he shouted to no one in particular.

That out of the way, Koenma's top spirit detective returned to his interrupted concerns. It was mostly about his wife, who's pregnant with twins and still working while studying but more recently his thoughts was being occupied by his friends who have gone on a very long holiday.

Kurama left with Hiei almost a week ago and he wasn't replying or sending any messages which Yusuke expected after that conversation he had with the red head.

Kurama was planning on dissapearing, the mere fact that he was still recieving the text messages was assurance that he's still alive.

Oh and Hiei almost died.

He may be a stubborn, arrogant, tempermental shrimp but Yusuke considers him a part of his family. Same with the that stubborn, kind, smart-assed kitsune, and that carrot-topped lunk head he's been beating up since high school.

In Yusuke's mind what they have cannot be defined by the word "friend" anymore, it was deeper than just friends and stronger than any blood ties. He would do anything to keep them happy and safe, and he knew that despite Hiei's attitude, he would do the same for him. Kurama is the most selfless amongst them so that's a given and asking about Kuwabara's loyalties is kinda dumb.

He shook his head, his feet running on autopilot. He was glad Hiei chose to follow Kurama, that old fox had gotten himself into quite a fix otherwise he wouldn't be trying to protect them by running away. That was why he had to visit the Makai, to see if he can get clues on what kind of mess Kurama had gotten himself into.

Yesterday he was running through a parched desert, when night came, he kept his pace till the moon was pretty high in the sky, a few hours of sleep over scraggly grass and he was off again eating his breakfast of jerky and water. Yep, he brought his own food, Makai jerky was good until he found out they were made from youkai and who knows what kind of demon it was made from? Bird demon? Dog demon? Fox demon? Fire demon? Demon roach? He's seen a couple of those...

So chewing contently on 5 spice beef jerky he watched as a forest began to his right while under him fresh grass made it's apperance, it made running easier. Towards noon foothills green with trees and bush had appeared and near sunset the massive forests covered the landscape. Up ahead he saw the the wide grassland between 2 forests.

The Divided Forest Pass is the way to Yomi's kingdom, trees have a tendency to make big solid grooves together but here they are divided by that patch of grassland and wouldn't join.

Which meant the tiger guy he beat up WAS the guardian of the pass. Yusuke grinned unrepentantly "Ooops my bad."

The sun was going out in a blazing red display when he felt a very familliar very powerful prescence. He went straight for it, he didn't hide his ki because it was imperative this ruler knew he was coming. As he had expected the ki signature began moving towards him.

"Yomi." He said to the cooler winds of twilight, he knew the other demon recognized him too, because there was no hostility or waryness in the other ruler's energy signature, just effortless ease which annoyed Yusuke because Yomi beat him in that last tournament. In Yusuke's book, Yomi is an okay straight playing demon, he has his quirks of course but he is an honorable fighter. They parted in good terms but Yusuke was never a graceful loser, he remembered that old itch to fight Yomi again, but there were more important things to take care of right now, some other time perhaps.

Soon enough he could see the old goat himself on a beast sorts making his way towards him. They slowed down, and as soon as they were within speaking distance Yusuke shouted a greeting. He skidded to a halt a healthy distance in front of the beast and the dirt of his passing flew around him. The ugly thing that looked like a cross between a rat and a rhino snorted at the dirt but didn't move.

"Oi Yomi! Long time no see, how are you?" He said waving a hand.

The Makai Lord smiled. "Greetings Yusuke, yes, it has been a while, I hope you don't mind my stepping into your border like this, I sensed you wanted to speak to me." he said as he went down the beast he was riding and walked slowly to stand before Yusuke.

"Well yeah, I was going to see what did happen here and ask you a few questions. But what are you doing here? I sent a messenger to your kingdom because I was coming over for a visit."

"Hmmm... Maybe you should follow me, you better see for yourself what happened to the Sangemaru." Yomi said as he turned to mount his beast again.

"Sange-what?"

"I came here alone so as not to antagonize our border treaties, but my men are on the other side of the border. They rarely let me travel alone." he said, "do you wish to ride with me?" he asked politely. "You seem to have been running for days."

Yusuke looked at down at his dusty pants and sweat stained shirt, then at the rat toothed, rhino like animal Yomi was on, it looked bulky and slow but as he saw earlier it ran pretty fast. He wasn't really tired and a ride would be welcome...

But then again the idea of riding behind Yomi...

"Um... no, thanks man, just lead the way." Yusuke replied.

Yomi raised his brows in query, gave a secret little smile and hit the animal's side with his switch, the beast turned around and began running back the same way it came, Yusuke followed.

They went straight to the edge of the forest at Yusuke's right. He felt like he crossed an inviscible line and everything green behind that line was... dead. The fresh green grass became brown and dry, the trees were all shriveled and leafless. Even the ground was buckled here and there like something had tried to come out from underneath.

He knew they were getting close to the center because the ground got worse and he saw what appered to be...

"Rifts? But there's too many, and they're everywhere!" he remarked as they pulled to a stop near a cluster of ancient trees that had toppled over. Trees so huge and old they had their own youki signatures.

"You have to post guards here on your side to keep demons from crossing over to the human world and spirit world. The Reikai has sent agents to seal the rifts, they closed most of it but they had to leave because they were exausted, a fresh team will arrive soon to replace them. I sense it will upset the balance of things here in the Makai so me and Shura and a couple of others are trying to close as many of them as we can. Some of your men are over there trying to do the same."

"Holy shit what a mess." Yusuke muttered as he surveyed the toppled trees and the buckled earth, huge boulders were split in half and there were dimensional rifts everywhere, small ones now and he suspected the big ones had already been dealt with.

On one side he could see his bald and uniformed guards while on the other side he could see Yomi's people, including his son Shura who was kneeling in front of a small rift and focusing his ki into sealing it.

He felt Yomi stand next to him and the old Goat gestured for him to follow. They went towards the mass of fallen trees and stopped besides the biggest one. It had a burned out hollow in it's center and the rich scent of burnt cedar sap was strong in the air.

"The Sangemaru, he ruled this part of our forest." Yomi touched the bark and it crumbled under his fingers. All it's leaves were brown and dry and it's branches, where it got broken off from the main trunk was brittle and dead. "The other trees surrounding him became known as the Sangemaru as well, but it's this one who is aware. I have often visited him to listen to his wisdom, his knowledge of our realm is great." He sighed heavily "I shall miss taking walks in these woods." he raised closed eyes to the skies.

Yusuke looked sideways at the long haired, many eared, many horned, Lord of his neighboring kingdom. He can see once more why Youko Kurama chose to associate himself with this demon. Yomi is powerful, handsome, graceful, his mere prescence is enough to send lower class demons scurrying away.

An errant breeze picked up Yomi's long black hair and he turned slightly away to keep the strands from his face, he continued his narrative with a wry smile because he knew Yusuke was looking at him.

"Before he locked himself up in his tower, Reizen and I often met here, we would talk or spar, hm! But that was in our youth and even then the Sangemaru was already ancient, we considered this place neutral territory. He bore a Jagan see?" he pointed at a blackened hole at the tree's side "Even his Jagan is dead." Yomi sighed heavily and Yusuke knew without words that the tree's death had saddened the Makai king "The cave of illusions are also gone, we think we know what happened but we are uncertain."

"Eh, sorry old man, but, this is the first time I've encountered this kind of thing and I'm really gonna be grateful if you explain it some more." Yusuke replied as he picked up a branch and easily crumbled it between his fingers. "Like how did this tree die? And what's with all these rifts?"

"This is the epicenter, everything for a mile around us is dead. Plants, trees, animals, demons, everything-"

"Master Yusuke." Yusuke turned to face a pair of his guards "Welcome, we are almost done my Lord, we can escort you back to the Keep when you feel it's time to return. "

"Uh, good job guys keep it up, I'm only here to see whats really going on. Tell Enki I won't be heading back yet, I want to talk to Yomi about something." He spared him a glance and the old king seemed to be amused at Yusuke's over familiarity and disregard of proper decorum.

The guards looked darkly at the Makai King who stood too close to their Master.

"Enki won the tournament, Yusuke will be treated with all the honors befitting a visiting monarch." he nodded to Yusuke "When your ready?" he asked.

"Chill guys. I'll be alright." he flashed them a wink and a thumbs up and followed Yomi back to his runner beast.

"I'm here with most of my best, I left Kurama to manage my kingdom I hope we won't be long and Mokuro stays in one place. Her heir seems to have gone off somewhere." he remarked as they watched a woman with extremely long hair braided and tied around her waist kneel and open a palm over a black slit on their reality. She wore an ornate bow across her back and a quiver of arrows next to it.

Yusuke recognized her as the woman Yoshira in Koenma's briefing files and he would have asked about her if it wasn't for what Yomi said.

"Huh? Run that through me again Yomi, who did you say is in your palace holding down the fort while your here doing this?" Yusuke asked he felt like he's been spun around and left dizzy, or Yomi's kidding him... both of which seems unlikely.

Yomi cocked his head to one side and a puzzled expression was there when he replied "Youko Kurama, our mutual friend, my right hand man." Yomi directed his sightless eyes at the confused Yusuke and gave the impression he was looking straight at him. "Who else could it be Yusuke?"

"What? No fucking way." Yusuke said "He's with Hiei in the Ningenkai, last I heard they were in New York."

"But... How can that be?" Yomi looked surpised, then his brows came together in thought. He looked away towards the direction of his kingdom "I am sure it's him, I left him in the palace yesterday, he just came back from one of his botanical expiditions and was very excited about creating a certain rose. He was more than happy to stay behind because of it."

"Jaganashi Hiei can't be fooled, Kuwabara is more sensitive than I am..." Yusuke shook his head "time runs weird here but when I left the human world he and Hiei are already gone 6 days."

Yomi looked at the fallen trees, "Could someone actually fool me...?" then back to Yusuke and frowned "These trees were sucked dry of their life energy... this entire place was decimated by an old, powerful, earth elemental Youko. There are only 3 Youkos that I know of who can do this, 2 are dead and one has a human avatar. Let's go back to my palace, and ask Kurama what's going on."