Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Bloodlust ❯ "Yeah? Whaddya Want?" ( Chapter 2 )

Bloodlust
by Moonraker One

CHAPTER TWO - “Yeah? Whaddya want?”

Yusuke regarded the two mysterious people–he could sense their demonic energy, so he knew they weren't human–with somewhat an apprehensive demeanor. The shorter one had a visible thirst for action in his eyes, while the taller, redheaded figure looked like he had ulterior motives. He could sense that, even though they were terribly suppressing their powers, he still could power up quite a bit higher than them. However, being far more skilled at keeping his true ability under wraps, they couldn't tell that he was above an S class just by sensing him; all they had was spoken word about him to go on. He had been somewhat unaware of his reputation as possibly the most powerful demon not living in Makai, but he understood that many people who crossed him and lived had to have said something. It was with a cautious mind that he looked to the two for their motives.
“My name's Yusuke Urameshi,” he admitted. “Did I cross you somewhere? Because a subordinate of a rich piece of crap named Sakyo crossed me; now he's a vegetable and his boss does his best to hide from me.”
“No, not at all, Yusuke,” the shorter one stated. “I just wanted to give you an offer, that's all.”
“Oh yeah?” Yusuke's ears heard something they wanted to hear. “Well, whaddya want from me?” The shorter, dark-haired demon reached inside his coat and pulled out a multi-colored orb, and tossed it forward. Yusuke took hold of the orb, and stared at various sides of it but could not make out what it was. He could see, though, that it was part of a series of artifacts that had obviously been stolen. The red-haired demon had a mirror in his pocket, and the shorter one had a sword, so it confused him that they would try to impress him with an orb. “What exactly the hell is this? And who are you guys?!”
“My name is Hiei, and my partner in crime over here,” he pointed to the taller redhead, “is Kurama.” Yusuke raised his right eyebrow in confusion; he'd heard that name somewhere before. When it finally clicked inside his mind, he smiled; he was in the presence of greatness.
“So, you're the thousand-year old bandit, Yoko Kurama.” Yusuke glanced at the mirror in his pocket. One thing that almost always took people by surprise was his mind reading powers; he could know all of what you were thinking just by glancing at you. “So, your goal is to use that mirror of darkness for its intended purpose? Cool. So why, Hiei,” he turned his attention to the shorter of the duo, “why're you giving me this soul-sucking Rapacious Orb? I ain't a soul eater.”
Hiei seemed slightly frustrated. “You're not? Damn. I'd heard you were.” He thought of a quick recovery. “Well, it's a spirit world artifact, surely you can get some money for it from a museum or the like. Maybe you can find some other purpose for it. But consider it a gift as part of our new friendship.”
Yusuke interrupted him; he'd experienced this sort of thing before with normal, human gang members. “Now wait a minute, Hiei, I may have been born in the dark, but it wasn't last night. I don't sign up for shit. You have to make it worth my while.”
Hiei gritted his teeth inside his closed mouth; not another stubborn, self-confident pawn. He'd had to deal with far too many of these in the past. “Trust me, Mr. Urameshi, if you stick with us, I'll make it worth your while. As ringleader, I will lead us to some of the greatest treasures this world can offer, and we can make quite a bit of nastiness in this world.” He saw Yusuke roll his eyes, and he began to get angry; the last thing he wanted to do was have to get physical when he just cleaned and repaired his clothing. “I'm sorry, is something boring to you?”
Yusuke shook his head with a laughing smile on his face. “Look, Hiei, Kurama, I get this from demons all the time. You all think you know a lot about me thanks to the 'stories' that circulate through demonkind. I was born with the power of an upper level S, and don't ever forget it.”
Hiei actually began to laugh out loud, believing that in front of him was a complete moron. Kurama could tell that Yusuke had far more power than Hiei gave him credit for, but did not believe that the demon in front of him was capable of generating S level power. “Sorry about that,” Hiei managed, in between bouts of laughter. “S level power? You must be insane, my friend.” By the time he had finally managed to curb his laughing, Yusuke's assertive demeanor did not change.
“Come with me,” Yusuke said, grabbing the hands of both demons. Using a technique he mastered a year prior during his meditation, the three were immediately teleported exactly three miles out of the city, into a thick forested area. The demons looked around; neither Hiei nor Kurama had seen a demon that could teleport more than a hundred feet. Nevertheless, they had been taken to the middle of nowhere for a reason; Yusuke obviously didn't want anyone to see his power. “Three miles is the most I can teleport. But that's not what I brought you here to show you. You obviously don't know how powerful I really am. Let me show you.” As he clenched his fists tightly at his side, Hiei stood with arms folded, while Kurama began to sweat, as he had far more experience than Hiei when it came to measuring powers. The very ground beneath them began to quiver ever so mildly as Yusuke got into a power-up state of mind. At first, the power trickled mildly to the surface, but a second later, he let a sharp screech and everything for a hundred yards began to rattle like an earthquake. The two demons actually had to leap backwards to avoid getting struck by bolts randomly leaping off of the frame of the demon in their presence. Once the storm of power coming from Yusuke died down, and his power had considerably risen, they felt the electrical tension in the air typical of a lower B class demon being nearby. Neither could believe that their hopefully soon-to-be ally could generate lower B level power without even transforming into his fully demonic state. In fact, he hadn't even gone as high as he could go in his human-looking state. “So, are you two still interested in making an alliance with me?” Now that he had made it perfectly clear exactly how much stronger than them he was, he waited for the predictable answer of “no.” Even still, the orb in his possession could potentially be worth some money.
Hiei didn't quite initially know what to say, but he knew that of all the opportunities he'd had come and go, this was quite possibly the best. He knew that the spirit world's Spiritual Defense Force could only handle up to B class demons, and the S class Urameshi in his presence could very well be the most powerful pawn he'd ever had. It would just take a lot of effort to get him under his thumb. “W...wow...” he stammered. “You're truly...as powerful as you claim to be...you would make a wonderful addition to our little group.” To this Yusuke grinned.
“I knew you'd be impressed by my power,” he said, sealing the deal with a phrase. “Now, the reason that I brought you to this wooded area is because a friend of mine is training here and I wanted you to meet him.” Yusuke looked around, attempting to search out the aura of his friend. When he couldn't initially, he smiled; surely, the lessons on power suppression that he was giving his friend would come in handy. So, he resorted to using conventional methods. “Lando,” he cried out, attempting to see if anything changed in the aura patterns detectable. Nothing happened after a few seconds, so he tried again. “LANDO! WHERE are you?!” A figure began to lurk out of the shadows created by several trees nearby. Sensing this a few moments after Yusuke, he whipped his blade out, holding it to the neck of the approaching figure, who stopped in his tracks.
“Whoa, easy there!” the figure said. “I'm not gonna hurt you unless you hurt me!” The man had a face that seemed like it belonged on a doll more than a person. He had a rather spherical head with a small nose that looked like a bulb, and a black, dull-looking head covering that had the appearance of a bowl more than a hat.
Yusuke rolled his eyes. “Lando, what's with the disguise? I mean, that's pitiful.”
“Hey!” Lando argued back. “Let's see you come up with a good human disguise!”
“I HAVE a human disguise. And it's one that looks halfway decent. You look like Pinocchio.”
Hiei looked in absolute befuddlement at Yusuke, and resheathed his blade. “THIS guy is supposed to be a powerful demon?!” he scoffed, pointing at Lando. He could scarcely sense any aura emissions emanating from him, and since he didn't know that Yusuke had taught him a thing about suppression of power, he had no reason to believe that Lando had any power at all. “He looks like a plastic mannequin!”
Yusuke shook his head. “Lando, please just ditch the human disguise.”
Lando gave him to the request of his friend. “Fine,” he uttered. After a moment's effort, the human disguise was lifted, revealing his true self. Suddenly, Hiei felt the true power emanations of the demon in front of him, and realized quickly why Yusuke held him in such high regard. His physical appearance–the blood-red hair, the blue symbol on his face almost looking like a spider, the liquid paper white skin and large scar-like tattoos on his chest and arms–only added to the effect that was his power. While he had nowhere near the power buried within him that Yusuke had, he easily was a half a class higher than both Hiei and Kurama.
Kurama, who had been out of the conversation the entire time, suddenly had a recollection hit him. “Waitaminute, 'Lando?' Are you related to...?” He was certain he'd heard that name before.
Lando cut him off. “My twin brother Rando is dead,” he explained. “Koenma...” He had wanted to finish, but Yusuke stopped him with a mild slap to the back of the head as a reminder. “Oops, I'm sorry. We don't discuss that.” He gave a sympathetic look at Yusuke, who glared at him like he had just committed blasphemy. He could tell that Hiei and Kurama both had the question of exactly how knowledgeable he was in terms of fighting techniques. In order to prove his point, he aimed his finger at a tree and blew it apart with a release of youki. “In case any of you were wondering, I learned all ninety-nine of my brother's techniques before he died.”
“So, what's the first order of business?” Yusuke asked, wondering what Hiei had in mind for newly-formed group. He would not agree to do any physical harm to anyone, because he was not the type of demon that considered human life to be expendable; neither was Lando, ever since the way his brother died. Yet, he could tell that Kurama had an ulterior motive in mind, an alternate purpose for the mirror he was carrying. He knew, by means of mind-reading, that Kurama had a mother–not a biological mother, just the human mother that bore him while he was on the run from spirit detectives–that had been in declining health for a while now. Perhaps there was hope for him after all.
“I don't know about you,” Hiei admitted, “but your friend Lando here is a upper C class demon with a lot of really useful techniques. I'd like to see if I can learn something from him.”
“Me too,” Kurama quickly added. He knew that there were some spells and curses that Lando had that would come in particularly handy if problems arose in battle. A confusing thought was that he did not understand how a human world demon like Yusuke could come to know a demon that had been as well versed in techniques as Lando. Then again, he knew that anyone whose reputation sets them at upper S class level–and it isn't a lie–gets a lot of attention very quickly.
“Suit yourself,” Yusuke uttered, walking away slowly. As he pressed himself back into his D class level of power, he examined the Rapacious Orb in his hands. The multi-colored spiritual orb obviously was the genuine article, and it possessed a good deal of its true power. It could indeed suck a soul out of a being, and as such it had to be handled very carefully. A second thought, one of what he would do with it, came as an afterthought. He could potentially find a number of museums that specialize in demonic artifacts, and they would possibly be willing to part with several hundred or thousand dollars for the real Rapacious Orb, but he shook off that idea due to the fact that a single person could be deadly with possession of it. As much as it sucked, he knew his only safe option was to do the right thing and give it back to Koenma. Walking the road back to the main part of the city, he felt a presence come up near him.
“Yusuke Urameshi,” Botan said, building up courage, “you are in deep trouble! You are aiding demons who've stolen from lord Koenma!” Yusuke turned around, and saw the two demons near her, and couldn't help but roll his eyes.
“You're quite brave when you've got Hideki and Zakatu Toguro protecting you,” he said. He then turned his attention to the Toguro Brothers. “You know something, guys? You have a lot of nerve showing yourself around here, traitors!”
Hideki, the younger, larger of the Toguro's, raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Traitors? Don't you protect humans?” he asked.
“Demons siding with humans doesn't make one a traitor. Demons serving lord Ko-enema against fellow demons, that makes you a traitor!”
“If you will not give up the Rapacious Orb willingly, we will have to take it by force. We are, after all, spirit detectives assigned to take you down.” Both Toguro brothers stepped forward so as to keep Botan out of harm's way, and powered up to a decent level of strength. Younger Toguro's muscle mass increase caused his shirt to shred into a thousand pieces. Botan already had backed off quite a bit from the power emissions, but decided to go farther. Hideki's older brother Zakatu did not have as much power, but what he did have, he utilized completely.
“'B' class. What fun,” Yusuke joked. With a single surge of power from within, he brought out his demonic form. A dark mist surrounded him as his hair lengthened to ankle length, his tattoos and markings appeared, and his power was the bottom of the A class barrel. Even so, he far outclassed both Toguro brothers. “Are we gonna fight or what?”
Zakatu, the small older brother was up first. He threw a fist directly at Yusuke's face. It was a huge mistake, but he had no knowledge of just how skilled and powerful his foe really was. “Tell me, Zakatu, what makes you work for Koenma? I thought you were the bloodthirsty muderer type,” Yusuke asked. Zakatu pulled back his fist and launched a kick at the side of his opponent's head, which was blocked by Yusuke's left forearm. At the same moment, he threw his right arm into the older Toguro brother's stomach, causing him to bend over, clutching his stomach in pain. Then, without hesitation, he slammed a left handed uppercut into the chin of Zakatu Toguro, launching him through the air to land face down behind his younger brother. “One down.”
“Koenma promised us that if we take care of you, we can kill as many demons as we want free of hassle,” Hideki Toguro explained. Younger Toguro lasted an even shorter time than his brother did, despite his advantage in power. When he went for a headbutt, Yusuke kicked him in his left knee, breaking his joint in three places. Hideki let out a sharp screech of pain as he fell to one knee. His scream was cut short by a kick to his right cheek that spun his head ninety degrees to the left, snapping his neck instantly. Botan was floating atop her oar, quivering in fear.
“Don't worry, they'll recover in about nine days,” Yusuke reassured her as he returned to his human looking form. “Tell your boss two things. One, he'll be getting the Rapacious Orb back tomorrow, and two, if he fucks with my friends or family ever again, I'll be coming for him. Got that?”
“Y...yes...sir...Mr. Urameshi,” she wavered, then quickly shot out of sight.
He picked up his orb and walked back towards the city.

Keiko sat on the park bench, eagerly awaiting Yusuke's return. He'd been at her parents' restaurant in the morning, and promised he would come back to the park at the day's end to give her the latest information about the goings on in demon world. She'd waited a whole hour past what he said, and began to wonder if he was going to show up at all. She stood up, and was just prepared to leave when she saw him approaching. She couldn't identify the sphere he was holding, however. “Yusuke! You're late!” she said. He cringed; the last thing he liked was when she got cranky.
“I'm sorry, I got a little busy dealing with some assholes,” he explained.
“You will NOT believe the day I've had,” she practically shouted. She smiled, though, and her anger dissipated. “But let's not get into that, just tell me what's going on this time.” He put his arm around her.
“Keiko,” he explained, “I've got some new allies; by that I mean Hiei and Kurama have sided with me now.”
“Wait just a second,” she had problems remembering all the demons he talked about, “Hiei is the fox demon?”
“No, um, Hiei is short with black hair and a Jagan eye. Kurama is the fox demon.”
“Oh. What do they want with you?”
He shook his head. “I dunno. But they've got some powerful demon artifacts, maybe there's money to be gained.”
She stopped him by putting her hands on his shoulders. “Yusuke, I'm tired. I'm tired of never understanding what your world is like. I'm tired of having you to explain demon stuff to me, and I'm certainly tired of worrying about you and being a weakling, unable to go alongside you on these adventures. I love you too much.”
“What're you saying, and what am I supposed to do about it?!”
She cleared her throat. “I want to become a demon.”
He stared at her with widened eyes. After a moment of deliberation, he replied, “You can't fucking be serious.”
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