Invasion of the Youja-kai* - chapter 3

Confrontation

-a Samurai Troopers-YuYu Hakusho crossover...

Koenma watched as much as he could on his screen, even though the picture was filled with static most of the time because of the Youja-kai. He clenched his fists, making holes in the armrests of his oversized chair. "Yusuke, you idiot! How dare you not listen to me... There is no way I can save you or send anyone to help. Do you know how much my father will punish me if you do anything to disrupt this?" Koenma pushed some buttons on his desk, trying to make the picture come in clearer. He caught sight of Yusuke and a Samurai Trooper facing one of the Demon-Generals, then static again. "Come on, I have to know what's happening!" He banged his fist on the desk.

In the corner, Hiei looked up from where he was cleaning his sword. He didn't like being here, but he prefered it to what he'd seen in Shinjuku. Before the Youja-kai had invaded, he had gone there to investigate the strange powers popping up. He had used his Jagen, and picked up five humans that were trying to fight a demon-soldier and not doing too well. Noticing that they had abrubtly transformed into armor, he had come in closer to observe the fighting. When one had used fire to destroy the soldier, resulting in the destruction of the building behind it also, Hiei found himself a bit surprised. There was a lot of power in that attack.

Then, he felt it. A giant force of evil, it was all around him. The sky darkened, and an immense castle appeared in the sky, waves of dark energy billowing off it like heat from a fire. Something seemed to pull at him, yanking at his mind, telling him, no, 'making' him want to get up there and join it.

His eyesight was starting to go grey, when he shook off the feeling, and returned to his senses. Looking around, he found himself perched on one of the taller buildings of the city. Something close to panic gripped him as he saw that his hand was reaching up to the castle, still beckoning him to come closer. 'The clouds look solid enough to to stand on...,' the thought whispered in his mind. A rare look of fear crossed his face, and he fled, trying to get out of the human city before that feeling could grab him again. A little way out of the city, just as the uncontrollable impulse was threatening him again, he'd somehow found a gate to the Reikai, and was trying to slash the bonds closing the gate when Botan had found him.

Now, as Hiei looked at the screen himself, he still felt a stab of fear, even though his features didn't show it. Yusuke and one of the Troopers he'd observed were fighting a 'MaSho', as Koenma called them. His small amber eyes narrowed when one of the few times the picture would be clear, it was when the Trooper had punched Yusuke, only to be hit by a black wave of power.

Hiei had almost given up his revenge on the boy(a boy! He still could not believe it, even if Yusuke was an agent of the Reikai and had unusual abilities.) when he had stopped Suzaku from using the insect flute to invade the human world. The fact that Yusuke had trusted him, first at the Gate of Betrayal and through-out the battle, had touched off feelings of respect and friendship that Hiei didn't know he would have for another person, except for Kurama who had begun the process, he now realized. Being cast off by everyone just because of what he was, Hiei hadn't expected anyone to actually depend on him. His thoughts drifted to the battle he'd seen with his Jagen of Yusuke fighting against Suzaku.

"So are you going to clean that sword til there's nothing left?" The voice interrupted his musing, causing him to jump. Turning his head, he glared at the source of the interruption, the fox-spirit thief now reincarnated into a human, called Kurama. Hiei scowled again, and went back to wiping his sword. He hated it when Kurama was able to approach him without him sensing it.

"Hn" Hiei examined his sword, and satisfied it was clean, put it away. "So you didn't last too long in the human world with that thing around, baka Kitsune..." He looked at Kurama again, this time noticing the long red hair hanging limply around his face instead of in its usual style, and the flushed cheeks. Kurama smiled, used to Hiei's jibes, and looked at the screen that showed Yusuke now using his rei-gun against the MaSho. "How's he doing?"

"Satisfactory," Hiei said softly, closing his eyes. "But that other stupid human didn't last long when he went."

"No..." Kurama's green eyes went wide as he realized who Hiei was talking about. "Kuwabara-kun went there too?"

"Baka humans..." Hiei said, and opened his eyes to glance at Koenma, who was launching into another tirade. He'd been suprisingly quiet during the fight, though. Hiei remembered before when Botan had come back, a scared look in her eyes as she reported that Yusuke had already left and was by now too close to Shinjuku for her to retrieve him.

"Oh, well, as long as he's doing well..." Koenma sighed as he saw that the black-haired Trooper named Ryo was helping Yusuke, with another Trooper watching. He flung himself back into his chair, absently stamping papers an oni brought before him. "But I'm still angry at him. I hate it when he ignores me!"

"Don't worry, Koenma-sama," Kurama said as he pulled a chair next to Hiei. "I'm sure he'll do fine. You know how Yusuke is like..." He smiled, but privately he was worried. When Yusuke had voluntarily offered some of his life force to the Mirror of Utter Dark to ensure Kurama wouldn't die, Kurama had felt indebted to him, more then he ever felt he could repay. No one had ever done that for him, not even some of his former partners in his several hundred years of life, and saving his human mother's life was also a big part of that debt. He watched the screen as Yusuke and two of the Samurai Troopers he'd heard about walked down the street.

George had left the room a few minutes ago to deliver freshly stamped documents, but now entered and closed the door swiftly. He was visibly shaken, and sweat was dripping off his face. "What is it, George?" Koenma shouted, looking around his office in dismay as paper swirled everywhere. Kurama had stood up and Hiei's eyes were searching, but not because of the paper, though.

"S...Someone is here to s..see you, Ko-Koenma-sama..." George stuttered. The oni reluctantly opened the door to let a figure wrapped in a dark grey cloak enter. Wide-eyed, Koenma sat up and changed immediately to his other form of a human teen, tugging at the collar of his tunic. Kurama moved to stand protectively near Koenma, even though he knew Koenma was protected against attacks while he was in the Reikai.

"Koenma Daioh, I am here to give you a message from my Lord Arago-sama," the person softly said, but there was menace in that voice. Hiei stood up now, his face showing anger and his hand clenching his sword. Kurama was clutching a rose tightly between his fingers. The cloaked figure gave no sign of seeing them, only intent on giving the message to Koenma. "We know of the part your 'investigators' are playing--"

"I did not send them!" Koenma interrupted angrily. "Kaosu is not a Reikai-tantei anymore, and Kuwabara and Yusuke acted on their own. They are outside of my and my father's jurisdiction."

"Nevertheless, my Lord Arago does not seek involvement against the Reikai or the Makai." Kurama could almost imagine the messenger adding 'yet', for there was a pause. "But if anything else occurs, we will take action." The figure turned to leave.

"I do not agree with what you are doing in the human world," Koenma clenched his fist. The messenger stopped and faced the desk again. "Your world does not have the right to interfere in the ningenkai!" Kurama nodded, and spoke, "What purpose do you need to invade anyway?" The messenger looked directly at Kurama for the first time, and he gasped, feeling the malice emenating from the cloaked figure. "That is our business, Demon-Human," the voice had a sneering quality to it. "Feel free to watch your viewing screen. It will be clear enough to watch the investigator we have destroy the other one." The cloaked figure turned to go again, only to find Hiei barring the door with his sword.

"You don't think very smartly, if you think you can just walk out of here." The fire demon raised his sword as a warning. "Yusuke can kick that stupid human's butt anyday. You arn't going to make a difference."

"We'll see about that..." Kurama didn't even have time to blink as Hiei's sword went flying to land in the wall right next to his head, Hiei himself lying on the ground growling curses as the messager walked out the door laughing. The jitte that had attacked Hiei was still held in an outstretched hand.

"Hiei!" Kurama ran forward to help, but Hiei pushed away his hand. "You noticed the same thing I did?" The small fire demon grudgingly said as he got to his feet.

"Yes, and I hope no one ever faces her..." Kurama said softly.

"... and that's the person Kaosu is trying to save..." Koenma murmured, almost in a whisper.

******

Yusuke sighed, growing impatient. Beside him, Ryo and Shin were quiet. It was like the huge castle above was weighing down on them. Before, Yusuke had learned through his questioning the two Troopers of what had happened since he had watched Ryo at the volcano. The explosions of the night before were Arago's attempts to destroy one of the Troopers that hadn't been found by the others yet, the one called Tenku no Touma, he learned. But Ryo had ridden the second ball of deadly energy into the sky to rescue Touma, only to be left stranded in space because of the magical spells placed on the energy ball. The Tenku armor had used Touma to save Ryo, then brought them both back to land in the mountains where Sh'ten was waiting for them. Due to Touma's last ditch effort, he had managed to stop Sh'ten from killing Ryo, finding out in the process that the Demon General was actually a human in the service of Arago. This had worried Yusuke, for he was worried about Kuwabara held captive in the castle overhead. Also, he had found out that the last two Troopers were called Korin no Seiji and Kongo no Shu.

Ryo tapped Yusuke on the shoulder. "Yusuke?" Yusuke snapped out of his thoughts, he suddenly realized that Ryo had been trying to get his attention for the past few minutes. A bit embaressed, he looked at the black-haired teen. "This partner of yours, how powerful is he? I mean, if he ever came up against us."

"Umm..." Yusuke blinked. What did Ryo mean? "Well, I've fought against him plenty of times, at least before he learned he had some powers. I always won against him though." He laughed, then stopped as something occured to him. "Wait, are you saying that Arago can use him to fight us?"

Shin nodded, "Yes, if what Toma told us about Sh'ten is true when he fought him."

"Kuso..." Yusuke swore softly. "Why did that idiot have to come here?", not noticing the look exchanged by Shin and Ryo. Yusuke knew the reason, though, it was the same reason he'd come. 'Maybe it was a good thing I ran into Ryo...,' he couldn't help thinking.

"When we were talking before, you metioned 'four of us'," Ryo remembered. "If you and Kuwabara are two, then who are the others?"

"They didn't come with you too, I trust?" Shin asked, a little worried.

"No, they couldn't," Yusuke hesitated, then went on. "As far as I know, they're in the Rei-kai. It's the only safe place for them with that thing over us." He pointed upwards.

"Huh?" Ryo looked at him curiously. "Only safe place? How's that?"

"Oh, cause they're demons," Yusuke said off-handedly. He walked on, before noticing that he was alone. Turning, he saw that Ryo and Shin had both stopped. "Come on, they're reformed..." He was going to explain further, when he saw that they weren't listening to him, only looking off in the distance. Yusuke glanced to where they were, and noticed a ferris wheel turning. "What, it's an amusement park. What's so unusual about a ferris wheel?"

Ryo looked at him with eyes narrowed. "There's no power. The Youja-kai negates modern technology, effectively making it useless."

"So that means..." Yusuke was still a little confused. "They like to play around?"

"No, it means they're using it for a reason, possibly on a Trooper!" Shin started to run, with Ryo and Yusuke following. As they neared the park, flames appeared on every carriage and turned into youja. Yusuke swore, and tried to run faster, but the Troopers ran on ahead, apparently using their powers. He got to the park, just in time to see a Trooper with blond hair and wearing basic green and white armor being held by a youja, with another aiming a spear at his chest. Yusuke gasped, and got ready to use his rei-gun, when a carousel horse came spinning out of nowhere to hit the youja with the spear. The Trooper then took care of the youja holding him. Yusuke smiled when he noticed that it had been Ryo and Shin that had saved their companion. As they started to help him against the other soldiers, Yusuke noticed the same girl and young boy that had been with Ryo at the volcano now being menaced by a couple of youja. He ran towards them, ready to help them out, when the huge white tiger he'd also seen before made short work of the demon-soldiers. Yusuke stopped as the two people caught sight of him.

"Don't worry, he's a friend!" Ryo shouted. "I'll explain later." He and Shin ran after some youja that had disappeared into a subway. The girl stared at him, then ran towards the blond haired Trooper who had just finished with the youja above ground. She told him where the others were, and Yusuke was about to follow them when *something* hit him mentally. It felt .... familiar, for some reason. He walked on past the subway opening, faintly hearing the sounds of fighting die down, and searched for the source. It seemed to be coming from the funhouse, so he pried open the door. It was all dark inside with the tunnel seeming to stretch on for a long distance. Yusuke didn't want to do this, he knew he had to keep up with the Troopers, but this was something he couldn't ignore, it seemed like only something he had to deal with by himself. He walked thru the tunnel, pushing aside all the props that were now useless without any power. Trying to use his spirit-sense, he tried to pinpoint the source. It seemed to be coming from the rear of the building.

He had just pushed aside a curtain when he felt the air move above him, accompanied by the whistling of a blade. Jumping out of the way, he punched the youja that had just tried to slice him in half with a sword. "Kuso, I wish I had some light in here..." he said to himself, but he couldn't use his rei-ki to provide it, knowing the power could draw youja to him. Yusuke folded his arms, and walked on, feeling the object drawing him on coming closer.

Opening a door, he took a step through and lost his balance as he stepped on air. There was no floor! Having no clue how far down the ground was, he tried to brace himself for the impact. Even then, landing shocked the air out of him. He panted, trying to breathe normally, and had just about gotten it back when a low voice spoke right next to his ear. "Hello, Urameshi..." Yusuke gasped, and jumped back, hitting the wall. He pointed his finger, readying his rei-gun for whoever had surprised him. The tip started to glow, revealing his opponent to be Kuwabara, his partner. Yusuke stared in shock, then sighed in relief. "There you are, baka. Do you know how worried I've been about you?"

Kuwabara made no move, nor spoke. Yusuke got a very bad feeling then, just as a dark object fell on him. It felt like cloth... A net, he now realized.The light suddenly snapped on, blinding him momentarily. He got out a little knife and tried to cut his way out, but the strands resisted the knife. Snarling in frustration, he looked at Kuwabara as the other made a sword out of Rei-ki. "What are you doing?"

"You never should have come to Shinjuku, Yusuke Urameshi," Kuwabara said in a grating voice. Yusuke stared at him, Kuwabara never used his first name, let alone his whole name.

"What do you mean?" Yusuke shouted, getting angrier and trying to rip the net. It wouldn't move. "You were the reason I came too!" Well, it wasn't the true reason, but whatever worked...

"Arago-sama will win over the Samurai Troopers. They're too weak," his partner continued. Yusuke then remembered what Ryo had mentioned about humans being controlled. "You - You're possessed by one of those youja-things!" Wide-eyed, he stopped and stared in shock again. That was when he noticed himself getting weaker. "What... What is going on?..."

Kuwabara still hadn't moved. "When we analyzed your partner, we noticed that your kind of powers wouldn't be affected by ours, being that they are Rei-kai-based. So we modified that net a little..."

"No..."Yusuke sank to his knees, still stuggling with the net. "Kuwabara..."

"Now prepare to die, Urameshi," Kuwabara raised his sword, and lunged towards Yusuke.

******

Back at Koenma's office, there wasn't a sound in the room. Even Hiei was watching the screen raptly. They had seen that Yusuke was walking into a trap, but there was no way to warn him. Now, as Kuwabara spoke to Yusuke, which was being shown clear obviously for their benefit, Kurama had his hand to his mouth, and Koenma was clutching the chair so hard his hands were white. Hiei just stood by the desk, eyes wide open, even this was unexpected to him. Then Kuwabara lunged, and everyone's breathing stopped for a moment. ******

Kuwabara was just about on Yusuke, the sword going for his heart, when the ground shook. Tripping in surprise, Kuwabara fell forward, missing Yusuke but cutting the net. Yusuke pushed the net aside with difficulty, and struggled to his feet, his strength slowly returning. "Kuwabara, it's me! Stop this!"

"Ura...mesh...i...." the tall orange-haired teen's face twisted, almost returning to normal. Then it reformed into the blank face he had before. "Close, Yusuke Urameshi, but he will die before he can rid himself of me." A harsh sound filled the room, the sound of laughter. "That's not true!" Yusuke yelled, and caused one of his fists to glow, straining with the effort. "I have to free you, Kuwabara..." He almost fell, but his determination would not let him fail. He ran towards Kuwabara, and before the other could move, he punched him in the face. "Fight it, baka! What are those powers good for if you can't get that thing out of you!" He dodged a sword-thrust, and sent another punch that got deflected. Damn, this youja was good, making Kuwabara fight better then he ever was. But Yusuke knew that if he reached Kuwabara, making him angry, maybe he could use his powers to free himself. He began to taunt Kuwabara, barely managing to miss the sword that glowed with a otherworldly light.

After some time, during which Kuwabara managed to inflict a few cuts on Yusuke's arms and chest, Yusuke could see that it was starting to work, Kuwabara's eyes were narrowing slightly, and his mouth was working to move. By now, however, Kuwabara had trapped Yusuke in a corner. Desparate, Yusuke yelled, "Come on, ya big lunkhead! Maybe what Hiei says is true, you are just a big clumsy stupid oaf that will trip over his sword more often then help!"

The sword started to swing down and Yusuke put his hands up in what he knew was a futile gesture. A growl of rage made him look up, however. Kuwabara's sword had disappeared, and Yusuke watched wide-eyed as Kuwabara held his hands to his head. "...Get out of my head, you filthy monster...," he shouted, his hands glowing with his power. A dark shape that looked like smoke rose slowly up out of his head and accumulated near the ceiling, wailing in pain and anger. "Be gone, and let Arago know that if he ever tries to mess with the Rei-kai and us again, he'll find trouble!" Yusuke growled, and pointed his finger at the shapeless mass, 'REI-GUN'!" The power burst from his finger and hit the spirit, vaporizing it soundlessly. Kuwabara fell to the ground, and Yusuke almost went with him, but he knew he had to find help for Kuwabara. 'The Troopers are the only ones close enough to help,' he thought. He managed to pick Kuwabara up, almost fainting with the effort, and dragged him away from the funhouse.

On the street, the Troopers were in the middle of fighting Sh'ten, and Shu still hadn't armored himself yet, still thinking that he would be turned to evil. Despite the others yelling to him that it wasn't true, he was still fear-stricken. Only when Jun got hurt trying to stop Sh'ten from killing Ryo and the others, did he finally snap out of his worry-filled thoughts and armored himself. Using his power, he easily sparred off against the Oni-General.

As Yusuke got closer to the street dragging his partner, another earthquake shook the ground. He wavered, almost falling again, but his determination still held, he had to find the Troopers... A beam of light shot down from the castle, and Yusuke saw that it was aimed down the street. He walked a little ways more, knowing that the light meant that the Troopers had to be near, and saw Kaosu carrying a figure, with the Troopers and their companions following. He blinked, and fell to his knees.

"Yusuke!" He dimly heard the shout, and Ryo came running up to him, the others as well. The black-haired Trooper caught him, while another in orange armor held Kuwabara.

"...he...possessed..."Yusuke managed to say before he passed out.

"Kaosu," Ryo looked up at the monk, and then back at the two Reikai-tantei. "Can you help them?" He remembered what had happened to Nasutei's grandfather, and hoped that Yusuke's partner wouldn't meet the same fate.

"I will try, but I will need help from all of you. Korin no Seiji, place your hand over them. The other armors need to be touching him to gain enough strength to heal them." Seiji nodded, and concentrated, his armor glowing a light green that flowed onto the two teens below, making them go into a restful sleep.

"Come," Kaosu said. "We must get them to someplace safe." He carried the unconscious Sh'ten, with Shu taking Kuwabara and Ryo helping Yusuke.

Touma stayed behind for a moment, the wind rustling his short blue hair a little before he continued on with the others. 'Why was Yusuke Urameshi here?' He remembered him easily enough from when he had competed against one of Yusuke's friends during a academic tournament a few months ago. He had heard rumors about Yusuke and that he was an unruly bully that liked to fight alot. He hadn't spoken to Yusuke, only his friend, Shuichi Minamino, and that was only pleasent talk for the contest. He sighed, and caught up to the others that were now entering a small park.

to be continued...