Kurama sped towards the dock with Yuna on his back. The air rushed past them in a near-deafening roar. She almost couldn't believe the speed they were going. Watching as buildings and parks whizzed by, it was a wonder how no one saw them. As they grew closer to their destination the two's apprehension grew.
Anxiety quickly flared up in Yuna's chest as she felt Hiei's aura emanate from the warehouse that came into view. Her brother's presence hit her senses causing her anxiety to grow and mix with worry. Raising one of her hands that was wrapped around Kurama's shoulder, she pointed ahead at the warehouse.
"They're both in there!"
As he set her down, Yuna nearly buckled under the pressure of Hiei's overwhelming aura as it visibly encompassed the building. Kurama spoke softly next to her.
"This powerful demonic energy... Hiei finally showed his true form!"
With a quick tug on her hand, the two managed to get into the building.
"Do you only know how to jump you little jerk?!"
Her brother's voice rang out, making it easier to find his location in the maze of crates and palettes. The closer they got the more Yuna could make out their argument. Panic gripped her when they arrived and found Yusuke suspended in the air. The familiar situation reminded her eerily of what she did to her father, making her body freeze.
Across from Yusuke was a green-skinned and eye-covered Hiei. With a tight grip on the Shadow sword, he thrust forward.
"Die!"
A scream tore through her throat when in place of her brother, she saw Kurama take the blow.
"No!"
"Wh-what? Kurama? What is the meaning of this!?"
The redhead refused to answer, instead, he grasped the blade, cutting the palm of his hand. Using Hiei's momentary confusion, he threw the small, pooled blood into the demon's eyes. With a burst of courage, Yuna followed suit, extending her hands out and threw the blinded man further into the warehouse.
Yusuke looked down at himself when his feet hit the ground.
"The curse is gone!"
Kurama nodded as he kept his eyes trained in the direction Hiei had been thrown. The redhead was quick to supply the teen detective with some well-needed information on his current opponent.
"Yes, the eyes across Hiei's body are merely decorations. The real source of his power stems from the one on his forehead."
As he said this, Kurama began to slowly pull out the Shadow sword from his stomach and continued speaking.
"We came to repay the favour from last time. As for the girl... Leave her to me. Yuna will help you with Hiei."
Yusuke, upon seeing this, was quick to reprimand the demon about moving with the wound to his abdomen.
"Urameshi, you forget that I am a demon. I won't kick the bucket just like that. You need to finish Hiei before he recovers his Jagan powers."
"Kurama... Wait, what the hell do you mean Yuna will help me? She can't be involved in this!"
The black-haired teen whipped his around to stare at his baby sister, who was barely standing due to her shaking legs. Despite her frightened and frazzled appearance, there was a forced hardness in her eyes. He could tell that his usually scaredy-cat sister was using out every ounce of bravery to even stand.
"Don't worry Yusuke... I can help!" The bluenette forced a shaky smile.
Before the delinquent could retort their conversation was cut off by an angered roar.
"Kurama! You traitor! I won't spare you, I'll kill you. I'll kill all of you!!"
A loud "meep" escaped Yuna's lips as her frightened eyes trained on the direction the yell came from. A blur rushed towards them, training on Yuna first. The older brother was quick to perceive this and pulled her behind him, a dark aura surrounding him as he angrily glared down at the short demon.
"I'm your opponent. Or did you forget?"
With a heated and frustrated glare, Hiei rushed at the spirit detective.
"Unbelievable... Each time you escape, I see an increase in your spiritual power! A worm like you is too dangerous to have around! With all my powers now, I'm going to kill you!" Hiei exclaimed in a rage, however, Yuna could hear a tinge of desperation in the man's voice.
She dived out of the way as Hiei rushed at her brother. A fist landed squarely across Yusuke's jaw as he became overwhelmed by the inhuman speed of his opponent. Every strike Yusuke tried to land met empty air, meanwhile Hiei hit each targeted mark. A sneer went across the demon's face after landing another blow to the detective. His confident thoughts ran through Yuna's head as he rushed in for another attack.
I'm going to win. I still have the upper hand in strength.
She was barely able to keep up with the two of them as she ran with them, using her power to toss wooden crates and other objects at Hiei. Yusuke was doing his best to try and put space between himself and his opponent.
"Hahaha! Don't you run away!"
He was thankful that Hiei was paying more attention to him and not to his sister. Who, he wished for the life of him, would just go and find somewhere to hide and not put herself in any danger. As he was the older brother, his job was to protect her, not the other way around.
Not yet, just a bit more...
Almost there, big brother!
His brown eyes almost met her gold one when he heard her voice in his head. Just as Hiei went to pounce on him, Yusuke pointed at him with an outstretched finger.
Now's the time!
Do it Yusuke!
"Go to hell!"
A shocked look filled Hiei's face, and for an instant, both siblings thought the attack was going to land. Unfortunately for both, their opponent had dodged out of the way and into the air within a split second. With a concentrated look, Yuna stepped to the side just as the spirit gun rushed past her, burning through the small edge of her skirt that had yet to fall back to her person. Her hand was outstretched behind her.
The shocked and almost shaken look on Hiei's face that Yuna caught a glimpse of told her all she needed to know. He was not expecting that, and as he landed next to Yuna, a tense moment between the three of them as they registered what happened.
"What a surprising human, I never thought you'd have such a move. However, you seemed to have released all your power in that one shot..."
Yusuke had fallen with his back against the wall, if this didn't work, both he and his loved ones would be done for. He just hoped his aim wasn't off.
"If we had fought a little later, maybe I would be the one to be killed."
His voice almost sounded contemplative, as he looked down at the teen with a smidge of respect. It was smothered quickly as he continued speaking.
"Still embarrassing, no matter how much you struggle, you will never win against me."
Taking Yusuke's unnaturally quiet behaviour as resignation, he readied himself, reaching his left hand out and swiftly catching Yuna by the throat and giving it a warning squeeze. Yusuke sat frozen, afraid to make any move that may cause his sister harm. Her glowing eyes met his brown ones, a fearful and pleading look asking him to trust her.
"There you go. Don't worry detective, I'll send all four of them after you. So rest in peace and die!!"
Just as Hiei lunged once more a beam of light hit him squarely in the back. A cry of pain escaped him as his grip on the bluenette's neck disappeared.
"What the... who?"
With the little ounce of strength the demon had, he turned to look behind him. His gaze landed on the shattered face of the forlorn hope.
He made it reflect..?
"T-the forlorn hope? You calculated me escaping that move of yours when you fired the shot?"
A smug, but tired grin flew across Yusuke's face as he went to explain.
"I didn't escape for the hell of it, I knew you were too fast for me to hit directly. I just wanted to put you in the direction of the mirror so it would hopefully reflect the shot!"
Hiei's skin reverted to its naturally pale complexion as he fell forward, his sour attitude still apparent as he refused to go down without spitting one last insult at the delinquent.
"You... idiot."
A thud rang through as he was forcibly faceplanted into the flat bottom of her brother's shoe.
With a shaky breath, Yuna helped her brother up and offered her shoulder. As they made their way back to the others. A tired and drained chuckle left his lips as they shuffled past the unconscious demon.
"I've finally finished you off! Hehe... that was tough.."
When the two of them reunited with Kurama and the two other girls, Yusuke was quick to stand fully.
"Are you three okay?! How is Keiko doing?"
A woman with a similar, but darker shade of blue hair gave her brother a reassuring smile.
"Don't worry, the antidote is working. The eye on her forehead has disappeared."
Turning his head to the demon high-schooler, he asked how he was doing before apologising. Kurama gave a small, mirthful smile to both Yuna and Yusuke as the sister rushed to his side, fretting over the fox spirit.
"It was not a fatal injury. Don't worry about it. It's impossible to worry when you are as old as I am."
With a look of incredulous glee, the pinked-eyed woman looked over to the teen detective.
"You were so bad! Why didn't you tell me about that tactic with the mirror? Using it to reflect the spirit gun, that was really close!"
With an unapologetic grin, Yusuke boasted, "That wasn't any strategy, that's something we call dumb luck! I knew if I didn't hit him from behind I'd never be able to beat him."
Yusuke continued as a look of pitiful exasperation went across Yuna's face as she worked on trying to heal Kurama's wound. The look on her face confirmed to Kurama that Yuna already knew what was coming next.
"I was thinking of doing it when it fell from his clothes. So I decided to give it a shot. I mean the spirit gun's basically a beam of light and when we were kids they showed us that we can bounce off light from mirrors in science class."
There was silence between the four of them. A chuckle left Kurama at the look he saw on Yuna's face, as it told him everything he needed to know. She had managed to angle the mirror in the middle of the battle once she knew what her brother was thinking.
You moved the mirror, didn't you?
As soon as I focused on his thoughts, yep.
Kurama and Yuna continued to converse telepathically as her brother and the other woman continued to bicker over the what-ifs.
Kurama...
What is it?
What's going to happen to us? Will we be in big trouble?
A frown came across the red-head's face as he thought about it, feeling Yuna's presence in his mind as she filtered through all the scenarios of would-be situations.
To you hopefully nothing. I will do my best to explain to the spirit world that you were practically forced to help with the theft. They will be lenient.
I'm more worried about you... What about your mom?
That is a question to worry about later. Let's just focus on the current moment.
Yuna nodded, as she helped the demon up as the four of them and the unconscious Keiko left the warehouse.