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.Nine.

It was supposed to be a simple mission. Sure, it involved a few maniacal psychics who were obsessed with death, but it wasn't supposed to be difficult. In the end, the mission probably taught me a lot more about myself than I cared to know. It also revealed another side of me that I didn't care to show anyone-even Kurama, whom I had grown closer with the past weeks that I played his false lover.

The mission called for the entire Urameshi Team. Koenma had been brief about the details but they were this: a small cult in the Ningenkai had found out about the Reikai and was currently trying to make their way into the spirit realm. The cult was made up of a circle of teenagers, all blessed with psychic gifts. The only problem was that their cult specialized in ceremonies of death. The kids worshipped death for one reason or another and wanted nothing more than to find out what was beyond the normal sphere of the Ningenkai. Koenma had disregarded them entirely considering they had never done anything worth worrying over.

But of course, they did eventually catch his eye. They had performed some kind of ritual where their strongest telepathic, Ryo, sealed their minds away into oblivion. It was similar to dying except it was only the mind that was dead. Koenma didn't know whether or not the boy knew what he was doing but when he had released that powerful psychic wave, everyone in the Reikai felt it. And apparently, in addition with sealing his friends' minds, he had separated their spirits from their bodies, allowing them to wonder freely into the Reikai to cause whatever havoc they wanted.

When I first heard the story, my first thought was, These damn punks are the stupidest people in the world. Those punks turned out to be one hell of a curse, though. When Koenma had gotten his hands on Ryo, who was overlooking his friends' bodies, he immediately asked him to reverse whatever it was he had done. However, even Ryo himself didn't know what he did and therefore, couldn't bring back his friends' minds. That left us to go and seek out the individual spirits wondering the plains of the Reikai to forcefully capture them and return them to their bodies manually. And there were twelve of them and only four of us.

It was a real shitty experience.

We had gone our separate paths to find the missing cult members and in general, they were strong. Many were either telekinetics or telepathics. There were a precogs and only one post-precog. I had to deal with these guys. It was bad enough that they were spirits and that I couldn't touch them, but in addition with their abilities, they were a wicked pair. I only had small five spheres Koenma had handed to us as my weapon to capture them. But once I wasted one, it was gone. And being that I went up with a future reading psychic, he proved to be one hell of a challenge.

I won't go into full detail on what happened but obviously, I captured him. But right before I did, he revealed to me a vision he had seen of Kurama. His words were haunting and his eyes were strangely glazed over as he spoke.

"Before this is over the silver fox will fall once and never rise again," he said in a whispered tone before smiling crazily. "I will be avenged by my friend."

Then I promptly sealed him into a sphere, making a promise to myself to maul his body a bit before returning him to it. And even sooner after that I made a wild dash to wherever Kurama was. His energy trace was not far and a part of me couldn't help but wonder if the kid had been bluffing. But I wasn't one for taking these kinds of risks.

The different realms of the Reikai swept past me as I ran. I hated worrying. But I especially hated worrying over my friends. Kurama was smart. He was also one hell of a fighter, but that didn't mean something couldn't happen to him, right? Everyone meets his or her match eventually. But let Enma curse me to damnation before I give up on a friend. I narrowed my eyes at this thought and honed in on all of my senses. Kurama's signature was nearing, but so was another. I turned my head to the right slightly before a second figure landed beside me.

"Damn, Urameshi, why the big rush?"

I frowned to myself. Where was Hiei? "I think Kurama may be in trouble if we don't go to him," I said absentmindedly as I tried to locate our ever-cheerful three-eyed youkai.

"What? Where'd you here that from?"

I looked at him seriously. "One of my captives was a precog," I murmured back before speeding up my pace. Damn Koenma. He could have at least given us some sort of teleportation device.

"You're really serious about this aren't you?"

"What?"

My head spun around abruptly to meet with Kuwabara's calm gaze. He merely grinned at me.

"You know, the whole 'you and Kurama.' I thought you guys might have just been goofing off, but now… You really care about him, huh?" he explained, staring at me curiously.

It's times like these I had to wonder whether Kuwabara really wasn't as thickheaded as he appeared. I thought to myself for a moment about his words before shrugging. "I guess so," I admitted quietly. It was strange to say how I felt aloud. I seldom said anything I meant aloud unless it was to back someone up. Now I just felt too different. Like the person speaking wasn't me.

"Heh. Well, that's cool. I knew you'd eventually find someone like me with Yukina!"

I didn't even bother to rebuke Kuwabara for his stupidity. Instead, I took in what he said and nodded silently. Kuwabara loved Yukina. It was sincere and it was everlasting even if he did have somewhat childish methods of showing it. I didn't know whether I loved Kurama, but I knew I had feelings for him that ran deep. Keiko I loved. But after her, I don't think I allowed my heart to open up fully to anyone. Kurama was the one exception who had almost succeeded in breaking my shields. I didn't want to lose him. Not to this threat or Hiei. But inevitability always made its presence known at some point. And I had the inevitable fate to be alone.

We approached a clearing. The Reikai was not a solid realm. It was made up of all sorts of different levels with varying worlds. There were the deep, fiery pits where those who had led misguided lives served their punishments, and the higher, purer realms where those who deserved its warmth went. Then there were the in-between worlds. The souls there were the ones who chose neither to go down or up. They were the contradictive ones, the lost ones, and those seeking answers. Kuwabara and I were nearing one of those middle plains now. Souls lingered about us, staring at us inquiringly but not saying anything. They chose instead to follow us silently. It was of no consequence to us.

"These guys creep me out," muttered Kuwabara under his breath as we landed on the soft ground. The area around us appeared to be like a rural mountainside. There were cliffs in the horizon and the sky was a faded blue-grey.

I nodded faintly and eyed one of the spirits near me. "You would think if they're so curious, they would just ask some questions instead of following us like a bunch of stalkers," I said in a loud tone. Some of the spirits dissipated embarrassingly. I smirked slightly.

"Well, it has been a while since such a ruckus was caused in the Reikai."

Both Kuwabara and I spun around wildly to look upon a semi-transparent sprit smiling toothily at us. The apparition had died young. He looked no older than twenty and carried a pleasant aura about him despite being a ghost.

"And how long have you been here?" I asked.

He smiled at me again. "Long enough," he replied as he began to drift away. "Oh, and there were two other fleshies fighting up in the distance if that was why you came. Their opponents were most interesting."

With that, he vanished altogether. I stared at the empty space in confusion before grabbing Kuwabara's arm. "You heard him. Let's go!" I exclaimed loudly as I began running.

Kuwabara managed a small growl as he wretched his arm out of my grasp. "I'm coming already, damn," he complained irritably, though I could sense some worry in his eyes.

When we came upon an empty field, we quickly found our targets. There was Hiei and Kurama fight side by side against three young men. I narrowed my eyes at the scene. It seemed like they were the remaining telekinetics. The third one, however, remained at a distance. I bit my lip at this. Koenma had warned us about him. His name was Ogawa Shin, a mind controller. He was the one we would have to worry about the most.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go help them!" exclaimed Kuwabara before he began running towards them. I reacted too late. And before I knew it, Kuwabara was snatched in one of the telekinetic's grip and flung against the cliff. I cringed and ran to him.

"Are you fucking retarded? We can't just rush in like that-they'll kill us on sight!" I scolded loudly as I stood him up. He remained quiet and I knew it was more his pride that was injured than anything else.

I had originally wanted to sneak by them unnoticed and knock out their mind controller. But now that the telekinetics knew Kuwabara and I were there, they immediately went to guard their friend. Hiei and Kurama stood wary on the outside as neither side made a move. I sighed wearily and shook my head. We were in one great pickle no doubt about that.

"You've captured all our friends. Let them go," demanded one of the telekinetics. He had dark brown hair and small eyes. Freckles decorated his nose and cheeks. "You can't make us leave this place. We've spent our entire lives searching for it."

Impulse took over me as I walked towards him slowly. "Your entire lives? Kid, you're barely even my age. You haven't lived your entire life yet. Don't go seeking for death so desperately when it obviously doesn't want you," I said darkly.

The telekinetic smiled sourly at me. "We never said we wanted death. We just wanted to know what was beyond our world-the human world. And now we've found it. Nothing you say or do can make us return. We have nothing back there. Everything is here," he replied before narrowing his eyes at me. "Now give us back our friends and leave us alone!"

Suddenly I felt an unbelievable force pushing me back. I flew several feet before landing in a painful heap on the ground with Kuwabara staring at me somewhat smugly.

"And you told me not to rush into things," he muttered under his breath as he pulled me up.

I rolled my eyes and looked back at where the others were. The only advantage we had was our speed. If we moved quick enough they wouldn't see us. But the telekinetics no doubt had some kind of shield protecting them. I hated working with psychics.

Kurama and Hiei then made their way to us. It was obvious they were at a loss as well. I cursed to myself. If our two strategists couldn't come up with anything then what were we going to do? We had to find some way to distract them. It was then that the idea of holding up their friends came to me. But that was a stupid idea-and not to mention really dishonorable. I growled to myself in frustration as I ran a hand through my hair. It was starting to come out of its gelled state due to all the running I did. I narrowed my eyes at the remaining three psychics.

"What do we do now? These guys are the toughest of the entire lot. And they got that mind controller, Shin, with them. He could just up and decide to join the fight whenever he wants to," complained Kuwabara.

I raised my head at his words. "But why hasn't he done so already?" I inquired.

"Because it requires a massive amount of mental energy. And he can only control one person at a time. I imagine he is watching us right now and debating which one of us to go after," replied Kurama calmly. "Then he can go and use that person against us."

"Fuck," I cursed as I clenched my fists.

"They also won't take the spheres which holds their friends because they don't know how to release the seals. If they tried to take it by force, they'll only end up killing their friends instead. Only a Reikai Tantei has the authority to be in possession of them," continued Kurama.

I blinked at this. "You serious? Damn, I never knew Koenma could be so crafty," I remarked, crossing my arms. "But that still leaves us with a very troublesome mind controller as his overprotective telekinetic guards."

"And they all have shields protecting them from any harm. It's automatic as well. As soon as any one of us disappears with their knowing, the shield goes up. Hiei and I have tried to spot a weakness in it but so far nothing has come up."

I stared at Kurama for a moment. He was in what I liked to call "serious, strategic mode." His eyes glittered brightly and there was nothing in his demeanor that denoted him fooling around. I was, of course, used to his change in moods, but it never ceased to amaze me how cool and collected he could be in situations like these. I scratched my head before looking at the psychics.

"Then I say we charge straight in without giving them a warning. You said the shield automatically goes up when they notice one of us has disappeared, right? So shout insults when you attack them-make them not realize one of us is not there. I think Hiei should be the one to go attack the mind controller since he's the fastest," I said slowly. "Of course…then the mind controller will probably realize something is up since he's watching us so intensely right now."

"Can't one of us just pretend to leave and then sneak up behind them?" inquired Kuwabara.

Kurama smiled ruefully. "I forgot to mention that they sealed off the entire area. Once you guys entered, the wall was placed permanently to not allow anyone else to come in or anyone inside to leave," he answered.

I shook my head. "Damn. I hate it when the opponents are smart," I muttered to myself.

"But I think Yusuke's idea is the best we have thus far. I say we give it a shot."

I looked at Kurama with some surprise. He smiled gently at me. I grinned slight at him. "So you're up for the whole insulting thing? All right, Kurama!" I exclaimed with a raised fist.

"Well, I wouldn't go too far with the insulting…"

"Gee, you're no fun," I remarked as I stretched out my arms. I threw a wicked glance at Kuwabara. "You ready for this?"

He merely nodded, a crazed look in his eyes. "Yeah, let's go show those damn psychics not to mess around with us!" he shouted.

I smiled at his excitement. And soon he, Kurama, and I were off. Hiei followed behind us a bit more slowly, masking his presence within the shadows but still making an appearance here and there so they would not raise their shields. I approached one of the telekinetics head on with a smirk on my face.

"What's this? Too cowardly to fight us? I bet if you didn't have your psychic abilities you wouldn't have stood a chance against us," I taunted.

He glared hard at me, his face growing red from his building anger. I narrowed my eyes. Just one more push… "Actually, let me correct that. If it weren't for your psychic abilities, you'd just be normal kids who like causing trouble-I wouldn't even bother wasting my time on you," I added while crossing my arms imperiously.

"You shut up!"

I braced myself for the wave he launched at me. And sure enough, within a few seconds I found myself sprawled on my back a few yards off. The force was amazing. But it wasn't enough to hurt me just yet. I stood up slowly and glanced quickly around the landscape to see both Kurama and Kuwabara dealing with the remaining telekinetic and mind controller. Kuwabara was having one hell of a time with his opponent, which was good. Judging by his face, Kuwabara must have said some really bad things. I snickered to myself. Go Kuwabara. You could always count on him to go overboard. Kurama was talking calmly with the mind controller and I could see Hiei lingering by his side. All of the focus was on Kurama, though. Hiei could make his move soon. I grinned triumphantly.

I waved my arm to get my opponent's attention. We were further off from the others, but that was fine with me. The farther away we were, the better chance I had at keeping him focused on just myself.

"So…you want to dance?" I asked, tilting my head to the side. I then took out the two spheres I had that held his friends captive and smiled mischievously at him. "Be careful, though, I wouldn't want to drop these somewhere unsafe."

It felt strange to be talking like this. For once I felt like the villain. Of course I wasn't going to do anything with the spheres, but just mentioning it made me feel uncomfortable. The psychic didn't say anything, but I could tell from the trembling in his body that he was more than angry now. He was "fucking pissed off" for lack of better words. I frowned slightly. This time I wasn't going to let him get the best of me. His attacks were invisible, but I could feel it in the air and could tell what direction it came from if I concentrated hard enough. So I closed my eyes and allowed my other senses to take over as he attacked.

A slow ripple of energy alerted me from the right and I quickly jumped high to avoid it before somersaulting to land in front of him. I grabbed his arm and quickly took out a sphere from my pocket as he stared at me incredulously.

"My friend, you should know by now that all fun comes to an end eventually," I said brightly as I sealed him away into the sphere.

Once he was gone, I wiped my forehead in relief. Fighting demons was one thing, but these guys were just kids. I shook my head and looked over in Kuwabara's direction before frowning deeply. He was in the middle of the air, struggling hard as if he was caught in some kind of invisible net. His opponent was standing before him, a maniacal glint in his eyes as he raised a crushing fist at him. Kuwabara shouted out in pain.

I then decided to cut in.

"It's one thing to hurt people, but to enjoy it makes me feel sick," I muttered into the telekinetic's ear as I moved in fast behind him. I took out another sphere and sealed him in without pausing. He barely had the chance to even look at me before he was sucked into the container. Kuwabara then immediately fell from the air and landed in a tangled heap before me. I placed my hands on my hips and glared at him. "What are you, stupid? How did you end up getting caught by that guy? I thought you would be smart enough to be able to avoid his attacks!"

Kuwabara stood up and clenched a fist at me. "Hey, it wasn't my fault! I just didn't want to hurt him all that badly since he was human and stuff, but I didn't expect him to be that strong, okay?" he screamed out at me.

I was about to speak again before I was interrupted by something.

"Damn, look out!"

Kuwabara had managed to shout that warning before I felt a heavy blow land on the back of my head. I stumbled to the ground rather gracelessly in confusion.

"Yusuke, are you all right?" cried out Kuwabara.

"Yeah," I said-or tried to say. But when I opened my mouth, no words came. I looked up around me and saw darkness. Then in front of me, in a blurry image, was Kuwabara's face as he stared at me in concern. I tried to speak again. But instead, I heard someone else answer for me. It was my voice yet it was not what I had wanted to say. Nonetheless, Kuwabara looked relieved.

"Man, and you always tell me I don't pay attention to things around me, right?"

"You don't," replied that dead voice. I then watched in horror as my hand reached out to strike Kuwabara down.

What the hell is going on? I shook my head and tried to turn away from the images before me.

//What do you think? I have control over you now, detective…//

You…the mind controller! I looked up and saw the images change from that of the unconscious Kuwabara to Hiei, Kurama, and the mind controller a few yards away. I then felt my body run towards them. I shuddered involuntarily. What…dammit, why can't I stop?!

//I told you I have control over you now. You are nothing but the subconscious mind that cannot do anything but watch-watch and feel. Your friends have no idea what I have done. Look at how they greet you now…//

And I did. Kurama smiled slightly at me before asking what had happened to Kuwabara. Hiei merely grunted at me. Then I felt myself answer Kurama's question. "He had some trouble with the psychic," I said, deadpanned. Kurama frowned slightly at me.

"Are you all right, Yusuke?"

Get away, Kurama. Get away now! He was then struck down by me and I could feel his bones crush under my fist. I cringed away in pain. You sick bastard… Hiei was next. He looked at me in suspicion and confusion before realization hit his face. Come on, Hiei, don't just stand there and stare at me. My warnings, of course, fell upon dead ears.

Why are you doing this?

//My friends and I have dedicated our lives to reaching the world beyond the normal human being's scope. And now we have. You think I would really let you and your friends stop what we have worked so hard for?//

Your friends are gone! They're in our hands now. I watched as my body began to fight with Hiei. I could feel everything almost as if I was the one fighting, but I had no control over anything. I was only the observer. And when Hiei landed a heavy blow on me, I felt it. But unlike him, my body wasn't refraining from using its full power. Stop this now. You're not going to accomplish anything by having us fight each other. Hiei's a lot stronger than you think.

//Oh? Then perhaps I should switch my control over to him.//

Don't.

//Afraid? Don't worry. When you kill your friends, I'll have you kill yourself. Then everyone will be happy.//

You'll be jeopardizing your own friends' lives then!

//We all knew the risks of achieving our goals. My friends have caught a glimpse of this world already. They are happy.//

You would leave them to die… I felt anger building up within me and I tried to lash out at something-anything. But laughter only greeted me.

//Look, you have already taken out the one you call Hiei. I think I was very right in choosing you as my puppet.//

I chanced a glance at the scene before me. Hiei was lying in a bloody heap, barely even conscious as he stared at me.

"What have you done to him?" he asked in a pained tone. I felt anger prickling me.

//I can have you fight even if every bone in your body was broken. Then if I did relinquish my control over your mind, you would feel the pain tenfold. That alone would be enough to kill you. But I'm not through with your friends just yet. The redheaded one is still standing. A laugh echoed all around me. Look at how he stares at you. Is that bewilderment or fear? I can't really tell.//

It was me against Kurama now. I could feel power wash over around my body as it anticipated a fight. Kurama just continued staring at me with unreadable eyes. A deep fear welled up within me. Not Kurama… Not Kurama! I buried my head into my arms. This couldn't be happening… But I knew it was. I could feel my body move against my will-controlled by some sick bastard. I heard Kurama's anguished cry and I felt his bones break beneath my attacks. The sickening crack echoed all around me and I couldn't bring myself to look up to see Kurama's face-his eyes that would probably show confused pain. I could hear him try to call out to me. It's not enough. I can't break his control…Kurama, I'm so sorry.

//He seems special to you.//

The mind controller's voice suddenly sounded clearer. I looked around me and saw him standing before me in a semi-transparent image. What the hell happened to you that would make you so obsessed with death? I was bitter. I was angry. I was beyond all reason. And seeing the one causing all this pain right in front me only made it worse.

//We have all lost everything. There is nothing back in the human world for us. Everything is here.//

He looked sadly at me. I glared hard at him. You think you've lost everything? How stupid can you get? I died once a while ago. Back then I thought my life had no reason. I was just your normal high school delinquent. But when I died, I got to see the pained faces of those close to me-my mother, my best friend, even that dumb Kuwabara who I never thought actually cared for me. And I realized then just how stupid I was. So if you think you've lost everything, I suggest you look twice before coming up with such a shitty conclusion.

//You died…?//

And before I knew it, everything went white. Several moments passed before I began to hear someone calling me. I opened my eyes slowly before realizing that I had control of my body once again. Kuwabara was leaning over me.

"Urameshi? It is you, right?" he asked cautiously.

I managed a small smile. "Yeah," I croaked out before grimacing in pain. I looked at my body and saw a score of bruises and cuts decorating my arms and legs. And I was pretty sure some of my ribs had been broken as well. The mind controller was right. I did feel the pain tenfold compared to before when I was trapped n my own mind.

Suddenly I grabbed Kuwabara's by the arm. "Where's Hiei and…Kurama?" I asked unsteadily.

Kuwabara shot me a weird look and I quickly looked ahead of me. Hiei was conscious again and he was attending to, from what I could tell, an unconscious Kurama. I saw blood around him and slowly shook my head.

"No," I moaned deeply. Kuwabara held me up.

"I managed to take out that psychic while you and Kurama were fighting. He didn't notice me at all. And when I captured him, you sort of just collapsed right before you were about to…"

He suddenly paused. I looked at him. "What? What was I going to do?" I asked warily.

Kuwabara looked at me carefully. "You were about to fire your Rei-Gun at point blank range. Kurama was unconscious already. You would have killed him," he answered slowly and regretfully.

"Oh God…"

I felt bile rising up from within me before I held it down, biting down hard on my bottom lip. I looked at the ground in a daze. All these years trying to protect my friends from harm-and I was just about to kill one of them. The irony in that was too much for me to handle. I wanted to see him. I wanted to see Kurama badly. But when I looked up, Hiei was already standing before me, supporting Kurama, who was leaning heavily on him. I could see how badly both of them were injured-much worse than myself. I looked at Hiei. He stared at me impassively, his eyes glittering coldly in the dim light.

"Stay away from him, Yusuke," he warned me in a low tone before both he and Kurama disappeared altogether. He left behind the spheres that held the captured psychics and I crumpled to the ground in despair.

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TBC

Sorry for the delay, but goddamn, I didn't expect this chapter to take so long-nor be so long. I'm a bit miffed at how the part where Yusuke is taken in control came out, but oh wells. A majority of it was written today while listening to "Push The Limits" by Enigma repeatedly so maybe that's the reason. Ah, this was a ridiculously long part. Not what I had expected, though. Arrg. But at least I got the ending the way I wanted to.

P.S. MM.org messed up with the formatting. I don't know why that line pops out like that and I can't change it for dear life. >.<