Here to Eternity
by Cody the Impaler

Run to the hills.
Run for your life.
Run to the hills.
Run for your life-
"Run to the Hills" - Iron Maiden

Chapter XII

The members of Yusuke's party gasped at what they had witnessed. Never before had they known Yusuke to act so viciously, or to act like he was having fun after taking someone's life.

"So how 'bout it?" began Yusuke, as he eyed the remaining members of the SDF. The perspiration that descended from the SDF members increased the more Yusuke continued to eye them and grin wickedly.

"What? Nobody wants to fight me...what a shame! I guess I'll just have to pick somebody out...How about you?" Yusuke pointed to Sourai, the SDF member he had punched in his apartment. "You're the guy who thought it'd be cool to attack Kayko while I was away at work."

Sourai bit his lip, perhaps a method to control his fear.

"And the way I see it you're standing in my way, so I guess that means my punch wasn't good enough for you to get the point. I suppose this time I should ram my fist through your stomach and punch off your head...yeah! That ought to help you understand."

Sourai clenched his fists, but took two steps back. He was now behind the only two female members of the SDF. Although Sourai tried to act tough, Yusuke sensed his fear and smiled. Yusuke then eyed the two female SDF members. He was anxious to see what their reactions would be.

The blonde-headed member grew nervous as Yusuke watched her. Sweat trickled down her cheeks and her body quivered. Yusuke smiled, as though he enjoyed her fear. But slowly she regained her composure. She looked at Yusuke and his companions and said, "The hell with this! I'm not entering a battle I know I can't win." And she vanished.

Souai gasped. He had hoped to use the women as his shield, and now one of them decided to make herself AWOL.

Yusuke's response to all of this was to smirk, before he turned to glare at the brunette SDF member.

The brunette gasped, and took a step back at the look Yusuke gave her before she too said, "I'm with Ryuuhi. We can't win this fight." And she too retreated.

Souai was terrified. Yusuke stepped forward, while he pounded his fists into his palms ready to attack. Souai backpedaled and shouted a desperate plea, "I'm sorry! I was only following orders!" and he too retreated.

One of the remaining SDF members shouted, "Get your asses back here!"

Yusuke chuckled. "Well let's see, it started out with you guys locking us inside a cage with a two man advantage, and now we have the two man advantage. Don't you just love the wheel of fate?"

The dark-haired SDF member snarled at Yusuke's mockery of Spirit World's elite fighting force. "Come on Saitou! We're going to take these bastards down!"

But Saitou did not share the enthusiasm of his fellow SDF member. "Umm, Oohou, we're outnumbered four to two. I think now might be a good time to pull back."

Oohou at first did not want to listen to Saitou's advice; but he and Saitou were outnumbered four to two, one of their opponents had the strength of an 'S-class' demon, and two of their opponents were at least upper 'A-class' demons. Finally, Oohou gave in. "Protecting His Majesty takes precedent over you!" And the remaining SDF members retreated.

Yusuke smirked. "Hmph, for Spirit World's finest they sure get scared pretty easily."

"Uh, Urameshi?"

"What is it, Kuwabara?"

"Umm...please forgive me for anytime that I ever made you mad."

"Why're you apologizing all of a sudden Kuwabara?"

"Incredible!" said Kurama, "Yusuke acts as though he doesn't realize what he has just done. Could it be because of the demon blood that flows through his veins? ...No! That's not right! Just because one's born a demon doesn't make them evil. Plus Yusuke's actually more human who just happens to have one demon ancestor...unlike me..."

"Kurama?" began Yusuke.

"Huh?"

"I noticed you were in deep thought. You didn't think that I became evil, did you?"

"Well, uh..."

Yusuke sighed. "Look guys, if the way I acted freaked you out it's because it was supposed to. If wouldn't have scared the shit out of those SDF jerks we would've had one serious fight on our hands. But since I made them piss their pants by taking out that stupid prick, which I would've had to have done regardless, otherwise he would've killed me, I made three of them go AWOL and two of them retreat back to King Yama..."

"Which means we'll have to fight them later," interjected Hiei.

The party turned to him.

"We should've taken them out now when we had the chance!"

"Which would've you preferred Hiei?" began Yusuke. "Would you've preferred that we would've fought the SDF outnumbered here, or that we'd have to fight those two jerks, the captain, and King Yama in a fair four-on-four contest?"

Hiei smiled. "Hmph, perhaps I'll consider changing my mind Detective."

"Well, in any event, we've got to get to our next destination...King Yama's lair. He's got Koenma, and we've got to do what we can to help!"