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a veritable abyss of oblivion. Then came a sourceless and inexplicable
radiance which illuminated everything that wasn't part of the darkness
in daylight clarity. Afterwards, the whole smorgasbord of rubbish,
garbage, and debris suddenly emerged like phantom ships in the dead of
the night, bursting into existence against the broken window panes of a
wretched hovel. In fact, some of the items present in the bottomless
obscurity were literal, honest-to-goodness ships... or at the very
least, shipwrecks. The moping shadows trudged behind the myriad of
figures both gargantuan and minute, embracing everything with their
indistinct but encompassing presence.

Stone, decaying wood, rock, rubble, antediluvian artifacts, sand in the
form of weightless, amoeba-like dust, discarded electronic appliances,
broken glass, pottery, obelisks, bastardized swords and otherwise, cars,
spears, crosses, submarines, sea vessels, a broken nose of a sphinx
statue, cellphones, phonographs, boom-boxes, radios, television sets,
spaceships with rocket fuel, lawnmowers, floating castles, flying
houses, large mainframes and desktop computers, three generations of
game consoles and their respective cartridges, forgotten historical
landmarks, and many other things important and trivial from various
civilizations of diverse eras from all walks of life and from all over
the whole entire world littered the endless black landscape: it was a
veritable archive of all things human, a ghastly wasteland showcasing
mankind's thousands of years of history in one fell swoop.

Four people--"Seaman" Kiyoshi Mitarai, Jaganshi Hiei, Kurama, and
Kazuma Kuwabara--floated alongside Itsuki inside his sinister prison of
lifeless nothingness as they all bore witness to the unfathomable, their
vision blurring against a deluge of perplexing luminescence.

The four all winced in unison at the intensity of the searing light
force which suffused Sensui's tall, lanky body. From there, they
realized that they were staring straight into radiant lunacy as the
golden glow started to spread all over the former Spirit Detective,
immersing him in angelic glory.

Henceforth, they came... a thousand points of light. A blaze of raw
power erupted up from the tips of Sensui's fingers, a raging fountain of
holy light, a vortex of pure energy; it hollered out a fiery, consuming
storm of chaos and destruction. There was a thunderclap of sound, like a
storm-wave breaking, like the howling of a banshee wind, like the
clamorous ringing of a thousand bells.

Above it all, out of the centre of the golden vortex, out of a throat
aflame with vigor and raw with celestial power, came Sensui's cry of
"SEI KOU KI!" The sheer fire that burst from his very pores made the
foursome's blood run cold in their veins.

"I-Impossible! Sensui can't kill Urameshi, he's as un-killable as
Toguro Ani, or even the Gundam franchise! Isn't that right, Kurama?"
Kuwabara jokingly asked, but his own body language betrayed his true
feelings as he continued to stare, mesmerized, at the view screen that
served as the eyes of Itsuki's semi-sentient shadow world; it
prominently featured the beatific Shinobu Sensui's one-sided 'battle'
against a heavily-injured Yusuke Urameshi in lurid, graphic, and
undeniable detail.

Meanwhile, Kurama fidgeted, unsure of how to properly respond to
Kuwabara's remark.

"Urameshi's been through too much to let some genocidal maniac finish
him off." That was what Kuwabara insisted upon, but the exact opposite
happened: as the energies collided with Yusuke's body, his sense of
balance and equilibrium was rendered null and void. His whole world
went upside down as his arm buckled and broke under the absurd amounts
of pressure emanating from the sanctimonious light, forcibly subverting
and nullifying whatever advantage he had early on in the fight. At that
point, he was not a warrior, but just another one of Sensui's countless
victims.

"Oh my God. This is the true Sensui..." Mitarai muttered, his voice
faltering at the near end as he shuddered noticeably under the duress of
a mad, unreasoning terror from the very roots of his soul; everything
had gone to hell.

Subsequently, a dizzying tremor powerful enough to reach even Itsuki's
plain of subsistence shook and rattled the four companions: Koenma had
finally utilized his pacifier's Mafuukan technique in a last-ditch
effort to seal Sensui into oblivion, but the ex-Reikai Tantei merely
imposed his mighty will upon the ancient artifact, stopping its
assault cold.

Pooling all his resources on his defensive parry, Sensui turned his
complete and total attention to the Sphere of the purest Spirit World
Energy, hitting it with the Sei Kou Ki in full force. Slowly but
surely, the concentrated sphere of plasma warped in size as the saintly
light dispersed the incursion's superfluous amount of energy. After
a while, he repelled the pacifier's surplus of stored, centuries-old
energy right into the cave ceiling.

The green, electromagnetic ball of spirit energy burst through miles
and miles of hard rock and earth before finally exiting through the
grounds of the Musashino Park just above Irima and streaking into the
night sky like a gigantic comet from outer space in reverse gear. Such
was the sheer, untainted power of the Sei Kou Ki.

The Saint Light Ki was neither reiki nor youki; it was a special kind of
ki that was, in theory, one of the greatest powers in all of the three
worlds. Mere possession of this angelic ability was enough to warrant an
S-level classification from the Spirit World. Very few people could
master it... Sensui himself had to train for nearly ten years before he
could fully utilize the skill.

Sensui had power in abundance, but it was merely a projection of a force
far greater than himself, a tiny trickle next to a seething ocean of
primal energy, an endless power that longed for release in the
inevitable way that an inferno hungers for more fuel to burn. Yet rules
defined it, limited its power, rules which allowed it to exist, rules
which gave it a purpose and the means to fulfill it. As such, its only
limits depended on Sensui himself.

Nevertheless, the Saint Light Ki was strong enough to repel even the
strongest of the Reikai seals, which was basically what Koenma's
pacifier was. Kuwabara should know since him and the rest of his cohorts
witnessed the momentous event with their own eyes.

Still, Kuwabara persisted, desperation urging him to be mulishly defiant
in the face of certain misfortune. "Urameshi has beaten all kinds of
people during his stint as a Spirit Detective. And his modus operandi
always involved him getting beat up first before ripping his opponent a
new one. If there's anyone that can defeat Sensui, then it'd be him!"

Kuwabara instantly shut up once he saw Sensui break Yusuke's arm with a
simple flick of his wrist, his heart sinking to the pits of despair.

"H-He was so nice, and s-so kind to me! I-I never imagined him to be
like... this! You've got to believe me!" Mitarai was blubbering now, as
if he were trying to explain himself and persuade the others of his
innocence, but no one was really paying attention to any of his pleas
and feverish rationalizations; they were all too busy being awestruck
and terrified by Sensui's awesome powers. 'This isn't happening. This
isn't happening!'

The koorime half-breed was a tense bundle of nerves, shivering as he
felt the tingling sensation of foreboding crawl down his back like a
thousand centipedes. He sensed it; the dreadful, nauseating mass of
blessed energy that filled the entirety of the cave and affected even
this 'limbo' which he and the others currently occupied. Bemused, he
reluctantly focused on the peculiar but overwhelming feeling.

Was he merely feeling cold? Coldness was such a relative term to him; he
was mostly used to it. Perhaps it was because of his koorime lineage,
but at times he drew comfort from the cold the same way humans drew
comfort from warmth. Whatever. He felt what he felt, it held no
particular importance to him. He did feel a bit feverish though; which
was weird since, as far as he knew, his fully demonic body was immune to
all the local human world diseases. It must have been anticipation,
then... but anticipation for what, exactly?

Was it fear? Truthfully, Hiei was usually far too reckless and rash to
even give fear a second thought. Still, he was intimately familiar with
the emotion, whether it was in the eyes of an opponent faced with
imminent death by his hand or his own terror of some great power finally
destroying him in the end. He always had a certain degree of respect for
power: He himself was a firm believer of the rule, 'survival of the
fittest.' Outside of that, he had nothing else to fear; yet here he was,
more afraid than he'd ever been in his entire life. Undeniably, Sensui
possessed this 'great power' he dreaded the most.

Was it the foreboding feeling of imminent death? Death had always been a
loaded word to many, but to Hiei it simply meant the end. None of that
Reikai and Afterlife nonsense, once a person was dead, that was it, so
one should live his or her life to the fullest from the very beginning.
Carpe Diem. The koorime was never afraid of the finality death brought;
he actually looked forward to it. He was glad by the fact that he was
given a reason for being since the time of his birth. He had always felt
comfortable with death, as if it were an old friend, but at this very
instance he knew death the way many others knew it... an unwilling end
that always came too soon. 'Yusuke. Dammit.'

Behind Hiei, the noisy and deranged Kuwabara recommenced his unnerving
prattle; the orange-haired human appeared to be looking for some sort of
last-minute divine intervention, or miraculous reprieve... at the very
least, a bit of reassurance from his compatriots... in regards to
Yusuke's safety. Well, the jaganshi certainly would have none of that,
no matter how hard he himself was wishing for the very same things deep
down inside.

"Yusuke is going to die," Kurama matter-of-factly answered Kuwabara's
frantic appeals for Hiei's sake, the sadness in his voice knowing no
depths, no bounds. His mind churned like a hurricane; it was all too
much, far too much... "An A-level like him is simply no match against an
S-Level like Sensui; the difference in power is far too great. He might
as well have wished for the sun to stop in the sky."

"No. No. That can't be," Kuwabara said softly, unprepared to handle the
truth even now. He truly was the most sensitive of the four of them; he
wore his heart on his sleeve, something that Kurama both admired and
envied. It was plain as day what Kuwabara wanted to do: summon the
Dimensional Sword to cut through Itsuki's otherworldly cage and save
Yusuke from Sensui. Yusuke himself could not have come up with a simpler
plan.

"Yes, that's all I need to do... C'MON, JIGEN TOU!" Kuwabara shouted at
the top of his lungs, but to no avail; the only thing he was able to
call upon was an ordinary Rei-Ken. "Blasted sword! I need you now!" he
urgently implored as he ineffectually swung his Spiritual Sword at the
void of nothingness.

Itsuki smugly chuckled at Kuwabara's antics while he shook his demonic
head in mock-dismay. "It's no use. There's no escape. Don't worry, once
Shinobu is done with your friend, the four of you will be the next ones
to die," the dimensional youkai suavely commented.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, BASTARD! Hang on, Urameshi ol' buddy... I'm coming!"

"Humph. Stupid, noisy human," Hiei remarked, but judging from his tight
and constricted facial expression, he really wasn't paying attention to
any of Kuwabara's antics or to his own knee-jerk jibe. His crimson eyes
and his single, luminescent-green jagan were focused on the terrible
power that Sensui was currently exuding: Simply put, the fire demon was
helplessly frustrated and angry at himself for being so helpless,
frustrated, and angry.

"When Sensui broke Yusuke's arm, it was as if he merely crushed an ant
using the littlest amount of effort possible. Yusuke's death is just a
matter of time now." The redhead did not mince any of his words; there
were no hidden meanings behind his statement.

"Do you see the look in his eyes, Kuwabara? Those are the eyes of a dead
man walking. He knows he can't win. This situation isn't any different
from when you sacrificed yourself to Toguro so that he could unleash his
true power. We all need to sacrifice some things, even ourselves, for
the good of the people we love, and we're not in the position to judge
Yusuke and his decision."

A black silence fell once Kurama finished, like the silence of a tomb.
They stared at him as if he'd been talking gibberish. Or as if he'd
grown a second head. Yet everything he said was the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth so help them God... which was why
Kuwabara hated hearing any of it. "Stop it, Kurama! You're not helping!
Don't you see? We're _supposed_ to save Urameshi, not condemn him to
death! At the very least stop whining, and let me handle things from now
on! C'mon, Jigen Tou! JIGEN TOU! Goddammit, JIGEN TOU!!!"

Everybody then froze in ominous, incomprehensible shock as the world
held its breath. They all felt it; the end was coming.

Sensui unleashed the roar of the hallowed heavens, his radiating hand
making an eerie droning sound as it was launched, followed by an
deafening crack after he accelerated in the air. It moved so fast that
it was ignited by friction, turning into a streak of white flame, a
vengeful shooting star from the heavens sent by the angels themselves.

At the same time, from the tips of Yusuke's fingers came a whirling
spindle of energy, the remnants of his own reiki. It drew in, it turned
back on itself. Like an explosion in reverse, it collapsed inward. It
poured itself into him; it filled him until he overflowed and then did
it again, over and over. A hairbreadth of a second later, he cried out,
his voice piercingly clear and powerful; a voice of flame, uttering
words of thunder.

Ignoring the screaming mass of pain that used to be the right side of
his body, Yusuke charged proudly, foolishly, magnificently, his eyes a
smoldering, murderous mask of rage that threatened dire vengeance on
anyone who got in his way. Because, goddammit, if he were going to die,
then he'd do it like a real man.

After a few seconds, Kuwabara found the desperate strength to beckon the
Jigen Tou and help the four of them escape Itsuki's shadowy clutches.
But he was exactly a few seconds too late.

Yusuke's face blurred and rippled amidst the glare of the flaming fist
stuck inside his chest. He flared with light. He became a supernova, an
endless flame. Either that or the painful, maddening numbness had
finally broken through the last vestiges of his sanity. Still, he knew
that he did the best that he could in the fight, so there was nothing
for him to be ashamed of.

That was the last thought he was able to make before his heart began to
twist and writhe inside the infernal blaze of what seemed to be a
miniature star, like an insignificant ant curling up into a fetal ball
as it got fried by a magnifying glass.

The next shot of Yusuke was of him flying through the air, with searing-
hot blood gushing from his chest. He landed hard on the ground, and
Sensui proclaimed him dead. Kuwabara, however, didn't believe it, and
started making faces at Yusuke's prone form, telling him that the joke
was over, and that he could open his eyes now. However, when he put his
ear on Yusuke's chest, he did not hear a heartbeat, and the realization
set in that his impulsive, perseverant, and indefatigable rival had
finally been defeated.