Do your demons, do they ever let you go?
When you've tried, do they hide, deep inside,
is it someone that you know?

You're just a picture—just an image caught in time.
We're a lie—you and I—we're words without a rhyme.
There's no sign of the morning coming.
You've been left on your own like a rainbow in the dark-

"Rainbow in the Dark"-Ronnie James Dio

 

Here to Eternity

 

Chapter X

 

     Before Yusuke and his companions could leave for Spirit World, Genkai demanded that they have something to eat, because—as she put it, "It'll be impossible to overthrow King Yama on an empty stomach."  Genkai's menu consisted of chicken, fish, whale blubber, and rice.  But while the food cooked Yukina asked Hiei a question she had wanted to ask him since his return to Living World.

     "Mr. Hiei?"

     He turned to her.

     "Did you ever find my brother while you were in Demon World?"

     Hiei paused, and closed his eyes.  He wondered if he should answer Yukina's question.  Finally he responded by dropping two crystallized tears—the tears their mother shed after she gave birth to Hiei and Yukina—on Genkai's table.

     Yukina gasped, and her eyes grew wide in anticipation for Hiei's answer.

     But Hiei paused again.  He did not know if he should tell Yukina the truth or not.  Eventually he sighed.  "Yukina, the long lost brother you've searched for is the man you see sitting before you."

     Everyone in the room gasped.  Those who knew Hiei was Yukina's brother were stunned that he would finally tell her, and those who did not know where stunned that Hiei was the long-lost brother Yukina had searched for since their personalities are so different.

     Kuwabara was perhaps the most surprised.  "What?!"

     Hiei turned to him.  "Yes Kuwabara, the 'asshole' you hate is in fact the brother of the woman you love."

     Kuwabara was still dumbfounded, while Yukina still had a look of shock.

     "But why...why didn't you ever tell me?"

     "Because I was embarrassed to admit that I was your brother.  I've been declared a criminal.  I was actually kept in check by Spirit World for a while.  I didn't know how you'd react if you learned your brother was a criminal."

     Yukina was silent.  Everyone looked at her—waiting to hear her response.

     Eventually she smiled.  "I'd be happy just to know that my brother's alive, and if he was a criminal I believe that I could understand that based on how he was cast away from our village shortly after our mother gave birth to us...not only that, I can also see some of our mother's features in him."

     Hiei smiled, and so did everybody else in the room.

     "I still can't believe that Hiei's, Yukina's brother," said Kuwabara.  "Of all the people it could be!"

     "Kazuma?"

     Yukina's voice threw Kuwabara for a loop.  "Oh, hey baby!"

     "Kazuma, do you still love me despite the fact that Hiei's my brother?"

     "Of course!"

     "But you don't like my brother, do you?"

     "Well...umm..."

     "Oh...I see..."

     Kuwabara sighed.  "Yukina, I've tried to befriend your brother before, but for the most part he's just a little pompous ass!"

     Yukina paused.  "Well...he can be quite rude."  Then she turned to her brother.  "Hiei, could you please try to be more polite to Kazuma?"

     "...I'll consider it."