Kurama let out a deep sigh. The Dark Tournament had left him utterly exhausted, and he was still struggling to understand just what happened on that island. Despite the knowledge of his own demonic origin, Kurama still found it hard to believe that things like the clash between man and monster during the final round, or his own unexpected transformation into "Yoko Kurama" had actually occurred. There was a time when he thought that his reincarnation into a human body would mark the end of his involvement in the supernatural world, but in mere months, fate had proven him entirely wrong. Regardless of what he had seen, the fighting on that forsaken rock had been so intense, that he still felt tired five days later. He knew that everyone else could tell, that's why he hadn't been given any assignments since he came back. On the one hand, he appreciated this thoughtfulness on his behalf, but at the same time, being confined to a small break room for hours on end was making him feel restless, a strange paradox considering how exhausted the tournament had left him. He felt as though he should be doing something, but he knew that he was in no real shape for it.
His thoughts were suddenly interrupted as the PA system blared to life, saying, "Kurama, Kurama, Lord Koenma is paging you."
If Koenma was paging him, it meant one of two things, there was either some trivial matter that he didn't feel like dealing with himself, or the world was on fire, in Kurama's line of work, there was no in between. Whatever the case maybe, he was finally going to be getting up and moving again, and that was something of a relief to him at this point. After a short walk to Koenma's office, he opened the doors and went inside.
"My lord, you wanted to see me?" he said, giving a small, polite bow as he did.
Koenma looked up from all the documents on his desk, "Ah, I'm glad you could make it, please, have a seat." He motioned towards a chair in front of his desk, which Kurama promptly sat down in. "So are you feeling okay after that tournament?"
"Honestly, I'm still feeling pretty worn out after the whole thing, but I can still fight."
"Don't worry, I'm not having you go off and fight some ridiculous new demon right after all that, I only do stuff like that to Yusuke. This assignment is challenging in a different way, it'll take a degree of... subtlety."
"Subtlety, my lord?"
"Yes, well you see, after I bet my life in that damned tournament, the good people of the demon world have apparently become interested in my realm and I, so they sent one of those referees from the tournament to tour this place for some kind of half-baked TV special. You know I'm no good at stuff like that, the fact that I have to record some sort of introduction for the thing later is going to be painful enough on it's own, and I don't trust Botan, she'd probably just start messing with these people for a cheap laugh, You're the only one I can think of to do this. So, you think you're up for it?"
A small smile formed across Kurama's face before he continued, "It would be an honor, my lord."
"Excellent, Jorge told me that they'll be arriving soon, so just wait in the lobby for a bit until they get here."
Kurama got up and gave another small bow before exiting the room. Once he had left, a door to Koenma's right opened, and Botan emerged.
"Remind me why you asked me assign Kurama to this again?" Koenma asked, turning to face Botan.
"You were up in the VIP section for most of the tournament, so you didn't really get to see the way that foxgirl looked at him, I can't imagine how she'll react to seeing him again unexpectedly. Besides, would you rather do this yourself?" she replied, a slight playfulness apparent in her voice.
"I guess you've got me there, I just don't get why you're so interested in acting as some sort of shadowy match maker like this."
"Things can get pretty boring around here, but hearing about some spicy romance between one of our own and a demon realm celebrity would really get people talking. That, and the idea of those two together is like something out of a movie." a faint glimmer appeared in Botan's eyes as a blush began to form across her face, and it was apparent, that she had retreated into some sort of fantasy.
Koenma sighed, "This must be why father always warned me about workplace romance. I'd be lying if I said I weren't a bit interested to see what's going to happen with this though."
"Now you're getting into the swing of things, it's infectious, isn't it?" Botan replied, snapping back to reality.
"It's sure better than all this paper work." Koenma remarked as he looked back at the stacks of papers on either side of his desk and slumped deep into his chair.
Kurama spent about ten minutes waiting in the lobby before he saw the day's guests arrive. When he heard that they were sending a Dark Tournament referee, he was honestly expecting it to be the girl who oversaw the end of the tournament, but he was surprised to see the foxgirl from the beginning, who was being followed by a burly demon carrying a camera. Given the fact that he spent much of tournament fighting, being beaten within an inch of his life, recovering from his wounds, and transforming into a high powered alter ego, he was never really able to get a good luck at the girl during the tournament, but now that he could actually dedicate his full attention to her, he could definitely tell why she was such a popular idol. Her fluffy brown hair, bright green eyes, adorable ears, and warm smile all came together to create a girl so cute that even the cold and calculating Kurama couldn't help but feel a little hot and bothered.
After quickly regaining his composure, he moved towards the two, and asked, "Are you the team from the demon world?"
"Oh, yes sorry for the wait, we were delayed a bit because of..." the girl paused after turning around and seeing who she was talking too. "Oh it's you from the tournament! I honestly thought that I may never get to see you again... Kurama was it?"
"That's right, I'm surprised that you even remember me."
"Well that's because... uh..." She paused and laughed nervously, not wanting to reveal the girlish crush that she had felt towards him since the tournament while she was working. "Anyway, my name is Koto, sorry I couldn't greet you properly during the tournament, but you were there, you know how it was."
"I completely understand, and I'm glad to finally meet you personally." Kurama paused briefly before continuing, you have a beautiful name by the way."
Kurama's sudden compliment caused her to freeze up for a second and blush extremely bright. "Uh... thanks so much... um..." She struggled to speak for a short time before she was finally able to regain control of her emotions, "Anyway, we're just going to go around the inside of this fortress, and the surrounding area. Every now and then we'll stop and start recording, we just need you to show us around the place."
"It would be an honor. Please follow me." Kurama said, motioning for the two to follow him.
Koto quickly moved to walk along side him as the demonic cameraman followed suit, silently looming over the pair like some sort of Golem. After a couple of stops inside the fortress, they eventually started to tour the outside perimeter. Sensing that this could be getting a bit boring, Kurama tried to start some light conversation with Koto.
"You know, I haven't heard anything about that fish referee girl that you were working with in the tournament, is she alright after all that?" he asked to try and lighten the mood.
"Oh you mean Juri? The tournament was a bit rough on her, but she's fine as far as I know, she just needed to take some time off, she said something about going back home to her family's apple orchard." Koto responded.
"Fish demons owning an apple orchard? That's a bit... unexpected."
"You'd be surprised, odd stuff like that is pretty common in the demon world. My manager's family runs a-"
Koto was suddenly interrupted as a strange man with short blonde hair suddenly leapt up from the void at the end of the cliff beside the trio, forcing them to stop dead in their tracks.
"Finally you miserable bastard, now I'll have my revenge!" the unfamiliar man said, an unbridled rage evident in his tone.
"I'm sorry who are you?" Kurama asked, genuinely unable to recognize this new comer.
"You've gotta be kidding me! I'm Zeru, the master of flames!" he said as the air around him grew extremely warm.
Koto spoke up, "I remember now, you were killed by a powerful energy attack from Team Urameshi during the first round of the Dark Tournament. How did you possibly end up here?"
"I have no idea how, but I ended up being sorted into this place's hell like a lowly human! That was the worst humiliation of all, but now I've escaped and I'll have my vengeance!" Zeru continued as water in the air began to evaporate around him.
"Look, I don't remember fighting you, it must have been Hiei you battled. I don't quite now where he ended up, but he's probably somewhere in the human realm right now, I'm sure he's be more than eager for a rematch." Kurama responded, not wanting Koto to get caught up in this.
"Shut up! Just taking out that pint sized prick isn't enough, I'm gonna take down all of Team Urameshi, and I'd happily start with you, flower boy!" as he finished those words, Zeru's entire body was enveloped in flames and he lunged towards Kurama.
Kurama quickly grabbed Koto and jumped back to a safe spot where the demon cameraman had run too long before the fighting began.
"Stay here, I'll take care of this." he said to her with a reassuring smile.
"O-okay." she replied, blushing after having been cradled in Kurama's arms like a princess.
"Now then, if this is the way it has to be..." Kurama said, turning to face his opponent while removing a single rose from his pocket.
He turned the flower into his signature rose whip before charging towards Zeru and giving him a quick lash. The whip homed in on the fiery demon's form with needle like precision, but unfortunately, the tip caught fire just before it could strike home, and the whole weapon burnt away, forcing Kurama to quickly drop it.
Zeru laughed loudly, "You idiot, what did you think was going to happen? Your plants are useless against me, and without your friends to come save you, you're as good as dead!" As his enemy continued to cackle, Kurama quickly reached into his pocket and grabbed a single seed, which he quickly threw against the side of the palace, so that it would land just next to Zeru.
"Yeah well, at least I didn't end up in humanity's hell. Honestly, if that happened to me, I don't think I'd be able to look at myself in the mirror ever again." Kurama said, trying to provoke his short tempered opponent.
The taunting worked, as Zeru roared with rage, his fiery aura growing even larger. He tried to rush towards his defenseless opponent in order to punish him for this insult, but he suddenly felt something pushing against him with tremendous force, and before he even knew what was happening, he found himself tumbling off the cliff, just barely managing to grab the edge in time to save himself. As he dangled over the abyss, he saw just what had pushed him over the edge, some big plant that looked like a mess of thorns and brambles. What was more, he had barely managed to stop his fall by grabbing on to part of this strange plant. He then saw the form of Kurama leaning over him.
"When you eventually break out again, go fight Kuwabara, he could use the practice." Kurama said before making the plant quickly retract, sending Zeru screaming back into the void.
Koto emerged from cover and said, "That was absolutely amazing Kurama, but how did you do that?"
"Simple, I had the seed for a special kind of demonic plant that's resistant to fire and grows quickly with extreme heat. I just had to get it close to him without it being noticed, and then gravity took care of the rest."
"Wow, that sure was lucky, if you hadn't have had that plant, we would've been goners."
"Luck had nothing to do with it, I always try to be prepared." Kurama replied, brushing the dust off of his outfit.
After a short pause, Koto continued, "Well, I guess we should finish up, that spot up ahead with all the bridges looks like a good place for a final segment. We'll shoot there and then we can go home."
"Sounds good." Kurama replied, giving her a warm smile.
They quickly reached the spot that Koto was referring too, the area which contained all of the many branching paths that human souls must take on their way to the afterlife. Kurama looked on as she spoke to the camera, seeing her hair blow gently in the wind, making him more than a little sad that he probably wouldn't be able to see Koto again after today. He let out an audible sigh as she finished up, and he led her back through Koenma's palace and towards their exit from the spirit realm. As he led her out of the lobby, she stopped to talk to him, allowing her demon lackey to go on ahead.
"Thank you so much for everything, I don't know if we ever would've managed that without you." she said, looking deep into Kurama's eyes.
"It was no big deal really, it was all just part of the job." he replied.
"Yeah well, I've actually been thinking about moving over here, and if you're still around, maybe we could spend some time together later. Maybe as a... well... maybe as kind of a date..." Koto struggled to say.
Kurama paused briefly to process what he had just heard before a smile crossed his face, "I'd be more than happy to go out on a date with you, just come by here and I'll be waiting."
"Really, you actually mean that?"
"Of course." he replied, taking her in a warm embrace as he did, causing her to blush intensely.
The two were so focused on each other, that they failed to notice Koenma and Botan watching them from just around the corner.
"See, I told you you'd enjoy this, the look on your face says it all." Botan said softly to Koenma.
"Shut up! It's just that... I've been really busy with all that work that piled up during the tournament, so doing something else for once feels really nice." the spirit prince replied, clearly embarrassed.
"Well regardless of all that, I think this should keep things interesting around here for a while, I can't wait to tell the other Grim Reapers about this."
Botan and her spiritual liege continued to stare as Kurama and Koto maintained their embrace, a clear sign that things would never be the same for the reincarnated fox thief.