EPISODE 1: The Tournament Continues

Keiko stood in the ring, holding a hammer the size of Kuwabara.

"What an amazing out-of-ring shot by Keiko Yukimora! Let's give her a big hand, people!" Tara said as everyone in the stands began to clap.

"Why, Ames, I believe that this might be the best Tournament we've ever been in.

Ames took a second to giggle at that. "This is the only tournament we've ever been in."

Tara thought about that for a moment, sweatdropped, and began to laugh nervously. "Oh, yeah. I forgot. Ahehehe hehe heeeh...."

"Heh, even I knew that!" Kuwabara exclaimed. Tara just started at him funny before grabbing the microphone. "For once, he sounded smart! Let's give him a big hand!"

"Hey..." Kuwabara enjoyed this brief moment of glory. Ames giggled at Tara's comment and grinned widely.

"And the next two people to fight are... Kuwabara and Final!" Ames said to Tara who annouced it also. Blinking, she looked at the pair.

"No! I can't fight! Sh-she's a girl!" Kuwabara stammered.

"Awwww! But Kuwa-kins!"

"Erk!"

"Are you afraid?"

"I ain't afeared of nonthin'!"

"Umm... honey? Afeared isn't a word..."

"...No."

"OH SHUT UP! Final wins by default!" Ames yelled at the fighting couple.

"YEA!"

"H-HEY! TH-THAT'S NOT FAIR! SHE'S A GIRL! I CAN'T FIGHT A GIRL!"

"Wht not? Yusuke, Hiei, and Kurama did!" Ames said placing her hands on her hips.

"'CAuse! It's against my code!" Ames blinked and raised an eyebrow.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Kuwabara has a code! Let's give him a BIG round of appaluse!" A sign above her head flashed 'Clap' brightly as it hovered around the stadium picking out the non-clapping people and bonking tyhem on the head until they did.

"OW!"

"Next fighters!" Ames yelled as the clapping died down and the sign flew away and dimmed to a 'Watch The Fights' with a broken clock next to it as some stupid humor. "Kuwa-kins! I win!" Final went jumping around the ring like a sugar-hugh school girl.

Everyone sweatdropped.

"Next up: Final Lia and Yusuke! Lets go!"

Final and Yusuke stepped into the ring. After a few moments of preperation, a black flame began to surround the ring. And agonized scream broke through the air, and Final was tossed out of the ring.

He last request before falling unconcious was, "Tell Kuwa-kins... I'd date him if he was cuter." Ames raised an eyebrow. THe demon had just fallen unconcious.

"Okay..." She blinked and shook her head.

"Tara...? Who's next?" She asked and she strode over to the unconcious body and gave it a slight kick.

"Medic!" She yelled before conjouring a cot and tried lifting it on her own.

"Hey... Dang... this is heavy..." She said straining and trying to lift the heavy weight.

"Irk... help me..." She said to herself. Suddenly the load felt lighter.

"Heh! I guess I just got stronger!" She siad grinning before turning her head to see Kurama looking at her and smiling sweetly.

"Did you?" He said teasingly and she blushedand turned her head again.

"Er... well. Let's go... Final needs some attention..." She said turning serious trying to ease the embarressment raising into her cheeks.

Tara blinked at her friend and looked at the jar.

"...And the next fighters are..." She whispered. She felt eyes on her. Hiei had been staring at her.

"What 3 eyes?" She said cooly before he 'Hn.'ed and looked away.

Ames came back with Kurama following her. She stiffened a bit knowing he was staring at her back.

Calm down... Calm down... She reached the jar and pulled the next two names.

"Erm... Kurama and Tara." She said blinking and raising an eyebrow before looking at her friend and her crush.

"Try not to hurt him to much..." She said with a sly grin on her face. Tara smirked evily. "I'll try to hurt him as much as I can." Tara cackled as Ames' calm expression turned shocked and scared, She had forgotten that this was not the Tara she knew.

Tara and Kurama stepped into the ring. Tara softly laughed to herself. "Lets get it on, badger."

"He's a fox.." Ames muttered to herself. She wasn't really liking this.

Kurama pulled out his rose whip. Tara readied herself and got herself to the right element..

"I think fire would do nicely for that little playtoy of yours." Tara smirked and laughed at her own joke.

"I will accept your surrender without a fight. Battling with me may prove to be fatal to your life."

"I think I'll take the risk." Kurama said, eyeing Tara with confidence.

Tara sighed. "Very well."

Ames yelled out the start. "BEGIN!"

Kurama began to rapidly crack the whip at Tara. While she was exceptionally fast-footed, esspecially when in the lightning element, her speed was greatly decreased in her fire element, much to her disadvantage.

Tara was hit every time. She was able to block a few of them, and the only sign of a real injury was her unmoving arm.

"Oh, dammit. My arm." Tara tried to mover her arm, but every time she flexed a muscle, her arm burst into a burning pain. "That last hit broke my arm..."

Tara began to speak, trying her best to hide the pain she was feeling. "I didn't really expect that... But...."

Tara got up and grasped her injured arm. "I can't fight like this..." Suddenly, Tara was engulfed in a red flame. The flame began to grow bigger and bigger, then suddenly, it goy smaller. A seemingly healed Tara came out of the flames. She laughed. "Did you really think that I could be hurt that easily? Thats just the minimum of my powers!"

"Well.." Kurama started. "I knew you were strong from the start, but I didn't really know you could heal yourself."

Tara did a drop-kick on Kurama, knocking him out of the ring. "I spare your life."

Ames' eyes grew wide at Tara's kick. "Eepoo..." She said blinking and her eyes growing in fear. For a minute before she called the two names... she seemed like the old Tara. The one before her.

"I... I declare Tara the winner!" She said her voice losing volume. She thought her knees would break under her weight. Kurama.

"N-nurse? We need to get him... cleaned up." She said trying to keep her lunch down. Her heart was beating fast and her ears atop her head were twitching uncontrolably. Her crush... had been... crushed. (

She followed willingly behind the nurse helping out by using her powers to make another stretcher. Kurama's state was just unconciousness but still her heart was beating so fast she thought that the crowd would finally tell her to shut up.

Thump thump. Went the piece of meat inside her. She took a deep breath, and turned her head to walk away from the tent when they had set up Kurama. Walking back, everything oblivious to her, she blinked and reached into the jar.

"The next two fighters," her voice seemed far off. Unreal. "Keiko and... Hiei. Interesting!" She smiled a fake smile. One of plastic. THat of a doll. Her body moved of it will and she shouted, "Begin!". Episode 2: Under the Mistletoe

These tournaments continued throughout Spirit World fro many months. Finally, december came, and the first Christmas World Cup would begin. In this Tournament, fighters from all over Spirit World come to fight for the Grand Prize, whice is random and can vary from a kiss from either Tara or Ames, to a thumbs up sign. In fact, on prize is getting their head exploded.

Inside the Tournament building, Misteltoe hung everywhere, and Ames was trying to explain the point of Mistletoe.

"Now, unless you want to get kissed by someone, DO NOT WALK UNDER A MISTLETOE! If you do, you have to kiss the first guy that walks under it with you." Ames said, with an evil look. She was eying Kurama, watching to see if he would go under a Mistletoe.

Tara decided to play a little trick. She grabbed a mistletoe and hung it above Yusuke and Kuwabara. Kuwabara Yusuke knew what mistletoe meant, they just didn't know that they didn't have to kiss eachother.

"Heck no, let me outta here!" Yusuke yelled!

"Coward! Yusuke is a coooowarrrd!" Tara teased, being careful not to step under the mistletoe. Yusuke scoffed and walked away.

Tara laughed herself to the ground, and she fell under the mistletoe without noticing.

Kuwabara looked up. "AHHH! I ain't kissin' the scary psychic girl!!" He backed away.

"Fine with me. I wouldn't want to kiss you either. I don't want your stupidity to rub off on me." Ames chuckled at Tara, her heart light and her mind clear. The last few months she had grown to like the new side of Tara. Of course things might never be the same but at least she still had SOME of the old Tara in her.

She grinned evily and quickly grabbed Hiei who happened to be passing by and pushed him under the mistletoe with Tara.

"Oops! Sorry Hiei!" She said conjouring up a halo above her head and wings on her back.

"What?! But you did that on purpose!" He said all three eyes glaring at her.

"I know!" She replied and little horns appeared and the wings turned to bat wings and she held a scythe. "I'm so evil..."

Hiei just glared and Ames just grinned evily. Pronouning loudly she said, "Tara must now kiss Hiei!" She said grinning like a puppy that gets little treats for being good. Tara covered her face to hide a slight blush. Kurama, who wasn't paying attention, walked up behind Ames and looked at the couple.

He just laughed and pulled at the white ball on Ames' santa hat that had holes for her kitsune ears. "Hey!" She said shooting a glare at Kurama and then grinning sheepishly.

"What?" He asked carefully. They'd been travling for a while now and he should know that grin especially if he knew Ames.

"We're... oh just look up!" She said growing a bright pink. Kurama did so and chuckled lightly. "Should we uphold tradition?" he asked. A slight nod was given.

You can guess the rest of what happened. THey were leaning in when SOMEONE grabs a foghorn and blares it in their ears.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

"AAAH! Irk. Twitch. Twitch. TAAAARAAAAA! YOU LITTLE- I"M SO GOING TO KILL YOOOOU!"

"Ee hee hee! I am the maker of trouble! Eee hee hee!"

"Should we save them?" Yusuke asked Kurama, suddenly standing beside him and watched the two girl duke it out in an anime dust could fight.

"Naa. Let's leave 'em. Punch?"

"Sure!" Tara was gnawing on Ames' arm. Ames was pulling Tara's hair. They were right in the middle of an all-out offensive battle.

When the dust cleared, Tara had a hand around Ames' neck, squeezing. "You are going to pay for that..." Tara said coldly. Ames struggled to get free from her death grip.

Kurama and the others looked at eachother. "Don't just stand there!" Botan yelled. "We got to get them away from eachother!"

The team ran over to seperate them, and Tara was flying in a blinding rage. "The seal has been broken, and Takari finally returns..." said a whisper.

Finally, the two were seperated. Tara was struggling to get free so she could lash out at Ames again. "Let me kill her. Add another to the count.." Tara said in an evil laugh. Ames was on the floor, coughing, and when she heard Tara, or TAKARI, say those few words, she was shocked. Her best friend just tried to kill her, and there she was, laughing at her.

"You... you're not Tara. Who exactly ARE you?" Ames asked, in a scared tone.

The evil Tara grinned. "Tara was the name I picked up before I died. Before I was reborn. That was just the second time I used the legendary Regen Chant. It promotes life by giving the chanter a second chance, but at a price."

Botan's memory seemed to have jolted, because as soon as Tara mentioned that spell, she jumped out and said. "I know that spell. Only a few cases of it have been recorded. It's difficult to learn.."

Tara continued, ignoring Botan. "When you use the spell, you lose some memory, and your personality is completly remade. Something may have gone wrong, because Im Takari again. Before, I was a wanted murderer. In a coarse of about 50 days, I could murder about 500 demons and humans. After about 5 years and over 2000 murders at last count, I was finally defeated by other demons. I had gotten the Regen Chant from another demon, after stealing his powers. Ames, I tried to tell you that I wasn't Tara, but you kept trying to bring her back. Now you just went too far."

"I never knew..." Ames murmered. "I never did... if only I had listened."

With one powerful blast of energy, Takari sent her captors flying, and within a matter of moments, she was free... again. Ames hung her head, massaging her throat from the death grip that Takari had.

"It's true! I tried to bring her back! But... there HAS to be a loop hole to get back Tara! Please!" She said her eyes growing wide like a puppy's. Not wanting to fight her 'best friend' she stood up as Kuwabara was shot.

"Acctually... you aren't half bad! Go on and keep shooting him!" She said grinning before getting a glare from Kurama.

"Err... never mind. Why don't we just hang out for a while and have a cup of tea?"

BOOOOOOM!

"No? Okay." Takari grew a sadistic grin. Spirit energy flew around her as flashes of black and purple light surrounded the group.

"Greaaaat. Just our day!" Ames growled as the flash died away. Kurama grabbed her arm and pulled her through the doorway.

"Stay down. We need to retreat!" He said calmly his emereld eyes glittering and filled with concern. She nodded once before taking off down the hall. What to do? The group had an evil villian chasing them, wanting to kill them most likely, and that balst had burnt a small hole in Ames' favorite shirt too! Tara or not she was going to pay... plus the fact that she was THAT CLOSE to fulfilling her long and ever-so-sought after day dream! Yes... Takari would pay dearly.... Takari cackled and continued to fling her power everywhere. Her eyes were now read and her hair was a jet black. She flew around the building shouting, "Wheeeere arrre youuuu?"

She was looking for the team, possibly to murder them. "Come on out! I got... COOKIES!" She laughed. Kuwabara lay motionless on the floor. "Come on, Ames, we have to help him."

Ames was huddled in a corner. "Oh, what have I done?"

Boton blinked. "huh?" Ames just kept repeating.

"Forget this!" Yusuke jumped out at Kuwabara, as when he was within three feet, a vine shot out at him and went through his body, spilling blood on the floor. The vina was withdrawn ans Takari stepped over Yusuke to reach the other hallway. "You humans are pathetic.."

Kurama walked out when Takari was out of sight. "Yusuke, Kuwabara, are you- ACK!"

Just then, another vine shot through Kurama, dealing the same damage as was dealt to Yusuke.

Ames saw this, and was soon overwhelmed with anger.

Vines were popping up everywhere, and soon, everyone, even Keiko, was impaled upon a vine. Vines began to come after Ames, but in her enraged state, the attacks had no effaect on her.