Touya watched as Jin approached where he sat near the cliffs. Inside the stadium, Team Urameshi was fighting Team Uraotogi. He expected the wind master to comment on the lovely breeze or perhaps on how exciting Yusuke's fight was, but Jin said nothing for a long moment.
"Yer quite lucky to be alive, ya know," the red haired demon said. Touya turned his head toward him, slightly puzzled. That was a fact they both knew very well. It wasn't every day that one survived being impaled by a sword made of a Death Plant's vines by someone who should not have been able to access his energy at all. "Kurama mus've really liked ya."
Touya furrowed his brows in confusion. The demon in human form had said as much when he refused to kill him in the stadium after their battle.
"Why are you telling me this?" he prompted the man staring straight ahead, out at the ocean, for once not airborn in the slightest, and his ears stiffer than usual, slightly drooped in thought. A moment later, Jin spoke, almost reverently.
"He's Youko. Somehow the squirt on the other team brought out his real body. Gave 'im quite a scare, let me tell ya. 'Ad a Death tree growin' on his arm, and every word the little guy said, the mouths got a little closer to 'im." Touya's eyes widened.
"Damn near one of the scariest sights I've seen in a while," the wind master said.
Youko Kurama. Infamous for his cruelty, and not letting any of his opponents survive to tell the tale, besides his prowess at stealth and thievery.
He was also one of the few failed assassinations that the Shinobi sect had in their records. No one could get close to him and survive.
But he had. Heck, he had asked for death, and been refused.
Incredible.
"Incredible," he repeated aloud, turning back to the watery expanse.
The shinobi have always dealt with their affairs in secret. Why expose yourselves now?
More alike than you know. Now tell me, what do you plan to do once you get to the outside world?
Don't assume.
He recalled how he was crippled by the incredible pain - despite his training, and high pain tolerance that came with it, he had literally been moving even as little as he had on willpower alone. All of his vitals had been avoided, true, and there had been numerous stem-thin punctures, weaving their way through his body, but he had also been held upright by the sparse leaves, preventing him from doing more damage to himself.
"Please, kill me." "I will not." He had felt like a child, scolded by their honored older brother, while he was looking up at that silhouette, standing tall even though he had already lost unconsciousness.
I too, have spent years in shadow. Interesting, how quickly regret can appear. I only wanted to know if you could make your life better, nobler than mine has been.
"Heh," he laughed quietly. Jin looked at him, ears twitching up.
"Eh?"
"Jin... Maybe this tournament hasn't been a waste. Even though we lost our sect members. Maybe there are other ways into the light."
He was aware of the other mans now 'pointy-up and wigglin' ears and the faint 'o' shape of his mouth as the other stared at him, before smiling in return and floating crosslegged happily a couple inches up. "Ay. Maybe so."