Chapter one

"Ohayo? Minamino-kun are you even listening to me?"
"Oh, I am so sorry....I have had a lot on my mind lately."
"Well, some of the girls here at Meiou High wanted to know if you wanted to organize a study group... What do you say?""Minamino! Minamino!"
That wasn't the worst thing that happened because of well, what had happened earlier that day. My mind was not able to concentrate on anything else, only on that one thing.... Yusuke had come to me that day. I thought it quite peculiar, the fact that Yusuke came to visit me after such a long time. It had been almost a year and a half since we last met. Even so, I was quite anxious to see what my old friend wanted to talk about. When I first saw him he had this uncanny look on his face, kind of like he was in deep thought and also dreading to say what he had intended to. But, that look quickly turned to a smile when he saw me, almost as if he was trying to comfort me, but I had no idea what for.
" 'Afternoon, Kurama," he said with that same smile. "I guess I should call you Minamino Shuuichi around here, huh?"
"Either alias is fine, thank you." Suddenly that warm, comforting smile on his faced turned.
"Kurama, I , we , I mean me and the guys...have" I had the feeling he didn't want to tell me the next part. "I received a letter about a week ago... at first glance it looked like an invitation to a fancy party...but then I looked at it more closely..." He handed a piece of paper and I supposed it was the letter he was talking about. Yusuke then gave me a "signal" to read it. The letter was trimmed with a bronze border, and had a back-handed kind of writing.. ''This letter is to be addressed to Urameshi Yusuke and his team. We cordially invite you to attend a tournament, in which the stakes are much higher than you would ever expect. We know you will be excited to attend.

At first I thought, What's so bad about this...just turn down their request. Then I noticed the postscript at the bottom: If you don't attend, there will be some "consequences", better make sure you don't leave your family and friends alone at night.... I just about broke down after reading that last remark. I had no intention of fighting anymore, and I'm sure Yusuke didn't either. So that was it, the thing Yusuke came to tell me. When Yusuke first came with that expression on his face, I knew something was wrong, but I had no idea it would be like this. I solemnly returned the letter. None of us knew what to say. We found ourselves waking towards a park bench, finally Yusuke let out a simple, "Well, what should we do."
"I guess we have no choice on that matter." "Have you told the others?"
"I told Kuwabara. I couldn't get to Hiei. I knew you would know where to find him."..................

A week passed and all of us were getting ready for the mystery tournament. It was a complete mystery as to who sent the invitation and what their real intentions were. All I knew was that it was from the makai and that who ever they were, they meant business. I had told my mother that I was going on a school trip, a long one, and that I would either write or call her to make sure she was all right. With a heavy heart and a confused mind, I set off to meet the others at the place we specified. Hiei didn't seem to be happy be going. After all I'm sure Yusuke found a way to drag him along. He just scowled at the ground. I was very happy to see all of them, but I wasn't happy to see them like this: troubled.