Akura was laying down, alone, outside. For once it was actually clear enough where she could see the stars. As she stared at the vast sky, her mind raced. She was trying to avoid the one thought she knew everyone was depending on her to think about. Instead of facing it, she thought of the time she was a small girl, who would try to count as many stars as she could. Akura smiled to herself and began to count the stars above her. 235...236...237...
"Akura?" A man's voice whispered. She chuckled, recognizing the deep, raspy voice. Slowly sitting up, she came face to face with her long time friend.
"Hey Juro." The wolf-demon grinned, sitting next to his teammate.
"Did you think about it?" He asked, staring blankly at the stars. Akura frowned, wanting to avoid it, but knew it was impossible.
"No, not really." She paused, "But I guess I don't have a choice. You all seem dead set on going. And...I can't you kill yourselves." Juro gave a loud laugh.
"I think we'd manage fine without you." Akura smirked,
"You keep telling yourself that."
~Six Months Later~
The team waited patiently for their ship to arrive. Akura looked around at the other teams, "Easy competition." She smirked smugly. Mira, who was the only other girl on the team, laughed. She was once the princess of the fish demons; being part water demon gave her more of a human form, minus the light blue skin she had.
"Their spirit energy is so weak." Juro interrupted Mira,
"If they're all like this, we'll be fighting and killing Toguro in no time!" His ears pointed as he folded his arms and grinned eagerly. Koichi gave a light chuckle. His pitch black eyes roamed around the crowds of beasts.
"I heard the guest team this year is very strong. Apparently, there are three humans in that group as well." He said as he tightened his gloves, hiding the holes in his hands. Being a spider demon, who is also part human, makes Koichi's powers sometimes uncontrollable. He was the weakest of them all.
Finally, Atsushi, probably one of the strongest air demons in the world, spoke in a soft English accent,
"Then we shouldn't take them lightly," his paused for a brief moment and looked around, as if trying to find the group of strong fighters, then continued again, "They're here for a reason."
"Yeah! Probably to practice on!" Juro laughed arrogantly, "No matter how hard humans trains, they will never be as strong as a demon." Akura laughed at her overly confident friend.
"Juro, don't get too cocky. Atsushi has a point. They are here for a reason; they must be powerful." Mira replied.
"We should look into this." Akura whispered, "We'll look for them on the island since they clearly aren't here." She grimaced, "Just low-level demons."
Before long, the ship appeared out of the dank mist. Eager demons howled with excitement, speaking of how they were going to devour the humans and claim the prize. Akura snickered at this,
"Poor fools. Have no idea what kind of monsters they are up against."
Waiting for their turn to get on the ship, there was a sharp, painful gasp in front of Akura. Turning to find the source of it, her eyes widened at the sight of Koichi's arm, which was slashed open and bleeding. She grabbed his arm and looked over at Mira,
"Can you heal this?" Mira walked over and took his arm, carefully examining it,
"The gash is deep, but it's healable." Slowly raising her arm, her hand turned blue and his wound gradually began to close.
Juro growled in anger as Atsushi patted Koichi's back,
"Who did this to you?" Koichi scanned the groups of creatures.
"He's gone. Probably on the boat."
"Then we'll get him there." Akura smirked evilly. Mira finished healing Koichi's arm and grinned,
"You're all healed up. Not even a scar!" Mira smiled warmly at the man, who blushed and quickly responded,
"Thank you, Mira." And pulled his arm way from her. Finally being able to get on the boat, a tall, skinny and sickly looking elder demon approached to the front of the captain's deck,
"Ay, welcome world's greatest scum!" He greeted. Monsters began to cheer and holler as Team Kobayashi kept their composure, watching the captain in silence. "Now, we be heading to Hanging Neck Island for the tournament. But first..." He paused and gave a sick, evil grin to the crowd, relieving his rotted and missing teeth, "Think of this as the semi-finals. The last group alive is the group that goes to the island!" Creatures around us began claiming things like,
"It's gonna be easy! Rip these idiots apart and eat what ever is left!" Juro shook his head, laughing.
'Now! Pick one of ye teammates and have 'em come up to the front of the captain's deck!" When Akura had looked around, teams had already picked out their biggest and strongest fighters to the front of the deck. The only thought on the groups mind was , 'Who gets the pleasure of ripping these assholes to shreds?' They all gazed at each other and said,
"Mira." Mira smiled with devilish delight.
"My pleasure."
"Yeah! Show 'em how real women fight!" Akura grinned happily. Mira smiled at her friend and walked towards the group of men. Her being so small compared to these huge demons, she was easy to miss.
"Has every team sent a person to the front?" The captain waited a minute and looked around to confirm that everyone had, "...Good!" He walked over to the edge of the deck, once more, and pressed one of the many buttons in front of him. Immediately, the boat began to shake violently and the deck began to separate. All the teammates in the front parted as the floor continued to open. Finally, a stage emerged from the hole in the ship.
"This is where ye be fightin'! Go up the stairs and I'll tell you when to begin."
As everyone started climbing up the stairs, Koichi brushed Akura's back,
"I'll be right back."
"Umm…okay?" She blinked as she watched the spider demon head to Mira.
Koichi approached the woman and whispered in her ear,
"That's the demon there." He pointed to a rather large reptile-like demon. "The one that wounded me." An evil smile formed on Mira's soft, innocent face.
"Then he's the first I take out." Mira slowly approached the stair and made her way to the battle arena.