Hey ya'll! So I'm sorry that it took so late to update. I kept getting delayed. But my teachers were kind enough to let me finish typing this chapter up on my laptop in school, so I got it done. In regards to all the demons...for those of you who have watched the Dark Tournament, you know that the crowd has thousands of demons. I do not plan on describing the ones in the crowd who speak. So you will see demon 1 or something of that sort.
"speaking"
'thinking'
On with the story...
Our favorite crew of teen misfits and one masked fighter were standing off to the side of the ship—though, Hiei was actually standing on the railing and the twins were sitting on the floor, leaning back against said railing.
"Shit, nothin' here but ugly monsters," Kuwabara complained, "I thought cruises were supposed to have pretty girls."
Kuwabara eyed the mysterious fighter, 'The Urameshis said this fighter guy's supposed to be tough. But he's bite-sized. I bet he'll jump overboard once he sees my new sword power.'
"I sure hope the island isn't as boring as this," Hiei said in his usual monotone.
"We're not on vacation, you know," Kurama reminded.
"I know," Kuwabara sounded ashamed, "But couldn't they at least give us a place to eat? With pretty waitresses?"
"Alrighty maties!" the captain spoke into a microphone, "Turn your eyes to the captain's deck. It's still going to be quite a time before the ship finds her way to the harbor. So we'll be having some entertainment to keep you from getting rowdy."
"Ooh! I knew it! Some dinner and dancing!" Kuwabara jumped in excitement.
"The preliminary battles of the tournament will be fought here, on me trusty ship!"
The crowd broke out into confusion.
"Say what?!" Kuwabara screeched.
"A preliminary for the competition," Hiei restated.
"Now that we can't go anywhere—" Kurama was interrupted by a rumbling movement of the ship.
"Earthquake!" Kuwabara yelled.
"Fool. There can't be earthquakes on the water," Hiei chastised.
"Look!" Kurama pointed.
The floor of the center of ship split a part to reveal a circular tournament ring rising.
"Whoa! That thing's huge!" Kuwabara stared in awe at the size of the ring.
"She's a real beauty, ain't she?" the captain said proudly.
"Perfect," one demon exclaimed.
"Yes, I've been waiting for a fight all day!" said another.
"Now, I'll tell it to you straight," the captain continued, "15 teams have already been chosen for the Dark Tournament. They're awaiting your arrival. That means, out of all of you on my ship only one team will compete on dry land."
The crowd of demons was ready to rebel.
"Hold on, I thought that we were the special guests," Kuwabara complained.
"This is the way they operate," Hiei explained.
"All teams pick out your strongest man and bring him the arenas portside. There they'll fight in a battle royale and whoever comes out alive gets their team a ticket to fight on Hanging-Neck Island!" the captain concluded.
"So, one big beat-down, huh?" Kuwabara cracked his knuckles, "Guess I'll have to show them the brand new Kuwabara super attack."
A huge demon with long fangs stepped behind Kuwabara, "Yes, I do prefer larger battles. One-on-one always makes me bored."
A green demon with shaggy green hair seemed excited, "An excellent chance to sharpen my claws."
"Now I can kill as many apparitions as I want to, after I turn that human boy and girl Urameshi inside out, of course," said a gray demon.
All three walked passed Kuwabara towards the ring.
"Uh, what did he say about the human," Kuwabara's eye twitched, "You know those guys are pretty big when you see 'em standing right next to you and everything," Kuwabara laughed, "Hey! That's right!" he pointed to the twins, "You're the ones who wanted to fight them. Well I guess as the group leaders it is your responsibility."
Having not received any response from the twins, Kuwabara crouched down and saw that they were sleeping. He grabbed a twin, in each hand, by their shirt and shook them, "Hey! Wake up Urameshis! I said it's the group leaders' responsibility," he paused, "Why do I feel like I'm screaming at myself!"
"Stop," Kurama looked down at Kuwabara, "The training Yusuke and Avi went through was apparently immense. You must give them time to recuperate."
Yusuke continued to breathe lightly as Avi snuggled closer into her jacket.
"Then who's gonna fight with all the big monsters?!" Kuwabara stood up.
The masked fighter made his way to the arena silently.
"Hn. It seems we have a volunteer," Hiei smirked, "Good. I'm anxious to see what he can do."
Conscious teens' eyes followed the fighter.
"Are your serious?" Kuwabara turned to Hiei, "We don't know shit about that guy! What if he loses and we get booted from the tournament."
"If that happens all we have to do is kill everyone else on the boat before we reach the island. We'll say we're the right team and no one will complain," Hiei proposed what he thought was a logical idea.
Kuwabara's eye twitched, "You didn't have too many friends growing up, did you?"
"Alright Koenma sir, who's this new fighter they've got on their team now, huh?" George asked the young prince.
Koenma sighed, "Beats me."
"You can tell me sir! I keep good secrets!"
Koenma looked up at the ogre, "I honestly don't know."
George gasped, "But, I thought you were the official owner of Team Urameshi!"
Koenma laid his head on his hands," Well yes, technically speaking."
"And you don't know its members?"
"Nuh-uh," tears formed in the toddler's eyes, "No one's even bothered to tell me yet," he bawled.
"Oh shut up!" Koenma jumped on his desk, "I'm the chief administrator for all of Spirit World! Of course I matter. Why do they treat me like such a baby?!" Koenma kicked the two piles of paperwork to the ground and began kicking and screaming—like a baby.
"Calm down sir. We'll find out."
The chief administrator stood up, "That's it! Where's Botan? What hasn't she given me a report by now? That girl is getting spankings!"
"Easy now! No need to get…violent," Botan backed into the bed.
She went over to the Urameshi apartment to grab a few things for the twins. She didn't expect to be cornered by Kayko and Shizuru.
"We know that you know Botan! Tell us where Yusuke and Avigayil are!" Kayko looked down at the girl.
"And my brother, too," Shizuru held her cigarette, "He hasn't come home for days."
"And neither of 'em even gave us a phone call!" Kayko's eyes quickly drifted to the knocked out Atsuko.
"Yes I, I understand you're worried. But boys will be boys—and Avi is one of the guys too," a hint of nervousness could be detected in the deity's voice.
"Mine won't!" Shizuru got in Botan's face, "Now I want you to tell me exactly where Kazuma, Avigayil and Yusuke are."
"Please," Kayko begged, "For our friendship."
Botan looked between both girls, "It's just, uh…—"
"NOW!" Shizuru removed her cigarette.
"Yes but—"
"Botan!" Kayko pressured.
'Ooh! Koenma's gonna kill me, but so be it.'
"Okay," Botan sat up, "But promise me not to faint," the girls nodded their heads, "Here it goes."
Thus, Botan told the tale of Yusuke's ordeal, Yusuke and Avigayil's initiation as Spirit Detectives, their first mission, Avigayil's crush on Hiei, capturing Rando, Maze Castle and the alliance of Kurama and Hiei, rescuing Yukina, Toguro, what the tournament is about, and the reason why they were going. Needless to say, it took up most of the night.
"So, they're fighting in something called a Dark Tournament?" Shizuru asked for clarification.
"Against teams of monsters from an entirely different world?" Kayko asked.
"That's right," Botan nodded.
"Oh, okay," Kayko fainted.
"Oh dear. Kayko!" Botan grabbed the girl, "That could've gone better."
"I can believe they would be so reckless," Shizuru scolded.
"But they had to. Those in charge won't let them refuse. The only way for them to live is to fight."
"Now listen," Kayko grabbed hold of Botan's arm, "You have to take me there."
"Yes, I'm going too," Shizuru stood up.
Botan couldn't even protest, 'Koenma's gonna kill me.'
Roughly 15 demons stood on one half of the ring facing the lonely masked fighter.
"Let's attack the one from the human team first," said the big demon.
"Then, we'll start on each other," concluded the green demon.
The gray demon chuckled, "Good idea."
"Hey! We gotta so something to warn him! They're all gonna gang up on him and he's trapped himself in a corner."
"Patience," Kurama shushed the younger teen.
The captain chuckled, "Attack!"
The demons lunged.
"I get to keep his head!"
"Only if you get there first!"
The masked fighter pulled his right hand back into a fist and started pumping Spirit Energy in said fist. He punched forward and little bullets of blue Spirit Energy hit all the demons.
Hiei, Kuwabara and Kurama were astounded by the amount of Spirit Energy in the attack and the similarity to the twins' Shotgun.
The blasts hit all the demons and they fell overboard.
"Holy shit! He got everyone up there with one blow," Kuwabara watched the fighter descend the stairs.
"I guess that explains why Yusuke and Avigayil can sleep so peacefully on a boat full of demons," Kurama smiled to himself.
'Whoever that little guy is, Yusuke and Avi must've taught him the shotgun!' Kuwabara blinked.
The captain growled, "I'm sorry to say that the sixteenth team will have to be a human one. Yusuke and Avi Urameshi's team."
"Good job little man," Kuwabara praised, "So how about you let us see under those bandages now."
The masked fighter pointed.
"Hey. What's this?" Kuwabara asked.
They were surrounded by murderous demons.
"You really think we care about fighting by the rules?" a demon asked.
"There's only one way to find the best team on this boat," said a second.
"Wouldn't you know," Kuwabara looked at Hiei.
"I think they stole my idea," Hiei was annoyed, "We'll have to make them pay very dearly for that."
"Of course," Kurama held a rose.
Kurama, the masked fighter and Hiei jumped out of the ring of demons.
"Hey!" they left Kuwabara behind.
A bulky demon jumped on Kuwabara's back, "Now I'm mad!" the boy flipped the demon over knocking him out cold onto the floor.
Kuwabara looked up to see a demon jumping down to him with his Spirit Sword. Kuwabara gutted the demon.
"What kind of wimp do you take me for?!"
With his hands behind his back, the masked fighter avoided a punch, by jumping in the air and kicked the puncher. After doing flips only a gymnast can do in the air, the fighter landed only to be met with a demon and a sword. Every slash of the sword, our ally avoided. He jumped backwards onto the arena, and was greeted by two demons. Without looking back, the fighter took out those demons with two kicks.
A horde of demons from every side charged at Hiei. Within a blink of an eye, all those demons were sliced in every which way, thanks to Hiei and his trusty sword.
Demons encircled Kurama, whose rose transformed into his Rose Whip. Rose petals began to rain on the demons and stopped them in their tracks.
"Rose Whip! Thorn Wheel!" Kurama unleashed his new attack.
He spun his whip in a circle, releasing his energy that cut the demons in half.
Two dark shadows fell upon the sleeping Yusuke and Avigayil.
A blue skin toned demon, with purple hair and razor sharp claws grinned, "This will make us famous!"
The similar looking demon with green hair agreed.
Kuwabara finished slicing a demon, "Urameshi!" he cried seeing that the demons were about to pierce the twins.
Hearing Kuwabara yell, Hiei looked over, 'He wouldn't dare.'
"Now die!"
Hiei was about to lunge, when the masked fighter held Hiei back.
"Remove your hand, now."
The masked fighter pointed to the twins.
The two demons were punched across the ship.
Kuwabara looked over at the twins. They were both standing up punching hard.
"Come on!" Yusuke yelled, "You can't scare us, grandma! We'll knock you back to your grave!"
"That's a relief. They're finally awake," Kuwabara eased.
"No, dumbass. They're sleeping," Hiei snapped.
"Right now?"
"Quit it you stupid old lady!" Avi yelled.
Then the two stopped and sat back down breathing lightly, as if they weren't disturbed.
"Even in their slumber, Avi and Yusuke are reliving their training. Their preparations should make us all jealous," Kurama was impressed.
'Hmm, Urameshi said grandma in his sleep right there. That's what they call Genkai. Hey! Maybe that guy's Genkai,' Kuwabara eyed the small fighter, 'They are about the same size.'
"But she wouldn't fight unless she had her own reasons," the boy continued out loud.
"What are you mumbling?" Kurama asked.
"He's trying to talk in his sleep when he's awake," Hiei insulted.
"Oh hey," Kuwabara awoke form his musings, "What happened to the fight we were just in?"
"Everyone's dead," Kurama simply answered.
"…Oh," the carrot-topped boy looked around.
The captain tightened his grip from the captain's deck. Sweat dripped down his brow as he looked at the carnage.
'Blast these scurvy-ridden bastards. Old Sakyou was right. They were far too strong for these wimps. I'll just have to wait for the tournament to see them struck down.'
"So I take it that's Hanging-Neck Island," Kuwabara looked at the island in front of him, "This is gonna be wild you guys! Everybody make sure not to leave me."
They were sailing away, nearing the dark island. The island, filled with woods, surrounding a giant-donut looking rock that had a bite taken from the rock's base could be seen anywhere. In the center of island were many mountainous rocks, with one of these rocks holding Hotel Kubikukuri.
"Are we really staying here?" Kuwabara asked as they walked through the automatic glass doors.
Kuwabara walked in with Yusuke leaning on him and Avi lying on her back hoisted over Kuwabara's shoulder.
Kurama was kind enough to carry the twins' duffels.
"Oww. I swear tomorrow morning I'm gonna have a huge bruise on my left shoulder blade thanks to her kicking," Kuwabara mumbled.
The boy looked at all the fancy dressed people—human people.
"Wow! Well it's defiantly better than the pirate ship!"
The concierge walked to them, "The best of the evening, gentleman and lady. The hotel has been expecting you. Please, follow me."
The boys followed.
"Hey. Whose the lady?" Kuwabara asked.
"I believe he meant Avi," Kurama answered.
"Avi? Avi's not a lady. She's far from it."
"She has a feminine body, doesn't she? That automatically makes her a lady, dumbass," Hiei said.
"…You've been checkin' her out, haven't you?" Kuwabara laughed.
Hiei growled and turned away.
Kuwabara got back into his serious mode after embarrassing Hiei.
"I got a bad feeling 'bout the people in here. I never trust grown-ups dressed that fancy."
A blonde lady with a German accent and diamond earrings looked at the retreating back of Team Urameshi.
"For some reason I thought they'd be bigger," she spoke to her colleague.
"Be nice to them, Caroline. They're about to be dead," an old man with a southern accent joked.
A similar sounding man smoking a cigar commented, "This is going to be a very intriguing year."
Koenma was busy stamping papers.
"I can't sit here anymore!" he threw his hands up, "I'm going! Forget his moronic paperwork. Stamp, stamp, stamp!"
"Where you planning to go sir?" our favorite uni-horned ogre asked.
"Where do you think? The tournament of course!"
"But you have to keep stamping sir. It's very important work."
The young boy stamped George, "A trained monkey could do this job."
George gasped, "Koenma sir! You're irresponsible!"
"It's really a pity you feel that way. I was just about to take you with me," Koenma jumped off his chair, "Ciao, ogre. Guess I'm going alone."
"Wait Koenma sir," George ran after him.
Sakyou was standing in his suite looking at the night's sky.
"Urameshi's team has checked in," Toguro informed.
"I've spoken with the ship's captain. The other apparitions onboard were no match for them."
"Were you really expecting it any other way, Sakyou?"
Sakyou picked up the schedule, "Their first true test will come soon enough. I've arranged for Urameshi's team to fight Team Rokuyukai in the very first match tomorrow."
"Rokuyukai? Well, that should be interesting."
"I gotta hand it to them. They know how to make things pretty," Kuwabara commented about their room, "I haven't seen this much rich stuff in my whole life."
They were in the living room. A chandelier was above the coffee table. On one side of the table was a couch seated for three, but was being taken up by a sleeping boy. On the other side was a couch seated for three and a corner seat. Kurama was sitting on the end next to the corner seat, which the masked fighter was sitting in. Avi was sprawled across the empty side of the couch with her feet barely touching Kurama.
The door opened with the same concierge, "Your evening coffee, gentlemen and lady. Compliments of the hotel," he placed six cups on the table.
Hiei sat Avi up, sat down, and laid her head on his lap. No one commented.
"Careful," Kuwabara warned, "Those fancy guys might be trying to poison us," he sat on the ottoman.
"Does that really make sense, Kuwabara?" Kurama took a sip of coffee, "Why would they bring us all the way here to poison us?"
"The organizers want to see us fight. They'll save their murder attempts for tomorrow," Hiei reached carefully to get a cup of coffee.
"You guys can talk your logic all you want," Kuwabara dug through his bag, "I'm sticking with the trusty old aluminum," he pulled out a can of soda.
Kurama paused about to take another sip, "Why are there only two coffee cups on the table?"
"I'm not drinking one, remember? Duh, we had this conversation."
"Yes, so there should be three. One for you, one for Yusuke and one for Avi," Kurama said logically.
"I know Avi doesn't like coffee…wow, you think Urameshi can drink in his sleep too?"
The boys heard a slurp. They looked behind them at the bar. There was a little boy crouched down drinking. He appeared to be about ten-years-old. He was wearing jeans, a pink shirt with yellow sleeves, a stripped yellow and pink hat to the side covering his shaggy brown hair. He had turquoise eyes and three pink stars going across his left cheek.
They stood up. (Hiei being more careful and laid Avi back down.)
"How did you get in here?" Kurama demanded.
"He, he must have been hiding in the room before we even got in!" Kuwabara threw out an idea.
"Liar, liar. I came through the door after you got here," you could hear the youthfulness in his voice, "Isn't that what good boys are supposed to do? Oops, I guess I did forget to knock though," he took a sip, "So you guys are the guests, aren't you? You're so lucky. Oh, my name's Rinku by the way. I'm on the Rokuyukai team that you're fighting tomorrow."
"Is that so?" Kuwabara seemed interested.
Rinku took the mug and laid it on its side. He began to balance on the hand with two fingers, "I wish I was a guest. They don't have to go to all the boring opening ceremonies or meetings about the rules. You just show up here and fight. Guess you don't have to learn about all the prizes and final round stuff when you're gonna be dead soon."
'What is this kid?' Kuwabara thought, 'He talks about death like it's a toy.'
"Somebody told me the guests would be special so I got excited. But you don't look special at all. Maybe I'll even beat you no hands."
"Don't you think you're talking too much?" a second voice joined.
He was wearing white pants tucked into black boots and a tight black t-shirt that showed off his muscles. He had white skin, pointy ears and a buzz cut. He was leaning against the wall.
"What? Who is he? Somethin's wrong. I didn't sense either of 'em coming!" Kuwabara panicked.
Rinku jumped down, "Hey there Zeru! I was just saying how-dee-do to our enemies."
Zeru opened the door to leave, "Enjoy your last night with the living. Let's just say that tomorrow will see you strongly resembling one of your coffee cups."
"What?" Kuwabara looked down and saw one of the mugs split in half.'
The gang was speechless.
"Did you see their fifth and sixth men sleeping on the couches?"
"The other wasn't a man, Zeru. She was a lady. A pretty lady."
"Nonetheless, they never moved."
"So?"
"I can't figure out if it's because they knew we wouldn't attack them tonight, or if they simply weren't afraid of us."
"I think the guy's just an idiot. The girl—I don't know. All I can think about is how pretty she is," Rinku laughed.
"There must be something different about that boy and girl. We will see."
The next morning, fireworks shot out of the stadium.
"Welcome, humans and demons alike, to the glorious Hanging-Neck Island," announced a female fox demon. She had auburn hair with tan fox ears and pale green eyes and whiskers on her cheeks. A red bowtie choker was around her neck. She wore a sleeveless yellow shirt and a blue tie, pink shorts, black tights and red boots.
"Now let the Dark Tournament begin!"
I hope all of you enjoyed reading the latest installment of The Urameshi Twins. I wish all of you a happy and healthy summer. WEAR SUNSCREEN!!! (I got a serious burn all over my back and shoulders this past weekend).
Much love and cookies!
Avigayil Urameshi