Authoress's Note: M'kay, contrary to what will become popular belief in the next few chapters, there will be no romance between Kurama and Chichiro. It's entirely one-sided. There will be another pairing, which will become obvious soon enough. Don't like OC pairings? Don't read any further. Simple as that. X3

Claimer: Chichiro is mine, as well as the storyline, and any other original characters.

Disclaimer: Hiei, Kurama, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Koenma, Genkai, and any other YuYu Hakusho characters used are not mine. Kagura isn't either, though she's from Inuyasha.

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Chapter 3: Fights and Fillers

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Chichiro sighed, veering her eyes across the wide, dull expanse of her room. She laid back, stretching her arms behind her head and crossing one leg over her other. I can already see this tournament is going to be so fun, she thought with extreme sarcasm.

"Hungry?"

Chichiro lifted her eyes to Kurama, who was holding a bowl of ramen out toward her. She grinned and enthusiastically agreed, "Hell yes!" She took it from him after thanking him, then blinked at it after lowering her nose close to it to take in its scent. "What is it?"

Kurama was taken aback. "You don't even know what ramen is?"

"I know what noodles are, but this smells different."

Kurama understood then: with Chichiro's heightened senses, she could smell the preservatives and other human chemicals in the food. She just hadn't noticed them in the case of the ice cream because she'd never had it before and didn't know what to compare it to.

"It's the same thing; it just might taste a bit different." The joys of microwavable ramen, Kurama thought with a smirk. He'd had Koenma heat them, as apparently Koenma's room was nicer than theirs and large enough to store appliances. What a prince of the spirit world would want with a microwave is beyond me.

Chichiro shrugged, taking Kurama's spare chopsticks.

As she slurped the last bite some time later, Chichiro blinked up at Kurama. "So—did you offer Hiei any?"

Kurama wondered why she'd even care, but he supposed she was just curious. "Yes, but naturally he didn't want anything."

Chichiro grinned, then looked down at her empty bowl, and it seemed that something had occurred to her. "Say, where exactly did you heat this?"

"Koenma has a microwave." Then, before she could ask, "It's just a human invention that cooks faster than a fire."

"Right." Chichiro set the bowl on the ground, laying the chopsticks on the rim before she leaned back up. "Why don't we have these?"

Kurama shrugged. "Koenma has a 'suite'," he replied with sarcasm that rivaled Chichiro's. "He was just too cheap to get us all one as well."

"Then why don't we raid his room?"

Kurama grinned; yes, he had definitely been right about liking Chichiro. "That's fairly devious to consider, don't you think?"

Chichiro grinned back at him, her fangs showing. "Seeing as how you haven't said 'no' yet, I'd say you were considering it as well. So you tell me, is it devious?"

Kurama laughed. "Alright, then, let's."

Just as they arrived outside Chichiro's room, Koenma's voice stopped them. "Where are you two going?"

They both stiffened, turning around. "Outside," Chichiro and Kurama replied at the same time, and they exchanged mildly nervous glances.

"Well, cancel those plans," Koenma told them. "We have a meeting with the famous-but-nameless demoness."

Kurama's eyes widened. "Where did she plan this meeting?"

"Don't get excited, she's just contacting us on my communicator, that's all."

Kurama blinked. "Communication mirror?"

"No, you moron! Of course not!" Koenma coughed once before continuing, calmer. "The 'Giant all-knowing TV (of DOOM!)', as Chichiro has dubbed it."

Chichiro grinned.

Kurama nodded. "Ah. That one." He paused. "Wait…how exactly did you fit that into your room?"

"Well, it isn't the same exact one, obviously. After all, I only plan to stay for the first few fights, not the entire tournament." He shook his head. "That would just be ridiculous." ("Gee," Chichiro commented mildly, "glad you're so supportive, Lord Koenma.") "Anyway, why are we standing around? I don't have to explain, I'll just show you."

"And Hiei?" Kurama asked.

"He's already at my room."

After a short walk around the outside of the arena, they turned into another hallway and entered a rather tall door (Yes, it seemed Koenma's room, at least, had a door, unlike everyone else's) into a larger room.

…A very nice larger room. Which was adorned with an equally as nice bed, actual paint on the walls (unlike the concrete walls provided for his team) and a second room sectioned off as a makeshift kitchen with appliances.

The two fighters trailing behind the prince stared in silence, then Chichiro growled. "Well, great room you have here, Koenma." She glared at the prince dangerously, earning a nervous glance back. "Say, why didn't you get us rooms like this? Not like you have anything to worry about cost-wise, bein' the prince of the spirit world and all."

Koenma shrugged. "Well…they didn't have enough rooms available," he replied lamely, then covered by saying, "Now both of you come with me. Don't want to be late—"

"—And piss her off," finished Chichiro flatly, then nodded and followed him over to the couch in front of the TV. Kurama sat down next to Hiei (A very bored-looking Hiei.), while Chichiro stood, leaning her hip against the upper part of the couch on Kurama's side, crossing her arms.

The screen blinked once, flickering into white, then black, and it lightened just slightly, which seemed to signal that the demoness was there. Chichiro blinked at the empty screen, then decided it was probably only because since the demoness was still nameless to everyone that she didn't want her identity known.

When no sound came, Chichiro blinked, but then one of her large fox ears twitched and swiveled forward. "Hey, Koenma?"

"What?" came the impatient reply.

"Can you turn it up?"

"There's nothing on," he replied flatly. "Wait."

"No, there is," came Chichiro's short, impatient response. "But all of you have too inferior of ears to hear it."

Koenma glanced at her, then at Kurama. The fox-in-disguise shrugged, and Hiei 'hn'ed without comment. Koenma sighed. "Alright, then." He turned it up until the screen made a funny buzzing noise, but faintly one could hear a woman's voice, soft, seducing, and mocking.

"I have to admit, your team is the only one I actually care to fight." By the sound of her voice, she had started speaking before they could hear it. "The only reason I made this tournament rather than just fighting you out right was to make sure it was worth it; after all, if your team of demons could be beat by just any other demon world thugs, it wouldn't be worth my time to fight you. It'd actually be quite useless."

Chichiro quirked a brow. What does this have to do with anything? she wondered.

"In any case, I want you all to show your abilities. But be sure not to reveal them all so anyone could predict your moves—it'd make it boring for me. If you prove to be as inferior as the others in this tournament, I will decline you the right to fight me directly, and I will make my pass at conquering the human world immediately after."

So, Hiei thought, she finally makes her point. I suppose she wants me to waste the flames of the underworld on these unworthy demons, just so she can see it?

"If your pitiful minds can comprehend what I've said, then I assume you will not disappoint me. If you do so, I assure you—you will regret it." She cackled lightly, which, in her current voice, seemed almost like a light-hearted whisper of a laugh. "But not for long, of course." She paused. "I'm sorry, I'm carrying on, aren't I? Don't think this is another one of your traditional 'missions'. It would make me sore to be put in the same class as your Dark Tournament, or Sensui and all of his fools. Even Yomi cannot rival me."

Kurama had a hard time believing it, but figured there was no point in interrupting.

"Enough bragging, though—you must already know this." She sighed lightly. Well, it seemed like a sigh—it was more of a slight whisper of air that could only be described as a sigh. "I'm finished rambling on what you should have gathered previous. I will fight you all soon anyway. Well, two of you; the concept of pairs will carry into the final round, I'm so sorry to say, so you all must bicker amongst yourselves to choose. If, that is, you make it to the final round."

The funny buzzing noise increased, then faded, and the barely-lighter screen darkened again.

Koenma turned off the giant TV, then looked over at his team, and oddly to the other two, it seemed to be namely Chichiro he focused on.

"Any of you have any brilliant ideas as to why she would have spoken so quietly? (Frankly, I'm not sure how she did it…that was insanely soft.)"

Chichiro grinned. "Isn't it obvious? She was telling us who she was."

"She was speaking as soft as the wind," Kurama agreed.

Hiei glared at both of them, standing. "What these fools are trying to say is that your assumption about it being Kagura was correct. They're just avoiding the point and making it tedious in explanation."

"Right," Koenma replied slowly. "Are you all going to listen to her about showing her what you're capable of?"

Chichiro shrugged. "If she offers any threats large enough we'll have to. But if all the teams are as easy as the last, probably not."

Hiei snorted. "What do you mean, 'easy as the last'? You didn't even fight. And besides, you were crooning on about how we concluded the battle so quickly."

Chichiro glared at him. "I complimented on the speed, yes, but I didn't say it looked hard."

Hiei opened his mouth to say something else before Kurama muttered, "Well, I can see where this is headed," and stood, leaving the room.

"Yeah; I know I'm not always the most mature of the bunch, but you two take the cake," Koenma agreed, following him.

Chichiro blinked, then looked back at Hiei, narrowing her eyes. He glared back, and finally they both twitched, looked away and 'hn'ed at the same time.

--

The first round lasted a long while. There were many demons that thought of Kagura as a worthy opponent, obviously, and wanted the chance to fight her.

Kurama found that reading was fairly much the only thing that was available to do. He had stuffed his bag of things (Which contained extra clothes, all of his handy microwaveable ramen, some books, and a few medicines, should there be a need for them) under his bed, during which time he was poked in the eye by a loose spring and attacked by a few rogue spiders. It was now causing an uncomfortable lump on his back whenever he laid down. He couldn't move it, however, for if it were in the open any random demon could steal it. None of the things were particularly important to him, but they were useful nonetheless.

Currently he was reading A Wrinkle in Time. He wasn't particularly fond of the plot or the writing style, and it was far below the normal level of reading he enjoyed, but since he'd been given so little time to choose what to bring, he hadn't been able to look for books and thus had settled on whatever he could find.

He sensed Chichiro walk by, and looked to the doorway.

She flashed the peace sign, an amusingly human move that Kurama assumed she had picked up in Japan or from one of her spirit detective friends. "Busy?" Kurama shook his head, but she still seemed to feel like explaining and said, "I saw you reading and figured you might be."

"No," he responded, "there is really nothing in these pages quite worth reading, but I'm quite honestly bored out of my mind."

Chichiro smirked. "Yeah, me too. Which, consequently, brings me to what I was going to ask." Kurama just looked expectant, and Chichiro wasted no time answering the question in his gaze. "You want to go for a walk? I mean, sure, what we can see from our windows isn't too fun, but there are woods farther out. And you could bring that weird little thing you use to talk to Koenma on."

"My cell phone?" Kurama guessed, and Chichiro just shrugged, clueless, as she didn't know the item by its name. "It's a tad out of range, being that we're in another world. So I'd have to bring a communication mirror instead."

"'Communication mirror'?"

Kurama held out the small, purple device that Yusuke had found so convenient in previous cases. "This. Anyway, sure. A walk sounds better than reading."

Chichiro grinned.

--

Hiei sighed, lying back on his bed. He hated beds. Granted, this happened to be the worst bed he'd ever sat on, but besides that he hated the objects in general. He would have gone out to the woods, but he figured the fights could start at any time, and unlike Kurama, the youkai had not been given a communicator mirror. (Or rather, he told Koenma he didn't need one, since he had a jagan, but Koenma didn't know how to contact him mentally, and Hiei didn't quite see any charm in having to monitor the prince's thoughts constantly.)

He sensed Chichiro and Kurama leaving the stadium, and focused in on their thoughts with his jagan to perceive their conversation. He had nothing better to do, after all.

"How much longer 'til the fights, do you think?" That belonged to Chichiro, obviously directed at Kurama.

"I'm not sure," he replied, "but it'll probably be a while, seeing as how there are so many demons interested in using Kagura for self gain."

Chichiro nodded. People unconsciously thought about their movements before they did them, thus Hiei could tell what they were doing as well as where they were.

"Who'll fight next, Kurama?"

"Well, if you'd like—"

"Already gathered," Chichiro interjected. "Who's going to fight with me, though?"

"I don't know. Hiei might want to."

Chichiro snickered. "With me fighting? Doubtful." Hiei could sense the slightest hurt in her thoughts when she said it, though she lied to even herself about caring about it. Hiei couldn't help but smirk.

"Well, we'll ask anyway," Kurama told her. "But I'm assuming you're right."

Chichiro randomly had the urge to sing, or hum, but she apparently didn't fancy the idea of doing it in front of someone. As a song popped into her head, and a gruesome flash of a couple of mutilated corpses flew across her thoughts, Hiei flinched suddenly. His eyes widened, and he flickered from his room.

Back in the woods, Kurama and Chichiro stopped at a spring. "Well, if that isn't a tad out of place," Chichiro mumbled, earning a smile from Kurama.

"Yes, it does seem a bit tranquil, considering."

Suddenly, Chichiro's ears swiveled backward, and her hair whipped around as she jerked her head to the side, looking behind her. Her fox ears twitched and moved to face the direction of whatever had disturbed her, and she glared around.

"What is it?" Kurama asked.

She didn't respond, her two tails stiff, their fur on end, and finally she relaxed and shrugged with an easy smile, as if nothing had happened. "Nothing. Thought I sensed something."

A strange mix between an off-beat tune and a buzz sounded, and Kurama pulled the communication mirror from his pocket. "The next round is starting!" Koenma shouted at them impatiently. "Get back here now!"

Kurama nodded, and stuffed it back into his pocket, turning to Chichiro. "You get that?"

"Way past you," she replied, and shot off at a run through the woods. Kurama could barely keep up with her, but he could see she could run much faster simply from the held-back expression on her face. Sure he was in human form, but Kurama had always prided himself on his speed even through that. Now he felt as inferior speed-wise as when he was around Hiei—no telling how fast Chichiro was. Still, she waited for him.

Back at the area they'd just left, crimson eyes followed their retreating forms coldly. After the images and the song had flashed in Chichiro's mind, something had sparked in Hiei's memory as well. As he watched her getting closer to the arena, he followed them and reappeared in his room before their return. Did he recognize Chichiro?

Koenma arrived at his door just as the thought crossed Hiei's mind, and the prince relayed the same message he'd given Kurama.

"So I've noticed," replied Hiei, standing and moving in the blink of an eye to the edge of the arena, waiting for the others.

"Hiei, are you going to fight again?" Kurama asked, coming up behind him.

"Hn."

Kurama sighed. "Guess I'm fighting with you, then," he told Chichiro.

Chichiro shrugged. "Not that I mind," she said, grinning.

As they walked toward the ring, Kurama commented in a low voice. "This isn't your full demon form, is it?"

"Nope," she replied cheerfully. "But I doubt that's anything new to you; after all, I can sense that you also have a different, stronger form, and Hiei, too."

Kurama nodded, and they both sprang onto the ring. Their opponents weren't on yet, so Chichiro glanced backward before talking to Kurama after seemingly assessing that the fire demon behind them was out of hearing range. "What is it with Hiei?"

"What's what?"

"He's so…distant."

"That's just Hiei for you."

"…He never smiles."

"No. It wouldn't be like him to."

"Hn." She turned to look at the set of doors opposite them. "Come on," she growled, to no one visible.

As if on cue, a pair of demons appeared in the shadow of the doorway, and walked toward the ring. The first one to face them was another lightning demon; he was incredibly tall, like the wind demon in the last round, and he had yellow streaks not so different from lightning bolts across his cheekbones. Following immediately after him was a cat demon; she was a bit shorter than an average human girl and had pink hair and black cat ears, as well as a cattail.

"I'll take the girl," Chichiro told Kurama, and again she couldn't help but be reminded of anime.

The fox nodded and went to stand in front of the lightning demon. How fun, he thought sarcastically. Another lighting demon. Will I ever fight something other than a lightning demon?

As the formless voice sounded, "BEGIN!" Chichiro sprang immediately at the cat demoness. The smaller non-human was taken aback, barely able to dodge the split-second attack by Chichiro, which left a large dent in the floor of the ring. Chichiro countered again, swinging her body around using the base of her arm on the ground, and back-kicked the cat on the surface of her temple, sending her flying backward.

Kurama summoned his rose whip, lashing out at the demon before him, who crossed his arms behind his back casually and leapt upward to avoid the crack of the whip.

It was then that Kurama realized the huge amount of energy coming from the demon's brow. It was almost like he had a jagan that wasn't visible, or that his power came from an unknown mark, quite that of Bui in the final round of the Dark Tournament, that emitted all his spirit energy.

When Chichiro leapt at her opponent a third time, while the cat demoness was still down, the girl sprang up and jumped away from Chichiro's swinging arms, twisting around to face her.

"Bad move, cat girl!" Chichiro cried, and lashed her claws out at the cat, smacking them across her face and neck, then she began to hit her from many different places at such a speed that it seemed nearly as if it were at the same time. After hearing the girl's elbows and a single hip bone shatter, Chichiro let up her attack and stood off, watching the cat fly back toward the ground and hit with a large crash. Confident in the fact that she would not get back up, the fox demoness smirked, then turned to look over at Kurama.

She sensed immediately the same thing Kurama had, her eyes widening, and just as Kurama dove for the demon, Chichiro shouted, "Down, Kurama! Get down now!"

The fox-in-disguise before her, confused, had little choice but the duck and trust her. Immediately after Kurama's body was out of its way, the lightning demon's brow emitted a huge energy wave, no doubt made from some sort of electricity, which shot forward and slammed into the wall of the arena, taking many of the spectator demons with it.

Chichiro summoned a fireball and threw it from a distance that wouldn't put her in danger, hitting the demon's forehead between his eyes, then closed her own. Her red spirit energy gathered into the form of a large, twisted hilt in her black-clawed hands. From the hilt sprang a huge amount of light and energy, not so different from Kuwabara's spirit sword, and wind curled around it. When it finished its formation, Chichiro threw the sword toward the still-dazed lightning demon's side. The startled, suddenly skewered demon grimaced, and the energy from his brow was cut off just long enough for Kurama to raise his whip and end the fight.

The fox demon drew in a light breath, shook himself and stood from his crouch, looking over at Chichiro. The hilt of the energy sword retrieved itself from the demon's inners and flew back to her hand, where it vaporized back into her body. She blinked over at Kurama.

Unable to do anything but stare, he decided it was better left without a serious comment anyway, and walked over toward her. "Nice job, there," he decided on.

"Not so bad yourself," she replied, adding, "But your sensing reflexes could use a bit of a check-up," with a grin.

"Yes, thank you for that warning."

Chichiro shrugged it off and they walked back to the others as the same rumbling voice who always shouted 'begin' announced to the audience of their win. However, play-by-plays had not been given during the fights as they had been in the Dark Tournament, a fact which Kurama was glad for.

The victorious demoness glanced arrogantly over at Hiei. Good enough for you? Chichiro asked through mind-speak, and Hiei twitched. He hadn't assumed that she'd be so easily able to sense his jagan and use it for mental dialogue, but then again she had already surprised him by her powers within a few days.

"Hn." He turned and walked back down to his room, but Chichiro looked after him with a smirk, pleased with herself.

Kurama watched her for a moment, and for even a few seconds he let himself slip into thinking about how pretty she was, but he snapped himself out of it quickly. He didn't need to be thinking anything like that at a time like this. After all, he had never quite been strongly attracted to anyone and did not plan on it. At least not yet.

Chichiro glanced over at him from the corner of her eyes and said nothing. For a moment, Kurama had the crazy notion that she could read his mind, but then she turned to him and grinned, saying, "So, how about that walk, eh? Didn't get too far last time, did we?"

Kurama grinned back at her. "Are you suggesting we attempt again?"

"Always worth a try," she replied, in a mockingly grim voice, as if the matter were a hopeless attack in an imaginary war.

Kurama couldn't help but smile at her. She had her charms.