Chapter Four

I don't really know what to make of Asagao Academy. I really don't. It's such a weird and cringe-worthy game (not because any of it is bad but simply for the fact that it's so awkward to hear some of my favorite YouTubers whisper sweet nothings). It's silly though, and that's a good thing. I like silly things.

P.S. I made a mistake (lots) in the first writing of ch.4 that made me re-write it. Here's the updated one.

Yuki ran and ran, trying to get away from the terrifying demon and his human companions. She finally stopped when she came to a building. Gently touching her throat where the sword had been, she felt the color drain from her face.

I got away with my life, she thought as she pulled her hand away and looking at the red that stained her fingertips. That demon wanted to kill me.

"Yuki-san?" a voice shook Yuki out of her thoughts.

As she looked up, she saw the man Team Toguro had walked away with: Sakyo.

"Hello, Sakyo-san," Yuki tried to dignify herself by brushing away some of the debris that clung to her from her run through the forest.

"You seem injured," he commented, his eyes flicking down to her leg.

She promptly felt bad. Why did she feel like a kicked puppy? "It was nothing. I was training and a move got the better of me."

"I see." Sakyo's eyes seemed to grow colder, but he smiled. "Have you gotten settled into your room?"

Yuki tilted her head. "Room?"

"Yes. Follow me. I'll show you the room where you and Team Toguro are staying."

At that, he started to enter the building, Yuki standing in shock before following him in.

They entered an elevator and Sakyo pressed the button to the 5th floor. The ride up was silent. The elevator dinged and the doors opened. Sakyo quickly stepped out and started to walk briskly down the halls.

"Here we are," he said, pulling out a card key from his pressed black jacket and swiping it.

He opened the door and allowed Yuki to walk inside first, quickly following behind her and closing the door.

"Wow," Yuki breathed, taking the room in.

It was posh, to say the least.

"This is where we're staying?" she asked, turning back to Sakyo.

He nodded. "I tried to get a good room, but you're all demons. I didn't think any of you would use it."

"Oh, uh..." Yuki scratched the back of her neck, feeling embarrassed for being a demon for some reason.

Sakyo was charming. Creepily so. And she hated that she was falling into it.

"I'll leave you to it, then," he said, giving another small smile and tossed her a card key.

And then he was gone, leaving Yuki alone in the spacious hotel room.

"I wonder if they have a bath..."

After the bath, Yuki had turned into a guy, feeling less embarrassed that way. Now, Yuki watched Team Toguro from up in the stands, the announcer, a demoness named... Koto? was introducing the members.

"Ah, er, you seem to have only 4 members," the demoness commented, looking slightly scared.

"He's not attending, currently," came the reply from Younger Toguro. "We'll do just fine without him."

The fight had been bloody, to say the least. Yuki had had to fight the urge to throw up. He managed to get away with dry heaving thankfully. The white haired demon followed a small crowd out of the stadium, noting that the majority stayed. Instead of watching fights, he wanted to get something to eat. It had been a long time since he had a dish, instead of just roasted meat. He only hoped he would be able to keep it down.

Outside the stadium was a myriad of stalls. Food, gifts, betting booths... The tournament seemed more like a festival than anything. Of course, the festival was only enjoyed by the spectators, and not the participants. Not usually.

Yuki wandered around for a bit and noticed he only had about 5000 yen left. Not really enough. There were too many things he wanted to get, and 5000 yen wasn't going to cover it.

As he spied another betting booth, he wondered if he should take his chances. Team Toguro was strong, no doubt about that. But could he bet if he was a part of a team? Shaking his head, he decided to not take any chances. Should he bet the money and lose it, there was no way to get it back.

So instead, Yuki settled on buying some takoyaki and a fried squid on a stick. Seafood seemed like the obvious choice on an island. The takoyaki was good, but the fried squid was a little much for his tastes.

In total, the spending for that day was 1000 yen. Not bad.

As Yuki munched on the chewy cephalopod, he spotted the group of 4 humans and demon from before. They seemed to be walking with 4 human girls.

A brunette was dragging one human boy along while his comrades and her friends followed from behind and watched them. The girl and the boy passed by Yuki, but neither of them did so much as bat an eye. They seemed too into each other.

Their friends followed along, but the men noticed Yuki.

"Hey, you're that chick from before!" the orange pompadour young man yelled, pointing at Yuki. What was his name? Kuwa...bara?

"Uh, sorry, I think you've got me mistaken with someone else," Yuki shook his head.

"What?" Kuwabara looked confused. "But-"

"I'm male."

A girl with long brown hair and cigarette in her mouth smacked him upside the head.

"Sorry about that," she said. "He's an idiot."

"No, it's ok," Yuki smiled, but felt a cold drop of sweat drip down his neck. He wasn't oblivious to the glare the demon, Hiei, was giving him. The red-head just watched him with wary eyes.

"Well, I'll be on my way then," he continued, giving a stiff wave to the group.

As Kurama and Hiei watched the small demon disappear into the writhing mass of bodies, both of them knew.

"The energy was the same," Hiei commented.

Kurama nodded. "Perhaps he's a shapeshifter. He's definitely part of Team Toguro, since they mentioned missing a member."

"What should we do?"

The red-headed human tilted his head in thought. "If he's hiding his power, he could very well be capable of overtaking us. Let's just keep an eye out, for now."

"The girl was so easy to injure," Hiei looked back at the mass where Yuki had disappeared.

"It might be a ploy. We don't know his powers or what his association with Toguro is."

"She did something to us. Something internal. That could be her power."

"Yes, but until we can pinpoint what exactly it is, we shouldn't take any unnecessary risks."

Yuki breathed out a sigh as he opened up the door to the hotel room. He definitely wasn't sure how he got away with that.

"Look who's back," a voice hissed.

Yuki jumped a little and looked up.

"Where's your brother?" he asked, realizing that Older Toguro was still big in comparison to him. He just looked small in comparison to his hulking giant of a younger brother.

"Out," was the curt reply.

"Then I guess I'll leave," Yuki turned to go back out the door, but was stopped when he felt something curl around his arm and leg.

"Are you avoiding me?" Older Toguro's voice was creepily close to Yuki's ear. "How un-friendly you are."

Team Urameshi had barely arrived back at the hotel when there was the distinct sound of breaking glass from above.

There was barely any time to move out of the way when someone landed right where the group had been standing. A small frame with fluffy white hair tied back in a loose ponytail glared up at the hotel with seething blue eyes. There was also a touch of something else in them. Fear?

"Leave me the hell alone!" the small demon yelled.

The group glanced up at the hotel to see a body climbing down the side of a wall.

"Don't be so cruel, Yuki," Older Toguro purred. "We could have fun."

"Stay away from me!"

The white haired demon, Yuki, narrowly dodged a fast-moving arm by jumping backwards.

There was a moment of silence as the older of the Toguro brothers climbed down the rest of the wall, looking very much like a four-legged spider.

"Hello, Team Urameshi," he greeted, giving a positively creepy smile to the group.

"Bastard..." Yusuke mumbled, clenching his fists.

"So nice to see you again. Excuse the fuss. We're just," Older Toguro glanced over at Yuki. "Working out a spat."

"SPAT MY ASS," Yuki yelled, instantly regretting it.

Older Toguro grinned. "It is a very nice one."

"I didn't think you were blind as well as an ass, creep," Yusuke ground out. "That's a guy."

The demon gave a great bark of a laugh. "I see you haven't figured it out, have you?"

"Figured what out?" The Spirit Detective couldn't hold the question in.

"He played you quite well, didn't he?"

"I played no one," Yuki cut in with a growl. "That was pure coincidence."

"Take the credit, my dear. You did such a good job. A pity it ended up being ruined."

"NOTHING was ruined! There was no 'playing' to be done!" Yuki almost wanted to scratch himself so that he could attack the wavy-haired demon. Almost.

"You were playing us?" Kuwabara asked, looking slightly betrayed. Why, Yuki couldn't understand since they didn't know each other.

"ARE YOU DEAF?! I just said nobody was being played!"

The white-haired demon was practically seething at this point. That was something that almost never happened. With a strength he didn't know he had, Yuki ripped at his arm, tearing the pale skin apart and exposing the bright liquid underneath that poured out of his arm. As it dripped down his arm and into his hand, it formed a ruby red dagger that glittered in the quickly vanishing daylight.

"PIECE OF SHIT!" Yuki yelled, throwing the dagger at Older Toguro.

The drops of blood that hadn't solidified flew off his arm and were suspended in air.

The wavy-haired demon dodged the wickedly sharp dagger with ease and a grin.

"Is that it?" he asked, his voice grating on Yuki's ears.

Team Urameshi watched in amazement as the drops of blood sharpened and flew at the older Toguro brother. He dodged almost all of the droplets, only two catching him and piercing the skin. While Toguro dodged, Yuki ripped at his other arm, making more blood flow down his arm. He was beginning to feel the effects of blood loss, but pure humiliation and anger pushed him through. This time, instead of making a dagger, he went straight to flinging the droplets at Toguro. This time, more caught him.

With a grunt, Older Toguro seemed to be struggling.

"Fine," he hissed. "I'll let you go for now."

And he disappeared.

Yuki was breathing hard as he gripped at the wounds on his arms. On inspection, they didn't seem quite that bad. His vision was blurry and his head felt like it was swimming.

There was a mumbled "Crap," as he felt himself fall to the ground. He hit the dirt with a ungraceful "thud" and a sore bum. Yuki was trying to focus on getting the blood to stop and heal the wound when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking up, he saw red.

"Yuki, right? Let me see," Kurama demanded, his voice soft.

With a nod and a passing thought of, How does he know my name? The red-head was inspecting the wounds.

"You'll be fine. The bleeding has stopped considerably," came the diagnosis.

Yuki nodded again, feeling too tired to do much of anything else.

"That was awesome!" came another voice, making him jump. "How did you do that?"

A quick look told Yuki that the one who had spoken was the human named Kuwabara.

"My... ability..." Yuki managed to get out, before having to stop and hold his head in his hand. He was too dizzy to talk.

"You lost a lot of blood. You should focus on healing before anything else," Kurama warned.

"Why...?" Yuki asked. "I'm part of Team Toguro so why?"

The red-head regarded him with a look of suspicion.

"Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer, or something?" Yuki gave a small grin, feeling less dizzy.

He wasn't surprised when Kurama's eyes widened just a fraction.

"Don't worry," Yuki tried. "Too much. I'm not with them that willingly."

"And what does that mean?" Hiei, for the first time since their first encounter, spoke up.

"It wasn't exactly my choice to be a part of their group. I needed to get into the tournament somehow. I met them along the way and they agreed." Yuki sincerely hoped they didn't ask him to elaborate.

"What do you mean it wasn't exactly your choice?" Kurama asked.

Dammit.

HEY! Sorry for the deleting of the original ver. but I just... didn't like how it felt. Not to mention the fact that I wrote myself into a corner and didn't notice it until I attempted to write ch.5. That's what I get for trying to write when I desperately need sleep. Anyway,

NEXT TIME: CRAPPY EXPLANATIONS

DFTBA! :)