Author's Note: Thank you so so so much to whoever it was that reviewed! It literally made my day :)

The First Round

Someone was shaking her shoulder, but she didn't want to get up. Rolling away from whomever was trying to wake her up she nestled underneath the covers.

Bluebell was drifting back to sleep when the covers were removed from the bed. "Heyy," she grumbled, sitting up. A drink was shoved into her hands, and she looked down at it perplexed.

"Drink it," Karasu said.

She sniffed the oddly colored drink (it was a strange muddy-green). Wrinkling her nose at the offensive smell she shook her head. "I can't stomach that."

"Do I need to force it down your throat? Drink it, it will help you train."

She had no doubt that Karasu would take pleasure in shoving the liquid down her throat, so she sucked it up and tipped the contents into her mouth. She gagged a couple of times, holding a hand to her mouth. She seriously thought she was going to throw it up, but after a few empty gags she could finally breathe. Grabbing the water that had been placed next to her bed she drank it greedily, desperate to remove the taste from her mouth.

But he wasn't lying, after a few moments she felt a sudden surge of energy.

"Why do you want me to train? Won't I just attract attention this early in the morning?" she asked, the clock on the wall reading 6 am.

"No, you'll be training in here so no one will bother you here," he explained. Bluebell held her sigh, she should have known better than to think she could train out in the open.

He continued, "And you will train so that you can master your materialization sooner and be of use to the business."

She scowled. He raised his brows expectantly, waiting for a response. But she remained silent, a twisted smile forming behind Karasu's mask.

"I'm expecting something better than this by the time I come back," he said, tossing the diamond onto the bed next to her. He promptly left, leaving Bluebell to wonder where he always disappeared to.

She crawled out of the bed, only to lie on the carpeted floor. She held the gem straight up in the air, rotating it between her fingers, liking the way is sparkled. It was definitely her finest work to date, no flaws, perfect clarity… a gorgeous stone. She knew that she had a lot of room to improve; she could create gem stone sculptures, golden swords, and crowns, anything she put her mind to if she could become skilled enough to do so.

But for now, baby steps. While most materializations only took seconds, her form was one of the few powers recorded that took time and work into each creation. She couldn't just whip out a golden sword from thin air, no way. Once she had taken the time to create a sword though, she could whip that specific sword from thin air, but she wasn't close to being that powerful yet.

"What to make… what to make," she mused. She'd like to make an obsidian sculpture of a hand flipping off Karasu, but that probably wouldn't end well.

She thought of simple shapes that wouldn't take too much concentration to form. "A star?' she asked herself, sitting up. Yeah, a star would be perfect! It was an easy form, just a five point star, and then she could focus on making it out a new materical.

She got to work. Breathe in… breathe out… in… out…

With each breath her demonic energy would ebb and flow. Breathe in… ebb…breath out… her power surged. Breathe in… breathe out! Her head snapped back, reaching the height of her power.

That drink certainly helped, usually she would have collapsed by now. Her eyes snapped open revealing white, colorless eyes. She blinked a few times, unsure of what she was seeing.

Surrounding her were thousands of sparkling strips of energy, dancing around her fingertips. Endless shades of purples, reds, blues and more swirled about her, willing to bend and change into any form she desired. All she needed to do was visualize a color, and her energy would match it.

Bell felt something hot in her hand, and she nearly dropped it in shock. In her palm was the physical manifestation of energy, and what would soon be a gem or metal. The size of the ball of energy in her hand was entirely dependent on how powerful she was. And seeing that she was still new at this (it was her first time producing a gem on purpose and not by accident), she was unsure of what to do.

The ball was no bigger than a tennis ball, a remarkable improvement in size from last night. It was proof that her power was growing, should she grow to be an S-class demon, perhaps she could create a palace from one giant ball of energy. But that was later, right now she was a low B-class demon, and for now a gem the size of a tennis ball would suffice.

Pinching the ball of energy with her thumb and index finger, she was surprised to find that it was like putty and could be shaped easily.

Working quickly, she could feel her body start to tire, she got to work on shaping the perfect star. She had always been gifted artistically, and it was easy for her to work the energy into a shimmering five-pointed star figure. Now she needed to pick a material, for it was still just blinding light for anyone other than Bluebell.

"Canary diamond. Yellow. Like the stars in picture books," she said to herself, her voice otherworldly to outside ears. The energy about her swirled into a million shades until they melded together into a brilliant pale yellow, fitting for a Canary Diamond. All at once the color around her crashed into the palm of her hand. She cried out, the heat was unbearable, but she wasn't able to let go, it was holding her there.

The colorful energy continued to pour into the diamond, and once the last remaining streaks of yellow energy melded into the diamond Bluebell promptly collapsed, all of her energy drained from her body.

The diamond she held in her hand rolled out of her grip, lying beside the unconscious girl. Sparkling brilliantly in the faint fluorescent lighting. It was a beautiful gem, perfectly crafted.

She wasn't asleep for long. The slamming of a door roused her from her spot on the floor. She stood up a bit too quickly, her vision going black for a few seconds. Steadying herself, she waited a few moments until she regained all of her senses.

"Ugh," she groaned, feeling completely weak.

A cup lay on the floor next to her, "Recovery" was the only thing written on the note attached to it. Picking it up and drinking it, not really caring for taste, she looked for her diamond. It was gone.

"That bastard," she hissed, clenching her fist. A sharp pain shot through her hand, and she looked down at it. It was tightly wrapped up, but she could see the faint bloody outline of a giant star-shaped burn mark marred palm of her left hand. "Great," she muttered, slowly starting to feel better.

"Whatever he puts in those nasty drinks certainly works."

Looking to the clock she inwardly cursed, it was 10am, the matches had already started! She showered quickly and changed into black leggings, boots, a tight-fitted purple tank top and a dove gray cardigan that hung loosely by her hips.

Reapplying her hand wrappings as she jogged to the stadium, she arrived just in time to see one of the stupid humans get suspended in the air by a bunch of yo-yos.

"Tch, these are the buffoons the Toguro brothers were worried about?" she whispered incredulously. Whatever. It's not like she cared who they were worried about, she needed to find someone that would defeat Karasu. And if the younger Toguro believed this was the team that would make it to the finals, she'd find someone to support.

The tall idiot was certainly not that person.

"Please, please, please let there be someone who can stand up to him" she prayed, waiting for the next fight to start.

"Next fight! Kurama vs. Roto!" the cat lady yelled into the microphone.

A blue man and a taller man with long red hair stepped into the ring. Bluebell cocked her head to the side, the red headed man had a very interesting aura. He was human, she could smell it all the way from here, but he had a demon's aura.

"Kill him!" the chant rang out throughout the stadium.

Bluebell descended the stairs quickly, she reached the bottom in no time. She leaned against the stonewall, eager to watch the fight commence.

Kurama was clearly overpowering Roto, his skill and speed level leagues above the ugly blue demon.

But just as we was about to deal the final blow with his beautiful and fragrant rose whip, he froze.

"What's he doing?" she wondered aloud, trying to figure out was going on. She squinted, and saw that Kurama was staring intently at something in Roto's hand. Shifting her eyes, she noticed an odd device in the blue demon's hands. She didn't know what the two were saying, they had been exchanging heated words for a while.

Suddenly Roto started to beat Kurama, the latter making no moves to defend himself. After one particularly hard hit, Bluebell covered her mouth in shock, wondering how he could just allow himself to get beaten so badly.

Kurama stood, and flicked something at the demon who laughed.

There was no way Kurama could win. He wouldn't even defend himself. But fate would prove her wrong. As Roto went to push the button, his hand froze. Kurama, in all of his wisdom, planted a Death Plant's seed in him.

Roto begged for mercy, nearly on the verge of tears. But Kurama wasn't feeling merciful, quickly killing the demon.

Bluebell was impressed. Kurama was calm and collected during the entire fight, never once letting the blue demon into his head.

"Him!" she exclaimed. He was the perfect person to go against Karasu. If anyone could kill her fiancée, it was him. A twisted smile worked its way onto her face, if she could help Team Urameshi into the finals and have Karasu face off against Kurama… she could finally get rid of Karasu.

The next fights was interesting, the shortest member of their team, and demon to boot, was certainly a fearsome fighter.

He had incredible speed, too. She could barely keep track of him. And the power…. The dragon of the darkness flame was not something to be messed with, and his ability to summon it was impressive.

However, he lacked something that would make him capable of defeating Karasu. He angered too easily, was easily provoked. Karasu was a master at mind games, she knew that all too well, he'd get into the short man's head too easily. And once he got into your head, the fight would be lost.

No, Kurama was perfect for the job. Not this Hiei character. She just needed to find a way to get Karasu to notice him.

Their team had prevailed, and Kurama let out a soft sigh of relief. He was eager to return to the forest and train after staying behind to watch Team Toguro's match. The younger Toguro had been the only one to show up, saying he would take on the entire team at once. However, even with all of the other team attacking him, the younger Toguro brother defeated them all in no time.

Needless to say it was unsettling. Kurama had been watching carefully, trying to figure out some weak point in the younger Toguro's technique. But the match had been so quick that he never had the chance to.

He could sense that the other members had found their way back to the hotel room, but Kurama needed to let off some steam. Of course he had kept his composure during battle, but his match with Roto really rattled him.

He had not been expecting that his mother's safety would be threatened. It was different for him, to have someone he cared about. When he was Youko, he had no emotional ties. No enemy had something or someone to use against the infamous fox demon. But now… it was just so different.

He released his rose whip, the razor sharp thorns slicing through anything in its way. He struck again… and again.. and again. It was his own form of venting.

"Letting off steam?" a voice asked behind him.

Kurama whipped around, pinning the owner of the voice to a tree, whip held nearly against the person's neck.

His grip faltered for a moment, he had been expecting someone from one of the teams (he had seen all of the matches and knew most of the teams). Instead, he found himself pinning one of the most striking girls he had ever seen.

Long, shiny blonde hair that fell to her elbows, her bangs curling around each side of her face delicately. Her cornflower blue eyes shone with amusement, her dark, long eyelashes giving her the 'bedroom eyes'. Her pink lips curled in a smile.

"I mean no harm," she said, her finger tracing against her chest.

"Who are you? What do you want?" he asked carefully, he was not in the mood to be messed with.

"Me? Why I'm nothing more than a demoness, enjoying the… view, before I go back to being a captive," she mused, her eyes fluttering up to meet Kurama's emerald gaze.

"Give me a reason why I should believe you," he said skeptically.

She pursed her lips, and removed something on her hand. She held it out to Kurama, who looked down at the burn mark in shock.

"I was branded. Why would I want to hurt anyone else besides the man who did this to me?"

Obviously he was disgusted with whoever did this to her, but one question popped into his mind. "I believe you, but why did you come find me?"

She pushed the rose whip away from her neck, Kurama made no effort to stop her from doing so. She stepped closer to the redhead, who started to move back but she grabbed a fistful of his shirt and crashed her lips onto his.

Kurama had not been expecting that, and quickly stepped back from the girl. Her eyes fluttered open, and a coy smile curved onto her features. The carnal side of him stirred, lusting for another touch from those plump lips, but his logical side reigned true.

He stepped back a bit more, confused by her actions.

She laughed melodically, enjoying every second of teasing him. Once again, she closed the space between them. She traced her finger from his chest up to his eat. Standing on tip toes, she whispered into his ear. "See you around," her breath causing the hair on the back of his neck to stand up.

She laughed, and walked back into the forest, in the direction of the hotel.

Kurama had never met a woman like that before. She had left him confused and completely intrigued.

It wasn't his business though, and he needed to focus on the tournament and not let some girl distract him.

He continued training, trying his best to forget the passionate fire left behind from her kiss.