(a/n: here is the next chappie, hope it wont take as long!er...one more thing... i've had someone say my telepathy remarks and conversations haven't been obvious..so that talk is still going to be Italic when talking to each other, but it's also going to be in these \back slashes\...i hope that helps, and then thinking amongst the character to his/her self will just be Italic in 'single quotations'...gomen nasai!!)
Coughing was heard as the smoke finally settled, and the ones coughing were the two humans and the conscious demon Yuuri, as Kyou lay on the ground with a deep flesh wound on his shoulder.
"Team Urameshi is victorious!" Jess called over the system, as his teammates carried Kyou off the arena floor. "Next fighters please step up to battle, the same rules apply for the first match."
Two more male demons from the other team stepped up, one an elemental, and the other a neko, as Kurama and Saru entered as well.
"Oooh, I call the human girl!" The neko purred.
"Aaaw no fair Shunsuke, I wanted the easy opponent..." The elemental mocked, "Well good luck to you... And to you." He glared at Kurama, before summoning a blade of ice.
"You too Keita." Shunsuke smirked, blinking as Saru wasn't phazed by his talks, but smirked as well growing his claws long.
'Hahaoya...Please, grant me your strength for this battle.'
"BEGIN!"
'Just enough to draw first blood.' Saru prayed, and her wish was granted, she could feel the power surge through her steadily as it hurt when claws grew from the tips of her fingers; a thin scaled white tail forced itself out from her tailbone, and massive white membraneous wings sprouted from her back. Her clothes torn when the transformation was complete, Saru hunched over slightly due to the morphed feet she stood on, though the horns that shot out behind her ears helped her balance.
Her eyes finally opened, from being clentched with pain, and black slit pupils surrounded by cold baby blue starred at the neko. Saru roared warningly, showing off her suddenly unreasonably sharp fangs, glancing at Kurama quickly before leaping at Shunsuke.
\Ready when you are Kurama-kun.\ Was the message left by the dragon, and the redhead didn't need to be told twice as he swiftly pulled his rose whip from his hair, blocking an attack from Keita.
"This has taken a strong turn of events! Saru, of Team Urameshi, has taken on a transformation... It seems--that I've just been informed--She has rare blood in her...And we are witnessing first-hand what this will do." Jess spoke, as the fight progressed.
Shunsuke had dodged her attack, countering with a slash of his own claws; but Saru beat her wings slightly gaining lift and flew over his head evading more attacks as she slashed her tail at the neko.
"Close... But not good enough!" Shunsuke laughed, running around her in circles extremely fast, thinking he had the advantage. However, with Saru's enhanced eyesight she tackled the neko to the ground, pinning his limbs down with little effort. "How...?" Was all the neko could get out asked before Saru slashed her tail across his torso under her own arms, ignoring the blood that splashed on her face.
"Saru has drawn first blood, it comes down to Kurama and Keita now..."
Saru let the neko stand, who huffed trying to get a strike back at her, but ended up unconsious when Saru's wing threw him to the ground. Her dragonic eyes fell to the redhead and the elemental, who seemed to be evenly matched, though Saru knew better. This was a match to simply draw first blood, not kill them, and most of Kurama's seeds focused on a powerful enough attack that would ensure death to it's opponent. She smirked when she caught onto what the redhead was trying to do.
Kurama had scattered seeds all over the floor of the arena, growing a couple at a time, seconds after one another, hoping to cause a diversion to Keita. However, the elemental was able to stop each one; freezing, burning, crushing, or blowing them away.
Saru watched on as the two fought; this was going nowhere fast, and it was starting to draw audience protesting and yells of disatisfaction. Slowly Saru smirked, no one knew of her mental capabilities, and this would be an excellent time to test if other teams could figure out just how much power she had. Slowly, barely noticable, Saru started by reading Kurama's mind to know which seed he'd grow next, and then planted an illusion of the plant already growing in Keita's mind mere seconds before they actually growed.
On the sidelines, a fire demon was losing his patience, not only with the fight, but with a dragon. He didn't like the way Saru interfered with Kurama's fight, though he had admitted it was clever, and nothing else.
"Almost! Keita had amanaged to dodge another plant from Kurama, but they seem to be just missing. What's this? Keita is dodging next to nothing? What is going on inside his head?" Jess commented as the fight progressed, and Saru was gradually increasing the time difference when her images of the plants growing would and the actual plants themselves.
Keita had set up a defence around his body, effeciently blocking potential attacks as this strange phenomenon was, and encircled his body with fire that would burn anything that came close. The elemental panicked as to why this was getting dangerous, and went with his gut instinct of defense.
Saru glared, knowing she couldn't interfere now without revealing her true potential, this was all up to Kurama now. The redhead was scattering more seeds, and dodging attacks sent from Keita, Saru once again read Kurama's mind and wished him luck with his plan as she became airborne as Keita was evading in her direction.
It was now or never, the audience was getting restless, and Kurama finally made all seeds grow hoping it would be enough of a distraction. The fox was right, and as Keita had managed to dodge every plant but he couldn't be in time to dodge Kurama's rose whip, which went through his calf muscle.
"We have winners! Team Urameshi again, neither Saru or Kurama have been hit, while their opponents leave the arena." Jess called after the match was over, "We will be taking a short 30 minute break to set the floor again. Next teams are Team Masoshi and Team ...Cool! Those two teams be ready to fight next, same match as before: 2x2 first blood."
The Spirit Detectives had met up with Keiko after the match, and they walked back to the hotel immersed in conversation, Yusuke trying to get Keiko to admire him when she was ignoring him and gawking at Saru instead.
"Hn, women." The dejected teen huffed, making his boasterous friend laugh and give a comment, to which Yusuke chased him to the hotel demanding a fight or apology. But when it comes to Yusuke and Kuwabara... It's not going to be the latter.
"That was an awesome first match! Now the rest of the participants know not to mess with you guys!" Keiko grinned, slowly and not-as-sublty-as-she-thinks moving Saru to the door, "And now it's time for girl talk!" She cheered, dragging Saru out of the hotel with her, and back to the hotel. Eventually the two girls made it back to the stadium, when Saru pointed out she was still in torn clothes, and Keiko said that this was more important.
-----------------the hotel--------
"Don't look at me," Yusuke said, helping himself to anything edible in the fridge, "She may be my on and off girlfriend, but I can't control her." To which Kuwabra started a petty argument, neither noticing that Hiei had snuck out a window to follow them...Just in case trouble happens, or so he kept telling himself.
---------girls----------
"OOH! Did you see that brutal hit?" Keiko said, nudging Saru in the arm, as they watched from the same place Keiko was in their match.
"I thought this was about girl talk Keiko-chan..." Saru sighed dejectedly, not into the demons below fighting each other, "Besides, wouldn't you rather be congradulating Yuu-chan on his victory?"
"I'll do that later, Yuu-chan would be happy either way," Keiko sighed, picking up the nickname from her dragonic friend, "Though I'm more concerned about you and Hie-"
"Why are you concerned?" Saru asked quickly, not liking where this subject is going, and got up to leave only to receive Keiko latch to her arm. "Let go!"
"Never! If you don't tell me now, I'll ask in front of EVERYONE, including Hiei!" Keiko threatened, and smirked when she saw the sudden fear in Saru's face. "He's probably already here anyway..." Saru mumbled, though Keiko didn't seem to notice, but Saru stayed anyway.
However, said fire demon fled when he knew Saru knew he was there, not bothering to check if it was just a guess...
"Let's get this over with... What are you concerned about, between Hiei-kun and I?" Saru sighed, might as well endure this interrogation now rather than later.
"I may act like a ditz and hyper, but I'm not blind... I've seen some of the glances you give him, why? Do you know something about him no one else does?" Keiko asked, watching the match with a different persona this time, and Saru knew Keiko wouldn't take 'no' for an answer.
Saru sighed defeated, "You cannot repeat this to anyone, all right? When I was young, I saved him from the time he was thrown off the city, and I managed to be his friend... It hurts me to see him so cold now, I loved his smile...I remember when we played in the forest behind my parent's mansion, and I remember when he was taken..." By this point Saru lost her composure, and she broke down crying, which Keiko escorted her out of the stadium to a nearby pastry shop.
When Saru had calmed down, and eaten some of the free-to-competitors cake Keiko ordered, she gave a weak smile and a thank you. "You're very welcome, but now you can listen to my story... You probably know how Yuu-chan became a Spirit Detective, right?" Saru nodded slightly, having heard the really short version from Botan in her short visits to Koenma. "Well, when I found out, I cried... Despite Yuu-chan being impulsive and a slight pervert, I'd miss him dearly, I had a horribly deep crush on him. I'm not sure exactly how much time passed until I saw him alive and well, it felt like he died one day and the next was alive, but he was acting like nothing had ever happened. I was so relieved, and moved on I thought I'd give him a chance, so since then he's been slowly working his way in my heart."
Saru snorted with a slight sarcasm, "That's a pretty pathetic story Keiko-chan... I find it hard to believe Yuu-chan would die that easily." She chuckled a little coldly, which Keiko smacked her for, and then they both laughed. Keiko had accomplished her mission.
------hotel---------
It was only fifteen minutes after Hiei had snuck out, then did he return, and again only Kurama noticed. "You came back after hearing nothing?" The red head teased, and Hiei huffed, dismissing him before sitting on the window seat glaring outside. "Well they better be home soon, or their share will go to Yusuke and Kuwabara..."
It was an hour and a half later that Saru and Keiko returned to the hotel, laughing and chatting, and none of the boys would ever know of the emotion spilled earlier. Saru had disappeared to change into another battling outfit, and Keiko salvaged them some food, telling the boys that their next battle was in the evening.
"Well, it's time, shall we head off?" Kurama asked in his ever pleasant manner, half an hour after fixing a small dinner before their next match, and soon everyone was walking to the stadium again.
During their walk to the stadium, Saru had focusing her mind into this battle, asking many typical questions, and walked into another contestant. He was a tall blonde, slim body, in a trench coat, and paler-than-normal skin. He helped her up with a gentle smile, and an apology, which to much surprise started a conversation between them and they walked to the Stadium.
"Jake?! THERE YOU ARE!" A loud bousturous shout came from their left, and there stood another tall blonde, with a built body as he and three others walked up. "You're late, and--huh? Picking up chicks at a time like this? I'm shocked, and whoa! She's pretty! Name's Rick, cutie, and it's a pleasure to be in your presence." Rick said arrogantly with a stupid grin.
Saru chuckled, "The pleasure is mine Rick, but please call me Saru." At this point Jake had rolled his eyes and joined his other teammates, and yet another walked up.
The second wasn't as tall, and had brown hair instead of blonde, which was sort of long and styled so the bangs fell into his eyes elegantly and his eyes were a mysterious icey blue. "Now, now Rick, don't go scaring the pretty lady. My name is Greg, pleased to meet such a gorgeous opponent." Greg said with a cool tone of voice, and took Saru's right hand, placing a kiss on the back, which left a cool tingling sensation.
"Likewise with you Greg, however I'll have to meet the rest of your team on the battle field," Saru smiled, took her hand back, and turned to catch up with her friends. "Good Luck!" She waved back at Greg, before being engaged in conversation with Keiko.
"Your plan Greg?" Riley, short black hair, and short in height asked to the team leader.
"Yes, she'll have to do." With a smirk he turned, and they walked to their hotel.
-----------Stadium locker room----------
"For the last time! I'm okay, he didn't do anything, and if you're wondering about the Jake person; NO!" Saru sighed in exasperation, having had to explain that NOTHING was going on or going to happen with that team.
"COULD BOTH URAMESHI AND KIYOKI TEAMS REPORT TO THE ARENA. TEAMS URAMESHI AND KIYOKI TO THE ARENA."
"Well let's get this over with!" Yusuke sighed as the five--minus Keiko who went to find a spot to watch from--headed to the battle arena as before. Only...this time, there was a massive garden/forest scenery.
"Everybody as confused as I am?" Saru asked out loud, and got a few replies from the other humans, nothing from Hiei (like you were expecting a response from him? c'mon!)
"Welcome to the next match! Jess here, and here is also a brief explanation of this event." She spoke over the crowd due to a microphone, and continued, "We sponsors aren't crazy, there is a reason to the thick forest in front of these two teams." She signalled to an official on the sidelines and he took a blanket off a cage revealing an exotic and half mutated bird, which he then took inside the heart of the forest. "This cute animal has been specially modified for this event, she will not leave the surroundings of the forest, and she was bloody hard to catch!" An interrupting scream from the forest came from the official, and he was then seen running with several peck wounds on his arms, shoulders, and head before collapsing to the ground.
"This is a hunt. First team to catch the bird will win the match, and you have to catch her by ANY means necessary." There was a squawk from the forest, as the bird was designed to do when settled into the forest completely, "And there's your signal! BEGIN!"
(A/N: teehee, yes silleh mortals! be patient for the next chappie! poof)
