WWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! 100 HITS BABAYYYYYYYYYY!!! Please remember that whether you review or not, I love every one of ya! That's right! You cannot escape my love my pretties!!! Just for clicking on this story! Yes, I know I'm pathetic, letting a click on someone's computer halfway around the world mean something to me, but WHO CARES?!?!?!?!!!! I still love ya, every single one of ya; even the stingy people who don't review, I STILL love ya! Lol, thats all!
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D watched in shock at the matches of the semi-finals. Yuusuke never showed. Hiei and the masked fighter seemed to get the majority of the action. Kurama, however, did take up a lot of room in her notepads when she saw his old form, Youko Kurama. Not to mention, D was right about her guess of who the masked fighter was. Genkai, the old trickster, had near everyone fooled. Suzuki had caught her attention though. He was a genius at creating things for other demons, but he was an absolute weakling compared to his partner, Shishiwakamaru. She had only filled up three notepads this time from the matches. While some aspects were impressive, it was less impressive to an extent. After all, this being the semi-finals, she expected more from the opposing team. Though the other match was interesting as well. Three people from the Toguro Team showed. There was Karasu, a demon who uses his Youki for making bombs, Bui, a man covered in armor head to toe, and the team's fifth person, Gyoko. Gyoko caught her attention the most, as he killed two of the opposing team members seemingly without trying. His hair was black, and held back in a short ponytail that probably came an inch or two off the nape of his neck. As far as she could see, his eyes were dark as well. He was tanned, and wore a ragged brown shirt with brown khaki shorts, and straw sandals. With a straw sticking out of his mouth, it seemed like he had come straight out of a samurai manga. He held two swords at his waist, while only using one. Two seemed to be normal, and he used a very samurai like fighting style. One on his waist, however, looked very similar to a sword she had once seen. A sword she had once fought with and a sword that she gave away. It interested her, to say the least.
D had left the arena after the match, and even though she got caught up in the crowds, they more or less helped her get out this time. Deciding it was best to find Yuusuke, D went searching for him first. She was in the middle of the forest when she felt it. There was an enormous power coming from the west. She raced to it, figuring it had to belong to someone she knew. D had a bad feeling about it, and all too soon, she knew why. She stopped in her tracks. Genkai's energy, which she had previously felt, was gone. She took a moment to steady herself as she fell to the ground. Crossing her legs, she covered her eyes. D felt like crying out, like screaming at the world for it to give her back; but she knew she wouldn't. Without warning, a few tears dropped from her eyes. Even though D wasn't ashamed by them, she brushed them off anyhow. She had to too keep herself from crying. She gripped her ankles with her head downcast. After about an hour or so of just sitting there being numb, thinking about what to do next, she got up. D had decided it was unlike her to sit a wallow in misery, so she had to find Yuusuke. Knowing him, he was beating himself up. She had sensed his presence earlier; she just didn't realize who it was until a few minutes ago. Getting up and brushing herself off, she walked the distance to where Yuusuke was. She had approached him from behind, in front of him was a cave, and beside him was Koenma. Koenma seemed to be encouraging Yuusuke, and glanced at D for a second while Yuusuke stood up. Yuusuke raised his hands in the air as if he were going to shoot off a reigun into heaven.
"Then I'll send her a message she'll see in both the Spirit World and Heaven!" He screamed as blue light gathered at the tip of his finger. In an instant, the biggest Reigun she had ever seen was shot into the air, countless miles. The waves of air being blown away almost forced D back a step, as it did Koenma, but she, leaning against the tree beside her, almost felt comforted by the huge blast of spirit energy. Afterwards, Yuusuke fell unto his back and stared up at the sky, causing Koenma to smirk. "Hey D?" He asked as if he was aware the whole time she was there.
"Yeah?" She didn't want to sound too harsh, but at the same time, didn't want to sound like she had been crying.
"Would you fight in Genkai's place in the finals?" His question didn't shock her, although she felt it should.
"I suppose I should be honored." Koenma almost smiled, but then again, D was staring at the grass and couldn't see past his pacifier.
----- Final Tournament Day
D didn't need anything special the day of the match, all she had to do was clean out her pockets to be sure none of the all-important notes were in there. Still feeling a little numb from yesterday, D knew she wanted time to grieve, but she couldn't have it. Trying to focus on what a big improvement will come to her research by being able to be close to the actual combat wasn't working. Pulling on fingerless gloves, her overcoat, black baggy pants, and a black beater hardly felt needed to her anymore. Whoever she fought today was going to have a major butt whooping. Her mood didn't allow anything else. Forgoing her shoes as she walked out the door, she checked to make sure she didn't bring her switch blade. It was too tempting to use when she was in the mood for the feel of blood. Her bandana was in her back pocket, but D hardly felt like either putting it on or walking back into the room, so she decided to leave it. She was in the elevator when it stopped on the second floor. Having felt their energy moments before the door opened, she wasn't shocked when Yuusuke and his team filed in. They didn't ask any questions when they saw her, just waited for the elevator to reach the lobby floor. Apparently Yuusuke had filled them in on how she would be replacing Genkai. They walked to the stadium together in silence, nobody felt like talking apparently. When the doors to the arena opened, her target was set. If Yuusuke had Toguro, then she wanted the samurai. He looked like he had something that was hers, after all. That, and he just seemed to be the one in direct line of D's sight once the doors opened.
----- Final Tournament Day, before the elevator, with Detectives
Hiei wasn't one for asking questions, but when Yuusuke had given the team the news that the mercenary would be filling in for Genkai in the fight, the whole team seemed to be curious as to why.
"He didn't even have a significant aura." Hiei stated.
Kuwabara shivered, "Says you. Just being around the guy gives me creeps. It's like he's watching your every move, and he has a counter-move for every move you make. Even when he sent his energy into me…" Kuwabara shivered again. "It's not something I'd like to happen again."
Hiei scoffed, while Kurama seemed more interested in how Yuusuke knew D was strong. "Have you ever sparred with him before?"
"Well, no…" Hiei rolled his eyes.
"Then how do we even know he's worth our time?" Something seemed to harden in Yuusuke's eyes.
"Because when I was almost done with training before the tournament, I asked Grandma how good I was compared to D." He died off, eyes going gloomy at the memory of Genkai.
"What'd she say?" Kuwabara asked. Yuusuke's eyes returned to the previous hard stare.
"That I wouldn't even hold a finger to him."
No one asked questions any further than that.
-----At the tournament arena
Both teams were summoned to the arena. The announcer, a female water demon named Juri, made it clear to bring up the point that someone was replacing Genkai when nobody informed anyone of her death, if indeed she was dead. Toguro, at that point, had said it was okay, that there was no need to bring it up. Juri blinked, and then shrugged, and went on with the announcements.
"Will the team leaders decide the mode of combat?" She spoke into the microphone.
"Five duels." Toguro said. Yuusuke nodded, then both teams went back to their sides.
"Will the teams send up their first combatants?" Juri said, and Karasu, a man with long black hair and a mask over his face, walked up.
"Oi Kurama, did you take the potion?" Kuwabara asked quickly as Kurama headed for the arena. He nodded.
"I should be able to hold my Youko form for fifteen minutes. That's plenty of time to kill Karasu and win." He said with ease as he walked to the center of the arena.
"Kick his butt Kurama!" Yuusuke yelled as the fight began. There was a loud chorus of 'Kill Him Karasu!' throughout the stands.
"It seems that everybody in the stands is for Karasu's victory!" Koto said from her stand. Though she was soon proven wrong by a very loud group of girls in the audience; mostly screams from Shizuru, Atsuko, Botan, and Keiko. Laughing slightly and shaking her head at the girl's antics, she noticed a blue-haired demon girl standing close to the group. D soon turned her attention back to the fight, as the sound of another explosion went off.
Kurama had been blown up a bit, still in his Shuuichi Minamino form. But as soon as the fight seemed over, as he was surrounded by bombs, he transformed into Youko Kurama, and the tables were turned. It was bomb against plant for awhile until Kurama caught Karasu in a giant Makai plant. He was about to walk away when he heard a giant explosion, meaning that Karasu had escaped. But now, his hair was blond, and he wore no mask. Next thing D knew, it was explosion after explosion, until Kurama had been sent back into his human form. This was shocking to the team, as Kurama still had ten minutes left. Even though his body was wounded gash after bloody gash, he got up and started to attack Karasu hand-to-hand. Is he insane? D thought as she saw how the bombs began to surround him again. But Kurama got one hit at Karasu, which he planted a seed in him. Karasu noticed though, and he picked out the seed before setting off all the bombs around Kurama. Kurama fell to the floor, and Juri's counting was inaudible past the screams of the crowd. At last Kurama summoned his Makai plants once more, killing Karasu. But as Kurama walked off the arena, he apologized too Yuusuke, who helped him sit down.
"For what?" Yuusuke asked before his answer came from Juri.
"The winner is Karasu! Points are 1/0!"
"Those cheating-" Kuwabara started before he was cut off by D.
"Nobody cheated, Kurama was on the ground for the entire ten count before he killed Karasu." She explained, and Kurama nodded.
"Yes, it's true. At least I'm alive though, it's too much to say for their team." Kurama's explanation caused Kuwabara to frown, but accept it.
They were soon interrupted by Juri's voice, "The next competitor for the Toguro team is Gyoko, would the Urameshi team send up their combatant?"
"I'll-" Kuwabara was cut off by D.
"He's mine." Kuwabara's eye twitched.
"Look, I'm not sure how you're used to doing it Mr. Mercenary! But I know that-"
"It appears he possesses an item of mine that I gave to someone other than him. If it's the real deal, I want it back, if it's not, then I want to know where he got a knock off from. Any questions?" D sent him a cold stare before she moved unto the arena.
Kuwabara gulped, "He's got one heck of a creepy glare…" Yuusuke burst out laughing.
"You haven't seen him mad yet!"
The only thing that interested Hiei or Kurama in all this was that the sword on Gyoko's belt looked eerily familiar to an item they knew about.
D moved across the arena into the center, where she was about a meter away from Gyoko.
"Do you always fight barefoot?" Gyoko asked her, eyeing her feet.
"I just had the feeling that I wouldn't need my shoes today."
"Before we start, what's your name?" Juri asked, and D gave the answer.
"D." The samurai's eyes widened before he grinned.
"If I had known I'd be fighting a celebrity, I would've straightened myself up a bit."
"Second match! Gyoko vs. D!" Whispers erupted through the crowd, though a group of fan girls on either side of the stadium cheered for either contestant. Yuusuke sweatdropped, D had a fan girl group just like Shishiwakamaru.
"I hardly care for appearances."
Gyoko grinned even further, "You should."
"BEGIN!"
The attack was fast, as Gyoko pulled a sword out to dice D with. All that appeared was a bloody after image of where D was. It was as if Gyoko slashed through D, as he ended up behind her. He smirked and straightened out his posture, figuring he had won.
"You know, that was my favorite coat. Now I'm going to have to use the one the idiot bought me." D stood on top of her overcoat, which had three long gashes in it. She was unharmed, though with her coat off, her almost scrawny, but muscled, figure showed through. Scratching the back of her head, she let out a sigh. So he wants to end it quickly…
Laughter was heard as Gyoko turned around to face D, "I should've known that that attack wouldn't even touch you!" He kept laughing. D's expression turned to boredom as she shoved her hands in her pockets.
"Yet you tried it anyway, huh?" She said calmly, still examining the damage to her coat. The rips made it looked ragged, as they looked as if a tiger had slashed through it. She sighed again, Damn…
Gyoko's laughter fell silent. "Ya know? I've always wondered what it would be like to meet you. To meet the one and only prodigy of the Human World. The maker of the two weapons! One of which I own, as you see…" He lifted one of the swords higher than the other on his belt, as if to show it off.
"If that really is my sword, mind telling me its name?" D asked, silencing the whispers that had started to arise in the crowd once more. Gyoko looked confused, then he smirked again, as if to hide his ignorance.
"It has no name, You're trying to fool me!"
D would've looked even more bored with the situation, had it been possible. "Only a fool would be so easily convinced that that sword was of my making. I'll give you three reasons why it is nothing more than a replica. One, the sword of my making does not rip," She motioned to the coat's tears, "It cuts. Two, when you pulled out the blade, it's name is engraved upon the side, on yours it was not." Gyoko looked like D had slapped him in the face. "And finally, do you really think I would make a sword that would attack its own maker?" Gyoko's eyes narrowed dramatically, a scowl placed on his face. "My sword was given to someone who the likes of you, a mere upper C class, will never have the hope of defeating." If possible, Gyoko looked even angrier than before.
"You think that I'm a mere C class?" His voice was drawn back.
"At the most." D's brutal honesty was getting to him, she wouldn't even give him the hope of delusions.
"Now I shall show you the power of appearances! For it seems you have judged mine incorrectly! Sword or not!" He disappeared again to the eyes of the audience, but soon came back into view as he slid off to the side of the arena. When the audience looked back to D, all they saw was her lowering her left leg, still in the same slouched position as from before. Gyoko quickly got back up and charged at D, his arms to quick to see, but the rest of him was still visible. D was seen stepping backwards and swaying to different sides rapidly. It seemed as though she was dodging all his attacks with ease. Juri was quick to report this, as well as many other aspects of the fight. The attack and dodge method was used for a good minute or two before D seemed to lose her footing. Her body fell backwards, allowing Gyoko to slash at her head. As if realizing there had been a mistake in her movements, her eyes widened from their previously lifeless state just in time for her to jerk her head back and avoid the fatal blow. Pushing her body back with it, she fell into a handstand, where she quickly fell to her elbows and lowered her legs to Gyoko's abdomen level, and pushed him back with most of her leg strength while swinging her legs in an arc. The was a crash from where his body landed, and Juri started the count down after a minute of being stunned, after all, the body flew right past her. D fell backward unto her back before picking herself up and dusting off her knees. She then turned to face where Gyoko was pushing himself out of the rubble. Feeling something wet run down her cheek, D searched the area on her face, looking for a scratch. There had been a cut across her left cheek, a good three inches long. I haven't been cut since… Her memories flashed back to a time where she risked her life near daily. No, I can't waste my time focusing on the past! This is the present! Far more important! She shook herself out of memory lane as her fingers dropped from the bleeding to-be scar. Frowning at her own empty-mindedness, she watched as Gyoko hopped up on the stage, in time for Juri's count to reach seven.
"Now you've really done and made me angry!" Gyoko charged at D, unaware she felt the same way. With a sword in each hand, he disappeared from D's sight for the slightest of seconds before appearing right in front of her. Her left hand shot out and grabbed his head, her fingers still showing the slightest hint of her blood.
"Wrong move." His head flew backwards with the force of the explosion. Well, what was left of his head did, for only up to his jaw was his body still intact. Past that though, there was a splat of blood and brains, mixed in with fragments of skull and matted sections of hair. D's left hand dropped to her side, people like him really ticked her off. Boo's went up in the stadium, other than D's fan girl section, of course.
"Don't even bother with the count." D said as he walked past Juri back to her teams side.
"And the winner is D! The score is now tied with both sides winning one fight!" D stepped down the stairs to her side easily, quite aware of the looks she received while doing so.
"What?" She asked, quite confused at their confusion, "He was probably the weakest on their team. Don't expect it to be easy for either of you." She looked particularly towards Kuwabara and Hiei. She then went to the wall and sat down, pulling out her bandana with her right hand as she did so.
"And you didn't just kill him immediately in the first place with that move… why?" Kuwabara was the first to voice his question.
D sighed, figuring she'd tell the truth, she shrugged then answered, "It's a last resort of sorts. While blowing up the body part that I touch, or send energy waves into, it does damage to the veins and such where I sent that energy out." Wiping off all the gore from her hand, wincing as she did so, she showed him the damage. The entire face of her left hand was a blackish-purple hue. Even Hiei looked slightly disgusted at the sight.
"So in turn for blowing up the body part, you blow up your veins." Kurama digested the information. "Not like Karasu at all." D nodded.
"Not even in the least. I can copy techniques decently, but everyone needs practice or training in that technique. It would take me an hour just to see if I could copy his bomb style."
"And that's why you used your left hand, because you're right handed." Yuusuke pointed out, he'd seen her righting notes down before. D nodded at that, too. Placing her right hand on top of her left, her hands started to glow a bright blue.
"I'm not the best at healing, but I can patch myself up pretty good if I do say so myself." By the time the clean-up crew got done with the mess D had made on the arena, Hiei was as anxious as ever.
"The next is mine. I was planning on taking Toguro, but in light of Genkai, he's yours." He spoke to Yuusuke, who nodded in return. D watched as Bui made his way to the center of the arena, Hiei following shortly after.
So this is it huh? I get to see the Kokuryuha this close… this is going to be spectacular! D's interest in the fight only went to that one attack. The match was short enough, though by the time it was over D's hand had healed enough for her to move a couple fingers it was over. It was amusing, to say the least, when Hiei returned from the arena looking like a zombie. His arm was completely charred, but the look on his face was hilarious. He looked as if he were about to fall over, and after a brief explanation about why he was so tired, and needed to sleep, his body did just that. He fell over, Kurama catching him, and his body was placed on the ground so he could sleep.
Funny how no matter how tough a guy tries to seem, they always look so adorable when they sleep. D though to herself, watching him sleep peacefully, and laughed silently to herself. An adorable killer, who would've thought? But no matter how cute he looked, it terrified her to an extent, that dragon of his. It had demolished the arena, destroying a good third of it. She sighed, examining the damage to his arm from her distance. She near cringed, it was bad. She almost pitied the guy. Feeling someone's eyes on her, she turned her head to where Kurama was watching her. He caught he gaze and held it, as if diagnosing her threat level.
"You do know it's rude to stare at people, right?" She had assumed he was the polite one. However, looking as serious as possible, he asked a simple, yet annoying question. Annoying to D, at any rate.
"How exactly will you be studying us, and for how long?" Translating the question into a statement, D figured out what he was getting at.
"Don't worry, any examining I do will be at a distance. When I measured Yuusuke's heart rate, it was to see his progress over time. I wouldn't put your friends or family in any danger, I gave up that sort of work a long time ago." He seemed too accept the answer, or at least tolerated it, as Yuusuke looked their way at hearing his name. As if a light bulb turned on in his head, Yuusuke acted as if he had a brilliant idea.
"Oi D!" She turned her head to him.
"Hm?"
"You make swords right?" He sat down in front of her, trying to keep her attention.
"No."
He raised an eyebrow at her blank, slightly annoyed face. "But that guy, he said that you made his sword." D sighed, this would be a difficult concept to explain.
"I didn't, it was a replica." He smirked.
"Ah, but you still made a sword."
"No." His eye twitched.
"What the Hell?! I know you made a sword, he said so! You're trying to lie you way out of this!"
D raised an eyebrow, "I'm not lying my way out of anything. I didn't make a sword."
"Then what the hell did you do to get famous for?!"
"….."
Yuusuke sweatdropped, what was with this silence?
D wondered how she could explain the process too him in a simple way.
Unbeknownst to both of them, both Kuwabara and Kurama were paying attention to the current conversation.
"Uh…." Yuusuke's eye twitched, the hell? He had never gotten D speechless before.
"I guess…" He leaned forward, curiosity getting to him.
"Well…" He leaned closer, Kurama and Kuwabara with him.
"Um…" Even closer.
"Let's see…" Closer.
"It's too difficult of a concept for you to understand."
All three of them faceplanted. (The anime action where it seems gravity triples and there head is propelled toward the ground at a very rapid rate.)
"D-SAMA!!!!!"
All four of them looked to where a group of girls in the stands were cheering for D. Some fainted and others gushed over D's critiquing gaze. As if a giant question mark appeared over her head, D turned to Yuusuke, confused.
"Who are they?"
"Wouldn't you know? Their YOUR fan group." He seemed humored at D's easy-goingness. D wasn't usually like that at all, he had noticed, he was more of a tight-wad. But something was off with the scientist, Yuusuke just couldn't place it.
"….Oh." It clicked in her head, and then she shrugged. She frowned mentally at her sleepiness, the constant energy flow coming out of one hand and to the other was draining her. Without warning, she yawned. "You know what? Ask me again later about the sword thing, okay? I'm not thinking too straight right now."
Yuusuke seemed too understand, as he nodded, and without another word, went over to Kuwabara. D continued to heal her hand.
"What's up with him?" Kuwabara motioned to D.
"You may not have noticed but," Yuusuke looked Kuwabara in the eye, "D doesn't actually have a lot of spirit energy. A lot of things take a strain on him, and healings a lot harder on him than other things."
Kuwabara nodded, "Like fighting?"
Yuusuke shrugged, "I suppose."
"Anything else we should know about the guy?" He was shocked at Yuusuke's serious face; it wasn't that touchy of a subject. Yuusuke nodded, then in all seriousness, spoke D's biggest weakness (that he knew of, of course).
"He has a weak spot for cute things."
It was all Kuwabara could do to keep from laughing.
