[A/N: Shut the front door. An actual chapter that's an acceptable length with a fight scene in it posted in a timely manner. The world must be ending or something! P.S. If you catch the Dragon Ball Z Abridged reference I make, you are my new best friend.]
The crowd was screaming and cheering loudly. In the ring, Chu and Yusuke were staring each other down and Koto seemed almost unable to contain her elation at the mounting anticipating for the battle.
Lightning flashed in the sky bringing an ominous feeling over the stadium.
"Ever so slowly the stadium is calming down. The same can almost be said for Chu, the look in his previously glazed over eyes could almost be called, sober," Koto said.
"This isn't going to be easy," I said.
"Yeah, I hear ya," Kuwabara said.
"You know, I heard lot's about you. . . But I think you're a scared little kid who gets lucky," Chu said. That just made Yusuke angry. "Now, now. You need to loosen up a bit there."
"Let the fight begin!" Koto announced.
Chu finally released his spirit energy.
"I've never sensed spirit energy like this before," Kurama said.
Chu began to move around the ring in a circle around Yusuke.
"Whoa! He's fast!" Kuwabara said.
"And notice how he moves so fluidly," Kurama said.
"And his speed only adds to the problem. Good luck trying to hit him," Hiei said.
When Chu finally went in for the attack, Yusuke blocked his first punch but he'd left himself open, leaving Chu more than able to give Yusuke five quick blows to the stomach before popping up behind him and giving him one last one right in the back.
After Koto put it up on the slow motion replay on the big screen so everyone could see what had happened, Yusuke popped back up on his feet ready to go again. He kept throwing punches, but Chu was still way too fast for him. Whenever he even got close to hitting Chu, he was always blocked. Chu then would go in for a hit. Yusuke blocked the initial one again, but took a fist to the face right afterward.
Chu was pummeling him, but Yusuke kept at it even if he wasn't getting anywhere.
"Try using your feet or your elbows! He wouldn't expect that!" Kuwabara exclaimed.
"Kuwabara do me a favor and shut the hell up!" Yusuke shouted at him, before landing a blow right to Chu's face, sending down to the ground.
But the victory was short lived. Chu was up and behind Yusuke before we could blink and delivered a back breaking blow to Yusuke's back, knocking him out of the ring to the ground, making his eat several feet of dirt before finally smashing into the stadium wall. Buried in a pile of rubble.
After canoodling with Chu, Koto started her count. When she got to nine, Yusuke unearthed himself and hopped back into the ring.
"That was close," Yusuke said. "I could've been killed if I didn't guard myself."
"The old see it coming and block with the shoulder trick! What a champ, right?" Kuwabara cheered.
"I still think he needs to learn Piccolo's number one rule of fighting," I said.
"What's that?" Kuwabara asked.
"Dodge!" I said smacking him upside the head.
"One wrong move and I'm pushing daisies, right?" Yusuke asked. "This whole life or death thing though. . . I'm starting to like it."
"No risk, no reward," I said.
The Yusuke held up his trusty right index finger and it began to glow blue. Then, he shifted his hand over slightly and fired at the roof of the stadium sending debris raining down on the crowd.
I face palmed myself. Now was not the time to be wasting energy.
"That was my Spirit Gun. You'd better get to know it. I've got three of these bad boys left and one could probably kill you. It wasn't too long ago that I could only fire one of these a day, but I was just so scrawny back then," Yusuke said.
"If only he'd gotten a little less stupid since then," I said.
"Well you've got your secret move and I've got mine," Chu said sneaking his hand behind his back. "Watch me carefully. It's complicated." He pulled a flask out from behind his back. "This is the strongest alchie ever made. It's called 'Ogre Killer'."
"Oh, yeah! That stuff's strong! Take one sip of that and you'll wake up in jail the next morning wearing a sombrero in the arms of a hairy demon you really don't want to know," Koto said.
Chu took the cap off his flask and guzzling it down until it was empty.
Chu hung his head down and his aura radiated off him, spreading out over the entire stadium. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up right. His muscles tightened, his power grew and then—he ran to the edge of the ring to barf.
"What a fool," Hiei scoffed.
"Too right," I said.
When he was done he turned back to Yusuke.
"He seems to be sober again. Alcohol doesn't affect him in the normal way. It seems to serve as a catalyst," Kurama said.
"I think you should act more excited kid. After all, it's what you've been waiting for after all!" Chu said, cupping his hands together, growing a strange ball of energy inside of his hands.
"That ball of energy he's got looks a lot like Urameshi's Spirit Gun," Kuwabara said.
"And approximately equal in force," Kurama said.
"Don't you think we should tell Yusuke that!" Botan asked.
"Yusuke already knows," I said.
Chu launched the ball at Yusuke, and Yusuke fired a Spirit Gun.
The two energy balls fought for power in the center of the ring before they both dissolved away.
"It's a draw," Hiei said.
Chu and Yusuke charged each other began to punch each other into pulp.
"They're not even bothering to block those headshots," Kuwabara said.
"This is pure offense. They gave up fighting with their heads a long time ago. Now it's a matter of who can endure the most pain," Hiei said.
They continued to punch each other into mess.
Chu punched Yusuke back a few feet.
"Bad move," Kurama said as Chu powered up for another attack.
"This time he's spreading his energy into a much larger blast. It's amazing how much control he has over the size," Hiei said.
"And from the sheer volume he won't be able to block it with his Spirit Gun," Kurama said.
Chu threw the giant blast at Yusuke, but he was off balance and couldn't defend himself properly. But Yusuke still surprised us all.
He raised his finger, preparing to shoot. "Spirit Gun double!"
He shot out two Spirit Guns and launched them through Chu's blast.
The Spirit Guns connected. Chu's blast connected. There was a flash of light and when the attacks were over, both Chu and Yusuke had vanished from the ring as if they hadn't been there at all.
"Nothing! Nothing of the two warriors can be found! Not even a little pile of ashes!" Koto said. "Has the fight truly ended in a draw?"
A quick glance upward proved otherwise. Chu and Yusuke were sailing through the air, finally landing back on the ground.
"They've both burned their skin, shortened their breath and somehow lost their shirts. All together, I'd call it a successful fight," Koto said.
Chu and Yusuke went back and forth talking about how weak they were and they finally began to laugh with each other.
"They're at the end of their line. They know how this will end," Kurama said.
"In a tie?" Kuwabara asked.
"No. They'll refuse to give up," Botan said. "This determines everything."
Chu reached into his shoes and pulled out two knives.
"Let's settle this with a knife edge death match," Chu said.
"Any idea what that is, Miss-I-Know-Everything-About-Fighting?" Kuwabara asked me.
"Yes. It's where I take a knife and stab you to death and am relieved of your commentary," I said.
He stuck his tongue out at me.
"Let me take this time to remind everyone that no weapon is off limits. That includes swords, axes, small rodents. . ." Koto started listing. Chu then stabbed the knives into the ground—one behind himself, the other behind Yusuke. "How odd that Chu would stab those knives into the ground instead of Yusuke. I say it's odd because last I checked the ground doesn't bleed nearly as much as a person."
"Take off your shoes and put your foot in front of the knife," Chu said.
Yusuke did as instructed and lined himself up with Chu.
"The edge of that knife is the edge of your world. That's the only rule. You step outside that line and it's sudden death and I mean death. And we fight with our bodies. No weapons. The winner is the last bloke standing," Chu said.
"I think I can handle that," Yusuke said.
"Uhm, sorry, but it's really not up to you. We have a reputable tournament committee who gets paid to make these decisions," Koto said.
"So if there's no weapons allowed, then does that mean Yusuke can't fire his spirit gun?" Kuwabara asked.
"It doesn't matter. Yusuke's used up all of his energy," I said.
"Oh, yeah. That sucks," he replied.
"Worry not. Chu has exhausted all of his spirit power as well," Kurama said.
"Now that they're fighting with hand to hand combat it will be the one with the strongest head that survives," Hiei said.
"If that's true, Yusuke's got this in the bag," I said.
We waited to hear what the tournament committee said. The crowd grew impatient and finally they vetoed it.
"Everyone please remain calm," Koto said as everyone screamed in outrage at the decision.
And then they repealed their initial decision.
The sky grew dark and the wind blew through. Lightning flashed. It grew blacker and blacker, almost as if it were nighttime.
And then the committee ruled in favor of the match.
They wasted no time pummeling each other.
"It's incredible. I've never seen anything so impressive," Kuwabara said staring at them. "Such focus. Such power. Such pain. I wish that were me in there. This isn't a fight between two guys anymore. This the stuff legends are made of."
I nodded. "I understand completely." When had I last seen a fight like this one? When I'd seen my father fight against Majinn Buu maybe?
Their feet were bleeding, you could see the pain in their eyes with each hit they took, the confidence they felt with every hit they landed. I would never forget this fight.
And then I was tackled from behind. I looked to see—
"Kayko!" Kuwabara said.
"You guys! You have to make Yusuke stop fighting!" she pleaded.
"Why would we do that?" I asked.
"Because he's your best friend and if you don't he's going to die! Again!" she said shaking me.
"Sorry, Kayko," Kuwabara said taking hold of her arms. "But that's not an option."
"Why not?" Kayko asked.
"Because, Yusuke made a promise and now everything depends on his ability to fight," Kuwabara said.
"Not too long ago, we faced off against this guy, Tuguro. He's an incredibly powerful demon. And winning this fight against Chu is like the first step to a rematch with him," I said.
"We're not really supposed to talk about it, but we don't really have a choice," Kuwabara said.
"So who won in the first fight?" Kayko asked.
"Kairi thought she'd killed him. We all did. There was no way he was getting back up after number she did on him. But we wrong. He faked it," Kuwabara said.
"So he showed back up and forced us to fight in this tournament for real. Yusuke doesn't have a choice but to eventually fight Tuguro, but honestly, I think he wants to," I said.
"And that is why we owe it to Urameshi to not step in there and save his life," Kuwabara finished.
They punched and punched and punched each other.
"This is going to end up in a draw if this keeps up like this," Kuwabara said.
"No. They're both on their last leg now. The weaker one will crumble soon," Hiei deduced.
And deduce properly he did.
Chu raised his head and went in for a head butt. Seeing this, Yusuke did as well.
Their heads connected. Neither move. We held our breath.
Chu fell to the ground.
Koto began her 10 count.
"Just goes to show you that Yusuke definitely has a harder head," I said.
When Koto finished her 10 count, she took Yusuke's hand and raised it into the air.
"Winner of the match and of the round, Team Urameshi, led by Yusuke Urameshi!" Koto shouted.
Kuwabara jumped into the ring and Kayko let out a sigh of relief.
"Are you okay?" I asked. She nodded as she slowly started to back away. "You're leaving? You're not going to stay?"
She shook her head. "I'll be around."
She dashed off the field as Chu sat up and looked at Yusuke.
"Urameshi, we had a death match, now finish it," Chu said.
Yusuke stared at him for a moment before flashing a smile.
"No. We'll fight again when you're better," Yusuke said.
Kuwabara helped him hobble out of the ring and I felt my heart warm a little bit. He reminded me off my dad. He was nearly as experienced and not nearly as close in strength, but he had spirit. And he wasn't a ruthless killer. I couldn't believe almost a year had passed since he was just some random punk beating kids up on the street. Genkai had really whipped him into shape.
The crowd was not as impressed with Yusuke's act of mercy as I was. They started screaming and shouting for him to kill Chu, that he didn't deserve to live, and Yusuke, not one who liked to take direction, had something to say about it.
"SHUT UP!" he screamed. "If any of you demons has anything to say to me, say to my face, or say it to my fist."
The crowd was silent—utterly silent after Yusuke's threat.
My eyes scanned the stadium and then I saw them at the top of the stairs. The Tuguro Brothers and a dark haired man dressed I black wearing a weird sort of mask. Yusuke spotted them two and flipped them the birdie.
"Always so charming of you, Yusuke," I said.
He smirked. "You know how much I enjoy people."
[A/N II: And round one is done! Whew! What an ordeal? It only took, what? Over a year. Yeah. Sorry about that.]
