"Moriko, it is time to awake." A soft voice gently prodded into my fading dreams, drawing me back into the real world. Groaning softly, I pushed the soft blanket away from my face, staring at a pair of old honey brown eyes. "The boys, minus the dimwit, will be awake shortly. I expect Kurama to come and wake you, himself." She looked to be about 23, maybe 24 even, with soft pinky hair that was pulled back into a braid that just dusted past her shoulders. She simply quirked an eyebrow, wrapping her head up with the rags she had worn the previous day.
I frowned, just as she opened the door for Kurama, who had his fist posed to knock. "Good morning." She only nodded in response, allowing him to enter. "Slept well, Moriko?" the redhead questioned, entering the room. I nodded, shoving the blankets down to my hips.
"It was relaxing not having Isao, Eiji, and Rin bombard my bed in the middle of the night, along with Miki at times." I spun on my hip, throwing my legs over the edge. "Without our parents around, they're trying to find the right time to share my bed, like we used to do when they were still alive. It was our bonding time as family."
"You were a very close knit family, weren't you?" Kurama sat at the edge of my bed.
I nodded, brushing the skirt of my plum colored nightgown. "Yes. It's a closeness that I hope to have with my own mate and our children…" I chuckled softly. "That is, if there's a tod out there that earn my siblings' approval."
"May I inquire as to why they would need it?"
"You may. Doesn't mean I'll answer said inquiry." He simply chuckled at my dismissal, getting up and leaving me to dress. Removing the silken dress, I threw it on the bed before pulling on my white pants, followed by a red sleeveless top – after checking my chest bindings – and a white changpao with red trimming and red sash, lastly slipping on a pair of black flats. I quickly brushed out my red dipped silver-white hair, only to leave it down to swing around my hips in layers. Fingering my red dipped bangs, I stared at my reflection that was on the window, seeing a feminine version of my father looking right back at me. "I don't know if that should reflects poorly on me or him?"
"Morning, everyone! You ready for some unholy mayhem?! Let's welcome our first teams of contenders!" the announcer, Koto – an overly cheerful cat demon – spoke into her mic. "I declare the Dark Tournament officially underway!" I yawned stiffly into my hand, already growing bored as we stood in the wings. "First, team Jolly Devil Six!" Rinku and his team walked out, looking every bit the part of lowlifes if it was not for the tiny apparition. The crowd went nuts for them, making the child grin. "Next, we have the Urameshi Team!" the crowd booed at us, throwing out slurs and the like.
"Look! Urameshi's already fainted!"
"Hiei! Kurama! Human-lovin' bastards!"
"No way you're comin' out alive!"
"Traitors! Hope they chew you up and spit you out!"
"Friendly bunch… guess they have to vent on somebody." Kuwabara had taken to carry Yusuke on his back.
"Calling us traitors? If they weren't such lowlifes, I'd take offense." Kurama chimed, sighing softly. I giggled from his left side.
"Surprised they didn't say anything about me, hmm…" I laughed, following the men and the Masked Fighter to the arena.
"The team captains will decide the mode of battle and what constitutes a win. If they're unable to agree, house rules stipulate each member fight one-on-one. The team with the most victories takes the match." Koto informed, looking pleased with herself.
Yusuke silently muttered something about Kuwabara being his second, still sleeping soundly. "Err… Moriko, think you can wake 'em up?" the orange haired teen gestured to the childlike captain.
I simply shrugged. "I doubt it, unless there is something that can trigger a strong response from him, besides noise, seeing as that hasn't worked at all."
Kuwabara deflated a bit, before squaring his shoulders and meeting Zeru, deciding that it will be one-on-one. Like real men. "It's been decided— six one-on-one battles!" Koto announced.
Zeru's eyes flashed as he charged his chi, causing the air to become heavy with heat as the wind blew my hair back, fire erupting from his feet. "Cripes! His aura's hot as an oven!" I scowled at the white-blond haired man, trying to tame my slightly frizzed hair.
"Bitch." I grumbled, combing my hair with my claws. "Tch. Bastard probably thinks his little light show will make our Captain wake up from his nap." All of us left the arena, waiting for who will go and fight first.
"First contenders on the field!"
"Check ya later, guys!"
"What are your predictions, Moriko?" inquired Kurama, standing next to me as Yusuke leaned against my leg.
Hiei stood on my opposite side, putting me between the two. "Honestly?" he nodded, wanting to know. "I'll let you know once they both reveal whatever tricks are up their sleeves."
"In one-on-one, the rules are— anything goes!" Koto began, looking both fighters in the eye. "A count of 10 will determine out-of-bounds and knockdowns." Once she was sure they both understood her, she threw her arm down, jumping back, as she shouted, "begin!"
"Well, here goes." Rinku stood on the tips of his toes, rocking back and forth before flittering out of sight… To the untrained eye, that is. He ran, jumped, skipped, barrel rolled, cart wheeled, front flipped, and back flipped around the orange haired thug.
"Rinku displays amazing agility! I, Koto, your commentator, can barely follow him!" I rolled my eyes at her, easily keeping up with the child's moves.
"That'll do! He can't see me…"
"Just because he's human, doesn't mean he cannot follow your moves, child." I voiced, watching Kuwabara finally punch the boy's cheek. So it began. Kuwabara kept beating Rinku relentlessly, and the kid just took it. "Bet you 6,984 yen that he's just playing with our favorite idiot."
"I didn't know you were the betting type, Moriko." Hummed Kurama, looking down at me from the corner of his eyes.
I simply returned it with a coy smile. "There's a lot you don't know about me, Kurama." Flirting, that is what we are doing during the first match. "Though, I suspect you are they type that'd like to find out just what I'm… hiding…" his face pinked slightly at my suggestive words, while Hiei bit back a snort from my left. Turning back to the fight, with Yusuke snoring out a chuckle, we watched as Kuwabara delivered a nasty looking uppercut to Rinku's midsection. The chestnut haired little boy coughed, grabbing his stomach as he flew back. Our orange haired sub-captain charged, looking ready to finally end this for the last time.
His fist met nothing by air. "Heh… Hope you enjoyed the moment…" Rinku suddenly appeared behind Kuwabara, kicking him hard in the side of the head, causing the human's neck to bend at an odd angle. Bile rose in my throat at the sight, wincing from the pain he probably felt. "'Cause the moment's over! Hahaha!" Rinku was back to being a cheerful little boy.
"Is he expecting a gold star?"
"Do you have one, lady? It'd go well with these, don't ch'ya think?" the tiny apparition pointed to the left side of his face, where a tiny line of three stars were lined up under his eye. "I coulda popped him right off, but where's the fun in that?" Rinku turned to Koto. "Don't bother counting. He's dead. I snapped his neck."
"So you say… you broke my neck?" Kuwabara got to his knees, using his fists, steadily pushing himself back to his feet. Blood ran from his hairline, down the left side of his face.
"Well… he's pretty sturdy for a human… I'll give him that." Hiei scoffed at me.
"Now I get why you were invited as 'Guests'. You withstood my direct attack, so I'll bring out my… Demonic tricks." With a flourish, and over dramatic flair, the boy whipped out a total of eight – harmless looking – Yo-Yos. "Devil Yo-Yos!"
"Batter up, pal! Double Spirit Sword!"
"Good thing you didn't take me up on that bet, boys… otherwise you'd both owe me 6,984 yen apiece, equaling out to a grand total of 13,968 yen."
"I'd owe you nothing, woman." Hiei seethed, still watching the match. I only giggled, watching as the Yo-Yos' strings seem to come alive, twisting past Kuwabara's defense and nailing him in the chest and jaw.
"What a stylish move! Rinku's Yo-Yos faked out Kuwabara's butt good!"
"Hey, moron… didya think I was just gonna play around?" with remarkable skill, the chestnut haired boy kept making four of the toys go up and down, without getting them tangled with each other. "My energy goes right from my fingers to the Yo-Yos… each of which I control individually."
"Predictions, now?" Kurama spoke, having gotten over our prior suggestive conversation.
"I see Rinku winning this one. The boy clearly has a better grasp at controlling and using his weapon. Kuwabara mainly focuses on using brute strength, given his size, but this kid knows how to use his head, mainly if he is willing to risk it in this competition." I pointed towards the orange haired teen's failed attempts at cutting the strings. "He's clearly using his own chi to prevent the usefulness of Kuwabara's Spirit Sword. It would not have been such a problem with a regular blade, but one made out of one's own chi? You can do the math for yourself…"
The Yo-Yos chased after him, carving grooves into the stone arena, as he dodged and ran around, the demonic toys still chasing after him. The toys eventually tripped him up, sending Kuwabara skidding across the stone, as two Yo-Yos each wrapped around his arms and legs, hoisting him high in the air like a kite. Rinku kept forcing the large teen up into the air before throwing him back down… repeatingly… It seems that that was starting to bore the child, so he forced his opponent as high into the air as his strings would allow him. Surely if he let him drop, the human would become one giant stain on the stone that made up the fighting ring.
"YUSUKE! YUSUKE, YOUR FRIEND'S IN DANGER! AND YOU'RE TAKING A NAP?! YOU HEARTLESS CREEP!"
It was easy to pinpoint the voice. High in the stands was a woman, whom looked beyond pissed, with short chocolate hair, glaring daggers at the sleeping teen that was propped against my leg. "The lower class are surely going to target them, now…" I mumbled, as Kurama turned and looked back towards them.
"Look! Look! HIYA, MORIKO!" standing a few feet from them was a bouncing Rin, along with the rest, and Izanagi. Rin kept bouncing, against Kiku and Eiji's words, jumping as high as he could and landing on one of the apparition's head. That did not seem to stop the hyperactive fox, as he continued jumping up and down. No, he was doing it on purpose, if the way his amethyst eyes glowed in joy were anything to go by.
"He's going to get himself killed, you know." Hiei stated, taking a quick peek at the young pup.
Izanagi's face visibly paled when he seen I was watching; Rin continued slamming his tiny feet against the vile demon's skull, giggling happily. "Oh, I know…"
The demon Monk seemed to not want to push his luck, as he plucked Rin off the agitated demon's head, quickly getting rid of him and his pal. "Hey, Izanagi! Why'd ya have to ruin my fun?!"
"Why must I have a headache of a little brother?"
Rinku had let Kuwabara drop from his place above the arena. "Not yet, it ain't!" clearly, I had missed a bit of dialog. "SWORD, GROW!" the orange sword seem to grow longer, jabbing its point into the ground, preventing his untimely demise. The sword seem to bend back with his weight, before shooting him forward.
"He plunged his sword into the ground to break his fall and— fling him forward!" Koto shouted, looking amazed that a human could do such a thing.
"Sweet move, guy. You're darn clever in a pinch." Praised Rinku. "But now…" he crossed his arms over his chest, readying his Yo-Yos, "… your trajectory is…" flinging his arms out, all eight toys shot forward. "… Sending you straight at me! And that just begs for a salvo of Yo-Yos right in your face!"
"You forgot! I've got a second sword!" Kuwabara second sword manifested in his left, sending it forward at the chestnut haired little boy.
"So what? A straight sword's easy to dodge—" the sword zipped around the strings, zigzagging left and right.
"Rinku! Quick, jump back!" Zeru shouted, dropping his cocky stance.
The Yo-Yos hit Kuwabara square in the face when his sword slammed into the demon child's chest, sending them both flying back and out of the arena. "They knocked each other out cold— And out of bounds!"
spoiled princez did this chapter suit your taste? I omitted a great deal of dialog and added a lot of mine, along with reactions and blurgh... Welp, enjoy you sexy fuckers!
