Wherever he was going to land this time, Harry realised was a very distant dimension from the one he'd just left. He could tell because it was taking a while.

"Gives me time to at least make sure I'm not going to land on my bum," he grumbled as he righted himself – just in time for exiting into the next world. He had to brace himself when he landed, but that was alright. It hadn't been a painful landing, and that was what counted.

"Soon I think you will be walking through the dimensions as you please Harry," the Baron commented with a gentle smile.

Harry smiled back. "Ryu's been a big help. He understands what's happening when we're in there, so he can explain it to me."

The Baron nodded and gave the small Ryu a smile as well, then they took to looking around.

"Baron, I'm not sure that this is really a safe place to be," Harry said quietly, looking around at all the people who were standing around. Some of them were really big and rough-looking. Not that he was scared of course, it was juts an observation. There was a little old woman with pink hair up on the verandah giving instructions, and Harry noticed that a lot of the people didn't seem to like what she was saying. Harry decided it was better to just go along with what everybody else was doing. Baron, on the other hand, decided that whatever this was, he wasn't taking part. He was Harry's guardian, nothing more.

"Hey, why aren't you taking one?" the old woman demanded when Harry came forward, Baron beside him.

"I'm only Harry's guardian," the Baron answered. "I'm not participating."

The old woman nodded, snorting. "Suit yourself."

Harry's drawn lot was red, which meant he advanced to whatever the next round was. Some people were more than a bit upset about having been told to get lost though, and the old woman – Genkai – blasted them away from her when they charged her.

"Hakkai would be impressed," Harry said. "She blasted them and she didn't have to use her hands to concentrate her chi. If that was chi of course." He'd seen three different energies so far after all. It was possible that the kind that Genkai used and was going to apparently teach to whoever won this 'contest' would be different as well.

Baron and Ryu nodded their agreement, and followed with Harry to see what the next set of tests would be. It turned out to be games.

Harry watched as two older boys went to the punching game, saw them get 129 and 155, and wondered what he would get, but decided to come back to it later, opting instead to follow them over to the paper-rock-scissors game, where the boy with orange hair who had scored 129 beat the boy with the slicked-back black hair who'd gotten 155, though only by ten points or so.

As they only had to pass two out of the three available games, these two boys didn't go over to the karaoke machine, so Harry headed back to the punching game, where the line had shortened. He waited behind a man who had green hair and scars on his face. The man got 175, which got a lot of people talking as it was the only score to beat the black-haired boy that Harry had been following before. Then it was Harry's turn.

He pulled on a glove and considered. Magic? Chi? Chakra? Just punch it? He sighed and went with the last option. He'd heard Master Genkai say that these were testing spirit energy. He knew that chi and chakra were both, in a way, spirit energy, but he figured that it was probably better to not channel anything, and just punch.

Of course, with the lessons in hand-to-hand he'd been given by Kougaiji, Lirin, and the chuunin instructors at the Academy (as well as a few pointers from Baron, Hyuuga Hizashi and his opponents when he had them), even though he had to jump to reach the punching bag, it was still a very respectable strike.

He scored 163, and was generally pleased with himself. He wasn't the toughest person here in whatever was getting measured, but he was in the top percentile – at least, that was the big word that Baron used to say that Harry was near the very top of the high-score listing on the game. Harry then moved on to the karaoke game. He'd have had a bit of difficulty reaching the pads he was supposed to thump in the paper-rock-scissors game, but the microphone stand could be adjusted to his height. Harry hadn't ever sung before, but he did his best, and when he stepped down with a score of 122, Baron told him that he had an angelic voice.

"When your hormones kick in and your voice breaks though, that will change," the cat figurine had said. "And you'll need to practice singing or you'll sound like that," he added, pointing to the man who had stepped up after him, and was singing terribly – though he got a fairly high score regardless.

The twenty people with the highest scores were taken out the back to a forest that Genkai had on her property. She told them they had two hours to reach a large tree on the other side, but a number of the other competitors ran, frightened, from the ominous woods.

Genkai laughed at their fear, telling them all that demons inhabited the forest and would not hesitate to tear them apart.

"Not a place for a little boy," commented the green-haired man.

"Speak for yourself!" the black-haired teenager retorted. "I'm not gonna get scared off by something hiding in Grandma's forest. You're just trying to scare me off so you'll have one less person to have to compete with!"

"I think he was talking about that little boy," the orange-haired youth said, pulling on his friend's jacket and pointing to Harry.

The black-haired boy blinked and calmed down. "Okay, now I agree that it's a valid point," he said, then squatted down to look Harry in the eye. "What are you doin' here kid?"
Harry shrugged. "I landed here, so here is where I'm supposed to be. I'm Harry Potter, by the way," he said, offering his hand.

"Yusuke Urameshi, an' this here's my pal Kazuma Kuwabara."

"Nice ta meetcha kid."

"Line up!" Genkai yelled. "Ready? Get set! Go!"

Harry watched everybody race off absently, checking his pokeballs for where he'd put Silver. He knew his limitations, and being able to go through a spooky, dangerous forest to reach a distant point in two hours... well, his legs were still kinda short.

"That could be constituted as cheating kid," Genkai said as she watched Harry mount the fire horse.

"You said it was a race," Harry answered, pulling Baron up with him. "You never said we had to run it on our own two feet."

Genkai smirked, and took off into the forest herself.

"No short cuts," Ryu said. "She's got to go through the forest herself to get there. Follow the old lady Silver!"

~oOo~

Silver really had learned a few things from Binky while they were on the Disc. His favourite thing seemed to be leaving hoof-prints burned into the air, and not running along the actual ground.

Harry laughed. "Okay, you want to show off, I get it," he said. "But now isn't the time."

Silver snorted, but returned to running normally through the forest. Not that this slowed him down any, and Harry wasn't exactly pulling on the reins so that he could help other people. Only giving a gentle tug to one side or another as Ryu guided them.

They arrived at the tree, where Genkai was waiting, shortly after she pulled out her watch.

"I really should disqualify you for not running it yourself," she said. "But you used your head and a resource nobody else knew you had, so I won't."

Harry nodded and, giving Silver a pat on his nose, returned him to his pokeball before sitting down to meditate while waiting for anybody else to arrive.

Kazuma reached them first, followed by the green-haired man and the bald man who had gone after Harry in the karaoke. They were all surprised to see him already there.

Harry smiled. "See?" he said. "You didn't need to worry about me at all!"

The last one to arrive was Yusuke, and he was a few seconds late, but when Genkai heard he'd come straight through and fought something called Baldark along the way, she let it slide and passed him as well, which meant that there were nine of them who had made it through to the next round.

The next round, Genkai announced was a no-holds-barred fight in the pitch black. They had to incapacitate or kill their opponent, and that was all. Whoever came out of it on top would be her student.

Harry heard Yusuke and Kazuma muttering about a heavy presence and a 'beast' called Rando, and then Genkai had them introduce themselves. He tried hard not to laugh at how serious they all were about this, even Yusuke and Kuwabara were serious about being 'the worst punks at Sariashki Junior High'.

"I'm Harry Potter, I'm nine, and I like red hair!" he announced. He wasn't about to give any hints about possible training. The only other person who had been kinda sensible about that was the tubby guy in the purple suit who'd only given his name, Chinpo, told them that he was a wanderer, and said it was nice to meet them all, which Harry thought was very polite.

"Now everyone pick up the arrow you think is pretty, that will decide the order," Genkai announced when a collection of shafts fell from the ceiling in front of them.

Harry and the Baron watched, despite the darkness, and didn't bother with Kazuma and Yusuke running off – then coming back with a girl with blue hair.

"Shouldn't you be even a little concerned about your ward watching things like this?" Botan – the blue haired girl – asked, having been introduced to Harry, the Baron,and Ryu upon having noticed that there was a genuine, under-ten kid present.

The Baron sighed. "He's been learning fighting techniques from all sorts of different people since he was four. Covering his eyes now would hardly be beneficial to his continued survival," the cat statue said, then shrugged. "I'm watching all the fights too, and have every intention of intervening in Harry's fight if his actual life is in danger."

"My fight's the last one before the second round too," Harry added. "Since I'm the ninth fighter you see," he said, not taking his eyes from the fight that was happening in the darkness beyond.

When Genkai announced the winner of the final fight ("The Dimwit"), Harry chuckled. She'd apparently already decided that Yusuke was too much of a bother for her to use his name. Then it was him against Kazumaro – the bodyguard ninja who'd been in the first fight. When one of them won, they'd move onto the semi-finals.

"That's fair," Harry said, standing up and brushing himself off. "I'm fresher than daisies and he's had time to recoup from his fight."

"I'm inclined to disagree," Botan said. "A trained adult fighter against a nine-year-old boy hardly seems like a fair match-up."

Harry laughed. "You're sweet," he told her, then skipped off into the darkness, not bothering to wait for his opponent. "You do realise," his voice called from the darkness, "if I win, then it looks like only the kids are left to be Master Genkai's apprentice."

"Don't be so cocky child," Kazumaro scolded. "You can't possibly expect to defeat someone who has been trained in stealth in a room where there is no light."

Harry didn't answer. There was only darkness waiting for the self-proclaimed ninja. A pale light flashed briefly, giving the man a direction to take in his pursuit. Then golden rings started glowing gently, moving in the darkness.

"That is spooky," Yusuke declared. "But kinda obvious as a target."

The Baron chuckled. "That isn't Harry," he said quietly, not wanting his words to reach the combatants.

"What is it then?" Kazuma asked.

Baron smiled. "If he wants to, Harry will tell you himself. This is a competition, you are his opponents and I am his guardian. I'm not about to spill secrets."

Five minutes later, there was a choking sound, the glowing rings disappeared with another small flash of light, and Harry re-emerged from the darkness, smiling.

"He's not dead," Harry told them. "But he won't be moving for a very long time, and he should probably see a doctor within the next twenty-four hours if he wants to regain all of his motor-functions within the year."

Yusuke, Kazuma and Botan stared at Harry openly, their jaws hanging slack.

"Winner: the Kid. We will now move on to the semi-finals. The first fight will be Kuwabara against Shorin. Follow me. We will be conducting these fights on a different battle ground."

Harry watched beside Yusuke and the others, deeply disturbed as he witnessed Shorin practically torturing Kazuma. It didn't help that Harry could hear Botan and Yusuke talking about the demon Rando. Not that he'd ever had any problem with demons before of course.

"I have to say that for candidates to be Rando, Shorin was the last on my list," Botan admitted, horrified.

"You mean I seemed more likely to be a dangerous demon than him?" Harry asked, pointing.

Botan laughed nervously. "Well, he was above you until your fight in the dark. That was creepy."

Harry pulled out a pokeball and released the pokemon inside. "It was just Lucy, my umbreon. His yellow markings glow in the dark as an intimidation thing."

"Hang on, you called him Lucy?" Yusuke asked.

Harry nodded. "Short for Lucifer," he said, patting him on the head before returning him to the pokeball. "Hey Baron, you'll give Kazuma some first-aid while I fight Yusuke, right?"

"Of course," the Baron answered, removing his top hat, jacket, gloves, and rolling up the sleeves of his shirt.

Harry stood up from the dirt and brushed himself off, just as he had back in the dark room, and walked forward.

"Go suck an egg," Harry advised, rapping his knuckles on Shorin's forehead. "It's someone else's turn to fight now. And gloating isn't attractive."

Shorin frowned, but exited the field all the same.

"So, what are you gonna do?" Yusuke asked, following Harry out. "Use Lucy again?"

Harry laughed. "You've seen Lucy. He's not surprising any more. Nope! I'm gonna use..." Harry pulled out a pair of bandages, and quickly wrapped them around his knuckles. "Just my fists. That's your kind of fight, right?"

Yusuke frowned. "Real thoughtful of ya," he said, "but I do have moral issues with fighting a nine-year-old kid."

Harry shrugged. "You have to get over that," he answered simply. "If you're fighting a girl, a boy, someone older, someone younger, it doesn't matter when it's you or them."

Baron sighed from the sidelines. "The only side he's on is his own," he said quietly.

"What?" Botan asked.

"Before Harry had the chance to make any friends his own age, that was the basic philosophy of the people who first taught Harry how to fight. He took it to heart," Baron explained. "He's a good boy and he cares for others, but if you ask him whose side he's on in a conflict, he'll say he's on his own side, and not anybody else's."

Botan nodded her understanding, and returned her attention to the fight. "It's not going to look good for Yusuke if he loses this."

Baron chuckled. "I think I know one way he'd be forgiven."

Harry made two strikes to Yusuke as he ran towards the older boy. One to the crux of his jeans where all the seams met – a solid punch – and one to the seat, with his fingers pointed.

Yusuke collapsed in pain, and Genkai laughed. "Winner: the Kid!" she declared.

"Harry," Baron scolded.

Harry shrugged. "I didn't do any permanent damage," he answered. "I wouldn't do that to someone who seemed as alright as Yusuke does." Harry turned his attention to Shorin. "Your turn," he called. "Get out here!"

"Are you going to do that to me too?" Shorin asked.

Harry shook his head. "Course not, that would be repetitive." He unrolled his sealing scroll until he reached the symbol that would release a kunai to him. Once he had the knife in hand, he rolled it up again.

They ran at each other, and when they got close, Harry swiped his weapon inside Shorin's mouth, causing an unintelligible scream to sound out. "Can't chant if you have no tongue," Harry pointed out. "I don't much feel like shrinking. I'm short enough as it is. Now," Harry spun his kunai around his finger once before gripping it again. "I'm not going to kill you, but I am going to show you all the hurt I'm sure that you've given to others." Harry cut into his opponent's arm, drawing blood. He cut into that arm three times, and then he did it to the other arm. Shorin was fighting back of course, weakly. He was already losing blood from his tongue having been cut off after all. Harry then attacked the legs, Shorin's back and chest, and finally put a great big line right across his face.

Shorin passed out from blood loss then, and Harry was a little bruised and slightly winded.

"You haven't done much to prove you'd be an interesting student," Genkai pointed out to the boy. "I mean apart from your strange animals."

Harry shrugged. "I wasn't sure what exactly you meant by spirit energy. I'm familiar with chi, chakra, and magical energies, but I've never heard it called just 'spirit energy' before," he explained.

"Focus a ball of chi in your left hand, and a ball of chakra in your right if you please. I will examine them and see which, if either, is spirit energy," Genkai instructed. When Harry obliged, Genkai huffed. "Chi is the pure form, the stuff that the dimwit fired from his gun. Chakra is the form that he used when he was punching people."

Harry nodded in understanding, reabsorbed the chakra, then fired the chi at Rando, vaporising him.

"I'm impressed that you could do that, by the way," Genkai said. "Now, you've won your fight, and the spirit detective and Botan can go and report to Koenma about Rando having been dealt with."

~oOo~

"Alright Kid, I want it all laid out on the table. I don't want you to leave me weaker because something you're already half-trained in got neglected," Genkai ordered. They'd rescued everybody from the forest, called a few ambulances, and Botan had taken off to report to Koenma while Yusuke had limped home under his own power, his tickets to the Tokyo-Dome burning a hole in his pocket, and his desire for a meal gnawing at his stomach, his pride only mostly recovered. There was actually a table in between them as well.

Harry dug out the two seal scrolls that he had in his backpack and unsealed everything.

A line of kunai and shuriken were placed on the table, as well as three different swords, the weapon that Harry had been able to commission that was modelled on Gojyo's shakujo, and the technique scrolls that he had from Konoha. He produced a whip, a few smoke bombs that earned him a raised eyebrow from Baron, and a crossbow. Harry also lined up the pokeballs.

"Those," Genkai said, pointing to the red-and-white orbs, "are the only things I don't recognise."

"I'm not surprised," Harry answered, and picked up the first one, releasing Chav from within.

"How the hell do you fit something that big into something that small?" Genkai demanded.

Harry shrugged. "Don't know," he answered. "I didn't come up with it. It's just what people had and did in the world where I got them."

"And there's something in every one of these balls?"

Harry nodded.

"Let's see them all. I'm sure they can train while I'm teaching you my technique," Genkai said.

When they were all lined up, Genkai blinked. "That one," she said, pointing to Fino, Harry's ninetails, "looks like a demon. For that matter, so does your horse. I'm not sure what to make of your blob of jelly."

"Fey, transform," Harry instructed his ditto.

"Ditto!" the pokemon chirped, then warped into a copy of Chav.

Genkai blinked. "Well, that's handy I'm sure. Alright Kid, you're in for at least six months of hard training."

Harry shrugged. "I'm probably only in this dimension for a year," he answered. "I will study hard."

Genkai smirked. "Damn right you will," she said with grim satisfaction.

~oOo~

Harry had been studying under Genkai for nearly eight months when someone new showed up. Yusuke and Kazuma had come to visit now and then, wanting to keep an eye on the little kid and occasionally getting pointers on refining their techniques, but this time the visitors were in sharp suits.

"What do you want?" Genkai demanded, not looking up from her tea to address the intruders. Harry was doing push-ups in front of her, she'd assigned five-hundred, and a lot of his pokemon were doing their own approximation of the same exercise along side of him.

"Your apprentice is being invited to participate in the Dark Tournament," the female said, while her hulking companion loomed behind her. "And you, Master Genkai, are invited to watch from the VIP booth," she added, holding out an envelope, a small smirk on her very red lips.

"Who else is on the team?" Genkai asked, frowning.

"The spirit detective Urameshi and his friend Kuwabara, as well as two demons, Hiei and Kurama."

"I want a copy of the rule book," Harry said, not breaking his rhythm of up-hold-down-hold. "And a VIP ticket for my guardian as well. After all, I'm only nine. You can't expect me to go anywhere without my guardian."

The woman frowned, but produced another envelope and a thick little book.

"Thank you."

The woman and her unattractive shadow left with a scowl.

"Alright Harry," Genkai said. "Looks like we've got something we'll be working towards. Don't stop, but mould your chi while you work. When you're done with this I'm going to have you running."

"Yes Master Genkai."

"I'm still not pleased that you took the snakes so easily," she said, holding out her teacup for Baron to refill. He'd been doing almost all the cooking since Harry had become her student, and she had discovered that the feline made excellent tea.

"I didn't know I could speak to them so they'd understand," Harry said for the fifth time.

"Hmph."

~oOo~

"They roped you into this too?" Yusuke asked.

Genkai shook her head. "Not me," she said, jerking her thumb behind her, where Baron and Harry were just emerging from the darkness. "My student. I'm babysitting the kid."

"What!" Kazuma yelled. "They got a little kid involved in this?"

Harry shoved a finger in the ear that was nearest the large carrot-top and twiddled it around. "Yes Kazuma, they did," he answered calmly. "How've you been? You haven't come to visit me up at Mater Genkai's temple for ages."

"Training," Kazuma answered. "They're serious task-masters," he added, jerking his own thumb at the two in the group that Harry hadn't met yet.

Harry's eyes lit up as they landed on the red-head. He loved meeting new red-heads. They were always the most interesting people. Botan – who'd taken away Rando's ghost – said that his original demon form had red hair, but Harry hadn't altered his theory. He claimed that they were awesome, not necessarily good or nice.

"I'm Harry Potter," he said, holding his hand out to the red-head. "Nice to meet you."

"Kurama," the older boy answered, placing his hand in Harry's and shaking it. "And this is Hiei."

"You will want to be very careful," Hiei instructed, glaring down at Harry. "I don't want you to be slowing the team down."

Harry smiled. "I won't, I promise, but maybe while we're having to work together, you could teach me a few things?"

The Baron groaned hearing the question.

"Kid, the Dark Tournament isn't a time to ask for new fighting lessons," Genkai scolded, and then they were all getting onto the boat.

The battle royal was announced to decide the team that would enter the Tournament, and Harry stepped up before anybody could stop him.

"Kid has no fear, does he?" Kazuma said weakly. "What if he loses? These demons don't seem the kind to go easy on him, even if he is just a little kid."
"Then we kill everybody else and when we land no one will disagree with us being the right team," Hiei answered simply.

When Harry blasted the competition away with a simple chi-ball the way Hakkai had taught him, they learned that everyone else on the ship had no qualms about stealing Hiei's idea. The demon was not best pleased, and the mass-slaughter began while Harry just sat on the edge of the raised battle platform and kicked his heels and absently blasting any of the ugly demons that came at him with fangs and claws bared.

"Harry, will you come down now please?" the Baron called up when the last of the demons had been killed.

"How about you all come up instead?" Harry answered. "There's less dead bodies up here."

"I'm for that," Yusuke said, and headed for the stairs.

"That whip you used was awesome!" Harry said, his green eyes bright when he looked up at Kurama. "I knew all red-heads were awesome!" he turned to Hiei. "And I haven't seen someone that good with a sword since – since – since I was on the Journey West!"

The two demons stiffened slightly. "The Journey West?" Kurama asked. "You mean the legend about the Buddhist monk, the monkey king and -"

Harry held up his hand to cut off Kurama's commentary. "There are lots of different versions of the story," he said. "But yes, there was a monk and a monkey," he added with a smile. "So now you know something about me, tell me something about you."

Kurama chuckled. "I used to be a spirit fox, but I got hurt running from a hunter, and I took refuge in the womb of a human woman, so now I'm a demon with a human body."

Harry nodded and turned to Hiei.

"Fire demon born of ice apparitions," Hiei said shortly.

"Cool," Harry declared, smiling, then he pulled out his pokeballs. "Come on out you guys go and stretch your legs," he said, releasing all of his pokemon. Thor immediately let himself over the side of the boat and into the water where he kept up easily with the ship, and the others went to play around the dead bodies, frequently blasting them out of the way, but Bast went to the Baron and didn't even bother to watch the others. He'd evolved from a meowth into a persian just a couple of days ago, and he had to re-learn how to walk on his hind legs now that they'd changed shape, and his words needed to be practised again since the shape of his mouth had changed.

~oOo~

In the hotel room that first night, after their unexpected visitors – Rinku and Zeru, who they would be fighting the next day – had left, Harry released Fino again and got out the brush to groom her.

"She's beautiful," Baron complimented. "Don't stay up late grooming her, alright Harry? And don't forget to do your meditations."

Harry nodded and returned to brushing Fino's white coat.

"I had a pelt like that once," Kurama commented, sitting down on the couch behind Harry. "I was silver though, rather than that creamy white."

"Fino is my beauty," Harry said. "I love all of them, but Fino is my beautiful one."

"Nine!"

"You're not fighting with them in this Tournament are you?" Yusuke asked. "I remember you set one of them on your opponent in Genkai's competition."

Harry shook his head. "No, this Tournament is probably too dangerous to risk my pokemon in. I'll be fighting with normal weapons and energy attacks."

"It's too dangerous for them, but not for you?" Hiei asked, an eyebrow raised sceptically. "I saw what they did to those dead demons back on the ship."

Harry nodded. "Yeah, but I don't know what sort of things our opponents can do. I barely know what my team mates can do. So no, unless I feel that it is the only way out of a situation, I won't be calling on my pokemon for help in the fights," he said, finally putting the brush away. "All done Fino."

"Nine!" she cooed, turning and licking his face.

"You're welcome," he laughed, pulling out her pokeball. "Back in, or would you like to stand guard tonight?"

"Nine!" Fino insisted, sitting back down firmly where she was.

Harry put the ball away again, but got out the rule book for the Dark Tournament. He'd read it once through already, but it couldn't hurt to read it again. There were quite a few clauses in there.

"What's that?" Kurama asked.

"The rule book," Harry answered. "You want to read it?" he offered, closing it and holding it out to the red-head.

"Thank you."

Without the book to read, Harry rearranged himself on the floor and began his meditation. Three hours later, Fino nudged him to remind him to go to bed.

~oOo~

Harry didn't fight the first round. He'd wanted to fight with Rinku, but Kazuma had gotten up first, and then was the dirty-looking demon who Kurama faced, and then Hiei fought Zeru – and Harry had applied chi to the demon's arm the way one of his medical jutsu scrolls said to apply healing chakra, badgering Hiei about why didn't you use your sword? – and Yusuke fought against Chu, who Harry decided he wanted to introduce to Hawkeye or Gojyo so that they could all go drinking together. Not that he could. But the fight was over, their team had won, and Harry hadn't fought yet.

"They're gonna think I'm some kind of accessory if you don't let me fight," Harry grumbled as they headed back to the hotel. "A weak accessory that they can kill off whenever they feel like it."

"And they would be in for a rude awakening from such a misconception," Kurama soothed.

"Think of yourself as a secret weapon," Yusuke offered. "The only people who saw you kick ass on the ship are on your team or taught you, so we ain't gonna tell anyone."

"And you're so small and cute that you'll be underestimated," Kuwabara added.

"More accurately, because he is small and human he will be underestimated," Hiei corrected.

Harry enjoyed meeting Yusuke's girlfriend Keiko and Kazuma's sister Shizuru, as well as Hiei's sister Yukina, when they invaded the room that night to celebrate the victory, Botan leading the way. He took photos with all of them, naturally, and they wrote things in his book for him that he would have to get to another time, but he was sure they were brilliant.

The morning of the second round of fights, Hiei and Kurama went out for a walk early, and Harry was just making breakfast with Baron when Kazuma woke up in a cold sweat from a dream that was more like a vision of someone else's memory.

"If you want, I can have Lulu take a look at that," Harry offered. "I'm sure she'd be able to help close off the part of your mind that picks up stuff like that."

"Uh, no thanks," Kazuma said, holding his hands up as a sort of barrier between himself and the idea. "I like cats, but I don't think I really want a purple one pokin' around in my head like that, no matter how smart it is."

Harry had just shrugged, deciding not to be insulted by the slur on Lulu. He was fairly sure most people would feel the same way, even if eevees and all their evolved forms were much more fox- or dog-like than cat-like generally.

Kurama and Hiei weren't back when they left their hotel room for the fight, and weren't at the arena when it was go-time. Harry grinned, anticipating being allowed to fight this time. It looked like two members of the opposing team were missing as well. Harry got the funny feeling that they were in the same place as their missing team mates.

"All-on-all!" Harry declared, getting terms in before his Yusuke or Kazuma could say anything. "Last one standing wins."

"Agreed," the opposing team's manager, one Dr Ichigaki, answered, a greedy look on his face.

"Begin!" Koto declared.

Harry skipped out of the way of things easily and waited for Yusuke and Kazuma to create an opportunity for him to land a hit. They fought well together, but they had no idea of his style or skills, so they couldn't really factor him in. That was fine. He could factor himself in, and he'd even do it using one of Master Genkai's tricks... but without the chanting.

"One!" Harry counted, poking his shirtless opponent in the chest and moving on when he fell over. "Two!" he continued, doing the same to the orange-haired boy. "Three!" he finished, poking the guy wearing the ugly purple jacket.

"Don't hit your TV sets, home viewers, that really did just happen! Harry Potter, the little kid from Team Urameshi, just poked all of his opponents in the chest and laid them out!" Koto said, staring for a moment before she began the ten-count.

Kazuma wasn't very impressed that they might be dead, especially when Kurama and Hiei showed up with their manipulated opponent's master, but once the ten-count was finished and Harry was sick of listening to the older boy complain, he walked over to the nearest of the incapacitated men and kicked them, gently, in the side. A groan was his answer.

"See?" Harry demanded. "They're fine."

They had their next battle immediately, which was annoying for most of them, but actually bad for Kuwabara, since he'd gotten beaten up somewhat seriously in that last fight.

Team Mahjo were their next opponents, and Harry was very impressed with their entrance. Then one of them took off his concealing robes and stepped up to make terms. Harry couldn't help but grin. Another red-head!

"One-to-one-to-one 'til I'm a tower on me feet 'oldin' the five," the demon said.

"I wanna talk like that!" Harry cheered, tugging on Kurama's sleeve excitedly. "Think he'll teach me when the fights are over?"

Kurama honestly had no response to that. Hiei, on the other hand, suggested that Harry had been dropped on his head as a baby.

Just as Yusuke got back to where they were waiting for the first fight, a medical exam was called for – as per the rules of the Tournament. Hiei and Kuwabara both got confined to the medical tent, and Harry couldn't think of a harsher punishment for the small demon, since he couldn't stand the large human boy's company or conversation, at least, if his only calling Kazuma 'Oaf' was anything to go by. It made Harry feel better about not having an answer for Hiei's little insult though.

Jin – the big red-haired guy that Harry wanted lessons in talking from – apparently didn't like the idea of people interfering with the fight by removing opponents, and had sat down at the wall in a bit of a pout. So another of his team mates fought first.

It was not a very good fight, by Harry's estimation. Kurama won, though he had to kill his opponent, but at the same time, Kurama was covered in 'paint' that meant he couldn't get to his energy and all his limbs were weighed down.

"Kurama, move," Harry yelled.

"I can't move!" Kurama yelled back.

"Bullshit!"

Heads from every point in the stadium snapped around to look at the boy in disbelief.

"What a potty-mouth," Kazuma commented.

"One word for you Kurama: inertia. Now get over the weight and get moving!" Harry yelled.

Kurama wasn't able to move fast enough however, and the next opponent was in the ring, ready to fight him. Kurama lost, just, because he couldn't get up from being knocked down. He'd managed to frustrate Touya despite his difficulty with moving and his inability to access his energy, which was quite the accomplishment.

Harry stepped up next to face the ice master.

"Do not think I will go easy on you just because you are a child, little human," Touya said.

Harry smiled. "Wouldn't dream of it!" he answered. "But, I think our lovely hostess -" he gestured to Koto "- is starting to feel the chill. You don't mind if I turn up the heat, do you?" Harry asked, bringing his hands together in a seal that Itachi had taught him, then he breathed fire.

Just for fun and dramatic effect – and because it had been way too long since he'd changed his hair from black to a more interesting look – Harry shifted his hair so that it was bright, bright red with streaks of orange and yellow through it, so that it looked like his head was on fire as well.

Harry winked at Koto. "Warmer now?" he asked. He was too young to be flirting, really, but he'd learned from Gojyo how, and he'd flirted with Yukina last night too, and Koto was a red-head!

"Much warmer, thanks," she answered.

Harry smiled and turned to his opponent. "How about you, Touya? How are you doing?"

Touya had erected a thick barrier of ice between himself and the fire ball Harry had sent at him, but while he wasn't burned, his ice wall had turned into a small puddle at his feet. The demon himself looked a bit steamed too.

"I don't know what that was," Touya said. "But I did not enjoy it."

"Okay then, how about this?" Harry suggested, whipping his hands through three different shapes then punching the battle-stage floor. A ripple flowed up and out in the stone, and when it met Touya, it wrapped around his legs. When it passed and went down again, it pulled him down too. Harry punched the ground again, and another wave of earth moved out, reaching higher on Touya and pulling him further in. Touya started to really panic when he was up to his chest, but even though he blew ice needles at Harry, the boy didn't stop until Touya was up to his neck and couldn't bring his hands around to his face to blow those needles.

Koto declared Harry the winner.

"I should let him out now, shouldn't I?" Harry said.

"If you could," Koto said. "Wouldn't want him in the way for the next fight after all."

Harry nodded and walked up to where one of Touya's hands was sticking out. "No attacking me when I get you out," Harry ordered, smiling before he formed another shape with his fingers, grabbed Touya's hand, and pulled him out.

"Don't do that again," Touya said, frowning.

"Smile more," Harry answered, just as seriously. "And come visit our hotel room before the Tournament is over. I want us to have a photo together so that I can put it in my book."

Touya gave Harry a confused look, but nodded and left the arena. Jin bounced up with a happy grin on his face.

"That was a bit interesin'," he said, grinning. "You've gotten me all excited too. Look see, me ears are all wigglin'."
Harry smiled. "I want to talk like you do," he said, then closed his eyes tight. His ears were suddenly as long and pointy as Jin's. "But this will have to do."

"Hoo-wee! That's quite a trick! But we be fightin' now little man Harry Potter," Jin said, grinning.

Harry lost that fight, but he fell down with a smile on his face, talking about having Jin come to the hotel room with Touya, making it a party. He'd also done some truly credible damage to the red-head, which meant that Yusuke, the only fighter left for their side, only needed to land one good, solid punch to Jin's face that sent him crashing into the stands rather forcefully, and the free-spirited shinobi of the winds was out for the count. Yusuke's fight with the largest member of the team was embarrassing – embarrassingly easy. Then was Rishou, but by then, Yusuke was all nicely warmed up and hadn't even gotten to use his spirit gun yet. That fight was as much of a crowd pleaser as Jin's against Harry, with the exception of the crowd not being happy that a human had won.

It really was a party in the hotel room that night too. Harry explained to Jin and Touya about his life, got a couple of pictures with them, and they wrote some stuff into his book – then had to teach him how to read it, because it was demon scrawl rather than any human language. A game of mah-jong got going, and Harry was able to claim a favour from Botan when he won. He had her write out a translation of what Jin and Touya had written in his book, as well as the complete demon scrawl alphabet.

They had a bit of a chance to kick back and relax after that, while other teams fought each other. They'd won the fights that they needed to, Team Urameshi just needed to get passed one more team before the final match against the famous Team Toguro.

Harry got to fight against the pink-wearing samurai-wannabe with an obsession for fame, and the old guy who was actually a clown underneath and had obsessions with being beautiful. After that fight, Genkai called Harry to receive what she claimed would be the last thing she had to pass on to him. He honestly didn't like the sound of that, but followed her anyway. He'd been training with her for a little over nine months now, so following her directions, however distasteful, was something he'd learned to do.

Baron, as he always did when the training was potentially highly dangerous to his ward, followed them.

Genkai led them to a cave, and instructed Harry about the power that she was giving him: her spirit orb. It was a painful transition, but thankfully not a long one. Genkai smiled at her panting apprentice as he slowly forced himself to stand.

"Now, if you will excuse me Harry," she said, "It's time for me to go and face Toguro. It's time the two of us finished things."

"Master," Harry said, bowing. He'd known it was coming. He wasn't stupid, but he wasn't happy about it. "I want to watch."

~oOo~

Harry watched, frustrated, as Yusuke fought Toguro. The older boy didn't have the training that he did, though it seemed that the large ex-human was certainly putting the punk teen through a very cruel training session in the form of the Dark Tournament, and now the final battle. Harry knew, knew, that he could beat the large demon, he was the one who'd gotten the training for that sort of thing after all, but Torugo had chosen Yusuke to be his opponent. His apprentice even, in a twisted way. For this battle, Harry was practically filling the same place as Sakyo – an extra, to just make sure that the rest of the team could compete.

Kurama had lost his fight, just, though he'd killed his opponent, and Hiei had torched the whole arena while winning his. Kazuma had wanted to show off his new sword and taken on the elder of the two Toguro brothers. Harry was amazed, quietly, that the big softy had won his fight as well, and wondered what kind of a chewing out he'd get from Shizuru for having come close to dying so many times.

If Yusuke lost the fight, then Harry would fight Sakyo. The black-marketeer had tried suggesting that Toguro's fight be a two-for-one, as he wouldn't want to have to beat up a little kid. Harry had turned him down flat, snarling that the only way Harry wouldn't fight was if Yusuke won and he didn't need to. Sakyo had actually been somewhat taken aback by that declaration. The man looked just as concerned that Toguro seemed to be leading up to getting Yusuke to break through some mental wall and kill him, rather than him killing Yusuke.

Toguro's faking killing Kuwabara – on Genkai's advice when she used Yusuke's cute little spirit beast as an avatar – seemed to finally do it. Everyone in the stadium knew Yusuke's feelings of loss, and Harry watched Yusuke's aura flare in awe. It was, to him, a beautiful thing.

Harry didn't need to fight Sakyo. The man decided to go and kill himself anyway, taking the whole stadium with him.

"Bring Master Genkai back," Harry said to Koenma, making his request as a winner of the Tournament.

Koenma nodded solemnly. "I will," he promised.

The old psychic was back with them before they left the island, and on the boat trip back Harry asked her to teach Yusuke and Kazuma.

"They need it," he said. "And you won't have me around to pick on any more soon, 'cause I'm leaving."

Ryu sat on Harry's shoulder quietly when the boy said that. It was proof that the boy was getting better at controlling his inter-dimensional travel, that he could tell for himself now, when it had always been Baron knowing the when, and only because he was a Creation.

"Where are you leaving to?" Genkai asked.

Harry shrugged. "I'll find out when I get there," he said. "I'll miss you Master Genkai."

He got to have one more group photo with everyone he'd made friends with here – his team, their friends and family, Master Genkai, Koenma and Botan, and the demons he'd fought against in the Tournament, though how Chu and Rinku ended up joining them Harry wasn't sure, not that he was going to object. They all wrote something in his book, then Harry had to sling his backpack over his shoulder, and with a wave to everybody, he, Ryu and the Baron disappeared.

~oOo~