(A/N) Ok, ok. I have no excuse for the delay as this was sitting half-finished on my comp for pretty much the entire summer. My bad. Though I think the 11 pages of writing will make up for some of that lol So, now that the school year is starting up again, expect faster updates as I lack motivation during the summer and this particular summer was kinda busy what with the family moving to Texas and all that comes with that :)
IMPORTANT NOTE: I made a slight adjustment in the way things worked in the tournament so Kuwabara's part was significantly increased and Rando's human form got a small backstory. Also, I moved things along so that the side fights were skimmed over ('cus really, who actually cares about Yusuke vs. Kibano?) and went right on to the serious, plot moving fights. I'm not too concerned with the schematics of this one, guys lol
Wonderful. So, apologies all around and now, on to the story!
Enjoy and review!
Hiei watched grimly. Kuwabara hadn't learned his spirit sword yet; there was no possible way he could win, much less come out alive.
And looking at Rando now, Hiei could see a twisted smirk curve into being on his face. It promised bloodshed and a painful end to Kuwabara.
The demon had worked out that both he and the detective knew the oaf and that his death would anger them. Hiei hated fools who tried to manipulate him like that. His eyes narrowed in return- in hatred rather than challenge.
Though he would like to put the lowlife in his place, now was not the time to interfere. If Yusuke could not prove to Genkai that he was a worthy apprentice then... well Hiei couldn't think of the countless things that would go wrong if Yusuke never learned from Genkai.
Kuwabara, oblivious to the danger but not the atmosphere, began his usual pre-battle spiel, "what's with the look, Urameshi, you afraid I'm gonna' beat this punk too bad?"
The 'look' Yusuke was currently bearing was one of dawning horror. He knew the danger Kuwabara was in and, mind stuttering, moved to do something to stop the fight before it could begin.
"No, you idiot! You can't fight this guy, he's a freakin' demon!" said without a care for onlookers.
Kuwabara paled at that but bulled through, as was his way- Hiei really had no idea what could possibly be going through the other's mind during the crucial life and death moments their group so often had- "so what? You think I can't take this guy?" He huffed and shoved his finger at Yusuke's face, "what makes you so special anyway that you get to fight him, huh?"
By now Genkai was getting impatient. Hiei saw her cross her arms and give him a pointed look, as if saying, 'well? I'm not getting any younger. Tell your detective and his idiot friend to hurry it up.'
Hiei scoffed a little, as if he needed her to tell him that. Still, he shot a paralyzing- quite literally, as he was using he demonic energy to back it up- glare towards Rando, who appeared to have been about to make some instigating comment that probably would have gotten Kuwabara killed sooner. The other shut his mouth as if he'd never intended to open it.
Deep- we're talking way down here- in the recesses of Hiei's consciousness a part of him was afraid. Of course, the feeling was so wrapped up in anger, dislike, and a supreme aversion towards ever showing any kind of friendly emotion that not even he noticed it.
This part was currently suffering a major panic attack- the likes of which have never been seen before- at the thought of one of it's own being killed. Some of that panic managed to force it's way past the barriers on Hiei's emotions and firmly situate itself in his already racing mind.
In other words: Hiei was panicking. He had little-to-no clue how to stop Kuwabara from entering this fight. In every other instance of their lives Hiei, Kurama, and Yusuke had never been able to deter Kuwabara from the path of his choosing. Not with the Four Saint Beasts, not with the Dark Tournament, and certainly not with Sensui- though to be fair, they had all been in on that one.
That wasn't going to stop him from trying, though. Being exceptionally stubborn was an innate talent that their little group seemed to have... in spades.
In the few seconds it took Hiei to make his way over to the cause of his grievances, Yusuke's fingers had found themselves around Kuwabara's collar and the both of them were yelling at each other in incomprehensible words.
He steeled himself inwardly and, in true Hiei fashion, started out with an insult.
"Why do you bother, detective? If the fool wants to die so badly then let him."
Yusuke started sputtering and dropped his hands from around Kuwabara's neck. Kuwabara, meanwhile, appeared to puff up in preparation for a new argument with Hiei.
"Hey! I'll have you know-"
"Save it," Hiei snapped out, "the only thing that will happen if you go out there will be a pathetic fight ending with your death."
He sneered, "have you even managed to access your spirit energy yet? Because without it you stand even less of a chance."
Yusuke had quieted by now, though he appeared ready to jump into the conversation if it looked like Hiei couldn't convince Kuwabara that this was the absolute worst time to be stubborn.
"I don't need spirit energy to win this," Kuwabara shouted, "alls' I need are my two good fists to beat him back to whatever nasty place he came from!"
Hiei twitched, reigning in on the urge to wrap his own hands around the fool's neck as Yusuke had done, "you must be even more idiotic than I thought to believe that you could defeat him without spirit energy."
He shot another quieting glare Rando's way, "that lowlife may be weak by most standards, but he has killed 99 human masters of martial arts and copied their techniques. What have you accomplished besides a few pathetic fights with child delinquents?"
Kuwabara's face turned a particularly funny purple color in his rage, "that's it! I don't care what either of you guys say!"
He started walking into the gloom, "I'm fighting this and that's final!"
Genkai shrugged at Yusuke and Hiei's baffled expressions, "don't look at me, if he wants to fight a losing battle that's his problem."
She turned to Rando, "well? Are you going to join him or just stand there all day- or do I need to disqualify you?"
Rando merely smiled guilelessly. His cover was blown but he'd save the threats and maniacal laughter for when he actually stole the hag's technique. That didn't stop him from getting a quick word in to the pathetic human-loving demon and his pet spirit detective before he killed the orange-haired idiot.
"I hope you don't have any last words for you friend because I doubt he'll hear them over the sounds of his own bones breaking." The two in question growled lowly at his words and he laughed at their helplessness, "but don't worry, I've got a few last words of my own for him, right before I rip off his head!"
He walked off before they could get a word in, chuckling sinisterly the whole way.
"Dammit, Kuwabara, you better not lose to this guy!" Yusuke shouted into the darkness. It didn't ease the sense of powerlessness he felt and he clenched his fists hard to stop himself from interfering.
"If it looks like the fool is going to get killed, I recommend jumping in to save him."
"What?" Yusuke looked to Hiei in shock, never expecting the other to suggest something that sounded a lot like caring.
"Just watch the fight, detective."
It was that moment that Botan chose to arrive. The grim reaper materialized next to Yusuke, (on the far side and out of reach of Hiei, of course).
"Hello everyone, sorry I'm late to the party! There were a couple of spirits who didn't want to move on just yet and it took some convincing," she grinned cheerfully, the despondent atmosphere not quite clicking with her.
That quickly changed when she saw the looks on their faces, "hang on, what's the matter? You didn't lose the tournament already, did you?"
She looked around, finally noticing her surroundings, "and why is it so darned dark in here? How are we supposed to watch the fights if there's no light?"
Hiei turned to Yusuke and deadpanned, "why is she here?"
Momentarily distracted from his thoughts by the bubbly messenger of death's spontaneous arrival, Yusuke responded back, "beats me, she always pops outta' nowhere like this."
She smiled and crossed her arms smartly, "well somebody's got to keep you on your toes, we can't have you getting out of shape now."
"Look. Now is really not the time, Botan. We kinda' have a situation here," Yusuke pointed out. Could nobody but him see the certain doom Kuwabara was heading into?
She 'hmm'd' thoughtfully glancing at Yusuke and Hiei, "so tell me, what's the problem? Neither of you two look to be hurt in any way..." she trailed off expectantly.
Yusuke pointedly stabbed his finger towards the fighting area and bit out, "Kuwabara's about to get his ass kicked by our friendly neighborhood demon right now because he's too stupid to realize he's going to get his ass kicked! That's the damn problem!"
Botan gasped, "oh dear, this is horrible!" She glared and pointed her own finger out at Kuwabara's position, "well? Why didn't you stop him?"
Any answer was cut off when Genkai raised her hand and started the fight, "if you brats are done distracting everyone then lets proceed with this tournament. Begin!"
"No..." Yusuke breathed out, mind freezing as all the possible outcomes of the fight lanced through his brain. None of them were good.
Hiei was silent, words were of no use to him; he needed to come up with a plan.
'...And it needs to be one worthy of Kurama...' He grimaced. Planning was not his forte.
Away from all the action, though not for very long, Kuwabara was sizing up his opponent, 'He still doesn't look like a demon to me, heck he kinda looks like that one kid I always had'ta babysit...'
Warning bells went off in Kuwabara's head. Yes, some things were different than what he remembered- the kid had shaved his head bald and had much different clothes on- but, now that he really looked, he knew he recognized his opponent. His eyes widened and his mouth gaped open, silently mouthing denials 'no it can't be, I just babysat for 'im last month!'
"Hey, you!" Kuwabara shouted at the bored-looking apparition before him, "where'd you steal that body from!"
That got Rando's attention, "ah, so you noticed?" He sneered sadistically, "I wonder, did you happen to know this human?"
He eyed the outstretched hand of the borrowed body he wore with mocking casualness, "you see, I had to acquire this one to remain undetected by the spirit world's tracking team while I learned my new techniques."
His eyes flicked up to watch Kuwabara's stunned face slowly turn to anger, "it's unfortunate, but one must do what one must do to move up in this world. You understand."
That was when Genkai's voice echoed towards them. Rando grinned, "ah well, it doesn't appear that, that knowledge will do you much good, seeing as you'll soon be dead."
"How dare you..." Kuwabara struggled with his words, his thoughts clouded by the storm of pain and rage a child's death brought on him, "how dare you kill a innocent little kid for some...some stupid power thing!"
"I'll kill you for what you've done, monster," Kuwabara gritted out quietly.
Rando snorted, "Ha! I'd like to see you try, human."
With that, Rando began his attack, not waiting for Kuwabara to regroup his thoughts enough to fight back.
Kuwabara was completely thrown off guard by the demon's vicious assault. He quickly found a fist coming for his face and shut his eyes, putting up a weak defense.
Rando blew right through his crossed arms and landed a punishing blow to Kuwabara's jaw.
Kuwabara fell down and stayed down.
"What, did I kill you already?" Rando taunted, "guess I'll go tell your friends the good news."
'...Heh, Urameshi hits harder than that...'
Kuwabara's hand twitched and the number-two fighter at Sarayashiki Junior High raised himself up off the ground, ready to give it his all.
'There's only one way to win this thing.'
Despite what many believed of Kuwabara, he was actually one of the brighter individuals in existence. Though it was more street smarts in his earlier years until he dedicated himself to higher learning.
That was more than enough for this fight and he was going to prove it.
"Hey! Hiei, Urameshi, whoever, I don't care! How do I access my spirit energy?" He grinned, thinking that the faces they must be making now were most assuredly priceless. 'Bet they never expected that from me, hehe'
The three bystanders' faces were indeed priceless. Yusuke, Hiei, and Botan had expected Kuwabara to fight without a thought or plan for pretty much the entire match- each busy concocting their own various rescue scenarios, (though Hiei's was more along the lines of getting the other two to jump in to save the oaf than actively doing the rescuing).
Surprisingly Botan- who turned out to be the 'whoever' part of Kuwabara's question- was the first to snap out of her stupor, being used to coaching new recruits in the basics of spirit energy and so much better at playing teacher than the two anti-social ones, "oh, I know! It's like when you feel ghosts, Kuwabara! Reach for that part of you and imagine it coursing through your body, then focus it into a weapon!"
She heard a "gotcha!" echo back at her and sighed, at least he had more of a fighting chance now.
"Well, that was unexpected," Yusuke half-heartedly said.
"Don't get your hopes up, detective, we'll still be the ones saving his ass in the end," Hiei grumbled. He wasn't good with surprises he should have seen coming.
Rando scoffed as he watched the human try to form his energy into something usable, "you really think that a human who hasn't used his spirit energy in a single fight can take down a demon who's been using it since day one? Don't kid yourself, it'll just make your defeat more humiliating."
"Shut up, you scumbag. I'm gonna' make you eat those words, just you wait!"
Amused more than anything at the response, the demon settled down to wait, "go ahead and try, it may make this charade of a fight at least a little more challenging for me."
'We'll just see about that, won't we, Rando,' Kuwabara thought to himself, then went back to feeling for his energy. 'Ah ha, there you are- whoa this is kinda' weird- lets take this guy out!'
"You ready?" He yelled out.
His opponent smirked, "I think the better question is, are you? But go ahead, amuse me."
Kuwabara pulled at the energy within him, forming the image of the weapon he would use, "bring it! Spirit Sword!"
At that familiar battle cry, Hiei smiled a bit- then scowled when he realized what, exactly, he was smiling about.
The teen charged at Rando wildly, slashing his new sword around like a baseball bat. It looked more like he was swinging a Nerf-sword about at the nearest Toy-R-Us with a couple of friends than actually fighting.
Hiei felt the urge to bash his head immediately on the nearest wall; he'd again forgotten how untrained Kuwabara was at the beginning. They, (a.k.a. he and Kurama), would have to start from scratch to get him up to Dark Tournament levels.
Despite the initial burst of strength Kuwabara had shown, he just didn't have the spirit energy required to continue like he was.
Rando was just too fast for any hits to make contact.
And then the demon went on the offensive.
Vanishing from Kuwabara's sight, Rando appeared farther away, next to one of the large pillars.
"Hey! Where'd you go?" Kuwabara shouted, huffing and trying to regain his breath, "stop hiding and fight like a real man!"
Rando's voice echoed from the area in front of Kuwabara, who jerked his head towards the sound, "you seem to be slowing down, human. How about I show you some of my moves to get you motivated, I'm starting to get bored."
"You don't scare me, I'll show you bored!" Enraged, said human again went charging off to where his enemy hid.
'Yes, come closer. It will only make this all the more agonizing for you,' Rando began his technique.
Though it was impossible to notice in the complete blackness, the shadows began to writhe.
They trailed at the ankles of the approaching human who, with his new, untrained senses couldn't detect the unusual threat. This went far beyond merely feeling the presences of ghosts and into the realm of the demons.
Kuwabara neared the pillar, Rando's taunts beckoning him forward, "I'm tired of your stupid games! Just fight already, would you?"
"Foolish human, I already made my move and you've walked right into it," Rando slashed his hands in sharp, twisting motions like he was grabbing something and the shadows at Kuwabara's feet followed suit. They fastened themselves onto Kuwabara, who cried out in shock, and lashed him to the pillar, suddenly becoming harder than the stone they'd tied him to.
"You like this one?" Rando sneered, "I was saving it for later but after all the tough talk I heard from you, I think you deserve a little demonstration!"
"Agh! Get this crap offa' me!" Kuwabara shouted, "this is not what I meant by a fair fight and you know it!"
"Ha, you're starting to piss me off, human," Rando growled, no longer smiling, "didn't anyone ever tell you that in the real world, nobody fights fair?"
"Those guys aren't real men, they don't know what it means to live honorably!" Kuwabara spat back, "you're obviously too weak to understand that and that's why you're going to lose this fight!"
It was the 'weak' comment that broke Rando's patience, "fine. I can see there's just no getting through that thick wall of stupidity with you so I'll just make this quick."
He hadn't noticed the growing concentration of spirit energy in Kuwabara's palm.
More shadows flowed up from the floor and molded into skin-piercing points, all aiming at the unprotected spots on their prisoner's body.
"I hope your life was worthwhile up until this point because it'd be terrible if you died with regrets," the shadows rushed forward, aiming to kill.
"The only one who's going to die with regrets is you!" Kuwabara shouted, and unleashed his attack towards the source of the demonic energy he'd been focusing on. The sudden burst of light shattered the shadows into dust and smashed into Rando's unprotected chest. The demon fell back to the floor, unmoving.
"Ha-ha-ha," Kuwabara gasped out, his energy depleted, "guess you forgot that light moves faster than your shadows, huh?" He began to walk back to the entrance, stumbling every few steps.
Yusuke tore his eyes away from where he'd last sensed the demonic energy emitting from Rando. Watching the weakened- and decidedly human- aura moving towards him, he waited for Kuwabara to make his way out of the darkness, (though that was in a manner of speaking, seeing as the whole place was completely black).
"I don't believe it," he mumbled to Hiei, "I thought I was supposed to be the one to take out Rando, how'd this happen?"
Hiei just shook his head, he knew the fool had his moments but this, this was... this was not good. If Yusuke didn't impress Genkai then there'd be little hope for the future. Any plan he'd had would completely unravel if Yusuke didn't receive Genkai's training.
Kuwabara was twenty feet away and about to celebrate his victory against the 'evil' demon when the shadows reappeared and stabbed him through the chest.
"Gah-uh," he involuntarily got out, blood beginning to spill over his teeth and down his chin. He fell to his knees, slowly twisting his head to the side to see what had hit him.
Rando's energy re-immerged, shooting up past what everyone had sensed from him before. He was in his true demon form now, shedding the weak human facade in his impatience. He approached the fallen teen and shot him a disparaging look, "I hope you didn't really think you'd beaten me with that feeble attack."
He ignored the angered shouts coming from Yusuke's direction and stalked up to Genkai, "I think you can clearly see who won this round so can we move on with this thing?"
She looked at him neutrally, "yes, you are the winner. Everyone who's left, head outside, we've a tournament to complete."
Botan looked up in outrage from where she'd been frantically trying to close the gaping wound in Kuwabara's chest. Thankfully it had gone through his lung and not the heart or there'd be no hope at all for the boy, "How can you just stand there and do nothing when that demon just killed an innocent boy!"
Yusuke, who'd been on the floor next to his fallen friend and staring brokenly at the blood freely flowing, woke up at those words. He shot up off his feet with a vicious expression on his face and was about to let his anger out on all in the vicinity when Hiei's hand reach out and halted him.
"What the hell do you want, Hiei?" He snarled out, ready to break the other's hand to get to Genkai.
Hiei threw a glare his way that promised severe punishment the next time they sparred and returned his attention to the calm spirit master, "you may act impartial but the fact is that you know some healing arts." Genkai acknowledged this fact with a raised brow and narrowed eyes but otherwise said nothing.
Hiei continued, "so unless there's a reason to conserve your energy, there's a foolish human who is currently bleeding out on your floor right now who could use those skills."
Yusuke shoved Hiei's hand off him and stalked up to Genkai, "look. Either you heal my friend or I kick your ass and forget this whole stupid tournament! What's it gonna' be, huh?"
She snorted and stomped out the remains of her second cigarette, "listen kid, right now you're nowhere near the level needed to 'kick my ass' but I'll humor you. Your demon friend here had a better argument by far."
She made her way to Kuwabara's side and knelt next to the quickly tiring Botan who sighed in clear relief when the other stepped in to help.
Together they sealed up the hole until all that was left was a jagged white scar.
"Whew, glad that's over with," Botan smiled, "don't worry, Yusuke, he's good as new and he'll be up in a jiffy!"
"Thanks, Botan," Yusuke replied offhandedly, "but right now I gotta' bone to pick with this Rando bastard, so lets just get on with it."
He turned to Hiei, "you comin'? I know you don't exactly like Kuwabara but I figured you'd like to see me take down my first real demon, especially when it's that arrogant sonova'bitch."
"Hn, I suppose this could be considered your first real challenge- seeing as that pathetic bat-demon hardly counted- to see if you're ready for the real world," Hiei derisively intoned, "but don't get too full of yourself, this Rando is nothing compared to what's out there."
The wide doors opened and their group, minus Genkai, flinched at the comparatively bright light that hit their eyes. Rando stood calmly outside, waiting mockingly for her to take the lead. It was time for the finals of the Genkai tournament to begin.
Yusuke stared the demon down, brown eyes flashing with barely contained fury ready to be sent Rando's way.
He'd never killed anyone before, but he didn't think he'd mind much if he started with this one.