A/N: Took a little longer than I planned but, at last, it is done! Enjoy Chapter 9 and the conclusion of the Semi-Finals!

Chapter 9: Semi-Finals: War

Yusuke and Kurama backed up as the fused Beast approached them. His entire aura just exuded death and destruction. They were facing down a lion that had not eaten in days and they were gazelles in a caged environment; not an impossible situation but the odds certainly weren't in their favor. Of course, with how this day started, that was to be expected. Arashi had definitely put them in a dire situation. With the whole Tournament being a must-win scenario already and Arashi had more than proven his power with even starting the game in the first place, this gave them an even clearer picture as to who they were dealing with.

"Any ideas?" Yusuke asked his teammate.

"A few but you might not like them," Kurama admitted.

"With a 'roid-rage demon staring us down, I wouldn't bet on that. Whatever it is, screw it. I'm game."

"Can you handle the Beast? Alone?"

"Probably, why?"

"Those markings keep him together but they do have a limited lifespan. Also, going up against you, I'm sure you can cause the fusion to break by overpowering them. If you can fight the Beast, alone, I'll keep the other two distracted."

"Naturally, I have to do the heavy lifting?" He shook his head. "Sure, why not?"

Hotshot was taking aim. Nakata was brandishing his blade.

"Alright…" Yusuke shifted his energy to his Mazoku energy, causing his tattoos to appear. "I'll handle it."

"Good luck." Kurama readied his Rose Whip and charged at Nakata while Yusuke ran at the Beast.

Mukuro rushed at Hatsuka and she threw a punch at her. With the speed of the punch taking her by surprise, Hatsuka blocked the punch using the broad side of her blade. Mukuro flashed out of Hatsuka's sight, causing the bandit queen to blink in surprise. She looked all around the Ether Realm to find her enemy but didn't see her at first. Mukuro appeared behind and kicked her in the back. Hatsuka flew forward and Mukuro appeared before her. The bandit queen got enough of her senses to kick Mukuro across the face. She went for a stab but Mukuro dodged in time and grabbed the arm of Hatsuka's that held the sword. She tossed Hatsuka to the ground and forced the sword out of her hand, flinging it across the ground. She moved over her, facing her as though they were upside down, reached up and punched Hatsuka, repeatedly, in the face and chest. Hatsuka absorbed about six blows before kicking Mukuro on the top of the head to free herself. They both got to their feet and faced each other. Hatsuka thought about going for her sword but decided against it, letting her eyes glow red.

Mukuro remembered this technique; Hatsuka had wiped out many of the demon king's soldiers with it. She was struggling to remember the name until Hatsuka used it and a very dark tone.

"Burning Heat!" Hatsuka's entire body temperature rose to unbearable levels.

Mukuro covered her face but she knew she was going to have to get over this heat quickly. She knew she was going to have to step it up when she saw the bandit queen gathering energy an attack. Moving at an incredible speed, Hatsuka punched Mukuro across the face, kneed her in the gut, and gave her a kick hard enough to lift her off of her feet and send her sailing through the air before crashing into the ground.

Sitting up, Mukuro shook her head at the attack and groaned. She gasped when she her enemy preparing for another attack. But, not like she had before.

Hatsuka held her right hand in the air with palm open as if she was performing a chop. Energy formed around it and her eyes became completely red. "BURNING SLASH!" She swiped the air with her raised hand, causing a blade of energy to launch forward.

Mukuro barely had any time to react and no time dodge the attack. She crossed her arms over herself in an attempt to block the attack, which she did but it took her off of her feet. She landed on the ground, groaning as she let the wave of pain through her. She pushed up on her elbows and looked at Hatsuka. The bandit queen looked ready to attack with another Slash.

Mukuro squinted. This was going to be more difficult than she initially thought. Difficult but not impossible.

In the forest, Kuwabara and Hiei continued their struggle against Udai and Nanae; with Kuwabara battling Udai while Hiei fended off Nanae. The battles were pretty much a stalemate with the members of Team Urameshi doing their best to use their power without risking hurting the girls.

Kuwabara, however, soon managed to outmaneuver Udai with a combination of technique, street smarts, and just plain human unpredictability. The spirit aware human knocked the demon bounty hunter down with a hard swing from his Spirit Sword.

The bounty hunter looked up and gritted his teeth. "Oh, the hell with this shit!" He reached into a pouch on his belt and hit a button, summoning a large armor to appear from the forest. The armor was not all that dissimilar from the weapon Dr. Ichigaki's team used against Hiei and Kurama years before; it was a basic mechanical nightmare that followed the orders of its owner, Udai.

Kuwabara stared at up the mechanized weapon and shouted, "Oh, you gotta be freaking kidding me!"

"I usually save this for when I have to take down a score of bounty heads." Udai stood up. "Consider it an honor to die this way, human!"

Kuwabara swallowed hard. "Yeah," he said, nervously. "Yeah, sure…"

The metal armor swung at Kuwabara, causing him to jump back in defense. He made contact with the armor with his Spirit Sword, only denting it but not enough to cause any damage. Kuwabara was surprised by the lack of impact but he dwelled on it too long. He was knocked to the ground, skidding all the way to where the girls were trapped.

"KAZUMA!" Yukina screamed.

"Get up, bro!" Shizuru screamed. "Get up!"

Hiei was locked in blades with Nanae when he saw that Kuwabara was in dire straits. He tried to get his past his current rival but Nanae would have none of it. Fighting him enough to keep him busy, she got behind him and wrapped her arms around him, attempting to slit his throat but Hiei blocked her attempt with her blades.

"No, Hiei," Nanae said. "Your 'brother' is going to die! And you will die at my hand!" She pulled him closer, "And then your friends will die in the Tournament."

Udai directed the armor to go toward the recovering Kuwabara just as he was pushing himself up to his knee. He knew he could still fight but how much longer he was going to last against that armor was anyone's guess. He needed a plan and needed one quick.

As it turned out, a plan was already in play when, out of nowhere, a line of green energy sliced the armor's arm right off.

"What the heck was that?!" Kuwabara screamed.

Hiei smirked. He threw his head back, catching Nanae in the chin. He jumped and kicked her in the face, sending her skidding along the ground. He pressed his hands to his neck from Nanae's blades scratching his neck. Despite the wounds in the vital area, they weren't deep enough to kill him; he was out of danger for the moment. "I'd know that energy anywhere!" He called out, "Misawa!"

Sure enough, the green clad warrior landed among the fray, blocking Udai and his armor from Kuwabara and the girls. He looked between the brothers-in-law, addressing them respectively, "Hiei. Kuwabara. Good to see you both."

"What are you doing here?" Kuwabara asked.

"A powerful sorcerer starts a new Dark Tournament where the rumor was he was specifically targeting you all? Why wouldn't I be here?"

"Why is everyone showing up like we need saving?" Hiei asked.

Kuwabara laughed. "I sure ain't complaining."

The armor started move again.

"One second." Misawa charged his sword, Emerald Heaven. He brought the blade before his face and the blade started to shine bright enough to darken everything else around him. His eyes shone a bright green. He declared in a booming voice, "Emerald Twilight." He quickly placed the sword at his side, rushed at the armor and a bright flash of green appeared.

After the light faded, everyone looked to see that Misawa was behind the armor, down on one knee and holding his sword in the air.

Misawa stood and smirked. "Rather pathetic equipment you have, Udai." He swiped the air once and the armor fell into dozens of pieces with parts of it exploding. The legendary warrior just chuckled and looked at the bounty hunter. "I sure hope you put up a better challenge than that piece of trash you brought with you."

Udai backed away. "To fight you? The fabled Swordmaster Misawa? Not a chance! No one said anything about fighting you."

"That's because everyone knows better."

Udai knew a losing battle when he saw it. He'd been on both sides of the spectrum enough for it. "Forget it! Arashi isn't paying me enough for this." He slowly backed away, turned, and vanished, with his fast movements being traced through the trees.

Hiei smirked and turned to look at Nanae. "And you?"

Nanae looked at Misawa then back at Hiei. This fight was lost and she wasn't going to stick around for this. She aimed one of her blades at him. "This isn't over, Hiei. Understand? This. Isn't. Over." She jumped back across the river then disappeared into the trees.

Hiei scoffed, "As if I didn't know that." He groaned and started rubbing his injured neck.

The three heroes freed the women from their confines. The second Yukina was free, she threw herself into hugging Kuwabara.

"I knew you'd both would rescue us," the ice maiden said.

Kuwabara chuckled. "Yeah, well…" He released the hug and looked at Hiei. "Can't take all the credit."

Yukina looked at Hiei and smiled, "Thank you, brother."

Hiei nodded but that one action made him wince in pain, causing him to clutch his throat out of instinct.

Yukina walked up to him, intending to heal him, "Here." She started to reach out to heal his neck.

He looked hesitant at first, taking a step back from her so she couldn't touch him.

She was a little surprised at his apprehension but it came back to her who Hiei is. Despite them becoming close, he was still himself. "You're my brother, Hiei. You fight for me… you always have. At the very least, I can heal you."

"It's what families do for each other, Hiei," Shizuru said. "We take care of each other. Get over it."

Hiei settled back and Yukina, gently, put her hands on the wounds of his neck, letting her hands glow. Seconds later, the wounds were gone; there weren't even any scars.

Hiei looked into his sister's eyes and nodded. "Thank you."

She slowly put her hands around him a hug. "Thank you."

"Thanks for the save, bro…" Shizuru said to Kuwabara. She looked at Hiei and patted his shoulder, "And bro."

Again, Hiei was surprised. He nodded.

"Don't get used to that, Hiei," Kuwabara warned. "Shizuru's gratitude disappears faster than one of her cigarettes."

"Stupid ass," Shizuru retorted.

Misawa just laughed. "I like your family, Hiei."

Hiei just rolled his eyes. "Let's just get back to the stadium."

"Yeah." Kuwabara looked back towards the direction of the stadium. "I wonder how the others are doing."

"They better had won by now. We need to get to the Finals so I can make Arashi pay for kidnapping my family."

Kuwabara spit. "Get in line." They began their trek back to the stadium.

Yusuke absorbed a punch from the Beast and he went skidding along the ground.

When he came to stop, he rubbed back of his head. "I swear, if I live through this," he got up, "I'm hittin' the gym twice a week."

Yusuke felt the ring rumble and looked up to witness the Beast charging at him like a freight train. He quickly got to his feet and ran at him as well, charging his fist with his Mazoku energy. He punched the Beast in the gut, followed by an uppercut with the other fist. The Beast stumbled back, grabbed Yusuke's arm, and slammed him into the ground.

"Ow…" Yusuke groaned while still in the ring. He kicked the Beast off, hard enough to send the monster stumbling back, and jumped away from him. He looked over to see Kurama battle Nakata, having moving the fight close to Hotshot to keep him in the fray. He looked back at the Beast as it started to get up and knew he needed to end this. His strategy to wear him down was taking way long. So, he decided to switch the game up. He jumped back even further to put more distance between him and the Beast so he could implement his plan. Shifting his powers back to this Spirit Energy, he decided to go for it all in one powerful strike. He prepared for the Spirit Wave.

Hotshot saw him getting it ready and knew he had to stop him. He dodged a Rose Whip strike from Kurama and prepared to fire his rifle at Yusuke. But, while he dodged the initial strike, Kurama manipulated the whip with his energy to wrap around Hotshot's rifle. He pulled right into the demon sniper's face, cracking his nasal bone and tossing the rifle toward the edge of the ring. Kurama saw Nakata trying to make an attack on Yusuke as well; the red haired warrior threw his hand before him, sending a series of vines to take hold of Nakata. The vines weren't that strong, more of an inconvenience for the bandit prince, but it was enough for Kurama to get in close and kick Nakata across the face and resume their battle.

The Beast recovered and looked at the Mazoku as his body was covered by a bright light. The monster growled and charged in. Yusuke saw him coming and hoped that he had gathered enough to the guy down. With no other choice, he rushed at the Beast with his Spirit Wave charged. He jumped and put all of his power into one powerful punch, dumping as much as spirit energy as he could into it. He punched the Beast square in the chest, resulting in a brilliant light that overtook the both fighters. The power completely destroyed the markings on the Beast and it separated the monster into the two brothers. They went sailing out of the ring and they were out cold.

Two down, three to go.

Yusuke looked and saw Hotshot was starting to get up from when Kurama smacked him with his own gun. Yusuke exhaled and summoned the last of spirit energy into one shot for the Spirit Gun. He waited just until Hotshot was about to stand. Once he was pushing up to be vertical, Yusuke narrowed his eyes and fired, "SPIRIT GUN!"

The blast flew straight at Hotshot and nailed him dead-on. He sailed out of the ring and was driven straight into the stadium wall. The blast was nonlethal but he wasn't getting up anytime soon.

Three down, two to go.

Kurama and Nakata were still dueling one another with the same intensity they had been for the whole fight. Nakata swung his scythe down hard, causing Kurama to defend himself with his Rose Whip. The bandit prince kept pressing trying to wound the fox in his face. Kurama gritted his teeth as he struggled against this attack. He decided the only way to get out of this was to move quick: he kicked Nakata's knee, causing him to stumble and for the scythe to move faster. The fox quickly slid under the scythe and his own whip and lifted the bandit prince over his head, dropping him back first on to the stone ring. Kurama scrambled back to his feet and recovered his whip. Nakata got to his hands and knees and grabbed hold of his scythe. He tried to get up to charge at him but he was already fatigued and didn't have the energy muster up a great charge. Seeing his opportunity, Kurama managed to get his whip around Nataka's neck and yanked him hard enough to send him from the ring to the stands.

Koto looked around at the devastation. "Umm… four members of Team Vicious are of the ring! I will start the ten count!"

With that, the four members of Team Vicious were down.

Kurama walked over to Yusuke, who was taking a knee.

"Well… that was fun," Yusuke said, with heavy sarcasm.

Kurama chuckled, "Wasn't it though?" He gave his team captain a hand to help him to his feet. "Now, all that was left was for Mukuro to defeat Hatsuka and we will have won."

"Yeah." They looked up at the Ether Realm. "Here's hoping."

Mukuro dodged another Burning Slash but it wasn't easy; the Slashes were extremely fast and, in her Burning Heat mode, Hatsuka was much quicker to attack then before. Mukuro had forgotten how tough her adversary was; a hard reminder of that lesson was what this fight became. After dodging another blast, Mukuro forced her hands together, making a combined fist and pouring energy into her palms. Hatsuka squinted; she'd never seen Mukuro before. She decided not to give her time to finish whatever she was doing. She prepped another Burning Slash.

Mukuro decided to use one of the techniques she had been saving for the Finals or for whenever she had to fight Yusuke again; whichever need for them arose first. This moment was such a need. She brought her left hand up close to her face with her palm turned inward. She gathered energy in her hand and, when enough of it was formed, she threw her hand forward, using her right hand to steady her arm and shouted, "OUKAN!"

A wave of energy, dark red in color and the twice the size of a tank, flew from her body and crashed into Hatsuka, taking her right off her feet. She landed hard and skidded along the ground before coming to a stop. Hatsuka realized this attack was different the second it hit: it had some type of lasting agony effect on the target. She could feel her body starting to slow down from the pain. She looked up and saw that Mukuro was already preparing to launch the attack again but she was gathering more energy this time. Hatsuka knew that, not only could she not give Mukuro the time to pull that off, she couldn't let her make it any stronger. She gathered her serve from her Burning Heat to rush in and charged another Burning Slash but this time for close range.

Mukuro saw her coming and decided to wait until the last moment to pull this attack off, making it an all or nothing shot. Once they were close enough, they both put everything they had left into one soul-shattering attack.

"BURNING SLASH!"

"OUKAN!"

They collided against one another.

A bright light overtook them both, blinding the entire stadium for a few seconds. So great was the force and the energy of the two rivals that it threw out of Ether Realm and to the arena floor. When the light faded, the spectators and participants looked to see the enemies struggling with the pain of their attacks.

"Holy shit…" Yusuke said.

Mukuro and Hatsuka groaned as they got to their feet. They looked at each other, both bearing their teeth.

This wasn't over. They were not done yet.

They charged at one another and entered a battle of their strengths matched against each other. With all of their energy expended in the Ether Realm, it now came down to a battle of their own wills, not even physical strength. It was a matter of who wanted to win more; their pain in their bodies was already great. But nowhere near enough to stop them from settling this.

They fought for another five minutes of some of the hardest punches and kicks in the Tournament's history. One last punch from Hatsuka missed Mukuro and was left out a little too long. Mukuro, who had ducked underneath punch, came up with a jaw breaking uppercut that caught Hatsuka right in the chin. The punch lifted Hatsuka right off of her feet before plummeting hard to the ground, bouncing once before stopping.

Hatsuka stared at the stadium roof; her body being in more pain than she had felt in a long time. She struggled to get up but she couldn't do it. She was drained, depleted, and done. She took a few breaths, "Impressive…"

Mukuro was kneeling, breathing heavily seeing if Hatsuka would get up. But she saw that she wasn't. The former demon king stood up and walked over to her fallen foe. She stopped over Hatsuka and looked her body over. She could easily the damage and fatigue. She saw that she wasn't getting up, either. "You're finished."

Hatsuka looked up at her and, calmly, said, "I won't blame you if you kill me, now."

"I know." Mukuro paused. "But I'm not."

Hatsuka was surprised.

"You are defeated. That satisfies me, for now. You're not getting up and it would take more power to kill you. I need to save my strength for the finals." She walked away.

"I was mistaken earlier."

Mukuro stopped. She didn't look at her adversary.

"You are stronger, Mukuro."

The scarred woman smirked and walked back to the rest of her team. "We've won."

"I would agree," Kurama said.

She looked at Koto. "You may finish your count."

Koto, indeed, did finish counting to ten. "Ladies and gentlemen, Hatsuka has not responded to the ten-count! And since all other member of Team Vicious have been eliminated that means that the winners of the match and advancing to the finals are Team Urameshi!"

This was actually met with cheers from the crowd. Botan breathed a sigh of relief as her team survived the grueling semi-finals.

Nakata pulled himself from the rubble of the stands and looked toward the ring. He chuckled. "Guess we were wrong. Those guys… pretty tough." He gathered whatever fortitude he had left to jump back down to the ring and kneeled next down to Hatsuka. "Are you okay, leader?"

Hatsuka nodded as best she could. "They won. Help me up, brother."

Nakata helped her to her feet and they looked at the three members of Team Urameshi. They didn't know what to expect but Yusuke just smiled at them.

"Hey, Hatsuka, how about an even playing field when we do this again?" he asked. "We'll have a better match next time."

The bandit queen smirked and nodded.

Yusuke looked up at the crowd. "Right back where we belong: in the finals."

"It's gonna be different this time," Kurama said. He looked up at Botan. "There's a lot on the line."

"And just like every other time… we're gonna win." He looked to where he knew Arashi was watching. "We are going. To win."

A/N: And, so, the Semi-Finals have concluded. Now, it's time to gear up for the Final Round and, I promise you, it's going to be a doozy!

Next Chapter: Path to the Finals

The Team reunites after a grueling Semi-Final match but Team Arashi makes their presence known and calls out who they wish to face in the Final Round.