Claimer: Chichiro is mine, as well as the storyline, and any other original characters.

Disclaimer: Hiei, Kurama, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Koenma, Genkai, and any other YuYu Hakusho characters used are not mine. Kagura isn't either, though she's from Inuyasha.

--

Chapter 11—The Seventh Battle

--

It seemed that by the time she entered the ring, Chichiro had calmed down from whatever anger she'd had left over from Hiei's assault. Even she could realize that she'd deserved it, or at least something like it—a punch was a little severe just for pestering him.

Although she knew it would have made more sense to allow Kurama to fight thanks to the injury she'd received in the last fight, she still found that she had the drive to battle. Kurama, after all, was less bloodthirsty than she and Hiei were, and was far more willing to sit out battles.

Besides, she thought to herself as she regarded the opponents across from them, those guys don't look so tough.

True enough, the first of the pair didn't. She was a lavender-skinned demoness with a small, short horn protruding her brow; a hand was placed casually on her slender hip, and in her other hand she held a whip that she'd summoned from a strand her own hair, coiled into loops in her fist as she waited for the round to start. Yusuke and Kuwabara would have recognized her on sight as Myuki, one of the demon triad that had guarded the mansion of Gonzo Tarukane, where Yukina had been imprisoned. Hiei recognized her from the description provided in the spirit world file, which he had "borrowed" at the close of the case when Koenma refused to supply it to him.

The second of their opponents was unfamiliar, and contrary to what Chichiro had thought to herself, he looked a bit tougher. He was gargantuan, far larger than any demon they'd faced in the tournament so far, and had decidedly reptilian features. The electric sense given off by his energy suggested that, as with many others of the tournament, he was likely a lightning demon as well. They were a generally ambitious and arrogant sort of demon, quite like fire demons such as Hiei, so it was not surprising that so many had entered a tournament only spawned for personal gain and proving oneself.

Chichiro wore an odd expression as she examined Myuki. The other, nearly purple-skinned demoness had an oddly masculine scent, and Chichiro decided for the sake of whatever innocence a few hundred-year-old demoness such as herself could have retained not to think much into it.

Chichiro would have likely faced off against Myuki if Hiei had not shown such drive to fight the she-demon himself. Wordlessly, he stepped in front of and past Chichiro and stopped before Myuki, several feet off, and glared at her in silence.

Shrugging, unaffected, Chichiro stepped a few yards to the side and watched her larger, male opponent in silence as they waited for the announcer to ask their names and tell them to begin.

When the question was lifted after a minute or so of silence (Which was uncommon of this tournament, but Chichiro figured that the ones running it were still behind because of the setback from the previous round), the names were given as follows: "Myuki."

"Kokigin."

"Chichiro."

"Hiei."

Chichiro found herself surprised that Hiei had actually spoken his name, finally, but she didn't allow her surprise to show or last. She simply faced forward once again and glowered at her opponent, who had named himself as Kokigin.

"BEGIN!"

Neither Hiei or Chichiro had to be told twice.

The fire demon facing off against Myuki flickered from her sight before she could even slash her whip, and she rapidly lowered her body into a defensive crouch, eyes suspiciously watching the ring for any sign of movement.

She was too late to block Hiei's attack when she sensed him behind her, but she did manage to evade the brunt of it and received only a painful slash on the back of her neck; it was lucky—the attack had aimed to remove her head from her shoulders. Even if she had escaped once, it was not likely to happen many more times. Although she had improved since battling Yusuke and must have at least been a mediocre fighter to get this far, she was no match for Hiei. She was still far too much of an amateur.

Hiei knew Myuki had not personally wanted to keep Yukina captive, for she had only been hired and worked for Tarukane only at Toguro's request and because it would earn her and her two comrades a fair price for their services. However, this fact did not change the burning rage he felt at seeing her, and the fact that he found he could not face her without a hateful bias. It also didn't allow him to acknowledge that Kokigin was likely the stronger of the two, and it would have made more sense for him to face the larger demon rather than for the wounded Chichiro to do so.

The fox demoness didn't seem very distraught over handling Kokigin. No, she seemed quite pleased to be facing off against him, actually. When he summoned a whip with a thick strand of hair, quite like Myuki's own weapon, her enthusiasm seemed to falter some as she mumbled to herself, "How sanitary that must be."

The demon leviathan didn't notice the put-off expression on her face, and simply twirled his whip—perhaps fifteen feet long—above him before sending it flying with a swish of his giant, thick arm. As she dodged the slender whip sailing toward her, Chichiro noted with limited interest and a certain wariness that the hair-whip was growing spikes that seemed to be an homage to Kurama's own weapon. Whether this was intended by the larger beast or not, she couldn't say, but she found that she relaxed somewhat facing a semi-familiar weapon.

Allowing her hand to tap ever so lightly on the stone ring, she sprang back by putting weight on her palm and shoving herself backward to land in a crouch. Promptly, she had shot forward toward him with her light and wind sword summoned in one hand and her nails lengthening into mean-looking claws on the other.

Her opponent saw her attack coming easily, though he did not use his hair whip to counterattack. Rather, he had looped that up and strung it around his upper arm as one would do with an unused rope. He only lifted his hands before him, poised to attack, his own claws also unsheathed.

Kokigin was fast for a large demon—faster than Chichiro had first thought. However, he was still not faster than her. Before he could even raise his arm entirely, she had slashed a deep gash into his lower left arm and had dragged her claws up his midsection. Slamming her bare heel into his chest and kicking off of his ribs, she wished sorely as her form leapt away from him that she was still wearing her high-heeled boots. Would have done more damage than my foot, at least, she thought to herself, unaware of how girlish it was to be thinking of shoes during a battle.

A sudden pain came to her ankle, and she felt as though surely the pressure around it would make the bone within her leg snap. She recognized the feel of Kokigin's hand constricting her limb as she felt herself yanked back over to him, and his second free hand found her throat.

Recalling how easily she had defeated her last opponent once such a hold had been acquired, Chichiro resisted the urge to snatch her hands at Kokigin's larger fingers and instead allowed her sword to arc up toward her massive opponent's arm. The blade of it imbedded itself into his arm, breaking through the skin on the opposite side of his limb, causing a satisfactory amount of bleeding when she absorbed the energy weapon back into her body and left the sword wound without a proper 'plug'.

Enraged at this retaliation, as if he had believed that Chichiro would simply give in once he had the upper hand, Kokigin let out an ear-slipping roar that sounded strikingly animalistic. As her body was rammed into the stone of the ring by the throat hold Kokigin still had, the she-demon nearly regretted her rebuttal, thinking that perhaps she should have thought it through better.

Ah, well, she thought, far too casually for the heat of battle, and again considered, At least my body isn't as frail as a human's, else that would have snapped my neck and a few other bones.

She thought she had felt something in her shoulder dislocate, however, but it was not to be worried about at the moment.

Hiei, across the ring, was just finishing dispatching of Myuki when he heard his teammate's body slam into the ground. Flicking his sword to rid it of the blood and prevent any rusting past what had already spread on his blade from years of abuse, he seemed in no immediate hurry to help his "comrade" after the stunt she'd pulled earlier. Still, he had gotten even earlier with his punch, and so he decided to go to her aid when she gave a small cry of pain, obviously bitten back as not to give her adversary any sadistic pleasure. Or perhaps simply from pride. Always got herself into a pinch in these later fights, Hiei noticed with severe irritation at the fact.

"Stupid woman," he snarled to himself. Leaping for Kokigin, his body arced backward, his sword raised and held with both hands as he prepared to slam it into the mammoth demon's skull.

Kokigin had sensed the attack in time to release Chichiro—who was cast off to the side without further thought—and avoid death, but not injury. As his massive hand swept sideways and smacked Hiei aside as though the shorter demon was merely an irksome insect, the fire youkai's katana had slashed a deep cut into Kokigin's limb.

Luckily for the leviathan, however, Hiei had also lost the sword when his body had been sent flying backward, and it clattered clumsily to the ground some twenty feet from him. Scrambling to his feet with nearly panicked haste uncharacteristic of himself, Hiei dove for the sword and narrowly escaped being crushed by Kokigin's hand as it attempted to snatch him up. The gust of air caused by the massive limb passing inches away from him caused his course to be altered the slightest and, rather than landing in front of the sword, Hiei found himself sailing past it to the side. His landing was rougher than he'd anticipated as well, and he did his best to ignore the pressure on his ribs as his body hit the ground front-down. Winded, he still smirked when his hand found his katana's hilt as the momentum of his form caused him to slide past where he had landed.

With what seemed like perfect timing, Hiei spun onto his back with his blade raised above him. As he had anticipated, Kokigin had dove for him once again and the massive demon's head had skewered itself onto the sword.

Barely slipping from beneath his opponent before the mammoth creature's body collapsed, Hiei sprang backward from the giant demon's form and realized aloud after the fact, "I didn't get my sword in time." Allowing a low sigh to spill his lips as he swished his head to the side to remove the strands of hair from before his eyes, he continued in a mutter, "Damn."

As soon as the match was declared over, Kurama had leapt up onto the ring and helped Chichiro stand. She grinned sheepishly at him as she did, rubbing at her neck and commenting, "Yeah…Not my best show, I gotta say." At least, she considered, my shoulder isn't dislocated after all.

"Don't worry about it," Kurama replied with a smile. "Hiei's had to rescue me, too, as you've seen."

From some ten feet away from them, Hiei gave a low snort and muttered something to the effect of, "And I left Mukuro's service for this…?"

"Thank you, Hiei!" Chichiro called over to him with exaggerated sweetness, obviously just to irritate him. All the same, she meant what she said and figured he'd know that.

Kurama, at her side, chuckled lightly and then headed for the doorway as Hiei was, followed closely by Chichiro. The she-demon, however, made way for Hiei rather than the hallway directly.

"Did you know Myuki before the tournament or something?" she asked as she came up to walk beside the shorter demon.

"Why do you ask?" Hiei responded disinterestedly.

"Well, you seemed…more pissed than usual while you were fighting. Like it was personal or something."

Although he felt no burning desire to spill the tale of Yukina's capture to Chichiro, he knew the demoness was of a persistent sort and relented just to be sure she wouldn't harass him to tell her for an extended period of time. "She was hired to aid a human bastard keep someone I cared for imprisoned. I had never met Myuki before today; I simply knew her from when I stole and checked over the assignment file from the spirit detective who took the case."

"Wow," Chichiro snickered, her voice obviously amused and meant only to tease Hiei, "there's actually someone out there you 'care for'? Astounding. Never would have guessed it."

The fire demon's hand rested on his katana's hilt suddenly, but Chichiro only laughed.

"Oh, calm down, jerk," she told him with a smirk; the smoothness of the word 'jerk' made it seem almost like a nickname rather than an insult, and Hiei gathered that she was simply so used to calling him that now that it felt natural and she barely noted the word's meaning any longer. "I was just givin' you a hard time, no need to get all pissy on me."

Kurama, who had been listening to their conversation as he trailed after them while they headed for and into the hall toward their own rooms, figured then that Koenma had gotten the out-of-character habit of using the word 'pissy' from Chichiro.

The she-demon ahead of him fell silent only a short moment before her face adopted a more guarded expression, one lacking her prior amusement. "So," she voiced more softly, "are you healed from that poison of Marcella's, then?"

"For the most part," Hiei replied monotonously, wondering why she'd brought it up, "and I have been for days, now. Well enough to mangle you in a battle, I'm sure."

She grinned broadly at that, though he figured it wasn't entirely from the suggestion that she responded with, but also from relief. "Mind if I test that theory out?"

But his course had already shifted from his room, and she could tell he was headed for the forest out behind the arena and she smirked as she followed him to their usual sparring ground.

As Kurama watched them go, he noticed that there had been a change in the way they walked beside one another. It was the smallest, most insignificant of changes, but then Kurama had never been an unobservant one. Their gaits as they walked next to each other were more relaxed, even the antisocial Hiei's, and he could tell that for whatever reason, they were beginning to lose their dislike of one another. In fact, the emotion was almost being reversed and the fox figured that in the near future it would be.

Shaking his head in wonder, he didn't bother trying to figure out the complexities behind this adjustment in their relationship. It was better left alone.

--

Night found Chichiro in her room, lying back on her ridiculously uncomfortable bed with her legs crossed and her fingers weaved together behind her head. A heavy sigh spilled her parted lips as she draped her arm over her brow and across her eyes. Unconsciously, she drew her fingers from her other hand across a long but shallow gash on her lower arm from her spar with Hiei earlier that day.

Kurama was right, though of course Chichiro didn't know he had been considering the same thing. She didn't dislike Hiei as much as she felt she should—some two hundred years back, he had slaughtered her family and left her alive because it wouldn't be fun to murder her and give her the blissful rest that she had ached for, for such a long time. And yet, now she did not feel so willing to die, so gravely hopeful that morning would find her but a breathless shell. This was not a new consideration—it must have been fifty to a hundred years ago that she had adopted such a mindset, but now she noticed it so much more.

She was beginning to care for her family's assassin. She had been ignoring it for so long because it was hard to admit that such an emotion was possible. That was not to say that she wanted or expected anything of him or that she considered him a friend, but she knew with something between frustration and sorrow that she was headed in that direction. Hell, she probably was already at that point, but for now she refused to acknowledge that.

Her thoughts were broken as she heard the slightest of sounds, and as her furry blue fox ears twitched and swiveled toward the doorway, she turned her head too so that she could glance at who had arrived outside her room. Blinking once, she quirked a single black eyebrow and glowered in an especially cold manner at the demon that her eyes found and rested on. "Hiei?" she growled, not with the friendliest note in her tone. "What do you want?"

"Forgive me," he replied with thick, undisguised sarcasm, "but I couldn't help but find the fact that you were lingering so much on thoughts of me to be interesting."

Chichiro felt the corner of her eye twitch, and she thought a flush of color had come to her cheeks. It wasn't a blush—her face had reddened from anger. "You've been watching my thoughts, then?"

"Couldn't help myself," the fire demon responded with an aggravating smirk, an arrogant look upon his face; his countenance was somehow pleased, but not in a kind way. "They were so unguarded." He nodded toward her. "So were you."

"Shut up," she snarled, but she found she could not meet his gaze anymore as she sat up and turned her face the slightest bit away from him. "You have no right to read my mind without permission."

He was silent a long moment before he grumbled pitilessly, "So then, you consider me a friend? You do realize friendship is not an indulgence I have time for, don't you?"

"Not often, anyhow," the she-demon replied with an exaggerated sigh. She had finally achieved a tone of indifference, which she had been struggling with before then. With the mental block she'd put on her thoughts, now realizing that Hiei had been correct about their lack of guardedness, Hiei could only use intuition to notice that said indifference was forced and feigned. "What do you consider Kurama if you don't have time for friends?" Without waiting for a response, she growled, "I don't consider you a friend, Hiei. I don't know where you got it." With a smirk, she finished, "Kurama is the only one on our team I have 'time' to consider a friend."

"Hn," was Hiei's response to that, though it sounded amused and his matching smirk didn't hinder the idea in the least. "Fine, then. You can tell yourself that all you want—maybe you've even convinced yourself." He straightened from where he had leaned against the door frame with his arms crossed. "But you should realize that my jagan is not so weak as to allow me to believe and see only what your conscious mind believes."

A last, arrogant and fanged smirk played across his lips before he disappeared from where he stood and Chichiro could not sense him nearby any longer.

Rolling her eyes, she disregarded the suggestion that her subconscious recognized her care for him even if she ignored the possibility at the front of her mind. Lying back down, the she-demon shoved Hiei from her mind with a vehemence that made sure thoughts of him would not enter it against that night. With a third and final sigh, she closed her eyes and surrendered to sleep.