(A/N) Well, would you look at that. I told you guys the updates would start coming back after school began again XD I'm not too sure how this fight came out, as I'm still new to the whole 'writing out the action' stuff. So if anything sounds a little wonky, just tell me and I'll try fixing it :)
Remember to review! I really like hearing what people liked or didn't like about a chapter so any critiques would be awesome. And, as always, please tell me about any grammar/spelling issues cus' I never catch them all the first time around lol
Enjoy!
Botan watched uneasily as Yusuke stalked off, Genkai and Hiei trailing in his wake.
The normally high-spirited ferry girl worried her lower lip and turned her concerned gaze towards the teen lying prone on the floor next to her. His even breathing, finally calm from the shallow gasps that had come from the pierced lung he'd received, distracted her from her agitated introspection. Botan, as the 'Grim Reaper', wasn't so used to the new body she'd been given to help Yusuke better on his assignments. Breathing in particular was a novel experience. That wasn't to say she'd never had a human body before, but it had been awhile...
She was brought out of her rapidly scattering thoughts by a sudden noise.
A deep, scraping echo reverberated out as Yusuke shoved open the massive wooden doors of the building and the three fighters left, though they were thoughtful enough to leave the source of light behind for the two remaining.
Botan sighed, "I guess it's just you and me then..."
She saw the small figure of Yusuke stop briefly to glare at Rando- though she didn't think any words were exchanged- before the group set off towards the next fighting arena.
Giving up on tracking the receding forms, she turned her focus back to Kuwabara and grumbled dejectedly, "I hope you wake up soon."
The wind blew hollow within the empty building from where it entered through the open door. Botan shivered, clutching her knees to her chest. It was only Yusuke's second case and already things had gone wrong, she could only imagine what future cases would be like.
The walk to the last area of the tournament was oddly familiar to two individuals. It seemed reminiscent of the one Yusuke and Hiei had taken when the detective was informed of his...unique heritage. Although, whereas in the first case Yusuke was more curious about the demon at his side, nothing Rando did or said would prevent his end at the furious boy's hands.
Rando, it could be noted, had taken an unaffected look to himself. He obviously wasn't too concerned with the outcome of a battle with another human.
Yusuke really hoped they got to the next damn place soon because he didn't think he could take staring at Rando's smug face another minute- and he was getting sick of all these retarded forest hikes! Couldn't the old bat keep all her buildings in one damn place!
Hiei glanced over at the livid detective, whose aura kept flaring at random intervals according to his emotions, and fought to keep a smirk off his face. No doubt Yusuke would take it the wrong way and turn his ire on him. That wouldn't do.
Of course, Yusuke fought much better when he let his emotions take him under. The Genkai of the future had been correct in telling Toguro to kill someone the boy cared about, (and Hiei scowled inwardly, though he couldn't say why). it was a surefire way to get him motivated.
Another energy flare came from Yusuke- and either Hiei or Genkai was going to have to break him of that because it wouldn't do to have his every emotion visible for all to pick up on- and Hiei brought himself back to the present. He could see the earlier battle between Rando and Kuwabara had the other demon arrogant and feeling assured of his victory.
'Too bad the detective isn't just another human,' and this time Hiei did smirk.
They arrived at a wide, open moor with a disturbing psychic presence to it, something bad had happened here. Hiei snorted, unimpressed. Well, something bad by human standards.
Genkai stopped on a relatively dry patch of land and gestured at the final two contenders to make their way further ahead. Shockingly, despite the cold water and soggy ground everywhere, Yusuke went without complaint.
Hiei stayed a few paces from the old psychic, watching her face for any sign of what she could be thinking.
Genkai betrayed nothing, the same disdainfully blank expression remained plastered to her face. She waited calmly for Yusuke and Rando to have their little stare down before beginning the fight, "final round of the tournament, begin!"
Yusuke grunted in surprise when Rando took off in his direction with a direct attack. He grinned, too bad for Rando he'd been training with Hiei- speed demon extraordinaire- for the past few weeks.
He twisted to the side so that the demon's attack barely missed his mid-section and quickly aimed a knee for the other's back, scoring a hit.
Rando flew forwards but caught himself before he hit the ground, flipping around and landing to face Yusuke.
"So I see you're not as pathetic as the others in this tournament," Rando said, sneering, "maybe I'll actually have some fun before I kill you."
Yusuke glared, good humor gone at that reminder, "we'll see who kills who, asshole!"
The teen went on the offensive, dashing towards his opponent and cocking back a fist loaded with spirit energy.
Rando lost his smirk and readied himself quickly for a countermove. A split second later and Yusuke was upon him, teeth clenched and fist flying for the other's face.
The demon tilted his head, barely missing getting a blow that probably would have knocked him out. He growled. It seemed he might actually have to take the child seriously.
Barely dodging another few vicious strikes, Rando jumped back out of range. He had a few techniques in mind that would be making life very uncomfortable for the detective.
"Huh?" Yusuke stumbled when his opponent suddenly vanished, twisting his head sharply around in an effort to find the demon.
"Where the hell did you go? I'm not done kickin' your ass yet!" Yusuke shouted. He spotted the demon out further into the moor and clenched his fists tightly before charging off to resume the battle.
Despite the enraged teen coming his way, Rando appeared especially calm, arrogant smile painting his lips.
Yusuke could care less how calm the bastard was and launched himself at Rando with all the force of a speeding freight train.
His fist met an invisible barrier with a noise like a thunderclap, a sickening crack sounding simultaneously.
"Ahhhgh!"
Yusuke's scream sounded soon after and the boy fell to his knees, clutching his broken wrist in his remaining hand. Hiei winced at that noise, it sounded too much like the times the detective had had an arm carelessly broken at the hands of both Toguro and Sensui. But, Hiei knew, if Yusuke could make it through those times, he could survive this too.
Rando sneered and walked up to the huddled form of the detective, ready to mock the other for his weakness.
"You're really just making this too easy," the hunched form stopped shaking, muscles visibly tensing at the barb, "please at least last as long as the other human."
He stood above the teen and held out a hand, forming what appeared to be fire from his energy in preparation of his finishing move.
"Spirit Gun!"
A blue flare of spirit energy shot out from Yusuke's index finger, whose glow he'd been hiding with his bowed form. It hit the demon point blank and threw them both back in opposite directions with its force.
Yusuke fell into one of the many mud puddles, yelping in surprise at being thrown by his own attack. Rando, aside from a cry of pain, made no noise when he impacted the ground and fell into unconsciousness.
Yusuke groaned and pulled himself to his feet, grumbling at his muddy clothes- still holding his broken wrist delicately to keep it from shifting when he moved.
"Hah, didn't expect that one did'ya?" He walked towards the fallen demon, careful to keep his distance lest he have his own tactic used against him. He didn't fancy winding up like Kuwabara very much.
Rando pulled himself back to consciousness and cracked his eyes open in a hate-filled glare.
"Now you're really beginning to piss me off, human," He growled out and rose to his feet, swaying unsteadily for a moment.
"Heh. Hey, it's what I'm best at," Yusuke said, though the grin on his face was anything but nice.
Rando grinned back just as venomously, "well, we'll see how good you are against this technique." He began focusing his energy and, with a dark smile, plunged his hands into the ground before him.
Yusuke narrowed his eyes and went on the defensive, jumping back a few paces and glancing around for the threat. He didn't look down, though, and was completely thrown off guard when the soggy earth began to hiss and steam.
The water had begun to boil and froth up from the ground in a wide area surrounding Yusuke. The small amount that splashed onto his shoe and melted the first layer through was enough to have him stumbling back from the edges in alarm.
"What the-" Yusuke was cut off when, with a sharp gesture from Rando, the water surged up around him, hot enough to scald flesh.
"How do you like this one, boy?" Rando shouted out sadistically, "have fun trying to dodge it, I hear getting burned this way is absolutely agonizing. You'll have to tell me how it feels!"
'Ohcrapcrapcrap-crap!' Yusuke's mind scrambled as he looked for an escape from the circle of water about to engulf him.
He saw Rando's eyes gleaming in anticipation through the water wall and hastily brought his arm up just as the demon began to slash his hands towards Yusuke.
'I hope this works!' Fixing his aim on the demon in front of him, Yusuke desperately shouted his signature move again.
"Spirit Gun!"
His shot burst straight through the boiling water, smashing into Rando's chest and sending him careening off his feet into a tree. The demon grunted on impact and clutched his hands around his front, flinching at the energy burns left there.
Thankfully that was enough. Rando's control was immediately interrupted and his hold on the water was released, letting it splash harmlessly to the ground.
'Dammit, that was close,' Yusuke thought, staring warily at the still hot water at his feet, though it was no longer dangerously so.
However, he was done playing now. He stalked up to Rando, glaring in warning and holding a glowing finger out as a threat for the other to stay down this time.
The demon glared up weakly through his messy red bangs at the detective. When he coughed, blood flecked out onto his front, staining the skin down his chin and dripping onto his throat and chest.
"I'm... not done...yet," He gasped out, panting. The two spirit guns had had a more powerful punch to them than he'd expected, and it was costing him.
"Maybe," Yusuke growled, "but can you take another hit from me?"
Rando gathered his energy and vanished from his seated position, tackling Yusuke onto his back.
"Ugh," Yusuke felt his head smack the ground with a jarring impact and tried to focus his spinning vision on the demon pinning him down. He almost wished he hadn't when he looked up to find five inhumanly sharp claws speeding towards his vulnerable throat.
Only a swift movement to the right saved his neck from being torn out and losing his head. The claws gouged into the ground and drove themselves down about an inch. This didn't slow Rando's attack and his other hand copied the firsts' move. Yusuke wasn't being pinned as thoroughly, though, and he frantically threw his arm out in a block.
Blood flew from the deep wounds gained on Yusuke's forearm and he cried out in pain. Rando grinned widely at the sight before wrenching his claws to the side and out of Yusuke's fragile flesh.
"Hah, now that's both of your arms injured, it's going to be fun seeing you use that Spirit Gun without them," The demon mocked cruelly, blood-tipped hands raised in preparation for another strike.
"That was nothing!" Yusuke bit out. Before Rando could react, the detective brought his bloodied arm up and let the energy that had been building rupture out into the demon's shocked face.
When the demon fell back this time, he didn't get back up. Being headless will do that to you.
Yusuke groaned and rolled to his side, hefting himself up after a few moments. He stared vacantly at the body of his opponent, unsure of how to feel about what he'd done. Wanting to kill someone and actually killing them were two entirely different things, after all.
'Doesn't matter,' He decided, expression smoothing, 'the bastard would have killed a bunch more people if I hadn't gotten rid of him.'
That didn't stop the uncomfortable aching feeling roiling around in his stomach.
He began walking back to Genkai and Hiei, his arms hanging useless at his sides. The burst of adrenaline that had allowed him to get that final shot in had worn off and he found he couldn't lift them even if he'd wanted to.
He cracked a grin when he noticed Hiei's subtle expression of concern, though he was sure the other was trying to hide it from everyone. Hell, even Genkai looked pleased at his victory, her stern look faded a little and a small smile gracing her lips.
"So... guess this means I won the tournament, right?" Yusuke said, almost breathlessly.
"Yes, Dimwit, you won the tournament, congratulations," Genkai assured.
"Hn. That was still a pathetic fight, Detective," Hiei said, scowling, "I saw at least three ways you could have ended it without having to get your arms broken and bloodied in the process."
He sniffed condescendingly while Yusuke yelped in indigence and tried to protest, "hopefully, your training with Genkai will break you of your poor habits so that won't become a reoccurring theme in your fights."
Botan and Kuwabara finally arrived, huffing slightly when they finally slowed to a halt. They'd been running in hopes of catching the fight before it ended, not that it did them much good.
"What, you mean it's already over?"
Ohh, and I was really hoping to see Yusuke's first fight."
Kuwabara and Botan each whined respectively when they saw the scene before them.
Then Kuwabara grumbled about how annoying Yusuke was for a moment. But, after seeing Yusuke's state- and wincing at the ugly looking cuts and bruises marking the teen- he thanked Yusuke for avenging him. Though he kept sending squeamish looks towards the beheaded demon laying farther out in the field.
"So we can go home now, right?" Yusuke said, eyes wide and hopeful as he glanced around at the others for confirmation.
It was Genkai who answered, though Yusuke had already guessed what it was going to be when he saw Hiei's telling smirk.
"Nice try, Slacker, you're staying here. Everyone else can go home," Genkai smirked widely. She was going to enjoy whipping this smart-mouth into shape.
"Erm, for how long am I staying, exactly?" Yusuke questioned, though he had a feeling he really didn't want to know.
"I've got your sorry hide for six months," His new teacher sadistically informed, "so you'd better hope you brought your toothbrush with you, because it's going to be a long while before you see the light of civilization again."
Yusuke blinked, thought about how long six months was, gave up trying, and fainted in an exhausted heap on the ground. He'd deal with this crap tomorrow.
"Hn," Hiei grunted, looking at the passed out teen, though he directed his words towards Genkai, "he's all yours now, I hope you can handle his smartass attitude for that amount of time."
He turned and flickered away. Yusuke was in good- well, capable anyways- hands for the moment. He could focus on the other pressing matter to attend to; his sister needed to be rescued, like hell he was leaving her with those bastard humans for another minute.
