So the detective finally showed up just in time to catch the ferry the Dark Tournament, bringing a new fighter who hid his identity behind a mask in tow. A stronger fighter than he appeared as well based on how easily he or she had quickly he or she had knocked the girl down and then turned on the oaf. Hiei wondered why the fighter had attacked the girl at first, but once he/she attacked the oaf, it became clear that he/she had done it to test them both to see which one was the stronger of the two. The detective confirmed when he condemned the girl to alternate status after the only thing she managed to do with some semblance of skill was choke the fighter for two heartbeats. She had earned it with how bad she did in that surprise fight. It was painfully frustrating to watch her slip back to old habits she should have broken weeks ago due do panic. At least now she would not make a fool of herself in the Dark Tournament. Until at least the oaf got himself killed, then the girl would have to fight whether she liked it or not.
Hiei had figured she would be happy to be the alternate, but she looked upset when the detective confirmed it. Even now as they were on the ferry heading towards Hanging Neck Island and she stood in a semblance of protective vigil by the sleeping detective, she looked discouraged. Based on how she was standing with her lower back pressed up against the deck railing, she clearly did not want someone to come up from behind her, something she struggled to defend against in training. Best as well she was made the alternate if she could not manage to show off any fighting skills at all to the detective that the fox and himself had drilled into her head. What a waste of so many weeks of training.
Hiei shifted his focus on the fighter Yusuke had brought along, unable to sense much off of him/her, but after watching him/her against the girl and the oaf, he/she was definitely stronger than he/she looked. But why was he/she hiding his/her face?
Hiei's concentration was broken by the captain's announcement from above them. "Welcome to all! I have some good news to tell you. We won't be long to organize the elimination rounds!" Amidst gasps and surprising from around him, including the oaf, Hiei saw a platform rise up from the center of the ferry. "The fifteen teams on the island have already been qualified. From this boat must be left only a single team!"
"The bastards. I thought that we were invited!" the oaf protested. Just because they were all 'invited' did not mean they were guaranteed to become one of the sixteen teams that made it to the Dark Tournament to compete. "Choose the strongest of your team. The surviving team must then participate in the tournament!"
At the captain's announcement, the girl went wide eyed and paled while the oaf began to complain. "A battle royale? A filthy plan if they all pit themselves against me! Yusuke! You go show them the results of your training!" He reasoned even though he somehow missed the fact that the detective was asleep. At least the girl had managed to pick up on that fact way faster that he had. The oaf tried unsuccessfully to wake the detective up and get him to participate in the ferry's fight. "Yusuke! Shit, what now?! You're sleeping?! You're the leader of the team, right?! Wake up, it's your turn!"
The fox stepped over to the oaf and spoke calmly to calm him down. "He must have received severe training. He's sleeping to recover his energy."
The oaf still stayed flustered. "Bah, so?! Who is going to go then?"
The girl was obviously not volunteering. She leaned back as much as she possibly could against the deck railing, hands clasped in front of her mouth.
Luckily the fighter was no coward. He/she walked confidently towards the platform on the boat. "I think that the clown wants to go. We'll see what kind of stomach he has," Hiei commented. The fighter could handle the two weaker humans easily, but he wondered how he/she would handle fighting all those demons.
"And if the idiot loses the match? What do we do then?!" the oaf queried.
"We simply kill all the guys on the boat. That way no one can come and complain afterwards," Hiei stated the obvious.
"What?" the oaf gasped, clearly not a fan of possibly having to fight all the other demons on the boat.
Hiei ignored him and watched the fight commence. All the other demons rushed at the fighter all at once, but he/she took them out with one swift and deadly shot gun attack. Clearly he/she had held back against the girl and oaf as both were still able to walk and complain after their respective fights with him/her.
With a begrudging tone, the captain announced "the sixteenth team selected will be the Urameshi Team!"
"That was the same shotgun as Yusuke," the oaf observed loudly. "Who is this guy?" Finally, a reasonable question came out of his mouth.
"Yusuke sleeps in all confidence," the fox observed.
"He has good reason," Hiei commented before squaring up to fight. The other demons on the boat had expectedly stolen his idea to attack the winner and the other demons on board and were now attacking their team. The oaf panicked and dove out of the way. After defeating several demons with a few swift swings of his sword, Hiei looked over at the girl. The girl pulled the wind serpent out and summoned it into an ax, revealing her most powerful weapon with it, standing guard in front of the detective. She swung the ax clumsily through the air, showing she still struggled to handle its weight and balance appropriately. How did someone who a wind tamer have a weapon that was not even wind based?
In the midst of her swings, she was lead away from where the detective lay, fighting off the demons that had surrounded her one at a time instead of all at once. If she planned on surviving, that was the wrong way to go about it. Hiei closed the distance between the two of them, killing a few of the demons around her to give her the advantage and left the rest to as her problem. She managed to kill the ones he left for her. When she saw how close he was to her, she side stepped away from him hesitantly. He scowled at her when he realized going to her aid was tantamount to her beginning to wrap him around her little finger just as she already had done with both the fox and the detective. That was not going to happen.
"We'll make him sleep for all eternity," echoed a voice of a demon who was still breathing.
"He sleeps. He's asking to be taken advantage of," another breathing demon said.
The girl rushed passed Hiei, uncaring that she bumped into him in the process, as she ran over to wear the detective lay, caring her ax with her hands to high on the handle.
"Shit! Yusuke! He has an opponent right next to him whom he doesn't even know is there!" the oaf shouted, stating the painfully obvious. The detective really needed to find smarter friends. The oaf ran towards the detective as well, not nearly as fast as the girl moved. She had reached the area by the detective first and entered into a one on one battle with a demoness with her own dagger. The girl managed to fend off and defeat the demoness. At least she managed to defeat a few opponents on her own, which meant training her had not been a total waste of time . "Come on, I'll take you! I'm going to draw on my energy!" the oaf shouted as he drew two energy swords, one for each hand, and swung them haphazardly at the nearby demons. "Take that in your face! Clear off!" Hiei was not sure which one them lacked more skill when fighting with a weapon.
Another demon had slipped by both humans and made to strike the sleeping detective. "You're too slow! He's mine!" the demon roared. "Ha ha ha, the glory is mine!"
"It won't be enough!" the oaf howled stupidly. Both humans, the fighter, the fox, and Hiei were too far away the detective to save him.
So the detective ended up sleep fighting his way into saving himself, shouting incoherently about Genkai. The fox put it accurately when he commented that the detective was still training even as he slept. The lot of them continued fighting on the boat with both humans managing to survive the ordeal. When they finally got off the boat, the oaf carried the detective from the dock to their hotel and their hotel rooms' shared common room. The girl continued to follow on the fox's heels as if being so physically close to him would not bother him and would protect her somehow. Hiei wondered vaguely if she was honestly attracted to the fox and that was why she kept in such close proximity to him. She did it before she had kissed him, and was doing it after she had kissed him, which had to mean she had to have some sort of feelings towards the fox. So why not kiss the fox instead if she was damn clingy to him?
A their hotel rooms' shared common room, the girl sat down on the couch first, Hiei decided to have a little bit a fun at the girl's expense. He side stepped Kurama and sat down next to the girl before the fox could to gauge how she would react to him, who he could still tell was apprehensive around him, and how she would react to not being within an inch of physical contact with the fox. She tensed up, closing her eyes for a few seconds, and gave an exhale. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed her face took a redder tint, but it was warmer in this room than it had been on the ferry and in the elevator.
The fox meanwhile sat himself down by the fighter while the oaf laid the detective down on the couch opposite of where the rest of them had sat. "Wah, very classy!" the oaf commented about the rooms they were in. The hotel and its noncombatants were robbed, would prove to be yield substantial treasures.
"Excuse me," came a voice from the door. In came a hotel staff member who delivered tea for them to drink and left.
The oaf tensed up at the sight of the harmless looking and smelling drinks. Without hesitation, the fox and Hiei picked up their own cups and began to sip from them. The fighter drank his/hers as well. The girl next to bit her lip and picked up a cup for herself with a shaky hand. "A little wariness... It might be poisoned..." the oaf warned them. The girl stopped her hand in when the mug was almost to her own lips.
The fox spoke first. "Don't be paranoid, the aim of this tournament is noble."
Hiei echoed after him as he took another drink. "He's right. The aim is to prove yourself in combat." He then drank from his own cup in turn. The girl watched them unblinkingly and then wet her lips with her own tea. She licked her lips afterwards, a look that was more seductive than she likely meant or even knew how to mean if what the fox had deduced about her was true. It was not a bad sight to watch, but it was distracting, sending him back to thinking about her lips planted on his and how she looked like she had not enjoyed it at all.
The oaf was still speaking. "We win by being careful! I've brought my own drink," he announced as he pulled a canned drink from his bag.
The fox suddenly jumped, but not at the oaf's words. "Strange, a cup is missing. There should have been five." They all looked down at where the remaining cup on the coffee table.
"Me, I haven't touched it..." the oaf jumped to answer.
"It's fishy," the fox observed. "Yusuke's still sleeping. His cup is missing!"
At the sound of a loud slurping sound, each of the jumped to their feet at the sight of a child like demon perched on the entertainment stand. The girl let her cup slip from her hands, but Hiei reached out and caught it before any more of the tea inside could spill. A breeze seem to roll off her as she nearly summoned up the wind serpent to her neck. Had the girl not been so distracting with licking her lips, Hiei was sure he would have noticed the child like demon before he took the cup.
"He must have been here from the start," the oaf reasoned.
The fox was a bit more logical in his reasoning. "Perhaps, but took the cup without us noticing."
The child like demon smiled and gave an impish laugh. "Hidden? I'm not petty. I entered by the door. I just forgot to knock!" He took off his ridiculous hat and bowed. "Let me introduce myself, my name's Rinku. I'm one of the six Youkai starting the tournament with you." The excitement he felt rolled off of him in waves.
"The six? I thought there had to be five per team?" the oaf asked, confused. Was he really that stupid that he forgot that five fighters and alternate equaled six?
"You don't know about having a replacement? But there's six of you here? At our place we had to draw the replacement by lot. The invitees are lucky. There's not much ceremony or anything before the match." The child like demon balanced himself off the ground skillfully with the tea cup. He enjoyed how confused the oaf was by him. "What's more, you're all going to die so it's not a problem for the payment of the prize!" The girl behind him took a sharp inhale of breath at the happy child like demon's words. "I'm disappointed. It was the winner of the previous tournament who invited you. Tomorrow I'll take you all one by one. I'm going to win," he threatened.
"Rinku, you talk too much," a voice came from behind them. A taller, stocky built demon leaned against the open doorway, stern where the child like demon was playful. The girl took half a hesitant step back from him, stepping on Hiei's foot in the process. She lifted her foot off of him once she realized she stepped on him. He was tempted to kick her for backing up and stepping on him in front of two enemies. Why did she not just throw herself at the stern one like the slut she wanted to be?
"Another one in our room!" the oaf grumbled. "He wasn't there I'm sure!"
"We should be careful," Hiei cautioned in case the oaf did something stupid like trying to pick a fight before the tournament even started.
The child like demon skipped and bounded over to the stern demon. "Oh! Haha, sorry Zeru! I was just playing a game!"
The two of them turned to leave when the stern demon spoke. "Profit well from your last night. Tomorrow you will look like that cup." The lot of them looked down at the cup which was broken in two main pieces and a handful of tiny glass fragments. Hiei noticed a hint of flame around the edge of one of the main pieces puttering out. So the stern one was a fire demon as well.
After the two demons left, the oaf opened his mouth again. "I didn't even see him do that!" the oaf exclaimed.
The girl sank back down to her seat on the couch, fingers in front of her lips, face going white.
Later in the night, all of them had gone to their rooms to sleep. The girl was given her own room laid out for two, the fighter was given the same set up as well. The oaf and the detective shared one room and the fox and Hiei shared their own room. The fox fell asleep easily while Hiei lay awake for a short time, thinking over the dragon he had almost tamed in the hours of his solo training time. If he tamed it right, good. If he did not... it was not a pleasant thought. The dragon he tamed had a wild mind remarkably similar to the mind of the creature the girl was given.
To be on the safe side, he pulled off his headband and sensed around to enter the girl's creature's mind. He could sense it from her room, but barely, like it was a mix of asleep or hiding. He shifted his attention into the girl's mind to see if she were still awake. If she were sleeping, then so would the creature. It was only conscious when she was. Or so he thought. Then girl was still awake, but the creature was unreachable.
Once he slipped inside her head, he figured out real fast why the creature was unreachable when he an image of his own self on top of her, mouth on hers. He pulled out her mind in shock from what she was imagining. From what he gathered from her mind beyond the unexpected image was she was thinking, the creature hid away in her soul to give her privacy. The more interesting, unexpected thing he found out from her was she desired him. It was an unexpected jolt as he had never sensed anyone act that way towards him without wanting something else in return. The fox had been different with from the others and the girl as well. Hiei had pursued that one to a quick, platonic end.
With what the girl was thinking though, with her lack of actual experience, would be manageable; once diffidently. Twice, possibly. He was not sure if he could stand her more than beyond that. She was still a weak, easily frightened fighter. But the prospect of knowing he would get the first to touch he was tempting. But she was a human as well. Once he had her, even one time, he would be labeled a human fucker, hucker, something few demons were tempted to do and fewer actually did. Demons were stronger, lived longer, and were better than humans. Sleeping with one would be like a king bedding a peasant.
He felt tempted to act on her desire tonight to get it over, but let the temptation faded as the tournament commencing tomorrow was a poor choice of timing. Besides, if he bedded her now, anyone might notice and smell her on him or him or her, especially the fox. Worse yet, if he took her and she told someone... He would need to wait until after the tournament, when things quieted down to act on it. She would be his for one night very soon. The thought brought a smile to his face. After that, even the fox could have her for himself if he so chose.