A team meeting was called later in the evening after the first match ended. What was the point? Just win your fights. Try not to get killed. The oaf hopefully could manage the later. Hiei sat on the window sill, allowing the cold night to blow over his right arm. It was almost soothing and helped numb the pain ever so slightly.

Once the prince, now back in toddler form, arrived to the hotel's common room, he called the meeting immediately with all the fighters there, but not the alternate.

"Yo, what's up Koenma? What about Nanashi? She should be here too," Yusuke said, getting up from his spot on the couch to go get her. Likely she was either in her room reading or with the other girls suffering under the grim reaper's high pitched, squealing voice.

Once the detective move, the oaf just up from his kitchen chair he was sitting on and jumped up to sit in the detective's seat. "Dude, when I get back, you had better be out of my seat," the detective warned him before he started to go after Nanashi.

"Wait Yusuke," the prince told him with a warning tone. The detective paused at the sound of his tone. "This is actually about her."

The detective turned back around and wrestled with the oaf noisily until he managed to shove the oaf out of his original seat on the couch. The detective sat back down and kicked the oaf who was now sitting on the floor for good measure. "What about her?"

Hiei rolled his eyes. Sounded like even the prince was under her spell. If she tried that on him after he slept with her, she would not like the result.

The prince jumped up onto the coffee table and pulled out an envelope, laying it down at the center of the table. There was a malicious presence coming off the parchment, but other than that, it was harmless. "George was given a letter to give to me earlier today. He doesn't know who it was that gave it to him. Someone with black clothes and hair."

The oaf snatched up the envelope without bothering to check if it was safe to do so. He tore it open, ripping the paper within it in almost in half. He looked at the letter upside down and complained "I can't read any of this. Do you think Nanashi can because she reads so much?"

The detective snatched the letter away from the oaf, holding it upside down and then turning it right side up. "You moron, you tried to read it upside down. Of course you can't read it." The detective turned back to the letter and read it, frowning at it. He looked up at the prince and asked "what the hell does it mean by 'claiming her'?"

The fox jumped up first, Hiei a delayed reaction a split second later. The fox stole the letter away from the detective and read it standing. Hiei stood by him, trying to see the letter from the height difference between the two men. The fox handed the letter over to him next to read. The short letter simply read: "What a strong little human girl you have there. I wouldn't mind mate claiming her." So someone else wanted her. He or she could have her afterwards.

The Mysterious Masked Fighter came over to Hiei and gentle plucked the letter from his left hand and examined it.

"Alright, when two demons looked scared, I'm worried," the detective said, breaking the silence. "Want to break it down for those of us here who don't understand why two sentences are terrifying?"

"He calls her strong," the fox whispered.

"She's not that strong," Hiei responded.

"For a human she is," the fox argued.

"A strong one among the weak is still weak," Hiei countered. "Pit her against a real demon and she'll panic and be useless."

"She improved in her training more than I expected."

"Less than I expected."

"If you had helped more," the fox cuttingly closing the argument with a warning tone.

The detective was snapping his fingers. "Yo, bicker on your own time. Letter. Claiming. Explain."

Kurama began to explain. "Mate claiming is the way demons marry essentially. But in the a different way as human marriage. They are done privately, uh, in a bedroom. A mate claim is done for life. It can be..." he paused, debating how much to share. Would he share the part where the male claims the female with three bites to her body at her neck, chest, and mound, and then has sex with her? Once the claim it made, it was irrevocable. Try to act physically romantically outside of matehood, then they could die if their mate did not kiss them in time. Commonly mate claims were done out of love and desire, rarely, but not unheard of, they were done forcefully. "... aggressive, border line abusive. That is if done consensually and the claimer can hold back from seriously harming the claimed."

"And if it's not consensual?" the detective hazard.

"Even if there is consent, permanent injury and murder can happen. Whether accidentally or intentionally. It's not something I would ever want to do," the fox finished.

"So someone is threatening to rape and then kill her?" the detective asked, clearly pissed off.

"Possibly," the fox replied neutrally. "We have no way to tell if this letter poses a legitimate threat against Nanashi or not. Not unless we know who wrote it."

The detective turned on the prince. "Where the hell is that ogre butler of yours?! I'm going to take him and drag him into every single hotel room in this damn place until he finds the one who gave him this letter. Then I'll drag that motherfucker to every single room until we find the writer. Then when we find him, that motherfucker is going to die!"

"I'm with you Urameshi! Let's go find them," the oaf said, jumping up with him as well.

"Wait," the prince said, cutting through the humans' over protectiveness. "George says it was a demon with black clothes and black hair. Do you know how many people in this hotel could fit either or both of those descriptions. Hiei even fits those descriptions. It's a noble response, but impossible. And will also warn the writer that not only we are taking his threat seriously, it would show we are frightened as well. If I could send her home, I would. But I can't because she was invited. Sending her home would be a death sentence for the whole team."

"Then what the hell are we supposed to do? Hope the writer realizes how ugly she is up close and changes his mind?" the oaf questioned stupidly. How he was still breathing without being able to think was impressive.

The detective did a double a take at the oaf's words. "Hey, what have I told you about not calling her ugly!? She's not! And she better not hear you say that!" The two of them began wrestling in an exemplary display of human immaturity.

The fighter moved over to them, grabbing them by their hair and knocking their head together, shutting the two of them up. The fighter shifted his/her gaze to the prince. He/she held up one finger and shook his/her head. He/she held up two fingers and nodded.

The fox studied the fighter's body language, deducing what he/she meant. "We shouldn't leave her alone. Someone should be with her with at all times."

Hiei bulked at the idea. Looked like she may have had the mute fight under her charm now as well. How the hell did she do it? Everyone there seemed under her spell. He rounded on the fighter. "You're suggesting that we not only fight is this tournament but protect a human girl on top of that? One that we trained," he gestured to himself and the fox. "The demon who made the threat didn't even bother to deliver the letter directly. And called her strong, which means he or she thinks she could defend herself if attacked. Jumping up to protect her like she's a charming little princess would send the message that she actually can't defend herself. It would send the message that she is weak, making her more of a target for this demon to attack her, let alone any other demon."

"But if she looked weaker, she would be less desirable," the fox countered.

"And how does that work?" the detective asked, cutting back into the conversation.

The fox spoke up. "Looks aren't important to demons. Unlike with humans, beauty counts for very little among demons. Demons desire strength and ability the way humans desire beauty. The way Nanashi's face looks matter less and how physically and spiritually strong she matters more. Her attractiveness to demons, whether they care to admit it or not, could be increased with the fact that she has the wind serpent, a rare weapon with a mind of its own."

"So are we playing body guard?" the detective asked, looking from Hiei to the fox.

"No," Hiei said at the same time the fox said "Yes."

"She's capable of defending herself when she doesn't freeze up," Hiei pointed out. "She doesn't need a body guard."

"If she is attacked and she freezes up, then she may suffer a fate worse than death," the fox argued.

"If he or she really want her, none of us will be able to stop it."

The fox turned back to the detective. "We keep her guarded. You need to tell her not to go out alone. She'll listen to you above all of us. If we can, move one of the girls who came here into her room."

"I'm not guarding her," Hiei interrupted.

"What is your problem with her?" the detective said to Hiei. "Because she gets scared and cries? By the way, you need to give her back that last book you stole from her. And replace the one you burned."

"She can defend herself," Hiei told him, dodging the questions and admitting that both books were burnt, the last one after the kiss in anger, and were not going to be replaced.

"We'll take a vote," the detective decided. "Hand up if you want her guarded?" Everyone in the room raised their hands. "Don't have to ask what your vote is," the detective snided at Hiei.

A heavy silenced settled on the room. It was broken by the oaf. "So, what do we tell her? Do we tell her about the letter and its threat? Or why we're going to guard her?"

"I'll talk to her," the detective said seriously. The second the words we out of his mouth, the door opened wide and a breathless Nanashi appeared. The detective rushed towards her. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

She caught her breath and looked up at him confused. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was, um, just with Botan and the other girls and well, we want the team's copy of the menu... We want to order room service is all."

"And you were running because?"

"You can't make anymore orders for the night in about 20 minutes."

"Oh, well the menu is over there," the detective pointed to it hanging from a hook on the wall by the common room's kitchenette.

"I know," she said, making her way towards the menu and snagging it up. "What's going on here?" she asked with a frown. She must have finally picked up on the tension in the room's atmosphere.

"It's nothing," the detective rushed out. "A team meeting."

She looked at him surprised and then grumpy. "Just the five of you then?"

"Shit, look, it's not like that," he responded gently. "We're just talking about the next match is all." He fumbled with his hands, putting them in his pockets and then taking the out again. "But while I got you here, um." She looked at his impatiently. "In a like just in case scenario, you shouldn't go out alone. None of us should go out alone really, but you really shouldn't as your the alternate and we may need you. Just kind of be safe and cautious and all that I guess," he fumbled over his words.

She huffed at him, walking passed him. She stopped at the doorway and looked back at him pouting. "I may-" she shook her head and stopped her words. "You may have made me the alternate, but I'm- I'll be fine." She turned away from the him and ran off.

The detective ran after her, calling for her. About two minutes later, the detective returned, scratching the back of his head. "Well, that could have gone better," he concluded.