Chiryo

Chapter 36

"They're doing well, aren't they?"

Koenma looked at Ogre, who was grilling some barbeque meats on a portable barbeque, while staring down at the arena. They were in a walled off cubicle around the middle-top of the arena that had a perfect view down on the stage. Kuwabara was in the act of slashing viciously at Ginu, and Ginu was dodging quite easily. "No. They are not. And what are you doing?" Quickly, he reached out and snitched a piece of meat, popping it into his mouth before Ogre would complain.

"I'm grilling meat, sir. And I would have to ask you to at least let me take the first bite," Ogre said indignantly. "I did bring this grill after all."

Glaring, Koenma asked around chewing, "Oh yeah? And who brought you here, huh?"

Ogre returned to quietly grilling his meat.

After he'd finished the meat and taken a sip of tea, Koenma glanced down at Kuwabara again, who was still relentlessly attacking. Apparently, his anger hadn't yet worn off. "Too chancy," He murmured under his breath.

"What's too chancy, sir?" Ogre asked as he flipped a slice of meat. Sizzling sounds erupted.

"This team," Koenma replied absently as he snatched the newly cooking slice of meat. "They're all too impulsive for this. Look at him," He jabbed a pudgy toddler finger at Kuwabara, who stumbled and then whirled for another attack. "Just jumping ahead with no plan or foresight."

Picking up a piece of meat, Ogre sniffed it and asked, "But haven't they always come through for you before, sir?"

"Yes, but there wasn't as much at stake then. Riko would do anything to get her hands on that brooch, and that pride of Hiei's might leave him useless to us for the rest of the tournament. Kuwabara and Yusuke are impulsive idiots, and I can't expect Kurama to just take care of everything for me." Koenma reached over and took the meat from Ogre, while rubbing his forehead with the other hand. "Oh, what a hard life I have."

"…Sir, you're a bully."

"Tell me when he's done making a fool of himself."

Keiko turned her head to frown at the older, sandy brown-haired girl who was sneaking out a cigarette and looking at anything but the stage. "Shizuru! That really isn't nice. He's your brother."

"Yeah, but unfortunately, that doesn't stop him from making a fool of himself," She lit the cigarette, pocketed the lighter and took a breath before continuing, "I mean, come on! What the heck does he think he's going to do, swinging that sword around like an idiot?"

Half-speechless, Keiko opened her mouth. Botan placed a hand on her arm. "Just leave it. Kuwabara can do this."

Almost immediately, Shizuru snapped, "Of course he can. He's my idiot little brother. I just don't like his idiot tactics." She glanced down, eyes softening slightly. "That idiot."

Earnestly, Yukina said, "They're all very strong, Keiko. I'm sure that they'll be fine."

Nodding, Keiko settled down and returned her gaze to the arena. Her eyes kept getting drawn away from Kuwabara to the side of the arena where the rest of Team Urameshi stood. Yusuke was watching Kuwabara, and she could just imagine the exasperated look on his face. That rivalry was one that would never end, but it also gave them a bond. An unbreakable one.

They can see into each other's worlds. Keiko felt something in the pit of her stomach, something like butterflies, but darker. It's just a focused world, such a Yusuke-thing. She watched as Yusuke winced at a particularly clumsy miss. The audience was starting to get restless now with the lack of physical contact.

Is that a world that I'll ever be able to enter?

Kuwabara was pissed, which normally was a good thing because it gave him the passion and the strength to plow through whatever enemy he was facing at the moment, be it a neighborhood gang or his very scary older sister.

Unfortunately, that passion and strength wasn't very useful in this situation, as it seemed that Ginu had less bones than a jellyfish.

Dammit, how's he so fast? Kuwabara skidded to a halt and whipped around to glare at Ginu who had managed to get to his other side in less than a second.

"Will this be the first loss of the Urameshi Team? Kuwabara can't seem to even lay a finger on Ginu who hasn't even broken into a sweat!" Koto announced excitedly. "Could we see a comeback? I don't know yet people, but I have to say that I'm getting quite worked up. Let's see some blood, fighters. Tear into each other!"

Man, she's annoying, Kuwabara's subconscious complained.

"Oi, Kuwabara!" Kuwabara's mind registered that it was Yusuke talking without turning away from his opponent. "Is this what you meant when you said that you wanted to do this? 'Cause I really don't see any butt-kicking, and we're all getting pretty old here. Stop being an idiot and think of a plan, you moron!"

There was a faint cough that also reached Kuwabara's ears, an "I'm not sure you can say that," in Kurama's more delicate tones, and then a bark of laughter from Hiei.

Despite himself, Kuwabara had to grin, too. He stood up straighter and stared at Ginu, who sensed the change in his opponent. His dog companion, which had darted around like a gazelle, growled, its spirit fur standing on end. Absently, Ginu put out a hand, and its growling suddenly became silent.

Closing his eyes, Kuwabara took a brief moment to breath, steadying his mind, and then, faster than it was humanly – or demonly – possible to react, he leapt forward, sword held back and ready to swing. It was a normal blow, and Yusuke groaned at the idiocy of the move as Ginu easily stepped back to avoid it – until the sword suddenly lengthened.

Got him, Kuwabara thought as the sword grazed Ginu's neck and he concentrated on increasing the length even further. "This is where it ends, buddy!"

And then, in a motion thoroughly impossible by any living creature that wanted to keep its bones intact, Ginu rolled himself backwards into a ball, the sword flying over his head.

What the –

Kuwabara's eyes had barely had time to open before Ginu unsnapped and kicked him hard straight in the stomach. All the breath was knocked out of his body as he sailed a good three meters up into the air before landing in a heap a few piles away.

He gasped, unable even to work up the energy to get to his feet. Dimly, he heard Koto come over and start to count. He noted that Ginu had unrolled himself and was cracking all his joints again, a sound that mixed with the ringing in his ears to create quite an odd beat.

"1…2… What an amazing kick! Did you all see that, audience? Kuwabara just got the stuffing kicked out of him by a single move from Ginu. Did you hear the breaking bones? Wasn't that just a lovely sound?" She continued her count. "3…4…"

"Kuwabara, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

That voice snapped Kuwabara from his dazed state. He could breathe at the very least, if not very well or deeply. Flipping over, he struggled to his feet before the '5' could escape from Koto's mouth. She seemed rather disappointed, but went on commentating, "Oh, it seems that Kuwabara still has enough energy to get up! Amazing given that several of his ribs must be cracked by this point. Still, it'll hopefully give us a chance to hear some more bones breaking."

After a glare at the fox demon, Kuwabara spread his legs apart to maintain his stance and stared at Ginu.

He had noticed something strange as the silver-haired demon had attacked him – well, two somethings really. One was his insane flexibility, as if he really didn't have any bones, a prospect that seemed increasingly likely to Kuwabara's slightly woozy head. Second, there was something strange about the dog. Ginu had said it was made out of his spirit energy, so that accounted for the odd feeling that Kuwabara got from it, but if it really was his spirit energy, than why didn't he use it?

"Hey."

Ginu raised an eyebrow. "You want to talk now?"

"Yeah. Why aren't you using your dog?"

Without even glancing at the creature, Ginu replied, "I don't need to. It's only for strong opponents. I don't need any energy to kill you."

…Okay, third strange thing, Kuwabara thought. He had distinctly felt demon energy touch him when Ginu had kicked him. That was definitely what had added the extra force. It was a strange energy, the same as the one in the dog, but also lighter, as if he was trying to conceal it.

The energy fur on the dog was standing up again, and he growled. At the same time, Ginu snapped, "I think that's enough talking. I have two others to go through after you."

He leapt at Kuwabara, initiating a delighted rant from Koto, who was sure that Ginu attacking first for the first time in the fight meant that there was going to be blood shed.

Out of reflex, Kuwabara didn't summon his sword again, but instead blocked Ginu's blow with his own left arm, a solid block that, although it probably wouldn't have gained him any points in an official martial arts competition, should have stopped a simple punch.

Unfortunately for him, that was not the case.

The seemingly normal blow sent Kuwabara plowing backwards, his feet digging a furrow in the ground that sent him all the way to the edge of the platform. His arm was still held upright, but the forearm was now bruised, and the intense pain that ran through Kuwabara's system told him without a doubt that it was broken.

"Ooo! What a blow!" Koto cried, her tone spilling the joy that she felt. "Kuwabara has been literally pushed to the very edge of the arena by Ginu's punch and seems to have suffered even more broken bones. Still, he seems determined to continue. What are we going to see next, ladies and gentlemen?"

Yusuke punched the wall. "What the hell is he doing?" He snapped, angry. "Kuwabara, you ass. You might not be as strong as me, but that guy's not even using his energy, and he's still kicking you into the ground! What the hell!"

"He's strong," Hiei said, with a hint of respect. "There's no way Kuwabara can beat him."

"It is strange though," Kurama murmured. "He says that he's not using spirit energy, and yet he already went through all the trouble of summoning the dog." Thoughtfully, Kurama eyed the dog. "He doesn't use the dog, and yet, he doesn't dismiss it either."

"Maybe he just likes dogs," Yusuke said dismissively.

Hiei snorted. "Oh yes, detective. That's why a skilled demon like Ginu would needlessly waste energy."

Though his lips stretched slightly, Kurama's eyes stayed steady. "I don't think so." His eyes flicked over to Kuwabara. "It's also strange that Kuwabara couldn't block that blow."

Hiei looked at Kurama and then back at the stage. "What are you thinking, Kurama?"

Grimly, Kurama replied, "That dog is not just spirit energy."

It was very hard to concentrate when it felt like he was about to be strangled by the pain, but Kuwabara managed to pull his thoughts together. He had a theory – a crazy, probably unviable theory, but a theory nonetheless. And he had to test it.

Ignoring the pain, Kuwabara let his left hand go slack and lifted his right hand, his sword rematerializing. He waited for a moment as it steadied. The flame was perilously small, but if he concentrated, he was sure that he could get it to do what he wanted.

"Again with the sword?" Ginu asked. "This isn't as much of a warmup as I hoped."

Raising the sword to ear height, Kuwabara breathed and then swung. The blade stretched as he did so, veering widely around Ginu and heading instead for the silver wolf that relaxed near the middle of the arena. The speed and the advantage of surprise were enough that there was little chance that the wolf would be able to dodge.

Which, Kuwabara thought grimly as he concentrated, shouldn't really matter much if that's just a dog.

The orange fire leapt up and dived at the wolf –

Ginu leapt into its path.

A thousand sudden intakes of breath made it sound like a giant was gasping in the stadium.

Ginu evaporated into fine silver sparks.

Definitely not the normal way of dying, Kuwabara thought, pleased. He squinted through the sparks, trying to see the wolf.

Now. Let's see what he's hiding.

End of Chapter 36

Please let me know what you guys think! Was that deduction too much for the information (or person xD) at hand? I hope you guys enjoyed it, even if it was a bit short and kinda crappy...