Koto's energetic voice boomed all over the stadium as she addressed her enthusiastic audience late afternoon. "And now it's time for our second bloody and exciting fight of the first day of the tournament to begin!" she yelled into her mike and waved her free hand around wildly down in the newly repaired fighting ring. Her fox ears twitched excitedly at gruesome thoughts of what could happen in this battle.
The crowd went wild, and all the more when Koto introduced the first team of no real significance. However, when the fox emcee began to introduce Team Uremeshi, her voice was instantly drowned out by rigorous hisses and death threats from the audience.
"Die humans!" many yelled. "Kurama, Hiei, you're going to be torn limb from limb and then your hearts will be paraded through our streets!"
Amaya's team observed everything. They were fully healed, but were starting to feel effects of becoming deaf from the roars of the demons around and behind them. Kamuro, Amaya, Jin, and Touya, all cloaked, sat in the same exact seats that Team Uremeshi had sat in during their fight.
Amaya sat between Kamuro and Jin, her short height even more emphasized by the tall two. These insults to the members of Team Uremeshi, who were still after all her friends, were grating largely on her nerves, especially those insults directed at Hiei. Her dark brown eyes followed Hiei as he aloofly walked out of the tunnel with his team mates.
He scanned the crowd, half in boredom half in disdain. His crimson red eyes immediately locked onto dark brown ones, and for a second he thought he was looking into Amaya's eyes, but when he blinked, the eyes were gone and he realized he was looking at Team Sparta in all their cloaked glory. They all watched him and his team, completely covered from head to toe, and looking like judges of Judgment Day with the masses of demons as the witnesses to their trial. Hiei glared at all of them, and snubbed them by turning away and walking towards his waiting team.
"Aaand last but certainly not least, the infamous Hiei of the Evil Eye!" Koto cried and flung out her hand towards the black-clad demon. Renewed and vigorous booing and hissing accompanied her words.
"Down with the three-eyed freak!" yelled a demon behind Amaya who had one eye himself.
Amaya's left eye twitched under her hood. Her knuckles cracked as her hands formed tight fists in her lap.
"Death to the traitor Jagan-Ugh!" The demons around their area recoiled away as the dead corpse fell back with a hole through its chest.
Amaya glared warningly at the fearful demons and wiped her soiled hand on the carcass' clothes before turning back to the front. The demons all moved cautiously back to their seats, careful to avoid the body, and sat deathly quiet.
Kamuro clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Temper, temper," he muttered, thinking that the cause was just mere annoyance. "You demons are all vulgar creatures. You're always thirsting for battle." He glared all around loathingly.
Amaya, Jin, and Touya pointedly ignored his comments as they watched Team Uremeshi's battle unfold. After heckling with one another, Yusuke and the other team's captain finally had decided an all out team melee. Having an awesome view of the whole fighting ring, Amaya had all eyes upon Hiei and watched as he fought his opponent. She knew she shouldn't have been watching only him and was vital that she be observing Yusuke more, but for this first fight she wanted to indulge herself after not seeing Hiei for nearly two months now.
"They had improved a lot since the last time I saw them," Touya remarked as he and his team mates maneuvered their way out of the stadium and through the crowds that were filing out through the exits. Amaya could have easily transported them back to their hotel suites via shadowing, but she didn't want to incur more suspicion from Team Uremeshi if they had been keeping a close eye on them at the present moment.
Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama had all won in the melee using extraordinary team work and in once case pure luck when Yusuke had been blinded temporarily by his opponent and had taken a wild shot, actually killing his opponent.
Amaya still remembered Yusuke's clear message to her team when Koto pronounced them as the victors. Yusuke had looked over towards the part of the stands where her team sat. The teen had flicked his nose and raised his fist eye-level, thumb stuck out and then he gave them the thumbs down sign. The crowd had both cheered and booed at Yusuke's proclamation. Amaya had laughed silently to herself at his impudence.
"They trained with Genkai," Amaya told Touya as they stepped through the stone arch and walked into the afternoon sun.
"I know that old woman," Kamuro said. "I once tried to get her to train me, but she rejected me, saying that I had the making of a great slayer, but she wasn't ready to pass her techniques to a pupil yet."
Maybe I'll train one day with the famed demon-slayer too, Touya thought.
--Think you can survive her harsh training? Uremeshi wasn't the only one trained by her--
Touya shot Amaya an annoyed look. "Don't you have anything better to do that look into my thoughts?" he hissed under his breath.
Amaya tilted her head so that he could plainly see her smirk and the wickedness that danced in her dark eyes. "Perhaps," she replied. Amaya felt someone close to her other side and looked up to meet Kamuro's eyes. "Yes?" she asked.
Kamuro stopped walking which forced Amaya, Touya, and then Jin when he noticed to also stop.
"They've found us."
Upon instinct, Amaya whipped around and came face to face with Team Uremeshi. Instantly, her team mates gathered around her closely. Amaya saw that a large circle had been made around their teams. Bystanders included even Keiko, Shizuru, and Yukina who all stood close to the boys.
"And so what is it that we owe this little chat?" Amaya asked tauntingly. Her sarcastic, cynical side was taking over. "Didn't you make your message clear enough for us?"
Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Hiei all glared at her. Kurama stepped forward and held up his hands. "Please everyone, save it for another day," he said.
"Yes, give yourselves time before we defeat you," Kamuro added.
The watching crowd jeered at Team Uremeshi.
Kamuro smirked under the protection of his hood, but a deep voice behind him completely wiped off the smile from his face.
"You should watch your back next time, human," Hiei growled. His katana clinked as he moved the blade up towards Kamuro's head. "Or next time-"
"Hiei, stop that this instant!" Koenma had suddenly appeared amidst the girls in his teenager form with George in tow. He had his imperial look and was glaring most severely at Hiei.
In a flash, Hiei was back to his team mates, his face a mask of marble stone once more.
Amaya stepped forward and swept Koenma Daioh a mocking bow that fueled the crowd's cheers for her own team and the insults to the other. "My Prince," she snarled hatefully. She snubbed him this time by turning her back on the angered prince and led her team away from the place.
"When I find out who she is, she's getting it!" Koenma fumed, shaking in suppressed rage. He turned to the bystanders and let out some of his anger on them. "Well?! What are you waiting for? Show's over and get out of my sight!!" he screamed at them. Everyone began to scatter.
George the Ogre leaned towards Boton. "My, master Koenma is in a rage!"
Boton covered her smile with her kimono sleeve as she watched her boss yell at all the demons scuttling by.
"Yusuke, you were great!" Keiko told her boyfriend. Then she hit him hard over the head. "Don't you ever worry me like what you did back there!" she added.
"Yeeoowwch! Keiko! It's me; I always make you worry no matter what I do!" Yusuke complained as he grabbed his head and hunched over in pain.
Kuwabara laughed and pointed at his friend. "Hah Uremeshi! She really has you in the palm of her hand!" He turned around and saw Yukina standing, there. "Yukina!!" he yelled with his heart in his eyes and grabbed onto the ice maiden's hand. "My love, I will win all my battles in your name!" he swore fervently.
Yukina smiled sweetly, not at all embarrassed by his show of love. "You don't have to do that Kazuma," she told him.
Shizuru walked up to them and put her hand on her brother's shoulder. "You did yourself well little bro," she told him. "But you still could have done better," she added.
"Thanks sis," Kuwabara said.
Everyone was distracted enough so that they didn't notice that Kurama and Hiei weren't participating in their prattle. They walked a little off to the side to give them their space.
"So what do you think of Team Sparta now Hiei?" Kurama asked his old friend as they stopped next to a fountain and continued to watch the humans and Yukina interact with each other. "Still think they aren't important?"
Hiei turned his back on the sight of Yusuke giving Kuwabara a noogie for some slight the latter said and looked at his reflection in the fountain. His reflection's lips moved. "They are bothersome," he replied emotionlessly. "More so the short one."
Kurama didn't want to add that Hiei was also short. "Yes, didn't she remind you of Amaya?" Kurama asked quietly. "She does exhibit many of the powers and fighting style that are traits of Amaya."
Hiei thought back to what Kurama had suggested when they had been watching Team Sparta fight. "It can be possible that Amaya's fighting style had been copied," he muttered. He was vaguely getting the feeling that Kurama was implying something else other than what he said earlier.
Kurama nodded. He smiled when Keiko went to break up the wrestling Yusuke and Kuwabara had started between themselves by hitting them both hard, knocking them out cold.
"I think Yusuke and Kuwabara need some assistance getting back to the hotel now Hiei. We can wait and observe if our theories are correct about Team Sparta."
Hiei stayed where he was for a moment longer, staring deeply into the water. For a moment, he saw in place of his reflection the cloaked female of Team Sparta. Her hands went to her hood and pulled it away, revealing Amaya's face, and her full lips smirking up at him coyly, intimately. Hiei closed his eyes tight and swiped at the water, disrupting the picture before turning his back on the fountain to help Kurama carry their unconscious team mates back to the hotel.
