A/N: Hope you guys are having a great holiday!

Upload Date: 12/27/12

Next Upload Date: In about a week


Chiryo

Chapter 54

When Valeina finally came back into consciousness, it was to the annoying buzz of her cell phone. She instinctively reached for it. Based on the number of messages on the screen, someone had been calling her for quite some time, over a time period of almost two hours. She flipped the phone open and held it to her ear. "What?" Her voice cracked as it came out, and she scowled, a movement that sent lightning cracking through her skull.

There was a pause on the other side, as if the person who was calling was confused, and then, "Mrs. Ferai. We have some news."

Valeina attempted to push herself into a sitting position, failed and laid back down with a grimace. "Talk."

"Your team, Team Rokuyukai, is currently facing Team Urameshi in the finals. As before, they have only presented three of their members for the match, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Urameshi." There was a pause. "Two fights have just occurred, Kuwabara's and Kurama's. Yusuke is currently fighting. Kurama won his fight, but Kuwabara lost. They are fighting on a best three out of five. Would you like us to push for them to not allow for someone who's already fought to fight again?"

An aching headache was starting to split Valeina's mind, but she answered despite the pain, "Yes. Definitely."

"Uehara is already pushing to allow them to fight again. I predict that the resources needed to overcome him will be phenomenal. To what extent may we push?"

"Use everything."

There was a pause. "Everything?"

"Yes. Don't make me repeat myself. Everything is on the table. Get me that rule change. And then, as soon as that fight is over, I want you to kill them all. Finish it fast. They'll be getting reinforcements soon. The girl got loose, and Hiei is coming back as well." She paused. "Along with Uehara Junior…" She smiled. "Capture him. Use him as a pawn. I'm sure that his father cares more than he says."

She snapped the phone shut and let it slide to the ground. Briefly, she closed her eyes.

You are not free, yet, Riko Isshi.


.


Koenma dropped his phone down and cursed. Botan looked up, startled. She was the only one of the girls who had stayed behind when the fight had started. The other three had returned to their seats, with a very scared Ogre as their bodyguard.

"What's wrong?" Botan asked, worriedly, crossing the room to get to her boss' side. "Did something happen? Did the committee decide?"

Grimly, Koenma turned his head to look at her. "Yes. They're not allowed to fight again, so since Kuwabara lost…"

"They're going to lose." Botan put a hand to her mouth. "But… how? I thought that Uehara would never let us lose."

"That was him just now on the phone. He tried, but… Ferai pooled in all her resources. Uehara told me that if he pushed any further, he'd lose more money than he could hope to gain out of this."

"So… is that it?" Botan asked. "Is… that… is the fight over?"

Koenma shook his head, mouth tight. "They're not cancelling it in the middle of a fight, because the crowd would riot, but as soon as this fight ends, they're… they're going to announce the winner. As soon as Kurama finishes this, it's over." He ground his teeth, staring down at the mediocre fighter Kurama was going against. When Kuwabara had suffered his loss, the other team had very tactically stuck up one of their weak fighters, so they could weaken the opponent. Under normal circumstances, Kurama could beat someone like him in less than five minutes. "Botan, go down. Tell Kurama to stall."

"Stall?" Botan asked. Her eyes lit. "Ah. You mean, in case Hiei makes it back?"

Koenma nodded. "I have great trust in him, and it's the only hope that we have. If Hiei can make it back, and then Kurama wins, then Hiei can win the final fight, and we can still come through." He glared down at the field. "We cannot let the Sarkar Brooch fall into any hands but ours." He looked at Botan. "Go, now."

With a nod, Botan turned and darted towards the door, reaching it in just a few seconds and then sprinted down the stairs in a blur of clothes and bright blue hair. There were distasteful whispers as she flew past, but she ignored them all, knocking on the glass and opening the door that separated the arena from the spectators. She darted down the stairs and ran towards the stadium.

Yusuke was watching the fight, with Kuwabara next to him, sitting and nursing his wounds. They both turned and looked at the panting girl.

"What's up?" Yusuke asked. "You here to yell at the moron here for losing to a kid?"

Kuwabara glared at his teammate. "Hey, shut up. That was cheating, what he did."

"Not the time," Botan panted. She ran up to the stage. "Kurama!"

The redhead glanced back and then jumped back as his opponent launched a feeble attack. He hopped back a few more meters to the edge of the stage. "What is it, Botan? Has the decision come through?"

"Yes – what?" Botan blinked, confused. "How do you know about it?"

Turning back to face his opponent, Kurama smiled. "I'm me, Botan. Koenma wants me to stall, right?"

"Yes," Botan said, still slightly in awe. Although I really shouldn't be surprised. It is Kurama after all.

Kurama nodded. "I can do that. However, there is a certain limit to this. If I go too long, the crowd will get irritated, and I believe that Ferai's representatives will push further to end the match immediately. I'd give it… an hour, tops."

Botan nodded, her face worried. "We'll just have to hope Hiei's back by then."


.


Hiei kicked forward and then spun, launching a flame backwards to take out the enemy sneaking up behind Jirou. The fire nearly burned, Jirou who dodged left and flinched, muttering under his breath. As he smashed another demon guard in the face, Hiei snapped at Jirou, "How much time?"

"What?" Jirou asked, still recovering from his near-burn experience.

"How much time has passed?"

"Uh…" Jirou looked down at his cellphone, trying to ignore the black fire and enemy lines running around him. "It's been ten minutes, so if what Riko said was right, then, we have about ten more to get her somewhere."

Hiei's mouth tightened. It took nearly ten minutes just for them to get from the main island to Valeina's complex, and with the goons around them… His eyes flicked to Jirou. He might be able to make it himself, but with deadweight along, it would be extremely hard. Better to ditch him. But that would mean that he could be used as a hostage, and given that he was a powerful demon's son, Koenma might care about the young man. He had to get them all out of danger.

Filthy, useless humans – Hiei stopped halfway through the thought and glanced down at the girl draped over his shoulder.

He gritted his teeth. What to do...


.


The crowd was getting restless, a sentiment best reflected by Koto's announcements, which were coming with more and more frequency and ferocity.

"And once again, Kurama dodges out of the way! When will this fight start going somewhere? We want some blood!"

On a directly related note, Kurama was getting more and more irritated. The demon he was facing was weak, probably just some recruit to flesh out the team, and it was getting hard to ignore his taunts and not put a rose whip through his skull. Or maybe through that announcer's head. At this point, I'm not very picky… Kurama smiled at the thought, but quickly dismissed it. His job was to stall, not kill. Not yet anyways.

"What's the matter?"

He was distracted as his opponent began speaking again. Quite unfortunately, it seemed like he was the kind of demon who had the habit of taunting their enemies – never a smart move, and especially not so when your opponent was capable of killing you in one smooth move – not that he knew that. Not yet anyways.

"You scared?" The demon shook his head mockingly. "You know I've heard a lot about your team. Didn't know that it would just be full of a bunch of half-assed humans and scared as hell demons. What? You can't even bring yourself to attack me?" He leapt forward, claws bared. "If you can't fight, then at least be honorable and die a warrior's death!"

Kurama's eyebrow twitched. 'A warrior's death.' He hopped lightly out of the way. Aloud, he said, "Slightly impossible given that the opponent I'm facing isn't a warrior."

A deep growl exploded from the other demon's throat. "What?!" He leapt forward again, clawing the air like a demented cat. "Filthy traitor!"

Mildly annoyed, Kurama sighed and shook his head. "Always the traitor card."

On the sidelines, Yusuke snorted. "Kurama sure gets mouthy when he can't slice and dice."

Glancing at his teammate, Kurama raised an eyebrow and then smiled. He hopped lightly back, ignoring Koto's scathing words about his pride and courage as a demon. It was not pride and courage that had gotten him so far as a thief, and it certainly wouldn't be those things that would get him through his current situation. Or the rest of his team, for that matter.

Safety first, Kurama thought, with just a touch of mischievous malice. Always.


.


Koenma ground his teeth and tried not to contemplate that death and doom that would come if another demon managed to get their hands on the Sakar Brooch. There was only one reason option if that happened. He'd have to have the brooch stolen. Which is not a viable option given that the only members of my staff who were actually thieves will be dead.

The teeth grounding took an abrupt halt as a ringing sound began. Koenma looked around, confused for a moment and then recognized the sound as his worry settled.

He snatched up the phone and looked at the caller ID. It was unknown. Either a threat or… "Hello? Hiei? Is that you?"

"Hi, and no, it's not. I'm sorry. This is Jirou. Jirou Uehara. I'm the son of the man who's sponsoring your team."

Jirou… Koenma's eyes widened. "Jirou! I heard you were with Hiei. Where is he? Have you found Riko?" He breathed deeply. "Is she dead?"

"No." Jirou's voice was partially breathless, deep breaths between sentences. "No. She's not. Not when I last saw anyways. She's not in a good state though."

"When you last –" Koenma's heart nearly skipped a beat. "What do you mean? Have you and Hiei been separated? What has happened?!"

"I'm not completely sure on the details myself. You'll have to ask Riko, but what I know… Hiei and I found her in Valeina Ferai's compound. We rescued her, and she healed a wound of Hiei's. It took a lot out of her. Hiei's bringing her back now. She needs medical care as soon as she arrives, or she's going to die."

Nodding, Koenma glanced down at the stands, first noting Botan's position and then Yukina's. Both would probably be vital. "Where are you?"

"Hiei didn't have time to deal with me as well as bring Riko back in time." A note of amusement entered into the human's voice. "He commandeered one of the demons to bring me to one of Ferai's vehicles. I'm riding it back right now. I believe that Hiei chose to run."

Again, Koenma nodded, something in him untightening slowly. "Alright. I shall see you guys soon then. Thank you." He put the phone down and put his head into his arms, releasing an emotion that he hadn't felt in quite some time.

He had been telling himself that sacrifices were needed in this line or work, but it always hurt to lose an operative, and it was some of the best news of the century that he didn't have to go through something like that again.

No time to weep. Koenma stood up and walked out of the door, heading towards where Yukina was sitting.


.


"This is not going well," Kurama muttered to Botan as he stood at the edge. "I'm not going to be able to put this off for much longer."

Botan bit her lip. "Kurama… anything you can do to stall."

Kurama faced his opponent again, irritated splitting his face. There was one way, but he didn't like it at all.

He'd have to get hurt. The sight of blood should calm the bloodthirsty in the crowd, but resorting to such measures was infinitely annoying. First off, losing blood would be dangerous if he had to fight again later – very likely, given the way things was going. And secondly, getting hurt would make the other demon feel superior and make him even more annoying than he already was.

If that's possible.

Steadying himself, Kurama stared at the demon, reading his movements for a moment and then, pretending to dodge, he launched himself into the claws. Blood spouted from Kurama's arm, raining onto the stage in a kaleidoscope of gasps from the audience, satisfaction from Koto, and a very pleased look from his opponent. Kurama stumbled back, pretending to be very hurt.

"Couldn't keep going, could you?" The demon taunted. "In the end, this is what a real demon can do."

I was wrong. It is possible. Kurama tensed his knees.

Before he could jump either into or out of the range of another attack, an explosion distracted the entire crowd. Kurama whirled, facing one of the entrances to the arena. It was covered in smoke, rendering everything almost invisible, but black flames licking at the edge of things gave away the identity of the newcomers.

A slow smile spread itself across Kurama's face, and he straightened. To the smoke cloud, he called, "Took your time, didn't you?

Kuwabara and Yusuke, both of whom had jumped and nearly hit each other at the explosion, stared between the smoke and Kurama. "Kurama, what…?" Yusuke started to ask.

Ignoring them, Kurama continued talking, "Based on what you can do, I assume you have her. Yusuke, get ready."

"Ready?" Yusuke spluttered. "For wh –AH!" Yusuke stumbled back as Riko's limp body hit him in the chest. He scrambled for a moment and then caught the girl. "What? Riko."

"Riko!" Kuwabara said, eyes lighting. "Hey, she's unconscious."

"She needs a healer," came another surprise voice.

Kuwabara looked up. Koenma was walking down the stairs from the spectator stands, Yukina behind him.

"Yukina!" Kuwabara cried, brightly. "Hi!"

Yukina smiled at him briefly and then hurried to Riko's side, pale blue sparks flying up.

"Riko…" Yusuke said slowly as he lowered Riko to the ground. He looked up at the smoke, which was slowly starting to clear. "That means…"

The demon that Kurama had been fighting was getting irritated by all the attention that was not directed towards him and his recent wounding of his opponent. He decided to remedy the situation by launching another attack, roaring as he did so, "Look away from me, will you?!"

SLASH –

An abrupt silence fell over the entire stadium as the demon fell to the ground in two pieces, cut neatly in half by Kurama's rose whip. Kurama allowed himself a smile of satisfaction at ending the annoying voice and then tossed the whip up, catching it as it fell as a rose and placing it neatly back into his hair. He hopped off the edge of the platform and high-fived the short, katana-wielding individual walking out of the smoke.

"Your turn. Let's see what you learned, Hiei."

As he stepped out into the open, Hiei smiled, black fire in the form of a dragon dancing around his figure.

End of Chapter 54


Hope you enjoyed! Almost New Year's. I'm looking forward to it.