The first fight had ended fast. The second, that also didn't featured anyone familiar to Kagome or Tsukuyomaru, lasted a bit longer with both opponents shooting energy beams at each other, almost hitting the audience at times if not for the protective barriers around the arena. Before the third fight began, a familiar voice called to Kagome through the noise of crowd.
"Kagome-san! Kagome-san!" she heard. Looking towards the source of it, Kagome saw the fox kid Shippo wave his hands at her from the top of the thick screen that was shielding Tsukuyomaru's lodge from neighbors. Kagome's eyes flew wide open in surprise.
"Is he another one of your friends?" Tsukuyomaru asked, also looking up. "You sure have a lot of them."
"Shippo-kun, what are you doing there? Get down!" Kagome admonished, though with a happy smile, standing up and reaching her hands to help the kid to get down. Around her spectators cheered for a beginning of a new fight, but Kagome ignored it. As Shippo jumped in her embrace, the priestess turned him towards other people in the lodge.
"This is Shippo-kun," she said, sitting down and letting Shippo sit on her knees – there just wasn't any other free space to sit. "He helped me yesterday, so I promised to introduce him to other participants of the tournament. Shippo, this is Tsukuyomaru, he is also going to fight today, and these are Shizu, his wife, and Shiori, his daughter."
"Nice to meet you, Shippo-kun," Shizu said, smiling a mother's smile. "Now, Shiori-chan, what do we say when introduced to people? I just said it…"
"Nice to meet you, Shippo," Shiori whispered, hiding her face from the new person in her father's chest. Tsukuyomaru chuckled, patting her head.
"It's Shippo-kun, or Shippo-san, Shiori-chan," he said. "It's rude to address people without honorifics unless they give you their permission to do so. And I am pleased to meet you to, Shippo-kun. Did you come here with your family?"
Shippo nodded energetically, grinning from ear to ear, before launching into explanation how his dad was a trinket trader, and then switching to asking questions of his own. There were many of those, like what kind of youkai Tsukuyomaru was, why they were participating, and if they fought in one of the Ten Winters Tournaments before. Shizu was glad to explain it all, while Tsukuyomaru and Kagome tried to keep a closer eye on the tournament so they would know their future opponents better. Besides that, Kagome's fight was next.
It was numbered fourth, while Touran's was seventh and Tsukuyomaru's – ninth. Sesshomaru, for some reason, fought last in each round. Shizu guessed that it was because of him being the long-time winner, while Tsukuyomaru blamed the fact that he was also skipping both rounds with uneven number of people.
Either way, the third match was soon over and Kagome was called into the arena. None of the fights before that one ended with death, but not because any of participants pulled their punches – white sand of the arena was turned red with blood after each match, and servants ran again and again to switch it with fresh one. And while youkai were sturdy enough to survive all of that, Kagome was a human, and now twice as worried.
"Well, it's my turn!" she said, pulling a smile on her face and making a deep breath to calm her nerves. "Wish me luck!"
"If Touran-san was there, she'd told you to not doubt yourself," Shizu said with a smile.
"You will totally destroy them!" Shippo added, jumping down from Kagome's knees as she rose.
"But if you want this luck, I will make sure you will have it!" Tsukuyomaru said with a wink. Kagome smiled genuinely now.
"Thank you all!" she said, making her way down to the arena.
Her opponent, someone named Kuzuri, was waiting for Kagome already when she finally stepped onto the arena. He was a tall and young-looking youkai with long dark hair pulled into ponytail and gleaming red eyes. Kuzuri was also wearing a long cloak framed with black feathers that hid the rest of his clothes, armor and weapons. Kagome wondered if his name meant that he was a wolverine youkai, or if it was unrelated, since his clothes made her think about some sort of bird.
As Kagome approached her starting position, she could feel Kuzuri's piercing gaze on her. It was as if those red eyes of his were reading not just in her looks, but in her body, mind and soul as well. Finally, just as Kagome stopped, her opponent looked down and sighed heavily. From up close, Kagome could see tired lines under his eyes.
"Let's fight well," he said in bland tone, bowing in greeting.
"Are you sure you are well enough to fight? You look tired," Kagome asked with concern after returning the bow. Even if this person was her opponent, she couldn't help herself.
"I am fine," Kuzuri waved her question away in a lazy gesture, showing a glimpse of his body-fitting dark armor that reminded Kagome of youkai slayers' clothes. She didn't really believe the man. She couldn't tell by his aura, as he hid it very well, but Kagome could see his slumped shoulders. Still, if he wanted to fight, what could she do?
"Let the strongest and most cunning win," Kagome finally said, quoting Tsume's earlier words. When she raised her eyes for a moment, she could see both her and Sesshomaru watching her closely. 'Well, if I wasn't anxious before, I am totally anxious now!'
"And the fight between Kuzuri and Higurashi Kagome… begins!" an announcer, the lanky official, said from this place on the outside of the arena.
Just as the last syllable of the last word left his mouth, Kuzuri rushed into attack with a katana that he produced from under his cloak. The energy he showed just now contrasted greatly with the weary state he seemed to be in. Unsheathing her own sword, Kagome parried the strike without even thinking. It wasn't faster or smarter than Sesshomaru's attacks, and as her body moved on autopilot, she realized that she could see her opponent's movements without much of a problem. Then, she moved to counterattack. Tsunohiyoru leaved gleaming trails in the air, and Kuzuri parried and dodged it with a special care, pursing his lips in visible pain each time the sword came too close.
Kagome felt exhilarated. She pushed her opponent to retreat further and further away towards the edge of the arena. He was quick on his feet, and she didn't managed to even nick him yet, but she had all the initiative while Kuzuri was stuck in defense. Then, suddenly, he jumped far back and sheathed his sword.
For a sliver of a moment Kagome thought that he might want to yield, but then she remembered how many of youkai she saw fighting before only had swords with them as decorations, preferring to fight with their own claws or, in many cases, youki. With that Kagome held Tsunohiyoru tight in both hands, preparing to defend herself from whatever energy blast he might shoot at her.
Instead of that, Kuzuri flapped hems of his cloak, making black feathers fly everywhere. They floated in the air for a moment, before transforming into multitudes of red-eyed crows, which, in turn, flew towards Kagome with loud caws. All of that happened too fast for her to again close the distance between her and her opponent, and she was left with only a moment to think about what to do against a new threat.
She could feel small amounts of youki in the crows, and see Kuzuri take out a set of shuriken behind them. Thankfully, Kagome had something in her arsenal especially for this occasion – a trick she rarely used, but one that was very convenient in cases like this. Still holding Tsunohiyoru in one hand, she reached with another inside her fighting clothes - red and white garments of a priestess.
"Shikigami!" she exclaimed, throwing a stack of paper talismans she produced towards the flock of attacking birds.
Creating shikigami was one of the skills that not many priestess and monks possessed, mainly due to the fact that this knowledge was considered bordering on witchery and was not taught often. But it was a very versatile one, though it had one important flaw. Shikigami were only as strong as reiki that was put into them, and you could only put so much reiki into paper, from which they were usually done, before it will break. It wasn't that important in usual offensive ofudas, since they needed to be charged only for the amount of time necessary for them to fly to the target, but it wasn't the same with shikigami. No matter how strong of a priestess you were, without something to strengthen the shikigami (hair and blood were usually used for that), it will be very weak. Right now, Kagome used just normal paper, but judging from the crows' weak auras, it should be enough.
The paper charged with her reiki transformed into several big eagles that easily began to hunt down attacking crows one by one. Smirking a little, Kagome looked towards her opponent just in time to closely dodge a bunch of shuriken that were flying at her, and ran towards him.
Kuzuri didn't flee again, instead switching his weapons to two kunai and fighting back with them. It was harder for Kagome to defend against two weapons at once, not having that much experience even against swords, and she soon paid for her lack of skill with a nick on her shoulder. Crowds cheered for the first blood just as Kagome managed to retaliate with a swift stab that came close enough to Kuzuri's side to leave visible burnt patch on his clothes. From the distance she was in, she could have purified him on the spot at any given moment, but she didn't wish to actually kill the youkai by accident. She also needed to save her reiki for the future fights.
And it was such a nice feeling to have her excruciatingly painful sword training pay off.
They fought like that for a while longer. Kagome didn't even really noticed small wounds that Kuzuri managed to inflict on her under rush of her blood, but always eventually retaliated in some way, though Kuzuri avoided really bad hits. He continued to summon more and more crows, but Kagome's shikigami dealt with them, and the sky above the arena was constantly filled with bird's cries and beating of wings. But, finally, Kagome managed to do a thing that she was going towards since the beginning of the match – to corner her opponent.
He was now standing back to the very edge of the arena, where a barrier was keeping viewers safe. Kagome was panting. Blood that was flowing from the cut on her lip, filling her mouth with its bitter, burning taste. She smiled, not even wincing.
"You have nowhere to run now. Just give up," she said.
Kuzuri shrugged, dropping his weapons on the ground. He let out a tired breath and scrunched his face in pain. His cloak was full of burned holes from Tsunohiyoru, and many similar wounds were hiding underneath it.
"I yield," he said simply, turning his remaining crows back into feathers that fell to the ground in a small black rain. Kagome nodded, doing the same with her eagles, which returned to her as pieces of paper (reusable!), and sheathed her sword. It was already completely clean of blood or anything else, since it only touched youkai matter, which he burned into nothingness on contact.
Crowds booed and whistled over the lack of gore, and somewhere announcer told everyone about Kagome's victory, but she wasn't listening. Rush of battle was slowly leaving her, letting her feel burn of all the scratches she got in the fight as she walked towards participants' lodges. She had all the time in the world until her next match – with her almost-youkai healing those small wounds will most probably heal before that.
Despite the wound on her lip, Kagome couldn't stop from grinning from ear to ear. 'I won, I won! And without just blasting him away with reiki! Now, only three more fights to go, even two if Touran-san gets to the fourth round!' she was thinking, almost dancing as she walked. Then, she threw a glance at Tsume's lodge, and wasn't at the least surprised to see both dog youkai looking at her – Tsume with an amused smile, Sesshomaru with narrowed eyes. That dampened Kagome's good mood a little, but she still had her future fights to prove him. 'He will not be looking at me like that later on,' she swore for herself, 'Even if he has a dozen of lectures about what I did wrong in that fight!'
When Kagome returned to Tsukuyomaru's lodge, her sitting place was taken by Touran, who held almost jumping from excitement Shippo on her knees. And of course, as soon as the priestess stepped in, she was instantly assaulted by everyone.
"That was amazing, Kagome-san!" Shippo exclaimed, almost falling down from Touran's knees from all of his movements. "How did you make those eagles? Can you teach me? Please, please, please teach me!"
"Quiet, kit," Touran pinned him in place with a palm on his head. "Kagome-san, that's a nasty looking cut on your face, and your wounds smell strange. You shouldn't have let this weakling to injure you like that; I think his blades were poisoned!"
"Kagome-san, you are bleeding! It's a good thing I've brought those bandages with me, though I was hoping not to use them," Shizu gushed as she started to rummage in her small bag.
"Kagome-san, will you be alright for the next fight? Humans easily suffer from lack of blood even from small wounds," Tsukuyomaru asked with concern as well, moving closer to the edge of the lodge to free a sliver of space for Kagome.
Even Shiori whispered something worriedly, but Kagome couldn't hear her over voices of everyone else. She could barely understand what people were asking from when they talked at the same time like that even when they were actually loud enough to hear over the noise of crowd around.
"Please, please, I can't hear what you are saying!" she cried out, overlapping the stream of exclamations and questions, and somehow wriggled inside of the lodge. "Touran-san, did you said something about poison?"
Touran leaned closer – an action that was easy to do when everyone were already packed so tightly already – and sniffed Kagome's face. "No, I am taking my words back. Your blood smells really strange, had since our first meeting, Kagome-san, but I've only noticed now, when it had been spilled," she said, pulling back. "But you still shouldn't have let this wimp to injure you!"
Kagome just smiled apologetically, while Shizu produced a hefty roll of bandages and a gourd of water to wash Kagome's scratches. At the same time, the priestess also got her own healing salve from a hidden department in her quiver. Everyone gradually calmed down and Kagome assured everyone that she will be ready for her next match when its time will come. Shizu helped her to take care of her wounds, and just as the women were done, Touran was called down to fight some female canine youkai (Kagome couldn't tell if she was a dog or a wolf from just her tail).
While the fight wasn't hard on Touran, Kagome still had a great opportunity to see the wildcat in action together with her spear. She conjured ice out of thin air with an artistry of a theatre performer, and played cat and mouse with her helpless victim for a while before finally leaving her encased in ice. The spectators cheered for Touran with all their might, and even if wildcat was going to lose in her next fight, her goal to show off, in Kagome's opinion, was already achieved. Judging by Touran's face when she returned to the lodge, she also thought so.
In the next match Kagome saw someone familiar stepping in the arena to meet his opponent. She nudged Shippo, who sat on her knees again now, and pointed at the green oni with naginata, not wishing to speak with the bitter salve on her lip.
"Oh, this is the same guy who attacked you yesterday, Kagome-san!" he exclaimed, rising up to see the fight better. "I hope he will get beaten!"
'The guy' did not – while the fight was quite tough, in the end the oni ended up being a victor and his opponent was lying down on the ground in a barely-alive bloody heap. While Shippo was pouting over this situation, Kagome looked at Shizu helplessly, believing in her ability to find something optimistic to say.
"He will lose eventually," the woman did not let Kagome down. "He still needs to fight Touran in his next match."
"Oh yea, she will totally kick his ass!" Shippo immediately agreed only to get scolded by Shizu over his use of bad language and him corrupting their daughter with it, who only giggled quietly over the whole situation. Tsukuyomaru seemed like he also wanted to insert his opinion there, but he was nudged by Touran towards the arena.
"It's your time to shine, bat prince," the wildcat said with a smirk, picking up Shiori from her father's knees to free him some space to squeeze out of the lodge. "I hope you can do more than just hide behind impenetrable barriers."
As it turned over, Tsukuyomaru indeed could do other things than that. He was one of the few youkai who used their swords not just as decoration, and while his style of fighting wasn't as flashy as Touran's, it did its job. With Tsukuyomaru's quite impressive speed and strength, the fate of his opponent – a youkai whose head that was for some incomprehensible reason floating separately from his body – was soon sealed despite all his tricks with strings.
Now Kagome and her friends had more than a half of the first round before any of them was going to fight again. A few matches later Shippo decided to return to his dad before he gets worried, while Kagome decided to wander off a little, both to free some space in Tsukuyomaru's lodge, and to grab some snack for a long day ahead. With the speed tournament was going there was a high chance for the finale to happen after sunset.
After she got some fried squid from a passing peddler, instead of returning to Tsukuyomaru, Kagome went to her own lodge, one that was blissfully empty. There, she finally had some space to stretch her legs and let her scratches, which already started to scab over, heal without anyone bumping their sides into them. She spent her time just relaxing and memorizing her possible future opponents, wishing that she could remember tournament grid a bit better.
Of course, Kagome was eventually found by someone – namely Touran – but after finding a reason for Kagome to sit alone, wildcat didn't insist on bringing the priestess back with her. Instead she just stayed in Kagome's lodge, providing her comments. As she told to Kagome, this tournament was first one in which she participated, but fourth at which she was a spectator, and most of truly notable and powerful youkai also were long-time participants. Touran, as she said, also could have been one of them, but she and her siblings moved into the area relatively recently, and led a quite secluded life before that.
When her second fight finally arrived, only one fight after Sesshomaru completely decimated his opponent, Kagome's skin was smooth as new and her spirits were high. She knew her opponent already – a youkai named Koga, who's main forte was his speed. Besides that he didn't showed any notable powers despite showing off his whole fight, so Kagome was almost sure that he didn't had anything hidden in his sleeves. Which he also didn't have – his clothes consisted of bare minimum of furs, with a breastplate and a sword thrown over it with little regard.
There, on the arena just ten steps away from him, Kagome could also finally feel for herself all the power of his incredible personality that was earlier hidden from her by the distance to the spectator's places and all the noise around. And it knocked Kagome from her feet with much more force than his strikes.
It's all started almost innocently.
"Hm, I see you have a pretty face," Koga said contemplatively when Kagome came to her starting position. Then he added assuredly: "Don't worry, I won't hit it."
"Thank you," Kagome said coldly, as she unsheathed Tsunohiyoru. She was trying to keep her rising anger in check, but without much success. 'Who did this guy thinks he is, to pull his punches only because I'm a girl with a pretty face? And his arrogance! Ugh.'
But it only went worse after that. At first fight just went normally – in other words, as an actual fight. Koga used his superior speed to literally run circles around Kagome, who in turn used flashes of reiki from her hands and her sword to leave him nasty burns if he dared to come closer and actually strike. Each one of those flashes, in Kagome's anger, was powered up to knock Koga out, but he always managed to dodge at the last possible moment, to Kagome's frustration. That continued until the priestess decided that she had enough and flared her reiki brighter than previously just as Koga moved to dodge.
He still mostly evaded the blast, but the leftover force sent him flying to the ground. With his youkai stamina, Koga, of course, stood up a moment later, to Kagome's displeasure – but she didn't liked the sparks she saw in his eyes when he run closer again.
"I decided!" Koga said with a grin, stopping just far enough to not be in immediate range of Tsunohiyoru. "What was your name again… Kagome? Kagome, you are going to be my woman."
"What," Kagome said, almost dropping her weapon in shock. It was one thing to hear that youkai used the tournament as some sort of matchmaking grounds, but completely different – to feel it on her own skin. Weren't most youkai against mixing with humans in that way?
"You are a human, but you are strong and pretty," Koga said with the same satisfied smile. "I came to the tournament to find a mate, so I can just yield now, and when it's over you will come to live with me."
Before Kagome could even start to think about what to say on something like that – before even one thought appeared in her head after the earthquake that Koga created inside – the impudent youkai already moved further. Moving Kagome's sword aside, he half-embraced her, pulling her closer to him.
"Just like that," he said, staring into Kagome's eyes in what could have been considered a romantic moment. "Did you get it?"
It was at that moment that Kagome's brain finally resumed her work, instantly giving a command to her hand. One loud smack later the distance between Kagome and Koga was restored again, and the priestess got her tongue back.
"Don't touch me just like that!" she almost shrieked in anger, before calming down a little bit and continuing in still irate, but more reasonably low tone. "And I am not going to be your… anything!"
"Why?" Koga asked in confusion, inclining his head to the side. "I have a big pack and a nice den. Birds of Paradise are a bit of problem on my territory now, but with you I am sure we will deal with them easily. You will be happy with me, I promise, Kagome."
For a moment, Kagome had a list of possible reasons going on in her head: 'Because I cursed horribly and will be a danger to you. Because I am already a servant of Sesshomaru-sama, and I know he won't let me go to be with you. Because I am a human, and you are youkai. Because I am a priestess and should stay pure. Because I had just met you. Because I don't love you. Because you don't love me. Because you are an arrogant jerk.' It was a long list, and all of the reasons were valid, but looking at the face of patiently waiting for her answer Koga, Kagome felt that none of them will be enough to really keep him away.
But Kagome knew now, what almost every youkai respected even before they adapted human norms of society to themselves - power. So instead of any of the above, Kagome said: "Because you aren't strong enough for me. I don't want to be a woman of someone who can't even beat me."
That, indeed, shut Koga up, if only for very, very short period of time.
"Alright!" he said afterwards. "I will train to be strong enough, and then you will become my woman!"
'I guess this is good enough. I will probably never meet him again after this tournament anyway.' Kagome though, a bit relieved, as Koga gave his surrender to the judge and run off from the arena. She also turned to walk away. As she walked to the stairs, her eyes flew to Tsume's lodge again. Emotions in there were just as after her previous fight, if stronger – instead of smiling, Tsume seemed to be plain snickering in her sleeve, while Sesshomaru looked livid. Kagome shivered, hoping against all hope that the reason for such moods was not her, but Koga.