"." - Talking (NO Duh!) ^.^ - Language (.) - My daft self - Singing/Battle Chants CAPS - Shouting or emphasis on that word *Note: '-' will be replacing those dot dot dot thingies since dot dot dots show as only one dot on ff.net.

Disclaimer: I don't own CC/CCS.

Aoi Youkai

*Chapter 10: The Fight round 3*

~*~ Flashback ~*~

Sakura clapped her hands together, "Okay, that's settled then. In round 3, you will be paired up and the pairs will be Maita Rei & Lee Aya and Tsujimoto Toki & Sakurai Natsumi."

~*~ End Flashback ~*~

Later that day, Aya discarded the bloodied jacket and sat down where she always sat, east. Rei was no longer beside her as partners were required to sit opposite each other.

Syaoran added a bit more to his usual "Round =insert number= begins now" speech. Basically, this was kinda like tag team competitions. A circle was drawn on the floor and that was the 'ring'. At any point of time, they were allowed to tap out and switch. Strangely enough, there weren't any spells to stop the other person from jumping in.

First up were Toki and Aya. Aya was barely able to block a blow to her head from her opponent, driven by revenge (it was a blow to his reputation when he was the first to go down in the prelims, especially when he was brought down by the girl he promised would bring down first).

Slowly, they fought, equally matched. Much further into the fight, Aya had a gash in her stomach, a stab in the leg, a slash on her arm and uncountable bruises, sprains & concussions. Toki wasn't spared the injury giveaway. He managed to get away with a stab that just missed his vital organs, though it was still gushing with blood, a cut on his forehead, a broken nose, a broken arm and just as many bruises & sprains. But in terms of energy, Aya was in a worse situation.

A kick when she was distracted brought her to the floor and immediately after, there was a sword sticking through her chest. She blacked out in time to see Rei jump into the ring and stick HER sword through his back.

*In the sorcery classroom*

Touya, Nakuru and Yukito were visiting from the mainland to watch the competition. (They haven't meant Aya and Aki yet. They hold down the fort at the Tokyo office while Syaoran was at Seishiro) Syaoran, Sakura and Eriol had to go to the auditorium to stop the rioting that started when Aya's energy level started going down and assigned the three to watch the contestants. They were told what to do when one of them died. Yukito was watching Toki, Nakuru was watching Rei and Natsumi and Touya was watching Aya.

Touya watched Aya's energy go further and further down (Oh, btw, their energy levels when they come back to the real world will be what it is just before they die) until when it was almost zero, it dropped and the blinking red light went off.

(Toki dies around now, but not many notice)

When he tore the headpiece off and she fell limp into his arms, practically gasping for air. He asked her, "Can you stand?"

(Now, Toki's walking off to the auditorium cursing swearing and screaming. Remember, he had a great deal more energy when he was killed than when Aya did when she was)

He passed her his hand for support as she tried to stand. She'd barely made it as she fell again. She gripped tighter on his hand, as her breathing became more laboured. He turned to Yukito, "Yukito, do me a favour and get Sakura, the freak and the gaki."

Yukito nodded and ran out. When he got to the auditorium, he told Sakura, "One of them's too low on energy."

"Which one?"

"East."

"Aya." she tapped Syaoran & Eriol on the shoulder and yelled to her son, "Aoi!"

The five made their way to the nurse's office where Touya had brought Aya and found Chiharu tending to her while Touya leant against the wall.

Aoi sighed and mumbled something like, "Darn side effects. Why me?"

He felt around in her pouch and finally found the right spell. Soon Aya was completely recharged and on her way to the auditorium before anyone could catch up.

She burst through the doors and found a very bored crowd with a very sulky Toki and Natsumi. Soon she was bombarded by Rei, "WE WON! AYA, WE WON!"

She was knocked down to the ground as the rest of her friends joined in the group glomp.

*tonight*

They'd had dinner at the Li's and were introduced to Nakuru, Yukito and Touya. After dinner, Syaoran went behind the bar and started taking orders. Aya was a bit surprised and asked, "I thought it was illegal for under-18s to drink."

Kara winked, "It's not like anyone'll know, ne?"

Aya grinned, "A bottle then."

Syaoran raised his eyebrows, "A bottle of what?"

"Sake, of course. Undiluted. Diluted is too weak."

She then noticed the others staring at her, some with their jaws caressing the floor, except, as usual Aki, "What?"

Syaoran spoke up from behind the bar, "Um, are you sure?"

"Duh, I'm sure. Don't worry. I won't get drunk."

"Whatever you say." He picked a bottle from the cupboard and threw it. She caught it, pulled the cork out and started drinking.

Some of them looked at her brother, "You STILL haven't noticed. Goodness, you people are slow. ANYTHING'S possible with Aya, although to tell the truth, I think the only thing close to alcohol she ever ate or drank were fermented grapes. As far as I know, anyway."

Aya interrupted them, "I suddenly wish that Tsujimoto-san and Sakurai-san'd won instead."

"Why?"

"Then I wouldn't have to fight Rei. I seriously don't think that I'll be able to fight her. I never was good at fighting my friends."

Aki placed a hand on his sister's shoulder, "Don't worry. I think she'll want you to cut her any slack. She'll probably be giving it her all, anyway."

"But even if I gave it my all, she knows me too well."

Aoi spoke up this time, "She puts most of her effort in her kicks and prefers agility and speed over brute force, like most girls. What your fighting style?"

She grinned, "I fight Aya style."

"Seriously?"

"Yup. I don't like particular styles. Some forms can defeat others effectively."

"Good choice, but what're you gonna do then?"

Tsuki was the next one to raise a point, "Rei relies on seeking out a person's aura to find them. When they're in hiding, that is."

Aya thought for a while, taking a few more swigs of her bottle, "That's it! What I can do is raise the earth a bit to create a sort of ring around her and hide behind for a while. Then I can use a non-magic attack. Of course, I'll have to hide my aura."

Eriol spotted a mistake, "But there IS a spell to seek out people who've hidden their auras. It's extremely difficult and only a few people we know of can do it, and if I remember right, Maita-san was one of those particularly interested in it. The only loophole is that it lowers your defences extremely low."

"I'll sleep on it. I'm sure I'll come up with something."

She polished off a couple more bottles of sake, still was not, surprisingly, drunk, before Aki dragged her off home.

Look. I know you people find this extremely confusing. I'm lucky if you even got this far to read this. I don't care whether you say things like you're an idiot in the reviews. Seriously, I do NOT want to be the only 20000 word fic with less than 10 reviews. So ONEGAI~!! R+R!