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"Darque Tournament" By Wicked-Wytch

Disclaimer: "I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho," I muttered softly, sitting in Mr. Takanaka's (spelling might be wrong) office. My eyes were on his desk because I couldn't bear to look up at him. "Damn straight you don't!" He exclaimed. "And you better not be going around saying that you do." His voice lowered and he looked at me, "I expect better from you, Wicked." I sighed heavily. That old man knew how to give me a guilt trip. "Yes Mr. Takanaka." He nodded once and I ran out of his office, knowing that I had to watch my language in school from now on.

R/R folks. And Enjoy!!

On a side note- do you all know how hard it is to come up with powers that aren't boring and haven't already been done. If anyone has some suggestions for what Yusuke's opponent's power should be, please share. Much appreciated!

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Kazuma walked quickly to the center of the ring. The match had officially started, but his opponent was no where in sight. It worried him. Quite suddenly, an attractive looking young woman was standing before him.

"How'd you do that?" Kuwabara shouted in surprise.

The girl simply looked back at him, her eyes shining brightly. She looked much like a schoolgirl, in fact she could have passed for one of his classmates. Though she wore a blood red dress that pooled at her feet, she had those bright, doey eyes that many girls his age had.

Kuwabara's bravado was quickly melting into uncertainty. He had a code, afterall, that forbid him from hitting women. It just wasn't right to hit girls. And now he had to fight one and possibly kill her.

"Um... hey!" Kuwabara shouted at her. "Um... if you give up now, I won't have to fight you." He gave a sort of weak chuckle and realized, with the look that she gave him that she wasn't going to give in easily. "Aw...damn!"

Kuwabara took a few steps back and took a defensive position. He'd be damned if he was going to throw the first punch.

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"Stop standing there, you dumbass!" Yusuke was muttering softly. "Fight. Do it for the team!" Urameshi was standing at the sidelines, his hands in fists. He was willing Kuwabara to do something.

"He's going to loose," Hiei stated with a tiny smile on his face. "He always does." He had said it mostly to Kurama, but Yusuke had overheard it.

"Shut up, Hiei," Yusuke snapped suddenly. Hiei glared in return.

"Quiet," Botan interrupted the two before they could start anything. She threw Hiei a dark, chasticizing look and turned her focus back to the ring. "It's going to start!" Botan's eyes seemed to be fixed on Kuwabara. She too seemed to be mentally cheering him on.

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Ven, as usual, was watching from above. The Dark Angel kept an eye on the first human member of team Urameshi, watching him closely. She wanted to measure his skill, among other things.

To her surprise, he seemed better that she'd have expected. He didn't seem to want to hit the girl. It was rare to come along a polite demon hunter. So she waited and she watched, somewhat anxiously for the fight to begin.

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Kuwabara was staring at the girl, still standing before her, not willing to move. She looked up at him with clear blue eyes. A sudden thought hit him- she had eyes like Yukina. This weighed heavily on Kuwabara, who now did not want to touch the girl at all.

As Kazuma watched her with a heavy heart, he felt her Spirit Energy, which was incredibly high. And then, quite suddenly, she spoke.

"If you give up now, I won't have to fight you," she said in the very same tone that Kuwabara had used before.

Kuwabara blinked. She was being earnest. It seemed that she wanted to fight him just as much as he did. For a moment, he pondered what to do. And then, quite suddenly he responded to her with a soft smile, "Sorry. Can't give up. I've gotta win this."

"I see," the girl muttered, her eyes on the ground. "Then I must apologize for what I am about to do."

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Koenma was watching the match tensly, his food laying on the table, forgotten for the moment. "Oh.. this is bad," he kept muttering. He nervously chewed his pacifier between his teeth and breathed quietly. "Do something, Kuwabara, before she does!"

"What's wrong sir?" Orge asked softly from behind the 'child'. There was a concerned look in the creature's face. At the same time, though, one of his hands was snaking around a pile of paper, trying to grasp a spare lobster tail. Sadly, his plan was thwarted when Koenma, seeing what he was doing, smacked his hand away violently with a chop stick.

Forgetting about the match, Koenma shouted, "Are you trying to steal my food, Ogre? Are you looking to collect unemployment and lose the dental plan you get from this job?"

"No, no sir!" Orge shouted, thoughts of living on the streets flashing through his head. "I'm so sorry sir!"

"Stay the hell away from my food!" The 'child' shouted angrily. "And let me watch my match!"

"Yes sir!"

That said, Koenma regained his thoughful, worried look and focused on the image of Kuwabara standing, preparing for the attack.

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The crowd was getting restless and was starting to cry for blood. The pressure was building in the center ring, and each team (well, what was left of each team) seemed to be watching hopefully for their member to move.

It happened quickly when the girl in the red dress ran towards Kuwabara, arm outstretched in a fist. Kuwabara blocked it and pushed her back, hard.

She fell onto her back and closed her eyes, as if expecting some kind of retaliation. But Kuwabara did nothing of the sort. It was then that she did her magic. She looked at Kuwabara, meeting his eyes. *Now or never,* she thought.

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Kazuma noticed as he looked at the girl that her eyes seemed to glow with a strange light. It filled him with uncertainty and nerves and after a few moments of staring at her, he looked away, unable to keep the stare.

When he opened his eyes, he saw them. It didn't make sense... where had they come from? But he didn't have much time to think about it because, he realized that they were all around him, all over him. Crawling and slithering over his skin.

Kuwabara let out a terrified scream loud enough to fill the stadium. He managed, in the midst of the scream, to say something in a shaking voice: "Please.... get them off me."

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Hello my dear, dear reader. How goes it? Well, I hope. Haven't seen me around in a bit, have you? Worried about me, were you? I'm glad you care, I feel loved. Well, I've come back. For how long, you ask? As long as I can. It's summer, I have a lil free time on my hands. I;ll update every week or two, fyi. Sorry, but I'm working on a whole buncha stuff. I have another fic on this site thats in progress and I'm working on some other writing with friends.

NEXT CHAPTER= We find out what's crawling on Kuwabara(Poor Kazuma), the fight continues, and we get EVEN CLOSER to Batos. ^-^

Reviewers: Thank u o so many times. BTW- if you're bored and got nothing to do, why not go over and check out my other masterpiece, The Descent of the Phoenix (ooo does the title not give you chills?), it's an X-men fic. I know you'll love it *grin*. (Here's to self advertisement, boys and girls).

Jesscheaux - Hmmm... I'm special, eh? *not sure if that's a good thing or not*Anyways, hehe. thanks for the many spirit boosting reviews! You mentioned about our announcer man, just wanted to say- he's loosley based on Snape from the Harry Potter movies (and unpleasant fellow, he is but I still luv him). Oh, and don't worry, Lisa got a Kuwabara clone (I have plenty and if you want one, I'll easily pass Kuwa-bot #5 to you). THANKS!! :D

Alia- Thanks! We're going to get more into Ven later and she's not all the bitchyness I make her out to be. ^-^. I apologize about the short battles, it's just that I never really enjoyed doing fight scenes too much (unless it's with someone I really don't like). *Thinking of happy place where there are no bunnies and there are many cute males* hehe...thanks for the advice.

The cold wind howls and calls me away. ^-^

So, for now- later! ~Wicked