Someone asked 'Who wears slippers out of the house?' Well, the obvious answer is… Kurama (the outfit at the end of the Dark Tournament) and Genkai (all the time, period) ^_^ At least…that's what they look like to me. I see them in a lot of fighting animes, and I like the way they look. And no, I've never played Kingdom Hearts. I'm a .hack// fanatic. I just can't put it down…Also, the Chinese girl's name is Ming-Mei, not just Ming. Those two words are her first name, not her first and her last. It's a traditional Chinese girl's name. She was based on Xiao-Xing, from Real Bout High School. If it wasn't for the fact that I don't put smilies in my stories, all of her lines would end with ^_^.

…This chapter was hard to write…

Please read note at the end of the chapter for help I need in planning the rest of this story.

Disclaimer: Of course I own the original plot of YYH…And if you believe that, I've got a beach house in Kansas I can sell you…

Yu Yu Hakusho: Blossom

Chapter 7: Spirit Blasts

"Alright then." Yusuke sighed, glancing at the screen. "The next match is Ming-Mei versus Rafu. Hope one of you makes it."

The little Chinese girl hopped up onto the stage in one bound, smiling happily and bouncing on the balls of her feet. Rafu gave a bit of a huff, climbing up after his opponent, pulling out a fishing rod.

"Fighters ready?" the master raised his hand, then dropped it to start the match. "BEGIN!"

The fight went rather quickly.

Rafu flung his fishing-wire like a whip, snapping its sharp hook towards the small girl. Ming-Mei simply jumped out of the way, dodging it with ease and grace. She pulled a ball from out from her sleeve and bounced it towards the other fighter.

Before the fisherman could react, a thin rope uncoiling itself from the ball had suddenly wrapped around him, immobilizing the bulky fighter completely. Ming-Mei then connected a flying kick to his head and sent him spiraling out of the ring and into the wooden support beam. He crumbled and didn't move.

Yusuke raised his eyebrow. "Not bad. Ming-Mei is the winner!"

The Chinese girl bowed to her fallen opponent, then jumped out of the ring, bouncing her ball like a yo-yo. Yusuke motioned for the next two to get into the ring. Kanaye and Kisho glanced at the board, climbed into the ring, and began their fight.

Ming-Mei hopped over to Sakura and Mamoru, who were sitting by the wall. Mamoru was watching the fights with earnest, his eyes sparkling in the gloom, but Sakura couldn't care less. She was twirling her rose between her fingers, and her eyes looked distant, almost pained.

"Hi there." Ming-Mei smiled, sitting down next to Sakura.

The redhead blinked at her, a bit confused. "Hi…"

"Ming-Mei liked your attack!" the girl said, sounding excited, pointing to the rose. "It really pretty and look like fun! You fighting Ming-Mei in next match, right?" Sakura didn't answer, but the Chinese girl didn't wait for one as she jumped to her feet. "Make sure you uses that! Ming-Mei want good fight!"

Sakura stared after her as Kisho pointed the end of his staff at the on-rushing Kanaye, after successful deflecting most of the man's arrows, and the hunter's momentum caused him to skewer himself on the monk's staff. His corpse dropped to the ground on the outside of the ring.

"Winner…Kisho!" Yusuke announced. The monk wiped the blood off his staff with a disdainful look, then stepped out of the ring.

"That's three down…" Yusuke turned back to the group of fighters. "One fight to go, and we can start the semi-finals. Mamoru and Yukio, you're up! Let's get it started."

Yukio made a bored 'huff' kind of noise, climbing up onto the wooden platform. Mamoru stood up, brushing himself off and smiling with excitement. "This should be fun."

"If you say so…" Sakura muttered, eyeing the much larger fighter. "Good luck… And be careful."

"Thanks." Mamoru winked at her, then climbed into the ring. He stretched his shoulders, grinning like mad. "Alright, big guy, let's get it on."

Yukio raised an eyebrow. He pulled his hands back into a fighting stance. "You're gonna regret that, kid." he growled.

Sakura watched her classmate a moment, then eyed Yukio nervously. Her head was starting to pound slightly from the dark force in the room. She couldn't tell what it was or exactly who it came from, but it didn't feel right…it didn't feel human…at it felt far too strong…

"Fighters ready!" Urameshi raised his hand. "BEGIN!"

Mamoru charged ahead, striking out with as hard a punch as he could muster. He pushed a bit of Spirit Energy behind it, connecting with Yukio's stomach. The larger man grinned.

He reached down and grabbed Mamoru's wrist. The boy didn't have a minute to react as he was thrown off his feet. Yukio gripped him by the arm, swirling him around three times before letting go.

Mamoru crashed to the ground of the ring twenty feet away, letting out as gasp of pain. He pulled himself up, checking his head. It was pounding, a lump of pain was rising up, but there was no blood…

"Why you…" he growled, bouncing to his feet.

Yukio laughed. "Just try it, kid!" he flexed his mussels threateningly. "I've trained my body to perfection! None of your back-yard punches even faze me!"

Mamoru tightened his battle stance, glaring at him. "I'm tougher than I look." he growled low in his throat. He pushed as much spirit energy as he could behind his fists and lunged into an attack again.

"What a fool…" Kisho muttered, tapping his staff on the ground.

"He gonna get thrown again." Ming-Mei agreed.

This time Yukio grabbed both of Mamoru's hands, whirled him twice and hurled him father than before. The boy bounced once and slid a stop, mere inches from the end of the ring.

"Told him." Ming-Mei shrugged.

"Mamoru…" Sakura whispered, green eyes wide. "Is…is he okay?"

"No." the Master muttered. "But he's better than this. Just watch."

Mamoru pulled himself to his knees. This time he was bleeding, the lump on his head had broken, and the room was starting to spin around him. "Aw man…" he growled in his throat. "I can't lose…not now…"

"Give it up, kid." Yukio grinned. "You'll never get to me like that."

Mamoru closed his eyes, concentrating again. He…had…to…focus. He knew that. This was no street fight. Street fights didn't involve Spirit Energy, this was a real match. He couldn't just plow in now and expect to walk out.

He moved the spirit energy slowly from his hands to the soles of his feet. He felt the ground get slick beneath him, but it wouldn't last long.

Outside of the ring, Yusuke grinned. "Now that's more like it."

"Well?" Yukio sneared. "Are you gonna give up or what?"

Mamoru's eyes snapped open with light anew. He pushed off the ground and was suddenly behind his bulky opponent. "What the!?" Yukio gasped

Mamoru creamed him with a hard flying kick to the back of the neck, sending the huge fighter hurtling forward, face-first, into the floor of the ring. Literally. The boy landed inches from where his opponent had stood, panting a bit from the energy he used, but looking pleased with himself. "So there."

Ming-Mei blinked. "How he…?" she gasped.

"Your spirit awareness isn't high enough to see him move." Kisho lectured without looking at her. "Obviously, Yukio's wasn't high enough either, or he would have dodged."

Sakura blinked. She'd seen Mamoru move, clear as day. He'd run around his opponent, turned on a dime, jumped and landed the kick. But how he'd done it in the space of a minute's time she did not know.

"He pushed his spirit energy into his legs and feet for an extra boost." Yusuke grinned, almost as if he'd read the girl's mind. "It's a simple technique, but at this point the can't use it for long before the fatigue starts to wear on him."

Yukio put two hands on the edge of the ring, pulling his head out with an almost audible pop. He left two teeth and a miniscule puddle of blood in the hole his head had made. He turned to Mamoru with a growl, a trickle of red dripping out of his mouth and eyes wide with anger. "You little brat…"

Mamoru smirked at him, licking his knuckle as though to remove blood, an obvious battle challenge. Yukio glared at him, eyes seemingly rimed with red.

"I'll show you, runt!" he growled, squinting a moment. Then he threw his eyes open, shooting out blood-red beams of spirit energy from both orbs.

The Master raised a surprised eyebrow. Ming-Mei and Sakura's eyes went wide in shock. Kisho looked a bit flustered, but all in all he didn't look too shocked.

Mamoru, on the other hand, let out a sudden cry and dove out of the way. The beams hit an ornament behind him, which very quickly ceased to be so decorative. He rolled over a few feet away, ending in a crouch.

"What was that?!" he gasped.

Yukio grinned at him, straightening. "I simply call in an Eye-Beam. Concentrated spirit energy with quite a desirable effect. I have just enough control and more than enough energy to pull it off."

Mamoru's own eyes widened a bit, and he was on his feet. Yukio's eyes started to glow again, and another pair of beams were fired. Mamoru dodged easily, running along the edge of the ring as beams flew.

"Yes! Run! Run!" Yukio laughed, firing as many as he could after the running boy.

Sakura watched him, thinking to herself. The bus stop…what had Mamoru said?

"Mamoru-kun…" she projected her thoughts out to him. "Do you think…that move you told me about…"

His energy spiked suddenly in excitement, and his thoughts were a mumbled range of planning. Sakura let a small grin cross her lips, breaking the mind-link. "Here we go…"

Mamoru slid to a stop in the corner of the ring, battle-stance ready. "Giving up so soon?" Yukio grinned at him, eyes still burning with bright red energy. "I'll make this quick.

"No."

Yukio raised an eyebrow, then shot off his beams. Mamoru lifted his left hand so that his thumb and index finger formed a gun. He steadied it with his right hand, aiming for the place right between the two beams rushed at him.

"Gotta make this count…" he muttered "Spirit Gun!"

The blue-white blast of energy flew out of his finger tip, directly between the two red ones. Yukio couldn't move in time and it hit him square in the middle of the forehead. He flew back at the same time that Mamoru was hit on each shoulder, both hitting the ground outside the ring very hard.

Mamoru made a bit of a groaning noise, pulling himself into a sitting position. There was a small, smoking hole in each shoulder. "Ow…man, that's smarts."

"Your's is even worse." he looked up, finding Sakura and his grandfather looking over him. It was the old man who had spoken.

"Whattya mean?"

Sakura pointed on the other side of the ring's corner. Mamoru glanced around to find Yukio lying flat on his back, not moving, a smoking hole between his eyes. "Oh… Well, jeez…"

Yusuke shook his head. Mamoru was definitely just like him, a spitting image. Whither that was a good thing or not, he did not know…

"Winner, Mamoru!" he proclaimed, as the said winner pulled himself to his feet.

The Master looked around at the fighters that were left, then brushed his hands together. "Alright then. We're down to our four semi-finalists. The last two rounds will take place in a more…appropriate location…" he turned on his heel. "Follow me please."

The four remaining contestants glanced at each other a moment, then followed the master out of the door and to their next test.

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Okay…So what I need help with is how I should space the chapters after this tournament's over. Come on, you didn't think I was just gonna end it, did'ja? Naturally, I've got a whole series of adventures planned out…our two new young heroes becoming Reikai Tantei, many different cases and assignments, completing their four-man (er…person? creature?) team…^_^ Wait'll you see who'll fit THAT bill. But I need to know which of the three set-ups below would work best for chapter spacing. I found it easiest to refer to them each as DVDs or box sets. Please include in your review which one you think it should be…^_^ I want to use the best plan.

Plan 1: The 'Saga Box Set' Plan - Each group is seperated by a 'saga' depending on where I want to end said saga. So after this there'd be another one with about 3 missions (becoming Spirit Detectives, two major missions, but no real long plot line) Then it would switch to various groups as I figure them out.

Plan 2: The 'Case File DVD' Plan - Each case seperated into a separate story. So after this there'd be one about two-or-three chapters long, then another about four-or-five chapters, then about eight, but none going over about 14, unless I decide to do a tournament for this, which I'm not planning on.

Plan 3: The 'Collector's Edition Box Set' Plan - I just leave all the chapters in this story as I write them, gathering all together so in the end it'll be like you bought the whole series in a DVD box set and nobody has to go around looking for them. However, said story will accumulate about 40-50 chapters when complete, and could take quite a while.

Thanks for your help! Next ch. Should be up in a couple of weeks or so…^_^

Ciao ~GS