Sorry this took so long, guys…School started, and I'm there 'til six for swim practice every night…Gives me about an hour before school and another one and half after…not a bunch of time, particularly with writers block. It doesn't help that official school doesn't end 'til 4:30 now…Excuse me, 4:29. Big difference…
A healthy message for all my reviewers…Don't call me Gemini. I hate being called Gemini. It's my pet-peeve. If you need to address me in a shorter manner, call me GS. If you don't believe me on my reaction, go find the chibi-character story "Sign's Big Mistake" (It's in my fav stories list). I've got a part in there. It's fun, 'cause I get to pester Touya and Hiei, but I also wind up pounding Jin, Touya, Yusuke, Kuwabara and Shishiwakamaru when they make the mistake of calling me 'Gemini'. ^_^ Chibis are fun…
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the original YYH characters, nor do I own Ki-Rokey, Sayona or Rai Don. However, I do own Luna, Misato, Kin, and Anbu.
The Tomuraigassen Tournament
Chapter 5: Ki-Rokey Plays Her Hand
Ki-Rokey came bouncing out of the trees to her starting point as Sad had instructed. She rocked back on her toes on the edge. "How was that, Sayona?" she laughed. "Even though I wanted to be serious, it didn't take much to get rid of that stupid human."
Sayona nodded. "Not bad, kid." she chuckled. "Not bad at all."
"Don't get too cocky." Kin warned, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "I hear this Kurama character's a pretty decent fighter."
Anbu nodded, glancing up from her book at the screen. The attractive red-head stepped up into the ring, standing just out of the trees as Ki-Rokey was. He looked very serious about this match, and would not be easy…
"Attention!" Sad announced. "The second match will be Ki-Rokey vs. Kurama! Fighters ready…? Begin!"
Ki-Rokey leapt back up into the branches of the trees. Kurama, gripping a rose in one hand, stayed on the ground but moved with the same speed and grace, pushing off the trunks and roots.
"It seams Kurama's having a much easier time moving in this forest field than Kuwabara did!" Sad announced. "Does this mean this match will take a turn against the already-battle tired Ki-Rokey?"
"Who's tired?" Ki-Rokey laughed as the red haired fighter stopped just under her branch. "Not me!"
She dropped out of the tree, the same way she'd ambushed Kuwabara the first time. But just as her foot connected with his back Kurama disappeared. Ki-Rokey gasped and tried to stop herself, failed miserably and hit the ground, toppling over on her back.
"It won't be so easy to surprise me." Kurama chuckled, looking down at her from a few feet away.
Ki-Rokey stumbled up to her feet. They were in the semi-clearing Kuwabara had made with his sword. She glanced Kurama up and down, then leapt up into the trees again.
The fox-demon remained where he was, calmly snapping out his Rose Whip. With a quick couple of cracks he'd grabbed Ki-Rokey's leg, and another sent the younger fighter crashing into a tree.
"That's…gorgeous!" Sad gasped. "With a crack of a whip, Kurama sends Ki-Rokey flying! But she refuses to stay down and is back on her feet with a determined look on her face!"
Ki-Rokey and Kurama faced each other down, Kurama calmly staring at his younger opponent with unemotional, green eyes. Ki-Rokey smiled slyly, reaching into the pockets of her sweatshirt.
"Well then…" she laughed. "This is fun, isn't it? Looks like I'll have to use my real weapon now…"
From inside the sweatshirt she pulled a stack of plain, flat card. It was the size and weight of a normal deck of playing cards, like the one Yusuke had in his bag for after-fight entertainment. But instead of plain white with the red or black symbols, each one was solidly a different color, ranging all the different shades in the spectrum.
Luna raised an eyebrow when she saw the card. "How did she get a hold of those?" she muttered quietly, glancing at Hiei, who shrugged.
"What is it?" Misato asked curiously, but before anyone could respond there was a startled scream.
"I'm gonna get you, you stupid kid!" Kuwabara shouted, sitting up suddenly. Misato and Yusuke snapped their heads around, while Luna and Hiei simply glared. "Lemmie at that punk!"
"Kuwabara, you already lost." Yusuke muttered, holding back laughter. "Kurama's fighting her now."
"But…But I wasn't done!" Kuwabara wined.
"Just shut up, you fool." Hiei snapped.
Rai chuckled a bit, watching Ki-Rokey pull out the deck of cards. "This will be interesting…" he smiled. "I wonder which one she'll draw first…"
Kurama did not attack, just watched curiously as the smaller fighter spread the cards out in her hands, examining them carefully. "Well now…" she muttered, picking a dark green one out of the bunch. "If you're gonna use plants, maybe I should too."
Before anyone could think about what she had said, the rest of the deck was slipped back into her pocket and held the one card above her head. Pushing her spirit energy through it, both the fighter and the card flashed with green light.
When it cleared, everyone blinked. Ki-Rokey was now dressed in a forest green short-sleeved T-shirt, over a second, lighter green, long-sleeved one, and dark green jeans. It looked kinda interesting with the same long, black-and-white hair, but something told the fighters this wasn't just a fashion show.
"Well…this is…unexpected…" Sad was slightly taken aback, but quickly recovered. "Ki-Rokey's revealed a strange pack of cards with promise of a strong technique, but what's the use of changing clothes in the middle of a fight?"
"Wise up, lady." Ki-Rokey smirked. "Try this!"
She thrust out her hands, pointing at Kurama. From inside each of the long sleeves of the lower shirt shot two long, spiny vines. The surprised fox demon leapt to the side just before they hit, crashing into the tree behind him, knocking it over.
"Now Ki-Rokey's swinging vines around as well!" Sad announced, eyes sparkling again. "This is getting exciting, folks! Where did she get this new-found powers?"
"I've seen those before…" Luna whispered. "Modification Cards…The clothing is only the outside effects. It equips the user with powers, based on which card is drawn…"
"Fun, isn't it?" Ki-Rokey laughed at Kurama as he stood. "I may not have the control over these the way you do with yours, but I've got a lot more raw power!"
The vines snapped forward again, but this time Kurama was ready. He knocked the four of them away with his whip, then spun around with a crack and caught Ki-Rokey on the hand. The child fighter pulled it back a moment, rubbing it wildly as the red whip-mark began to bleed slowly. Kurama took this time to try and attack again, but Ki-Rokey jumped back and sent her vines flying again.
"It looks like our two competitors are evenly matched!" Sad announced loudly. "With Ki-Rokey and Kurama both swinging vines in this forest field, it's still anyone's game, folks! We're just waiting to see who can hold out longer…wait! Ki-Rokey's caught Kurama on his right shoulder, and it looks brutal!"
Kurama hissed, gripping his shoulder with his free hand. It wasn't too deep, but it was already bleeding heavily. This would set him back, he need a few minutes to heal himself a bit or he'd soon faint from loss of blood.
"Kurama…" Yusuke muttered clinching his fists.
"Is he okay?!" Misato gulped, staring up at the screen. "That wound looks pretty deep…"
"Hn. He's fought with worse wounds than that." Hiei scoffed.
"He is a demon, Misato." Luna said calmly.
"I know that!" Misato snapped. "It's just that…he's bleeding so much…"
Kurama took a deep breath, then jumped back into the trees. Ki-Rokey was a little taken aback at his sudden disappearance. "Aw, come on now." she groaned, chasing after him. "That's no fun!"
"And Kurama has completely disappeared from view!" Sad shouted into the mic. "He's hidden himself in the trees, possibly to recover from his wound…But will Ki-Rokey give him a chance to do so?"
Kurama watched his opponent run past the tree he was hiding in. "That should…buy me a little time." he muttered to himself, leaning back against the trunk as he placed his hands over the wound. He focused his spirit energy, keeping it as low as possible so Ki-Rokey wouldn't sense him. "A couple of minutes…that's all I need."
Ki-Rokey slid to a stop just before the end of the ring, balancing a moment on the edge that the rest of the Sougen team stood by. "Too far, kid." Kin called up.
"Stop playing around." Sayona commanded lightly. "You've got him wounded, it should be easy to take him down now."
"Stop yelling at me and I'll get to it!" Ki-Rokey snapped, turning back to the trees. She focused a moment, but couldn't located Kurama's energy. "Darn it…I'm getting tired of this."
She dug around in her pocket again, this time pulling out a bright red card. The Urameshi Team, still watching on the screen, was reminded of the same one she'd wrecked the hotel's convention room with.
Ki-Rokey lifted it up into the air, pushing her spirit energy into this one too. Both body and card flashed with the bright red light, then cleared up again.
Now Ki-Rokey was wearing a dark red jacket, trimmed with a golden yellow on the collar, cuffs, around the zipper and the fitted bottom. The jacket was over a dark orange shirt, and that over dark red jeans. She had red-and-yellow fingerless gloves on her hands, and now her hair was slightly pulled back with a red ponytail holder.
"And Ki-Rokey's outfit has transformed once again!" Sad announced. "Now garbed in bright red, orange, and yellow, I think we all can guess what's coming next!"
Kurama, still in the midst of healing himself, widened his eyes when he felt the distinct heat waves radiating from his opponent's body. Giving just enough push to stop the bleeding, he jumped to a tree on his left, just as a blast of fire shot through the ring. It burned the one he'd been in down to a stump, making a clear path about two trees wide down the center of the ring.
"I see you there!" Ki-Rokey shouted. She was standing in her newly-created pathway, about five feet from where her opponent had leapt. "No sense running now! There's no where to go, and we don't wanna wreck this whole field-setup thing, now do we?"
Kurama suddenly dropped from the tree, cracking his whip towards Ki-Rokey with all the force he could muster. The little fire demon was taken by surprise and thrown back, a deep gash on her left side.
"And she's down!" Sad announced.
Kurama stepped back, somewhat more relaxed but still ready for anything. Ki-Rokey lay there a moment, slightly stunned. Yusuke breathed a slight sigh of relief. "Is it…over?" Kuwabara asked.
"Since Ki-Rokey hasn't moved for a few moments, I'll begin the count!" Sad announced. "One…Two…Three…"
"Ki-Rokey!" Rai shouted. "Get up, you idiot, get up!"
"Move it, kid!" Sayona yelled.
"Four…Five…Si-"
Sad stopped. Ki-Rokey stumbled up to her feet, holding her side and groaning slightly, but still ready to attack. "That's it…" she muttered quietly. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a match, setting it alight with a flick of her thumb. "I'm not holding back this time!"
She took a deep breath. Kurama instinctively jumped back, cracking his whip forward as she blew the flame as hard as she could. The result was like a flame-thrower, blasting forward in the same huge blast.
It missed Kurama by a couple of inches, but the whip didn't make it out with him. The end half got caught in the blaze and burned. Kurama dropped it as the flame reached his hand, watching as his favorite technique dwindled away into a cinder.
"Those plants may pack a punch." Ki-Rokey laughed. "But that don't mean they're fire-proof!"
Outside the ring, Luna tensed. "This is bad." she muttered. "This takes away our advantage…his only chance now is pure strength…"
"Oh, Kurama…" Botan whispered from the stands.
"Another loss will make it two-to-nothing." Shizuru stated, keeping her emotions, as usual, in check. "Not that my brother helped any…"
"I'm not sure I can watch much more of this…" Keiko gulped. "I can't stand to watch another one get beat up like that!"
Kurama growled a low growl as he backed away from the fire-throwing little fighter. She was balancing a ball of fire on each hand now, each about the size of a softball.
"Wanna play some more?" she asked, eyes sparkling. "How 'bout some catch?!"
She threw the balls at him, and those two were quickly followed by more. Kurama dodged easily, scrambling away from them. Ki-Rokey gave chase, hurling fireballs as fast as she could make them, which left for about a three second interval between each one.
"Well it's easy to see where the tide of this battle has turned!" Sad exclaimed, eyes gleaming with excitement. "Ki-Rokey's got Kurama on the run! With his plant weapons useless, this may very well be the end for this red-haired fox!"
"Come on, Kurama, think of something!!" Yusuke shouted, even though he doubted the fox could hear him.
The red-haired demon continued to dodge through the trees, making himself visible for only a split second at a time. Ki-Rokey's fireballs scorched the trunks he ran past, getting closer and closer every time. She turned and twisted around to follow him in what seamed to be an ever-tightening circle around the ring.
Kurama suddenly let out a cry as one of the balls caught him square in the small of the back. He felt the cloth singe and the skin burn as he fell forward and hit the ground.
"And he's down!" Sad announced, eyes gleaming in excitement. "I don't know how hot those fireballs are, folks, but the burn left from last attack looks pretty brutal! I'm not sure if he can even stand up!"
Kurama groaned, leaning on a near-by tree trunk to pull himself to his knees. The wound wasn't too bad…he could still fight, at least…but his head was spinning from the shock of the blow.
Ki-Rokey landed about five feet away from him, looking both excited and perturbed. "I don't like to kill if I can help it." she said quietly. "Just stay down."
Kurama chuckled a bit, despite the pain. "Don't think I'll give up that easily." he smiled his charming, mysterious smile. "Not when I've already won."
"What?!" Ki-Rokey gulped.
Kurama tugged on the vine he had clutched in his fist. Snapping from all directions, shooting out from behind the scorched trees, came long, spiny vines. Before Ki-Rokey could react they had her, wrapping her arms to the side and lifting the small fighter two feet off the ground.
"Now this is a sudden change!" Sad announced, eyes wide. "Kurama has somehow immobilized his opponent in a net of vines! With her arms tied down like that, Ki-Rokey can't summon up her flames, or reach her cards!"
Kurama pulled on the vine again, pushing his spirit energy through it. Ki-Rokey let out a bit of a squawk as the greenery around her tightened, squeezing the air out of her lungs.
"Ki-Rokey…" Kin gulped, staring wide-eyed at his teammate's pained image on the screen.
"Remarkable." Sayona whispered, surprised. "At that speed he managed to thread his vines through the trees… And Ki-Rokey never even noticed."
"We've gotta do…something!" Rai exclaimed. "He's gonna kill her!"
"No he's not." Anbu said calmly, not looking up from her book. "He's just gonna knock him out, that's all." Kin looked a bit relieved, but Rai glared back at her as she settled back into her story.
Kurama watched quietly, until the small fighter stopped struggling. Then he stroked the piece in his hand and the rest of the vines went slack. Ki-Rokey dropped to the ground, limp but still breathing.
"And she's down!" Sad announced. "Since she's obviously unconscious, I'll start the count! One…Two…Three…"
Rai glared back at Anbu, who was sitting with a satisfied smirk on her face. "Stupid nigen psychic readings…" he muttered disdainfully, snapping his head back around. Anbu stiffed at the word 'nigen' and Kin shot their teammate death glares.
"Four…Five…Six…"
"Alright! Yeah!" Yusuke and Kuwabara cheered from the sidelines.
Misato shot a sideways glance at her partner. "Not bad, huh, Luna?"
"He still got hurt." Luna noted unemotionally. "But he's a decent fighter none the less."
"Seven…Eight…"
Kurama looked down at his unconscious opponent. "Lucky for you…" he whispered. "I wouldn't kill a fighter with potential like yours so young."
"Nine…" there was a dramatic pause, then Sad yelled, "TEN! And the winner of the match is Kurama!"
The crowd around them started to boo, yelling jeers about demons who helped humans. Kurama ignored all of this, calmly bending down and picking up the unconscious younger fighter.
"What's this?" Sad looked, as Team Sougen did, very confused. "Kurama is actually helping his opponent back to her team!"
Kurama stopped at the edge of the ring, looking down at the remaining members. "Here." he said pointedly, holding out the unconscious fighter. "Take her."
The team blinked at him a moment, surprised. Even Anbu put her book down a moment, eyes wide. Finally, Sayona snapped out of it. "Kin." she snapped, jabbing her head in Ki-Rokey's direction. "You're the healer, you take care of her. Rai, you're up."
The two quickly obeyed. Kin took Ki-Rokey out of Kurama's arms, and Rai climbed into the ring. Kurama turned on his heal and headed back to his side of the ring before the matched started.
"Hey." he stopped at Rai's voice. The silver-haired fighter glared with a determined look, but one that was still as playful as Ki-Rokey's had been. "I can tell that you're more than you look, so I don't want you to hold back this fight. I'll be going for the kill, and I expect the same."
Kurama was silent a moment, then turned back. "Fine." he whispered quietly, then walked through the path of the trees to his starting point for the third match.
Well well well, this should be interesting…Rai's insisting on a death match, but is he biting off more than he can chew? Or can he really take down the already injured Kurama? You'll just have to tune in next time to find out…And yes, Team Koumajutsu will be appearing again in the next chapter! Ciao for now, people!
*~GS~*