Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Yu Hakusho or any of its character, or any parts of the plot that I borrow from the series. All I own is my own original character Lain Mikado.

Yu Yu Hakusho

8: Confronting Our Feelings

Saga: The Dark Tournament

Yusuke gritted his teeth after he jumped out of the way after another wave of Touya's attack, called 'Shards of Winter', was sent flying at him. He seemed to have over thought Touya's abilities when he steeped in the ring to challenge him. Maybe he should have just focused on getting Lain and Hiei out of that tent before steeping up to fight Touya, blindfolded.

He dodged another wave of Touya's attack and then came to a stop in one of the corners of the ring. He was now breathing heavily from all the running around he had been doing.

Touya raised his hand into the air as he smiled wickedly at the spirit detective. "So what do you think now Yusuke? Not as powerful as you thought I was right?"

Yusuke just frowned at Touya but didn't answer. Instead he just watched as ice appeared around his left arm that was held up in the air. The ice took shape in what seemed to be an ice sword.

"Shit…" Yusuke muttered under his breath. "This isn't going to be as easy as I thought it was going to be…"

"YUSUKE!" Lain screamed out in a panic as she watched him charge at Touya. "STOP! YOU'RE JUST GUNNA GET KILLED YOU IDIOT!"

"Stop it," Hiei said glaring at her. "What are you so worked up about!? I'm sure he'll survive… It's not like this is the first battle he has went into blind folded…"

"But you don't understand!" Lain yelled at him as she turned to face him. "He's can't fight back if the whole arena is going to be ice! This is just stupid! Touya is an ice master! Yusuke is not! He's going to get himself killed if not worse!"

"You're right about the whole ring being ice," Hiei muttered as he noticed Touya had just ice the whole bottom of the ring, causing Yusuke to try and find a way to stand still.

"What the hell!?" Lain screamed out getting angrier. "Can't he just cool it for a minute! COME ON!" She frowned some more and then started to pace around inside of the tent she was still trapped in.

"What are you doing?" Hiei asked as he crossed his arms over his chest. Watching Lain go into panic was much more fun that watching the spirit detective try and wiggle his way out of the predicament he had placed himself in.

"What does it look like you idiot!?" Lain screamed out as she threw her hands un in the air. "I have to find a way out of here! Or else Yusuke is dead meat! The guy has already lost enough spirit energy! And without spirit energy he is useless!"

"And your point is?" Hiei asked rolling his eyes at her.

"Just shut your mouth!" Lain screamed out, this time throwing her hands down at her side. She felt the belt that was around her waist and then gasped. "I can't believe it took me this long to realize… I was wearing this stupid belt!"

Hiei just raised an eyebrow at her confused as he watched her fiddle around with one of the pockets on her belt.

"Ha! You're dead meat now lady!" Lain screamed out happily. "Nice to know that I can beat you without using any spirit energy at all!" She smiled as she straightened out the scroll that she had pulled out of her belt with her index and middle finger.

She drew back her hand and then threw it at the field that trapped them inside of the tent. Amazingly the scroll stuck to the field as blue sparks started to emerge from it.

"I call upon the spirit of Bijou to help us in our time of need!" Lain muttered as the scroll started to turn a charcoal black color and then exploded on its spot.

"What the hell did you do!?" Hiei shouted out at Lain as a huge smile spread across her face.

"Bijou killed the field," Lain replied. "She's a powerful spirit that helps me in my time of need. I'll explain it all to you later! Just take care of that stupid temptress and I'll save Yusuke!"

"What ever…" Hiei replied as he saw her rush out of the tent, the field had been broken.

"This is…" Yusuke didn't get to finish his sentence because he was sent flying out of the ring a second latter. He landed in front of Lain and looked up at her with his eyes half open. "Yo-you're out of that stupid trap?"

"Yeah Yusuke," Lain said smiling at him. "Just stay down okay. You've done enough. I'll take care of Touya. Don't worry about it ka? You did fine. Though I'm sure you want to continue to fight right?"

"Yeah…" Yusuke replied as he fainted.

"Hey you! Ref!" Lain screamed out pointing at her.

"What?" Koto asked sounding a little annoyed. Couldn't these people at least learn my name!?

"Touya's won the match! Yusuke's passed out!" Lain called out to her as she begun to walk away from Yusuke and towards the ring. "I'm fighting next alright!?"

"I… I guess so then…" Koto replied. "But how do you know he's out of the match?"

"He's done fighting," Lain replied stepping into the ring. "And besides. If you had counted to ten, he would have already been out! The matches over! I'm fighting him now!"

"Whatever… If that is how you want it…" Koto said shrugging her shoulders. "The rule book has nothing against this."

"Good, then lets start already…" Lain said facing the smiling Touya who stood in front of her.

"Fine with me," Touya said grinning evilly at her as he charged, with his ice sword aimed right at Lain.

She quickly pulled out her sword from its sheath and blocked Touya's own sword, which was aimed at her to kill. She then shoved him forward, surprisingly it did push him back a few inches for her to be able to get a few more feet away from him and wait for the next attack to commence.

"Mikado… You don't actually think you have a chance against me do you?" Touya asked as he got into a defensive position.

"I could if I put all my effort into it!" Lain screamed out at him as she charged head on. She slammed into him a second latter and sent him flying out of the ring with a surprised look on her face. Was he off guard that much?

Touya's body slammed into the side of the arena as the rest of the Urameshi team looked on at the two of them in an amazed gaze. How could Lain have managed to beat him this far in the game when ever Yusuke, who was supposed to be very powerful, failed to beat him? Why was he off guard so much?

"Eight… Nine…" Koto began and then stopped as soon as she saw Touya shoot up from the ruble that was covering him.

Touya gazed down at Lain with a hateful look. Even if it was his fault for letting his guard down around her, she should have at least been honorable and shouldn't have attacked until he was back into focus.

Lain gulped as she saw the look in Touya's eyes burn a hole right through her. It was the look of hatred, one of those looks she wasn't too proud of conjuring on people. Especially if they were going to use it against her.

Touya's greatest attack was sent flying at Lain a few seconds latter after he had managed to get back into the ring.

Lain cringed as she felt each shard slam into her body. Cutting her wherever they made an impact. Blood began to ooze out of her wounds as she fell to the floor of the ring, only managing to hold herself up with her elbows. But even still it was hard to stay from falling all the way to the bottom of the ring.

She began to cough out some blood that had started to come out of her mouth. It looked as though the attack made more of an injury than she had thought it had. Soon she seemed to by lying in a huge puddle of blood with Touya looks down at her in utter horror.

Hiei winced as he saw Lain try and pick herself up from the arena she was now plastered too. She fell down and then began to cough up more blood.

Kurama was at Hiei's side looking at Touya with hate, utter hate. Why had he done this to her!? Why did he have to hurt her so? Was winning this tournament so important that he would have to take her life along the way!?

Hiei's hands turned to fists at his side as he watched Touya start to approach Lain who had now managed to stand up, but was hunched over badly, looking as though she was in extreme pain. He jerked forward a step but stopped himself as he noticed Kurama looking at him strangely.

"Don't interfere in her battle Kurama," Hiei said looking at Kurama with a frown on his face, trying to forget the sign of emotion he was about to show. "If she dies… Then she… She dies."

"You don't mean that Hiei," Kurama said looking at Hiei confused. "Don't try and hide your feelings. It's plastered all over you face about how you really feel about her. But we can't just let her die up there!"

"She's… She's not going to die…" Hiei said looking up at Lain, though he wasn't very sure why he had said that. From all the blood she had already lost, it looks as though she had about a few minutes before she would collapse on the ground from exhaustion.

Lain bit her lip as another wave of pain was sent sprawling through out her body. Why was she hurt so badly!? Why had he managed to hit all of her vital points!? Was he really trying to kill her!? But… why?

She coughed up more blood before she began to try and talk. "Touya… Wha-why?"

"Lain…" Touya began looking at her in fear. "I… I didn't mean to…"

"But you're not such a bad guy are you?" Lain asked laughing a little as she sent more blood out of her mouth. "I know your not. I mean look at all the fear you are showing me now? You're scared that I might die aren't you? Scared that you might have killed me right?"

"Lain… Don't say that. You're not going to die!" Touya said steeping forward as he spread his arms out a little. "Don't think like that. You're going to be fine…"

"Touya… I'm sorry. But I don't have much time left before I use all of me energy," Lain said coughing up more blood than she had before. "This match… It's got to come to an end… And there is no way that I am going to let my team lose…"

"Lain…" Touya said smiling at her sadly. "How can you think about fighting now when you are on the verge of death?"

"Stop talking," Lain said frowning as she began to hunch over some more. "I'm going to beat you right now…" A blue aurora appeared around her now limp body as she fought to stay standing. It grew a few inches turning purple a second latter. Soon the whole ring was engulfed in a huge mass of white light when she let all of her energy out, directing all of it towards the smiling Touya who was accepting his fate.

The bright light started to disappear and the shady figure of Lain was still struggling to stand, but Touya's body was on the ground. Staying down until the count of ten was finished.

"Touya…" Lain said as she begun to walk over to him, almost falling over in the process several times. "Are… Are you alright?"

"Fine, nothing like your injuries," Touya said turning her face away from her. "Just kill me now, please. I've suffered enough without you in my life."

"I… Touya!" Lain said falling to her knees. "You have to consider my feelings too! I know it hurts you to accept this… But I'm not in love with you. You are a nice guy and all if you look over a few things… But I still wouldn't want to be anything more than friends with you… I'm… I'm in love with someone else…"

"It's Kurama isn't it?" Touya asked. "I've seen how close you two are. I've heard about everything that's happened from the last fifteen years. I know what went on between the two of you…"

"It's over and will never happen again," Lain said sighing. "Were nothing more than friends now, that's how we both want it. But no… It's not him… It's someone else." She struggled to get on her feet again and then began to make her way away from Touya and towards the rest of her team members with a faint grin on her face.

At least she had won right? Even if she had suffered great injures doing so, at least they had beaten him.

She made her way over to the walls around the ring and slumped against one of them as she slid down it. Watching Hiei and Kurama looked at her worriedly… Wait… Hiei!? Worried about me!? This is just too strange!

"Lain…" Kurama began but was interrupted by her waving her hand at him.

"Don't talk alright?" Lain said smiling at him. "I'm alright. I'm just going to take a little nap now…"

Kurama just smiled at her while he shook his head. Worrying about this girl seemed to be too much for him. Everything she seemed to do was reckless, kind of like someone he knew… Someone like Yusuke.

"Alright guys," Yusuke said walking over to the three of them, yawning. "Looks like I'm fighting next."

"No…" Hiei said.

"Can't stop me. I've already started!" Yusuke yelled out as he made his way over to the ring. "I'm fine! Stop worrying! I've regained some of my spirit energy you know!"

"Idiot…" Lain muttered as she fell asleep.

Done, done… Finally… I know right? Well read and review peoples!! PLEASE!!