Blinded by Flames
--Chapter Four: A Life Spent in a Room II—
ROUND ONE:
Kuwabara vs. Taiki
"Alright! Ready to go!" Kuwabara skipped jovially into the ring. "I'm gonna show you guys how this is done!"
"You're going to show them how to loose? You shouldn't bother, my team will be glad to help them out later. Besides, they look like naturals." A sly voice whispered into Kuwabara's ear before the voice's owner slipped up to the ring.
Taking a swift look at his opponent, Kuwabara jumped. Taiki stood at a diminutive 4' 7", slinky and very relaxed. The demon's clothes reflected the muscular shape underneath as they clung tightly to the pale skin. Robin's egg blue strands of hair whipped around and framed the cat-like face of Taiki.
"It's a girl!"
"Yes, that's what we call them Kuwabara," Yusuke frowned.
"No Urameshi! You don't understand! I can't fight a girl!"
"Hey! Watch it carrot top!" Taiki growled.
"Oh no, not this again!" Yusuke moaned, "C'mon Kuwabara, just fight her already!"
"No," Kuwabara said flatly and stepped out of the ring.
"Kuwabara lands outside of the ring! Taiki wins by default. Team Ignalishu, select your next fighter," The announcer roared.
A furious Yusuke rounded on Kuwabara, "Now look what you've done! We're down by one now! Beating all of these demons isn't exactly going to be a picnic you know, we need to win all the fights we can! And you just threw one away!"
"Sorry Urameshi, but you know it goes against my code,"
"Your code?" Rahn, who had been observing the scene unfold in the background, growled, "and just what would that be?"
Kuwabara puffed up his chest; foolishly thinking Rahn would be pleased to hear of his "code". "I never fight women. I find it very un-gentleman-like to shove around a being of lesser skills than my own."
He closed his eyes, expecting at any moment to be breathing in praises from his female teammate. When none came, he peeped his right eye open to the sight of a boiling mad Rahn.
"Jerk!" She mumbled and stormed pass Kuwabara and onto the ring. "Since stuck-up over here is too good for us," she looked to Taiki, who also happened to be raging, "I'll be the next fighter."
"No! Ra—Jas! You're not supposed to actually—" Yusuke began.
"For Team Ignalishu, Jas; for Team Namu, Taiki. Let the fighting commence."
"—fight."
ROUND ONE:
Jas vs. Taiki
Kurama patted Yusuke on the back, "Don't worry, I'm sure she can handle herself,"
"Let's hope so,"
Jas and Taiki immediately crouched into fighting stances and began glaring each other down and working their way around the perimeter of the ring.
"Here I come!" Taiki shot off her feet at lightening speed heading for Rahn. It took little time or effort for Rahn to react—she quickly slid over out of Taiki's path, but Taiki was not lagging in a response either. With a gently shift of weight she continued her pursuit of the blind and elusive opponent.
Taiki began nearing, and Rahn, with an almost undetectable smirk—tripped. Hiei and the rest didn't but it for a second, but Taiki's pride made her assume immediately that Rahn had truly faltered and thus she began rounding on her even faster. When she came within inches of Rahn it was only a matter of reaching briefly into her pockets and sliding one of her daggers into Taiki's path.
Though Taiki saw the dagger, she was racing at such a speed and was already so near that she had no time to react and ran head-on to Rahn and her razor sharp blade.
The steel sliced through the air and then shattered as it hit Taiki's rough skin and hard demon body.
Even in her surprise Rahn didn't waste a moment, she flew out of Taiki's path and to the side of the ring. She danced along the edge for a while before safely balancing within the boundaries.
Taiki dusted the broken blade off of her torn shirt and cocked her head, "That was a dirty trick you played… you're faster than I thought,"
"And you're stronger than I thought," replied Rahn, "but," she smirked, "that won't save you,"
"Oh, what is she gonna do now?" Yusuke growled, "That girl just broke her daggers and she didn't even flinch! The only way to penetrate that skin in to use Spirit Energy, but Rahn doesn't know how to do that!" he turned his back to the ring, "I'll get the demon girl next—I can't believe we've lost to her twice now!" Then, as an afterthought he glared at Kuwabara. "It's all your fault ya know," he mumbled.
"And Jas wins the round!" sounded the voice of Sir Charles as a teal-green body flew over Yusuke's head.
"Next!" Called Rahn, and Yusuke stared, "what, how did she--?"
Hiei's voice cut through the crowds cheering, "if you'd have been paying more attention instead of underestimating our guide you'd know, wouldn't you?"
Kurama chuckled at the Spirit Detective's face, "she used her spirit energy to create a set of flame daggers. Those daggers were much more effective and, as you can see, harmed Taiki enough so that she fell for longer than the ten seconds."
"But, since when could she use spirit energy?"
"I'm surprised at you, Yusuke, I believe she must have developed the art during her stay in the Forbidden Forest, in the same way she developed may of her traits," Kurama replied in his cool manner.
All the dumbstruck detective cold do was turn around and stare at the victor in the ring. "To think, she could have used her Spirit Energy all this time." He looked at the flame-shaped daggers in Rahn's hands—they were red hot, full and bursting with Spirit Energy. Rahn looked so calm—Yusuke could tell the conjuring of the daggers hadn't been the cause of a brief heightening in Sprit Energy; Rahn was apparently very skilled in controlling the daggers. It was so evident now, her standing there like that. And yet, how had he not seen it before?
Rahn could feel Yusuke's black eyes on her; she ignored the gaze and instead looked to Team Makare, waiting to see who would be her team's next opponent. They came in the form of a six-foot blue-eyed demon in mid-evil garb.
"Yusuke, I think you should let someone else fight this one. The girl looks a little faint."
"Aw, she's not fighting, that's part of the conditions with Maka—"
He froze… the voice behind him… was… Irish?
He turned around, "Jin?"
"Aye, 'tis me," Jin hopped down from his squat position on the arena wall and now stood on level ground with Yusuke.
"What are you doing here?" The delinquent asked.
"Koenma sent me. Said you were minus a fighter. So I's show up and – wouldja believe it? – You've already got one. How'd that happen, eh?"
"Well, we had to get in somehow, she was just supposed to sit on the sidelines and take-up space really. I didn't think she could actually fight next to demons."
Jin laughed, "Well, that went well, didn't it? Haha! No, I'd say you've got yourself a genuine fighter there. Almost better'n me." He continued to chuckle at his "joke".
Yusuke grinned, he was much happier about Jin being their fifth fighter instead of Rahn.
"Are both fighters ready to commence?" asked the booming voice of Sir Charles.
"Hey! Hold up! They can't play the same fighter!" A young woman with long elfish ears, who everyone assumed was Makare, pointed in the general direction of Team Ignalishu.
"Rahn! Get outta there!"
Rahn cast her blind eyes down at Yusuke and, surprisingly, without so much as an insult, obeyed. She hopped down out of the ring and made her way behind Hiei and Kurama, to stand by and watch her team.
"Who will be fighting for Team Ignalishu?"
"Kurama," Rahn licked her lips, she had spent her time in the ring examining their next opponent. She knew the fighter—he was poison specialist. Not quite as dangerous as some others, but nonetheless, I don't trust anyone but Kurama in the ring with him.
Yusuke looked as if he was about to protest, but one look at the serious expression covering Rahn's face and he changed his mind. Kurama simply walked to the ring, with a slight suspicion in the back of his head that Rahn had chosen him intentionally.
"For Team Ignalishu, Kurama; for Team Namu, Ke. Fighters, begin!"
ROUND ONE:
Kurama vs. Ke
Once Charles had signaled the start of the fight, it seemed Ke had taken his queue. He suddenly stopped looking so sleepy and snapped his pale blue eyes open to look at Kurama.
His gaze didn't linger long, in a flash his ivy body was a blur and it seemed the blur vanished even faster than he did. Standing solitary in the middle of the ring, Kurama was careful to keep his eyes peeled for any pattern in Ke's movements. He knew Ke was trying to frighten him, but he took his opportunity to study the way he carried himself and how he pivoted across the arena. It didn't take long before he knew Ke was not true runner, and that this was only show.
After making this discovery, Kurama waited patiently for Ke to begin his attack, more than likely from behind, he thought. But it seemed the words didn't echo through his mind except once before he saw Ke move his arm slightly from behind him. Kurama hardly had time to frown before something hit him right in the face.
It was a formless sap-like substance with odor like wet wood and it stung the eyes he had scarcely time to close. Immediately Kurama heard the sound of wind from his right and knew Ke was flying at him, aiming for a kick. Doing his best to avoid the blow he grabbed threw the sap off his face while stumbling forward. He succeeded in both his efforts, he was no longer blind and still retained no injury; still, Ke had stopped lunging at him and had now laughed,
"Not quick enough,"
Reaching behind him as he had before, his bony hand retrieved another glob and he began throwing it once again at Kurama.
Still unaware of the purpose of the glob, Kurama avoided as many as he could, running around the ring and letting the goo hit the walls of the stadium. While he was running though, something happened, something he couldn't explain: he began to loose sight of what was in front of him… his cheeks became numb, and he couldn't feel the wind on his face. Unable to see, he stumbled, nearly falling out of the ring.
Now he knew what he was up against. Ke was throwing balls of different poisons and he had been hit on the face with one.
From the sidelines, Hiei, Jin, and Yusuke were beginning to pick up on what was going on.
"Dirty trick, running around with poison in his pants pockets," Jin scowled.
"Yeah, well, he must not have much else in there, ya think?" Yusuke raised an eyebrow and Jin cackled. Hiei, though not laughing, seemed amused.
From behind them Rahn was looking on at the battle, waiting expectantly for Kurama to stop running and begin attacking. Shivers went down her back that were totally unrelated to anything in front of her, cold sweet was beginning to tricked from her forehead without any apparent cause.
"Oh," Rahn softly moaned and rubbed her head. Her time was coming soon... for a brief moment the pain in her body consumed her and then, in a shot of pure luck, one of Ke's flying gobs of poison struck her on the neck.
"Whoa! Can you believe that? That one nearly hit me! Hey! Watch it!" Yusuke shook his angry fist at Ke. No one noticed that Rahn had slunk to the ground and stopped moving.
Back on the battlefield Kurama was beginning to act at last. His vision was slowly returning to him though he felt half- asleep. Still on the run from the poison and trying desperately not to fall head over heels out of the ring, he reached inside his coat pocket to pull out a single red rose.
"Rose whip!"
Ke's eyes flashed for a moment, turning back to the Toriyama Tournament just half a year before. He had witnessed Kurama use this very same technique on a fellow poison specialist... making perhaps the wisest moment of his carrier, he halted his throwing and tried to get out of the rose whip's reach.
Before the whip had time to crack four times Kurama had slashed Ke's back and had him kneeling on the ground. As Kurama had predicted at the first of the fight: Ke was not a very talented runner; though he was very fast he lacked good technique. For instance, to run like the gazelle in zigzag patterns instead of a straight line.
His hands and back bleeding Ke crumpled into a ball at the edge of the ring and toppled out. A team of medical personnel rushed over with bandages and after receiving word from Makare and Rahn, Sir Charles' voice rang out once more:
"And the scoreboard reads: Namu, 1; Ignalishu, 2. Let the fourth fight, Arinori vs. Yusuke begin!"
ROUND ONE:
Yusuke vs. Arinori
"Alright, time to finish these losers off," Yusuke crouched down into a fighting position, his muscles each tingling in the anticipation of a few hard hits. Impatiently rotating his fingers, he stared down his opponent, Arinori, who was doing much the same.
Red skin and shining ruby eyes summed up all of the being's physical presence. He was the very vision of the devil in outward appearance, two white-hot horns even capped of the top of his tall and gruesome figure.
He stared deep into Yusuke's eyes and then smirked. "Are you ready to die, Urameshi?" He asked, and a cold shiver trickled down Yusuke's back... there was something not right with that smile.
Covering up his discomfort, Yusuke tried to reply back just as cockily, "are you?"
"I've always been ready, but I won't fall to your hands. You have five seconds," he held up his hand, "to quit this fight-- or suffer the consequences. One," he ticked off a finger, "two,"
Yusuke snorted, "stop it with the lame 'countdown' gig-- you know that one gets really old after awhile. Try being a little original, would ya?"
"Three,"
"C'mon, I'm serious, drop it."
"Four,"
"Would you just shut up?"
Yusuke ran at him, fist pulled back.
"Five,"
Yusuke stopped in mid-stride, frozen in front of Arinori.
Why can't I move?
Because you are weak. Arinori's voice echoed back in Yusuke's head.
Yusuke's eyes widened in fear. This guy was inside his head!
Arinori's laughter echoed off the walls of Yusuke's mind, oh yes, I'm in here all right, and there's nothing you can do to get me out. Now, I ask you again Urameshi-- are you ready to die?
And with another round of cackles Arinori's voice faded out of Yusuke's mind and the real thing came running toward him. His fists hit every piece of Yusuke, the gut, over the back, on his head, to his chest-- anywhere and everywhere but no matter how hard Yusuke tried, he couldn't move. He began to bruise and bleed, his muscles straining from remaining in the same position for so long-- not that he had the ability to relax them.
On the sidelines Rahn was slightly stirring. Her head ached and her body felt like jello, but she could still vaguely sense Yusuke's dilemma. Her body was mere inches from giving out, but she forced herself to reach into her belt pockets and pull out a small wooden instrument... it was her flute. Putting it to her lips she closed her eyes and thought back to the tunes her grandmother had taught her before she died.
"It is very important that you learn these songs, my dear Rahn."
"But why? They're so boring. I want to play the electric guitar-- that'd be so cool!"
Her grandmother kindly shook her head. "The music you play with this flute isn't just music. It's magic that can heal any wound and cure any sickness. You see here," she took the flute from Rahn's hands, "is all the power you will ever need. The power to calm your nerves, the power to mend a broken heart. Each ailment has a different tune-- learn them all, and no harm can ever befall you that is too great."
The Melody of Calm-- that would do it, she decided, and instantly began to play.
It didn't take long for the music to take effect, Kuwabara -- who had just moments before been standing on his toes and wringing his hands-- settled down and looked quite content with the way the fight was playing out. Arinori too, stopped berating the Spirit Detective and looked as if punching him was a very foolish thing to do. Yusuke could feel the strain on the muscles in his legs vanish and almost sighed at the way cool breath seemed to wash over the crevices of his mind.
The combined weakness of Arinori and lack of stress to Yusuke seemed to be enough for Yusuke to overpower the mind control. As Yusuke began to move back into a regular standing position, Rahn decided she had done well enough and switched over to a different tune.
Yusuke began to realize that he had regained control over his body and with one menacing glare at the now trembling Arinori, he swung a fist straight into his face.
While Yusuke was at work in the match and as the crowd began to cheer again, Rahn's new tune, the Harmony of Healing, was erasing the effects of the poison and restoring Rahn to normal.
The poison was completely vanquished from her body just in time for her to tuck her flute away and watch Yusuke heave Arinori's bloody carcass out of the ring. She shook her head, but before anyone had noticed she was awake, she fell back into a slumber.
"Alright! Way to go Urameshi!" Kuwabara whooped and punched the air.
"Yeah, no thanks to you," Yusuke grumbled.
"How did you beat the mind control... he was much more powerful than you." Hiei was looking skeptic and incredulistic.
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean? That I don't have a good mind?"
"If you had one, you'd know, wouldn't you?"
ROUND ONE COMPLETE. TEAM IGNALISHU ADVANCES.
Panting at the exertion his long fight had caused, Yusuke was the first to catch a look at the unconscious Rahn.
"How are we gonna get her back to our site?" Yusuke asked. Casting a breif glance over at Rahn's limp figure Hiei replied dryly, "Yusuke, we have a psychic and a wind master. How do you think we're going to move her?"
Next day....
The velvety night sky lay smooth and unbroken in the heavens; beneath it hundreds of small tents lay sprawled out on the grass within the walls of the Ten mansion. As drawn drew nearer more and more demons began stirring, and by the first crack of dawn's light all of Team Ignalishu, excepting Rahn, were awake and rubbing their eyes.
"I wonder why she isn't up yet," Kuwabara asked, taking a sideways glance at Rahn.
"The poison must still be affecting her. We might have to go look for an antidote if she doesn't wake up soon," Kurama replied.
"Are you kidding?" Yusuke yawned. "Imagine the look on her face when she did wake up and found we had given her medicine! 'I can't believe you guys put something so weak as medicine in my body! I was doing perfectly fine without it. I don't need any of your stupid medicines to feel better!'"
A chuckle passed through the group; though it was evident they were still very worried. There was an anxious silence until a course voice cut in from behind them:
"What's this? These lazy bums are awake at this hour? My, my, the world is ending."
It was Genkai.
A/n: Okay, it was this chapter that kept the delay for all of Ch.4. It's probably the shortest of the three but if you must know why it took me so long, I want you to look at the content. The entire chapter is fight scenes. I do not specialize in fight scenes. As a matter of fact, I shirk from them. So this chapter was more or less my hell as a writer and I hope you'll forgive me.
Also, I realize I was totally unoriginal in how I described each member from Team Namu, I used the same technique every time, but cut me some slack, there's not a lot of time for waiting around and looking at all the players.
ec
