Disclaimer: I don't own any part of YYH.
One more thing. I'm a lazy person, so from now on, each disclaimer applies to the whole story and I'm probably not going to repeat 'em. Got it?...ok, that sounded more like a threat then anything I've ever written before. *shrugs* Well, you know that's not what I meant!...right?
More Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of Kozu or Arashi. My friends do, as the real Arashi keeps reminding me.
Chapter Two: Three's A Crowd, Is Seven A Team?
***
Death Isle Train Loading Field
***
"There sure are a lot of people going to this tournament," Arashi commented.
"Yeah," Kozu agreed, "There must be a least a hundred!"
"Mm," Niyali said, from above them.
The three girls were waiting under the only tree in the center of the field that the competitors were gathered in. The train tracks ran along one edge of it, and there was a loading platform halfway along. The train had yet to arrive.
Arashi sat on one of the lower branches; as did Kozu. Niyali waited in the much, much higher branches, the ones that seemed they wouldn't support anyone, no matter how little they weighed.
"Will you come down?" Arashi asked Niyali, "We need to find a team that has some open slots!"
"The field is full of ugly people and I don't want to see their faces," came the reply. Kozu blinked.
"That was rude," she commented.
"It's true."
"Can't argue with that," Arashi said, cheerfully, "Just look at all the people shorter than me!"
"I'm shorter than you," Kozu said. Arashi sweatdropped.
"Whoopsies..." Kozu rolled her eyes and began looking at the groups of people all around them.
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, nope they're full. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, nope they're full. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, nope they're full. One, two, three, four, nope they're full. One, two, three--wait!" Kozu turned back to the fourth group she'd counted. "They only have four!"
"We can join them!" Arashi exclaimed, also looking around, "Uh, where are they?" There was a rustle of branches above them as Niyali climbed up to the top of the tree.
"I see them," she said, "And there is NO WAY we are joing that team."
"Why not?" Kozu and Arashi asked, simotaneously.
"They have a fire demon," Niyali said, as if that made all the difference in the world.
"Fire demon!? Could it be Hiei?" Arashi asked excitedly.
"I hope not," Kozu muttered.
"Why? Hiei's the BEST!" Arashi said, little hearts appearing in her eyes, "Hiei..."
"Why do you like him so much?" Niyali asked, "He's a fire demon." She said the words 'fire demon' as if they were bad.
"I know," Arashi said, lost in la-la land, "He's been gone for so long...I've missed him...but I KNOW he still likes me."
"Did it ever occur to you that maybe he's been avoiding you because he thinks you're annoying?" Kozu asked.
"Why would he think that?"
"Maybe 'cause it's true," Niyali said. Kozu stifled her laughter with a cough. Arashi frowned.
"Maybe to you, who's never had a boyfriend and will NEVER understand, but Hiei would never--HIEI!" With a happy cry, she had leapt out of the tree and bounded off into the crowd.
"Arashi, wait!" Niyali and Kozu quickly climbed out themselves and ran after her.
***
Death Isle Train Loading Field
***
"We are never going to find three more people," Yusuke moaned.
"We could do what we did for the last round of the Dark Tournament," Kurama suggested, "Get three people just to fill in and not necessarily fight."
"Nah." There was a silence as the four of them scanned the crowd, looking for anyone who might possibly be a fighter without a team. It wasn't going very well.
"Did I hear someone call my name?" Hiei asked, after a moment. No one answered.
"Hiei!"
"That's strange, now I'm hearing someone calling Shrimpy's name," Kuwabara said.
"HIEI!"
"Then someone must be," Kurama said, "But--"
"What the--NO! NOT YOU!" The purplish blur turned out to be a girl that had a lot of purple on her. Her hair was lavender and went down to the middle of her back in a ponytail. She wore a purple sweater with kangaroo pockets that looked to be too big for her and black shorts, as well as sneakers. Her purple eyes were filled with glee and bliss as she wrapped her arms tightly around Hiei, looking as if she'd never let go.
"I've been looking for you for years!" she exclaimed, "And I finally found you!"
"That's nice, Arashi, now GET OFF ME!" Arashi's eyes closed in happiness as she huggled Hiei tighter.
"Aw, look Niyali," said another voice, "Arashi and her boyfriend are back together again."
"Although I think that's wonderful, Kozu," said a third, "I will say that I think Arashi has bad taste in men."
"HEY!" The couple--though Hiei didn't like calling them that--turned towards the speakers. Two girls were standing there, both short, but one shorter than the other.
The shortest was about the height of Rinku, and had her long brown hair bound back in a style similar to Kurama's. Her eyes were the same color green, as well. She had her hands in the pockets of her blue jeans, her t-shirt was pale yellow with dark blue sleeves; her feet were in sneakers and a leather collar with a blue crystal was around her neck.
The taller looked to be about Hiei's height, give or take an inch. She wore black jeans and a blue sweater, which looked too big for her, just like Arashi's, as well as sneakers. Her blue eyes were cold as she glared at Hiei, and little flowers and plants peeked out from her shoulder-length dark blonde hair. A long, stout stick was in one of her hands. Hiei wrenched Arashi off of him and went over to the taller girl.
"What did you say?"
"I said I think Arashi has bad taste in men," Niyali repeated. Hiei growled and lunged at her. She simply stepped to the side. Kozu, on the other hand, sought refuge on Yusuke's head.
"What're you doing up there?"
"...seeking refuge?"
"Well, get off."
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
"I think we have another problem, Urameshi..." Kuwabara said. Yusuke and Kozu turned to look.
Niyali and Hiei were now engaged in a ferocious fight. Katana and stick lay forgotten on the ground beside them as the two rolled, kicked, punched, bit, pulled, and tried to kill the other person.
"NIYALI!" "HIEI!" Males and females leapt forward to try to pull the two apart.
"Stop that, you two!" Arashi shrieked, "Friends aren't supposed to fight!"
"HE/SHE'S NOT MY FRIEND!"
"But you agree on so many things!"
"Arashi, shut up I'm trying to kill Hiei."
"But...I LIKE Hiei!"
"You SHOULDN'T."
"Exactly right, 'cause I don't like you."
"You...don't?"
"NO!"
"That's ok. I know you don't mean it."
"Arashi, quit with the small talk and help us seperate the two of them!"
"Oh, right!" Arashi raced forward to help, and soon Niyali and Hiei were ten feet away from each other; restrained (more or less) by two people each.
"LET ME GO!" Niyali and Hiei yelled, at (more or less) the same time.
"NO!"
"We have to get on the train," Yusuke pointed out (the train had arrived during their fight), "And there's no fighting on the train."
"We don't have to," Niyali spat.
"Why not?"
"Oh, right, we don't have a team," Kozu said, sadly, "Oh, well, I guess we'll just go find a team with four people that we could join..."
"But I thought---" Arashi started. Kozu stepped on her foot. "Ow! Uh, I meant, you wouldn't happen to know of any teams with four people, would you?" Kuwabara looked thoughtful [That's never good...].
"No," he said, nodding, "But I'll let you know if I find one." Yusuke sweatdropped.
"Idiot. We have three open slots, if you want to join us..."
"NO!" Niyali and Hiei yelled at the same time.
"YAY! WE ACCEPT!" Arashi let go of Niyali and latched happily onto Hiei's arm.
"On one condition, though," Yusuke said, on a second thought.
"What's that?"
"You," he pointed to Niyali, "And you," he pointed to Hiei, "Have to get along."
"WHAT?" Arashi looked at Hiei and Niyali, who were both staring at Yusuke in disbelief.
"That's right. You do." Kozu nodded once in agreement. Niyali and Hiei glared at each other. The train blew a warning whistle.
"If you don't agree, I'll turn you in, Niyali," Arashi said. Niyali's head snapped towards her.
"What...but you..."
"I will."
"You did it too!"
"Not half as many times as you did."
"You have no right to bring that up."
"Yes I do! I'm your friend!"
"Not for long..."
"Turn you in for what?" Kuwabara asked.
"Nothing," Niyali spat at him before turning to Hiei. "Fine." She held out her hand grudgingly. Hiei eyed it suspiciously.
"If YOU don't agree," Arashi told him, "I'll...I'LL HUGGLE YOU!"
"You already do that."
"I'LL HUGGLE YOU NIGHT AND DAY!"
"You already do that too."
"I'll huggle you...less." Hiei paused. There was someone shouting something to them from the train, and waving anxiously.
"Fine." The two of them shook hands once before dropping them as if the other was contaminated.
"Let's go," Yusuke said, and they sprinted across the field, boarding the train about two seconds before it started moving.
***
Somewhere
***
Stars twinkled peacefully overhead. There were no clouds to obscure any portion of the night, and the moon smiled down on all those underneath it.
This included the Death Isle Train.
Arashi lay in her bed, staring out the window. All she could see were the stars moving along with them; she felt the train as it went over a bump in the track. Her bed was pushed smack under the window. Niyali's was on her left, Kozu's on her right. Arashi could just make out their figures, lying still in their beds. The boys were in a different cabin, just across the way (their cabin was just a little bit larger...it had to fit four beds, after all). The girls were pushed directly against each other; the remainder of the cabin had a small partition and the toilet/sink was on the other side of it. The rest of the train was simple; a dining car, a washing car (who wanted to wash there? The water sloshed all over and you got wet when you were trying to get dry), a cooking car for the food to be cooked, the engine, and the cars for the cabins, two cabins per team and eight cabins per car. There was not much to do, and they were going to be on the train for two more days and one and a half nights (the train was schueduled to arrive at Death Isle sometime after midnight).
On her right, Kozu stirred and rolled over.
"Arashi?" she whispered, "Are you awake?"
"Yeah."
"D'you think we made the right decision?...the team, I mean."
"Of course we did. Any team that's got Hiei on it is the right team for me!"
"I guess...but what about the other boys? We don't know anything about them. They have yet to tell us their names, too."
"...we'll just ask them tomorrow."
"But who knows if they're powerful enough? We came here to win, not to lose."
"DUH. But so did everyone else. And besides, Hiei wouldn't join just any team."
"...you really are obssesed, aren't you?"
"Am not!" Arashi's voice took on a defensive tone, "I just like Hiei."
"Right." Kozu rolled her eyes in the darkness, but Arashi was not able to see that.
"But let's exclude Hiei for a moment. D'you think we still made the right choice?"
"It's not like there was another choice to make."
"I know, but..." Kozu's voice trailed off. For once, Arashi was right.
"I wonder if Niyali's awake," Kozu whispered.
"Let's find out!" Arashi said, "Hey Niyali..." There was silence.
"Niyali?" When Niyali did not respond, Arashi poked her. After poking her a second time, Niyali moaned and rolled over to face them.
"What?" she asked.
"Are you awake?" Arashi asked.
"No, I'm asleep."
"Oh. Ok!"
"I might as well be awake now," Niyali said. The flowers in her hair, which had been tightly closed a moment before, began to open now.
"Ok!" Kozu said, "We're talking about our new team members."
"What about them?" Niyali brought her knees up to her chest, wrapped her arms around them and laid her head on top.
"Do YOU think we made the right choice?" Arashi asked her.
"No."
"Why?" Kozu prompted.
"Fire demons and my kind don't get along."
"Well, DUH, everyone knows that fire and wood don't go together. But what if we excluded Hiei?"
"...I still don't think we made a good choice. I mean, two of them are humans."
"I thought three of them were humans." Arashi said.
"One of them seems more demon-like," Kozu said, "Besides, he reminds me of someone."
"Who?" Niyali prompted. Kozu shrugged.
"I dunno. My older brother."
"You have an older brother?" Arashi asked, incredously. Kozu nodded.
"We're cutting Niyali off. Go on."
"Well, two of them are humans, one's...something else, and the fourth's a fire-demon. Humans, no offense to them, are usually not very...powerful, you know what I mean?" Kozu and Arashi nodded sage-like.
"What're we supposed to tell them?" Kozu whispered, after a moment had passed.
"About what?" Niyali and Arashi asked simotaneously.
"You know. Us. What we can do. What we are. What we aren't. All that junk."
"No way!" Arashi and Niyali said, also simotaneously. "We'll see what they tell us, and we'll tell them the same amount," Niyali said. "They'll see how we fight sooner or later, and same with us. The rest...they can figure it out on their own." Kozu giggled softly.
"Fun!"
"Yep. Now, what can we do to annoy them tomorrow...?"
***
Death Isle Train; Team Urameshi Boys Cabin
***
The boys were holding their own discussion. Their cabin was bigger; it had bunk beds. The bottom ones were sofas during the day, the top ones came out of the walls. Hiei was on the top left bunk, Kurama on the one below him; Yusuke on the top right and Kuwabara bottom right. The window and main entrance were parallel to each other, and perpendicular to the bunks. However, they had no bathroom.
"So, what do you think about our new teammates?" Yusuke asked.
"I think they're weird," Kuwabara announced.
"You're weird," Hiei told him.
"Shut up, shrimpy."
"Hn."
"They were looking for a team," Kurama said, thoughtfully, "I wonder why they couldn't find one before us."
"Maybe they're no good," Kuwabara suggested, "That's why nobody wanted them."
"If they weren't any good, they would know it," Hiei snapped, "Besides, I know Arashi. She's not THAT bad. Any team could...benefit from having her," he added, reluctantly.
"What about the others?" Yusuke asked.
"I don't know, I've only dealt with Arashi before. But from what I've seen, they're all nuisances."
"Hiei's right," Kurama said, sighing.
"I feel like a baby-sitter," Yusuke grumbled, after a moment's silence. Kozu had stayed on top of his head for the rest of the day. Arashi had refused to let go of Hiei, and Niyali had ignored Kuwabara completely, forcing Kurama to get her to give Hiei's bandana back after Kozu had stolen it and given it to her.
Kurama chuckled.
"I guess we've each sort of adopted them," he said, "Except for Kuwabara. Yusuke's got Kozu, Arashi will do anything for Hiei, and since Niyali won't listen to Kuwabara I guess I can handle her. If we split them up, they can't be that hard to deal with."
"You don't know Arashi," Hiei said, "And if they've been with her too long, we're going to be taking care of three children for the next few weeks."
"Change of subject," Yusuke said, rolling his eyes, "What do you think they can do?"
"I'm expecting Niyali to be using plants of some sort," Kurama said, "She does have plants in her hair, after all."
"Makes sense," Yusuke admitted. "And Arashi?"
"Her techniques are unusual," Hiei said, "You'll be surprised."
"O-kay, and Kozu?" There was a silence. Nobody knew.
"Guess we'll just have to wait and see," Kuwabara muttered, and the conversation ended for the night.
***
I think that's enough for you to go on for now. That's over seven pages, after all.
Next time! The train gets to the tournament, and the competitors to the hotel. But what happens when the guys leave the girls alone in the hotel room? You'll just have to read to find out!
(The chapter after that's the official beginning of the tournament. I promise.)
~Niyali