Well, before we get started, I'd just like to announce the competition that Arashi and I are starting. It's called the Writer/Reader Reversal competition (many thanks to Elyndewen Startree for the name!) and this is how it works!
Every month, we (the writers) pick a random word/phrase. Then we give it to you (the readers), and it's your job to write a story incorporating that word/phrase (readers become writers!)! After the deadline for submissions has passed, Arashi and I will judge the stories (writers become readers) and the winner will recieve a special prize! So, without further ado, this month's Writer/Reader Reversal stats!
Category: YYH
Genre: Whatever you want! Humor, angst, drama, horror...your game!
Length: Minimum 1000 words, maximum...as long as you want but it must
be complete.
Phrase: "Let him go!"
Location: First or last words of the story, you decide.
Deadline: Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Prize: The winner will be a guest star in an author's note of the story of
their choice; The Ohsukah Tournament OR The Grass is Always Greener!
To enter: Fill out the submission form and send it to us at
evil_towel@yahoo.com
The submission form is as follows...
Penname:
Story Title:
Genre:
Rating:
Story (or a working link):
And that's it! You have roughly a month, so start writing! Now, with that out of the way, let's go read Chapter Seventeen!
Chapter Seventeen: Hiei Battles On
***
Death Isle Hotel
Room 10C
***
The room was pitch black, not something you'd expect during the middle of a day. But Shizuru, Botan, Keiko, and Yukina weren't taking any chances--perhaps if the room was dark, they wouldn't be noticed.
Shizuru stood at the door to the main room, one ear pressed against the wood in hopes of hearing something. Botan lay half on the floor, peering through the crack underneath the door. Yukina and Keiko sat on the bed closest to the door, waiting anxiously.
"Can you see anything?" Shizuru asked Botan.
"Nuh-uh," Botan replied, her voice a bit muffled, "Just feet."
"D'you--d'you think they'll be all right?" Keiko asked, trembling.
"They'll be just fine!" Botan replied instantly, "They're on our team, aren't they? They wouldn't have gotten to the second round if they weren't good at fighting!"
"They only got here because the other team captain forfeited," Shizuru reminded them, "It was dumb luck."
"They still got there," Botan pointed out. All further conversation was cut off once something collided into their door with a loud THUMP. The door shook, but the wood it was made of was sturdy and did not break.
"What was that?" Yukina asked.
"Something hit the door and slid down," Botan said, peeking through the hole, "I can't tell who it is, though--oh MOVE, you're blocking my view!" She banged on the door with her fist.
"I thought you said you didn't have a view," Shizuru reminded her. A sweatdrop appeared on Botan's head as she laughed nervously.
"Well," she sighed, sitting up on her knees, "I guess we'll just have to wait until it's over."
***
Field
***
"Five! Six! Seven!" As Faye's count increased, Hiei struggled harder to get to his feet. Strange...after a collision like that, he should be feeling pain all over his body. But he didn't feel a thing. Okay, so he felt something, but it was only a very, VERY dim throb...nothing what it should have been. Aretesia's numbing technique was very impressive--and very effective.
His arm was completely useless, and for all his efforts, he could barely move. He couldn't feel his muscles, any of his limbs--yet he forced himself to move. He had to get back in the ring.
"Eight! Nine...!" With a last surge of energy, Hiei pulled himself up on his feet and leapt towards the ring, landing in just before Faye counted ten.
"It's official, folks--no matter WHAT you do, you can't get rid of Hiei! He's back in the ring, but if you thought Aretesia's first strike hit him badly, just look at him now! With all the trouble he's having standing, I doubt he'll even be able to attack, much less block as Aretesia moves in for a repeat!"
Aretesia smiled; here was a worthy opponent! In all her life, she'd rarely had her prey come back after such an attack (well, she'd only used that attack once or twice, so that's not really a fair count); that Hiei had done so spoke volumes about him.
"Impressive," she called, "You must be rather determined to win--not many have survived that attack." Hiei didn't respond.
"Dammit," Yusuke muttered, staring at the two competitors, "How the heck is he supposed to win this if he can barely move?"
"He has had practice," said a voice, "He will live." Yusuke whirled around, startled, and his eyes widened as he saw who was there.
Yoko Kurama leaned casually against a tree, his eyes not on Yusuke but on the fight. What was surprising was that he was no longer small and innocent. Rather he was his normal size and height (which was at minimum six feet), and the only innocence about him seemed fake.
"What the heck happened," was all Yusuke could say.
"Simple, really," Yoko responded, still watching the fighters, "Aretesia hit Hiei with her energy, and it--"
"Not THAT!" Yusuke interrupted, getting annoyed, "Why aren't you five years old any more?"
"Why didn't you say so?" Yoko responded, well aware that he was annoying Yusuke, "It appears Nezume's gas is slow to wear off, but when it does, it does so in leaps. The first was from five years to what I am now; the next few will probably not have much of a difference, seeing as I am three hundred years old, but have no fear. Shuichi will be back before the next round begins."
"Why does that not comfort me?" Yusuke muttered. Yoko pretended he hadn't heard that.
"This should be easy," Aretesia commented, "You don't have enough energy to fight back--tell you what, I'll make it easy and end your life in one blow!"
"Go ahead," Hiei responded calmly, "I'm waiting." Aretesia lifted her hand again and it began to glow silver-white. Within seconds, the familiar beam of light was streaking towards Hiei, and there was no way the injured fighter could dodge. There wasn't enough time to do anything but blink.
But Hiei was well used to doing things in short amounts of time.
A wall of fire shot into existence, effectively blocking Aretesia's attack. The silver-white jet slammed into it and disintegrated into nothing.
"I thought we agreed on a good fight," Hiei stated, as Aretesia stared, "I'm hardly getting a workout at all." Aretesia frowned; how had he managed to pull up a shield so powerful so quickly? It was impossible; his body was practically immobile, and most everybody needed to use their hands to control their attacks and defenses...unless...
Her eyes flickered to his forehead, and she stared, spellbound, at the glowing red eye that rested there.
"You have a Jagan," she spat.
"I was wondering when you'd notice."
"Aretesia's one powerful opponent, but Hiei's managed to survive every attack she throws at him!" Faye said, "What will she try next? Or is it Hiei's turn to attack? Brace yourselves, people, I've got a feeling this is about to get messy!" Aretesia glared at Hiei; he glared back. He could sense her fatigue from where he was standing; she'd never admit it, but so many energy beams were tiring. If this continued, she'd drop from exhaustion before she could breach his shield. The Jagan gave him enough energy to hold and maintain it...however, he still could barely move. Attacking was far out of the question.
Aretesia ended the staring competition by drawing a bokuto--or a wooden sword.
"What, is she going to try to cut through his shield?" Yusuke asked Yoko, clearly clueless, "But his shield is fire--it'll just burn up!"
"Be patient; many things are not what they seem," the kitsune replied.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Yusuke asked. Yoko didn't respond.
Stupid riddles, Yusuke thought miserably.
"You should feel special," Aretesia told Hiei, twirling her botuko absentmindedly, "I've never used this ability before for anybody--I only came up with it recently, and I must admit, I got the idea from you."
"I'm flattered," Hiei said, not sounding flattered at all. She smiled.
"Of course." She stopped twirling and shifted to a fighting stance, holding the sword as if she were about to hit a baseball with it. Energy flooded from her into the botuko, and it began to glow.
"This is new," Yusuke muttered.
"Not exactly," Yoko corrected, "It appears to be a version of Kuwabara's Spirit Sword--she's transmitting her energy into the botuko, and will undoubtedly use it to attack with."
"If it's a version of Kuwabara's Spirit Sword, why'd she say she got it from Hiei?"
"The Sword of the Darkness Flame--Hiei did basically the same thing, only with the hilt of his katana and the Dark Dragon."
"...when was this?"
"Semi-finals of the Dark Tournament; Hiei was fighting Kuromomataro, a demon who became immune to Hiei's attacks by inhaling a Steaming Sphere."
"Something tells me I don't want to ask."
"Then don't."
Aretesia's botuko was now as bright as the sun as it glowed, radiating energy as if it was attached to her. Taking a breath, she charged, yelling "CRYSTAL SPIRIT" as she did so.
Hiei flung up his barrier, and the gleaming sword connected. Energy sparked, black, white, black, white. Neither side gave, and the sword most definitely did not burst into flames.
Aretesia surprised them all by leaping back, pulling her sword with her. Hiei was caught unawares; the energy he'd placed in his shield burst forth like a dam when the wall is broken. In that brief moment, Aretesia was back, swinging her sword ferociously. Hiei threw up another barrier, but it wasn't enough.
The botuko slammed into his barrier, stopping mere centimeters from his neck. The force of the impact propelled him backwards and off the field. Just like before, he slammed through the ground, creating a second trench of dirt just like the first one.
"With an amazing display of Spirit Power, Aretesia's knocked Hiei out of the ring for the second time!" Faye exclaimed, "Let's take a ten count--one! Two! Three!"
"HIEI!" Yusuke yelled, starting forwards.
"Five! Six! Seven!" Aretesia smiled to herself and turned, walking back towards her team.
"He won't be getting up from that," she murmured to herself.
"Nine! And TEN! By a ringout, Aretesia is the winner!" Yusuke and Yoko wasted no time in rushing over to Hiei, who lay on the ground, unmoving. As they got closer, they could see that he was struggling to raise himself, but to no avail.
"Be still," Yoko instructed, slipping an arm around the fire demon and leaning him into a sitting position, "You'll tire yourself out."
"I...can do...just fine," Hiei grumbled, still struggling.
"Are you all right?" Yusuke asked, concern in his voice.
"I'll be fine," Hiei snapped, "I don't...need help."
"Hardly able to move and you say that?" Yoko asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Shut...up, kitsune."
"Will the next fighters please step into the ring?" Faye asked.
"Take care of him," Yusuke said to Yoko, who nodded and picked Hiei up off the ground. Ignoring his indignant protests, Yoko carried him closer to the edge of the ring and propped him against a tree so he could watch. Yusuke headed towards the middle of the field, where Faye and Zaraya were already waiting.
"And the score is tied!" Faye announced happily, "Team Kokushibyou has three wins, as does Team Urameshi! The next match, battle between captains Zaraya Zenobia and Yusuke Urameshi will decide who moves on to the next round! Are we ready? Then one, two, three, let's go!"
Cliffies are fun, ne? ^_^
Don't forget about the Writer/Reader Reversal! It's fun, trust us! Anyway, I'm feeling nice today, so I'm going to do review responses! All hail the review responses!
soccerGoalie: Mousie! ^_^ That's why I put it in there...we live to make people laugh!
flamin: Okay! I updated! And I'll update again soon! Promise! Essays suck, you're right.
clouds are yummy: It would, but we all know Hiei's never going to get out that easily. He'll stick with it 'til the end...stubborn fire demon.
Kitsune: Thank you! Sorry 'bout the weapon, but it just worked out that way...hope you don't mind too much!
Angelique: Thank you!
Elyndewen Startree: ^_^ You know us too well.
Is that it? Wow, that's a lot less than the Grass is Always Greener...hm, which is more popular, d'you think? ^_^