MnS: I'm back, whether you like it or not.
KnH: So am I.
Hiei: Hn.
Kurama: As I've previously stated, Megami no Shi doesn't own Yu-yu Hakusho
MnS: Thanx 'Rama-chan!!
Chapter 4:
//
About half an hour later, I was clean and dry and ready to pretend that I hadn't walked/fell in on Kurama taking a shower. Standing at the door to the hotel, ready to leave, the four of us stepped out, and Urameshi, who was more than ready to start, said,
"It's time to kick some ass." The gorilla agreed with him, and Kurama nodded. I did nothing but smirk, a small 'hn' sneaking past……
//
Hiei's POV
Though there was a slight complication concerning the fifth member of our team, but that was sorted after a while, though not in a very promising way. The first match went to Kurama and Karasu, and I didn't really like that match-up. There was something…sadistically weird about Karasu, and I hadn't gone to see him fight, so I didn't know what he was capable of.
As the match went on, at first, he had the upper hand, but Kurama eventually became the bandit, Youko Kurama, and everyone thought from then on that he had the match won. I was pretty confident in him as well, until Karasu escaped from his demon ojigi; then, I realized we were going have a problem on our hands if Kurama didn't do something.
He couldn't, however, because he was soon to change back to his ningen body. Karasu took advantage of this, using his bombs to toy with Kurama until I saw red, and was about ready to climb into the ring and rip his head off, forfeit or not. When Kurama was down on the ground, I was positively itching to take a chunk out of Karasu, but the kitsune beat me to it, destroying him with a plant that drained most of his life energy; he barely had enough to keep himself breathing.
But what burned me to the core, was the fact that that match was called as a point for Team Tuguro. I felt my energy flare in my anger, and the dragon, which was still pulling at my arm, fed on my anger, growing strength and trying to escape. Calming down, I watched Urameshi help Kurama off of the stage. The gorilla started on his damn stupid moral speech, yelling at the audience, and the elder Tuguro told us that he'd wish for our deaths. This rose a growl in my throat, and when I was sure Kurama was safe and out of the ring, and also, still breathing, I said to them,
"Want to know what I will wish for when we beat them?" I bared my fangs slightly at the thought of what I was going to say; I was tired of all the unfair rulings pitted against us. That should have been Kurama's match, and they all knew it dammit. Continuing when I had Tuguro Team's attention,
"The bloody death of every member of that corrupt tournament committee so that I'll never be pulled into one of their carnivals again." It was only part of the truth, but a reason had to be given. I wasn't paying much attention to what was going on; I was watching Kurama out of the corner of my eye. I had enough sense to realize that the one who had just stepped up was Bui, the one who wore all the armor. Sizing him up, I turned to Urameshi and said,
"Yusuke. I planned on taking the thug with the sunglasses for myself, but after what he did to Genkai, I believe vengeance belongs to you." He looked surprised as he uttered his thanks; I had truly wanted to take on the younger Tuguro, but it was only right that Yusuke kill him in revenge. Going to the ring, I took an extra milisecond to just barely brush a hand against Kurama's neck, giving him a boost of extra ki so that he could at least stand. Then, when I stopped on the ring floor, I continued,
"But this thug will do just as well." Walking forward, I ignored the fool's comments and waited for that annoying referee to begin the match. She said, to my most utter annoyance,
"Measuring at four foot ten without his hair, Hiei. At nine feet, Bui." That other referee from the first matches, Koto, I think, though I don't much care, said,
"Wow, nine feet, that's tall, and it's more than enough man to go around ladies. Then again, Hiei has proven on numerous occasions that kick-ass things come in short packages too! I have absolutely no idea…" at that point, I tuned her annoying voice out, paying all my attention to this 'Bui'. Eventually though, she started the match.
At first, it was like a hit and miss match; he tried to hit me with tiles from the stadium floor, and pretty much, missed. It only served to make me more angry. I was already pissed off about the ruling the committee gave Kurama, and the fact that Bui wasn't making any effort to fight me, well, that just made my anger soar, and with it, my yoki. I physically had to restrain the dragon it wanted out so badly; it was madly trying to devour my arm yoki first.
Finally, Bui took off his armor, and showed his real power, which, though strong, was no match for the dragon, or so the dragon thought as it ripped against the bonds, attempting and just barely failing at getting free. After dealing with a few meager attacks, Bui finally provoked me into releasing it, saying,
"Time is wasting, let's go ahead and finish." He had said one word to many to me, and that would be his downfall.
"Quiet fool. I don't need to be told to hurry up; it's in my nature." Tearing the ward off of my arm, I unwound the bandages slowly.
"And now, then end." I said, as I removed the warded bandages. The dragon ignited on my arm, sending a shiver through the muscles there; it was free, and it was quite pleased about it.
"It's been pulling at the bandages for sometime. I couldn't hold it for long." I said, and laughed slightly at the thought of what was to come to this poor fool who angered me.
"You're the next sacrifice to the Kokuryu-ha." A whirl of black energy surrounded the ring, deflecting small flames of energy throughout the stadium, the dragon growing as the rest of it began to come into this plane of existence. I had to focus on the flames; releasing them now would relinquish my control of it, and the dragon would run rampant in the stadium, killing all who possessed any kind of spirit energy.
My aura exploded with power, and I could feel it in every fiber of my being; from the tips of my toes to every strand of hair, ki rippled through and around me. I focused only on the energy, controlling it, and my opponent, who stared at me patiently, almost as if he knew this were coming and he knew how to stop it. The problem was, no one could stop a spirit world dragon or change it's course; once released, there was trouble for any and all in it's path.
"You ready?" I asked as finally, the dragon was almost to completion; just a few more seconds… Finally, the energy was there, and the tattoo on my arm sent red-hot sparks shooting up it as the mouth opened, ready to devour everything in it's path.
"Take this! Ensatsu Kokuryu-ha!! The energy exploded from my arm, ripping the dragon from my arm in a huge explosion of it's raw power. Heading straight for Bui, I realized something strange; I could still feel the strange warp of darkness in my arm, as if the dragon still inhabited it. As if, it didn't want to leave me completely. I was stunned only for a second as Bui caught the dragon and stopped it; I had never heard of it being done before, but I didn't have time to dwell on it. Pulling as much of what was left of the dark flames in my arm using my own ki, I yelled,
"I hope you don't think that dragon is completed!" and with that, threw the rest of the black fire, or at least, all that I cold gather, into the back of the dragon, attempting to complete its form and incinerate the fool. It didn't fry Bui, but it did enable the dragon to pick him up and take him around the arena, and ultimately, through the roof of the stadium. It crushed him to one of the twin peaks that sat outside, and I followed it up to get a better look, standing on part of the half taken down roof. As I watched, I thought for sure that Bui had been eaten, and I watched on, waiting for the dragon to circle in the sky, having nothing else in it's path to destroy. But as I watched, the impossible took place; the dragon was forced back to me. This is impossible, I thought, too shocked to move. No one could re-direct the course of the Kokuryu-ha; it simply couldn't be done.
The searing pain that ripped across my flesh proved me wrong was proof enough that Bui had done the unthinkable. The flames that made the creature up ripped and burned and tore……but this was ridiculous. I was the creator, I was the one who had energy enough to summon this creature to this realm, and I'd be damned if I was going to let it eat me. Fighting back with my energy through the haze of pain that clouded my vision, my ki burst into flames around me, protecting me from the spectral flame of the creature. Fighting with everything I had, I opened wide my jagan, using it to it's full potential, adding all the energy that I possibly could to my assault; I wasn't going down at the hands of my own finishing move.
Then, something strange happened. My flames began to coat the dragon, and, with an explosion of red and black ki that was manifested into an inferno, the flames were sucked into my jagan. It burned as nothing I'd ever felt before; it hurt too much to express, but only for a second. I would have sworn I was dead because the ki that I absorbed exploded into raw yoki - a blinding flash of blue - and I was thrown down to the ground, and I hit the stadium floor hard. I felt energy flowing through me; energy that I had never felt before, and the next words I spoke; they could hardly be said to be mine. It was as if something else spoke through my voice.
"This brings up my next attack. It's a little different." Looking up at Bui's astonished face, I smirked. Don't underestimate me Bui, I thought to myself.
"Explain this." Came Bui's trembling voice from across the ring as he moved as if to take a step back. Holding a hand out, I realized that any injury I had was recovered; my energy restored to it's maximum and beyond. I was stronger by tenfold of my normal strength. I took a step forward, ignoring all outside comments; I was intent on finishing off Bui once and for all, and my smirk only grew as he backed up with my step. My voice came as a whisper with what I said next,
"Countless centuries. Countless masters trying to harness the power of the Kokuryu-ha. Only I have had the courage, the strength, and the abandon to realize it's glorious potential. I have the power of the black dragon, because now I am the dragon." Energy flaring, my power was nothing like before; it was endless, the strength of the dragon fused with my flames created an unstoppable force. The fear in Bui's eyes told me that he would do something desperate; I was not disappointed. As he jumped into the air,
I muttered,
"Right." Not moving to do anything, not even defend myself, I watched as he came down at me and landed a punch squarely on my left cheek. I felt nothing but a light tingle, and my head moved with the hit only out of instinct; it wouldn't have done anything otherwise.
"Nice." I said as I turned to meet Bui's eyes again; there I saw a fear which thrilled me to the core. I wanted nothing more than to end his miserable life because of this display of fright alone. He launched a frantic attack on my body, but again, I felt nothing. Barely even a tingle of my flesh. As I landed on the ring from his precious attack, I rose to my feet and caught his fist in my hand, which was glowing with his life energy. My hand seemed to know what to do as it drew all that could be spared from him, leaving him completely vulnerable, and then, taking it as a power up for myself.
"Come now, can't you even test me?" I asked, staring him down. I wasn't even breaking a sweat. Drawing the energy I had taken from me in my right hand, along with a good helping of my own, it manifested into a sphere in my palm, and I didn't even have to touch him with it to repel him into the air. I went up after him, and I could feel the dragon edging me on, flowing with me as I finished him off with a hit straight to the jaw that sent him into the seating of the stadium. Following him down, I had every intent on killing him as I thought to myself, pathetic waste of space.
"Finish." I heard his weak voice from the ground. Looking carefully at him, my only answer was,
"Hn?" He continued however,
"The firt time Tuguro beat me, he told me I had the potential to get stronger. He was right. It took someone like him to show me how weak I was. He kept me at his side while I trained hard to kill him. And I know I reached my max. But, every time I would get stronger, so would he. I'm sure it was just bait to keep me improving. Now you've beaten me, what's the point? Come on; hurry up and kill me." I couldn't believe that he was actually trying to tell me what to do. No one told me how to live my life or what do. Turning from him, I said,
"No. If you wanna die, kill yourself." And with that, I went back to the ring on the eighth count. After I landed and stood still, I turned back to Bui slightly and said,
"I don't take orders; especially from those I beat." Smirk in place, I waited for Juri to announce my victory. Jumping down from the ring, my legs began to shake, an all of a sudden, a wave of overwhelming exhaustion came over me. The fool was being just that - a fool - when I walked over to them, and suggested something about me taking on the rest of the team for them, to which I replied,
"That's against the rules now, you Cretin. Besides, my attack is expired." Urameshi and the fool blink at me and ask in unison,
"Expired?" Eyes drooping slightly, I hated to have to sleep with them to watch my body, but I had to explain, rather than just drop on the floor without them knowing what the hell was going on.
"I don't know if your brains can imagine it, but this attack drained a great deal of my energy." Pausing to yawn as my eyes won the battle for closing halfway, I continued, "I'll require some hibernation to get it back. Think you can manage to find a safe place for my body where it won't get stepped on?" I barely registered what Urameshi said next; it was getting so hard to keep my eyes open…
"Did you say hibernate?" is what I'm pretty sure Urameshi asked, as if I had been speaking in a foreign language…maybe I had been……I hadn't lapsed back into the makai common-tongue again, had I?
"Fancy word for being lazy." That was most definitely the fool, and, sending him the best glare I could fathom, I realized that I didn't have the energy to start arguing with him. Continuing as quickly as I could before I couldn't stand any longer, I said,
"Listen to me as closely as you can you two. I'm trusting you against my better instincts only because I have no other choice. Take care of the Tuguro brothers. If I wake up and we've lost, I swear I'll…kill…you…all…" as I finished my sentence, my world went black as the exhaustion took over me. I could have fled the arena and found a tree to sleep in, I suppose, but if nothing else, I'm vaguely certain that Kurama would make sure nothing potentially dangerous happened to my body……
MnS: So, how was that!!??
Kurama: Another good chapter, I'd say.
MnS: ^_^!! YAY!! 'RAMA-CAHN LIKED IT!!!
Hiei: Hn,.
KnH: R'n'R please, another chapter up soon!!!