These are the reviews for 'You Promised', my first one-shot. Since I won't be posting any further chapters there, I'm putting them here. Hope you don't mind! (I feel so loved! Three reviews in two hours!)

ShinjuJaganshi: Thank you, I tried. I hope to see that story soon!

Kitsune Kit: And would you believe it popped up from nowhere?

Pat (...): Thank you!

KaraKurama: Arigatou gozaimasu!

Suiyu: I'm a sucker for a happy ending, what can I say?

These are the reviews for Chapter Nine.

Darkspirals: (Kohaku) Hey! I had a darned good reason! If he leaves it's going to really hurt, you know.

Evilsirenmistress: I think it suits Hiei perfectly, too. I don't know why I haven't seen someone writing that in somewhere else before.

Kitsune Kit: And they don't chase you when you don't want to be chased. They're my favorite kind of people! No offense, straight people.

D. F. Feda: It honestly didn't occur to me to keep harping on their triangle problem. Everyone knew about it, why bother? I really do love Aislin as a character, she's one of my best that I've ever created (although she absolutely refuses to let me draw her properly).-- mutters about rock-headed koorime-- Stubborn but flexible, impish and cold, all at the same time, the thing that every person is: a walking bundle of contradictions. As for Kohaku, she was never intended to be a self-representation--that's Rei Hibiki from Fox's Mischief. And while I may not get lost like either Kohaku or Ryoga, my sense of directions really, really sucks. (And yes, I am an anime-freak, although otaku just sounds cooler!) Thank you for such a great review!

Chapter 10

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"So, about this band, Keiko," Yusuke opens the subject about half an hour later in the hotel suite assigned to them by the Committee. "Who are they, really?"

The human girl fluffs her short, dark brown hair thoughtfully before replying. "Well, for starters there's Kohaku. Her band-name is Sugar Wolf and she's lead singer. Then there's Cassie, she's called Songbird and is the back-up singer. The profiles I've read on her on some of the fan-sites online label her as a 'glitter-Goth'--someone named Koryu coined it, apparently. She's got a personality like Kohaku but leans more towards the Gothic stuff. Craig is Aussieboy, since his family moved from Australia a few years ago, and he plays the keyboard. He's your basic surfer-glitter-Goth. Laid back, sweet-tempered, and he likes being dramatic. You've already noticed he's homosexual. Luke's drummer; he's called Hawkflyer and he's kinda flaky except for what he thinks is serious. He's a really good student, but good luck getting him into P.E. He's been quoted as saying that drooling over bishies, wearing his drumsticks out playing, and eating are all the exercise he ever wants. Ally's called Snowcat--she's the guitarist. She's pretty quiet, actually, at least according to her bios, until you get to her so-called obsessions. Then you can't get her to stop."

"I guess that's enough to go on," Aislin says doubtfully, sharing the windowsill with Hiei and staring out at the landscape beyond. "Kohaku seemed pretty close to them earlier." Why isn't Kohaku in on this conversation? At the moment, she's crashed in her room, and everyone's betting that nothing short of the hotel coming down would wake her. And maybe not even that.

"Hn." That's Hiei contribution to the conversation.

"I dunno you guys," Kuwabara puts in, "they felt like okay folk to me. Didn't get a twinge off them or nothin'. They ain't even got much spirit power, so they ain't one of the teams. I think we should trust 'em."

"I agree, but something still feels off." Kurama is stretched out next to Yusuke, feet propped on the small coffee table, face creased in thought. "Why in Ningenkai would good friends suddenly show up here with no warning? They didn't even seem surprised that Kohaku is on a Team that will be fighting life-or-death battles."

"Tha's cause Cassie's got networks up the wazoo," a sleepy voice mumbles from the door leading to the hall linking the bedrooms. Kohaku slumps there, hair rumpled like her over-sized shirt and sweats--her sleepwear while away from home. "She's famous in 'r group fer getting' stuff 'fore it goes on market."

"What are you doing up?" Botan scolds gently. "You should be in bed, the ceremonies don't start for hours yet."

"Got lonely." She squeezes in between Yusuke and Kurama, curling up so that she's using the fox's side for a pillow and Yusuke's lap as a leg-rest. "Night."

"Great," Yusuke sighs. "Now we won't be able to move until she wakes up."

"Aw, but you're actually useful right now," Aislin teases, cottony fox ears up and tilted crazily in amusement. "And she's so cute when she does that."

"You volunteer to be a pillow then."

"Sorry, I've still got some registering to do downstairs. I have to leave in a couple of minutes, as a matter of fact." Kuwabara and Yusuke perk.

"Why?"

The koorime woman looks rather annoyed. "A downside to being outrageously powerful are the handicaps they stick on you to even the odds for whatever poor fool you get matched with. Never you mind that this entire macabre gladiatorial contest happens to be all about the bloodshed, oh, no. Customers don't want a two-second match, didn't pay for a two-second match. Inari, but the Committee gets on my nerves!" A considering look is aimed at Yusuke. "Come to think of it, mortal-kin, how come you're not getting tagged?"

"Cause he's human," Hiei snorts derisively. "Despite his defeat of Toguro, they continue to underestimate him because he is human and therefore weak."

"I keep telling you," Aislin points out, "that Toguro was not that much of a challenge when I fought him. You simply have to know how. My agents told me about that soul-draining trick he did to maintain energy levels--you could have crushed one or both of the tubes on his shoulders and thereby denied him access to any further energy, but no." She rises to her feet still muttering about various take-down techniques, waving to her friends as she strolls out the door.

--

Another hour or two passes without incident, most of the team leaving on various errands of their own, leaving only Yusuke (still a leg rest) and Hiei (new pillow) to keep an eye on the dozing Kohaku. She'd woken up a short while ago, long enough to change back into street-clothes in case she'd have to go somewhere like everyone else seems to. Yusuke is boredly flipping through the limited channels on the hotel television when our sweet wolf demon wakes with a start, blearily looking around her with a yawn.

"Someone's calling me."

Hiei looks up from the book Kurama had handed him before the fox-human had left. "What do you mean?"

Levering herself up, Kohaku starts meandering towards the door. "Dunno. Like I'm hearing a call without really hearing it, and it sounds kinda familiar. Be right back, I'm gonna go check it out." Hiei is now firmly between her and the door.

"No. You're not."

"Oh, don't be so paranoid," Kohaku groans. "Rules say no fighting outside the arena, right?"

"You honestly think they're going to fight by the rules? Have you even been paying attention?"

"Fine, then I'll go out the window." She makes a move to go towards the glass portal, but Hiei blocks the way first. Grinning, Kohaku bolts out the door and down the hall, laughing, "Gotcha!"

Hiei adds a few new phrases to his vocabulary out of sheer frustration. "Hey, come on, Hiei," Yusuke soothes, "she can fight anything here to a standstill, right? And it's an island. It's not like she can really get lost."

"Shows how little you know," is the scathing retort as the fire apparition takes the faster exit out the window. Two seconds later he stands in front of the elevators at the ground floor, foot tapping impatiently as he imagines the verbal lashing he's going to give Kohaku. A coffee-colored blur darts past the glass panes that form the main entrance to the hotel and our favorite fire apparition adds a few more terms as Kohaku's plan unfolds in his head.

He takes off running, cursing Kohaku and himself soundly. Her for taking the elevator down to a height that she can actually jump before using a window, and himself for falling for her trick. That girl should have been born a damned fox!! he thinks for the hundredth time, casting his mind out to find her, already deep into the forest between the hotel and the beach. There! A bright star in his awareness, another shining mind acting like a beacon for her, drawing her irresistibly towards it.

His first sign that something is deadly wrong are the darts blooming like tropical flowers in the flesh over his shoulder-blade.

----

"Dratted Hiei," Kohaku mutters to herself, loping swiftly among the trees towards that oh-so-familiar call. "I'm not gonna get myself killed or anything." Glancing over her shoulder to check if the kajihenge follows, she collides with someone very tall and very muscular. "What the...?" Her gaze is caught by a pair of wickedly amused, butter yellow eyes. "Oops."

----

The band of middle-class demons snicker as they surround Hiei, fallen to the drug lacing every dart in his shoulder. It doesn't burn, so he isn't worried about demonsbane. No, what he's getting concerned about is the fact that he can't move--nor does his energy answer his call.

"Heh-heh-heh," the gang's leader laughs, brandishing a ragged, rusty dagger like it's a good sword. "How the mighty have fallen, eh, Jaganshi? Imagine, a little drug like Nycastine bringing you down like a deer. This is'll be sweet indeed!"

The demon raises the dagger on high, preparing to sink it into Hiei's unprotected heart...

The spike-haired apparition braces himself...

Watches the dagger come screaming down...

And sixty pounds of hatred slams into the unsuspecting demon, riding him to the ground amid a flurry of snarls and flailing limbs. The demon's companions can only watch in shock as their plans go awry--for a few moments there are only the weakening screams, the wet sounds of tearing flesh, and clashing teeth.

When the noises die away, a petite wolf the color of wildflower honey stalks stiff-legged to stand protectively over Hiei, blood dripping from her muzzle with more drenching her chest fur. /Who's the next fool?/ the wolf demands, hackles standing in a stiff line down her spine, tail bottle-brushed and standing straight up in a sign of dominance.

"I don't need your help," Hiei hisses to her, rewarded for his prideful claim with a sideways glance filled with sarcasm, for it is obvious that the hiss is as loud as his voice can go at the moment.

/Says the drugged man unable to touch his reiki. Get real, Hiei./

"I am not weak."

"No," a calm voice informs him from behind, "but you are pack, as my niece claims it." To Hiei's frustration, he can't even raise an eyebrow when the yellow-eyed Thief King, Ikazuchi, steps into his line of sight with a small smile. "Hello again, Jaganshi-san. Nice to see you again, under the circumstances."

"There's just two of 'em!" one of the remaining demons shouts, drawing the pair's attention back to the situation at hand. Kohaku had never dropped her guard or looked away even once. "Not so hard!"

/Come on, fools,/ Kohaku growls in their minds, taking a few steps forward so that she stands next to Hiei instead of across him, /we'll take you all on!/

"You two can't fight all of them alone." This time, the side-glance is amused and incredibly smug as she throws her head back so far that she nearly ends up sitting down, releasing a long, eerie howl into the forest canopy. Before it dies away another voice joins it in an eldritch harmony. Then another. And another, as wolves begin appearing between the trees, hackles raised, teeth bared in deadly snarls. Kohaku favors Hiei with another smug glance.

/Whoever said Uncle Robert and I would be doing it alone?/ By now there are threescore wolves gathered around the dozen demons foolish enough to try to assassinate Hiei, varying from full wolf form to human-bodied. None of them look happy. /Everyone, I'd like to make sure these honorless bastards don't get to see tonight's opening ceremony. How about you?/

In very short order, nothing remains of the offenders but scraps of flesh and a little blood. Kohaku sits happily before Hiei as he begins to regain feeling through his body as well as with his reiki, tail thumping the dirt in time to her heartbeat. Ikazuchi helps him first to sit, then stand, and that's about the point Hiei can actually talk above that hissing whisper.

"YOU IDIOT!! YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN KILLED, YOU KNOW THAT?? WHAT IF YOU HAD BEEN ANY SLOWER, OR THAT FOOL ANY FASTER?? HE WOULD HAVE STABBED YOU IN A DAMNED HEARTBEAT, YOU CARELESS, IDIOTIC PUPPY!!" With every word, Kohaku sinks lower until she's flat to the ground, ears pressed against her skull, tail tucked against her rump, fully prepared to roll over onto her back. She creeps forward a few inches, whimpering unhappily at the level of noise bombarding her newly-improved hearing.

"Show her some mercy, Hiei-san," Ikazuchi chides him quietly. "She doesn't have full control of every ability in this form." Hiei whirls on him.

"AND YOU! YOU WERE THE ONE CALLING HER, WEREN'T YOU?? YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN US BOTH KILLED! I DON'T CARE IF YOU ARE THE FUCKING KING OF THIEVES--DO THAT AGAIN AND YOUR HIDE WILL DECORATE MY WALL!!" Big mistake. Kohaku goes from chastised pup to furious female, landing squarely on top on Hiei and shoving him back down onto the ground, teeth inches away from his throat.

/Do. Not. Threaten. My. Family. Ever./ She bounds off him, trotting to stand beside her uncle. /Uncle Rob showed me how to go into my demon form, and members of both my clans are here to watch me compete. You will not threaten them. You will not harm them. Doing so will cost you our...whatever the hell it is...and your very life. Got it, Hiei? Don't mess with my family./

"Spoken like a true Blood Moon ookami," Ikazuchi sighs proudly. "Are you quite ready to listen to reason, Hiei-san?"

/No, of course not. He'd rather yell at me some more./ Obviously sulking, Kohaku turns her back to Hiei and sits down, every inch the indignant female. /We just saved his ass and he's going to yell about the way it was done. Typical Hiei./

"No," Hiei corrects, somehow managing to wrench his temper back under control. "What I am yelling about is the fact that if your 'uncle' had not called you out here, I would not have had to chase after you and thereby gotten ambushed in the first place."

"You have a point there, but there's no use yelling at your charge and my niece, Hiei-san. After all, I am the one who used a call-song. Ah, ah," he chides, lifting a hand when it seems Hiei is about to strike him, "no fighting outside the ring, remember?" Hiei jerks a thumb at the pitiful remains. "They started it. We finished it."

"You and your honor-code, Ikazuchi." A death-glare from the sulking Kohaku silences him. Hiei sighs. "Hn. Let's get back to the hotel."

"Ah, good!" another wolf, this one a black-fur with moon-silver eyes, chirps as she emerges from the woods. "We've got reservations!"

----

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the opening ceremonies of the Dark Tournament!" Juri, the tanned, violet-eyed water-dragon apparition, and Koto, the turquoise-eyed fox-girl, shout with joy into their microphones, standing together on the large fighting ring with their free arms raised high. The demons crowding the stadium seats howl joyously and stamp their feet, shouting for the bloodshed to begin.

"I know you've waited all year for another four glorious days of blood and death," Koto cheers, "and your patience has been rewarded! The torches have been lit, the anthem's been sung, and the Teams have been introduced! Although, I would like to know what happened to Team Kabuto and Team Shikyohana, but oh, well! Who's ready for some good ol' fashioned maulings? I know I am!" More howls, more screams of glee and stomping.

"But first, some music to pump things up!" Juri shouts, stepping forward and waving her free hand. Spotlights switch on from somewhere near the open roof of the stadium, training on the amps, the equipment, and the lone microphone standing by itself just behind Koto. "This is a new group all the way from the U.S. of A! Give it up fooor...Pocky!" And the two announcers hop off stage and run off into the shadows.

Leaning against a railing somewhere in the nosebleed section directly in front of the microphone is Team Urameshi, curious as to what's going to happen when their team-mate's band shows. Actually, Pocky seems to have quite a following. There's several large sections of audience in Day-Glo and glitter, waving signs and posters and screaming with great enthusiasm.

Four people run out of the open entrances in wild costumes of ripped clothes, spiky and silvered jewelry, bangles of metal and that odd, squishy gel, and lots of neon colors and glitter. Especially in their hair. Somehow, the over-all effect isn't gaudy. It's almost like four over-sized, Day-Glo-Gothic pixies without wings are bounding onto the stage, ignoring the steps in favor of their own muscles. As one they move to their places and pick up their instruments: Craig to his incredibly complex keyboard, Luke to the complicated arrangement of varying drums, Ally to the guitar leaning on its stand, and Cassie to the microphone.

The audience falls silent at the sound of Luke tapping his drumsticks together in a three-count before lighting into his drums for all he's worth. Ally's guitar wails out an eldritch, haunting song that wraps itself around the drum-beats and is hugged in turn by the unearthly notes from Craig's keyboard and his flying fingers. Cassie grabs the lone mike and howls into it, joined two seconds later by a second, rather familiar howl as a mostly-honey-colored blur plunges from the darkness above onto the stage. Our favorite wolf demon throws her head back and sings/howls on key with the addictive techno music bursting from the amplifiers. Fog, produced by a few subtle machines, obscures the ring for a few brief moments. Just in time to launch into the lyrics, the fog is blown away by a mysterious wind, revealing Kohaku in her band finery with a headset hooked over her ears. With another howl, this one definitely singing, Kohaku pumps her fist into the air and begins.

"When all you've got is just a mel-o-dy!

And your body moves in har-mo-ny!

There's no limit to what you-can-be!

Yeah reach for your chance!"

Cassie is singing a few beats behind Kohaku, neatly avoiding discord and weaving her own incredible voice through Kohaku's. The other three teens sing only the last three syllables of each line and the entire fourth, sticking mostly to their instruments and their pulsing, thriving music.

"Don't care if your rhythm's fast-or-slow!

Just feel our beat and lose-con-trol!

One more thing that you-should-know!

This is the time to dance!

So come on and da-ance!

Yeah it's your cha-ance!

Gotta da-aance!

Everybody dance!"

Kohaku's voice soars above the others' as they manage to pitch their voices into near howls yet still remain on key, weaving in and out to drop back into the lead for the next piece, accompanied by the appropriate motions.

"So snap your fingers and stamp-your-feet!

To the passion of-our-beat!

Don't sit all gloomy in-your-seat!

This is your best chance!

So come on and da-aance!

This is your cha-aance!

Come on, da-ance!

Everybody dance!

Everyone sings the last verse, throats working to produce the complexity of range to match their instruments, as Kohaku once more sends her voice heaven-wards.

"Music is our life-you-see! (Yo-oouu see!)

That's how our voices rise in har-mo-ny! (Haaarmony!)

Let our music set your spi-rit-free! (SpiirIIT free!)

Come on now and dance!"

With a final roll of heavy bangs, the song ends with a synchronized flourish and all five members taking a bow. Grinning at her friends, Kohaku takes a few steps forward so that a spot-light can be trained on her, revealing that her clothing is Day-Glo green tank-top and shorts artfully torn in several places under a short, silver-studded leather jacket. A skirt of glitter-dusted black satin is wrapped around her hips, open at the front to bare her long, tanned legs. Her feet are clad in black ankle boots, gel bracelets in all colors march up her wrists almost to her elbows. Glitter-goth style from a drunken fairy. Her long, chocolate brown hair is streaked in green and purple, the band's colors, eyeliner acting as usual in the place of kohl, Kohaku's favorite sparkly purple.

"Good evening, all, and a hearty welcome from the States!" Wild cheers. "I know some of you probably recognize me as Kohaku from Team Urameshi, but tonight I'm just Sugar-Wolf, here with my band to remind you just what techno sounds like! So hit it, Snowcat!" The spotlight flashes over to Ally jamming on her fluorescent pink electric guitar, segueing into the opening bars of another song. The spotlight is joined by others, abruptly changing into different colors that shift along with the music. With an inaudible sigh, Hiei settles in for a long wait.

--

Two hours later, he's wondering just how long those five teenagers can keep going like this. They're still playing and dancing and singing just as hard as when they started, with no signs of slowing down. He's starting to worry that one of their hearts might burst, that's how much energy they've been burning with only a moment or two between songs for resting.

Finally, though, finally there's one last especially-raucous song and the five take a synchronized bow, bounding off-stage and into the shadows beyond the spotlights, heading for the exits and the band-room beyond. With surprising ease the other members of Team Urameshi and their friends make their way down to said room, waving their passes at the security youkai standing at almost every intersection. Having a member of their team being in the band hired for the Dark Tournament's opening entertainment has some perks!

When the group arrives, they find the five sprawled all over the room, downing what looks to be the third bottle apiece of brightly-colored sports-drink. Craig and Luke are cuddled on the couch, Cassie and Ally are in control of the two chairs, and Kohaku has cheerfully flattened herself on the cold cement floor. Around her neck are several candy necklaces with more strings of the little sugar beads wrapped around her wrists. Once the last drops of her current sports-drink are drained, a Tootsie pop takes its place.

"Ah," she purrs, "sweet, sweet sugar. How I missed thee."

"Hey, nice job on the vocals, Cass, Amber," Luke rasps. "Really rockin'."

"Says the mad drummer who broke two pairs of sticks tonight," Cassie rasps back with a grin.

"Kohaku, you've turned yourself into a rug," Aislin chuckles, walking over and leaning down. "And what's all this stuff?" Kohaku just snickers evilly.

"That's Candy's signature candy," Ally laughs. "Good luck getting her away from it now. She's breaking a half-year fast from it."

"Heh, and I'll bet she claims she has no idea why we call her Candy." This is from Ally, who tosses her empty plastic bottle straight at an unsuspecting Kuwabara's head. Thwack! "Bullseye!" the blond cheers as the bottle bounces off the swirled orange hair and into a trash-can. Everyone laughs except Kuwabara who is too busy rubbing the welt on his forehead to do more than growl.

Craig pipes up from the circle of his boyfriend's arms, utterly comfortable. "Hey, did any of you bump into a red-haired boy, a kid with turquoise hair, and a six-foot Aussie outside? They're our crew for tonight, and I haven't seen 'em since we started."

"Whoosh!" a heavily-accented voice pipes from behind the door. A muscular boy with shoulder-length, spiky red hair and a tall man with darkly tanned skin and a purple mohawk squeeze through to slam it shut behind them. A second later a slender boy with his pale blue-green bangs spiked over one eye squeezes after with a relieved sigh. "That were a grand bit o' fun, that was!"

"You kids know how t' throw a bash, that's fer sure," Chuu agrees, sounding surprisingly sober for the Drunk-Fu Master.

"Sorry we're late," Touya apologizes to the band, "but the traffic's quite thick out there."

"Dude!" Yusuke points a shocked finger at the three by the door. "You're Pocky's roadies??" (The three had dropped by once and a while in the last sixth months to go clubbing with Kohaku and the others--Chuu even got banned from Childe Demon.)

"Och, wouldja look at this 'ere?" Jin laughs, slinging one arm around the other's shoulders. "It's Team Urameshi, right enough! Long time no see, eh?"

"Jin-kun!" Kohaku laughs, stretching an arm upwards with a smile. The wind apparition gladly catches hold and pulls her to her feet, sweeping her up and spinning her around before setting her gently down again. "Glad you survived the fans. I had no idea we were this popular!"

"Neither did I." Everyone but Keiko nods at Touya's admittance. "Did we do well with the special effects?"

"Aw, Touya-kun," Ally coos, sliding off her chair and prancing up to him with a smile. "You guys were spot on and everything! Kiss kiss!" Playfully the pair air-kisses each other's cheeks, laughing. "I didn't think ice-folk would have such a fun sense of humor, but I was so wrong!"

"Touya's laughing," Yusuke tells Aislin with wide eyes. "I never saw him do that."

Keiko rolls her eyes. "You should have seen him after Genkai got through with that test of hers before the Final Round last year. You talk in your sleep, by the way."

"Nice drop, Jin," Kohaku tells the Irish male, smiling. "Not too high and at just the right second."

"Och," Jin scolds, "an' here ya are doubtin' a master o' the wind and all! 'Twas my element you was droppin' through; o' course 't was 'right on'!"

"Hn," Hiei snorts. "I was waiting for you to pass out. Hummingbirds, the lot of you." Everyone starts laughing and the group settles in, chatting for nearly an hour before a polite rapping is heard on the door.

"Who is it?" Cassie chirps, half-rising from her chair, Jin perched on the back like an oversized cat.

A warm laugh. "Just some family of a certain pup." Shrieking in joy, Kohaku races to the door, flinging it open and herself into the arms of her parents. "We figured we might as well show our support before our daughter gets too busy or tired to talk to us," Benjamin explains. "That, and my brother called to tell us about her performance tonight."

"You saw it?"

Mei ruffles her daughter's hair. "Of course we saw it, honey! Have we ever missed one of your concerts?"

"Since you got the band started, anyway," Koryu quips, holding out a large bouquet of roses. "Congrats, sis!"

"Oooh, I've such a great family!" Breathless, Kohaku whirls, dragging her family inside to introduce them to her enlarged pack. More talking ensues, until with firm expressions the adult wolves gently shoo everyone out to ensure that they get some sleep for the morning.

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I still don't like the chorus, but the rest of it turned out well.