Kitsune Kit: Yes, amazing, isn't it?
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Call Me Kitty: When I have time away from school/work, I'll do my best to check it out.
Magus784: All hail the victorious fifth reviewer, without whom this chapter would not have arrived (maybe)!
Silverwing: I think I understood that. n,.,n
Chapter 12
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"You wouldn't think a fire apparition would be so good at water-games," Kohaku mumbles late that night, sitting on the couch with a snack while Hiei once more perches on the windowsill. Everyone else has gone to bed, leaving them as the only ones awake in the whole suite.
"Hn."
"Come on, fluff-head, I thought we were past monosyllabic grunts."
"Stop calling me fluff-head."
"Why? Sometimes it's the only way I get a real reaction out of you."
"Is that why you keep calling me that?"
A shrug. "Pretty much."
"Hn. Why are you up this late, anyway? You're going to be tired tomorrow."
She holds up her snack--a piece of bread smeared liberally with peanut-butter. "I was hungry." A moment later, sheepishly, "And I can't sleep."
Hiei sighs. "Finish that, then." A blink, and the snack is gone, Kohaku watching him expectantly. With another sigh, this one sounding resigned, Hiei leads Kohaku back to her bedroom, waiting until she has settled herself under the covers of her bed before taking a seat beside her pillows. "Lullaby or story?"
"Your pick." She sounds sleepy already, the fire apparition shaking his head at her bemusing behavior as he takes a deep breath, letting his voice flow into the quiet of the air in an old lullaby. Curled up together in their room, Aislin and Kurama listen contentedly to their dear friend sing, something they don't hear very often though they sometimes pester him to give them a ballad or somesuch. Yusuke half-smiles in his sleep, the nightmare that had caught him up softening into something more pleasant--a memory of him sprawled on Sarayashiki High's roof with Keiko, just watching clouds drift by.
In the next suite over, a sleepless Yukina sits at the window and listens to the rich voice coming faintly through the walls, remembering occasions when she'd heard that voice on her travels raised in that same gentle song. In Kohaku's room, Hiei smiles as he sings, Kohaku sleeping peacefully beside him with one furry ear tilted in his direction to catch every sound.
----
"Welcome everyone to the Second Round of the Dark Tournament!" Koto cries the next morning, the first teams of the day already gathered and waiting for their cue. "Wasn't yesterday a smash??" Shouting, cheers, calls for more blood and pain. "And today promises to be even bigger now that the weaker Teams have been weeded out! We're sure to see some gore, so get ready! Teams, your captains!"
So it goes until the middle of the afternoon, when Team Urameshi is called to do battle. Kohaku starts growling softly the second she claps eyes on their opponents; she's never seen such an evil-looking bunch. It's strictly a male Team, the weakest-seeming still unpleasant enough to creep the wolf out.
"I don't like this Team," she mutters unhappily to Hiei, who nods in agreement while leveling an unmitigated glare at the five. He knows most of these demons at a casual glance, though the last one, a slender male festooned with threads of all colors, is unfamiliar. Briefly he spares a though as to what purpose those threads can be put to, none of them pleasant.
"Be on your guard," he mutters back, attention being drawn inexorably back to the thread-man. Something about those things are ringing alarm bells... "Today you might have to kill."
"A wolf does not hesitate to kill the sick or the weak, Hiei," Kohaku retorts, still under her breath. "These guys may not be weak, but they definitely fall into the 'sick' category. They reek of nastiness." Yusuke waves Kuwabara to the place beside him, the other Team's captain doing the same with one of his team, a lizard-like youkai with skin of old, moldy swiss cheese. The wave of stench coming off of him is enough to make those on Team Urameshi with canine noses cover them and cough, eyes watering.
"Zombie, much?" Aislin chokes, both hands clapped over her mouth and nose, protecting them both behind her long sleeves of warm wool. "Disgusting!"
Even the two human boys in the ring look nauseated when the breeze carries the lizard's smell to them, both coming to the obvious conclusion that he needs to be ashed, and soon. Koto gives the signal and the match begins, dragging out over the course of five minutes. Kuwabara and his rei-sword quickly demolish the rotting lizard, proving that yes, for some reason or another, the lizard has been undead for quite some time. Hiei has eyes only for the thread-man, who twitches every now and then in a familiar gesture. Where has he seen a costume like that before? He must be getting old; a thousand-year memory just isn't as good as when it was eight hundred.
Working together, Kuwabara and Yusuke defeat the captain, chucking him bodily right into the dividing wall to knock him out for the ten-count.
Hiei and Kohaku are up next, facing thread-man and a tiger who looks like he hasn't groomed in months. "Ah, I was hoping I'd get to face you two," the slender demon says, pulling a few long threads from his costume and looping them around his fingers in a practiced gesture. "This is going to be ever so much fun."
The two smaller youkai share a look of wary disbelief. This is not the kind of language they'd expect out of a demon like this. Especially considering the company he's keeping. "I'm Nagatsu, but everyone calls me 'Puppetmaster'."
"Why's that?" Kohaku inquires warily, watching his hands and those threads.
The youkai responds with a warm laugh. "I'm sure you'll find out soon. Shall we get started? Magu is so anxious to try his strength against you, aren't you, Magu?" The tiger grunts, the man beams. "I thought so! Ready when you are, Koto, dear!"
"Um, okay then," the fox says, giving the male an uncertain look. "Begin!"
Kohaku lights off after Nagatsu, Mole Claws out and ready. Hiei goes after Magu, wrinkling his nose at the scent of unhealthy flesh washing off the tiger with every move, half of his attention of the conversation going on around him.
"Hold still! I can't punch ya and end it quick if ya don't!"
"My dear, one punch of yours will likely kill me. I'll stick to running, thank you."
"Annoying sonnuva--"
"Now, now, is that any way for a young lady to talk? Do be a dear and clean up your language a bit?"
"Bite me!"
A wry chuckle. "If I bit you I'd likely be poisoned, yes?"
"You are such a prick!" A startled sound edged by fear just as Hiei slices through Magu to find another youkai that had met death long before the sword had separated head from neck. "What's with all these damned threads??"
Hiei freezes, faulty memory finally handing him the information he'd been trying to recall, then whirls to find Kohaku entangled at extremities and neck by the threads wrapped around Nagatsu's fingers. As Hiei watches, her struggles cease but her face retains full expression, no sound coming out of her open mouth. Nagatsu simply chuckles again, wriggling his fingers. Kohaku's body moves into a crane stance in response, her eyes burning with hatred.
"This is what all these threads are for, my dear. Controlling others. These are what you might call physical manifestations of emotional ties. This red one represents love, this orange one anger, this black one hate, you see? Ah, ah," a twitch of his finger and Kohaku puts a kunai to her own throat, halting Hiei's advancement, "none of that, Jaganshi-san. Killing me would end the game too soon, yes?"
Without waiting for an answer, the demon gestures with his thread-wrapped fingers and Kohaku leaps forward, straight for Hiei. The fire apparition dodges back just as her kunai clangs into the stone where his feet would have been a second ago.
"What game is this, Nagatsu??" Hiei roars, ducking and weaving the sparking purple balls of reiki being thrown at him with only slightly-less accuracy than normal.
"I should think it was obvious," the male clucks in disapproval, "yes? I control your team-mate and ward, and have her kill you. Simple, you see?"
"Hn. What if I don't feel like playing this game?"
The reply is simple. "Then you die." Hiei dodges aside again as Kohaku lunges for him, fist sinking several inches into the hard stone of the ring with a crunch. Hiei spares a wince for her likely-damaged knuckles, then sets his attention to the threads binding his ward. A good half of them are love, indicating how strong her emotional ties can be, but the next greatest number are a true, straight out blue, lapis lazuli blue mixed with quartz white. Something about that color catches the tail end of a thought, Hiei sparing a little more attention to the hunt in order to catch that thought. There's a particular virtue associated with blue. If only he could remember...!
Memory kicks in when it's supposed to for a change, Hiei's lips curling into an involuntary smirk. He's not allowed to cut the threads, is he? How about he lets Kohaku cut them herself? Nagatsu's eyes narrow in suspicion at the sight of that smile, fingers twitching with his pretty puppet dancing obediently to his beat. What is that damned ice-born fire brat smiling about? His ward is trying to kill him, and the only way to stop the one pulling her strings is to kill her, which the oath of warding will not let him do. He's about to find out his answer, while everyone on Team Urameshi is watching the fight in horror and the wolves are busy holding the Piers and Kohaku's American friends back. This is up to Hiei and Kohaku, no one else.
When Hiei next speaks, his voice is normal, conversational, as though he is not avoiding certain death at the hands of his team-mate. "You know, Ikazuchi once gave me a few lessons in the behaviors of the ookami while we were searching for a riddle's key last year. One in particular caught in my mind--want to hear it?"
"Why not?" the demon muses, gestures making Kohaku into a blur of slashing rei-blades. "It will settle your mind for your glorious death, yes? Tell me."
"'A wolf gives their loyalty lightly to no one. But once that loyalty is given...'" The audience gasps when Hiei stops inches away from Nagatsu, arms spread wide as though to invite oblivion in the shape of an unwilling and desperate wolf demon. If it weren't for the fact that Nagatsu is busy controlling said wolf demon, he could easily plunge a dagger into Hiei's unprotected back. Kohaku's eyes fill with anguished understanding as she runs straight for him. "You can stake your life on it."
His Team screams his name in panic when blood sprays across the ring floor, only to fall silent as the scene in its entirety becomes clear. Kohaku is pressed against Hiei, head bowed to rest on his shoulder, arm plunged into the space created by the kajihenge's arm and ribs, sunk to the elbow in Nagatsu's torso. From the angle, it's clear that Kohaku has gone in just below the ribs to angle upwards. Life-fluid streams down to drip off her elbow, puddling on the cold stone floor. Nagatsu slowly looks down at the limb protruding from his torso, threads loosening and falling away from his fingers as his body slumps. With a sickening slurp and tearing sound, Kohaku's arm slides free, a still heart clenched in her fingers to drop onto the ring floor when her strength gives out and she collapses against her guardian.
"I don't understand..." the slender, dying youkai whispers as he stares upward into the empty, hating eyes of Kohaku. Hiei turns his head as one hand rises to the threads still wrapping Kohaku's throat, snapping them without a thought. "My threads..."
"Aren't perfect." Hiei listens in hidden relief as the girl sagging against him coughs once, twice, and then takes a long, shaky breath. "You didn't hear the rest of it, fool. 'A wolf gives their loyalty lightly to none. But once that loyalty is given, you can stake your life on it. Because...'" he prompts gently, twitching a shoulder to indicate that Kohaku should finish. This is a lesson she should have already learned.
The wolf takes another, steadier breath before finishing in a thready voice, "'A wolf's loyalty is absolute.'" With understanding finally dawning in his fading eyes, Nagatsu the Puppetmaster leaves this world for the Reikai and judgment. There are a few more moments of silence, then a smattering of applause that grows into a torrent of sound, including some very potent curses from Yusuke as he lets his fear go.
In the bubble of silence in the middle of that roaring, Hiei feels Kohaku stirring against him and he rests one hand on her waist to steady her. "Hiei?" His name is spoken in a voice meeker than he has ever heard from the wolf.
"Hn?"
"I think I've dislocated a few things. I can't move." With his other hand now braced against her collarbone Hiei pulls back, eyes widening.
"I'll say you've dislocated a few things. I can see your arm sockets from here." Shaking his head in amazement that this rookie fighter is still standing, Hiei scoops Kohaku gently off her feet and glances the way of a deliriously happy Koto.
"Oh, my, people! That was one of the most beautiful displays of death we've seen yet! How dramatic! How absolutely breath-taking!"
"Hey!" Koto squeaks and gapes at Hiei. "Are you going to announce our win or not??"
"Oh, right! And by a spectacular battle, Team Urameshi the winner of this match! Urameshi Team advances to the next round!" That's all Hiei needs to hear. Without another word he carefully leaps off the ring without jarring his ward, carrying her up the stadium seating to Yukina and a few other competent-looking healers, sitting with the petite koorime to discuss techniques.
One of them gives Kohaku a thick piece of leather to bite down on instead of risking an accident with her tongue before they get to work. Hiei helps pop the young wolf's shoulder joints back into place but lets them do the rest, resetting finger-bones, ankle joints, hip-joints, the nerves in her elbows; even the bones in her wrists have not gone undamaged. Finally one of the taller wolves gets Kohaku to cross her hands over her chest before picking her up and bending backwards, realigning her spine with several loud snaps. A gentler move realigns her neck and is accompanied by a few more cracks.
She's panting in pain by the time they've finished, but the skin around her eyes is no longer drawn from the agony, her posture ceasing to hunch as the residual pain is washed away in endorphins. With a nod to her family, Hiei scoops her up again and carries her back down to the arena floor so that he doesn't have to navigate so many halls just to get to the recovery room.
When he gets there, the rest of his Team pounces on him, making a whole lot of unnecessary fuss (Hiei's opinion) and way too much noise (Kohaku's). When everything finally calms down, and Hiei is settled on the windowsill with Kohaku quite firmly perched beside him, the wolf looks over at him.
"Hiei?"
"Hn?"
"Don't ever do that again, okay?"
"Do what?"
"Trust me so completely. It's scary."
An eyebrow rises in pure surprise. "I thought everyone wanted everyone to trust them completely." Kohaku huddles in on herself, arms wrapped around her knees as shock sets in. Hiei scoots closer, lending his aura of heat to the shivering girl.
"Not me. It's not safe to trust anyone else with your life. I know, I haven't had any bad experiences in this life to make me so cynical about it, but there it is. I don't think anyone should be trusted with someone else's life."
Her candid statement is rewarded with one of Hiei's still-rare, open smiles. "For a pup, you show a surprising amount of wisdom, Kohaku Piers."
Her normal humor flashes back, Hiei relieved as light springs back into those familiar peridot eyes. "Someone has to be wise in this group. Kami only knows you don't seem to have any!"
----
Later that night, Kurama raps lightly on the door to suite seven-five-three, and blinks when the door swings open at his touch. He pokes his head cautiously inside, looking around but only hearing faint snatches of music from father inside. Trusting to the defenses of Kohaku, at least, Kurama slips inside and calls, "Kohaku? Anyone?"
"In here, Kurama," his team-mate calls absently from one of the bedrooms. The fox-human pads to the correct door and peers inside. The five teens are arranged carelessly on various bits of furniture, instruments in hand. They'd been practicing, those were the sounds he heard. "What's up?"
"Hiei wants to know if you're bunking down here or with us tonight, and if he should leave the chain off."
"Doesn't matter. I'll probably crash down here. We're working on a new song." A ruby eyebrow lifts. So this is what Kohaku is like when the muse is upon her, hm? Distracted, focused, an array of contradictions as she strums Ally's spare guitar.
"All right. Don't forget to eat, you five." And he exits as silently as he came in, the snatches of music beginning again as soon as he turns around. He hears only a few words of lyrics as he shuts the front door behind him.
"...heart and soul you're a maze..." He'd lay pretty good odds that the song is about someone he knows very, very well.
----
"Okay, ladies and gentlemen, demons and thrill-seekers of all ages! We're over halfway there! Time for the semi-finals of the Dark Tournament! Only four teams left; who will find the victory??" A half-awake Kohaku growls faintly and presses her ears flat to her head in discomfort at the level of noise, which seems to have grown since yesterday. Or maybe it was staying up until two...Koto's voice snaps her back into wakefulness.
"I know you're all hoping for some good old fashioned torture, and I think with two of our Teams you'll get it for sure! First up, Team Nagaika and Team Toya! Captains, please step to the center of the ring and determine the matches!"
For some reason, the captain of Team Nagaika, Koke the plant-demon, has a set of dice remarkably similar to those used by a demon named Shishiwakamaru in the previous Tournament. On each face is the name of a team member, a different team to a die. The dice would be rolled to see who competed with who. Team Toya's captain, the scaled-yet-disturbingly-bishie fish-demon Akaimizu, actually agrees to this method, and the dice are tossed.
Things proceed smoothly from there, if one discounts the level of bloodshed and the death of three on Team Nagaika--two on Team Toya. The Spirit Detectives, spread out along one of the landings between sets of seating, watch it all in silence as Akaimizu finishes the definitive match by ripping off a few of his opponent's limbs and beating it over the head (if the lump on top of its body was a head) until it's crumpled and bleeding on the ring floor.
Juri over in the announcer's booth is going bonkers with her enthusiasm, though she practically has to shout over the commentary from Koto to make her own opinions heard. It's the pretty water-dragon that calls Team Urameshi down to the stage, all six simply choosing the faster route and leaping from the landing to the arena floor in one smooth jump. Well, Kuwabara has help from Kurama and Aislin. This being the Semi's, the arena is now in an enclosed stadium, though for the life of her Kohaku doesn't understand why. More roof means more chances of it collapsing on the audience if fighters aren't careful enough.
They unconsciously arrange themselves around Yusuke as they stand there, waiting for their latest opponents to make themselves known. When they do, the entire Team relaxes with rueful grins. Rinku chuckles from Chuu's shoulder, the monkey-like demon child still dressed in a bright red shirt over blue-jeans. He's added another set of stars to match the ones that were under his left eye, his body having lengthened into that of a nine-year-old over the past year.
"Damn it, Chuu, you're gonna make us fight you?" Yusuke groans with a laugh, rubbing the back of his head. "Last time I fought you I damned near got a concussion."
"I got off the worst in that fight, mate, so no bitchin'," Chuu retorts back, grinning for all he's worth. "Only fair to give us a rematch and all, right, sheila?"
Kohaku turns a bit pink from the flirtatious wink Chuu sends her way, ears drooping. "Erm, I guess so. But I don't know if I want to fight you guys. You're too nice."
"Consider it a sparrin' match an' all!" Jin suggests, ears already elongated into points and wriggling underneath his mop of a haircut. "Bit o' fun to try meself against ya, 'twill be!"
"Hn. How'd you lot get past the second round? You fell against us before, what's to stop us from defeating you again?"
"Nothing," Touya replies quietly. "Nothing but our own determination." A small nod of increased respect is the ice demon's reward for his rather poetic answer, several fans in the audience swooning with high-pitched shrieks of infatuation.
"Okay, so who fights who?" Kohaku looks from one to another, eyes gleaming. Chuu favors everyone with his charismatic smile, jerking a thumb at Yusuke.
"I won the toss, so I get to spar against this bloke, here." Jin slings a playful arm around Kohaku's shoulders, indicating that she would be the one the Irish kaze-youkai would be fighting. The stranger, a whipcord-steel, silver-haired male, inclines his torso in a graceful bow to Hiei.
"I am known simply as Silver. It is a pleasure to meet you, and will be my honor to try myself against your skills." Hiei nods back with his trademark 'hn', interest sparking at the sight of matched katanas strapped to the stranger's back.
Rinku giggles, tossing a bright blue yo-yo to Kuwabara. "I get to beat you again, brick-head!" Kuwabara growls in anger but his eyes light up with childish delight at his new toy. He's already testing it out when Kurama turns with a sweatdrop to Touya.
"Then that would place me against you, Touya-san." Touya smiles in reply to the light words and winning curve of the fox-human's lips. "Who goes first?"
"Save Yusuke and Chuu for last," Aislin suggests, leaning against the ring. As the back-up fighter, she probably won't be fighting, so she never bothered to hop onto the construction of stone. "It'll placate the fans to see our powerhouses duking it out instead of the blood-shed they want to see."
"I can't guarantee that our fight will be bloodless, Aislin-san," Silver interjects mildly. "As one sword-fighter to another, you know our battles are rarely clean."
"Um, people," Koto interrupts politely, "as nice as this reunion is, the audience is getting impatient." She flinches when all of them turn to her.
In unison: "So?" With a very uncertain expression, Koto returns to her task of keeping the audience from rioting. Juri, who would normally be announcing from the ring instead of the box, is happy right where she is. After last year's 'incident' she was practically in hysterics when offered the floor position. She prefers dealing with the audience instead of the competitors--the audience members are easily taken care of with some self-defense moves and a can of mace.
In the end, it's decided that the matches should go approximately in the order than the original fights should go: thus, the order is Rinku vs. Kuwabara, Touya vs. Kurama, Jin vs. Kohaku, Silver vs. Hiei, and Chuu vs. Yusuke. Winner would be the team with the most members still standing. With relief, Koto announces the order and then gets her fluffy tail off the ring floor. Experience has taught her that most of these matches would be explosive.
She's not wrong. Within a few seconds Kuwabara and Rinku are lost in a large cloud of rock dust from several powdered portions of ring floor, the occasional limb coming into view and accompanied by shouts and insults. Kohaku and Jin are perched on the seating divider, sharing a bucket of popcorn. Yusuke is leaning against the wall just below them, occasionally reaching up and swiping a handful.
After a long, entertaining five minutes, the match ends with Rinku standing on top of a very pissed Kuwabara wrapped in an impressive amount of yo-yo string. There are yo-yos imbedded all over the ring floor as well as numerous holes left by Spirit Daggers. Mouths full, Jin and Kohaku cheer on Touya and Kurama as they hop onto the ring, with a laughing Rinku dragging Kuwabara off and running around the ring after he looses the human boy from his bonds.
The match between the two youkai is pretty eventful. When it ends, Touya is picking bits of frozen plant off of his clothing, and a dazed Kurama is getting ice carefully removed from most of his limbs by a gentle Hiei. Aislin is busy chewing the ice demon out off to the side, the aqua-haired male not really paying any attention. Current score: Chuu's team, 2, Yusuke's team, 0.
But that's before Jin and Kohaku take the ring to loud cheers. Lemme recap: large booms, lots of collateral damage, laughter, several rather bawdy insults, and the winner is Kohaku, courtesy of a wicked tickle attack. Turns out Jin is very ticklish on his always-bare feet. By the time Kohaku gently shoves him off the stage, he's laughing too hard to even use his abilities to keep himself from a hard landing. Kohaku perches on the edge of the ring in wolf-form, tail going a mile a minute as she pants down at the helplessly-laughing Jin.
"I win, I win!" she yips in glee, before jumping down and landing neatly on top of Kuwabara as he runs past. The boy yowls and takes off after the giggling wolf, completely forgetting about Rinku until Kohaku darts by the little demon and swipes his bag of yo-yos. Now there are two people chasing after the wolf, and the rest of the team-members are laughing their asses off.
"Is she always like this?" Silver asks Hiei through his chortles. Squashing down his amusement, Hiei replies in a voice remarkably steady.
"Unfortunately, yes. However, it saves me the trouble of tormenting the fool myself, so..." A shrug. "Now, let's see what your skills are like."
A very relieved Koto announces their match, halting Kohaku in her tracks long enough for Rinku to pounce on her and take his yo-yo bag back. Giving him a hurt look, Kohaku changes back to human form and sulks on the grass against the wall where she can watch the match.
The audience falls silent as the two combatants take their places, katanas gleaming in the stadium lights, eyes grim. Even Kuwabara and Rinku cease their squabbles to watch. A fight like this one doesn't happen very often, once in a lifetime if you're lucky. When Koto's arm drops, the swordsmen vanish from mundane view.
Rinku turns his attention to the others and finds them darting their eyes back in forth intently, oblivious to their surroundings. Damn, he needs to train more. Hope the cameras situated around the higher stands are catching this so they can watch it in slower motion. A pale hand rests on his shoulder and he finds Aislin standing next to him.
"Got your shields up, kid?" "No." "Wanna see the match?" "Kami, yes!" "Then take a deep breath and relax." Rinku staggers as vivid images pour into his mind--it takes a moment before he can coalesce them into a comprehensive view. The two males, almost of a height, are dancing their way around the ring, sometimes in the air, sometimes on the ground. Through Aislin's ears the constant hum of metal-on-metal slows into individual blows, blocked, parried, or swept away.
Aislin's view darts to the side to Kohaku, watching the match with rapt attention, eyes bronzed and tail bushed out, ears pricked forward. If ever there was proof that Kohaku didn't fear Hiei, this is it. Rinku tugs Aislin's attention back to the match, where Silver has Hiei pinned with a katana to the throat.
The fire apparition performs a move so fluid that not even Aislin can see what he does, and all of a sudden a faint spray of blood colors their blades red. The two pause in full view with Silver sporting a new cut on his shoulder, Hiei a slice on his cheek. Then they take off again.
The match lasts for three more minutes, and ends with Hiei standing over a prone Silver with the tip of his katana resting on the joining of spine and neck. The crowd starts applauding and howling despite the fact that there are only a few scratches here and there on either fighter. When Hiei drops onto the grass he is pounced on by an enthusiastic Kohaku, who then hauls him over to the wall and breaks out the first-aid kit, visiting divine retribution on the fire apparition in the form of the stinging disinfectant. She's chattering at him at an incredibly fast pace while cleaning the scratch of his cheek, "Ohmigosh Hiei that was incredible I had no idea there were three people in the worlds who have your skills with the blade I was so excited I don't think I'll get my fur to lie flat for a week I can't believe you just got away with a few scratches--oomph!"
"Shut up, baka ookami," he says with affection. Her expression warns him to remove his hand before it gets licked. By the time the last of Hiei's scratches are tended, Yusuke and Chuu are already up in the ring, ready to start battling. It's pretty uneventful, just a lot of punching and kicking and reiki balls flying all over the place. Chuu breaks out a flask of super-strong alcohol and has fun with Yusuke yet again, oozing around most of the kid's attacks like they're nothing.
Until Yusuke turns up the heat. Rei Shotgun, whee! That was quick. And there's a Chuu-shaped dent in the wall.
"Um, okay. That makes a total of three wins for Team Urameshi, making that team the winner! Okay! Moving on to the Final Round!!"
"Wow, Chuu. I didn't think you could make cement angels."
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Wow, that tactic worked surprisingly well. I got a bonus sixth review out of it. I'll try not to use it too often, though, only when it seems like no one's paying any attention to me.
Starling: You have a death-wish, I'm telling you.
No, I just like attention. Anyway, sorry I don't have the translation to Nagatsu's name, I pulled it from Hana-Kimi (For You In Full Blossom) and Magu's is kinda made up.