Disclaimer:I offically disclaim Yu Yu Hakusho. I do, however, claim Akimi and Hiromi. Aruma and Kyoko aren't mine, but you still can't have them.

-begin chapter two-

ARUMA

He's lost it.

Gone insane.

Nuts.

Bonzo.

No longer in possesion of his faculties.

Three fries short of a happy meal.

He's my husband and I love him, but he's wacko.

"You want to do WHAT?" I think I scared him. He's cowering in the corner.

"Enter the Dark Tournament as a way to train our daughters because the only way to get anything to stick in their minds is through competition." Damn. And I was so hoping I'd heard wrong.

"Kitsune, that tournament is filled with the most bloodthirsty creatures alive. You know that! They'd be killed!"

"No they wouldn't." His reply is as firm as his grip on my arm. "I think they can do this, my neko."

"I don't." I pull away and sit on the bed.

"Neko--"

"Kitsune." I turn and glare at him. "Akimi is a mother. What will happen if she's killed?"

"The rest of us will look after Hiromi as if she were our own. Which, by the way, she sort of is." I think he's grown impatient with me. "Aruma. My neko. My beloved, lovely, stubborn neko. They have to be able to defend themselves." His eyes are burning into my own. I avert my gaze and stare out the window. Akimi is in the backyard with Hiromi, teaching her to climb the tree. She's so peaceful. Both of them are. They don't know how to fight constantly, only to fight when their lives are threatened. Because they weren't raised in Makai. They're in no way weak, just.....peaceful.

"Maybe we did wrong," I murmur. Kurama kneels in front of me and catches my gaze again.

"No, my neko. We've been over that. They belong here, in Ningenkai. We did right, raising them here." I look out the window again. Hiromi falls from the branch and Akimi catches her, scolding her gently for whatever she did wrong and pushing her back into the tree. Hiromi looks back, afraid, but Akimi urges her on. Before long, Hiromi's high in the tree and laughing down at her mother, who laughs right along with her. I sigh. Yes, my daughters are peaceful. But they are my daughters. Princesses. Warriors. The fight is in their blood. Perhaps it will just take a competition to bring it to their minds. I turn back to Kurama.

"Fine. But I insist on also being on the team." He smiles in the demurely sexy way he has and stands.

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Damn straight."

As Kurama goes to get Akimi, I sit on the couch next to Hiei. He's glaring at Kuwabara, who's singing along with the music videos and completely butchering The Final. "You knew," I mutter to him. He doesn't look over.

"Hai."

"He told you first?"

"He needed the moral support to face you with it." I smile. Kyoko glances at us.

"If you're not gonna share, hush." I smack her leg as Akimi, Hiromi, and Kurama enter. I pick up the remote and click off the television, earning a glare from the oaf.

"Do Yuusuke and Keiko need to be in here for this meeting?" Kyoko asks, laying aside her magazine. I glance at Kurama.

"Just Yuusuke," he decides. "Keiko would probably faint like she did when Botan told her."

"Told me what?" Shit. Keiko's standing in the doorway with Yuusuke's jacket.

"Nevermind then. Keiko, could you and Yuusuke come in here, please?" A worried look on her face, she obeys and a minute later the Tantei plus some are assembled in our living room. Kurama takes a deep breath and pauses, looking at us all.

"Well?" Akimi asks. Hiei lays a hand on her arm to quiet her and she looks at him strangely while disentangling Hiromi's fingers from her necklace.

"I want Akimi, Kyoko, Aruma, Hiei, and myself to be a team in the upcoming Dark Tournament." The girls are silent. No doubt they're thinking of the still-lingering scars they've seen on their father's back, of Hiei's still-recovering right hand, of the death of Genkai, whom they've only met in Reikai. "It takes place in a year," he continues quietly. "And we have that long to train."

"Not the special guests again?" Even Kuwabara's quiet. Kurama shakes his head.

"No. I'll go put our names in tomorrow if everyone here agrees. If not, we'll go back to our daily lives. Although I would like to watch." My kitsune has grown more open about his Youko's bloodthirsty nature lately. In the back of my mind, I wonder if that's the real reason he wants to do this. But I shake that thought away as Kyoko speaks.

"Under whose name?"

"Mine. Well, yours, actually.Team Minamino." She purses her lips.

"You do know we need to think about this, right?" He nods.

"I don't." All eyes are suddenly on Akimi and she falters under the attention. "I...I've heard the stories from you and Hiei and Yuusuke since you thought I was old enough to handle it. Ever since then, I've wanted to know that level of competition, that level of adreneline."

"Aki, this isn't training with Kuwabara and the garden hose. This is real." I tell her sternly. She looks at me sharply.

"You think I don't know that? I'm tired of training with Kuwabara and the water hose. I want to experience the real thing." Hiromi's surprised at her mother's tone and squirms for Hiei to hold her. He obliges and Akimi stands. "I want to prove to all of Makai that I'm truly a warrior, that I can fight and will at a moment's notice. You think I haven't heard the rumors? Queen Aruma's ningenheart daughters. Queen Aruma's weakling offspring. I want to prove them wrong. I'm going to prove them wrong." She sweeps up the stairs and we all know she's headed for the roof.

"Well, it's safe to say we have her vote," Yuusuke says quietly, breaking the awkward silence. "Who's your fifth?" He asks Kurama.

"We were--I was hoping you wouldn't mind." Yuusuke shrugs.

"Not at all." Keiko looks at him and he returns it. "What?" She shakes her head.

"Nevermind." I think Keiko gets tired of Yuusuke's itchy feet sometimes. He never stays in Ningenkai for more than a month before he's either called to Makai or goes of his own will. I stand.

"I too will be on the team, as I assume Hiei will." He nods once. Kyoko's still looking at the floor.

"I'll give you my answer tonight," she says softly before going to join her sister on the roof. I sigh heavily and look at my husband. This will either bring us closer or tear us apart at the seams. Just like everything else we do.

AKIMI

Yuusuke and I slip through someone's backyard, carrying hoses. "Don't you think we need to be there for my sister's answer?" I whisper. He shakes his head.

"She'd rather just tell it to your father," he replies in kind. "This is it." I pick up a rock and launch it at the lit window. It opens a moment later and a head pokes out. "Payback's a bitch!" Yuusuke roars, and we fire our hoses at the window.

"What the hell?" A voice screeches, and it's SO not a ten-year-old boy's voice.

"Shit," he hisses. "Wrong window." Dropping our hoses, we run like bitches back to my house and collaspe inside the back door, panting. Kyoko's sitting at the table, hands clasped around a mug of steamy something. She doesn't look happy.

"Kyo?" I say gently. "What's wrong?"

"I'll be on the team," she says huskily. It sounds as though she's been crying. "I'm not fucking happy about it, but I'll do it." I rub her shoulder.

"It'll be okay, Onee-chan. We've been through worse."

"You don't know that," she mumbles. Yuusuke gives me a sort of shooing motion and I head for my room, leaving my sister to be comforted by her best friend.

-end chapter two-


Wow. I write fucking short chapters.

Preview:

Training begins and Hiromi reveals that she is SO not a normal two-year-old, even for a Youko. Yuusuke takes a second stab at getting revenge.

Quote of the Chapter:

Andy:(being an ass)What color do you bleed? scrapes Tien-su's arm
Tien-su:If that was supposed to make me bleed, I apparently bleed pale.

Reviewer Recognition:

Kyoko Kasshu Minamino - Why do you bother reading? I've read the whole thing to you over the phone already. Kyo no baka. Ah well. Not complaning.

Alright, you know what? You all suck. Review, damn you. Anyway, It's 11:30 and we're going house hunting tomorrow, so until Scott doesn't say "JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!" when he gets thrown off a building, make mine Marvel!