Chapter 8: 'Endo Ectomi Dermatos'
Harry was pissed. The sea of black robed students parted as he headed towards the other end of the platform, an almost visible cloud of despair over his head.
WHY ME? He thought furiously. It was going so good! Nothing too bad had happened, then that creature this morning, and now I'm going to duel the guy I was just tutoring! If he pulls any of that Spirit Gun shit on me, I'll be really pissed off!
Reaching the platform, he reluctantly climbed the small steps. Once on the platform, he saw a small iron fence materialize around the area, which seemed to stifle most of the sound from the crowd. Glancing back, Harry also noted that the crowd LOOKED like it was behind a curtain. Shrugging it off as a spell to separate the duelist from the spectators, he faced the smiling Japanese boy.
"Well, that was unexpected." Hiei smiled, the room now completely silent.
"Not really," Harry sighed, reaching for his wand. "So, let's get this over with."
"Oh, come on," Hiei smiled wider, pulling his own wand from his sash. "The old man's right. I want to have a little fun with this one. And something tells me you can take a good beating." The small jaganshi addressed the headmaster. "Let it be known, referee, that Urimeshi will be my replacement."
Dumbledore nodded and turned pointedly to Harry.
"Er . . ." he said, thinking that the foreigner must mean his 'second'. ". . . Ron's mine then."
The old headmaster nodded again. "Duelists, face your opponents. Bow to each other. Wands at ready. And remember, boys, the nature of this duel is unusual. Some rules will be bent. Begin!"
(Let us just assume, before we begin the duels, that the crowd will gasp, cheer and panic as necessary during the action. But, still . . .)
The crowd gasped as Hiei met Harry's first strike with a quick block spell. He returned with a random jinx he learned merely a half hour ago. Harry blocked it easily. For about five minutes, the simple pattern of jinxing and blocking, jinxing, blocking, jinx, block continued. Though the crowd seemed pleased, the fighters were tiring of it fast.
"This is child's play, human," Hiei insisted, throwing another jinx toward his former sensei.
Harry caught it again, and flung his own curse across the room, saying, "Make your move then, Hiei."
Giving Harry his infamous grin, Hiei's bright red eyes flashed with excitement. After blocking the curse he flipped the wand around, holding it kind of like a sword, Harry thought. The confused boy just watched patiently as his opponent closed his eyes and began to chant quietly to himself.
Now, when the floor around Hiei's feet began to glow and send bright strands of light spinning around the short boy, Harry merely cocked his head in confusion. And when Hiei's wand began to warp, it too glowing bright white, Harry just dropped his jaw in amazement. But when a red glow started burning through Hiei's headband, in the shape of what seemed to be an EYE, Harry took a full step backwards and was on the edge of running before it was all over.
His spiky black hair fell back over his red eyes, his forehead now completely back to normal. But in his hands, where his wand used to be, was a long silver katana.
Harry was amazed; Hiei just smiled again.
"These sticks, or wands, of yours are actually very powerful. It even had power enough to break dimensions to retrieve my katana in Spirit World." He shifted his footing, posed to fight.
"What!" Harry picked his jaw up and swallowed, moving his own feet back into position. "Okay, whatever. Let's have some fun then."
In a flash, Hiei had disappeared (to the eyes of the untrained . . .). His black figure reappeared for a millisecond, the shining katana two inches from Harry's nose. But Harry had his wand up, blocking the attack. Whipping his wand down, the magical prodigy flung his opponent backwards full force.
Landing on his feet, Hiei smiled at Harry, who smiled back. 'Yes,' he thought, 'this is going to be very fun.'
After fighting their way through the crowd, (not really. All Kurama had to do was tap the nearest girl on the shoulder, smile at her and ask if they could pass through, and suddenly all the girls in the area took it upon themselves personally to see that Kurama and his friends got a front-row seat to the battle right against the small iron fence) Yusuke, Kurama, Kuwabara, Ron and Hermione stood looking up at their dueling friends.
"Bloody Hell! This is intense!" Ron was bouncing excitedly on the balls of his feet. "I can barely keep up with them!"
To his left, Yusuke snickered. "Don't watch their moves, Ron, then you can see the fight better."
"What?" Both Ron and Hermione gave Yusuke a confused look. Kurama to the rescue.
"Focus on their energy and you will follow them better," the smiling redhead suggested, walking behind Hermione and putting both hands on her shoulders. (Every girl around them gasped and scoffed, completely forgetting the amazing battle before them . . . they had their own battle to fight now . . .) "Here," the flirty kitsune whispered, leaning into the blushing girl's ear. "Just close your eyes and think intently on your friend Harry. You know what his energy feels like; focus only on that feeling, and you will 'see' his every move."
Her eyes shut tight, Hermione was defiantly NOT thinking about Harry . . . how could she, with that rose tinted red-haired, emerald green-eyed beauty breathing softly in her ear. If Kurama hadn't let go at that very moment, she would have melted like chocolate right there on the floor.
"Is it working for you, Miss Ganger?"
"Ah . . . yeah," she lied. Kurama just smiled his great smile.
"Good."
Ron was visibly steaming from the ears, about ready to rip that prissy-boy Kurama's head off his dainty little body.
But, a few minutes later, after his immense jealousy died down, he tried what the stupid flirt had suggested . . . and it did work quite well . . . damn him.
Harry landed gracefully after catching a swing from Hiei's wild katana in midair. He was sweating now, and a little short of breath. Though he was holding his own quite strongly against the powerful jaganshi, Harry was getting tired. And he knew that Hiei was about to get bored.
"I'm getting bored, human," Hiei complained, standing fiercely on the opposite side of the platform.
Harry huffed, exasperated. "Well, alright. But you really picked the wrong student to get bored with." Harry straightened his shoulders. "I was saving this one for someone very special, but you should be a good person to try it out on." Harry suddenly crouched down, holding his wand now like a dagger. In a blur, the scrawny boy lunged forward, shouting, "ENDO ECTOMI DERMATOS !"
Hiei was, surprisingly, surprised. And caught off guard, Harry's attack hit him full on.
In a blur of black robes and a horribly sinister purple streak, Hiei felt something brush sharply into his left shoulder. But after Harry landed smoothly behind him, the short demon felt nothing but relief that he was still alive. Disbelieving, he turned around, seeing Harry still down on one knee where he had landed.
"Your magic has failed you, boy," Hiei laughed, reaching up to touch where he had felt the attack. But as his fingers met his shoulder, a sharp, searing pain electrified the left side of his body. Hiei grimaced with pain and landed on his knees.
Along with the rest of the crowd, Hermione and Ron gasped as Harry landed on the platform. They could not believe their eyes.
"Merlin, that was crazy!" Ron stared, his eyes wide open. "Did it work? What's happening?"
"But, Harry was practicing that for . . ." Hermione trailed off, biting her lip.
The three Japanese boys also watched anxiously, intently staring at their comrade who turned around, seemingly unharmed to say something to Harry.
"Well, the little swirt was caught off guard, " Kuwabara smirked with his hands in his pockets (can you tell that I like it when they have their hands in their pockets? Cuz I do . . .).
Yusuke shifted his weight uneasily. "Yeah," he agreed, "a little too off guard. What do you think that spell did to him? He looks fine . . ."
Suddenly, their friend fell to his knees with a look of pure pain.
"Hiei!"
Harry turned around, hooking his wand back into his belt. "I'm sorry, Hiei, but something told me that you could take it." He rubbed his right arm, slowly walking towards his fallen opponent. Though he knew Hiei to be an honorable person, he didn't know just how mad that attack had made him. But before Harry could reach him, the boy stood slowly on his feet.
"Wizard!" Hiei huffed, rolling his shoulder back and forth. "You think I'll be taken down just by that!"
Completely taken aback, Harry stood frozen in the middle of the platform. He watched, almost frightened, as the red-eyed boy glared at him, firmly stabbing his katana into the dueling platform with his right arm.
"I'd consider running, if I were you, human."
Glaring determinedly, Hiei ripped his own shirt off, (had to ) tossing it uselessly to the side and began slowly unwrapping the bandages on each of his forearms. Through the silencing spell, he heard the great gasp from the crowd as the identical black dragon scars where revealed. He smiled before removing the white headband covering the jagan.
Harry nearly crapped his pants.
HE HAS A THIRD EYE ON HIS FOREHEAD! AND. ITS. GLOWING.
But he had little time to react.
Hiei closed his normal eyes, his jagan glowing bright red. Balling his hands into fists, he focused almost all of his energy into this attack. And as his hands began to burn with a yellow flame of power, he called out the name of his attack.
"FIST OF THE MORTAL FLAME !"
Hermione watched the black dragon-shaped attack hit Harry square on from behind her fingers. She felt like crying.
Ron's heart was pounding in his throat. He felt like vomiting, but kept his eyes on the dust-spewing hole in the wall that Harry's limp body had made as the powerful attack hit him. 'Get up, Harry!' Ron thought furiously. 'Just get up!' He couldn't take it. Pushing over a bunch of other students, he started fighting his way across the room. But Yusuke grabbed him by the arm.
"Chotto matte, Ron," the black haired boy ordered, holding the struggling Ron firmly in place.
"Whatever you just said, I don't care!" he snapped, not looking away from where Harry landed. "Let go, now! HARRY!"
"Don't underestimate your own friend, Ron!" Kurama said, touching him lightly on the shoulder. Ron immediately glared at Kurama's hand with a 'how-dare-you-even-TOUCH-me!' look on his face.
"Look," Yusuke insisted, tugging on Ron's robe.
Coughing dust and dirt out of his lungs, Harry stumbled onto the floor. He waved the dust away from his face and joined the crowd in a gasp as they all looked back at the gi-normous hole he had made in the wall.
"HARRY! Bloody hell!" he heard from across the room. Looking up, Harry waved painfully at Ron, who looked at him unbelieving, yet relieved.
But Harry didn't have time to reassure his friends that he was well . . . because he wasn't. He couldn't help but hold his stomach as it pounded with pain. And when he tried to walk, his right knee nearly gave out underneath him. But he was determined. As hurt as he was, Harry limped slowly back onto the platform where Hiei stood waiting for him.
Slightly surprised, Hiei watched the young British boy climb back onto the stage. For a few minutes there, Hiei was afraid that he had KILLED the boy. As much as he wanted to win, that scenario would have ended VERY badly. But the boy was alive . . . and still wanting a fight. Such determination. Hiei would have to end this soon, for both of their sakes. He yanked his katana out of the floor with a humph.
"Lets end this," Hiei demanded, raising his sword for an attack, but giving Harry time to pull out his own weapon again.
"Good idea," Harry agreed, giving Hiei a half smile, half grimace. "That really hurt, ya know."
"That was the point."
And simultaneously, the two boys lunged toward each other. In a moment of black and purple blurs, the dueling platform was clouded in dust and smoke. The room watched closely, but could see nothing in the confusion. All that was heard where two pairs of feet landing back down on the stage.
When the dust cleared a moment later, Harry and Hiei stood how they had landed at either end of the platform. As the room gasped, both boys fell to their knees, Harry holding his stomach, and Hiei grimacing over an unseen wound.
"Sorry," Harry whispered, standing painfully on his feet.
Suddenly, Hiei's shoulders ripped open; two streaks of crimson blood spurted from the wounds. He held them in pain as his vision blurred, coming close to passing out. But he would not accept this end. He attempted to stand, blood running down his bare chest, but merely fell forward . . . into darkness.
"HIEI !"
Kurama vaulted the fence and was at Hiei's side in three seconds flat. Yusuke and Ron glanced at each other for a second before jumping the fence themselves and running to their friends with Hermione and Kuwabara right behind them.
As Ron and Hermione reached him, Harry let himself fall into their relieved hugs. His legs were going to give out and he really just wanted to lay down right there on the stage, but his friends held him upright as the crowd burst into applause. Harry smiled weakly.
"Very good, boys! Well fought!" Dumbledore held his hand up as the applause subsided. "That was very interesting and entertaining! But, I'm sure that each of the competitors needs to visit the infirmary. Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, would you please escort these boys? Thank you."
The called professors both rose from their chairs, and Harry was glad to hear where they were going. He really needed a nap. Sleeeeeeeeep . . .
"Oh, and due to the danger to the castle, the next duel will be held on the Quidditch field in, say, two hours? Mr. Potter and Mr. Urimeshi!" With that, Dumbledore picked up his pointy hat and left the table.
Harry was flabbergasted. ANOTHER FIGHT ? ON THE SAME DAY ? Someone upstairs obviously hated him . . . even more than he thought.
(well, so I can tell this fic is going to be ungodly long, but that's okay, cuz I'm having fun writing it! So please tell me what you think! Is the very idea of a YYHxHP crossover just too crazy? Would it totally piss you off if Kurama and Hermione got together? Talk to me! Anyways, I'll probably have the next chapter up in two or three weeks . . . its hard to find time to write sometimes . . .
