This fight was the second of the semi-finals and would be determining who survived to go to the finals. So far the Urameshi team had won all of their fights, though not all of the rounds; we had Kuwabara and, oddly, Hiei to thank for that. Paranoia and memory made me look up. Hiei was standing closer to the ring than he had before the fight had started. He looked completely neutral, as though his bloody and sickening defeat yesterday had never happened.
I, quite frankly, still had to swallow hard at the uncomfortable memory.
I stood up in time to notice Botan close her communicator watch and run over to me. "Becca, you need to come with me," she said earnestly, grabbing my hands.
"Huh? Why?" I asked, glancing over my shoulder as Yusuke stepped up to the ring. "Botan, they're starting the last match! I can't leave now. Can't it wait?"
"No!" she cried, then shook her head to regain her sudden composure lapse. "Now."
I jerked my hands away from her and backed up. "What's going on?"
"Some of the powerful demons in the private boxes are getting suspicious." Huh? "You need to come with me so I can take you back to the tem-"
"I can't just up and leave, Botan! They'll wonder where I went!"
"Becca, please-"
"If Koenma wants me to leave, he'll come down here himself and get me." Demons I don't even know can sense what I am? And they'd try to kidnap me? I felt a bit uneasy but didn't let it show. Botan's pink eyes pleaded with me to change my mind, but I turned and walked to Kurama, Hiei, and Kuwabara.
"Kurama!" The shriek tore itself from my throat before I could stop it. The boy hit the ground, and I heard a sickening snap as he skidded to a skin-removing halt inches from me. My hands quivered as they came up to touch him, to make sure he was alive, but I couldn't enter the ring. "Kurama...do something..." I said shakily. I didn't expect or want him to win, but I wanted him to cough, to blink, to move, anything that would tell me he was alive.
"-five...six..." Juri's voice continued the count.
I looked around in panic. Hiei and Yusuke, trapped in the black spirit energy box, could only yell and power up, unable to help the fox. I could've sworn Hiei's eyes were glowing.
"-nine...ten-"
The moment the last syllable fell from the fish-like demon's mouth, I was in the ring, holding Kurama against me, hands pressing desperately against the gaping wound in his chest. "Becca!" Kuwabara yelled. I heard a swish, felt a small breeze, and looked up.
Maru's blood-splattered sword wasn't even an inch from my head. His dark blue eyes bored into mine, and after a moment, he pulled his sword back. "Too valuable to waste." He aimed his sword at Kurama, and I gave a muffled sound before laying my upper body across his chest. "The demon will die."
"You bastard!" I yelled, tears in my eyes. Kuwabara was standing beside me, the only fighter left on the team besides myself able to battle. "Get away from him!"
The taller demon's lips quirked up. "As you wish. But your time will come soon enough."
"Damn if I care," I snarled, backing off of the ring and dragging Kurama with me. Kuwabara stayed to begin the next match. I thought briefly that it was going to hurt Kurama like hell twice over to have his broken leg hit the ground when Botan came up and took them both. We exchanged looks and carried him away from the ring. I sat on the backs of my legs and put his head on my lap. Botan ran over to Yusuke and Hiei.
"Kurama?" I asked quietly. "Kurama..." I kept my hands over his chest. I wished I could give him some energy, so at least he could heal himself. I wished it as hard as I possibly could and even pretended as though I was. I mentally wished it over and over again, so scared I was shaking and, for the first time in four years, crying.
"When did Genkai teach you that?"
I looked up at Botan. "Teach me what?" My voice was so shaky I almost didn't recognize it.
"To transfer your ener...Becca?"
"He's dying."
Suddenly, as though she believed me, her face paled, and she looked sick. "But you're...you're helping him."
I managed a snort. "I'm not enough. Go get Yukina." She was up and running in a heartbeat. As I waited, I sniffed and snuffed, trying to stop my flow of tears. Everything that I'd ever wanted to cry about suddenly came back to me, and the tears I'd pushed away resurfaced. I didn't sob, I didn't wail, I didn't whine, I just cried. Cried and held my hands on Kurama's chest. The only reassurance I had was that I could feel his slow, spontaneous heartbeat as the torn muscle tried to figure out how to glue itself back to together.
Kuwabara fought harder than I'd ever seen him fight, but Maru was too much for him, and the human lost after being out of the ring for ten counts. It was during the count that Yukina and Botan finally arrived, the little koorime looking like she'd seen a ghost and Botan clearly unnerved by whatever had caused their extreme delay. Yukina took my place as 'Kurama holder,' but I swore I saw the fox tilt his head towards me as I moved. Botan went to Kuwabara and used her limited but stronger-than-before healing powers on him as she propped him against the stadium wall.
"If team Urameshi cannot produce a fighter for this round, the win will automatically go to team Itarki!" Juri said, looking at us uncertainly. The pretty demoness was on our side this time around, as was Koto. My gaze shifted uncomfortably to Maru, who was staring at me like a hungry lion looked at a fat rabbit. My heart stopped momentarily. Was I the prize? Was that why Koenma had made such a point about the boys winning? Holy shit. I glanced up at the god's private box, but couldn't see anything through the tinted window. And got angry.
The entire way up there it felt like some weird, demented, out-of-place dream. Yet, even as I was yelled at, I climbed quietly into the ring.
"Becca! What the hell are you doing!" Yusuke practically shrieked.
"Come back!" Yukina pleaded.
"You can't beat Maru!" Hiei shouted.
I looked over at him. "I'm not going to beat him. I'm going to kick his sorry ass."
"You're confident, human," a sickly sweet voice said warningly.
"Human?" I asked coldly. Lord have mercy! What was I doing?
"You are a human."
"I am as much of a human as you are."
His blue eyes narrowed. "You smell like one."
"I've been living amongst them in the Ningenkai and no amount of showers will cleanse the stench," I said, rolling my eyes.
He eyed me skeptically. "He said you didn't know."
"'Ch, of course I know. I played dumb. Demi-gods are such push-overs," I said flatly, crossing my arms. Which made me realize I was covered shoulder-to-thigh in Kurama's blood.
The petite but dangerous demon suddenly looked confused.
"Becca..."
"Kurama!" I whirled around. The poor fox spirit was barely standing, shaking as hard as I had been and clutching at his chest wound. Yukina was trying to get him to lie back down but was actually the only thing holding him up. "Kurama, lie down. You're not strong enough."
"Not until you...get out of the ring."
"Kurama..." I glanced over at Maru. "Lay down." I put an edge in my tone, then glanced over my shoulder pointedly at my opponent before looking back at him with a pleading gaze. Come on, Kurama...please play along...
The most torn look I'd ever seen on anything with expressions coated his face before he let Yukina help him back down. I put on a satisfied look and turned to face Maru, who still looked confused. "Well? Let's get this over with," I said lightly, nodding at Juri, who was also puzzled. I unsheathed my sword.
"Oh, right. Let the final match, Maru versus Becca, begin!" Her hand came down, and a wave of nausea passed over me.
I was going to die.
Panicking, I dodged all of Maru's attacks and didn't even try to retaliate. I set myself into a dance, as I had done so long ago with Kurama, twirling and jumping madly. I landed hard on my feet after a jump and turned in time to meet the demon face-to-face. I shrieked and whirled around as his sword came at my neck. But instead of hitting my neck, the blood-stained blade cut something else off.
My thigh-length hair was suddenly a slanted shoulder-length, and I froze, mouth open, as my brown-and-gold locks hit the arena.
Maru giggled, and there was a flash of light to accompany the disgusting sound.
People like to brag about their most painful experiences to show others up. I had been one of those people until that day. The pain in my lower abdomen felt like...well...I had nothing to compare it to. I'd never been hurt that badly. But I knew humans weren't supposed to survive something that damn painful.
I hit the ground.
All talented writers described pain as a 'horrible, ripping, sensation that took my breath away and left me in darkness,' but this was more like, quite literally, getting hit by three semi trucks in a row. It was too low to take my breath away, but it did knock the air out of me along with some blood, and had I eaten anything that morning I would've thrown it up. A murderous, burning ache that hurt more with every heartbeat thundered through my abdomen.
I barely heard people yelling my name.
Blood coated my throat, burned my mouth, and trickled over my lips as I coughed, trying to spit the metallic liquid out. I sat up slowly, wobbly, using my sword to lean on. Finding myself eye-level with a pair of legs, I looked up in a daze. Maru lifted his sword. Juri was counting. I noticed a bright patch of light on Maru's legs and realized it came from the reflection of the sun on my sword. Before I knew what I was doing, I twisted my blade and sent the reflection into Maru's eyes. He shouted and backed away, blinking his eyes furiously and rubbing at them with his free hand.
Summoning all nerve and energy, I lept to my feet, swung my sword, and kept plowing even as I felt the disgusting sensation of skin and muscle ripping through my hands. There was a thud, and Maru's head hit the arena. Feeling possessed, I swung at his body, realizing as my sword cleaved through it that it was reacting without the head. I eeped quietly and hacked it into tiny, bite-size bits. By then I was so tired and in such pain that I could barely stand, and my sight was darkening and spinning. I stumbled back, stabbing my sword into the ground blindly for support, and listened to Juri rattle off her count. I noticed that the blood on my outfit was wet, no longer solely Kurama's. My sleeves were stiff, indicating the fox's blood had dried; but the dampness all around my stomach was a double job.
"...ten! Becca is the winner!" She grabbed my wrist and lifted it, and I nearly fell over. She winked at me and tilted her microphone away. "I was rooting for you."
"Thanks." I smiled weakly and stumbled like a drunk off of the arena, literally fell off of it but landed on my feet, and wobbled over to Kurama and Yukina. The ice apparition grabbed me bodily and pulled me down. "No need to get bossy," I mumbled. She held me against her, and I could hear her sniffling. "Or to cry. 'M fine, 'Kina." A hot hand was on my shoulder, and two identifiable voices that were coming closer were arguing over who was going to fight Talera.
The hand tightened, the voices got quiet, and Yukina whimpered as she held me tighter.
A pair of pure black eyes stared into my bluish green-gray ones. "Silly child, to put yourself at such risk," a silken voice whispered. Something burning cold caressed my right cheek. Woooah. No touchy-touchy, no touch! I knew that voice, and my blurred vision accepted the fact that Talera was right in front of me.
I pushed back into Yukina and brought my right arm up, sword and all.
"Now, now, pet-"
"I'm no one's pet!" I snarled, bringing the sword at the demoness in an awkward, weak manner.
An icy-cold hand, the same one that had brushed my cheek, gripped my wrist. I held fast to my sword, grip never faltering even in my woozy state. "We'll see about that. Your lover is no match for me," she taunted in a dangerously low voice.
I was feeling more awake as the perfect situation for a tongue-lashing presented itself. "One, Yusuke's been pissed off ever since Aiki put him and Hiei in that pen, and you haven't seen him angry; two, even if he does loose, I'll finish off what's left of you; three, go get on a breathmint; and four, if you're so confident you're going to win, fight Yusuke and Hiei." Ain't I a stinker? There's more than one way to kill a demoness.
She hissed violently, causing me to make a face, and was gone.
"There's no way she can win," Kurama said in a choked voice.
"Exactly."
"Becca." Yusuke knelt down in front of me, fear and worry shining in his eyes. "Becca, you didn't have to do that."
"Tell me about it. It took me six years to grow my hair out that long," I scolded, closing my eyes and settling back into Yukina's shoulder.
"You could've been killed!" he said, sounding exasperated. "And what was with the 'I'm not human' bit?"
"I know and I don't know. I just felt like confusing him. It worked." I cracked an eye open. "Did you see his face? Priceless. Like someone telling Aristotle the world was round. Besides, it's true, I'm not human, otherwise I wouldn't be here talking to you right now. I'd be in the Reikai pouting."
Yusuke was silent. "Yeah. I suppose...that's true. It...was a big energy blast."
"Heh. Don't think you have to tell me that twice." I coughed a little, and the contraction of my stomach muscles made me shudder involuntarily, even though I didn't directly feel anything. "Hey, get out out there and kick Talera's ass. I don't want my legendary victory to be for nothing, got it?" As I lay me down to sleep...
He smiled faintly, but I saw a new wave of worry in his features. "Got it."
...I pray the Lord my soul to keep. "Good." I let my eye close. "Tell Hiei to use that dragon of his. That's freaking awesome."
"I will, if you'll watch."
And if I die before I wake..."I will. I just need a catnap first."
"I'll tell Hiei to make a motion at Yukina and Kurama, so they can wake you up." He sounded desperate.
...I pray the Lord my soul to take. "Roger that, Houston," I mumbled as darkness surrounded me.