Disclaimer: I'm an awesome writer, aren't I? I keep going and going and going, I'm like the freakin' Energizer Kitty. No, I meant to say Kitty, not bunny because I think bunnies are evil, especially pink bunnies, which the Energizer Bunny is, so now that I've thoroughly run-on this sentence, why don't I just add that I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or the Energizer Bunny, which I think is evil, so I've renamed it the Energizer Kitty.

Chapter 17: Depth of Heart

…Bri…

While the rest of our team battled, I led Kurama down a hall toward the V.I.P. room at the top of the stadium. The three judges were down on the field, of course, but I just had this gut instinct that we'd find something there. Kurama had come with me only because he was the only one to see me leaving. I couldn't stop him from coming, and I rather liked the idea that he was coming. He was stronger than me, after all.

We came upon the simple, unlocked V.I.P. room quicker than expected. All the lights were off inside, indicating that no one there. The door didn't even squeak as I eased it open and slipped inside. Kurama closed it behind us. I stared at the boxed room and its wide windows, shocked. There were three demons on the ground.

Dead. All cut into five identical pieces. They were in the same black cloaks that the judges below were in. One in particular caught my eye, though, even as I stepped over a bloody leg and attempted not to gag.

It was Yue Junana's father.

A cat demon?

Kurama seemed to recognize another. He pointed to the man's face, his own very pale. I stared at it for the longest time, at a scar over his eye and the thick black hair in a strange combination of short and long. His slim eyes were glossy with recent death. I could still feel heat coming from his body.

"It's Sakyo," Kurama said softly. "The one who manipulated the younger Toguro in the Dark Tournament."

I blinked and let my eyes fall again on the man whose soul had inhabited my uncle Gun Wa. I had never gotten to see what his true face looked like. With a stir of ironic humor, I realized that he was just as handsome as my real uncle was, if not more. I growled softly, remembering that he had been going out on the side with Shizuru.

"Do you smell that?" Kurama asked quietly. "Bellflowers."

"The blue kind," I said quietly. The scent that I'd known from my cat heritage, in addition to catnip. It had never been on Tsuki, her scent so overpowered by the catnip side. "Who do you think did this?"

"They've only been dead a few hours," Kurama said, straightening. "I think they were meant to be the three judges. This does not bode well."

"We should get out of here before we're discovered," I said. "Do you know who the third one is?"

Kurama turned the third body over. Neither of us recognized the woman's face, but the rounded ears made it clear of what descent she was. A mouse demon. I took one final glance at the broken bodies of the room before shutting the door again. Kurama led the way back to the others, where we told them what we saw.

"We had best remain cautious," Kurama said. "We do not know what we are up against."

"No sweat, just like old times," Yusuke grinned. "Oh, and Bri? You're up against Buck in two minutes."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner!" I shouted and dove through onto the field again.

…Kurama…

Our team progressed quickly through the three Physical battles, all obtaining at least sixty points to go on to the next round. If an individual on a team did not make at least thirty points, the entire team was out of the running. Apparently this Tournament of Trials wasn't as individually-oriented as we had first thought. My last fight was against a dragon demon named Hiro. He hadn't lasted long.

"The last battle of the day is number seventeen, Bridget Wolf from the Urameshi Team and Neko Toki from the Toki Team." Koto announced.

I took a deep breath as I sat in the stands nearest the stadium with the others, Kuronue on one side and Hiei on the other. I was almost surprised to hear Kuronue growling deep in his throat, his thick golden fox tail twitching in agitation. I could tell that Kuronue and Bri were of a different line than myself, but they were still kitsune, nonetheless.

"Worried for her?" I asked.

"Bri can take care of herself most of the time, but when she confronts her past, she's adamant about keeping it to herself," Kuronue said, scowling. "She would rather put all of her energy into maintaining that image she's projecting toward that cat than protecting herself."

I allowed myself to jolt at this in surprise. "She's putting out that much energy?"

"Yeah. You can't sense it, but…" He drifted off.

"Your connection allows you to see more of her." I finished for him.

"Mm hmm. My sister is a stubborn, stubborn girl. Glad I agreed to have her."

I chuckled softly as Bri came out onto the field. It caught in my throat as soon as Toki sauntered out. I felt a searing anger crawl up my spine. He was beautiful, in all the dangerous, wonderful ways of the cats. It was often said that the only thing more beautiful than a fox spirit was a cat. Long, shimmering midnight hair, deep golden eyes, and a flawless face.

I could see why Bri had come to despise him—he was completely narcissistic, carrying a mirror round his neck and staring fondly into his sword. You couldn't mistake that he was looking at himself.

Not to mention that he was naked, save for a small sash the color of his ivory silk skin around his hips and waist and a spiked collar around his neck. Bri visibly swallowed and knelt into a shaky stance. The terror in her scent was evident even from this distance. I knew that more demons than Toki would sense that fear.

Sure enough, the cat calls began (no pun intended), jeering and harsh. I blocked them all out, but Bri was certain to have heard them. Her knees went weaker. With her illusion holding strong, as Kuronue had said, she was already at half power.

Koto raised her arm to begin the fight. She gave the call. Bri circled slowly, her unease evident as she tripped over her own feet. Toki, like the predator he was, attacked first. Daggers came at her and I'm sure I would have jumped in myself had she remained frozen. The sound of metal clanging to stone met my ears. Even my eyes hadn't followed the movement. Hiei murmured.

"Clever."

"What did she do?" I asked.

"The oldest technique in the book. Behave as if you are prey and when the predator strikes, turn it against him." Hiei's eyes hadn't left the stadium as he spoke. "She stole one of his own daggers when he attacked."

When I glanced up, I stared in shock. Bri had one dagger still in her hands as she knelt to the stadium to pick up and throw the others clear out. She reached into her pockets and withdrew a seed as she tossed the last. Toki attacked, blinded by rage. She barely held him in check, blocking with the blunt edge of her own cherry dagger and her arms and legs. He was far superior in strength.

Bri backed up, to my horror. Despite her clever technique, she was losing the fight, badly. I waited for her to cry out, to do something other than block and step, block and step. But no, she continued to back away from Toki until her foot hit the edge. Bri dodged the next strike, rolling into the center of the stadium.

Toki leapt and brought both hands down on either side of her still-down form. Anyone with ears could hear her scream in terror. I jumped to my feet, not knowing what I was planning, but planning to do something. Anything. I jumped over the edge of the stadium walls, only to find myself being dragged back. Kuronue and Hiei each had my arms and Yusuke had grabbed the back of my shirt.

"You can't do anything, you'll get her disqualified!" Kuronue shouted. He pulled me bodily back into my seat, both Hiei and he still holding onto my arms.

Suddenly, a loud whistle blew and the three judges were on the floor, announcing that this was the end of the fight. I couldn't hear them, could only stare at Bri. She had a few new scrapes, one on her arm quite deep. She was even smiling.

"The Physical element is officially over!" Koto shouted. "According to The Moon, the top three teams are: Team Matsu, Team Urameshi, and Team Toki!"

…Kurama…

She yanked her hand back, hissing. "That hurts!"

"It should," I said teasingly. I pulled gently at her arm and placed the cotton ball back over her largest cut. "You scared me today, Bri."

She scoffed. "I handled it. I'm fine." I moved the cotton ball. Wince. "Okay, not completely, but I'm alive, aren't I?"

"I thank Inari," I said dryly. I shifted the cotton ball again, to more hissing. I added quietly. "He really cut you up, didn't he?"

"Like a freakin' piece of paper." Bri grinned nonchalantly, cut off by yet another wince and a low growl. "I wish you'd stop putting that in so—deep." She jumped as I suddenly touched the deepest of the wound.

"You don't want to get an infection, do you?" I asked with a smirk. "Foxes are very—"

"Susceptible to disease, I know." She rolled her eyes. I set the bloody cotton ball down and retrieved a second, soaked in alcohol. A soft moan this time, as the wound bubbled angrily at the cleansing liquid.

"Where are the others?" she asked.

"Kuronue went to train with Hiei, and the others went with the girls and Gun Wa to the hotel restaurant," I said. I cleaned the remaining smaller wounds quickly before retrieving the bandages I had brought. "Do you want me to order something to eat?"

"You expect me to eat after all that?"

I smirked. "Yes. Why would you not want to eat?"

"Maybe to kill myself so I don't have to deal with Toki again," she murmured. "I think he recognized my scent. That would be the only explanation to his reaction."

I sighed and finished wrapping her arm. "Bri, I realize this may be a bad time to bring it up…but I think you should try to find your boyfriend again."

She moaned loudly and covered both ears. "I'm so not listening to this right now."

I sighed. Why was she so stubborn? Kuronue was right. She would rather expend all of her energy hiding herself than confront the demons of her past. I took both her shoulders in my hands and tilted her chin slightly to let her look in my eyes.

I found myself lost, unable to come up with what I was going to say. Her eyes were deep, like the endless sea and the endless sky side by side. I saw hurt in them, hurt and anger. Not with me, but with herself. She glanced up at my bangs instead and easily found her voice, unlike me.

"What?"

"Why do you not want to look me in the eye?"

She blinked and glanced off to the left, at the ceiling somewhere. "I don't look anyone in the eye. It makes me uncomfortable."

"Why?"

She smirked. "You sound like a little kid, Mister Minamino. Any particular reason why?"

I smiled, but didn't answer. The truth of the matter was, I felt young around her. I felt like a little hundredling, barely capable of taking my human form at all.

It was strange seeing Bri born the way she was. Most foxes were born just that: a fox. The fox spirit didn't take demon form until one was fifty, when the fox shifted from Human world to Demon world. It was strange to see Bri with her fox ears, but know that her body was only sixteen years old.

"Kura-a-a-ma-a-a…" Bri sang, waving one hand in front of my eyes. "You spaced again. What's up?"

"Nothing but the sky," I said. "You didn't answer my question."

"Nor did you answer mine."

Clever. "I asked first."

"You know you're not getting an answer from me. Let's order pizza."

I chuckled softly. It wasn't until then that I realized my hands were still on her shoulders. I let them drop to my side and picked up the phone. She snatched it from me and stretched leisurely out on the couch of our common area. As she ordered, I couldn't help but stare at her. Her attention was on the phone, so she wasn't going to see.

Bri had grown up so quickly, it was hard to remember her as the three-year-old I'd once played Go Fish with. Her golden ears flicked lazily as she told the line what we wanted, and her tail, usually hidden, flicked and snaked from under her t-shirt. The white tip drew little circles on the couch. But her eyes…I will never forget those few seconds of pure silence, drowning in the sky and the ocean at once. They were slightly different in tone, though you couldn't see it unless you were staring right at them. One was paler than the other, and I recalled her saying she couldn't see as well out of it.

"Yes, I did say rainbow trout on a pizza," Bri snapped into the phone. "Fried. No. Yes. No, I don't want garlic sauce." She glared at the pillow. "Does it sound like I'm a vampire! Just a normal pizza with rainbow trout!" She hung up the phone. "Some people have no adaptation to normal Japanese. Either that or they're retarded. I like the latter myself."

"You were asking for a normal American-style pizza with an okonomiyaki topping, Bri," I said calmly. "Of course he might find you a bit strange."

"Hello, you're the one who introduced me to rainbow trout on pizza!"

I shrugged. "True."

"Arg!" She threw a pillow at me, which I caught and threw back on the couch. "You're impossible, Youko Kurama!"

"But you still love me," I said brightly. She blinked for a second before nodding. "Hey, what's with that look?"

"Nothing," she said innocently. Right. Innocence.

"Bri…" I warned.

"It was nothing!"

I smirked and reached out. I caught her sides and let my fingers find all the little niches that I knew would make her double over in ecstasy. She squirmed and laughed, crying out for mercy under the torturous tickling I could deal out. Bri scowled when I released her.

"It was nothing. Really," she repeated. Someone knocked on the door. In rolled the pizza a few seconds later, covered with bits of fried rainbow trout and two steaming cups of hot chocolate. An envelope was on top of the first plate, addressed to Bri.

"Who's that from?" I asked.

"Dunno…" Bri said. She grinned and "lit" one finger, burning through the top of the envelope. Out came a completely unharmed sheet of paper a moment later. I shook my head and started in on the pizza. She growled after a few minutes and stuffed the balled letter into the trash.

"What was that about?"

"Nothing," she said. She grabbed some pizza and ate quickly. "I'm going to go see if Koko and Keiko are back yet. I promised Jun I'd buy him some sweet snow."

I chuckled. "All right, wait for me down by the elevator. I'm going to call room service back to let them know that we're done."

"Okay," she said. "Hurry up!"

The moment she was out of the room, I unfurled the letter from the trash and read. It was only a few lines long. However, all the letters were cut and pasted from a newspaper, obviously for secrecy.

Bri—

Please, tell him you love him. You are breaking yourself for no reason. He loves you still, can't you see that? I know you've cried, you've been rejected. Now is not the time for stubborn pride. Get him back.

A Friend

So I wasn't the only one trying to get Bri to tell her boyfriend her identity. I sighed and reballed the paper up before picking up the phone. When I arrived at the elevators, Bri pressed the button.

"What took you so long?"

"Apologizing to room service."

She scowled and punched me—hard—in the shoulder.

It actually hurt somewhat.

…

…

…

You guys'll never, ever guess what I found yesterday! A whole group of little Kurama foxies made their den in a field near my house! I'm going back tomorrow and see if I can get a pic with my digital camera. If I get it, I'll send everyone whose email I have the pics, okay?

In addition, I've done yet another fan art for this story and I'm working on yet another, as well. It's on www dot deviantart dot com and my name there is, of course, Ugly Kitten. So far, my works have been in prismacolor pencil, but this next one (which I hope to get done before I put up the last chapter) is in watercolor, so it's going to take forever.

I was going to update earlier in the night, but a certain little brother decided to run off and I was unable to do the editing in time. Also, there was a really awesome full moon, it was blood red! I love the red moon. It's awesome.

And those who want to help with my book…THANK YOU! Okay, here's what I need you to do if you want to help. I'm thinking of doing like an "update" format so you don't have so much to "swallow" all at once. If you want to help, please email me at twoteenagers at msn dot com. I'll explain more once I have everyone's email. Thank you so much for your interest!

Okay, now that I've babbled away two minutes of ya'll's lives…

Sillylittlenothing: LOL, it's weird to have someone review anyway even though you read it while I was "talking" to you…But thanks. It's nice to know that people love this story almost as much as I do.

Lucifer: Bingo, bingo, you win the prize! I'm trying to point out that people can change, and I think it's working if you're starting to doubt the motives of The Moon. You'll just have to wait and see what the outcome is, but I think you'll like it all the same. Yup, so many possibilities, but I'm always choosing the ones I think are least likely to be thought of, so we'll see, ne?

Kohari: Nope, I don't think any of us are freaks, considering that everyone has been through or done something similar to someone else. I continually meet people who are similar to me, and yet totally different. Like me and yet unlike me, different and yet exactly the same. Someone told me that was crazy. I think I need to get out of the house more. Maybe I should drive down to Austin and see sillylittlenothing…(a 12 hour trip...I think I'm the freak...)

Peeka-chan: See the above about my story…and thanks for the interest. Definitely need mistake-spotters. I'm not so good with mistakes because I only make a few of them and I can't catch them very well because there aren't very many and I love breaking rules just to make myself go back and fix them. See? Run-on. Gotta love da run-ons.

Kuramafan: I like Bri's "blast from the past" episode because it reveals character I don't think she realizes she even has. And here is the chapter, as promised!