It's official, ya'll! I GOT THE JOB AT WALMART! Go me, go me, it's not my b-day, but I don't care, go me, go me—okay, I'll stop. Anyway

Okay, BEFORE YOU START THIS CHAPTER!

Now that I have your attention…hopefully…This next part deals with something that some of you might not be familiar with. It's a play. Maybe you've heard of it, it's called Hamlet, Prince of Denmark and it was written by William Shakespeare. Oh, so you have heard of it! Great! I know that not a lot of people have read and/or seen the play, though. If you have not seen or read the play, please read the following before you begin the chapter. It may be of some use to you, especially if you've got issues with Shakespearean language, like I used to.

Hamlet is about a prince. Duh, it's in the name. Anyway, Hamlet's father (also named Hamlet) died two months ago. Not even that long afterward, his uncle (Big Daddy Hamlet's brother) married Gertrude, the queen (Hamlet's mommy). In Elizabethan times, marrying your brother's wife was considered incest, however, Denmark let it "slide" due to a lack of king.

The story goes that Horatio, a good friend of Hamlet's, sees the ghost of Big Daddy Hamlet out with some of their soldier buddies. When Hamlet manages to talk to his dead daddy, he finds out something incredible: his Uncle Claudius killed his dad! So, Hamlet devises a plan to get the truth from his uncle. He's gonna act crazy so he can get in close to king Claudius and kill him.

Somehow, Claudius finds out and devises a counter-plan to kill Hamlet. When the plans clash, everybody in the castle who is of use is killed, excluding Horatio. In his dying (a very long one, too) breath, Hamlet tells Horatio to live on and expect this dude from Norway, Fortinbras, to take his place as rightful king.

Okay, that's the basic story. However, there are also some things that I used from the story that weren't so basic. See if you can pick up on it. I used this play because they have very uncanny parallels in the details of the plot, though it's hard to make them out sometimes. Anyways, on with the story. I've blabbed enough.

Oh, yeah, before I forget: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho and I don't need to disclaim Hamlet because copyright law doesn't apply (HA HA!).

Chapter 19: Bri, Prince of Denmark

…Bri…

Day Three brought the Talent portion of the "Tournament". I was beginning to think this was more like a talent show than a stupid tournament. Then I remembered the stakes. I hate when stupid things happen for no apparent reason. I sat down at the table I'd been assigned to. The remaining contestants, as I'd come to call them, all had their own table to "showcase" their talent. White walls hid the others from view, only those directly in front of me visible. The demons in the stands were now in my face instead of far away.

The judges would come later.

I had only one talent that I knew could be called such, which was my art. Each team had been given an aid to retrieve whatever materials would be necessary for the Talent Trial. I had given mine directions to our house for my supplies and a portfolio. He returned after only a few minutes with my things and moved on to Hiei. I had no idea what any of my other team members had for their talents.

I could only hope they would satisfy the judges.

When The Moon, The Star, and The Sky reached my booth, not a one of them breathed.

I failed, I thought. I let my team down.

The Moon glanced at a drawing of Kuronue and I as kids, me with birthday cake in my hair, him with chocolate icing all over his face. Another painting of Hiei and Jun eating sweet snow together, Hiei with the carton and Jun with a single scoop cone dribbling down his tiny fisted hand. The one of Kurama, Kuronue, and I all in front of the Chronodom doors, though no one else except Koenma would recognize it.

I was sketching in my notebook for a new painting, this one of the three specters that made up our tournament's judges. Their cloaks were daunting, but I was enjoying myself nonetheless. The Moon glanced back at me, and I caught a glimpse of her mouth under the cloak. I recognized that smile, somehow, but I couldn't quite put my finger on her identity. I filed it away for later.

"Thirty points," she said crisply. And then they were gone.

The others came to my booth soon afterward as the stadium began to trickle out again. I packed up my paintings as Kuronue slid into the seat I'd neglected.

"Only four teams left for the semifinal round tomorrow," Yusuke said. "We're in second place still."

"Wait, Team Trial, isn't that the last one?" I asked.

"No, they 'debriefed' us yesterday. We're tied for second with Yomi's team. Matsu and Toki have the first place. So, if anyone ties tomorrow, we'll have another round."

"What more can they do to us?" I moaned, setting down a fourth painting that I hadn't put up on display but on the table face-down. "Make us dance the polka? Does anyone get the feeling that this so-called tournament is a façade for something else?"

"We'll see when we win," Yusuke shrugged. "Can't do anything else."

Kuronue glanced at the painting I was still fingering. "I've never seen that border before, Bri, is this a new one?"

I blinked. "Er, yeah, but it's not fin—"

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right, sis, you never frame anything if it isn't finished. Let's see it."

"It's not that—"

Kuronue glared at me. "Let's see it, Bridget."

I sighed. "Fine, go ahead."

I turned it over. Gabriel. Again. I hadn't meant to draw Gabriel again. It just happened. Kuronue glanced up at me, then at the painting.

"The angel of fate. Good one."

I shoved it into my portfolio, wishing I could disappear. "I did it on purpose, don't get any ideas."

Yusuke threw an arm over my shoulder. That stupid knowing smirk on his face just about made me punch it right off him. "Aw, c'mon, Bri, who's the lucky guy?"

"Shut it."

"It's not like we don't know," Kuwabara added slyly. I scowled as he leaned over my shoulder. "How come every time I see your paintings, I get the feeling that I'm being sucked into it?"

"Because I'm really a vampire and I want to suck your energy dry through my paintings," I said dully.

"Really!" Kuwabara jumped away from me. "Bri's a vampire! Run!"

"She was joking, you idiot," Yusuke said. The sly smirk returned. "So, who is the lucky man?"

"You're not going to wrench that name from me, even if I was dying my last breath," I snarled and shoved the remaining paintings into the portfolio. "Maybe I'll tell you later—when he's a grandfather."

"Aw, c'mon, Bri, you know you—"

"Just drop it," I snapped. "Can't you see that I don't want to bother him?"

"You still love him," Yusuke said.

"I don't care."

Kurama sighed. "Leave her alone, Yusuke. You will only make her more upset."

I took a drag of air. Why did my lungs feel like they were made of plastic? I grabbed my portfolio and stalked toward the hotel again. Some friends I had. Always trying to hook me up with Kurama without ever thinking of the consequences. He was fifteen years older than I was—too old for a sixteen-year-old girl. Of course, he was also more than a thousand years older than that even. I stopped short and glanced back.

They were still talking. I could still pick up Kurama's voice chastising them. I smiled sadly at the thought. Even in the other time stream, our love had been wrong. A quarter cat barely aged nineteen and a thousand-year-old fox in a nineteen-year-old human's body. Now, a half fox at fifteen with years behind her and a fox with so many more. I could not hope to be accepted.

And yet, hadn't Yomi said that Kurama would? Kurama had accepted me once before, though it was not entirely the same Kurama. Yomi had been rejected. In the Human World, it would have been a snuffed relationship, too. But in the Demon World, such relationships weren't uncommon and were accepted by the society. So why had Kurama rejected him? It was obvious that Kurama had some sort of feelings, at least back then, for the horned demon.

What was so different now between Kurama and I?

Demon World would accept our relationship. Age did not matter—demons hundreds of years apart mated every day. Toki had no qualms at all about mating with a human or a three-quarters human. In fact, he had very much liked me upon meeting me, though I hadn't exactly returned the feelings. Was this what Kurama felt for Yomi? Just didn't return the feelings?

Did Kurama love me still?

I sat on the edge of my bed, staring at the paintings I'd done. The sketches I'd made of the three phantom judges were there, too. I stared longest at The Sky, the potbellied man in a black cloak. For some reason, I felt drawn to him. Not like I was to Kurama or Kuronue. It wasn't a brotherly thing, nor was it love. I was just drawn. Like there was a connection there I didn't quite understand.

It was the same way with The Moon and The Star. I felt I even knew The Moon, whose lower face I'd caught a glimpse of today. The Star seemed familiar, also, like some kind of phantom from a dream.

The door to the room opened. The scent of chocolate and the field, along with a faint rainbow trout scent, entered my nose. Kurama. He set a mug of thick hot chocolate on the table in front of me, silent. I took a sip of the hot chocolate, surprised to recognize Coffee Coffee's signature blend.

"I had our aid retrieve them," he explained quietly.

"Ah."

"They know who your boyfriend is, don't they," Kurama asked.

He set his mug down and flipped through the portfolio. Paintings, drawings, sketches of my friends and family, all engaged in one way or another in their favorite things. Koko with Jun and Hiei, Keiko with Yusuke and Yume. Kuwabara and Yukina, still waiting for the birth of their first child. Ice apparitions had a very long waiting period due to the cold, or so Kurama had explained to me.

Gina with her first class of art students from Meikou.

Gun Wa with a dissecting frog, scalpel in hand. I remember being sick often when painting that one, but I'd promised to do it, nonetheless. Ayame and him together in the Makai on their first visit together. They were still married, of course, but not in the human sense of the word. I guess it was just something that she needed. Her own world.

My mother and father, seated beneath the cherry tree in front of Meikou, the one where I always saw the bird during the spring, summer, and early fall.

Kuronue and myself with them, on a trip to Miyajima. The torii were so beautiful and made the composition very special to me.

And then there was one of Kurama, seated beside Kuronue and I. We were in the Chronodom, doing math homework. Kurama stared at it the longest, or so my imagination told me. He set it down on top of the pile of paintings before taking a seat beside me.

"Yusuke went to draw for what our Team Trial will be," he said.

"What is it?"

Kurama sighed. "We are to do a play. Hamlet. The Moon assigned us parts and told me that we could gather any friends we have to fill the others."

His tone suggested that he didn't like how this had occurred.

"What are the parts?"

"Yusuke is to play Claudius. Kuwabara is Polonius. Hiei is Fortinbras. Kuronue is the Ghost of Hamlet and Ophelia. I am to play Horatio."

I blinked. "But who's Hamlet?"

"You."

I fell over. "You've got to be kidding me!"

He chuckled softly. "That is what Yusuke said. But the duty rests with you to play the part of Hamlet. They will provide cue cards with the words, but the actions are up to us."

"Gotta be jokin'…So, we get the others to play with us?"

"Gun Wa has already agreed to be Rosencrantz to Ayame's Guildenstern. Koko will be Gertrude. Botan is Laertes, Keiko and Koko will be the Officers at the gate."

"Wild show…" I muttered hotly. "Wonder whose freaky idea it was for us to do a play on one day's notice."

"The Moon's."

"I'm going to kill her once we've won this thing."

"May I make the first strike?"

I giggled. "Sure, Kurama."

…

…Kurama…

I am very familiar with the human play Hamlet, and I did not like The Moon's sick joke of placing Bri in that character. I also did not enjoy the idea that I was the only one of the castle toward the end who was not going to die. I sat at the back of the "stage", waiting for Keiko and Koko to finish their lines as Bernardo and Francisco.

"Have you had a quiet guard?" Keiko asked.

"Not a mouse stirring," Koko said.

"Well, good night. If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, the rivals of my watch, bid them make haste."

"I think I heard them. Stand, ho! Who is there?"

I entered alongside Gun Wa, who was Marcellus. "Friends to this ground," I said.

"And liegemen to the Dane."

"Give you good night," Koko said.

"O, farewell, honest soldier; Who hath reliev'd you?"

The play was going rather well. Already, the demons of the crowd were entranced by the spur-of-the-moment play that most of them knew well enough. Shakespeare's plays had made it to Demon World to a large audience when I was a few hundred years old. I remember quite well that I had stolen a crown belonging to the Claudius of one of the first Hamlet productions in Demon World.

Kuronue entered soon after, clad in old-time armor and carrying a broadsword. His pale skin in contrast with his black hair made him seem very ghost-like. Keiko and Gun Wa stated their lines quite well, bidding me as Horatio to speak to the ghost. The night-time scene finished, and soon we were rushing about the blackened stage to set up for the next scene, where Bri would be Hamlet at last. I think she secretly enjoyed playing the part of the mourning Prince of Denmark.

I watched from a hole in the curtain as "King Urameshi" played the new King Claudius on the stage. He used big, sweeping motions and talked on and on. Just like I had always pictured Claudius but had yet to see on a real stage. Yusuke should try out for drama in the Human World. He would make a good movie actor.

Botan spoke at last as Laertes. She made a good man. "Dread, my lord, your leave and favour to return to France; from whence though willingly I came to Denmark, to show my duty in your coronation; yet now, I must confess, that duty done, my thoughts and wishes bend again toward France. And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon."

Yusuke spoke again, this time going on and on about how Laertes should ask his father for that pardon. Kuwabara spoke loudly and with vigor, stating the repetitious speech of Polonius without much difficulty. He must have been practicing all night to do so, I could see the bags under his eyes.

Yusuke repeated the "graciousness" of King Claudius. "Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine, and thy best graces spend it at thy will!—But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son—"

Bri spoke at last, in an aside that Claudius should not hear. "A little more than kin, and less than kind."

It reminded me of her story, somewhat, how she had spoken of her mother, Tsuki. The woman who had pushed her through the time portal and forced her to meet her boyfriend's past. I stared out through the curtains, perplexed by a sudden rush of memories that should not have been in my mind.

Meeting her, almost killing her as my old self. She was in that nineteen-year-old body I'd seen at the doorway to the Chronodom. And then Koko was speaking as Gertrude and my focus returned.

"Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off, and let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not for ever with thy vailed lids seek for thy noble father in the dust—"

I recalled watching seven-year-old Bri with her father, Marion, after he had been shot in a dark alley. I had thought at the time that she was truly a child and had treated her as one then to comfort her. It was then, I recalled, that I had started staying with her. I thought I was being the father that Marion couldn't be, but Hiei had done that well enough. She had grown up twice now without her father.

Both times, he had been murdered.

Just like King Hamlet had been.

Suddenly, everyone was crowded around me, watching through the crack that I'm sure the entire audience could now see. Bri was alone. It was her time to shine, to bring forth the first monologue of Hamlet. She gave a wrenching cry from deep within her throat, so much real that I almost dove from out of the curtains to comfort her.

"O, that this too solid flesh would melt!" She cried. I could see the tears in her eyes from here. She was really into this character. "Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd his canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God! How weary stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on't! O fie! 'tis an unweeded garden, that grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature possess it merely. That it should come to this!—"

I glanced out into the audience to see their reaction to Bri's most excellent acting. Some were in tears themselves, demons that would not admit to it later on. It seems strange to me to admit that Bri's monologue, though written expressly for Hamlet and this play, also hit home on her own emotions at times. Those who had trouble with Shakespearian play of words wouldn't understand, but I knew.

I knew at times that Bri would rather have committed her own "self-slaughter" than see the world in all its horrible ways. Rather have murdered herself than go through the murder of her father, the death of her mother. I waited in the background for the cue, the words that would allow Gun Wa and I to come out.

"But break, my heart—for I must hold my tongue!"

I walked slowly out from the curtains, Gun Wa not far behind.

"Hail, your lordship!"

"I am glad to see you well, Horatio—or do I forget myself," Bri said. Her short hair had been pulled back into a tiny ponytail, a hat placed on her head. She looked like a very handsome man to the audience, or so she said earlier. To me, though, she still looked like Bri Wolf. However, she was in perfect character as Hamlet.

"The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever."

It was then that I began as Horatio to try and convince my dear friend Hamlet that his father was a walking ghost about the castle. Bri did a fine job "drilling" us for information about Hamlet's father's appearance, and soon we had agreed to allow Hamlet to sit watch with us.

When at last the scene ended, the act ended, and the second followed. We were in the curtains now. Bri sat down, snatched a bottle of water from our tray, and gulped down at least half the bottle at once. Her delectable throat worked sweetly, catching every drop as if it were one mass. When she next set the bottle down, it was empty and she was gasping for breath.

"Sorry…" she said, breathless. "Talk, talk, talk, talk, I have a mind to find a cat demon and force him let me kill William Shakespeare or at least teach him economy of words."

We all laughed, but I think she might have been serious.

"The next act is the big monologue," Kuronue pointed out.

"Where's Gunner when you need her?" Bri groaned. "She didn't come. Wonder where she went?"

"She and Genkai had something to do today and tomorrow," Gun Wa said. "For Koenma, I think."

"Too bad," Bri grinned weakly. "Gunner woulda loved to see Hamlet put on by her favorite people. I know I'm enjoying it."

"You get to kill the baka," Hiei grumbled, almost inaudibly. Kuwabara didn't hear, having still not figured out Polonius's fate. Although an excellent doctor now, Kuwabara had never been one for literature.

"Only one problem with this thing," Bri said. "They got some stuff wrong. Right, Kuronue? We came back, right?"

Kuronue laughed. "We're special."

I sighed. "Is everyone ready for acts three and four?"

Nods all round. The stadium went dark again as we entered for the second time. Bri played well at insanity, or was it Hamlet who played? No one really knew whether Hamlet truly went insane or if he was acting, as he stated he was. It was a battle that had raged for centuries and not even Shakespeare had the answer.

Bri was left alone by Kuwabara and Yusuke on the stage. She glanced from side to side, letting her hat tilt at a difficult angle.

"To be, or not to be—that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them? To die, to sleep—no more. And by a sleep to say we end the heartache—"

Her heart wasn't beating.

It hadn't beat since she was struck by lightning.

Botan botched it.

"…To die, to sleep—to sleep!—perchance to dream, ay, there's the rub—"

Her powers came from sleep.

From her dreams.

From her death and rebirth.

The first time.

"…the pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay, the insolence of office, and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes. When he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death—the undiscover'd country, from who bourn no traveler returns—"

But she did return.

She did not truly die.

"…Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; and thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought; and enterprises of great pitch and moment, with this regard, their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action."

Kuronue stepped past me, and I barely heard the words Bri spoke next. Something about Ophelia and a nymph. For some reason—I knew the reason, I just didn't want to admit it—my blood was boiling at the thought of Kuronue and Bri together. It was a lucky thing that this play entailed the suicide of Ophelia not soon after this conversation. Everyone re-entered the curtained area, readying for the next part of the play.

I knew who Bri's boyfriend was.

…

…

…

WOOT! Kurama figured it out! O.o And a play helped him…Just like Hamlet used the "play within a play" to hunt down Claudius, as his plan was. I hope this chapter wasn't confusing, but I didn't want to write the whole play out…

Next chapter: Kurama confronts Bri about his discovery. WHOOT! We're finally there! But what is Bri's reaction? And why is Yomi suddenly delivering the tape? Did the Yu Yu guys win the tournament, and was there really a point to the tournament?

I prolly will wait a few days for the next one…maybe Thursday? No promises, though. If I promise, I might not remember, see. I ask people to remind me sometimes to update if I promise. If they forget…I forget. Seriously, my memory is bad. And now that I've wasted this space…let me just say…

You guys rock!

Kohari: Is this super-soon enough for yeh? LOL I saw WR's list…Interesting…I think you'll be surprised when we finally come to Yue's part in all this…but maybe I've already given too much away…O.o Prolly did. Or maybe not. I never know until I get da reviews in, right?

Peeka-chan: Our smart Kurama-kun figured it out all on his own. Bri always is threatening body parts from people, so I'm not surprised that she pinned you to a tree. I'm sorry if you've been pinned there for a while. (starts removing "sharp objects") Coke bottle, can opener, couple pennies, goldfish cracker boxes…sheesh, you'd think she'd be original and pin you with arrows or something. Nope, not a female character at all, though the character is being sort of manipulated by a female character, though. I think you're the first person who's suggested Botan, though. Eh, dun worry about it, I think we get more answers next chapter. Kies?

Lucifer: Well, the tournament began as a sincere threat by the three "original" guys. You are the first who's noticed that the tournament just doesn't seem to have much merit anymore. Don't worry, though, there is more purpose to it than that. I think. O.o I confused. Need to go back and read the chapters I wrote.

SilverDragon: Yup, the readers know him. Ish a guy. I know, weird that a guy would do that, but he's sort of being manipulated from the background.

Rayne-chan: Well, I do try to come up with good plots, and I like making them weird, too. You mean coupling, like who I paired peoples up with for romance? Eh heh…Thanks, I guess. I know that Bri has a major following now (looks at the hundred-sumthin' reviews with a MAJOR sweatdrop), but Koko does too. I'm thinking about doing some side stories just for Koko and Hiei, and maybe some from Bri and Kurama once everything "blows over". And also some of the other couples that will crop up later on, of course.

Kuramafan: I'm sorry…TT Me a bad, bad person. I put the Yomi-loved-Youko thing in there because it seemed like a good thing to do. I've seen many YomiXKurama fics out there, in addition to KuronueXKurama (and even some with all three together O.o). And I like the idea of unrequited love, or thought-to-be unrequited (as you can see, lol). Sorry about reminding you of your exams…TT Imagine when I was writing this…on my summer vacation…Maybe this will cheer you up some. Kurama knows!

Sillylittlenothing: Like I sent in my offline IM, you're close. So close. Not quite there yet. Here's a hint: He's a guy. And sorry I wasn't on….TT Mom gave me a sleeping pill so I could get some sleep. Fifteen hours of sleep. O.o

Bookworm: Eishi-kun is the OC in Kirei-chan's stories. He's da most awesomest OC character I've ever seen. Plus, he's a guy, written by a girl. I mean, how many guy OC characters do you see on How many? Like, three? Good guess, but it's not The Star. I think you're the first to guess that one, though. She might have done it, it's a good possibility, but I'll tell ya right now: It's a guy. And I will check out your story ASAP. As soon as I can get some semblance of wakefulness…argh, it's gonna be even harder now that I have a job…but I shall persevere! No worries! I'm a fast reader…