Part 12

I don't know how long I had been resting, but I was suddenly awakened by a loud crashing sound. I jumped up and grabbed my towel, wrapping it around me. I went over to the door and opened it, peering out into the hall. I saw a large demon a few doors down making his way towards me. I shut the door and looked around the room. There were no windows in the room, so I couldn't escape out one. I heard the demon outside my door and I ran behind a rock, ducking down just as the door opened.

"Hmm... I smell a girl..."

I closed my eyes, "I could easily kick his ass, but I have no clothes! Someone help me!"

Hiei perked up from where he was resting in the recreational area and grabbed his sword. Kurama looked over at him, "What's wrong, Hiei?"

"Stephanie needs help," he replied.

"Let's go," Kurama nodded as they headed out of recreational area.

Back in the room the demon had found me. I ran out of my hiding place just before he grabbed me in his large hand. He licked his lips, "Come here, pretty girl!"

"Yeah, right!" I spat back at him, "You must think I'm crazy or something!"

He laughed as he rushed at me and caught me by the waist before I could even blink. The demon slammed me up against the wall and I felt pain shoot through me. "Now that's better..." the demon smiled, moving his face towards mine.

"Get away from me!" I screamed. His grip tightened around me as he licked his lips again. I shivered from head to toe as I felt Kurama and Hiei enter the room.

"Where is she!" Hiei yelled at him.

The demon turned around, still holding onto me. I waived slightly, "Hi guys, a little help would be nice."

"Go ahead and try to save your little friend!" the demon taunted.

Kurama looked over at Hiei, "I'll take care of him, you just get her out of here." Hiei nodded as Kurama ran over, his whip in hand, "Rose Whip!" The whip sliced through the demon's arm and he dropped me onto the ground.

"Ow..."

Hiei appeared beside me and picked me up. He ran out of the room and didn't stop until we were in the outside walkway. He put me down, "Are you okay?"

"Fine, but this saving me stuff is really getting old."

"What are you talking about?"

I sighed, "Everyone keeps saving my life, and it's making me feel helpless."

"Hey, you're the one who called for help!"

"Oh, you heard that? Oops...heheheh..." I scratched my head as Rechenia appeared with guards.

"What happened, Stephanie?"

Kurama appeared beside us as well, "A demon began to terrorize your guests, but he has been taken care of. You can find him incapacitated in the hot spring room Stephanie was in."

"Thank you," Rechenia smiled, "Stephanie, would you like your clothes?"

I nodded, "That'd be nice."

The next day my team met up at the new arena where the semi-finals and finals matches were going to be held. Koenma and Ogre met us outside like they always did. "Good morning, team, I hope you got a lot of rest yesterday because if you win your semi-finals match, you will also be competing in the finals match which is also today."

"We're ready," I smiled, "Don't worry, Koenma, we're going to win this Dark Tournament."

"Good to hear," he nodded as we all headed inside. He, Ogre, Botan, Yukina, Amanuma, and the Spirit Beasts broke off from us and headed to their seats as my team continued to the check in.

"Hello, Team Kouken Gurentai," the ogre said to us, "Who will be your team for today's semi-final match?"

I looked around at everyone and those who wanted to fight stepped forward, and it surprised me when I saw Hiei was one of them. "Our team will consist of Hiei, the Fire Youkai; Keishou, the Elemental Youkai; Kurama, the Fox Youkai; Tyler, the Wolf Youkai; and Tiffany, the Cat Youkai." The ogre entered the information and we headed out onto the field.

"Welcome, Dark Tournament fans to the second half of the semi-finals! For those of you who don't know me I'm Trenia, the semi-finals and finals referee for this year's tournament! Earlier today we saw Team Mekyotai take down Team Phitoran to advance onto the finals, and now we'll see which one of these two teams will be meeting them there!" Our team and another walked out onto the field. "These two teams need no introductions, but just in case you've been asleep, Team Kouken Gurentai is the team of Prince Koenma of Reikai. They've fought long and hard to get where they are today and won't be giving up without fight! Their opponents are Team Vamotios, a team who was completely trained by their owner, Ruka, the self-defense expert! Will the teams please advance to the ring!"

I heard Hiei growl when he heard the name Ruka, "What's wrong?"

"She is going to die."

"Who?"

"Ruka."

"Why? What'd she do to you, Hiei?"

"She tried to control my powers once, but failed, and I see she wants revenge. Well, she isn't going to get it..." he replied as Jin, Touya, Rinku, and I stopped and the other five walked forward. They nodded and we jumped up into the stands as they continued onto the ring. Keishou got into the arena with a girl.

"Okay, as with the other rounds you are both entitled to pick rules to add to ours! All our rules say is that a team must win three out of five rounds to win!"

The girl smiled, "No ring outs."

"And I say we make things more interesting," Keishou grinned, "The team has to win three in a row to win, and a win won't count if the person beaten has already won against someone else."

"Alright, the rules are set, teams, pick your first fighters and let's get the second semi-finals rounds started!" Trenia exclaimed.

Keishou turned to the others on the field, "I'll take the first one, after that you guys can have at it." They nodded as the girl got off the stage and another took her place.

"Our first bout will consist of Keishou and Kiruka! Now fight!"

Neither team member moved from their place. They both just stared at one another until finally Kiruka made a move. She raised her hand into the air, "Borrowed Spirit!" A bright light shot out from her and surrounded Keishou. It then went back to her and absorbed into her body. She laughed, "Thanks for the spirit energy increase, Keishou."

Keishou shook his head. "No, I should be thanking you. Explosion of Energy..." he whispered as Kiruka started to radiate.

"Wha...? What's going on!" Kiruka exclaimed as fear spread across her face.

"You should know," Keishou smiled as a light exploded from her. When the light disappeared she was laying in the middle of the ring, her life force completely gone.

Jin's eyes grew wide, "What in the hell was that?"

"I wish I knew," I replied, as surprised as he was, "I've never seen such an attack before. He controlled his own spirit energy after she had stolen it from him."

Trenia counted Kiruka out and her body was removed from the arena floor as Keishou jumped down next to Kurama. "Who's next?"

"I am!" Tiffany exclaimed as she jumped onto the floor, "I haven't had any fun in awhile!" She cracked her knuckles as our team saw her ears begin to grow into a point. Another girl joined her on the stage as Trenia announced the next bout.

"Next up is Tiffany versus Noruka! Fight!"

Tiffany rushed forward at Noruka and hit her across the face, sending her flying out of the arena. She went after her, but Noruka was prepared for her attack and knocked her backwards with a hard punch to the stomach. Tiffany fell to one knee as Noruka laughed. A growl escaped Tiffany's throat as spirit energy exploded from her body. Her transformation completed and she stood up.

"Hmm...you're a youkai now, this might be fun... Puppet Strings!" Noruka exclaimed as she shot out strings of spirit energy, which pierced into Tiffany. Two went into her hands, two went into her feet, and one went into her head.

Jin's eyes grew wide, "She turned Tiffany into a puppet on strings!"

"Rinku, can she break free of the strings?"

He shook his head, "No one has ever gotten free from the Puppet Strings; once the castor has the strings within their target they are permanently their puppet until they are knocked unconscious or killed."

Noruka left the stage and grinned widely, "Use the Cat's Cradle Element Claw..."

"Ayatori Youso Tsume!" Tiffany yelled, strings wrapping around her hands, forming into paws. A barrier erected around her as she lashed forward, attacking it. The attack bounced off and sliced into her, sending her flying into the other side of the barrier. Tiffany slid to the ground and her paws disappeared. The barrier disappeared and she fell to the side, unconscious.

Trenia counted to ten and announced Noruka as the winner. Keishou jumped into the arena and grabbed her, removing her from the floor. He set her down on the ground and Yukina appeared next to her to heal her wounds. Kurama entered the arena, prepared to win.

"Alright, up is Noruka and Kurama, this battle will not count as a win for either party, but it can put a stop to Team Vamotios' start of a winning streak! Now let the blood bath begin!" Trenia announced as demons started to cheer. Kurama was pissed, I could tell, as could the rest of our team. He knew very well about the Puppet Strings attack and how no one can escape from it once it has been used on them.

"Kurama, you've got a death wish, don't you?" Noruka smiled brightly.

"I was thinking of asking you the same thing," Kurama replied pulling out a rose, "Feel special, this attack hasn't been used on anyone as of yet... Virus Needles!" He flicked the rose forward and the petals flew off of it. They flew at Noruka, rolling into needles. They hit in multiple places all over her body. Noruka just stood there for a few moments before falling to the floor. Everyone watched as the life drained from her eyes and she was counted out.

"Alright, the winning streak has stopped and now it's anyone's game! Will the next fighter please come into the arena!" Another girl jumped into the arena and walked over next to Kurama. Trenia grinned, "Alright, it's Haruka against Kurama, this battle can count as a victory for either team! Fight!"

Kurama was still in a bad mood and we all knew he wasn't going to let anyone defeat him. Huruka disappeared and flew down behind him, knocking him across the back of the head, sending him flying. Kurama stood up as smoke began to billow around him. My eyes grew wide, "What's happening?"

Botan looked over at me, "That's right, you've never seen him transform, have you?"

"No, but I knew he could, is he changing into Youko?"

She nodded, "By the looks of it. I hope he doesn't go too overboard."

The smoke completely covered the arena floor as an explosion came from within it. When the smoke began to disappear, Youko was standing in the middle of the ring. His golden eyes were piercing through Huruka. She didn't care what he was, she launched at him and her fist connected with his chin. He glared down at her and grabbed her, throwing her to the side, "You'll regret ever stepping foot in this ring..."

"Big talk for a pitiful demon!" Haruka retorted, rushing at him again. She, once again, connected with his face, but he was prepared with his own attack.

"Rose Cannon!" His rose grew and blasted a giant ball of thorns at her, throwing her backwards. This surprised everyone but our teammates since we knew that Youko could use the same attack as Kurama and have completely different results. Haruka began to scream in agony as the ball began to burrow into her chest. Seconds later it disappeared into her and she fell to the ground, dead. Trenia counted her out and her body was removed from the ring.

"Kouken Gurentai has won, putting them back in the lead to win! Will the next fighters enter the ring!"

Hiei jumped up next to Youko, "Go relax, if we let you stay in the arena any longer you'll end up killing all of us."

Youko glared down at Hiei and then he closed his eyes, transforming back into Kurama, "Thanks, Hiei."

A very young looking girl entered the arena. "Alright, next it's Teruka, the leader of Team Vamotios, against Hiei, let the fight continue!" Trenia announced.

Teruka began to pulsate with power, "Your team has taken down three of my best friends, I will not allow you to get away with that."

I looked at Touya, "Is that really the leader?"

"Yes, she is a very powerful foe that's not to be taken lightly. She may be young, but she's very dangerous."

"How so?"

"She can manipulate an opponent's mind into believing things are happening that are really not, causing them to believe it's reality, so when whatever she makes appear hurts her opponent, they think it's real, so they really believe they're injured. She then takes that fear and they really are injured by it...it's kind of complicated," Jin told me.

Spirit energy wave shot out of Teruka and rushed past everyone in the arena, "Time to die, Illusion Barrier!" Everyone of our team saw the illusion hit Hiei as his eyes grew wide.

"Jin, please tell me that she can't read people's minds too."

"No, but her illusions show the opponent's worst fear."

"That can't be good..." Hiei began to dodge attacks that no one could see so I opened my Jagan and forced myself into his mind. I saw what he saw and the illusion was him in his full demon form. The demon form of him released the kokuryuhaa and it headed straight towards Hiei, "Hiei, it isn't real, it's an illusion!" His eyes grew wide as he removed his bandage and his Jagan flared open.

The illusion disappeared and he smiled, "That was a good trick, Teruka, but not good enough."

"I should have known you'd use your Jagan to destroy the illusion, too bad you weren't prepared for my own counter."

"What?" he said as I saw the kokuryuhaa reappear out of her body, "Dammit!" He dodged the attack as he released his own dragon, "Dragon of the Darkness Flame!" The dragon rushed at Teruka and incinerated her, causing the illusion to once again disappear.

"And Hiei is the winner!" Trenia announced after a quick ten count, "Kouken Gurentai has two wins and only one more is needed to move on to the finals! Saruka, please enter the ring!"

The last member of Team Vamotios did as requested and the fight started immediately. She flicked her hand, "Energy Lock!"

Hiei's dragon disappeared back to his arm and his Jagan closed. Instantly he knew what her power was, "You can lock away spirit energy...how pathetic."

Saruka laughed, "Yes, I can, too bad you can't use your dragon to defeat me, nor can you break out of it's lock like you did Ruka's."

"I don't need the dragon to defeat you!" he retorted rushing towards her. He unsheathed his sword and sliced through her.

Her eyes grew wide, "That was amazing..." She fell to the ground, dead. Trenia once again counted to ten and we were announced the winners of the semi-final round. Hiei turned his sights to Ruka who was slowly trying to leave the floor. He rushed after her and sliced through her as well. She also fell to the ground, dead.

I smiled, "Well, he said she was going to die..." Hiei's Jagan reopened and he replaced his headband to cover it.

Tiffany woke up and looked around, "What happened? Did we win?"

Yukina smiled, "Yeah, we won."

"Great!" Tiffany exclaimed jumping up, not even realizing that she had been injured. Yukina laughed as the team left the arena. The rest of us met them outside and congratulated them on their win.

Hiei looked over at me, "Thank you."

"Don't mention it, you'd have done the same for me." He nodded as we all headed back to the hotel. When we arrived back in our room Amanuma and Tyler once again disappeared, I figured to go fight it out in some more video games. I plopped down on one of the couches, "One more fight tomorrow and we'll be the winners of the tournament."

"Yeah, it's hard to believe how far we've come so far," Jin smiled. Everyone agreed and we went about the rest of the day doing whatever we wanted to do.

Early the next day Keishou and I awoke around the same time and woke up the rest of our actual team. We lead them to the arena where we would face off against the opposing team in less than five hours. Tiffany yawned, "Why did you get us all up?"

"Because, this team that we're fighting...I know who they are..." I trailed off.

"What?" Kurama questioned.

I sighed heavily, "They're the team from that club in the bad side of town, the demon club. You remember the one, right? Well, they wanted me on their team, but I refused because I was already on this one."

"Tell us anything you can about them," Tyler told me, "I plan on actually getting my hands dirty in this fight."

"Their name is Team Mekyotai. The owner is Mr. Carewallen, a member of the black market and the owner of the club. He's very smug and powerful when it comes to money. Their main team consists of the leader, Kyoni, who, like our own Hiei, rules over the powers of Makai Hellfire."

"How can he control Hellfire?" Hiei asked.

"I'm not sure, but he is very good at it. Next is Mewalan, whom is just one dangerous fighter who can pack some serious power behind his attacks, he relies on physical strength more than anything. After him is Taichi who's capable of serious mind manipulation on demons upto the A-Class, then comes Dais who can transform into a werewolf type of creature that is unstoppable until he kills or is killed, and the last of their main team Yamako who controls dead souls that he uses to attack and defeat his opponents."

"Sounds like whoever's fighting this round has gotta lot of trouble on their hands," Jin said to us.

I nodded, "So, who's fighting, Tyler already said he wants to and I definitely am."

"I am," Hiei replied without missing a beat.

"Me," Tiffany added.

"And I will as well," Kurama concluded.

Koenma appeared next to us, "Stephanie, team, be cautious during your fight today. My father did some investigating on Team Mekyotai and it seems their powers have skyrocketed during their last few rounds. Today, I fear, they will be nearly invincible."

"Then we'll have to be too." We all looked at Tiffany. "What, I'm serious! We've come way too far to just fail now, besides, I don't like to lose."

"Neither do I," I grinned widely, "But I agree with Koenma, we have to be extremely careful."

"I was mostly referring to you, Stephanie."

"What? Why me!"

"You have a past with these demons which means that they know you and how you fight. I'm pretty sure they know about your demonic powers as well, because during all of our teams fights they were here watching," he explained, turning to leave, "Just watch your backs." We all nodded as he disappeared back to await the beginning of the finals.

I turned to my teammates, "I need to warm up, who wants to fight me?"

"Not me, I learned my lesson last time," Jin replied with a grin, "I don't need another Spirit Beast."

"Very funny, Jin," I laughed, "Come on, any of you brave enough to fight me?"

Keishou stepped forward, "I'm not fighting so I have extra energy to waste." I nodded as we both got into fighting stances and the rest of our team left the floor. "No major damage, we'll save that for later."

"Whatever you say, Keishou," I replied as my wings unfolded from my back and I summoned a light sword. His wings came from his back and he brought a dark sword out so we would have some sort of challenge. We smiled at one another as we launched forward. He swung at me and I twirled around, dodging the hit. I kicked him in the butt, literally, and he fell forward. I laughed as he came at me again. Our swords clashed together as spirit energy began to shoot out from between them.

"Get 'im, Stephanie!" Tyler yelled from the side of the arena.

My eyes flared as I turned the sword back into pure energy and grabbed ahold of his sword. The sword began to radiate as I broke it, causing it to disappear. I tackled Keishou and planted myself on him, using excess spirit energy to pin him down. Our wings disappeared and I grinned, "I win."

He laughed, "Okay, I give, you win. You sure have gotten better."

"That was nothing, I was just playing around."

"So was I, Princess..."

I stood up and helped him up. I turned to the rest of our team, "Breakfast should be being served about now, so let's go get something to eat." We all returned to the hotel to find Botan, Yukina, Amanuma, and the Spirit Beasts just arriving downstairs.

"Where did you all disappear to?" Yukina asked sitting down next to me at the table our team had claimed.

"We went to talk about the finals, the team is made up of some former acquaintances of mine."

"Oh, Team Mekyotai, right? The ones from the club we performed at together," Botan said sitting down across from us.

"Yeah, that's the one," I replied.

After breakfast we went back to the room to await the finals. Finally about three hours later it was time to head to the arena. When we arrived Koenma and Ogre met us as usual, although no one said a thing. We walked in and broke off into our groups. When we arrived at the check-in I told them who was participating and we continued onto the arena.

"Welcome, tournament fans, to the Dark Tournament Finals!" Trenia announced happily, "This is the day we've all been waiting for as the two strongest and fiercest teams are here to battle it out to gain the right to be called the Dark Tournament Champions! Our first team is Team Mekyotai, a ruthless team we have seen beat every single opposing team without a single loss! Everyone you will see fighting today, though, have not fought as of yet. The rookies were the ones who got them here! The other team is Team Kouken Gurentai who have made huge names for themselves just making it here to the finals!"

Both teams walked out onto the field and we stopped. We nodded and Touya, Keishou, Rinku, and Jin jumped up into the stands. We continued on and I got into the arena with Kyoni. "Good to see you again, Stephanie."

"You, too," I smiled.

"Our committee has left the rules of the finals completely upto you leaders, so pick your rules."

Kyoni grinned, "No giving up and no ring outs."

"No holding back and the first team to defeat all five opposing team members will be the winner."

"The rules have been set, now let the battle begin!" Trenia announced. Kyoni and I both left the stage as Dais entered the ring.

"I want to fight you, wolf boy."

Tyler laughed, entering the ring, "Your funeral."

"FIGHT!"