Chapter 4: The Tournament begins
As the boat carried Team Mirushito to the tournament- which was apparently to be their downfall- the friends remained silent. Why would their teacher want them dead, just because they had won the virtual battles? This had to be some kind of sick joke. As the dejected teens sat in more silence, the load speaker came on for an announcement.
"ATTENTION DARK TOURNAMENT PARTICIPANTS: AS WE ARE A BIT OVERBOOKED THIS YEAR, WE HAVE ADDED A QUALLIFYING ROUND. THIS ROUND IS NOT AN OFFICIAL PART OF THE TOURNAMENT, AND THEREFORE THE COMMITTEE FOR THE TOURNAMENT WILL DENY THE EXISTENCE OF ALL LOSERS OF THIS ROUND. THANK YOU, AND ENJOY THE REST OF YOUR TRIP TO HANGING NECK ISLAND."
"Great. That increases our odds of being slaughtered. I suppose all of the rounds will be important, but, the qualifying round will be paramount. If we lose that, no one will ever no we existed. Let's just make sure we don't get killed, OK?" Arne thought aloud.
"Right. But there's one thing that still bugs me. Why isn't Mr. Karokita here? If he wants us dead so badly, why wouldn't he watch?" Kakome wondered.
"Interesting point, Kakome, but I don't think that will be an issue. If he shows up, we destroy him in fair tournament combat. If not, we destroy him when we get back home." Takaan said, as if he were looking forward to either of these actions.
"You mean if we get back home." Inaryu said ominously. "You speak as though we actually have a snowball's chance in hell of winning. Which we don't" He added, hesitating to add that last bit.
"Of course we don't stand a chance! But I'm not going to survive, physically or mentally, if I keep telling myself that I'm maggot food!" Arne responded angrily and teary-eyed.
"Arne's right. If we keep telling ourselves that we don't stand a chance, then we don't stand a chance. A wise man once said, 'Whether you believe you can, or believe you can't, you are right.' And, that will hold true if we have what it takes. Which I think we do, provided that we learn from each mistake and each battle we fight." Kakome preached.
"In any case, we'd better get going. In case you haven't noticed, the ship's been docked for an hour." Arne said, starting to cheer up a bit.
As they made their way to the sign-in desk, they noticed all of the other competitors changing from their disguises to their true, demon forms. Some were just as ugly as the demon grandma. Others looked only slightly not human. Reishi was a youkai, after all, so not all of them had to be hideous.
"Welcome, fresh meat- I mean- new competitors. Team Mirushito, I presume?" said the demon at the welcome desk. Word had apparently traveled fast of the mainly-human team.
"Yes, that's right. What do you need from us?" Kakome answered in a voice that reeked of newfound maturity. Since she was the "leader", she figured she might as well be a responsible one. This was not exactly out of her character, though. Kakome had always been very mature; besides the fact that she was quite the smart ass.
"I need two forms of identification from each of you; human or otherwise." The green-scaled demon replied, as kindly as he could mange with a twelve-inch forked tongue.
"Will my driver's license and Spirit Detective card do?" she asked, searching through her purse.
"I'm afraid I don't know what a driver's license is. I'm afraid I'd have to see it to confirm it's usability for this process." He answered. Kakome was shocked. Did he really not know what a driver's license was? He appeared to be genuine in this aspect. She handed him the plastic card with the picture of her she loathed.
"This is perfect. Thank you. From the non-human participants, I need a demonic registration card. This informs me as to whether you are a criminal. Not that it matters, of course. The Spirit Police see this as an execution anyway." The welcome demon told them.
They all handed their various identifications, and they were entered in the computer. When he was done, he smiled wickedly. "All right, Miss Mirushito, Mr.'s Koroshika, Ishkanori, Poronobu, and Takanoshi. You're all set. Good luck. And, you don't need to register this, but when the battles begin, you'll need to establish a Captain. This will be the person who decides the battle formats, and ultimately…" he eyed each of them evilly. "Your fates."
When they reached their room, they were surprised to see they were not alone. A beautiful girl in her twenties was in their lounge chair. She had shiny blonde hair, luscious ruby red lips, and blue eyes. She wore a red tank top that showed her belly- perfect, by the way- and a nice bit of cleavage. Her shorts were, as all girls her age wore them: short enough to make the guys whistle at her. She was as beautiful as Kakome. But, unfortunately for Kakome, blondes get much more attention.
"Hello." Said Arne in a thank-you-Lord voice.
"Hey sugar. My name's Naomi." She flicked her hair out of her eyes.
"I don't mean to be rude, but, why are you in our room?" Kakome asked. She was the only one in the group not staring at Naomi.
"Well, I'm what they call a C.I. Alternate. That's Committee Issue Alternate, for you slow ones." She answered.
"We don't have an alternate." Kakome told her, puzzled.
"Exactly. That's why I'm here. All teams are allowed an alternate, and it's unfair for you guys not to have one. So I told my boss I'd compete with you guys." She informed them.
"We can use all the help we can get." Inaryu stated, overjoyed- he then realized he was smiling, and returned to an expressionless look and walked over to Naomi.
"The more the merrier." Arne welcomed. He then joined Inaryu in drooling over their extremely hot new alternate.
"Thanks, boys." She replied in a seductive voice. She tickled Inaryu's chin, and he closed his eyes dreamily. "But we don't have much time to sit and chat. We have the qualifying match in half an hour."
"But we just got here!" Takaan moaned. "We're exhausted!"
"I'm not." Naomi replied. "Guess I'll take your place this round."
"Not a chance." He snarled. "You may be the hottest chic I've ever seen, but you're not taking my chance to fight. I've got my secret weapon for waking up in my bag." He reached into his gym bag and pulled out a can of Spaz Juice.
"What's that?" Arne asked him.
"Spaz Juice. The energy drink from Happy Bunny." He answered in an I-can't-believe-you-don't-know tone.
"Where'd you get it?" Arne inquired further.
"The only place I shop: Hot Topic." He answered with a smirk.
"Oh, I get it! It's an energy drink for Goths!" Naomi giggled, messing with his hair.
Takaan became furious. "Okay; One: You label me, you negate me, bitch. Two: NO ONE TOUCHES MY HAIR!"
"Oh, I'm sorry sweetie. I didn't mean to upset you." She cooed. "You just do what makes you wake up." Naomi turned around and began to head for the door.
Takaan conjured a fireball in his palm, wounded up for the pitch, and…
"Save it for the ring, tough guy." Kakome scolded him.
They headed downstairs for their late night match. Takaan had just finished his drink, so the caffeine rush was beginning to settle in.
"I think we'd better let Takaan go first, just in case this stuff wears off." Arne whispered to Kakome, pointing at the now hyperactive punk.
"Good idea." She replied.
"I don't need to go first! This stuff lasts all night! Whaddaya mean, 'let Takaan go first?' I'm just fine!" he said in a caffeine rant.
"You're a bit overexcited, honey." Naomi remarked.
When they arrived at the ring, their opponents hadn't arrived yet.
"Guess they figure a bunch of humans aren't worth the rush." Kakome said solemnly.
"Humans!" cried Reishi, Inaryu, and Naomi together in an outrage.
"I would have you know I am a purebred youkai." Reishi snarled.
"And I am fifty percent Tengu, fifty percent demon." Inaryu informed them angrily.
"I'm half human, half youkai. Go figure." Naomi added, now over her anger.
"Oh! Um… I'm sorry… I didn't mean… to um… offend you…" Kakome apologized, both embarrassed and a bit frightened.
"Look! Here they come!" Arne interrupted, thankful for the excuse to break up this argument over political correctness. Their opponents had just entered the stadium.
They were, to say the least, a very diverse group. On the left, a little girl of about eight with silver hair down to her shoulder blades, crystal blue eyes that were so large they appeared too large for her face, holding a stuffed dragon. She was wearing what was either a second-hand dress or an old nightgown.
To her right was an extremely tall black man in a wetsuit with pilot's goggles on. They could see neither his hair nor his eyes through this gear. There was a certain air about him that was a bit creepy; it caused one to feel… small.
Behind this man was a preteen boy of about twelve with short, spiky, reddish- brown hair, purple eyes, and samurai armor. On his back was a staff only a bit shorter than he was. He was obviously extremely pompous and cocky, because he had a smirk that told everyone how 'cool' he was.
Next to him was a man who was obviously the Team Captain. He was wearing a black T-shirt that said 'PUNK', a black skull cap to cover most of his messy, long blonde hair, a pair of white jeans, and a few black wristbands.
Hanging onto him was a beautiful girl with green hair worn in a ponytail and blue eyes, wearing a reddish-purple Chinese dress with yellow trim. She was obviously Mr. Punk's girlfriend. She shot Kakome a check-me-out look.
"Dibs on the green-haired bitch." Kakome whispered to her teammates.
As the rest of the team nodded and studied their opponents- something they had always been taught to do in school- they wondered: what was in store for them? Would they be able to overcome these fighters? Which of them would fight first? Second? Third? Was there even any hope for them? It seems they were to find out very soon…