A/N: Ah...I am quite bored. Royally bored.
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I read the rules.
Memorized them.
Knew them inside and out.
Still three more months until the tournament.
I was to take a boat
that would take me to Hanging Neck Island.
To see Shuichii fight.
How funny.
Shuichii,
Mr. Perfect,
fighting.
Was he a better fighter than I thought he'd be?
Maybe.
I doubted he'd last long.
Because I had a better chance of surviving.
I received another letter.
One from a past announcer.
She told me everything.
Told me what was expected of the announcer of the Dark Tournament.
Dark.
Lust for bloodlust.
Bathe in the pain of others.
Surround yourself with carnage and corpses.
These things you are to love.
But uphold honor.
Fights must be fair.
But above all--
Learn to dwell in the scent of death's touch.
For death will be all around you.
Death may overcome you.
It overcomes us all.
It thinks it's better than us.
But it's not.
I set down the letter.
My hands shaking
my eyes watering
my very body trembling.
I looked in the mirror.
I wasn't there.
Someone had taken my place.
This girl
with my hair
my eyes
my face
had taken my place.
How dare she.
Demon girl.
With fear in my heart
I saw the ears
demonic appendages
sprouting forth from my skull.
Kitsune youkai.
The mirror smashed.
I looked for the reason.
Searched the room wildly.
Who broke my mirror?
Who did this to me?
I looked down.
The blood was on my hands.
I smashed the mirror.
But it wasn't me.
It was that demon girl.
A demon girl.
That was me.
Who was the better one now?
If I was a demon
and Shuichii a human
then he was immediately an underling.
Dirt.
Scum.
Filth.
And still...
better.