Chapter 9: The Only Fighter

Hiei awoke that morning to find that Rai was sitting at his feet, staring out the window. She had gotten dressed in fresh clothes. A navy blue tank top over white long-sleeved shirt with loose black pants to allow for movement.

"You might have woken me up." He said grumpily. Rai jumped and fell off the seat.

"Ow. It's about time you woke up. Although," she paused. "You're very cute when you're asleep." She finished with a smirk. She stood up and dusted herself off. "Not to mention your grip is strong. It took me about fifteen minutes to get up."

"Hn." He sat up and looked around him. There seemed to be no sign of Yasu. How odd. He was distracted when Rai kissed him on the cheek.

"Thanks Hiei. You couldn't have done any better last night." She looked into his crimson eyes.

A yawn startled both of them. They turned to see Yasu sitting up on the couch stretching. Her ponytail had come undone during the night and her hair was rather messy. She looked around, rubbing a sleepy eye. She saw Hiei and Rai staring at her incredulously.

"Oh, hello. Up with the sun as always, Rai?" She asked.

"When did you come in last night?" Rai asked.

"After you two fell asleep. It was an adorable scene." She said with a sleepy smirk. "I wonder who would pay for those pictures? Yusuke and Kuwabara would laugh their heads off. I'm sure Koenma and Botan would be interested as well. Not to mention some of your brothers would be very fascinated in knowing you slept with your boyfriend, too, Rai."

They both stood up. There were some very deadly daggers in those glares.

"Calm down. I didn't take any pictures. Neither did Kurama. I'm not really concerned in telling anyone." Yasu said with another yawn. "What's for breakfast?"

"Fox saw too?" Hiei asked. He seemed he was about to burst.

"Yes he did. So get over it. It would've been worse if I had woken you up, I suppose. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to use the restroom." She stood up, walked in, and closed the door.

"I guess we did forget that Yasu shares a room with me. It's our own faults." She said shrugging. She was still a little red with embarrassment. "You might want to go back to your room, come up with an excuse if you want to, and get ready for the tournament." She stood up and stretched, her shirt rose a little.

Hiei quickly left the room. Hopefully he could get in without too much of a fuss.

His hopes went unrealized. As soon as he entered the room, he was bombarded with questions about where he was all night. He didn't answer any of them. Although, Kurama had a very smug look on his face.

"Why don't you answer them, Hiei?" He asked, way too smug for his own good. Hiei simply glared at him. A knock on the door interrupted them. Yusuke ran to answer it.

It was Rai and Yasu. Yasu had her trademark sucker and Rai had her trademark smile. It was a relief to Hiei to see her with that instead of that look she had earlier.

"Hey guys! Did you all get a good night's sleep?" Rai asked cheerfully.

"Yeah. So what happened last night?" Yusuke asked.

"Last night? Uh…" Rai thought back to that night. "Um, I just wanted to be by myself for awhile. That's it."

"So Hiei wasn't with you?" Kuwabara asked. Rai went a little red, not too much though.

"Um, he was for awhile." She answered, less than truthfully. Yasu choked on her sucker. But after a second she regained composure.

"If you mean by awhile over ten hours." She muttered to herself quietly.

"What was that, Yasu?" Rai asked, appearing too cheerful to not know what she said.

"Nothing." She turned and added under her breath, "Curse your good hearing." Rai laughed in response.

"Good. Now on to business! I suppose everyone is as ready as they can be?" She asked, turning to the boys. Everyone said something along the lines of yes. "Good." She paused, thinking very hard. She seemed to be troubled about something.

"What's wrong?" Hiei asked. It couldn't be about her brother this time.

"Well, it's this. After the past couple of weeks, I have been, unknowingly, storing way too much energy. I've nearly reached my energy limit. If I don't release a lot of it soon, I may come down with something very much like a fever. Then I start letting of spasmodic bursts of energy, shorting out anything in the area."

"How long would this last?" Kurama asked.

"About two weeks if I'm lucky."

"And if you're not?"

"I don't know." She said shrugging. "But as long as I get rid of it in a fight, there will be no need to worry about that."

"Hey guys, what time does our fight start?" Yusuke asked.

"Uh, ten o'clock. Why?" Rai answered.

"Because it's nine thirty."

Rai looked at the boys. Yusuke and Kuwabara were still in their pajamas. This wasn't so good.

"Okay. Kuwabara, Yusuke, you get changed. Yasu and I will be waiting outside for you guys. Hurry up because they're not going to wait for us. We'll meet you in five." She held up five fingers for five minutes. Rai grabbed Yasu's arm and dragged her outside. Yasu already had her katana on her, but Rai had left her weapons in the room. She bolted through her belongings until she had found her shuriken and tanto.

They didn't need to wait long before the boys came out. It definitely looked like they had been in a hurry. But it was of no concern to the girls. They quickly raced out just as the other team stepped out. There was five of them.

"Both teams have entered the arena!" Loud shouts went up at the sound of the commentator's voice. The commentator was a female fox demon. She had reddish hair and aqua colored eyes.

"It's Koto!" Kuwabara said incredulously.

"You've seen her before?" Yasu asked.

"Yeah, she was a referee before, too!"

"First we have Team Shimaku, with Jun, Imuka, Heiki, Yusou, and Kuyu!" Loud cheers were raised all around in the coliseum.

"And on the opposing side, we have our guest team! Team Toshimo with Rai Toshimo, Yusuke Urameshi, Yasu Gihiratou, Hiei, Kurama, and their alternate, Kazuma Kuwabara!" There was a mix in the cheering. Some demons had recognized the names of Yusuke and maybe Kuwabara, some demons hated the humans and the demons that joined up with them, and some demons were catcalling for the girls. Some of the latter ones were very loud and rambunctious.

"Hey! Leave those pathetic humans and hang out with some real demons!" Was a particularly loud and distinct one.

Flashes of lightning appeared in and out of the arena. Lightning struck the demon that just shouted. Loud thunder rumbled as everything calmed down.

Rai had counted the exact number of seconds that the thunder rolled. She looked up to see her comrades staring at her.

"What? As much as I would've liked to do that, it wasn't me!"

"Then who was it?" Yusuke asked.

"It was Yukaru."

"How can you tell it was him? Have you seen him around?"

"No, I haven't. The flashy bit and the six-second roll of thunder is his signature!" Rai explained. She looked up in the crowd. He had to be there somewhere. She had no clue where, but it was comforting to know he was.

"Anyways, captains, step into the ring!" Rai and the one called Jun stepped into the ring as ordered. He was about ten inches taller than her and twice as wide. He seemed nearly human except for his yellow eyes and sharp fangs. He was a wolf demon from the looks of it.

"How about one-on-one elimination?" Rai offered.

"I don't mind, but are you sure about that decision?" He asked.

"Yes, I'm very sure about it."

"Alright." And with that, they each left the arena.

"The captains have chosen to do one-on-one elimination!" Koto shouted to the audience. They were drinking every bit of it.

"What are you thinking, Rai?" Yasu asked her in a hushed whisper.

"I have to do this. I'm at my maximum limit and I need to get rid of as much energy as possible." Rai told her. She turned to the others. "I'm going in first." Hiei looked at her. He seemed to be conflicting with himself on this. He thought about what she had told them earlier and what she just told Yasu. As much as he hated her doing this, she had to. She ran to the ring. Ready to fight.

A man with a small, thin stature entered the ring to fight her. He has black hair and the color of his eyes were unidentifiable. He bowed to her and she bowed back. He was the one called Kuyu. They took their fighting stances and were ready to fight. Koto received the signal.

"Begin the fight!"

Elf: We're going to be getting into some real action soon! I put that this was Action/Adventure for a reason! ... (starts singing)Baby love!Baby love! Baby love!

Kuronue: oo

Elf: It's a song in choir class. It's a short medley of those oldies. It's My Party, Mister Postman, and Baby Love. Hehe.

Kuronue: ... An interesting human, to say the very least.