Chapter 10: Round One

Nothing happened for a second. And then, with a series of quick movements, Rai appeared behind Kuyu. But when she attacked, he was no longer there. She stumbled forward and looked around, bewildered. Suddenly a noise came from behind her, causing her to duck quickly. The air swished above her as a blade cut the air.

"Quite the moves you've got there." She commented as she jumped away.

"If you liked that one, wait until you see this." Again he disappeared. Rai cursed mentally. She blocked out all other noises. Another sound came from behind her, she ducked again. The same blade sliced the air where she had been a second ago. He disappeared again. This time, instead of ducking, Rai stabbed at the noise with her tanto. She heard a grunt and looked back to see what she had done.

She had stabbed Kuyu in the side. No where vital, just skin, but blood came out all the same. He snarled at her.

"That's it. The kid gloves are off!"

"Who said I was wearing any?" She said smartly. Before he could disappear again, she drew her second tanto and sliced at his heart.

He jumped back to avoid the blow, he was at the very edge of the ring. He slowly took the tanto out of his skin. "Nice dagger. How much damage do you expect to do to me with this? No matter. You can't attack me if you can't reach me." He disappeared and reappeared at the other end of the ring to prove his point.

"Idiot. You still have my tanto, and metal is a very good electricity conductor." He looked at her without a clue.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm a lightning demon. And metal conducts electricity." She pointed at the sky. "Lightning strike!" She pointed at the tanto in his hand and a flash of lightning blinded the arena. A loud scream could be heard from the ring.

When everyone was capable with the gift of vision at last, Kuyu had been fried to a crisp and Rai was wiping off the blood on her tanto. A short pause had been sudden filled with some interesting cheers, certainly a lot more catcalls, except not as enthusiastic as before in fear of being stricken down.

"Next opponent." She said calmly.

The one called Heiki stepped into the ring next. This one was, seemingly, human looking. That is, if you ignored the black claws, completely blood red eyes, green scaly tail, and the green mane of hair. He was also a towering thirteen feet tall.

"So, how's the weather up there?" She called up to him. He smirked.

"Fine, how's the weather down there?" He called back.

"Can't complain, except ever since you walked in, it smelled pretty bad." She answered. He growled.

"You might want be more careful or I might step on you." He snarled.

"Start the fight!" Koto called out.

Heiki started the fight by swinging his tail at Rai. She leapt up to dodge it only to become to a victim of his fist. He had jumped up to be above her and he, she being unable, landed a punch into her stomach and drove into the ground.

"I have to admit, I didn't such a move from someone as big as you. Pulling a feint with your tail, only to jump and punch me to the ground. Usually someone looking like you would be big and stupid." She said as she emerged shakily from the small crater that she created.

"I'll take that as a compliment" He chuckled. Then he went into his next assault. He launched a fist at her towards the ground. She was gone before his fist was got even close. A jolting shock rang through his body. He turned around and fell down to one knee.

"Surprised?" She asked, taunting the demon.

"Maybe."

"Well, that's only a little taste of what's to come." She dodged another punch. "Sorry I've got to do this." She brought her hands in front of her, lightning sparked in them, and slowly drew her right hand back. Heiki turned to face her. "Lightning arrow!"

The arrow of lightning flew at him, but unexpectedly glanced off his chest.

"Oh boy." Rai muttered to herself. "A change of plans will need to be made." Without hesitation, he threw another punch at her. She was barely able to avoid getting nicked.

He swatted her with his tail and succeeded.

She braced herself for impact, but was surprised when she felt herself get caught in his fist. She opened her eyes to see him grinning at her.

"Time for lunch." He opened his mouth to bite her.

"Not so fast!" She pointed a free arm at the sky, "Lightning strike!" She pointed into his mouth. Another blinding flash of lightning and Heiki was on the ground dead. Rai slowly emerged from his fist.

"No one tries to eat me and gets away with it." She said, kicking his hand. She smoothed herself and looked at Koto when she was checking if he was dead. Koto gave her a nod. "Next up please."

Hiei had noticed she seemed to start wearing down a little, but she kept it from everyone else, still looking determined.

This time Yusou stepped to the ring. Yusou had pointed elf-like ears, dark brown hair, sharp blue eyes, and had hawk-like wings protruding from his back. Due to this, he didn't wear a shirt to hide his deeply developed chest.

Rai cocked her head to the sky. This was extremely odd. The demon was obviously a bird demon with an obvious disadvantage. So why did they send him in? She took another look at what was left of his teammates and saw that other than Jun, there was a fish-like demon. Not a very fast one by the looks of it.

"I have one question for you before we start." She paused. "How smart are you?" Her opponent didn't answer. As Yasu would say, joy! The silent treatment. They took their fighting stances.

"Start the fight!" Koto called out again.

Yusou startled Rai by swinging a foot to knock her off her feet. It worked. Rai fell on her side. He fell up about five feet into the air and stopped. He fell like a stone to drop kick Rai. Rai barely dodged it.

She stood up. Before she could blink, he launched another assault of kicks to her torso. She brought up her arms in time to block his assault. She grit her teeth. His kicks were pretty hard. He finally let down his foot, she took a chance and aimed a punch to his stomach. He leapt away and she only nicked him.

She cursed to herself. Then it clicked. She would have smacked herself in the head it was so simple. She ran over to him and went for his feet. It worked to her plan. The fool took to the air and stayed about ten feet above her.

"Lightning strike!" She pointed at the sky and gathered the electric energy, but this time she didn't point her target. There was no doubt in her mind that he would dodge. Now, she didn't even know where it would attack. It could attack her, or her opponent. It wouldn't go out side the ring.

He looked lost. He felt something was different, but he was at a lost for words. But then again, he always was.

Then it happened. A blinding flash hit the stadium again. A searing shriek rent the arena as Yusou fell.

"Whew." She wiped away the sweat from her brow. Those strikes were really getting to her. She nodded to Koto who was finishing the count. One more to go.

"We're going to go blind and deaf because of you, Rai!" She heard Yasu shout at her. She shrugged in response.

"Eh, you'll get over it. Besides, it's better than a dead me, don't you think so?" Her friend didn't respond. Goes to show that she agreed, but didn't want to admit it.

"Hope you're ready for me, girl. Because this time, you're not walking out alive." The deep voice of Jun startled her. She turned to look at him. He seemed pretty angry. She suddenly noticed a flickering tail behind him. It was a deep chocolate brown just like his hair. "You're definitely not leaving alive."

"Begin the match!" Koto shouted out a different phrase this time.

Jun launched himself at Rai, knocking her down to he ground, then leaped back before she could shock him.

Rai stood up shakily. She was slowing down and she knew it. After three straight fights, this would definitely be the most difficult. He drew a sword, from seemingly nowhere, and attacked her before she could recuperate from the first. She got nicked by the blade as she dodged. He was going at her too quickly for her to generate a lightning attack. Another attack, but no where near as close as the first one.

Man, he's really ticked. How close was he to his teammates? She thought this as she dodged another attacked. His attacks were getting closer and closer.

Finally he backed off. Both were panting because the ferocity of the attacks. He attacked as soon as he gained breath. This time she drew both of her tanto to fend off his onslaught. She pushed him back and tossed a lightning-charged barge of shuriken at him. Several hit their mark.

"Is that the best you can do? I've seen toddlers with worse attacks." He laughed.

Rai scowled. Many others would be dead seeing how many had hit him. There was only one choice, but she was sorely worn down. What to do? If I make this attack, I'll be out of energy. If he dodges, I'm done. If I don't, I won't stand much of a chance. Well, let's hope Luck favors me today. She raised a hand to the sky. A thread of lightning came to her hand. She pulled the lightning to make it larger and larger, sapping up some of what was left of her energy. The giant ball of electrical energy grew and finally stopped.

"Lightning Destruction!"

It hit before he even knew what was happening. He was on the floor dead.

The fight was done. Imuka had bolted when he saw the ball of lightning. Koto didn't even need to bother counting. It was completely obvious who had won.

"And Team Toshimo wins the fight match of the tournament!" Koto shouted out. There were lots of cheering, but still plenty of booing in the crowd.

Rai turned to see her friends running towards, shouting things along the lines of congratulations. She smiled at them.

"Good news guys! I don't need to worry about shorting out!" She paused and grimaced. "Bad news is, I don't have too much energy left." She fell.

Hiei caught her before she could hit the ground. He was worried unto he caught the sound of her snoring peacefully.

"Well, what do you know? The idiot's gone and fallen asleep on us." Yasu said, shaking her head. "Oh well, she deserves it."

Elf: Heheh. You should all count yourselves lucky that I didn't stop in the middle of the fight scenes! All the fighting chapters are going to take a bit longer to come out then the normal ones, for obvious reasons.

Kuronue: That girl has a lot of energy.

Elf: You bet! Heh, she's so lucky! (does sparkly eyes) She gets that hot piece of fire demon all to herself!

Kuronue: (sweatdrop)

Elf: I was having fun with my sketchpad and drew a lovely picture of Kurama, the awesome, red head fox! I also drew the true Seishou too. His hair is fun!

Kuronue: (more sweatdrops)