Note: Sorry about the lapse into second person in the beginning of the chapter.
And two months later...
I quickened my pace slightly when I heard, "Hold it! One 'guest' isn't here yet!" Obviously Kuwabara, judging from the pathetic sounding voice.
"Yeah? Rules say yer late, yer a refuser. We'll send assassins to deal with 'im."
I smirked. "No need for that." I stepped into the clearing." And grinned cheerily. "Sorry to hold up the party. After all, a party isn't any fun without me to trash it."
"Where have you been, Urameshi!" I glanced at the demons, who began to mutter among themselves at the mention of my name.
"Nice going, baka." I muttered to Kuwabara. "Now they know I'm here." Crap. I walked towards Hiei and Kurama, my muscles stiff and sore from Genkai's training. As I passed Hiei...
"Yusuke." I glanced at him and leapt back, dodging his swings and thrusts and general attacks. I blocked everything out, absorbed in the thrill of nearly getting cut in two. When I saw his guard down for a split second between a swing, I grabbed the blade, knocked it out of his hands, caught it, got behind him and held it to his throat before he knew what happened. "Damn, Hiei. Is this the way you greet people now?" I asked, as I let him go and tossed the blade back to him.
He smirked. "I don't know how you did it, but your skills are adequate."
"Wow, a compliment from the Hiei Jaganshi? I think hell just froze over!" I laughed.
Kurama smiled slightly, and held back a snicker as he heard Kuwabara, "Adequate? I couldn't move like that in a million years!"
"Don't worry about it. You did follow their moves, which shows you've progressed." I rolled my eyes. Would it be enough to keep him from getting killed during the tournament?
"So I suppose the little one over there is our fifth?" Hiei asked me, glancing at Genkai.
Kuwabara laughed. "Someone shorter than Hiei! I can barely see him! If I sneezed I'd blow him clear to Mars!"
I snorted. "I wouldn't recommend making that comment unless you want to live, particularly the one about Hiei. At any rate, for a fifth, we could do MUCH worse."
"That so...? I dunno..."
My eyes met Hiei's. He had a bloodthirsty look about him; his aura already was filled with hints of lusting for battle. "It fills the count. And Yusuke and I are the only ones we really need at any rate." Two compliments in a space of ten minutes. Is he all right? He glanced at me, and I grinned as we boarded the ship. Leaning against the railing, I was soon asleep, I needed to replenish strength and aura.
Hiei glanced at Yusuke then at the Masked Fighter as he walked towards the ring. "He's going. At least we can see what he can do." He remarked to answer Kuwabara's question of who was going to fight.
"What if he loses! I don't think that the losing teams just go home!"
"True. Then we simply kill everyone aboard and when we land we say we are the right team and no one will complain."
Kuwabara twitched as sweat drops ran down his face. "You did not have many friends as a child, did you?"
Hiei laughed, a cold, sarcastic, sadistic and bitter sound. Kuwabara shivered.
Not even a minute later, after they had won the preliminaries, Hiei smirked as he attacked the demons rushing him. They were all sliced to pieces and it didn't even look like he had moved. Kurama easily diced his opponents with his whip and Kuwabara used his Spirit Sword. Hiei and Kurama turned around, just in time to see a demon running towards the unconscious Yusuke, his claws extended for the kill.
"YUSUKE!"
Hiei raised an eyebrow as she punched the demon away, still asleep. "RAAH! No way you old hag! I'll keep going and going!" And even more so when she started a whole training regime.
"She has done it so much that it has apparently become instinctive, especially since she is reliving her training." Kurama smiled.
Kuwabara glanced around. "Uh... What happened to the fight we were in?"
"Everyone's dead." Hiei smirked as he easily lifted Yusuke, who had fallen back to a sitting position once more.
After they had been led to their hotel room, Hiei set Yusuke on one of the couches and glanced up as a waiter came in with a cart with five cups of coffee.
"Your evening coffee, compliments of the hotel." He bowed set the cups on the table and left with the cart.
Kuwabara stared at it suspiciously. "Do you think it is poisoned?"
"Not likely, this tournament is about combat."
"And the hosts are especially interested to see us mutilated tomorrow." Hiei added as he took a sip.
Kuwabara shrugged. "Never hurts to be careful. I'll stick to my own beverages thanks."
Hiei rolled his eyes and glanced at the table, then to the dresser, watching the child. But did not mention what he saw. Kurama did.
"That's odd... Yusuke's cup is gone... But she's still asleep..." He turned around to the sound of slurping. They all whipped around to see a demon that looked like a child but was probably over a hundred years old, judging from his skill in hiding his strength.
"He must've been hiding someplace!" Kuwabara shouted.
"Then came out and took the cup without us noticing..." Kurama murmured.
"Nah! I came through the door, that's what good kids do, right?" I glanced up, almost guiltily, but more like he was amused. "I guess I forgot to knock though." He grinned and looked at them. "Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Rinku, my crew, the Jolly Devil Six, a.k.a. Team Rokuyukai, will be your opponents in the opening match tomorrow."
"Six? Isn't there only five to a team?" Kuwabara asked.
"You didn't know you could bring a replacement if one of you dies in battle? The six of us are tough as nails so we chose our alternate by a game of rock-paper-scissors." He put his pointer fingers on the handle of the cup and balanced on it. "Must be NICE being a guest team. You don't have to sit through opening ceremonies or rule meetings. 'Course you don't need to worry about negotiating for prizes 'cuz you'll be taken out way early..."
Kuwabara glared at the kid. Who did he think he was? Funny? He'd show him funny if he kept it up.
"It's just a fact. The captain of the years previous winning team nominated you guys as guests so I thought I'd get a good fight, but from what I see, I could take y'all in an elimination match."
Hiei glanced behind him as another demon entered. "That will do, Rinku."
They turned around to see him leaning against the wall, his arms crossed.
"ANOTHER LURKER! He wasn't there before, I'm SURE of it!" Kuwabara shouted hysterically.
"Sorry Zeru!" Rinku grinned in a singsong voice. "I was just saying how-dee-do to our enemies."
"Enjoy your last evening alive. By this time tomorrow, you will strongly resemble that cup." As they shut the door behind them, Kuwabara's cup burst into two.
After Zeru and Rinku left, Hiei briefly glanced at the cup. One side was jagged, sloppily cut with heat energy. Interesting... He glanced at Yusuke. Even more so was the fact that she had managed to get his blade from him. And that she had gotten behind him. He contemplated this. She had increased her strength by at least three times over the course of the months... He glanced at her. And the way she fought him before the preliminaries was different from when they fought at that warehouse. Her movements were graceful, precise and flowing. Perfect for fighting, defensively or offensively... He got up and lifted and carried her to the bedroom she had to herself. As he walked to her room, carrying her, he saw Kurama frown. He was obviously thinking about something. And Hiei knew what. Pushing the thought from his mind to deal with it later, he entered her room. Gently setting her on the bed, he paused at the door, watching her sleep for a moment, then walked out, closing the door silently behind him.
Kurama watched Hiei leave and raised an eyebrow. He had suspected the fire/ice demon harbored feelings for their leader, but until now they had only been suspicions. He never a.) complimented people twice in a week and b.) carried anyone to their room. And he had been genuinely worried when that demon was about to kill her on the boat. Not to mention he could not keep his eyes off her. He sighed. Having Hiei as a love rival would not be easy, for the demon was ruthless in the pursuit of getting what he wanted. And to make matters even worse, he was almost positive that Koenma was interested in his reiki tantei. He rubbed his eyes, tiredly. At any rate, it would be entertaining to see how this would turn out.
Baka: idiot
Elimination match: if one person beats another, he keeps going to fight to fight until he loses, then they switch to their second member, etc.
Reiki tantei: Spirit detective, I am not sure I spelled it correctly, but you probably know what I mean.