Italics-flashback


Memories are beautiful things, reminding us of once was and how good life was before now. Then again, memories are also beautiful for the sadness that they are full of. There isn't a single creature on this planet that hasn't known any sorrow, not matter how silly it may seem to others. These memories can break people sometimes, crippling them until they can't bring themselves to even move, or live. After all, not everyone wants to go on living after their parents die. Or perhaps not everyone wants t live after the world rejects them for being different, or from suffering. How silly the world is… it denies itself everything to obtain what it wants, but once it gets what it desires it long for what it tossed aside to obtain what it once thought it needed. Like children wanting to be adult, and then go on to be adults who wish they were more like a child when they were younger.

That's all right though. Memories aren't all bad. If anything, at times these memories can give a creature strength, just like love can. Memories can make the heart sigh as it remembers the date it had with its lover. And then memories can make the heart weep by reminding it of that lost. Either way one looks at it, memories are a part of people and they will go on haunting the ones they belong to till the end of time.


It seemed this coliseum just reeked of activity and strange individuals, especially the hallways. Oh, how it seemed every time they walked down a hallway some strange, unusual event was taking place. First it involved meeting up with Gennai's group, and then those strange women, Saga and Lucien. Takuya decided it was official. The hallways were cursed to display the absurdity of the supernatural that they hoped would remain hidden. Like a poltergeist that enjoyed singing Disney songs far too much, or a vampire who could bend artificial lights… or even a Thunder Demon that could fall in love with a cursed human girl to have a type of werecat DNA coursing through her veins.

Today's unusual event just so happened to be a more violent type. There shaking her head, was the referee Cursed, her heads disapproving movement caused by a girl who appeared to be trying to gnaw Daisuke's head off. The other members of the Sponsor Gennai group watched with mildly amused, concerned, or annoyed faces. Saga and Lucien were there as well, watching this occurrence unfold.

"Daisuke, perhaps you should have NOT touched her cat…" Hikari mumbled softly, looking a bit worried about her friend.

"She can't do him any harm, trust me." Cursed sighed.

"I didn't mean to step on your cats tail though! It shouldn't have scampered like that! It's not MY fault!" Daisuke explained in a mildly whiny voice. He didn't mean for it to be whiny, but he DID have a girl trying to gnaw his head off. He had every reason to be upset; no matter what manner he chose to express it.

"Rawr! LIAR!" The girl yelled, and Daisuke winced due to her yelling having been so close to his sensitive ears.

"He said he was sorry…" Ken said softly, hoping to save the tortured one.

"Hey, Lucy-koi… where's the camera? I got to have a picture of this." Saga said grinning, her arm using her wife's shoulder as means to rest it against and lean somewhat.

"What's… going on?" Izumi asked, blinking. She was also curious as to why such a large group was gathering in the hallway, but it might have been best to not ask despite the fact she already did.

"Well, you see…" Miyako began, but the referee held her hand up to silence them.

"Let me explain. That girl…" Cursed started, jerking her thumb in the direction of the one currently biting Daisuke's head. "Is currently under my responsibility, until her guardians return. She's a bit… over-protective of her cat. Young Daisuke of Sponsor Gennai's team stepped on it's tail, she got all out of whack… and the rest of you seem to think that she can do him some harm. Unfortunately, they can't get it through their heads that young pony demons are harmless." She concluded.

"…but her yelling really hurts my ears." Daisuke pouted.

"Rararararararahahahah!" The girl cackled.

"…pony demon?" Takuya asked, raising an inquisitive brow and then looking at Kouji for answers. The vampire sighed, and shrugged to show he didn't know they existed either.

"Hah! You're getting beat up by a pony demon? That's rich!" Junpei said, snickering. He wasn't making fun of Daisuke, but it WAS amusing. To a demon anyway. We simpletons… err, humans don't quite understand these weird jokes. Which is why Takuya remained confused, along with Tomoki.

"Where IS the cat you keep referring to?" The young illusionist, betterly known as the kawaii chibi Tomoki, asked curiously.

"Mreow?" A black kitten asked, tilting its head up at Tomoki.

"Oh!" Tomoki said surprised.

"Don't touch the cat." Daisuke said, his eyes afraid. "We might end up fighting each other, but there's no suffering like feeling tiny teeth trying to eat you and yet do no harm. It kind of tickles though… but the yelling gives you this REALLY horrible head ache." He said.

"All right, I'm bored now." Saga announced lazily. "Hey… you two." She said, motioning at Miyako and Mimi. "Make out or something." She suggested. Mimi looked at her as if she lost her mind, while Miyako blushed furiously.

"Ooh! And take a picture!" The girl squealed, now just latched onto Daisuke's head rather than gnawing on it. Her long purple tail swished this way and that happily, and she leaned forward excitedly.

"…ever get the feeling we're surrounded by lesbians?" Kouji asked jokingly to Takuya. The brunette snickered.

"Or you two could make out! Yay! Kissu! Kissy! Smoochieeee! Kyaaaa!" The girl squealed, bouncing while still latched onto the poor guy known as Daisuke's head.

"Ahh! Someone, just do something gay so she'll GET OFF ME!" Daisuke yelled. To come to his rescue and answer his prayers, Ken gave him a quick chaste kiss. Izumi squealed like the fangirl she secretly was, Tomoki blushed at seeing this action, Takuya blinked, Kouji raised a brow, Kouichi snickered, Saga took a picture, Lucien rolled her eyes, Miyako giggled, Mimi twitched, Taichi snogged Yamato since no one was looking, and Cursed realized she was surrounded by those creepy fans and gay people. Not that she cared, but at least some sanity would have been nice in her opinion. Although, somewhere deep down within her a tiny fox fangirl was doing the happy dance.

"Wow… I saw that up close." The girl said, and with that abruptly fainted. The cat quickly ran over to see if the pony demon was still even alive. She kind of wasn't moving…

"Is it dead?" Daisuke asked, after getting over his newfound freedom and getting kissed by the sexy beast known as Ken.

"No. She's been known to smash her head into all sorts of things before. It usually takes her a few minutes to realize what happened, and then she shrugs it all off." Cursed explained, then looked at them with narrowed eyes. "You might want to prepare for the next round. And don't be so friendly with each other, due to some unfortunate events in one Sponsor's group there's be a minor change in the battle charts." They all stared at her. She smirked at their confusion, and then sighed sadly.

"Congratulations, Sponsor Gennai…" Gennai looked at her. "Sponsor Yamaki." He looked at her as well. Her lip twitched down some, as if she had a bad taste in her mouth or something was bothering her. "You'll be facing each other in two days. I expect a good fight, and that you won't let the other suffer. I'm sorry." With that, she bowed in apology, picked up the seemingly dead body of the pony demon, and the cat pounced on her shoulder as she walked off.

"…" They were silent, and looked at each other. Yamaki and Gennai grimly looked at one another, and sighed.

"Wondering what I'm wondering?" Gennai queried.

"That if Kisei had something to do with this, 'unfortunate event'?" Yamaki asked grimly. His long-time friend nodded, and the members of the two teams shifted uneasily.

"Bet he probably did something to make us go against one another, eh?" Gennai asked, his humor dry and dark, the joke not intending for the listener to laugh or be amused by this.

"Only he would do that, eh? Afraid with us two not facing each other, one will indefinitely fight them and defeat them." Yamaki sighed.

"Well, Yamaki… I wish you the best of luck." Gennai said gravely.

"I wish you much luck as well, Gennai." Yamaki said, a hint of sadness and regret in his voice. "It always comes to this, doesn't it?" He asked, the other nodding. The Sponsors team members were confused by that statement, but decided against asking. It was probably a reference to another tournament. After all, the world of ghosts and goblins had all sorts of tournaments; this perhaps wasn't the first one these Sponsors partook in.

"Come on, let's get ready…" Gennai said, ushering his team to go with him. They passed by Yamaki's, saying nothing. Once they were gone, the blonde Sponsor heaved a heavy sigh.

"I can't believe it's coming to this…" He muttered, running his fingers through his short hair. Turning to face his little troupe, Yamaki ensured that none of them had wandered off and were all there in one piece. "We best be off to do a quick defensive-style training. You guys mostly learned offensive, so some defense might be a nice thing to learn." He announced, and glanced as to where his friend left before releasing another sigh.

"Why?" Izumi asked, casting him a suspicious glance. Kouji immediately jumped on the untrusting bar that the blonde teen raised, giving the elder blonde man an unsure gaze. "There something you're not telling us?" She asked him.

"Not so much as not telling you, as haven't had a chance to explain yet. Come along," Yamaki started, beginning to walk at a fairly quick pace causing the teens to scuttle quickly after him.

"What's going on?" Takuya asked, watching Yamaki's facial expressions once he caught up to the man.

"Gennai is an old friend of mine, and so we equally know that the other doesn't play around when it comes to things like this," Yamaki began. "Thus, we each both equally know the other would never choose a fighter they consider incapable of making it to the final round of this tournament." He went on. "Gennai's team isn't going to be gentle when they face us, even if they know we're allies. While we are friends and allies, we each have the same goal and no other choice but to try and reach that goal. Kisei knew of this, which is why we're assuming he had something to do with this 'minor' change in the battle charts." He finished.

"Why'd you say minor like that?" Takuya questioned him.

"An entire row in the official battle chart had been knocked off. That means multiple teams had been knocked out of the tournament because of the unfortunate event to that one Sponsor. Which is rather unnerving." Yamaki stated calmly, giving a view into what he was meant.

"That's weird…" Takuya said quietly to himself.

"All right, to ensure I got this all figured out… Gennai's team is going to be a tough fight, correct? And because of whatever happened, that happened… we're one step closer to fighting Kisei's team?" Izumi asked, making sure she understood everything.

"Yes. Although the fight against Kisei I'm not so sure about, because remember… there's still a chance someone else will defeat them somewhere along the way." He said, sighing. Once they reached a room where other competitors in the tournament were busily exercising or working out, he briskly walked over to some doors. Whispering to the person standing in front of it, they nodded and he motioned the teenagers to follow. Doing as directed, they quickly moved forward to see what he wanted. He opened the door, and they gawked at what they saw. A huge room with all sorts of strange contraptions and such, it looked like the ideal place to train. And that's exactly why he brought them there. Train they did, preparing for their upcoming fight.


The night sky was beautiful at that moment, with the stars twinkling high above and dim clouds with a faint purple occurring in its shadows. Torches were lit all around the arena, and it gave a ceremonial appearance. The sky being clear aside from the few clouds, stars, and the moons showed that no abnormal weather was to come that night. Unless of course a weather mage wished to put a certain match to the ones she favored advantage, or their opponents were capable of altering it. Yes, it was the fateful night of the battle between Yamaki and Gennai… the fight all had dreaded, yet knew it would end up happening in the end. It just so happened that it was occurring before the 'end'.

Sponsor Yamaki lead his team forward, them following looking rather uncomfortable with the current situation at hand. Tomoki still wasn't ready for a battle; the young poor boy just didn't see how it was right in any sort of way to kill someone, especially an ally. Kouji didn't mind the fact he had to fight tonight, he was a vampire after all. He thrived in the night, so he was rather comfortable with everything involving him. Although he did have multiple concerns for the youngest, but his concerns weren't as obvious or in immense quantities as that of Takuya's. Junpei was finally going to take part in a battle, seeing as last time he had been denied a fight due to the alarming true nature of Takuya's first opponent.

On the opposite of were they entered, came Gennai and his team behind him. They each wore solemn, blank expressions. This was a fight, and they were going to treat it as that. They needed to win in order to stop Kisei and his group, and even if they lost they knew that it merely meant their opponent stood a higher chance of protecting the world from that villainous vampire. Either way they looked at it, they couldn't permit emotions to get in the way. If they did, then it'd be difficult to determine who was stronger… and while emotions did make one strong, certain ones did cause problems. Such as the mild friendship the two teams developed from an understanding they wished the other the best of luck and had a common goal, if paid too much attention to… they'd hesitate, and that'd cause a problem. So they all agreed if they were the victors, they'd give the fallen one a painless death. They cared too much to cause any more suffering than what they were forced to.

Walking up to the center of the arena, Cursed looked from Yamaki to Gennai as an expression of unease flashed on her facial features. It seemed the referee understood the situation, and actually had a feeling of sorrow. Amazing. Perhaps some demons that didn't live amongst humans because they wanted to, do have feelings aside from hate. "Tonight's match is Sponsor Gennai against Sponsor Yamaki, two of one of the most well-renowned Sponsors around. This battle should be interesting, as we see which of these two proved to be the more wise and strategic. Sponsor Gennai, you may send out your fighter first." As she 'announced' all this she spoke in a clear voice, not seeming affected at all anymore by the battle that was preparing to commence.

The pink-haired teenager with red highlights walked up to the arena, her petal ears flattening themselves against the side of her head. She wore a tight pink midriff top, and black leather pants and had on no shoes. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail, with a hair tie at the bottom holding the lower half of the hair so the many strands wouldn't go all over the place. She stood next to Cursed, who raised a brow at her but said nothing. The fox demon then turned her attention on Yamaki, who looked up from trying to ease a rather flustered Takuya.

"Sponsor Yamaki, it is now your turn to send in an opponent against Sponsor Gennai's chosen fighter, whom is Mimi." Cursed announced, and the blonde man nodded. He walked over and said something to Junpei, who nodded and headed towards the arena. Junpei felt the electricity inside him crackle and yearn to be released and move everywhere and nowhere before a person could blink their eye in response to it. Ignoring his body's natural desire to move quickly, he went to the arena's center and stood in front of Mimi. "Wait until I get off this damned this before you fight. Last time nearly got my arm off…" The demon grouched, and jumped up in order to do a backwards flip landing a safe distance away. The mages did their chant, and set up the barrier used to protect the onlookers and keep outside interferences from creating any issues in this one-on-one battle.

He felt unnaturally tense, and ill-at ease. He only fought when the other attacked him wanted to kill him. He knew his opponent didn't really want to, but was going to try to because that was the rule. Practically the only rule. Mimi's eyes hardened, as she took one step forward. Seeing his opponent's preparation, he immediately silenced his conscience and let the energy that resided within him release itself in an enormous wave shaking the arena and causing minor cracks to appear in it. The Thunder Demon was hardly surprised when he saw these cracks immediately repair themselves, although he did have to marvel at his opponent's defense strategy that saved her from being grilled. A large, burnt flower petal was in the way of his vision of the pink-haired teen, which soon fell over and turned to dust with Mimi standing unharmed behind it.

If she was going to defend herself from long distance attacks, especially the magical-centered type, he might as well go for the short-range attacks that made him mingle physical attacks with lightning. Something he personally liked to call, 'Thunder Fists'. Evaporating into electronically charged particles, he moved with the speed of light. Thus, it was understandable as to why Mimi didn't even get the chance to whisper the incantation to summon the protective petal of her plant element-based defense. His first blow knocked her backwards, causing her to roll on the cement arena. She shakily got up shakily from the surprise of his speed and strength, although she shouldn't have expected anything less from a Thunder Demon. Before she could stand up completely and recover some more, another quick attack knocked her in the opposite direction of that of the first hit, in order to ensure she wasn't forced out of the arena.

This went on for a few minutes, Junpei aiming for a quick, easy painless one-hit KO in order to not create any sort of suffering on his opponent's part. Unfortunately, Mimi didn't permit him any one-hit wonders, and so much to his dismay he was beating her around more than he cared to. It made him feel like a coward; but if he stopped and resumed long-range then they'd get nowhere. How he wished Yamaki had taught him other techniques…! But then, he was hundreds of years old… he should have already known more ways to fight in this sort of combat. While he was concentrating on attempting his one-hit painless deathblows, Mimi was starting to ignore the pain and it grew numb. Once this point of physical lack of feeling, she concentrated her mental energies on the dormant life beneath the arena. The cracks in the cement that refused to fix themselves left room for her to summon what she needed.

It helped a great deal as well that because so much blood, tissue, and other such things had gone to the earth beneath the entire coliseum a great deal of nitrogen and other nutrients made themselves enrichen the soil far more than she could ever hope for. No one ever said that death never brought new life. As the last of her spell was said, her eyes snapped open and vines burst out from the cracks of the arena. They somehow were everywhere in the arena, and yet left enough room for Mimi to move. Junpei saw the trap, but because his speed was unable to stop before he was caught in it. Mimi must have been a Plant Enchantress, meaning that she was almost one with the plants. Using her words, and soft songs she could give the tiniest seed life, no matter how dormant it was. And given the proper environment, she didn't always need to concentrate her energies on helping the plant grow at alarming rates.

Thus, she could concentrate on entrusting the plants with magical properties; such as she had done now. All these vines could ensnare electricity, exactly the form Junpei took until now that he had been caught. Incapable of moving, he attempted to free his body by using sheer muscle. Not that it was a feeble attempt, but on enchanted vines it wasn't going to do much for him. Mimi panted slightly, before taking a deep breath and stood up finally without being knocked around like some sort of rag doll. Making a certain motion with her hands, she sang softly under her breath before Junpei released a cry as the vines forcefully drained the very energy that made up his body, heart, and soul. Before he knew it, everything went black.

It was dark, cold, and wet. He had been trapped inside this rock for ages… but exactly how many ages he didn't honestly know. He just knew his entrapment was a mistake, and now he was doomed to be there… bored out of his mind until the universe decided it was time to hit the 'rewind' button and start all over again. Or someone finally brought Divine Retribution against the dark creatures that dared torment souls so. Did that count as the Apocalypse? Perhaps… Sighing, Junpei continued on trying to occupy his bored mind. Long ago he lost amusement in anything, and so he lay there in the rock… bored out of his mind. Every now and then letting himself fall into the depths of his mind where he couldn't even understand what he was thinking.

A disturbance in the water. His eyes glanced up, although why he couldn't honestly say. It wasn't like he could see anything, so what good did it do him? Hope. That was it. It was his hope, and that was something that somehow never managed to die. Screaming… someone was screaming. They were drowning, they were wet, they couldn't see, breathe, think… they were so lost. He had to help them! How he longed to help all the drowning humans that fell to the dark waters around him. Strangely enough, a miracle happened. Something pierced into the rock, smashing the outer layers of it and freeing Junpei. He was… free! The drowning soul, they freed him! Now he had to save them! Not even giving it a second thought as to who, or how they freed him he reached for the struggling drowner.

Once having a good hold of them, he moved through the waters without electrocuting everything or harming the drowning swimmer in his arms. They struggled… and then went limp. They couldn't be dead yet! He wouldn't let them be dead yet…! Tearing free of the water, he flew upwards and landed down on a cliff where his rescuer either dived from or fell from. It was a human girl… in torn clothes? Was she in trouble? Her face was pale, and her eyelids covered her eyes. She appeared dead… her blonde hair lay all around her head, or clung to her face because of the water it had absorbed. She was rather young, and was petite looking. Her tank top looked rip and torn, but it managed to cover her upper half's developing female organs. He blushed slightly turning away, and when he looked up he saw odd humans running after with off long objects towards them.

They must've been wanting to hurt this girl! Well, he wasn't going to let them! She freed him, and probably did no wrong; gathering the weak human in his arms, he took off again. He moved far to fast for the other humans to have even noticed they were there and left. Once they reached an area far away from the cliff, he watched over her anxiously. Her cursed his mind for not learning more about the human species from his friend, Kagami. How that Fire Demon loved humans so! It drove Mizu absolutely insane. The blonde girl stirred, and groaned softly. Junpei immediately went to her, to see if she was awake and to know if there were injuries he wasn't aware of. Her eyes slowly cracked open, and piercing blue orbs looked at him unsurely.

"Are you all right, Miss?" Junpei asked, his voice wavering in and out like a fuzzy radio.

"…who are you?" She asked.

"I'm Shibayama Junpei. Are you all right?" He answered her, and then pressed his question further.

"…did I… hurt anyone?" She asked, before slowly pushing herself up. She looked a total mess – hair frizzed out, clothes torn, face pale and sickly looking, not to mention the bruises that covered her skin.

"You were out when I… found you." Junpei answered. "Are you all right?" He asked, biting his bottom lip. Was it possible she had gone deaf? She wasn't freaking out… if she had gone deaf, she'd be wondering why she couldn't hear anything. And how exactly did this young human manage to get so far in depth of the ocean and survived?

"Oh." Was all she said in reply. Looking up at him, she shyly smiled and offered her hand. "Orimoto Izumi, pleasure to meet you. Where'd you find me?" She asked.

"…in the water." Junpei said softly. "When I brought you out, there were these men with long weird metal poles and light shining through these… cups… I felt electricity in them, it was so strange…" He explained himself, slightly blushing. He sounded pretty stupid there.

"I see." Was all Izumi said, and then laughed. "Oh! I get it. You're not from around here, are you?" She asked.

"Well… no, not really." Junpei answered honestly. He wasn't, realistically speaking he was from an entirely different world.

"Oh, that's good." Izumi laughed. "I would be in big trouble if a normal human found me." She added. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance Junpei! I am the cursed human, Izumi. A feral cat bit me, and next thing I know I have this huge craving for a good hunt with warm, raw flesh in my mouth and turning into this weird cross-species." She introduced, standing up and bowing. Junpei looked surprised, but then smiled.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Junpei the Thunder Demon." He said, happy to have met a quirky human. She wasn't entirely human though… but she wasn't of the supernatural permanently either. They spent several hours talking, and she told him about her friends Tomoki and Takuya…

The darkness left him; his eyes snapped open. Mimi jumped back alarmed. He was lying on his back in the arena, the vines still restraining him down. The pink-haired Plant Enchantress was just about to cut his head clean off with a leaf-like sword, and had he not startled her so suddenly by awakening so suddenly… he gulped. In the distance her heard Izumi yelling his name, and telling him to stop sleeping. Takuya had a relieved expression, and Kouji must have been restraining him before because he had a good hold on the brunette. Tomoki looked as if he was about to cry, and Ruki had this indifferent expression. Yamaki himself had this calm look, as if he either didn't care if Junpei died or had enough confidence in Junpei's abilities to know it was silly to doubt him. He could feel the vines were weakened by the process of draining his electricity and converting it to something harmless.

Taking his chance, he used as much strength as he could muster to snap the vines restraining him. Well, Izumi told him to stop sleeping… and so, he wasn't going to. Casting a glance at the now blonde teen, he smiled and she grinned. Using electricity wouldn't work now… and if there was one thing he learned over time from Izumi, it was that a hand-to-hand type combat was perfect in these situations. Especially when your opponent apparently seemed more in touch with defense and a straight on frontal offensive attack they weren't accustomed to was ideal right now. For once, the 'use all your might and beat them senseless' was the perfect strategy.

Racing forward on his two legs, Mimi immediately raised the petal defense expecting him to get close so he could give off a small charge but have it still be as effective as a farther one because he was too weak now to give a powerful long-distance lightening attack. Too bad she wasn't expecting him to go right around the petal and punch her – hard- in the gut. Gasping out, she fell forward over and hung limply on his arm. Coughing up little droplets of blood, she inhaled in and exhaled out at a fast rate, trying to refill her emptied lungs from the harsh attack. Her temporary moment of weakness, and the only time he'd ever have her defenses down to kill her in one quick move. Using his other arm, he carried his elbow down as fast as it could go and rammed right into the back of her neck. A crack let out, and the brown eyes of the pink-haired girl immediately went dull. He managed to snap her neck from behind by using enough force from his elbow to cause the neck to go downward as her head was forced up from the contact and her back remained without the permission from moving any which way, up or down.

"And the winner is Junpei!" Cursed announced, and the crowd roared. The fox demon rolled her eyes at them, and quickly hopped up on the stage as the barriers were let down. Junpei gently placed the girls dead body down, and gave her soul a silent prayer to be in a place where she was happy. He didn't look it right now, but he was hurting inside. She didn't even want to kill him. But it was either her or him, and as Yamaki explained the other team already knew the silent agreement. The strongest side would win in the end, and thus the stronger ones were better suited in when it came time of possibly facing Kisei, or whatever other horror was out there waiting for them. It was a disgusting way to look at things, but as the blonde Sponsor explained it was the only way they could look at it. He wasn't saying it to make all the regret and pain to go away if they came in as the victor of the match, but he did say it so they'd understand. If they wanted to protect all of humanity, they were going to be forced into horrors like this. Junpei just wished that they didn't have too.

"I'm sorry." Junpei whispered to the dead girl, and clenched his fists. Saying that didn't make it feel any better, and now he just felt like a cold-blooded murderer. Taking a shaky breath, he quickly left the arena as Cursed picked up the lifeless form and gave Miyako an apologetic face. The purple-haired girl kept her expression apathetic, but inside everything had fallen apart. The fox demon gave the body to mages, who then left with it to put it wherever it was all those bodies went. Hopefully to a properly set funeral.

"Y-…Sponsor Yamaki, send in your fighter." Cursed said, her voice almost cracking. It seemed someone was secretly playing favorites. The blonde man nodded his head, and bent down to Tomoki.

"I'm sorry this is to be your first battle, Tomoki." Yamaki apologized, and the teens immediately turned on him in an angry manner. The illusionist looked mortified, but meekly nodded his head. "Whatever you do, don't panic. You know what happens when you do. You can do this Tomoki. I'm very sorry I'm asking you to do this, but if you're not prepared now, you never will be." The blonde man whispered. Ruki kept her indifferent face, but Kouji had to do his best to restrain Takuya from trying to turn Yamaki into a cinder. Izumi looked in disbelief at their Sponsor, and Junpei was unable to find himself to feel anything at the moment aside from regret. The small boy nodded slowly, and ever so unsurely went to the arena. Cursed looked at him disapprovingly, and then cast Yamaki one of the nastiest glares Takuya had ever seen since Kouji first laid eyes on the blonde man.

"Sponsor Gennai, choose your fighter." Cursed requested, and a few minutes later Daisuke walked up onto the arena. Ken looked upset by this, and was yelling to Gennai and asking if the man had lost his mind. The man remained silent. "All right, Tomoki of Sponsor Yamaki, against Daisuke of Sponsor Gennai! Wait for the referee to escape your hazards!" She announced to all, and quickly scuttled off with the barriers rising up soon afterwards. This next battle would certainly be interesting.


A/N: Sorry this chapter took forever, and sorry didn't get a chance to contact anyone to beta read so there are mistakes. Big thanks to GG-san who helped out A LOT with this chapter. Sorry there will be no replies to reviews this chapter, for I am off to work on the next one. There's a bucket full of shotguns for those who feel the need to shoot me in the leg for taking forever to update. Gomen nasai. Please forgive me. And even sorrier this chapter sucked and lacked Koukuya.