Warnings: None


Lucky Child

Chapter 86:

"PRETTY REFEREE KOTO'S FIRST CLASS FAN CLUB"


Jin looked for all the world like a fire demon, and the fact that he was not some distant relative of Hiei's absolutely blew my mind.

It wasn't just the hair that evoked the image of burning fire, though of course that's the thing you notice about Jin first. His skin looked as if he'd spent time on a warm beach somewhere while the sun kissed his skin to golden. His eyes, rich and electric blue, were the hearts of intense flames, radiating warmth and the fluid lick of fire. He even moved like a flame, dancing from foot to foot between moments, never still, never ceasing. But then a cool wind blew through the clearing and set his hair to tossing, and he laughed like a spring breeze, and his connection to air and zephyrs became as obvious as his long, pointed ears and the pearly horn jutting out of the fiery riot of his mane.

He looked more like a fire demon that the dark, brooding Hiei ever had.

Also he was super tall (like even taller than Kuwabara). Yet another reason he and Hiei looked nothing whatsoever alike. Distant cousins my butt.

And like the flame he so resembled, he danced right over to me with a huge grin on his face, putting out as much light and heat as a kerosene lamp. "Ello, love," he said, beaming in a way that undermined his height; it would be very easy for the tall, muscular Jin to loom, but he wasn't intimidating in the slightest thanks to his cheerful grin. "So did mine ears deceive me, or are you a fan o' ol' Jin like I thought you were, eh?"

"Oh my god." The words slipped out of my mouth unbidden, but the next ones were quite intentional. I backed up a pace and smacked Atsuko on the shoulder without taking my eyes off Jin. "Oh my god. Atsuko. Shizuru." I let out a giddy screech and rocked onto the balls of my feet. "It's really him!"

The aforementioned women looked at me like I was nuts—until I put my back to Jin and winked, overstated and conspiratorial. Shizuru caught on first with a slight narrowing of her eyes, but it was Atsuko (being the one with the most dramatic personality and the smallest attachment to dignity) who actually deigned to play along once she caught my drift. She had no idea where said drift was headed, of course, but Atsuko is nothing if not a good sport.

"Oh my god." Atsuko put her hands to her cheeks and gasped. "It is him. Wow!" A spark caught in her eye as she looked Jin over. "And man am I glad to see him up close, because those are some abs if I ever saw any."

Jin preened; his widened smile revealed a set of pointed eyeteeth, long and sharp and… oh. Now he finally looked a bit intimidating, although Atsuko didn't seem to mind. She only had eyes for the chiseled muscles decorating his abdomen, chest, and absolutely ripped arms, all of which had been placed on prominent display by his uniform. It was his famous anime uniform, white pants held up by a belt and two cloth straps crisscrossing over his chest—which means he was basically shirtless, much to Atsuko's delight.

And to mine. I'm not ashamed. Jin was an absolute freakin' treat to look at, and as he crossed his arms behind his head and flexed with a rather lascivious wink, I got the sense he damn well knew it, too.

I didn't let myself lose focus, however, or get distracted by his… um. Charms. With an exaggerated sigh, I hung my head and cupped my face in my hands. I barely had time to make myself look sad before Jin nearly teleported to my side, enormous blue eyes anxious as they peered down into my face.

"Aye, now. What's the matter?" he said. "Pretty face like yours has no business lookin' so long, that it does."

I sighed again. "I'm sorry. I really am excited to meet you, I promise. You're a legend. But…"

His eyes opened as wide as they could go. "But what, eh? You can tell ol' Jin."

"It's just—I was so looking forward to seeing you fight later, but our friend has all our tickets and she went inside the arena without us. So we can't get in to see you fight, and it's…" I sniffed; because crying on command is hard and I wasn't sure if I could handle it, I ducked my chin and hid my face behind my bangs. "It's just not fair, is all."

Crocodile tears were enough to work on Jin, I was pleased to find out. Large hands descended onto my shoulders with a reassuring squeeze. "There there now, don't go cryin' o'er spilt milk, wee lamb." Jesus, it was weird hearing someone speak Japanese through a thick Irish accent; WTF, the dub actually got that right? But Jin with his accent didn't pause to let me adjust to his odd speech patterns. He patted my head and gave me a huge grin, encouraging and sincere. "I don't go on until later in the afternoon, I'm happy to let ya know. Mayhap your friend'll come lookin' for you n' yours before then, hmm, and you ken get inta the stadium on time?"

My head snapped up. "Eh?"

"There now, see?" He beamed some more, apparently convinced he'd placated me. "Nothin' to cry over. You'll see ol' Jin fight yet. Just be patient and ye ken—"

"N-no!"

He blinked. "No?"

"No." I shook my head. "I—?"

His perplexed expression had his head tilting to the side, long ears twitching as he waited for me to continue on—but I couldn't, because I'd been counting on my sad-cute-girl act to get me what I wanted, but instead he'd pointed out a flaw in my logic I hadn't counted on. Crap. It had also pointed out that my scheme to get inside the dome had way more to do with wanting to meet Jin than it did getting our tickets back from Botan. Double crap. Was I being selfish, grabbing his attention and trying to ask for his help instead of just waiting for Botan to come back out, which was arguably way more logical a tactic than the fiction I'd been spinning for Jin?

… or was it?

I mean, sure, we could wait for Botan to realize her mistake and come back to give us our tickets… but she'd fled from Koenma very much on purpose. What if she'd taken the tickets with her intentionally, to buy herself some time alone? Farfetched, sure, but it was possible. And there was also the possibility that she just plain wouldn't realize her error for another hour or three, or that she'd mistake our absence for us respecting her wish to be alone. If we missed seeing our team fight over something silly like that, that'd suck.

So, no. Standing there and looking at Jin, I privately decided I was doing the right thing. No sense taking chances; if I could control the situation somehow, that could only be a good thing. Especially if I got to meet one of my favorite characters in the bargain.

I opened my eyes as wide as they would go until they started to water. "She's alone, my friend," I said, allowing my voice to shake most pathetically. "She had a fight with another friend of ours and I'm just so worried…"

Jin's eyes widened, too. "Well, now. Why didn't ya say so? That sounds awful!"

"Yeah, it totally was." I wiped my eyes on my sleeve and heaved a forced sob. "Her name's Botan. She was in a terrible state and now she's all alone, the poor thing."

Atsuko appeared at my side. "Maybe she's gotten lost and she's scared out of her mind," she added with somber helpfulness.

I nodded. "And she was distraught when she ran off."

"Definitely not thinking clearly."

"Definitely not!"

Jin's head whipped between us as we traded observations about what a state Botan had been in, how worried we were, how alone she must feel. Shizuru took to leaning against a tree to watch the show, pulling long drags off her cigarette as her brows climbed up and up toward the edge of her hairline. Just as we really started in on all the horrible things that could happen to Botan when she was alone, however, the dog demon (oof, I'd forgotten he was here) stepped forward.

"I, uh." He looked at Atsuko and me in turns. "I don't know about any of that, but Jin—would you mind an autograph?"

Jin did a double-take. "Och, I've got demon fans, too?" He took the pen and paper the demon had proffered with a laugh. "What fun! Just give it here and… hmm." He frowned at the paper for a minute. "Do I sign like this, or…?"

The dog-demon must have been thrilled by the autograph, however Jin chose to sign it in the end, because he walked off with a giggle back toward the stadium. Jin watched him go before turning my way—but as he looked me over for a second, he paused. He put a hand to his chin, blue eyes narrowing just a smidge in his boyishly handsome face.

"Although… say now." One finger lifted toward my face. "How'd you hear about me, anyhow?"

"…eh?"

"You're a human, near as I can tell." He seemed pleased with himself for making that observation. "Even in Demon World, information about the shinobi is scarce, that it is. So how did ya…?"

It was an excellent question I hadn't had the time to prepare myself for, so I did the only thing I could think of and just laughed—and put a hand on his arm for good measure. "I'm just a really, really big nerd about this stuff, I guess!" I said, batting my lashes up at Jin (the act made me feel utterly ridiculous, but I put that feeling aside as I tried to look genuine). "And that's how I know it's dangerous for my friend to be all alone, sad and distracted, in this crowd!"

He hummed thoughtfully. "Ya've got a point there, that ya do."

"And can you keep a secret, Jin?" I leaned up toward him to whisper, "She's like me—in that she'll stand out from the crowd, because she's not exactly a demon."

Jin covered my hand with his and gave a nod of affirmation. "I see now why you're worried! But without tickets, you've got no chance of finding your friend."

"That's right. And I hate to ask this of you, Jin, but…" I looked at him from under my lashes and bit my lip, playing up the part of a woman very much in need of assistance. "Is there any way you could possibly find it in your very handsome self to help us find our friend?"

He didn't even think about it. "Well, when you put it like that, how could I ever dream o' sayin' no?" he chirped, and it was only partially an act when I squealed and pumped a fist into the air in grateful triumph. Atsuko cheered, too, while Shizuru managed to look grudgingly impressed against her chosen tree. But soon Jin put a hand to his chin again, blue eyes rolling to the sky from which they'd stolen their brilliant color.

"But wait just one minute, now, while I figure out how I can be o' help." His lips pursed, though how they managed that feat around his teeth I can't say. "Hmm. I dunno what she looks like, this wayward friend o' yours, so finding her on your behalf is out, and besides—I'll be needing to show up to the pre-tourney seminar, that I will. Don't got all the time in the world even to spend on pretty girls, shame though it might be to admit that ugly truth."

I pretended to look upset. "I see. Shoot." And I pretended to think about an alternative, glad Jin hadn't just offered to go look for her; that wasn't what I was after. "Do you think you could just get us into the stadium so we could look around for her? Once we're past the guards, not having tickets probably won't be a problem."

He snapped his fingers and grinned. "Aye, now there's an idea! I've got free reign to enter the stadium since I'm one o' their top fighters, if I do say so myself—but am I allowed to bring a guest?" His hand went back to his chin. "Maybe I shouldn't have slept through the opening ceremony, after all, but that man on the stage droned on for so long I just plain couldn't keep my eyes open…" He glanced at the black cloak hanging from his elbow, the same cloak I'd seen him in before he met me here in the woods. "Could probably smuggle you in under my cloak, if it came to that, but we'd have to cuddle quite close, that we would, and we only just met."

His eyebrows waggled. I giggled, possessed by a lightning strike of boldness. "Take me out to dinner sometimes and we'll talk?" I said, barely even believing the words as they came flying from my mouth.

Not that Jin was complaining. "Ah, so the human is sassy," he stated with relish. "I rather like that, if ya don't mind my sayin' so."

"I'm supremely likeable, so that comes as no surprise."

"Aye, I'll say you are—but let's put a pin in that for just a mo'. I'll earn that admiration, mark my words." A wink followed his statement, and then he went back to brainstorming. "No, the cloak is out like last week's leftovers, methinks… but if I can't sneak ya in the gates, and I don't have a spare ticket to me name, and I can't look for your friend myself…" He rolled his eyes. "And Risho told me I had to lie low, if you catch my meaning, and gettin' the whole lot o' ya inside would draw attention like a siren at midnight…"

"What if it was just me?"

Jin's head cocked. "Just you?"

"Yeah. Y'know." A thrust my hand through the air like a rocket and made a zooming noise between my teeth. "Woosh. Over and up. Just me?"

His eyes traced my hand on its upward journey. "Over and…" He grinned, eyes lit from within with understanding. "Och, that oughtta work, and it'd be quicker n' a flash, too!"

Atsuko, who didn't enjoy being left out, crossed her arms with a scowl. "What'll be quicker than a flash, now?"

"Yeah. What're you two planning?" Shizuru concurred. She dropped her depleted cigarette and tamped it out with her heel, eyes trained heavy on my face. "And Keiko, how are you and Jin—?"

To be honest, I wasn't entirely sure what she was about to ask me, but judging by the shrewd look in her eye, it wasn't a question I wanted to answer in front of Jin. "Remember how you said you wished you could be like Botan? With her oar and whatnot?" I cut in instead.

Shizuru's scowl deepened. "Yeah. Why?"

"Botan's not the only one around here who can fly."

Jin laughed. "Oh, so your missing friend can fly, now can she?" His ears bounced. "Now I really want to help ya find her, that I do!"

The eagerness in his voice was a fine complement to the eagerness in my chest when I turned his way, ready to negotiate how we'd take to the skies and in what manner I'd prefer he carry me, but he didn't wait long enough for me to start talking. Something told me Jin wasn't one for talking much at all. He scooped me up with no more preamble than a giddy laugh, and as I reclined in his arms with a shriek, he stared down at me with the single most enthusiastic grin I'd ever seen. I latched onto his neck on reflex when a wind kicked up, because I knew what would follow even though Jin hadn't seen fit to give me warning.

And then, it happened: That sick rush as we rose upward, the wind buoying Jin aloft just a few sharp inches above the forest floor. Flying. Flight. It was only a few inches up, but we'd done it. I yelped into the broad expanse of his chest, but my head jerked back up again when Shizuru called my name.

"Keiko!" she said above the rush of the wind. Her hair whipped around her face in coppery strands, dark eyes growing darker still with worry. "Keiko, are you sure you can trust—?"

"'Course I can!" The words burst from my mouth like fireworks. "'Course I can trust him!"

Somehow, even above the sound of the wind, I heard Jin laugh. Maybe I felt the laughter in his chest, close to it as he'd clutched me. I looked up and found him grinning, blue eyes glowing like liquid heat, fangs on full and joyous display—but they didn't deter me in the slightest from grinning back, and laughing in return, and tossing Shizuru a grin so carefree it surprised even me.

"'Course I can trust him!" I repeated. "He's Jin!"

Jin laughed again—and without another word, he took to the air and flew.


Jin launched like a missile skyward, a vertical leap out of the clearing that arched through the air and toward the stadium as if guided by GPS. For all the terror of the takeoff, however, we touched down with surprising gentleness, a cushion of air slowing our descent to the top of the stadium. The open-air stadium, with its conspicuous lack of roof, had a lip around the upper edge, an overhang protecting the uppermost level from the direct glare of the sun. It was upon this Jin landed, where we stood next to one another on the sloped roof overlooking the ring and seats below.

Took me a second to catch my breath, and while I did it, I tried to get a good look around. From below drifted the cheers of the spectators, now completely unobscured by the stadium's walls; it roared like the ocean in my ears, inescapable and sibilant. To my surprise, we weren't alone atop the stadium. Dozens of other demons, mostly winged and feathered, crowded the edges of this roof to stare into the ring like watching gargoyles. Fliers like Jin, it seemed, who perhaps didn't even own tickets but for whom obedience to gravity was merely a suggestion. I stared at them until a voice boomed above the ocean-like rush of the crowd. The voice came as clearly as a bell, another sound no longer blocked by the bulk of the stadium itself.

"Now I know you're impatient, you beautiful bloodthirsty fans," (Koto, clearly; she had a lovely voice, excited but with excellent diction in spite of her chattered words) "but if you'll be patient just a moment longer while we repair the ring—"

Jin said, "If you mind my arm, just let me know."

I looked at him. "Eh?"

"My arm." Said appendage, which he'd looped around my waist, tightened, fingers drumming playfully against my ribs. "Our footin' ain't so sure and I wouldn't want ya to fall, but if it's a bit too much, we can always hold hands instead."

"I see," I said, matching his flirtatious grin with one of my own. "Glad to know you're so flexible."

Jin preened like the birds whose flight he imitated. "I'm a lot more than that if you'll gimme a chance to prove it."

"Tempting. If you don't die in the fights, we'll have to go out sometime."

"Oh, posh. With a good luck charm like you on my arm, I'll win the whole bloody Tournament." When I blushed, he grinned and shaded his eyes with his hand, peering down below into the stands. "Now let's see. What's this friend o' yours look like, eh?"

"Light blue hair, bright pink eyes. Human-ish." I eyed the demons crowding the rooftop. "I'd say she'll stand out, but…"

The multi-colored crowd wasn't nearly as drab as the typical human population in mainland Japan. Indeed, Botan's usually outlandish coloring blended right into the myriad colors and shapes of the milling demons; as I scanned the crowd, it became obvious that she wouldn't be nearly as easy to spot as I'd assumed. There were dozens of powder-blue demons scattered throughout the stands, but just as I started to mention this to Jin aloud, Jin grinned. The hand shading his eyes dropped; he stooped to pick me up again, hefting me in his arms like I weighed absolutely nothing. Those muscles were absolutely not just for show, even if they put on a very tempting one.

"Never doubt the eyes of a Wind Master, Keiko." His ears jumped in place, twitching as he smiled. "Now let's get you to your friend!"

Jin's glide was gentle, and I wondered if we looked a bit silly as he stepped over the ledge and let himself sink sedately through the air until his feet hit the uppermost level of the stadium—a walkway around the very top of the structure below the partial roof, separated from the seats below by a handrail. The section we flew to was mostly deserted because a large swath of the seats had been reduced to rubble, smashed by the competitors in early fights (or so I had to assume). The rails at the front of the section were just gone, seats crumbling away into nothing halfway down the broken section. Demons in construction uniforms bustled around the smashed area, roping it off from access with caution tape and signs warning against entering the area at your own risk.

Botan had no qualms with taking said risks, apparently, because she sat dangerously close to the broken pie-slice of stadium, alone on one of the concrete slabs that served as bleachers on this level. When Jin pointed her out, it took all my willpower not to shout her name and tell her to get away from there. Even if she could fly, seeing her sitting so close to a chasm set my teeth on edge.

Jin landed us a ways away from her, up on the walkway at the top of the section. "She looks blue. And I don't just mean the hair," he muttered as he put me down. "An ill wind blows round that one. Methinks she wouldn't want to fly, even if she could. Not with an air like that about her."

"Yeah." Botan sat with her head low, one leg held to her chest, back slumped. I sized her up for a second, then said to Jin, "You mind hanging back here a minute?"

"O' course." His game smile faded a rad. "But I'll hafta be gettin' back to my team here shortly, dontcha know."

"Right. Just wait one minute?"

"Will do, Keiko."

He leaned against the wall under the overhanging roof, arms crossed over his muscular chest. I shot him one last grateful smile before heading down to Botan. Luckily an aisle between the sections of seating remained intact, with a handrail; I held fast to it as I picked my way over scattered rubble toward Botan. Even though the drop-off into space lay many feet away, the yawning pull of it kept my hair on end. I felt the nearby drop in my teeth, intrusive thoughts of pitching myself over the edge singing an opera in the back of my head. Setting my jaw, I told the thoughts to take a hike, distracting myself from them with a quick glance around Botan's chosen spot. There weren't many demons around up here. The seats on the opposite side of the stadium on this level were full to bursting, but the demons seemed to have fled away from the collapsing section. Maybe that's why Botan had picked this spot to sit, I reasoned. She wanted to be alone, and this part of the stadium was certainly lonely. The only demons nearby were a gaggle of six, small ones of various shapes and sizes who sat in a little knot maybe fifteen feet away from her. They all wore pink shirts (stretched over their inconsistent anatomy and threatening to tear in places), and they fought over a pair of binoculars with frantic swipes of their clawed hands and loud shouts of indignation.

Somehow, Botan heard my coming over the noise they made. The moment I set foot on one of the concrete seats a few rows above her, she said, "Leave me alone, Keiko."

She didn't even turn her head to see me. I stopped walking down the stairs and put a hand on my hip. "I knew you had an extra eye, but not eyes on the back of your head."

The joke fell flat. Botan only clutched her knee more tightly. "I can… sense things," she said. "More than before."

"Oh." I clambered down the last few rows and sat beside her, leaning forward to see her pinched face. "I'm sorry, Botan."

She shook her head, brilliant eyes closing. "It's all right. It's not your fault. Seeing Koenma was…"

"Not that." A deep breath before I took the plunge. "I'm sorry for getting you into this position." When Botan looked confused, I added, "If it weren't for me, Hiei would never have…"

But Botan wasn't having it. "For someone so smart, you sure can be dense," she said, sitting up straight with a stern glare. "You didn't bring me there the same night Hiei came to you. You didn't make him use the Sword on me. And I don't even blame Hiei for what happened. He had no clue the Sword would affect me the way it did."

My guilt refused to accept Botan's reasoning, logical though it was. "Still…"

"Still nothing. It's no one's fault."

"Even so, Botan—I didn't know you felt this way."

The sudden change of subject left her blinking her gorgeous eyes in confusion. "Huh?"

"You're always so chipper. So happy. I thought you had adjusted to life in Human World. To your new eye. So I wasn't worrying about you much, because you looked so well-adjusted." I swallowed a lump of aching nerves. "Do you… do you put on that face to keep us from seeing that you're hurting?"

Seemed I wasn't the only one feeling guilty. Botan looked sharply away, down at the ring (a mere postage stamp at this distance) in the center of the stadium. Hurt slashed through the livid hue of her eyes like a razor's cut.

"I do the same thing," I whispered, heart aching. "Wear a happy mask when I'm hurting but when I know someone else has it rough, too." Botan's expression edged toward surprise; I smiled, trying to provide comfort, solidarity. "When others have it rough, it's instinctual to try and bury your own problems to protect them."

She looked away again, back toward the oh-so-distant ring. Her words were no louder than a whisper when she said, "I don't want to be a burden."

"You're never a burden." But when Botan didn't acknowledge me, I put a hand on her shoulder. Finally she had no choice to meet my eyes, though she did so with obvious reluctance. "Botan, I care about you. We all care about you. And if you're feeling down, or angry, or upset, I want to know about it. Even if I'm going through my own rough shit, I want to know how you feel."

Her features tensed. "Keiko—"

"That's what friends do." I soldiered on unhindered. "And we are friends, Botan. I know you're closer to Yusuke, but… I just want you to know you can always count on me to listen." My conviction was not an act, and it was with nothing but sincerity that I promised her: "I might not be able to help, but I can listen."

Botan's tension drained away, replaced by the slack blankness of astonishment—but then her eyes well with tears, and she covered her face with her hands.

"Go away, Keiko," she said, voice muffled under her fingers. "I'm not being mean. I just—you can't see me like this!"

I winced. "I can't go."

"Keiko, I mean it." She glared from between her spread digits, a cat unsheathing its claws. "I know you're trying to be nice, but right now—"

"Botan—"

"—and that's admirable, truly, but you need to—"

"You have all our tickets."

"I—" She stopped. Looked at me. Blurted: "What?!"

"You've got our tickets." I shrugged, trying not to look or sound accusatory. "We're… locked out."

"But you." Her mouth worked. "You're here, though?"

I jerked a thumb over my shoulder at Jin. "I hitched a ride to get in."

Botan turned in place to stare at Jin. She blinked a few times, then dove into her pockets and began to rummage. From one pocket she pulled a single ticket, which she looked at in confusion—and then she reached into a different pocket and slowly withdrew three more. At the sight of them she hung her head and heaved a defeated sigh. "I can't even go be alone correctly, can I?"

I winced again out of sympathy, and although I thought about patting her back to show support, I decided against it. "The tickets just slipped your mind, that's all," I eventually settled on saying. "Happens to the best of us." Gently I took three tickets from her; she did not protest. "Wait here, OK?"

Botan didn't answer. She just stared, moody and depressive, down at the arena so far below as I got up and picked my way back up the steps toward Jin. I waged a brief internal debate with myself as I walked over, wondering of Jin was really trustworthy when it came to this next bit, but when he saw me coming he pushed away from the wall and waved. His smile burned eager and bright, and my worries blew away like so much dust on the wind.

"I'm terribly sorry to ask," I said when I reached him, "but could you—?"

He had already plucked the tickets from my hand. "Aye, I'll take them back to your friends," he said, waving them back and forth with his mega-watt smile still affixed firmly in place. The smile dimmed, however, when he glanced over my shoulder at Botan. "She might want otherwise, but ye really shouldn't be leavin' that one on her own, for safety and for spirit alike."

I didn't quite catch the meaning. "For safety and for…?"

He nodded in her direction. "A somber wind blows round that one's weary shoulders. I don't need to know her as a friend to feel its wintry chill. "

"Perk of being the Wind Master, huh?"

"Aye, I reckon so." He regarded me in silence for a second, but although his smile grew smaller, it was no less warm. "A kindness, that you did."

"A what?"

"You did that girl a kindness, saying what you said to her." Jin leaned down until we were nose to nose, at which point he softly popped my nose with the tickets he carried. "Friends like you are rare indeed, or so it seems to me, and that girl is lucky to have you watchin' her back, that she is."

My lips twisted into something resembling a smile. "So those ears of yours are good for more than just looking cute, huh?"

"The wind bends to my will, and voices often carry far upon it," he confirmed with a rather roguish grin—but once again, he sobered. "For all my merry chatter, Keiko, I do mean what I said. Ya did her a kindness, that ya did, and I get the sense you're a nice human at the heart of it. The wind round her blows somber, but you lifted her spirits like a breeze in spring." Once more he leaned in close, close enough for me to see he had eyelashes that a makeup model might envy. These he batted at me with another charmingly lopsided grin. "In fact, one might say you walk in beauty, bright spirit meeting in your aspect and your eyes."

It was a somewhat mangled quote repurposed for flirtation and flattery, but even through his oddball accent and Japanese translation, I recognized the line. "Lord Byron?" I said, brows shooting up of their own accord.

"Aye, ya know 'im?" Jin bounced up onto his heels, grinning wider than ever. "Fancy that! I've a certain predilection for human things. Drives Risho a fair bit batty, if we're tellin' all truth, but—" He cupped a hand around his mouth and whispered, "Demons don't oft write poetry, and what they do write stinks like an old cheese. But don't go tellin' anyone I said that, mind ye now."

"It's our secret." I couldn't help but look him over, top to bottom, with new understanding. "Though I have to say, this explains things."

Jin's head tilted. "Hmm?"

"You like human stuff. And you seem to like me…" I paused as Jin winked. "It all makes sense now."

His head tilted so far I feared he might topple over. "Aye, but what was causin' you confusion, I wonder?"

"Just that most demons aren't fond of humans, is all. And I wondered why you were different."

Jin blanched. I shrugged—but I meant what I said. Jin's interest in a mere human girl and his apparent and unanticipated love of poetry jived with what I knew about him from the anime. He had wanted to live in Human World so badly, along with Touya, and it made a certain degree of sense that he'd want to learn about Human World before winning Hanging Neck Island as his tournament prize. I had to wonder what other human pastimes he favored—and whether or not I'd get the chance to find out for myself.

Jin had no idea how much about him I already knew, though, let alone what I knew about demons at large. "I suppose they're not fond of humans in general, but they're silly old brutes if they be a-thinkin' that way, if ya don't mind my sayin' so." He jerked a thumb at his chest, which swelled with pride at his open-mindedness. "Me, though? I am a gentleman if there ever was one, and I keep my promises through thick and thin—especially promises made to pretty girls." He snatched up my hand and curled his fingers around it, the tickets pressed between his palm and my knuckles. Holding our hands to his chest, he stared into my eyes and dramatically avowed, "I'll guard these tickets with my life, Keiko, it's a solemn promise, and ya can wail on me all ya like if any harm comes to them whilst they're in my care!"

He was so earnest, so genuine over something so small, that I couldn't keep from giggling. "I believe you," I said through a spate of chortles. "Thank you for your help."

His blue eyes sparked sly. "Ah-ah-ah. Not so fast," he said, wagging a finger. "I haven't ask for payment yet."

"Payment, huh?" My lips curled. "Be gentle with me, Jin; I'm a delicate flower."

"Oh, somehow I doubt that's true." But he still looked immensely pleased with me, with himself, with the entire situation and our banter as it unfolded around us. "The price for my aid is dinner together, just as I said before." He batted his lashes again, leaning close enough for the tips of his bright red hair to fall silken against my cheeks (which promptly turned a shade of red to match that hair, judging by the heat in them). "Where ya stayin', lamb?" he said, voice pitching quite low.

I swallowed, and when I looked shyly to the side, it wasn't because I was playacting the part of a blushing fangirl. Keiko was canonically pretty, but I'd never really reconciled that description of her with how I felt about myself. Keiko's prettiness wasn't mine; I did not lay claim to it, and having someone as attractive as Jin take an interest in me, of all people, was disconcerting.

As was Jin's sheer presence, of course.

Remember how I said Jin looked like a fire demon?

That's partially because he's fucking hot.

I swallowed again, eating my nerves until I could talk again. "Hotel Kubikukuri," I managed to mutter as my ears went supernova.

He grinned harder. "Which floor?"

"Sixth."

"And which room?"

"Now, Jin." I tugged my hands from his and stepped away, injecting my voice with a fair amount of tease. "Is a lady supposed to give out her room number to every Tom, demon and Harry who asks?"

"Aye, I suppose not—ooh, so it's to be a hunt, then!" His ears twitched up and down, up and down, eyes delighted blue crescents in his golden face. "Wicked girl; what a thrill!" He grabbed one of my hands again, holding it tight as he promised through an mammoth smile, "But mark my words, Keiko: My ears are certainly impressive, make no mistake, but I assure you I've got a nose like a bloodhound and a—"

"Jin."

The name floated out of the omnipresent sounds of the tournament crowd, cutting through it more cleanly than such a soft voice had any right to do. Jin, however, didn't gasp the way I did. He just turned his grin to the side, where a figure stood in the shadows of the stadium overhang, blending into them so completely I'm sure I would've walked right past him had I not seen the direction of Jin's smoldering gaze. The figure wore a black cloak with a conical hood, and on the front of that hood—

"So this is where you ran off to," the figure said, voice issuing from behind the white cross decorating his robes. He had a smooth voice, light and airy, and judging by his slight build I had a good idea who might be under that shroud. The figure's head turned the slightest bit in my direction. "And who is this?"

"A new friend o' mine called Keiko." Jin darted behind me and put his hands on my shoulders, leaning forward until we were cheek to cheek. "Isn't she pretty, Touya, my ol' friend?"

There followed a pause I think was supposed to be insulting. "I suppose she is," Touya said after a time, and then he changed the subject. "Risho isn't pleased."

Jin snorted. "Risho's never pleased, that grump-a-whump."

Touya paused again—a long pause. A pause too long to be a denial. Eventually the pause ended in a delicate cough, and Touya said, "Regardless, you should return to the group. Risho dislikes being kept waiting, after all."

"Pfft!" Jin stepped to my side, though he kept an arm around my shoulder as he rolled his sky-tinted eyes. "For a ninja, Risho certainly isn't the patient sort, now is 'e?"

Once again, Touya said nothing. Conspicuously. I suppressed a giggle.

Jin plowed on ahead, not bothering to analyze Touya's silence. He drew me to him gazed earnestly into my eyes. "Now, parting can be such sweet sorrow, that it can—but fear not, my dear Keiko, for this will not be the last time we meet if I have anything t' say about it."

I adopted the giddy fangirl act again. "You mean it?" I said, putting one hand on his chest. "I'm just so happy to have even met you at all. Even if this is the last time we ever see each other, I'm a very lucky girl."

"And I'm a lucky demon, to have met one such as fetching as yourself." He grabbed my hand and kissed the back of it, eyes locked on mine all the while. "Until we meet again, my dear!" he said when he let my hand go. Without looking behind him, he moved toward the edge of the walkway. "And I'll get these tickets to your friends, lickety split!"

"Thank you, Jin," I said, and I would have said more had he not hit the railing at the edge of the walkway and gone tumbling over it. I shrieked as he fell backward, but before I could lurch toward him and try to catch him before he fell, he shot up through the air and soared away, a streak of red and white and coppery skin against the brilliant blue of the cloudless sky.

As quickly as Jin had entered my life, he had vanished from it.

I held onto the railing and stared after him with my mouth open for a minute, of course, even after he disappeared from view. Jin was a whirlwind of a person. A nice guy, though, even if he was flirty as hell—but then again, I'd been counting on that when I tried to get his help. I'd always head-canoned Jin as a flirt, and now I had confirmation that I wasn't off the mark. The thought made me smile, but that smile faded when I caught myself wondering if I really ever would see him again. Would he seek me out for that dinner he mentioned? Or had that exchange of ours been nothing more than a passing diversion? And how would my friends handle this when they found out? Would this affect Jin's fight with Yusuke, or—?

Touya cleared his throat. I flinched, spinning on my heel to face him. Jin's dramatic exit had made me forget Touya entirely.

But Touya had not forgotten about me. "What did you say your name was?" he asked with clipped efficiency.

I shifted from foot to foot, unnerved; it's weird talking to someone when they're wearing a literal mask. They can see you, but you can't see them, and that's not an even playing field by any stretch—and applying that feeling to Touya only made the situation worse.

Touya was, in short, an enigma to me, and not just because of the hood he wore. Touya's character was subtle. He had so little screen time in the anime, I wasn't sure if I had a good handle on his character's nuances. He wouldn't be as easily predictable as other, louder characters like Jin. I'd need to tread carefully around Touya. Whether or not he was as tolerant of humans as the amicable Jin was anyone's guess, and I didn't want to end up on the wrong side of an ice sword.

I told him only what Jin had already revealed, in the end. "It's Keiko."

He processed this for a second. "You came with the human team, I take it."

"Yeah." A nervous laugh. "Is it that obvious?"

Another of his pauses. Then: "You… have a way about you." His hooded head turned a single increment to my left. "You should see to your friend, I think."

"See to my…?"

I pivoted in place. Down below on her concrete seat, Botan had pulled both legs to her chest, head resting dejectedly atop her knees. The demons with their pink shirts and binoculars had moved down a few rows, too, sitting just two risers behind her unwitting head. Botan was no slouch when it came to her personal defense, and the demons weren't paying her any attention, but I still didn't like how close they'd gotten to her.

"Oh, shoot. Gotta go." I gave Touya a hasty bow of goodbye and thanks, which was probably silly of me, but old polite habits die hard. "Will you thank Jin again for his help?"

"Certainly," said Touya (who was actually pretty helpful for a demon who barely had a personality in the anime, I was learning). "I will tell him."

"Cool," I said, and then I winced at the pun I was certain Touya wouldn't appreciate. "Uh, I mean, thanks. Nice meeting you!"

He returned my bow. "And you as well, Keiko."

I hesitated for a second after he said that—and then with one final, awkward wave, I walked away from him and down the steps toward Botan.

Midway to her, I turned back.

Touya had vanished, like Jin, just as swiftly as he had appeared.


The demons in the pink shirts were still squabbling over their binoculars when I sat beside Botan again. Botan didn't look up when one of them squawked, and she didn't acknowledge me when I announced my return. With a sigh I leaned back and propped my weight onto my hands, gazing up and out over the stadium to get my bearings. I'd been too caught up in Jin, the tickets, and Botan to really take a good look at the state of things—which is a shame, because if I'd been more thorough, I would've seen the an indication that I'd royally fucked up the Dark Tournament much sooner than I thought I had.

Or rather, I would've had more time to process and believe what I was seeing, because at first glance, I almost thought I'd started to hallucinate.

"What the—?" I sat up ramrod straight as my eyes caught on the huge scoreboard tacked above the seats on the opposite side of the stadium. "Kuwabara won his match?"

Indeed, the scoreboard had place a triumphant white O next to Kuwabara's name at the top of the board, which declared the current fight to be between Team Urameshi and Team Rokuyukai. Rinku had a small X next to his name, denoting a loss—a loss that should never have happened.

Heart in my mouth, I stood up and craned my neck down into the pit of the stadium below, toward the ring lying like a forgotten penny on the ground so far away from my seat beside Botan. We were truly in the nosebleed section, figures walking on or near the far-off ring no more than mobile dots at our vantage point. I thought I maybe saw a hint of dark red on one of the blobs (Kurama's hair, perhaps?) but I couldn't exactly be sure. Still, too far away to see or not, the scoreboard was huge and unmistakable.

Kuwabara had won.

Rinku had lost.

"I don't believe it." Threading my hands through my hair, I repeated, "I just don't fucking believe it!"

Botan lifted her face off her knees; her pale forehead bore two red dots, blood pooling where she'd pressed face to leg. "Your faith in your friend's fighting ability is remarkable, Keiko," she said with a deadpan glare.

"Since when did you learn sarcasm?" I grumbled back. "And that's not what I meant. Just…" I shrugged. "I heard that Rinku kid was strong, is all."

"Oh, he is strong," said one of the demons behind us. "But that human kid was stronger."

Botan and I both turned. The pink-shirted demons had quieted, all of them sitting with arms crossed as they stared (with obvious resentment) at Botan and me.

"I didn't even know humans could do what that Kuwabara guy did," one of them, who had a large beak for a mouth and a pair of ram horns on his head, said. "That took finesse."

"Sorry, can I ask?" I said. "I didn't see—how did he manage to beat him?"

One of the other demons (this one with slits for nostrils and the triangular head of a snake) hissed, tongue flickering through his lipless mouth. "Through trickery!" he growled. "Rinku fights with the Serpent Yo-Yo technique. He pumps his energy into the strings of the yo-yos and controls them as extensions of his own body."

"The human copied the technique!" another demon, this one with a furry cat face, chimed in. "First he made his energy sword bend and move like a yo-yo, but when that wasn't enough to beat Rinku—"

"Rinku had Kuwabara locked down tight in his yo-yos, but the human pushed his own energy into the yo-yos themselves," the first demon interjected. "He took control of them! Managed to throw them back Rinku's way and get the kid out of the ring long enough for a 10-count to grab him the win."

My jaw dropped. "That's… that's wild." And completely unexpected, for the most part.

"I'll say." The demon's head lowered, beak nestling into the nest of violet feathers spilling from the collar of his shirt. "And I had good money riding on that match, too."

The gaggle of demons began to squabble amongst themselves again; Botan looked back at the ring, her morose aura lightening a little as she smiled at the scoreboard and evidence of Kuwabara's victory. I propped my chin on my hands, my elbows on my knees, and stared at the board, too. I knew Kuwabara could manipulate his sword, but actually adopt another fighter's strategy mid-fight and use it to his advantage? That change to canon was, as I'd said, absolutely wild.

… and now that I thought about it, this change wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Right?

My knee-jerk reaction was to think of all changes to canon as bad. I was the only variable different from canon YYH, so when things deviated from canon and went horribly wrong, I was almost always to blame—but this time, stuff had gone right.

… had I had a hand in that, or was to assume as such an act of supreme arrogance?

Call me naïve, or call me overproud, but I had to wonder if this might actually be quite advantageous. With an extra win to add to Kurama's and Hiei's eventual victories, Yusuke might not even have to do the death match with Chu! (Though he probably still would; that boy was incorrigible when it came to fisticuffs.)

"Yes, it was an impressive fight," Botan said from her spot beside me. Her pink lips curled into a small smile. "Kuwabara has improved by leaps and bounds over the past months. Let's just hope this is the start of a winning streak and not a bit of dumb luck."

I looked at her askance. "Oh, so now who has faith in our boy?"

One of the demons behind us gasped. "Your boy? You two are with the humans?"

Botan pulled off her earrings in one swift motion; we turned to the demons in unison, my two-eyed glower overshadowed by her three-eyed glare as the eye on her forehead flashed pure violet amid the curtain of her bangs. "That a problem, mister?" we said at the same time, voices ringing in a clamor of discord.

The demons recoiled. "Uh. No," said the one with the horns. "No, it is not."

Botan and I turned back toward the ring in a huff. Botan put her earrings on without looking at me; her eye faded from view as soon as she clipped them into place. I started to ask if the earrings still worked for Botan OK, but before I could figure out a way to put my query delicately, Koto's voice boomed over the loudspeakers.

"Ladies and gentlemen, demons and devils alike, I hope you liked that last round because we've got another one of the way, and it promises to be a doozy!" she proclaimed. "Let me hear you make some noise!"

The crowd went wild, their cheers and screams nearly deafening—and none more so than those issued by the demons behind us. They leapt to their feet with screams of delight; I shoved my fingers in my ears and turned to glare again, but their T-shirts were right on level with my face and instead I could only gape.

The front of their pink shirts were emblazoned with a photo of a young woman. She held a microphone in front of her lipsticked mouth, green eyes narrowed in a mischievous smirk. Her honey-colored skin coordinated brilliantly with her fluffy brown hair, and the first impression I had of her was that of a pretty human girl with confidence a mile wide.

This girl wasn't human, though.

The catlike whiskers adorning her smooth cheeks, not to mention the pair of furry ears jutting from the top of her head, told me she was anything but human—as did the words written above and below the image of her face in thick purple letters.

PRETTY REFEREE KOTO'S FIRST CLASS FANCLUB, they read.

I stared at the shirts, agape, as one of the demons (the snakelike one with the forked tongue) jumped up and down in place and squealed. "Oh Koto, you do so have a way with words!"

"Shut up, I can't hear her!" said ram-horns.

Koto's voice rang out again, enthusiasm dripping from every syllable. "This next one promises blood, bruises and a bare-knuckled brawl if we get lucky—it's Kurama vs. Roto." Her deep breath echoed through the stadium like a gunshot before she screamed, "Let the match, begin!"

My heart leapt into my throat at the sound of Kurama's name, but squint though I might at the fighting arena, I couldn't see much more than a couple of blurry blobs standing on the distant dot that was the ring. Luckily there were massive TV screens suspended above the stands at regular intervals; these displayed various shots of the match from eye-level, but to my disappointment the cameras were shaky and inconsistent, not always catching a good angle, and I couldn't see much. I shaded my eyes and squinted at the ring some more, but I saw no blobs that resembled cameramen or similar. What sneaky demon tactics were they pulling to get their subpar footage, anyhow?

Not that the bad shooting bothered Botan. She sat with her arms around her knees, staring at the ring, barely even watching. Maybe she just didn't care about the match, or maybe her third eye had granted her super-sight; it was hard to say. In the end I had to rely on Koto's boisterous narration to figure out what was going on… but even though I knew what was about to happen in the match below, every last one of Koto's exclamations was so passionate, it was hard not to get sucked into the drama of the match in spite of myself.

"Kurama has been rendered completely immobile!" she bellowed into the mic, every syllable resplendent with glee. "What deliciously dastardly technique did Roto use to subdue the wily Kurama, I wonder? Oh heck, it hardly matters I guess, because it'll lead to blood and I gotta say, I love it!"

"Wow," said a certain scratchy voice. "She's certainly cheerful for someone describing horrific violence, isn't she?"

To our left on the stairs between the seats stood Atsuko and Shizuru. Atsuko looked winded, standing with hands braced on her knees as she sucked down great gulping breaths of air. Shizuru smoked a cigarette, apparently not at all stressed by what must have been a lot of stairs climbed to reach this upper level. Sanada's training paid off, no doubt.

I lifted a hand. "Atsuko. Shizuru. Hey. You sure found us fast."

Botan didn't bother to look at them. "Hello, girls," was all she said.

"Hey, Botan." Shizuru sat down next to her with a grunt. "You still feeling down?"

Botan shrugged. "You might say that."

Still panting, Atsuko walked on the row behind us and climbed down to sit next to me. "Thanks for sending Red down with the tickets, Keiko," she said between labored wheezes. "He told us what section and level to find you in, too. Seemed pretty nice for a demon." She took a few deep breaths, measured and slow, to get her breath back under control; hair clung to her forehead and sweaty strips. "Wasn't sure at first, but looks like you've got good instincts about people, huh?"

"I mean, I'd certainly like to think so."

Shizuru looked at me over the hunched back of Botan, who sat between us. "Slick move you pulled down there," she said.

"Thanks."

She blew out a puff of silver smoke. "So where'd you say you'd heard about Jin from?"

"Oh." I smiled, because I'd been thinking about that and had an answer prepped, thank my lucky-ass stars. "When Atsuko and I stole our tickets back at the wharf? One of the demons was talking about the shinobi team." I nudged Atsuko in the ribs. "Remember, Atsuko?"

Her face screwed up—but then it cleared. "Now that you mention it, that sounds familiar."

Well, it should sound familiar, because it was true. One of the demons at the wharf had indeed talked briefly about Jin and Jin's team—but the keyword here was "briefly."

"Yeah," I said. "They mentioned the cloaks and stuff—"

Atsuko frowned. "They did?"

"—and talked about Jin in particular, so I just took a flying leap of faith and went for it." I laughed. "No pun intended."

Shizuru's face remained impassive. Atsuko cupped her chin and stared skyward, muttering to herself about her shoddy drunken memory and not remembering as much about that overheard conversation as apparently I had. Exactly what I'd hoped from her. Atsuko wasn't the most observant person, and she trusted me to be the opposite, so this cover-up was ideal. I felt badly about using her, but it felt like a necessary evil in context.

"Anyway." I shrugged. "I didn't feel like I had anything to lose by trying to play to Jin's vanity, so I went for it. Just glad it worked out, y'know?"

Shizuru's face revealed nothing, but she didn't try to argue with me, either. "So am I," was all she said, and she waved her cigarette at the scoreboard across the arena. "Now how's the fight going? I see my baby bro managed to score the team a win."

Botan said, "Something's wrong with Kurama." She gestured. "He's not moving."

Indeed, Koto was ranting about how he'd seemed to give up on the fight, allowing Roto to beat him black and blue without quarter. Shizuru's brow knit as she stared down at the ring in consternation. I tried to look worried (a harder feat than you might think since I knew full well Kurama could handle the situation without breaking a sweat) but Atsuko made my efforts moot by attracting all the attention to herself. Good ol' Atsuko.

"He's WHAT?!" She bolted to her feet and looked around, dark eyes lighting up when they spotted the binoculars clutched in the talons of one of Koto's fan-demons. "Give me those!"

The poor demon tried to fight her. Really, he did. But Atsuko cannot be denied when she wants something, and soon she had wrested the demons into submission by snarling such a lurid threat at them, all the ones who had skin on their faces turned the color of milk. It helped that Botan glared at them, too, and Shizuru cracked her knuckles loud enough to hear above Koto's voice. Cowed, the demons watched in silence as Atsuko scanned the arena below and pumped a fist into the air.

"Hey, Kurama! Fight back, you lazy buttmunch!" she shrieked—but then she fell silent, a beat passing as she trained the binoculars elsewhere. "And speaking of lazy butt-munches, my idiot son appears to be taking a powernap." Her fist launched into the air again; she bellowed even louder that time. "Hey! HEY YUSUKE, YOU IMBICILE! Get on your feet and earn your keep; mama didn't raise no layabout freeloader!"

But in spite of Atsuko's "encouragements," apparently our friends did not obey. She paused a moment longer before falling back into her seat, at which point she returned the binoculars to Koto's fanclub without bothering to thank them for their use. Not that the demons cared much, mind you, because Koto was screaming and they were yodeling their approval to the skies.

"And now Roto is making Kurama hurt!" Koto cheered. "The blood, the savagery, it's exactly what you came to this tournament to see, people! Now give Roto a big cheer and tell him to go in for the kill!"

Atsuko, Shizuru, and Botan tensed. On the screen there came a flash of Kurama's face, blood sluicing from two cuts crisscrossing over his cheek, green eyes brilliant against his skin and hair—but they weren't the eyes I'd come to know over the past months. His eyes were cold, colder than I'd ever seen them, and although they had only appeared upon the screen for a moment before the shaky camera lost sight of them in favor of an arresting shot of the arena floor (sarcasm) a chill trickled into the well of my blood. Kurama would win this fight, of that I had no doubt, but those eyes, the blood… no matter how self-assured I felt, it still wasn't pleasant to look at. Koto's demands for Kurama's death weren't helping matters, either.

Plus, I wasn't sure which was worse: Seeing Kurama's blood, or having to pretend I was worried when I really wasn't, and feeling guilty about that lack of nerves.

"This is horrible to listen to," I said, and I meant it. I stood up and stretched. "Anybody need anything? Gonna go hunt down water."

Atsuko's brows lifted. "You're leaving at a time like this?"

"You want me to come with?" Shizuru asked.

"Nah. I'll be fine." I lifted the hem of my skirt, revealing the bottom of the knife belt strapped to my thigh. "Came prepared."

"Right." Shizuru turned her face back to the match. "Scream if you need us."

"Will do."

Before Atsuko could tell me to stay put, I darted off and up the steps, back toward where I'd hung out with Jin beneath the shade of the overhanging roof. No one was around up there on account of how terrible the view of the arena was, but that suited me just fine. I leaned my elbows on the railing and sighed, mopping my face with my hand. Up here, alone as I was, I didn't have to pretend to be worried if I wasn't, or pretend not to be worried if I was. I could take it all in without having to monitor my reactions, tailor them for the conveniences of my companions.

Up here, alone… I was just me. And it was nice.

What wasn't nice was listening to Koto yammer on. "And what's this, people—now Roto can't move?" she was warbling to the skies, her voice taking on an air of desperation. "What a reversal! But what the heck caused it? Either way, looks like Kurama's in control and now—"

I sighed again, this time out relief. Kurama had done as predicted and taken control. Excellent. Canon was preserved. The camera caught sight of Kurama's face for a moment, his smile satisfied and cold before the camera made an abrupt shift onto something colorful. Flowers exploded across the frame, rioting into being with a burst of radiant petals as the camera panned out, and then our further still.

When the camera stopped moving, it lingered on a vision of Roto lying dead on the ground under a heavy mass of blossoms. Kurama retreated into the distance in the background, hair just as brilliant as the flowers he'd produced.

"Well folks, I think it's pretty plain to see that Roto isn't getting up again—and that means Kurama is the winner!" Koto cried.

Boos filled the air at once.

Fire filled it, and the entire ring, immediately after.

A blistering column of flame,the width of the ring and stretching nearly out of the open roof of the stadium, shot up from the arena like the granddaddy of all fireworks. It billowed many yards away from me, but still I felt the heat of it on my face as the brilliant golden tower blasted skyward. If Koto said something about the flame, I didn't hear her. I just shielded my eyes as they dried out and then began to water, trained as they were on the whitehot source of the fire standing in the center of the ring.

Zeru.

This had to be coming from Zeru.

As if it read my mind, the screens at the top of the stadium cut to an image of a man with severe features and a shaved head of blonde hair. The camera cut to the side, fixing on a short figure in black as it leapt over the side of the ring and strode confidently forward. Looking down at the arena, I could only just make out the tiniest of black dots walk across the battlefield, striding confidently toward the column of fire without a care.

Hiei.

That had to, of course, be Hiei.

Poor Koto didn't stand a chance at narrating this fight, because it started before she could even call out an official declaration to begin. Fire shredded off the main column of flame, tearing off and sparking in the air as the black dot on the ground blurred in and out of sight—Hiei dodging Zeru's blasts of heat, I guessed. The black dot flickered out of sight and then reappeared, a bit bigger than before as it lifted off the ring and came infinitesimally closer to where I stood. The fire followed, black flicker rising and darting about as the flame pursued it higher and higher into the air, Hiei leaping heavenward to avoid Zeru's attacks. I grinned in spite of myself as Hiei managed to leap to supernatural heights above the ring, the black smudge of his body growing bigger, and bigger, and wait a second Hiei was now too large to cover with my thumb, just how fucking close was Hiei getting to me as he—?

A flash of black blotted out my vision of the stadium. I stumbled backward until I hit the wall, far back in the cool shadows of the overhanging roof, as Hiei blurred into view. He sat crouched on the railing where I had just been standing, facing the arena, one baleful scarlet eye glaring at me over the rise of his black-clad shoulder.

Hiei wasted no time on pleasantries. "Why are you here, Meigo?" he barked. "Tell me, now."

I pushed away from the wall and dusted myself off. "Well, hello to you, too, Hiei. It's nice to see you."

"Why are you here?"

"To support the team; duh." I crossed my arms and scowled. "How did you even know I was up here, anyway?"

Bright purple flashed behind the bandana on his forehead.

"… oh."

Overhead, the speakers let out a high whine of feedback as Koto screamed into them, demanding to know where Hiei had gone and if Zeru had successfully reduced him to a pile of ash (a tactic of which she approved, she was sure to state, but one she favored less than bloodier options like flaying an opponent alive; girl loved her blood and guts). As Koto debated whether or not she should start the count, because she wasn't sure if Hiei was actually out of bounds somewhere or if he'd learned to fly in the last five seconds, Hiei bared his teeth.

"Go home, Meigo," he commanded. "It's not safe for the likes of you here."

I just rolled my eyes. "Oh, don't tell me what to do."

His eyes blazed hotter than Zeru's fire. "Meigo—"

"Hiei. It's fine. It'll be fine." I pinned him with my sternest Mom Stare, comforting but firm all at once. "I'll be fine. I promise."

If this provided him any assurances, he didn't let it show. He turned his face away and harrumphed, hands gripping the railing under him a little tighter. The speakers nearby boomed as Koto began her 10-count, but Hiei didn't flinch as the numbers wiled by.

"It's sweet that you're worried for me, though," I said.

"I am no such thing. Your presence here is merely annoying."

"If you say so." I gestured at Zeru, still a brightly burning coal in the arena. "But get back in the ring, Hiei, before you—"

He was already gone.

A moment later, Koto ended her count as a small black speck reentered the ring—but then she screamed her delight to the sky as Hiei's dot burst into flame like a miniature supernova. The demons in the stadium went crazy, cheering their bloodthirst as Koto crowed her delight regarding Hiei's untimely demise at Zeru's hand.

Far below, I saw Botan press her face into her hands.

I didn't mourn, though.

I moved backward until I hit the wall, and then I stuffed my fingers in my ears.

Koto's call, I knew, had been uttered prematurely—and when the sky darkened overhead, and lightning crashed through the sky above, and Dragon of the Darkness Flame surged into being like the birth of some dark star, my lips stretched in a grotesque grin born of both excitement and total, livid terror.

The Dragon isn't subtle. Few things about Hiei are, really, the Dragon least of all. It is darkness incarnate, heat like a hundred dark suns radiating off its body as it burst forth from the dot-that-was-Hiei and streaked across the arena toward Zeru's column of flame. Violet electricity haloed its form, hissing and snapping and filling my hair with static even from the distance at which I stood. Its heat put Zeru's fire to absolute shame, and even though the Dragon stayed farther away from me than had Zeru's fire, I still felt it singe the skin on my face as if I'd stepped into the heart of a forge.

The Dragon is petrifying, and it doused Zeru's fire the way an ocean drowns a candle.

As it had in the anime, the Dragon killed Zeru simply. It needed no fancy tricks or frills to perform its murderous work. It merely streaked out of Hiei and toward Zeru, and Zeru's fire went out, and it drove Zeru back toward the stadium wall and fucking obliterated him against its concrete expanse. I was far too far away to observe the details of this obliteration, but when the Dragon disappeared in a dazzling flash of black fire, I tasted ozone and burning meat on the charred and heated air.

For ten tense seconds, nothing but silence reigned.

And then, voice trembling, Koto declared Hiei the winner—because of course he was the winner.

Nothing could stand up to the Dragon.

And it would only get stronger as the tournament wore on, now wouldn't it?

That fact boggled the mind. It was all I could do to stumble forward and brace myself on the railing, but the metal had heated from the Dragon's flame; I snatched back my hand with a pained hiss of breath drawn between clenched teeth.

If the Dragon could do that to the railing from a distance, I didn't want to see what kind of mincemeat it had made of Zeru in close quarters—if it hadn't simply reduced Zeru to ash as it had in the anime, of course.

The crowd began to boo again, though tentatively this time, too afraid of Hiei's Dragon to really put much heart into it. They didn't know he'd been maimed by the Dragon himself. They didn't know he would temporarily lose the use of his right arm for attempting this feat. They only knew to fear him, as they should, because he commanded a beast so monstrous it could never accomplish anything less than total, complete and awe-inspiring annihilation.

Hiei had won.

Hiei had won.

Because of course he'd won. Hiei never did anything but win in this tournament. Hiei and his Dragon were unbeatable, its presence an indicator of total victory, and through the use of the Dragon canon would be preserved until—

Above the din of the crowd, the PA system chimed.

The crowd quieted. "Huh?" Koto said into the mic, but the voice that echoed over the PA speaker did not acknowledge her at all.

"Due to referee error," a woman's cool, smooth voice proclaimed, "the Tournament Committee is handing down an amended ruling to the most recent match."

"Excuse me?" Koto said into the mic, aghast. "What the heck do you mean, 'referee error'?!"

One member of her fan club screamed into the ensuing silence, "Koto doesn't make mistakes!"

"Yeah!" bellowed another. "Get your head out of your asses! Koto is—"

"Combatant Hiei exited the ring's official boundaries prior to the start of the referee's ten-count." The woman carried on as if Koto had never spoken, each word as cool as a gold coin—and each just as heavy as they lodged, one by one, inside my suddenly heaving chest. "Because he was out of sight of the referee during that time, his out-of-bounds status was unknown to the referee at the time of her ruling, and could not be factored into her real-time decision to declare victory. But video footage has revealed that combatant Hiei touched down on solid ground for the entire length of a ten-count, even if said count was not commenced in a timely fashion."

Koto was obviously incensed by this. "Not commenced in a timely fashion?!" she shrieked, loudly enough to make the mic start ringing in protest. "Oh, that does it. I demand to see this alleged footage, because I do not make mistakes and I insist that we—"

The play-by-play screen flickered.

From its black depths, an image swam into view—one that showed Hiei crouched on a railing, eyes locked on the battlefield below.

His feet and hands were perched on solid metal.

On solid ground.

I was not visible in the shot. I stood too far back, in the shadows, to be seen. But even though no one else could see me, I knew I was there—and I knew, in a rush of heady premonition, exactly what the woman who represented the Tournament Committee would say even before she said it.

"After taking these facts into account," the woman's cold voice stated, "the Tournament Committee is reclassifying the match between Zeru and Hiei a draw." The PA system chimed again. "Let the record show…"

If she said anything else, I didn't hear her. No one heard her, I think. The cheers that rose from the demons, elated that the demon traitor had been cheated out of a win, drowned whatever she said out—but they did nothing to dull the sight of Hiei's winning O and Zeru's losing X changed to matching minus signs upon the scoreboard. I could only stare, numb and cold and horrified, as the truth of what had happened sank home like a knife through flesh.

The truth was that Hiei hadn't won his fight.

His match—fated for total victory—had instead ended in a draw.

Hiei hadn't won.

Hiei hadn't won.

And it was all my fault.


NOTES

Flashbacks to the time she almost killed Shiori, anyone?

And, well, fuck. Looks like the Tournament Committee is screwing them over from the outset instead of lying in wait for a few matches to pass…

Hiei still 100% smashed Zeru the way he did in the anime, so please let it be known that IN NO WAY has Hiei's power been nerfed. This outcome is literally 100% just because the committee is being an asshole. I know some of you might not like that Hiei's Tournament record gets marred in this version of YYH, but Kei can't always have positive impacts on the world around her. Here is the first negative impact (possibly first of many more) she could have on the fights. Moral of the story is that she needs to tread carefully in the arena, and for more reasons than just the demons wandering about.

Also my headcanon is that Jin is an enormous flirt, as you so plainly saw. We have not seen the last of him, mark my words.

And with that… HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LUCKY CHILD! LC turned two today. They grow up so fast… (*sniffles*) How many of you have been with this fic since the start? How long have most of you been following this story? Would love to know!

LC is often slow when I come back from hiatus, so I'm enormously grateful to all those who made LC's return a magical one. I very much appreciate your comments and kind words, and I loved hearing from each of you. See you on Jan. 5 with the next chapter, and a very happy holiday season to the following: The Adorable Muffin, Xenocanaan, Freaky Shannon-igans, Easily Amused 93, slytherclawqueen, ryafire1, Deamachi, Neko Mitsuko, Metro Neko, Blaze1662001, Laina Inverse, C S Stars, Ahyeon, Deus Venenare, tammywammy9, shen0, AlmostNEET, WhatWouldValeryDo, Biku sensei sez meow, RedPanda923, IronDBZ, Lady Ellesmere, Nightly Kill, Desaid, Kaiya Azure, Molten Thunder, WaYaADisi1, Sterling Bee, Shadowed Replica, buzzk97, OdinsReaper, AnimePleasegood, Greatazuredragon, KhaleesiRenee, TTrunks, shinoayozu, Ally Kenshin and a guest!