File 05: Home at last

It was a few days later, yet again on the school's rooftop. Botan was giving Yusuke his new mission while Akari was soundlessly sleeping up there. Koenma had discovered everything so she should have been in class but hell, it was PE, she didn't need it. The brat had been grumpy because of his hundred spankings, vent on everyone, and he found out about her. But still she decided to sleep using Botan and the new mission as an excuse.

"What?! I'm supposed to go undercover this time?"

"Yep! Master Genkai, a friend of Koenma-sama, is currently accepting disciples. You're supposed to go as someone interested."

"And just who is this Genkai?"

"A great figure! The cream of the crop in rei abilities, one of the five greatest masters in the world. She's never wanted to take in a disciple but it seems her time is running out… So she expressed her desire to pass on her abilities." Nobody noticed her twitching in her sleep at the mention of 'Genkai'. Then Botan explained that indeed, many demons yearned to know the source behind Genkai's power and many others suppressed their activities because they were scared of her. But if they were able to acquire this skill, it would become a terrifying weapon for them. And so Yusuke must observe from within and stop them. Though the blue haired girl did leave out that the detective could as well need it as a training trip. Instead, she added that he should watch out for a demon named Rando who already acquired the secrets of 99 highly skilled rei exponents and intends to make Genkai the hundredth. And since he tested his new moves on humans, Yusuke agreed that it could become really dangerous. But his biggest problem was: should he use his coming holidays to risk his life or not?

"Baka! You're not supposed to compare them!"

"What? That's very important to me! Besides can't Akari do it? She's strong enough."

"Akari is not the Reikai Tantei and that's also for you to get stronger!"

"Tchh."

"Ah, yes… once the mission is accomplished you will have a reward…" Botan said, using her last trump card.

"A reward?" Yusuke inquired, interested.

"Front row ticket for the Wrestle World Championship in Tokyo!" Of course, he agreed without a second thought. But as he was climbing these few hundreds of stairs he began to wonder how Botan knew he was a wrestling fan, he felt kind of….. tricked. Once at his destination, he was surprised to see this much people, all of them rather… special. He even heard some of them commenting about how tough her tests and training might be. Though his main, if not only thought was: Oh, well, if I lose, I can just go home and rest. But it was disturbed when he heard a familiar voice calling his last name. It was Kuwabara. Since his rei abilities had increased a lot recently, he had come to consult Genkai about that, because weird stuff was always happening to him and that was not exactly to his liking. Yusuke was surprised that Genkai also did this kind of consultation. Of course Kuwabara used this chance to sound great and knowledgeable…

"Urameshi…! How can you not know about that? Genkai's someone who utilizes the reikohadou with great expertise. The spirit waves enshrouding a human are called 'reikohadou'. And if one uses it at will all kinds of things would be possible like healing people or defeating opponents without touching them."

And logically, the detective acted as if he already knew about that, which angered slightly his favourite 'punching ball'. But, eventually, the usual quarrel stopped with the master's appearance. Though some, like Yusuke, doubted that this old granny really was Genkai, others were only thinking about the tests, confident that they would pass them all. So Master -herself surprised at how many applicants there were- decided to announce the first test, which will be…. DRAWING LOTS!

At this, everyone fell. Probably, most believed that she was a senile old lady but since she was Master Genkai they still went with it and came to draw their lots. She explained that only the ones who got a red piece of paper would pass the first round. Though plenty didn't get it Kuwabara and Yusuke both got one, which they didn't expect. What nobody among the applicants knew, was that this paper was specially made. Only those with a certain amout of reiki could evoke a red reaction from the paper.

"Those who have been chosen, follow me. Those who haven't, go home now." She said bluntly, her arms crossed behind her back, as usual, and turning around.

Unfortunately, two rather bulky and rude men wanted their say in it and complained about the test.

"Wait just a damn minute! We were the greatest rei experts in our region."

"We especially came here and we get ruled out by drawing lots? What's the meaning of this?!" Murmurs of agreement ran through the other kicked out applicants but many were also concerned about the Master. How could a little old lady stand up to those impressive goons? They were demanding a reason and threatening her.

"You frustrating pieces of garbage, as rei experts you couldn't even pick the correct lots? Go home and sleep!" Genkai rebuked them contemptuously.

"How dare you poke fun at us?!"

"You stupid old hag! Unforgivable!" The giants shouted, attacking her... until they suddenly crashed on the wooden stairs, head first. In fact Akari had just landed on them from the rather high jump she had done from the wall behind all the applicants. She was just back home. She then used the guys as a stepping stone to jump at Genkai and tackle her in a hug while shouting "GRAND-MAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" However, the granny just stepped aside and her granddaughter was now the one to crash. But she still hugged her. Then the guys were up again, calling her bitch, what the hell was that, how she dared and such. She just turned to her dear kindred.

"Hey! Grand-ma, what's with the losers? Who are they to treat us like that anyway?"

"Nothing, just trash." Genkai just smiled at her. The guys called them names again and tried another attack. So, the sweet girl just got a vein on her temple, gave them a death glare but not enough time to run as she let out just enough ki to send them right through the doors. She had barely allowed them to land that she was already stepping on them again, burying them all the more in the ground. She looked…. positively terrifying.

"You can say whatever you want about me, I couldn't care less and wouldn't even listen. But only two people have the right to insult my grand-ma. Myself, and her disciple. And since you're obviously not me and you're definitely not going to be her disciple…. JUST GET THE HELL AWAY!" Akari ended shouting, throwing them in the air by the back of their shirts and kicking them away. She walked back to Genkai, everyone making room for her as she was mumbling about how she hated that kind of guys and she was rubbing her hands like she had just finished a work that needed to be done, meaning cleaning out the trash. She paid no mind to the frightened faces around her. Her eyes were fixed upon her grandmother's. That smirk, that glint in her eyes... the old one was clearly interested.

"It seems like my stupid weakling of a grand-daughter has gotten a bit stronger over the last years. Didn't you, Akari?" Now that was a provocation.

"Wanna feel how much stronger I got, you bloody old hag?" She asked with the sweetest voice and smile and the biggest vein popping, cracking her knuckles. But the baba just snorted and lunged at her, aiming a kick at Akari's head who caught her ankle, used her speed to make her crash too on the ground but Genkai caught herself with her hands and used her other foot to kick her opponent's stomach but she blocked it with her other hand, and still holding her feet, threw her away. Then she ran fast enough to be behind her and kicked at her grand-ma and master; but the latter dodged and was the one behind her trying to punch her but Akari dodged it and tried to elbowed her. The old lady dodged again and went to kick her but the pink haired caught it again and tried to punch her too. This went on, faster than most people could see. It was only punches and kicks because neither of them wanted to ruin their home.

Finally, both of them jumped really high, Akari fired an impressive reigun at her, but the master dodged saying that no matter how much the destructive power it was no use if she couldn't control it. Then, the girl disappeared... And reappeared right before Genkai, her index at her forehead. It was shining, ready to fire. She smirked.

"Right. But even a thread-like beam would kill you at that distance." Akari loved to see them, those eyes so wide in shock. Both of them landed in the same position. Her index stopped shining.

"Bang!" The young one said with a big grin. But then she rubbed the back of her head with a sweatdrop. "Just joking. Sorry, got a lil carried away. But you were too." She smiled. Her grand-mother smirked, thinking that her grand daughter did improve greatly. Akari turned around, facing the applicants.

"Righty, now let's proceed to the tests, shall we?" She said smiling sweetly and clapping her hands. "Ah? Ari? Where did they all go? Oh well…. I'm Katsuyama Akari, Master Genkai's grand-daughter. I hope we showed that body size is not everything and that by being Master Genkai's apprentice you can go at least as far as me... through excruciatingly hard work. Everyone, I'm looking forward to seeing the best of you." She finished, bowing. Only a few people had stayed, the ones who had felt challenged and who longed for the same strength they had just displayed. It was then she finally noticed Yusuke and Kuwabara. She waved at them grinning widely and went to them. She wasn't that surprised that they wanted to become stronger but she was indeed shocked they had heard about her granny's tournament. They felt offended but well. Then she saw Yusuke using his youki detector. Youki…. He thought there was a demon nearby? Nah. Couldn't be. It couldn't be his own idea. Soooo… a mission? Then it broke. So there was a demon. And it was strong. Now that she concentrated, she could indeed feel his presence. He seemed decent at conceiling but that was not enough. Kuwabara was asking what he was doing. But she had another question.

"Yusuke, what do you know, about this demon?" The girl whispered.

"What?! You don't know? But you were there!" He almost shouted.

There… there… ah ! On the rooftop! The mission! right... Inwardly she smiled in a sheepish way.

"Was sleeping!" She whispered again smacking him on the head. So he just told her about Randou. But indeed, she had not slept much those last nights. She had not wanted to go home right away after coming back to be yelled at that she had not sent a single word in all those years and about what kind of ungrateful granddaughter she was. So she had spent some time at Yusuke's but couldn't bear Keiko-chan's brutal way of waking people every morning and her nagging for long. At Kuwabara's she didn't sleep because she was having such a fun time with his older sister Shizuru. Hiei's... no. Just no. And at Kurama's... the house was big, the bed comfy, the family really nice, but that damn pretty boy would wake her up way to early using despicable techniques such as attracting her with food, saying that if she didn't get up she wouldn't have breakfast. He was a meanie! And he would walk her to school to be sure she wouldn't go playing or sleeping somewhere, and then he would walk her back home and supervise all her studies. And because he had grasped her weaknesses, she could not escape and was forced to obey him. Though she would still sleep in class, or just skip it. And sometimes go and bother Kurama and his fangirls to get back at him and have her fun. She had even found him a cute nickname to annoy them. She would call him Shu-chan. He would react with a sweatdrop and a lil blush or sometimes act very flustered when she would be all over him. And she just loved watching the other girls burn with the flames of wrath and jealousy and yet be unable to defy her as they were too scared of her.

Then Genkai led everyone to the place where the second test will be taking place. To Akari it just sounded and looked like an arcade. There were all kind of machines and a stage for the karaoke. Though she thought it much fun for her, for everyone else who was taking it seriously, it must have looked like the old woman was just making fools out of them. But still one politely asked what arcades games had to do with picking a disciple. So Genkai explained that these machines were to investigate the true powers of a person. One had to use his rei abilities to get a high score. The punching game determined the strength of one's rei attack, 120 was the passing mark. Janken was about the sharpness of the ability to use or feel rei weapons or spells, 15 rounds and 10 wins to pass. Finally karaoke measured the reiki, the strength of one's will to live, it took 70 points to pass. All the other games were for the master's interest. But to pass to the next stage, one had to succeed at at least 2 machines. Oh, right, and they must put in 100 yens to take the challenge.

Since her money-faced granny told her to show them how to do it, she went first at every game. The girl immediately went to the punching ball.

"Here I go!" She yelled, making her reiki flow into her right fist, though she had barely moved that she had to stop in mid-air when she heard Genkai shouting her name. Again she smiled sweetly at her with a huge vein.

"Yes, my little dearest grand-mother I love so much?" She inquired as calmy as she could. Akari hated being interrupted and she knew it, that evil grand-ma. She just smirked again.

"Don't break anything."

"Hai!" She grinned, and with, that, she punched the ball, holding back as much as possible. She still got 397 points. Then all guys expected to do at least twice as much. Dun wanna be beaten by a little girl, right? Although the first strong looking one scored only a lame 18 points. Kuwabara 129, Yusuke 155. So there was another quarrel because yet again Yusuke scored over Kazuma about the destructive power. At janken it was a complete victory for Akari and Kuwabara while Yusuke won only twice and lost 13 times. A tall guy with many scars scored a 175 at the punching ball. Now the karaoke. Her song was called makka na chikai (deep red oath), originally performed by Yoshiki Fukuyama. A song to remind her to hold all her feelings close to her heart as she headed into the scorching hot battle, so she would overcome her limits and never lose out to the humongous barrier of power and darkness. Even if there were things she didn't understand, she just had to move forward with everyone, with trust, and with courage, continue to chase after tomorrow. That was her deep red oath. No matter how many times she failed or felt depressed, she must never give up to keep protecting those important to her, to keep burning with everyone, until her hot blood stopped flowing out.

And as she sang, her ki was burning intensely around her, progressively filling the whole room, many stopped to listen and watch, amazed. She scored a nice 527 points. So when the baldy came it didn't quite give off the same feeling….. But since there were still so many contestants, even though another good 20 had failed, Genkai decided to take harsh measures. She took everyone away from the shrine, to the forest. There was a kekkai around it.

"Back then was a little mini test, now is where the real difficulty begins." She declared. Beads of sweat were appearing on a few people's faces, they were scared, sensing how much youki was emanating from the forest. The master explained that this area was known as the demonic forest, a restricted zone with natural snares, dangerous animals, and, of course, demons. Even compasses lost their effect there.

"That big tree at the other end is the finish line. Whoever gets there within two hours, passes." But some ran away, withdrawing, although they were keen on being Genkai's apprentice, they felt like they wouldn't have enough lives to lose if they were to enter this forest. The grand-ma chuckled evily.

"Aren't you smart? Even those with slight rei abilities can sense the danger lurking within this forest." The old lady laughed superiorily. Akari smirked, her arms crossed. That's my grand-ma for you: she's also the best at scaring people away. She thought, watching the scene. Well at least there WERE courageous and ambitious people who stayed.

"The master is right. Only those with proper training can challenge this round head on." Like Kibano, the one who scored a 175 at the punching ball.

"Meaning that brats and fakers should run home now." Or Kazemaru, the one who sang especially crappily. Both were looking at Yusuke and Kazuma insistently. The youngsters looked blankly at them.

"I'm going. How can I retreat after having seen granny's and Akari's power?"

"Call me 'master' furball!"

"Don't think you'll aquire the skill by plain talk you two. Are you even humans anyway?"

The young girl chuckled since Kazemaru and Kibano seemed to have no idea what the detective was talking about. But then Kuwabara's pride talked:

"If you go I'm going to." Yusuke tried to dissuade him but not to avail. His fellow fighter was only interested in getting the master's secret skill so he could finally defeat Urameshi. To sum it up, he had long forgotten about his original purpose.

"Well, then… BEGIN!" Genkai shouted, and everyone took off.