File 19: First battle!

The next morning, everyone had gathered at –or around- the Dark Tournament stadium. And on the thick stone ring, there was a lone female demon with short light brown hair down to her shoulders, green eyes, whiskers, and brown fox ears and tail. She was dressed in a light yellow sleeveless shirt, blue tie, red butterfly knot choker, pink shorts, black leggings and red boots.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we apologise for the long delay. I am Koto, your ring announcer, at your service!" She introduced herself cheerfully in her mike. "We now commence the Dark Tournament!" She threw her arms in the air. The audience was yelling, already fed up with the waiting, so she then introduced the contestants for the first match of the first round. The Rokuyukai Team made their entrance, cheered by the onlookers.

"What do you think, Sakyo-san? They are promising youths. Their names are not well-known yet, but I have confidence in them. I think they are the only ones who can beat your Toguro Team. Urameshi and his bunch are no match for them." Gondawara Sukezo, the owner of the Rokuyukai Team boasted before his fellow Black Book Club member in the VIP seats. Sakyo remained quiet and impassive.

"Facing them will be our guests, the Urameshi Team!" Koto pointed. The five members approached, Yusuke still half carried half dragged by Kuwabara, all showered by the boos of the crowd.

"Die, Urameshi!"

"Don't think you're going to go back alive!"

"Band of weakling!"

"You're all going to die!"

"Hiei, Kurama, you traitors!"

Kuwabara complained about how popular their team seemed to be. The fox thought it was ironic of those demons to talk about betrayal since they had no sense of fellowship to begin with. Both teams joined Koto at the center of the ring.

Just outside the stadium, Keiko, Botan, and Shizuru were looking around.

"You're sure they're here somewhere?" Keiko asked.

"Go easy on him, Keiko-chan." Botan said.

"Listen, Botan-san! Because of Yusuke, we nearly died! For him to get us both so deeply involved and then say nothing and go off to do something dangerous again is unforgivable! Shizuru-san, let's go." The brown-haired girl was still quite angry.

Just what you'd expect from Urameshi's childhood friend: she's got a lot of guts! The spirit guide thought, impressed.

"By the way, isn't Koenma-sama here yet?"

Not far, a handsome young man was hailed by a ticket seller. The demon was offering him a ticket for a place right at the edge of the gallery for two millions. The teen turned around. He was really good-looking, with brown-hair, brown-eyes, and an air of nobility around him.

"I already have a VIP seat." There were the initials JR on his forehead. He was quite attractive, really. He was attractive, but... WHAT WAS THAT DAMN PACIFIER DOING IN HIS MOUTH?! The demon recognised immediately the prince of the reikai.

"You-you're Koenma! Are you a spectator, sir?" He asked, a little embarrassed, and waving his tail innocently. There was something of a reptile about him.

"I am the owner of the Urameshi Team."

"Oh, goodness."

"We were able to suspend the Tournament in the Spirit World, however, special privileges were invoked and the decision was overturned."

"You don't say..."

"I can't dispute that this tournament is a place where they can vent some stress, and the number of crimes in the Human World is reduced."

"Just as I thought, sir, you do understand. These grounds are a black sanctuary. You're also aware that fighting is the only subject here. He who wins is the law. Even you are just an ordinary spectator here. Even if your own family was about to get killed, you can only watch silently."

"I am well aware of that." Koenma left and joined the three young women. The green demon was impressed: he thought all three of them were the prince's sweethearts. But the teen corrected him through his stupid pacifier, saying they were the guests' relatives and girlfriend. "My dimwit assistant let word slip out and we were forced to invite them too." He said, resentful and sarcastic.

"He called me a dimwit!" The blue-haired one cried.

Koenma introduced himself and entered the stadium with the women following him.

On the arena, Rinku was angry that Yusuke was still sleeping. He felt that they were being mocked and of course was not happy about it. Koto told the team leaders to consult and decide the methods of battle and terms of victory. Since Urameshi was still sleeping, Kurama told Kuwabara to go in his place. Akari also encouraged it with a cute little smile.

"Who? Me? That can't be so! I guess it is, huh? I don't like that I have to be next after Urameshi, but all right!" He said, with obvious fake modesty and looking so stupidly happy. Zeru and Kazuma advanced until they were face to face, less than half a metre apart. The tension was palpable between the two.

"I don't care what method we use. But I prefer the duel, it prolongs the pleasure." Zeru suggested.

"That's just how I want it! One-on-one is best in a fight among men!" Kuwabara agreed, fired up. Koto announced the results. As the two humans were going back to their side, Zeru's look focused on Yusuke's face, and suddenly, his cold blue eyes burned red. His youki increased and turned into flames. There was no doubt about it: he was challenging Urameshi. But the boy did not so much as bat an eyelid. That ruthless and bloodthirsty display of power seemed to have stricken Kurama, and Hiei. The blazing flames spread and surrounded the Urameshi team before going to incinerate a portion of the audience. As there was no reaction on Urameshi's part, the demon dismissed him as a simple fool. But as he was going to go back to his team, something happened. However, it was not Yusuke, but Akari. Her arms crossed, her head down, her eyes shadowed by her pink bangs, her lips curved into a feral smirk, her reiki was rising tremendously. It was winding around her at high speed. The bloodlust had gotten to her and she was asking for attention. Then it suddenly engulfed the whole ring before submerging the whole stadium and shooting toward the sky like a wind dragon, a tornado of reiki and thirst for blood. Something the youkais would have never expected from a human girl. The rei master stopped the flow. The onlookers were all silent and frozen with fear. Koto came back out of her hiding place. Akari went to her and smiled, asking if she could have the mike for a minute. She had an announcement to make. Koto agreed. The pink haired one cleared her throat.

"I am Katsuyama Akari! My grandmother is the great master Genkai! And the ones to defeat the Toguro Brothers will be the Urameshi Team! Even if my partners are no good, I'll smash to pieces everyone who will stand in my way! However, it would be unfair of me to be the only one having fun so I'll be letting my guys fight! Now if anyone has anything to say, come down on the ring! I'll burn you to a crisp! I'll tear you all to shreds! HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!" Akari yelled at the top of her voice, her despotic laugh thundering through the stadium. That boastful, defying, disdainful, domineering, high and mighty attitude of hers as well as that absolute pride and confidence in her own abilities had earned her the enmity of the whole youkai population of the stadium. She was a girl. She was a human. She was Genkai's granddaughter. But she wasn't just a big mouth. She had the skills to back it up. They couldn't deny it. They could only resent it. She might be extremely pretty, but what about it?! That was her alright. The one who had caught the attention of one of the highest authorities in the Makai -and thus of the two others- and who had earned the surname of the Human Elemental Maiden.

She gave the mike back to Koto and returned to her friends. Kuwabara was trembling and having doubts again concerning her humanity. She had gone completely crazy. Kurama was sweatdropping and yet he was smiling too. She had to go and make it so big and again exceeded all his assumptions and predictions. And yet, that was so like her. Common sense was not something that could be applied to her. And that was one of the many reasons why he was so drawn to her.

"Hey, just who is no good?" Hiei asked, angrily.

"Then you just need to win all of your matches." Akari replied simply but challengingly.

"Humph, of course." The small demon smirked back at her. He was certainly not going to lose to her.

After this explosive introduction, the first two constestants stepped on the ring. It was Kuwabara and Rinku. The human appeared quite confident, contrary to the tiny demon who was rather disappointed to have the weakest-looking one as his opponent. Koto explained that there were no rules aside from keeping it a one-on-one fight. Upon knockdowns and ringouts she will begin to count. A 10-count resulted in a loss by K.O. The bell buzzed and the first fight began. Rinku was first to attack and easily landed two hits on Kazu, using his weightlessness, speed, and extreme agility to confuse his opponent by springing around. But the tall human had done some training too and his eyes and body soon adjusted to the speed and reversed the situation. The demonic audience thought it was because that Rinku was weak but they were wrong. As Kurama pointed out, it was because Kuwabara didn't put out his power until he was in a real fight. The orange head started kicking and pounding his opponent. However, his teammates were not happy: Kuwabara was being way too soft on this kid. Was he abiding by some kind of honor code? Or could he not sense his enemy's true strength? Whatever it was, that was just stupid. Hiei said he should just run him through and kill him with his reiken. But after a particularly powerful punch in his opponent's guts, the human missed his golden chance to do so and instead went for another punch that would K.O. Rinku... if it could hit.

However, in a split second, Rinku disappeared out of his sight and reappeared behind him. Kuwabara only had the time to turn around as a foot struck the left side of his head. The old him would have certainly had his neck broken. The human was down. Koto began counting. The mini demon was already enjoying his victory. Since simply defeating his opponent right away would have been boring, he had voluntarily held back and turned this into a show for the fun of it.

That's a vicious little one. He enjoys himself in the fight. Hiei was smirking, being just as vicious by enjoying watching the fight as he was. Such things had always appealed to him. And Akari was just as vicious too, as proven when she had provoqued the whole stadium, which had also greatly appealed to him (despite the fact that she had implied that her partners were no good).

The audience was cheering for him. But suddenly, at 8 the announcer stopped counting. Kuwabara had regained consciousness and was starting to get up.

"Whose neck... did you say you broke?" He challenged his enemy in a low menacing voice. His temper and fighting spirit were flaring up. Rinku narrowed his eyes and smiled wickedly. The three human girls in the stands were worried, but at the same time, deeply impressed by his pluck. Of course, after all, he was Kuwabara Shizuru's little brother.

"Amazingly, he has gotten back up! The match continues!" Koto announced.

"One side uses psychological strategies to catch the other off-guard, and the other takes it and gets back up." The fox explained.

"This has turned out to be an interesting fight, huh?" Hiei agreed. Akari remained quite but from her expression she shared the exact same opinion as her cute youkai friends.

"We're starting to hit high points! It's really hitting up! It's the first fight of the first round and we're already witnessing a battle of great intensity!" Koto commented heatedly, quite on fire herself.

"To be honest, it's true you outsmarted me. However, seeing as how you were unable to defeat me with that kick means you don't have much power, huh?" Kazu said.

"That's my 'guest' alright. Absolutely... if I couldn't defeat you with that kick, then I'll just have to beat you with my demonic power." Rinku smirked back and pulled height yoyos out the small bag strapped across him and held them in the spaces across his fingers. He raised his youki, his green eyes and the stars on his yoyos took a red tint, sign of the power packed within. And in response to the youkai's speciality, the devil yoyos, Kuwabara decided to also show the special skill he had acquired, and did not summon one but TWO spirit swords. Rinku jumped and shot his yoyos at his enemy. The human thought he could just cut them in half, but instead the youki-controlled threads twisted their way around the swords and hit their wielder full force, throwing him backward.

"Whoa! Ladies and gentlemen, were you able to see that? Just now, constestant Kuwabara was unmistakably thrown about by that particular motion!" Koto commented with amazement.

"Dummy! This isn't some child's squabble you know! Did you think that all I could do was cast them?" The brat taunted, playing with his yoyos that now looked like harmless toys.

Kuwabara cursed and once more summoned his spirit sword as he was sitting up.

"The Devil Yo-yos are receiving plenty youki from my fingers..." At these words, Rinku made his yoyo drill a hole in the concrete. "All eigth of them individually... move the way I want them to..." With this, his arms crossed before him, he showed all eight yoyos between his fingers. The stars on them were shining an ominous red again. "... Just like this!" And he made them twist and sinuate about at high speed, as if he were holding the tails of eigth snakes, no, as if he were a poisonous snake himself; and these yoyos were mere extentions of himself. The whelp was obviously showing off and trying to intimidate his opponent, which succeeded.

The human took his battle stance. Rinku taunted him that he couldn't even cut the strings of his yoyos with those blunt swords of his, and attacked again. He cast four of his weapons that dug furrows on the ring, pulling him along like he was driving an invisible sleigh (or walking four dogs with him sitting in midair) and sped toward Kuwabara. The tall teen hauled slab after slab with his reiken in an attempt to protect himself. The demon child merely passed the first one before getting tired of it and thrusting his four other yoyos through the stone walls to hit his enemi from the front again. Then as the human was falling, strings attached themselves to his arms and legs while the others passed him to strike him hard from behind, making him crash full force on the ground. This battle seemed to have become terribly one-sided. Then Rinku, showered with cheers, used his youki-filled threads to fling Kuwabara around and make him crash repetively. He seemed to be having a hell of a time, both meanings included.

"Kurama, it seems like your special training was useless." Hiei told his friend as their teammated was being clobbered on the ring. "He can't defend himself against those yo-yos with a pair of swords."

"No, he hasn't shown all the results of his training yet." The fox contradicted him.

"I'm not particularly worried. I'm sure he'll bring out one of his trademark suicidal strategies to knock that brat down at the last moment, and yet he will still be alright since he's so tough." Akari said casually like he was stupid, but still with a note of pride and confidence in her voice.

The youkai stopped at last. Kazuma was all bruised and battered and bleeding, but he had lost nothing of his fighting spirit and was threatening to kill him. Rinku sighed dismally: he was the one getting worn out instead. And since there were other fights ahead, it was time for him to settle this. Once more, he increased his youki and lifted the tall human into the air.

"Hey? What's this? Hold it a sec! Hey! Hello there!?" The teen struggled powerlessly as he was being raised higher and higher.

"Kazuma sure has risen up to a place where we can see him well." Shizuru commented calmly while taking a puff. Keiko and Botan were angry at her for being so cool about it. Her brother could really die, how could she be so cold?! "That's all up to fate. That would mean his luck ran out."

"Sheesh! Both you and Akari! You two are just so…!" The ferry girl said, aggravated. She was remembering the time when the rei master had refused to help Yusuke against Randou and acted just as coldly towards her grandmother, that she wouldn't help him either if Randou were to try and kill the old woman. But Keiko was not like this, and upon noticing Yusuke sleeping against the ring, she yelled at him to wake up, this wasn't the time for a nap.

"Why you! Let me down!" Kuwabara was shouting.

"You sure!? How is the view?! Don't worry, after I raise you a bit higher, I'll drop you!"

"Ah, I see, pardon me. You dumbass! Let me down!"

In the VIP seats, Koenma was worried and ordered Georges to go protect the girl, but the Oni cowered down and told his master to go instead. The prince had the same reaction but covered for it saying humans progressed fastly in front of difficulty, and Botan was there, and Kuwabara's big sister was quite capable too.

Indeed, Keiko had left her seat to get closer to Yusuke and had been stopped by two huge demons. At first she was fearful of them, but when they told her to go home as it was a tournament for youkais, her usual grit came back at once and she provoked him saying Yusuke had already died and resurrected once. It was then that the youkai foolishly opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue, threatening to eat her, And Shizuru burned it with her cigarette. Botan complimented her for having brilliantly chased him away. Keiko went to the parapet and kept on yelling while the demons were crying and asking for the drop.

In the air, Kuwa was trying to provoke his enemy into letting him down so they could have a battle man against man. But it didn't work so he chose to insult instead, as if Rinku would be a good kid and obey if he did. That merely made him retract his yoyos. The human boy was falling to his death...