So these next few chapters encompass the Toguro/Yusuke fight. There will be a bit of jumping around, just so everyone is aware :) Thank you again for the views, follows, favorites, and reviews :) Have a great day!

The elder Toguro brother was, at least, anticlimactic. I felt myself tense up at his continued verbal assault on Genkai, but I couldn't help the relief that flooded through me when his younger brother kicked him into the roof of the tournament stadium.

"How could you?! I'm your older brother and you just kicked me you son of a bitch! Your own brother!" He screamed, launching himself back down to take his vengeance. Toguro didn't even spare him a glance.

"You're dead to me."

One single punch to the gut, and I watched in a state of detachment as the air filled with the spray of blood. Did it make me like him to feel this relief that he was gone? Did it make me as evil as him to feel nothing at the thought that the monster who had almost torn apart my cousin was dead by his own brother?

"I'm sorry, but blood can only run so thick." Toguro turned to Yusuke, his fist still dripping red down his wrist. "This will be a fair fight with you. Down to the letter. This time we fight for real."

"You bet."

I felt numb. I gripped onto Kazuma's hand as hard as I could to make him look at me. His eyes were as wild as I knew mine were empty, and he looked back to the match that was about to unfold. This was really happening.

Toguro tossed his jacket aside, and I elbowed Kazuma when he made a jab about steroids. I wasn't fully paying attention to him, but I knew it was something stupid.

"This time's for real. Are you guys ready?" She looked awkward when no one moved, and she continued regardless. "Okay then, begin!"

"Well done, Yusuke." Toguro congratulated him, and I bristled a little at the content lull in his voice. "At last the two of us fight again. Only this time things are going to be different for you. I'm not throwing this fight for anyone."

"Good. Cuz now, for me, it's personal."

Toguro growled at him, every muscle tensing like an animal. "You don't think this is personal for me too?! I'll start with 80%!"

I flinched back at the aura that surrounded him, his muscles beginning to bulge and morph like armor, his veins literally moving under his skin to help reinforce his new strength. It was both horrifying and disgusting, and it was ripping him apart. I shoved Kazuma out of the way as debris flew out from under this newly massive Toguro, rolling to avoid getting hit, and shuddered at the screams echoing around us. Whatever his power was doing, it was absorbing the crowd to fuel this form. I felt warm, like something was tugging at my skin, and I backed away from him on instinct.

"Amazing." I whipped around to face Hiei, who was staring in reverence at the monster standing in front of Yusuke. "Toguro's demon energy is so strong that it's literally melting the flesh off the weaker apparitions."

"They're not the only ones." Kurama held his chest, sweat trailing down his brow. "I can't take much more in my present state."

"Not a... problem." Gasped Kazuma, copying my movements. I stepped in front of him, bringing up a barrier between all five of us and that energy, concentrating on not letting anyone slip away from me just yet to fuel it. "Gav! I can take it. Stop!"

"You can't." I grit my teeth, keeping my focus steady and my concentration on what I was doing.

"Neither can you, actually. Not this close." Koenma insisted, bringing up his own barrier in front of us, electricity crackling. "Keep an eye on the girls; I've got us covered Gavriella."

I nodded, turning to Shizuru, Botan, Yukina, and Shizuru, bringing up a small disc and slashing part of the energy so little Puu could keep up the impressive barrier he had made without the interference.

"Good boy." I whispered, my heart soaring at his bravery.

Yusuke launched himself at Toguro, earning a swift uppercut to the jaw that he somehow rolled off and just continued to launch at him. For growing a hundred pounds of muscle in twenty seconds, Toguro was just as nimble and before, and twice as quick. I glanced between the fight and the girls, my heart pounding at the thought of when Puu ran out of energy.

There was no end to Toguro's strength. He swatted the air and a damn minefield set off a path all the way from where he was to up in the stands. Yusuke was doing his best to keep up, but I could see the blood smearing down his face and staining his shirt from the impact of the rubble. And still he stood his ground as Toguro launched at him.

"Are you crazy?!" Kazuma screamed.

"You can't take a straight on punch, Yusuke." I whispered.

But he stopped short. He paused inches from Yusuke's face and stared him down.

"I see the way you look at me in judgement. But you have no idea what it's like, do you? To lose your beloved."

"No. And I never will cuz I won't let that happen." He stared back. I glanced to Keiko, high on the stands. "I actually look forward to growing old with her."

"You say that now."

"Stop it! This is between you and me."

I glanced over to the girls, launching another disc at the rubble that was falling in their direction. Thankfully they didn't seem to notice as I kept the energy balls and the rocks away from them. I was just thankful that this was starting to calm, but I knew this was merely the calm before the storm.

"Those fools! Why don't they stop dancing around each other and fight? One must never let emotions enter the ring. That was a mistake. I should have known better than to hand this match over to Yusuke."

"You know as well as I do that Yusuke is incapable to fighting to his full potential when emotions aren't involved, Hiei." I snipped.

"You aren't one to talk about emotions at all." He snipped back at me.

"Children! If we could not squabble amongst ourselves." Koenma lectured, and we both glared at each other before turning back to the ring.

"Don't you have any new tricks?" Toguro taunted. I grit my teeth, but suddenly everything went cold. There was something wrong. Something... familiar.

There was nothing to suggest that anything else was wrong in this scenario, but I could feel it in the air. Something was here that just didn't belong, something different that was making the air shift.

I listened to them talk for a minute, how they assessed what was going on, and I could feel the energy Yusuke was drawing into himself. It was intense, the glow nearly blinding. I waited for him to blast Toguro away, and my stomach dropped into the floor when he released the energy all at once and simply ran forward, opting for another fist fight. What was he doing?

Punch after punch was attempted, Toguro tearing up the ring and Yusuke barely making an escape each time. I would have been astounded had I not needed to dodge immediately out of the way, absorbing some of the impact of the debris for us. Koenma assisted with this shield not a minute later.

I was shaking so hard I could barely focus on what else was going on other than there was a cataclysmic event happening not fifty feet from us and we were standing watching it willingly. As it turns out, one doesn't need to focus in order to see the raging flames Yusuke produced by blasting Toguro through the falling rocks, causing the giant of a man to tear backwards and disappear out of sight. A gaping hole and the fires from Yusuke's spirit gun were all that remained.

Silence was all anyone could manage, it seemed. When did Yusuke become so strong?

Juri seemed worse for the wear, having been partially buried in a pile of rubble, and Kazuma, of course, lost his temper at an inopportune moment.

"Hey lady, get up! You got a job to do; there's a fighter out of the ring and you better start counting like you're always doing for me." He yelled at her. I groaned, rubbing my forehead to fight this oncoming headache.

"Take a moment to look where Yusuke's standing." Hiei drawled. Kazuma paled, finally taking in the gravity of the scene before us and Yusuke standing on solid ground where the arena used to be.

"Hey, how the heck do you get back in the ring?"

"In this final battle, there will be no boundaries." Kurama explained.

"The only rule is kill or be killed." I said quietly, standing up again and playing with the still broken chain in my pocket for comfort.

Yusuke wandered over to the hole he had made, looking through, and I followed slowly, ignoring the boys as they started to wonder. It felt like an eternity that I was staring down into the hole, watching the flames engulf everything around them, and dread filling my chest when I saw something walking forward from the wreckage.

"Is that all you got for me?" Toguro wondered, stalking through like he was king of the whole damn castle and glowering at Yusuke. "I expected more from Genkai."