A/N: I am so sorry that the updates have been so slow…but with school and work and sleep (okay, so not so much with the sleep, but defiantly the other two)…so, here it is…ENJOY!
"EWWWWWW! Just because you are staying here does not mean that I will wash your dirty underwear!" Hikaru screamed though out the house "Whose are they?"
"My bad!" was heard coming from upstairs.
"Yusuke! I will KILL YOU!! I hope you didn't really want to fight in the tournament, because you won't live to see the next hour!" She continued to screech at the ceiling.
"You will not kill him in this house!" Rayanna retorted, "You know the rule. If you want to draw blood, take to outside. I will not pay to have blood removed from my carpets again!"
And that was the end of the argument. All of the men in the house sat quietly, pondering whether or not Raya was being serious. Deciding that she was, they decided not to press the subject.
"Lunch is ready!" Izzabelle called from the kitchen.
They all came down to see what damage she had caused this time. All things considered, it really wasn't that bad. She had made ramen, and rice, and chicken, and salad, and spaghetti, and cake, and pudding. The girls assessed the table and decided that they had seen worse. The boys looked at it and had never seen that much food in one house at any one time. Kurama further pondered how it had all originally fit in the pantry, while Yusuke decided what to eat first. They sat and talked, just as they had the night before until they caught sight of the clock.
"We need to leave. Now!" Raya yelled as she put on her shoes. "Meet out in the garage." She called as she walked out a side door of the kitchen that no one knew existed.
Five minutes later, everyone was gathered in a large detached garage that took up a good portion of the back yard. In it, there was a wide array of vehicles, from shiny new convertibles, to a big mud covered jeep, to big multi passenger SUV's. All of the males in the room (with the exception of Hiei, most likely) began to mentally salivate. Never had they seen such a wonderful private collection in person. They were pulled back into reality by Raya's voice.
"Amaya, you take the Tahoe. I'll take the Expedition. The rest of you, spit up however you wish."
As it turned out, Raya, Kurama, Akira, Athren, and Kuwabara rode in one vehicle, with the others riding with Amaya. Once everyone was seated and buckled in, the garage doors swung open and both vehicles shot out. Both Rayanna and Amaya knew what was going on. They were racing. In large SUV's. Full of people. Down roads with relatively low speed limits. (Yeah, they were having fun! ) But, all together too soon, the race had ended.
"You so cheated! There is now way that you could have beaten us!" Hikaru screamed as she raced to where she stood outside of her vehicle.
"How exactly did I cheat, again?" Raya asked coolly as they began the second leg of the journey.
"I don't know! But you did somehow! We so should have won that one!" the small girl persisted.
"No. I just drove faster longer. I didn't slow down at all. Maybe I'm just more daring." She continued walking as she spoke, not bothering to turn around to speak to her in person.
"I hate you." The younger girl decided. And that was the end of another sister fight.
Soon, the small group was standing at the top of Genkia's colossal staircase.
"It's about time you show up!" An old, raspy called from the courtyard. "I would have thought you to be quicker than that." As the group walked up to her, she whacked Yusuke on the head. "Dimwit." And she walked away, and back to her house.
"And thus the first day of training has begun." Raya stated as she faced the others. "Okay, we will begin with a small contest. The members of the team will be paired off, and fight to determine which of you is the strongest. The pairings will be Kurama against Yusuke and Kuwabara against Hiei. First pair on my right, second on my left. Hiei and Kuwabara will fight first." She paused giving them time to get in to place. "Take you positions. And, BEGIN!" she stepped back to watch the fight.
Hiei wasted no time. No sooner had the okay left Rayanna's lips, the raven haired man drew his sword and shot toward his opponent faster than his human eyes could follow.
"First blood ends the fight!" Raya warned, catching the look in his eyes. "And there is no such thing as an 'accidental death' from you as far as I am concerned, Hiei."
By the time she finished her statement, Hiei was sheathing his katana and walking away from the red haired imbecile he had fought against.
"What?! Don't you walk away from me you little -" Kuwabara was cut short.
"Winner, Hiei." Rayanna said calmly.
"But how?" Kuwabara was stunned.
"Look down at your neck." Akira affirmed.
As the boy looked down, he saw a slim line of red beginning to form at his throat.
"But how? When? I hardly saw him move! When did – but I – hurmph." He soon gave up trying to understand what had actually happened.
"Are the next fighters ready?" Raya asked, being very formal. Her sisters saw this as her wanting to see the fight, while the guys just saw her as being incredibly scary. "BEGIN!"
Yusuke shot off toward Kurama, hoping to take him by surprise. He failed. Miserably. With his rash decision, it wasn't hard for Kurama to find an easy opening and stop the fight then and there.
"Winner, Kurama." Raya proclaimed, pointing to Yusuke's
Shoulder, which was now bleeding.
"Damn. Thought I would at least last a few minutes." Yusuke grumbled, stalking off to stand next to Izzy.
"Next fight, Hiei versus Kurama. Get into position. And—"
"No." Hiei turned to walk away.
"What do you mean 'No.'?" Raya tapped her foot impatiently.
"I mean that I refuse to fight against one of my team mates." He kept walking.
"But you fought me?" Kuwabara yelled at his back, sounding slightly insulted.
"But you are a moron and will not stay my team mate for long."
"Huh?" said moron stared blankly at his back.
"What he was trying to say," Hikaru explained, "is that he thinks you will die soon. You may not even make it to the tournament in my opinion." She remarked, following Hiei down the stairs.
"That wasn't very nice!" Kuwabara shook his fist at the pair.
"Who said that they were ever nice?" Athren asked, taking Akira's hand and leading her away from their instructor's home.
"I guess that's the end of practice." Yusuke observed.
"Good. Now we can go get ready!" Izzy smiled as she took his hand and headed for the stairs.
An hour later, all of the guys were waiting downstairs. The girls had dressed them, claiming to have a better sense of what looked good on them than they did. They would have protested, but they had to agree. So they just sat silently in the living room, still staring at the surprisingly wonderful outfits that the girls has, more or less, forced them into.
Yusuke had on a pair of lose fitting light colored blue jeans, matched with a green shirt with yellow and white paint splatters on it. On the couch next to him sat Seiko, who was wearing his normal attire of a black tee shirt and dark jeans (he looked good enough on his own, so the girls had to do surprisingly little). Athren was to the other side of Seiko. He had donned a long sleeve purple shirt and too tight black pants, and no one could convince him to change, so he got to keep them on.
Hiei was sitting on the window sill dressed in his usual attire, minus the cape. He was only going to see the mayhem unfold was what he said, but some of the girls noticed the way he watched a certain baby sister of theirs. Kurama was seated in a chair opposite the couch. He had on a light reddish-pink shirt and dark jeans as well. Then there was Kuwabara. He had only been invited to be the DD, but the girls had insisted upon dressing him as well. For this reason, all of the males in the living room kept sneaking glances at him. None of them could quite place the color of this shirt. He had a light color pair of jeans with holes on, and then that shirt! Was it pink? Purple? What did you call it? The others were only brought out of their frustration regarding the puce colored shirt by the sound of footsteps on the stairs.
Once they saw the females walking toward them, colors suddenly seemed much less important.
A/N: And so concludes chapter nine. I hope that it was worth the wait. And, yes I am aware of the cliché-ness of the ending, but it didn't make sense to stop anywhere else, so….Will hopefully update at a more regular speed….but who really knows! '