Nova: Na la la la, na la la la. La li ho ho li la.
Saria, SA, Tori, and Zas: (are standing on other side of room with their hands over their ears)
Saria: She's been doing that for 72 hours! That idiotic Army woman drove her insane! She's gone though, why hasn't she returned to normal??!??!!!?
Zas: I thought she was just supposed to sit in the corner and clap her hands, what happened to that?
SA: It was pretty pathetic.
Nova: (snaps out of her daze) I resent both of those remarks!
Saria: No, you resemble that remark.
Nova: Why you! (rushes at Saria only to be knocked down by smack from Saria) I'm sorry, you can start the fic now... That hurt. (sulks in corner)
----------
Next to her, Toguro dropped a sandwich next to the girl's hand before walking off. He had been standing there a good ten minutes before he had done this. Yusuke was unsure of why, but she thought it had something to do with scaring off weaker demons while she'd been out of it.
She didn't particularly want to eat the sandwich, but since she had nothing in her stomach, it was probably better to eat it. Plus, since she'd been in the care of Toguro, she'd eaten many unpleasant meals. Grabbing up the sandwich, she gingerly unwrapped the plastic wrap around it before taking a small bite. The sandwich was tasteless, and it felt a lot like what she'd emptied out of her stomach that day. Still, she managed to suck it up and finish the sandwich.
Standing up, intent upon finding something to drink to wash away the horrible remnants of the sandwich, Yusuke was knocked flat on her face by a very sudden jerk on the boat caused by a large wave. This caused many heads to look her way and a sudden burst of laughter from the crowd.
'Great,' Yusuke thought, 'the tournament hasn't even begun and I'm already making an ass of myself.'
"That was great!" a red head with a heavy Irish accent exclaimed as he floated over. "And I thought this tournament was going to be full of busy, strict and prickish fighters who wouldn't know how to have a good time!"
Yusuke was staring at the red head in a sort of shock, he reminded her of how she used to be before Toguro kidnapped her, in attitude anyway. His hair reminded her of Kurama however. There was also something else that seemed familiar about him, but she couldn't lay her finger on it.
"Been nice speaking to ya, but I gotta go!" the strange being said before flying off to another section of the boat.
Shrugging off the encounter with the unfamiliar being, Yusuke turned her attention back to the matter at hand, trying to find something to drink.
-----------
The docking and disembarkment of the boat wasn't too bad, if you don't count when the boat slammed into the dock, throwing most of its population to the deck (among them was Yusuke) and then the stampede to exit the boat. The Toguros were very easy to find afterwards, nobody dared go near them save Bui and Karasu, and Yusuke of course (who was holding her stomach and looking a bit pale).
"Lets go," Toguro declared after they had all assembled. Yusuke noticed that several things were different. One; Bui was holding the smut novel in one hand. Two; Karasu's bag looked a little fuller than it had been. Three; the elder brother's bag was missing, and he looked a bit dismayed and disappointed.
Pushing through a crowd of the apparitions that had assembled on the dock, Toguro led the group toward a rather large hotel that could be seen over the tree line, a good distance from the dock. Right as the dock ended though, Yusuke got a very painful tug in her stomach which caused her to bend over and choke.
Hearing the coughing and hacking, the group stopped and turned to find Yusuke once again getting sick, only this time without the cover of the bushes or safety of a toilet.
"And here she goes again," Karasu exclaimed in exasperation, taking a step away from Yusuke.
Surprisingly enough, Toguro actually waited until she was done before having Bui grab her and drag her along to the hotel. Along the way though, Yusuke kept feeling the need to throw up, even though her stomach was empty. This made the trip excruciatingly long and painful in some ways. Karasu looked ready to throw up himself.
Once they were all in the room, Yusuke was dropped off in the bathroom with a glass of water. No one bothered her until dinner time, about an hour later to check on her. Bui was the lucky "volunteer", mainly because he truly didn't mind. He found her lying in a fetal position in front of the toilet confirming that she wasn't coming to dinner.
"Do you want anything?" he asked the girl.
"Let me die..." she miserably replied.
"Right," Bui said as he raised an eyebrow and walked out of the door.
After dinner, Toguro walked in to find Yusuke hugging the toilet. "The floor got too hot, so did the wall," was her explanation when she noticed him staring at her. "May I have a blanket, it's cold." Toguro shook his head, now quite sure that Yusuke was going insane from sickness but still, he walked out of the room and moments later Bui came in with a blanket.
"You might want to flush the toilet every once in a while, that's disgusting," he said as he reached over and pushed the handle for her before leaving.
Yusuke took the blanket and curled up on the floor after Bui had left and fell asleep soon afterward. It wasn't until many hours later that she was awaken by Bui "needing to use the facility." Yusuke moved out of the bathroom slowly, barely aware of Bui closing the door after her. She only wandered around, looking for another place to lie down until she could have her nice, cold floor back. She climbed into a bed that appeared in front of her that was empty, and snuggled into the covers, falling asleep almost instantly.
Bui finished his business a few minutes later and returned to his own bed. Karasu, who had jumped into line as well, returned to bed a few minutes after that. There were a couple minutes of silence as everyone in the room slept in peace. But as the wise saying says, "All good things must come to an end." That end was when Karasu rolled over. And felt the presence of a warm body (in fact, an extremely warm body).
"WHAT THE HELL!!" Karasu screamed as he launched himself from the comfort of his bed, praying he wasn't covered in vomit. Still lying in the bed, unaware of Karasu's scream, Yusuke simply shifted in her sleep, it was actually pretty cute to watch. Cute enough for Karasu to leave her alone, plus he didn't want to run the risk of her throwing up on him if he tried to move her.
Storming over to Bui's bed, Karasu decided to play a horrible trick to wake the big lump up. Smirking, Karasu leaned in close to Bui's head before screaming, "OH MY GOD! IT'S NOON! TOGURO'S GOING TO KILL US!"
Bui promptly shot out of the bed and ran out the door before realizing he'd been had. But by this time, Karasu had already taken the bed, and thinking better than to cause a scene that Toguro might hear, he decided to take Karasu's bed, instead. Only problem was that he found Yusuke already in it when he went back into the room. 'No problem,' he thought, 'I'll just take the couch for tonight.'
However, when he attempted to lie down on said couch, he found that he didn't quite fit. He was just a little too wide. Walking back into the bedroom, apologizing to a sleeping Yusuke, he picked her up in her blankets and carried her to the couch. Then, after stealing a blanket from Karasu's, or more appropriately, his former bed, he lay down again for some sleep.
----------
Hours later, right after 3 AM, Yusuke woke up again, feeling a very strong urge to throw up. The problem was, she didn't know where she was! Jumping up, the blankets tangled around her feet and followed her as she ran for the first thing she saw, a balcony. She threw up some of what was the remaining contents of her stomach over the railing before returning to the room and finding the bathroom. Of course, along the way, she ran into several walls, doors, furniture, and other such things.
Bui also woke up, about thirty minutes later, to the musical delights of a human getting very sick. Groggily, he told himself he should go check on her, and he did, twenty minutes later, when he finally got his ass out of bed.
Karasu woke up to the same music, but covered his head with a pillow to try to block out the beautiful notes of hacking and coughing with the occasional sound of gallons of liquid going into gallons of liquid. This went on for thirty minute intervals throughout the night.
----------
The next morning, Yusuke was a bit surprised at how quiet and slow Bui and Karasu were (more with the slow than the quiet with Karasu, Bui usually at least said "good morning" sometimes). True, her sickness didn't make her one to talk, but she felt they didn't have a reason.
Around eight Yusuke dragged herself out of the bathroom and onto the couch again, no one said anything thankfully. She couldn't sleep though, because despite her stomach now being very empty, there was still the constant urge to throw up.
At ten, the fights were supposed to begin, and Karasu and Bui left, leaving a very miserable Yusuke on the couch to slowly recover her stomach. After they left, Yusuke was unsure of what happened around her because she fell into a bit of a dumb stupor.
At some point in the afternoon, Yusuke wasn't exactly sure, Toguro came in and said that she would fight in the first round with him against Team Spirit. When she hadn't replied, he grabbed her shoulder and hauled her to her feet before noticing that her temperature was a little too high to be normal.
'A little fever's not going to stop anybody,' he thought as he marched the girl out the door. 'Still, probably should take her to the tournament doctor after the match.'
----------
The stadium was really loud for Yusuke as she followed Toguro toward the ring where the fights would take place. She resisted the urge to cover her ears as they finally entered the sun washed area. The other team was already waiting for them in the arena, a strange looking fox girl holding a microphone stood there as well. Toguro jumped easily into the ring, Yusuke followed him.
"Heh, where is the rest of your team?" the biggest inquired.
"They were all lazy and didn't want to come." Toguro replied smoothly.
"Can I go back then?" Yusuke asked groggily. Toguro didn't acknowledge her.
"So you were so desperate you recruited a child?" the being shouted now that he had noticed Yusuke.
"She's tougher than she looks. Let's do this as a battle royale." Toguro said, once again ignoring another's question.
"Fine by me," was the reply.
"Alright, we're looking at a battle royale, no other rules have been made!" announced the fox girl. "Let the match BEGIN!"
At that moment, the five opposing fighters released a large amount of spirit energy, so much that they seemed enveloped in the thriving blue mass. But Yusuke had to admit that she wasn't impressed, Karasu and/or Bui could have easily defeated them all within seconds. Suddenly, Toguro's hand grabbed her and thrust her forward toward the energizing fighters.
"The hell?" Yusuke said, still just barely aware.
"You will defeat them all Yusuke," Toguro said as he continued to push her forward. "That is, if you want to get another meal for the duration of our stay here."
The opposing team heard that threat, and instantly the big one from before screamed out, "You coward!" right before they all charged at the two.
Yusuke understood the threat that Toguro had just made and knew that she was going to have to fight now. Turning toward the swiftly approaching team, she charged up her hand and prepared her attack.
The other team, quite sure that she'd never be able to attack were all quite surprised not even a second later when the girl raised her fist and shouted "SHOT GUN!" as a wide volley of blasts erupted from her fist, all of them so strong that the whole team was lifted from the ground and three were instantly killed.
Toguro watched silently, well aware of the sudden silence from the stands as the demons watched three instantly get killed and one hurt so badly he'd not be able to stand up again. Still, it was a bit of a shocker that one had actually survived the assault, and though injured was able to get back up. Not for long though, Yusuke was instantly beside him and pushed him back to the ground, the look in her eyes begging him to stay down.
"Please stay down," Yusuke whispered to the apparition, "he'll make me kill you if you don't."
"And if you had stood aside..." the apparition had begun.
"Then you'd wind up dead, all of you. He doesn't give mercy." Yusuke had replied.
"Well, if you want me to stay down, you're going to have to cut my legs out from under me," the apparition had stated as he pushed himself back up.
"I've had enough of this, Yusuke, kill him." Toguro had suddenly called out. Yusuke couldn't stop the horror that crossed her face, even as out of it as she was, she didn't want to kill.
"Kid, just do it." Yusuke stared at the fighter. "Better dead than defeated, besides, you'd probably be quicker about it than him," he pointed out while nodding at Toguro. Yusuke nodded gently at the fallen warrior before firing a single bullet through his heart, killing him instantly.
Instantly, Yusuke's throat tightened, no matter how much she fought, nothing could prepare her for killing. Even if it was in mercy.
She didn't react for the rest of that day, not when Toguro led her from the ring where the one survivor of the massacre was removed by several workers and carried to the infirmary. She did nothing when Toguro took her to the doctor afterward who took several hair and blood samples before saying she had food poisoning. Yusuke didn't even notice when Bui tried to make her eat that night, but he noticed something.
Leaning and peering deep into her eyes to make certain he wasn't imagining it, Bui wondered in his head, 'Has Yusuke always had slight red swirls in her eyes?'
Yusuke, however, hadn't noticed any change in herself. All she truly felt was pain and regret about the killing that had happened earlier that day. And deep down, in the back of her mind, she could feel the three beings from the vortex, and they were rejoicing. Rejoicing that her shields were beginning to crack.
----------
Saria: So...what do you think?
Zas: That you are being worked too much so you are purposely trying to make these funny.
SA: She meant what do the readers think! (hits Zas with 50 pound mallet)
Tori: Well, we better ask them, so will you please review?
Saria, SA, Tori, and Zas: (are standing on other side of room with their hands over their ears)
Saria: She's been doing that for 72 hours! That idiotic Army woman drove her insane! She's gone though, why hasn't she returned to normal??!??!!!?
Zas: I thought she was just supposed to sit in the corner and clap her hands, what happened to that?
SA: It was pretty pathetic.
Nova: (snaps out of her daze) I resent both of those remarks!
Saria: No, you resemble that remark.
Nova: Why you! (rushes at Saria only to be knocked down by smack from Saria) I'm sorry, you can start the fic now... That hurt. (sulks in corner)
----------
Next to her, Toguro dropped a sandwich next to the girl's hand before walking off. He had been standing there a good ten minutes before he had done this. Yusuke was unsure of why, but she thought it had something to do with scaring off weaker demons while she'd been out of it.
She didn't particularly want to eat the sandwich, but since she had nothing in her stomach, it was probably better to eat it. Plus, since she'd been in the care of Toguro, she'd eaten many unpleasant meals. Grabbing up the sandwich, she gingerly unwrapped the plastic wrap around it before taking a small bite. The sandwich was tasteless, and it felt a lot like what she'd emptied out of her stomach that day. Still, she managed to suck it up and finish the sandwich.
Standing up, intent upon finding something to drink to wash away the horrible remnants of the sandwich, Yusuke was knocked flat on her face by a very sudden jerk on the boat caused by a large wave. This caused many heads to look her way and a sudden burst of laughter from the crowd.
'Great,' Yusuke thought, 'the tournament hasn't even begun and I'm already making an ass of myself.'
"That was great!" a red head with a heavy Irish accent exclaimed as he floated over. "And I thought this tournament was going to be full of busy, strict and prickish fighters who wouldn't know how to have a good time!"
Yusuke was staring at the red head in a sort of shock, he reminded her of how she used to be before Toguro kidnapped her, in attitude anyway. His hair reminded her of Kurama however. There was also something else that seemed familiar about him, but she couldn't lay her finger on it.
"Been nice speaking to ya, but I gotta go!" the strange being said before flying off to another section of the boat.
Shrugging off the encounter with the unfamiliar being, Yusuke turned her attention back to the matter at hand, trying to find something to drink.
-----------
The docking and disembarkment of the boat wasn't too bad, if you don't count when the boat slammed into the dock, throwing most of its population to the deck (among them was Yusuke) and then the stampede to exit the boat. The Toguros were very easy to find afterwards, nobody dared go near them save Bui and Karasu, and Yusuke of course (who was holding her stomach and looking a bit pale).
"Lets go," Toguro declared after they had all assembled. Yusuke noticed that several things were different. One; Bui was holding the smut novel in one hand. Two; Karasu's bag looked a little fuller than it had been. Three; the elder brother's bag was missing, and he looked a bit dismayed and disappointed.
Pushing through a crowd of the apparitions that had assembled on the dock, Toguro led the group toward a rather large hotel that could be seen over the tree line, a good distance from the dock. Right as the dock ended though, Yusuke got a very painful tug in her stomach which caused her to bend over and choke.
Hearing the coughing and hacking, the group stopped and turned to find Yusuke once again getting sick, only this time without the cover of the bushes or safety of a toilet.
"And here she goes again," Karasu exclaimed in exasperation, taking a step away from Yusuke.
Surprisingly enough, Toguro actually waited until she was done before having Bui grab her and drag her along to the hotel. Along the way though, Yusuke kept feeling the need to throw up, even though her stomach was empty. This made the trip excruciatingly long and painful in some ways. Karasu looked ready to throw up himself.
Once they were all in the room, Yusuke was dropped off in the bathroom with a glass of water. No one bothered her until dinner time, about an hour later to check on her. Bui was the lucky "volunteer", mainly because he truly didn't mind. He found her lying in a fetal position in front of the toilet confirming that she wasn't coming to dinner.
"Do you want anything?" he asked the girl.
"Let me die..." she miserably replied.
"Right," Bui said as he raised an eyebrow and walked out of the door.
After dinner, Toguro walked in to find Yusuke hugging the toilet. "The floor got too hot, so did the wall," was her explanation when she noticed him staring at her. "May I have a blanket, it's cold." Toguro shook his head, now quite sure that Yusuke was going insane from sickness but still, he walked out of the room and moments later Bui came in with a blanket.
"You might want to flush the toilet every once in a while, that's disgusting," he said as he reached over and pushed the handle for her before leaving.
Yusuke took the blanket and curled up on the floor after Bui had left and fell asleep soon afterward. It wasn't until many hours later that she was awaken by Bui "needing to use the facility." Yusuke moved out of the bathroom slowly, barely aware of Bui closing the door after her. She only wandered around, looking for another place to lie down until she could have her nice, cold floor back. She climbed into a bed that appeared in front of her that was empty, and snuggled into the covers, falling asleep almost instantly.
Bui finished his business a few minutes later and returned to his own bed. Karasu, who had jumped into line as well, returned to bed a few minutes after that. There were a couple minutes of silence as everyone in the room slept in peace. But as the wise saying says, "All good things must come to an end." That end was when Karasu rolled over. And felt the presence of a warm body (in fact, an extremely warm body).
"WHAT THE HELL!!" Karasu screamed as he launched himself from the comfort of his bed, praying he wasn't covered in vomit. Still lying in the bed, unaware of Karasu's scream, Yusuke simply shifted in her sleep, it was actually pretty cute to watch. Cute enough for Karasu to leave her alone, plus he didn't want to run the risk of her throwing up on him if he tried to move her.
Storming over to Bui's bed, Karasu decided to play a horrible trick to wake the big lump up. Smirking, Karasu leaned in close to Bui's head before screaming, "OH MY GOD! IT'S NOON! TOGURO'S GOING TO KILL US!"
Bui promptly shot out of the bed and ran out the door before realizing he'd been had. But by this time, Karasu had already taken the bed, and thinking better than to cause a scene that Toguro might hear, he decided to take Karasu's bed, instead. Only problem was that he found Yusuke already in it when he went back into the room. 'No problem,' he thought, 'I'll just take the couch for tonight.'
However, when he attempted to lie down on said couch, he found that he didn't quite fit. He was just a little too wide. Walking back into the bedroom, apologizing to a sleeping Yusuke, he picked her up in her blankets and carried her to the couch. Then, after stealing a blanket from Karasu's, or more appropriately, his former bed, he lay down again for some sleep.
----------
Hours later, right after 3 AM, Yusuke woke up again, feeling a very strong urge to throw up. The problem was, she didn't know where she was! Jumping up, the blankets tangled around her feet and followed her as she ran for the first thing she saw, a balcony. She threw up some of what was the remaining contents of her stomach over the railing before returning to the room and finding the bathroom. Of course, along the way, she ran into several walls, doors, furniture, and other such things.
Bui also woke up, about thirty minutes later, to the musical delights of a human getting very sick. Groggily, he told himself he should go check on her, and he did, twenty minutes later, when he finally got his ass out of bed.
Karasu woke up to the same music, but covered his head with a pillow to try to block out the beautiful notes of hacking and coughing with the occasional sound of gallons of liquid going into gallons of liquid. This went on for thirty minute intervals throughout the night.
----------
The next morning, Yusuke was a bit surprised at how quiet and slow Bui and Karasu were (more with the slow than the quiet with Karasu, Bui usually at least said "good morning" sometimes). True, her sickness didn't make her one to talk, but she felt they didn't have a reason.
Around eight Yusuke dragged herself out of the bathroom and onto the couch again, no one said anything thankfully. She couldn't sleep though, because despite her stomach now being very empty, there was still the constant urge to throw up.
At ten, the fights were supposed to begin, and Karasu and Bui left, leaving a very miserable Yusuke on the couch to slowly recover her stomach. After they left, Yusuke was unsure of what happened around her because she fell into a bit of a dumb stupor.
At some point in the afternoon, Yusuke wasn't exactly sure, Toguro came in and said that she would fight in the first round with him against Team Spirit. When she hadn't replied, he grabbed her shoulder and hauled her to her feet before noticing that her temperature was a little too high to be normal.
'A little fever's not going to stop anybody,' he thought as he marched the girl out the door. 'Still, probably should take her to the tournament doctor after the match.'
----------
The stadium was really loud for Yusuke as she followed Toguro toward the ring where the fights would take place. She resisted the urge to cover her ears as they finally entered the sun washed area. The other team was already waiting for them in the arena, a strange looking fox girl holding a microphone stood there as well. Toguro jumped easily into the ring, Yusuke followed him.
"Heh, where is the rest of your team?" the biggest inquired.
"They were all lazy and didn't want to come." Toguro replied smoothly.
"Can I go back then?" Yusuke asked groggily. Toguro didn't acknowledge her.
"So you were so desperate you recruited a child?" the being shouted now that he had noticed Yusuke.
"She's tougher than she looks. Let's do this as a battle royale." Toguro said, once again ignoring another's question.
"Fine by me," was the reply.
"Alright, we're looking at a battle royale, no other rules have been made!" announced the fox girl. "Let the match BEGIN!"
At that moment, the five opposing fighters released a large amount of spirit energy, so much that they seemed enveloped in the thriving blue mass. But Yusuke had to admit that she wasn't impressed, Karasu and/or Bui could have easily defeated them all within seconds. Suddenly, Toguro's hand grabbed her and thrust her forward toward the energizing fighters.
"The hell?" Yusuke said, still just barely aware.
"You will defeat them all Yusuke," Toguro said as he continued to push her forward. "That is, if you want to get another meal for the duration of our stay here."
The opposing team heard that threat, and instantly the big one from before screamed out, "You coward!" right before they all charged at the two.
Yusuke understood the threat that Toguro had just made and knew that she was going to have to fight now. Turning toward the swiftly approaching team, she charged up her hand and prepared her attack.
The other team, quite sure that she'd never be able to attack were all quite surprised not even a second later when the girl raised her fist and shouted "SHOT GUN!" as a wide volley of blasts erupted from her fist, all of them so strong that the whole team was lifted from the ground and three were instantly killed.
Toguro watched silently, well aware of the sudden silence from the stands as the demons watched three instantly get killed and one hurt so badly he'd not be able to stand up again. Still, it was a bit of a shocker that one had actually survived the assault, and though injured was able to get back up. Not for long though, Yusuke was instantly beside him and pushed him back to the ground, the look in her eyes begging him to stay down.
"Please stay down," Yusuke whispered to the apparition, "he'll make me kill you if you don't."
"And if you had stood aside..." the apparition had begun.
"Then you'd wind up dead, all of you. He doesn't give mercy." Yusuke had replied.
"Well, if you want me to stay down, you're going to have to cut my legs out from under me," the apparition had stated as he pushed himself back up.
"I've had enough of this, Yusuke, kill him." Toguro had suddenly called out. Yusuke couldn't stop the horror that crossed her face, even as out of it as she was, she didn't want to kill.
"Kid, just do it." Yusuke stared at the fighter. "Better dead than defeated, besides, you'd probably be quicker about it than him," he pointed out while nodding at Toguro. Yusuke nodded gently at the fallen warrior before firing a single bullet through his heart, killing him instantly.
Instantly, Yusuke's throat tightened, no matter how much she fought, nothing could prepare her for killing. Even if it was in mercy.
She didn't react for the rest of that day, not when Toguro led her from the ring where the one survivor of the massacre was removed by several workers and carried to the infirmary. She did nothing when Toguro took her to the doctor afterward who took several hair and blood samples before saying she had food poisoning. Yusuke didn't even notice when Bui tried to make her eat that night, but he noticed something.
Leaning and peering deep into her eyes to make certain he wasn't imagining it, Bui wondered in his head, 'Has Yusuke always had slight red swirls in her eyes?'
Yusuke, however, hadn't noticed any change in herself. All she truly felt was pain and regret about the killing that had happened earlier that day. And deep down, in the back of her mind, she could feel the three beings from the vortex, and they were rejoicing. Rejoicing that her shields were beginning to crack.
----------
Saria: So...what do you think?
Zas: That you are being worked too much so you are purposely trying to make these funny.
SA: She meant what do the readers think! (hits Zas with 50 pound mallet)
Tori: Well, we better ask them, so will you please review?