Hey there! I'm back! I love you guys for reading my story. My reviewers are so nice to me. Don't be afraid to get mean though. Go ahead and yell at me if you really want an update. Sometimes that's what it takes to get things through my thick skull. But you came for the story.... Enjoy!

Chapter 3: The Makai Tournament Begins

Yusuke blinked, shielding his eyes from the bright spotlights that flooded the tournament registration area. He'd just arrived through the portal, exhausted as hell.

"Yusuke!" Said ex-spirit detective turned at the sound of the familiar voice to see Botan shoving her way unceremoniously though the crowd, Koenma and Kurama in tow. "How are you? How's Akio-chan?" She finally reached him and grinned up at him before noticing the heavy bags under his eyes. "Oh my God, you look terrible!"

"Thanks." He nodded a greeting to Kurama and his former boss. "Keiko and I haven't gotten much sleep lately. Akio is rather impatient. He's with Kuwabara and Shizuru right now."

"You should be resting," Kurama told him firmly. "You didn't have to come. It's just the preliminaries after all."

"The fox is right, this part of the tournament is boring."

Yusuke gave an exaggerated jump and whipped around to find Hiei. "You can't do that to me Hiei. I'm too tired for games." The fire apparition gave him a once-over and grunted, going to stand beside Kurama. "Anyway, are you guys going to fight early on?"

"Not until the semi-finals."

"Assuming we get that far," Kurama corrected. They gave him a look and he held his hands up in defense. "You can't underestimate your opponent. You guys know that."

"You're ruining my high, fox," Hiei growled. With a bit of focus, Yusuke could feel his short friend's youki fluctuating as adrenaline began to work its way into his system.

"Keep saying that and someone's going to think you're on drugs, Hiei," Kurama chuckled.

Yusuke grimaced slightly. "PCP, maybe."

Hiei rose an eyebrow. "What is PCP?"

Yusuke opened his mouth to define the drug with startling accuracy and offer a few personal experiences, but, luckily, he was interrupted by another familiar voice booming over the loudspeakers propped up every 30 meters or so in the area. "Attention fighters, please proceed to your respective gates. We are about to begin the preliminary rounds. I repeat, fighters please proceed to your gates, we're about to begin the preliminary rounds."

Yusuke turned to Kurama, eyebrow raised. "Koto?"

"None other. We must be going now. Come on Hiei, I think both of our gates are this way." Kurama began to politely weave his way through the crowd.

Hiei growled. "I know where my gate is, fox."

"Are you sure we're supposed to be here?" Akari glanced nervously around. She currently stood on a giant flying eyeball-like thing that served as a camera, providing continuous live feeds of the fights to viewers located a safe kilometer or 2 away. "The girls are giving us funny looks." Indeed, the other camera women perched on their own crafts did not seem too sure about them being there.

Ryu gave a mental sigh and breached the first of her companion's mental shields to communicate... well, mentally. Relax, Akari. I got permission to be here. The guy said it was our own necks. He probably didn't tell them because he didn't think we'd actually come. Ryu was straddling the steering column, legs dangling down on either side of the camera. She was only half paying attention to the conversation, intent on the short fire apparition who was currently slicing and dicing below.

"Ryu..." Akari gave the demon a scolding tone.

You wanted to see this guy fight, didn't you? She pointed to the fighter below. You thought he was cute.

Akari blushed. "My thoughts are hardly any of your business! And I was mad because you're lying to me."

Ryu reluctantly tore her eyes from the fight to look up at the human girl. So I'm lying, who cares? We're here already. Might as well enjoy it. Get a shot of that scuffle over there, she indicated a group of about 5 significantly weaker demons to the east. Akari obediently turned the camera in that direction and spurred it forward. They followed it for a moment but Akari quickly retreated when one of the demons grabbed another by the throat and ripped a chunk of flesh off. Brown blood spurted from the severed arteries. Unfortunately, her efforts were too late.

Ryu unconsciously rubbed the side of her own throat. She'd been in a similar dispute involving a demon with impressive claws. Said demon had gotten aforementioned claws deep into Ryu's neck in a final, suicidal lunge. She'd managed to stop the bleeding and heal the jugular before passing out, but the damage had been done to her vocal chords. They'd already started to heal on their own and were thus beyond the expertise of any of the demons she'd met since.

Realizing what she was doing, Ryu dropped her hand. This guy's done. She indicated the demon below, calmly cleaning his katana. His movements had been so quick, however, there was very little blood on it anyway. They gave him a victory shot before floating over to a nearby plateau where a red-head with a rose was taking care of a large opponent with a blue mohawk and a bottle in hand.

Duck.

Ryu snatched the handles from Akari's hands and yanked downwards as a ball of energy was headed in their direction. It was bigger than either of them had thought and Akari had to deflect it with a well-placed, reiki-powered punch. She winced and inspected the burns on her knuckles. You okay?

"Fine." She placed her hand back on the steering bar and ignored it. Ryu knew she was in pain but didn't push it. Akari was a big girl. She could take care of herself. "Looks like this one's almost over, too. There's a guy with a tornado over there. Shall we?"

Yusuke watched the fight between Jin and Touya intently. It must suck for them to be paired up so early in the game. Hiei and Kurama were finished already (as expected).

"You know," Yusuke and Koenma turned their eyes from the screen for a moment to see the blue-haired ferry girl watching the match with the same intensity. "I expected Jin to win but Touya must have gotten stronger when I wasn't looking."

As much as he hated to admit that his friendly former rival was getting whupped, she was right. Touya had Jin backed into a corner. He was standing in the middle of a frozen lake, looking completely unaffected by the hurricane-force winds while throwing a hail of icy needles up at the exhausted Jin. They were thrown with so much force and were traveling so fast that Jin was unable to deflect 3 of them. The first was off target but one hit him in the right shoulder and the other in the stomach.

The red-head plummeted to the ground and a little magic from Touya had him landing in a good 12 feet of powdery snow. Last of the fights finished, medical people rushed to the scene and began to heal him up. It was cool to see Touya pull him out of the snow bank when they were done and carry him to warmer ground.

"This makes me want to get in there." Yusuke pushed his sleeves up and puffed out his chest.

"Get in where, Yusuke?" Koenma... always the level head. "All of the fights are over. You're exhausted anyway."

"Shut up pacifier breath! I can't believe this I came to see some excitement and it's over in 15 minutes!"

"Yusuke!" He turned in surprise to see King Enki hunkered down in a special throne-like chair with his own set of TVs hooked up on the other side of the crowd. "Come! Sit! Talk with me!" Obediently, Yusuke weaved his way through the crowd, leaving Koenma and Botan behind. A chair was immediately brought to him and he bowed to the king of Makai before sitting. He noticed that his chair was much less impressive.

"Enki, how are you, man? I haven't seen you in years!"

Enki laughed his loud, booming laugh. "You haven't changed in the slightest! I heard you have a son now! How old is he? 2 days?"

"3. His name's Akio," Yusuke smiled proudly. "You should see him."

Enki chuckled. "Perhaps, when he's older. I don't plan on losing my throne, and I can't leave my people. When he's strong enough, maybe he can come visit me. My castle is rather impressive." They both laughed loudly at this. "If you have time later today maybe...."

"Nah, Kuwabara will be getting tired of Akio soon and I don't think Keiko's slept in days, no matter how much time we try to give her. Anyway, how's the wife?" Yusuke remembered the demoness that had grieved so much for his father. He hoped she had gotten over her drinking problem....

"She's doing well. Drinking less. But she was rather put-out when I told her not to participate in the tournament herself." He motioned with a giant hand to the center of the crowd where a head of curly blond hair was screaming and waving a 2 gallon bottle around wildly. "Drinking less."

"Right. She cut her hair."

"Yeah, it's just below her ears now. Oh! It looks like the fighters have returned."

Yusuke stood and stretched his neck, looking for his friends. He spotted the red-head first. "Kurama! Over here!" He blinked and looked around before spotting the raven-haired boy waving vigorously from 50 feet away. With a polite smile, he joined them and bowed respectfully to Enki. Hiei followed and bowed as well (though more reluctantly).

"How are you Enki-sama?"

"I'm just fine, Kurama. How's your mother?"

"She's very well, thank you." He sensed the fire apparition at his side stiffen. "Hiei?" Concern colored his voice and he took a more protective stance in front of King Enki.

"Nothing. I've just been on patrol too long. There's a psychic here." They all let out a short breath. "Strong, but nothing we can't handle." They caught his gaze as 2 females snuck inconspicuously through the crowd. They noticed Botan start at the sight of them and stare as they walked past.

"Ryu," Akari mumbled, knowing her friend could hear her perfectly fine. "She's staring at us again. Are you going to tell me why the Reikai has taken such an interest in us this time?"

How am I supposed to know? I was a demon in human world and you're a human in demon world.... Maybe that has something to do with it.

"That girl stared at me before you showed up at the park. Are you telling me that there's no way they could have discovered our little secret?"

They don't keep tabs on humans and nobody's filed a report on me for 12 years. They don't even have a decent picture of me. Besides, Koenma hasn't responded to our presence at all.

"Well, he's 300-some years old, one would think he would've learned to lie somewhere along the way." She focused for a minute on getting to the portal before a thought came to her. "Wait a minute... how'd you know what picture they have of you?"

Hey! Sorry it's a bit short. I had to wrap it up here before I impeded on the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed it my loyal readers!