A/N: Nuthin' to say, yo.
O/C14: Carlisle and Misaki duke it out. But guess who's lying on the floor in the end...
--
"I can't believe it!" Kuwabara said, "How could she lose?!"
The legendary legend was lying face down on the floor at the feet of the victor.
"She must have used up all her energy in that last attack and fainted from the effort," was the words passed around the coliseum.
A white-haired, white-eyed woman stood over the body.
Across from her, Adominai nodded once and he and Misaki's body disappeared.
"You dolt," Genkai said quietly to Kuwabara, "Didn't you hear the announcement? Misaki won. She's still standing there. She made Carlisle look like her so no one will bother her for the rest of the tournament."
"Well that's pretty smart."
"Yes. It is."
"Hey wait..." Yusuke looked confused, "Didn't Koenma call the Misaki's team, Team Ansatsusha?"
Genkai nodded, "Misaki talked with the head of the tournament the night of the banquet and among other things, she asked the name to be changed to 'Team Koenma' so that no one would know it was her."
"...why?"
"Do you realize what kind of an uproar that would cause? She would have no peace."
"Oh."
"Come with me. We fight next." Genkai turned away.
"But what about Kurama and Hiei and Misaki?" Kuwabara asked, "Shouldn't we go and help them?"
"They'll be fine. They can take care of themselves. We on the other hand do not want to be late. Come."
--
Misaki mechanically made her way back towards her teammates. Feeling drained, she knelt beside Hiei and gave him a bolster of energy for his brain to start again.
With great effort, Kurama sat up a little, "Will he be okay?"
"Yes." He would be okay, but Misaki wasn't sure what he would remember or how okay he would be. "Get up Hiei."
Hiei stood up at her command. He was unable to think for himself and would be so for a while.
Misaki offered Kurama a hand up and she supported most of his weight.
"Follow us Hiei." Misaki said, helping Kurama walk off the field.
They mercifully made it back to the room without incident.
"I thank you for the assistance." Kurama took his arm back from over Misaki's shoulders, "But I believe that I can—" His legs collapsed as he tried to take an independent step forward. Misaki caught and steadied him.
"I'm sorry, I thought I..." His eyes closed again and Misaki felt the full weight of his relaxed body as she held him up.
"Hiei, take him to Koenma."
Hiei took Kurama from her, though as the kitsune was bigger than he it was almost comical, and awkwardly sped off.
As soon as the two left, Misaki fell onto the couch in despair.
There was no peace for those who broke the covenant of the Elements, and yet Misaki was forced to, required to do so. Having ties to a world where one did not belong merely brought pain upon others and thus on oneself.
Anyone who got remotely close to her was either killed, or worse reverted to nothing more than a robot. Death was a kinder end in that respect. The countless acquaintances, friends more like, that Misaki met...they were forever changed by her presence. And always died because of it.
Even her brother, whom she had a right to know, even he was killed, and only because of his association with her, she was sure.
And she missed Hiei's constant presence in spite of herself. He was just so...Hiei.
--
"Do we have to fight in the dark too?" Yusuke made a face.
"Didn't we do that already at Genkai's house?"
"Yeah..." Yusuke sighed, "And grandma doesn't have any cigarettes this time."
Genkai snorted.
Three humans stepped out onto the other side of the floor.
"Wow...they have no spirit energy at all." Kuwabara was surprised, "How did they make it this far?"
"They probably have some cheap trick up their sleeves. Not that they're wearing any sleeves." Yusuke noted.
"Heh. Actually thinking ahead for once, dimwit? I'm stunned."
"Shut up, grandma."
The darkness was turned on and the four beams of light came down from the ceiling once more.
"Brackets Three and Four, Round Three, Battle One, choose your fighters." The announcer announced.
"I'll go first." Yusuke stretched his shoulder out and stepped forward.
"No Urameshi! Team leaders always go last!" Kuwabara's eyes got the shiny honor-gleam in them, "Their battle is always the greatest and most grueling."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. That's not in the rules." Yusuke moved out of the light.
"But Urameshi!" Kuwabara protested.
"You'll live." Yusuke dismissed him with a hand as he disappeared into the blackness.
"The leader's battle is always the longest and the best and...and..." Kuwabara faded off, beginning to smile, "I guess that means I get to be the team leader. I volunteer to fight last." He pointed at himself.
"I heard that Kuwabara! You'll be team leader over my dead body!" Yusuke shouted back through the dark.
Kuwabara grumbled to himself.
"Battles, begin!"
--
"Hey you!"
Yusuke glanced around, completely blind.
"My opponent...you're there, right?"
"Um, yeah." Yusuke answered.
"Look, I can't see a thing without light. I can't even see my hand in front of my face."
Experimentally, Yusuke wiggled his fingers in front of his nose, but he had no luck with seeing them. "And?"
"Well, what I guess I'm asking is, do you mind if I turn on some light?"
"Ehheh, actually I don't mind. I can't see anything either." Yusuke admitted.
"Good, good. Just though I'd better ask," it began to grow slowly lighter somehow, or at least, Yusuke was slowly able to see in the darkness around him, "If it was giving you an advantage, then the darkness would have a point."
"Nope. No advantage here." Yusuke began searching for his enemy.
"Ah. Much better."
Yusuke peered forward into the light gloom and he could just barely make out a dark shape almost directly across from him, about fifty feet away.
"So you need more light. Easy enough."
It brightened more until Yusuke could easily make out his opponent.
"There we go." The man across from him was wearing fairly plain, non-descript, loose clothing; a cloth shirt and pants with a rope tied around his waist like a belt.
"Oh! Urameshi, isn't it? Yusuke, am I right?"
"Yeah. Seems I'm pretty well known."
"Well you are the only other team with three humans on it in this tournament, ha ha ha!" His laugh was rich and big, like his body, "I have a proposal for you and your teammates."
"I'm listening."
"The name's Karukinae." Karukinae flipped a piece of black chalk up into the air with his thumb, catching absently while he talked. "I draw a circle twenty feet in diameter and we step inside. The first man who steps out of the circle must forfeit and the next two fighters come into the circle. Then the last two. How does that sound."
"Interesting," Yusuke nodded, "Anything goes?"
Karukinae nodded back, "Yup. Any means necessary to get the other person out of the lines. If it ends up that someone is dead, all the winner has to do is drag one little pinky over the chalk."
Yusuke shrugged, "Sure, why not. Any objections?" He aimed the last part back at Genkai and Kuwabara.
"As long as nobody pulls anything fishy." Kuwabara said, narrowing his eyes.
"I'm a fellow human, remember? Worthy enough to meet in battle." Karukinae grinned and put up the chalk.
"What are you waiting for?" Yusuke wanted to know.
"Har har! What are you waiting for? You aren't in the circle."
Yusuke looked at his feet to see that the circle was already in place and that twenty feet away stood Karukinae inside the black line.
"Woah. He's fast." Kuwabara blinked. "Real fast."
"Kuwabara you numbskull, he had that line drawn beforehand." Genkai told him.
"I'll let you make the first move." Karukinae said.
"Heh. Wrong choice." Yusuke pointed his hand-gun at Karukinae. "Shotgun!"
"Nobody told me you had a shotgun. Where on earth did you hide it?"
"Wha...what??" Yusuke held his finger up to his face. He felt the spirit energy inside him—it was at full power thanks to a good night's rest—and yet there wasn't even a blue gleam on the tip.
"Alright, what's up with that?? I said no fishy stuff!!" Kuwabara yelled threateningly.
"What are you talking about?" Karukinae seemed genuinely confused.
"My spirit energy's there, I just can't tap into it." The struggle was obvious on Yusuke's face.
"Spirit energy?" Karukinae frowned.
"What? You can't tell me this guy doesn't know about spirit energy!" Kuwabara exclaimed.
"Amazing. Simply by not believing, or in this case not knowing, this Karukinae person negates spirit energy. Kuwabara, try summoning your sword." Genkai said.
Kuwabara concentrated, gazing intensely at his hand for a minute. He finally stopped, breathing hard, "Nothing at all! Not even a spark!"
"Precisely." Genkai nodded curtly, "It'll be muscle against muscle in these battles. And I'm afraid that if Yusuke can't even use spirit energy to put power behind his punches like he always has. It seems that the dimwit is at a disadvantage."
Karukinae was easily four times bigger than Yusuke. They grappled one another's arms in an attempt to set the other off balance.
"You've got a pretty good grip there, boy." Karukinae grunted.
Yusuke grinned, "Not bad yourself."
"But...anything goes!" Karukinae slipped his arms around Yusuke and deftly removed himself from Yusuke's grasp. He planted his massive hands firmly on Yusuke's shoulders and lifted him into the air, tossing him aside like a small sack of potatoes.
Yusuke landed roughly on the ground...outside of the circle.
"What?! That's insane!!" He got up.
Karukinae rested his hands on his hips as he threw his head back and laughed, "HA HA HA! Occasionally it pays to be the biggest and strongest!"
"I told you Urameshi! You shoulda waited until last!" Kuwabara shouted.
"Shut up Kuwabara!!" Yusuke dusted his pants off angrily.
"I'll send Pihacho out." Karukinae walked back towards his team's beam of light.
A small man whom they assumed to be Pihacho stepped to the edge of the circle.
"Wow! He's small!" Kuwabara flexed an arm muscle, "Yeah I'll take him on!" He ran to the circle, thinking about using the same move Karukinae just made on Yusuke.
"Thought you wanted to be last." Yusuke muttered darkly as he stood next to Genkai.
"Don't judge someone based on his size, baka." Genkai crossed her arms, "With that attitude, I expect us to be out of the tournament this round."
As if in response, a body flew past her ear and hit the wall behind her. She sighed audibly, shaking her head. "Baka."
"I...I can't believe it!" Yusuke stared open mouthed at the wall and his head snapped back to the chalk ring.
Kuwabara stood frozen in surprise, his arm still extended in his punch. He had circled around Pihacho and landed a solid punch on the small man's face.
"Heh. I stand corrected. Even a blind pig can find the trough once in a while." Genkai stepped forward to exchange places with Kuwabara.
Kuwabara dumbly came by Yusuke, still in shock at how easy it had been.
Yusuke's jaw was still slacked, "...how did these guys get this far?"
"We got lucky." The third and final fighter stepped towards the ring, "Or rather, one of them got lucky and I pulled through at the last."
"Don't flatter yourself. Everyone knows that the tournament picks this year have been lacking. And since you are one of the four seeded teams, you've only had to fight in one round so far."
The new opponent seemed irked, "I never said anything to the contrary. Let's begin." He stepped inside the circle. "Your move."
Genkai remained where she was. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary; which to her meant that something was wrong. She waited for a moment, and then with her hands behind her back, walked forward until she was directly in front of him.
He looked down at her with mild curiosity.
"Zao, what are you doing?" Karukinae called, confused.
"Calm down," Zao looked over his shoulder, "I've got everything under—"
Genkai's fist met with the side of Zao's face.
Zao stumbled back and Genkai advanced, landing several more punches on his body. He couldn't get his defenses up and Genkai continued her assault. She pulled her arm back in a punch that would send him out of the ring but he caught her hand.
Genkai's eyes narrowed briefly and she followed with her other fist to quickly for him to block. Zao was sent flying backwards where he hit a wall and fell face down.
"I hate cocky slackers." She landed smoothly back on the ground.
"Woo! Yeah! Go grandma!" Yusuke celebrated form the sidelines, "You opened up a can of—"
"Urameshi, shut up."
The seriousness of Kuwabara's voice stopped Yusuke in mid-sentence.
"He didn't get knocked outside of the ring."
"What?" Yusuke saw that Zao had landed within the drawn boundaries.
"He hit some sort of invisible wall and then fell," Kuwabara's look was murderous, "You said no funny stuff!" He yelled across the arena at Karukinae.
Karukinae shrugged but he was frowning.
Zao stood and shook his head, chuckling, "For me, such a boundary is one that I cannot escape from."
Genkai sighed to herself, "I really need to retire so I don't have to deal with these bakas."
His laughter reached insane-like proportions then died down again until all that remained was a smirk, "Come at me, hag."
Genkai restrained herself. Instead she moved to her right and to the edge of the ring. She deliberately put a toe on the line and slowly tried to erase the mark.
Zao watched her, a bored look on his face, "It's futile. It can't be erased from the inside. Not by the people it's containing."
There had to be some way Zao was let out at the end of the battle. The answer seemed simple enough: one of his teammates came over and erased part of the chalk. And if his teammates could erase it from the outside then...
"Yusuke, would you mind?" Genkai asked, still facing Zao.
"Hm." He walked up to the edge of the chalk mark and bent over it.
"Urameshi, what are you doing?!"
"I'm gonna erase part of the chalk so that Genkai can win."
"But that's cheating!!" Kuwabara ran forward.
"Oh yeah?" Yusuke put his hands in his pockets, "Says who?" He placed his heel on the line and began scrubbing it away. "Wait...what the..." The line wouldn't come clean.
Zao chuckled again, "Only the only who draws it can erase it." He went into another mad fit of laughter.
"I would think that there should be more camaraderie within a team." Genkai noted.
"Camaraderie? Haha! That's rich! It's much easier when you force them to do what you want them too."
Genkai took off toward him and jumped in the air. She pulled back her arm at the last second.
Zao's eyes widened with insane pleasure, "Hit me."
--
Ah, sweet sweet cliffhangers.
-lotsm