A/N: Yarg. Sorry that this has taken a while to come out. I haven't had the chance to sit down in front of the computer for the past few days. And I left you with such a good cliffhanger...ha. Enjoy.

O/C15: Misaki defeats Carlisle and now it's Team Urameshi's turn. They agree to fight within a ring of chalk, the loser being the first to step out of the line. Yusuke finds out that none of them can use their spirit energy, though the other team actually has none. Yusuke is thrown out by a really big human named Karukinae. Kuwabara throws out a really small human named Pihacho. And Genkai faces a half-crazed man named Zao. But Zao is unable to be thrown outside the ring. She runs at him, arm pulled back for a hard driven punch...

--

Genkai spun her body around, bringing her leg up and landing her foot at his neck.

Zao was sent flying to the left and he landed. Outside the ring. He shook himself, looking around dazedly.

"But...I...it...??"

Part of the circle had been erased.

Karukinae walked over and easily picked Zao up by his collar. Pihacho was sitting on the large man's shoulder.

"I apologize for his behavior. Best wishes to you." Karukinae carried Zao off.

"Team Urameshi, advancing to the next round!"

Yusuke and Kuwabara ran up to Genkai who was watching the others leave.

"How did you manage that one?" Yusuke wanted to know.

"Not everyone on that team needs a padded room." Genkai walked between the guys to leave.

"Yeah..." Yusuke frowned, "Wait. What?"

The two of them followed after her.

Kuwabara sighed, "Does she have to explain every detail to you? Karukinae is an honorable man. When he saw that his teammate was being dishonorable, he put a stop to it."

"But I never even saw him move to erase the line!" Yusuke protested.

"Doesn't mean he didn't do it." Genkai responded.

She stopped in mid-stride. "If I remember correctly, there is an arcade here on the grounds..."

"Sweet!" Kuwabara said.

"And it's free credits for any competing team."

"Woo-hoo! Lead the way, grandma!"

--

There were a few youkai scattered about the arcade. Most of them consisted of members of teams who had lost already. And of course, Genkai, Kuwabara and Yusuke were the only humans.

"Woooo!" Kuwabara and Yusuke ran inside, fighting to get by each other.

Genkai strolled in more casually, pursuing out the game choices.

The arcade was quite extensive, carrying all of the most popular games from the human world, as well as older games Genkai hadn't seen since she was young. And yet there were others that she'd never heard of before.

There was a group of particularly rowdy youkai surrounding one game. They were cheering for someone but they were all bunched closely together so Genkai was unable to see who exactly they were cheering for. She was drawn towards them.

"Oo! Watch out!"

"Niiice!"

"Oh cool! Do that again!"

Genkai weaved her way to the front of the crowd. At times, being of small stature was in fact a great advantage.

"And that, my friends, is how you beat the unbeatable game." The youkai sat back a little from the game screen, triumph apparent on his face.

"That was a sweet move!"

"I can't believe that actually worked..."

"Do it again, show me it!"

"I wanna learn how!"

"That was amazing!"

"How long did it take you to perfect that move?!"

"I admire your attempt but your timing was all wrong."

The surrounding youkai gasped and looked around at each other. But everyone just shrugged, they would never diss such a cool guy.

As the youkai who had played was at a slightly lower level, when he swiveled around in his stool he saw the old psychic standing with her hands together behind her back.

"Ah, an old ningen hag thinks she knows so much." He laughed and the others laughed with him, "There are some nice old games over there for you to play. None of this youkai stuff for you."

The crowd was silent. A few of them had recognized the old woman, but apparently the youkai in front of her did not.

"Uh...Jacka...that's...um...that's..."

Jacka waved a hand to silence the person trying to warn him. "Well? Go one. Go off to your little games."

Ignoring him, Genkai sat down in the stool next to him, the group of youkai stepping away to make their bunch big enough to fit another game screen in it.

The joystick and buttons felt like old friends in Genkai's hands. The game started up...and ended mere seconds later.

Jacka's eyes were wide, "H...how did...ehem. I mean..." He cleared his throat and tried not to look too amazed.

"There's a glitch in this particular game. In the time it took you to perfect your final move, you could have figured that out." Genkai got up and the youkai let her pass through them as she moved on to a more challenging game.

"Who is that?" Some of his awe crept in with his words.

"Genkai." Somebody murmured.

Jacka's eyes grew wide, "The Psychic?" He was glad to be walking away with all of his bones intact.

--

Hiei ran swiftly back through the woods. His mind was beginning to work again and he recalled everything up until a few days ago. He knew that he was at a tournament, he knew that Kurama was hurt. But try as he might, he was unable to fully remember everything.

He absently dodged undergrowth, occasionally leaping into a tree for safer passage from branch to branch.

The Jagan was greatly weakened by something and he could barely feel its normally strong presence within his mind. He even felt weakened, mentally. It was as if part of him had been stolen away somehow.

Suddenly he was struck down and he fell from the tree in which he was passing through, hitting the ground with an unhealthy thud. But the attack had not come from outside his body; it came from within his head.

Hiei felt himself being painfully sucked away and as his eyes closed, his inner vision cleared.

--

He saw Misaki a hundred feet in front of him—or rather he saw her back as she wasn't facing him—her clothes torn and bloodied. He yelled her name but it was as though she didn't hear him. She was attacked again by something he couldn't see. But it was huge. And it was killing her.

Something contacted the side of her head and she dropped to the floor, crashing ungracefully. She weakly struggled to stand, but she was hit again. Blood was pouring from her ear on that side.

Hiei yelled her name again, trying to get her to look his way. He moved forward, running for her, intending to fight back whatever it was, help her by getting her to stand, something, anything. But he never got any closer to her. And she was too far away to help.

Her body was lifted off of the ground into the air where she hung helplessly, legs and arms dangling so very limp. Something began crushing her, squeezing her, tighter and tighter. She screamed into the whiteness that made up the unseen scenery around them. She screamed something, a name. But Hiei couldn't make it out. He ran faster, his legs never having failed him before. Despite the speed he absolutely possessed, his feet were somehow not moving in her direction.

She fell to the ground again, but this time, she was dead.

--

Hiei was snapped back into reality as fast as he had been pulled out of it. For a moment he couldn't remember anything. Then it all came rushing back. Everything. The tournament, the fights. And...Misaki. Dead.

The rational part of him worried about losing the teammate. Would they be forced to resign the tournament?

The other part of him frantically used the Jagan to make a wide sweep of the area to get his surrounding.

Luck had it that he felt Misaki's presence. It was far away, but it was there. He began running, for the first time in his life acutely aware of his speed and how much he owed to it.

As he sought her out, he realized that her presence was faint. And he ran faster, leaves and branches mere blurs as he easily sped through them.

Hiei almost dashed past her, but he skidded to a stop and whipped around, landing on the forest floor and rushing to her side.

She lay flat on her back, eyes staring straight up.

"Misaki?"

She was very much alive, but her breathing was irregular, her heart rate sporadic.

He barely caught her brief glance in his direction, acknowledgement that she had heard him.

Hiei's hand, around her wrist where he checked for a pulse, felt the strange tightness of the muscle beneath his fingers. He felt her arm and her neck, finding that every muscle was strung to an extreme point of tautness. That explained why she couldn't move.

He reached through the Jagan to her mind, intending to ask what happened but her mental barriers were stronger than ever before and he had no success.

"Misaki what happened?" His frustration was obvious in the way he spat the question out loud.

He growled, realizing that she couldn't answer anyway.

Angrily, he grabbed her wrist again, using his inborn heat to coax the muscles loose.

The fire quickly spread throughout her body, though it was several minutes before she was able to move so much as a finger.

"Now. What happened?" He was sitting on the ground.

It was a long while later and she was propped up against a tree trunk, massaging her throat to get the neck muscles looser.

She shook her head, indicating that she still couldn't speak.

Impatient, Hiei reached over and put a hand around her neck. She flinched but he quickly rid the last rigidness with more heat.

Misaki stood up, stretching her bandaged arm and hand.

"I didn't call for help." Her voice rasped with anger.

"So you were just planning on laying there." Hiei crossed his arms.

"Eventually I would have been fine."

He snorted in disbelief, "In time for tomorrow's match? Doubtful."

"As doubtful as you recovering use of your arm?" Her strength was returning.

Hiei almost grimaced, remembering the trouble his arm had given him at the Dark Tournament. In particular, he remembered dropping to his knees clutching said arm on a remote cliff overlooking the sea. He somehow knew this was the incident she was recalling out of his memories.

"You may have cried out in pain, but sure enough the great Hiei wanted no help. And yet without a sound, I receive assistance. I desire the same distance and am denied such a thing." Her words were brutal and cutting.

Why had he come? The help certainly wasn't welcome.

"Baka onna." He scowled.

"Same to you."

What was her problem? Something was wrong, as if the distant look in her eyes didn't confirm that.

"Misaki, I had a vision of some sort..." Perhaps she'd explain it. Maybe it came from a memory of hers that he retained from their meld. The Jagan prompted him to ask if such a meld is possible once more and as much as he surprised himself by actually toying with the notion. He wanted other answers first however.

"Hmph. I certainly hope I wasn't a party to this vision." Misaki would have left by now but her legs were protesting her standing and she didn't think she would get very far.

"You were in it. That's why I'm mentioning it."

"Great. You know what? I don't care."

"Shut up and listen for once."

There was obvious indignation present on her face but the tone of his voice and the words had the desired effect. She bit back a retort and waited, though certainly still irked.

"You were being killed."

She scoffed but Hiei glared daggers at her and she said nothing.

"I couldn't see what it was, and neither could I see where you were."

"Thanks. Next time I see a big glob of nothing, I'll be sure and avoid it." She turned away, only to find him standing in front of her, frowning, arms still crossed.

"What aren't you telling me?" His sharp gaze saw the knowing expression pass over her face as soon as he mentioned her dying.

"There's nothing I'm not telling you."

The look her gave her said something like 'I'm not stupid.'

She rolled her eyes, "It was just a memory. You probably took it back with you and it just now surfaced."

"Liar."

Her eyes grew more guarded, an indication that he was correct.

She sighed, a bit of fatigue lining her face, "Look, it was nothing. All we need to worry about is the tournament."

"And your immobility. That was nothing too, right?" Distrust covered his body.

"I didn't ask for your help," She snapped, reminding him, "Frankly, I didn't want help."

He tried to think of the best way to ask her what the Jagan had requested, still blocking her escape.

"Hiei I..."

Something in her voice made him look at her.

"We can't." She corrected herself, knowing exactly what he wanted to ask of her. She reached towards him but dropped her hand. It was such a fast and fleeting movement, Hiei wasn't sure if it happened.

"Because you can't get hurt again. You almost died. I don't want any more people getting hurt, dying." She sighed again inwardly, "And yet...just knowing me is reason enough for that to happen. Well I won't give fate any more reason. Not for you. Not for anyone."

She just shook her head, slowly walking in the opposite direction.

Hiei watched her for a moment before leaving.

--

"You are the four semi-finalist teams of the Tournament of Threes. Team Ike. Team Urameshi. Team Koenma. Team Lanora."

The four teams of three stood in a line in the middle of the arena about mid-morning of the next day, having been told that something 'special' was happening.

"Where is Kurama?" Misaki said quietly, looking around anxiously, almost missing the happy wave that came from Team Ike aimed at her. She half-heartedly returned it.

"Will we be disqualified?" Hiei wanted to know, surveying what competition was left. The only team he didn't know was Team Lanora, but it consisted of Leanne, Dartanianne, and Facelle. The delicate freaks didn't appear to be of any competition and in order to have made it this far...it didn't seem like such a great feat considering who all was present at the invitation tournament.

"No. The fights will just fall to you and me, unless Kurama makes it. How did he seem when you left him?"

"Not sure." He didn't exactly remember the incident.

"There is consistently an infamous 'twist' and now is the time for such a thing." The way the unseen announcer's voice sounded, they were probably smiling. "You will be placed in a maze and the order of which you finish said maze will determine your opponent for the semi-finals."

Suddenly, the four teams found themselves at the beginning of what they would only assume was the maze. The walls were an ominously deep red color and only there were only three entrances into the maze, one straight, one to the left and one to the right.

"If you don't finish within the required time limit, you will be eliminated. Begin."

--

Ah that's more like it. I prefer being around 2500 words if I haven't said that enough already.

Thanks for reading!

-lotsm