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Team Kaleo vs. Team Reform
Team Hitokiri vs. Team Ukishima
Team T.C. vs. Team Kono
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Kurama stood strong, surveying Kurai carefully. He had to watch out for this demoness; something told him that she wouldn't go down quite as easily as some of the other demons he'd taken down in his time.
"If you're thinking that I'm going to give up, Kurama," she sounded calm, smiling. "You've got another thing coming. But I'm looking forward to our fight. It's been a while since I've seen someone who can match my skills."
On the sidelines, Terja and Hiei looked on with something close to wariness. "I don't like her," Terja commented to the fire apparition.
"Kurama can handle himself." Hiei told her, assurance in his tone.
Kurama smiled. "And I look forward to our match as well, Kurai. I myself like the occasional challenge."
"Then let this fight be one to remember," she said, blinking slowly. When her lids lifted, her eyes glowed with a phosphorescent yellow, brilliant against her drab, pale skin. The wind speed picked up, gusts violently swirling around the stadium.
Kurama shielded his eyes against the wind, his red hair whipping in the winds that only blew harder, sending smaller demons running for cover and larger demons jumping to catch lost items that had blown away in the sudden wind storm.
"What's wrong, Kurama?" Kurai's voice carried across the storm. "Can't handle a little breeze?"
Plant vines wrapped around Kurama's feet, branching off and taking root in the floor, holding him down so he wouldn't blow away like some unfortunate apparitions had already done. Kurai chuckled softly. Storm clouds began to gather, black clouds that threatened to empty bucket loads of pouring rain into the open stadium. The sun had disappeared, the dark clouds covering the entire sky and becoming a sickening green color.
"Your plants are no match for my powers." Kurai said, her own hair swirling in violent torrents of deep blue and silver. "You will not walk out of this fight alive."
"Kurai!" Chi screamed from the sidelines, lurching out of Kage's grasp. "Stop! You'll tear down the whole stadium! Please, stop it!" tears streamed down her face, drying in the icy wind before they fell from her cheeks. Kage pulled her back, holding her close so she wouldn't blow away.
Kurai didn't hear her. "What's wrong, Kurama? Fight back!" Lightning flashed, striking down beside Kurama's right foot. A huge thunder clap resounded, shaking the entire stadium. Demons were clambering over one another to get away, fearful that they too would be blown away.
Kurama jumped, his plants sizzling loudly from the lightning strike. They had caught fire from the heat, and were shriveling away to nothingness.
Terja dug her dragon talons deep into the dirt to keep herself steady, and pulled Hiei in front of her so he would be semi protected from floating off in the wind. "Why isn't he fighting back?" she shouted, but her voice was lost in the wind. Just as she asked, crackling black energy surrounded the arena, and the wind began to die down.
"What is this?" Koto's scream into the microphone came from somewhere randomly in the stadium. "Is this what I think it is? If it is, then Kurai could be in for a detour from her almost victory!"
"It's Yoko!" someone shouted.
Kurai's face twisted into a horrible grin. "So I've drawn out the legendary Yoko Kurama. You must be awfully desperate to rely on your demonic powers."
A fully transformed Yoko made his way through the wind, crackling energy following his footsteps. Kurai didn't look surprised to see him, but lifted her hands, palms facing outwards. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Yoko Kurama," she said, deep blue demonic energy gathering in her palms. Her mouth twitched into a small smile as she blasted him away, sending him slamming into the other side of the stadium wall.
The winds died down to a blustery sort of air, enough to keep the storm brewing but calm enough so the poor apparitions stopped blowing away. Kurai walked to the edge of the arena, where Team Reform stood and watched for Kurama to return.
"I guess he's done," she said.
"You should never underestimate your opponent," Yoko's voice came suddenly out of the blue. Behind her! Kurai whipped around in surprise, and Yoko picked her up by her throat. He squeezed, making her lash out and kick in protest. Yoko stared at her. "You're an impressive fighter, Kurai," he said. "You're blind as a bat, but you still managed to cause all this devastation. This will be a fight I will remember for a long time."
Kurai's milky eyes filled with rage, their phosphorescent glow dimming. "Yes...it will..." she growled, wrenching free of the kitsune's grasp. She landed on her ass, and the winds picked up again. She climbed to her feet, her fury rising.
"This is sad," Yoko said, almost disappointed. "Rage does nothing for you, little demoness. It only clouds your mind. And when you're not thinking clearly," he vanished again. Reappearing behind her, he whispered-- "you'll never find me." Dark vines wrapped around her body, carrying her high, high up into the sky, into the eye of her storm.
"What's going on?" Chi wailed, looking at Kage, teary eyed. Kage blinked, confusion written all over her face.
"I don't know," she said.
A plant sprouted on Yoko's back that almost resembled moth wings. They were red, with white edges. Yoko's mouth twitched into a smirk before he took off, flying up into the storm after Kurai.
Kuwabara's mouth dropped open. "Since when does Kurama FLY?!"
"It's a plant, you imbecile," Hiei informed him. "Kurama is not a bird, he doesn't fly. He's a fox who uses plants. It would only be common sense that those ridiculous appendages you perceive as wings are plants."
Up in the sky, Yoko soared in front of his newly captured prey. "What does it feel like, Kurai?" he asked calmly. "When you are the hunted?"
"You wouldn't know the half of it," she spat in his face. Her spittle landed on his cheek. Yoko did not look pleased, and thus gave her a roundhouse kick to the face. He narrowed his eyes.
"I do not know what it is like to be hunted? I, who was a thief and a criminal? No," he smiled sarcastically. "I do not know."
Kurai fumed. "You will never know what it is like to be hunted like a mere animal," she seethed. "Like game, where you are herded like cattle. Where you are brought to slaughter to feed a bloodthirsty demon lord."
Yoko was not fazed. "You cannot change the past. So get your head out of your ass and in the game. It's time you quit screwing around and fought like a real demon. This is no challenge for me."
Kurai's eyes widened, in disbelief that she had just been informed that she was not a challenge in the arena. If they were on the floor, she would have already been disqualified in a ten count. The plants holding her began to smoke profusely. The plants turned to ash, blowing away as burning cinders. "Then I guess we'll have to take things up a notch," she grinned, her ankles crackling with brilliant lightning that held her suspended in the air.
Yoko pulled a rose seemingly from nowhere, whipping it out to its full length as his famous rose whip. He cracked it loudly, wrapping it around Kurai's wrist. "You can't burn this plant," he said as she tried striking up a fire onto his whip. "It's much stronger than anything I used on you before." he yanked her close, then spun her out so she flew outside of the eye and into the storm. He followed her, carefully approaching the storm. He flew inside, and sort of regretted it. The winds had picked up and were even more violent than before. The clouds were black and that ugly, sickening, bright greenish color. Rain whipped with the wind, hitting him like millions of tiny needles piercing his skin over and over again. Kurai was nowhere to be seen.
"It's about to get hot in here," she breathed into his ear from behind him. He turned, but she was gone. How had he lost her? His kitsune ears strained hard against the horrible howling of the wind, but picked up nothing but its depressing wail.
Hot sparks landed on his face and arms, causing some mild pain. He looked around, and his eyes widened in shock as a huge flaming torrent came barreling towards him, flowing with the wind speed. He was caught in the full blast, and he was burning, burning, white hot pain, searing, singeing...
Yoko fell from the sky, his plant wings' completely disintegrated. He plummeted, faster and faster until he finally crashed into the ground, shattering the arena floor. Somewhere out of the wreckage climbed Koto, mike still in hand.
"Ahem," she coughed, trying to clear some of the dusty debris in the air. The storm began to clear. "Can we go to a ten count please?" The screen flickered to life.
Kurai came down from her storm, her fury dying down with the storm. When she landed she was as calm and azure as she had been before the whole fight even started. She looked down at Yoko. "A fight to remember." she smirked, shaking her head and walking away. She landed lightly on her feet as she jumped off the platform, returning to her teammates. Chi was bawling her eyes out, her ears pinned and big green eyes gushing water. Kage was holding her closely, stroking her friend's scarlet hair.
"It's all right, Chi," she said. "Shhh, it's OK. Kurai's back."
Chi's sobs became louder, and she buried her face even deeper into Kage's black long sleeve shirt. She patted Chi's head thoughtfully. "Don't dig too deep into it, Chi," she said. "Everyone's OK. No one died. Kurai's back, and she's fine. Stop worrying, OK? I don't like it when you worry. Chi? Chi, look at me." she grabbed Chi's face and forced her to look her in the eyes. "Quit freaking out. We're all fine. Everything's OK. Do you understand me?" Chi nodded miserably. Kage let go of her face.
Kurai turned to Chi. "My darling Chi, is everything all right?"
Chi stopped crying. "I told you to stop," she said, her eyebrows knitting together. "And you nearly wrecked everything. People are dead. How could you do this?"
"Chi, it's kind of part of the tournament," Renee said softly, speaking up. "People die here. It's sort of, you know, expected. There are lots of casualties. It's not fair a lot of the time, but that's the way the rules are set up."
Chi frowned. "I don't like it." she said. "I quit."
"What?" Kage said, puzzled.
"You can't quit," Renee exclaimed. "What'll we do short a fighter?"
"You'll just have to find another," Chi sniffed. "Because I quit this team. I don't want to be in this tournament any more. I'm done." she wiped her tears off her face, and stood tall to face Kurai. "I'm sorry, Kurai, but I'm leaving." that said, she breezed past them all and walked out of the stadium.
"Chi!!" Kage shouted after her, jogging to catch up. Kurai caught her arm. "What're you doing? We have to go after Chi! You can't just let her leave!"
"Let her go," Kurai said, holding firmly onto Kage's arm. "She won't be going anywhere too far. Don't worry about it. We already have two wins. We only need one more to put our team ahead, and two more to assure moving on to the next round. Kage, I'm putting you in the next fight."
The three turned to look at the screen, which had flashed Kurai's victory moments before. Kurai pushed Kage forward. "Go on. Fight."
Kage stared blankly at the arena. How was she supposed to fight with one of her best friends running away? She climbed obediently onto the platform, standing beside a rather bewildered Koto.
"Ah yes," Koto said, getting back on track. "What a dazzling fight that was! What a show Kurai and Yoko put on! Although Yoko lost, unfortunately there wasn't much blood. His loss was in vain-- disqualified by the ten count! But the next fight promises to be spectacular as well, as we match up the famous jaganshi Hiei from Team Reform against newbie Kage Kancho from Team Kaleo! I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of what this team has to offer! Would both fighters please enter the arena? All right-- on my count: three...two...one...FIGHT!"
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A/N: So, if some of the characters submitted seem a little weird, I kind of tweaked their personalities a little bit to fit the story line. My apologies.
-s-chan-