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Team Kaleo vs. Team Reform
Team Hitokiri vs. Team Ukishima
Team T.C. vs. Team Kono
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Chi stumbled out of the stadium, gasping for air and furiously rubbing her puffy eyes. She sat down next to a nearby rock, and leaned her back against its cold surface. She took a deep breath, trying to clear her mind. What had she been thinking? She had just quit her team; abandoned her best friend Kage and her guardian Kurai.
"What am I going to do now?" she moaned aloud, putting her head down on her knees, which she had drawn up close to her chest. She sighed, her bobcat ears drooping.
There was a commotion behind her. On top of the rock! She turned around, half expecting it to be Kage. But instead of her best friend, a fragile looking kitsune with dark blue ears sat perched on her rock. She scooted over, surprised that someone she barely knew had joined her.
"I saw your fight," he said. He turned to look at her, his dark blue hair flopping in his eyes. "How come you're not back with your team? Kage is still fighting."
"Yeah," she said softly. "I kind of quit."
"Oh," he said, surprised. He slid into the grass next to her. "How come?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. I'm tired of it, I guess. It's just not for me. I'm not really a fighter. I don't like to fight with people."
He nodded like he understood. "I see." They sat in silence for a couple minutes. Chi snuck a look at her companion. He was staring at his hands, which were pulling out blades of grass and laying them down randomly. His blue tail swished, hitting her hand.
"Um..." she said, breaking the moment. "I sort of...don't remember your name...what is it again? Sorry."
"It's Z," he said, smiling. "That's OK. Don't worry about it. Are you all right? You look like you've been crying."
"I'm fine," she said, a small smile creeping onto her tan face. "No really. Kurai just...angers me. She's a good person, really. It's just that everything is always what she wants."
"From what Kage told me before, she kind of seems to run your life for you," he said.
"Something like that."
Z looked over at her. "So what are you going to do then? Since you quit? Are you gonna go back to Kurai and Kage, or something else?"
Chi grew thoughtful. "I'm not sure. I don't really have any where to stay now...and I can't go back to the hotel room with them. Then everything will just go back to normal and I'll have to be with Kurai again."
Z stood, brushing the grass off his jeans. "Well...how about we take a walk, and we'll see if we can find somewhere for you to stay." He held out his hand to help her up.
She stared at his hand for a moment before taking it. "I'd like that." she said, getting up.
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Kage stood in the mangled arena, facing the infamous jaganshi Hiei. She felt horrible. How could Kurai have just brushed off little Chi like that? Chi would be lost...where would she stay without her team? In the trees?
While the idea of Chi sleeping in a tree wasn't something she was thrilled about, she knew that the kitten could survive quite easily. The thing was simply that Kurai hadn't given a shit when Chi had left. How could she not have cared? Chi was their little one, their kitten! Her best friend had taken off, and the person who was supposed to watch over her had left her by herself and been totally apathetic about it.
Hiei looked at Kage without much interest. "Kurama tells me that you're quite the fighter," he said suddenly. "In fact, you've earned quite the reputation."
"I have?" she said, surprised.
Hiei smirked. "You've been under consideration for the next spirit detective. And while that doesn't apply to me, I do think it will be slightly entertaining to spar with another detective. I thought the spirit detective reign had ended with Koenma, but it appears that he's come back."
Kage's eyes open wide and her mouth hung open rather rudely. "Koenma? Seriously? Wait, they want me to be a what? Why? Who said that?"
"You ask a lot of questions," Hiei said, "let's just cut to the chase and fight, shall we?" he took off his cloak, throwing it somewhere to the side. He vanished in a flicker of black.
Kage stood perfectly still, concentrating on finding her opponent. Where was he? She closed her eyes. To the left! Her eyes opened, and she raised her left arm to block a punch that was meant for her face. Hiei responded with another punch, this time to the abdomen. She flew back, knocking into one of the chunks of the arena sticking out of the ground.
"This is too easy," Hiei said disapprovingly. "I expected a challenge, but this is more like taking candy from a rather retarded human child."
Kage stood, taking Chi's defensive stance. "Oh I'll make it a challenge all right," she said. Black and white energy sparked from her fists, erupting into a dark flame that wrapped around, with white flashes crackling through it.
Hiei smirked again, his own fists suddenly combusting into his Fists of the Mortal Flame. "Better," he said. In a flurry of black and white, Hiei and Kage were suddenly fist to fist, throwing lightning fast punches.
"Wow, this incredible display of firepower seems to have sparked some life back into Kage! She's battling Hiei with the same enthusiasm we saw in Kurai against Yoko Kurama! No telling how this one'll end either, folks! This new team is just full of surprises!" Koto shouted.
Kage and Hiei landed some feet away, pausing in their spectacular fist fight. The flames dissipated from Kage's fists, and she stood tall with one hand in the air. Hard black scales rippled down from her hand, spreading down her arms and traveling up her neck to her face until her entire body was coated in thick, ebony dragon scales.
Hiei didn't look particularly impressed. "Let's see if your iron scales can withstand this." the bandages on his arm burnt away, and the dragon tattoo was revealed. The dragon roared, and enlarged from his arm and rose up high, screeching at Kage.
Kage wasn't fazed. She opened her mouth, a loud screech that sounded much like the dragon's emanating from her jaws. Brilliant orange flames shot from her mouth, causing the dragon to pause in its path. It roared, barreling through her stream of fire towards her.
Kage screeched again as the dragon came for her. White spirit energy crackled around her fists, which she raised up towards the dragon. When it was on top of her she held out her palms, brilliant white energy shooting into the dragon's face. It cried out, rearing up in the air.
"What?!" Hiei shouted, faint over the roar of his Dragon of the Darkness Flame. His dragon turned around, almost as if it were confused. It headed back for Hiei, who ripped off his bandanna covering his jagan eye. The jagan opened, glowing brightly. The dragon stalled at the sight of the jagan, and turned around, headed back for Kage.
Kage glared at the dragon, her eyes glowing white. "You chose the wrong attack, Hiei," she said. "I'm half dragon-- and all dragons fall under my command!" she raised her arm again, and the dragon screamed. It writhed, turning back again and plummeting back for Hiei. But instead of consuming him, it wrapped back around his arm to form his winding tattoo. Hiei looked stricken for a moment as he took in the pain of the dragon flowing back into him, but regained his cool moments later.
"Impressive," he said. "No one has ever withstood the dragon head on."
"I bet you've never fought with a dragon, either," she replied. Hiei's jagan opened wider.
"I guess I'll just have to take a different approach," he smirked, the jagan glowing purple. He drew his katana, and shot towards Kage at lightning speed.
Kage looked surprised, and blocked Hiei's oncoming attacks with her steely scaled arms. He hit repeatedly, over and over again.
"It looks like Hiei's wearing down Kage's armor!" Koto noticed. "How long before she misses a blow and takes a stab? It won't be much longer, I can tell you that!"
"Damnit!" Kage growled. Her scales were wearing down from the barrage of hundreds of blows from a sharpened katana. She could feel the friction of the blade on her skin, a warm tingling feeling creeping up her arms.
Hiei's blows became even more concentrated, focusing on a single spot close to her elbows. Each blow came heavier and heavier, but so quickly that it was all she could do to block them from shanking her in the face. With a final blow, Hiei's sword erupted into black and green flames, slicing down into Kage's scales. She cried out in pain, ducking out of the way of the blunt of the swing. She slid away from Hiei, holding the place where her scales had been sliced through. White scales rippled over the place where he had cut into her steely armor.
Hiei eyed her carefully. "Your armor can't withstand the brute force of my katana for much longer. Let's end this, shall we?" he vanished again. Kage looked slightly bewildered now. She was powerful, but not that powerful. Hiei was beginning to wear her down, and tear up her greatest defense at the same time.
A powerful blow to the back of her head knocked her over, sending her sprawling onto the floor. She had lost her concentration and hadn't been able to find her opponent before he struck. He took the opportunity and whipped his sword out, holding it to her neck before she could get up.
Koto looked to the screen, which was already on a ten count. Kage stayed down, glaring at Hiei's katana. Her scales rippled away as the ten count ended, disqualifying her from the match. She stood, walking back to her team, huffing slightly out of anger.
"What happened?" Renee jumped up as Kage came back. "Your armor's impenetrable! How come you didn't get back up? You could have easily gotten back up, your scales would have protected you from his katana!"
Kage shook her head, tossing her white hair over her shoulder. "No, that was the end. If Hiei had hit my scales like he was planning, he would have slit my throat. He had been hitting me more times than I had realized-- not just in the arm, but all over my entire body. He was weakening me enough to use the power of his jagan to pry open my armor and get a clean shot at my skin." she smiled, even though purple bruises were beginning to form on her face, neck, and shoulders.
"So that just leaves me," Renee said, climbing into the arena. She looked out. Her opponent was the only one left-- the dragon woman Terja. "I can take her, easy."
Terja walked calmly into the arena. Koto looked to both fighters, glad that the final fight in this round on the surface was taking place. "Ladies and gentlemen, Renee from Team Kaleo versus Terja from Team Reform! Fight!"
Terja's great tail swished to the side, a gust of air blowing towards her opponent. She cocked her head to the side, waiting for Renee. Renee didn't waste time in jumping into the battle right away. She drew a white lily from her brown hair, snapping it. It extended out into a whip much like Kurama's, only shorter and much smoother. She cracked it loudly, running for Terja. She snapped the whip, nicking Terja in the arm. The dragon woman blinked, looking down at her bleeding arm. Renee had taken a decent chunk of skin out of her.
"That was pathetic," Terja said, looking back at her. She had to look down, since she stood so much taller than everyone else in the entire arena. She lowered her head, butting Renee with her large violet horns. The kitsune fell, crumpling beneath the weight of the sickle horns. She whipped her tail around, the deadly barb on the end lashing into Renee's upper thigh. She screamed as it tore out of her skin. She got up, and leapt a bit farther away from the demoness to assess her situation.
Terja stood, watching and waiting. She had a look of almost boredom on her face as she blinked lazily at Koto, and then inspected her claws for any dirt caked onto them. Renee made another charge, but was stopped by Terja taking a huge swipe at her with her claws. She raked across Renee's shirt, ripping off a good portion of the bottom of it.
"This is boring." Terja said lightly, swaying to some imaginary tune only she could hear. She opened her mouth, and a great gust of orange flames shot out, aiming for Renee. She hit her target dead on, which burst into flames and was sent rolling on the grounds of the arena in an attempt to extinguish the fires. Terja walked towards her, whipping her tail at the fox girl again. She stepped on her as she squirmed on the ground in pain, digging her talons deep into her enemy's skin.
"The two girls on your team are quite impressive," Terja told her, twisting her talons within her prey's flesh. "But you and the bobcat kitten need to improve your skills to be able to even play in the same league."
"...eight...nine...ten!" Koto followed with the ten count on screen. "And Renee has been disqualified as well! Which leaves both teams with an even amount of wins and losses, which means our underground arena will have to determine who moves on with the last two fighters from these teams-- and neither one of them had chosen an alternate! Which means the next fight will be the ice apparition Yukina from Team Reform versus Hotaru, the fifth fighter for Team Kaleo and until recently the King of Demon's personal assistant!"
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Yusuke looked at the screen, fairly bewildered. He had set up the teams, had glanced over her name, but was still surprised to hear Yukina's name used in terms of combat against others. He pressed a button, flipping the security feed to Team Reform. Hiei didn't look entirely thrilled. And with good cause, too. Yusuke knew what kind of a punch Hotaru was packing, and from what he had seen he didn't think that Yukina should be going anywhere near his ex-assistant.
"It looks like I won't be seeing Team Reform in the finals," he said aloud to himself, chuckling. He didn't know if Yukina had been training to fight in such a battle, but he was sort of hoping she would hold up for a while to make the fight entertaining, at least. He inwardly allowed himself something like a giggle. Hotaru was much, much older than him, and was classified as an A class demoness. Her power was immeasurable, possibly enough to match his own. But Hotaru had never fully tapped the extent of her powers, leaving them lying dormant within her.
Since it looked like a surefire victory for Team Kaleo, Yusuke looked at the next set of fights, which were scheduled for the next day. Team Hitokiri versus Team Ukishima. He smirked. Finally he would see if the power of this new "Masked Fighter" added up anywhere close to Genkai's.
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-s-chan-