Two updates in one day! I'm on a roll! I just wanted to take a moment and thank everyone for their reviews and follows and favorites! To be honest, I was really scared to put up this story. I was so sure that no one would like it. Now here we are with 22 reviews and followers, 18 favorites, and over 2,000 views! I know that there are a million stories that are doing thousands times better than I am on this site, but I couldn't be more thrilled and touched. Thank you all so, so much. Your encouragement and kind words are what keep me typing! So here's the second update today as a treat(I hope). I'm going in headfirst to keep the story's plot rolling, I'm sorry if it feels rushed. Let me know what you think and remember that I love you all!
"Either move your feet faster or fall!" Genkai snapped at me. She had me running through the very tops of the trees, where the branches were more like twigs.
"This is insane!" I laughed hysterically, hearing the wood split as soon as my toes hit it. I pushed forward though, keeping pace with the short woman.
"Alright, down!" She disappeared, going down, down, down.
I ran a bit more, trying to find the right spot, before finally diving straight for a larger branch below. My palms hit hard, scraping against the bark. I used that branch to launch myself to another low branch and repeated the action until my feet hit the lowest branch only nine feet from the ground.
"Good. Now take in enough energy to knock down that tree." She pointed to a solid oak that stood a few feet away.
I jumped down and meditated for a moment, digging my toes into the soil. I felt the energy flow through me. Letting out a steady breath, I swung my leg at the tree as hard as I could, moving the energy to my shin. After feeling it go through it like string through soft butter, I brought the remaining energy to my elbow and smashed it higher up. I smiled as the large tree crashed to the ground.
"One-hundred pushups. Arms only." She crossed her arms and watched as I slowly balanced myself on my palms, then brought my legs up above my head. I couldn't quite do it with my knees straight just yet, my balance wasn't good enough. I counted down in my head, almost losing track at seventy six. I watched as sweat dripped from my nose, practically sizzling as it hit the snow. Finally I reached one-hundred, and with that I pushed myself high up into the air and landed solidly on my feet.
"What's next?" I asked excitedly. Adrenaline was pumping though my veins, I was learning to love training. When I trained I couldn't think, and when I couldn't think Hiei couldn't cross my mind. I had figured that out after this morning when we started with a ten kilometer sprint.
"Let's go back to the clearing with the idiots. I want to see something." I knitted my eyebrows together. I didn't want to go to the clearing, but I couldn't disobey Genkai during she was training me. During training, she was law. So we walked to the clearing, where the boys were sparring.
"Kurama, come here!" Genkai called out. The redhead jogged over and bowed slightly. "I want you to spar with Suteki. I assume that won't be a problem?"
"Well…" He gave me a hesitant look.
"Good. No weapons." She gestured for us to start, but I was stunned still.
Kurama shrugged, seemingly uncomfortable. I shook the shock from my skull and started running through all I knew.
Never strike first unless you know you're stronger, it's reckless and will get you killed. Well that was easy, Kurama was thousands of times stronger than me. I dug my toes in and waited, carefully drawing in energy and ready to move in any direction. I didn't have to wait long. He came for me, lagging slightly. He didn't want to touch me, he wanted me to dodge.
Watch your opponent, learn their weaknesses. Kurama was avoiding contact because I was in heat. He didn't know that the fog only came back when Hiei was in my line of sight because I had only figured it out when they arrived that morning. So I sat still and when he got close enough I grabbed his wrist and flipped him over my head.
Keep your offense up when you have the opportunity. As soon as I noticed his feet hit the ground I whipped around and put all my weight in my forearm, trying to land a good sweep. He blocked it easily though. In response I pulled closer and brought my elbow up to his chin. He wasn't expecting that, he was too distracted by my scent.
If you're smaller, use their weight against them instead of relying on your own. He tried to pull away, so I hooked my leg around his and leaned in. I flipped him over to his stomach and bent the arm in my grip behind his back.
"Enough." As soon as I heard Genkai's voice, I jumped off.
"Are you okay?" I knelt by Kurama and offered him a hand up. He took it and smiled.
"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you. That was amazing, I wasn't expecting you to be so quick." He chuckled. He looked confused for a moment then asked, "Are you out of your heat? I thought you still had about three weeks."
"No, I still am. I think I've got a handle on it though." I smiled, brushing dirt from the knees of my jeans.
"That's…odd…" he mumbled When I rose my eyebrows he quickly added, "But good! Very good."
"Teki that was awesome!" Yusuke puffed as he patted me on the back.
"I'm glad you think so, Dimwit, because you're next." Genkai was sitting cross-legged on one of the boulders that sat at the edge of the clearing. I bit my lip. Yusuke was terrifyingly strong, and careless. He could easily slip up and hurt me.
"Alright! I was getting sick of beating up Kuwabara." He grinned from ear to ear as Kuwabara shouted out that he was sick of him too.
"Begin!"
Yusuke swung at my head and I barely had enough time to duck. For the first few minutes that was all I could do, he came at me so fast I didn't have time to strike out or even think of anything offense-wise. Finally I came up with a plan. I took a hit to my shoulder, it was going to leave a thick bruise, and hit his arm with mine, bringing a fist to his face as soon as his arm dropped. Of course he caught my punch, but he wasn't able to catch my shin before it went into his side. He laughed a bit and that's when I realized he was just playing around. A giggle tickled my stomach as I tried to grapple my fist from his hand. We must have looked insane, laughing and hitting and blocking all at the same time, but it was fun. I flipped back, trying to catch his chin with the heel of my foot, but he leaned back and dodged it. Almost falling on my landing, he took the advantage to kick my feet from under me. He stood above me with his Spirit Gun in my face. I held up my hands, almost in tears from laughing so hard. He joined in and helped me up.
"Crap, Urameshi, I think you broke her." I heard Kuwabara mumble from a few feet away.
"You're done for the day, Suteki. Come eat." Genkai headed back to the temple with a small smile on her face after seeing Yusuke and I poke each other's bruises and laugh.
"Come on, I'm sure Yukina has fixed something delicious." Kurama herded us towards the kitchen.
"You really did great, kid." Yusuke ruffled my hair as we walked. "I almost thought you had me."
"Thank you." I smiled. I glanced around and didn't notice any particular fire demon. Had he left when Genkai and I headed towards the clearing? Most likely.
To our surprise, Koenma was sitting in the kitchen when we entered.
"Ah, I'm glad you're all here. We need to talk." He waited for everyone to take their seats before he continued. I sat on the counter and munched on a sandwich, only half listening. "As you know, the second Makai Tournament is only a year from now. I was wondering what your training plans were?"
"I'm going to train with Hokushin again. I'm leaving in a few days." Yusuke talked through a mouthful of bread and meat.
"Sadly, Yomi has invited me to train with him and his son. I've accepted. He's requested that I leave within the next few days as well." Kurama had a sour look on his face. Hearing Yomi's name peaked my interest. I wondered why Kurama had accepted his invitation when he seemed so disheartened by the idea, but I kept quiet. This was not my conversation. "Hiei informed me he was going to train on his own. I'm not sure when he's leaving though." My ears twitched and the fog threatened to creep back at the sound of his name.
"As expected." Koenma nodded. Then he turned to me. "Suteki, do you plan on participating?" I knit my eyebrows together.
"What?"
"Do you plan on fighting in the Makai Tournament?" He tilted his head, waiting for an answer.
"She does. She will be training under me." My eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as I turned to Genkai.
"All right! A tourney-virgin!" Yusuke banged the table with his fist and whooped.
"No, no, no. I don't think…"
"Quiet girl. Why do you think I had you spar today? By the time the tournament comes around, you'll be ready. You pick up on things faster than any other student I've had." Genkai sent me a sharp look.
"Hey, Granny, that hurts." Yusuke pouted.
"It's true, Dimwit. If she had the experience you've had, she'd surpass you easily." She sipped her tea.
"True or not…" He sniffled playfully. Kuwabara laughed at his feigned emotional pain. Kurama just nodded thoughtfully.
I just looked at the faces in the room. Did they really think that of me?
"Well, now that that's settled. Good luck to you all, I'll be checking in periodically." With that, Koenma bowed and left.
"Wait… The Makai Tournament is… is deadly. I barely know how to fight, there's no way I could survive!" I waved my arms wildly, jumping down from the counter.
"Chill, 'Teki. The prelims are super easy, and I think you could make it all the way to the second or third round if you really tried." Yusuke threw an arm around my shoulders, tousling my hair for the second time today. I tried to force a smile, but I was slowly slipping into a panic.
"Perhaps you would feel better to know more about how the tournament is set up?" Kurama gestured to the seat next to him. I felt Genkai watching me as I slowly moved to the chair.
"Okay, so the prelims just a ton of free-for-alls. Kind of like a survival of the fittest." Yusuke swept into an animated description of how most of the weakest demons are picked off early while the stronger ones tried to take each other out as quickly as possible. Then he went into the details of the first round, how all the matches were seeded randomly, and how finally in the fifth round boiled down the real nitty-gritty demons.
A cold sweat veiled my face. What if I was matched up with Yomi or Mukuro during the preliminary round? Could I jump from an Okunen tree and survive? Or would I die at the hands of some low-ranked demon that Yusuke described as a 'bottom-feeder'?
"You'll do fine. This time is really just for experience." Kurama gave me a warm smile.
"Yeah, because I'm the one that's going to win it all!" Yusuke beamed. I trembled slightly, but tried to choke out a laugh. I didn't know why they were all for this. This tournament was for demons that craved power. I had never had an ounce of power in my life, and I was almost sure that I didn't want it. There was no motivation for me to win, so what was the point?
"But… Why? Why do I need to do this?" My eyes found Genkai. She looked so calm, like she hadn't just signed me up for my own execution.
"I have my reasons, girl. Do not question me." Her tone was final, there would be no more discussion.
"Yes, Sensei…" I whispered, moving my gaze to my dirty hands that rested in my lap. The submission came easily, and it almost disturbed me how comfortable I was with it. This was why I would die in this tournament. When it all boiled down, I knew I was weak. It didn't matter how strong I became physically, because at my core I was still a slave.
The next chapter has a few time skips(just a warning, I know some people don't care for them) because it would be extremely boring and a waste of time to go through every single thing that happens. So I boiled it down to the important parts and stuffed it into one chapter. It gets exciting again after the next chapter, I promise!