"I really liked that idea you had back on the ship Hiei, very smooth," Kagome said as they disembarked, the only ones still alive after the battle royal on the ship – apart from the captain – even Yusuke, who had fallen asleep the moment they had left the port, had survived without anyone else on the team defending him, and he was still asleep as they got off. Kuwabara was carrying him.
"Smooth enough that everybody stole it," Hiei said with a growl.
"Except that none of them were able to see it through," Kagome pointed out as they walked through the doors of the Hotel Kubikukuri, where they were staying. "Huh, nice place, all the rich hob-nobs with no morals and too much time on their hands."
"Your evening coffee, compliments of the hotel," the bellboy said, as he left them in their en-suite.
"Careful, it might be poisoned," Kuwabara cautioned.
"They want to see us fight. Poisoning us would be counter productive," Kurama pointed out.
"I can't drink coffee in the evenings," Kagome said tiredly to herself, picking up the cup and moving over to the side table. "You have it," she said as she handed it to the kid sitting there, three pink stars on his face.
"Huh! How did he get in here?" Kuwabara demanded, staring at the kid as he drank the coffee Kagome had given him.
"He came in through the door, like anyone would," Kagome said absently. "You forgot to knock though kid, try to remember next time, that's manners," she added, rubbing the boy's pink and yellow hat into his head.
"I just came because I heard about the special guests. I'm Rinku from Team Rokuyukai, who you'll be fighting tomorrow. You're so lucky, being special guests, you don't have to go through the opening ceremony or be told about the rules and the prizes, you just show up here and fight. Of course, you'll be dead soon," the child said, balancing on the handle of the empty coffee cup.
"Oh yeah, tournaments have prizes," Kagome said. "What is the prize for the Dark Tournament?"
"You get any wish you want," Rinku answered brightly. "I'm gonna wish to be really rich and famous."
"Don't you think you're talking too much?" a male voice said.
"When did he-?" Kuwabara asked, cutting himself short.
"Hey Zeru, I was just saying how-d'y'-do to our enemies," Rinku said, bouncing off the side table to stand before the taller, pale demon.
"Enjoy your last night among the living," Zeru said, going to the door. "By the end of tomorrow you shall bear a strong resemblance to your coffee cup," he added with a pointed look at the last coffee cup – Yusuke's, untouched – on the table.
It split in half, spilling the coffee everywhere.
"Nice trick," Kagome observed as the door closed. "Well, goodnight everybody."
~oOo~
"Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Koto and I'll be your cute host for this year's Tournament – and it's gonna be a messy one! For those in the first few rows, raincoats are available," the fox girl said from the centre of the ring. "Now here's the introduction you sports-fans have been waiting for: Team Rokuyukai! And this year's guests: Team Urameshi!"
"I dislike being called a traitor by demons I have never met," Kurama said quietly as they walked out.
"Hey, think of them as your fangirls when they found out you were dating me," Kagome teased with a gentle laugh. "They don't know the whole story, and they're angry because they're uneducated and think they've been wronged. That's all."
"I suppose you would forgive all of them anything," Hiei said.
Kagome blinked. "I believe in second chances, but I'm not going to forgive everything."
Hiei smirked. "I am glad that you are not that naïve."
"Is that big idiot still asleep?" Rinku demanded, his eyes fixed on Yusuke while Zeru and Kuwabara made their terms for the fight.
"We are looking at one-on-one!" Koto declared happily. "Ooh, check this ladies and gentlemen, Zeru is emitting flames from his body! Don't you just love it!"
"I'll go first," Rinku said, stepping up to the ring.
"Oh yeah, this kid is definitely mine," Kuwabara said, stepping forward as well.
Kagome lay a hand over his arm to stop him. "What sort of experience do you have with little brothers apart from being one? Let me," Kagome said, passing him and entering the arena before Kazuma could do anything to stop her.
"So are we fighting?" Koto asked.
"That we are," Kagome answered.
"Awe, don't be like that lady, let's play a little first," Rinku said, hopping up on his toes.
"If you like," Kagome allowed, smiling. "What sort of games do you enjoy playing?"
Rinku ginned and proceeded to bounce around, flipping and twisting and somersaulting in the air before attempting to attack her with a flying kick.
"You're pretty good at that," Kagome said, leaning to the side to avoid the kick which had come at her from behind, and then looking straight down at where the boy was waiting for her to find him. "Got anything else?"
Rinku laughed and jumped up, twisting to land his foot on the underside of her chin. His foot met Kagome's hand.
"Kid, you hit a girl in the face and she's going to like you a lot less very quickly," Kagome informed his many after-images, not particularly concerned by the dozen Rinku's bouncing around her.
"Bet you want to give up now, don't you?" the many boy's said, laughingly.
"Why?" Kagome asked, shrugging nonchalantly. "You haven't landed a real hit yet, and you didn't even notice when I took your hat," she added, pulling the bright hat on over her own hair. It clashed horribly with the emerald green outfit she was wearing.
"What?" Rinku yelled, halting suddenly and staring at her. "When did you do that?"
"Hm? A while ago, just before you tried to kick me in the jaw. So, had enough fun and ready to fight now?" she asked, smiling brightly and slinging the bow off her back.
"Is that your weapon?" Rinku asked. "You wouldn't be able to hit me with that bow! But I guess if you're going to pull out yours, then I'll show you mine too," the boy said, drawing his little pouch up from beside him and fishing something out of it.
"Yo-yo's? Wow kid, vintage. I haven't seen a yo-yo for years," Kagome said, smiling. "I applaud you for the originality of your weapon choice though."
"Wanna try? I call it the serpent yo-yo attack!" Rinku said grinning viciously before he jumped up and threw his yo-yos at Kagome.
"Serpent huh?" Kagome asked, slinging her bow back over her shoulder and taking a stance.
"With my energy going through the strings, you're as helpless as anyone trying to catch a snake bare-handed!" Rinku declared as the strings bent and wove around to attack her.
"See, your mistake is that you seem to think that's impossible," Kagome said, laying her hands over the heads of the yo-yo's and grabbing them in her fists. "Snakes are not a problem," she said sending her own energy along the strings back to the child. "Yours aren't venomous, and they aren't heavy pythons. Not a worry." She had, after all, been sleeping with a few dozen of the slithering creatures as part of Genkai's training.
"What are you doing? Ow! What's -?" Rinku yelped, surprised that anyone, let alone a human, had been able to grab hold of his yo-yos, and even more worried about the way she was sending her energy up his strings.
Kagome gave the yo-yo's in her grasp a solid tug, pulling Rinku towards her. When he was a metre away, she stepped aside and allowed him to continue sailing onward. The child landed outside of the ring on the grass. Not a very hard landing, but the barrier that she immediately erected around him would keep him there until she felt like letting it down.
"Oh my! In an amazing turn of events, Kagome has used Rinku's own weapon to throw him out of the ring, and by the looks of the barrier around him, I don't think he'll be joining us again any time soon! One!" Koto said, beginning the count.
Kagome smiled. "No hard feelings kid, but I've fought real snakes before." The normal kind, and the gigantic demon kind, she thought to herself. "Yo-yos just aren't as scary as fangs dripping deadly venom," she said, tugging his hat down over her own eyes and sticking out her tongue playfully.
"Eight! Nine! And ten! Winner by ring-out is Kagome Higurashi!"
Removing the hat from her head, Kagome gave a flourishing bow to the crowds that were booing and hissing at her, and hopped out of the ring, walking over to Rinku first and dropping the barrier.
"No hard feelings?" she asked, putting the hat back on his head.
"What are you?"
"I'm a girl," Kagome answered seriously. "Go on back to your team."
"You handled that very diplomatically Kagome," Kurama said, welcoming Kagome back to where the rest of their team was waiting.
"Little brothers. On some level, boys at that age are all the same," she answered.
Hiei smirked at that, while Kuwabara took offence and Kurama got into the ring for the next match.
~oOo~
Botan was amazed. She had known that Kagome was a priestess, but this display had been her first time ever witnessing the girl's skills at all. It was unlike anything the Spirit Detectives had ever used. It was... kinder, somehow, even if Kagome herself seemed very playful in the way she had just used it.
"Now that's a chick I want to meet," Shizuru said with admiration in her voice. "Who is she Botan?"
"Her- her name is Kagome Higurashi. She lives at a shrine on the north side of Tokyo," Botan answered. "Kurama is probably the one who asked her to come, though I had no idea she had that kind of power or skill," the blue-haired girl admitted.
"Can we go down there now and meet her?" Keiko asked. "I want to slap Yusuke anyway, he needs to wake up. I mean, his team mate is getting beaten!" she added, pointing out Kurama being struck by the blue demon in the ring.
"I- uh- Sure, I guess..." Botan answered, leading the two girls out of their seats and down towards the front rows.
Kagome looked up at them just before they reached the barrier between the audience and the fighters. "Hey Botan, who've you got with you?" she asked.
"Kagome Higurashi, this is Shizuru Kuwabara and Keiko Yukimura," Botan said, introducing the girls.
"So, Kazuma's sister and -?"
"Yusuke's girlfriend," Hiei supplied with a smirk, having spotted the girls as well.
"Ah, I see. Well, come on and jump over, you'll just get eaten or fried or something if you stay there," Kagome advised, shaking her head at the girls.
"Koenma is here as well, since he's the official sponsor of Team Urameshi," Botan said when she landed on the grass. "I know you haven't had the chance to actually meet him yet."
"Is there some reason that you aren't all seated with him up in his VIP room? I know there's got to be enough space for you all, and you would be much safer," Kagome asked.
Botan blinked in surprise. "Um, well, I... hadn't thought of that..."
Keiko however was just marching up to the sleeping Yusuke, clearly angry with him.
"Yusuke, wake up!" she yelled, drawing her hand back to slap him awake. A gentle hand grabbed her wrist and stopped her though, and another hand lay on her shoulder. Turning in surprise, Keiko looked up to find Kagome.
"The boy will wake up when he's ready, don't rush him. We're really fine so far," Kagome said as Kurama walked away from his match the victor. "See?"
"Uhm, but..."
"No buts," Kagome insisted gently. "If you really care about him, you are going to have to accept him as he is, maybe even let go of him one day. Boys won't change for anybody but themselves, that's just that."
Keiko sighed. "I wish you weren't right," she said with a pout.
"I do have a few years on you, I should have learned a thing or three by now," Kagome said with a gentle smile.
"You're-?"
"Seventeen, and if you're dating this boy, then I'm going to guess that you're fourteen, same as him, and same as that rather well-grown boy over there getting beaten up by his sister," Kagome said, jerking her thumb at the Kuwabaras, though she hadn't looked over to see the pounding.
Keiko nodded.
Hiei stepped up to fight a furious Zeru.
"Anyone else getting the feeling that this is going to get hot?" Kagome asked as she watched the fighters square off. "Kazuma, help me move Yusuke away from the ring. Everybody stay close, I'm putting up a barrier to keep us safe."
Hiei was knocked out of the ring, and didn't bother to get back in as he summoned the Dragon of the Darkness Flame.
"Folks, it's only the first match of the Dark Tournament, but we already have ourselves a double knock-out!" Koto declared. "Hiei was out of the ring for almost a full ten-count when he vaporised Zeru, and since he didn't get back into the ring again, I can't declare either of them the winner in these circumstances!" She didn't seem too broken up over it though.
Kagome dispersed her barrier and went to check on Hiei's arm.
"So much for saving your impressive tricks until the really tough fights," she commented wryly with an arched brow. "Cute third eye, by the way."
"Hn. Just fix it. I know you can," Hiei said, turning away to hide the blush that dusted his cheeks at the flirtatious compliment.
Kagome chuckled. "Yeah yeah, and you're going to keep on experimenting with that stuff, aren't you? Just like you were for the last two months," she said, feeding her healing energy into Hiei's right arm. "I'm actually tempted to leave you in pain for a while to teach you a thing or two about playing with fire."
"Hey Announcer Shiela, you look pretty hot, can you come here for a second? I got a question for you!" a tall, broad-shouldered, drunken demon asked once he'd stumbled his way onto the ring.
"Um, what kind of question?"
"Two of our fella's just died, on accident. How can the team continue?" he looked like he might hurl for a moment, but he managed to contain it, still smiling around the toothpick in his mouth and with the flush of one truly lush spread over his cheeks.
"It doesn't matter how many die, each team is allowed only one alternate fighter," Koto answered, holding her nose so that she didn't have to smell the breath of the demon with the mohawk and dual tails of blue hair. "Rokuyukai can fight with Rinku and one alternate, if they find one."
"You sure about that?"
"I am a walking rule book! My entire life is this tournament. Of course I'm sure!"
"Yeah! That means I can fight the these last two boys myself. I think that's really ripper," the demon said, standing up straight before staggering slightly. "Thanks for everything Sheila! Let's go you sods! I want to get a good fight in before my fun wears off!"
"Urameshi team, present your combatant!"
"Waking up to the smell of alcohol, can't help but feel a touch of home," Yusuke said, jumping up into the ring.
"Ning-nong," the blue-haired demon commented as Yusuke walked up to him.
"Actually, I agree with the lush," Kagome said as she watched Yusuke stretching out.
~oOo~
When Kuwabara woke up the day of their second fight from a nightmare, Kagome listened with a patience that amazed Yusuke as he talked it out.
"Any idea what it means?" he asked at last.
"Sounds to me like you're picking up the memories of other people's suffering," she answered. "I'd say you have a couple of options: either learn to put up barriers around your mind, ask someone else to do it for you, or get used to finding out about the suffering of others."
"I don't know how to do that barrier stuff," Kuwabara admitted. "And I don't know who would."
"Hiei could with his Jagan eye. It's a versatile little thing," Kagome said, smiling brightly.
"Yeah, but he wouldn't. He's not exactly the nicest of people if you hadn't noticed, and I'm not so sure I want him anywhere near my mind," the carrot-top said. "Actually, speaking of the shrimp, where is he?"
Kagome knew Hiei a bit better than Kazuma, having lived with him for a while, but she had noticed that Hiei was particularly derogatory of the large boy. She didn't bother to correct him about Hiei not being very nice. He wouldn't believe her. "He and Kurama went out on a bit of a nature walk. I suspect that Hiei is playing with fire again," Kagome said with a frown.
"Don't worry about it. They'll be back in time for our fight. I don't think they'd actually trust us to go it alone," Yusuke said.
"Uh, Miss Kagome? You can do barriers too, can't you?" Kuwabara asked. "You could fix me, right?"
Kagome sighed. It wasn't like this was hurting him, and if he wasn't going to go to Hiei in humility for the best help, she wasn't going to give him her mediocre help. "I'm afraid not Kuwabara. I can do barriers generally, but the mind is a complicated thing, and a barrier within the mind isn't something to be taken so lightly. I wouldn't be able to see what I'd be doing very clearly if I tried to put a barrier up inside your skull. I could put a barrier around the wrong part of your mind, like the part that tells your heart to keep pumping, and kill you. That's why people who want barriers up in their minds are the best people to put them there, because they know what they want to block of or protect."
Kuwabara flinched back from the very idea of his own death and then groaned at the thought of even more hard work learning how to do barriers for himself.
"You know what? I think I'll just learn to live with it," he said, backing away uncomfortably.
~oOo~
"So you're Koenma," Kagome said, when the teenager with a pacifier in his mouth and 'Jr' on his forehead stopped them in the hallway and told Yusuke about a golden egg that would soon be hatching a spirit beast.
"Yes, and I would like to thank you Miss Kagome for putting up with my Spirit Detectives and helping them so much," Koenma said, bowing politely.
"No biggie," she said, waving it off. "Kurama and I go way back, and these two kids remind me of another old friend," Kagome added, jerking her thumb at the fourteen-year-old boys standing beside her. "Same irritating attitude, but with even bigger hearts the both of 'em. You could almost say I'm having fun," she laughed.
Koenma blinked in surprise, but smiled. "All the same, I am grateful," he said.
"Well then come around to the shrine for dinner some time," Kagome insisted before a stray thought popped into her head. "Or maybe you could find out what happened to the old Lord of the West for me? His name was Sesshoumaru.
"I'll look into it," Koenma promised with a smile.
"Thanks. Now, if you will excuse us, we have a fight to get to. Are the girls all up in the VIP room to watch this one?" Kagome asked.
Koenma nodded. "Of course you do, and yes, since Botan mentioned it I could see how that made sense."
"See ya 'round Koenma," Yusuke said, walking out of the conversation.
"Yeah, see ya," Kuwabara added.
"I'd better make sure they don't get themselves killed," Kagome said with a sigh, and with a wave jogged after the two boys.
"Quite the extraordinary young woman," Koenma chuckled to himself as he watched his team continue down the hall.
~oOo~