Yusuke, being his usual self, scared Haukushin by loudly yelling at Yomi to put on a kettle of tea when they reached his borders. Shortly after that, they were politely escorted through Yomi's castle to meet with the blind demon lord.
Along the way, he was aware of Kurama's energy in two places, which would have really confused him if he didn't know that Shippo was disguised as Kurama. As it was, it meant that Mukuro was coming as well, and would be on hand to hear what he had to say.
Yusuke was settled into a traditional styled room, and when Yomi arrive he was presented with the tea he had loudly asked for at the demon's borders.
"So, why have you come to see me? And please, be direct. I have no time to waste beating about the bush," Yomi said. Not even a greeting.
"Well, as the new king on the block, I thought it only fair for me to tell you in person exactly how I'm gonna rip you off your throne," Yusuke answered, bluntly, not stating that Raizen was dead, though it was a heavy implication.
"Oh," Yomi answered, though he didn't seem too concerned. "Alright, then in the interest of full disclosure, allow me to show you how I plan to stop you," Yomi said, beginning to build up his energy for an attack.
"That's cool, but first I got somethin' for ya," Yusuke answered, unconcerned as he picked up from the floor the bag that he had brought and put it on the small table between them, pushing it towards Yomi. "We'll call it a gift."
"How thoughtful of you, would you mind unwrapping it to?" Yomi asked, suddenly sugar lacing his voice like he was some kind of confection. "I'm afraid I can't see things as well as I used to."
"Sure," Yusuke said, hands around the knot. "Now they might scatter a bit, so I hope you don't mind."
The cloth opened and the things inside did indeed scatter, though not overly much. Fortunately or unfortunately, poor Haukushin hadn't been told about the great plan.
"But that's our entire national treasure! All our romari stones!" he objected, shocked. "Do you have any idea how rare and valuable those are?" he demanded of his leader.
Yomi smiled as he reached out and picked up one of the stones.
"I thank you Mister Urameshi for this most generous of gifts," he said pleasantly. "Oh, I can tell this stone is real by its touch. But what is your true purpose in this offer?" he asked.
Yusuke smirked when he saw Yomi notice it.
"There's something carved in this stone," the blind demon said. "It says Mukuro. That one says Kurama; Houkushin; Yusuke; Hiei. You engraved names in all of these stones?"
"Yeah, I was just going to paint 'em on, but I figured this way you could read 'em as well," Yusuke said, never mind that Hiei had done an equal share of the carving. The point was that every stone had a name on it.
Houkushin had a fit. "Ah! You desecrated the treasure! How could you do such a thing!"
"Look I'm not a particularly bright guy, and just because I'm Raizen's heir doesn't mean I'm qualified to replace him. So maybe it's time we found another way of crowning the big cheese around here," Yusuke explained with a pleased smirk. Kagome's plan was about to come to fruition. "Each of these has the name of someone from Demon World on them. We'll all face off in a big Tournament representing not kingdoms, but ourselves, and the one who wins the Tournament will be the one to rule us all. For a period of time at least, until the next Tournament when we all do it over again. From what I understood in social studies it's called democracy, and it's all the rage back home. Except we'll cast our votes with fists. What do you say, big guy?"
Shippo wanted to hit the boy for his complete butchering of what democracy was, but he was still as eager for this as ever.
"Do you honestly think that I, or anyone else, will go along with this?" Yomi demanded.
The screen door to the next room slid open with a bang.
"Sign me up, so I say!" Jin declared happily.
Yusuke laughed in delight at seeing them, jumping to his feet as everybody else stepped in from the next room, revealing themselves.
"What are you guys doin' here!" he asked, grinning from ear to ear as he looked over all of them.
"To see you pal!" Jin answered happily, stepping forward.
"Jin! How ya doin' man?"
"Oi bluger!"
"Chu! Are you sober?"
The three laughed together like they were drunk, arms slung over each other's shoulders, and Yusuke, the shortest of the three, in the middle and literally suspended above the floor by his friends.
Shippo dropped his illusion.
"Sorry Yomi, but from now on, I'm only on my side. Oh yeah, and Kurama was never interested in your unification," Shippo told him. "And he didn't care about the assassin he sent after you. He was under the impression that you were dead, and was somewhat displeased to find out that you weren't."
"I had wondered why I could feel Kurama's energy in two places today," Yomi growled. "Who are you?"
"Name's Shippo, I'm a friend of Kurama's. He didn't want to see you, and wasn't interested in your plans, so I came to see if I could convince you that I was him," Shippo answered with a grin, before he became serious again. "Now back to matters at hand? I promise you: if you don't go along with this, none of us will hesitate to take Yusuke's side over yours."
"Kurama..." Yomi growled, but he was sweating. He could hear the real Kurama standing with Mukuro and laughing.
He also heard when Mukuro declared that she, too, would go along with Yusuke's plan.
"Fine," he said, standing. "I accept," he declared, though he clearly wasn't pleased about having to.
Yusuke invited all his friends to Raizen's castle to hang out until the Tournament.
~oOo~
Mukuro stopped Yusuke and his friends as they left Gandera, Kurama at her side.
"It is truly a pleasure to meet you, son of Raizen," Mukuro said, then held out some flowers. "Please, place these at Raizen's grave for me."
Yusuke accepted solemnly. He didn't know much about flowers, but they were certainly pretty.
"He was a great leader," Mukuro said. "Like you. But he died a fool."
Yusuke just smiled. "Thanks for the compliment," he said. "Hey Kurama, you called Kagome lately?"
Kurama smiled. "Yesterday," he answered.
Jin, Chu, and the others stared from Shippo to Kurama.
"Damn and this kid had us fooled the whole time!" Jin exclaimed. "I thought we were trainin' under you all those months!"
Kurama chuckled while Shippo blushed, flattered.
"I don't understand," Mukuro said.
"Yomi sent a message to me, if you recall. I didn't want to go, but he isn't the kind to accept 'no' for an answer. Shippo is a good friend of mine, and likes to get up to mischief, so he did me a little favour," Kurama explained.
Mukuro sighed. "I see. Kurama, thank you for these six months of helping me, but I can tell you wish to go with your friends now. I will see you at the Tournament," she said, then disappeared into the evening mist.
"What was it like?" Yusuke asked.
"Mukuro is an exhausting creature to keep up with," Kurama admitted. "For you?"
"Pretty good, actually," Yusuke answered with a grin. "Now come on you guys, Hiei and Puu are waiting for us back at Raizen's castle."
~oOo~
"How did they take it?" Raizen asked Yusuke when he got back.
"Yomi's upset, but he's going along with it," Yusuke answered. "Mukuro gave me flowers for your grave," he added, handing over the small, almost weed-like flowers.
"Thoughtful of him," Raizen said, accepting them. "I wouldn't have thought Mukuro to be the type to send flowers to anybody."
"It makes more sense when you know that Mukuro is actually a woman," Kurama said, sitting down. "It is an honour to meet you, King Raizen. I am Kurama."
"A woman?" Raizen asked, surprised. "I guess it does make more sense then. So you're the spirit fox who's woman came up with this plan? The honour is mine. I hope I might get to meet her some day."
Kurama smiled and gave introductions for the other demons who had come with them, as well as handing over the hiroseki stone he had acquired from Mukuro to Hiei. Chu, Raizen instantly liked, but their opening a bottle of something was interrupted by a call from the east.
"We're here!"
"That's Koku's voice," Raizen said, standing to go and greet her. Of course, her saying that 'we' had tipped him off that more than just her was out there. "And Enki's footsteps. Old friends of mine," he explained with a smile. "Old friends I haven't seen for a very long time."
Yusuke got to the door first.
"Just who the hell, or what, are you?" he demanded in shock, stunned by the sight of a large red male demon and a very shapely female one. He'd expected some of Raizen's old friends to show up when he 'died', but he hadn't expected them to look like this.
"When we heard that Raizen croaked, we set out for this dump as fast as we could to pay our respects," the female said.
"Hello I'm Enki, and this little fire cracker is my lovely wife Koku," the large red demon, Enki, said, introducing them.
"And what exactly is your relationship with our late king?" Haukushin asked tersely. The poor guy really was very out of the loop. It was almost like having another Kuwabara around, only this one could fight a bit better.
"Well, we used to be sparring buddies back in the old days," Enki said. "Sure we were strong, but Raizen was stronger I'll tell ya, and if Mukuro or Yomi had seen Raizen at his prime they would have pissed their pants if you'll excuse my colourful language."
"That's just what Kagome guessed," Kurama said quietly with a smile, emerging to hear what was said.
"That was until he went all ga-ga for some cheap little whore that he met up in Human World!" Koku said, getting up in Yusuke's face, clearly very upset about this still. "So he comes back and dumps me like I'm yesterday's garbage. Got any clue how insulting that is?"
"Jeez! You smell like booze!" Yusuke yelped, backing away.
"After he rejected me, I didn't give a crap any more so I married this lug," Koku said, jerking her thumb at Enki. "But I don't care 'cause I've been drinking ever since and feel great." To demonstrate her point she shifted the gourd she had over her shoulder and drank deeply from it.
"I'm glad to hear that," Raizen said quietly, stepping out of his castle. He grinned as jaws dropped all around him.
"How- but-" Haukushin couldn't take it in.
"Raizen, you jerk!" Koku yelled when she spotted him. "We thought you were dead! Everybody's coming and you're still alive!"
"Another human heard about me starving myself and sent food with my boy here, food that I can eat, but that doesn't include human as an ingredient. I'm feeling pretty good these days myself," he said, smiling as he looked between Enki and Koku. "And she wasn't a whore," he added, a little more sternly.
"Raizen," Enki said, frowning. "What's the meaning of this?"
"My kid found out about me, and his friends decided to do something," Raizen said with a chuckle, as he walked up to his old friend. "I wasn't given much choice in the matter. Come in, I think one of Yusuke's friends may have found the ogre killer already."
Koku ran straight into the building, intent on the booze and a possible drinking buddy.
"You know, after we parted ways, we lost our passion for fighting," Enki told Raizen, following him towards the door slowly. "We've come to lead a quiet, peaceful life."
"How have you been enjoying it?"
Enki nodded. "It's pretty good actually," he admitted with a small smile. "We thought you'd lost your mind, but since we've changed the way we lived, we've probably been happier."
Raizen smiled a content smile to hear about how his friends had been doing.
"Hello!" a bunch of voice called out.
"It certainly took them long enough to get here," Enki said, stopping at the door and turning around.
"I'm about to get lynched for being alive, aren't I?" Raizen joked.
Enki laughed, clapping him on the shoulder.
"So, this Tournament we heard about? Is that really going ahead?" Enki asked.
Raizen nodded. "Oh yes," he answered, watching the faces of old friends as they saw him standing there, alive after they'd heard he was dead. "I hope you're all going to participate."
Enki laughed. "Hey guys, what do you say we dust off our rusty powers and see if we've still got it like we used to?" he called to the others. "We'll make this a fight to remember!"
Raizen's friends cheered, and charged up, their energies building and building. Yusuke's friends all stood watching in amazement – apart from Chu, who was still inside with the alcohol, but he nearly spat it out when he felt the power surge from just outside. The energy exploded out and then up, piercing the clouds.
"That's a beaut," Jin said happily. "A real beaut!"
"Sweet!" Yusuke agreed, grinning madly, "Now this is getting good!"
Both groups of friends trained together for the week it took to get the whole Tournament actually organised, and most of them couldn't wipe the grins off their faces the whole time.
~oOo~
It didn't take long on the first day of the Demon World Tournament for Mukuro and Yomi to find Yusuke among the crowds.
"It's been some time since our meeting," Mukuro said. "You've developed your strength and skills even more since then, haven't you? Don't worry though, I've got a few surprises in store myself," she said, reaching for the bandages around her head, tearing them off with a flourish.
It caused quite a stir among the general population of demons to learn that Lord Mukuro was actually a woman.
"Sorry, but the sound of your voice gave that one away," Yusuke said with a smile and a shrug. "I'm looking forward to fighting you though."
"There is no better training than the real thing," Mukuro agreed. "I suggest you use the experience of these earlier fights to raise yourself up to my level," she said as she turned and walked away. "I wouldn't want for you to be defeated before it's your time to bow out."
"Father, that lady was Mukuro?" the boy beside Yomi asked.
"It was," Yomi answered.
"Strange. I thought for some reason that she'd look a lot tougher than that."
"I didn't know you had a kid Yomi," Yusuke said, walking up to them, then turned to address the boy. "Come to watch your father fight kid?" he asked.
"I'm not a kid, I'm Shura, and I'm here to fight," the boy insisted.
Yusuke pursed his lips as he thought about that. "If you say so," he allowed.
"Father," Shura said, turning to Yomi once more. "You are not to think of me as your son in the Tournament. If we fight, you have to promise to give me everything you've got!"
"Yes, I promise," Yomi said kindly.
"If you go easy on me I never want to see you again!" Shura added before running off.
"He seems like a real handful," Yusuke observed. "But I get the feeling you'd go easy on him anyway."
Yomi chuckled. "He's my son. It seems like only yesterday that he emerged from his embryonic incubation tank. Do you know what woke him? That blast of power from your territory. I too was awakened by it, from a long slumber of self-assurance. It's true that I have plans for when I gain power, but now I don't want it unless I win here," he said, then smiled as he answered the question Yusuke had actually asked him. "Yes, I will probably go easy on him. I want him to get stronger, not get killed. May the best destiny win, Mister Urameshi," he said, turning and walking off.
"The drawing of lots will now commence!" A voice called over the speakers. "And I'll hand things off to your official hostess of ceremonies, the most effervescent and lovely lady to ever list black and blue as her favourite colour!"
"Hello, ladies and freaks! Who else could possibly be your guide through this inaugural tour of carnage but me! The hostess with the most-ess and your voice of choice, Koto! Cause no one rocks the fight mike right, like Koto rocks it, am I right?" Koto cried, appearing amid stage lights before doing a very dainty flip into her announcer's booth. "Joining me in the commentary box is Kagome Higurashi, who some might remember as being a human member of Team Urameshi from the Dark Tournament. There are a lot of rumours circulating about this girl, but there's one thing for sure -" Koto said, smiling at the young woman sliding into the other seat in the box.
"Try and eat me, and you'll only get purified," Kagome finished with smug satisfaction. Shippo, Kurama, and Koenma had arranged for her to be here. Though human, she was powerful enough that she was perfectly safe. She wanted to see her handiwork. Genkai had stayed behind however, uninterested.
"Kagome Higurashi comes to us to provide an opinion on the conditions of different fighters as the Tournament progresses, as she has, for reasons she isn't interested in talking about, a lot of experience with demons and the injuries that they inflict upon one another," Koto explained. "Also joining us in the box is Yomi's old advisor Mr Yuda, who is an expert on demon energies."
"Thank you," the wrinkled, old little demon said quietly.
"Originally, this drawing was to use the engraved romari stones that Yusuke presented to Yomi, but because of the huge turn out, we'll be using lottery cards instead. Each contestant will draw the number of the group they'll be in for the preliminaries. Mukuro, a strong favourite, has drawn group seventy-four. Yomi, the other odds-on favourite, has drawn group thirty-four. The man who proposed this event and won the Dark Tournament, Mr Urameshi, will be in group one-zero-six."
Other demons names came up on the board, and Kagome sighed in quiet relief that no one she knew was in the same group together, and even Raizen's friends weren't in any of the preliminary groups with them.
"Oh my!" Koto said. "It seems that Shura has drawn group thirty-four, and father and son will be pitted against each other! Both of them will go in, but only one of them will come out a winner!"
"That should be an interesting fight to see," Kagome commented. "Will Yomi take the fight seriously, or simply toy with his son, teaching him? All the same, I expect we will yet have other, more interesting draws."
Shortly after, everyone saw exactly what Kagome was talking about.
"Raizen has drawn group number fourty-seven," Koto announced calmly, then seemed to realise what she had just said. "Hang on, Raizen! I thought he was dead! Otherwise, how did Yusuke become the king of the territory to suggest this to Yomi and Mukuro?"
Kagome chuckled. "What, a demon can't just retire?" she asked pleasantly. "I think that was rather tricky of the guy. Now here he is, a powerful foe for anybody, and with all of Demon World up for grabs. I wonder if Yomi and Mukuro have started sweating yet?"
"This will certainly make the Tournament more interesting," Koto said, a grin creeping onto her face. "Even if Raizen has been starving himself for centuries, and was recently believed dead, he certainly looks to be in excellent condition to fight now. This brings new meaning to the statement 'I got better,' that's for sure! But that brings an end to the drawing of lots!"
A demon tapped Koto on the shoulder and handed her a sheet of paper.
"Well I've just been handed some information," she said. "It's a long list of all the people who just voluntarily dropped out of the Tournament. What do you make of this Mr Yuda?" Koto asked.
"Any number of things. I suspect that most on that list are ones who found themselves to be in the same group as Mukuro, Yomi, or Raizen, others may well have only entered the Tournament to get their fifteen seconds in front of the camera, and are now going to go home before it gets messy," the demon responded.
"There's a point of view I can't understand," Koto said. "Now, let the Demon World Tournament begin!"
~oOo~