Chapter Six: The Masked Fighter Unmasked
The masked fighter didn't so much as move a muscle and stood his little ground while his teammates paced frantically behind him.
"Hey, hey," Yusuke said nervously. "I didn't sign up to fight dragons or gods or whatever."
"This is unexpected." Kurama agreed and turned to Hiei. "What do you think?"
"Depends on how many dragons she can use." Hiei replied and raised his arm that was the key to summoning his own 'dragon'. "I've got maybe three before I'm tapped out."
"And then there's four other guys we have to beat." Kuwabara shook his head. "So much for winning this tournament by yourself, Hiei."
"Not the issue right now." Yusuke growled. "Anybody else see something else odd?"
"You mean how they're all ignoring us and focusing on our little friend?" Hiei asked to clarify.
It was true. The human dream team didn't even so much as spare Yusuke and company a single glance. As they carefully watched the movements of the masked fighter, expressions of contempt formed on their faced.
"Yeah, I noticed that too." Kuwabara nodded. "Kinda weird, ain't it? And definitely rude."
Their heavily clothed compadre, however, was ignoring everything else as he stood very still. He could possibly have been reflecting on whether or not he remembered to pack some dragon repellant.
"This is my family." Sarah taunted the masked fighter by stroking her scaly friend. "Are they not beautiful? Much better than your puny lineage."
The masked fighter (as expected) said nothing in reply. The cloth inclined fighter shifted into a more solid stance and waited for the girl, or rather her dragon, to make a move.
"Remember not to destroy the vessel's body, Sara." Jake warned his teammate.
Sara flinched. "Yes sir," She replied before motioning her dragon kin forward. The dragon tried to take a bite out of the masked fighter's head and ended up with a mouth full of robes as the fighter pulled back just in time.
"What's this? Is the masked fighter revealed?" The announcer asked aloud as she stumbled around the ring to get a better view. "Well almost revealed, but still I can't believe this, can you all?"
With her robes ripped, the masked fighter's delicate features could clearly be seen including the subtle curves of her upper body hidden only by a layer chain mail. The dragon had removed the masked fighter's hood so that her long black hair was whipping around her face wildly. What shocked the onlookers wasn't so much as her gender, but rather that the almost-unmasked fighter was wearing a black blindfold and a second filter-mask over her mouth. The dragon quickly spat out the vials of potions and poisons that had been stashed in that section of robes.
"Living up to her name sake the masked fighter's not only a woman in a mask, but she's been fighting blindfolded this entire time? Unbelievable!" The referee called out in admiration.
Jake and his people also looked surprised. Glancing around Jake let out a low angry growl. Large black birds could be seen perched in several key places around the arena. The masked fighter had winged spies acting as her eyes suggesting that her true abilities had yet to be seen.
"Tch! Show off! Traitor" Sara shouted irritable and motioned to her dragon companion again. This time the dragon missed the masked fighter entirely and headed straight for team Urameshi's captain. The masked fighter moved just in time to block the deadly fangs before they could reach Yusuke's heart.
One of the dragon's fangs sunk into the masked fighter's palm. The dragon girl laughed and pointed at the hapless fighter. "How does it feel to be powerless?" Sara asked. She bragged, "I'm at full strength, but you probably haven't even awakened yet."
"Why don't I like the sound of that?" Yusuke mumbled. To his "human" shield he asked, "Hey, you okay?" The masked fighter nodded.
"Ring out!" The referee called out over her microphone once the dragon retreated.
Team Urameshi glared at her and the rabbit youkai squeaked in terror. "Um, well, although each fighter is responsible for making sure their attacks don't hit bystanders…rules are rules and there's really nothing I can do." She swallowed. "Is the masked fighter able to continue?"
"Give us a minute! We're trying to figure that out!" Kuwabara shouted. The masked fighter raised her good arm to pacify her comrades. She clenched her other fist making the bleeding worse as she headed back towards the ring.
"I'm not convinced," Yusuke held the girl back by her shoulder. "Not until I know for sure." Forcing the girl to turn around Yusuke glared at their masked fighter and asked, "Alright, just who the hell are you?"
"You really want to know?" the masked fighter asked in a low tone.
"Well, yeah." Kuwabara replied as if the answer was obvious. "You're on our team so it's not fair to be keeping secrets."
"Unless you're Reikai's lackey," Hiei said darkly. "Then I just might be forced to kill you."
"If you want to know that badly then I'll tell you," She signaled the team to lean in closely so they could hear her whisper. Then without warning the masked fighter leaned forward to deliver an upper cut to Kurama's cheek creating a chain reaction where Hiei barely dodged Kuwabara falling on him.
"Hey! What was that for?" Yusuke demanded while rubbing the shoulder Kurama had slammed into.
Kurama himself was seeing stars. "I knew it," He muttered and he most certainly did.
The masked fighter removed the mask and blindfold. To the team's shock she revealed herself to a beautiful young lady with piercing blue eyes.
"I don't know, but you deserved it, I'm sure." She said as her eyes were dancing with mirth.
Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama at the same time gasped, "You?"
"Wait a minute, Koenma-sama!" Botan protested. "This isn't how the script was supposed go!"
"That's the beauty of fanfiction, Botan." Koenma explained as he watched the show play out on the big screen. "You can screw up, fix it, and hope nobody notices."
"…Then why are we even admitting that we screwed up?" Botan put her hands on her ruler's desk feeling very confused.
"Because this is they only scene you're ever going to get." Koenma laughed. "The 'powers that be' sorta forgot about you! Ha ha!" He suddenly became serous and added, "By the way, I hope you don't mind, but I gave Ayame your promotion."
"What? Why?" Botan demanded to know. "I worked hard for that promotion!"
"Yes," Koenma readily acknowledged this. "But for some reason, despite anime logic, all our spirit detectives have had dark hair." He shrugged, "Well, it is Japan (go figure) and I've always thought yours provided a very nice contrast. We have aesthetics to consider, you know."
"…"
"Right, which 'you' are you again?" Yusuke asked with a confused look on his face. "I know I've seen your face somewhere before."
Kuwabara gawked at him, "Are you kidding Urameshi?"
"Well, if you're so smart, how do you know her then?" Yusuke glared at his friend.
"Duhr, that amateur band reality show," Kuwabara told him matter-of-factly.
"Whaaat?" Yusuke was now completely confused.
"Her band, 'Night Rain', only got third place," Kuwabara explained. "The fans raised such a stink the producers had to invite them back for the next season."
"Didn't know you were into that kind of thing, Kuwabara." Yusuke smirked.
Kuwabara brushed off the subtle accusation. "Naw, but my sister watches it and now she's got Yukina hooked too."
"The show's just a stunt to promote a precontracted band," The young woman said with a shrug. "We weren't going to win either way."
"Right, so how do you guys know her?" Kuwabara had picked up that Kurama and Yusuke weren't fans of the show and now he was the curious one.
Kurama cleared his throat. "She's Koenma's current spirit detective," He told them.
"What?" Kuwabara and Yusuke said at the same time.
"Spirit World Ambassador." She corrected and explained, "Koenma has eliminated the detective's position entirely now that the youkai crime rate has dropped." She winked at Yusuke. "It's been a couple of years, but it makes me sad that you forgot about me."
Yusuke opened his mouth and then closed it again wisely deciding against saying anything. The young woman flashed him a smirk before hoisting herself back up onto the ring. Since it was still a "blackout" match, the young woman would still have to fight.
Hiei finally spoke up. "And what makes you think you'll be any help to us now?" He pointed to the dragon girl. "She just said so herself. You're weak."
Despite this observation it was obvious that the dragon girl in question was hesitating. Sara knew that here opponent wasn't like the youkai weaklings from earlier and she could tell that hidden under the layers of robes and potions was a fully trained and hardened combatant. She could almost sense her opponent's bloodline, but the feeling was dark and mysterious. The dragon user didn't want to be lured into a false sense of security just because the masked fighter was freely joking with her teammates.
"Your file has you pegged, Hiei." The masked fighter sighed unperturbed by the jibe. She tore off an additional strip of her robe and bandaged her hand. "You're just like I thought you'd be."
"Hiei has a file?" Kuwabara raised an eyebrow. "What about me?"
"Everyone has a file." The young woman assured him.
"Cool, I have a file." Kuwabara grinned with a smidgen of pride.
"You didn't answer my question." Hiei pointed out.
"I can give you three reasons," The young woman replied as she tied her hair up. "One: I know the most about whom and what we are up against," she said, "Two: I know their plans are,"
A smug induced smile bloomed on her face when she saw the other team's expressions.
"And three," she added, "I'm the only person alive who has ever sucker punched Kurama, twice."
"Twice?" Yusuke gasped in disbelief. "Is that true Kurama?"
Kurama wisely made no reply and simply tended to his still tender cheek.
"Okay, I'm sold." Kuwabara announced conveniently forgetting that the most recent punch had included him too.
"Are you done with your team bonding?" Sara asked very loudly.
"Yeah." Team Urameshi's combatant nodded and added cheerfully, "That's was really sportsman like of you to wait."
"I'm not scared of you or anything!" Sara corrected having detected the subtext of the woman's statement.
"Oh, you should be." Team Urameshi's lady fighter bowed to the group of teens. "Allow me to properly introduce myself. My name is Amaya Bard."
"Never heard of ya," Sara replied in a bored tone and called on the storm. "What?"
Bolts of lightning cracked all around the ring, but each one missed the raven haired girl standing there. Since her identity had been revealed, there was no need to hide her abilities anymore.
"Death's number one ally," Amaya replied pleasantly. "You'll have to do better than that if you want to kill me."
"Grrr…" Sara motioned her dragon kin forward, but Amaya easily dodged the creature using its own enormous body against itself. After all, avoiding one lone dragon was nothing compared to the years of experience Amaya had against dueling other "otherworldly" creatures. Sara was starting to lose her cool. In terms of experience, Amaya clearly had the upper hand.
"She's going to have to better than that to-" Hiei was about to make a very insightful observation about how Amaya needed to go on the offensive instead of just dancing around her opponent, but he was interrupted when a bright shine flashed above them in the heavens.
A long silver spear rained down upon the combatants. Amaya jumped using the dragon's head using it as a spring board and deftly caught the falling weapon. Once again, Amaya surprised her opponent again by skewering the legendary beast right in the place where its scaled armor was weakest. All that "dancing" she did earlier hadn't been for nothing. It's wasn't a killing blow, but the strike was enough to scare off the beast. It flew away leaving its summoner unguarded.
Sara backed up to the edge of the ring in a panic. She looked at her leader accusingly, "You said she used swords!"
Amaya gave the spear a quick spin to clean off the blood. She leaned on it casually and corrected the common misconception. "The sword is my favorite weapon, yes," She admitted. "But nobody ever said it was my best weapon."
"I-Itsuki-sama!" Sara wailed as Amaya prepared to finish the unfortunate task at hand.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Kuwabara protested. "They're still just kids."
Amaya paused. "You're right," she said. Dropping the very scary silver weapon Amaya walked over and whispered something in the girl's ear. Sara's eyes grew wide for a second and then finally Amaya backed off.
Taking a few deep breaths Sara sank to her knees and signaled the referee.
"I give up." Sara said quietly. Her expression towards Amaya changed from fear to admiration.
Amaya rewarded the girl with sly smile as she walked away. In a low tone of her own she murmured, "Seductive, isn't it?"
"Hold it right there," A clear voice filled with authority ordered just before Amaya stepped out of the ring. Everyone looked up to see the King of Makai and he was not happy.
Amaya placed her good hand on her hip and matched the king's glare with a smirk of her own. She called up to the king saying, "You're late, your majesty."
"Reikai will pay for its meddling," King Araku warned her. "This match is here by suspended until somebody can tell me what in hell is going on."
Behind him Amaya could clearly see a cloaked woman hiding in the shadows and her eyes narrowed. Nobody else seemed to notice because as soon as the king made his announcement the entire arena erupted into frenzy.