Yusuke's dark eyes wandered, not for the first time in so many minutes, along row after row after row of faceless demons and human's sitting in the stands waiting to watch him and his friends get picked apart by their opponent's. Or to see him and his friends pick someone else apart- whichever happened to occur first.
At the moment he felt too goddamn tired to really care.
And then out of the corner of his eye he caught a faint glimpse of fiery red and turned to see who had just entered the arena. His eyes narrowing slightly when he noted that it was the demon from before.
The one who had come after the girl that he had been trying to speak too, Yuki.
The demon was moving strangely, his broad shoulders were hunched, his spine bowed a bit- making him appear shorter and smaller than he actually was. In fact the way he was moving was akin to how one would act if they were helping- twisting his body around to give the demon his total and utter attention as he caught a faint glimpse of teal colored clothe and blinked in puzzlement.
Yuki had been wearing a teal colored long sleeved shirt when he had run into her.
Don't tell me that guy is bringing her ringside. Yusuke thought to himself as the demon slowly began to pass by him and the rest of his team, finally giving him a small looksee at what the person the demon seemed to be trying to shield from everyone.
It was indeed Yuki, Yusuke thought dismally as his dark eyes latched onto what he could see of her as the demon passed.
Yuki looked pale, and somewhat sickly to him. A far cry from the healthy looking young woman that he had met when he had first run into her. Or she into him.
Whatever.
The point was that she didn't look too good to him. Especially if the demon guy was more or less holding her up as they walked together.
The demon paused a moment to look around as one of his teammates, a kid about twelve years old if his appearance was anything to go by, ran up to the red haired demon walking with Yuki and took a moment to look between them for a second before running back to his friends and grabbing the bare arm of the tall, hulking guy with the blue Mohawk, and pointed at the red haired demon and the girl.
Curious about what the guy planned to do- Especially after some of the horror stories he had been told by Kurama and Hiei- Yusuke watched the exchange with great interest as the big guy walked over to the two and bent slightly at the waist and scooped the girl up in his arms.
Giving the red haired demon a chance to loosen himself up a tad bit and finally relax as the big guy carried Yuki over to where the rest of his friends were waiting and watched as the guy placed the girl carefully on a bench next to a small cooler that one of them had apparently dragged out with them.
The big guy remained in close proximity to the girl for several moment's longer than he should have, in Yusuke's opinion. His larger body blocking Yuki from Yusuke's view.
Annoying the ever loving hell out of the teen.
Then just like that, the guy left her and it was finally time for the first match to begin. Up first was Kuwabara and Rinku...whoever the hell that was.
Kuwabara climbed into the ring as the young kid- demon- climbed up and looked his schoolmate over for a second before pulling out a couple of yo-yo's and beginning to fiddle with them as the two started going back and forth. Talking smack.
Yusuke barely paid any attention to the two moron's since his eyes were still glued to Yuki who was still sitting on the bench across the ring from himself and his team.
She had a demon that looked like a cross between a human and a fish, sitting next to her. The guy's pale eyes alternating between watching the fight and Yuki with a slightly worried expression.
So that's how it is, Yusuke thought to himself as he watched the demon continue to alternate between what was going on in the ring and the girl. His mind overturning specific bits of information as he watched the two interact. Finally coming to one of two possible conclusion's as to why Yuki was with the demon's.
Either she was mated to one. Which wasn't entirely impossible since Koenma had informed him that such things did occasionally occur. Even though most didn't end well for the human.
And then there was the second possible reason for her being ringside. And that reason was that the demon's were her friends. Possibly even considered to be her family, depending on how close they were. And from the looks of things- they were close, very much so, however from what he was seeing- they weren't quite as close as a mated pair would be.
Especially since demon's reacted to being mated differently. Some almost reacting obsessively.
He wasn't seeing obsession. Though he was seeing a great deal of protectiveness and caution when each of the opposing team got near her. They were treating her like she was made of glass or something.
Easy to damage and to break.
To be perfectly honest he had only seen such reactions in men back home in human world, and usually it was only if their significant other was either ill or expecting. Murmuring something to himself under his breath, he watched as the guy with the mowhawk handed a small bottled drink to Yuki as well as what looked like...
Saltines?
The appearance of the crackers tugged at a long forgotten memory of his mother sitting at their old home's dining room table.
Her shoulder's had been hunched a bit as she nibbled at a saltine as he- four year old Yusuke- had slipped from his bed late one night to go and get a drink of water to help him sleep only to find his mother wide awake at three a.m.
Sitting at the table, nibbling on some crackers while she tried to calm her upset stomach.
She had been sick off and on for weeks now and was beginning to look like she was losing weight too. It was concerning to him, but he knew that if he attempted to try and speak to her about it she'd probably pop him one across the back of the head.
So instead he had merely peeked in at her to check on her before fetching his water and then returned and sat himself down at the table across from her. Causing her dark eyes to flicker to his small face as he settled himself as comfortably as he could on the hard floor and asked in him most grown up voice, "Ya got something to tell me?"
It had taken him half an hour of coaxing and prompting before the woman had finally muttered, "I'm pregnant..."
Yusuke hadn't replied to her words. He had been four for fucks sake, he knew nothing about girls and babies. So in his opinion checking in on his mom and making sure that she was alright while getting her to tell him what was wrong with her- had pretty much meant that he had lived up to his duty as her little man of the house.
At least until he had began asking others questions and doing his own sort of research on how to care for his mom and the baby.
But that was sort of a different story and had little to nothing to do with here and now.
Looking back across the ring at Yuki, he cocked his head to the side a little bit, only vaguely aware that Kuwabara was getting his ass handed to him by the little kid- something he would use to blackmail the bastard later, should he and his weird morals try to get in Yusuke's way- as he thought for a moment on how he could figure out what was up with Yuki before the answer hit him.
Duh, he practically said to himself as he took a moment to face palm.
The answer to his question was so simple that even someone as dumb as a chip should have been able to come up with an answer. Which mainly consisted of this- all living things had specific spirit energy signatures. And for the past few months before he had left to go train for the Dark Tournament with Genkai, he had been messing around with his and attempting to get a feel for certain signatures.
Sick people.
Dying people.
Even people who were pregnant, all had different energy signatures. All he had to do was focus for a minute or so uninterrupted and he'd know what was up with Yuki.
After all, if he was going to attempt some sort of relationship with her he wanted no weird or potentially nasty surprises popping up later on.
