Chapter Three

I've been watching ProJared's playthrough of Asagao Academy and that game is hilarious. But the music and art is really good. So good I've been listening to the theme song for a while now (even as I write this chapter).

The month and a half went by rather quickly. With something to do and focus on, the days went by fast. Especially fast when Yuki was concentrating hard on something. The first thing to focus on was attempting to get a grasp on their powers. Unsurprisingly, Yuki had more practice with controlling his own blood rather than controlling something else's blood. Not to mention, whenever she used it on the various wildlife, the end result wasn't exactly... clean.

During the month and a half, Yuki's hair had grown out and now reached his shoulders. Not really wanting to cut it, he tied it up in a loose ponytail with a hair tie he had bought a while back. He still had leftover money.

At the end of the month and a half, the static voice visited Yuki again.

"So? How goes your training?" it asked.

"I thought that you could see me," Melanie replied with a raise of her eyebrow.

"True. But I want to hear your thoughts on it."

"It was... annoying. But I think I got the hang of it. The only thing I have trouble with is the controlling other people's blood."

"Oh... yeeeah... I saw that. Honestly didn't expect it to be that gory," the voice seemed apologetic.

"Actually, I have a question," Melanie interrupted before the voice could continue. "Why is it that I have my old body whenever we talk?"

"Because I'm talking directly to your soul. Your soul is used to your old body as a shell rather than the new one I gave you so to feel more at home, it projects an image of your old body. Get it?"

"Yeah, that makes sense. So? Head South and get on a boat with four other demons was it? To Hanging Neck Island?"

"You remember that quite well despite the fact that it's been a month and a half."

"Yeah, well, being alone will do that to you I guess," Melanie shrugged. "Time alone with your thoughts and all that."

"You got it right, in any case. Head South towards a harbor and you'll meet up with a group of four demons. Do whatever it takes to join them. They'll handle the rest for you. And like I said, once you get there, do what you want. You just-"

"Have to stay there for the entire tournament, got it."

"Yup. So see you later!"

Yuki woke again with a start.

"Why does that constantly happen?" he wondered.

Shaking his head and grabbing his black backpack (which he had bought a week after buying the clothes so that he had somewhere to store them), he jumped up onto a tree branch and continued jumping up until his head burst through the leaves.

"Ok. I know which way North is, so South should be in the opposite direction. I'm getting good at knowing my cardinal directions."

With a loud bark of a laugh, Yuki headed South.

Yuki felt the four demons before he saw them. And with felt, it was more like an oppressing pressure pushing down on his body that got worse as he ventured closer.

He was even sweating by the time he saw them.

"It seems we have a visitor," one of the demons said. This one was dressed in wicked looking armor from head to toe, his skin not even visible except for parts of his hands and chin.

"So it seems," another demon replied. This one looked so much like a human, Yuki wasn't sure he was looking at a demon or not. He was tall (easily passing 9 feet) with a mullet (Yuki inwardly laughed at that) and dressed in casual formal. Another man, this one with long wavy hair and a deranged look sat on his shoulders. The demon farthest from Yuki had long black hair and covered the bottom half of his face with a mask.

"Shall I go after them?" the wavy haired man asked the mullet man.

"No. They do not seem to harbor any intent to fight," mullet man replied.

GO MULLETS, Yuki screamed in his mind. He did NOT want to go up against the wavy haired demon.

Before anyone could make any other comments about killing him, Yuki quickly stepped into view.

"Er," he started, but stopped. How was he supposed to join them? Did he just ask politely and hope for the best? "You four wouldn't happen to be entering the tournament on Hanging Neck Island, would you?"

"And what does it matter to you?" the wavy haired man hissed, grinning in delight when Yuki took a step back.

"I-uh-um-I was planning on entering and uh-" Yuki was stuttering. He was scared. He didn't like these people. They seemed evil. Like serial killer and sadistic torturer evil.

"You don't have anyone else to enter with?" Mullet man asked.

Yuki nodded, thankful for the help. If it was that.

"And you think you can join us?" Mullet man's parasite hissed again.

"I-uh-"

"The Dark Tournament does require 5 members," the long haired man commented. "We can use him to fill up the spot. Not like we'll need him. If he's useless, we can just kill him."

Yuki felt a violent shiver go down his spine, but managed to repress the urge to run.

"He's at least a lower B-class," the armor wearing demon grunted.

The white haired demon was sure that if his hair wasn't already white, it would've turned white when four pairs of eyes rested on him.

"What kind of demon are you?" Mullet man asked.

Yuki didn't know how to answer. He wasn't sure what kind of demon he was. Just as he was about to say, "I don't know," a voice in the back of his mind hissed, "Shapeshifter."

"Shapeshifter," Yuki automatically replied.

"A shapeshifter, eh?" wavy haired man grinned. "What can you do?"

"S-Switch g-genders," the small demon squeaked out.

"Really?"

The grin got wider and the man's eyes glinted like he had just found a new toy.

"What else?" Mullet man interrupted.

"I-I-blood- I can c-control my b-blood," Yuki stuttered.

At that, Mullet man's eyebrows raised.

Well, the good news was that Yuki had joined the team. The bad news was that he wanted to run away. Far away. It took all of his concentration to not abandon all and run for the hills.

The group boarded a large boat with many other demons. Yuki had learned the Mullet man was named Toguro and so was the wavy haired man that sat on his shoulder. Brothers they said. Armor man was Bui and the tall ninja was Karasu.

Out of the four of them, Karasu and wavy haired Toguro gave Yuki the creeps the most. Mullet man, Younger Toguro, seemed the least creepy, but since Older Toguro was always next to him, that left Yuki with a feeling of dread in his stomach. Even so, he stayed close to the Toguro brothers.

"Hey," Older Toguro's voice made Yuki practically jump out of skin.

"Y-Yes?" he asked.

"You said you were a shapeshifter. And that you can switch genders. Show me what you look like as a girl."

Feeling it wasn't wise to disobey, Yuki did as he was told, feeling breasts start to form and protest against the shirt.

"Like a fragile little doll," Older Toguro cooed, a menacing smile contrasting his voice. "A doll that you can't help but feel like you want to break."

Yuki shivered but stayed in female form, not willing to risk safety over dignity.

"Brother." Older Toguro looked over at his sibling. "The preliminaries are about to start."

"Preliminaries?" Yuki couldn't help but ask.

Younger Toguro looked down at the small demon. "The preliminaries are held on the boats to the island. There the real fights are held."

"Oh."

"You're just a roster filler, so you can just stand somewhere off to the side," Older Toguro sneered. "Unless you want someone to protect you." A lick of the lips. "For a price."

Yuki took a step back and shook her head. "I-I can defend myself, thank you."

Defending was indeed what she did. As soon as the captain's voice blared over the loudspeaker, it was a free-for-all. Blood and limbs were flying left and right, making Yuki feel somewhat ill.

"Are you all right?" Younger Toguro asked at one point, not really sounding concerned.

"Yeah. Just fine," Yuki swallowed some bile.

A bright red demon with curved horns came charging at Yuki and she leapt up into the air, dodging the rush. The demon promptly tripped and fell over the side and into the salty ocean.

When all was said and done, Team Toguro were the only ones left standing on the boat. Every single one of the other passengers had been killed. Some looked like they had even been tortured.

"Well, then, ladies, we're here at Hanging Neck Island. Home to the Dark Tournament," the captain's voice blared, seemingly unfazed by the carnage that just took place on his boat.

The first thing that Team Toguro did after arriving on the island was meet up with a man with long black hair and a scar over his right eye. He seemed pleasant enough when he introduced himself to Yuki with a small casual smile.

"My name is Sakyo. A pleasure to meet you, Yuki-san."

Yuki nodded, silent from all the gore on the boat.

Then she was left to her own devices when the four demons and human said that they had something important to discuss.

She wandered around the island and admired the various plant life that grew there. She was still on the harbor when another boat pulled into view and another team walked off.

A demon and 4 humans, was what their energy told her. How, she wasn't overly certain.

The demon was short, but still taller than her, with black spiky hair and a burst of white in the middle. His forehead was covered with a thin headband. Yuki was startled when he abruptly looked over at her with gleaming red eyes.

"What's wrong, Hiei?" one of the humans asked.

This human was taller, with long red hair and leafy green eyes. Had Yuki not known any better, she might've mistaken him for a woman.

The other three humans, one carrying the other (who seemed to be passed out), looked at the demon.

"That demon smells like Toguro," the black haired demon with striking red eyes growled.

The red haired human looked over at Yuki. "Her?"

"Hiei" nodded.

"She's a demon?" the human carrying the other human asked. He had bright orange hair he wore in a pompadour.

"That's what I just said, idiot," Hiei ground out, shooting him a venomous glare.

Orange looked over at Yuki as well. "But she looks so innocent. Like Yukina. She even kinda looks like her."

"That doesn't necessarily mean she isn't one, Kuwabara," Red-head frowned at Yuki.

"But even if she smells like Toguro, it doesn't mean she's with them," Kuwabara protested.

"Then we should just ask, shouldn't we?" Red-head smiled as he took a step towards Yuki.

Yuki took a step back for every step Red-head took forward. However feminine he may be, she didn't like how he felt. Dangerous, was what her instincts told her.

When Red-head realized his approach wasn't working, he stopped. When he stopped, so did Yuki. She wanted to get away, but she was curious. How did they know Toguro?

"Hello," Red-head called out pleasantly enough.

Yuki gave just the barest of nods.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question or two?"

A shake.

Red-head smiled. "Well then. What team are you in?"

Yikes. Dive right in, why don'tcha.

"Team?" Yuki asked, her voice sounding strange. It always had a tendency to go up in pitch in her female form. Even more so when she was unsure or scared.

"Yes. Are you part of a team?"

"I... yes, but I don't know their names," she replied. It was a half truth.

"Can you describe them?"

"Um. Tall? Creepy? Frightening?" That definitely was true.

"Did they have any other distinguishing features?" Red-head seemed like he was getting tired. For his credit, he kept smiling.

"The tallest one had a mullet and sunglasses, one was really creepy and was always wrapped around his shoulders-"

"THAT'S THEM!" Kuwabara yelled. "SHE'S REALLY WITH THEM!"

Uh oh. That accusation sounded really bad. Yuki noticed "Hiei" begin to draw his sword and she backed up quickly. Even Red-head seemed to get more menacing.

Without another word, she jumped backwards and into the nearby forest. She desperately hoped no one would follow her. Her hopes were not heard unfortunately, when she felt something nick her leg and she came to crashing stop.

Yuki gripped her leg and pulled up her pants to check the damage. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. Drops of blood dripped down her leg and onto the forest floor. A big gash had been opened up right underneath her knee.

It wasn't long before she felt cold steel press against her neck and she looked up. The demon was holding his sword to her neck and looked positively ready to murder something. Red-head soon came into view, quickly followed by the last human on the team. They were short and had wrapped their face up so that only the eyes could be seen.

"What do you know of Toguro?" Red-head asked, a frown on his lips.

Yuki swallowed and felt the steel press more firmly against her neck.

"Sorry," she muttered, before willing their blood to heat up and bounce about.

The steel faltered just enough so she could scramble to her feet and take off running again. This time, no one followed her.

BADA BING BADA BOOM THERE YA GO! The Yu Yu Hakusho guys have all showed up! I actually had an alternate chapter with Yuki going with a completely made up group but then I figured that it might make more sense (and more plot) to have them with Team Toguro! It really helped that they had 4 members to begin with so it doesn't change too much up, thank god. I think that was why my brain unconsciously pushed me in that direction. If anybody wants to read the alternate chapter, I can put it up as a deleted scenes kind of thing. Also, this is a really long chapter for me. Yikes. I just had so much to write. And yeah. Younger Toguro is Mullet Man to me. He always has been. ANYWAY!

NEXT TIME: THE FIRST FIGHT

DFTBA! :D