Chapter Five

CHAPTER 5 BABY! YEAH!

"What do you mean is wasn't exactly your choice?" Kurama asked.

"Uh," came Yuki's ever so eloquent response.

Oh, well, I'm just visited by something in my dreams that brought me back to life for its entertainment that tells me what to do but only this one time, otherwise I'm free to basically do what I want, and it told me to meet up with four demons, who turned out to be Team Toguro, and I'm not insane I promise, PLEASE DON'T KILL ME.

Yeah. There was no way this couldn't end badly. At least for Yuki.

"It's complicated," he decided.

Kurama raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow but didn't comment.

"I'm confused," came Yusuke's voice.

Yuki looked over at him. Kurama followed suit.

"I thought you guys said that you met a demoness. Girl, right?"

The red-head nodded. "That's right."

"So then why is there a guy instead of a girl?"

Green eyes shifted back to Yuki.

"I'm a shapeshifter," Yuki sighed. "I can switch between genders."

"Wait, what?" this time it was Kuwabara.

With another deep sigh, Yuki concentrated. It wasn't long before he felt his chest begin to grow and protest the tight black shirt.

"Whoa," came two voices, one overlapping with the other.

"As you can see, it can be..." Yuki looked back at where she had been thrown out of the window. "Not the most useful."

"That's so cool, though!" Yusuke grinned. "I bet you get all sorts of free stuff!"

"What?"

"Heck, if I was a girl, I bet I'd get all sorts of good stuff! Can you change different parts?"

"Uh...no, it's kind of preset."

"Bummer. That would've been cool if you could change how big those things are."

Yuki had to suppress the urge to cover her chest.

"Since you've all had your fun with this, I think I'm going to leave early so I don't have to withstand any more of this nonsense," Hiei cut in, frowning.

It wasn't until just then that Yuki noticed his charred right arm.

"Is your arm ok?" she couldn't help but ask.

There wasn't an answer aside from a piercing glare. She held up her hands.

"Sorry."

As Hiei disappeared in a blur, Kurama cleared his throat.

"Your arms seem to be almost thoroughly healed," he commented.

Yuki looked down at her limbs. "Oh...yeah. Perks of being a demon I guess."

"Not all demons have that fast healing," came Kurama's reply.

"Oh."

I did not know that and I probably screwed myself over at least 5 times in this conversation.

"So...uh... who are you guys?" Yuki tried to turn the conversation away from her.

"I'm Yusuke Urameshi!" Yusuke grinned and struck a pose.

"I'm Kazuma Kuwabara," Kuwabara said, holding a hand out for Yuki.

Yuki took it and was helped to her feet.

"Kurama," the red-head gave a pleasant smile.

"And the little runt with a stick up his butt is Hiei," Yusuke finished.

"Yuki."

"Y'know, you don't seem much like a demon, Yuki-chan," Kuwabara commented.

"Just Yuki works. And Kurama over here doesn't seem like much of a human, either," she retorted.

There was a moment of silence and then a snort from Yusuke.

"Not much of a human, she says," he choked.

"What? Did I say something wrong?" Yuki could feel her chest tighten.

Yusuke placed a hand on her shoulder. "No, in fact, you were spot on."

A burst of laughter.

Yuki glanced over at Kurama. His smile had gone tight. When he noticed her gaze he quickly fixed it. It still seemed forced.

The masked fighter had been silently observing all this.

Yusuke and Kuwabara were pleasant enough to get along with. Kuwabara apparently had the notion that Yuki was being held captive by the Toguro brothers and swore to free her. Yusuke saw her more as an interesting fighter he couldn't wait to pummel into the ground. (Kuwabara scolded him for being violent against ladies to which Yuki attempted to mention that she was a shapeshifter and therefore didn't really have a set gender, but hey, what can you do?) Kurama was a different story. He made almost no action to talk to Yuki and contributed very little, if anything, to the conversations between her, Yusuke, and Kuwabara. The masked fighter was even less talkative.

Kuwabara offered to escort her back to the room, but Yuki managed to weasel her way out of the offer by saying that the window was broken and therefore the room was unusable. It wasn't like he wasn't a nice guy but... she wasn't interested. They had just turned a corner when the mood became tense.

"Yuki," Toguro's voice was deep and intimidating.

Yuki nodded at the tall and muscular man. "Toguro."

"Sakyo wishes to speak with you."

The white haired demon tilted her head. "Why?"

"He didn't say, but I wouldn't keep him waiting. He's back in the room."

Yuki nodded again. "Got it." She turned to the rest of Team Urameshi.

"See ya," she waved at them before heading down the hall and to the room where she had been thrown out the window just 50 minutes prior.

Sakyo was waiting in a soft cushioned chair when Yuki arrived.

"Hello, Yuki," he greeted.

Older Toguro stood off to one side of him.

"Toguro told me you two had a fight."

Yuki nodded. "Yes sir."

"And that you managed to injure him."

Another nod.

Sakyo slowly pushed himself out of the chair, walking towards Yuki.

"I applaud you. That's not an easy task to accomplish."

"Thank you, sir."

"You don't need to address me that formally," Sakyo smiled.

True, but I'm afraid of what you'll do if I somehow make you angry, so I'm playing it safe buster.

"You're our manager, sir."

The human with the scar over his eye seemed to frown just a fraction before continuing.

"In any case, I would like you to participate in the fight at least once. You have talent that needs to be showcased."

"Yes sir."

"Very good. I'll be watching your fight."

Yuki sighed and sank into the chair. Thankfully, Sakyo had moved them to another room. Another thing to be thankful about was the fact that none of Team Toguro seemed keen on staying the hotel room. That meant, for the most part, Yuki was alone. On the rare occasions that more than one person was in it was when Older Toguro "checked up on" Yuki. Needless to say, his "concern" wasn't appreciated.

Since tomorrow was going to be his first fight, Yuki spent the rest of the day concentrating on what he felt was the best. He hadn't really thought about a weapon to use, since sharpening and solidifying droplets of blood seemed to work fine. But since the skirmish with Older Toguro, he realized that they weren't effective on targets that had the capability to move faster than a woodland animal. The more drops there were, the higher the hit rate, but that also meant more blood loss and a higher chance of fainting. So it was better to expend a certain amount and use that throughout.

It hadn't been the first time he had attempted to make a usable weapon, but creating an actual weapon instead of just sharpening liquid took more effort and concentration. The bigger the weapon, the more concentration. The more details, the more concentration. So simple and small was the basic idea.

Unfortunately, Yuki wasn't the greatest with target practice, and he only had about 15 hours until the fight, so throwing items were out of the question. The more he thought about it, it seemed like his main choices were going to be two daggers or a full-fledged sword. The daggers weren't the easiest to use since they required the user to be in close proximity to be used properly and Yuki wasn't too keen on fighting close quarters. The sword took more blood but had a longer reach.

Sighing, he realized that his blood-manipulating ability wasn't the easiest thing to master. There was approximately 5.5 litres of blood in the human body and he could use maybe a litre or two before having some real problems. He didn't know how much demons could take and wasn't willing to find out. So deciding to play it on the safe side, Yuki decided to go with the sword. The sword took maybe a litre to form but with his regenerative ability that amount might take 5 minutes to recover.

Nodding to himself, he took out a piece of broken glass that he had snagged when he had been thrown out the window. Breathing in, he slashed at his arm and there was a quick exhale as he felt the sharp pain. The ruby red blood dripped down his forearm and he concentrated on willing it to form a vague sword shape.

He watched as it wiggled and came together to form the sharp edge, then what looked like a crude hilt, glittering like a ruby. Breathing out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, Yuki swung the sword gently. It was light. Looking around, he spotted a candle and placed it on one of the glass tables. With a swing, the candle was cut crudely in half. He inspected the sword and found that the edge wasn't smooth, but multi-faceted like a cut gemstone. Focusing again, he willed the edge to smooth out. It did eventually and with much difficulty. Grabbing another candle, he again swung. This time, the candle was cut cleanly in half.

He willed the blood to go back to liquid form and it obeyed, splattering onto the crème carpet and staining it. He then flexed his hand and willed it back into the sword shape. It obeyed, lifting from the carpet and forming the weapon so that it rested on the soft flooring. Yuki felt a surge of pride.

He had done it. He had created a sword. Now all he had to do was figure out how to keep it in that shape while fighting.

Hoo boy.

TWO CHAPTERS IN ONE DAY HOW'S THAT. And this chapter was mainly me talking about and describing Yuki's blood-manipulating ability. The only big drawback to the male form's ability is that to hold the shape, you have to constantly maintain the image in your head. Especially for something big and relatively complex like weapon. Just sharpening droplets is pretty easy once you've mastered it. So is anything else, but the requirements are a little more demanding.

The female form's biggest drawback will be discussed soon, but I don't want to talk about here, cause it might spoil something.

ANYWAYS

NEXT TIME: GLITTERING BLOOD RUBIES

DFTBA! :D