Chapter Eight

SO hey. I'm really sorry for disappearing BUT it was for a good reason. I went to the Phoenix Comic-Con and got to see TeamFourStar! For... only an ...hour... STILL AWESOME. I also got this damned adorable keychain charm of Hiei during the con. I gush over it. So much. I also got a DBZ wallscroll but that's another story. AAAAAND I'm in Seattle. Visiting relatives. Currently. As I write this.

ANYWAY! ONWARDS! (am I the only one who gets embarrassed with watching an episode for reference?)

"The final round of the Dark Tournament!" Juri yelled into the microphone.

The demoness raised a finger to the sky. "Round 1! Team Toguro's Contestant Karasu..!"

The tall black haired demon moved forward towards the ring.

"Versus Team Urameshi's...!" Juri gestured to the other side of the ring as Kurama stepped forward. "Contestant Kurama!"

Yuki began to hear the chanting of the crowd as the fighters entered the ring.

"The fiercely contested Dark Tournament has finally, finally entered its final round!" Koto's voice echoed throughout the stadium.

The small white-haired demon caught snippets of what the crowd was yelling out.

"Karasu! Don't you lose! Let him have it!"

"Kill that rotten Kurama!"

And such.

Soon the entire stadium was chanting a chilling mantra of, "Kill! Kill! Kill!"

"Everyone in the stadium is unanimously cheering for Contestant Karasu of Team Toguro!" Koto's voice echoed again.

It had been hard to locate exactly where she was, but soon Yuki had spotted her, gripping the microphone.

The demoness announcer was interrupted when there was a slightly familiar voice shouting at her.

Yuki watched with uncovered amazement as the girls cheered the group on, getting dirty looks from the demons around them. It seemed like there was an oni mixed in with the girls...?

"They're certainly gutsy," Yuki laughed under his breath.

I never would've had that much courage to stand up in a crowd of murderous demons and cheer for the underdogs...

Blue eyes flicked back to the stage where Yuki watched Kuwabara and Kurama exchange some words. They were talking about some sort of drink? But the conversation was over before Yuki could fully understand what they were talking about.

As the contestants approached each other on the stage, Juri began to lay some ground rules.

"Now then, I will go over the matters that require attention for these matches."

It wasn't long before she got some angry feedback from the audience to just start. And start it did.

"And now, the first match! Begin!"

The match began with Kurama producing some flower petals that swirled around him. It suited him, in a feminine sort of way.

After that, despite Yuki not knowing anything much about Karasu's power, it went down just as one might expect.

If they lose after all that bravado and protagonist talk, I am going to be quite annoyed.

The pressure Yoko Kurama exerted was astounding. Yuki would never have guessed something that powerful was hidden away in that red-head.

The beginning of the fight had been completely against Kurama, but now, it seemed as if the two fighters were on equal ground. Yoko produced something that he called the Ojigi weed of the Makai. He said it was aggressive, and attacked anything that moved on its own. A fearsome plant indeed.

Within seconds of being produced, the Ojigi weed went after Karasu. It opened one of its buds and revealed a teeth filled maw. Immediately, it dove after the black-haired demon.

Karasu began dodging the plant's attacks, only to find himself trapped when tendrils burst out from under the concrete. The Ojigi plant changed up its attack pattern when it began shooting what looked like red lightening bolts at Karasu. The demon threw another bomb at the plant, setting it aflame. The flame seemed to do the plant no harm, however, as it emerged from the fire and attacked Karasu once again.

The plant dove at Karasu and grabbed him with its leaves. Soon, the demon wasn't visible anymore, as the plant continued to cover him with leaves.

It was only when Karasu emerged from the plant that Yuki had an urge to run. Or at least use the other members of Team Toguro as some sort of a shield. Karasu seemed to be planning something dangerous.

His mask was gone. How that equated to dangerous, Yuki wasn't sure, but his instincts were sending warning sirens off in his head.

And then he went blonde. Like, Super Saiyan mode blonde.

Hello alien monkey race with a love for fighting. I didn't think you guys actually existed. Although it makes sense since this world revolves around killing. You wouldn't happen to have any multi-verse travelers would you, demon land?

The match ended with a win for Team Toguro. Karasu was dead, and Kurama was down for the count.

I am mildly disappointed. I'm sure they'll get a comeback in the next round though.

The crowd had gone pretty much ballistic, cheering for Team Toguro to kill Team Urameshi. Yuki, of course, didn't participate in either side.

Next up was Hiei versus Bui. The armored giant seemed to be overwhelming to Yuki, but Hiei didn't even seemed fazed by the demon's size. (As a side note, Yuki noticed that Hiei had bound up his beaten and bloody arm)

The match started and the fighters were at it. Like anyone might care to think, Bui was a slow but heavy hitter, waving around a gigantic axe thing (and taking parts of the arena floor in the process). Hiei, as Yuki had gathered (mostly in fear of having to fight him) was fast. Very fast. He blurred across the ring, dodging all of Bui's attacks. After a while, he covered his left hand in flame and started punching at the incoming arena tiles.

Hiei punched at a tile, and it shattered, revealing Bui slicing downwards with his axe. Hiei punched the axe blade, and the weapon broke, the blade flying off into the arena stands. Bui conjured up another axe, which seemed to annoy the fire demon.

The armored demon threw the new axe and Hiei caught it, vaporizing it in a blast of heat that even Yuki felt.

These guys are ridiculous!

Hiei and Bui exchanged some words, and Bui began to take off his armor.

"This is something even you haven't seen before, isn't that right, little Yuki," Older Toguro laughed. "What the demon under the armor looks like."

"I probably would've been fine not knowing, thank you," Yuki muttered.

Bui without armor, to say the least, was not what Yuki had been expecting. The little demon wasn't quite sure what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn't a blue-haired non-horned man. With a scar on his forehead. He seemed like the kind of guy who would be a mentor to a protagonist or something. Not an armor wearing demon.

Yuki was also not expecting to be pushed back by the sheer force of Bui's glowing green power.

Yep. Would've been just fine not knowing.

Then the real fight began. Bui and Hiei were off sending energy attacks at one another, with Bui seeming to have the upper hand.

Yuki dug his nails into his palm, and drew blood.

If shorty loses then I'm on my own for getting away from these guys.

"What are you thinking about, Yuki?" Older Toguro's voice made Yuki spin around.

"Nothing you would interested in," he replied carefully.

"Oh? Anything that makes you injure yourself is interesting to me, little Yuki," the demon grinned.

There was the sound of more energy blasts going off into the arena.

"I was just thinking about how I want to fight," the white-haired demon fibbed.

Older Toguro narrowed his eyes and the smile dropped. "It's not nice of you to lie, little Yuki."

Yuki could feel long, cold fingers wrap around his wrist. There was the feeling of something cold yet hot crawling up his back from the fight.

"You'd best think twice about not listening to me, this time, little Yuki," Older Toguro warned when Yuki tried to pull his hand out of the tight grip. "That Hiei is going to use the Black Dragon Flame to fight Bui. If you, who has no experience in fighting, gets hit by it, then you'll almost certainly die."

"Why do you care?" Yuki asked, relaxing his arm a bit.

"Because you're my toy. I don't want you to break because I was neglectful," the demon pushed a stray strand of white hair out of Yuki's face tenderly.

Older Toguro hissed and withdrew his hand from Yuki's wrist. He glared at the bloody appendage.

"I am no one's toy," Yuki glared at the demon, sky blue eyes scarily blank. "I can take care of myself."

The white-haired demon willed his blood to crawl back up his arm and disappear underneath a black sleeve where it created a winding ruby armlet that connected to a cut right below Yuki's neck.

It wasn't until the sky had turned dark and black lightening flashed did Yuki finally turn back around to the fight and pale.

Crap baskets.

So since July is a busy time for me (summer school blech) I won't be uploading a lot. This is probably going to be the only chapter that I upload this month. Sorry!

(I live off of revieeeeews... tell me what you think of this stoooooory...)

NEXT TIME: ON THE RUN