"Speaking"

Thoughts

Mental conversation

Though Kurama had the full intention of observing the other teams during their matches since his own team had some sown time at the moment; the fox couldn't help but be just a tad bit more curious about Hiei at the moment. Rei had immediately gone to the other demon's side and and started tending to his crippled arm as soon as she'd gotten the chance, this only confirming that she was indeed not a normal cat. Both of them had vanished from the hotel the moment the sun had risen.

while the fact that there is another human team here aside from us will require some looking into, figuring out what Hiei is up to sounds like more fun. He decided his curious nature getting the best of him.

Everyone was outraged at the underhanded tactics of the higher ups. They would be fighting two matches pretty much back to back come the morning their first fight being the other human team led by Dr. Ichigaki.

They were not looking forward to tomorrow, Kuwabara even having nightmares about their upcoming fight.

Hiei had been training, Having Rei work on his hand for a bit in between training intervals. He completely disregarded everything that she was telling him about slowing down and giving his arm a chance to recover before he did any permanent damage. Hiei had even scoffed at the warnings Kurama had given to him when the fox had managed to find them.

The conversation between the two males had been interrupted however when two members of Dr. Ichigaki's team came to hinder them.

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"Leave Rei..." Hiei commanded watching as she quickly climbed up the nearest tree. He knew she wouldn't stray too far, and he knew she would make another poor attempt at scolding him again once this was taken care of.

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Quickly he and Kurama cut down the first of the two since he'd been foolish enough to charge at them head on as though he honestly thought that he could take on one of them let alone both.

"And that was using my left arm Kurama." Hiei said proving the fox's earlier statement wrong.
"I'm sorry I used my right, next time I'll use my left to make it fair. Kurama stated.

Both demons were then confronted by the doctors robot since the remaining was too much of a coward to face them as his partner had done.

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Unnoticed by Hiei and Kurama who were both busy dodging the ever expanding arms of the seemingly indestructible robot, she was knocked off her perch by an arm hitting her head on a tree and landing in an unconscious heap on the ground.

Kurama had been aware of what happened to Rei, he never missed a detail when it came to anything. He also needed to keep the now pinned Hiei from doing something else risky...or rather making things worse by doing what had crippled him in the first place again. The fox quickly formulated a plan and went with it.

Dashing towards the unconscious cat that Hiei had just noticed, Kurama managed to free the other demon and completely draw the robots attention to himself.

He would need to time this just right...

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"Kurama!" Hiei called outwardly, Rei!He called through the link.

He received no response from either of them.

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The dust cleared revealing Kurama in one hand was his whip that had managed to to tangle within the robot and kill it. Draped over his other arm was Rei, she was still unconscious but she was no longer in her cat form.

It must happen whenever she is no longer awake to control her transformation. Hiei though more concerned with the fact that she could be hurt rather than the fact that she had blown her cover in front of the fox of all people.

It appears that she hit her head when the tree she was in was destroyed.Kurama told Hiei. Out loud Kurama was explaining the robot's flaws to a very shocked and now rightfully frightened demon.

I'm going to enjoy this. Hiei thought as he stalked towards their only remaining opponent leaving Rei in Kurama's care, he had some information to torture out of the demon cowering before him.

For Kurama everything was clicking into place. Rei was quite obviously a demon, and since she was wearing the pink sundress and white sandals that he'd helped Hiei pick out and the collar, it was obvious she was the girl they'd been shopping for that day.

what didn't make sense was how she could've possibly met Hiei, and why he was keeping her. Demon's of Rei's species were kept and bred to be sold as nothing more than slaves and servants to higher demons. The two didn't appear to have that kind of relationship...at least not yet, and he would have smelled it if they did.

Kurama sat atop the robot with Rei in his arms watching as Hiei beat and tortured the needed information out of the terrified and fully cooperating demon. He was paying close attention to them while waiting for Rei to wake up.

I'll save my inquiries of the two for the next time we get a break, but I will be telling the others about this. Hiei should not feel the need to hide his girlfriend from us. Kurama thought though he was really doing this to get back at his best friend for hiding stuff from him.

Rei knew that Kurama was going to lay into she and Hiei once they had dealt with all of their matches for the day and were recovering.

She'd awoken to them carrying a human male, and transformed back to her cat form just in time for them to crash the match at the stadium dropping from the sky with the rest of the doctor's team . Yusuke, Kuwabara, and the masked fighter looked as though they were having a hard time.

Rei like everyone else had been appalled to hear what the doctor had done to the humans and their master, but she'd seen and heard worse living with her previous master and his subordinates.

She was still however freaking out about what was to come, Hiei had wanted to keep her a secret from his team, and it wasn't helping that he wasn't talking to her at the moment. I have until after this next match to get myself and my thoughts under control. She told herself.

All of her attempts at calming down was deemed worthless though. Hiei and the masked fighter were about to be forced to receive medical attention, and she did not care for her Hiei going anywhere near that hussy of a nurse.

Seriously! The hell is all of this sudden possessiveness coming from? She demanded from no one in particular.

Great now she was agitated all over again.

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Rei wasn't surprised to find out that the hussy nurse was really just another one of the committee's tricks, and she was doing her part by making the woman uncomfortable by watching her intensely (that creepy way cats do when it looks like their about to attack and kill something). The masked fighter was telling her how futile it was for her to be aiding the committee since there was no way she was going to be able to keep them trapped for very long. She was not going to accomplish what her bosses were hoping.

Rei didn't need to have their link open or Hiei talking to her to know that Kurama's fight and how things were turning out with the ninjas was far beyond pissing him off. Hiei was suffering from fight withdrawal, and he would love to go out there and show them what happened when you pissed him off, and did such disgraceful things to someone he actually considered a friend.

He'll be free soon. She thought in delight switching her focus to weather or not she would be able to help Kurama with his current injuries.

AN: I decided to put up two chapters since it only took me like twenty minutes to rewatch the next few episodes, write, and edit the entire thing. As always for this particular fic the chapters are long and contain quit a few episodes and recently as of the last chapter dialogue from the show to add a bit more reality to the whole thing. If you're a fan of the show and would like for m to continue the fic. beyond the tournament and into the next bit of the saga please let me know as I have still yet to decide just how far I am willing to take the whole thing at this point. R&R.

I own nothing but Rei and the additions to the original plot.