Meanwhile, back in the city, Yusuke is finally spending some quality time with Keiko, when a huge chunk of a building is blown up. He goes out to see what all the commotion is when a masked man comes up to him on a motorcycle... it's Toguro. It seems that after Yusuke and Kuwabara "defeated" the Toguro Bros, Sayko contacted them. They were working for him the whole time and had staged their defeat to allow Sayko to win all of Tarukane's money.
They let the girl go since she wasn't even part of the plan. Toguro, however, is intrigued by Yusuke's power and asks him if he will enter into the Dark Tournament, a tournament thrown by greedy human mafia bosses and demons every year, for an all-out bloodfest. Yusuke declines, but Toguro brings up the other part... if he doesn't join, Toguro will kill Yusuke and all of Yusuke's friends and family. He goes on to tell Yusuke that he was only fighting at 20% of his true strength when they battled before.
He demonstrates 60% of it by taking out an entire column of a parking garage.
On the way home, Nezuko was hiding underneath the bed just when she heard Yusuke came home mumbling about something. She crawls from under the bed and runs over to greet him with a side hug making him tense up a little as he pats the girl on the back gently.
"Hey Nezuko," He tiredly greeted.
Nezuko breaks out of the hug to look at him up and down to see how beaten and tired he looked. She was very concerned about what happened to him.
"Mmf?" She pointed at his chest as Yusuke sighed.
"You wanna know what I got myself into? I'll explain." Yusuke said.
As Nezuko sat beside Yusuke resting her head on his lap to listen to him explaining everything that happened to him in just one day. The Toguro brothers didn't die and now they were going to be involved in a Dark Tournament. Only five members of the team could enter the tournament and they would have to make their way to fight Toguro's team.
"Which means we've got a lot to prepare for in two months." Yusuke huffed as he pats her head laying his head back against the couch staring up at the ceiling. "If we're going to have this tournament I guess you wouldn't mind joining? Eh, Nezuko?" He glimpses down at her as she thought a moment and nodded.
Yusuke formed a small grin, "You want to fight against demons?"
"Mmm! Mmm!" She said as she sat up clenching her fists together forming a kawaii face. Yusuke chuckled at her enthusiasm before her expression changed into confusion.
"You don't know what tournament is, do you?" Yusuke sweatdropped.
"YUSUKE!" He heard his mother yell out his name as he turned to face an angry expression on her face. "You need to start doing chores around here, young man."
"What? I-I have been doing my chores!" Yusuke exclaimed.
"Well, I just saw Nezuko doing your laundry, cleaning your room, washing dishes, and even taking down the trash. Be more helpful around here, will ya?" His mother boomed her voice at his face as Nezuko stares deadpanned listening to them quarrel.
The next day, Kurama and Hiei waited for Yusuke at Genkai's temple. They were ordered by Koenma, though Hiei doubt the old hag could really assist him. "Hey guys," Yusuke waved, smiling as if they were close friends. Hiei swore, he does one little favor to help these humans, and they swear they were best friends. Yusuke walked towards them with that idiot Kuwabara trailing behind him.
"Listen," the detective began, "I'm really glad we're all on the same team. With us working together, nothing can beat us!" His enthusiasm was making me nauseous.
"Yes well that's all fine and dandy," Hiei said, sarcasm dripping in his voice, "but explain to me how this old hag is going to help us." Suddenly, he sensed something coming his way, he easily dodged it and turned to see where it had come from. Genkai's arm was outstretched towards him, getting ready to throw what seemed to be a large rock.
"Call me a hag again and I swear I won't miss," She threatened. Hiei couldn't help but smirk at her, she was tough. He liked that. "So, I hear you all have been chosen, or rather, forced, to participate in this year's Dark Tournament," she shook her head with disgust.
"Yeah well, listen, grandma," Yusuke began, "I figure that finding a fifth member for our team will be easier than I thought. They are willing to join us." The detective had a gleam of hope in his eyes, one the hag easily destroyed. "HA! You couldn't pay me enough to go through that again!"
"Again? The detective asked, but the old psychic completely ignored him. "Yes, I see you have, dimwit."
"So, who is our fifth member, anyway?" Kuwabara inquired quirk an eyebrow up.
Yusuke enters inside of the temple to remove the bag off his shoulder after setting down the other bag he carried over his shoulders. He opened the lid of the bag revealing Nezuko who was still asleep only in her child form though.
"I asked Nezuko last night if she wanted to be in the tournament. Of course, she didn't know what a tournament was and I explained it to her." Yusuke scratches his nose staring down at the sleeping demon who wasn't waking up to see or hear what was going on. "Nezuko is a good fighter. So I thought...why not? She agreed to join."
"That's going to be a problem. Nezuko doesn't like the sunlight because she's very sensitive to it," Kurama stated as he continues, "However, we might be able to train with her during the night. She comes out during the night and we'll have to take turns to train her."
"Right." Yusuke merely nodded.
"But does she have to sleep for so long?" Kuwabara asked.
"She needs it," Hiei said approaching over to her as he could hear her soft snores up close. "To regenerate in the time being after fighting or whenever."
"Then, it's settled for the rest of you. You have a team for this years' tournament. I wish you good luck." Genkai said.
About around the evening, Nezuko finally woke up from her slumber as she crawls out of her bag to change back to her normal size. She wore a white long sleeves shirt on the cover that said "Strength, Wisdom & Hope", blue shorts, and white shoes with red on the side. As Nezuko looked around to see that she wasn't at the apartment but when she heard someone was in the room with her she turned to see that it was only Genkai sitting by the television drinking green tea. The woman took a sip of her tea as she sensed Nezuko was wide awake not far from her as she faced around to greet the girl with a genuine smile.
"Good evening, Nezuko-Chan. You slept quite a long time and the day has passed by swiftly." Genkai said taking another sip of her tea. "You're at my temple while the others are out training for the Dark Tournament. If you want to go join them it's up to you since you'll be fighting as their fifth member." She flatly said as Nezuko peeked outside of the window to see that no one was there, but as the sun was setting as the night was approaching she headed out to go search for them.
Nezuko exits out of the temple as she wanders off into the bamboo forest keeping her eyes locked in front of the path. While she was walking Nezuko didn't notice that a dark figure was following her as she continued to walk ahead, but then some swung a bamboo from her, but clearly missed. The girl simply stepped aside quick to let the attacker revealed themselves in the moonlight as she stood there growling annoyed.
"Hn, I guess my stealth wasn't too quiet for you. Nice reflex." Said the person holding the bamboo in their hands was only Hiei. Nezuko grinned under her muzzle as she greeted him with a friendly wave as Hiei clicked his tongue.
"Mmf! Mmf!" Huffed Nezuko.
"The others had already done their training for today. Yusuke is resting at Genkai's temple along with Kurama and that idiot friend of yours." Hiei told the demon girl as she merely nodded. "It's just you and me out here. Since you've slept all day, we decided to take turns to train with you for each night during these two months."
"Mmm!" Said Nezuko.
Hiei sweatdropped, 'Clearly she thinks that this is all fun and games. However, she knows that we're going to be facing the consequences against Toguro throughout this tournament.' His eyes narrowed into the demon pink girl's eyes as she stood there patiently.
"I'll be training you tonight. I want you to give me everything you've got." Hiei says as he approached over to her a little close. "That means no holding back until we'll see how long you last until dawn." He said as Nezuko gave him a short nod. He merely gave her an exasperated sigh, which she knew meant he conceded. She gave him a huge smile and a small, handgrip through her kind heart.
The start of training with Hiei was absolute hell for poor Nezuko. She was tough on the inside and kind on the outside that she knew her motives of training were a lot different than fighting. Each night she would train with Yusuke, Kurama, and Hiei since Kuwabara back this one out after watching her battle against demons. Yusuke offered to take a few punches or swings, but he wasn't that fast against her when she was tough and strong too. Kurama often used his whip to see how long she can last through the cutting process, and while she continues to spar with him she'll heal faster than that he noted to himself. However, due to sleeping Nezuko would sleep a long time and wake up 5 or 7 days later after regenerating that her body wasn't quite used to all of this.
"Nezuko! Focus!" Hiei shouted. Her eyes were focused on him as she dodged every attack he was drawing at her, and he swung a kick as she did a strong kick in his gut. There was one thing Hiei wasn't completely near to Nezuko's level: incredible strength, speed, and including her movements. She had her own movements to spend a long time replaying those moves in her head against him.
She wasn't going easy on him unless he wanted her to. All Nezuko had to do was just keep her eyes focused on the enemy and then take them down in no sweat. To the fire demon's surprise, he was surprised that she doesn't complain about anything, she was patient and didn't intend to rush through it. Over time, Nezuko was already using her training methods with her fellow teammates helping her out. It was a struggle, but she gotten used to training with them and easily defeated all three with no problem. She had gotten along with Hiei who was growing a little soft towards the girl whenever she mocked him by his own words during training that made him complain a little. Naturally, Hiei was a bit surprised that she was willing to help him train for the first two months that whenever he brings up his vengeance against her and Yusuke she didn't seem to care. On some nights, he would ask her where she came from or how did she meet Yusuke since they were both like partners fighting for each other. She never told him anything, but she was kind and thoughtful in her own way of showing that she was listening to Hiei whenever he mentions stuff he discusses with her.
"You never been around the city at night, right?" Hiei asked.
"Mmm...Mmf..." Nezuko said as she shook her head.
Hiei was surprised that Nezuko didn't have a chance to patrol around the city around at night. He guessed that Yusuke or Kuwabara didn't know what to do if she were to stay out late and explore the city. He noticed that she wasn't used to her surroundings of weird things she comes across that she'd never seen before or ever heard of.
"If you like I can take you out. Not like a date or whatever you might think." The girl tilted her head to the side wondering why Hiei would think taking her out meant a date. She remembered that Zenitsu was trying to take her out though her brother wasn't pleased to hear about that.
"Mmm!" Her eyes lit up like she saw the biggest candy she had ever laid eyes on.
"We can do it tomorrow night. The sun is about to rise again. We better head back." Hiei told the girl as she followed him back to the temple quickly before the sun rises. On the way back, Nezuko retreats to her bag like before and falls asleep while Hiei took a seat sitting across from her.
"How was training?" Kurama inquired.
"The same as it always been." Muffled Hiei. His eyes stared at the sleeping girl in the bag. "She still is more stronger and motivated with her skills when we're in combat. Though her energy seems very powerful that only grows strong when she becomes a little timider." Hiei had been taking notes when he is in combat with Nezuko that sometimes she does get worried if she would overdo her limit too much against him to show her possessive side. He always told her to never let that emotion get in the way or she'll die when life flashes before her eyes.
"Interesting. I can tell she's been helping you and some of us too." Kurama faintly smiled.
"Yes. She has been doing that a lot." Hiei replied.
Nezuko would help them out even if she wasn't in the mood to train with them. She'll show them an easier way and to use their stance just by breathing in more to concentrate on their skills and more ways they could influence themselves.
"She's already sleeping again?" Yusuke asked.
"A long night she had to tucker herself out," Hiei replied.
Yusuke merely nodded, he turned his heel to leave out of the temple while Hiei leans his back against the wall to watch Nezuko for awhile. He soon fell asleep right after that and woke up later in the afternoon to start his training session again.
When night had finally approached Hiei comes back to the temple to see Nezuko was already awake as she sat on he knees beside her bag. He held back a grin knowing that deep inside of the demon girl she was very excited to go out and explore the city more with him.
"Wait, I need to get dress and-" He was cut off when Nezuko handed him fresh clean clothes that were folded and she smiled under her baboo muzzle. As Hiei silently thank her with a short nod to take a quick shower and change into the clothing that Nezuko had given him. When he came back she was still waiting patiently for him as she came over to hold his hand that was a warm touch he felt right through her.
"MMm! Mmh!" She says.
"Right. I'll show you the different location parts around the city." He said until he felt her tugging him trying to gesture him out of the door. He took her message and began to follow out of the temple to take her to the city like he promised and she was very excited. She needed to know where to go and the city was huge compared to her oddly fascinating world.