Hiei looked incredibly flustered, but he had walked into this one himself. Kurama just looked smug as hell, the traitor.
They were having a proper date, the day before the final match. It had been Alyssa's idea, since she was on a solo date with Jade for the morning and afternoon, and would take Floyd on a date once this was over.
She had realized that she hadn't really taken either of her lovers on a proper date, just the two of them. And she wanted to rectify that. Kurama, inspired by the idea had decided to test the waters with Hiei to see if they could have a real relationship as well.
Hiei's blush was so adorable that it had Kurama cooing at him. Yukina was all for it, because she adored Alyssa and hopeful for more niblings to spoil later.
Hiei sipped his strawberry shake sullenly, as he was ridiculously shy outside of combat. It didn't help that he rather liked Kurama, and this was the first time he had done anything romantic.
Unnoticed nearby, Yukina was acting as their silent guard to keep anyone from interrupting their date unless things looked like it needed spicing up. She knew both boys rather enjoyed fighting after all.
Seeing one particularly dense group of demons spot the two and clearly intent on interrupting them, Yukina had a dark smile that wouldn't have looked out of place on her brother.
One long, painful less to the demons later...
"Now boys, you aren't planning to interrupt my brother's date anymore, are you?" she said smiling...while behind her was an image of a terrifying mask. The demons were all but pissing themselves in fear of her.
Nearby...
Hiei was so damn proud and was beyond pleased with this new aspect of his sister. He had done his best to protect her from afar, but maybe this was a chance to bond with her over how to handle herself without his aid?
Kurama for the most part enjoyed the show, and made a note to teach Yukina which plants would inflict maximum humiliation with very little knowledge.
He found their date even more enjoyable discussing with Hiei on the little tricks they could teach both the girls on how to defend themselves. Who knew the best way to progress their fledgling relationship was the doom of others?
Alyssa was looking at the mushroom in Jade's hand fascinated.
"So ingesting this would give someone uncontrolled diarrhea for three hours?" she said.
"Quite the effect for something so unassuming looking, wouldn't you agree?" said Jade smiling.
He had been surprised when Alyssa suggested a date night, just the two of them. He had been pleasantly pleased when she explained that she planned to take both twins on a solo date, to get to know them better. It wasn't a real relationship unless they did things other than just sex.
She didn't realize it, but by treating them as individuals and not just an extension of each other, she made them fall for her even harder.
So Jade lead her deeper into the less populated areas, armed with a basket. It had several foods that he had...acquired...with help from Che'nya. After all, the feline was well aware of Alyssa's favorites. While he was unhappy that they had taken her virginity, he was also aware it was for her benefit and that they had waited for her to okay with it.
For the most part, the two had a rather enjoyable time. Jade was very knowledgeable about mushrooms, and Alyssa was openly fascinated by that knowledge. Especially considering they had discovered quite by accident that her plant powers also extended to fungi.
Of course Jade didn't hesitate to take advantage of the fact they were all alone in an area they were unlikely to be disturbed. In between looking at all the fascinating mushrooms on the island, of course.
In the hotel room...
Alyssa was sore, but satisfied and Jade was just plain smug.
"Hey Alyssa-hime, what exactly are you going to ask for once this mess is over with?" asked Cater.
"The island," she said simply.
That caused dead silence in the room.
"You're going to ask...for the island?" said Cater in disbelief.
"The prize is anything we want. Toguro, for example asked to be turned into a demon, and look how that turned out. And there's no telling if there will be any money out of this mess considering how often Che'nya has been robbing everyone. So I'm going to ask for the deed to the island itself...and then rent it out to Azul to play around with, for a percentage of course."
Jade's grin was broad, as he was already considering the implications of giving Azul of all people an entire island to play around with.
Cater was staring at her in shock, mostly trying to wrap his head around Alyssa having an entire ISLAND in her name.
"What sort of percentage, and what plans would you have in mind?" asked Jade seriously.
"Well for starters he could open up a second branch here on the island. Since it's so remote, I bet a ton of lower level youkai would love to try it out, plus it would give them a source of income. And there's that black market they have set up...he could regulate it and make it more efficient at earning money, not to mention the hotel itself. Plus we could rent out the stadiums for even more tournaments, which would generate even more income...for a much more reasonable fee. Or have two separate tournaments to gouge the rich out of money with an exclusive arena just for them," said Alyssa.
Jade's grin was wide now, as was Floyd.
Alyssa wasn't finished though.
"Plus there's the fact there's really no place for people to battle with wide scale magic without getting arrested for it. Or being so heavily regulated it's not really fun for anyone. This island is so out of the way that the authorities won't really interfere, especially if we make all participants...and the audience...sign a waiver to insure everyone knows it's an at-your-own-risk type of deal."
Jade was already on the phone with Azul, as that pretty much clinched the deal in his mind. There was no way Azul wouldn't jump on this opportunity.
"Question...how are you planning to fund all this?" asked Che'nya.
"Kalim," said Alyssa. "Among others."
This was above his paygrade. Cater pulled out a laptop and connected it to the school.
"Do you have any idea what time it is?" said Azul grumpily.
"When you hear Alyssa's proposal you're going to be glad we called," said Jade.
"What sort of proposal?" said Azul, pushing up his glasses.
Cater sat back with Floyd and Che'nya with some snacks while Alyssa, Jade and Azul began chatting. Once the implications hit about what Alyssa was going to ask for and would later rent out to Azul, the octopus mermaid became very awake and interested.
"Is anyone else feeling like there's another unholy alliance growing in front of us, or is it just me?" said Cater.
"It's not you," said Che'nya.
Floyd just cackled.
"Of course all this is contingent on us surviving this mess," said Cater sighing.
"Considering how things are going, I suspect Toguro is going to deliberately push Yusuke to the utmost limit. From what little information I was given, Toguro wants Yusuke to kill him, since he's Genkai's only apprentice," said Alyssa.
"So we're dealing with a suicidal asshole?" said Cater.
Alyssa nodded.
"All this because he was tired of living and saw an opportunity...talk about ridiculous!" said Cater.
"Now we just have to survive until the final fight, and deal with the aftermath," said Alyssa.
Cater was not so quietly cussing as he scrambled to lead people out of the crumbling arena. Alyssa's guess had been spot on. Toguro really wanted Yusuke to end him, to the point he faked killing Yusuke's childhood friend to motivate him. While seeing that weird doll of his turn into a phoenix was pretty cool, dealing with the substitute blowing the arena up because they lost was not. Seriously, what had that rich asshole been thinking?
With his unique magic, he was able to find and direct people outside the crumbling arena.
The demons, despite looking terrifying on the outside, were running around like headless chickens and very few questioned his directions since he was at least trying to maintain a calm facade.
Once his main body was out, along with the girls, Cater let out a sigh of relief. It wouldn't matter if his clones died in the rubble, but at least he knew their group was safe.
"That was fun!" laughed Floyd.
"Indeed, the matches were most thrilling," said Jade smirking.
"At least this Sakyo guy didn't destroy the entire island. That would have wrecked all the plans you guys had, right?"
"Indeed. However I took the liberty to insure Alyssa-hime's plans were safe. I've already acquired the deed to the island in question," said Jade.
"Eh?" said Cater.
"Shehehehe... That was fun, their security totally sucked and that Sakyo did half the work for me!" laughed Che'nya appearing out of nowhere.
"So you were off robbing the rich people while Alyssa was fighting? I thought you were taking a bit longer than normal," said Cater.
Seeing Alyssa, Cater relaxed a bit. She looked tired, so he happily scooped her up and let her rest around his neck.
"You were busy," said Kurama.
"That was an utter mess. It's a good thing I was able to use my clones, because it was a pain finding the safe escape routes," said Cater.
Kurama nodded, before looking to Che'nya.
"What was your haul this time?"
Che'nya smirked, before pulling out...a massive folder? Inside were several important looking papers, and upon closer inspection it revealed itself to be deeds.
Kurama stared.
"Why deeds?"
"Sakyo apparently had all his...friends...killed before the final match. Naturally that meant all their holdings went to him as the final member of his little club," said Jade. "The real hassle was finding where the safe was, and dealing with the guards."
"Their lock sucked, and didn't stand even half a second against my magic," said Che'nya dismissively. A simple unlocking spell did most of the work.
Yusuke looked tired and drained. Emotionally and spiritually.
"So what does that mean for us?" said Yusuke.
"Means once we sort out what holding goes where, you and your team are about to be very, very rich...after we get our cut of course," said Jade smirking.
"I'm sure Azul will be thrilled with his new acquisitions, in exchange for our future partnership," said Alyssa from Cater's neck. "After all, he's the best person to dump any restaurants on."
Azul was thrilled, as was Idia. There were a few high-ranked tech companies, including those belonging to the Olympus Corporation in the lot. There was even an obscure gaming company in the mix.
This was going to be a mess to sort out, she could tell.
Back in Night Raven...
Kalim had a surprisingly serious look on his face when he saw five of the deeds they had sorted out of the mix. The reason behind it was fairly simple...all five deeds were for holdings in the Al Asim family, or under their direct name. It certainly explained why his uncle had tickets to the tournament.
"What are you offering in return for these?" asked Jamil.
"A partnership, or at least a collaboration," said Alyssa.
Kalim looked slightly confused.
"What do you mean?"
"I now have the deed to the island where the tournament was held on. I see no reason not to continue it, and every reason to expand on what could be a very lucrative deal for multiple parties," said Alyssa. Beside her, Azul was politely listening in since she planned to make him a full partner in the deal.
Kalim looked interested, which made sense since he was a merchant's son...reckless spending habits aside.
"Let's be honest, the island is the perfect waypoint for any number of shall we say, less than legal, business opportunities. We're already planning to expand on the tournament itself, and possibly add one for mages as well."
"A second tournament?" said Jamil, looking intrigued.
"Let's face it, there's hardly any place where mages can let out their combat skills and show off their more destructive magics without being either heavily restricted or arrested for it later," said Alyssa, eyes gleaming. "However this island is outside the normal area of interference from most magical law enforcement. That makes it a perfect place to have a no-hold's barred arena for mages who really want to test their skills. All we need is a contract...which Azul could easily provide and enforce...and no one would be able to complain about any fatalities or injuries."
"That does sound somewhat appealing, but not very profitable," said Kalim.
"Normally I'd agree...however you're not factoring in how popular these sort of fights can be if you sell it right."
Azul had approached Idia on the matter, and he was fine with helping with the tech side of things to stream the fights and any recordings. Alyssa had promised him his own section of the island where he could be kept far, far away from people and was able to ship in anything he wanted from the port with minimal interaction. So long as he could provide tech support, he was free to do as he wished. Including holing up in his lab for weeks on end, with the occasional food run.
"Shall we talk business?" said Alyssa with a smile. It was a good thing Jamil had provided snacks and food. This was going to be a long, boring meeting.