Chapter Two: Battling Rando
It was dark inside, but they could hear voices in the distance. Kainna eyes took a second to adjust before she could see figures in the darkness and sense humans in that direction.
She watched as Yusuke's classmate and friend, Kuwabara, walked forward to his match. Botan had filled her in with who he was with loud whispers as the he fought in front of them. She was very surprised when he had won the match by producing a sword with his aura; a human at that. Maybe she had been underestimating them all this time.
Yusuke's fight was next. Kainna watched intently, she wanted to know exactly how strong her teammate was, and if he had any weakness she could help with. Kainna again was impressed with his cleverness as he used a cigarette to track his competitor in the darkness. Kainna thought his reigun was interesting as well; being able to produce that much aura as an amateur detective meant he had great potential. As her teammate, she hoped he got to train under Genkai. He could become a great ally with the right guidance.
Although Yusuke looked to be an asset to the team, his luck was something that Kainna wouldn't have. As it seemed, Yusuke was in the first match of the semi-finals almost immediately after finishing his fight. With hardly any time to recoup, and already having agreed with Kainna not to influence the competition unless death was eminent, they all headed over to the next battle area.
"A swamp?" Kainna made a face at the prospect of walking into it. Although, she could sense spiritual energy charging the air around them... This place was special.
"This swamp held many ancient battles, many soldiers died here. Restless souls haunt this place. On this hillside spirit energy begins to overtake the body. It's the best place on earth to use spirit power and so is the best place to have your fight."
Kainna could feel her energy rise by simply being near the swamp. However, it seemed Yusuke still didn't have enough energy to produce the spirit gun. Kainna waited for Yusuke to ask her for help, and when he didn't, she kept her mouth shut. Only close to death would she step in it seems.
The fight was entertaining to say the least. Yusuke basically got his ass handed to him the whole time. Not only with hand-to-hand combat but also with Kazemaru's shuriken. Kainna couldn't recall Yusuke even hitting Kazemaru during the match. It seemed Yusuke did have some form of dumb luck, or perhaps it was Kazemaru's own over confidence that cause his own defeat. Either way, Kainna was sure Kazemaru was the only one to hit anything, and ironically took himself out at the end.
Shorin was next against Kuwabara. Kainna watched as Kuwabara hit Shorin easily at first. After a few moments of sparring Shorin started to unleash attacks that were clearly stolen from other masters. Genkai recognized them quickly, now understanding why Koenma sent a spirit detective to participate in her contest.
"I know the rightful masters' of those techniques, some of them have spent decades developing them. I heard recently that a demon had stolen their secrets." Genkai focused her questions at the trio next to her. The moon demon nodded to the unasked question while Yusuke responded.
"So, that means he's Rando." Botan nodded, staring at the match in front of her. Rando started chanting after another failed technique against Kuwabara's spirit sword. Kainna felt an immense amount of energy going into the chant. She was unsurprised when Kuwabara shrunk to a doll's size. With that amount of chanting and energy Kainna assumed he was going to alter himself or the human. It seemed this technique was the one that would take Kuwabara down. With his size, Rando easily picked Kuwabara up in his hand and started to squeeze him. Kuwabara was being crushed in his hand. Kainna could easily hear his bones snapping from their position, Rando seemed to be having some sort of sadistic pleasure in crushing Kuwabara. He picked up his right arm and easily snapped it.
"That's just cruel." Kainna muttered, wincing from the sickening crack and the sounds of Kuwabara's screams. Even though she was a demon herself, she didn't like unnecessary torture.
"Hey Genkai! He won already, call off the match." Genkai glanced at Yusuke and had to agree. She didn't care too much if they were to die in combat, but this type of torture was uncalled for.
"Alright that's enough. The Victor is Shorin." Genkai announced. Shorin pouted, disappointed his fun was ending. He gave Kuwabara one more squeeze, prompting Yusuke to run towards Shorin. Shorin decided to toss Kuwabara across the swamp like a bratty child. Kainna watched as Kuwabara landed, her feet moving quickly to where he fell. Yusuke and Botan were not far behind.
They looked around the swamp, Kuwabara's body seemed to disappear in the tall grass. As Yusuke and Botan screamed his name in hopes of an answer, Rando started chanting again and within moments Kuwabara was back to full size. Kainna looked down at his twisted body with pity, she wondered if there was a bone in his body that wasn't broken. Kainna moved pass Yusuke and placed a hand on Kuwabara chest; her hand glowed white for a moment while she closed her eyes and assessed.
"He has a lot of damage, but most concerning to me are his arms. If left to heal as they are, he will not have full range of movement. I can heal him for you, if you'd like." Kainna addressed Yusuke as she spoke. He nodded at her request, a desperate look in his eyes. "I can't heal him fully; his body has gone through too much trauma. I'll heal the inside; internal bleeding, bones, torn muscles. But his skin will have to heal on its own. The scar tissue will make his skin tough at least."
"He's thick headed enough, guess his body should match." Yusuke scoffed but couldn't help but to smile fondly at his rival. At least he'll live.
"I'm not ready to die yet. Even if all my bones are broken." Kuwabara spoke, surprising all of them. He was struggling to even stay conscious, Kainna was impressed he could speak. "We still have to fight, Urameshi." Kainna smoothed her thumb over his forehead, releasing some energy, and forcing him to sleep. He shouldn't have to be awake with this pain.
Kainna released some more of her yoki, allowing more to flow out and into her hands. Her palms glowed white, her already white hair growing brighter as she focused her teal eyes on Kuwabara. Almost like she can see inside him. Yusuke thought as he watched some of Kainna's energy go into Kuwabara, his body started to glow as well. Yusuke then turned his attention to the demon that caused Kuwabara to be like this.
"I always wanted to try that technique but it takes so long with the chanting. Not like your spirit wave technique." Shorin spoke excitedly to Genkai, who narrowed her eyes at him. "You could kill someone without a trace. Any human would be blown away, isn't that right?" Shorin had an evil glint in his eye as he stared at Genkai.
"Yes, but that would be an evil misuse of my technique."
"Oh, I would never use it that way..." Kainna could tell Shorin, or Rando as it seemed, was lying. His voice was too light, he was playing as if he was a good person.
" Not so fast, we still have to fight. And in case you didn't know, I'm a spirit detective." Yusuke's energy changed; anger wasn't a good enough word to describe it. But Rando picked it up quickly enough.
"Let the final match begin. Shorin vs Yusuke!" Genkai announced. A powerful wind swept through the swamp, fueling Yusuke's spirit energy.
"Ready?" Rando grinned looking at Yusuke. Yusuke was not so happy.
"This is for Kuwabara!"
Kainna was quick to heal Kuwabara, his bones mended together easily and within moments he was fixed. On the inside at least. His bruises and cuts were going to take a day. Too much of her energy and she could cause more harm than good, it could shock his system. Humans were so delicate. While she was healing Kuwabara, Yusuke attacked Rando. With powerful spirit filled punches, Yusuke sent Rando into the ground. But he retaliated with something far worse. Rando jumped into the air, creating a vacuum of energy. Slicing Gale Aegis was what he called it. A technique which hurdled waves of energy to Yusuke whose body, already cut and beat up, would violently pull air out of his wounds, causing pain beyond belief. Yusuke took the first set of waves, grunting in pain, he fell to the floor but got back up all the same.
Rando sent more waves, prompting Yusuke to scream and charge directly into them.
"I've never seen someone that could withstand such pain." Genkai watched, impressed.
"It's like Kuwabara's pain fuelled his power. It's both impressive and honorable." Kainna spoke. She was very impressed with Yusuke, the amount of pain he could withstand along with his never-give-up attitude convinced Kainna she chose correctly with accepting this mission. Yusuke was a great ally to have, and it seemed a great friend as well.
Yusuke was able to take down Rando, forcing him out of the vacuum and hard into the ground underneath. Yusuke got up shakily and approached the group. Kainna had healed Kuwabara and gave some of her own energy to power some of his spiritual energy in hope it would help finish his healing. She stood up and stretched for a moment before looking at the fight in front of her.
"Why are you leaving? You haven't won yet." Kainna spoke simply, not understanding why Yusuke would turn his back to Rando, couldn't he sense his yoki?
It seemed Rando's disguise finally broke and a dark voice came from the boy on the floor. His body cracked open and a tall red-headed demon stood in its place. He stood shirtless with blue markings along his body. He levitated in the air as his power increased, creating wind that blew passed them.
"That looks more like a demon. Not whatever that was before." Kainna commented to Botan. She noticed Yusuke's energy was low while his opponent seemed at full strength. Yusuke didn't seem to mind as he launch an attack of punches at Rando which had no effect without any spirit energy in them. Yusuke was powerless as Rando created thin threads of life force, surrounding Yusuke before combining the threads and wrapping him into a thick, indestructible cloth. Yusuke was powerless as Rando swung him around, smashing him into the ground multiple times before he hung him upside down from a branch that was over the swamp. Kainna watched closely, wondering if her help was going to be needed soon.
"Kainna you'll have to do something soon." Botan spoke to the demoness but Genkai interrupted.
"You will not, I need a successor. It would be wrong to interfere, I am getting old, and my powers need to be passed down. Only at the brink of death will I allow you to interrupt." Genkai spoke with authority, leaving no room for argument. Rando started chanting again, his aura surrounding the area causing the swamp to bubble.
"These are my fish I've summoned from the demon plane." Everyone looked worriedly at the fish with multiple eyes and sharp teeth. They were bigger than Yusuke and could easily eat him as they ate the imp Rando had summoned "They are very hungry. But let me try something else first. The spirit gun." Rando aimed his finger at Yusuke, much alike how Yusuke had aimed his spirit gun. He fired at Yusuke, just scrapping his cheek hard enough to draw blood.
"He learned that quick." Kainna murmured to herself. Genkai heard her and couldn't help but agree.
"He adapts very quickly; he could surpass me and take my powers even further than I have." Genkai admitted. Kainna glanced down at Genkai. While Kainna thought with a little training she could match Genkai in battle, she was nowhere near surpassing her. Rando was impressive, dangerously so.
Yusuke's scream broke Kainna out of thought as she watched him fall into the pond with the demon fishes. "Genkai I will interfere if his life is threatened." Kainna spoke as she placed her palm on the ground, her hand glowing white.
"He's not dead yet. Wait a moment" Genkai held a hand out for Kainna to wait. She held her spirit energy, also curious as to why Yusuke seemed to be still alive under the lake. Suddenly Kainna felt energy from behind her, something a mix of her own and a human's.
"What did he do? I gave him that energy to heal." Kainna grumbled as she watched Kuwabara's body glow and his soul fly into the water. Kainna smirked and stood up. "I didn't actually cause that, so I didn't help him cheat." Kainna spoke cheekily to Genkai who simply rolled her eyes at the demon.
A sudden blast sent chunks of dead fish up towards Rando and out towards the group. Rando held up his hand as he aimed his spirit gun towards the water, waiting for Yusuke to emerge. But he never did, instead he surprised Rando from behind. Using the trick from his other fight, he found a connection between the ponds and was able to sneak up behind Rando. He hit Rando with the rest of his energy, sending him flying into the swamp. But it wasn't enough, Rando still got up. With enough energy to perform the transformation chant. He was prepared to do to Yusuke what he did to Kuwabara. Kainna felt pain for Yusuke, to have to go through that torture. But she had enough energy to put him back together as well so at least he wasn't destined to die. She was sure Genkai and herself could get Rando to stop before it was too late.
But to everyone's surprise, Rando himself started to shrink. Genkai smirked at Rando, who was frantically trying to figure out why his spell had backfired.
"You've come to be too reliant on your spells. Spells are specific, and with one mistake they will turn on you."
"I performed that spell perfectly. There is no way I failed." Kainna looked over at Yusuke, if Rando did perform it correctly, that would mean Yusuke did something for it to fail.
"Eww, I got algae in my ears!" Yusuke yelled and knocked his head until clumps came out of his ears. "I couldn't hear anything!" He complained. Kainna laughed, the sound distracting everyone to look at the girl in wonder. She gave Yusuke a wide grin that stunned him for a moment.
"You really are lucky, huh? I don't know if your dumb luck will last but I'm happy I'm on your side." Yusuke blinked before realizing what she meant and sent a toothy grin back at her. He gave her a thumbs up.
"Call it what you want, either way I won." He shakily moved towards Rando. "I don't have enough strength for another fight, but it takes nothing to fall." And with that, Yusuke fell, elbow first down onto Rando, ending the contest.
"Winner of the tournament, Yusuke Urameshi." Kainna approached Yusuke, kneeling next to him, she started assessing his injuries.
"Don't heal the brat too much, I want him to remember this pain tomorrow when I start his training." Genkai spoke to Kainna as Botan grabbed Rando, preparing to leave.
"His wounds aren't as bad as Kuwabara, I'll just lend him some energy to kick start his healing since his own is low." Kainna explain as she lightly touched Yusuke's forehead with a glowing finger. It dispersed throughout his body before disappearing.
"Good news Kainna, Koenma has instructed me to come collect your weapons for you. You passed your mission!" Kainna blinked owlishly at Botan.
"Sureee, I don't think I really did anything but ok." She shrugged with a smile. "So I get to stay in the human world and get my weapons back?!"
"Of course you helped, you healed Kuwabara without being asked and were going to interfere in the fight to save Yusuke. You showed good character!" Botan gave a thumbs up to Kainna. "I'll go fetch your things so maybe next time you'll be able to fight!" Botan summoned her broom, hopped on and flew off.
"So you'll be staying in the human realm?" Genkai asked Kainna as they stood there awkwardly. Kainna nodded.
"Yes, but I'm still on team Urameshi so anywhere he goes I go. Koenma wants to make sure he doesn't die…again." Kainna explained. Genkai looked curiously at the demon.
"What weapons do you fight with?"
"I have two sai daggers and a bow. I also fight hand-to-hand combat with a little energy behind the punches." Kainna spoke excitedly to Genkai, feeling more in her element when talking about her fighting. Genkai hummed in thought.
"You can stay and train here with the dumbass. My training might just kill him after all." Genkai smirked, thinking ahead to the training Yusuke will have to go through. "He will be the only one learning my techniques however, I'm sure he could use a sparring partner." Kainna grinned. It was everything she could hope for.
"Thank you, Master Genkai." She bowed politely.