Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Battle Lord Chronicles: Of Truths and Lies ❯ Broken Chains of Life ( Chapter 28 )

A/N: ...I'm tempted to up rating of this story because of what happens in this chapter, but then it doesn't really go beyond PG-13. So I'm just going to say this: This is a warning to anyone reading this story who is under 13 and/or doesn't like death. This story is rated T, and is so for a reason.

 

Confused as to why I'm stating this now, so far into the story? Well, read to the end of this chapter and you'll find out. The kiddy gloves are off with this chapter, people. When reading/watching Yu Yu Hakusho or reading/writing YYH fanfics, we tend to forget that these are youkai, demons, whom we are dealing with. The very last line in this chapter is a reminder of exactly who/what the beings in YYH are.

 

Well, now that that morbid warning is over with, on to brighter topics (grins). I had a lot of fun writing the beginning of this chapter, especially because I didn't plan the scene at all; rather it just came to me as I was typing it. I think you'll enjoy it (grins again). Well, read, review, and enjoy!

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any related names or items. Kiara is owned by Yusuke'sSister.

 

Claimer: I do own the plot line, the title, the Kuro Tournament, Kristy, Jason, Jessica, Chris, Bashere, Rhurac, and anything else related to them.

 

(1) - Onna means woman.

(2) - Neko youkai are cat demons (neko means cat).

(3) - Want to see what he looks like? There's a link to a picture of him on my profile, under the "pics" section.

 

"Talking"

'Thinking'

'Telepathy'

 

Thanks to my beta reader, Seer Vixion

 

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Of Truth & Lies

 

Chapter 28

Broken Chains of Life

 

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When I slipped into the hotel suite that my team was sharing only Jessica was there. She looked up as I closed the door behind me and frowned when she saw that it was me.

 

"Kristy," she said, worry clear in her voice and only accented by the frown on her face. "What took you so long? We waited for you for a while outside of the hotel before the boys decided to go in and get lunch. I've been waiting for you up her for well over ten minutes."

 

I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly, smiling weakly and hoping that I looked at least relatively composed. "Ah, sorry about that..." I said while racking my brain for an excuse; I wasn't sure why, but I didn't want to tell anyone--not even my brother--about what I had just found out. Did Jason even know or had our parents never told him? And if he did know then how come he never explained it to me? "I...I just wanted to walk alone for a little bit. This whole tournament is a little overwhelming, you know?"

 

Jessica nodded sympathetically, apparently appeased by my explanation. "Well, okay. Just be careful; this is the Makai."

 

I could help but chuckle at this. "It's interesting to hear that coming from an angel."

 

"Half angel," Jessica corrected, a smile playing around her lips. I smirked in reply, already feeling better. It's amazing how friends can pick you up, even when they don't know that something is wrong.

 

"Hey," I said suddenly. "I think I'm going to step outside for a bit, okay?" Jessica nodded and picked up the book that she had been reading before I'd come in, attention quickly captured by the text. Chuckling lightly under my breath, I made my way past her, toward the room that she and I were sharing. There was a balcony attached to each of the rooms and I figured that that would be a great place to get some fresh air while not having to worry about the busy streets.

 

A moment later I entered my room and made my way toward the slide door that was off to the side. Pulling it open, I stepped outside and was immediately assaulted by the sounds of the city. Youkai below were harking their wares and the general hubbub of the voices of thousands of people blanketed the city. Leaning against the railing and peering out at the city--which I was starting to realize was fairly large--I was surprised how much it felt like...home. It was busy and filled with life, but there were no cars, no pollution, no skyscrapers. However, it was by no means an uncivilized place as I might have imaged it to be. Indeed, youkai seemed to be as technologically advanced as ningens, but they apparently had decided to forgo some things, such as automobiles.

 

Sighing, I leaned back and contented myself with just staring out at the scenery, noting offhandedly that I could just barely see the forest beyond the city. I stayed like that for at least five minutes, the wind gently blowing around me. Finally I noticed that I was starting to get really hungry--though that's not that surprising considering that I haven't eaten anything since this morning and I had a match today.

 

I turned to go back inside when suddenly I heard a snapping noise around my neck. Reacting on instinct, I reached my hand up just in time to catch the pendant that Hiei had given me as it started to fall, the chain having apparently broken--my fight must have weakened it somehow. As I held it however, the chain continued to slip down. I quickly bent down and attempted to catch it, but I didn't move fast enough and the thin chain slipped through the cracks between the wooded planks of the balcony. Fortunately, I noticed that it had landed on the balcony below mine.

 

Though sighing in relief, I also cursed myself for my clumsiness. I needed to be more careful! That had been a Christmas gift from Hiei and I definitely didn't want to loose it. As I realized what I had just thought, my face quickly heated up, but I pushed away my embarrassment in favor of getting my chain back.

 

For a moment I contemplated going to the suite on the floor below and simply asking if I could go and retrieve the chain, but I immediately discarded that idea because whoever's team that was could easily take advantage of the situation despite the "no violence outside of the arena" rules that were in place. Besides that though, most likely the team was eating dinner with everyone else. Instead of wasting my time--and possibly my life--I slowly started to lower my self over the edge of the balcony, purposely ignoring the fact that I was five floors up and probably wouldn't survive the fall if I slipped. Using all of my agility, I swung myself onto the balcony below, landing in a crouch. I reached forward to grab my chain, only to freeze when a voice spoke.

 

"Is there any particular reason that you're dropping into other's people's rooms?"

 

My head quickly snapped upwards, surprised. I hadn't heard or smelt anyone from above! In the shadows of the corner of the balcony a pair of narrowed red eyes watched me careful before Hiei stepped out further, revealing himself.

 

I barely stopped myself from blanching. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. Why do I always happen to get myself into these situations? And how ironic is it that the Reikai Tentai's suite just happens to be below my teams, and that Hiei's room is right below my own? Slowly, I pick up the chain that my hand had been hovering over before straightening out of my crouch, gulping uneasily. Carefully, I tightened the hold I had on the pendant; I couldn't let Hiei see it or he'd immediately recognize it, and thus me.

 

"Erm, sorry about that," I said laughing nervously. "My chain broke and fell." I held the chain up in front of my, as if to validate my statement.

 

Hiei raised one thin eyebrow. "And you couldn't knock on the room door to ask get it back?"

 

"Uh, well, actually, I figured that you'd all be at dinner..." I replied, trailing off weakly. I had to forcefully stop myself from rubbing the back of my head; it was a nervous habit that I had that Hiei would most certainly recognize. Already, he seemed to be somewhat suspicious, though I'd probably be too if some demon just dropped down onto my balcony.

 

To my surprise however, Hiei suddenly began to chuckle. I tensed in surprise, but he just walked over and leaned against the balcony next to me. Watching my out of the corner of his eyes, he smirked at me, saying nothing.

 

Slightly annoyed, I scowled at Hiei, forgetting all of my previous nervousness. "What?" I snapped. Hiei just chuckled again, not answering. "What the hell is so funny?!"

 

Hiei turned to face me, so that his side was leaning against the side of the balcony. "Tell me, onna(1)," he murmured. "Did it even occur to you that going into the territory of unknown youkai during the most infamous tournament might be dangerous?

 

I shifted uncomfortably. "Well, yeah," I replied, nervous again. "...That's kind why I didn't knock..." Hiei snorted, but didn't say anything in reply. "Um...I'm...going to get...going now..." I hesitated then, suddenly realizing that it would be really nearly impossible to climb back onto my own balcony.

 

Noticing my dilemma, Hiei looked at me incredulously. "You can't seriously tell me that you never even thought of how you would get back?"

 

"Well..." I stuttered, my face heating up. "I..."

 

Sighing, Hiei pushed off of the side of the balcony and opened the slide door to his room. "Well," he said, looking back at me, "Come on."

 

Nervous once more, I followed Hiei through the suite that the Reikai Tentai were sharing, offhandedly noticing that it was of the same design as my team's suite. When we reached the door to the hallway, Hiei held it open for me.

 

"Be more aware next time, will you onna?" Hiei commented dryly, smirking. I laughed nervously before quickly dashing out into the hall and toward the elevator.

 

Had I looked back I would have seen Hiei's smirk turn into a frown as his narrowed follow me down the hall.

 

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The next day found my team once again in the waiting room, agitatedly waiting for our team to be called for our match in the quarter finals to begin. It was not at all surprising to find out that the wait as just as nerve wracking today as it had been yesterday. I suppose we were a bit more confident because we'd made it past the preliminaries, but at the same time the rest of teams there had as well. I wasn't sure what had happened to the teams that had lost; I figured that they would either leave or stay to watch the rest of the tournament.

 

I also happened to notice that both the Reikai Tentai and Rhurac's team had made it to this round. No surprise there I supposed. My eyes were wandering the room when the same red skinned, white haired youkai entered the room. All of the teams tensed up, wondering who would be the next to go.

 

The youkai moved to the middle of the room like usual and called out, "Next up is Team Kagekaze versus Team Neko. Please enter the arena."

 

I gulped nervously; here we go again. As my team and I walked to the doors, I glanced behind us and I noticed that the team would were up against was comprised completely of neko youkai(2). I felt my eye twitch slightly; great, I was a wolf youkai and was going up against cats. Sighing, I looked back ahead of myself, only to have to shield my eyes as we entered the bright arena. Ignoring the roaring crowd around us, my team headed to the same bench as last time, where we all gathered around.

 

"Okay," Jason began, taking up his roll as team captain, "We know that this team is made up entirely of neko youkai, which gives us a bit of an edge since they have no idea what our abilities are. However, we also have to be careful because they'll doubtless have something up their sleeves; they certainly didn't get this far on pure luck."

 

We all nodded and Jason opened his mouth to continue about the lineup, but Chris quickly interrupted him, "I'd like to go first." We all glanced at him in surprise, but his jaw was set with determination. Almost sadly, I realized that he was determined to prove himself; he had lost last time and wanted to win this time. The others seemed to realize this as well and, after a moment of contemplation, Jason nodded.

 

"Alright," my currently silver haired brother said. "And then after that--"

 

"Then I'll go," Jin interjected. Grinning, he continued, "I didn't get to fight at all last time."

 

Jason chuckled and nodded again. He then glanced over his should and noticed that one of youkai from the other teams was already walking to the center of the arena. Frowning, Jason turned back to address us.

 

"We'll decide from there then," he said before patting Chris on the shoulder. "You're up. Good luck." The rest of us echoed Jason's statement and Chris grinned at us, giving a two fingered wave over his shoulder before heading to the center of the arena, where he stood across from his opponent.

 

The neko youkai that Chris would be fighting was a very lean guy who was a couple of inches taller than Chris. He had shaggy dark brown hair and golden eyes that were slitted like a cat's. He also had dark makeup around his eyes, which only furthered the effect. The youkai had a tan colored cat tail that was lashing around behind him and a pair of tan cat ears--one of which had a chunk missing, as if someone had taken a bit out of it. The neko youkai was wearing a sleeveless shirt made of leather that had many straps crossing it, a pair of tight leather pants, a pair of black boots, and pair of fingerless gloves that reached up his elbows. They were fingerless for a reason though, as could be seen from the long, sharp nails protruding from his fingers.(3)

 

Despite his intimidating appearance, however, Chris stood confidently before him, eagerly waiting for the match to begin. Having learnt(learned) his lesson last time, an ice spear was already in his hands.

 

Next to Bashere, the announcer spoke up once more, repeating what he'd said last time, and apparently said at the beginning of every match, "The first person who is unable to continue to fight, who forfeits, or who dies is the loser. Shihajimeru!"

 

Instantaneously, the cat youkai leapt forward, slashing at Chris with his claws, and Chris brought up his spear in front of himself to block the attack. The youkai's sharp claws grated against the ice of the spear and for a moment I was sure that the ice would break. Fortunately, the spear held strong, and Chris managed to shove the neko off.

 

Chris and the neko youkai then began to circle each other, both slashing out every now and then, but neither ever doing any real damage. Offhandedly, I noticed that they were both sizing each other up, attempting to figure out each other's strengths and weaknesses.

 

With a shiver, I realized how different this round already was from the last one; it was almost as though the competition was on a completely different level. Last time we all had just jumped into the battle and quickly fought off our opponents. This time however, it appeared as though we were going to have to strategize a lot more if we even wanted to survive; this team wasn't going to play around like the last team had.

 

After a couple more minutes of generally pointless banter, Chris finally decided to take action. As soon as the neko youkai began to leap backwards after his latest attack, Chris suddenly slammed the butt of his spear into the ground. Immediately following, ice spread out from where the spear was resting on the ground, quickly moving to cover the area around behind where the youkai was about to land.

 

As soon as the neko youkai landed on the now icy land, he began to loose his footing and slip. He quickly leaned forward however, digging his claws into the ground even as he slid backward. After a few moments, the youkai was able to bring himself to a stop, but by then Chris had already made his next move.

 

Hearing a noise above him, the neko youkai only had a bare moment to look up to see Chris in the air, leaping towards him, his ice spear spinning above him. Chris slammed the spear into the spot where the youkai was--or had been; the neko managed to move away just in time to avoid major damage. Chris didn't stop there however and immediately began to manipulate the ice around them to rise up, twisting like thick vines, to attack.

 

The next few minutes of the battle had everyone on the edges of their seat. While nothing too dramatic happened, everyone--including myself--was wondering how the fight was going to turn out. Chris was constantly on the attack, using his thick vines on ice, and the neko was constantly leaping and twisting away, always only just barely dodging the attacks. While the youkai did receive some damage, he faired pretty well, especially considering the circumstances. After a while however, the neko youkai finally decided that it was his turn.

 

Leaping off a vine of ice as it crashed into the spot where he been just moments before, the neko youkai began to run towards Chris. As soon as he'd come close enough--which was about fifteen feet from Chris--he stretched one of his hands forward and used the other to steady that hand. Instantaneously, black blurs erupt from around the youkai's hands, quickly flying towards Chris. Blinking in surprise, I realized that these black objects were actually...bats?

 

Chris seemed to be just as surprised as me, which caused him to hesitate for a moment. In that small amount of time the bats reached Chris, screeching loudly. Chris immediately ducked, covering his head with his arms while at the same time manipulating his ice to attack the bats. I couldn't help but sweatdrop and Chris began to run around in circles, the bats flying around his head and screeching annoyingly.

 

'You have got to be kidding me...'

 

The bats did what they were probably created for however, and while Chris was distracted the neko youkai had moved forward. When Chris was looking the other way the youkai struck, his claws flashing through the air. Chris wasn't as oblivious as he'd appeared to be however, and he quickly spun around, brining his ice spear up to block the neko once more.

 

The neko moved faster though, and, before Chris could even react, swept one of his hands under the spear, slashing Chris across the chest. Chris reeled in shock for a moment, unconsciously stepping back. Using my currently blue haired friend's pause to his advantage, the neko youkai quickly dodged under Chris guard and went to swipe at him again, this time going for Chris' throat.

 

Reacting completely upon instinct, Chris struck out with his spear. The neko youkai's claws stopped just inches from Chris' face and didn't move any farther. Similarly, Chris stood frozen in shock, staring at the red-tinted tip of his ice spear that was sticking out from the neko youkai's back; unintentionally, Chris had shoved his spear straight through the youkai's chest. Still shocked, Chris let the shaft of his spear fall from his limp hands. The spear slid out of the neko with a sickening squelch and, unsupported, the neko fell back onto the ground with a dull thud. His golden eyes stared unseeing up at the clear blue sky.

 

And the crowd went wild.