Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Battle Lord Chronicles: Of Truths and Lies ❯ Feathers and Roses ( Chapter 35 )

A/N: One thing I want to mention before I continue is that this story WILL HAVE A SEQUEL. That sequel will be titled "Under a Bloody Moon" and will be a Naruto crossover. If you don't know anything about Naruto, don't worry! I will explain everything as Kristy won't know about it either and you don't really have to know about the Naruto storyline either, as it will take place quite a few years before the Naruto storyline starts.

 

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.

 

"Talking"

'Thinking'

'Telepathy'

 

Thanks to my beta reader, Anna Jaganshi.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------

 

Of Truth & Lies

 

Chapter 35

Feathers and Roses

 

----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------

 

(Kristy's POV)

 

The next three days passed quite quickly. My team and I spent damn near the entire time training, preparing for the upcoming fight against the Reikai Tentai. Nothing of any real interest happened, and I did not see Hiei or Kiara again.

 

Before I knew it, the time we had had passed and it as the morning of the final round. My team and I swept through our morning preparations, all of us--Jessica, Chris and I in particular--trying to steel our nerves against having to fight a possible death match against our friends. I had already told them about my meeting with Kiara and, like me, they were relieved to know that the team wouldn't die if they lost, but it still didn't make the situation any easier.

 

We left the hotel room and, in the streets, were surprised to find that many youkai were cheering us on. It appeared that our team was a favorite amongst the people, if only because we had no ningen on the team. This surprised me since we had a half angel instead, but I supposed that youkai held even angels in higher esteem than ningen.

 

The long walk to the waiting room seemed to take even longer than usual. With the heavy thoughts that were weighing on our minds it felt like some kind of a death march.

 

As soon as we reached the waiting room however, we, along with the Reikai Tentai, were hurriedly rushed outside and into the arena, which was only just beginning to fill up with spectators. We were told to wait out there for the beginning of the finals.

 

So there we all stood for what must have been at least ten minutes. We were all spread out side by side in a line, facing the spot where Bashere sat, studying us. I could often feel his eyes on me, but just ignored him. To my amusement, both Kuwabara and Yusuke were fidgeting and complaining during the wait, though somehow they managed to stay where they were.

 

Finally, when the stand of the stadium seemed to be full, the announcer stood up. "Welcome," he boomed out, "To the final round of the Kuro Tournament!" The crowd, which had quieted down when the announcer had started to speak, immediately erupted into loud cheers. The excitement rolling off them was nearly palpable in the air.

 

Once the crowd had sufficiently quieted down once more, the announcer continued. "Standing before us are the two outstanding teams that have managed to beat down all of their opposition in order to make it to this round: Team Reikai Tentai and Team Kagekaze!" Again the announcer had to wait for the crowd to quiet down before continuing. "In this round these two teams will once again face off in individual battles. The team with the most wins will be declared the Tournament Champions. Then, as per tradition, tomorrow the final battle will be held: Lord Bashere vs. the captain of the Champion team.

 

"If Bashere wins then he shall keep his place as Battle Lord of Makai. If the captain wins then he shall take up the mantle as the new Lord. If the Champion team's captain is dead, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to fight at the time of the last battle, then another person from the Champion team will fight instead.

 

"In this round, all of the previous rules still apply. In the individual battles, the first person who is unable to continue to fight, who forfeits, or who dies is the looser. Let us begin!"

 

Upon hearing his dismissing words, my team and the Reikai Tentai split up, heading to the different sides of the stadium. Once there we all stood quietly, the realization that we really were going to have to fight our friends weighing on our minds.

 

Not a moment later a figure on the other side of the arena stepped forward and began to make their way to the center of the field. It took me a moment, but I quickly realized that it was Suiichi. Almost instantly, everyone turned to look at Jessica. She, I noticed, was pale and sweaty, and almost looked to be on the verge of a panic attack.

 

"Jessica..." Chris started hesitantly, lying a hand on her shoulder, "You don't have to do this--"

 

To my surprise, Jessica quickly turned around, dislodging Chris' hand and leveled a glare at him. Jessica never glared. Never.

 

"I do have to," she replied heatedly. Then she paused to gulp, her eyes drifting back to where Suiichi was. "He's my boyfriend," she continued softly. "I'm not going to let anyone else fight him."

 

I stared at her, torn. I hated having to see my friend like this. "Jessie--"

 

"I have to!" Jessica abruptly snapped, spinning around to face me. I quickly reeled back, shocked. Jessica never snaps! Suddenly, however, Jessica sighed, turning back around to look at Suiichi again. "I have to..." Without another word, Jessica stepped forward.

 

As my friend of Kami knew how many years moved forward, I couldn't help but let my head droop a bit. If I was feeling torn, then I couldn't even begin to imagine how Jessica herself must have been feeling. I could never imagine having to seriously fight a boyfriend, or even a close friend. But...I too was going to have to today. We all were.

 

Before I knew it, Suiichi and Jessica had met in the middle of the arena and the announcer had yelled his customary "Shihajimeru!"

 

Immediately, Jessica unfurled her wings and took to the sky, leaping away from Suiichi. The redhead, meanwhile, simply reached back and pulled out a rose that had previously been tucked behind his ear. Holding it, he made a slashing motion with his hand. To my great shock, before my very eyes the rose changed and elongated, transforming into a whip that was barbed with numerous deadly thorns.

 

Once the whip was completely formed, Suiichi pulled his arm back and then cracked the whip forward, causing it to lash forward through the air. Jessica, who was still somewhat in shock, noticed too late what Suiichi was doing and was caught across her leg before she could move away. Fortunately, the pain woke her up and she managed to quickly get herself high up in the air before the whip could wrap around her leg to pull her down.

 

Jessica began circling around in the air then, avoiding Suiichi's whip as he attacked her. It was obvious that she was desperately attempting to think of a way to end this fight without harming Suiichi much or getting herself killed.

 

Finally, something happened to change Jessica's stance toward the battle. Namely that Suiichi managed to wrap his whip around her forearm. Jessica hissed in pain as some blood plummeted down to the ground. Instinctively, Jessica's glowing white reiki rose up to envelope her arm. Instantly the parts of the whip that had been touching the reiki began to disintegrate, unable to handle the pure angelic energy.

 

It was at that point, as Suiichi retracted his whip, that Jessica realized that she couldn't just stay on the defensive. Not if she wanted the match to end anytime soon. Sighing visibly, Jessica allowed her hands to be surrounded with the soft glow or her reiki.

 

Moving faster than I'd ever seen her move before, Jessica swooped down. As she approached a suddenly wary Suiichi, she condensed the reiki even further and then shot it out in the form of a thick beam. Suiichi quickly leapt back out of the path of the beam, having seen what it could do and not wanting the same thing to happen to him. He managed to avoid it, though only just barely.

 

Jessica hesitated once more, but seemed to draw strength from the fact that Suiichi could avoid her attacks and thus might not be harmed. She attacked him again and again then and the battle quickly began to pick up speed.

 

Suiichi continued to just barely avoid Jessica's attacks, though he was a bit faster than I'd have expected a pretty boy like him to be. At the same time he lashed out with his whip, attacking back. Both of them now had their attention split between attacking and defending.

 

The two of them fought like that for a couple of minutes. Neither of them really got anywhere with their attacks, but they continued anyway in an attempt to tire their opponent.

 

Finally, there was a change in the flow of the battle. Suiichi reached back into his hair once more and pulled out something tiny--a seed, I believed though I couldn't be sure. Jessica too paused. She was unsure about whether to allow Suiichi to go through with whatever he was doing, or stop him before he could. By then however, it was too late. Suiichi let out a sudden burst of youki, feeding it into the seed, and then threw it onto the ground beneath Jessica.

 

As soon as the seed touched the ground it exploded. And I don't mean the fiery death type of explosion, but rather green things flying everywhere, growing and expanding type of explosion. It was as if within a single instant the seed--and I was pretty sure that it had indeed been a seed now--had grown into a plant. There was now a mass of lengthy green vines blanketing the area beneath Jessica.

 

My angelic friend eyes the vines beneath her warily. They didn't seem to be doing anything, but even I knew that Suiichi doesn't do anything for no reason. He's a planner and a schemer, plain and simple.

 

Suddenly, on some silent command, the vines bust into motion. They shot upwards, writhing in the air, and attempted to grab a hold of Jessica. She quickly maneuvered away, just slipping out of their grasp, and climbed higher into the air. Unfortunately, the vines followed her up as well. Before long, Jessica was performing numerous acrobatic maneuvers in the air that I'd never known that she could do, twisting and turning to avoid the many vines that were trying to capture her.

 

It truly was an incredible sight to behold, I thought with a small smile. I'd never seen Jessica looking so graceful. She truly appeared as though she belonged there in the air; as though she'd been born already flying.

 

Jessica could not avoid the vines forever though--there were just too many of them and not enough space for her to maneuver in. As such, it was only a couple more minutes until Jessica abruptly cried out in alarm. It appeared that one of the vines had managed to latch onto her, holding her still. As soon as she was held in place--despite her efforts to get away again--the other vines were able to grab onto her as well. Wrapped in vines, Jessica was pulled back to the ground.

 

At the center of the mass, the vine firmly held a struggling Jessica. Her efforts became even more desperate as Suiichi slowly began to approach. Then, suddenly, Jessica froze, and I could tell that her mind had landed on an idea. She quickly gathered some reiki right under her skin and then let it out in a controlled burst. Instantly, the vines surrounding her disintegrated, just as Suiichi's whip had earlier.

 

Unfortunately, Jessica didn't even have time to move before the rest of the vines surged forward, wrapping around her once more.

 

Jessica's eyes narrowed. Not even pausing, she proceeded to gather nearly twice as much reiki as she had before. When it was released, it cleared a much wider circle around her.

 

Having learned her lesson last time however, Jessica didn't stop there. Instead, before the vines could move in, she gathered up a massive amount of reiki to surround her. The result was shocking.

 

With so much reiki flowing around her, Jessica was literally bathed in power. A white aura had formed around her because of it, giving her a heavenly appearance. Just before she released the reiki however, Jessica froze.

 

From the sidelines, I stared up at her, confused. Then, abruptly, the answer hit me and I felt myself biting my lip worriedly. Crap, this really wasn't good.

 

If Jessica released the reiki then the vines would be destroyed and she'd been safe. However, since Suiichi was only about ten feet away, he'd also be hit with the blast and could thus be badly harmed...or killed. At the same time though, if Jessica didn't release the reiki, then not only would she most likely loose the match, but the vines rushing back in could harm her and Kami knew what Suiichi might do since he didn't know who she was.

 

Jessica only hesitated for a moment. She stared at Suiichi as he stood before her and I could easily see a change in her eyes as she came to her decision. Then, without an ounce of hesitation, she raised her hand into the air, releasing her reiki back into herself as she did so.

 

"I forfeit."

 

Her voice rang loudly and clearly through the air. Instantly, everyone froze--even Suiichi and his vines. A dead hush fell over the arena as everyone stared on in shock. They couldn't understand why Jessica had forfeit just as she was about to win.

 

The announcer was the first one to break the silence. "T-team Reikai wins by default," he stuttered out. At the same time the large screen changed to show that the score was now Team Reikai: 1, Team Kagekaze: 0.

 

The whole stadium broke out into whispers. Suiichi himself stared at Jessica with narrowed eyes, confusion written clear across his face. Despite the whispers however, Jessica just held her head up high and began to make her way toward the infirmary. She stared straight ahead as she walked. She didn't need to answer to anyone for her actions; her reasons for doing what she did were hers and hers alone.

 

I couldn't repress the proud smile that came to my face as I watched my friend walk away. It was too bad that we had lost, granted, but Jessica had done what she'd needed to do, and I couldn't fault her at all for it.

 

Slowly, Suiichi followed behind Jessica, his eyes still latched onto her. His mind was turning, I could tell, attempting to figure out exactly what was going on. I could only hope that we had done a good enough job to throw him off our trail.

 

Pulling my attention off my two friends, I turned back to look at the rest of the Reikai Tentai. Kuwabara had detached himself from the group, I saw, and was making his way toward the middle of the arena. At the same time, Chris stepped forward.

 

"I'll take him," he said with a grin. Meeting his gaze, I returned it without a word. "What, no 'good luck'?" he asked with a mock pout.

 

My grin widened. "You shouldn't need it," I replied simply. Granted, I might be underestimating Kuwabara a bit--he was a part of the Reikai Tentai, I realized--but everything that I knew about him pointed to the idea that he wasn't exactly the greatest fighter. Brawler, maybe, but not fighter.

 

The ice youkai let out a sigh. "True enough." Then, with a wave to everyone else, he approached the arena.

 

As Chris and Kuwabara stood before each other, I couldn't stop the grin that slipped onto my face. This really was an amusing sight--Kuwabara was standing there, attempting to look serious, but instead just managing to make himself look constipated. On the other hand, Chris was standing confidently before him, looking like he owned the arena. An amused look was on his face, though he managed to look cool and ready at the same time.

 

Finally, as the crowd quieted, the announcer spoke up, "Shihajimeru!"

 

Instantly, Chris formed his ice spear. Across from him, Kuwabara focused, and a sword made of pure reiki formed in his hand. I blinked, surprised. I had known that he must have some sort of skill, but it took a lot of control and energy to form a weapon out of pure, tangible energy.

 

I started to raise my eyebrows, thinking that perhaps there was more to Kuwabara than I'd originally thought when suddenly Kuwabara raised his sword and charged Chris with a yell. Instantly, all the respect that had been forming for him vanished. What kind of a fighter attacks like that?!

 

I could see that Chris too was surprised--and not the least bit bewildered by Kuwabara's attack. He easily sidestepped out of the way and then tapped Kuwabara on the back with the shaft of his spear. Though he hadn't put much effort into it at all, the tap caused Kuwabara to stumble forward a few steps. Angry, Kuwabara whipped back around and once again charged Chris, who once again stepped out of the way.

 

The next minute or so of the fight had me staring blankly at the arena. Kuwabara had simply continued to charge at Chris, not using any tactics or strategy at all. I had to admire his determination, but...

 

Finally, Chris seemed to grow bored. Kuwabara was breathing hard, but Chris, being a youkai, was absolutely fine. With a sigh, Chris shifted his hold on his spear. He then dashed forward, going on the offensive for the first time, and shoved his spear into the ground in front of Kuwabara's feet before the ningen could move away.

 

As soon as the spear touched the ground, ice extended out from that point, quickly spreading around and up Kuwabara's legs. After only a moment the orange haired ningen was completely encased in ice up to his waist.

 

Kuwabara gasped in surprise and then proceeded to struggle vainly against the ice. He even went so far as to hit himself with his sword--a sight that made me sweatdrop--but it did him no good. Finally, with a sigh of pity, Chris hefted his spear up and landed a solid hit on Kuwabara's temple, knocking him out instantly. Kuwabara slumped forward from where he stood held in place and his sword fizzled out.

 

For several seconds after that final blow landed the crowd was speechless. I could tell that they had no idea what to think about that last battle, especially considering as this was the finals. After a moment however, they did begin to cheer, though there was little doubt in my mind that it was because Chris, a youkai, had won rather than the human rather than for the battle itself.

 

"Winner, Team Kagekaze!" the announcer called out. At the same time the scoreboard showed that the score was now 1:1.

 

Smirking lightly, Chris unfroze the ice around Kuwabara. It quickly receded, leaving the ningen to fall face forward onto the ground. Chris made no move to catch him.

 

The impact with the ground was enough to jerk Kuwabara into consciousness. He immediately leapt to his feet and began to look around wildly, confusion written clear across his face. Chris was already walking away toward the infirmary however, leaving the approaching healers to take care of Kuwabara.

 

As soon as the field was cleared once more, I turned my attention back onto the Reikai Tentai, curious as to whom they would be sending up next...

 

...Only to pale as I saw Kiara step forward.