InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Heart Within ❯ Chapter Thirty-Seven ( Chapter 39 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, etc., of Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho. This story is for entertainment purposes only, and not for profit.THE HEART WITHINSummary: She has carried vengeance in her shadowed heart for 500 years, sacrificing her self for that dream. Now, Sango just might get her chance… (IY/YYH crossover) A/N: I have tried to keep the various groups and matches correct, but the episodes themselves disagree at times. Any errors, though, are purely the result of my befuddled brain. I should warn the scenes are really choppy in this chapter, but I hope their worth a good laugh or two. =)
WARNING! SPOILERS FOR YYH CHAPTER BLACK, THE THREE KINGS SAGA

Chapter Thirty-Seven

“Damme, I can’t believe I lost.” Chuu scratched his head in bewilderment. “Ah, but what a way to lose!” He stared dreamily after the beautiful Natsume, a demoness in an entirely different league than him. To his mind, her stunning jyaki control made the entire package all the sweeter.

“I can’t believe you lost to a girl!” Rinku whined petulantly, though his eyes were drawn again and again to the cute mouse demon who had flirted with him.

“Ah, but what a girl! She’s my own sheila, she is!”

“Wait until Koto hears that,” Rinku snickered.

Chuu paused, eyes slightly bugging out at the thought. Then he shrugged fatalistically. “Ah, well, a bloke can’t help where he finds love, now can he?”

The other demons smirked, knowing full well that Chuu’s faithless heart might find a new target next week. He was certainly taking the whole only-one-to-lose in the preliminary rounds well, or so Jin said to Touya.

The ice apparition shrugged. Having frozen his entire group solid in less than ten minutes, he wasn’t going to rub it in the tired demon’s face. Chuu had done well, damn well, beating every other opponent down with joyful abandon. The demoness had only approached at the last moment, and Chuu was smart to have surrendered to her after one strike. Her power was enough that she could have killed him with one flick of her pale hand.

It was rumored Natsume was one of Raizen’s old sparring partners, and one of the youkai who had thrown that great beam of jyaki-fed light into the sky, exciting every demon who’d witnessed it. There were others---though the canny ice apparition noticed they hadn’t been flaunting their power like some of the other S-class demons. Playing it rather low-key, was Raizen’s former group. It’d be interesting to see what they would do in the next round, when a youkai could only use their own abilities to win.

“Who’s it whose gone through, eh?” Jin asked. “Ye’ve kept the better track than I, Touya.”

“All of us, save Chuu, of course.” Touya shrugged. “And Hiei and Kurama---but that was to be expected.”

Jin grinned. “Aye.”

“Kirin and Hokushin, that surgeon Shigure---”

“That be a creepy looking demon, no?” Jin remembered the giant ring-sword the tall surgeon used to slice through every single one of his opponents.

“Mukuro, of course, by default, since everyone who drew group seventy-four pulled out---”

Jin chuckled. “Do you fair blame them, lad?”

“And now that Shishi managed to kill that crab demon who ate him by transforming---”

“Ah, now that was a real beaut, it was!” Jin declared. “Though not near so sweet as your Rainbow Cyclone Freedom, Suzuka.”

“Thank you.” The golden demon preened. “It was rather beautiful, wasn’t it?”

“Then who’s left, eh?” Jin looked around, counting heads.

“Well, Yusuke---”

“Nope. He’s just tossed every single demon out of his ring. Remember? Koto had to call it, since nobody fainted, died or surrendered.’

Jin hooted. It had been pretty funny, since the Mazoku had literally knocked every demon off of his okininju stalk, leaving only himself on the plateau and thus the winner by default. And all in less than five minutes. A thing of beauty it was, to watch.

“Man, I can’t wait to fight him.” Rinku shadow-punched.

“I thought you couldn’t wait to fight that cute little mouse, Sasuga,” Shishi dug on the lad, who turned beet-red and tried to deny his crush.

“There be only six groups left, the ones what started later.” Jin ignored them.

“Including Yomi and his son,” Touya added, troubled by the fact the two had drawn the same lot that would pit father and son against each other so early on.

“’Tis a real shame, it ’tis.” Jin shook his head, somber. They were all uncomfortable with the reminder, and Jin snapped his fingers. “Ah, but we’ve still got Lily to be cheering on, yes?”

“Girl’s not gone yet?” Chuu looked up in sudden interest.

“Just started, I think,” Touya said, adding, “She was in a later group.”

“Well, which screen is it?”

“The one there, that be on the right---the one that the little wee volcano and the cool fox are all but burning holes in, they’re a’staring so hard.” Jin smirked smugly.

Casting a surreptitious look for himself, Touya eyed the two watching demons speculatively, but his attention was drawn back to the screen when Chuu gasped.

“Ah, damn, but that was close! Why that bloke almost took her head off! Bastard!” Chuu raised a fist, and they all suddenly stared intently at the screen.


Holy shit, that had been close! Sango dove out of the way as the giant ogre swept his tree trunk across the plain. She wasn’t his intended target---he’d dismissed her as unimportant, going after the giant whatever-it-was that screeched and snapped back at the two-headed ogre with teeth as long and sharp as her sword.

Man, this was getting ugly. She’d better hurry, or there would be more than one youkai’s blood splashed across the ground. She couldn’t explain why she was so loathed to see that, but this tournament, fought so eagerly and bloodily, shouldn’t be about that. Not really. It should be about fighting fair---though she was hardly going to be fighting fair, now was she?

Sango frowned, but the reaching claws she barely escaped made up her mind. The bat demon had decided she was probably the weakest, and thus the easiest to take out. He made a strafing run for her, wicked talons held out, and licked his teeth.

“I’m going to enjoy eating you, human!” he said, vicious glow to his red eyes.

That did it! Compunctions now gone, Sango crossed her arms in front of her, closing her eyes as she drew the wind sharply to her. She felt it singing along her veins, tingling across her skin as her short hair started whipping around her head in a fanning wave as the wind came with a shriek. She rose slightly, her body buoyant, and opened her eyes, bled now into the pupil-less ruby orbs of the Wind Sorceress whose heart beat inside her chest.

“Is that all you got?” the bat demon taunted, flying above the shrieking vortex of her concentrated winds. “Before I eat you, girl, I’m going to---”

Skunk, standing just in front of her, bristled. Raising his stiff tail, his eyes gleamed as bloodily as Sango’s as she smiled.

“Now!” she cried, and let the wind burst out of her in all directions, feeding her own jyaki into it so that it exploded. “Mass Air-Strike Skunk Fart Explosion!”


Jin blinked.

“Cor!” Chuu said, stunned as all the rest of them watching the scene unfold. “Is what I think just happened just happened?”

The viewing room grew eerily silent as everyone watched in horrified fascination. It was so quiet they could now here the choking screams and anguished cries as all the youkai on Platform 120 toppled over one by one. The last to fall was the giant, two-headed ogre, who barely saved himself from being bonked on the head by his own tree trunk as he fell right at the feet of the slight girl wearing an incongruous pink hoodie and blue jeans. Seeing the last one faint dead away, the girl moved her hands over her head, bringing a fresh breeze to waft away the last of the stench. It rose in an incredibly puky shade of green rot, like a putrid cloud. The fug finally dissipated as she swept the cleansing breeze through it.

Silence reigned. The flying camera-girl was too busy looking green herself to call the match. Draped over her handle-bars, she desperately tried to regain her composure as Koto’s voice came over the video feed, demanding to know what the hell happened.

“Um…” The poor girl wiped her eyes on her bare shoulder and coughed. Even her blond pigtails looked a little green. “Um…”

“Bleeding Christ,” Chuu said, his heart-felt words for all of them. “Girl’s gone and knocked out her entire competition!”

The skunk’s tail twitched.

Koto’s face suddenly appeared in the screen, her blue-green eyes wide as she said into her mike, “Oh, my, folks! It looks like the wind-hanyou has literally blown away the competition, winning Group 120 and going on to the first round with her incredible use of a massive stink bomb that’s made all the others faint dead away! Poor Iri is still trying to recover---she claims she’s never smelled anything so awful! I thought it wasn’t polite to fart on your competition! I know a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, but that’s taking it a little far, don’t you think, Yuda?”

She turned to her co-host, but the elderly demon was too busy laughing his ass off to reply.


“Holy fart, Anei! What the hell was that?”

Sango blushed as Yusuke rushed up to her, brown eyes gleaming with hilarity. Only he could come up with that particular oath. “Uh, hi, Yusuke.”

“Gods, that is what this whole competition is about!” Yusuke suddenly threw his arms around her, hugging her hard. Sango mmphed into his broad chest as he squeezed all the breath out of her. Yusuke only laughed, and wiped the tears from his eyes. “You should have seen everyone’s faces! Why, I thought I had blown my group away, but you…!”

Rather pink for the reminder, Sango shrugged. “Well, it wasn’t me, really. More Skunk.”

“Skunk. Oh, that’s rich! Where is he?” Yusuke stared down at their feet, where Skunk chittered. Sitting back on his hunches, the little demon eyed the former Spirit Detective when he dropped to one knee. “Hey, there, fella! I gotta hand it to ya, you really know how to let one rip!”

Skunk looked smug. He even let the Mazoku scratch him behind the ears in due homage for his prowess.

“Watch it there, Yusuke!” Chuu warned as the others came streaming in behind the big demon. “Little bugger’s got a big bite!”

Yusuke laughed as Skunk playfully pounced on him, willingly rolling around in the grass as the little demon abandoned his usual dignity for a good frolic.

“Aye, me, now that there’s not a sight I’d yet be expecting,” Jin said, slowly settling down to the earth, his dying winds rustling the dark bangs across Sango’s forehead. Turning to her, he threw out a long arm and drew her to him, hugging her hard but quick. “Ah, Lily, lass, you did me proud, you did! I couldn’t have done better meself, even with me own Tornado Fists!”

“That was awesome!” Rinku said with all the fervency of a young boy.

“Quite impressive, I will admit,” Shishi allowed, and Suzuka elbowed him in the ribs.

“More than impressive, Sango,” he said. “It was beautiful!”


The next few hours were a blur, as she was hoisted on Chuu’s shoulders and Skunk was picked up by Yusuke, and they all went off to celebrate. Perhaps it was the beer---which seemed more potent that she’d remembered. As a lightweight, she’d kept herself to two, but still her head felt like it was floating a few feet above her shoulders. Yusuke and Jin had both offered to take her back early to the hotel---as Chuu and a few of the others intended on staying until closing or the barkeep threw them out---and she’d gratefully taken them up on the offer. Skunk had already sauntered off earlier that evening after accepting a dish of milk as his just due, and she had just parted with the two demons, who would have walked her to her door if she hadn’t insisted she was fine, she could make it down the hall, at least, on her own!

Laughing, she waved as the elevator doors closed on the two demons. Yusuke had Jin in a friendly headlock, and the irascible wind demon was howling “Not fair, Urameshi!” as the doors binged shut. Turning away, Sango shook her head. Pulling her keycard out of her back pocket, she suddenly looked up, eyes wide and smile dying at the handsome young man slowly walking towards her.

Kurama.

She hadn’t seen him since before that night. Her heart thudded loud in her ears as she looked up at him. Gods, he was beautiful. His long hair was like a living flame around his shoulders, and she’d forgotten how tall he was. Or how strong his features, or how green his eyes.

“Hello, Sango,” he said softly.

“Hi,” she said, fairly evenly, though she sounded a little too breathless. *Damn it.*

“You did well,” he said, and oh gods, it hurt to hear the warmth in his voice, for it wasn’t in his eyes---which were cool, distant, all emotion hidden behind a bland expression of polite inquiry.

It covered her heart in ice. She could only nod distantly, refusing to let him see her hurt.

“Well, then,” he said as the awkward silence extended too long. She nodded again, eyes sliding away. His hand half-rose, and then dropped. “Good night,” was all he said, his voice soft and full of something she couldn’t name. Nodding again, she slid past him, fumbling open her door and slipping inside as he stood there silent, back to her.

The door clicked shut behind her. Sliding down the cool wood, Sango felt her bottom hit the carpet with a soft thud. Drawing her knees up, she laid her head on them, and maybe it was the alcohol and maybe it was his coldness, and maybe it was just she was a stupid fool who should know better, but she silently cried.

And hated him for it.


As luck would have it, the last one she wanted to encounter after last night was the next she did. Having spent the day in her room, hoping to avoid just that, Sango should not have been surprised when fickle Fate decided it would be fun to play with her. It couldn’t have picked a worse time, but that was always the way it worked, wasn’t it?

The first round of the main tournament was being held just after sunset, giving the day to those participants who might need to heal themselves from any injuries sustained in yesterday’s preliminaries. Sango had spent the day resting and recharging her energies, knowing that this round would be the first real test of her abilities. She wouldn’t be using a weapon like Skunk this round. This one was hers, and hers alone.

They’d been told to report to the stadium floor just before sunset, when the groups would be announced, the 128 winners of yesterday’s preliminaries having already been divided into four main groups of sixteen. There they would be divided into pairs, fighting one on one, whittling the numbers down until only the last two remained to fight in the sixth, and final, round of the tournament.

Having belted on her sword and deliberately left her other weapons behind, Sango had given a last pat to Skunk---who’d barely raised a lowered lid to glare at her for the unwelcome interruption of his afternoon nap---before leaving. Pensive and on edge, she’d distractedly made her way through the hotel and down to the underground network of tunnels that the fighters could use to avoid the large crowds above. As luck would have it, the tunnel was deserted, or so she thought, until his harsh voice pierced the stifling quiet like a sword plunged straight into her very heart.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, hanyou?”

Sango stiffened.

That voice. Gods, she hated that voice. So biting in its scorn. Damn him.

Damn them both, actually. She hadn’t been the one to leave, after all. And she wasn’t the needy weakling she’d been back then. Her hands tightened until the knuckles stood out in sharp relief, and she refused to turn at his deliberate baiting.

“What do you care?” she growled, angry that he would dare, after so many months, say something so scathing and obnoxious. Tossing her head, she strode on---and then whirled, sword slipping free with a scrape to meet his naked blade with a ringing clang.

“You bastard!” she hissed, eyes bleeding as crimson as his that he dared to attack her. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

She threw him off with a grunt of effort, sweat beading her brow. He was so strong. But then, he’d always been stronger than her, though he seemed even more so now. The darkness of his powerful demonic aura fairly seethed around him, the frigid, purple-black flames spilling across her astral senses to send her spiritual sense screaming. Clamping down on her survival instincts---which told her to fucking run!---Sango refused to back down. She wouldn’t give the little bastard the satisfaction.

But oh, god, did it hurt to see him after so very long. She’d forgotten how strong a presence he had. How he always seemed so much bigger than his physical stature, so overwhelming to each and every one of her senses. The wild disarray of his spiky black hair, the white strands threading among the black like frost edging a night-riven river bank. The solid strength of his body, even obscured by the concealing folds of his long coat. The utter masculinity in his hard features, the burning glower of his piercing, bloody gaze. So hot and cold all at the same time, a fire whose icy breath could burn away her weak, traitorous heart with just the coldness of his enigmatic gaze.

A gaze whose heat as it flicked down her body and then back up to meet her angry brown eyes made her flush with fury, for it was something he’d made perfectly clear he wanted nothing to do with when she had needed him so desperately. Her emotions tumbled over one another, and she abruptly realized that while she might have deluded herself into thinking that she understood his reasons for why he had left, she’d just been lying to herself. The pain and hurt of his rejection burned hot within her, and she couldn’t stand to see him now, like this, with the contempt and desire so hot in his eyes.

“Do you know what this tournament is?” He suddenly, viscously, swiped at her with his sword, and she met it again with a two-handed grip on her blade while he used only one, his movements so casual in their arrogant contempt. “You think you, a human, stand any chance against demons like Yomi or Mukuro? They will eat you alive.”

“I’m not as weak as you remember,” she snarled back, attacking him this time with a furious set of wicked cuts learned by the old sword-master Master Sen had brought in to help train her. Surprised, he was put on the defensive, and elation filled her as she pushed him back---once, twice, three times.

His eyes narrowed, and the blazing fire in their depths was a dark promise that chilled her even as it pissed her off. He suddenly twisted, his speed incredible. Faster than before, even with her own increased reflexes, she quickly found their positions reversed. He made a circular motion with his sword, one she tried to predict and follow, but he reversed it so quickly it worked against her. Her sword went flying just a second before she found herself slammed back against the wall, his hard body pressing hers into the unyielding stone. Her eyes widened, the crimson ire evaporating as they darkened in astonishment. His breath came in harsh pants, hot against her cheek as she deliberately turned her head away, refusing to meet his triumphant sneer.

“Damn you,” she whispered, breath short and heart tightening painfully in her chest.

His head suddenly turned, his red eyes narrowing as he growled, a sound that made her shiver. She felt the powerful auras of more demons approaching as Hiei abruptly stepped back, his red eyes raking over her with cool calculation before he abruptly disappeared. Leaving her to the indignity of calming her ragged breath and going and retrieving her damn sword before Jin and the others caught sight of her and had questions she didn’t want to answer.

Damn him. Damn them both! But she wouldn’t, couldn’t, let them interfere with what she had set out to do. She would use this anger, use it to her benefit, increase her strength and prove that little bastard wrong. She’d win, on her own merit this time, now that she didn’t have to contend with her unwillingness to commit wholesale murder on forty-eight demons. But the anger would help in the fight ahead---her dark eyes promised that!


Even Yusuke’s rousing speech---about keeping it clean, and that he didn’t know if he would even win, but hoped to meet everyone again in three years, which you couldn‘t do if you were dead or killed off your opponents---at the beginning of the main tournament couldn’t turn the anger from Sango’s mind. She fairly seethed with it, though she let none of it show on her set expression. She was lucky no one she knew was in Group D with her, for she didn’t know if she could keep up the façade under close scrutiny.

Most of her friends were in group A, including Yusuke, Jin, and Shishiwakimaru, along with the monk Hokushin and the favorite, Yomi---whose singular defeat of his son in the preliminaries still sat heavily on Sango’s mind. The Beautiful Suzuka was in group B with Touya, the ice apparition, and Kurama, while Rinku had drawn Group C with Hiei and Mukuro and her still-loyal general, Kirin. Sango didn’t care, not really, just glad that she wouldn’t have to face either of them. That’s why she’d searched the board so closely for their names, though her eyes had widened as she read the names of other demons she knew. But again, she could be mistaken, they might not be who she thought they were. But if they were, than she was glad that Shigure---if he was the surgeon---and Kouga---if he was the wolf prince---were both in Group B.

She‘d only have to contend with fifteen other demons out for her---and each other’s---blood. Not to mention that disgusting lizard demon who’d slunk up to her while the preliminary lots were being drawn two days ago. Sango had no clue how he had made it through, though he might have pulled a trick like hers with Skunk. The preliminaries didn’t have to be won on brute strength alone, but with wits and ingenuity. The first round of the main tournament, however, would separate the weak from the strong on an individual’s own merit.

Too bad she wasn’t paired with that damn lizard in the first round. She wouldn’t mind kicking that knowing smirk from his fat lips. He even had the gall to put two of his claws up in a V and wiggle his forked tongue between them in an obscene gesture, making the other demons snigger as Sango stiffened.

“’Ere now, put that tongue back in your head, you icky worm!” A blonde demoness in a skin-tight maroon leotard and bright blue spandex suddenly flung a bottle at the lizard’s head. It smashed against the wall, littering shards in its wake as the lizard reared back, pink eyes bulging in surprise.

“Now, now, Koku…” An enormous mountain of a demon placed a placating red palm on the beautiful blonde’s shoulder.

“Pffst! You…you leave me alone, you big drunk!” The demoness shrugged the giant’s hand off with a dark scowl. And then her eyes crossed as she hiccupped.

“But, sweetie…” The red giant tried to grab her but she pushed away from him, steps unsteady as one hand covered her mouth and she paled. Sango watched in fascination as her cheeks bulged unattractively just before she let out a loud, distinctive belch.

“Oooh, much better,” she slurred, and then fell over into the red demon’s waiting arms. He casually picked her up like a child---he being so much larger than her---and she glared at whatever he murmured. “Don’t tell me to lay off the booze, you big brick! And quit calling me your wifey-poo! I hate that name!”

She swung at his horned head, missing, and turned a piercing golden glare on everyone staring at them, gesturing with a succinct finger. The other contestants in Group D surreptitiously edged away from the crazy pair.

The loudspeakers crackled and squealed, and Sango winced as the enthusiastic announcer’s voice chirped over the room. “Good evening, folks! Isn’t this a great night for bloodshed? Let me hear you roar! That’s it! That’s the spirit! Koto, here, ready and willing as ever to relay the deliciously gory details!

“Now, each match to be held in the first round of the Great Tournament will be fought simultaneously. One pair from each group will fight, with each match’s starting time slightly staggered for your viewing pleasure! Now, would the first contestants please take their places. The first match of Group A is Yusuke Urameshi versus Nekotama! Fought on the plateau bud of an okininju stalk, each fighter has an equal chance of using the diverse terrain to his advantage…”

Sango let the cat demon’s perky voice fade into the background as she watched a white-clad Yusuke approach the enormous cat demon with his signature smirk on the screen. Both participants would start off facing each other on the main staging ring built in the exact center of the okininju’s wide plateau. Her eyes slid to the right, to the next screen, where an arrogant Suzuka was stepping up against a giant beast with six arms that he triumphantly raised into the air like he’d already won. Even as Koto called Yusuke’s match to start, the third and fourth teams out of Groups C and D were entering their own rings.

Sango’s eyes snapped to the first screen as Yusuke’s opponent morphed into a formidable six-story tall giant with elongating claws. Yusuke barely avoided the first launch of those deadly talons, slipping by the second to solidly land a kick square on the youkai’s ginormous head. Sango grinned as the cat’s yellow eyes rolled up and he fell over, his body shrinking as he passed out at the ex-detective’s feet. Yusuke raised his fist into the air, and Koto called the match in his favor.

Poor Suzuka wasn’t so lucky. There were just too many arms for him to contend with, and his rainbow attacks slid off of the beast’s armored shell, casting a beautiful glittering display but doing little damage. The match was finally called when the beast squeezed the breath right out of the poor blond, causing him to black out. Suzuka got some revenge, though, for the winner was booed loudly by the audience---mainly egged on by his friend Shishi, who always knew how to work a crowd.

Loud snores from the corner of the room made Sango turn in surprise as she watched the giant red demon gently prop his passed out wife against the corner so he could report for his own battle, in the second match of Group D. Unbelievably, the blonde slept through the entire fight, which the good-natured, two-horned giant---named Enki---easily won. By then, the third match of Group A had started, and Sango watched Hokushin take out Shishi in his signature neck-wrap after a long battle against the handsome demon’s chilling Banshee sword. She was saddened to see the imp defeated, but as Koto commented wryly, he had plenty of adoring fangirls just itching to offer him comfort.

Her attention was taken up by the third match of Group B, which pitted Touya against a handsome, blue-haired youkai named Kuju. Enki had returned to sit next to his snoring wife and grin up at the screen, taking friendly wagers that his friend Kuju and the huge wolverine Sango had met on the first day---now fighting the third match of C---would win. Sango remembered how the tall wolverine had casually mentioned that he had once been sparring buddies with King Raizen, and she wondered at the enormous power radiating off the red mountain. She watched the screen warily, worrying for Touya against such an opponent as Kuju, but he seemed to be holding his own, and it looked like the battle would go on for some time.

She saw Rinku defeated by a young mouse demon, who he then chased around the platform, trying to give a congratulatory kiss. The boy seemed more excited that the young demoness had won than the fact that he had lost to her. It took the camera-girls some time to chase the pair off of the stalk so that the next match could take place. Sango felt her heart stop as the short, dark form ascended the platform with a cool look. She deliberately ignored that screen, eyes only snapping back when the winner---Hiei---was called, with a disappointed aside from Koto at how quickly the apparition had defeated his opponent.

But then it was Sango’s name being called over the loudspeaker to report for the fifth match of Group D, and she resolutely turned her mind from everything but the battle ahead. Squaring her shoulders and raising her chin, her eyes suddenly flicked over to the red demon, Enki. He gave her a toothy grin and a thumbs up. Surprised, she nodded her uncertain thanks as she walked out of the crowded room, the lizard making a snippy comment that made her eyes bleed.

She’d show those arrogant bastards just what the hell she was now capable of!


The indignity of hitching a ride with another half-naked camera-girl was at least offset by the fact that she didn’t have a squirming Skunk digging his claws into her belly. Still, this one wore even less clothing than the last. And boy, did the hoots from the watching audience about how she had to cling to the pretty, brown-haired girl as they flew up to the top of the okininju stalk have Sango’s ears burning.

It didn’t help that the camera-girl said cheerfully, “Hey, you are kind of cute. Maybe we can meet up after the first rounds are over?”

“Ah…no, thank you,” Sango said, uncomfortably aware of how her arms were wrapped tight around the girl’s waist as they flew. The girl pouted, but then grinned as she directed the winged eyeball to set them down on the stage.

“That’s okay, not all of us are strictly-dickly.” Sango was glad to let go and have firm ground back beneath her feet. Her cheeks flamed at the brunette’s final sally as she rose back up into the air. “Let me know if you ever change your mind! I have one helluva talented tongue.”

She waggled it, and giggled flirtatiously at Sango’s stunned expression.

“Now that I wouldn’t mind paying to see.” The toothy grin of her giant adversary made Sango’s dark eyes flash. Stupid perverts. If she had to listen to one more arrogant male demon, she’d kick their teeth right down their damn throats---

“Ah, but I don’t know if there will be much to see once I’m through with you, girlie.”

Girlie.

“You are a rather luscious morsel.” He licked his chops. Licked his chops. Gods, she was getting tired of that!

“I wouldn’t mind eating you---”

Real-ly. How nice.

“Before I eat you. Haha. Get it? I wouldn’t mind eating you before I eat you! Heh-heh-heh!”

How sweet. How really fucking sweet. And oh my god---he couldn’t be doing what she thought he was doing. He wouldn’t be that disgusting!

“Or I could give you a taste of this,” he taunted, cupping his groin as his eyes glittered. “You have some nice lips, girlie. I can just see them wrapped around my---”

That was it!

Sango rounded on him, blood in her eye as her fist curled. The demon took an involuntarily step backwards as Koto’s voice thundered, “Let the match begin!”


Yusuke’s right eyebrow kept twitching as he stared at the screen, his stunned expression matched by all the other guys watching the wind-changeling thoroughly kick the giant ogre’s ass. Holy shit, he thought Keiko was bad, but this…this was…pure fucking amazing holy shit awesome!

He’d never seen the slayer fight like that, even in the Forest of Fools, with the blood-madness upon her. He could hear the ogre’s jaw break when she jumped on his right knee to snap-kick him in the head. She literally ran up the length of him, hands striking a series of flat-handed chops that had the ogre shrieking like a girl as she rendered his arms useless, finally cracking his instep with one grounded pink tennis shoe as a last insult. She finished it off with an elegant, side-ways-turning type kick---kind of like a ballerina move---that sent the broken wreck of the ogre flying back several feet, creating a furrow across the churned earth as he slammed bodily into a tree.

Even more hilarious was the pinecone, shaken loose as his huge body slammed into the tree, plopped right down on his thick head with a loud “clunk!” The demon’s eyes rolled up and he sagged over. Crossing her arms, the dark-haired girl whirled, anger hardly abated by the bloody glint in her eye as the match was called in her favor.

“Remind me, Kurama, to never piss her off,” Yusuke said in awe.

Kurama only smiled tightly, his green eyes enigmatic.


Mukuro watched the girl thoughtfully, her single blue eye drawn away only as the fire demon finally approached, his red eyes cold as he caught her gaze with his unwavering stare. Hiei had missed the entire fight between Sango and that buffoon, which had taken all of three minutes---the length of time it took for the apparition to return from his own match.

“The first round is going well,” she said as he joined her.

“Hn.”

She turned her eye back to the screen, hiding the hurt his indifference always caused her. “I’m glad. It means you and I will get the chance to fight all the sooner.”

“It couldn’t come fast enough,” he said, red eyes smoldering as they cut up to hers before flicking back away. It was that look that made the former king’s heart tighten in a painful way. Would it, could it, be enough? She didn’t know, and wouldn’t, until they finally fought each other. Her heart felt heavy, the knowledge that she loved the fire apparition kept locked deep inside. Could she love him enough to do what she must in order to free him from the darkness? Could he, would he, love her enough to do the same? Again, she wouldn’t know until they got the chance to fight, one on one.

She hid a reflexive shiver. It excited her even as it frightened her. Involuntarily, her blue eye met the steady gaze of her former general. As always, Kirin was there to offer his silent support, even with just a glance. He knew how much this tournament meant to her, and how little it had to do with who actually won Makai in the end. So long as she won what she wanted, needed, to help heal the darkness inside herself. That was all that mattered.


Kouga stared, stunned, at the screen. The girl’s picture flashed up with an “O” atop, showing she was the winner of Match D-28 as her opponent’s darkened with an “X” above it to show he’d lost.

He’d know that angry glint anywhere. Even with red eyes instead of pine-bark brown. Even with hair cut short at the chin and her bangs all tangled across her forehead. Although he’d never traveled with the Inu-gumi, he’d seen the taiji-ya get that same evil glint just before slapping the snot out of that damn hentai houshi with the wandering hand.

He didn’t know how, he didn’t know why, and he didn’t even care, truth be told. But somehow, someway, that damn slayer had shown up five hundred fucking years after everyone thought she’d died at the last battle. And here she was, in Makai of all places!

Kagome. Did she know? How could she? The miko thought her friend was dead, as she’d thought they all were. Boy, was she surprised when he’d shown up with the two meatheads in tow---young Shippou having gotten word to him through the grapevine that the beautiful girl he’d once loved had returned to her rightful era with that stinking mutt in tow. Course, now that Kouga had his sweet Ayame, he was able to tolerate that mangy Mutt-face a little more than in the past, though Inuyasha still wasn’t good enough for his sweet Kagome.

Kouga coughed. Well, not “his” sweet Kagome. Ayame would castrate him if he even thought that way about the miko---although how could he, since she was like a kid to him now that he’d aged five centuries and she’d stayed the same, luscious piece of---

*Jailbait,* his treacherous mind supplied, somehow in Ayame’s voice with Ayame’s green-eyed glower. Kouga paled. His mate had a temper to match that red hair of hers, and he wasn’t even going to think what she would do to him if she caught him sniffing after the miko again. The under-eighteen, thoroughly-in-love-with-her-smelly-dog miko.

But damn if he was going to sit around here with such important news. He’d quickly kick that sissy-looking, red-haired fox’s ass and then he’d have the day free to go tell Kagome the good news, since the second round in the Demon World Tournament wouldn’t be held until the next evening. Good thing his match was about to come up. And not for too much longer, since the sixth match of Group A had just been announced, between some loser named Jin and a bigger loser named Suiketsu. That meant the seventh matches (his own against that guy Kurama, whoever he was) would be starting soon---if that damn ice apparition and that blue-haired mongrel Kuju would fucking hurry it up!