Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Demon Dancers and PuppetMasters ❯ Chapter Nine ( Chapter 9 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

-Demon Dancers and PuppetMasters- by Nemesis Q. Ravens

Chapter Nine

The day everyone was waiting for had arrived; the day of the Dark Tournament.

News of the top two competing teams had spread like wildfire. Everyone was coming to watch the Uremeshi team take on the Dark Tournament’s current champions. Many waited anxiously to witness the execution of Yusuke Uremeshi and his team… at least that’s what they hoped the battle outcome would be.

Nemesis was not with the Kyrios team when they arrived to start the tournament with a good-natured murder of a puny group trying to sign up for the tournament. The handful of demons that were annihilated were young and stupid. Naïve, the group was easily torn to shreds by the cocky pair, Jason and Kyle.

Afterwards, the two were immediately sent to the stadium’s showers to wash away the weaklings’ blood that had splattered over their clothes and skin. Damien would not stand such filth on any member of his team. No matter how dumb they were.

The Demon Dancer was mingling among the crowds observing Team Uremeshi and its newest recruit, Janie. The guilt and sadness from the night before had been trodden into nothing long before the sun had rose that morning after the storm. Her hood was up like always and keeping her face from view. She wore her black cloak, keeping her extremely revealing outfit out of sight. The whole costume’s dominating black color reflected her mood like a pristine mirror.

“Don’t you worry, Janie; you‘ll be in Hell with your daughter before you know it,” she whispered softly.

In the recesses of her mind, Nemesis felt the stirring of PuppetMaster. It knew that Janie. It wanted to destroy her. It wanted Janie dead. Soon, she promised the demon soul. Soon.

“Okay guys, let’s go get settled,” said Yusuke as they all pushed and shoved their way to grab some seats in the stands. Since they didn’t have to fight just yet, they decided to get a look at their competition. “Team Kyrios is fighting first.”

The crowds were horrendous. Demons and the like had gathered to attend this tournament. Yelling and screaming filled the stadium. Food from any imaginable source and drink ranging from wine to water to blood was being passed and sold all around the Uremeshi team struggling to reach some empty seats. Although still early in the day, with a low temperature, the stadium was a gigantic sauna due to all the body heat radiating from the packed, anxious fans.

Kuwabara wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead and commented to the rest of the team, “Jeez, it’s friggin’ hot.” None of them replied and Yusuke and Janie just nodded.

The five kept pushing and shoving the beings in their way to the side. A number of demons had yelled obscenities after the Uremeshi team. Of course, they were generally ignored by the lot of them. Then again, sometimes you just had to quiet the voices with a strong left hook to the jaw or a neat kick up between the legs -- a move only used by Janie since the boys were not as cruel as to do that to a fellow male.

Finally they found some empty seats. Yusuke had to get rid of a few pesky demons that refused to relent their chairs to Team Uremeshi, but all in all the seats were taken without too much trouble. As they all settled down, the bleachers around them were filled up as the two battling teams arrived down in the arena.

Below the thousands of fans yelling and screaming excitedly, the two campaigning teams entered the arena. None of the Uremeshi members heard the other team’s name; they were totally fixated on Team Kyrios.

The five figures strode into the arena with straight backs and heads held high. Janie’s breath halted as she watched the couple. Damien walked with Nemesis pressed to his side. She could practically see the confident smirk on the demon’s face. The three others, Kyle, Jason, and Demontos, all followed behind Damien and Nemesis. Both yetis waved and posed for the cheering admirers. Not cheering for them, mind you, but cheering nonetheless.

“Confident little bastards, aren’t they?” commented Yusuke.

Janie snorted. “You have no idea. I’ve been watching these guys for a long time and they seem to only get worse.”

But even as the others smirked, they all silently worried about the three girls they had come all this way to get back.

Down below, the two teams faced off.

The stands overflowed with screaming fans. All five fighters of the Kyrios team stood with an air of confidence. This was the first battle of the Dark Tournament and Damien Kyrios and his team were sure of their imminent win.

Across the arena huddled five rookie fighters. Both Kyle and Jason had lain claim to the only two females in the opposing team. Damien calmly gazed upon the five now walking into the ring as he affectionately nuzzled Nemesis.

All ten fighters faced off as Damien and this sad band’s leader both met in the middle. When Damien returned Team Kyrios moved off the ring and waited for one of the opposing members to step forth and call out the name of their desired adversary.

Before the fight started, Damien noted Uremeshi’s presence in the crowds and smirked. “Let’s give those ingrates a little preview of their own demise,” he said the others of his team.

The first to battle was Demontos. He was selected by, as dubbed in Nemesis’ mind, Aladdin. The shirtless man, somewhere in his twenties, stood with an eyebrow raised and his long, waist-length braid was casually flung forward over his shoulder. His blue eyes stood out against darkly tanned skin, as did the loose white pants he wore. Without any foot protection, the scimitar-wielding man looked as if he’d stepped out of a copy of Arabian Nights.

Demontos wore his customary fighting uniform: tight gray t-shirt that flaunted his tight abs and some sexy black pants with a durable pair of army boots. His iridescent silver eyes watched emotionlessly from the shadows of his long bangs. No apparent weapon was in Demontos’ possession.

The two faced off.

Stepping forth, the announcer screamed “Fight!”

It wasn’t much of a battle really. The slight wind demon quickly dispatched of his opponent with a sharp, concentrated blast of air in the fighter’s face. With no barrier placed around Aladdin, the attack worked beautifully. The man’s sight was annihilated as the bullet of wind tore through the vulnerable eyeball and continued on, ripping the soft, gray tissue that was the man’s brain.

Aladdin was blown to Hell. No pun intended.

The first fight of the tournament was ended in strong favor of Team Kyrios. Next it was the Kyrios Team’s turn to select an opponent. Jason jumped into the ring and gestured for one of the team’s women to come.

As the woman came into the ring, Nemesis watched with rising fury as she gazed at Damien with unhidden lust and invitingly winked at him. Mentally the Demon Dancer clawed those earth-tone eyes out with hooked fingers. She saw herself tearing out, strand by strand, the bitch’s blonde-highlighted brunette hair. The woman’s currently pouting lips would be wide open she screamed in agony as Nemesis beat the living crap out of her. The Demon Dancer enjoyed the image of the brown, form-clinging dress with a slant cut in the skirt filled with holes, spurting brilliant red blood as Nemesis stabbed her again and again with the bitch’s own sais.

What a fucking slut! Jason better fucking kill her, Nemesis thought as the churning of fury continued within her being. No one even THINKS of enjoying what is MINE!

The woman stared in disgust at the earth demon panting heavily with barely controlled lust. As he slowly began to advance on her, Slut spun both of the sais and threw them at Jason. He swatted them out of the air as if they were flies and kept walking. The brunette glanced around, unsure of what to do now. She finally decided to attack without the sais. Slut charged and kicked Jason in the groin… or at least tried to. He snatched her leg before it connected with that tender flesh. Jason, enjoying the view of the last few inches of Slut’s legs, grabbed and flung her to the ground. The stands erupted with cheers and laughter as Jason proceeded to rape the screaming Slut.

The second battle of the Dark Tournament was ended unanimously rooting for Kyrios.

Now the youth Nemesis had mentally deemed Lucky stepped forward and challenged Damien Kyrios to fight after Jason had dragged Slut out of the ring. In acceptance to the challenge, Damien released his lover and stepped into the ring.

It was obvious that Lucky wasn’t stupid. He approached cautiously and stopped when he was at a safe distance, or so he thought. All Damien’s victim’s had come to realize that there was no safe distance.

Lucky’s hands sat at his waist and Damien saw tattoos decorating his wrist, in the design of a dream catcher. In the middle of the tattoo was the word “Luck” written elaborately. It seemed that everything in Lucky’s life dealt with luck. At Lucky’s side was a sword. It wasn’t one of those gigantic blades like Kyle’s favorite, but it was one of those small, stick-like swords that fencers commonly used -- a foil. Damien’s mind registered that as a threat if the teen knew how to use it, but he was confident that he still had no true worries yet.

Damien and Lucky began fighting once Kyrios had changed one of his own personal weapons into a foil. Each defended and attacked. Round and round they fought and Damien could feel Nemesis’ eyes on him.

“Let’s get this over and done with already.”

Damien paused in surprise. The lad’s voice sounded like most adolescents, yet there was something else too. In the recesses of Lucky’s voice there was a deep, dark, coldly calculating calm that planted a seed of doubt in even Damien Kyrios.

Then time appeared to stop. One moment the emerald-eyed Lucky was halfway across the arena and in the next he was at Kyrios’ side with his fist rushing towards Damien’s face. For seconds it seemed as if the punch was going to make impact, but at the last possible moment Kyrios parried the attack and planted his own clenched fist into Lucky’s chest.

Lucky was lifted into the air from the force of the assault. Lucky was hit so hard that he flew into the arena wall, one hundred yards across the coliseum. As he hit the stone wall, a thudding sound echoed throughout the battle ground.

Crying out in pain as his head struck the wall, Lucky was almost instantly devoured by the collapsing wall. After a moment, in which the audience waited with baited breath to see if the lad had survived, Lucky stood up slowly with his hand grasping his left shoulder. There was blood on the stones and Damien assumed that he broken Lucky’s arm. But if anything else happened, Kyrios was unable to tell from the teen’s amazing facial control.

There was a crack as Lucky pushed his arm back into the socket without even a wince. With every passing second, Damien was coming to like this boy more and more. It was rare that an opponent had such great dignity. Then the battle continued as Lucky stepped forward again with his foil at the ready.

Round and round they went again until something happened. As Damien moved forward in a lunge, Lucky struck with astounding speed. The red-haired adolescent caught Damien totally off-guard and the result was an “L” shape carved into Kyrios’ chest.

Jumping back, Damien analyzed his chest with critical eyes. When he looked up at Nemesis she saw no anger on his face, but in fact a sort of pride.

Then before Lucky had a chance to react, Damien leapt forward and snatched the boy’s foil from his hands. In a quick motion Kyrios knocked Lucky out and placed another ring in his ear. After that, he released the lad and watched his limp body hit the ground.

The third battle of the Dark Tournament ended once again in favor of Team Kyrios.

Then it was Kyle’s turn. He stepped forward when his opponent called him forth in challenge. The water demon was quite confident of an easy win.

The woman stood with arms crossed. In one word -- gothic. Everything she wore was as black as the abyss. Her skin’s ghost-like pallor contrasted with the finality of her chosen garments. Gothic’s long black trench coat was adorned with painted crosses -- all of them inverted. With a pierced eyebrow raised, then drawn down in a frown, Gothic listened to Kyle predict her future of submitting to him and his bestest best friend, “Shaft”.

Then with formalities completed, the water demon summoned his personal favorite weapon, which, for the sake of originality, Kyle had named Pacific Ocean. He charged. Kyle swung the gargantuan blade; bigger than Gothic by half. The woman disappeared with a blur of shadow and materialized behind him. Kyle’s pounding gait was forced to slow when he saw her disappear.

While her opponent was occupied with stopping before he hit the wall, Gothic turned to Nemesis and Damien. Looking straight at the Demon Dancer, she began to speak. “She who has both lived and will soon die shall reveal to her natural source that, of her fate, she lied.”

So intently had Gothic focused to speak to Nemesis that, the woman failed to sense the charging demon behind her. Both Damien and Nemesis watched with a cool gaze as Gothic’s head slid to the side with a moist sound before it toppled over and fell with a dull thud to the ground. Kyle spit on the crumpled body and with a rough kick, sent the corpse flying some dozen feet away.

Bending to pick up the decapitated head, Kyle grinned tossed it over to the body. “Rule number one,” he said with a grin to Jason. “Never lose your head in a fight.”

Jason roared with laughter as he crawled off of Slut’s battered form on the side of the ring. Thousands of others in the stadium joined in the delight at the yeti’s wit. The mirth was thunderous.

The fourth battle of the Dark Tournament was also finished with Team Kyrios dominating. Last was Nemesis vs. the opposing team leader.

Nemesis watched the man warily. He showed no signs of what he controlled; be it an element or mere animalistic demon blood. Her gown fluttered in a small breeze and the bells chimed softly from their place at her thighs as she entered the ring where he stood. She held no apparent weapon as she dispassionately studied him.

He stood taller than Damien’s six foot two by at least four inches. Beady, pale -- almost colorless -- eyes looked at her from the depths of his long and narrow gaunt face. A scar decorated one of his high cheekbones and crossed the bridge of his hawkish nose grotesquely. Thin limbs were covered with a hideous outfit composed of sickly green slacks and an equally horrendous shirt of a gray color that appeared to look more like someone had thrown a sheet of flaky elephant skin over him. In one long fingered hand was a machete

The Demon Dancer didn’t move. Seeing as the man wished to fight her, she allowed him the first move.

He took it.

The man struck cobra fast. His machete flew at Nemesis with deadly precision… But not deadly enough. She stepped to the side and his machete sung as it zoomed in the air to her right. The Demon Dancer didn’t blink as she made then turned the battle her way.

As if appearing from the air itself, PuppetMaster was there. In its fairy-size, it hovered beside Nemesis at eye level. The demon soul gazed at the man with disdainful eyes. Seeing the hostile stare of the man and the grip on his weapon, PuppetMaster immediately came to Nemesis’ defense.

The demon soul rushed towards the man faster than a speeding bullet. The man screamed in surprise as blood spurted from his chest where PuppetMaster disappeared within his torso. His colorless eyes widened in shock. He lifted a hand to the gaping hole in his chest as blood slowly began to seep from his slack jaw. His ugly gray shirt quickly turned a dark crimson.

He teetered on his feet momentarily before his dropped to his knees. PuppetMaster emerged from the cavity of the enemy team leader’s chest and the man fell backward to the arena floor. Scarlet instantly started to spread all about his quickly chilling body.

Nemesis watched PuppetMaster fly back to her with a pleased smirk. Then the demon soul once again showed a delightful sense of style as he gently lowered a still quivering mass of bloody flesh in her outstretched hand. The man’s heart was nearly twice the size of PuppetMaster’s fairy form.

The final opposing team member was extinguished with a satisfyingly squishy sound as Nemesis crushed his heart in her hand.

As the cheers of the fans filled the air of the stadium, Team Kyrios walked away victorious. The two yetis were proceeded by Demontos. At the rear of the procession was the couple Nemesis and Damien. The Demon Dancer was as usual in the protective circle of Kyrios’ arm.

Not looking up, Nemesis inquired, “What was the earring for?”

“You saw that?” He waited until she nodded. “Well, there is hologram in it. I offered him a chance on our team.”

Nemesis glanced up at him sharply, her sapphire eyes penetrating through the murky shadows of her hood. “And just how do you plan to do that? We’ve already got five. Unless one of the members dies outside the tournament, we cannot add another.”

Damien tightened the arm around her waist with a chuckle. As she wrapped her own around his waist also he nodded and said, “I know very well the rules, my love. But I have a feeling that that boy will be on our team by the time we face Uremeshi and his little friends.”

Not questioning him, Nemesis walked silently alongside her lover the rest of the way to the sleeping quarters of the Dark Tournament stadium.