The Kabuki team had agreed to a battle royale with the Ketsueki team. Kurama folded his hands together and sighed; isn't that exactly what I had warned them not to do? Moreover, he noticed a team member of theirs was missing, the one in the fox mask. Noting this, he rubbed his hand along his jaw line, an anxious habit. For some reason, he had been on edge all day. It was like that feeling when you aren't sure if you've left the stove on at home or not. Like he was forgetting something very important, and it nagged at him like a mosquito constantly buzzing around his ears.
"Watching this team again?" said Yusuke, climbing over a seat from behind to join Kurama.
"Yes," said Kurama, "I've seen some of the previous matches with the Ketsueki team, and I have to say, none of them have been very pretty. I'm curious to see how the Kabuki team will handle things."
"Hey, they only have four people, doesn't that disqualify them?"
Kurama shook his head, "In this tournament, if a team has even just one person left standing, they may continue on. In theory, a team with a single powerful member can win the whole thing."
Yusuke pointed out the small demon with the knifelike claws, "You think that's why they keep putting the little guy out first? Maybe the rest of them ain't too strong."
"Could be," Kurama admitted, "but I seriously doubt it. Part of this is a strategy game, like chess. And in chess, the first pieces to sacrifice are the pawns."
"What about prawns?" Kuwabara said, as he made his way to his seat, his arms once again laden with snacks.
"Not prawns, he said pawns," said Yusuke, grabbing a box of yakitori from Kuwabara, "and what took you so long?"
As the years passed, the image of Kuwabara and Yusuke as an old married couple grew ever stronger. Kurama chuckled quietly to himself as he pictured it in his head.
"Oh, Koenma stopped me," Kuwabara said, turning his torso to reveal that Koenma, still in his adult form stood behind him.
Koenma looked teary-eyed, "You left me behind last time. What's the point of me reserving box seats if all of you are going to sit down here?"
Yusuke shrugged, "Sorry, Koenma, the cheap seats are closer to the action, is all. Didn't mean to leave you all by yourself."
"Speaking of which," said Kuwabara, "Where's the pipsqueak?"
"I've been here the whole time, idiot," Hiei called from the other side of Kurama. (And then immediately hated himself when he realized he responded to "pipsqueak").
Luckily for Hiei, the announcer began to speak before the cogs in Kuwabara's head had made the connection.
"As I said before, both teams have agreed to a battle royale. The first team who knocks out or otherwise incapacitates at least three members of the other team wins! A dangerous gamble, given the Kabuki team is down one member and the Ketsueki team's track record. Will our masked fighters survive? Or will the Ketsueki team continue on? Let's find out. Ready? Fight!"
No one moved at first. The fighter with the black and white mask stood foremost in the ring, staring down the clawed yokai.
"I saw your last match," the yokai said. His voice was high and goblin-like, as if it were filled with pure malicious joy, "I was impressed. I'm Ketsueki, it will be an honor to kill you all."
"I don't plan on making it easy," Rieka said, sweeping into a side stance to make herself a smaller target, "but since you're smart enough to tell me your name I guess you can't be as dumb as you look. Maybe this match will be a little more challenging after all. Then again, even dogs know their names."
Rieka had dropped the bait, and Ketsueki had come running for it. Now I just need to count on Ayame. Rieka braces herself and dropped down to avoid the claws just in case. But rather than whistling past her, she heard several pinging noises, like stones bouncing off of glass. Bingo. Ketsueki was clawing at the translucent barrier Ayame had set. But that's strange, Rieka thought, the pinging noises were continuing around her in other directions too, even though Ketsueki was staring at her in bafflement.
Hiei's eyes flashed, "The other members of the Ketsueki team...they're just puppets."
Kurama's eyes glimmered with understanding, but Kuwabara and Yusuke simply responded with vacant expressions.
Meanwhile, Rieka has seen something suspicious in Ketsueki's movements. Although he seemed to have realized that he couldn't claw through the barrier, his fingers were still moving in an agitated way. As she looked more closely, she saw nearly invisible threads attaching to each finger like spider silk. Before she could rationalize what that meant, Hiro had moved on to the next phase of their plan.
The temperature dropped rapidly as Hiro drew in his yoki. Gadget's voice sounded in her head 3...2...1...jump! In unison, the team jumped as Hiro froze the arena, locking their opponents feet in place.
Ketsueki looked haughtily at Rieka, "Ohh, tricksy one you are. All the more fun to play with!"
Ketsueki dragged his hands erratically, and the realization finally hit her. "His hands!" Rieka cried, "You have to freeze his hands!"
What happened next did not go according to plan.
The other members of the Ketsueki team had remained farther back, but since Hiro had moved closer to the center of the arena, he got a good look at them for the first time. There was something not quite right about them. They were too still, and even more strange, he couldn't spot the fog of their breath in the now-icy atmosphere. By the time Hiro had heard Rieka's cry, it was already too late.
One of the other members of the Ketsueki team began moving with a mechanical jerk as it freed itself from the ice. No, Hiro realized, not one, but all of them moved in synchronized movements. Hiro saw the glimmer of thread coming from Ketsueki's hands now. The other members of the team were nothing but marionettes, and Ketsueki was the puppet master. Hiro focused his yoki to blast Ketsueki's hands with more ice, but before he could concentrate his blast, he was knocked to the ground from behind.
The marionettes themselves were like stone. Getting hit with one of those things would have easily brained an ordinary person, but for Hiro it simply knocked the breath out of him and sent him skittering across the ice.
Seeing this, Rieka knew she could no longer remain motionless. The barrier Ayame made had been 2-way—he couldn't get at her, nor she at him. She wondered how she might have told Ayame this without letting Ketsueki know—at his speed, that extra nanosecond of knowledge could have meant the difference between life and death.
Sis, watch out! Gadget called out in their minds. The marionettes, despite their weight and bulk, were deadly fast. Ayame has been concentrating her energy on maintaining Rieka's barrier, and hadn't noticed one sneak up behind her. It swung its stone arm mercilessly at the back of her neck, and before she could even turn around, the blow connected, and Ayame fell unconscious on the arena.
In that moment, Rieka's barrier went down, but that was enough time to prepare for Ketsueki's attack. His eyes glimmered mercilessly, and as he reached his claws out to her Rieka felt as if time had slowed down.
If ballet had given her any advantage to her fighting technique, it was that she had superior flexibility and heightened control of even the smallest of her muscle groups. In short, she was an excellent dodger. It was why she volunteered to go to the forefront, just in case.
She was dancing with him then, she anticipated each lightning-fast swipe of his claws and moved away from them, her body as fluid as water. What became difficult now was finding an opening on Ketsueki's body to land a hit. She couldn't dodge forever, especially on an icy arena. If she landed a hit, it had to be a good one.
She allowed her left arm to coat itself in electric energy once again. She studied the sweeping motion of his arms as he clawed at her. For just the tiniest of moments, he left his gut exposed as he extended his arms. She ducked down and prepared to punch...when Ketsueki lost traction on the ice. He fell forward at an unexpected angle, and while Rieka twisted away from underneath him, she couldn't entirely escape his claws. One sliced through her mask, sending the black and white halves clattering cleanly on the floor.
Well shit, she thought errantly, so much for hiding my identity. Lifting up her right hand, she pointed her index finger at the fallen Ketsueki and yelled, "Rei-gun!"