She's Slowly Saving Me From Myself...[Hiei][23]

“Ladies and gentlemen let the first battle of this match begin! On my right..Karasu!”

Everyone watched as the tall dark headed demon made his way onto the ring, Ceraza eyes him curiously focusing on the small mask that covered his mouth.

“And fighting for Team Uremeshi, Kurama!” Following suit, Kurama made his way onto the ring, a determined look upon his face. The crowd cheered the loudest today, never had Ceraza heard them shout this loud throughout the whole tournament.

But amongst the shouting crowd, five people in particular routed for Kurama. Looking up Ceraza noticed Yukina, Keiko, Shizuru, Boton and Ogre all there cheering for her team.

“If those idiots cause a riot I'm not going to be the one to save them.” Yusuke mumbled, Ceraza shrugged.

“I guess I would.” But where are you Katsumi?..

“Both fighters take your opening pose, and begin!” That was more then enough to get both fighters started. Kurama began to summon up beautiful rose petals that surrounded him, gently floating in the breeze.

'Leave it to Kurama to make something beautiful, absolutely deadly.'

'Yes, he could make the most brutal fight into a piece of art. Pathetic if you ask me. Hn.'

Ceraza rolled her eyes at Hieis words and continued to watch the fight, Karasu however seemed uninterested about the petals and began to walk straight into them.

'If he walks any closer, the petals will engulf him'.'She noted, but didn't expect Karasu to raise up his hands and some how make each of the rose petals explode.

“What the hell? How did he do that?” Kuwabara asked.

“Be careful Kurama!” Called Yusuke with slight worry.

Pretty soon, Karasu began advancing on Kurama, striking his hands out in attempt to touch any part of his body. If he did succeed he would be able to make that part of his body explode. Kurama had no choice but to summon his rose whip in attempts to defend himself. But that didn't stop Karasu as he soon made the whip it self, blow up.

“Damn it, how is he suppose to fight something he can't see?” Ceraza growled in frustration.

It was then Ceraza watched Karasu managed to land an attack on Kuramas arm. Her eyes widen as she watched the blood drip down his sleeve, it seemed Karasu had only manage to just scrap his arm, but the injury it inflicted was bad.

“You OK?”

“Darn it, what's the deal? Why doesn't he change? If that guy gave him bad juice I'll make him regret the day he was born!” Cerazas head snapped in his direction.

“What juice?...And what do you mean change? Kuwabara what has Kurama done?!” Ceraza yelled, forcefully grabbing his collar, but he didn't get a chance to answer her as Kuramas leg was suddenly hurt just like his arm, the teams attention was drawn back to the match and Ceraza let him go.

They watched as Karasu began to summon power to his right hand, creating something within it with his energy. What ever it was, was soon thrown at Kurama and exploded once it hit the ground, making a large explosion. The team gasped, Yusuke and Kuwabara shielded themselves, using there arms to cover their faces from the heat and brightness.

“Impossible!” Ceraza yelled, taking a step forward without realising it, this made her too close to the ring and the explosion as it only got bigger.

Hiei immediately grabbed her and pulled her behind him, he turned to her so that his back was facing the explosion, there for protecting Ceraza from harm. Her eyes widened in shock. His grip on her arms increased as he looked at her face with anger, it was hard to hear anything at the time though.

“Are you mad Onna?!” He shouted, but only she could hear him. Yusuke and Kuwabara were still covering themselves. Hieis and Cerazas eyes at that moment locked, he felt as though the red head in front of him was looking straight into him, in to who he was, he struggled to look away.

“H-hiei..”

But he let go of her arms, and stood to her side as if nothing happened. The ring began to calm down a little, allowing Yusuke and Kuwabara to hear and see what was now going on.

“Does anyone see him?!” Yusuke yelled, looking into the remaining smoke. Ceraza though was still phased as to her incident with Hiei, her eyes glanced over to him for a moment.

'Why?..Why did he do that?'

Focusing her eyes back onto the ring, Ceraza managed to make out a silhouette in the fog, but she wasn't sure if it was Karasu or Kurama. Then she felt a very familiar spirit energy, that made her wonder if it was even possible.

“It's him..”

Black energy sparks erupted from the smoke, making many demons in the stands run away with fear. She could feel how tense the whole place had become.

And then just like that, confirming Cerazas suspicions, there stood Youko in all his glory. The smoke instantly vanished with a whip of his tail.

“Alright! This is gunna' be sweet!” Shouted Kuwabara, punching his fist into the air with clear excitement.

“You're telling me that's Kurama?” Yusuke spoke, suddenly becoming nervous.

“Basically. As you know his name is Youko Kurama. But he's known by several other titles too” Answered Ceraza, not taking her eyes off of the fox.

With a few words spoken between both Karasu and Youko, Karasu began to summon another attack, but this time, two small and ugly creatures appeared in the air.

'So he uses them to act as bombs..impressive'

It didn't phase Youko though, as he pulled out two roses from his hair and threw them at the flying creatures that flew towards him. As the roses hit, the creatures then blew up.

Again Karasu tried, this time Youko became surrounded by the same creatures, making him summon up a rather large man -Or in this case Demon- eating plant. The tables turn as now Karasu is the one being pursued by these deadly fast moving plants that wanted to eat him,

“That super fox Kurama is going to beat that idiot, I just know!” Cheered Kuwabara.

'I hope so'

//With Katsumi Asakura\\

Placing an envelope onto Cerazas bed, Katsumi sighed deeply.

'I never expected this to happen to soon..'

With sad eyes, the younger Asakura sister left her older sisters room and closed the door behind her gently as she made her way into the living room.

'If she knew, she'd probably kill me' She giggled a little to herself, imagining Cerazas angry face chasing her around the hotel.

'But..its okay now. Because she's not alone any more.' The faces of Team Uremeshi began to flash through her mind. First was Kuwabara, and how Ceraza often insulted him, causing him to get angry and jump for her. But Hiei would always intervene and push Kuwabara into another direction.

Next was Yusuke, him and Ceraza had a connection much like a brother and sister. The loss of Genkai truly effected them, as though two siblings had just lost a grandmother. Yusuke supports Ceraza in everything she does, Katsumi could see that he thought a great deal for her sister.

Then there was Kurama, Katsumi would often find both Ceraza and Kurama sat on the sofas, talking peacefully about things that they wished to speak about, and although Katsumi was starting to develop feelings for him, she saw the bond he shared with Ceraza, as though they were best friends over hundreds of years.

Finally there was Hiei. Katsumi couldn't really understand Hiei as a person, but it was very clear to her the feelings he held for Ceraza. Where ever she was, so was he, a giggle escaped from Katsumis mouth as she remembered how she often teased her sister about the two of them. But of course Ceraza only denied any feelings other then friendship and trust. Hiei would fight for her, whether she needed him too or not, and Ceraza would do the same.

Closing her eyes, Katsumi let loose a few tears that slowly rolled down her cheek and onto the floor.

'I am so sorry sister..But you deserve to be happy, and here you are. This is where you belong, I wont let him take that away from you!' She thought before finally speaking out loud, opening her eyes with pure determination, her fists clenched.

“Not this time!”

//With Team Uremeshi\\

“You see? He's plant food!”

“Kick his ass Kurama!” Cheered both Kuwabara and Yusuke, but Ceraza didn't celebrate just yet. Something seems odd to her, like everything was just too easy.

They all watched as one of the large plants managed to grab a hold of Karasu, it lifted him up into the air with ease and began to crush his body.

“That was the most beautiful-est thing I've ever seen, Kuramas plant just grabs Karasu and juiced him up like a fresh orange!” Koto announced from the stands, standing in her seat with excitement.

“Eat that Toguro!”

“Yes, two more wins and its done!”

Youko smiled up at his masterpiece and began to walk away, he headed to the rest of the team, just when everything thought victory was absolute. The plants that constricted Karasu all exploded.

The whole team gasped in surprise, as Karasu stood in place without a scratch on him.

Taking a deep breath, Cerazas eyes narrowed once noticing Karasus' sudden change in appearance. His once black hair is now a long blonde colour, and his power increased.

'The mask..It must have concealed his power somehow!'

“Will someone explain to me what's going on?!”

“His energy it piling up inside of him making him a virtual bomb” Hiei answered Kuwabara with a smirk.

“Are you serious?!” Yusuke asked in fear.

“Of course I am, And he is about to detonate. I would take cover while you still can” The two of them began to back away, Hieis eyes glanced over at Ceraza.

“That includes you.” She shook her head.

“I'm not going anywhere.”

“Hn.” Because of her answer, Hiei took a few steps so that he was slightly in front of her. This made him able to protect her if anything bad was to happen.

'Why is my heart suddenly pounding?.. Could Katsumi be right?'

Karasu jumped up into the air, a bright light forming around him as he laughed loudly. He then came charging down straight towards Youko.

Once he made contact, the bomb exploded.

'Not again!' Moaned Ceraza in her mind as the explosion make a hole in the side of the arena, blasting straight threw it and killing many demons, team Uremeshi was suddenly blown away form the force.

Yusuke was thrown in to a wall, with Kuwabara beside him. Hiei stayed close by Ceraza as they managed land perfectly onto of the wall, unharmed.

“Is everyone alright?” She called down to the two humans, as they began to stand.

“Can anyone else hear singing?” Kuwabara asked, placing his hands on his head, he looked up to see Ceraza and Hiei on the wall, he was about to ask how they were able to do that when Yusuke cut him off.

“Where's Kurama?!”

Ceraza and Hiei jumped down off the wall and stood next to the team, all eyes focusing onto the ring to find any trace of there team mate.

Then coming out of the rocks that had fallen onto the ring, stood Kurama no longer in his demon form, Ceraza sighed with relief.

“Oh crap, now he's really going to have to wing it” Mumbled Yusuke.

Kurama tried to summon his rose whip but it just blew up in his hand.

'He's too weak...' Ceraza thought with worry as she watched her oldest friend struggle.

But Kurama did something unpredictable and ran straight for Karasu and began attacking him while Karasu dodged.

“What are you doing?!” Yelled Ceraza in fear and confusion.

“He has a plan, its obvious is the way that he moves,” She looked at Hiei for a moment.

“It better be a good one..”

Somehow Kurama managed to land a hit on Karasus' chest, but he saw straight through it and pulled out the death seed Kurama had planted.

Karasu sent a bomb for Kurama and it his his leg without a problem, he yelled in pain as he fell to the ground.

“Kurama!” Yelled Yusuke, as he began to get back up.

“Don't move another inch, you're surrounded by bombs!” Called Ceraza as she ran towards the edge of the ring.

Kurama froze and looked around him, now noticing the floating bombs, Karasu began walking closer to him.

“Don't you dare!” Spoke Ceraza in a deadly voice. But Karasu smirked and sent all the floating bombs to attack Kurama. He shouted in pain as each one landed.

“KURAMA!”

“NO!!”

Both Yusuke and Ceraza screamed from the top of their lungs, tears threatened to fall from her eyes as she watched her best friend fall to the ground in pain. His clothes soaked in his own blood. The whole team stood shocked, even Hiei was speechless and shaking slightly.

“The crowd is going wild here! And rightly so Kurama is down and I don;t think he's getting back up!”

“Shut up! He will get back up!” Ceraza shouted, trying to believe the words herself as Juri began the count down.

By the count of seven, Kurama crawled to his hands and knees.

'No stay down! Please stay down!'

With the last of his energy, Kurama sent one final attack straight to Karasus heart. A large plant came from his body and plunged straight into and threw Karasu, adsorbing his energy, the team gasped with surprise.

“His life...!” Started Yusuke

“Its fading!” Spoke Kuwabara

“Damn it Kurama get up! I've already had to say goodbye to someone I love...Don't make me do it again, please!” Begged Ceraza, fighting her tears. This couldn't be it, it just couldn't.

No response.

“I swear, I'll drag you back here myself if I have too. Now Get up!”

Some how, Kurama actually managed to open his eyes. Slowly he began to move and eventually got to his feet.

'It's alright. Youko gave him some of his power, he'll survive.'

Ceraza looked at Hiei with a smile of relief, he noticed the tears in her eyes but chose not to say anything, he gave her a nod and looked back at Kurama.

“Yeah! And that's how we win this!” Yelled Yusuke happily, happy they had won, and happy their friends had survived.

Once the announcement had been made, Kurama made his way over to the team. Immediately Yusuke helped him down of the ring and let him go once Ceraza appeared before him with a unreadable look in her eye.

Raising her hand, Ceraza slapped Kurama across the face. Making the team shocked.

“You idiot...”

Kurama looked back at her with a sad smile.

“I'm sorry.” Was his only reply, Ceraza placed her arms around his waist and hugged him. Not caring if she got blood on her outfit, Hiei for some reason looked away as a feeling of jealously was felt inside of him.

“Don't you ever scare me like that again. Or I'll kill you myself..” She mumbled into his chest, her hands had already began glowing on his back, healing what she could. Kurama smiled and hugged her back softly.

“Yes Ma'am”