Human World, Hanging Neck Island.
Standing across from Ura Urashima, Kurama pulled a rose from the sleeve of his outfit. At the same time, Ura Urashima materialized a fishing pole in his left hand. Then, Kurama channeled his demonic energy into the rose, turning it into a whip. Both fighters then began whirling their weapons of choice over their heads.
{"It looks like we'll be seeing a match between to experts of lashing weapons!"} Kuro shouted excitedly.
As if Kuto's exclamation were some kind of starting signal, Kurama and Ura both lashed at each other with their weapons. To the audience's surprise, instead of a slapping sound, it sounded as if two metal objects had struck each other when the weapons connected. And that was only the beginning.
From there, both fighters began whipping about the ring, swinging their weapons furiously. The clashing sounds ringing out constantly.
"Kya~~!" Juri screamed as Ura's fishing line passed by her right ear.
At about the same time, Kurama's facial expression twitched minutely.
"[Kurama, please don't stop or slow down.]" Ura's voice sounded in Kurama's head. "[But... I really need your help.]"
The reason for Kurama's twitch was the fact that Ura was reaching out to him telepathically. Something that he was sure was against the rules of the Dark Tournament. However, after hearing that Ura needed his help, he was willing to at least hear him out.
"[Why would you ask me, your opponent, for help during a match?]" Kurama replied telepathically.
"[Because if I asked out in the open, I'm sure Shishi and Onji would kill me.]" Ura replied, sounding truly desperate. "[And not only me, but my family as well.]"
"[Explain.]" Kurama said.
Meanwhile, to the outsiders, it seemed as if the fight between Kurama and Ura was getting even more intense. The speed of their weapons had increased to the point that anyone below the middle-rank would be unable to even see the blurs of their weapons cutting through the air.
"[It's like this.]" Ura said, beginning to explain his situation. "[One day, Shishi and Onji came to my village, the village where Kuro, Makintaro, and I lived. They said they wanted to participate in the Dark Tournament and wanted us to join their team.]"
At that moment, Ura had to pause his explanation to put more focus on dodging an attack from Kurama's [Rose Whip], that came at him from a particularly tricky angle. Then, after getting his footing back, he continued.
"[All three of us had heard of the Dark Tournament before.]" Ura said, continuing his story. "[I mean, what demon hasn't. But none of us wanted to fight such strong demons. Like I said, we all had families to take care of.]"
Hearing that, although he did not show it on his face, Kurama could understand what Ura meant. He would not have fought in this tournament, either, if his mother's life had not been threatened.
"[Then, Onji gave us weapons that would make us stronger.]" Ura said, beginning to wrap up his story. "[And... We... I think you know the rest.]"
"[I understand where you're coming from.]" Kurama replied. "[But what do you expect me to do? I'm sure they have fail safes in place. There's no way I could get to your family in time to save them.]"
"[That's not necessary.]" Ura replied. "[If we die, then they'll let our families go. But I don't want to die. I never even wanted to be here in the first place]"
With that, the conversation lulled into silence for a few moments. However, the battle continued as if the two were really trying to kill each other. Eventually, after a minute or so, a time in which Ura received several wounds that bled but were in no way fatal, or even serious, Kurama came up with a way to get Ura out of his predicament.
"[I have a way to save you.]" Kurama said. "[By piercing you with my [Rose Whip] in a certain location, I can send your body into a temporary death state. One you won't awaken from until a couple days after the tournament ends. That should make the other two believe you are dead. Then, when you wake up, you can relocate your family.]"
"[Really?]" Ura asked in a joyous tone. "Kurama... Thank you... Really... Thank you.]"
"[Don't worry about it.]" Kurama replied. "[Now, all we have to do is get the timing right. That way it will look natural.]"
"[Right, I'll follow your lead.]" Ura said in a hopeful tone.
For the next few minutes, Kurama and Ura continued to clash. The whole while, the wounds continued to pile up on Ura's body. Eventually, after Ura made a swing of his fishing pole that was too wide, both Kurama and Ura's eyes narrowed.
"[Now!]" Both fighters said telepathically.
Then, as Kurama went to strike the spot that would leave Ura in a state of false death, Ura recovered his fishing line and struck Kurama's wrist with the hook at the end of the line. This, in turn, caused Kurama to drop his weapon.
"Oh man, that was easier than I thought it would be." Ura said with a sinister chuckle. "I guess the great Kurama isn't all that great. It looks like being in a human body has made you soft over the years, huh?"
Instead of speaking and trying to expose the fact that Ura had been asking him for help telepathically, Kurama focused on dodging the lashes from Ura's fishing line.
Kurama knew that there would be no point in asking for the match to be stopped. On top of no one believing his story, even if the committee did believe it, they would more than likely overlook it, since they all want Team Urameshi dead.
"*Sigh* That weakling was right." Hiei muttered from his spot at ringside. "Kurama really has gone soft over the years."
"Listening in on their telepathic conversation is a bad thing, Hiei." James replied to Hiei's muttering.
"Hmph!" Hiei snorted but refused to comment any further.
"You're getting boring, Hiei." James said with a disappointed shake of his head. "What happened to the death threats and the snappy comebacks?"
While James continued to badger Hiei with questions that were clearly meant to get a rise out of him, Hiei ignored them completely. Instead, he thought about what just happened.
'How did this fool know they were communicating telepathically?' Hiei thought without even glancing at James. 'There must be more to him than he let us know.'
If James could hear Hiei's thoughts, he would roll his eyes and say: "Of course there is something that I didn't tell you all about. I'm hiding my identity after all."
While James was annoying Hiei, Kurama continued dodging Ura's attacks. Eventually, he made it to the edge of the ring and tried to leap to the ground below. Unfortunately, before he could leave the ring's boundary, he was bounced backward.
When he looked carefully, Kurama noticed that the ring was covered by a barrier made of nearly invisible fishing line.
"Haha!" Ura laughed at Kurama who was unable to escape. "I put so much thought into this plan, do you really think I'd let you escape?"
On top of taunting Kurama, Ura also stopped attacking with his fishing rod. Instead, he reached into his shirt and pulled out a box. Then, he held it in front of his chest, letting Kurama see it while he smiled sinisterly.
"What is that?" Kurama asked, hoping to get Ura talking so that he would have more time to think of a solution to the predicament he found himself in.
"Oh, this?" Ura asked, holding the box in his hand up a little higher. "This is what we call the Idunn Box. It's filled with a mystical fog that turns all those other than their wielder younger."
"Wait!" Juri suddenly shouted. "Are you gonna open that while I'm still in here? Please, let me out first."
Ignoring Juri, Ura's eyes stayed focused on Kurama.
"It will be much easier to kill you once you're little more than a toddler." Ura said with a sinister chuckle. "I hate hard work, you see."
Instead of responding, Kurama simply stared into Ura's eyes while he thought of a way to get out of this situation.
"What a boring response." Ura said in an irritated tone. "It would have been so nice to hear you beg for your life. Oh well, there's no point in wasting time."
With that, Ura opened the box. And just as he said, a thick white mist started rising from it. It did not take long for the entire barrier that Ura had raised to keep Kurama in the ring to be filled by the mist.
As they began inhaling the mist, both Kurama and Juri began to age backward rapidly. And seeing as neither of them were very old, they were in real danger of aging backward until they no longer existed.
"Kya~~~~~!" Juri screamed as she finally stopped aging. "My boobs! My hips! My ass! They're all gone!"
Having de-aged from a beautiful demon in her mid-twenties to the age of a prepubescent child, Juri's assets were also de-aged out of existence. Kurama, on the other hand, was completely silent throughout the entire ordeal.
Just as Ura was about to start gloating, pressure from a strong demonic energy started to fill the barrier. Naturally, this left Ura unsure of what was going on. Due to the pressure, sparks of electricity started to manifest from its point of origin, the exact spot where Kurama had been standing when the Idunn Box was opened. A moment later, the sound of a fox rang out through the entire arena.
"You were correct about something, demon." a deep voice that sounded similar to Kurama's said from within the fog. "It's true that Shuichi has truly grown soft over the years. But you also made a glaring mistake."
"Who... Who are you?" Ura asked in a trembling tone.
"You turned back Shuichi's time a little too far for your plan to succeed." The voice replied, ignoring Ura's question. "You let me out, after all."
"Who are you!?" Ura questioned once again, this time in a much more frantic tone.
"Oh, I've been called many things in my long life." The voice said casually. Then, as the mist wafted around the barrier, it cleared up around the speaker for a few moments.
{"Oh my, I think I'm in love!"} Kuto's voice sounded through the arena's speaker system. {"Who is that sexy silver haired fox god standing in the ring?"}
As Kuto said, standing in the place where Kurama should have been standing was a silver-haired man with golden, foxlike eyes, a silver fox tail, and silver fox ears on top of his head. While he wore a sleeveless white yukata with matching martial arts pants and shoes.
"But I have most commonly been referred to as Yoko." The silver-haired fox demon continued.
"Yoko? As in Yoko Kurama?" Ura asked in a tone of abject terror. "But you were supposed to be dead!"
"Oh, I am very much alive." Yoko said in a playful tone. "That's not something I can say about you, for much longer, anyway."
Before Ura could react any further, Yoko reached into his yukata and pulled a seed from inside. Then, after injecting a bit of demonic energy into the seed, it grew rapidly. An instant later, a small flower with rows of teeth growing on its petals was standing in Yoko's hand.
"Now, die." Yoko said casually.
In the next instant, the flower's stem grew toward Ura, who had turned to run from the incoming threat. However, with the barrier in place, there was nowhere to run. Eventually, the flower's teeth sank into Ura's back and began draining the short demon of all his blood.
At the same time, the box fell to the ground, closing its lid in the process. Then, with the box closed, the mist began to dissipate without the Idunn Box supplying more. Then, with the mist gone, Juri began to age rapidly.
As her breasts, hips, and butt grew to their normal size, Juri's joyous laughter could be heard throughout the arena.
"They're back!" Juri shouted happily. Then, she began running her hands up and down her body before cupping her breasts in her hands as she continued. "My butt, my hips, their back! And my boobs, I never thought I'd see you girls again!"
Yoko on the other hand, stood in place as he pulled the flower out of Ura's corpse, who had reverted into his demon form as he died. As the mist dissipated, more of the audience could see his figure.
"Yoko Kurama?" One demon asked in confusion. "Didn't he die?"
"Yeah, I thought so too." Another demon said in confusion.
"Who's Yoko Kurama?" A third, much younger demon asked.
While the audience continued to discuss what they were seeing, Kuto continued to gush about finding her one true love. Meanwhile, Yoko was having a conversation with himself.
'It looks like my time is up, Shuichi.' Yoko said. 'If I have to save you again, I may just keep this body.'
'I know that.' Kurama said as Yoko's features began to morph back into Kurama's.
'Good.' Yoko said before falling dormant once again.
{"Where did my sexy fox god go?"} Kuto asked in a disappointed tone. {"Well damn, there goes the rest of my week. I guess the winner of the third match is Kurama from Team Urameshi."}