Human World, Hanging Neck Island.
After killing all the Dark Tournament hopefuls on the ship, the rest of the voyage was quite uneventful. On top of that, Yusuke still had not woken up. So, upon disembarking from the ship, Kuwabara was forced to carry him on his back.
Looking around the port after getting their feet on solid ground again, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei were caught off guard by how decadent the surroundings were. Though, the latter two did not show it.
"Wow, I've never seen so many rich people in one place before." Kuwabara said as he swiveled his head left and right, taking in the sights.
"Oh my, look at that country bumpkin." A well-dressed middle-aged man said after noticing Kuwabara. "He acts like he's never seen a tall building before."
"Ew... He looks so poor." The gaudily dressed woman hanging from the man's arm said.
"What was that?" Kuwabara asked, as the couple had not been quiet.
"Be quiet." Hiei said in annoyance. "You're embarrassing yourself."
"Besides, there's no reason to pay attention to someone like that." James said with a smile. "Half the diamonds on his watch are fake, anyway."
Hearing that, the gaudily dressed woman looked at her companion n surprise.
"Is he telling the truth?" The woman asked.
"Of course not!" The middle-aged man refuted strongly. "That brat has no idea what he's talking about."
"Oh, is that what you think?" James asked with a smile. Then, he looked toward Kurama. "Hey, Kurama, do you have a seed on you? Just a regular one."
"I do." Kurama replied, taking a seed from the inner pocket of his outfit.
Receiving the seed from Kurama, James looked it over. Then, once he was satisfied, he nodded his head. Then, he used his fingers and flicked it at the middle-aged man's wrist.
*Crash!*
In instant later, exactly half of the diamonds on the middle-aged man's wrist shattered. The woman clinging onto him screamed in fear. Then, she separated from the middle-aged man and pointed her fingers at him.
"So, you're one of those poor bastards, too?" The woman shrieked.
The onlookers simply laughed. Meanwhile, James and the rest of Team Urameshi stopped paying them any more attention as they left the scene. Following the signs from the port, Team Urameshi was on their way to the hotel their team was supposed to stay at.
"Hey, J, how did you know that guy's diamonds were fake?" Kuwabara asked with curiosity.
"Are you a fool?" Hiei asked. "It's clear he used his strength to break those diamonds."
"If I had given him a demonic plant seed, I would agree with you, Hiei." Kurama said. "But that was a simple hydrangea seed. No matter how much demonic energy it was covered in, it would have not been able to break a diamond."
"Kurama's right, you know." James said, smiling at Hiei. "And to answer your question, Kuwabara, there are actually a few reasons. First of all, I'm richer than he is..."
"Hmph!" Hiei snorted in annoyance, interrupting James mid-sentence. "Just a rich brat playing at being a fighter."
"You need to try harder, Hiei." James said with a smile. "That was a piss poor attempt to get a rise out of me."
Instead of bickering with the smiling James, Hiei chose to remain silent and look away with a scowl on his face.
"Anyway, like I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted." James said, receiving a snort from Hiei in response. "On top of being richer than that guy, I also have a familiar who is utterly obsessed with treasures. So, I made it a point to understand as much as I can about jewelry."
'So, he's a devil.' Kurama thought. 'The only beings with demonic energy other than demons. Also the only ones that use familiars. But who is he really?'
Hiei's thoughts were quite similar to Kurama's. Meanwhile, Kuwabara was more concerned with the first reason James gave. However, James never gave away more about his identity or about how rich he actually was, frustrating his three companions to no end.
Eventually, the quintet arrived at the hotel. To their surprise, there was no issue getting their room key from the front desk. The issue came as they were entering the room. James, the last person to enter the suite that would serve as their accommodation. Just before stepping past the suite's threshold, he spun around at high speed, unsheathing Ochiru Sakura in the process. When he stopped moving, his blade was resting on the shoulder of a demon who appeared to be a child.
The demon who was following James and the others froze mid-step. He was surprised that anyone had even noticed him. Entering a room at the same time as its occupants was one of his favorite tricks to destabilize an opponents' confidence. However, not once had he ever been caught before.
"What's up, little guy?" James asked with a smile. "You lost?"
By this point, Hiei and Kurama had noticed that something was wrong at the door to their suite. Meanwhile, Kuwabara had gone into one of the bedrooms to lay Yusuke in one of the beds. So, he had yet to realize that there was an issue.
"Who are you?" Kurama asked while approaching from behind James alongside Hiei
When they arrived, they saw James holding his sword to the neck of a young boy with brown hair, black eyes, and three pink stars tattooed below his left eye wearing a yellow long-sleeve shirt with a red sleeveless shirt over the yellow one, blue jeans, and white sneakers
"I'm Rinku from Team Rokuyukai." The little boy, Rinku said, showing no signs of fear. "I just came over to check out the competition."
"So, tomorrow's opponents?" Hiei asked.
"That's right." Rinku nodded. "I wanted to see who our opponents would be. You special invitation teams are so lucky. You don't have to sit through that boring opening ceremony. Well... I guess that's probably because you're gonna die soon."
"Says the kid with a sword to his neck." James said with a smile.
"Rinku, what are you doing?" An unfamiliar voice asked from down the hall.
"Oh, hi Zeru!" Rinku said with a smile. "I was just checking out the competition."
Zeru, a tall, broad shouldered, muscular demon with blond hair wearing a dark blue t-shirt and white pants walked toward Team Urameshi's room with an annoyed expression on his face. Once he drew near, he finally moved his sight from Rinku to the sword resting against his neck. Then finally to the one holding it, James.
"If you plan to live long enough to participate in the tournament, Remove your sword." Zeru said in a tone that would not accept refusal.
"Yo, Hiei, remind me." James said, still not losing his smile. "What's the rule about killing those who intrude into our room both unannounced and uninvited?"
"We have the right to kill without question." Hiei said with a smirk. "I'm pretty sure we can kill those who interfere as well."
"You asked for it." Zeru said, lunging at James with his hand outstretched.
Avoiding Zeru's outstretched hand, James stepped past him while waving his sword gracefully. Then, when he stepped behind Zeru, he sheathed his sword.
"Okay, the show's over." James said, still maintaining his smile. "Now, if you don't mind, we'd like to rest for the evening."
Surprised that James did not injure them in the slightest, Zeru and Rinku looked at each other in confusion. Then, they looked at James with the same expressions.
"Go away." James said before signaling them to leave with his hand. "Shoo, shoo."
Angered by James casual dismissal, Zeru scowled. However, he chose to leave in the end. Dragging Rinku along with him, he stormed off.
After the two demons turned the corner and were no longer in sight, James turned around and walked back toward the open door to the suite. At the same time, Kuwabara came out of Yusuke's room.
"Hey, guys, what's wrong?" Kuwabara asked, having not seen the confrontation. "I felt something just now, but when I got here, you were just standing at the door."
"Oh, don't worry about it, Kuwabara." James said with a smile. "A couple of guys from the team we'll be fighting tomorrow showed up and wanted to scope us out."
"Why didn't you kill them?" Hiei asked.
"Because I didn't want to." James replied.
"They attacked you and you let them live?" Hiei said disdainfully. "What kind of soft-hearted fool are you?"
With that, Hiei turned around and returned to the room. Then, he chose one of the bedrooms as his own and shut the door behind him after entering.
"Geez." Kuwabara said, watching the door Hiei disappeared behind. "Hiei is even grumpier than usual.
"Don't take what Hiei said to heart." Kurama said to James. "He knows why you didn't kill them. He's just annoyed that he had no part to play in that exchange."
"Don't worry, it doesn't bother me." James said while shaking his head. "Based on what Yusuke told me about him, if he had done something different, I would have been surprised."
As Kurama said, Hiei knew James had a reason for not killing Zeru and Rinku. Although he would be fine, James did not want Team Urameshi to be disqualified for killing members of a rival team outside of the arena. In fact, had Hiei been in the same position, he would have also let them live.
'Though the battle would have been much fiercer and Hiei would have more than likely had a bit more trouble dealing with the two.' Kurama thought.
"Anyway, why don't we sit back and relax?" James said, entering the suite. "A cup of tea sounds great right about now."
"Indeed." Kurama said, making his way over to the tea pot in the room.
"Are you guys actually gonna drink what the organizers put in here?" Kuwabara asked in shock. "What if they try to poison us?"
"I doubt they would do that after we made it all the way here." Kurama said, filling the teapot up with water.
"Yeah, they could make more money if we died in the ring." James added.
"Yeah, well, I don't trust them." Kuwabara said, reaching into his luggage. Then, he pulled out a can of coffee. "I'll trust in the trusty old aluminum."
"Suit yourself." James replied with a nod.
Meanwhile, Zeru and Rinku were making their way back to Team Rokuyukai's lodgings. By now, the angry expression on Zeru's face had disappeared, replaced by one of indifference.
"So, what do you think of them, Rinku?" Zeru asked without looking toward his companion.
"They didn't seem like anything special to me." Rinku replied, shrugging his shoulders. "I mean, it was surprising that one guy noticed me. But other than that, they were nothing. If he hadn't caught us off guard, I'm sure we could have killed him easily."
"If that's what you think, then you're wrong." Zeru said, his expression not changing.
"What do you mean, Zeru?" Rinku asked curiously.
However, before Zeru could respond, a thin red line appeared on both demon's necks. Then, a small amount of blood trickled out from the cuts.
Naturally, both demons noticed the extremely shallow wounds. Raising their hands to their necks at nearly the same time, they were surprised to see blood on their fingers.
"Do you still think he was nothing special?" Zeru asked, clenching his fist.
Instead of responding, Rinku continued looking at the blood on his fingers in a daze.
"He was letting us know that he could have killed us any time he wanted." Zeru said through clenched teeth. "And neither of us would have known how we died."
"Then, how are we supposed to win?" Rinku asked, starting to feel a bit nervous.
"Calm down, Rinku." Zeru said in a solemn tone. "He can only fight in one round. So, as long as he matches up with one of our weaker members, we still have the chance to win the other rounds."
Taking a moment to consider Zeru's words, Rinku's nervousness faded away. Eventually, he began to smile like he usually does.
"That's right." Rinku said with newfound confidence. "The rest of their team seem pretty weak. So, we should have no problem winning."