Crescent Shrine

“So, Shuichi,” I started as I flipped through the book my Father had put into my duffle. The yellowed, tattered pages contained different healing arts. Ways to heal a broken limb, scratches, even a decapitation. “You fight with flowers.”

He chuckled, “That’s the only thing you can think about after watching one day of fighting?”

I shock my head, “There’s also the fact that you lied to me, you’re here at the tournament, you killed that demon in cold blood and is that Kuwabara guy sane?”

He let a small laugh break through his lips, “I’m sorry I lied to you – I just did not know that you would know of the word I have known of since birth. I’m here at this tournament because I owe Koenma for a crime I committed. Kuwabara is in fact as sane as he can be.”

“Crime,” I asked as I turned the page to a diagram of the basic skeleton.

“I helped Hiei steal a mirror so I could save my mother’s life by giving up my own,” He let out a chuckle before he continued, “But Yusuke meddled when I was making my wish, so the mirror decided to spare both of our lives.”

“I like that mirror,” I started, throwing in a Texan accent for fun, “Anything you need fixing?”

“I’m perfectly fine – most of us are,” He said, staring at the ceiling, “How about we go find Hiei?”

I chuckled and closed the book, “I like that idea.” He held out his hand for me to take it like we always did when we were going on an adventure. It had started back in kindergarten when we went on a hunt to find the best place for hide and seek. It had stuck ever since.

We made our way to the forest, and saw Hiei trekking towards us, holding his hand in pain.

“It won’t be easy to keep winning with out the use of your dominate hand,” Shuichi said sternly.

“You heard what Toguro said, if we don’t make it through this tournament – he will kill us all.” Hiei said as we joined him, “Fighting is our only way out.”

“Ann, stay behind us – when I give you a signal, run for it.” Shuichi said quietly as two lizard like men came into view. “Seems like the doctors team has gotten a bit lost,” He said a louder.

“What a horrible coincidence for us both,” Hiei joked.

“Get the healer first,” The blonde ordered the grey haired lizard man. I ran behind the tree as he ran forward, falling to pieces as both Shuichi and Hiei attached him. “Looks like we have to kill you two first,” A large mecha – like creature came waddling from the woods to his side, “We call him Tetasable – go on and get those two low lives.”

Tetasable’s arms extended toward the two – the only thing they could do was run.

“Get out of here Ann,” Shuichi yelled. I nodded and ran towards the hotel as fast as my legs could carry me, but I found my self running back towards the fight. I leaped onto the blondes back and got him in a head lock as hard as I could. Shuichi stood frozen, staring at me with a bit of anger in his eyes as the two claws came down on him. I screamed out his name as the blonde threw me off of him roughly. I luckily missed a tree and instead fell into a pile of leaves.

“You’re wrong,” I heard Shuichi say from the clearing; “Even the hardest substance can be broken by being crashed into it’s self. And also, the ability to feel pain is not a weakness, it’s a strength. Pain tells a creature its weaknesses and when not to expose them to attack. You’re robot is dead. And so – I’m afraid – are you.” There he went again, being a walking dictionary. I stumbled back into the clearing, picking twigs and leaves out of my hair. The blonde was in Hiei’s grasp, receiving punch after punch.

“Hey guys,” I chuckled. Shuichi shot me a glare which stopped me from continuing.

“Why didn’t you run?” He growled; his eyes filled with anger and worry.

“I – I didn’t want to leave you alone to deal with that machine. I know I couldn’t have done much – but I could’ve at least tried something.” I said uneasily.

Shuichi chuckled lightly, “You’re hard headed you know. How about you go back to the hotel and rest.” I nodded slowly, walking off in the direction we had come just moments before. I ran the rest of the way to the hotel once I was out of the forest – heading to the hotel room that I shared with Botan, Keiko, and Shizuru. I felt the buzz of my phone in my pocket. I sighed, sitting on my bed, flipping it open.

“Hello?” I answered, falling on my back with an oomph.

“Ann, get down here now – Kuwabara’s injured and we can’t move him,” Botan said into the phone. I closed my phone, bolted upwards, grabbed the tattered manuscript from the table and burst out the door to the stadium – running as fast as I could go. Once I arrived Yusuke was about to fire his spirit gun at his three opponents. Shuichi and Hiei were staring at the fight, unable to join in. I rushed to Kuwabara’s side, flipping through the pages until I got to one I thought would help. I knelled beside him, placing my hands over his chest, my thumbs and fore fingers connecting in a triangle.

I slowly inhaled and exhaled, reading the chat over and over again in my mind. I felt a sudden coolness on my finger tips – the edges of my hands glowed a light blue. I knew that I would not be that good at healing, so he probably would not be able to fight in the next match. I must have been in deep concentration because the next thing I knew – I was in the large palm of the Dr. Ichigaki – the leader of the current team we were fighting.

I heard people call out my name as I pounded away at his hand; I even went as far as to bite it.

“Don’t worry about me, just kill this bastard!” I yelled. Yusuke started assaulting the Doctor with punches, giving a solid reason for each. On the final one before he went flying into the audience he let go of me. The only bad point to Doctor Ichigaki letting me go was that I was falling from over eighty feet in the air. I could not scream.

I guess I was lucky that Shuichi was quickly underneath me, ready to catch me as I free fell.

“Are you OK Ann?” He asked quickly, his eyes searching me.

I nodded, “I’m fine, thanks.” We just stayed in each other’s arms for a moment, “I should really be tending to Kuwabara.”

“Right,” Shuichi said setting me down. I rushed over Kuwabara as Botan helped him into the resting room underneath the stadium. I hurried inside, resuming the position I was in before.

“May I have your attention please. The third round of the Dark Tournament will be starting immediately. We will be continuing in accordance to the diagram, starting from the left. Team Urameshi and Team Mashoo.”