Becoming the Dragon of the Darkness Flame

Human World, Hanging Neck island.

"What the hell do you mean Kurama lost!?" Yusuke shouted as he hopped onto the ring.

A moment later, Yusuke was standing in front of Juri while holding her up off the ring's surface with one hand, while the other hand was cocked back ready to punch straight through her face if he did not like her answer to his question.

"I would appreciate it if you would put me down." Juri said calmly even though Yusuke was ready to pummel her into oblivion. "And I would advise that you refrain from doing this again in the future."

"Yeah, well I'd appreciate it if you got your head out of your ass and answered my question!" Yusuke shouted angrily.

Before Juri could respond, James appeared behind Yusuke and placed a hand on the Spirit Detective's shoulder.

"Calm down, Yusuke." James said with a smile. "Put her down and listen to her explanation, alright? There's no point in antagonizing one of the two people on this island who did not want us to die from the word go, right?"

After James spoke, Yusuke slowly lowered Juri back to the ring. However, he did not do so because of what James said. Instead, it was because of the pressure he felt when James touched his shoulder. Right now, it felt like there was a mountain pressing down on him, and he was simply unable to support Juri's wait with one arm anymore.

"Good." James said with a nod when Juri's feet touched the ring's surface again. Then, as Yusuke pulled his hands away from Juri's outfit, James turned his attention back to the completely smitten referee. "Can you tell us how it is that Kurama lost even though Karasu is dead, please?"

Although James already knew the reason why Kurama lost, he figured if Yusuke did not hear it from the referee herself, he would not accept it.

"Uh huh." Juri hummed while she nodded shyly with a slight blush on her face. "It's because Kurama was down for ten counts before he killed Karasu."

Hearing that, Yusuke looked baffled.

"If you don't believe me, look." Juri said while pointing at one of the many screens around the arena.

An instant later, the moment Juri started counting was shown on all the screens in the arena. At the same time, a timer began counting in the lower left corner of the screen. Then it showed the moment when Kurama attacked Karasu. Although the attack connected before the timer hit ten seconds, Karasu was still alive at ten seconds. And when Karasu eventually breathed his last, the timer said 10.28 seconds.

"Well, damn, you should have led with that." Yusuke said as he turned around and started walking back to the rest of Team Urameshi.

"Jack ass!" Juri shouted behind Yusuke angrily.

"Even though we lost, I appreciate the fact that you kept things fair." James said with a smile, gaining Juri's attention. "It really feels good to know that there is at least one person in this stadium who treats our team with fairness."

As he spoke, Juri stared at James in a daze with a blush on her cheeks. Meanwhile, James had already started approaching Kurama, who was having trouble moving after taking so much damage from all of Karasu's explosions.

Up in the stands Irene, Genkai, and Erza were watching James flirt with Juri.

"Is he really interested in that girl?" Genkai asked curiously. "She doesn't really seem like his type from what I've seen of all the girls in the mansion."

"I don't think so." Irene said while shaking her head. "It looks as if he's just being polite, to me. But from the way she's blushing, one would think that he was flirting."

"Yes, I agree with Mother." Erza said with a nod. "Although he may have many lovers, He has never shown himself to be so frivolous."

"I guess you're right." Genkai said with a nod after remembering James' usual behavior back in the mansion.

Meanwhile, back in the ring.

"How ya feelin', man?" James asked while supporting Kurama.

"better than I expected, considering how many of those explosions I was hit by directly." Kurama said with a wry smile. "It seems that the more I use that potion Suzuka gave me, the more of Yoko's power stays with me permanently."

"Well, that makes sense." James said with a smile. "Now I'm not one hundred percent sure about this, but I think that potion was made from one of the golden apples the Norse gods eat to maintain their immortality."

"Are you serious?" Kurama asked with a bit of shock in his tone.

"Yeah, I remember a news report I read a couple of years ago that said a few of Idunn's golden apples had been stolen from Asgard." James said with a shrug. "They never found out who the culprit was either. But a few months later, there were listings for Idunn's golden apples on the black market."

With that, Kurama fell silent. H e was finding it hard to believe that there was a possibility that he had really ingested something made from the legendary golden apples of Asgard. Meanwhile, James also fell silent while he quietly helped Kurama back to the rest of Team Urameshi.

As soon as James and Kurama were off the ring, Juri came out of her daze.

"Both teams, please send your second fighters to the ring." Juri said into her microphone, regaining her professional tone.

"Hiei, you should take thIs one." James said as he sat Kurama on the arena floor and began using his [Healing Kido] to heal him.

"Who do you think you are to order me to do anything." Hiei asked with a scowl.

"Look, we both know that Yusuke is going to fight the younger Toguro." James said in a bored tone. "And I promised that I would kill the Elder Toguro to his brother's face. So, the only one left for you to fight is the big guy in armor over there."

"Hmph!" Hiei snorted as he hopped into the ring.

A moment before Hiei jumped into the ring, the large man wearing heavy looking dark green armor on Team Toguro's side had also hopped into the ring. As both fighters approached the center of the ring, the contrast between their sizes became more and more apparent.

Hiei, on a good day, was only 4'10" (1.47 m) without his spikey hair. But Bui, the armored man from Team Toguro, was at least 9' (2.74 m) tall.

"From Team Urameshi, Hiei." Juri said, gesturing to both fighters as she introduced them. "And from Team Toguro, Bui. Now, let the second match of the final round begin… Fight!"

As soon as the signal was given to start the match, Bui materialized a massive, double-bladed axe in his right hand. Then, he charged at Hiei, swinging the axe skillfully, and with little effort.

"I must admit, you're much faster than I expected." Hiei said as he lightly dodged all of Bui's attacks. "But you're still too slow."

After hearing that, Bui jumped away and took some distance. Then, without warning, he slammed his axe into the ring. A moment later, he lifted the axe and one of the stone ring tiles with it.

*Swoosh!*

Bui then swung his axe in Hiei's direction with great force, dislodging it from the ring tile as he did so. Naturally, this action sent the tile flying toward Hiei, who dodged it just as effortlessly.

*Crack!* *Swoosh!* *Crack!* *Swoosh!*

Even though Hiei easily dodged the first attempt, Bui was not deterred. Repeatedly, he hurled pieces of the ring in Hiei's direction, for them to all be easily dodged. Unfortunately for the audience, however, there was nothing to stop a large number of them from being crushed under the flying ring tiles that happened to fly over the wall that separated the ring from the stands.

"This is getting tiresome." Hiei remarked blandly. "[Fist of the Mortal Flame]."

As Hiei named his technique, both of his hands were covered in a glowing, iridescent, orange flame. And instead of dodging the incoming pieces of stone, Hiei simply punched each of them once. The moment Hiei's fists made contact with any of the flying pieces of stone, they were instantly incinerated.

"What kind of flames are those?" Kuwabara asked with some amazement in his tone.

"Those are what are known as the Mortal Flames." Kurama explained. "According to legend, those are the hottest flames that have ever been created by normal mortal humans. So, it stands to reason why the ring tiles are being incinerated so easily."

"I see." Kuwabara said with some awe in his voice.

Meanwhile, back in the ring, Bui had finally realized that the ring tiles were useless as weapons So, after he stopped hurling them in Hiei's direction, he threw his axe instead.

Just as unbothered as he had been from the beginning, Hiei raised a hand and caught Bui's axe by one of its blades. Then, as he had done to the ring tiles, he let the Mortal Flames ingulf his hand, incinerating the axe just as easily as he had the ring tiles.

"If this is all you have, I'm sorely disappointed." Hiei said with a bored expression on his face.

"It seems I have underestimated you." Bui said, allowing his deep voice to reverberate throughout the arena. "In that case, it seems you are worthy to fight me once I've removed this armor that contains my power."

"If his armor contains his power, why would he take it off?" Kuwabara asked in a confused tone.

Although Yusuke did not say anything, he nodded, agreeing with Kuwabara.

"No, he means the other meaning of contain." Kurama explained in a slightly exasperated tone. "As in the armor keeps his power in check."

"Oh~~~~!" Yusuke and Kuwabara exclaimed simultaneously in understanding.

At the same time, James patted Kurama on the shoulder with a wry smile on his face.

"I definitely do not envy you." James said, receiving a wry smile from Kurama in return.

"If you're gonna take it off, then just do it." Hiei said in the same bored tone. "I don't want you to have an excuse after you lose."

Instead of responding to Hiei's taunt, Bui began removing the armor that covered his upper body, piece by piece. As each piece of armor was removed, he casually tossed it off the ring, causing each piece to lodge itself in the ground.

"Holy crap, that armor is heavy!" Kuwabara exclaimed as he watched a piece of Bui's armor sink into the ground right in front of him. "How does he even move while wearing that."

A few moments later, Bui's armor had been completely removed. When it was, it revealed Bui to be a humanoid demon appearing to be in his early thirties with short, turquoise hair wearing a skin-tight blue body suit with a patch of grey on his chest and abdomen, an orange sash, and orange wristbands. What stood out the most , however, was the large fist shaped scar in the middle of his forehead.

Once liberated from the armor, Bui began stretching and cracking his joints. Then, a turquoise aura appeared around him as he finished.

"He's a [Touki] user, huh?" James said to himself, examining the aura around Bui. "I guess that makes sense, he clearly puts himself through some serious physical training just like Sairaorg does. If he survives this, maybe I should introduce the two of them."

While James muttered to himself, Bui had charged toward Hiei. As he did, he showed off his martial arts prowess as he launched a flurry of punches and kicks that Hiei was clearly having a tougher time dodging than before.

Still, Hiei was able to dodge or parry all the incoming attacks while returning a few of his own that were coated in the Mortal Flames he had summoned before. Eventually, Hiei landed a blow to Bui's abdomen, sending him sliding backwards across the ring.

To Hiei, and the audience's surprise, however, it was clear that Bui had not taken any damage from the attack Hiei had landed.

"Flowing around me is what I call my [Battle Aura]." Bui said, not even brushing off any dust that might have landed on him after Hiei's last attack. "It can not only protect me from attacks that are two weak to do any damage to me, but it can also be used to attack!"

With that, Bui threw a punch that would clearly never land on Hiei. However, as soon as Bui's fist was extended as far as it could go, a piece of his [Battle Aura] shot forth at high speed toward Hiei. Naturally, Hiei was able to dodge such a telegraphed, long-distance attack.

"I'll admit you are much more impressive with your armor off. Hiei said, his tone growing more bored with each word he said. "But if this is---"

Before Hiei could finish his words, he was forced to dodge once again as the attack he had just dodged had circled back and attacked him from behind.

"Now, this is much more interesting." Hiei muttered to himself as he was forced to dodge once again.

Appearing around the ring at random locations, Hiei made use of his exceptional speed to avoid taking any damage from the attack that was clearly homing in nature. Eventually, after several seconds, Hiei appeared just in front of Bui with his arm raised, clearly ready to throw a punch.

"Good strategy." Bui said, preparing to defend against Hiei's incoming attack. "If you were to take me out, then the aura attack that has been chasing you will indeed vanish."

However, Bui opened his eyes wide in the next second. Just as Hiei's punch was about to land on his raised guard, Hiei vanished from where he stood once again. Instead, Bui was forced to defend against his own aura attack without proper preparations.

*Boom!*

Upon impact, the attack exploded, engulfing Bui in a bright, turquoise explosion. A moment later, Hiei landed a short distance away from the explosion sight and watched for any movement.

It did not take long for the explosion to subside. And when it did, Bui stood in his original position completely unharmed.

"In each attack with my [Battle Aura] only enough power to defeat my opponent is used." Bui explained his uninjured state after being caught in that explosion. "As you can see, the power needed to defeat you isn't even enough to scratch me."

'*Sigh* He really doesn't know the origin of his own powers, does he.' James thought to himself while shaking his head. 'Of course, his attacks can't hurt him, they are made of [Touki], or his life force. Why would anyone take any damage from their own life force?'

Hiei, who also did not interact with Youkai, was taken aback by the fact that Bui was once again uninjured.

"use the Darkness flames." Bui said after noticing the shock on Hiei's face. "I wouldn't want you to have an excuse as to why you lost, after all."

Having his own words used against him left Hiei a bit upset. So, just as Bui asked, he would show him the difference in their power by using the Darkness Flames.

As that thought crossed his mind, Hiei began unravelling the bandages that he had been wearing around his right arm ever since he injured his arm in the first round of the tournament. When the bandages were removed, all the burnt skin looked to have healed. Instead, there was a black, eastern dragon tattoo that coiled around Hiei's arm starting at the back of his fist.

"[Dragon of the Darkness Flame]." Hiei said, summoning the Darkness flames onto his palm.

Like last time, the black flames of the Spirit World gave most of the onlookers a feeling of despair. However, unlike the red tinted black flames that had a sinister feeling, this time the flames were tinted with an eerie green color that felt as if it were affecting the souls of those who looked upon it.

"Let's see how your [Battle Aura] handles this." Hiei said as he pointed his palm at Bui.

An instant later, the flames in Hiei's palm shot forward in the shape of an eastern dragon. Before Bui could react, the dragon was right in front of him with its mouth open, ready to devour him.

Instead of allowing himself to be devoured, Bui strengthened his aura and used it to hold the dragon's mouth open. Meanwhile, with Bui between its jaws, the dragon began rampaging around the arena, killing any demon unlucky enough to be in its path as it passed through the spectator stands.

After a few minutes, however, there was a change in the situation. Bui had managed to free himself from the jaws of the [Dragon of the Darkness Flames]. While doing so, he had managed to redirect it toward Hiei.

Seemingly incapable of dodging away in time, the dragon engulfed Hiei entirely, causing the members of the audience who were still alive to gasp in shock.

"Ha! just as I thought, you were incapable of harming me." Bui said in a joyful tone.

"I wouldn't speak too soon if I were you." Hiei said, speaking in a calm tone that seemed to echo throughout the entire arena.

When Bui looked to the source of the voice, he saw Hiei standing in the same place, completely unharmed. The only difference between now and before the dragon engulfed him was that his headband was no longer on his forehead. On top of that, Hiei's Jagan was glowing with the black and eerie green colors of the [Dragon of the Darkness Flame] attack.

"This is impossible." Bui said, realizing what had just happened.

"Did he just… consume the Darkness flames?" Kurama asked from his place outside the ring.

"Consume… As in eat them?" Yusuke asked in an incredulous tone.

"What you're thinking is correct." Hiei said in response to Bui's murmur of disbelief. "I have consumed the dragon. And now, I am the dragon."

"You're still too weak to defeat me!" Bui shouted as he rushed forward and unleashed a barrage of punches and kicks on Hiei.

Standing still, Hiei allowed Bui to wail on him as he pleased.

Noticing that all his attacks were doing next to no damage, Bui prepared to grab Hiei so that he could slam him into the ring. However, just before he could do so…

*Boom!*

Hiei's fist landed on his abdomen with a sound that would not lose to any of Karasu's explosions.

Spitting out a mouthful of blood, Bui was sent flying upward. Before he could regain control, however, Hiei appeared above him with his right leg raised. Then, he brought his foot down, causing another loud sound of impact.

Before Bui could travel too far, though, Hiei appeared in front of him and kicked him once again. This time, Bui slammed into a section of the spectator seatss, killing many of the weaker demons with the shockwave from his impact. A moment later, Juri started counting from her place in the ring.

Surprisingly enough, Bui was still alive. Though he was clearly incapable of moving.

Shortly after Bui landed in the stands, Hiei landed in front of the crater that his impact created.

"Just kill me." Bui managed to force out through all the pain he was experiencing. "Losing once to Toguro, and being forced into servitude, was bad enough. That's where this scar, this proof of my humiliation, on my forehead came from. But losing a second time is more than I can take."

"If you want to die so bad, go kill yourself." Hiei said bluntly. "I don't' take orders from those I defeat."

With that, Hiei vanished from where he stood and reappeared in the ring a moment later to wait for Juri to finish her count. Though standing in the ring was a term used loosely. At the beginning of the match, Bui destroyed a large chunk of the ring by pulling up many of its tiles. Then, Hiei's [Dragon of the Darkness Flame] destroyed even more of the ring while it rampaged around the arena with Bui stuck between its jaws.

"Nine! … … Ten!" Juri finished her count. "The winner of the second match, bringing the score of the round to one win a piece, is Hiei of Team Urameshi!"