Old Flames (Invite Only)

[Jilak]

Just like that, Yuusuke managed to get injured within mere minutes of being on this place. Not an injury of the 'broken bones' type, but more of the 'oh God I just dragged my body through hedges of thorns' sort of injury. In his defense, it was either that or take a risky jump from a tree. And that likely WOULD have ended with broken bones, if not serious injury. Yuusuke would muse later on how he no longer considered broken bones to be serious injuries.

He didn't make it in time for a large part of Mitsuyo's reading, but he did make it in time for a small bit near the end. He noticed that her aura was noticeably... muted. Well, if a mute could really be noticeable. It was quite the change from the flare from before, at least. What reading he DID make it in time for, he couldn't make out. He could neither understand the writing nor anything Mitsuyo was stating. He was, of course, monolingual. Perhaps due to his low opinion of schooling, he'd never thought it important to pick up a second language, even after becoming Reikai Tantei.

[mugenginga]

Mitsuyo's expression had become more grave as she read. Her left ear, the one closest to where Yuusuke had come out of the hedges at, was the only visible indication she was aware of his presence. She stood up, the twitch of her tail exhibiting her annoyance more than he expression. She turned towards Yuusuke with a somewhat haughty expression. This was the human that had bested Suzaku before if her reports were correct. While that yokai had hardly been worth note... she'd have to word this right.

"You put off an odd amount of Reiki for your average human. You say you know of Kurama and his involvement in the Dark Tournament. That means you were on his team, correct?" Mitsuyo paused for a moment, "Understand that I can't be sure. Despite what I'm sure you think, not every yokai cares for such vulgarities."

[Jilak]

The time it took Yuusuke to respond felt like ten solid months. If one didn't know any better, the question had been asked of him last September. Thankfully, one does know better. Regardless, he wasn't quite sure if he should respond. The individual seemed to take a rather keen interest in Kurama, more than what was what he would define as 'normal', but not so keen as to incite worry. Thus, he filed it away as average enough.

"Yeah, he and I were on the same team, along with a couple of other guys. Hell, I'd almost say that if it wasn't for him, we'd have lost." Yuusuke responded, flexing his shoulder a bit. No matter how long ago the tournament had been(not that long, all things considered), he was still a bit sore. Though, to be honest, sore or not, he was fairly anxious. Since then, there hadn't really been any interesting cases or the such. And without anyone to punch, he was slipping into a fit of boredom. Hopefully suddenly being whisked away to another dimension would break it.

But not likely.

[mugenginga]

(OOC: I seriously have NO idea where I was going with this initially. So I'm just going to take another angle! XD)

Mitsuyo looked Yuusuke up and down for a few moments, her initial expression not fading. Any fool with half a brain would realize she was sizing him up. She glanced back at the sword for a moment and took a step towards Yuusuke. If Yuusuke hadn't realized their height difference before, he would now with her looking down on him, and it didn't seem to be all literal. She was about 6'2", after all.

"I don't doubt it," she stated. Time to feign ignorance, especially if the boy wasn't going to hold her up to their previous agreement. She wasn't about to remind him of their agreement that information was only given in exchange for other information, "But you're only human, correct? Even with your Reiki, I find myself wondering why you'd be in the Dark Tournament... On a team with demons no less?"

[Jilak]

"It wasn't like I wanted to participate. But those Toguro brothers took part, and it wasn't like I was going to let them win. So I put together a team and won." Yuusuke responded. It... wasn't entirely true. His entry hadn't been of his own volition, but rather he'd more or less been forced to after the younger Toguro had threatened his life. While his team did win, with a bit of trouble, they'd never have entered without the Toguro brothers' influence.

Not to mention, he made it sound as if their win was easy, and it was far from it. Hell, Kuwabara had been forced to fake his death before Yuusuke could beat younger Toguro. Even before the final battle, it wasn't nearly as easy as Yuusuke made it sound. No, the Dark Tournament had been won through blood, sweat, and Kuwabara's tears.

But it wasn't like this woman needed to know everything.

[mugenginga]

Mitsuyo raised an eyebrow. So the boy had enough sense to leave out the collar Koenma had put him in. She couldn't act on the knowledge of it until he revealed it himself, either. She eyed him up and down again.

"Those would be the humans turned Yokai, correct? An unusual sort of lot for a normal human to fall in with," She turned around, and if Yuusuke had the brains to be reading the yokai right in front of his face, he'd be suspicious of it. At the very least she was looking just how much she looked down on him by turning her back on him. She reached towards the sword again, but paused with her hand above it. She turned her head back to look towards Yuusuke, "Is there a reason you're still here?"

[Jilak]

Yuusuke groaned a bit internally. He really wasn't too fond of the individual standing in front of him, and under different circumstances, he'd be more vocal about it. But as it stood, she was the only other individual he'd run into in this place. While the style in which he'd arrived here had been quite odd, maybe Koenma did have a case he needed taking care of...

Taking that into account, she was definitely a person of interest. It would be wise to keep a watch on her, and if the only way to do that was to put up with her seeming arrogance, he'd give it a shot. Probably an unsuccessful shot, but a shot nonetheless. Thus, for the time being he settled for crossing his arms and scowling. This would be worse than spending a day with Hiei, that much was obvious...

"You're the only person I've run into on this 'Dimensional Island', and you seem to at least know Kurama. Besides that, I figured you could use some help with the sword. You don't look like the type of person to enjoy getting your own hands dirty." Yuusuke said his last bit through somewhat gritted teeth. He despised people like that. Even Koenma, when not up to his neck in paperwork, would go out on the field when absolutely necessary.

[mugenginga]

Mitsuyo paused as Yuusuke offered help with the sword, her eyes flicking up to the worn archaic Chinese on the grave stone. She stood there in that pause for a moment and turned back towards Yuusuke, her eyes more critical than they had been before. As if she was attempting to figure the boy out. It was a flat gaze that went on for a solid minute and revealed more about potential danger levels to the observant than anything else she'd done. She was a yokai, and it would likely occur to Yuusuke there that she wasn't a young one either. And in the Makai, one didn't live to older years without a certain level of skill. She lowered her hand from the sword.

"I doubt you could," she stated finally. That arrogance was back as if that tense moment had never happened.

Surely he wasn't unaware of it. She frowned as the thought flitted across her mind. A human that Koenma had chosen as a pet. She could feel his Reiki, it was nothing light. And as sure as she was that Kurama had done most of the work in that Dark Tournament... was he so daft to have missed that the air around them was more than a mere sword stuck in the ground? Did he honestly still not realize it was a seal?

She'd been warned to watch for the Spirit Detective, but right now she had her doubts.

[Jilak]

Though Yuusuke would never say so himself, his ability to sense reiki had never been quite equal to that of, say, Kuwabara's. Though now, obviously, he far exceeded the man in that regard. But he had a handicap, so it didn't really count. Regardless, the most he could tell was that something was off about this sword. He didn't realise its specific nature, however. Kuwabara at his height would likely have been able to point out that it was a seal, but he was neither here nor at his height. Even Genkai would have been quite useful in that regard. But Yuusuke would make use with what he had, as was the norm.

"I'm getting really tired of your arrogance. Even that moron Kuwabara could pull that sword out, without his reiki." Yuusuke was actually quite unsure about the last bit. While he was quite confident in his ability to pull the sword free, he just had this odd feeling that attempting to pull it out without expending any reiki would result in an exhausted detective and an unmoved sword.

He walked up towards it, putting both hands firmly around the hilt. It was official. He actually missed Hiei. Or at least would have preferred Hiei to Mitsuyo, at the moment. What was worse, her arrogance was actually possibly warranted. She was a yokai, and she didn't seem to be a very young one, either. From what Yuusuke had seen of it, one didn't live long there without good reason. He would have to be weary of her...

At the moment, however, he would focus on pulling the sword out. He put a very small amount of reiki behind his first pull, to test the waters, putting all of his physical strength behind it. Damned thing didn't budge an inch. So his suspicions were correct, then.

"Going to be like that, eh? Heh, fine. Stupid sword." Yuusuke pondered a loud, gripping ever tighter. He looked down to make sure he had a firm footing, before beginning to expend reiki. He arched his back, pulling with all his might. He wasn't sure exactly how much reiki he'd need to expend, so he continued to release a fair amount. He wasn't at the point he'd been with Toguro, hoping he wouldn't have to go that far.

The air around his immediate person grew noticeably warmer, sweat dripped down his brow. His hands began to redden from the sheer force he put behind his grip. All of his efforts so far, and the sword had moved up no more than a few centimetres, maybe. He increased his energy output...

[mugenginga]

Mitsuyo's expression didn't change as Yuusuke grumbled out his objection to the situation. She didn't move as Yuusuke moved forward to deal witht he sword, causing the teenager to have to walk past her and take a position with his back to the gravestone to reach it. At first his feet were right on the soft dirt of the grave. Mitsuyo watched him struggle, raising an eyebrow at his lack of attempt to dig the sword out manually. So at least he'd listened to her.

She frowned at the raise in temperature, looking around her as the air more or less rippled with the effort Yuusuke was putting in. As he began to sweat, she moved forward with speed Yuusuke wouldn't have been able to follow had he been a normal human and put her hand on his wrist and looked down at him with narrow eyes, "Move. I don't appreciate it when men feel the necessity to show the size of their balls by making idiots of themselves."

[Jilak]

It deserves note that Yuusuke, due mostly to Mitsuyo's gender, would normally have conceded to her request. While he'd told Kuwabara in an earlier adventure that he wasn't above hitting a woman, he'd had his suspicions beforehand that the individual in question was actually a gentlemanly crossdresser. It serves to reason that, even without his suspicion, he likely would have been inclined to attack the individual in question, if only because she was keeping he and Kuwabara from her boss' captive. This is important to understand just how much Mitsuyo had managed to irritate him.

She was just so... arrogant. Likely within her rights, but it didn't piss Yuusuke off any less. This situation had been very delicate, as he understood it. This Mitsuyo person seemed to be quite strong, and quite arrogant. The presence of the latter all but confirmed the former. So most individuals would have simply backed off when she all but commanded it.

Yuusuke Urameshi, however, was not most individuals. He didn't care how strong she was right now. He was about to rip this damnable sword out of the ground and she wasn't going to stop him. So, in response to her statement, Yuusuke let out an audible growl, scowling. So far he'd landed on some mysterious island, alone, and the only person he'd found so far was more arrogant than Hiei and it pissed him the hell off. Yuusuke began to give off a visible aura, releasing a large amount of reiki.

"JUST STOP UNDERESTIMATING ME, OKAY?! GOD, IF YOU'D JUST HOLD YOUR DAMN HORSES YOU'D GET YOUR STUPID SWORD." Yuusuke ranted, aura growing ever more.

He let out one last growl, one last audible expression of his anger, before, with one last tug, he pulled the sword free, nearly losing his balance from the sheer force he put forth. He took a moment to regain his balance, taking a look at the sword now within his grasp before looking up towards Mitsuyo with a sigh.

"There, see, I told you I'd get it out. No showing off required." Yuusuke stated, humourlessly.

This sword had officially gained the full brunt of his curiosity, however. He hadn't had to expel that much reiki since he'd fought Toguro. What the hell was WITH this sword?

[mugenginga]

Mitsuyo blinked as Yuusuke flipped out on her, her expression changing to an unamused frown for half a second before she turned her head and raised an eyebrow at the Reiki. She'd been told something about that. Not to underestimate him when he seemed spent. She was in the middle of taking a step backwards as Yuusuke pulled the sword into the ground... and turned all his attention to her instead of where any idiot would have turned his attention.

The presence of anti-energy that had been hanging in the air vanished in a flash, exploding outwards and passing over both Yuusuke and Mitsuyo before vanishing completely. And then there was growing energy around the hole, growing energy that flowed and circled around the blade and then back in some kind of feedback loop. Youki, and a respectable amount of it. Mitsuyo frowned to herself before quickly walking forward and holding her hand out towards Yuusuke, who was still standing on top of the grave - Seriously he was pretty much standing in the middle of the energy feedback loop.

"Wonderful. Would you mind handing it over now?" Mitsuyo's voice had about as much humor as Yuusuke's response had.

[Jilak]

Though it took him a moment longer than it would his more astute associates, Yuusuke did finally notice the youki feedback loop. Well that was... that was odd. He thought back to the sheer amount of energy he'd had to exert to pull the sword free. That, combined with the feedback loop he was more or less in the middle of, made him reluctant to simply turn over the sword. It was in his job description, after all, to make sure that rekai and makai artifacts didn't fall into the wrong hands. He had no way of knowing if this was either, but he knew that Mitsuyo's hands were most likely the wrong ones. That was enough.

Therefore, Mitsuyo's question was met with Yuusuke brandishing the sword as some form of weapon. He actually... had almost no idea how to fight with a sword, really. But his reiki still needed to regenerate after all that he'd released getting the sword out. If he was lucky, he'd be able to pull off one reigun if need be. The more powerful reigan, however, was definitely out of the question. But if he had to fight, Yuusuke Urameshi sure as hell wasn't backing down.

"Sorry, but that's not gonna happen. Not only do I not trust you, but this sword seems to be a pretty big deal. So I don't really care who you are or how strong you are, you aren't getting this thing from me." Yuusuke stated, flatly. As opposed to the blatant rage he'd expressed so far, he actually seemed quite... calm. He didn't flex his reiki, he didn't growl, and what scowl he did have was very understated. He wasn't saying 'if you try to take this sword from me, I'll try to keep it out of your hands', he was saying 'if you try to take this sword from me, you'll fail'.

There was no confusion present on his face any longer, either. While he wasn't entirely certain this was specifically why he was on this island, it was something that required his attention. That was all that mattered. Stranded, lost in an entirely different dimension, it mattered not to Yuusuke Urameshi. He would not yield this day. He wouldn't let himself.

[mugenginga]

Mitsuyo frowned as the boy clumsily held out the sword in front of him. Under different circumstances, she might have laughed. He looked absolutely ridiculous. Or should have, if he wasn't radiating such confidence. It made Mitsuyo raise an eyebrow. She glanced back at the growing youki in the grave. It fed to the sword, was magnified, fed back to the grave, was magnified, and so on and so forth. It likely wouldn't be much longer. She considered something for a moment and adjusted her weight on her feet, as if feeling the sold ground at the edge of the grave beneath her.

"Did I seem as if I intended to try?"

And it wasn't taunting or angry, just factual. She still seemed to look down upon Yuusuke, but she wasn't reaching for the sword. All outward appearances read towards letting him just walk away with it. Which... probably wasn't what Yuusuke was expecting.

Meanwhile, the feedback loop suddenly stopped, with all the energy concentrated beneath the surface of the grave...

[Jilak]

Yuusuke was... quite taken aback by Mitsuyo's response, to be honest. He didn't drop his outward demeanour, but it was really puzzling. Though she still seemed arrogant, she was making no direct attempts to take the sword. It made him feel uneasy. What made him feel more uneasy, however, was the fact that the loop seemed to have stopped, with the energy concentrated beneath the surface of the grave. That... that was actually a bit worrying, to be honest.

So worrying, actually, that after letting out a small yelp, Yuusuke quickly jumped backwards, firmly gripping the sword. He didn't want to drop it in his surprise, after all. He had no idea what was about to happen, but it put him on edge. It seemed that pulling out a sword wasn't all he'd done.

Yuusuke tensed, pulling his hand not on the sword, his left, into a fist. He wouldn't flare his reiki, but he'd be ready, physically.

"Dammit, what now? I'm really not in the mood for this." Yuusuke thought to himself.