MaruMonzterz - 7. Arson, Murder, and You're on the Team

Monday, 17^th February.

From now on, there would be only one fight per day in the Japanese MaruMonzterz Tournament. This was stage two, where each fight would have three rounds and go on until one of the competitors gave up, or until their MaruMonzter ran out of HP. Effectively, this meant the audience would not stay in the stadium for very long. Back when the tournament was at its planning stage, many had tried to persuade Maruyama that this was a prime example of bad scheduling, but the president of the Japanese MaruMonzterz Association ignored their warnings. His own logic was that people were more likely to come to short events because it would take away less of their busy time. Never mind that in a place as big as Tokyo, a short event meant people might spend more time travelling there than enjoying the show.

But Maruyama ultimately knew what he was doing. The JMA president scheduled short half-hour documentaries about MaruMonzterz to be screened before the fights. The documentaries were almost as widely publicised as the fights themselves, and so the first day of the second stage of the tournament filled up about half the audience seats.

“Can you please walk faster? I do not want to miss today’s documentary!” Kinomoto politely said, even though she was effectively dragging Rumiko and Ken to the stadium. “It is about the people who created MaruMonzterz and what inspired them! I must see this!”

“Then how about you let go of us and run there by yourself?” Ken argued. “I don’t care about boring documentaries! I only came to see Yuy’s fight, and that’s not starting until half past four!”

“I will not run on my own because the last time one of us ran ahead, we did not meet again until very late afterwards. I want us all to stay together the whole time.” Kinomoto did not bother to look at Ken as she spoke. Her determination to keep marching on meant she kept facing forward and did not stop even to catch her breath.

“But I don’t want to see the documentary!”

“Now is too late to let me know that, Urashima-san. And anyway, we are almost there now.” Kinomoto kept pulling her friends’ shirts until they were almost at the front door. Ken was about to attempt one last jump to freedom when Urameshi came out of nowhere (as per usual) and stood in the middle of his flight path.

“Hi there!” Braid Boy Urameshi greeted Ken, and then waved to Rumiko and Kinomoto. “Did you come for the documentary too? Maybe we could find seats together.”

“I would like that, Urameshi-san,” Kinomoto answered. She noticed Ken was preparing some childishly impolite reply, so she acted before he could open his mouth. “Please come join us.”

“Thank you, Kinomoto-san.” The braided boy gestured that Ken should walk ahead of him and lead the way. Ken grumbled something that sounded remarkably like the kind of words his grandmother would be appalled to hear him saying, but did as the older boy wanted. Kinomoto waited until Ken was by her side to walk into the stadium. She had been paying so much attention to Ken that she forgot to check if Rumiko was still following her. If she had done so, she would have noticed that Rumiko did not move with her or Ken, but instead waited until Urameshi had caught up to walk by his side. While Kinomoto and Ken were busy finding good seats, the duo lagged behind a little.

“You don’t seem very cheerful today, Higurashi-san. Did something happen?” Urameshi asked, keeping his voice low so only Rumiko could hear him.

“Not really. I just think Kinomoto-san and Ken are scary when they argue, so I don’t want to get in the way,” Rumiko answered, turning away in embarrassment. “But we’ll be fine now, I think. I just hope I can learn something in the documentary!”

“I think you’ll do fine.” Urameshi smiled encouragingly. “If they start arguing again and it bothers you, you can call me and I’ll try to help.”

“Thanks, but I don’t want to bother you or them. Kinomoto-san and Ken have been my first friends, I don’t want them to get angry at me.”

“I don’t think you need to worry about it. Kinomoto-san and Urashima-kun seem to argue a lot and still be friends, I don’t think they would be angry if you told them to stop. It might even help them.” Urameshi smiled again, but Rumiko was not easily persuaded. “If I didn’t do things because it would bother my friends; I wouldn’t have done a lot of things. I wouldn’t even be here now!”

“Your friends don’t like that you are here?” Rumiko asked. Her curiosity got picked at the mention of Urameshi’s private life, and she was also glad for an opportunity to change the conversation’s topic.

“Not really. They didn’t want me coming because it most likely means I’ll have to fight against them in the Asian Tournament, but Maruyama-san’s invitation was too good to pass,” Urameshi answered, still smiling despite his words.

“So you’re ok with fighting against your friends?” Rumiko asked, surprised and concerned. “What if they don’t want to be your friends anymore?”

“They know better than that,” Urameshi waved away Rumiko’s concern. “We’ve been friends for as long as we can remember. It’ll take much more than a tournament to break our friendship.”

“If you say so… I hope you’re right.”

“Hey, you two! We got seats!” Ken interrupted his friends with a timely call from the front row. Kinomoto was already seated, and the screens were showing a count-down to the start of the documentary. Rumiko and Urameshi had about a minute to join their friends before the screening started.

The documentary of the day was entitled MaruMonzterz: the Humble Origins. It opened with a silly, yet extremely catchy tune played by a violin and a cello and sung by a group of young children. Accompanying the tune, the screen showed a colourful selection of MaruBalls taking turns to transform into MaruMonzterz and show off their most bad-ass techniques. This opening lasted for about a minute, and then the video cut to a small village covered in snow. Traditional Russian music began playing in the background, effectively clueing the audience to the village’s location.

‘The history of MaruMonzterz goes back further than most of us would dare imagine,’ announced an incorporeal narrator. The camera zoomed in the village and started moving through its empty streets. ‘It all started when a group of creative young people came to this village for a week of relaxing holidays. The year was 1998. The story goes that those youths soon became bored in this tiny village, and started to create new games to pass the time. MaruMonzterz is but one of the new wonders that were created during that week.’ The camera stopped in front of a small family hotel. It filmed the front of the building for a few seconds before the image changed to shots of a pack of cards spread over a table. ‘MaruMonzterz was at first conceived as a card game. Its creators drew each individual card and glued them over a standard pack of cards. Unfortunately, the exact rules for this early version of MaruMonzterz have long been lost.’

The scene switched again, this time showing a still shot of the Kremlin. ‘Some time later, already back to their homes in Moscow, the young people tried to find ways to improve their new card came. This improved version was almost exactly a match to the game we know today, but unfortunately the technology to make MaruMonzterz a reality was not yet known.’

Another scene change. This one made Rumiko jump in her chair, but thankfully her friends were too focused on the screen to notice her surprise. The documentary began to interview Yukina Tomino, the woman who gave Rumiko her first MaruMonzter and whose shop seemingly vanished as soon as Rumiko stepped out of it. The camera focused on Yukina Tomino’s face as she sat in her wheelchair, though her shop was clearly distinguishable in the background.

‘We spent a lot of time over the years trying to find a way of making our dream game a reality.’ Yukina Tomino told the camera. She spoke in English, but there were Japanese subtitles for the audience’s benefit. ‘We were lucky that our daily job was all about discovering new technologies, so we had an excuse get paid to pursue our passion!’ Yukina Tomino’s eyes, magnified to a scary extent due to her thick glasses, seemed to look straight into Rumiko’s. The girl felt the disturbing stare, and she became even more agitated. The hairs on the back of her neck shot up (as well as those on her arms, legs, and on places she did not even know she had hair) and a cold shiver ran down her spine. Around her, Kinomoto, Ken, and Urameshi felt the exact same thing, but they were all so caught up in their own goose bumps they did not notice it was a shared reaction. The same kind of feeling also hit Koichi Yuy, but he was much more successful at hiding it. Yukina Tomino kept speaking and staring, apparently bent on causing as much discomfort as possible, even though she was nothing more than a pre-recorded and heavily-edited image on a large screen. It would be far too creepy (and borderline unrealistic) to suggest she knew exactly what she was doing when she stared at that camera when the documentary was being recorded. Although, to her credit, Yukina Tomino had already done far creepier things in her carefully spaced-out appearances, so this suggestion might not be too off the mark after all. ‘Unfortunately, by the time we finally managed to get the technology right, some of our friends were no longer with us. So it is to honour their memory that we decided the first MaruMonzterz World Tournament would have its final stage in Russia, the country where those friends were born, and where we first thought of the game.’

The interview with Yukina Tomino did not last much longer. The rest of the documentary focused on detailed explanations about the new technologies that allowed MaruMonzterz to exist. The discovery of Marunium, a material that can go from rock-solid to gooey under the right kind of stimulation, was painstakingly detailed over ten minutes of disembodied narration over cute animations of atoms, molecules, and home-made chemistry sets. Another ten minutes were spent showing how Marunium was transformed into MaruBalls, with the disembodied narration accompanying footage of Yukina Tomino working in her shop to create a new MaruBall from a puddle of gooey Marunium. The last five minutes of the documentary consisted of the narrator shouting impressive-sounding statistics about the game’s popularity since its launch in the early 2010s, and concluded with another catchy song by school children over footage of animated, dancing MaruBalls. The very last thing shown was a black screen with the following text in silver:

 

In memory of:

Igor Borisovich Tsvetkov (1974-2001)

Anya Grigorievna Tsvetkova (1973-2001)

Alexandr Leonidovich Sokolov (1974-2007)

Katarina Olegovna Sokolova (1975-2007)

Isaac Anatolyevich Krylov (1974-2012)

Olga Nikolayevna Krylova (1973-2012)

 

There was no sound accompanying this particular image, clueing the audience to the fact that they should stay silent too. After exactly one minute, the screen went blank and the documentary was deemed officially over.

“That was interesting…” Ken was the first to comment. His eyes had grown to twice their size and his eyebrows were hiding somewhere under his red bangs. He had not quite recovered from the effect of Yukina Tomino’s stare.

“See, I told you it would be worth it!” Kinomoto exclaimed. She smiled smugly.

“It was kind of creepy…” Rumiko noted. Like Ken, she had spent the last twenty-five minutes of the documentary being haunted by Yukina Tomino’s disturbingly amplified eyes.

“I thought it was very informative,” Urameshi said. He and Kinomoto seemed no longer affected by the creepy stare. “Though I would’ve liked to know who the other people on Tomino-san’s team were.”

“Yes, that is true,” Kinomoto nodded. “They implied that just some of their team members passed away. If Yukina Tomino is one, then who are the others?”

“Maybe they didn’t have time to talk about it?” Rumiko suggested.

“They spent a lot of time talking about things that didn’t even make sense, like all those machines and chemicals and explosions and maths! They could’ve use that time to talk about the dead guys!” Ken complained. “And they could’ve said something about how they died as well!”

“They didn’t die at the same time, though. I guess it was all unrelated,” Urameshi noted.

“Can we stop talking about death? It’s creepy…” Rumiko asked her friends. She had turned away from the screen as soon as she realised what the names in silver meant. “I don’t want to think about dead people when I’m playing. It’s scary and sad.”

“So I guess you’re happy that they didn’t actually speak in detail about what happened to those people?” Urameshi asked Rumiko. She nodded vigorously.

“But the deaths make it so much cooler!” Ken exclaimed, tapping Rumiko in the back. “Can you imagine if their deaths were because they knew some kind of terrible secret about MaruMonzterz and so the others decided to kill them before they spread that secret around? It would be so cool!”

Rumiko jumped from her chair and tried to hide behind Kinomoto, as far away from Ken as she could. Kinomoto sighed and made a point of ignoring what she considered to be another proof that Ken had not even a drop of common sense, while Urameshi stifled laughter and rolled his eyes. Ken would have kept trying to get their attention, but the Commentator’s sharp sense of timing resulted in him choosing that exact moment to announce that the fight of the day was about to start.

Koichi Yuy and his opponent were already in the arena. Because this fight was supposed to be in three rounds, many people waited anxiously for an appearance of the defending champion that would take more than two seconds. Unfortunately, this was not exactly what happened.

As soon as the referee authorised the beginning of the fight, Yuy launched a quick, devastating attack that permanently incapacitated his opponent’s MaruMonzter. The poor cannon-fodder of a girl had no means of fighting the second and third round, and so Koichi Yuy was, once again, declared the winner in a fight that barely lasted two seconds. It was so quick and, arguably, mean, that he did not even give his opponent a chance to be properly introduced in the story.

“Ok, that was very fast.” Ken commented as soon as he managed to retrieve his jaw from the floor.

“That is most likely his intimidation strategy,” Kinomoto noted.

Ken heard her words and immediately changed his posture. He straightened his back, puffed his chest, and tried to make his voice sound deep and authoritarian, though this last part failed miserably. “Then, if he wants to intimidate me, it didn’t work! I’m not scared of him!”

“I think he was trying to show off to Urameshi-san, actually…” Kinomoto cut off Ken’s bravado.

“Argh, it’s always Urameshi! Urameshi this, Urameshi that! He’s not even from here!” Ken shouted, throwing a fit and pulling his own hair.

“You do know I’m sitting on the chair next to you listening to everything, right?” Urameshi asked Ken, doing his best to not lose patience with the annoying brat. He had realised by now that Ken liked to pull the ‘foreign’ card to annoy him, so he took a deep breath and forced a smile to form on his lips.

Ken turned to Urameshi and poked him with his dirty index finger roughly every two or three words. “I know you shouldn’t be! You’re from China, so you should be competing in China right now, and leave the Japanese Tournament for us Japanese!”

Urameshi’s first impulsive answer was to try to defend himself from Ken’s accusations. “But I’m Japanese too! I already told you that!” He took another deep breath and adopted a much calmer tone. “This tournament is open to everyone who is in Japan regardless of nationality. If you’re so keen to see only Japanese people competing, you should have a serious talk with your opponent tomorrow.”

“What do you mean?” Ken asked, confused.

“Your opponent is the English guy.” Urameshi explained. “If you think I’m too foreign for being half-Chinese, then what do you have to say about someone who’s from another continent entirely?”

“He doesn’t matter much, because I’ll kick his ass tomorrow anyway!” Ken answered with a very predictable energetic outburst (and the occasional high-velocity spit).

“So you acknowledge that you can’t kick my ass, and that’s why my presence in this tournament bothers you so much?”

Urameshi’s come-back took Ken by surprise. He stared at the braided boy for a couple of seconds before his brain could come up with an argument against that. “No, no! It’s because I’ll have at least one more fight before I can go kick your ass, so I’ll have to stand you for longer than I’ll have to stand that English git!”

“Yeah, that…” Urameshi rolled his eyes. His next words were directed to Rumiko and Kinomoto. “Anyway, the fight is over, so I’ll head back to my hotel. I’ll see you tomorrow for the next documentary?”

“Yes, we will see you tomorrow. Thank you for staying with us today.” Kinomoto stood up and bowed respectfully to her friend. “And I am sorry if Urashima-san was being rude to you.”

“It’s ok, there’s no need to apologise for other people’s behaviour.” Urameshi smiled slightly, but it was still a little strained. “See you tomorrow.” He bowed and turned his back to the girls.

“See you tomorrow!” Rumiko and Kinomoto said in unison. They watched Urameshi walk away from them, and were disappointed to notice that his braid did not act like a snake this time around.

(...)

Tuesday, 18^th February

Ken did not sleep well that night. His body burned under the covers, despite the cold temperatures outside and the relative lack of heating in his bedroom. He tossed and turned under his prison of heat, his body covered in sweat, until the covers were finally thrown on the ground. Ken took off his pyjamas while still sleeping, and they too ended up tossed around his mess of a room. There was so much sweat in his underwear it had become twice its original weight. The boy took it off too, and the wet undergarment splatted audibly against his computer screen. Finally, sprawled on his bed without any piece of fabric covering his body, Ken managed to have some rest.

His dreams were marked by the presence of a lurking figure that set fire to anything it touched. The creature’s body was long, thin, and scaly like an overgrown snake, but it had two pairs of claws and its head had two horns, a scaly long nose, and a mouth big enough to swallow Ken whole, with never-ending rows of teeth the size of the boy’s arm. The monster never answered to Ken’s calls, and ran away every time the boy tried to approach.

When Ken woke up in the morning, his bed sheets were as wet as if they had just been taken out of the washing machine, and Ken was so thirsty he drank a whole litre of water in one go. He still felt like his body was burning from the inside (in fact he had a minor fever), but he refused to stay home. This was the day he was going to win the quarter finals and guarantee his place among the five best MaruMonzterz players in the country. Nothing could stop him. Nothing.

“Where are you going, Ken?” Nothing apart from his mother, that is. “Come here, you don’t look well.”

“I’m fine, Mum!” Ken complained, refusing to move away from the front door. “Really!”

“Your face is very red, and you haven’t stopped drinking water since you woke up,” Kyoko Urashima pointed out. Ken’s twin younger siblings appeared by the kitchen door to spy on the commotion. “And you’re in a hurry to go to school. Something is definitely wrong with you.”

“I can’t believe this!” Ken muttered to himself, though everyone else heard it too. “The day she decides to worry about me is the day I don’t want her to care!”

“Fine, then. Are you refusing my attention?” Ken’s mother asked her son. “Will you be able to handle the consequences of leaving home in your current state? Or will I have to leave my office in the middle of my busiest work day to take you to hospital because you have no clue how to take care of yourself?”

“I’ll be fine, Mum, I promise.” Ken grabbed the doorknob and twisted it fully, but he kept the door closed. “Today is a very important day for me, I can’t just sit and watch it pass in front of my eyes.”

“Ok, then, but don’t come crying to me if it turns out you’re wrong.” Kyoko Urashima took a deep breath and turned away from her oldest child. The twin brothers approached her and began an attempt to have her exclusive attention based solely on the fact that they were younger and cuter than Ken.

“Mum, we will listen to you!” The older twin, Nikio, stood in front of his mother with his arms behind his back and an innocent smile playing on his lips. In contrast to Ken’s unruly mess of hair and fringe, Nikio and his twin had their hair cut as short as possible without shaving it off, which guaranteed an eternally neat-looking style.

“Yeah, we will be good children who listen to their mother and get special treatment later!” The younger twin, Mikio, added. He joined his brother in looking as innocent as possible in front of their mother.

“I wish. You just want extra dessert tonight.” Kyoko Urashima quickly caught on to the real motivation behind the twins’ sudden need to impress, and she was definitely not impressed.

“Ha, you suck, losers!” Ken blew a raspberry at his brothers and bolted out of the door before they could reply.

(...)

Ken narrowly managed to survive the day at school. His fever got progressively worse, making his head hurt and creating a continuous demand for water. Ken’s teachers were confused by his constant need to drink half a litre bottles of water every twenty minutes or so, but Ken was the kind of student that found a dozen different way to confuse his teachers every day, so they just dismissed it as yet another one of his peculiarities. At Ken’s astronomically expensive private primary school, the teachers were a lot less strict than in other more traditional schools, so they saw no problem in allowing a student to go refill his bottle twice in every lesson.

By the time school was over, Ken’s headache was so strong he could barely concentrate on anything other than walk to the MaruMonzterz stadium. Anyone with even a tiny bit of common sense would have already figured that if Ken tried to fight in this condition, his defeat would rank amongst the most humiliating in the whole history of the game (and maybe feature in a half-hour documentary to be shown at the next year’s tournament), but the boy had not realised it yet. It took all his brain power just to keep putting a foot in front of the other. He barely registered his surroundings either, which explained why he never noticed another boy walking calmly behind him until said boy pulled on the back of his shirt.

“Hey! What do you want?” Ken turned to confront the stranger who wanted to grab his attention. The other boy was about five centimetres (two inches) taller, but equally skinny and just as apparently incapable of holding his own in a serious fight. His short, spiky hair had red highlights, and he grinned mischievously at his target.

“You’re wearing short sleeves in the winter,” the boy stated, not exactly answering Ken’s question. “Are you, by any chance, burning from the inside?”

“How do you know?” Ken tried to step back, wary of the stranger, but the sudden motion made his head spin and he ended up falling into the other boy’s arms.

“If you cared to pay attention, you would see I’m not wearing a coat either,” the boy said, helping Ken to steady himself again. Ken forced his eyes to look at the boy’s clothes and, sure enough, he was wearing just a long sleeve shirt with the image of a bright red lizard stamped from his left shoulder to the right of his waist area. The lizard’s tale encircled the entire hem of the shirt.

“You know!” Ken exclaimed, slowly looking up to the boy’s eyes. It was probably due to his feverish state, but he felt like he just had the most epic epiphany of his life. It suddenly became obvious that the boy in front of him had also been in the same feverish state and sweating buckets every second, or at least feeling like he was permanently locked in a sauna. That boy knew what it was like. That boy was strangely familiar.

“I’ve been there.” The boy nodded. “But the worst of it will be over soon.” Ken’s body fell forward. His eyes were glazed over, reflecting the sudden emptiness of his mind. The other boy caught him and scowled. “Great, now I’ll have to drag him there too. He could’ve lasted a little longer…”

The boy turned left, and a dirty, cold, and dark alley suddenly appeared in front of him. None of the people who were walking or driving along the street seemed to notice the sudden change in landscape. The boy put Ken’s limp arm over his shoulder and started to carry him towards the dark alley.

“Where are we?” Ken whispered. The other boy had sat him against a particularly dirty wall in the alley. It was dark and cold there, but his burning body shielded him from the external environment.

“In the most cliché place I could think of,” the boy answered. He was standing in front of Ken, grinning happily despite the grim surroundings. His right arm was stretched towards Ken with his hand closed into a fist. “I have something to give you, and I wanted make this scene look like we’re in either a horror movie or a low budget action scene.”

“I vote for the action scene,” Ken said. The boy’s explanation made perfect sense to him. In fact, if Ken were told he had to create the perfect scenery to give someone the most special gift of their life, he would have chosen a disturbingly similar place, down to the rats running in the corner and the faint bark of angry dogs. He would probably wish for a less pungent smell, though.

“Fine by me. Horror is not really my style.” The boy nodded. He made the concentration face of a hero about to uncover the main conspiracy of his movie, and crouched on the floor so that his eyes could be level with Ken’s. “Special Agent Urashima, I have something for you!” The boy nearly shouted in his best approximation of a commanding tone. Unfortunately, he lacked the body type and the voice pitch to make this role believable, but nobody really cared.

“What is it, sir?” Ken asked, quickly getting into character as well. It was suddenly as if the boys had rehearsed for this moment their entire lives (or even, for added creepy points, since before they were born).

“This is of the ultimate importance, and no one can ever know how you got it! Understand?”

“Yes, sir!” Ken enthusiastically jumped up, standing at attention like a perfect (or rather pathetically skinny and non-threatening) soldier awaiting further orders.

“Good. Then prepare your MaruBall.” The boy waited while Ken did as he was told, taking the MaruBall from his backpack and launching it in the middle of the alley. His red bear appeared a few seconds later and stared at its master, ready to receive new orders. “Excellent!” The strange boy cried in triumph. “Now give me your hand!”

Ken stretched his right hand in front of his body, his palm facing up expectantly. Ken’s eyes were now completely awake, and they shone with anticipation. His body sweated more than ever. “What have you got for me, sir?”

“This.” As the boy spoke, he placed a small red stone in Ken’s outstretched hand. As soon as it touched Ken, it began to shine and hover slightly above his hand.

“Wow, this is so cool!” Ken exclaimed, though a second later he remembered he was supposed to be in an action movie and reacted accordingly. “Thank you, sir. I have no idea what I must do with a hovering rock that glows pretty, but I trust your judgement.”

“This, Special Agent Urashima, is your very own True Spirit!” The boy explained.

(...)

While Ken’s plotline was inexplicably turned into a poor attempt at an action movie, Rumiko and Kinomoto were busy trying to get to the stadium on time for the day’s documentary. They had waited for Ken at the usual subway station, but the boy failed to show up. Rumiko’s theory about her friend’s lateness was that Ken had been abducted by aliens and would never return to Earth again. She became predictably scared by her own imagination and needed five minutes of listening to Kinomoto’s rational arguments about all the reasons her theory could not be true to calm down again. Kinomoto concluded that Ken had gone to the stadium earlier to prepare for his fight, and decided they had better start moving if they wanted to arrive before the day’s entertainment was over.

Fortunately, the girls arrived just on time for the screening of the second documentary of the series. They did not see Ken around, even at the stadium’s surroundings. Urameshi, on the other hand, made his usual sudden apparition behind the girls just as they entered the stadium.

“Oh, there you are! I was looking for you everywhere!” Urameshi exclaimed. Rumiko jumped in surprise, but Kinomoto just smiled. Rumiko took a few seconds to realise who was talking to her, but then she smiled as well because Urameshi still a nice person, despite his creepy tendencies.

“Urameshi-san, how are you?” Rumiko greeted her friend once she got past the initial surprise of his umpteenth unexpected appearance. The braided boy smiled at her and Kinomoto while quickly scanning their surroundings.

“Where is Urashima-kun? Isn’t he supposed to fight today?” He asked the girls.

“Urashima-san did not come with us today,” Kinomoto answered. “We assumed he arrived earlier to prepare, but we have not seen him yet.”

“I hope he hasn’t given up. He seemed really fired up yesterday.”

Any further attempt at conversation was cut short by the catchy tune and happy animations that signed the beginning of the day’s documentary. This time, the title was True Spirits: Origins, Speculations, and Mythology. Just like the previous documentary, this one opened with a narrator speaking over a still shot of a remote place. This time, however, the shot was of Mount Fuji, and the background music was easily recognisable as traditionally Japanese.

‘MaruMonzterz would not be the same without True Spirits. We have all seen what they are capable of when paired with astounding fighters. But what exactly are True Spirits? Where do they come from? Why are they only capable of interacting with MaruMonzterz?’ asked the narrator. The audience was visibly hooked by her short introduction. Those were questions that had been in everyone’s minds since they learned about the existence of True Spirits. So far, nobody had been able or willing to give them straight answers, so it was only natural that everyone watching the documentary really, really wanted to know.

Unfortunately, not even this documentary would be able to help them. ‘Nobody knows for sure the answers to any of those questions.’ There was a collective groan as the audience had their hopes unceremoniously crushed. ‘But over the years, some credible theories have been proposed. This documentary will examine four of the most popular theories of the origin of True Spirits. Whether you believe in them or not, is up to you.’

The narrator then went on to explain a theory in which True Spirits were actually a kind of kami. They would be specially developed souls who could alter the world around them. Those special kami would also have a wide variety of personalities, and could be good or evil, wise or impulsive, calm or energetic. According to this theory, those chosen to be their “masters” were specially blessed souls. Rumiko, Kinomoto, and Urameshi exchanged amused glances, because their own experiences of having a True Spirit seemed to contradict that idea.

(...)

Ken’s jaw dropped, his eyes doubled in size, and a pretty glow that may or may not have been a timely optical illusion formed around his face. “My True Spirit? My True Spirit? Is it true?”

“Yes. You can see by yourself.” The mysterious boy stepped aside, allowing Ken to be face to face with his bear. When Ken looked at the bear, the stone in his hand shot towards the MaruMonzter and penetrated its body through the nose. The bear was engulfed in an explosion of light, and the damp coldness of the alley was transformed in a bright inferno that somehow did not affect Ken or his companion.

(...)

The next theory investigated by the documentary was that True Spirits were, in fact, aliens. A white man in his early seventies, with an impressive white beard and an even more impressively wrinkled forehead told the camera how he came up with this theory. He spoke English with a stereotypical southern USA accent, and thus the video once again contained Japanese subtitles for the benefit of its local audience.

“The aliens are slowly infiltrating us. They hide by going inside things, changing their shape, and then making everyone believe it was meant to be that way all along. When they can’t convince us that the new form of things is right, they say the change turned them more powerful. Then they get inside our minds, and start controlling us too! Before we know it, they’ll have enslaved us and colonised this planet! I’m telling you right here, right now. And if you excuse me, I have to prepare my defences.”

The camera filmed the old man slowly walk away. He was in the middle of a vast desert, surrounded by dry nothingness and a modestly-sized house. A dog barked in the distance, and after a while the cameraman got bored of filming the man’s disappearing back, so the documentary moved on to the next topic.

(...)

The show of light subdued, and the bear began to change shape. Its fur was replaced by thick scales, its body became thin and long, and its paws turned into sharp claws. At the end of its long cylindrical body, the monster sprouted a tail made of lively fire. The bear’s head slowly morphed into that of a traditional Japanese dragon bearing his huge fangs for all to see. The dragon had no armour, but the scales that covered its body looked capable of protecting the beast even from a nuclear blast. Where its eyes were supposed to be, there were only empty sockets with flames burning brightly inside. Despite this, the dragon was capable of seeing very well. It turned his proportionally huge head towards Ken.

“Wow, this is so cool!” Ken tried to touch the dragon’s head, but his hand was almost bitten off by it.

‘Greetings, Master. My name is Fenrochi, the Magnificent Dragon of Fire!’ the True Spirit spoke inside Ken’s head. His voice was deep and ethereal like Fenki’s, but with an edge of mentally-unstable psychopathy that the centaur definitely lacked. ‘I will huff, and I will puff, and I will blow your house down!’

“What?”

‘I always wanted to say that for some reason.’ Fenrochi laughed boisterously. It was such a potent laughter that Ken’s mind wobbled from the shock waves emanating from it. ‘Anyway, Master, I am here to fight, set things on fire, win tournaments, and set even more things on fire. Show me the challenge, and I will make sure it burns to the ground!’

(...)

“Our third theory is that True Spirits are, in fact, stranded souls,” the narrator announced. The video showed an animation of a ghost hovering in the dark carrying a map. “Those poor souls failed to find the road to their next adventure, and instead have become attached to pieces of metal or other useless objects. Over time, those souls became attracted to pieces of Marunium, and learned to interact with it accordingly.”

“That’s kind of creepy,” Rumiko whispered to her friends. She grabbed Kinomoto’s arm with one hand and Urameshi’s braid with the other. The braid was surprisingly silky to the touch, and Rumiko felt instantly calmer.

“I would feel sorry for those souls, though,” Urameshi whispered. “It can’t be good to be stranded somewhere, not knowing how to go forward…”

(...)

“You know, I really like you already!” Ken told his brand-new True Spirit. Like when Rumiko first talked to Fenki, he had not realised the dragon could hear his thoughts and did not need verbal communication.

“That’s good, Master, because now that I chose you, you’re bound to me forever!” Fenrochi answered without moving his mouth. His huge head nodded, though. “Or at least until I get annoyed and turn you into a piece of charcoal!”

“Would you really do that?” Ken asked, just slightly wary of the dragon that could effortlessly turn him into a pile of ashes. Apparently, his lack of common sense also translated into lack of instinctive fear.

“You don’t want to try me.”

(...)

The fourth and last theory of the documentary began with a cheaply animated time capsule materialising in front of a badly-photoshopped scenario of a high tech laboratory. The door of the time capsule opened, releasing a lot of colourful smoke, and out came a man in a monkey suit. When he spoke, his voice was the perfect incarnation of the sound of doom, which clashed horribly against the humorous atmosphere created by so many cheap props hoarded together.

“Another theory that has been gaining more followers recently is that True Spirits are time-travellers that have been caught by unexpected time-loops and paradoxes. So, in order to continue their existence, they must change shape and become completely new beings.” The man came out of the monkey suit. He was now wearing a high-tech fusion of swimsuit and spacesuit that looked, quite frankly, ridiculous. “This transformation may cause changes in their personalities, or make them more prone to violence and feelings of vengeance against those who put them in this position.”

The original narrator took over, just as the screen was filled with more cute animations of people becoming animals. If it was not for the cuteness overload, it would be a horrifying scene. “So far, none of these theories has been proved. All we can do is to hope that as we interact more with True Spirits and gain their trust, they become more willing to share their deepest and darkest secrets.”

(...)

“Hey, no need to try to scare me! We’re friends, right?” Ken tried to touch his True Spirit again, and once more his hand was almost bitten off.

‘We’re friends for as long as I need you, Master. Once I have fulfilled my objectives, I will reconsider your faith.” Fenrochi’s ethereal voice was already pretty scary on its own, so when the True Spirit made the effort to sound particularly terrifying, his tone became potentially lethal for anyone with a working sense of danger or those faint-hearted.

Obviously, Ken was not one of those people. “What’s your objective? Aren’t you here so we can win the tournament?” Ken asked his True Spirit. He showed not even a hint of fear.

‘I’m here to do much greater things than just win a silly tournament!’ Fenrochi boasted. ‘I’m here to watch the world burn, and laugh at people’s despair! Mwahahaha!’ Fenrochi’s laughter once again caused a mild earthquake inside Ken’s mind.

“Can we win the tournament first, though? I have been waiting for this day since forever!” Ken insisted.

(...)

“Do you believe in any of those theories?” Kinomoto asked her two friends once the end credits started rolling. “Flamelus spent the whole time laughing at everything they said.”

“I think my True Spirit enjoyed it,” Urameshi answered. “She found easy and obvious ways to prove all of them wrong, but she seemed to have a good time doing it.”

“Fenki didn’t say anything at all,” Rumiko answered. She immediately started to panic. “Why? Why have your True Spirits talked to you and Fenki stayed silent? Did I do something wrong?”

‘Don’t worry, Master, you did nothing wrong!’ Fenki spoke to Rumiko. ‘I kept my comments to myself because last week you made a big deal out of me speaking when you didn’t call for me.’

‘Oh, I see!’ Rumiko smiled in relief. ‘I’m sorry, Fenki, I didn’t think of that.’

‘It’s ok, Master. Maybe you should allow me to speak more freely from now on, to prevent it from happening again…’ Deep down, in that small corner of rationality inside Rumiko’s brain, she knew Fenki was speaking out of his own self-interest, but unfortunately the conclusions of that small corner of her mind reached the active part of her brain with catastrophic delay.

‘I guess it’s ok. Just try not to bother me too much.’

‘Yay! Thank you, Master! I will be eternally grateful!’

And that was when Rumiko realised what she had done.

(...)

‘Yeah, yeah, why not? Let’s burn things down now!’ Fenrochi became agitated and the flame in his tail grew to twice its size.

“You’re really cool!” Ken told his True Spirit. With the corner of his eyes, he caught the other boy snickering and turned to face him. “And you…” The other boy turned his attention to him. “You’re the best mysterious guy ever!” Without warning, Ken jumped on the other boy and proceeded to hug all the air out of his lungs. “Thanks a lot, stranger! I have no clue who you are, but I’ll love you forever and ever! And I don’t even like romance!” In his uncontained excitement, Ken pecked the other boy’s lips before once again squashing him into a hug. The boy stood as still as a very warm stone with an obvious blushing effect until Ken was done with his spontaneous manifestations of happiness.

“No problem,” the boy answered as soon as Ken allowed him to breathe again, quickly recovering his composure. “My name is Keitaroh Akamatsu, but my friends have taken to calling me Lizard Boy for a while now.”

“Cool. Lizard Boy. I won’t forget that.” Ken nodded to his newfound hero.

“I’m not so sure about that…” Lizard Boy grinned, but Ken was no longer paying attention to him. He was instead talking to Fenrochi.

“We have a fight to win now, so let’s get going before we’re late!”

‘As you wish, Master, but I want to burn down this alley at some other point.’ Fenrochi turned into a puddle of goo and reformed into a red MaruBall with a confused expression, not very different from Ken’s original MaruBall.

“Thanks for the gift, and see you around, Lizard Boy!”

“Sure thing…” Lizard Boy watched Ken run down the alley and back to the main street with a playful smile. Once Ken was gone, Yukina Tomino appeared by Lizard Boy’s side, touched his shoulder, and the whole alley vanished, dissolving in the air like a peculiarly beautiful mist. Nobody, including Ken, noticed the alley’s disappearance, though. Fenrochi’s new master was, in fact, so focused on his upcoming fight that he did not realise his fever, headache, and excessive sweat were gone. His body still felt incredibly warm, but this no longer bothered him.

(...)

“I’m here, let’s get this party started!” Ken barged into the second floor, boisterously announcing his arrival as a way to show that his self-confidence finally matched his raw power. His opponent of the day, the English boy who had his hair dyed half blue, half purple and whose vocabulary consisted mostly of grossly inappropriate words denoting human genitalia, immediately turned his attention to Ken.

“The world doesn’t revolve around your fucking ass, twat,” the boy told Ken in English as a way of greeting. His interpreter (a poor middle-aged man who seemed permanently on the verge of tears) tried his best to tone down the boy’s rudeness, but there was little he could do under the circumstances.

‘Master, can I burn his face? He’ll look a lot prettier that way!’ Fenrochi asked Ken, sounding far too happy and excited about the prospect of causing grievous body harm to a stranger.

‘We’ll watch him burn in the arena,’ Ken answered. At some point on his way to the stadium, his brain clicked to the fact that he could communicate with the fire dragon without needing to open his mouth.

“Competitors, please behave. You will be asked to take your places in the arena in two minutes,” the referee said, standing between the two boys in case they decided to start a physical fight.

“That’s two minutes to your doom, then!” Ken sent his opponent his wildest and widest victory smiled. It definitely felt good to be sure of an easy victory. His foreign opponent had no True Spirit, so this was going to be his easiest fight in the tournament so far. He knew it. He could feel it in his body.

Though, actually, what he felt in his body was the permanent heat that Fenrochi had given him. It was very easy to mistake his new internal flame with the warm feel of assured victory, and unfortunately Ken was not experienced enough to tell the difference.

Meanwhile, Rumiko, Kinomoto, and Urameshi sat in the front row of the audience, ready to cheer their friend on. They still had no idea Ken had finally found his True Spirit (or, more specifically, that his True Spirit had found him). They were not even sure Ken had showed up in the stadium, actually. So, for them, seeing Ken walk down the stairs to the arena was a relief.

Ken and his opponent arrived at the bottom of the arena and turned to the referee to receive further instructions. “Please shake hands now, and introduce yourselves properly so that we can start this fight in good spirits,” the referee told them. “I did not like your behaviour upstairs, and I want to prevent your competitive spirits from creating a potentially dangerous situation.” The English boy’s interpreter quickly translated the referee’s words. The boy narrowed his eyes.

“I don’t think it’ll make any fucking difference, but whatever.” The boy turned to Ken. He was at least ten centimetres (four inches) taller and obviously older and more muscular (though only because Ken’s overall muscle growth was more or less equal to zero). “I’m Franklin Hill, I’m from England, and I came here to show twats like you how to play this game.” Hill’s interpreter wisely ‘forgot’ to include the last bit in his translation.

“I’m Ken Urashima and I was literally just given the key to your destruction.” Ken smiled proudly of his badass choice of words. Now that he had a True Spirit, anything he did became more badass by default. He could drop the smelliest shit-bomb in the toilet and it would still be considered an epic feat because he now had a True Spirit. It was just how things were. Or so he thought.

The two opponents shook hands, though this did nothing to improve the relationship between them. They chose their sides of the arena and climbed to the right of their respective platforms.

“Prepare your MaruBalls!” the referee instructed. “Three, two, one, begin!”

The two MaruBalls splashed inside their launch triangles and quickly sprung into combat-ready monsters. Hill’s MaruMonzter was a purple eagle. Since both the eagle and Fenrochi could fly, the monsters did not wait for the launch area gates to open before starting the fight. The eagle flew like a rocket towards Fenrochi, hitting his scaly body and causing a little bit of damage.

“Oh, no, I won’t let you off so easily!” Ken shouted at Hill, then pressed the button combination for his strongest attack. Fenrochi did not move, however.

‘Hey, what are you doing, Fenrochi? I’m telling you to attack that bird!’ Ken asked his True Spirit, just as another eagle-missile hit its target full on.

‘The attack you called for is impossible for me to execute, Master,’ Fenrochi answered. He sounded angry, though it was hard to tell if this feeling was directed towards Ken or towards the eagle.

‘Why? I’ve had all those attacks for ages and never had problems!’

‘Because your previous MaruMonzter was a bear, which is an Earth-type MaruMonzter. I am a dragon of fire, and as such, all Earth attacks are outside my capabilities,’ Fenrochi explained. Hill’s eagle attacked twice more while their exchange took place. It was still far from causing serious damage, but Ken’s lack of reaction was beginning to look embarrassing.

‘Why did nobody tell me that?’ Ken almost threw his MaruMind on the floor. ‘What attack can you use, then?’

‘Out of the ones you have? None.’

‘Nooooooooooo! This can’t be happening!’

“What’s your problem, shrimp? Forgot how to attack? Get your ass back into the fight so I can kick it properly!” Hill taunted Ken. By now everyone had noticed Ken’s lack of reaction was taking a bit too long to be part of a plan. Some people even laughed at the situation.

“What’s going on?” Rumiko asked her friends. “Ken got a new MaruMonzter, but he’s not attacking…”

‘That’s a True Spirit, Master!’ Fenki told Rumiko. Unknown to her, the other True Spirits were telling their respective masters the same. ‘And one of the most dangerous ones. I don’t like where this is going…’

‘How do you know it’s dangerous?’ Rumiko asked, suddenly very afraid. She grabbed onto Urameshi’s braid for dear life.

‘I’m sorry, but this is a secret I cannot share with you, Master. It’s enough to know that True Spirits can feel the presence of others of our kind, and this one is bad news.’

‘But Ken is in control! Nothing bad can happen, can it?’ Rumiko asked, now downright terrified. She was seriously considering running to the exit and never coming back.

‘We’ll have to wait and see, Master. Let’s act like true heroes and keep our guards up!’

Hill’s attacks had depleted Fenrochi of ten percent of its HP. Ken stared at his MaruMind, desperate to find anything that would allow him to react.

‘I can’t believe this! I have a True Spirit and I’m still losing the fight! It’s really rotten luck!’ Ken grumbled in his mind. He did not dare say those things out loud. ‘I only need to touch him once and I’ll win! I’m so close now… This can’t be happening! Argh!’

‘Master, there might a way we can win,’ Fenrochi said. He was grinning too, but Ken could not see it.

‘What’s it? Let’s do it! Do whatever it takes to win!’ Ken immediately jumped on the opportunity.

‘Fine, if that’s your wish…’ Fenrochi’s grin became a full on deathly smile. The True Spirit locked his fiery eyes on Hill as his body began to glow. The light turned to fire, and the dragon was soon engulfed in red hot flames. Hill ordered his eagle to attack again, but the bird turned to ashes as soon as the tip of its beak touched the dragon.

“Hill cannot continue the fight! Urashima wins and proceeds to the semi-finals!” The referee announced. The stadium fell silent, not even the Commentator could think of something to say after such an impressive display of power.

‘Wow, that was really cool! You should’ve said you could do it earlier!’ Ken told his True Spirit. On the other side of the arena, Hill was still in shock. His eyes were fixed on the pile of ashes that once was his beloved eagle, while his jaw distended to the ground and his limbs locked in an awkward position that resembled nothing of his usual posh posture. His surprise prevented him from paying attention to his surroundings.

‘Oh, but Master, I’m far from done!’ Fenrochi exclaimed, and let out more of his maniac laughter. This time, Ken felt the whole building shake, though it could have been just his imagination.

‘What do you mean? The fight is over! We won!’

‘Yes, but who said all I wanted to do was win the match? You told me I could do as I wished, Master, and this is exactly what I’m going to do!’ Fenrochi’s body glowed even more. The flames spread around him, and a giant fireball formed in front of his mouth. ‘Say hello to your mummy in Hell, loser!’ Fenrochi fired the ball towards Hill, who was still too focused on the remains of his MaruMonzter to realise what was going on. He only looked up when he felt the intense heat approaching his head, but by then it was too late.

Or would have been, if Koichi Yuy had not realised something horrible was about to happen long before it actually did, and so had plenty of time to sneak behind Hill and yank him out of the line of fire in the nick of time. The boys fell from the platform just as it erupted in flames.

The public rushed to the exits, screaming for their lives. Rumiko was among the first to want out, but her body remained rooted in place between Kinomoto and Urameshi. She watched the disaster unfold while Fenki shouted things her head.

‘Holy shit! What is he doing? We have to stop him, Master! He’s going to destroy the stadium! And he’s going to hurt your friend! Let’s go, Master! Our hero duty is calling, Master!’

But Rumiko did not move. She only had eyes to the burning platform, and to her friend who was now so dangerously close to it.

‘Fenrochi, stop this madness now! You’ll destroy the stadium!’ Ken shouted at his True Spirit. He had a vague feeling the fire and the heat should be bothering him a lot more, but this was the least of his worries at the moment.

‘I told you I wanted more than to just win, Master! I want this place to burn! Fire is life, Master! Fire is power!’

“No, stop! Stop this before you hurt someone!” Ken shouted at the top of his lungs. He thought the flames stopped burning for a second, before continuing with renewed vigour. At least by that point Hill and Yuy had already escaped the arena, along with the referee and the Commentator.

‘It looks like we disagree, Master. I guess this means you’re no longer useful to me.’ Fenrochi turned his attention to Ken. Another fireball began to form in front of his mouth.

“Oh, no! What’s he going to do now?” Rumiko shouted. She regained enough control in her legs to jump behind her chair.

“That’s not good!” Urameshi exclaimed. Rumiko barely noticed when he disappeared from her side, jumping down to the arena.

“Fenrochi, stop it!” Ken tried one last time to control his True Spirit, but Fenrochi was no longer listening.

‘It was great knowing you, Master!’ Fenrochi fired his flaming ball towards his own master. Ken instinctively knew he did not have enough time to get away, so he merely lifted his arm to shield his eyes from his inevitable doom. The next thing Ken felt was something wet and cold splashing against his skin.

“Is this what dying feels like?” he asked no one in particular. His arm was still covering his eyes; he did not feel ready to face the end of his existence just yet. “Does that mean souls are liquid?”

“You’re not dead. Open your eyes.” Urameshi’s voice sounded from somewhere very close to Ken’s right. Ken did as he was told, and what he saw took his breath away.

Urameshi’s True Spirit, some kind of sea monster, was holding onto Fenrochi, covering the dragon’s body with a thin layer of water so that his body could no longer light up. The sea monster was at least two meters tall, the biggest Ken had ever seen. The whole arena was wet, and fire no longer burned the platform where Hill had been. Urameshi’s clothes were slightly singed.

“What’s going on?” Ken asked, looking from Urameshi to the giant monster that held on to his fire dragon.

“The most effective weapon against fire is water, so I thought I should do something before you got seriously hurt,” Urameshi answered. His voice was slightly strained, like he was in pain but trying his best not to show it. Upon closer inspection, Ken noticed that part of Urameshi’s left sleeve had been completely torn away, revealing a nasty burn on his upper arm.

“Shit, you are hurt!” Ken exclaimed. “Is that my fault?”

“Everything is your fault, Urashima.” An intimidating voice answered from somewhere behind Ken. The boy turned around to see Koichi Yuy jumping the last couple of steps that led to the arena. His purple winged horse (who was also a lot bigger than usual), soared past his master towards the ceiling near the screens where the sea monster held Fenrochi captive. “We need to bring your True Spirit under control before it causes any more damage. Maruyama-san is busy making sure everyone else is safe. We’re on our own here.”

“Really? Maruyama-san would really let a couple of children take care of the situation?” Another new voice asked. This one, at least, Ken knew well. Kinomoto carefully jumped from the audience seats to the arena as her green gryphon joined the other True Spirits above them.

“He seems to trust us a lot,” Urameshi answered, smiling slightly.

‘That’s not fair, Master! They’re all ready to fight, and I’m stuck here because you can’t move!’ Fenki shouted inside Rumiko’s head. The girl was still hiding behind her chair, looking at the flying True Spirits with a mixture of admiration and fear. She had not realised Kinomoto had decided to join the boys in the arena, so she was surprised to see Flamelus among the other True Spirits. As far as she knew, Kinomoto was not the type of person who jumped in other people’s fights like that.

‘Fenki, you can’t fly. I don’t think you could help even if I wanted to let you go,’ Rumiko answered her agitated True Spirit with unexpected calm and self-assurance.

‘That’s not faaaaair! I’m supposed to be the heeeeeero!’ Fenki screamed. Rumiko had a feeling the centaur was pulling his hair out in frustration.

Down in the arena, Kinomoto approached Ken. “You have to make Fenrochi return to his MaruBall form,” she told Ken. “That’s the only way to stop him attacking us now.”

“How am I going to do that? He doesn’t obey me anymore!” Ken protested. All the excitement he once felt for finally having his own True Spirit had evaporated.

“You can do it,” Kinomoto insisted. “True Spirits have to obey their masters. Fenrochi must have found a loophole in something you said earlier that allowed him to get out of control, but there must be a way to bring him back.”

“There is one simple argument,” Yuy said. He directed his next words to Fenrochi, speaking with a very effective authoritative tone. “There are three True Spirits ready to attack you, one of which is from the element that you are weakest against. Give up this fight now, or we will do to you what you intended to do to this stadium.”

‘You don’t get to boss me around, human!’ Fenrochi snarled. He did not open his mouth to speak, but his voice echoed through the stadium, sinisterly audible to everyone. The dragon sounded very angry, but Yuy was not fazed.

“I’m not the one doing the bossing around, it’s my True Spirit, together with the other two True Spirits ready to strike. I will say it one last time: surrender, and we will not harm you.”

‘Never!’ The dragon shouted. This time, the stadium did shake a little.

“Urashima-san, please do something!” Kinomoto urged Ken. “We will have no other option but to attack your True Spirit if he keeps refusing to cooperate!”

“But what can I do? He’s not going to listen to me!”

“Think about how it felt when you first got Fenrochi,” Urameshi instructed. The braided boy was gripping his injured arm with his right hand, and his ability to pretend he felt no pain was beginning to waver. “What felt different on your body? Did you feel some sort of connection to your True Spirit? Concentrate on that feeling.”

“Ok…” Ken tried to tried to think of the confortable heat that spread all over his body from the moment Fenrochi first spoke to him. He remembered how awful the excess heat had seemed in the hours before he got his True Spirit, and how it changed to a comforting warmth once Fenrochi became undeniably his.

“This is your main connection to your True Spirit,” Urameshi continued his instructions. “Keep thinking about that feeling and order the dragon to give up the fight.”

Ken doubted Urameshi’s method was going to work, but by this point he had nothing to lose by trying. He concentrated as hard as he could on the comforting warmth, until he felt the feeling overwhelm his body. He was burning from the inside again, and he liked it.

“Fenrochi, that’s enough. You cannot hurt my friends anymore.” The fire made him somehow stronger. Ken felt the difference, and his voice managed to sound properly authoritative for the first time in his eleven years of existence.

‘Fine, but I’m not done with you lot yet. You just wait.’ To Ken’s surprise, Fenrochi finally obeyed. The dragon dissolved into a puddle of goo that slowly dripped out of its thin water prison before morphing into a harmless MaruBall. The arena let out a collect sigh of relief.

“I can’t believe this is over.” Ken fell on his knees, too exhausted to retrieve Fenrochi.

“Well done, Urashima-san, you did a good job.” Kinomoto crouched beside her friend and patted him on the back.

“I don’t think I know exactly what I did,” Ken confessed.

“You were given a True Spirit that does not take kindly to obey your authority,” Yuy explained. “You will have to prove to him that you are strong enough to be his Master, or he will not respect you as such. There are some True Spirits who find weak masters like you so that they can take control instead of being controlled. This is what Fenrochi tried to do to you.”

“So Fenrochi was just using me to cause destruction?” Ken asked, feeling sad and disappointed in himself. If he was only chosen because he was weak, then it would have been better not to be chosen at all.

“Most likely.” Yuy’s emotionless face turned away from him in order to retrieve his own MaruBall from the arena. “Now you have two choices: you either learn to control your True Spirit, or he will control you for the rest of your life.”

“Shit.” Ken could not think of a more eloquent way to express his feelings on the situation.

“Yuy is being too harsh, it’s not exactly like that.” Urameshi climbed the steps to the platform where Ken and Kinomoto were and sat on the wet floor by Ken’s other side. Meanwhile, Yuy silently left the arena to tell Maruyama that their work was done.

“You will have to be on your guard for a while, Urashima-san,” Kinomoto said. “But ultimately, you are the Master. Your True Spirit has to obey you. Your connection to him is like a leash that you can pull on when he is stepping out of line.”

“So if this kind of thing happens again, I have to concentrate on that burning feeling and tell him to stop?” Ken asked. His friends nodded. “Isn’t it easier to just never put him in a fight again?”

“As in… give up your True Spirit?” Urameshi asked, surprised. “After all the fuss you made about wanting a True Spirit, I’m surprised you’re even considering that possibility.”

“Fenrochi nearly killed me and my opponent today, and set fire to the stadium. I don’t think I want to keep risking my life like that,” Ken answered sombrely. He refused to face the other two, lowering his head to disguise the wetness that was beginning to form in his eyes. “Even if by some miracle I’m allowed to stay in the tournament, I don’t want to literally die trying to win.”

“There might be ways around that, though,” Urameshi said. “The tournament meant a lot to you, it would be a shame to see you giving up without a fighting chance.”

“What do you mean?” Ken asked, making an effort to keep his head low. Urameshi was the last person he wanted to see him crying like a baby.

“I mean I could try to help you force your True Spirit to respect your authority. We could practice together, and I could use my water abilities to keep Fenrochi in check until he learns not to mess with you.”

“You think you can do that?” Ken asked.

“I do. My friend also had a nasty True Spirit, but with some persuasion, careful training and lots of water guns we managed to turn that True Spirit around. She’s now one of the strongest fighters I know.” Urameshi smiled at Ken. “There’s still hope.”

“Then let’s do it!” Ken suddenly did not care that Urameshi would see him crying, or that Kinomoto and Rumiko were about to hear and witness some of his most ‘unmanly’ (or so he thought) behaviour. “I can’t believe you want to help me, though. I’m sorry you got hurt today.” Ken pointed to the burn mark on Urameshi’s arm. It was almost as big as his palm. “And I’m sorry I was mean to you before.”

“That’s fine. Thank you for your apology, though. I really don’t like when people don’t consider me Japanese enough.” Urameshi kept smiling, and soon Ken was doing the same.

“Can we be friends, then? Like, proper friends and stuff?” Ken offered, somewhat reluctantly because he was very aware of the fact that he was destroying his manly image in front of his girl friends. Fortunately for him, though, he already had no ‘manly image’ whatsoever in the eyes of Kinomoto and Rumiko, so nothing really changed just because he once decided to show his feelings, apologise and own up to his mistakes, and offer friendship to someone he used to consider an enemy. If anything, those actions were more likely to make Rumiko and Kinomoto see their friend as someone who could someday develop into a mature human being. Or some such.

“Of course we can.” Ken and Urameshi shook hands and exchanged pleasant smiles. By sheer coincidence (and for the sake of plot neatness) Rumiko chose this exact moment to come down the stairs to the arena. She had been trying to join her friends ever since Fenrochi gave up the fight, but the lifts to the upper floor were blocked because of the fire chaos. She ended up having to go all around the stadium to find the emergency staircase to get to the upper floor and then safely go down to the arena. It would have been a lot simpler to do like Kinomoto and Yuy and just jump down the two-meter wall from the audience, but Rumiko was the kind of person who could get hurt just by falling on her own butt, so this kind of bigger fall would inevitably end in disaster.

“Yay, everyone is friends now!” Rumiko nearly screamed upon seeing Ken and Urameshi shaking hands. “Does that mean we can all hang out together without arguing all the time?”

“I don’t have a problem with that,” Urameshi promptly answered.

“Me neither.” Kinomoto agreed.

“I guess I’ll try…” Ken mumbled, much less secure than his friends.

“Then that’s settled! We’re now officially the best friends ever! We’re like a team!”

There was a group hug, one accidental squeeze of a fresh injury, and lots of intense apologising. There were more hugs, encouraging words, and a general feeling that the four children could indeed become a great team.

Now they only had to make sure they could stay as a team after the Japanese Tournament ended.