The Last Mazoku
By: Tellemicus Sundance
Chapter 4: Six Years Later…

Ningenkai
Sunday, 8:30pm

Yukimura Keiko's life had recently taken a new, drastic change.

After needlessly saving the life a small boy and dying, she had been taken to the Reikai Check-in Station to meet the 'great Koenma' in hopes of being brought back to life. After three weeks, a lot of rushing and waiting, frustrations, and a nearly missed deadline to which she'd have to wait another fifteen months, she had finally been brought back to life.

Right now she was almost finished with her first serious assignment as the Reikai Tantei of Japan. The big brute Gouki, who had the Orb of Baast in his possession, had underestimated her abilities and cunning greatly. The end result being he was now a full head shorter. She'd incinerated his ugly horned face with a point-blank Reigun blast to his mouth which she had jammed open with a log.

Next Kurama, who had quite willingly returned the Forlorn Hope to Keiko and Botan after using it to save his human mother's life. He had gone to Reikai without complaint or a struggle last she had heard, probably to be released on good behavior and noble intentions.

But now it was finally Hiei's turn. It quickly became apparent to Keiko that the triclops had been watching her slowly acquire the previous two artifacts. He had lured her to an abandoned warehouse with orders to present him with the two artifacts or he'd kill her mother, whom he'd taken hostage.

Ever since that fateful argument all those years ago, Keiko had made a drastic change in her personality and relationships with others. She was now the outcast of the school, much like her long-lost friend had been. And though slowly over time she had forgotten his face and name, the injustice that had befallen him remained forever burnt into her memory. With her temper rising out of control, Keiko turned to an unlikely place to vent it: through her fists. She had found that it was very satisfying to vent her anger and frustrations that way. Thus she had gotten into countless numbers of fights, in the past three years especially.

No longer did she try to pay attention in class, often she would skip out for days on end. Only showing up whenever there was an important test or quiz. But on those tests, she always scored high enough to prevent the teachers from being able to kick her out, despite how much she 'tainted the reputation of the school.' And her relationship with her parents, her mother especially, had taken a big hit. She was quite disrespectful and insolent, hardly ever giving her parents' lectures on how she could 'stop all those fights and get her life back on track' any real attention.

But despite how far apart they had grown in the past few years, Keiko held her parents very close to her heart. That was why she would have happily rushed into the bawls of hell to save them, without hesitation or remorse for those who would dare try to prevent or hinder her.

Resolved in her anger at Hiei and strengthened by her determination, Keiko was able to momentarily take the three-eyed youkai by surprise and land the first punch. Hiei was hurriedly reevaluating his opinion of her fighting skills as he recovered from the blow.

He knew that she was fast and very agile. Most female fighters of just about every known species in any of the three worlds were. Yet he had thought that he was faster. But now it appeared that this rather athletic human bitch was even nimbler on her feet than he'd originally anticipated.

"What was that, Yukimura?" he demanded, standing up and gripping the Shadow Sword tightly to reassure himself it was still in his grasp. "You weren't that fast earlier or when you fought against Gouki."

Keiko's dangerous glare never faltered as she answered. "In case you've already forgotten, that is my mother you're trying to turn into a demon there."

"I see now," Hiei said, bringing his hand to feel his aching jaw. That punch had hurt…a lot. "You're a decent fighter on your own, but when people you care for are in trouble, your strength increases considerably…I hate people like you."

That statement drew a grin to Keiko's face.

"But don't let that one punch go to your head, Reikai Tentai," Hiei continued. He was growing increasingly nervous at having to fight a person who was rapidly becoming his equal. Boasting was one of his more arrogant means of boosting his confidence and trying to dwindle his opponent's. "Like an amateur, you didn't take advantage of the situation and gotten the sword back. And I promise I won't be dropping my guard any longer."

"Are you done yet?" Keiko demanded with her grin still in place. "Or can I get back to breaking your teeth?"

"Come on then!" Hiei yelled, launching himself off the box and into the air with all the speed he could muster.

In an attempt to get a better position to attack him from, Keiko sprung up on a particularly high stack of boxes and was carefully trying to track his movements. But because he was armed with a sword that could turn her into a youkai if it cut her, she was being even more careful to keep track of him. Stretching out her rapidly improving reiki awareness, she followed his jumps and lunges easily.

"Can you keep up, bitch?" he asked, continuing to stalk of his prey. "You humans have such slow eyes. Come on, where am I?!"

Arrogant as could be, Hiei could feel her trying to track him. But he was practically certain in his assumption that he was much too fast for her to react when he decided to make the fatal strike.

"Prepare to become my slave!" he called, hefting the Shadow Sword in preparation.

He lunged in for the strike to cut and eventually transform her. As he drew nearer, he could practically smell his victory as the distance between him and her back closed to be only few feet apart with the sword posed and ready. Thus it was quite a surprise to him when she suddenly turned to face him, dodging around the descending sword blade with a fist already incoming.

The punch connected full force with his jaw, knocking him back the way he'd come. The strength in the punch was considerable, far more than most other guys her age group could boast of. But it was not enough to seriously hurt him, much less knock him out.

"You wanna know something, Hiei?" Keiko asked, glaring down at him as he picked himself out of the wooden crate that he'd crashed into. "The one thing I hate more than being called a slut is guys thinking they're a better fighter than me simply because they're boys!"

Rubbing his aching jaw, Hiei felt something warm get smeared onto his hand. Glancing down in surprise, he found that Keiko's punch had somehow been strong enough to give him a bloody lip. No human, much less a girl, had ever done that to him before!

Seeing him sending a glare up at her, Keiko smirked broadly. It was one of her more favorite hobbies to surprise the boys she fought with her incredible speed and agility. It was only a few times this past year had she ever been hit by one of her opponents because she was too slow.

Only Gouki had ever hit her more than three times in a single fight, and that was only because his blasted skin was so damn tough!

"Would you like to know something else?" she asked, gently channeling a small amount of her reiki through her leg muscles. Utilizing her speed, she dashed down next to the small demon and delivered a fierce kick to his side, knocking him into another crate.

"None of my opponents ever take me seriously until I have them kissing the pavement," she smirked as she knelt down and picked up the sword that Hiei had unintentionally dropped on his way through the first crate.

"Is that so?" Hiei asked, once again climbing out of the debris he'd made. Throwing his cloak off, he let out a loud chuckle as he continued, "Then allow me to start taking this seriously. Think of this as a compliment since I've never had to transform into my full form for a human before."

"What?" she asked, now sounding quite a bit more worried. He wasn't at his full potential yet? This could be bad.

Outside the warehouse, Kurama was running as quickly as he could towards the rapidly increasing ki auras he had been sensing for the past ten minutes.

That Reikai Tantei, Yukimura Keiko, and Hiei must've already started their battle. And if that smell that was starting to cover the area was any indication, it meant that Hiei was quickly being beaten down. Though he had not fought the young lady, Kurama had known in an instant that she was far stronger than she appeared.

But then again, so was Hiei. There was a reason why Hiei rarely used his full power when in battle: it wore him out very quickly. This was because his body was still very unaccustomed to the immense strain the amplified Jagan eye put on him.

Stealthily entering the warehouse, he peeked over a row of cargo crates and spotted the two combatants. Hiei, complete with his green skin and numerous Jagan eyes opened across his body, was standing arrogantly on another crate. Keiko, dressed in her usual tan cargo pants and a high-cut black t-shirt that showed off her toned abdomen, was suspended in the air by rings of Hiei's youki.

As he watched his former partner-in-crime bring the Shadow Sword to bear down on Keiko, Kurama acted. He couldn't afford to use any of his favorite attacks because even a flicker of youki would alert Hiei of his presence. That was why he quickly threw himself between the Shadow Sword's blade and Keiko's restrained body.

I'll snatch it from him the moment I intercept, he planned even as he rushed forward. Then I'll have to help that shinigami prevent that woman's transformation.

A combination of bad luck and miscalculation on Kurama's part resulted in him being impaled on the sword. But being as he was already a youkai, the sword's powers would have no effect on him

Hiei and Keiko both gawked in apparent surprise at the red-haired teenager that had just seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"You really have gone insane!" was all Hiei could utter when he finally regained control of his vocal cords. "Why are you helping this bitch?!"

In response, Kurama merely cut his palm on the sword blade and sent a spray of blood into Hiei's face. Just like any normal being, Hiei stumbled back with a cry of surprise and pain as his eyesight was blinded momentarily. With his focus completely ruined, the energy bands binding Keiko were destroyed.

"Thanks, Kurama," she said, standing up somewhat weakly. Those energy bands had somewhat numbed her limbs when they made contact with her skin.

"Beware of Jagan on his forehead," Kurama said painfully, wincing as he extracted the stolen weapon from his gut. "The others are merely to amplify its power."

"Are you okay?" Keiko asked, quite concerned since she didn't want her rescuer to die.

"I'm fine, don't worry," he said, turning and began slowly stumbling towards Botan. "I'll use my power to prevent the sword's effect on that woman, you go fight Hiei."

"Hai," Keiko nodded, turning back to her opponent.

"Kurama!" Hiei growled out in a bestial tone, with every intention of killing the kitsune. "You traitor!"

"I'm the one you should be worrying about!" Keiko snapped as she stepped in front of the small demon. Her eyes were narrowed in her concentrated anger, a vague silhouette of purple and red reiki billowing around her body.

Hiei glared at the teenaged girl. The glare was to hide his ever-growing growing concern. He was quickly seeing a pattern to the power surges that the girl exuded. She got a decent boost in strength when she realized that her mother's fate depended on her victory. But now as her anger grew stronger, so did her reiki. In fact, her amount of reiki potential had just surpassed his and was still rising! I can't allow this to go on any longer!

With a cry, he leapt forward with all the speed he could muster. Bringing his fist forward, he hit the girl right in her stomach. The blow sent her stumbling backward slightly as she grasped her injury with one hand.

With a sudden boost in confidence, he lunged to the side and swung his leg up. Yet he hit only air as Keiko ducked under his leg and slid behind him at speed that dwarfed her previous limits. His back became intimately familiar with her kneecap as it slammed into him. Using the momentum she'd given him, Hiei dropped his hands to the floor as his feet shot up and booted her in the chin.

Backing up slightly, Keiko glared at the youkai as her anger increased. With battle-cries, both lunged forward again, dashing to the side, jumping off crates and bouncing off walls, all at speeds that neither Botan nor Kurama could've easily tracked if they'd tried to glance away from their task at hand.

Finally landing a solid punch to her jaw, Hiei threw her into the wall with enough force to knock the air from her lungs. As he was dashing forward to land a fierce kick to her stomach, she rolled to the side. He hit the wall hard enough to cause cracks to spread out from his feet.

Using a combination of adrenaline and her reiki to ignore her growing injuries, Keiko spun around and delivered vicious right hook to Hiei's jaw. The fact that she had sent her entire body into the blow was part of the reason he was lifted clean off his feet and sent flying a respectable distance away.

Catching her breath while she could, a tiny glint of light out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. It was the Forlorn Hope. As she glanced at the small mirror, an idea suddenly struck her.

"My, my, Tantei," Hiei said as he climbed to his feet, once again rubbing his abused jaw. "You truly are something else… Perhaps I'll make you one of my prostitute slaves when this is all over."

"WHAT?!" If Keiko had been angry before, she was raging furious now! "I'M GONNA KILL YOU, HENTAISHA!!!"

Attacking in the blind rage she fallen into, Keiko paid no mind to anything around her except turning Hiei's face into a pile of mush. But her attacking such a fashion was exactly what the small green monster had planned on. He easily avoided her initial lunge and proceeded to throw her to the side with a strong kick.

Laughing uproariously at once again gaining the upper-hand, the Jagan warrior ran for Keiko's downed body. Pulling herself into a sitting position, she glared hatefully at the little man as he drew nearer. Then she spotted the Forlorn Hope, in perfect position.

In an instant, she brought up her hand and focused a vast portion of reiki into the tip of her index finger, helped along by the special ring Botan had given her prior this battle. A bead of magnificent purple light surrounded by a soft red glow appeared at the tip of her finger. It was Hiei's only warning before she fired the shot at near point-blank range.

"Reigun!" she yelled.

Of course, Hiei did the only thing any logical person would do in that position. He jumped easily over the energy bullet. "A very nice light show, Keiko," he said sneering as he landed. "Too bad all that energy was wasted on poor aim."

A sudden bright glow of purple behind his back was all the warning he got. Sadly for him, he was far from being prepared for it. The reflected Reigun bullet slammed into his back with all the force of a sledgehammer. Dropping to his knees, Hiei's strength faded rapidly.

"What happened?!" he demanded, trying to look over his shoulder in hopes of finding an explanation for how this human girl could possibly cause her bullet to rebound and hit him.

"I won, duh!" Keiko said, grinning as she leaned back against the wall. Boy did she feel tired after that one! Botan-san was right; the ring really did leave you exhausted after using it. "I reflected the shot off the Forlorn Hope."

Even as she was saying that, Hiei caught onto it as well when he spotted the shattered ruins of the small mirror. Looking back at the girl who'd beaten him, the Jagan eyes across his body closed and the green of his skin returned to a more humane coloring.

"That was pretty…clever," was all he could gasp out before succumbing to blissful unconsciousness.

Hurrying over to the discarded Shadow Sword, Botan snatched it and rushed back to Keiko's mother, fiddling with the base of the hilt. Feeling a sliver of her strength returning, Keiko weakly stood up and hurried to her mother's side as quickly as she could move.

She arrived in time to watch Botan dripping some green liquid out of the now-separated hilt and into her mother's mouth. Slowly, the Jagan eye on her forehead closed and then vanished.

Dropping down to the ground in a rather unladylike manner, Keiko let out a sigh of relief. That had a bit too close for comfort for a few moments.

"Keiko-chan," Botan said. "Your mother's going to recover. She'll probably wake up some time late tomorrow morning."

"That's good," she said, fighting to keep her eyes open. Boy was she tired!

"That was a very impressive display of fighting skills, Keiko-san," Kurama said, smiling from where he was leaning against one of the crates now that her mother was safe.

"I guess so," Keiko said, giving a small smile in return. "But I wasn't really trying to put on show."

Kurama only nodded at that statement.

"Keiko-chan, why didn't you tell me you could bounce the Reigun off mirrors?" Botan asked. "When did you learn that anyway?"

"About three days ago," she said smiling. "I needed to know what my Reigun could do in case I had to fight Kurama-san. I had been training in this old factory. It was actually an accident that I even found out in the first place though."

"An accident?" Kurama asked, slightly surprised to hear that.

"Well, I had been practicing on my aim at the time," Keiko quickly confessed, blushing faintly in embarrassment. "But a rat startled me and I ended up blowing up the side of a building when I hit minivan's driver-side mirror."

A memory fragment from a few days ago suddenly made a great deal more sense to Kurama now that he had the details. He couldn't suppress his chuckles at the irony of the situation she'd created at that time and place.

"I dare say, Keiko-san," he smiled slightly at her as he continued. "I somewhat look forward to the day where we must fight. It would most definitely be an interesting match."

"Yeah, maybe," she answered, smiling an almost sweet smile. "But you'll still lose!"

"Okay, that's enough, you two," Botan said, trying to prevent an argument from breaking out.

(Author's Note) One thing I've learned from my Legacy series is this: never follow too closely to the original storyline if you can help it. Sure, it's good to keep a few key elements the same but that's all.

I know some of you aren't going to appreciate this chapter, I really don't myself either. I had originally intended to start it at the beginning of the series (where Yusuke first died), but I realized that what I had played wouldn't be at all different from canon for those first few episodes. That's why I decided to start here, where things would truly start to get different from canon while following the same general storyline.

I'm sorry if some of the paragraphs in Keiko's history seemed out of place but I wanted to get a bit of her new background established here and now before continuing.

Most of you can probably guess what's coming next. And I can honestly say that it will not all be as close to canon as this chapter was. To be honest, I'm rather looking forward to the whole Genkai Tournament arc myself. And if I'm excited about it, it usually means I've got a few ideas that will be quite interesting! So please enjoy it when it comes.

Until next time…

Hentaisha—pervert
Kitsune—shape-shifting fox
Reikai Tantei—Spirit World Detective
Shinigami—death god