"Keiko-chan! Keiko-chan, wake up!" Genkai beseeched to Keiko Yukimura while Kuwabara talked to Fujita. "Everything is fine now. It's all over. You're free from Seiryu's grasp. You're going to be okay."
Keiko's eyes fluttered open. "G-Genkai-baasan?" The young girl stared into the night sky blankly, as if she were looking for the twinkle in her glassy eyes amongst the stars themselves. "I can't see anything else except the stars, grandma."
Genkai repeated her reassurances to Keiko, even though she herself had begun to doubt them.
Keiko smiled wanly. "I especially like that bright star twinkling beside the big dipper. It looks pretty."
Genkai's face paled as she swung her head towards the skies and looked at the star Keiko was smiling at: the Harbinger of Death, the legendary bad omen that assured anyone's death within a month of seeing it. 'By Enma Daio's beard, what has Seiryu done?'
Keiko's eyes then slowly closed.
Youtou Shinnoken: Demon Sword
A Yuyu Hakusho/Rurouni Kenshin fic
by Chester Castañeda
Original concept by Chad Yang
Yusuke's true battle is not with Rando, but with his own inimitable sadness.
Disclaimer: Yuyu Hakusho is the rightful property of Yoshihiro Togashi, Shueisha, Fuji TV and St. Pierrot. Rurouni Kenshin is the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki and Sony. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted material that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.
Chapter 9: Over the Horizon (Part 3)
Before Yusuke could even react, the floor beneath him was split in half care of an incredible, imperceptible force. His blood spilled on the halved ground shortly after.
'A blade that can cut through spaces and dimensions... the Jigen Tou!' Realization dawned upon Yusuke fairly quickly as he looked at the direction where his nemesis supposedly lay. "You never learn, do you? This time, I'll break you in half instead of that sword!" the half-demon hissed before disappearing in the blink of an eye.
'Yusuke-dono, NO! Have you forgotten everything that I've just told you?' Kenshin cried out psychically in alarm, but to no avail. It was too late.
"What? You're doing that again? Urameshi, you're too much," Rando drolly remarked, smirking. He proceeded to swing the Dimension Sword around him repeatedly, leaving streaks of light in the air as he ripped and sliced the hapless half-demon apart from a safe distance.
Yusuke landed in the most pain he'd ever had in his life. Worse than Suzako's electrical shocks. Worse than a punch from a full-powered, hundred-percent Toguro. Worse than the shots he took from Sensui's... actually, "Kazuya's"... Gun. This exquisite agony was beyond anything he'd ever experienced. The fact that he couldn't even summon any reiki to buffer the pain left him in even more pain. He staggered to his feet and looked at Rando contemptuously.
"It looks like I've made you bloodier than before," Rando observed as he surveyed the damage his opponent took. 'I won't take any stupid chances this time. I'll make sure that I'll win. Demons! Dog pile the human scum,' the pale-faced youkai mentally instructed the survivors of the Urameshi massacre. They obediently did as they were told.
Rando pondered, "Hmmm. Should I cut your head off with the Jigen Tou or suck you dry with a Blood Wind used on your blood? Which one, which one? Which technique shall I use to finally be rid of you once and for all?"
"Rando, you spineless son of a bitch; you don't have any guts!" Yusuke raged amidst the numbness and pandemonium that surrounded him.
Ignoring Yusuke's seething words, Rando exclaimed, "I know! I'll use both techniques on you; first the Jigen Tou, then the Blood Wind. It's brilliant, I say! Pure genius." He smiled a wicked, harlequin smile, the edges of his lips seemingly reaching all the way to his eyes. "I told you that I'd win over you absolutely."
'Yusuke's in big trouble,' Kenshin deduced calmly as his legs buckled underneath him, his blood spilling on the ground. 'It's now time for our counterattack.'
Kenshin had ascertained long ago that while Genbu was unquestionably fast and strong on land, his actual skill level was greatly inferior to his. It was the swordsman's desperation to end the fight... coupled with Yusuke's reckless imprudence... that led to their current debacle. The Shisejyu was merely a pawn to the whiles of a bigger pawn, Rando. 'And Rando, in turn, is the pawn of the true 'King' of this demented chess game: the Chojin.'
After adjusting his tactics to compensate for his opponent's raw physical abilities, Kenshin had found an opening in the Holy Beast's defenses; he could now launch his long awaited counterattack.
Shrugging off the effects of Yusuke's mind-numbing agony, Kenshin darted out of the way of another Bakuretsu-Ganshou-Dan and went for broke into the heart of the devastation.
In a split second, he knew what he had to do. Running with godlike speed, he hit his sword unto the ground and unleashed a furious Dou Ryu Sen maneuver.
"Oh please, please don't use that damn technique on me again. I might die... of boredom," Genbu heckled, unaware of the hell that awaited him.
Kenshin's battle plan was finally complete. The self-destruction technique was carried out at last. By loosening up the ground with his multiple Dou Ryu Sen while leading Genbu towards the center of the desolation, Kenshin had baited his enemy into his unforeseeable trap.
Ironically, it was Genbu who helped Kenshin defeat Genbu. All of the Saint Beast's techniques were based on grinding down the land that surrounded him. The combined powers of the Bakuretsu-Ganshou-Dan and the Dou Ryu Sen were the main factors to what happened next.
The collective weight of crushed earth caved in, collapsing into the focal point of Kenshin's strike. Genbu stood in stunned silence as the ground opened up and swallowed him whole, howling at the last minute as the force of the falling debris overwhelmed him. The rumbling abruptly stopped a minute later.
"Y-Y-You lied, samurai. You said that I had the potential to become a fairly decent warrior. But the truth is, t-that's a steaming p-pile of demon shit. If there w-were such a thing as a Level-E monster, then I'd be it. I'm lower than dirt. Hell, I am dirt." Genbu chuckled hoarsely as he held his inevitable destruction at bay with one last Tetsuzan Kou. Although his body became as large as a house, its unstable foundation started to take its toll on him.
Kenshin wanted to reply to Genbu's pitiful outburst, but he ultimately deemed that there was nothing left for him to say.
'Damn you. Damn you for making me think I'm more than what I truly am. Damn you for making me die a warrior's death, even though a coward like me doesn't deserve it.'
Eventually, the foundations of the Shisejyu's gargantuan mass became so unstable that the gravitational pull of his own weight overcame the quantum boundary, eventually collapsing in on itself in an inimitable vortex of oblivion.
Pure obliteration soon followed as dust filled the air. Tons of earth merged upward then fell down, with nearly a third of the landmass collapsing into an eroding sandpit thanks to Kenshin's desperation move. Much of it fell directly on top of Genbu's crumbling carcass, since that was where the wave of destruction was aimed. Then, when everything was said and done, there was silence. For five long minutes, the dust settled.
Kenshin breathed a sigh of catharsis and a silent prayer for his Shisejyu opponent. To Genbu's credit, their fight ended with a bang instead of a whimper.
"G-Great! You found K-Keiko-chan!" Kazuma Kuwabara cheered to Genkai as he shook off the remnants of frostbite in his body. He sneezed. 'Damn this cold, and damn Seiryu! I hope he's burning in hell for what he did to all of us, especially to Keiko-chan.'
The curly youth smilingly sighed at Keiko's quiescent form. 'In any case, at least things still worked out in the end like they always do. I'm all right, Genkai-baasan's all right, and Keiko-chan's all right. There's nothing to worry about.'
Kuwabara subsequently blinked at the old woman as she proceeded to kneel down beside Keiko and stare at her. Puzzled, he asked, "Hey. What's up, granny? What're you doing down there?"
Kuwabara's questions were met with grim silence.
'Don't worry so much, granny. She's okay. Look, she's just sleeping.' Kuwabara sniffled, tilting his head and gawking peculiarly at the silly old woman. Honestly, sometimes he simply could not understand what was going on in that head of hers. 'Shit, we don't have time for this. We've got to get out of this dump.'
"C'mon, Genkai-baasan! Let's move Keiko out of this place and into your dojo so she could get well, um, soon," Kuwabara pleaded as he started to extend an arm towards the motionless girl's direction. Genkai hastily slapped the redhead's hand away.
"OW! Hey! What's the matter? Didn't you hear what I just said? We have to...!"
"Take off your clothes," was what Kuwabara heard Genkai say. No, that couldn't be right. She couldn't have said that. Why should she? Perhaps she said, "Take off and go," instead. Truth be told, he'd rather comply with the latter than the former.
Nevertheless, to Kuwabara's vexation, Genkai repeated her dreaded demand after a few seconds. As realization dawned to the stalwart young spirit detective, his heart stopped beating for a full second; it then got caught in his throat as Genkai started to remove her own vest. "Er... pardon?"
"I said take it off and give it to me! Stop making me repeat myself! Are you going to do it or will I do it for you?" Genkai snapped at the younger man, the urgency in her voice quite obvious.
Kuwabara didn't quite know how to reply to that. His face passed through several shades of red, from embarrassed scarlet to a revolted maroon, as he tried his very best to ignore the implication behind Genkai's words.
"I don't have time for this," muttered Genkai as she stood up and pounced on Kuwabara; the two wrestled briefly on the icy ground before the Spirit Wave Master gained the upper hand. She went on to unbutton the young man's coat.
'What in the blue hell is going on?' Kuwabara thought in distress.
Going in sync with Kenshin at that opportune time, Yusuke mentally shrugged off the effects of his nigh-crippling pain. From there, he shot out of the demonic dog pile like a bat out of hell just as Rando landed his first strike.
Blood was spilled endlessly as one demon after the other was brutally and efficiently sliced to death. Body parts that were as assorted and varied as the menagerie of beasts from which they came from were strewn everywhere. Rando slaughtered all of his minions pitilessly and mercilessly.
"You moron! You killed your own men without even getting a scratch on me!" Yusuke taunted as he made his way to the center of the dojo.
"They'll better serve me this way," Rando explained equably, then declared, "BLOOD WIND!"
The multicolored blood of the deceased demon horde coalesced into a highly compressed and extremely massive maelstrom, far bigger than the earlier Blood Wind. Its suction and velocity were so strong that its gale winds literally crushed everything in its path into powder and dust.
Feeling the intense power that added even more exhaustion to his already fatigued self, Yusuke bit his lip as he resisted getting vacuumed into the wild abyss. Whole chunks of the floor were smashed into bits as hundreds of sharp and small shards of debris whirled around in frenzy care of the tornado headed towards his direction. But it still wasn't nough for Rando.
"SPIRIT GUILLOTINES!" Rando beckoned as he literally shoved all his techniques en masse towards the errant Spirit Detective Leader.
"URAMESHI'S EXPLOSIVE PUNCH TO THE GROUND!" Yusuke countered as he did exactly as he said.
"HA! That's the best you can do against my powerful skills? A stupid punch to the...?" Rando quickly ate his words, and the plaster that came with them, as the unexpected happened. They left a very bitter taste in his mouth.
The wood and concrete foundations of the dojo groaned in unison, the walls sliding away from one another. The unstable ground buckled into itself, creating a sinking pit of doom as it finally gave in to Yusuke's previous exertions.
'The structure's collapsing into itself because of the unstable floor!' the anemic demon noted in distress. Then the walls came tumbling down. Yusuke's last punch was indeed the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.
Neither the Blood Wind nor the Spirit Guillotines stood a chance against the dojo demolition of epic proportions. The devastation filled the air with tons of plaster falling down and nearly a third of the training hall collapsing unto itself thanks to Yusuke's desperation move. Much of it fell directly on top of Rando, since that was where the wave of destruction was aimed. Then, when everything from above had fallen, there was silence.
For ten long minutes, the dust settled. Then the calm was disrupted again by a resounding boom as a fist disintegrated some of the debris. Slowly, painfully, Rando dragged himself to the surface.
As the demon's head poked into the top of the wreckage, he was shocked to see Yusuke standing over him and waiting patiently. While the boy looked dirty and worn out, he was none the worse for wear.
The Master of a Hundred and One Tactics stared at Yusuke in disbelief. "What? How? What? Dammit, WHAT?"
After pondering for a second whether he should help clear Rando's befuddlement or not, Yusuke ultimately announced, "I think I'll kill you now," and smashed a slab of debris on the youkai's head.
Unfortunately, Yusuke missed. The red, white, and blue blur that blasted off from the pile of wreckage was proof of that. Rando went charging through the temple, blindly hitting and breaking through the rubble and the gingerbread columns.
"Shit! What the hell does it take to kill you, you stupid bastard?" Yusuke cursed as he chased after his demonic foe. Minutes later, Rando went flying through the rubble-filled temple.
Rando flinched as he slowly got up from the ruins, completely exhausted. The demon limped across the trail of crushed and powdered fragments of what was once the floor, a nasty scowl plastered on his face.
"Is this the best that you can do? Surely you can do better."
Surprisingly enough, the voice Rando heard wasn't Yusuke's at all. Instead, it belonged to the one person that he both respected and admired; the last rational and sane being in the entirety of the three worlds.
'Chojin-sama.'
"After all, in this world, the flesh of the weak is the food of the strong. The strong live, the weak die."
'Strength? What a loaded word, master.'
"So what are you? An insect or a god? You decide for yourself."
Slowly, surely, Rando focused his attention to his nemesis; no, his prey. His heartbeat started to gradually rise. 'I will not give up. I will never give up. I have never quit in anything in my life, and I'm not about to start now.'
"You are a god among insects. Never let anyone tell you otherwise." As the Chojin in his mind said those words, Rando let his thoughts turn black. He raised his hand, palm outstretched, as even now he was cloaked in a dark aura. He snarled in an abnormally deep baritone as he struggled to keep his posture straight.
Yusuke gasped in surprise as the youkai suddenly vanished. He had just started to turn around when he heard a soft thump from behind and felt an instantaneous series of taps across his lower back and shoulders.
He tried to react with hooks to his attacker's chest and head, but instead fell when only his body moved, his arms flopping numbly and his legs frozen. He hit the floor left shoulder first with a dull thud.
"KUGAI!" Rando stated proudly after executing his stolen Shaolin Pressure Point Technique.
Before, Yusuke experienced what it was like for his world to explode. This time, he felt it shatter into a thousand pieces, emptied out, and silenced.
At that moment, a thousand pathetic moans and cries of agony echoed inside his asphyxiated mind.
Kenshin felt something was horribly amiss.
'What...?'
Amber flames of malice and anguish replaced the lavender hue of Kenshin's kindly eyes as a fog gradually gathered around him.
'I can't believe this is happening,' Kuwabara reflected in alarm, too shocked to move or struggle. 'Maybe if she transformed into her younger form, then it'd be... No! What the hell am I thinking? Shit, she might even transform back into an old crone in the middle of an...!'
Once Genkai got a hold of Kuwabara's upper garments, she got off the flabbergasted teen and headed towards Keiko's direction. She proceeded to gently drape both his and her vests over Keiko's prone form like impromptu blankets.
'Ah. She needed our coats to keep Keiko's body warm. Silly me.' Kuwabara heaved a relieved sigh, his face still beet red. He shielded his topless form with his arms and jibed, "So should I do a little dance number next?"
Predictably, Genkai didn't even dignify Kuwabara's infantile statement with a response. "All right, all right; so you got Keiko-chan all wrapped up and stuff. Can we go now, granny? This place is giving me the creeps," he pleaded.
"We can't go back to the dojo," Genkai brusquely replied as she summoned what little ki she had left, gingerly distributing it all over Keiko's body. She grimaced.
"What do you mean we can't go back?" Kuwabara insistently prodded, crossing his arms over his chest indignantly. "That's crazy! How can that not be an option?"
"Yusuke and Himura-san are probably still battling Rando and Genbu at the dojo; we'll be going back to a battlefield. It'd be much safer for us to remain here for the time being."
Kuwabara sighed as he inclined his head and raised an eyebrow at Yusuke's former mentor. "Wait. Hold the Udon. There are more monsters here other than the Shisejyu I've already seen? And who the hell is 'Himura-san'? Also, Rando's still alive? Dammit, that little imp still owes me big time for stealing my precious technique!" he griped mostly to himself.
Responding in kind to Genkai's lack of a response, Kuwabara noiselessly observed the elderly woman's strange antics. His eyes boggled as she started to remove Keiko's uniform, underwear and all. "H-Hey! What the heck are you doing this time? Wait...!"
After unceremoniously stripping Keiko naked, the aged martial artist resumed her ministrations. She this time opted to warm the young girl's body up by transferring her own body heat with gentle massages and the occasional warm embrace. Kuwabara couldn't help but stare at the bizarre scene, flabbergasted beyond words.
Genkai continued to knead the sinews in Keiko's back, feeling the muscles loosen beneath her fingertips as she worked. Keiko's breathing grew slower and deeper as the calming massage took effect. 'But still, even now...' Genkai gulped as she wiped the bullets of sweat off of her forehead.
"Have you completely lost your mind? Stop this, granny! This is just... wrong!" Despite himself and his complaints, he hazarded another look at the unclothed young girl.
Keiko seemed perfectly fine. She wasn't reflexively shivering and her complexion was mostly rosy pink and virtually flawless. He felt his own face heat up at his latter assessment... yep, definitely pink.
'So she couldn't possibly be suffering from hyper, um, bulimia or whatever, could she? Frostbite's all about blisters, bluish skin, and endless shivering; Keiko-chan's having none of that. I mean, she looks perfectly healthy! What's with all the touchy-feely grabbing? Either granny's gone senile or she's decided to come out of the closet now of all times.'
Kuwabara's brows furrowed as Genkai again covered Keiko's nude body up with their coats. Soon, to his bewilderment, she began applying Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Rescue Breathing on Keiko's unmoving form.
'CPR? Mouth to mouth? On Keiko-chan? What for? She didn't drown or anything!' Kuwabara bit his lip, wiping his balmy hands on either side of his pants while trying to ignore the fact that, in spite of Genkai's best efforts, Keiko could not be roused from her blissful sleep. 'No. Stop it. STOP IT, YOU CRAZY OLD BITCH! She's fine, dammit.'
Yusuke's eyes widened in shock; he afterwards blinked at the feeling of a forgotten urgency. He felt that there was something different about himself. He couldn't explain it. Everything was where it was supposed to be, yet at the same time everything just changed. His world swirled all around him, merging into utter nonsense.
Yusuke almost couldn't believe what was happening. One moment, he was fighting a good fight against an old foe, and the next moment he was... he was... what?
Where was he? What was happening?
He went into complete panic mode when his mind was unable to register what just happened. To make matters worse, an anesthetizing coldness shocked his system and he felt his whole being start to go numb even as he strove to swim back towards the surface of sanity and consciousness.
Then he thought someone took hold of his hand. He turned his head, and there was a girl beside him, holding him down as though he were lying on a bed and she was merely dropping by to visit him. He tried to look closely at her, but his vision was blurry.
All he could make out was her short, brown hair that floated and flowed all about her lovely face. Yes, he knew she was beautiful even though he couldn't make out her features. He'd never admit it to her, but he knew. She then disappeared, replaced by an emptiness that gripped his very soul.
Deeper and deeper, the impenetrable void pushed him, and because of his lost bearings, his mind began to wander. In time, a fleeting thought visited him, only to be replaced by another one more fleeting than the last. The ideas in his head became desultory, drowned by memories that may or may not be his.
He struggled to breathe, to rouse himself back to reality and awareness, to break through the flat darkness, to make his mind and heart get him there, but his body did not respond. Then, at that very moment, the numbness that permeated in his whole being was shattered by a plethora of...
Coldness. He gnashed his teeth as he felt coldness beyond mere cold. It was as if Death himself embraced him. Through his chattering teeth, he was able to stutter, "W-What is this?!"
'K-Kuwabara? This is Kuwabara's pain?' Yusuke belatedly thought as the cold agony made the darkness flash before his eyes. He could feel his longtime rival's presence inside his head, haunting his delusional mind. 'Why am I feeling his pain?'
Yusuke's trembled in searing agony, the pressure of his own injuries too much for his exhausted state to handle. He felt shame and embarrassment for almost fainting like a helpless old woman.
'I feel so weak. I wish... No! Genkai-baasan! She's the one who's feeling helpless, not me! I shouldn't be feeling like this. What the hell is going on?'
Yusuke afterwards heard a maniacal, inhuman laugh as he stared straight into the eyes of lunacy.
'I hate you. I've hated you from the time you've killed me in the Maze Castle up to the time we've spent together in Hell.'
Frustration. Anger. Hatred. Violence. Retribution. Vengeance. All those emotions, Yusuke felt; they besieged him.
'I've hated you even after the Chojin made me go mad with power just to prevent me from murdering you. I hate you so much that I would kill you and revive you repeatedly just to kill you again and again.'
Byakko's last cackle before his body shattered into cold, brittle pieces echoed inside Yusuke's psyche.
The Reikai Tantei struggled long and hard to stabilize his panicked breathing. 'I'm not Byakko. These thoughts aren't mine. Byakko's dead... again... and I'm alive. This isn't what I'm feeling right now. This isn't what I'm supposed to feel. Besides, who did he want to kill again and again anyway?'
As if on cue, pain seared on all four limbs of Yusuke's body while the numerous other injuries on his person vied for his attention. It was pain that wasn't supposed to be there. It was pain that he wasn't supposed to feel because it wasn't his in the first place.
'S-Seiryu...?' Yusuke shuddered in disgust as he felt the Blue Dragon Shisejyu's reptilian presence in him. 'But he's dead! I don't know how or why I know this, but he is! So why am I feeling his pain? Is this suffering coming from his ghost? Why would his ghost continue to suffer?'
Yusuke screamed as he nearly tore his hair out; the emotions that brimmed inside him proved too much for his mind to handle.
Yusuke struggled to remember his present situation, pointedly ignoring the alien pain and anxiety that he felt. Nearly blacking out with the incredible amount of suffering and emotional trauma he was subjected to, he clung to one particular thought: His friends were hurt and Rando must pay.
'I can feel it; I can feel their pain; all their pain. Kenshin's. Genkai's. Kuwabara's. The Shisejyu's. Dammit, Rando, what have you done to me?'
He subsequently remembered something he felt he shouldn't be remembering because it was an event that never happened to him. He had been replaying in his mind a memory that didn't belong to him over and over. He recalled and forgot about it repeatedly, up until the point where he now realized what it meant. He hated himself for realizing its meaning.
As comprehension dawned to him, he wished that the recurring images would stop. But they never did. They kept on playing continually, mercilessly, up until all that was left of his mind was madness.
"No."
"Botan! Yusuke!" Keiko shouted in panic before coughing hoarsely. She covered her eyes and ears reflexively as noise and dust assaulted her senses. As far as she could tell, she was floating off the ground in unknown heights by a dusty hurricane of sorts. She prayed that somehow, somewhere, 'that idiot Yusuke' was safe before she altogether lost her bearings.
Then, as soon as the earthy tempest started, it stopped. She opened her eyes tentatively as she patted the ground with her hands; the solid ground. She exhaled a sigh of relief as she sat up and further surveyed her surroundings. It seemed that she was on a cliff of some sort, probably on the other side of the mountain. She wasn't completely sure.
The teenage girl looked up the sky and saw the beautiful, sparkling star just beside the big dipper once more, her round face illuminated by the pale moonlight. She afterwards felt a heavy hand on her shoulder. "Y-Yusuke?" she queried hopefully as she looked over her shoulder.
She noticed that the hand felt deathly cold; colder than a winter gale.
Before Keiko could shriek in panic, time stopped for her altogether. The bad omen known as the "Harbinger of Death" star had taken yet another victim.
From there, Yusuke's condition progressively worsened. He obviously 'spoke' too soon in regards to his previous thoughts of landing in the most pain he'd ever had in his life. Compared to what he was feeling now, his earlier pain felt more like a needle prick.
Sometimes, Yusuke realized, even the worst expectations were optimistic.
"Wake up, dammit, wake up!" Genkai berated Keiko in futility as she did her best to resuscitate her.
Kuwabara was taken aback by the old woman's show of extreme anxiety. Finding his voice, he finally managed to protest, "Stop that, granny! Keiko's fine, isn't she?" There was a pause. "Well, isn't she?"
"I'm not sure."
"Hey, hey! Stop your joking. You're scaring me," Kuwabara berated, more in reassurance to himself than to Genkai. "She's still breathing, see? I mean, Officer Fujita had already taken care of Seiryu, so the spell or whatever that the damn Shisejyu cast on her should have vanished by now, right?"
"No," came Genkai's terse reply. "Even with Seiryu's death, the 'spell' didn't dissipate at all. I'm afraid that it might actually have done some permanent damage to Keiko."
For the second time that day, Kuwabara's heart stopped pounding for one full second as he held his breath in terror. "Oh my god. Seiryu, you bastard. What have you done?"
Genkai exhaled audibly, her brow furrowed in thought. 'If only I still had enough energy in me, then I'd be able to do a Rei Handou on Keiko; who cares if it might not work? But even that small comfort is out of my reach.' She cursed under her breath.
"What now, granny? What the hell do we do now?" Kuwabara demanded, almost pleaded.
"What comes, comes, what withers, withers, sunlight does not last all day," Genkai whispered after a drawn out sigh.
Following a rather lengthy pause, Kuwabara growled. "There must be a way. There's always another way."
"That's enough, Kuwa..."
"FUCK THAT! Don't say another word if you're just going to spew out the same old bullshit." Kuwabara took up a defiant, truculent stance as he glared at the smaller Genkai. "What comes, comes? What withers, withers? We're not talking about pansies here! What sort of a lame excuse for a saying is that? That's fucked up. Since when did you turn into such a whiny quitter?" he accused.
Genkai lowered her head, her lips pursed and her eyes downtrodden. She didn't notice how taken aback Kuwabara was with her reaction. "You don't understand."
"There's nothing to understand! If Urameshi heard you talk like that, he'd hit you so hard you'd lose the taste in your mouth. What's the matter with you, Genkai-baasan? Don't worry so much. There's only one solution to this problem, and only I have the guts to do it and make it happen."
Turning towards Kuwabara, Genkai's lips tightened as she spoke. "What are you talking about, boy? What solution?"
Kuwabara adamantly stared eye-to-eye at the equally defiant Genkai. "My final solution. I'm going to use all of my soul's ki to rouse Keiko-chan up from her deep sleep."
Genkai exclaimed, "Fool! You don't even have enough spirit energy left for yourself! You'll die if you try to give away any more of it!"
"Don't you think I already know that? It doesn't matter to me! What matters is that when Urameshi sees Keiko-chan again, she'll be alive and well! I already did this before when Urameshi nearly died in the Maze Castle. Who cares if it'll kill me this time? I'll be glad to kick the bucket! Dying in order to save Keiko-chan's life is a fucking good way to die! It's the way a real man would die."
"You don't understand, you buffoon! It doesn't work that way. Your self-indulgent martyrdom is misplaced; it's too late."
"W-What do you mean?"
"She might already be comatose, or worse." Kuwabara looked at Genkai with bated breath as the old woman let her pensive, cutting words linger in the air. "She may be far too gone. Even a full ki-transfer may not be enough to wake her up. Even the Rei Handou..."
Kuwabara fell to his knees, his eyes staring sightlessly at the ground. "No. It can't be. It doesn't usually end this way. The girl should always be rescued by the main good guy or one of his buddies. The girl should always come out safe and sound after the fight. That's how it has always been. They're not following the fucking script, dammit."
Genkai exhaled ponderously. Even she could not believe the awful truth behind her fatal diagnosis. Keiko's in a coma; the dreamless, living death. The old woman looked away, unwilling to behold the doll-like face of Keiko anymore.
It didn't make things any easier. Genkai had had so much... she had been so much... and what was she now? An old, old woman who had seen too much, lived too long, and was tired of it all.
'So much for having a nice and hopeful sentiment, huh?' Genkai snorted miserably. It wasn't even about her in the first place. Why must she still be there? What was the point of her being there? Why must Death take someone so young and let someone of her age survive? It didn't make any sense to her at all; not at all.
"I'll be your Angel of Mercy for today. I'll make sure your death is swift and painless. After all, I believe that you've gone through enough suffering already," Rando outright lied to the catatonic Yusuke.
"Now, you should listen to this, because it concerns you. To tell you the truth, I'm quite proud of what the Kugai can do to a person. Those crazy Shaolin monks sure knew how to make a technique!" the pale-faced demon conversationally chattered, eyeing Yusuke's reaction... or lack thereof. He knew that the spirit detective could still hear him at that point.
"The Kugai was originally a technique of meditation used by the monks to, well, 'intercept' and 'collect' the pains and woes of the world unto themselves, so that they could understand the concept of karma better."
The youkai cackled. "Actually, your bond with the samurai was the very thing that gave me the idea to use my specialized pressure point technique. It was designed specifically to make its victim unite emphatically with everyone that he or she had ever interacted with; friends, family, enemies, and especially loved ones. You are now experiencing every kind of woe, problem, and pain that they experience: every last emotional, physical, and even psychological pain. It's all in there, in your head."
Rando smiled a sick and demented smile. "So what are you going to do when the weight of the entire world is thrust upon you, Urameshi Yusuke?"
Yusuke had only one answer to that. 'Who gives a fuck about the world? What about Keiko?'
Yusuke's eyes widened in incredulity. 'Keiko. I felt it. I felt Keiko's suffering. She's now as good as dead. So it is true... No. No, it's not. It can't be. It just can't.' His body trembled. 'But I'm feeling her pain now. All she really wants is for the pain to stop, and to stop the pain she has to... has to... No.' He fought back the tears. 'I won't allow it! But she's in so much... NO!'
Not at all caring whether or not Yusuke understood a word he was saying at that point, Rando looked contemptuously at his piteous captive and taunted, "Give up, Urameshi. Give up and die within your pitiful shell of a body."
The demon continued. "Just who do you think you are, thinking that you can step on everything I've worked so hard to achieve? I'm taking back everything you've deprived me of, starting with your life!"
Images began to flood the mindless Yusuke: familiar, yet also beyond the comprehension of his slowly degenerating, half-demonic mind. Sights and sounds became blurs of incomprehensibility. It was as if he was staring into the depths of lunacy itself, his mind shielding itself from awareness lest the truth of the matter destroyed his sanity beyond repair.
In Yusuke's mind, green colorless dreams slept furiously.
Keiko came in like a lion, and out like a lamb. Instinct, not reason, guided her to where she was supposed to go. She was surrounded by visions of Eden and Tartarus; of reprieve and strain; of assuredness and uncertainty. She understood nothing of what she saw.
Nevertheless, she still felt it; even though her surroundings were that of paradise and prison, the very personification of the cycle of rebirth, she still felt deathly uneasy. It was still there, her forgotten urgency, nagging her in the gut and very much apparent. It confounded her.
Albeit her current sense of duty to travel the road before her, she still felt that something was missing. In the corner of her mind, the nagging sensation was very plain.
Was it a forgotten task? Just how significant was it? This quiet urgency could even be a who instead of a what; a faceless, nameless man, perhaps? These were the questions that formed inside her head which she couldn't air out. It seemed far too silly and trivial to entertain; and talking to herself would make her look utterly ridiculous to boot.
After all, she was in the midst of doing a far more important mission. All else was secondary to that task of hers. She had already gotten to a point of no return, so it was time to for her to cross the supposed bridge. There was no turning back now.
However, questions and queries still formed at the back of her head, insistently swimming up to the surface of her mind in droves.
'Since when did whatever become a mission of mine? Besides, what am I supposed to do? Where am I supposed to go?' she idly wondered to herself as she started her inevitable journey.
'If what I'm forgetting is a 'someone', then who could it be? Will he help me make sense of everything? Or will everything make sense after I remember him? I hope, for my sake, that remembering him is a good thing.' Keiko started to feel nostalgia as the scenery slowly changed into something that was far more familiar.
Keiko traversed the road so impulsively that she didn't need to confirm where it led. It was as if she knew beforehand where she was going. After an extensive hike across a strangely quiet cityscape, she finally arrived to where she was supposed to be.
Her eyes widened as a memory flickered in the haze of her mind.
'Yusuke...!'
So she stood there frozen in front of the apartment where Yusuke Urameshi and his mother lived, biting her nails as her heart raced.
"Oh my gosh! It's almost twelve o'clock!" she blurted out to herself as the repressed memory in her mind made itself known. Yusuke was dead; he died in a car accident while trying to save a young boy's life. Somehow, through some miracle, he had another chance to live again. She couldn't fully explain how she knew this, but all the ghostly clues that had been occurring around her point to one thing: at that time, only she had the power to bring Yusuke back to life.
She saw it in a dream, actually; she was supposed to kiss Yusuke before the stroke of midnight to revive him or else she'll lose him forever. Simple enough, right? Keiko blushed at the thought. Needless to say, her planned course of action embarrassed her a lot. The implications of kissing Yusuke, of all people, made blood rush to her head. She felt all lightheaded and dizzy just thinking about it.
'...Only I have the power to bring Yusuke back to life. If I don't do it, I'll lose him forever.'
She didn't have the time to think. She didn't have the time to be embarrassed. She will not lose Yusuke Urameshi for a second time. No way. She hastily grasped the keys in her shirt's pocket and opened the locked door of the Urameshi Apartment. She glanced at her watch. Eleven Fifty-Seven. There wasn't much time left.
She quickly wondered whether or not she should enter the house without taking off her shoes to save time before taking them off anyway. She silently berated herself for her moment of hesitation as she sauntered awkwardly towards the stairs. Eleven Fifty-Nine.
She almost stumbled as she reached the top of the stairs, her breath barely catching up to the rapid beats of her heart. Was she going to make it? Or would she fail miserably? She didn't have time to hesitate now. Failure was not an option. She practically lunged towards Yusuke's still but strangely luminescent body. She closed her eyes as her parted lips tenderly touched Yusuke's warm mouth, her tears spilling over her cheeks. Twelve Midnight.
At that very moment, she had another epiphany. This had already happened before. Her kiss had indeed revived Yusuke, and he went on to become a Detective of the Spirit World. In fact, since that fateful day, Yusuke had died and revived himself at least one more time. What she was experiencing now was just a memory, a fantasy, and a mere illusion. Sure enough, as she opened her eyes, the doppelganger Yusuke was nowhere to be found. In fact, she wasn't even inside Yusuke's room anymore.
"Where...?" she started, and then choked as her mouth filled with water. It was only then that she felt the cool, wet pressure of it against her skin and her open eyes; felt the mild currents flowing around her, lifting and tugging at her clothes and her auburn hair.
The memories flashed through Yusuke's mind mercilessly.
He saw himself tear apart the landscape of the Ankoku Bujutsukai's stadium with a flash of his phoenix-like ki as he battled against Toguro the Younger... Hiei... Shinobu Sensui... Yomi... It didn't matter who the opponent was, he still remembered that intoxicating power.
His senses were so razor sharp, like they were now, that he could see the world around him without using his eyes. Even when he changed back into human form, time and again, his body remembered the feeling of being a mazoku. It recognized the transformation for what it was because of all the locked memories of the nightmarish day he spent as a demonic spawn from hell.
Yusuke paused as the significance of that memory struck him to the very core of his being. The mazoku was still inside him and still a part of him even when he wasn't under its influence.
He also remembered himself as he aimed his pointer finger straight at a beat-up and bruised Sensui. He had felt the untamed fury and the rush of energy as his Rei-Gan blasted and cooked the former spirit detective alive. He had trembled in frustration as he blasted Yomi's shield with his demonic You-Gan as his human side and demon side literally waged a war in the depths of his subconscious before they combined into one.
He remembered.
He remembered the time when his ancestor Raizen possessed him. More importantly, he also remembered the time when he transformed into a mazoku in the middle of his epic fight with Yomi.
One last nagging memory entered the young man's throbbing head. He vaguely remembered the last words Rando said before he drifted into a waking sleep. 'Just who do you think you are?' the demon had asked.
A shock of realization rippled through him; his entire self, human and demon soul alike.
He remembered it all.
The mazoku had been a part of him for years. The symbiotic and demonic aspect of his soul existed within him, even when it wasn't controlling him.
'That's it. That's my answer.'
The bloodline of warlords... the millennia-old heritage that Yusuke was a part of... pulsated to new life. Yusuke grinned as shades of malice danced within his ebony eyes. 'This is who I truly am.'
Yusuke awoke.
Just as Rando moved to charge forward with one final, deadly strike to his unresponsive opponent, he cocked an ear suddenly. There was a faint humming sound coming from somewhere.
'What is that?' he thought to himself in confusion.
The humming sound was louder now; a deep, bass drone. It had been building for some time, but so gradually that he hadn't noticed it until almost too late. A faint breeze from out of nowhere entered the busted-up dojo, stirring the dust around the surrounding wreckage. Then, suddenly, Rando determined its origin; it was the sound of choleric tendrils of youki merging and clashing like the waves of the ocean. The breeze intensified into a stone cold gale as the demon-ki flared even stronger.
The demonic energy belonged to Yusuke, Rando realized.
The tattooed demon's pale face drained even further of color when he finally saw Yusuke's answer to his question.
'Who do you think you are?'
"This is who I truly am."
"What are you babbling about?" Rando demanded in a shrill, panicked voice.
"I'm saying that I'm a devil who dreamt he was a man and loved it, but now that dream is over and the devil is awake."
Suspicious, Rando sputtered, "W-Wait. So you think that you're the devil that's going to change me? No, I'm the devil that's going to change you."
Yusuke grinned. "But you have changed me. See me change before your very eyes."
Rousing his centuries-old mazoku genes from their dormant slumber, Yusuke metamorphosed into his full demonic form. Ink-black markings surrounded his body as his hair grew to about ankle-length. As Rando's horror continued to mount, so did Toushin Yusuke's speed, dexterity, and incredible tolerance to pain.
"His mazoku self has awakened," Rando murmured in near terror. His eyes then narrowed as his mouth formed into a sneer. "Humph. So what? This doesn't change a thing! Not at all!"
Yusuke snorted derisively. "You're right. Now, like before and forever more, you don't stand a chance. You never did."
After all that dialogue, five seconds of the hottest flames anyone present had ever witnessed reduced the surrounding ruins and fragments to cinders.
"ZANKUU RETSU JIN!" Rando screamed as he summoned both chakra and youki into his frayed form, releasing the chaotic mix of energy from his bloodied hands. An explosion of thunder and pressure quickly followed.
Toushin Yusuke grinned maniacally as he dusted himself off. 'I smell like a barbecue gone wrong. Oh well. No matter.' He chuckled merrily. He had some fresh game to hunt for tonight.
Rando gulped as he sensed his half-demon adversary's stare all over him. Apparently... and ironically... the Kugai had somehow activated Yusuke's mazoku blood, making him stronger than ever before. Also, it was quite obvious that petty little parlor tricks like the Zankuu Retsu Jin just wouldn't cut it anymore.
The redheaded demon harrumphed in frustration despite his growing dread. 'It doesn't even matter that Yusuke had lost all his reiki earlier now that his body is filled with mazoku youki.' He knew that he had to think of something fast if he wished to survive this encounter.
The half-demon noted that things were different when he was a mazoku. He didn't have to worry about certain things. He was bigger, stronger, faster; but that was only the beginning of it.
All his senses seemed sharper. Before, the hint of a breeze originating from the torn wooden walls of the dojo on his face, his arms, and his bare chest had been almost imperceptible. Now, it was like a caress, cool and invigorating. The air seemed alive with smells; delicate, sharp, sweet, pungent, smoky, exotic, faint, overpowering, and tantalizing. His hearing seemed magnified; he could hear Genbu and Kenshin speaking outside almost as clearly as if he were standing next to them.
And where he had been cringing nervously on the floor before, whining continuously about Keiko's dilemma, now he strode upright with a steady gait, perfectly balanced, his arms hanging by his side. He never felt so alive in all his whole life.
"Throw me everything you've got, demon. It won't matter. The only thing that matters now is that you are my game. Entertain me, or I'll make you wish you're dead," Toushin Yusuke crooned with a deceptively velvety tone, his booming laughter echoing inside the remnants of the dojo walls.
"I have not allowed myself to be resurrected just for your amusement, you half-demon bastard!" Rando spat as he warily circled his foe while his mind raced for the perfect battle plan. 'What would the Chojin do in this sort of situation?'
"Then die, for that's all you're worth to me." Yusuke slipped into an offensive stance, his arms outstretched and ready. Rando altered his posture in kind, shifting his legs just a bit wider. The mazoku descendant noted the change in weight, recognizing the stance as one that his mentor Genkai had taught him years ago. It worked best when your opponent didn't appreciate your skill, as it offered a range of movement for more complex maneuvers, but very little in the way of more simple tactics.
'Even now, you still want to fight. I can almost admire your foolhardy resolve. More is the pity.' Yusuke smirked. This fight didn't feel like a fight to him. It was more like an impending massacre; the dance of predator and prey. 'What are you planning to do now, Rando? What sort of complex maneuver will you use against me?'
The Iron Body technique was one of the many techniques of the Byakko's Claw. These techniques were so impressive that, by order of the Chojin, Rando passed it on to another 'Byakko' of sorts: the White Tiger of the Four Holy Beasts, the Shisejyu Byakko.
In so saying, it was in fact Rando, not Byakko, who first mastered the many techniques of the Byakko's Claw after nearly a century; and he was now about to show his mazoku opponent what a master-level Kaiwan looked like.
Meanwhile, on Iehog's wide shoulders, a deeply slumbering Botan stirred. She knew... or rather, felt... that Keiko had finally arrived at the River Styx. Therefore, she decided that she should be the one who must guide Keiko's soul across the river of the dead.
Fully aware that she was still fast asleep, Botan's spirit left the Human World and its physical body behind to fly towards the Spirit World. She didn't quite know how long her Astral Projection would last, but she didn't particularly care. She only had one thought in mind; to get to Keiko's ghost before it was too late.
Botan knew exactly where Keiko was supposed to go; she herself had gone through the same place before becoming a ferry-girl.
"Hang on, Keiko-chan. I'm coming to get you," Botan promised as she summoned her oar and traveled frantically towards the unmentioned destination.
To be Continued...
Next: The Mazoku has come.
I've again used various quotes taken from pop culture in this fic. The "god among insects" thing is taken from the second X-Men movie, X2. The "devil changes you" quote comes from the 8MM movie. The "devil is awake" remark is based from a quote from Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis". The "green colorless dreams slept furiously" paraphrase (it's actually "colorless green ideas", but whatever) is an example of a grammatically correct nonsense phrase coined by famed linguist Noam Chomsky.
Ja!
Abdiel