Chapter 13: Slave
Miwa took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She clenched her fists and unclenched them nervously, unsure whether the churning feeling in her stomach was anticipation of a climactic battle or fear for inevitable death. Rikiji was at least two heads taller than Miwa, and her ice-blue eyes alone were powerful enough to stop someone in their tracks. She looked harmless with her beautiful, sharp features and long maroon hair until those eyes struck fear into your heart. Miwa, in comparison, was visually unimposing and had the face of a young girl that blends in with her human peers. Her ruined clothes from the semi-finals were replaced with a fitted hanfu top and pants. The upper garment was white with a deep blue trim. The belt and pants matched with that same blue color, bringing the look together with a richness reminiscent of Rikiji's graceful aura, but to Miwa it felt more like a cheap imitation. Miwa's black pouch rested on her back and rhythmically swung with each of her steps; the only thing that made her feel like herself.
"Both fighters take your opening positions," Juri announced, raising her hand to signal the beginning of their showdown. "Ready, set, go!"
Miwa raised her hands, and a long water stream slithered from her pouch. It coiled her body protectively, and Miwa positioned her hands in front of her, facing Rikiji. Her fingers were held tightly together and her palms faced down to the ground They glowed with a bright blue light as she powered her snake techniques, and the water ring sparkled with the same color.
Rikiji smiled gently and raised both of her arms. Multiple slips of paper wiggled free from her sleeves and picked up speed as they flew towards Miwa. The paper flexed and crinkled in the air, not solidifying into blades like in Rikiji's semifinal match; she was only testing her opponent for the time being. Miwa responded by swinging her arms. Small, glowing orbs detached themselves from her water ring, and each orb catapulted forward like bullets, piercing each slip of paper so the scraps fluttered down like monochromatic confetti. The orbs convened and aimed for Rikiji, but without even a hint of alarm, she effortlessly sidestepped each orb as if she were merely dancing.
The orbs returned to Miwa's glowing ring, but Miwa herself was already on the move. She ran forward with her arms wildly swinging about. The protective ring broke into a single stream, and it slashed, whipped, and struck the arena wherever Rikiji stood. Miwa chased Rikiji around the ring with her stream striking in every direction, but Rikiji again seemed to dance away from Miwa's attacks without any fear. Eventually, Rikiji evaded in a circle around Miwa, but even then, Miwa could not land a single strike, and each missed opportunity left a sparkling splash in its wake.
"Are you buying time?" Rikiji asked. "I know this isn't the extent of your control."
Miwa scowled. "Then, I'll show you what I can do."
Suddenly, a large volume of water erupted from Miwa's pouch, much more than would be physically possible to fit inside. Gallons and gallons of water burst forth at an alarming rate, like Miwa's pouch was a fire hydrant and she planned to put out a house fire single-handedly. The water diverged into three, glowing rivers over everyone's heads, casting large shadows over entire sections of the audience. Miwa held her arms out steadily in front of her, and her fangs peeked out through her frown. Controlling such massive streams seemed to have little effect on her. The glowing river streams slithered through the air, and then they launched themselves towards Rikiji like giant snakes attacking their prey.
"Woah..." Kuwabara said, awestruck.
Yusuke stared dumbfounded. "Where did all that water come from?" he asked.
Even Kurama was taken by surprise, but he remembered seeing the same phenomena when she fought Hitawara Touda. "...She must have gotten another item from Suzuki."
"...And she didn't tell you," Hiei mused quietly, but said nothing else.
Rikiji wasn't even phased by Miwa's surprise revelation and calmly dodged each snake with graceful flips, but Miwa anticipated that move. Her hands glowed again, and the snakes curved themselves to create spirals around Rikiji's body. Rikiji looked around at this development, but trapped within the vortex, Rikiji could not escape as the glowing streams created a whirlpool around her, soaking her entire body and flinging it about in all directions. A dark silhouette was barely visible through the bright blue glow, and it spun about helplessly in the water's powerful current, twisting and bending limbs at painful angles in every direction.
"This is amazing!" Koto screamed into her microphone. "For the first time, we see Rikiji succumb to an opponent's attack, and Miwa summoned the largest whirlpool I've ever seen from that tiny little bag!"
Miwa's snake hands glowed ominously as she focused on controlling her massive attack, and the whirlpool flashed the same colored glow. But slowly, the dark silhouette lost its momentum. Although the whirlpool spun at the same speed, Rikiji's dark figure calmed and held its place in the eye of storm. Rikiji spread her arms, somehow holding them steadily against the whirlpool's current, and a red light began to glow from within. The red light took shape and formed a circle with a star in the center, and the whirlpool exploded with a flash of red light. The water splashed in all directions, showering the audience, Team Urameshi, Team Toguro, and Miwa with rain that quickly lost its glow. Rikiji stood at the center of the arena, dripping wet but completely unharmed as she smiled at Miwa.
"Is soaking me supposed to help your cause? It will not work."
A single slip of paper, completely dry, floated out of Rikiji's sleeve and hovered right in front of her. The slip straightened and glowed the same eerie red as before. Small, red script appeared on the glowing paper, but Miwa could not read it. The large circle formed in the air with the paper as it's center, and Rikiji calmly walked through its red light. Her foot went first, then her leg, her body, and her head. As her wet body and clothes passed through the circle, they emerged dry as a bone, and the water that previously soaked Rikiji fell uselessly to the ground in a puddle behind the red circle.
"Shikigami," Miwa muttered through grit teeth, "I figured."
Rikiji chuckled, and more slips of paper fluttered around her, reminding Miwa of butterflies, "Yes, you are familiar with it, are you not?"
"...Shikigami?" Yusuke parroted, hair still dripping with Miwa's fallen attack.
Hiei folded his arms over his chest. Somehow, he was already dried off well before his teammates. "Combining a natural manipulation of paper with shikigami magic. Interesting…"
"What's so interesting about some fancy paper?" Kuwabara asked, squeezing water out of the tail end of his jacket.
"It's not just 'some fancy paper,' you idiot," Hiei snapped. "Rikiji uses her Spirit Energy to write spells that can summon nearly anything she needs."
"...It's a versatile discipline with possibilities only limited by the user's ability," Kurama said quietly. "And Rikiji is, without a doubt, highly proficient."
Kurama stared carefully at Rikiji's red magic circle as it slowly faded away. Miwa retrieved a lot of the water she lost and threw slice after slice at Rikiji, but each of Rikiji's fluttering papers formed a small circle that easily repelled her attacks without Rikiji even having to move. Each circle obliterated Miwa's streams like they were crashing into a solid wall. Kurama held his breath as each stream splashed into useless puddles. Now he understood. This was what Miwa had hid from him when she met Rikiji for the second time in the forest. That time when he sensed her power fluctuate in a strange, unstable way, but she said nothing about it. She had said Rikiji "formally challenged" her, but now Kurama understood what that meant, and why she wasn't interested in hearing what Kurama observed about Rikiji in the semifinals; she already knew. She knew the power that made her core fluctuate with an unstable heat.
She knew because it wasn't the first time she has seen it.
Miwa didn't give up on her assault. She gathered more water, both from her pouch and the drenched stadium, and formed more water streams. Instead of three large streams, she created multiple thinner streams that slashed and whipped at Rikiji's location. But each time, more paper fluttered about and made shikigami circle shields. Even a barrage of water bullets couldn't make their way through a giant circle. Then, Miwa's assault stopped, and the water pulled back to protect her as she caught her breath. Miwa's relentless barrage of an insane amount of water appeared to finally take its toll on her.
"You are tired already," Rikiji said, leaning her head to the side in mock concern, but then she smiled again. "You cannot break through my circles with that level of physical force, but that is all you have." She laughed to herself. "Perhaps water is not as adaptable as everyone thinks."
"...It can do more than enough," Miwa retorted.
"Is that so?" Rikiji asked, raising her dangling sleeve. "Then, let us see if it can protect you this time."
More paper appeared out of Rikiji's sleeve, and they wrinkled and curled through the air as they speed their way towards Miwa. Miwa swore loudly, remembering what happened in the forest, and ran. The paper gave chase, trailing after her exposed back. Occasionally, Miwa turned around and threw a water attack at the paper, shredding them to pieces. A different, painfully familiar shikigami spell was chasing her, so the circles did not form to shield the paper itself. Miwa swore, confirming her theory that the same spell was after her again, and continued to run. Rikiji's sleeves continued expelling paper without any sign of running out, and finally, Miwa stopped running. With her back to the edge of the ring, she created another water ring around her body. and tiny streams sprouted from the ring to shred any piece of paper that came close.
"Miwa's attempt to evade Rikiji's paper is building up a lot of confetti in the ring," Juri said, "Each fighter keeps switching between offence and defence without actually landing any damage, but that all could change as Miwa seems to be running out of stamina!"
Then, a single sheet of paper slipped through Miwa's defense and plastered itself on her back, just below her pouch. The remaining paper slips retreated, as if they wanted to see, and the paper on her back glowed. It sparked with red energy, preparing for a spell that Miwa recognized. For a brief moment, a look of panic flashed across Miwa's face, but then her whole body began to glow blue. The glow seemed to shimmer and expand, pushing the red piece of paper away from Miwa's body, and as it expanded further, formed a glowing bubble around Miwa. A thin, near-invisible, layer of water had covered Miwa's entire body, keeping the shikigami spell from sticking to her, and she shed that layer like a snake sheds its skin.
"Oooh," Rikiji said, actually sounding impressed, "Quite the foresight."
But now, Miwa was trapped inside her bubble, and the pieces of paper that once retreated resumed their attack. Each paper lost their original red spell, solidified into blades, and relentlessly cut at Miwa's bubble. More discarded water from around the ring slithered across the ground and merged with the bubble, increasing its thickness and strength, and the bubble glowed as it too solidified to shield Miwa from the paper blades.
Miwa was protected, but she was also trapped.
"She can't hold that forever.." Yusuke said.
"This is crazy!" Kuwabara screamed. "They've been going back and forward for the longest time, and Miwa still hasn't transformed!"
Kurama clenched his fists. Miwa tested the potion a lot more than he did. If she developed a stronger immunity…
"You're misunderstanding something." Hiei cut in.
The rest of Team Urameshi looked back at him. What could they possibly not understand? Aside from Miwa's surprise item from Suzuki and Rikiji's Shikigami, everything in the ring had been completely straightforward. Hiei sighed, shaking his head and not wanting to believe he was the only one to have noticed. Then, he looked pointedly at Kurama.
"Miwa won't transform. She didn't take the potion at all."
{00}
For a short time before they found Kurama and Kuwabara, Miwa and Suzuki were alone in the forest. She listened to his request to offer items that would help Team Urameshi in the finals. Miwa knew her team didn't feel ready for the final match as they were, and she decided to accept his help. In exchange for his help and bringing him to her teammates, Suzuki wanted to know more about Kurama's transformation, his identity, and if Miwa was also the known partner of the infamous Youko Kurama. So, she told him about herself and how she came to the human world. Suzuki did initially offer her the Fruit of the Previous Life as well, thinking that it should be able to change her back to her full strength, just like Kurama.
But she refused.
Suzuki thought she was on some kind of suicide mission, or had completely lost her mind, and she stubbornly refused his offer without explanation. There was another item she was more interested in, so instead Suzuki offered something else: the Void Cloth. A prototype for Shishiwakamaru's Cape of No Return and the very item that lined Hitawara's rice barrel, which stored the giant centipede, Seta. Since Miwa could only control the existing water around her, the Void Cloth, Suzuki said, would allow Miwa to bring more water with her into the ring.
And that, she accepted.
Without saying anything to Kurama, who she knew would object to her crazy plan, Miwa secretly accepted the Void Cloth in the forest and hid it from her friends, pretending the only items offered to Team Urameshi were the Fruit of the Previous Life and the Trial Sword. She even ran extensive tests on the medicine to give Kurama the impression that she had every intention of using the item herself, and it worked. He fully believed that she was going to use it during her fight.
The only reason Hiei saw through her plan was because he had been keeping a close eye on her, just like he promised he would, throughout the whole ordeal with Karasu. She was counting on everyone fussing over Kurama so they wouldn't notice she didn't drink the medicine, but Hiei did. He had briefly considered calling her out on it, but he suspected that she had something else in mind, and decided to trust her with it. After Kurama's unfortunate loss, Team Urameshi could only afford one more if they wanted to win the tournament. But if Hiei knew anything about Miwa, he knew that she would never allow herself to lose her fight on the blind hope that everyone else would win. Not if the tournament jumped through so many hoops to prove Kurama was the loser, and not when the odds were so stacked against them from the start. No, Miwa would ensure victory for herself so the rest of the team had the leeway of that one remaining loss. So, Hiei chose to think that if Miwa was planning to go in the ring without the potion, it was because she knew she still had a chance, that she still had a plan to win.
But as for what that plan was, Hiei had absolutely no idea.
{00}
"So pathetic."
Rikiji's barrage against Miwa's bubble did not stop, but somehow, Miwa was still hanging on. As the paper blades continued to chip away at Miwa's flimsy shield, Rikiji took the time to look at all the puddles of water everywhere. Indeed, it was impressive that Miwa could control such a large amount of water without much hinderance, even in her disguise, and she was lucky to have procured a method to bring so much water with her, but the more she looked at it, the more Rikiji felt disgusted by her opponent.
"You must rely on tools to even remotely resemble what you once were." Rikiji slowly approached Miwa's bubble. "All so you can try and prove a point. Is it really that important to you?"
The paper blades pulled back, freeing Miwa and her bubble from their assault. All but several slips of paper retreated back into Rikiji's long sleeves, and the remaining sheets encircled Miwa's bubble, just to keep her from trying anything funny. The glow of Miwa's bubble dimmed a bit, allowing her to see what was going on outside.
"Your friends...do they know?"
The papers encircling Miwa's bubble began to glow. Miwa's eyes widened, recognizing the shikigami magic, and her bubble lit up again, preparing to protect her from an attack. A red star circle formed on the ground underneath the paper ring, right below Miwa and her bubble. The circle and papers flashed, creating a vortex and trapping Miwa in a pillar of red, shimmering light. The air currents shifted violently inside the vortex, like a storm were contained in that red light, more powerful and brutal than the whirlpool Miwa created earlier. Red energy crackled like lightning inside, easily popping Miwa's bubble shield, and Miwa's painful screams echoed through the arena as the red energy electrocuted and slashed at her body.
"Miwa!" Kurama yelled.
Rikiji smiled when she heard his voice, as if she finally understood something. "No...you would never say it because of him. How cute." Rikiji took several steps towards the red vortex, disregarding Miwa's screams as she kept talking. "Both of you, wallowing in your own guilty conscience as you pretend your relationship is something more than master and slave."
With a small wave of her hand, Rikiji disabled the red vortex, and Miwa's body collapsed to the ground. Her whole body, covered with cuts like a knife was dragged across her clothes and skin, trembled like a shaky leaf as Miwa tried to push herself back up. Her blood seeped into the ripped white fabric, dripped into thick red puddles on the ground, and Miwa weakly looked up Rikiji's imposing height. "What do you know…" Miwa spat at Rikiji's feet.
"You already know the answer to that."
Four pieces of paper took a hold of Miwa's wrists and ankles. Not wanting to wait, Rikiji's paper pulled Miwa up on her feet. Miwa pulled at her paper shackles, but they held fast, rendering Miwa completely immobile. Miwa didn't give up her struggle, but the only other thing she could do was glare at the smiling Rikiji. Several slips of paper floated innocently around the two of them, but they they started to hover right at Miwa's back.
"I am going to show them," Rikiji said, "...what you've been hiding."
The paper stiffened into blades, and then, without warning, did a strange, circular spin, and Miwa began to scream again. Small scraps of white fabric fluttered to the ground, exposing Miwa's bare, sliced, bleeding back. On her back, glaring through the blood like a beacon, was a shikigami circle. The basic star shape like Rikiji's was there, but there were more intricate details in the circle: ovals, squares, triangles, quadrilaterals, and even the same illegible, curvy script as Rikiji's spells constructed the detailed circular red design tattooed on Miwa's back.
Rikiji easily slipped the pouch off of Miwa's immobile body and took several steps back. Then, the paper shackles released Miwa, and she once again collapsed to the ground.
"You did not just seal your demon energy away to come here," she said, casually swinging Miwa's pouch in her hand. "You sealed away your ability to conjure water."
Before Juri could rush in and start a ten count, Miwa forced herself to her feet. Her clothes were torn, showing her bloody flesh to the world, but her back felt the most exposed, showing the seal Miwa received nearly four years before. "I don't need that ability to beat you."
"We shall see." Rikiji smiled. "You discarded not only your power, but the core foundation of your heritage just to continue being a slave." She extended her hand, and a single slip of paper appeared from her sleeve and plastered itself to Miwa's pouch. The curvy script appeared, and with one flash of red light, Miwa's pouch burst into flames. Rikiji continued holding it in her hand, not even affected by the flames, and the fire burned through the black leather. Pieces broke off and fell to the ground, still aflame, and disintegrated into ash at Rikiji's feet. A strange, screeching sound came from the inside of the pouch as the flames reached a thin, translucent purple fabric peeking through the cracks, and the Void Cloth burned just like everything else, leaving any water Miwa had remaining trapped within its void. Finally, Rikiji dropped the burning leather pouch, crushing and squashing the last charred remains under her feet. "You do not even know how far you have deluded yourself."
Miwa didn't say anything.
"...What in the world is she talking about, Kurama?" Yusuke asked.
Kurama didn't answer at first. He stared at the ground, clenching his fists and teeth in what appeared to be a mixture of a scowl and a grimace. A swirl of emotions flashed over his eyes, quite unlike the calm, wise fox Yusuke had come to know. But one particular emotion caught his eye: guilt. Yusuke had seen this look once before, what seemed like ages ago, up on the hospital rooftop during his first Spirit Detective case. When Kurama said that Miwa already sacrificed enough for him…
"It's just as Rikiji said," Kurama answered quietly. "In order to follow me here, the only way for Miwa to acquire a human-like disguise was to seal her power away, including the most basic of her skills."
Yusuke opened his mouth to say something else, but the look on Kurama's face stopped him.
Then, surprisingly, Hiei stepped in. "A mizuchi is useless in battle without any water to control, so they learned how to conjure it from nothing with their Spirit Energy. Being unable to do so leaves them severely handicapped, so Miwa started carrying around that pouch."
"Hold on, Hiei, you knew too?" Kuwabara asked.
Hiei scoffed. "I figured it out by watching."
"...if that glowy water is all you have, you won't win." Kagao of Team Rokuyukai.
"Without your weapon, you have no chance!" Bakken of Team Masho.
"So this is all you have to fight with, huh? ...All that you can carry on your small back." Hitawara of Team Uraotogi.
All of Miwa's opponents...Kuwabara remembered their voices, the things they said. They noticed. They noticed Miwa had been relying on the water in her pouch all along. No wonder they all thought she was so weak in her human disguise. But...even if Kuwabara knew beforehand that mizuchi could conjure water, he would have just assumed her human disguise was too weak to handle conjuring water from nothing. Maybe that's what all her opponents thought too. But Rikiji...Rikiji knew because the seal was the same technique as her own.
"Miwa said once that she tracked down a specialist to seal her power away," Yusuke said cautiously. "Something about demon refugees hiding in the human world. Was Rikiji the one-"
"No, they met for the first time here at the tournament," Kurama interrupted. "Seals like this are a highly specialized skill, no matter how they are created. It's likely even Rikiji doesn't understand the full extent of how it works, but she knows enough to recognize and use it against Miwa."
Rikiji did attack Miwa in the forest when they met a second time; now Kurama knew for sure. That unstable fluctuation of power he sensed was Rikiji tampering with the seal. But...that was incredibly dangerous. A seal to hide a demon among humans is supposed to be a permanent measure, interweaving itself deeply into a demon's core and suppressing their power so they can escape to the Living World, but leaving just enough to defend themselves from any clever pursuers. Tampering with it improperly would lead to a chain reaction that destroys Miwa's core, killing her in the process. Not even Kurama, who specialized in breaking codes and seals, would be able to remove it safely.
Rikiji was right. For the past four years, he and Miwa were bound to each other by guilt. She went to the human world on nothing but an unverified hunch, crippling and trapping herself there alone if she were wrong, but Kurama knew she only went so far because she blamed herself for not being there when he was injured by the hunter. Even when he intended to disappear from her life and free her with his supposed death, even when she had no proof he was still alive, she still was tied down by the oath she swore long ago. And Kurama blamed himself for Miwa going that far. As long as she felt the need to follow him, she would never be free, but...he could never bring himself to send her away because she had sacrificed so much, especially now. They were stuck in a loop of guilt, hiding it all by pretending everything was okay because they still considered each other as friends.
Miwa, the Looping Snake, trapped them both in an endless cycle from which they could not escape, just like the name she was given.
Notes: It's a short Part 1 for a final match, but from a storytelling standpoint, I thought this was the best place to take a break. Rikiji's name is written in katakana in my mind, but I took it from the characters meaning "power" and "word" to allude her writing shikigami spells on paper.
Finally, we have learned a bit about the nature of Miwa's human disguise. A lot of hints spread throughout the story were leading up to this reveal, and we will see how it affects the future. Unlike Kurama, Miwa doesn't have a human body. Her demon body is just considerably weaker due to the seal on her back. She doesn't seem to mind, but everyone around her thinks otherwise. More will come in Part 2, and we will see how Miwa manages to pull through this battle.