Road to War
Batsu has appeared to fight alongside his friends once again and now he's ready to finish to the battle with his imposter.
Elsewhere, Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Botan have finally met up with Kurama, leaving only Hiei the last one to be found. But has Hiei discovered that the others haven't yet? And how does it connect to what has happened so far?
Meanwhile, Daigo's gang, Edge and Gan, walk down the street in confusion. For the first time today, they're not with their boss and are very concerned with what's going on with him.
"I don't get it," said Edge. "Who was that girl he was talking to?"
"Beats me," said Gan. "I've never known Daigo to take orders from anybody. Now here's this little girl who's telling him to do these wild things? Something's up, man."
"I think we need to find Akira. I wonder if she knows what's wrong with her brother."
Suddenly, they hear a familiar voice yelling "Hey, it's Daigo's cronies!". They look up and see Kuwabara, along with Yusuke, Botan, and Kurama.
"Hey…it's you again!" said Edge. "And that freak too!"
Kuwabara, with Yusuke following him, walks up to the two gang members, who knows that this might lead to a fight. With Daigo not with them at the moment, the two knows this could be tougher than before.
"Alright guys, where's Daigo?" asked Kuwabara. "No funny business. Just tell us where he is and don't waste our time."
"And what are you going to do if we don't?" said Edge as he pulls out his knife.
"Yeah, you think you can just make demands like that?" asked Gan. "You forgot who we are!"
"Don't even start!" said Kuwabara. "You guys are nothing without Daigo and you know it."
"You're nothing without your whole gang," said Edge. "Bring as many as you want with you. It won't matter."
Yusuke steps up beside Kuwabara, saying "Nah! Let's make it even. Two-on-two. Trust me, that's all it's going to take. Anything more than that will just be too unfair, don't ya think?"
"What a cocky loser!" said Gan. "Too bad you have to learn the hard way."
"Yeah, this'll be a piece of cake," said Edge.
Botan quietly walks behind Yusuke and Kuwabara. The original plan was to find the fake Batsu and this fight might delay their plan, knowing that they may not have much time to find spirit of Imawano.
"We should be looking for the fake Batsu, remember?" said Botan. "We don't want to waste too much time. This mission is very important."
"Yeah but if Daigo is connected to any of this, then maybe could be a good lead…and he's not here with his friends," said Yusuke. "So, something must be up."
"Plus, I don't mind getting my hands on these two punks right now anyway," said Kuwabara. "Just stand back. This might get crazy."
Botan backs away but not without a final warning. "Make it quick!"
Gan runs towards Yusuke, attempting to land a series of open palm hits. Yusuke blocks the hit but the force of hits sends him flying back. He manages to land on his feet before he sees Gan charging towards. Yusuke quickly counters with a combination of punches to Gan's body. The speed and power of these shots brings him to his knees. Edge throws at knife at Yusuke, who catches it with his fingers. Kuwabara then takes the opportunity a land a hard, solid punch to Edge's face, who manages to land on his feet after that. Angered, Edge takes out six knives and throws them at Yusuke and Kuwabara. Yusuke, much to everyone's shock, manages to catch all three of them between his fingers.
"No!" said Edge. "I will not lose like this!" He then takes out another knife and quickly runs towards the duo, slashing at them but misses each strike. Kuwabara catches his hand and lands a powerful punch to the body, then another one to the chin, knocking Edge down.
"Now what were you guys saying about cocky losers?" said Yusuke.
"Yeah, I bet you wish you had Daigo with you now," said Kuwabara.
Feeling defeated, Edge slowly gets up, realizing that there's no point in continuing this fight.
Suddenly he hears a familiar voice.
"EDGE!" yelled a female voice. As he turns around, he sees Akira, along with Yurika and Zaki approaching them.
"Akira?" said Edge.
"There she is!" said Gan as he walks up besides Edge.
"Edge…Gan?" asked Akira. "What's going on? And where is Daigo?"
The two delinquents look at each other for a moment, as if to wait to see who was going to talk first.
"Let's not talk around here, Akira," said Edge.
"Yeah right!" said Kuwabara. "We're looking for Daigo too, so whatever you gotta say, say it right now!"
"That's too bad!" said Edge. "Because that's none of your…."
"Wait, you're looking for my brother too?" asked Akira.
"Wha…? Your brother?" asked Kuwabara.
The others look around each other, as they know very little about Daigo or his family.
"What is going on here, Edge?" asked Akira. "It has to do with my brother, then you must tell me."
Both Edge and Gan take a deep breath as they look at the ground for a moment.
"Okay, I didn't want to say this because I don't know what this all means," said Edge. "But our boss has been acting strange lately. We never question his orders to attack anybody. We just do them because he said so. But just now, we did witness our boss talking to some girl at the park. I don't know who she was but she was a small girl with a tennis racket. It sounded like he was taking orders from her. She asked about the all of the attacks that's happened now. That's where we last saw him."
"A girl with a tennis racket?" asked Akira. "Who could she be?"
"Wait a minute!" said Zaki. "That girl was Momo! She was with Batsu when he attacked us."
"Batsu?" asked Botan. "You mean he attacked you too?"
"Remember that there's an imposter," Kurama says quietly to Botan.
"Oh…that's right," said Botas she covers her mouth in embarrassment.
"You know Batsu too?" asked Akira.
Zaki takes out her whip and swings it around. It almost looks as if she's ready to fight.
"That jerk attacked us for no reason and now he has to pay!" said Zaki. "Where is he?"
"Wait, now hold on second!" said Yusuke. "I think we'd rather find Daigo first. We can deal with Batsu later."
Without warning, Zaki lashes out at the group with her whip, saying "You will talk NOW!"
However, Kurama uses his own whip to catch Zaki's, in which both whips are tangled.
"What the...?" said Zaki.
"We will discuss this later," said Kurama. "Right now, we have more important things to worry about."
"You'd better shut up!" said Zaki.
"Are all high school girls this crazy or something?" asked Kuwabara.
Suddenly, they hear the voice of somebody running to them in a panic.
"Kuwabara!" yelled Okubo. "I'm so glad I find you! I didn't know where you were."
"Hey, what's going on, Okubo?" asked Kuwabara. "Where are the others?"
"What's what I'm coming to tell you. We all got our butts kicked by Daigo."
"By Daigo!?" said Kuwabara.
"My brother?" said Akira.
"Yeah, Daigo, some guy name Batsu, a girl with a tennis racket, and some other guy with a sword" said Okubo. "They're all kicking our butts. We wanted to get revenge for what they did to you but they're just too tough for us."
"Oh no!" said the usually quiet Yurika.
"Take us to where they are! Hurry!" said Kuwabara.
Mountain Area
In a mountain area, Kuwabara's friends lay beaten on the ground. The menacing Batsu imposter laughs as he stands over his fallen opponents. Next to him is Daigo, Momo, and Hyo at his side.
"How foolish of all of you to oppose us," said the imposter. "Your attempts at trying to avenge your friend's defeat was pathetic. Now you will be working for me and I would like you all to learn your place."
"I don't think so, pal!" yelled Kuwabara, as he and the rest group approach the four. "You messed with the wrong group of friends and now you're going to pay for it."
The imposter laughs at his opponents. While he recognizes Botan, Akira, Zaki, and Yurika, this is his first encounter with Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama.
"Well what do we have here?" he said. "A whole group of enemies that will soon be working for me."
Yusuke and the Batsu imposter eyes lock on to each other. The time has finally come for Yusuke to avenge Keiko, as he confronts her true attacker for the first time.
To Be Continued