"I knew it. So you're the guys whose presences I felt earlier," said Yusuke Urameshi, who used his own senses instead of his Spirit Detector to find this particular pair of Shin Juppon Gatana members (he didn't know how to read a radar, to be honest).

A big guy with shades and a trench coat and, sitting on his shoulder, a smaller guy with gray wavy hair (who looked like a ventriloquist puppet compared to the muscleman) turned in time to see the teenager sporting a pompadour, shirt, and jeans appear right in front of them like from an awkward movie jump cut.

"So here are your options. One, fuck you, I'm Urameshi Yusuke! There is no number two!"

The muscular man with glasses grinned and shrugged off the midget beside him.

With a whiny, high-pitched voice that gave Rando's shrieks a run for their money, the little person unironically said, "I'll see you later, little brother. Have fun with the hanyou (half-demon)."

"Running away already?" asked Yusuke, only to dodge a blast of dense air to his head care of his opponent. A bullet-fast shockwave from the flick of an unusually veiny, grey thumb and forefinger.

With baritone laughter, the muscleman's coat burst into shreds as he immediately used 100% of his power, transforming his already muscular body into a mountain of swelling, rock-hard muscles on top of muscles.

A humanoid pile of throbbing muscle. He looked almost cartoonish with the bigness of his pulsating frame. Or someone who replaced all his blood with steroids. Or a Rob Liefeld drawing.

Yusuke licked his lips and tapped his toes as he aimed a finger gun at the behemoth before him.

It had been a long time since he fought Yomi. No one had really tested the limits of his power ever since.

Not Rando. Not Xinhai. Not a powered-up Suzaku wielding the Demon Sword.

As the muscleman flexed his muscles in order to brace himself against the Spirit Gun blast, his midget sibling with a gray rat nest for hair cackled and said, "I'll take my leave now, 'little brother'. I have work to do."

"Come at me, bro! Let's go, TOGURO!" shouted Yusuke to the Younger Toguro Brother.


Youtou Shinnoken: Demon Sword

A Rurouni Kenshin/Yuyu Hakusho Crossover Fan Fiction Story by Chester Castañeda

Original Concept by Chad Yang

How will the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu fare against one of the newest members of the Shin Juppon Gatana?

Disclaimer: Yuyu Hakusho is the rightful property of Yoshihiro Togashi, Shueisha, Fuji TV, and Studio Pierrot. Rurouni Kenshin is the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha, Shonen Jump, Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio Gallop, Studio Deen, and ADV. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted materials that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.


Chapter 52: Living Sin (Part 4)


Caught between a rock and a hard place, Detective Daiji Matsudaira killed as many demons summoned by Rando as he could before "predictably" coming to the rescue of his latest Damsel in Distress, which in this case was Feng Xinhai's daughter, Xiaxi "Natsuki" Xinhai.

However, instead of saving Natsuki, he stabbed her.

Stabbing his own comrade. The person who best knew his lifelong target. Had the policeman gone completely insane?

Unaware of what had happened, an eye-patched Rando (his eye patch was made of silk threads he himself produced) directed the monsters he summoned care of the Hundred Demon Sabbath (a technique not unlike Shishiwakamaru's Chorus of a Thousand Skulls) towards Daiji, Natsuki, and Likka, only for the nearest ones to end up with kodachi and kunai in their heads.

'What's going on? Why the hell are Itsuki and Xinhai just standing there like statues? We have them cornered!' thought the spider demon, only for realization to dawn on him. 'Wait, what...?'

For Gatekeeper Itsuki's part, he summoned a warp in front of him and teleported away from behind it, thinking that the "predictable" Daiji was gunning after him instead of stabbing Natsuki Shinkai (the Japanese pronunciation of the Xinhai surname).

A portal that Xinhai was supposed to teleport his nodachi into in order to stab the Knight in Shining Armor.

Instead, for the first time since the fight began, Feng's toothy grin slowly but surely drooped down into a gaping maw as though his face were melting wax.

The mountainous mobster let out a confused scream as his eyelids peeled back into the depths of his sockets, his eyes just about to pop out. "D-Detective. What...?"

This was literally the last thing he expected Daiji to do.

The by-the-book copper had finally gone off the script.


Yahiko Myojin wiped the ectoplasm off of his mouth and switched from his attacking Fire Stance to the more anticipatory Chudan-no-Kamae (Water Stance).

"O-ho. You actually think shifting stances will somehow save you? How adorable, gifu," said Unit 731 Doctor Shoji Sugino, also known by his past life's codename "Gein" (and his Juppon Gatana identity "Iwanbo").

Instead of striking upfront, Yahiko chose to bob and weave with his sakabatou serving as his measuring stick for distance between himself and the butterball of a puppet (plus the aged ninjutsu master inside of it).

For a change, the Tokyo Samurai Descendant allowed the Puppet Master to dictate the pace instead of attacking his impenetrable, shock-absorbent meat suit.

This was the true nature of pure Kamiya Kasshin Ryu or the "The Sword (Style) That Protects" without Yahiko's self-innovated Revisal Moves.

A defense-heavy style that exploited the weaknesses of one's opponents or used their strengths against them.

'Bold move, young one. Let's see if it pays off for you,' thought the not-so-good doctor before bouncing right into Yahiko's face by rolling his fat suit into a ball.

The boy dodged the roly-poly meat sack and slicing swings from its stubby hands with his wrist-deflecting Shippu Jinrai Dotou no Ken (shared with the Shibata Ryu kendo style of Yokohama), the bounce on his feet in cadence with the bounciness of his opponent.

'Interesting. Counterattacks. He's now more cautious and measured with his responses. Not that it'd help him in the least. It's cute though.'

The former surgeon then started a one-sided conversation with the kid.

"You know why I use human-demon hybrid bodies rather than just demon bodies or human bodies on all our revived soldiers? It must boggle your mind why weak humans would ever have anything to do with strengthening the demonic gene pool," said Gein.

"We're not here to ask why you do your evil experiments. We're just here to stop them," insisted Yahiko, whose twitch reflexes had him backing off from Dr. Sugino and Iwanbo more often than not.

"Evil, huh? It's probably a sin against nature for these two species to mate and bear offspring in your eyes. You might even presume that humans mixing with demons results in weak half-demons. Something less than human and less than demon."

Gein chuckled.

"But Urameshi Yusuke isn't weak," was what Yahiko thought and what Sugino voiced out, continuing, "...You must be thinking to yourself. Well, you're right."

Their dance continued. Iwanbo lumbered forward. Myojin feinted, sidestepped, dodged, attacked, and/or counterattacked, but his hits still couldn't penetrate the shock-absorbent suit even with the sharp side of his sword, so Gein continued to tank the shots with zero worries.

"In nature, hybridization has different outcomes. Sometimes there's no offspring, sometimes the offspring is weaker than both parents, and sometimes the offspring becomes much stronger than both parents. That's what Urameshi Yusuke has. Hybrid vigor. He's like a tomato plant! Or a mixed-breed dog!"


Natsuki gripped her side then fell down after Daiji released her from his traitorous embrace, his kodachi handle protruding from her stomach. Like Brutus letting go of Julius Caesar after betraying him.

Instead of an "Et tu, Daiji-sempai?" the cry that echoed across the battlefield was instead a raspy, "What have you done?" from a shaking, shuddering, and red-eyed Xinhai.

"I've released her from her inner demons. Or demon," deadpanned the stone-faced Aoshi Shinomori incarnate matter-of-factly. "You won't be able to hurt her ever again. Consider it a mercy kill."

The powder keg that was Xinhai didn't explode just yet. Even though he should have. Even though the detective had been goading him to lose his temper all this time.

There was instead a Kecho Giri (Head Kick) from the Misao Makimachi reincarnation that Daiji Matsudaira blocked with his forearm. Tears streaming down her eyes. Her teeth digging deep into her lips until it bled.

But Likka Ikumi couldn't even land a clean strike. After all, her past life self's kenpo knowledge was taught by none other than Daiji's own past life self, Aoshi.

As the two continued her martial arts dance, Itsuki of all people guffawed, grabbing hold of the scarred half of his face while his other arm held his sides. Laughing at the irony of it all.

'He has become a fallen angel like my dearest Shinobu. His fall of grace is nothing short of delightful. Go ahead, Xinhai. Degrade him more. Turn him into a monster like you.'

"WHAT'S SO FUNNY!?" demanded an out-of-breath Likka to the Gatekeeper, her eyes aflame. "What are you laughing at, Yoga Guy?"

"Your hero has become the villain. His damsel has become his victim. What could be funnier?" said the one-eyed Itsuki. "This only proves that in this senseless world, nobody belongs anywhere. Nobody exists on purpose. Everybody is going to die."

"I didn't intend to do this in front of you," Daiji said, his blue eyes cloudy like an animal's eyes. Now black as sin. "For that, I'm sorry. If in the future, if you still feel the need to avenge her, I'll be waiting. But for now..."

Xinhai's murmurs then grew loud enough for everyone to notice. "What. Have. You. Done. What HAVE you DONE? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY DAUGHTER?!"

This made the Misao incarnate gasp, unaware of the truth behind the relationship between the Xinhai (or Shinkai) Family until now.

The One-Eight-Ten Killer had finally snapped. Just as Daiji planned.

"Uncle Jiji, LOOK OUT...!"

However, the detective was about to regret getting exactly what he wanted.


"...There are some different genetic mechanisms that can make offspring sterile, but they can be fertile too. It just depends on the species breeding. It's fascinating really, how Urameshi's female ancestor and Raizen ended up genetically compatible enough to produce hybrids. It's as if humans and demons are more alike than previously believed."

Edward Gein continued on blabbing and ranting while he walked through every single or combination attack Yahiko could muster, his rotund Iwanbo armor absorbing every last blow.

Meanwhile, the ectoplasm-dripping Myojin drew ragged breaths, his ghost body filled with slashes and cuts.

"That's because more often than not, hybrids are healthier than purebreds. Like with dogs, half-breeds enjoy the best of both worlds," Edward said before tripping over the boy's Tsuka no Gedan: Hiza Hijiki (Low Hilt Blow: Knee Breaker).

The Iwanbo suit merely rolled over the strike like a bowling ball before ending up on a vertical base from behind the kid, none the worse for wear.

"...'Mutts' mostly win out in terms of survival because of their lower incidence of genetic disease and recessive traits. Purebreds, on the other hand, continue to degrade after every generation, resulting in weaker offspring and the consequences of inbreeding. Evolution dictates that bloodlines flourish with diversity instead of stagnate with so-called blood purity."

"STOP COMPARING PEOPLE TO DOGS!" shouted Yahiko. "If you don't shut up, you're going to get neutered. Or put to sleep!" The boy then blasted the ground where Iwanbo stood with a Dou Gami (God Hammer).

"O-ho. Gifu. Is that a threat, little one?" said the Iwanbo-suited Gein as he bounced away using the recoil of the blast then rebounded on what was left of a wall in order to hurtle towards his enemy with the force of a wrecking ball.

The samurai then sidestepped the hurtling Iwanbo's charge and used the rebounding momentum of the puppet to double the impact of his follow-up Inga Gami (Karmic God) technique from the side, which made Sugino hurtle out of the suit's mouth.

Ah. Doctor Shoji had seen this type of attack before.

It was a Counter Time, wasn't it? A counterattack against a counterattack. Xinhai showed him that technique before. 'What a nice combination of skill and talent in one person,' he complimented the kid.

As Isaac Newton once stated, any moving object would stay at rest or keep moving at the same speed and direction until some unbalanced force caused it to change its motion.

Ergo, like how a motorist who wasn't wearing his seatbelt tended to end up flying through the windshield after a bad car crash, Gein soon burst out of Iwanbo.

Like an object in motion that continued to be in motion after his mode of transportation encountered an unbalanced force (Yahiko) that ceased its own motion.

However, the aged ninja had the presence of mind to fire off his grappling wires back into Iwanbo's maw in order to get back inside the corpse puppet.

"...I can't wait to turn you into one of my logs, Myojin Yahiko! Just like the good ol' days!"

Incidentally, "log" or "timber" was the code word used by the members of Unit 731 to refer to the POWs and kidnapped people they did human experiments on.


Instead of bothering with Counterattacks, Counter Times, Feints in Time, and the rest of the Fencing Tactical Wheel, Xinhai became a whirling dervish of titanium and platinum, his prosthetic arm every much a weapon as his curved longsword.

The youkai summoned from Rando's 100 Demon Sabbath turned into so much pulp and ichor, with Feng's blades acting like the rotors of a blender. Or a helicopter.

"...You call this justice? An eye for an eye? My daughter for your wife!? IS THAT FAIR TO YOU? SHE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR REVENGE AGAINST ME!"

The hypocritical man who abused his own daughter and did unforgivable things to her had the audacity to rebuke Daiji for putting her out of her own misery?

How dare he.

The detective threw the Chinese man's own words back at him, parroting, "Justice is only a human concept. It doesn't exist in the real world. The universe is not fair, much less just. It simply is."

"QUUUUSIBAAAA! (GO AND DIE!)" screamed Xinhai in his native tongue.

Nothing Matsudaira did fazed the unstoppable behemoth, whether it was the Yin-Yang Cross, Dusk-to-Dawn Strike, Shadow-Light Cross, Actual-Battle Sword Dance, the Spiral Sword Dance, or the Spiral Sword Dance Six Series.

In his anger, Feng summoned his shikigami right beside him, serving as his fiery shadow that allowed the pair to double-team the policeman with varying combinations of flexible fencing thrusts to precise Nikaido Heiho kenjutsu strokes from close range and Shinko Ryu vacuum slices from an even greater distance.

The Ryusui no Ugoki (Water-Flow Movement), Aoshi's signature technique, was the only thing that kept the detective from death at the hands of the rampaging S-Level before him.

Daiji couldn't get close even as he got ripped apart by the superior foe. What few hits he could land barely registered against this tank of a Chinese mobster.

As the copper bled, Xinhai summoned a Blood Wind from him. The winds converged around the supercell that formed from his red-hot nodachi, the superheated air rising as the cold gales from the Izuna made the air currents move in a continuous spiral.

Blinded by rage, Feng went all out, using every last trick in his arsenal in order to obliterate his daughter's murderer, forgetting that he was wasting one of his resources that allowed him to reach Class-S strength.

The Raijuta Isurugi reincarnation let out an F5 Tornado Ripper... his biggest one yet... that made the nearby waters of the marina churn and turn into whirlpools and funnels that danced and snaked towards a hurricane the size of the entire Okushiri Island.

Indeed, it was overkill for an S-Level to use his full power against a helpless, hapless A-Level. Like a full-grown adult abusing a child. Especially if he were to do his follow-up Sonic Shockwave into the eye of his Tornado Ripper storm.

It was for this reason that Feng ended up blindsided by a "MUGEN DAI NO HYOGO! (MARK OF INFINITY!)" from his fully conscious and not-dead daughter, noticing her presence too late.

Xinhai's face warped and contorted with a mixture of bubbling emotions, his jaw dropping as though unhinged from its sockets while his heavy heart lifted at the sight of a healthy Xiaxi.

Only for his nerves to throb and pulsate at the pressurized wind that blew and battered him away.

The Mark of Infinity reversed the flow of the typhoon that Xinhai created, sending him hurtling towards its center with the rest of his minions... his shikigami made of black fire, Rando, and Itsuki... as well as all the remaining demons summoned by the spider youkai.

It quickly became the maelstrom of their discontent.

They were sucked into the void faster than Itsuki could create a portal or Rando could use one of his hundred-something stolen techniques.

Little did the Triad mobster know that even though the overwhelmed Daiji bit off more than he could chew, everything went according to plan for him.

'Well played, Detective.'

"Ts-Tsuki-chan?" stuttered Likka, her eyes welling up and her mouth wriggling and trembling at the sight of her best friend. "I-I thought...!"

Natsuki winced and grabbed hold of her stab wound. "S-So did I," she admitted, before pulling out a kodachi with a comically short blade that was barely an inch long. "But it was all a ruse."

Unable to help herself, Ikumi ran towards Shinkai and hugged her, giggling in relief, only to stop when Natsuki started crying, "Ow, ow, owie! Easy there, Likka-tan! My sides are still tender!"

Likka let go of Natsuki then turned towards the exhausted Daiji, her eyes flowing like opened floodgates.

"I-I'm sowie I doubted you, Uncle Jiji!" bawled Ikumi. "I kn-knew you'd n-never end up like those monsters! You sure proved that creepy Yoga Guy wrong... r-right?"

"..." Matsudaira "answered" as usual as the skies cleared and the tempest Xinhai created blasted them to parts unknown, clear across the South China Sea.

If he were honest with himself, the only thing that stopped him from outright murdering Xinhai's daughter was the forlorn look that the Misao reincarnation gave him.

It gave him a flashback to the time he almost killed Nenji "Okina" Kashiwazaki: Misao's guardian and father figure.


Yahiko Myojin cursed under his breath as he attempted to cut the wires Gein shot into Iwanbo's mouth with the sharp end of the sakabatou, but to no avail. They were coated with crushed diamond and were made with intertwined steel strands like piano wire.

Edward Gein, also known as Shoji Sugino, ended up inside Iwanbo once more.

The win Myojin eked out against this senior citizen ninja and mad scientist had slipped from his grasp.

The ghost boy prepared more bait for the Puppet Master to take, leaving his stance wide open for counterattacks, but his enemy didn't bite, circling around his head strike and biding his time with tentative claw swipes.

This cautiousness led to Gein's downfall all the same.

Several kunai flew towards Iwanbo's face, bouncing off its chubby cheeks. 'What now?' thought Sugino.

The one who threw the blades was none other than the schoolgirl Likka Ikumi, who was a class lower than the (mostly) outmatched Myojin.

"MISAO! Thanks for that!" called out a smiling Yahiko, while the girl shouted back, "It's Likka-tan, not Misao! Stupid Urchin Head!"

"Eeeh. Isn't '-tan' is a bit much, Weasel Girl?" asked Myojin.

"AND WEASEL GIRL IS SOMEHOW FINE, SAMURAI BOY!?" demanded the weasel girl, who almost leapt and kicked said samurai boy upside the head but had the presence of mind to kick the back of Iwanbo's head instead with a Kecho Giri.

The blow was fully absorbed by the puppet's blubbery mass, so the Puppet Master paid her no heed, thinking of her as nothing more than a pesky fly.

However, from right under Iwanbo slid Detective Matsudaira, his outstretched leg tripping the stubby legs of the fat suit.

Likka's kick from behind the head and Daiji's kick to the front of the shin made Gein and his corpse doll fall face-first to the ground, but the mad scientist merely made the fat suit roll away in order to get back to a standing position.

Alas, Yahiko didn't even give him a chance to do so.

"DOU GAMI!" he cried, hitting the belly of the beast in full force.

Predictably, Iwanbo absorbed the shock of the initial blow. However, as Yahiko recoiled, he combined the Inga Gami (Karmic God) and the Tsui Gami (God Hammer) together to execute the last two hits that broke the shock absorption barrier.

He then followed all that up with a Kaeshi (Riposte) of Banzen Gami (Perfect God) to again propel Gein out of the mouth of Iwanbo, finally summoning enough power to break through the cushioning effect of the meat puppet.

The not-so-good doctor had prepared for this eventuality by using his wires as seatbelts, but the force of the blow was enough to rip them apart from their hooks and seams.

However, the dizzy and slightly beaten up Sugino was still able to tumble and shoot his hooked cables at Iwanbo's mouth once more in an attempt to get back to his mobile suit.

...Only for Detective Daiji to snatch all the cables in the blink of an eye and pull the ninja towards him and his waiting kodachi.

"Tsk," said the former Unit 731 doctor before he released the harnesses connecting him to the wires to avoid getting swung around and stabbed by his fellow shinobi reincarnated into modern times.

The man who originally killed him in his past life: The Oniwabanshu Okashira Aoshi Shinomori.


Likka lightly punched Yahiko on the arm and slung her own arm around his neck, her grin as toothy as a shark's. "Good thing we got here just in time, or else you would've been toast!"

Myojin tried and failed to hide his own grin and answered, "Oh please. I had everything under control, Weasel Girl!"

The Son of Tokyo Samurai then raised an eyebrow when Ikumi balked and backed away, her mouth turning into a thin line as her eyes darted back and forth.

"...S-Sorry about that! Wow. Awkward. I don't know what came over me, hugging you out of the blue like I've known you for years! I mean, we kind of do, but that's Misao! Not me! Hehehe. Oh wait, aren't you Tsuki-chan's cru... I mean, frie... ERK!?"

Before Yahiko could react to the slip of the tongue, Natsuki was already throttling her so-called best friend with her metal cane that doubled as her weapon. "Yep! Him and I are the best of friends, Likka-tan! Aren't we, Yahiko-kun?"

"Er, yeah. Of course we are, Cat Eyes!" said Myojin, reassuring "Tsuki- chan" that, "Yutaro has been my best bro since the Meiji Era up until today. It doesn't matter that he's a girl now."

Addressing Natsuki, the samurai spirit said, "I'll always see you as a boy! Good ol' Cat Eyes!"

While the ghost of Yutaro Tsukayama inside Natsuki was relieved to hear that, she herself relinquished her hold of Likka, turned her back on Yahiko, and tried to shut out the careless words that echoed in her mind.

'I'll always see you as a boy... see you as a boy... as a boy... a boy... boy...'

"Eh? Hey, Cat Eyes! Yutaro! What's the matter?" asked the blinking and clueless Myojin.

"Er, nothing. Nothing." Shinkai sighed and gave him a sidelong glance. "Nothing at all."

"Way to go, twerp!" Likka smacked Yahiko upside the head.

"OW! What'd I do?!" demanded the young samurai boy.

Meanwhile, Gein greeted Daiji with, "...We meet again, Shinomori Aoshi."

Matsudaira's ice-cold eyes then narrowed.

Without preamble, the policeman version of Aoshi lifted up the fat suit, went inside it through its mouth, then destroyed it from within with a whirlwind of slashes from the Kaiten Kenbu Rokuren, cutting it up into ribbons and pounds of flesh.

"I see you're thorough as ever," said Edward.

Amidst the bloodless carnage, the purple-faced Natsuki's head snapped back into attention, the color returning to her cheeks as she grabbed hold of Yahiko's hand, remembering what they came there for.

"Come on, Yahiko. We still need you to take down the Onmyouji. As long as he's alive, we won't be able to win against the Chojin's Shin Ju."

Myojin thumbed his nose at Shinkai. "That was what I was trying to do in the first place! Let's go!"

Gein shot his diamond-encrusted piano wire rope dart at Yahiko, only for Daiji to catch it and throw it back at him.

"Are you sure you want him to leave, Okashira? Once he's gone, my full powers will return. I can make puppets anew."

"..."

"Go on ahead, Yahiko! Me and Uncle Jiji can handle this creepy old geezer by ourselves!" reassured Likka to the Tokyo Samurai Descendant before turning to her best friend and adding, "Take good care of him, Tsuki-chan! It's like an RPG! Take out their healer so that we can finish them off!"

'RPG? What does a grenade launcher have to do with anything?' thought Yahiko, who remembered the term from news concerning the Iran-Iraq War from 1980-1988 as relayed by the recently deceased in Heaven.

Meanwhile, Natsuki herself nodded then gave a thumb's up sign at the Misao reincarnation. "You got it, Likka-tan."

Gein's aura had already started glowing brighter, which meant that Myojin's neutralization powers were already wearing off as the boy went further and further away from his proximity.

Nevertheless, the old ninja couldn't help but ask Yahiko, "Wait, boy. Before you go, I want to know one thing. What happened between you and Yukishiro Enishi?"

The Son of Tokyo Samurai kept his back turned on Dr. Sugino before following Natsuki into the woods, never bothering to answer him back.

Meanwhile, in the heavens, the pair spotted Botan traveling above them. Looking out for them as their eye in the sky.

They waved at her and she waved back. The chase for the Onmyouji was on.


Kenshin Himura inhaled deeply to catch his breath, his eyes wide in wonder at the white-haired, shades-wearing swordsman before him.

'Hmmm? Is this one of Yusuke-dono's enemies?' Himura thought. He didn't recognize the strapping young man with the Chinese outfit. Perhaps he was a henchman of the infamous Triad boss known as Xinhai.

"...At long last! We're reunited, Battousai! It's too bad you died along with Shishio Makoto before we could cross swords."

Or maybe not? 'Reunited?'

Who was this forward young man with the Chinese sword and accent anyway? Perhaps if Kenshin fought him, he'd remember who he was.

Himura dodged an overhead slash from his lithe and flexible opponent then countered by moving to his blind side and attacking him with a "Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu: RYU KAN SEN!"

The white-haired warrior smirked, blocked the blade with the hilt of his own blade then used the transferred momentum to whirl himself around like a tornado himself, proclaiming, "Wattoujutsu: KAI SHI TOU SEI!" as he did a stabbing motion at Himura Battousai.

The blade would've plunged into the rurouni's shoulder or chest had Kenshin not anticipated some sort of Counter Time from the martial artist, doing the Sou Ryu Sen follow-through immediately after, his Demon Sword's sheath deflecting the Chinese sword away from him.

Nope. Kenshin didn't recognize the sword style at all. It looked like a mix between Chinese martial arts and Japanese swordsmanship. Had he even fought a Chinese warrior before?

According to the history books he read at the library, the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 and even World War II happened way after he died along with Shishio in 1878.

So who was this kung fu madman whose rage against Kenshin was so great that it drowned him in a deluge of sakki (murderous intent)?

Shamed as the redhead was to admit it, even a hundred (and ten) years ago, his Battousai persona gathered so many enemies that he had a hard time remembering their names or why they wanted to take revenge on him.

No wait, the young man's sword was not a Chinese blade but a Japanese one, Kenshin realized.

"I wish I'd met you earlier. Then I would've shown you my Chinese-style nihontou, the 'watou', and my kenjutsu mixed with Chinese martial arts, the 'Wattoujutsu', that uses it best. Shown you and made you suffer with it. It's the perfect counter to the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu."


Yahiko and Yutaro's reincarnation ran through the forest part of Okushiri, following the radar signal that indicated the Class-S presence of the Chojin's Onmyouji.

They were essentially taking a short cut so that they could head off the dark priest and former Shishio manager the pass, only for them to get snagged and tangled by all sorts of low-hanging, light-colored vines.

"Dammit, that Onmyouji bastard is all over the map! He might even be teleporting around care off that Yoga Guy (Gatekeeper Itsuki)!" said Yahiko, who also used the same nickname for Itsuki as Likka.

"We don't have time for this, Myojin Yahiko!" said Natsuki in an octave that was lower than usual, which meant it was probably her past self, Yutaro "Cat Eyes" Tsukayama, who was talking. "Let's get a move on and take the dark priest down!"

"I'm trying, bro! But these stupid vines keep getting in the way!" Myojin attempted to chop one of the creepers down to size, only to realize he was hitting them with the blunt side of his sakabatou.

He thusly flipped the blade and cut the ropey tendrils with the sharp end of his reverse-edged blade, wielding his weapon like a scimitar or a scythe.

He then blanched at the sight of the vine spraying its sap(?) all over them. Bright red and sticky.

"EW! Gross! YAHIKO-KUN!" complained Natsuki.

"I'm sorry, okay?" The Tokyo Samurai Descendant wiped the liquid off of his face with his forearm, resisting the urge to gag. "I didn't know that vines do that if you slice them!"

The two coadjutant masters of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu then turned in time to see a pint-sized... man dressed in black hanging over the trees as though bound by rope, his eyes closed and his skin ashen.

"Is he one of the villagers of this island? Why is he tied up like a crook about to be executed?" inquired Yahiko aloud, who ran towards the person in question with the intention of freeing him. "He might be a hostage of the Shin Ju! We gotta save him!"

"Yahiko-kun, I have a bad feeling about this!" said Shinkai, who finished up wiping the red liquid on her face and body with a handkerchief before sniffing the cloth altogether. Her eyes widened in understanding.

"YAHIKO! Don't go anywhere near that man! IT'S A TRAP!"

"Whu...?"

They soon learned that the dwarf in question wasn't tied up to the trees at all, his eyes opening and his cackling mouth widening into a demented, rictus grin.

The blood in Yahiko and Natsuki's faces drained when they figured out that the flesh-colored vines surrounding them weren't vines but the little man's outstretched, disgusting fingers. Also, the sticky sap on their clothes was his blood.

These fingers extended all over the trees, mixing and mingling with the vegetation and the actual jungle creepers like camouflage.

A vineyard's worth of elongated phalanges then moved like a coiling nest of snakes or the tentacles of an angry kraken family. Maybe even like sentient root outgrowths from an ancient tree.

The midget hollered, saying, "Let me introduce myself, my dearest children. The name's Toguro Ani (Elder Toguro) of the Togoru Brothers. A member of the New Ten Swords. It's nice to meet you both."


"You made a horrible mistake in letting that boy go, Okashira. He was the only one holding back my full powers. Suffer the consequences of your foolishness," was what Edward Gein said before all hell broke loose.

A mixture of black jaki and purple reiki flowed from the mad scientist's lithe body, which he then turned into flesh and bone.

He was Quest Class like Matsudaira and Karasu, only in his case he created living meat puppets instead of bombs or swords and guns out of his spiritual energy.

Meat puppets just like the Iwanbo Version 1.0 suit, which Daiji ripped to shreds from the inside. The version 1.1 of the same suit, however, was alive, cognizant, and could inflate itself to 20 feet or 6 meters.

There was also the Iwanbo 2.0, which was a bomb-toting Iwanbo, only this time its version 2.1 was a huge-headed 23-feet or 7-meter suicide-bombing titan.

Finally, the meat puppet that the Puppet Master ultimately donned was the Iwanbo 3.0, which could turn into a 15 meter or 49 feet mountain of pure muscle. His special feature was the ability to change and shift from any size between his original meat suit size and his full gargantuan size.

That was what the two reincarnated Oniwabanshu... the copper and the high school girl... had to contend with now that Yahiko wasn't there to neutralize Edward's full powers.

"EEEK! His monsters are even worse than the ones summoned by that pasty-skinned Kabuki Guy!" said Likka, referring to Rando.

"..." was what Daiji had to say about that.


'Elder Toguro of the Toguro Brothers...? Never heard of him!' the two Kamiya Kasshin Ryu experts thought in unison, correctly assuming that Toguro was probably one of the Spirit World's enemies they'd never met instead of a reincarnation of one of their own Meiji Era foes.

The pointed phalanges of Toguro Ani plunged into Natsuki and Yahiko in every which way. Or they would've had Xinhai's daughter not parried and deflected them unto each other so they'd get wound up into knots thicker than spaghetti wires from an octopus connection. Or the Gordian Knot.

'I see she's as irritating to fight against as her father,' thought the Elder Toguro before snapping off the overgrowth from his fingers the same way a gecko would break its own tail in order to escape.

The pair of Yahiko and Yutaro (actually, Natsuki) went ahead with their patented sword-and-shield tactic they used against Karasu, with Myojin doing frontal attacks and Tsukayama (actually, Shinkai) picking off any counterattacks and potential openings from behind him.

"He has practically the same powers as Houji the Onmyouji and Doctor Franken-Gein from before," Yahiko told Natsuki. "Except this time, the midget could heal and manipulate the form of his own body instead of making meat puppets or shikigami (familiars)."

"Gotcha. Then that means your neutralization powers should come into effect like with Gein's meat puppets, correct? You can stop him from healing," said Shinkai before she and Myojin both went to different directions in order to split the attention of Toguro and his elongated clawed fingers.

'Her defense is even better than her father's,' Toguro Ani thought as he barely made a scratch on the nimble Shinkai and her expert deflection skills even as he concentrated his tendril attacks on her.

This left him wide open against Yahiko's three-hit "TSUI GAMI!" combo blows to his temple. His attempt to blow the sword with his arm transformed into a shield then left him with a dislocated shoulder.

"GOT 'EM!" said Yahiko. "So much for the Toguro Brothers or whoever!"

"Good! Let's get out of here and find...!" Natsuki was cut off by the most unfortunate of circumstances.

"...Is that it? That's your killer move? You should've finished me off when you had the chance," said Toguro, the knockout blow to his head barely registering to him at all as he popped his shoulder back into place.

Toguro Ani then exploded into a mass of tentacles that flew in all directions, which poked both kendoists full of holes. However, it was Yahiko who took the brunt of the attack because he was the nearest one of the two.

"...Yahiko! LOOK OUT! ERK!"

"AARRGH!"

This was Toguro's signature move that took out three members of Team Gorenja at the same time in the Dark Martial Arts Tournament.

As he bathed in his own blood, a hacking and coughing Myojin demanded to the Elder Toguro, "H-How are you still healing yourself!? M-My powers should've stopped you from healing!"

"You thought wrong," said the Elder Toguro with a cackle. Inwardly, he had a different sentiment.

'This kid really is dangerous, though. I'm back to just B-Level regeneration thanks to his nullification powers,' thought Toguro Ani. 'I better finish him and his girlfriend off fast.'


Like true-blue ninjas, the two Heisei Era shinobi of the Edo Era's Oniwabanshu employed Vietnam-style guerilla tactics against the titanic Iwanbos before them.

Their main tactic was mostly the Misao reincarnation serving as bait while the Aoshi reincarnation sprung his trap in the form of raining blades from the sky, attacks from behind, or hit-and-run moves.

What samurai would normally call cowardly and dirty but fellow ninjas like Gein appreciated as effective techniques. The dark arts, if you would.

In this case, the mad scientist also recognized the techniques as the moves of outgunned and desperate enemies. Or maybe sly foxes biding their time until their power-neutralizing ally could take out the Shin Ju's conduit of jaki taken straight from the Chojin himself, the Onmyouji.

"I'd give up if I were you," said Gein after finally catching up to the slippery Daiji and his flowing-water footwork, with him and his muscular Iwanbo 3.1 double-teaming the Okashira with punches and razor wire. "Myojin Yahiko will never make it to Houji-san. Not if Toguro Ani has anything to say about it."

"Toguro," Daiji mouthed before he got entangled into Edward's net of cables while avoiding the walloping haymakers of the muscular Iwanbo 3.1.

The policemen had heard the name before from his investigations into the underworld. Two mercenary siblings for hire that no law enforcement squadron in Japan could apprehend. A face-off with them always ended in certain death.

"The Younger Toguro Brother has powers similar to my Iwanbo Version 3.1, only better. He also utilized myostatin-related muscle hypertrophy that he survived care of demon DNA. However, his elder brother has traits I can't quite seem to replicate with any of my meat puppets."

Matsudaira then got slammed with a sledgehammer of a fist that cartoonishly swelled into bigness at the last second, which led to Ikumi screaming "UNCLE JIJI!" at him as he buckled down, forcing him awake from what should've been instant slumber.

The eyes behind Gein's skull mask squinted with barely contained delight.

"When me and my partner Ichigaki were first 'hired' by Mukuro and Kirin to turn humans into demons, our initial test subjects kept dying or going berserk. They couldn't handle being injected with demonic cells. They were either driven mad with bloodlust or their weak human bodies succumbed to uncontrollable mutations and cancerous tumors."

Edward tied Matsudaira up again with another one of his thick, impenetrable piano wires on his arms and legs, but this time the copper used his strength to pull the mad scientist towards his muscle-head zombie creature to protect himself.

"Demons are different from humans. They're stronger, lived for ages, and could survive in harsh environments like Makai. That was why we needed only the most powerful logs for our experiments. Timber like the champions of the Dark Martial Arts Tournament. Humans in peak physical condition like the Toguro Brothers."

Even in such awkward circumstances, the Puppet Master kept talking. Like a rich little kid showing off his toys to the rest of the neighborhood scamps.

"Toguro Ani in particular was someone quite special. A one-in-a-million specimen. Even with Myojin Yahiko's neutralization powers keeping his youki in check, he will still regenerate. And revive. And never die. Infinitely. Tell me, Officer: Have you ever heard of HeLa cells?"


With a smirk that wouldn't leave his anemic face, Toguro savored the feeling of slowly sliding his tendrils out of Shinkai and Myojin's puncture wounds.

The two grit their teeth, but they didn't scream. They didn't want to give the sadist the satisfaction of hearing their suffering.

'What's going on? Why aren't his powers nullified by mine? Why is he still healing and transforming!?' Yahiko pondered.

"Kekekekeke. No, wait. You're kidding, right?" Toguro Ani smile widened into a Glasgow smile. "You aren't so arrogant as to think you can defeat me without killing me? That's a hoot. Even Team Gorenja knew better than you. Hit me with your best shot, boy."

Natsuki grabbed hold of the shoulder of the seething Yahiko, who winced at the gesture. "Oops. Sorry about that. But don't fall for his trap! Remember your mission. We really don't need to kill him. We just need to escape."

Myojin grumbled. "Yeah, I know. I won't. Don't worry."

Shinkai nodded. "Very good. Now follow my lead."

The bloody Natsuki and the ectoplasmic Yahiko then exchanged places as they charged, with Shinkai this time running in front of the limping Myojin in order to clear the path for him to do his attacks. A sword hidden behind a shield.

This meant that Natsuki was the one dodging and parrying the tentacle fingers with her combination of fencing and kendo deflections while Yahiko picked the appendages off from behind her, chopping them up with the sharp end of his reverse-edged blade then avoiding the spray of Toguro's blood.

Ignoring the pain of stab wounds deeper than the one Daiji gave her, Natsuki weaved through the vines with her fencing movement then did multiple shots of her signature Kousa Dageki (Cross Strike) on Toguro's vulnerable, punchable face.

Every so often, Yahiko would sneak in an Inga Gami in between those sudden thrusts from kendo's offensive Fire Stance, doubling down on their impact with strikes that the Elder Toguro couldn't see.

These nonlethal techniques weren't nearly enough to take the regenerative Toguro down, though. At least do something that he could regenerate from!

"...You two aren't listening to me, are you? Those mosquito bites won't do you any good!" said Toguro Ani, walking right into Natsuki's shots before he allowed the tip of Shinkai's cane to plunge into his eye socket, much to her bewilderment.

"EEEEEK!" Shinkai screamed.

Before Natsuki could pull out her weapon or let it go entirely, Toguro's body became covered with a mass of sharp bony protrusions that perforated the Yutaro reincarnation's body in every which way.

"CAT EYES!"

"Your defense is annoyingly good, but your offense is nonexistent. You hit like a girl! If you won't at least bother trying to finish me off, then you're as good as dead!" said Toguro.

Even the defense-oriented girl had no answer against such a ridiculous technique like that.


Likka Ikumi screamed profanities and threw all sorts of shuriken and kunai at the suicide-bombing Iwanbo 2.1, hoping against hope to detonate his bomb from a distance before he could catch up with her and blast them both to smithereens.

She vaguely remembered fighting against one Iwanbo back in Kyoto. Now she had to take on three.

Meanwhile, she also had to worry about the 20-foot parade float of an Iwanbo 1.1 that attempted to squash her under its feet or simply block her path until the more bombastic Iwanbo blew up.

"...Normally, any human or demon could accelerate their healing ability with enough spirit energy at their disposal. This makes any high-level being hard to kill. However, once ki is drained, your healing factor goes down, so you can't gain immortality by just depending on your life force alone. Toguro Ani is different. He's what demons would call Regent Class. One of the immortals, like Mukuro's right-hand demon, Kirin. Unkillable."

The chatty Edward Gein continued to brag while attempting to drag the taller copper into certain death in the hands of the Toguro Ototo version of his Iwanbo, knowing full well that as long as Houji Sadojima was around to revive the Shin Juppon Gatana, they'd never lose. Every death was inconsequential as long as they kept fighting.

"He survived my demonization experiments because he's one of those special humans with cells that are remarkably resilient and prolific. They merged with the demon cells I introduced to his body without succumbing to them. Just like the cervical cancer cells of Henrietta Lacks merging with her syphilis before she died of cancer. Even without a wellspring of youki or reiki, Toguro's cells will continue to regenerate like a sentient cancer."

Daiji Matsudaira scowled, wiping the blood from his sneering mouth. He knew who Henrietta Lacks was and what her HeLa cells were.

The HeLa cell was an immortal cell type derived from Henrietta Lacks, an African American patient who died of cancer on October 4, 1951. The cells were cervical cancer cells and they showcased amazing prolific durability not seen in any other cells before or since.

However, Toguro Ani's demonization happened during the 1940s, in the middle to the end of the Second World War. So he actually predated Mrs. Lacks in terms of developing immortal cells.

The cells from Lacks' tumor were taken without her consent or knowledge by George Gey, a researcher who found out that the cells could be kept alive indefinitely. Prior to this, cells cultured from other cells only had a lifespan of a few days.

Hers were the first recorded instance of "immortal" human cells, meaning they didn't die after a few cell divisions like normal cells, and they could be used for conducting many experiments, many of which helped shape the face of medical and biological research.

In particular, because Henrietta had syphilis along with her cervical cancer, her cancer cells became particularly potent, to the point of becoming unkillable up until the present, where samples of her cells were still being used for all sorts of research that would otherwise be deemed impossible or immoral.

The Elder Toguro was one other person who was like Henrietta Lacks. A man who didn't succumb to madness or death from having demonic cells merged with his own. He and his brother succeeded where other human test subjects had failed. They became demon hybrids.

As for the Iwanbo 3.1, the monster had already turned into a kodachi knife holder care of Daiji, but he kept on moving as though none the worse for wear.

Even if the copper could kill the meat puppet, all Gein needed to do was revive him. Even if Gein himself was killed, he'd be resurrected in kind by the Onmyouji.

And if Gein's claims about Toguro's immortality were true, then there was no way in hell that Yahiko could reach and defeat the Onmyouji while that particular Toguro Brother was in his way.


"...MUGEN DAI NO HYOGO!"

Natsuki smashed apart Toguro's spine-covered body before he could clamp unto her like a bear trap.

She was saved by her counterattack technique that served as a shield that deflected the force of the demonized human's bone spurs back at him, resulting in their simultaneous breakage.

However, the broken bone shards acted like shrapnel from a shrapnel bomb, thus even though she escaped the initial stabs, her body was still ripped apart by the resulting rain of flying debris.

Just as Toguro Ani planned.

'Dammit. Even Cat Eyes...!' thought Yahiko, unused to seeing his childhood rival overwhelmed that way.

Usually, Yutaro came out of their matches mostly unscathed or at best with only small scratches and wounds. He almost never ended up bathing in his own blood since Raijuta cut his right hand.

"Imagine if I had fought Battousai and any of his mortal allies and enemies a century ago. I would've massacred you all," boasted Toguro Ani with a cackle. "I would've wiped out your whole cast of characters on my own. Even Saito Hajime or Shishio Makoto would've succumbed to my power!"

With most of his tentacles blown apart by the Mark of Infinity, Toguro attempted to stab the bloody and reeling Chinese girl's eye with an arm he transformed into a sharp blade made of bone. However, the ectoplasm-dripping Yahiko intercepted the weapon with his bare hand.

Myojin then did the "HADACHI!" sword-breaking technique on the bone blade, cracking in apart with a one-fisted twist, but all that did was damage one of his hands while Toguro was left unscathed, his healing powers quickly reforming his shattered limb into a working arm.

Toguro Ani yawned. "You're still using nonlethal techniques against someone who could kill you in the blink of an eye? Do you have a death wish, boy?"

More pointed flesh vines sprouted from every part of Toguro (his "clothes" weren't ripped apart by the tendrils because they were actually synthesized from his cells as well).

"Stop acting all high-and-mighty, you creepy-ass cursed doll! You greasy-haired midget! You... FREAK OF NATURE!" the boy shouted as he did his God on Earth technique that blasted apart the ground and the first few flesh vines that surrounded him.

"...Y-Yahiko. N-No. You're falling into his trap," croaked Natsuki, her body still spurting small fountains of blood.

Yahiko ended up in the sky, jettisoned upward by the Dou Gami, his pose mimicking Kenshin when he did the Ryu Tsui Sen.

'Uh oh. Seems like the boy got serious,' thought Toguro Ani before the soles of his feet started digging underground, unbeknownst to his enemy.

The teenaged ghost then blasted Toguro into a splatter of guts with a much stronger Dou Gami than before, assisted by gravity and the height he got from doing the initial God on Earth.

"I-Is it over?" Yahiko asked before he felt a chill up his spine.

"Don't you get it, boy? Your powers don't work against mine. My healing powers have nothing to do with youki or reiki. It's all-natural," said a voice from behind Myojin.

The Toguro that Yahiko "killed" was nothing more than a fake doppelganger. An empty meat sack dummy.

The real Toguro Ani emerged right from under the ground like a mole along with even more of his killer flesh tentacles that attacked Myojin and Shinkai from down low.

"You're right about one thing, though. I am a freak of nature."

'Dammit! Nothing's working!' thought the Tokyo Samurai Descendant. 'What am I supposed to do...?'


Before Yahiko and Yutaro('s reincarnation) were turned completely into shish-kebab or bloody, fleshy pincushions, a flying silhouette of a woman in a ponytail swooped down and pulled them away from the tentacular clutches of Toguro Ani.

Scaramouche, Scaramouche: Would he do the Fandango?

Just who was the blue-haired, pink-kimono-wearing angel on a flying oar that saved the two Reikai Senshi from certain death (or something worse)? It was none other than Death herself.

Or at least Botan the shinigami ferry-girl from the Spirit World.

"TANUKI (RACCOON DOG)! I mean, Kaoru!" yelled Yahiko. "What the heck are you doing here?!"

"Kaoru-sensei!" shouted the Yutaro residing inside Natsuki as well.

To recap, Botan had somehow ended up possessed by the ghost of Kaoru Kamiya herself. As such, technically, this was also the case of Miss Kamiya saving her two prized Kamiya Kasshin Ryu pupils from harm.

Toguro tilted his head to the side before retracting his vines back to his person. "Huh. I remember you. You're the Reikai shinigami woman that accompanied Team Urameshi back in the Dark Martial Arts Tournament."

Botan was about to fly out of there (the commonsensical thing to do), but her heavy load of injured kendoists that she grabbed by the scruff of their collars ended up dragging her down like twin anchors.

They ultimately ended up back in the forest with the psychopathic immortal.

"Eep!" Botan eeped.

"Welcome back, shinigami," said Toguro Ani with a smirk before he became a tangled mass of deadly tentacles once more. "Aaand goodbye."

Both Myojin and Shinkai attempted to run and protect their kendo master (or at least the person whom Kaoru had possessed for some reason) from the Elder Toguro's killer tendrils, but they faltered at the last minute due to the extremeness of their injuries, falling right at Botan's feet.

To the surprise of everyone except her, Botan dove from the pulsing mass of stabbing tentacles and did a "Tsuka no Gedan: Hiza Hijiki" or a diving, two-handed handle oar strike on the flatfooted Toguro's knees, which made his legs buckle and him slip into the hole which he emerged from earlier.

"...Eh?"

As he slipped and fell into the same chasm he himself made, complete with all his tentacles in tow, the resulting mess appeared like wriggling vines had sprouted from the ground.

From there, Botan... actually, Kaoru... declared, "Don't you dare hurt a single hair on my students!"

'Students? Since when did Koenma's glorified errand girl teach kendo!?' came a random thought inside the head of Toguro. While buried alive.

"K-Kaoru..." chorused the aforementioned students, only for them to balk as the shinigami then grabbed hold of their hands and made them ride shotgun on her boat oar.

"Let's go! He's gonna be really pissed when he gets out of there!"

"EEEH?!" said Shinkai.

"HEY! Aren't we just running away?" demanded Myojin.

Botan and Kaoru chorused as one, "Yes. We are. What of it? When things go south, it's okay to run away!"

Even though it ruined the coolness of her entrance, Botan was right.

Now was the time to flee. They were no match against this immortal Shin Ju member who rendered their powers moot.

"Eh? Uh, okay! Kaoru-sensei!" said a bemused Natsuki, who grabbed hold of her master's waist. From behind her, Yahiko grabbed hold of hers in turn, which made her face heat up.

She could almost feel the eye roll from her past self, Yutaro, over her reaction.

"Fine. What's the plan, Tanuki-chan?" asked Yahiko as they took to the skies.

"What else? It's the same as before. Get the heck out of here and finish off the Onmyouji with your powers, Yahiko," said Botan.

"Sounds good. Let's go!" said Myojin.

The pair then felt reiki flow from the ferry-girl to their bodies.

"Hey, what's going on...?" trailed of Shinkai.

A glowing Botan turned around and smiled as they continued to ascend skywards. "The Shin Ju aren't the only ones with a healer in their party. Shinigami have some healing powers too, but don't push them. Grim reapers can't resurrect you when you die. They can only deliver you to your final destination."

Her pink eyes then widened into the size of dinner plates as she spotted the familiar strings of flesh tubes with pointed tips headed their way. "Darn it. Toguro Ani has already recovered. BRACE YOURSELVES, YOU TWO!"

Botan did her best to land safely while Yahiko and Natsuki used their weapons to cut and deflect away the problematic flesh vines.

They crashed and tumbled unto the tall grass.

Meanwhile, a vein-popping Toguro Ani spider-walked towards them, screaming, "You cheeky cunt! C'mere! I'll end you! And your little kids too!"

To be honest, he was more embarrassed than livid for tumbling into the hole like that care of Botan's surprise attack. Unfortunately, it was a level of humiliation that justified murder in his psychotic mind.

More of Toguro's whipping appendages grabbed hold of them and threw them back to the earth.

The strain of staving off Toguro Ani's advance and falling from a great height compounded the half-healed injuries Yahiko and Natsuki already had, leaving them cringing in pain.

Botan rubbed her behind and got up, her body feeling like lead. She also suffered a painful landing, but she wasn't as injured as her Kamiya Kasshin students. This thought allowed her to endure.

She had no choice. The flight or fight instincts within her boiled over to the surface of her mind, prompting her to wield her oar like a sword in the basic kendo Water Stance.

She already tried flight but that didn't work. Now was the time to fight.

A gust of wind moved the grass and leaves from behind her as the surrounding air reacted to her building kenki (sword energy).

Botan's bobbing ponytail also alternated between its sky blue hue to Kaoru's brunette colors, as though it were an untamed flame igniting into life with every wind burst. Or a dying ember about to be enveloped by the darkness.

'Oho. What's this I'm feeling from her right now?' thought Toguro Ani. 'Oh yes. Xinhai calls it kenki, I believe. I wonder. Can this shinigami actually fight?'

The ferry-girl charged with her boat oar that smashed into pieces as soon as it came into contact with Toguro's forearm, which he turned into a chitinous shell of a shield.

However, from the splinters of the paddle emerged a bokuto (wooden sword) that Kaoru used to attack high as though she were the female version Musashi Miyamoto himself facing off against his skillful nemesis Kojiro Sasaki on the shores of Ganryu Island.

"An opening!" said Toguro, who shot his stretchy fingers at Botan (or Kaoru) from down below her.

However, he fell for the ferry-girl's feinted attack hook, line, and sinker.

She shifted from Joudan-no-Kamae (Fire Stance) with the sword held over her head to Gedan-no-Kamae (Earth Stance) with the sword pointed downwards.

"You're the one who's wide open!" retorted Kamiya.

As Toguro attempted to follow-through and bend his long fingers back at Kamiya, she ducked from the ropey tubes, nailed him with a Kote (Wrist) strike that deflected the Shin Ju's hand away, and then finished him off with a combination Dou (Abdomen) thrust and a Tsuki (Throat) stab.

However, she still wasn't able to see the tentacles she dodged earlier loop backwards and stab her from behind.

"KAORU!" both Shinkai and Myojin shouted.

"Hihihihi! You talk big for someone who hits even weaker than Xinhai's little brat! And she already hits like a girl!" mocked Toguro Ani, his voice raspy and strained due to the hits to the neck and stomach.

Nevertheless, Botan thought on her feet and changed her bokuto into her signature flying oar that pulled her to the skies away from the tipped vines.

"Oh? Flying away, are you?" the Elder Toguro asked, his voice back to normal (if by normal, you meant as shrill as a banshee), his voice box healing in minutes. "You can't escape."

Ectoplasm and firefly-like pinpoints of light left the solidified ghost body of Botan. However, she ignored the throbbing of her body, flew right towards the Elder Toguro, got off her oar, grabbed the stick by its handle, and took a big swing at the malicious midget.

She'd been through worse pain than this, after all. Like the time when she stored the Meikai (Nether World) Crystal inside her body to protect it from the hands of the Meikai Overlords.

Toguro's hand grew in comical size and smashed the paddle apart, only to be struck high with a Makinukemen (a leaping attack to the head that can strike from left, right, or center) that the Elder Toguro walked into followed by a Inukido to the armpits to disable his gigantic arm before he could swat her with it.

Even with that split second of agony, she still got clipped by a backhand from Toguro's gigantic hand.

"Why are you still trying? Nothing you do will work against me," mocked Toguro Ani, who shrunk his hand and wiped the froth from his mouth. Had he lacked healing powers, he would've crumpled in pure suffering.

But he didn't lack healing powers at all, even with Yahiko's neutralization capabilities hampering them somewhat.

Even with unsteady feet and an oar that continued to break apart upon impact on the resilient, unkillable imp, Botan (or Kaoru) still kept moving forward.

Or flying back, as the case might be.

Wanting to finish off one of the Spirit World's grim reapers then and there to further traumatize her troublesome students, Toguro Ani grew out his signature tentacle spindles all over his body and organic clothes.

As soon as he did that, Botan flew far above him, as though testing the reach of his tendrils high up into the sky. Almost reminiscent of Jin the Wind User's modus operandi when he fought Yusuke.

She didn't fly away, though. She soon went into the thick of Toguro's tentacle forest, despite the protestations of her students.

"ENOUGH! That's enough, Sensei!" said a tearful Natsuki. "You've done enough! He's too powerful! Fly away now, we'll find a way to defeat him!"

"Stupid Tanuki! Don't stick your neck out on our behalf!" yelled Yahiko, his eyes also welling up with ghostly, ectoplasmic tears.

"STOP YOUR CRYING AND START WATCHING! You might learn a thing or two from this!" shouted Kaoru's voice from Botan's mouth.

While doing barrel rolls and aileron rolls to avoid the spaghetti strand tentacles varying in size shooting up at her, Botan attempted to dive bomb her enemy, but all of her best strikes ended up barely affecting the Older Toguro Brother.

All that while, whenever she ended up in close proximity of Yahiko and Natsuki, she'd exude spirit energy to help speed up the healing process of their wounds.

She crashed down once more after being whipped around by the tendrils she couldn't avoid, her ripped kimono dripping with as much blood and sweat (or ectoplasm) as her students did. But she always got up again after falling.

She never stayed down.

Courage didn't always roar. Sometimes, it was the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again.'


To Be Continued...

Next chapter, Kenshin faces off against... Jinchu?!

Ciao,
Abdiel