On one side of Okushiri's Mount Kamui...
"You have two choices, Kuwabara Kazuma. Be killed by me or be killed by a possessed Saito Hajime," Feng Xinhai mocked Kazuma Kuwabara.
Although the mobster's body got scourged by the Rei-Shuriken of his foe (made from the shattered pieces of the Jigen Tou), it was already healing itself thanks to the Onmyouji's nearby influence.
"Quit yer yappin' and just throw down, Old Man! Rei-Ken NITORYU!" screamed Kuwabara before blocking Feng's heavy nodachi with his twin swords.
Despite his inexperience in sword fighting, Kazuma somehow kept up with the broken rhythm of Xinhai's Fencing Techniques and Tactical Wheel mind games by playing keep-away with the impossibly long reach of his extendable Spirit Swords.
As for Kenshin Himura, even with the assistance of the supernatural Youtou Shinnoken (Demon Sword), he could not penetrate through the blind Usui Uonuma's turtle shell defense at all.
Thankfully, Himura's functioning eyes, twitch reflexes, quick response time, and past battle experience were able to track down the hidden stabs of Uonuma's sharp spear, the Rochin.
The redhead's constant Shinsoki (Godspeed) movement, pivots, hairpin turns, dodges, and somersaults also prevented the blind man from taking advantage of the openings he got from all of Kenshin's missed and blocked shots.
Then again, because Usui wasn't fooled by afterimages or sudden last-minute bursts of speeds, his Rochin still clipped the rurouni (vagabond) several times in their exchanges.
It was a good thing too, since the gaping chest wound left on Kenshin from his previous battle remained fresh, bleeding, and painful.
They were stuck in a deadlock so far.
Their whole world then rumbled all of a sudden.
The four stopped in their tracks after they collectively felt a change in the wind. A previously unknown presence made itself known.
With an aura of spiritual power as dense as the Toguro Team member Bui's, a Hajime Saito that wore the traditional Shinsengumi uniform began walking towards the Shin Ju. His sakki (murderous intent) mixing with his reiki (spirit energy) and kenki (swordsman energy).
His very aura howled like a hellhound.
Kenshin, Kuwabara, Usui, Gatekeeper Itsuki, and Xinhai all stopped what they were doing in order to gaze at the glorious and terrible sight before them.
The Captain of the Third Shinsengumi Unit had somehow returned from the dead in his full glory and at the peak of his capability.
Yet he was also somehow better than ever, what with the addition of his supernatural powers.
Could this version of Saito overcome the insidious Toguro Ani residing inside his body?
Youtou Shinnoken: Demon Sword
A Rurouni Kenshin/Yuyu Hakusho Crossover Fan Fiction Story by Chester Castañeda
Original Concept by Chad Yang
The Shinsengumi version of Saito awakens. Also, the Reikai Senshi fight in order to finally keep the Onmyouji down.
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 55: Living Sin (Part 7)
The Elder Toguro got his one greatest wish granted by the billionaire organizers of the Ankoku Bujutsukai (Dark Tournament) after the original Toguro Team won the tournament.
He, like his younger brother, wished to become a youkai (demon).
Two mad scientists under Mukuro's employ—Dr. Ichigaki and Dr. Shoji Sugino (the reincarnation of Gein)—did their part of the bargain, but at the cost of the original Toguro dying with cancer even though the clone made from his cancer cells got reborn as an unkillable youkai.
Through a quirk of fate, Toguro Ani's wish became a Monkey's Paw wish wherein he birthed a clone that ended up demonic and immortal while he, the original, was cursed to die.
Knowing this, the dying human with Stage 4 metastatic cancer had one last request to the two mad scientists. Toguro wanted to see his clone one last time before he died.
Ichigaki was against it but Sugino allowed the meeting to happen.
He got wheeled into a private room while sitting on a wheelchair.
There he saw his naked other self float inside a huge glass tube full of amniotic fluid, his respiration facilitated by a breathing mask while several other tubes were hooked up into his small body to monitor his vital signs.
"Can you hear me, you bastard? WAKE UP!" rasped Toguro Ani.
The eyes of Elder Toguro's clone opened.
It saw its original self sitting there on a wheelchair, at death's door. Pale, scrawny, haggard, and frail.
"Please," beseeched Toguro, tears streaming down his eyes. "I beg of you. You've gained the power to regenerate and manipulate your body, right? Absorb me. Absorb me like a worthless twin fetus. Make me into your vanishing twin."
As the original Toguro sobbed, his clone removed his breathing mask and plucked the tubes out of his body before ramming his head through the glass.
The alarms went off. The team of demon and human scientists scurried to their location in a frenzy, but someone had shut the door leading to the room where the twin Toguros stayed.
His head busted open, the Toguro clone cackled, wiping the blood off of his forehead and showing off the healed scar where his wound was supposed to be.
"Answer me this. Why would I, an already perfect and immortal being, want to absorb someone as sickly and imperfect as you?" drawled the sadistic Toguro clone at his sobbing self.
The cancer-ridden Toguro Ani dropped his act, knowing full well that his desperate begging would only make the demonic sadist want to taunt and torture him some more.
He knew the devil within (now outside) him like the back of his hand, after all.
So the original Toguro told his clone the words that would convince him to absorb him regardless.
"You? Perfect? You're a kagebunshin (shadow clone) of what I am. An inferior copy. If you really think you're so perfect, then absorb me and wipe my existence away with your so-called perfection. Or are you afraid I'll take over and prove you wrong?"
And so the petty clone indulged its progenitor, escaping the glass tube of breathable liquid and absorbing himself unto himself.
Bedlam soon erupted at the Kamui mountainside. Like Vesuvius, Krakatoa, or Mt. Saint Helens.
Unfazed by Saito's transformation, Itsuki's rambunctious "George" personality said, "Eat this, fucker!" before taking out a bazooka and firing its rocket straight at the Miburo (Wolf of Mibu).
Hajime didn't even bother dodging. He instead charged with his Gatotsu Ishiki thrusting technique and stuck his sword right into the tip of the rocket, letting it explode on contact before he kept shooting right through the ensuing plumes of flames like they were just harmless puffs of smoke and showers of sparks.
As for Himura, he continued facing off against Usui and his impenetrable Tinbe, still unable to penetrate his defenses.
For a change, the blind Shin Ju member's all-seeing Shingan (Mind's Eye) saw through all of Himura's acrobatic Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu techniques.
Apparently, even ghostly apparitions created enough sound and "tells" that telegraphed their presence.
"Sou Ryu... AUGH!"
It also helped that Usui was getting used to Kenshin's Godspeed by now.
A Rochin spear counter landed right on Kenshin's gaping chest wound that the other Chinese warrior aside from Xinhai left on him, spilling his spiritual ectoplasm that served as his blood all over the mountain landscape.
As the ex-hitokiri's knees buckled, a grinning Usui charged with his spear for the kill, only to be met by the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki (Heavens Gliding Dragon Flash) itself from out of the blue.
A flowery flash of afterimages later, and the Tinbe completely blocked the attack. The same attack Kenshin used to lift the spearman up into the sky earlier.
Himura's face conveyed an indescribable look. He couldn't believe his eyes.
Although normally, the Hirameki was so fast it could reach Usui before he could react to it, it had a "tell" to it that telegraphed to him when it'd been executed: The stomp from the left leg.
"Can't you come up with a stronger attack? Once my Tinbe has tasted the strength of your blade, it cannot be defeated by the same blade!" boasted Uonuma, chuckling.
The blind spearman would've done what many others couldn't and killed the Guardian of the Demon Sword with a simple parry and thrust had the void made by the first slash not kept his footing unbalanced.
'W-What's going on?!' thought Usui as he felt the vortex suck him in, freezing his movements. 'Where did this void come from?! Was it the blocked strike? How...?'
The much stronger second follow-up slash of the Heavens Gliding Dragon Flash banged on the Tinbe, which then started to form a hundred cracks.
The Heavens Gliding Dragon Flash was an ultimate move that had no openings.
However, the power of the slash was weakened enough for Uonuma to simply parry it away and do a Rochin counterstrike.
'The ougi (succession technique)...!' Kenshin thought, his ghostly heart racing. It was completely countered!
As for Feng Xinhai, he shot a series of Tobi Izuna while his familiar made of jaki (negative energy) flames grew hotter and hotter, superheating the air around them. The cold denseness of the vacuum slices and the heat of the rising air resulted in a move called "TORNADO RIPPER!"
However, instead of being swept away by the cyclone, Saito pierced though the eye of the storm at supersonic speeds. So much so that it looked like the twister had turned into a Sonic Shockwave (Xinhai's other explosive technique).
Like two tornadoes colliding. The smaller storm ended up dying because the updraft of air that sustained it got sucked into the larger storm.
Alas, to Xinhai's chagrin, his was the smaller storm, the force of the Gatotsu Ishiki's impact chipping away at his platinum nodachi longsword.
Instead of merely telling Xinhai he was a big joke and he was no match against him, Saito showed him as much. Feng's Class-S standing? It didn't mean a damn thing to the policeman.
Hajime then pierced through the sound barrier, creating a sonic boom that rocked the whole area. Hurricane Saito had come to town.
"Saito...!" said Kenshin, who couldn't even hear himself in the midst of the resulting combined sonic booms.
The good news was that for the first time, Kenshin finally got past the inexorable Usui, hammering the blind man away from behind with a Ryu Kan Sen to escape his persistent counters.
'Huh. That's curious,' Himura mused. ''Why did that work this time around?'
"No, NO!" Itsuki screamed before everything went literally dark. "I won't let you destroy this sacred place! Spare Mt. Kamui from your wrath, Miburo!"
"Sacred place...?" said Kuwabara in the middle of his duel with Xinhai after overhearing the Gatekeeper's statement.
A creature made of shadow then appeared before... or rather, under... the combatants and swallowed them whole. The next thing they knew, they were inside what appeared to be a space junkyard.
They'd ended up in the Gatekeeper's pocket dimension, swallowed whole by his pet, the Uraotoko (Reverse Man).
'Ah. Now this brings back memories,' thought the beat-up Kuwabara, who could now float into battle despite his bleeding leg that had was stabbed earlier by Xinhai's damnable familiar.
"I won't let you destroy that beautiful mountain!" said Itsuki, who shifted personalities yet again from the weapons expert known as "George" to the nature-loving "Hitoshi".
As Kuwabara resumed his battle with the longsword-sporting flame monster using his own twin glow stick swords, he remembered the time how Shinobu Sensui and Yusuke Urameshi leveled a mountain by themselves through powerful punches.
Itsuki had a point. Mount Kamui would've disappeared off of the map of Japan had the Gatekeeper not transported them into his pocket dimension.
Such was the power of two S-Levels clashing against one another.
After losing track of Kenshin because the howling winds and flying objects messed with his senses, Usui himself braved the storm that was Hurricane Saito, his Tinbe shield serving as the immovable object against Hajime's irresistible force.
But he also got pushed back by Saito's Gatotsu even after joining forces with Xinhai to take on Saito.
To their horror, most of the Tinbe shattered like glass and powder. The same Tinbe that survived the Hirameki.
Saito stabbed at a level more powerful than Kenshin's ultimate move? Unbelievable!
The Shinsengumi Saito then shifted stances from the Gatotsu Ishiki to the point-blank Gatotsu Zeroshiki.
The traumatized Usui flinched, his trembling hands holding out what remained of the Tinbe in anticipation of the attack that originally killed him, his turtle shield crumbling in his hands.
Instead, the sword was actually aimed right at the hapless Kuwabara's heart.
The teenager coughed blood from the chest wound. "UWAH! Oh no! O-Officer Fujita, what are you...?!"
Kenshin actually got to Kazuma in time to deflect the sword and keep it from stabbing his vital spots, but the katana still blew out a huge chunk of flesh from his pectorals.
Saito then mule-kicked Kuwabara away and slashed at Himura hard enough to drive him back even while blocking the attack. However, as Kenshin recovered from the pushback, Saito's arm grew impossibly long.
The Battousai sidestepped too late as the unconventional attack tore apart his ghostly muscle and flesh while splashing ectoplasm all over the floating wreckage of building debris below.
The Shinsengumi Captain took a good look at himself and sneered. "Don't you worry, Saito Hajime. I'll take good care of your body."
To Kenshin, Saito said, "I don't believe we've met. I'm the Elder Toguro. I've heard so much about you, Himura Battousai."
The bleeding Xinhai smirked. "Checkmate. You lose, Reikai! Saito Hajime has become one of us. He has officially become a Shin Ju membarrrgh...!"
Usui and Itsuki then balked as Saito stabbed at them repeatedly, the worn-out piece of Tinbe only able to block so much of the attacks. The man sporting the Shinsengumi uniform cackled all the while.
"Who are you? Are you Toguro Ani or Saito? And whose side are you on!?" Uonuma demanded.
Saito grinned a manic, toothy smile that answered the blind man's question. "Hehehe. Didn't I just introduce myself? I'm Toguro Ani. And I'm on no one's side but my own."
Back at the flooded and leveled (Omaha) beach of Okushiri...
"Wow. Is this really you, Youko? You look... prettier than I remember."
"...I sought refuge in the body of a human baby after being injured by the Reikai Boueitai (Spirit World Special Forces)."
"Oh, that part I know of. This is the first time I've seen you in your human form. You've become quite the cute li'l lady."
"This is the body of a boy, Kuronue."
"Oh." The bat demon smiled. "Even better. What a pretty boy you've become, Youko."
The scythe-wielding Kuronue then noticed the sorry state his former partner was in, which prompted him to pull his chained scythe out of his old accomplice's body.
Shuichi "Kurama" Minamino winced in kind, noticing how the bat demon's sickle used to be tied to a strong silken string and made of demonic bone. His brand-new weapon was made of metal chains and steel instead.
"Whoops. My bad, Youko. I forgot how fragile humans are. So tell me, what have you been up to all this time? Why haven't you returned to the Demon World yet?"
Shuichi backed away from his old ally from centuries ago. Biting his lip to endure the excruciating pain of Kuronue's stab wound that exacerbated his other wounds from his fight with Rando.
This Kuronue was somehow different from the Meikai (Nether World) Kuronue (the imposter). He attacked straightforwardly. He didn't attack him from behind nor backstabbed him.
Kurama attempted to throw another Invasive Kudzu seed at Kuronue to bind him like he did Rando, but his savvy former partner-in-crime ignored its outgrowth and kept moving towards him.
"I saw your battle with the pale-skinned kabuki demon," said the youkai with leathery wings, which elicited muffled protests from the kudzu-covered Rando. "He's a tenacious fellow who could lob energy beams left and right. Had he left that seed alone, he wouldn't have ended up tangled in vines."
His back forced against a nearby wall, Shuichi turned a bamboo stalk he had on him into a bamboo spear. Like the ones that killed Kuronue once upon a time.
However, instead of chopping it up with his scythe, the youkai instead grabbed hold of the bamboo spear, broke it halfway, then twisted its remaining fibers around Kurama's hands, binding him, before moving its sharp tip near his neck.
"I know all your tricks, Youko," whispered Kuronue with a smile. "You can't fool me. We've known each other for centuries. That sprout of demonized bamboo would've impaled me in a forest of spikes had I not countered it this way, right? Even now, I can hear it growing."
Simply put, Kuronue kept the Hydra Bamboo from growing uncontrollably by not cutting it apart.
"...What do you want, Kuronue?" asked Kurama. "Why are you working for the Chojin? Don't tell me you want to conquer Ningenkai (Human World) like he does."
Kuronue tipped his hat to cover his eyes and said with a small chuckle, "I don't give a damn about the Human World, Minamino Shuichi. You know me. I'm only after you. I want you... my partner-in-crime... back. What did you do to the Youko, human?"
Afterwards, from out of the blue, the sky spewed forth fire and brimstone as though Okushiri were Sodom and/or Gomorrah; the Heavens turning into Hell on Earth.
Back at Itsuki's pocket dimension...
The Toguro-possessed Saito turned and tilted his head over at the Guardian of the Demon Sword like an inquisitive owl, keeping a close eye at the coveted weapon. His eye on the prize.
"How much more powerful will I become if I got both that sword and this body? I bet I can challenge the Chojin himself or the entirety of Reikai with that kind of power!"
Flesh tentacles then formed all over Hajime's compromised body.
"Hell, why stop there? Why shouldn't I absorb you instead, Battousai? As far as my potential is concerned, the sky is the limit!" Toguro Ani said through his new meat puppet.
"Bai chi (Fool)! Do you have water leaking into your brain? Your greed will be your downfall! Let us fight together to take down the Reikai Senshi instead of threatening to betray the Chojin!" called out Xinhai to deaf ears.
Meanwhile, Itsuki's "Hitoshi" personality doubled over in pain, his hand clutching his shut, scarred eye. He didn't know how much more he could take from Saito's endless barrage of Gatotsu.
Hajime was breaking the pocket dimension apart.
The tip of Saito's sword had itself become a black hole of sorts, its event horizon sucking and disintegrating everything in its path.
Kenshin winced as he fell into his battoujutsu stance in order to meet the charge of the unstoppable Hajime, the wound he got from other Chinese warrior Shin Ju member bleeding anew.
If Saito couldn't be trusted to work with them any longer, then he might as well just rest and peace and go back to the grave.
Like in their initial encounter after a hundred years, Saito had Himura's number. Every last non-succession technique of the Battousai got countered by this more powerful version of the Gatotsu.
It didn't help that Hajime now had Toguro Ani's shape-shifting power and immortality.
"KUZU RYU SEN! (NINE-HEADED DRAGON FLASH!)"
The Toguro-possessed Saito countered the nigh-simultaneous strikes by growing seven extra arms then driving his actual sword arm into the ninth stabbing strike.
Himura then tumbled around and smashed through multiple pieces of debris and scrap from what appeared to be Itsuki's personal garbage dump.
Faced with the combined might of Saito and Toguro, Kenshin only had one option left. One last technique in his arsenal.
There was no way he'd allow himself to be beaten here. Not when he still had unfinished business with a certain someone (or two) on this island.
He then remembered what the young white-haired Chinese mobster told him.
'...Tell me, Battousai. Is my sister smiling down on you from heaven?'
His body awash with a mixture of anger, shame, sadness, and guilt, he started to change.
His form shifted to his younger self, his red clothes turning dark blue, his cross-shaped scar disappearing, and his hairstyle shifting from a ponytail on the nape of his neck to a topknot at the top of his head.
The younger version of Kenshin then charged at the Shinsengumi version of Saito. At Toguro as well.
Toguro Ani attempted to do the counter Saito had at the back of his mind when it came to dealing with the Heavens Gliding Dragon Flash.
All he needed to do was crouch low as soon as the left-footed step happened then attack high during the split-second follow-up strike.
However, for a change, Kenshin jumped at the mind-controlled Hajime rather than use his footwork on solid ground while taking on the Hiten Misurugi Ryu's ougi (succession technique) pose.
Kenshin didn't use the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki as Toguro expected.
It was instead the Kaiten Battoujutsu (Turn the Heaven Quickdraw Technique) that mixed the Ryu Kan Sen Tsumuji with the ougi to create a freefall airborne sword-drawing slash that got its leverage and torque from the rurouni's rotating body.
This took Toguro Ani by surprise, making him counter with the Gatotsu Sanshiki then Zeroshiki a hairbreadth of a second later.
And as far as the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu ougi was concerned, a hairbreadth of a second was all it took.
However, Toguro would've countered Kenshin successfully had the Saito inside him not deliberately stop his stance change, thinking, "I'd rather die than let you take over this body."
The pocket dimension then got smaller and more cramped, warping and distorting around the point of impact.
The shockwaves from the two opposing forces that disintegrated the floating junkyard inside Itsuki's pocket dimension would've been enough to level Mt. Kamui. Or even the entirety of Okushiri.
The vortex-creating slash canceled out the wind barrier and denseness of the Gatotsu Zeroshiki, the clashing forces merging together and blasting Saito into the air, the resulting gravitational forces tearing Itsuki's safe space apart.
Like Rumpelstiltskin, the cleaved halves of the bisected Hajime Saito slid off of each other in a spectacular spray of blood.
The Gatekeeper then let out a guttural sound before shifting into his "Minoru" personality in order to expel all the inhabitants of his pocket dimension with his black hole eye, spewing them back unto Mount Kamui.
Back at the shores of Okushiri...
The sun had already set but the twilight sky remained red. And from this blood-soaked panorama emerged a certain crow demon who might as well have squawked, "NEVERMORE!"
Just as Kurama had requested to Kuwabara.
It was, after all, a rare occasion where his Plans A to Z had already been exhausted, so he now needed his Plan 1A to bail him out.
"Don't you dare kill Kurama," said the stringy-haired and masked Karasu, who dropped back down to A-Level because of his death match with a certain A-Level ghost that practically sacrificed his existence just to take down an S-Level demon.
It was an impressive feat for Sanosuke Sagara, but an embarrassing defeat for Karasu.
"Kill Kurama? I had no such intention. Who the hell are you?" demanded Kuronue. "Are you... Yomi?"
Karasu threw demonic grenades and dynamites at the scythe-wielding Kuronue, who wrapped his enchanted chains around the explosives and let them implode within their chain wraps.
"Do I look blind or full of ears to you? I am Karasu. A Quest-Class demon who's part of the Shin Juppon Gatana. And you are?"
Afterwards, Kuronue attacked with his whirling, rotating scythe that Karasu deftly avoided and blasted into hot shrapnel and molten steel.
"Kuronue. The Youko's original partner from centuries ago. I too am Quest-Class. Observe."
To illustrate his claim, the bat demon reforged his melting scythe with his youki then entangled Karasu's body with his telekinetic chains, its curved blade stabbing the crow demon in the spine.
"You say you're Shin Ju? I'm Shin Ju too. Why are you attacking me? We're on the same team, you idiot!" admonished Kuronue, only to run and fly away from Karasu's Full-Body Explosion that blasted hot pieces of shrapnel all over the area.
"It doesn't matter," Karasu said, his mask off and his mouth and lungs inhaling as much combustible oxygen particles as it could, his black straight hair lighting up into golden curls like lit fuses. "Only I have the right to harm or kill Kurama. I won't let you anywhere near my prize."
Another Full-Body Explosion then happened, rocking the whole area.
The discarded kudzu sprout then turned into a continuously growing forest that absorbed the flames of Karasu's incendiary weapons.
Shuichi sneaked away from the battling Shin Ju the best he could, hiding within the unburned portion of a resulting bamboo forest and erasing his presence from them by letting the Shimaneki that remained in his body cover him up like green camouflage.
Kurama didn't expect Kuronue to crawl back out of the grave and "haunt" him in modern times, but he did expect Karasu to somehow find a way to stop whoever it was from killing or messing with him.
The sadist viewed the demon fox as some sort of rival or prey that only he was entitled to defeat, after all. Kurama knew that much.
Apparently, even Karasu wasn't aware of the newest member of the Shin Ju. This must've been a last-minute decision on the Chojin's part.
Back at Mount Kamui...
Xinhai laughed in spite of the wounds inflicted upon him by Saito and his own loose cannon of a comrade. "That's not enough to kill Toguro Ani! He's immortal! And your secret weapon is now ours! The Miburo is one of us!"
An eye blink later, and the two halves of the Shinsengumi Captain turned into the policeman Officer Goro Fujita and a haggard Toguro Ani respectively.
"..." thought both the Elder Toguro and Saito, who looked warily at each other and the shining Hitokiri Battousai (Battousai the Manslayer).
No, perhaps Kenshin was currently the Youkiri Battousai (Battouai the Demon-Slayer) instead.
"W-What...?" cried out Usui. "What's going on? Why am I sensing two people? Did Toguro Ani exit from Saito's body?!"
"What's going on?!" Feng himself exclaimed but in Mandarin Chinese, followed by a string of Mandarin curse words.
The blade of Kenshin's Demon Sword shone as brightly as or even brighter than Kuwabara's Rei-Ken or Jigen Tou.
From there, the Battousai moved towards Kuwabara, who lay in a pool of blood, before stabbing the shining blade at him.
Instead of killing him, the Youtou Shinnoken restored Kazuma to health, his wounds completely disappearing.
And just like that, Xinhai's master plan fell like a house of cards.
Itsuki frowned, biting his thumbnail and shaking like a leaf. "That damned Demon Sword is Reikai's ace up their sleeve. Fuck," cursed his "George" personality.
Toguro then barked, "I don't know what happened, but I don't care! It doesn't matter anyway!" before he grew thousands of cannula-sized threads out of his body with the intention of absorbing Kenshin into his body this time around.
However, Toguro's shape-shifting ability worked slower than usual for some reason.
Parts of his midsection weren't getting enough blood supply, leading to bruising and necrosis. Gangrene. Putrefaction, even.
He then realized that the wound Yahiko Myojin left on him remained.
Yahiko's neutralizing spirit energy from his shattered blade remained in his bloodstream, making him weaker and slower to regenerate or even shift forms.
'N-No! I was able to purge that brat's spirit energy after Saito disintegrated my entire body! Why is it back in my system?'
Somehow, Battousai reverted him to the state he was in before Saito crushed him like a bug.
Also, he was a much bigger target now compared to when he was reduced to bits and pieces of his cells.
"...Oh no, you don't! KYODAI REIKIBOU!" screamed Kuwabara, who produced a Giant Spirit Energy Staff even bigger than the one he used in the Dark Martial Arts Tournament, smashing Toguro apart.
Afterwards, Kazuma cut a portal under whatever was left of Toguro to keep his invasive cells from infecting any more of the Reikai Senshi.
"Kuwabara-dono! Good work!" said Kenshin, only for his knees to buckle and for him to revert from his young Battousai form to his rurouni (vagabond) self later in life.
His energy was completely spent.
Disturbingly, the gaping chest wound he got earlier still wasn't healed even after he powered up and turned into the Youkiri Battousai. As though there was a curse or a grudge behind the laceration.
"Kenshin...!" called out Kuwabara, only to end up stabbed and burned up from behind by Xinhai's damnable shikigami.
"Fine. If you won't let us take Saito Hajime from you, then you can all die," said Xinhai, who threw wave upon wave of Tobi and Matoi Izuna at the policeman and vagabond.
With a grunt, Saito dodged the vacuum waves and again charged with the Gatotsu Ishiki, only for it to be blocked and deflected by the persistent Usui and his Tinbe. "You again?"
Uonuma sneered, none the worse for wear the entire battle because of his highly defensive technique and hard-wearing shield. His Tinbe had also reformed and ended up even denser than before.
The turtle shell took Saito's best shots and, like a broken bone that ended up stronger than ever before after healing, nothing short of Saito's full power could penetrate it now.
Kenshin attempted to intercept the two, only for his battoujutsu to get countered by the diamond-hard Tinbe as well. He was then pushed back with a Rochin strike that would've blown his head off had he not dodged at the last second.
It clipped his forehead though, resulting in blood bathing his face.
The crimson-masked Himura then ended up against Itsuki, who now adopted Sensui's "Makoto" personality.
The exhausted rurouni attempted to plow through the Gatekeeper with a "RYU SOU SEN (DRAGON NEST FLASH)!" but multiple disembodied arms and hands kept catching the blade and counterpunching him every time.
At the same time, Saito struggled against an Usui that he had blown out of the water earlier thanks to the blind man's ever-evolving, self- healing Tinbe, which took some of the copper's best shots and survived.
Hajime tried to change into his Shinsengumi form once more, but Uonuma sensed the abrupt rise of energy and thusly charged before he could complete his transformation.
By instinct, Saito did his Gatotsu Zeroshiki aimed right at Usui's Tinbe, intending to crush it again like before by supercharging his kenki and reiki as fast as he could.
However, instead of blocking, Usui slipped his turtle shield away from the tip of the sword then pushed against the flat part of the blade while at the same time countering with a stab of his own.
The Gatotsu's wind pressure normally deflected any counterattack against Hajime. However, Uonuma's Rochin pierced through it so fast and strong that it broke both the dense wind and sound barrier.
This resulted in a sonic boom that rattled the policeman and blew a hole in the side of his body, spilling his blood, guts, and giblets all over the mountainside.
"I forgot to mention. My Rochin spear and Tinbe shield are spiritually interconnected like twins. The more immovable an object my Tinbe is, the more irresistible a force my Rochin becomes!"
Meanwhile, at nighttime Okushiri...
The shogi pieces had been set. Kurama, in Koenma Daio's stead, had started playing a shogi or chess game with the Chojin himself and his representative, the Onmyouji (Occult Priest) or Houji Sadojima.
The youko kept tabs with all of the Reikai Senshi using his Spirit Detector that doubled as a communicator. The radar function also mapped out their locations, which allowed him to instruct everyone on what to do, where to go, and who among the Shin Ju to fight.
The Spirit World Warriors were tasked to divide and conquer the Shin Juppon Gatana in accordance to their abilities. Furthermore, Shuichi wasn't above having them double-team individual Shin Ju to achieve their goals.
Meanwhile, the ferry-girl shinigami served as their healers while also helping Kurama monitor their progress and locations.
Kurama did all this while being hunted down by his former partner and former rival.
The Chojin had indeed finally deployed the complete Shin Juppon Gatana against them, and they were every bit as formidable as their counterparts from a century ago. Perhaps even more so thanks to their supernatural abilities.
The Reikai Senshi had so far faced off against Feng Xinhai, Gatekeeper Itsuki, Rando, and Karasu. The usual suspects. Then there was Usui Uonuma the Blind Spearman and Gein the Puppet Master. So that made for six members.
Because Jine Udo and Suzaku had perished, they also got replacements for them from the so-called Dai Kaijin (Great Monsters), which were composed of the past enemies of both Team Urameshi and the Kenshingumi.
Toguro Ani was one of them. The other, Kurama had already met. His past ally, Kuronue. That made for eight members.
The last two members of the Shin Ju were the Younger Toguro (in light of the Elder Toguro's presence), and one mystery Chinese martial artist that was able to wound Kenshin out of all people.
And there it was. Those were all ten of the New Ten Swords.
The Onmyouji, contrary to the mistaken belief from some in their team, wasn't part of the Shin Ju. According to Hiei, Houji Sadojima introduced himself as part of another group named the Dai Shin Kan (Great High Priests).
It was because of the Onmyouji's healing and power-boosting abilities gifted to him by the Overfiend that their battles had been as protracted as they were.
The Class-S Plus Yusuke Urameshi or Jaganshi Hiei alone could normally finish off most of the Class-S Minus or Class-A Plus Shin Ju on their own. They were also out of the league of the likes of Kenshin Himura and Goro Fujita.
However, because they could be revived, power-boosted, or otherwise healed by Houji, the New Ten Swords had been chipping away at the stamina and power reserves of the best fighters of the Spirit World Warriors.
Thusly, the Reikai Senshi depended on Kurama's shrewdness and tactical genius to take down the Shin Ju without using up the power of their big guns like Yusuke or Kenshin so early in the game.
Especially when they suspected that the Chojin himself might be making an appearance later on.
Back at Mount Kamui...
Kuwabara tried elbowing and punching Xinhai's shikigami to the face. To no avail. It was jaki fire in humanoid form. He couldn't hurt it physically.
He had to do something, though.
"...You're not the only one with a shikigami, Xinhai! SANO, GO GET HIM!"
The lumbering Feng turned in time to see the ghost of Sanosuke smash his face in with multiple Futae no Kiwami (Double Impact) punches, with him shouting all the while: "FUTAEFUTAEFUTAEFUTAEFUTAEFUTAE... NO KIWAMI!"
Xinhai "backhanded" the still-weak Sano ghost with his arm stump, making the ghost disappear, but then his body shrieked in agony from all the broken bones he got from the furious onslaught.
He then saw Kuwabara slice his shikigami apart with the Jigen Tou, the flames dissipating like the dying embers of an overnight bonfire.
His broken body creaking like a rusty gate at every movement, Feng managed to do a supersonic Tobi Izuna that split the Dimension Sword in twain and injured Kazuma, only to realize his mistake a second later.
Gritting his teeth, Kuwabara caught the top half of his sliced Jigen Tou then used his spirit energy to reform both halves into twin swords, screaming, "JIGEN TOU NITORYU!" before slashing at the air and cutting apart Xinhai with an x-shaped slash even from that distance.
As though he were doing his own version of the Izuna technique.
His limbs and blood flying everywhere, the Chinese mobster activated the "BLOOD WIND!" and swept himself away from the mountainside and the teenager's long-reaching attacks, knowing that the Jigen Tou could even cut through tornadoes apart.
Kazuma collapsed on his behind and let out a small chuckle. "We did it. We drove the bastards off!"
The transparent ghost of Sanosuke lifted Kuwabara to his feet. "Dammit, I wish I had enough power to stay, uh, solid and help you guys out more."
The ginger-haired teenager chuckled. "You were perfect as my 'Stand', man! You really evened up the odds with that stupid Xinhai and his stupider shikigami!"
"What the hell are you talking about? 'Stand'? Like a hotdog stand?" asked Sanosuke.
"Wait, you never heard of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure?" asked Kuwabara in return.
"Of course not! I'm literally a hundred-year-old ghost!" complained Sanosuke.
Meanwhile, the remains of Toguro Ani were dumped into the middle of the ocean care of Kuwabara's portal.
However, because he leveled up significantly since his B-Level days in the Ankoku Bujutsukai, it didn't take hours for him to regenerate his entire body but minutes.
It also helped that he discarded the parts of his body that had been infected by Yahiko's power-neutralizing ki that prevented him from healing properly.
Like a sponge or cordyceps fungi, he even absorbed unto him different living organisms in order to speed up his healing process.
Alas, a half hour later, as soon as Toguro Ani crawled back to the shores of Okushiri, the watchful Jaganshi Hiei lay in wait for him, ambushing him with a flaming sword.
"AH! HIEI!" he screamed too late before he was finished off with a Sword of Darkness Flame followed by a Dragon of Darkness Flame, disintegrating him even more thoroughly than before to the point of complete carbonization of most of his body until there was nothing but a stain left on the crystallized sands.
Hiei harrumphed.
Using his Jagan, he had seen everything that was going on in the fight between Feng Xinhai, Itsuki, and Usui Uonuma versus Kazuma Kuwabara, Kenshin Himura, and Saito Hajime.
Things were going exactly as Kurama predicted so far. Could the Chojin actually find a way to outsmart the demon fox, though?
Back at Mount Kamui...
For a change, Saito ended up on the defensive against Usui, his bleeding stab wounds keeping him from using enough torque to break apart the currently unbreakable Tinbe while his compromised Gatotsu wasn't strong enough to match the Rochin's supersonic stabs.
Meanwhile, none of Kenshin's attacks could even touch the multi-armed and multi-handed Itsuki.
Whenever one of his "Makoto" personality's disembodied hands got sliced apart, he'd replace them immediately with new ones. He also armed the hands with swords and guns from multiple eras using the hyperdimensional powers of his "George" personality.
It didn't help that Itsuki could also teleport away at will with his portals.
Nonetheless, Kenshin fell into battoujutsu stance regardless and chose to charge at Usui and Saito instead, with bullets and swords from Itsuki's disembodied hands grazing him all the while.
"Oh no you don't, Battousai!" said Itsuki, opening up a portal that shielded the two from the charging attack, making Himura stop on his tracks and sheath back his blade.
This, for some reason, also made Usui stop on his tracks after blocking another Gatotsu Ishiki, his jaw unhinged in a silent scream.
Itsuki looked back and forth at Himura and Uonuma in confusion. "What's going on?"
From there, Usui's ears started bleeding. His eardrums had actually burst. Kenshin had used a little-known Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu supersonic noutoujutsu (sword-sheathing) technique known as the Ryu Mei Sen (Dragon Cry Flash).
The sword-sheathing technique squealed at a frequency so high, it served as a painful dog whistle against Usui's Shingan (which was just Usui's heightened senses) that no one else could hear. This also overloaded his eardrum, which tampered with his hearing and sense of balance.
The blind and deaf man didn't even see or hear the Gatotsu Zeroshiki coming that again ripped him apart in half, like when his human form first died a century ago.
Unburdened by the constant dodging and distractions that kept him from transforming into his full regalia, Saito finally shifted from his policeman form to his Shinsengumi form, stabbing both (what was left of) Usui then Itsuki with his sword like a proper shish-kebab in mere seconds.
Before the two turned into roadkill or ground beef, Itsuki's "Naru" personality teleported both himself and Usui's remains away from the Shinsengumi Captain's Gatotsu without using any portals. Out of self-preservation, perhaps.
All traces of the two were gone, including the bottom half of Usui and its fountaining blood.
The Shinsengumi Saito then reverted to his original policeman form and told Kenshin, "They probably teleported themselves back to the Onmyouji to get healed."
The rurouni nodded. "Yahiko-kun and the others are headed towards Sadojima Houji. They soon won't have the luxury of a necromancer reviving them every time they're defeated."
Saito took out a pack of cigs and smoked one using the heat of his own spirit energy to light it up. "It's not the Onmyouji that we should be worried about."
Kenshin's wide-eyed stare became sharp slits of seriousness. "So he's probably here, isn't he?"
Hajime blew smoke off his nostrils and nodded. "We can't have the Juppon Gatana without its leader. I'm sure that Shishio Makoto is coming here soon."
The ferry-girls Botan, Ayame, Hinageshi, Sayaka, and Sayuri (or Uchiko Shikoku) served as both the scouts and respective healers of the Reikai Senshi.
They exchanged info constantly with their Spirit Detectors while at the same time used the devices as radars for the whereabouts of the New Ten Swords.
They mapped out Okushiri Island in accordance to Kurama's instructions, serving as his eyes and ears on what was going on and which Reikai Senshi was fighting which Shin Ju member.
To recap, they were assigned four quadrants on the island: Northwest (Botan), Northeast (Sayuri), Southeast (Ayame), and Southwest (Hinageshi and Sayaka).
Botan herself was there fighting in the proverbial trenches to help Yahiko finally confront the Onmyouji while the rest of the Reikai Senshi got rid of any obstacles on their way.
Kuwabara also helped out by serving as their team's Itsuki, making portals for everyone who needed them so they could quickly go to and fro anywhere in the island in mere seconds.
It was under Kurama's orders that made wannabe ninja (cosplayer) Likka Ikumi go her separate ways with her brother-in-law (and fellow Oniwabanshu reincarnation) Detective Daiji Matsudaira in order to occupy or distract the Shin Ju members found in another quadrant.
Likka didn't want to leave "Uncle Jiji" (and the rest of her ghostly Oniwabashu friends from her past life) behind with the creepy Gein (whom she heard was reincarnated as a mad scientist from World War II) and his Iwanbo corpse puppets.
However, she relented once Kurama told her that she'd be reunited with her best friend in the whole wide world, Natsuki "Tsuki-chan" Shinkai, who herself had to leave Yahiko alone with Botan so that they could make a quicker beeline for Houji the Onmyouji.
She trusted (more like hoped) that Natsuki's redheaded effeminate friend that kind of looked like a taller version of Kenshin knew what he was doing.
"Tsuki-chan!" said the reincarnation of Misao Makimachi, waving her hand excitedly to greet her best friend.
"Ah! Likka-tan!" greeted back the reincarnation of Yutaro Tsukayama. "I'm so glad you're safe! I was so worried!"
They were informed by their quadrant's assigned ferry-girls (Spirit World Inspector and Junior Shinigami Sayaka and Temple Priestess Hinageshi) that they had to face off against a healed Kuronue and Karasu. They were specifically near the Okushiri Airport.
The two initially fought each other but then decided to join forces to take out Kurama instead.
Likka was reassured by Botan (or Kaoru maybe) via communicator that Natsuki had "leveled up" significantly and could now use what was known as the Mujinken (Void Technique) to her advantage.
Ikumi herself had regained much of her (or rather, Misao's) memories of her past life, so even she could contribute more to the battle.
Whether one was Class-C or Class-S and beyond, evasive maneuvers could be done by warriors to survive against even beings who were many power levels higher than them.
Like how prey evaded predators through camouflage, trickery, and pure speed.
Swallowing her pride, this was what Misao's Heisei self decided to do. Help Natsuki escape her two predators because she herself lacked the firepower needed to take on these supernatural creatures.
A-Levels be damned. S-Levels be damned. Or whatever else levels these demons could reach.
Kuwabara also reassured that if Gatekeeper Itsuki recovered enough to interfere, they should just give him a call and he'd send him away with his reality-rending Dimension Sword.
The Reikai Senshi were using a divide and conquer strategy, in other words. Isolate the members of the Shin Ju within designated quadrants and keep them from ganging up on them.
"We shouldn't underestimate Karasu either," cautioned Natsuki. "He originally almost killed Kurama himself and I barely survived taking him on with the help of Yahiko-kun."
"He's one of the Mad Bombers, right? From the Thin Man Suicide Bombers terrorist cell," said Likka with a gulp. "I heard about them from the news."
"You've heard about him from the news," corrected Natsuki. "There's no such thing as the Thin Man Suicide Bombers. All his 'suicide' bombings were conducted by him alone. He survived every one of them."
"Gag me with a spoon," Ikumi said under her breath. "Who exactly are these weird people we're fighting, Tsuki-chan?"
"Monsters, Likka-tan," Natsuki said and added nothing else.
Meanwhile, Daiji Matsudaira and the ghosts of his deceased Oniwabanshu comrades drove Gein and his Iwanbo puppets right into the northeast quadrant handled by the blonde ferry-girl Sayuri (who also referred to herself as Uchiko Shikoku).
They were specifically near the Kyujimayama Observatory and the beach where Rando and Kurama fought.
This Oniwabanshu reunion tour was soon joined by Kazuma Kuwabara as well, who teleported there with his Dimension Sword.
"Okashira (Boss), watch out! We're being attacked by an ugly, orange-haired oni (ogre)!" said the masked Hannya, who shielded Detective Matsudaira from Kazuma.
"Who are you calling an oni? You look more like an oni!" yelped the curly haired teenager.
"He's an ally," Daiji said simply. "Just like the rest of you."
"...Y'know what? Y'all look like a circus troupe," was Kuwabara's quip at the thin man with the scary mask, the fat man who could shoot flames from his mouth, the pint-sized pigmy with a dart gun, and the generic strongman full of body scars before getting respectively punched, charbroiled, poisoned, and suplexed by the Tokyo Oniwabanshu ghosts.
"GUAGHH!"
Their current mission? To keep Gein preoccupied. And, more importantly, to keep the Onmyouji from traveling anywhere else.
According to the sightings reported by the ferry-girls and by the process of elimination, Kurama deduced that the Onmyouji was somewhere near Mt. Kamui before heading to the Northeast to avoid Yahiko Myojin's warpath.
Houji the Onmyouji had actually been monitoring Mount Kamui the entire time the fight for possession of Saito's body happened before retreating elsewhere in the island after their mission failed.
He had used his powers to make the Shin Ju involved in the battle heal faster and survive the otherwise unstoppable onslaught of Officer Fujita.
They soon found the Onmyouji waiting for them. His evil hideout was actually the not-so-evil Kyujimayama Observatory, also known as the Kyujimayama Lookout.
"...Gein, I'm disappointed in you," said Houji Sadojima after seeing the Puppet Master chased down by Kuwabara and the Oniwabanshu. "You've led the Reikai Senshi right into my lair."
"My apologies," said Gein with a drawl that implied a smirk hidden behind his skull mask.
Sadojima's "lair" was an observatory located on a 370-meter or 1,214-foot tall mountain. Normally, tourists could only access it through 90-step stairs from the parking lot.
The Onmyouji himself chuckled before summoning his cloaked and scythe-wielding shikigami (familiars). "Oh, whatever shall I do now? Soooo scary."
The Okushiri Airport exploded into a mushroom cloud, shoving both Likka Ikumi and Natsuki Shinkai off of their feet from the resulting shockwave.
Amidst the fire and debris rose two demonic figures. The Mad Bomber had struck again, and this time around he had an accomplice with him who sported a hat, a chained steel sickle, and bat wings.
"We meet again, little girl," said the masked Karasu to Natsuki, remembering her from the time when he faced off against her and Yahiko in Xinhai's attempt to level him up to S-Class permanently by using human sacrifices in Aokigahara (Suicide Forest).
Just behind him was Kuronue, his necklace swinging back and forth like a guillotine in cadence with his actual chain and blade. Revived after being dead for centuries by the inimitable Chojin.
Karasu was kind of getting tired at that point. Not because of his stamina but because he'd been in the proverbial trenches the longest among the Shin Ju, fighting off wave upon wave of Reikai Senshi.
At least now he had a bit of a reprieve by taking on these mere girls before him.
"Get out of our way," said Kuronue. "We need to get to Kurama. I've had enough of seeing him act like the Reikai's personal pet."
At first, Kuronue and Karasu were at each other's throats trying to get a piece of Youko Kurama, only to realize that they'd been duped by the fox to do exactly that to escape.
They had also been trapped by the Youko's Hydra Bamboo and the Invasive Kudzu.
After they agreed to a truce, Kuronue explained to Karasu how to get out of Kurama's Chinese finger trap. The unlikely duo proceeded to bomb the bamboo and cut down the kudzu and not the other way around to escape and not worsen their predicament.
Had they cut the bamboo and bombed the kudzu, the two plant species would've kept growing and growing until the demons were suffocated to death.
From high above them, the young Sayaka observed their battle and reported back to the rest of the shinigami and Reikai Senshi.
She was a Spirit World Inspector and little ghost girl whom Yusuke Urameshi saved when he himself was a ghost once upon a time.
With her was Hinageshi, who was the ferry-girl assigned to assist the Reikai Tantei when dealing with Netherworld God-Emperor Yakumo and the rest of his Meikai Gods. They were the two shinigami (death gods) tasked to monitor the progress of this particular group and quadrant.
Meanwhile, Natsuki whirled her metal cane and fell into the Gedan-no-Kamae (Earth Stance) of kendo. Likka stood right behind her, her kunai at the ready.
Wishing to end this immediately, Karasu attacked with TNT bugs monsters from below and bat-winged Trace Eyes from above. In turn, Kuronue jumped and hurled his scythe at the kendo girl as well, intending to tie her up and stab her before she got blown to smithereens.
A nearby plane with jet fuel inside afterwards exploded then and there, but its fire wasn't hot enough to melt the nearby steel beams, prompting the crow demon to add incendiary fire through his eggshell napalm bombs filled with the flammable gel compound to increase the temperatures of the heat and fire tremendously.
However, the girl then did a Mugen Dai no Hyogo (Mark of Infinity) that blew the conflagration and explosives away from her.
The growing wildfire of bug bombs on the ground and the bat bombs above along with the wreckage from the plane were all redirected right into Kuronue's way, forcing the bat demon to dodge, slice, and detonate them prematurely himself.
'What!?' thought Karasu, who expected Xinhai's daughter to do the Mugen Dai no Hyogo first to deflect or redirect force applied to her, only to succumb to his multidirectional swarm of bombs. 'But this type of redirection is different than before!'
The Mad Bomber intentionally ran into the multiple explosions himself, absorbing their explosive and spiritual energy unto his combustible body in order to suicide-bomb Natsuki directly or even to transform her into a walking bomb herself.
Only for him to lose his footing before he got swallowed by the unstable ground.
Blunt, physical force was his one weakness. The one type of energy his body couldn't soak up. And Natsuki knew this.
"Enough of your games!" said Kuronue, who proceeded to use normal (albeit demonically strong) physical attacks himself instead of spiritual or energy attacks that Yutaro's reincarnation could reflect, deflect, or redirect at them.
Only for the versatile and adaptable girl to dodge, parry, and counter his demonic strength with her metal cane and martial arts.
Kuronue was a new recruit of the New Ten Swords who barely interacted with any of them, least of all Feng Xinhai. Therefore, he had no familiarity with or answers against the Fencing Tactical Wheel shared by father and daughter.
Every time he attacked her with his circular sickle (Simple Attack), she parried and attacked him back (Parry and Riposte).
Every time he attacked or feinted to draw out a parry then attacked for real (Compound Attack), she countered him (Counter Attack).
Every time he feinted to draw out and counter her counterattack (Counter Time), she feinted her own counterattack to draw out his delayed counterattack and counter for real (Feint in Time).
The counter to a feinted counterattack was a simple attack, thus completing the Tactical Wheel.
However, Kuronue couldn't counter her at all because her reaction time was otherworldly.
She was always a step ahead of him when doing their Tactical Wheel dance thanks to her fencing training under Feng Xinhai and Yutaro Tsukayama's own mastery of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu's Mujinken.
Most importantly, her formerly harmless strikes with the metal cane that was limited to her physical strength got amplified by the way she was able to accelerate the momentum and manipulate the trajectory of objects within her midst.
Even supernaturally strong demons could feel the blunt-force trauma from her enhanced strikes.
Meanwhile, Karasu used a Deleterious Bomb to blast himself sky high to avoid getting buried alive.
He then used several other gunpowder explosions from his feet to propel himself towards Natsuki while trying to figure out how to destroy her psychic barrier without getting his attacks deflected.
However, before he could do anything, kunai blades punctured holes all over him at supersonic speeds.
The C-Level Likka hurled her ninja blades at a velocity expected from a skilled knife thrower (perhaps a little faster because she really put her hip into her throws). However, she aimed them at her own best friend Natsuki, whose barrier then proceeded to redirect them at Karasu at even faster superhuman speeds.
'Unbelievable,' thought Likka. 'You've grown, Tsuki-chan. I'm not sure I can even reach your level now!'
Karasu cursed at his low-level powers at the moment. If he hadn't gotten his reserve jaki depleted by Sanosuke Sagara, he would've nuked this child out of existence. However, in light of her own deflection powers, would that necessarily defeat her?
What were the limits of her abilities? Never mind Yahiko Myojin, what was Natsuki Shinkai's true potential?
A nearby pillar exploded from an accelerated Trace Eye. It would've buried Karasu in a pile of rubble had the scuffed-up Kuronue not slashed it apart with multiple sickles at the same time.
The stunt gave both Likka and Natsuki pause. A minute later, the explosions ceased. Karasu's initial wave of organic bombs had all exploded.
Amidst the flaming wreckage and debris from what was left of the Okushiri Airport, a lone Kuronue grabbed his face and cackled like a madman.
"What the Onmyouji said was true. You really are the protégé of Kurama, Shinkai Natsuki."
Natsuki fell back to her Gedan Stance, her cane at the ready. "What do you mean? Who are you anyway? We have no intel on you except you were once Kurama's partner."
Kuronue nodded. "That's right. I am. I know the Youko like the back of my hand. And right now, you're fighting just like him. You share the same weakness."
"Fighting like Kurama-san...?" Natsuki trailed off, confused.
To herself, she wondered why Kurama was concerned that this man was part of the New Ten Swords. Thus far, he showed no special powers or abilities that could pose a threat to the chess master demon.
"Like him, you fight with your heart on your sleeve. Your soft, compassionate heart will be your downfall," said Kuronue.
Karasu also balked at the accusation. "Soft? Kurama? He might seem soft to you as a human, but he's actually quite cruel as the Youko. Have you not heard of the things he did to Yomi? To Roto? To Toguro Ani? To Mukuro's father? To me?"
Kuronue chuckled and shook his head. "You really don't understand a thing. You dare call yourself the Youko's rival? Instead of telling you, I'll just show you what I mean."
The bat demon attacked the girl with his whirling chain sickle again, so she countered him in kind. She beat him up good, but he kept getting up from each beating.
Worried, Likka tried to save Natsuki again, throwing kunai at the charging Kuronue, but he simply batted them away with a circular whirl of his chain before moving in to attack Shinkai anew.
"You've never killed a man, have you?" asked a smug Kuronue.
The color in Likka's face drained while Natsuki herself said, "If I'm fighting demons, I'm willing to kill. Just ask your comrade, Toguro Ani. Also, I'm powerful enough to take my father's arm away."
Kuronue called her bluff. "Kill me, then. I am no man. I am a demon."
By the third time he went down, Karasu realized what Kuronue was talking about. "Can she not kill you?"
"She might in self-defense or while protecting her friend. But for the most part, she can't. Or maybe she can but she won't. Even with her ridiculous powers of deflection and acceleration, she couldn't bring herself to kill."
Karasu shook his head. "That doesn't make any sense! She blasted Toguro Ani to smithereens and almost killed me with that wrecked pillar!"
Kuronue told Karasu, "Only because you gave her enough ammunition to deflect your own bombs against you. If you pulled back your offense, she'd have less to deflect against you."
To Natsuki, Kuronue said, "I've seen the fox pull this stunt over and over again during our time as low-level demon bandits. Although there was no loyalty among thieves and in Makai, it was kill or be killed, Kurama didn't kill indiscriminately. Like you won't."
Karasu nodded. "Oh. So that's what you meant when you said Kurama is softhearted."
Knowing the limits of her strength and being aware that she pulled back her acceleration powers on his behalf, Kuronue then pierced through her barrier and solved her "Chinese finger trap" powers.
"I wasn't there when you fought your father, but if I can hazard a guess, you probably also used his own powers against him too, correct?" Kuronue asked.
Natsuki seethed. She had countered Kuronue correctly with a counterattack, but he simply shrugged off the strike to his throat and bound her up with his chains.
"If she had the stomach for it, she would've reversed the direction of my blood and made me explode or something similarly gruesome. She would've accelerated her cane so fast that it decapitated me. However, like a child, her main offense is hurling any insults back to anyone who insult her. Just like how Kurama is only cruel to the cruelest of people."
This assessment from Kuronue made Karasu think. It made him remember the time when Kurama was duped by Ura Urashima into getting sliced up by his fishing rod string that was as razor sharp as piano wire.
As long as Kurama believed he was dealing with a good person, he tended to have his guard down. So did Xinhai's daughter have her guard down too due to Kuronue being Kurama's former partner?
As cruel as the Youko was, he only ever displayed his cruelty the most against those who deserved it.
"KECHO GIRI!"
Kuronue's backhanded block swatted away Misao's flying bird kick without a second thought, much to Likka's frustration.
"I don't have time for this," said Kuronue. "I'm off to find the Youko. You two are obviously just pawns of the Reikai to buy him more time. Away with you."
Meanwhile, back at the Kyujimayama Observatory...
Daiji Matsudaira, the Oniwabanshu, and Kazuma Kuwabara had their hands full and then some with the sheer amount of shikigami and corpse puppets before them.
It was at that moment they realized why these two, one a Shin Juppon Gatana member and the other a Dai Shin Kan member, were the most dangerous soldiers of the Chojin's Army.
These were the two that the Overfiend depended on when it came to resurrecting their dead enemies from Hell and bringing them back to their physical form on Earth.
Gein was the one who made corporeal bodies for the damned souls of their enemies. It was then Houji the Necromancer who brought these ghouls back from the dead, imbuing them with negative energy straight from the Chojin himself.
With only a few exceptions, the Shin Juppon Gatana was essentially a collection of the undead. Zombies that didn't feed on flesh or brains but instead on the souls of the living, like in the case of Karasu requiring human sacrifices in the Suicide Forest to become stronger.
Kuwabara chopped up the Iwanbo puppets before him and shikigami from afar with his long-distance-cutting Jigen Tou, but he started feeling exhaustion catch up with him thanks to his earlier fight against Xinhai back at Mount Kamui.
His waning energy was nearly spent and he had yet to gather his second wind.
Regardless, without Yahiko Myojin to neutralize the flow of jaki through the Chojin's conduit, the healing factor of every shikigami and meat puppet zombie from both Gein and Houji had truly become the walking undead.
Implacable. Unfettered. Numerous.
Hannya stabbed and sliced apart another Iwanbo corpse monster with his three-pronged claws on each hand, only for the creature to reconstitute itself and attempt to eat him whole. The masked man then used kenpo to keep the zombie puppet away from him.
Hyottoko's fire breath detonated the Iwanbos who had bombs inside them, but the blazing Iwanbos merely served as suicide bombers in their own right.
The poison darts of Beshimi somewhat worked in that they did affect the nerves of the living dead, but it took time for the poison to work and aside from underhanded tactics, the midget wasn't much of a fighter himself. The darts also didn't work against Houji's shikigami.
Shikijo did his best to break the bones and/or tear the tendons and muscles of the meat puppets or raggedy ghouls with scythes nearest him, but they kept on reviving or multiplying regardless.
They were endless.
Meanwhile, Daiji himself had only been healed briefly before facing off against an ancient enemy of his in the form of Gein. Surprisingly, Gein wasn't a resurrected zombie himself but instead reincarnated as a doctor from the Japanese Army's Unit 731 (Human Experimentation) during World War II.
Matsudaira carved through this version of Gein much easier with his Kaiten Kenbu, slicing him up like a Christmas ham. However, he couldn't get far enough to lop off his limbs or decapitate him thanks to Houji the Onmyouji's protection over him.
This reincarnated version of Edward Gein might not be as acrobatic as his past self, but he was nevertheless just as fascinated with cadavers and the human body as the Gein from a hundred years ago.
The tired Reikai Senshi then got pummeled into submission by a four-armed version of the Iwanbo.
The Iwanbo 3.2.
It didn't get cloned or multiplied by Gein and Houji because they only needed one of them to defeat the tiring Spirit World Warriors in short order.
To Be Continued...
The battle reaches a fever pitch as the Shin Ju turn the tides of battle to their favor! Stay tuned!
Ciao,
Abdiel