The ferry-girl's head swam. Disheveled blue hair clung to her face, obscuring her pink eyes and confusing her vision as a hot, unseen wind tugged at it in every which way. She looked up through the fog in front of her and squinted at the blurry nothingness.
Botan floated in a dark emptiness somewhere beneath the reach of consciousness, unaware of the passage of time. She was in a strange nether zone between fantasy and reality, unwilling to move towards awakening for fear of what she might find there. Loneliness threatened to sweep her away, but she held firm, her expression unchanging, her eyes fixed upon that... person. That strange, pony-tailed girl carrying a wooden sword who suddenly appeared in her line of sight.
'Who is she, exactly? What's she doing? Have I gone insane?' Botan wondered dazedly.
The ferry-girl stared, perhaps even ogled, at the strangely foggy spectacle before her. The aforementioned girl she espied was currently stalking a diminutive, red-haired swordsman coming their way.
Botan soundly blinked as she spotted the cross-shaped scar on the swordsman's left cheek. 'What in the world...? Kenshin! What's he doing here? While we're at it, what am I doing here? Where is 'here'?'
"Hitokiri Battousai!" the girl declared, startling both the wandering swordsman and the shinigami. Kenshin stopped in mid-step and looked behind him curiously, only to be greeted by a bokuto in front of his face.
"At long last, I've found you! Your two months of bloodshed in the streets ends tonight. Prepare yourself!" the young woman declared as she went into a fighting stance.
"Oro?" Kenshin exclaimed, his eyes bugging out.
"Kenshin? Killing people? Why, he wouldn't even hurt a fly!" Botan cried out with the intention of telling the silly, stick-wielding teenager off. But it seemed that the young woman hadn't even heard the shinigami's proclamation of Kenshin's innocence. Thinking that the kendo girl might be deaf, Botan raised her voice.
"I know Kenshin! He's a good, er, ghost! Sure, he was called the Hitokiri Battousai once upon a time, but so what? He's a changed man! From what I heard from a friend of mine, he's even willing to protect demons from harm! Heck, he saved me from danger too!" Botan shouted as she eyed Kenshin, waiting for him to back her up. To her chagrin, he ignored her. 'What's with these people? Jeez!'
"Don't play innocent with me! Who else would ignore the edict and walk around with a sword?" Kaoru all but shouted as she swung her bokuto at Kenshin in full-force. The vagabond leapt away blindly, consequently crashing into a fence and collapsing in a crumpled heap.
Botan started to sweat in exasperation. 'Always playing the goof; eh, Kenshin?' The girl mirrored the angel of death's expression. "That didn't take long... Hitokiri Battousai?"
Kenshin rubbed his head in sheepishness and pain. "I'm just a rurouni, with no family or profession; a wandering swordsman. I just arrived in town. I don't know anything about bloodshed in these streets..."
The girl looked flustered and confused. "Well then, how do you explain this sword at your waist? Swordsmen aren't allowed to wear real swords!"
Botan let out a small squeal of surprise as the black-haired girl drew the vagabond's sword from its sheathe and examined it. The strange weapon's sharp edge was located at its back end... like a sickle... while the blunt part was located at the front.
'A reverse-edged sword?' Botan murmured. 'W-What's going on here?'
Youtou Shinnoken: Demon Sword
A Yuyu Hakusho/Rurouni Kenshin fic
by Chester Castañeda
Original concept by Chad Yang
Iehik and Iehog continue their reign of terror on Botan and Kenshin. Warning: Lots of flashback scenes.
Disclaimer: Yuyu Hakusho is the rightful property of Yoshihiro Togashi, Shueisha, Fuji TV and St. Pierrot. Rurouni Kenshin is the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki and Sony. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted material that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.
Chapter 11: Over the Horizon (Part 5)
Time passed and Battousai... no, Kenshin... cast himself on the unruly currents of reminiscence. That seemed natural enough. From what he gathered, this was quite a common phenomenon during this sort of situation.
There were so many events in his life that had helped mold him into the person he was today, right at that moment. The massacre of his adoptive siblings when he was just a child. His escape from death through nothing but sheer luck. The first time he picked up a sword at Seijuro Hiko's command. The first man he killed. The night he acquired the first half of the cross scar on his cheek. Tomoe. The completion of his mark of shame, etching permanently upon his face the price of love and life.
His forsaking of dealing out death as long as he was alive. Meeting Kaoru Kamiya in Tokyo, and the slow return of his humanity under her guidance and caring. Meeting Sanosuke, who was probably the truest comrade he ever had. Meeting Yahiko, which gave him the chance to raise someone the way he wished he was raised. Kyoto. Dying in Kyoto along with Shishio. Being cursed for all eternity to be the guardian of a demonic sword in order to make up for his past sins and his ultimate failure.
All throughout Kenshin's life, all he did was atone for the mistakes that he did. Even after he died, he still kept on atoning for his sins. In fact, even though his memories of his stint as a shinigami were a bit blurry, he had an inkling feeling that the reason why he was exiled in his sword was because he had made yet another blunder to atone for. Nevertheless, he would not have it any other way. Indeed, there was no life that was not full of errors. He was only human.
He lay unmoving for quite some time until he heard what seemed to be consecutive aftershocks of thunder rumbling in the distance. Upon further deliberation, he realized that these strange sounds were less like thunder, and more like the thudding hooves of a large animal, like a horse or a bull. 'Strange.'
On the opposite direction from where Fujita went, a heavyset entity approached the former rurouni. Kenshin raised his head... enough strength had returned for that... roused from his reverie. He tore his eyes away from the inane blanket of cold whiteness to look inquiringly at the approaching figure.
The creature was barely perceptible because the darkness served as its cloak of pitch-black robes. It appeared from the shadow's edge, shambling towards Kenshin at a pace akin to a fast walk. It was hunched over, making it hard to tell how large it really was, and the swordsman could see none of its features. More importantly, it was headed straight towards him.
Heedlessly, the hideous stalker pounced on Kenshin, smothering him with a merciless barrage of swipes and slashes reminiscent of the redhead's own feverish attack against Fujita awhile back.
'It's not human. It's some kind of demon! A powerful one!' Kenshin's hakama ripped as he barely dodged another one of its strikes.
Kenshin bobbed down under one of the behemoth's swipes and executed a blisteringly fast battoujutsu strike... his specialty... not holding back in the least despite his lack of energy. Unfortunately, his sword clanged on something twisted and hard, like a bundle of steel coils or chitinous armor. Fortunately, to the redhead's relief, it creaked under the Youtou Shinnoken's edge and eventually gave. The monster took a step back, paused for the briefest of moments, then resumed its tireless assault.
'At least it's reacting to my attack,' Kenshin assessed, noting balefully that his sword-ki was still at a minimum level. His strike was immediately countered by a draconic claw that came out of nowhere, catching him in the abdomen and emptying his lungs of air in a single exhale. He was sent sprawling backwards by the sheer power of the blow.
Kenshin trembled as he stayed down on the ground, his belabored breathing and heaving chest thankfully indicating that he... or rather, Yusuke... was still alive and well.
The creature, for some unfathomable reason, picked that particular moment to applaud Kenshin's efforts, its mocking, contemptuous claps echoing in the empty, frosted cliff. It then ambled towards a nearby mound of snow and picked up some sort of person-sized bundle on the ground. 'What's he got there?' Kenshin absently wondered in between ragged breaths.
A short and portly demon, resembling a mutant midget of some sort, soon came into view just as the larger, more horrifying beast cradled the bundle in its arms like a newborn infant. Thoroughly disturbed, Kenshin found the whole scene strange, sick, and wrong.
The smaller youkai grinned maliciously at Kenshin, its eyes perfectly round and seemingly drilling into the spirit guardian's mind as they glinted a malevolent light.
Comprehension dawned in Kenshin's own eyes. "Y-You!" he mouthed, his voice a mere whisper.
"Yes, me." The diminutive one's simpering, fanged smile widened. "Me and him." He turned to his hulking comrade-in-arms. "Do you still have the girl?" he asked.
Kenshin clenched his fists. 'What girl?' To his surprise, he finally heard the fearsome entity speak at last, its voice so low that its words were almost garbled beyond recognition. "She's right here."
"Excellent, Iehog. It's always good to be prepared, and nothing says 'prepared' like a hostage or two." Iehik threw his head back and began to cackle. It was a demented, chirruping laugh that went on for much longer than should have been possible without needing breath. "Finally, everything's falling into place. It's about time we took our fate into our own hands."
After catching sight of the duo's hostage and recognizing her for who she really was, Kenshin suddenly didn't feel very tired at all.
The first coherent thought to enter Botan's mind as she came to was, 'Wait, what was I doing again? Where am I? Sheesh, I'll be forgetting my head next!' The ferry-girl blinked as she tried to remember what happened to her.
While she was unconscious and dragged around like a sack of potatoes care of the brusque Iehog, her astral projection separated from her body and went straight for Keiko's ghost. How she managed to rescue Yusuke's maybe-could-be girlfriend and the rest of her misadventures in the Spirit World was a story for another time, though.
She made a clucking sound with her tongue. 'Well, so much for the rumor about the fruit of knowledge's ability to cure forgetfulness! Heck, it seems like I've become even more forgetful than before. My mind's all fuzzy.' She breathed a sigh of relief. She was perfectly glad that she didn't have to open the Pandora's box that was her past life. She rubbed her blurry eyes, focusing them on the ground where a smoldering, bright-red fireball caught her attention. 'Great! A fire! That's just what I need. It's so darn cold out here. Brrr.'
Her vision, as well as the haze in her psyche, soon cleared. 'Hey, wait a minute. That's no fireball. That's... hair!' Her heart skipped a beat at the sight. "K-Kenshin's hair! I mean, KENSHIN! What the heck are you doing down there?" she exclaimed. She soon faced the opposite direction and quirked an inquisitive eyebrow.
"Botan? Is that you?" Kenshin's wild, purple eyes widened in shock and horror. "Botan!"
But Botan wasn't paying attention to Kenshin's summons, her mind temporarily lost in its own thoughts. 'Down there? Hey, if he's down there, then what am I doing... up... here...?' Her gaze slowly drifted upward, towards the most repulsive thing she had ever seen in her entire afterlife. She shrieked.
"Er, hi!" Iehog anticlimactically warbled as he waved idly at his cargo, Botan, and ruined the horrifying effect he had going for him. Not at all heeding her captor's friendly greeting, the ferry-girl began kicking and screaming at the hideous beast, shouting, "Let go of me, you overgrown mutant, scaly, furry, yucky, THINGY! I MEAN IT!"
"Pipe down, bitch. I'll bash your head in again if you don't," Iehog suddenly raged, the air of his fearsome presence retuning as his deep, rumbling voice went an octave lower. Botan fell silent instantly; even a shinigami's fearless attitude towards death buckled under the aura of primal fear that Iehog generated. She bit her lip; it was all she could do to keep herself from screaming as feelings of terror and deja vu engulfed her. 'Wait... Deja vu?'
A muffled scream that insisted to be freed rose from Botan's covered mouth as she struggled to escape Iehog's grasp.
The ferry-girl had been following the misadventures of the still-alive Kenshin, the strange kendo girl he seemed enamored with, an old manservant that looked oddly familiar to the shinigami, and a supposed fake Battousai for what felt like days. She figured out long ago that she was viewing Kenshin's past life, but she had no idea why or how this was happening at all.
The girl Botan currently espied was reading a newspaper as a warm cup of tea simmered beside her. Without warning, the cup suddenly cracked: a recognizable sign of a bad omen.
Kaoru. Yes, Kaoru Kamiya was the girl's name, Botan wordlessly confirmed to herself; though for some strange reason, an unexpected vision of unbearably cute, shape-shifting raccoons filled her overactive imagination. How peculiar.
'Who is this girl anyway? Was she one of the countless lost souls I've ferried across the Sanzu no Kawa while working as a novice ferry-girl a century ago? Hmmm. No, that can't be right. I was still recovering in the Elysian Fields during that time, and I'd only really started my duties some fifty, at most sixty, years ago, so I couldn't have met her before then! Still...'
Botan derailed her mental tirade as Kaoru looked down at the broken cup in noticeable concern. "Uh-oh. The cup just cracked by itself," the raven-haired girl affirmed the obvious while the blue-haired girl could only raise a blasé eyebrow at her ancient counterpart's... unnerving nonchalance.
"Miss Kaoru," Kihei suddenly beckoned, startling both the visible Kaoru and the invisible Botan into jumping in flabbergasted unison.
Just as Botan fruitlessly swung her wooden oar at Kihei's head in reflexive fury, the paddle passing through the old man as if it weren't there at all, Kaoru stuttered, "Y-You startled me, Kihei!" her mouth agape as her trembling left hand went over her palpitating chest. "What is it? What do you want?"
Kihei chortled softly as he held up a piece of paper in front of the kendo master. "Actually, it's about the sale of the dojo." Upon closer inspection, Botan observed that the paper was actually a deed of sale.
Kaoru exhaled laboriously; she'd already had this conversation with Kihei before. Patiently, she clarified, "Kihei, I've said before that I don't intend to sell the dojo..."
"Actually, the papers are already being settled," Kihei cut Kaoru off brusquely as his artificially congenial and self-satisfied smirk nearly split his face in half.
The intense look in Kihei's eyes startled Kaoru, and she found herself taken aback by her manservant's unexpected forwardness and gumption. A look of uncertainty and betrayal slowly marred on her lovely features as she quietly queried, "Kihei?"
"I just need your seal," Kihei insisted as he continued waving the deed in front of Kaoru's face. As if on cue, the large, beefy 'Battousai' swordsman from before, as well as a group of other random thugs and fighters, appeared outside the door behind him. "And then the property will be ours!"
"You traitorous old FART! You sold her out!" Botan growled angrily at the arrogant old-timer as she forgot herself, her albino-pink eyes flaring in seething rage. "After everything she's done for you? Dammit, you're no better than that big-headed Iehik snake...!"
The shinigami stopped herself cold, feeling as if she were on the verge of an epiphany of sorts. But she had no time to think; things were happening way too fast for her to fully comprehend the reality behind the dire turn of events.
"You...!" Kaoru shouted as she got up from her seating position, immediately recognizing the humongous leader of the sword-wielding gang of swarthy ruffians.
All eyes turned to see the humongous figure that had emerged from the doorway. He was a huge man; six-seven in height and at least two hundred pounds of muscle. He sported massive, tree-trunk arms and legs, as well as a curtain-like beard of sorts that made him look as ugly and fearsome as sin itself. He wasn't wearing any armor, but his muscular build was so intimidating that it looked like it could shatter a sword's edge on it like glass. On his shoulder lay an assassin's sword-cane blade twice as thick and long as normal.
"Oh, my pardons! I haven't introduced this fine young gentleman yet. He is the head of the Kiheikan, Hiruma Gohei; my younger brother," Kihei stated with a hint of pride in his voice.
Kaoru turned and snatched up the wooden sword from the rack behind them while Botan mused about the irony of not being able to put two and two together earlier on in regards to Kihei and the Kiheikan. Hindsight would do that to anyone, of course.
"Oh please. Let's be civilized about this," Iehik rationalized affably to the now-armed Kaoru. "I really don't like this kind of thing. I'd rather do it legally, but you were close to discovering my brother's true identity. Playing the good-tempered old man to gain the trust of a woman living alone all went according to plan, but even though you turned out to be a good-natured sap, you were still stubborn about kenjutsu."
"Kihei," Kaoru whispered, which prompted Botan to give the distressed girl a weird look.
"So then I used my brother to stir up some trouble and dishonor the name of the school. The fame of Hitokiri Battousai was just what we needed. Although the presence, or even existence, of the legendary manslayer was unbelievable, stories of his incomparable strength have been told for years. Thanks to him, we have the events of the past two months. According to my calculations, the government policies of 'culture and enlightenment' and 'westernization' should have boosted the land value by five or six times. A kendo dojo is simply a waste of space."
"Kihei..." Kaoru reiterated, which compelled Botan to scream, "Oh, for the love of...! JUST WHAP THE OLD GUY WITH YOUR BOKUTO AND BE DONE WITH IT, OKAY?"
An extensive, palpable silence hung across the dojo as Gohei lumbered over Kaoru's direction until he was standing no more than three feet away from her. "My brother says your motto is 'the sword that protects life'." He looked down at the smaller girl with enough contempt shining in his two eyes for any ten men. "Interesting. But here, the only one who needs protection is yourself."
Botan shuddered for a moment, a sudden memory of the monstrous Iehog's vacant and predatory eyes bubbling to the surface of her mind. This man was like that, only perhaps worse. For a mere human, there wasn't the faintest hint of compassion in his eyes. All they held was hunger and rage. Still, regardless of the imminent danger, the emboldened Kaoru remained where she was, her bokuto ready and waiting to strike.
"If you won't come to me, I'll go to you," Gohei avowed as he drew his own blade out.
Kaoru lunged forward, but Gohei blocked her strike with his bare hand. Leering at his hapless adversary, the large man bellowed, "Just as I thought! A woman who believes this nonsense can't possibly fight." He pushed Kaoru and the wooden sword away, took hold of his own steel sword, and sliced downward.
Botan distraughtly attempted to impede Gohei and Kihei's invasive rampage, but she knew deep down that her actions were all for nothing. This vision before her was but a mere memory, a shade of the past that was presently replaying itself inside her mind, and trying to interfere with its proceedings was as pointless as attempting to change the result of a videotaped event by the force of one's own will.
Kaoru instinctively blocked the strike with her bokuto, which was sliced in half. Gohei then picked her up by the front of her shirt, snarling, "My goal is VIOLENCE! My essence is KILLING! That's what kenjutsu is all about!"
Like a sniveling rat, Kihei breathlessly took hold of Kaoru's thumb, nicked it with a small knife, and pressed it to the deed. "That's it. The land is ours. The Kamiya Kasshin School is no more!"
"Iehog. Release her." The unsaid threat behind the swordsman's voice was readily obvious, a hint of golden fire slipping into his indigo eyes after he saw the monster's aura of terror render the ferry-girl completely paralyzed; or so he assumed, anyway. The person he had a psychic bond with was Yusuke, not Botan, after all.
"Long time, no see, Mister Guardian of the Demon Sword," Iehog remarked mockingly as he lifted the trembling Botan up on his bulging shoulders. "Don't you think so, big brother?"
"Indeed, it's been a while, Himura Kenshin. Or should I say 'Himura Battousai?'" Iehik asked as he cackled gleefully. "The time has come, Iehog! The time has finally come! He shall now get his comeuppance!"
"Yeah, and he'll get what's coming to him too!" Iehog proudly flexed both his scaly, reptilian arm and his furrier left arm. "Hot damn, big brother! Just look at me now. I'm a STUD! That scrawny little runt doesn't stand a chance!"
"Now, now, Iehog; we've already underestimated Battousai once before, and we can easily see that, at this point, he's still very much capable of handling Genbu-sama at the very least. Don't take him too lightly, brother," Iehik lightly admonished his titanic sibling.
Kenshin gingerly got up to his feet, his eyebrows furrowed in slight consternation. "You only witnessed a fraction of my power when I first fought against you two. Don't get any funny ideas."
Iehik choked back another peal of trite, hackneyed, and megalomaniacal laughter. "Ah, but of course. You have no idea just how intertwined our fates truly are. Well, I really can't blame you; after being stuck in a cave for several decades, even the sharp mind of a forever-earthbound ghost such as yourself can start to play tricks on him."
"My memory is just fine, thank you. What I don't understand is why you two have such a vendetta against me," Kenshin surmised as he kept his eyes trained on Botan's lithe, shivering form while Iehog kept her captive in a fireman's carry of sorts. "More to the point, I'm not exactly sure what it is you intend to do with me in the first place. At first, you came into the Sealing Cave to merely steal the Demon Sword and increase your power, but now you're attempting some sort of pithy, cockamamie scheme to... what? Kill me?"
"Kill you? Please," Iehik snorted as he waved off Kenshin's assessment with a chubby, clawed paw. The wizened demon's jaundiced eyes afterwards lit up in comprehension and understanding. "Oh. I see. You haven't the slightest idea what you really are, have you? You also don't know why you've been awakened now of all times, do you?"
The portly demon mockingly wiped off a crocodile tear beneath his left eye. "You don't know who you really are, save for some vague memories from your past life; oh, you poor thing! I bet you don't even know why the Demon Sword had been put to 'sleep' in the Sealing Cave in the first place!"
For the first time in a long time... even when disregarding the fact that he had technically been slumbering in a cave for the past few decades or so... Kenshin had no ready answer, query, or pontification to the allegations hurled at him. He was at a loss for words, more so than when Genbu ridiculed him for being a mere ghost stuck in figurative limbo, because he knew deep down inside that Iehik was telling the truth.
Kenshin Himura was a man lost in time. To him, days had no meaning. He would have wasted away if not for the fact that he was already dead yet 'living' inside some sort of magical artifact, pursued by man and demon alike. Nevertheless, in partial disbelief of the supposed truth, the swordsman challenged Iehik's contention by demanding, "How can you two D-Level youkai possibly know who or what I am? Why should I trust you?"
"I admit, we mere C-Level demons have been leading a largely nomadic existence throughout all our lives, straying to and fro from Makai to Ningenkai in pointless abandon," Iehik snorted derisively as he made his feelings known about Kenshin's purported use of 'D-Level' as a 'racial' slur of sorts. "Still, one way or another, we somehow kept getting sucked into this Youtou Shinnoken business over and over again, whether we wanted to or not. Hell, if I didn't know any better, I'd say all this hullabaloo about that damned cursed weapon had something to do with... our fates, or even our destinies, almost."
Iehik's eyes waned into thin slits of cunning, intelligence, and out-of-place wistfulness as he resumed his lengthy, raspy diatribe, not caring in the least that he was giving his injured quarry ample time to recuperate while he rambled on and on; his soliloquy was something that he felt he had to get out of his chest, as though by talking about it, he'd somehow make sense of everything in his life.
"It became our passion, Iehog and I, to find more and more about the Legendary yet Infamous 'Demon Sword'; to the point where we actually became experts on the subject. For example, did you know that once upon a time, your sword actually had a nobler purpose than to simply increase the power of any demon who gets a hold of it? It was supposed to be a 'zanpakuto', a demon-cutting sword reserved for the very best of the Spirit World's Shinigami and Bouetai; that was, until it fell into the wrong hands and earned an entirely different reputation altogether. And thus the Demon Sword, from merely being a sword that slew demons, took on a whole different purpose and became a sword used by demons! Oh, if you only knew about the countless, senseless massacres committed through that sword of yours!"
Kenshin was definitely taken aback by that; he always had a slight suspicion that the reason behind his sword's sealing was far less righteous than Koenma would purport. Though the details surrounding the events after his death were a bit blurry, he was fairly sure that the Spirit World Prince had no intention of creating an artifact using his swordsman's soul for the sole purpose of mindless violence.
Iehik grinned a fanged, sinister smile. "Judging from your worried expression, I gather that you now understand the gravity of your dire situation. The Demon Sword is a corruptible loose canon of a Reikai Artifact; even more so than the Legendary Orb of Baast, the Mirror of Forlorn Hope, or the Shadow Sword of Demonic Transformation. That ruthless side of yourself, the notorious Battousai, was the very thing that made the sword grow to be so unpredictable; he and his murderous nature is the reason why the sword was sealed in a cave for Chojin-sama-knows-how-long."
Iehik started to walk in a manner eerily similar to how Koenma walked during the trial for Kenshin's soul. "Can you still keep up, son? Iehog and I, by now, have become renowned experts on all things regarding the Demon Sword; which was why Chojin-sama specifically hired us to find and retrieve it. We were supposed to steal the sword and do with it as we pleased. I admit, the promise of increased power backed by the Overfiend's unlimited resources was sorely tempting. Still, though that plan didn't exactly 'pan out', we still managed to stay in the big picture somehow."
Iehik gestured his chubby little hands in wide arcs to help demonstrate his point. "Do you get it now, spirit? We're merely completing our current mission for the Chojin... and our own life's mission as well... by getting a hold of that damned sword of yours, by hook or by crook. We don't need to kill you; all we really need to do is damn your pathetic soul by corrupting your sword in every way possible. That is our sole purpose in life, our ultimate DESTINY!"
Iehog frowned at Iehik apprehensively upon deciphering his older brother's rants and raves. "WHAT? That's IT? That's our sole purpose in life? To corrupt some wimpy-looking samurai to hell? That... that SUCKS, big brother!"
"Now, now, little brother: there are worse fates than this. Ours is but a lonely one shaped by revenge and unrequited anger, is all," Iehik articulated, nodding sagely to himself as he waved a clawed finger at his frustrated sibling. "Oh, by the way, Battousai-sama, we just saw your policeman friend arrive a short while ago. Seeing your current state right now, I'd say it's safe to assume that you two have already met."
The demon sniggered heartily. "You've now been severely weakened by fairly powerful beings, and your half-demon 'host' seems to have run out of power to keep your corporeal form intact. All these little things will make our job so much easier, and our revenge so much sweeter."
"Revenge? For what? For escaping your grasp and keeping the Demon Sword away from your grubby little demon hands? Then it's Yusuke-dono whom you should take revenge on, not me," Kenshin reasoned, thoroughly confused by the shorter demon's constant edification and desultory dialogue.
"Well, you're wrong about that," Iehik smirked as he shook his head and sniffed arrogantly at the redheaded ghost, his tone like that of a man speaking to a child who had totally missed the point. "You really don't understand a thing, Himura Kenshin. Aren't you wondering why I'm so familiar with you now of all times, while during the time we met at the Sealing Cave, I acted as if I didn't even know you at all? It's fate! I remember you now! You are my closure, my loose end, my final frontier! Ah, but you still don't understand, do you? Very well. It doesn't matter whether you know the truth or not. What's important is that we finish our mission, and fulfill our destiny. IEHOG!"
"YES, BIG BROTHER!" Iehog, under normal circumstances, was already quite the terrifyingly hideous creature from the get go. Today, he had somehow managed to surpass even that. While he wasn't as Brobdingnagian as an mountain-like, super-sized Genbu, the transformed Iehog was nonetheless intimidating in his own right... perhaps even more so.
With an inarticulate roar, Iehog threw Botan towards Kenshin and opened his humongous maw, unleashing a steady stream of black jaki fire unto his prey. The swordsman was blasted clear off of his feet just as he desperately caught and shielded the ferry-girl from the destructive wave of negative energy.
'A-An energy blast...?' Kenshin dazedly pondered before he fell on the ground in a muddy heap, shivering at the sheer intensity of the ebony miasma that burned through his ethereal skin. Botan tumbled just a few feet away from the simmering guardian spirit.
Despite her understandable fears and reservations for Kenshin's safety, Botan's eyes sparkled in animated comprehension once she started putting two and two together in regards to Iehog's newfound powers. "KENSHIN! That was the Mei-Kou-Shou-Kai-Ha! That was Byakko's attack, remember?" she eagerly called out to the prone swordsman.
"Wha... HEY! Shut up, you BITCH! You're ruining all our plans!" Iehik sputtered, surprised that the shinigami was able to figure things out so quickly. He desperately tried to grab hold of the impertinent wench, doing all that he could to silence her, but seeing that he was at least a foot shorter than the ferry-girl, his awkward attempts at maintaining the status quo were all for naught.
"I remember now! Before these creeps knocked me out cold, they were scoping out the carcasses of Seiryu and Byakko. That coward Iehog is simply borrowing those two dead Shisejyu's abilities while passing them off as his own! HEY! You did NOT just TOUCH my BUTT, you PERVERT! BAD TOUCH! BAD TOUCH! SUFFER AND DIE, YOU DARN, LECHEROUS MONKEY!" Botan seethed before she started repeatedly whacking the troll-like Iehik with the business end of her boat paddle in righteous indignation.
"Mei-Kou-Shou-Kai-Ha, hmmm? I see." Kenshin nodded to himself in mute understanding. This time, he knew what to do. His only hope now, he reckoned, was to go on the offensive and build up the pressure. He roared a battle cry, his kenki independently flaring anew despite Yusuke's lack of energy, and pressed his attack as Iehog worked his way towards him again.
Without wasting his breath to broadcast the name of his technique, Kenshin immediately launched into the Sou Ryu Sen, purposely pounding his foe twice with the concussive battoujutsu strikes. He fought on the inside, pressuring Iehog with closed-quarter combat and not letting him move in a comfortable enough distance to launch the Mei-Kou-Shou-Kai-Ha. The behemoth staggered and howled amidst the assault, giving ground under the might of the swordsman's superior skills.
The ruthless brute lashed out defensively, cutting a deep gash in Kenshin's right arm at mid-strike. He followed it up with a backhanded blow that caught the swordsman on the head, breaking the rhythm of his attack and sending him staggering backwards. Kenshin tried to counter with a quick Ryu Kan Sen, but was met with another jarring blow on the chest. He flew backwards like a rag doll, slamming into a tree and shattering the wood with the force of his impact.
That was exactly what happened, except for the whole 'flung like a rag doll whilst shattering wood' part: Kenshin had already faded like the ghost that he was by the time the abomination started the rest of his counterstrike. Taking advantage of Iehog's momentary confusion, Kenshin crouched low and dove into the youkai's abdomen, cutting precise spots on its exposed underbelly with surgical precision.
Iehog shook his mane and roared a throaty bellow that caused even more dirt to shake loose and tumble onto the former vagabond. His previously unseeing eyes afterwards blinked back into painful self-awareness
Iehog knelt in the crater made by the impact of the explosive rupture of his blood vessels, his body crumpled, his stolen arms outstretched. For a seemingly never-ending moment, he was frozen in a world of unbelievable shock and agony.
"YES! You did it, Kenshin! You beat Iehog!" Botan applauded the former manslayer after dispatching the shorter Iehik with a quick swing of her wooden oar. "BANZAI! We make such a great team, you and I. Say, weren't you and the Demon Sword supposed to be a Reikai Artifact used by us shinigami? Well, I'm a shinigami too, so maybe I can fool around with your sword sometime! Uh, wait, that didn't come out quite right..."
Kenshin smiled, turned, and opened his mouth to say something in response to Botan's good cheer when the air was split by a blood-curdling shriek. It was a primal scream; a cry of pure torment that seemed to carry on for perpetuity before it was suddenly cut short.
"You've meddled in our affairs for the last time, shinigami," Iehik gravely informed the shell-shocked Botan as he used his psychic powers to simulate some sort of Kanashibari mind-breaking technique upon her person. "It's about time you made yourself useful and served your true purpose for being here; as bait."
Botan's ki turned black. The air grew cold around her as her body frantically tried to fill the void in her soul with warmth from her surroundings. There were some voids that couldn't be filled, however; some problems that kept returning after they were solved; second chances to make a bad decision.
"BOTAN!"
Just then, amidst a proverbial, dramatic hymn that couldn't possibly be heard by anyone present, a trembling thug appeared in the Kamiya dojo's doorway; not exactly the person Botan was looking for. 'DAMMIT!' she cursed.
"Huh? Nishiwaki? What're you doing here?" the slightly vexed Gohei demanded, caught completely unaware by his subordinate's unexpected visit. "Did something happen in Kiheikan? Hey, what's wrong with you? Speak up, man!"
"...Strong! S-So strong...!" Nishiwaki mumbled before he shuddered and collapsed like a shanty's flimsy roof, revealing the red-haired, cross-scarred vagabond from behind him.
"It's the rurouni!" Kaoru and Botan both gasped in relieved chorus, as though the weight of the world was suddenly lifted from their shoulders.
Kenshin turned towards the girls and scratched the back of his head shamefacedly. "I'm sorry I'm late. I heard the whole story from him."
"You again," Gohei spat as he callously tossed Kaoru aside and leveled his sword at the diminutive wanderer. "Seeing as how wimpy-looking you are, you're probably with the girl on this 'sword that protects life' thing."
"No," Kenshin declared austerely. "A sword is a weapon. Kenjutsu is the art of killing. Whatever pretty words you use to speak of it, this is its true nature. What Kaoru-dono says are the words of one who has never dirtied her hands; an idealistic joke."
"You..." Kaoru started, bristling with halfhearted displeasure as Botan attempted to calm her down in trademark Kenshin fashion... right down to the reassuring hand gestures... even though it was all probably in vain anyway. The ferry-girl would go crazy if didn't at least pretend that the people around her could see her.
"But I like Kaoru-dono's idealism better than kenjutsu's true nature. If it's not too much to ask, I would want the world to accept this joke as its true nature," Kenshin justified further, allaying Kaoru's hot temper and making the harried Botan wistfully smile.
"Urk. How lame. You guys make me sick." Gohei rolled his eyes, turned, then asked his older sibling for advice. "Brother, you don't care if I kill him, do you?"
Kihei harrumphed. "No. He's in our way. Have your men turn him into mulch."
"Well, you heard the man! Go on, get him!" Gohei more cooed than howled; subsequently, his collection of thugs and gangsters did just that, moving en masse towards Kenshin with conceited insouciance, feeling completely secure in their superior numbers and perceived sword skills.
"Run for it! You have no chance against them all!" Kaoru worriedly called out to Kenshin while Botan did the exact opposite and screeched, "KICK THEIR BUTTS, Kenshin! Make 'em run back to their mommas!"
"I don't want to cause a lot of unnecessary injuries. All those who don't like visiting the doctor should retreat now," Kenshin warned, though it was completely understandable why the hooligans in front of him didn't back down a single inch. A short, girlish-looking man with an effeminate voice and disarmingly genial demeanor was currently claiming that he could take them all down with his blunted little sword; a yapping Chihuahua would probably look more dangerous than him.
"There aren't going to be any injuries! Just one death!" one of the men retorted, thus setting up another cosmic instance of irony.
Kenshin blurred and moved like a whirlwind through the group, taking down everyone in his way. Like the steady flow of a river against rocks that found themselves stranded in the middle of its torrential current, the number of blows added up and wore the men down. Large purple bruises formed on the part of their chests that were bared. Welts then appeared on their arms from the number of times Kenshin had sneaked a blow in when they tried to hit him with one of their own. Even their legs were starting to go limp from the number of times Kenshin struck them.
What was even more amazing was that everything happened in the span of a few seconds. "H-He's taking out four or five with each strike! Is... is it sorcery?" Kihei hissed, acting as if he were experiencing a live birth in reverse.
'No, it's not sorcery. It's speed!' Kaoru and Botan simultaneously appraised, the latter more certain of Kenshin's mind-boggling abilities than the former.
'The speed of the sword, the speed of his body, the speed of reading his opponent's moves... he's using them to bring down as many as he can with the least possible movements! Who is this guy?' Gohei reflected ex post facto; an eye blink later, and every last one of the Kiheikan's elite fighters had been laid out on the floor.
"I forgot to say one thing," Kenshin remarked as he quietly replaced his sword into its scabbard. "Hitokiri Battousai's style of fighting is not that of the Kamiya Kasshin School. It's an old style of kenjutsu that arose in the Sengoku era, designed to face many opponents at once. The name is Hiten Mitsurugi. And without the reverse blade, it is slaughter with deadly swiftness."
Kaoru's knees buckled underneath her as she whispered, "No. So you're the Hitokiri Battousai. Wait, so I was right from the very start? Huh."
"Fascinating! You were hiding your strength the other night!" Gohei salivated like a rabid dog, feeling strangely exhilarated by Kenshin's revelation.
Kenshin flinched at Gohei's sordid display of enthusiasm, closed his eyes, then shook his head sadly. "I'm not like you. I don't like violence. But now I regret that I did not destroy you that night."
"You've got guts, but that's just plain arrogant." Gohei raised his sword high. "The world doesn't need two Battousais! The name should belong to ME!"
Just as Gohei was about to strike, his target seemed to disappear into thin air. From on top of him, the younger Hiruma heard a voice say, "Up here." The gigantic swordsman froze in terror... and then the world went spinning as a heavy weight crashed into his back and onto the floor. Before he could even exhale, much less scream, and in a lesser extent look up, Battousai dealt him a powerful blow from above, smashing him through the dojo's wooden boards in dramatic fashion.
"I have no fondness for the name of Battousai, but I will not pass it on to a man like you." Kenshin turned his attentions towards Kihei. "You're the only one left. As the mastermind of this plot, your punishment should be more severe. The edge of the reverse blade..." He flipped the sakabatou around. "Shall we try it?"
Kihei fainted; Kenshin then took the deed from the old man's grubby, wrinkled hands and tore it up. "Like all tricksters, he seems to have a coward's nature." The vagabond afterwards gulped, steeled himself, and faced the bewildered Kaoru Kamiya.
"BOTAN!" Kenshin screamed, his eyes turning amber as he withdrew his Youtou Shinnoken from its enchanted sheath and jumped straight for Iehik; in his mind's eye, a brief flashback of Jine Udou freezing Kaoru Kamiya's lungs and making her slowly suffocate played itself over and over again inside his psyche.
Even though he wasn't able to utilize the full power of the Battousai for the sake of a duel with Goro Fujita, he'd damn well do so in order to protect his loved ones. 'I will not fail. Just like in the past, I'd die first before I let anyone hurt the ones I care about!'
Time seemed to slow to a halt for the swordsman as he lithely somersaulted behind Iehik, catching the witless youkai completely off-guard. The wizened old monster didn't even get a chance to look behind him, much less flinch in terror, as the mighty Demon Sword descended upon his exposed cranium, its blade custom-tailored to slice through all sorts of demons with speedy precision that defied both logic and reason.
"BIG BROTHER!" the paralyzed Iehog cried out in anguish a moment later, not quite sure what exactly happened to his precious older sibling, but panicking all the same once he noticed that something was wrong.
However, in the corner of Kenshin's eye, just as the kaleidoscope flash of afterimages so typical of the guardian's speediest attacks started to form, a cloaked figure covered in shadow suddenly appeared and stole the sword-strike's thunder with a surge of black malevolence.
'Who is that?' Kenshin asked himself in alarm.
"I'm sorry, Kaoru-dono," Kenshin said softly in the hopes that it would settle Kaoru down, his tone full of sincere regret and guilt. "I didn't want to deceive or hide from you. My true identity was just something I didn't want to talk about if I could." Hearing her lack of a response, he turned and slid the door leading outside open. "Excuse me."
Kaoru waited for all of five seconds before she stammered, "Wait... w-wait... WAIT ONE MINUTE!"
Kenshin did a hesitant double-take. "Oro?"
Strangely enough, Kaoru's attention wasn't directed on Kenshin at all. It was currently aimed at absolute nothingness, on something that wasn't supposed to exist in that plain of reality in the first place; i.e., the self-proclaimed "Loveliest Death Angel of All the Spirit World", Botan. "Hey! Blue-haired girl... Yeah, I'm talking to you, Pink Eyes!"
'Pink Eyes' blinked soundly, then sweatdropped. Trite and hackneyed as these actions were, blinking and dropping sweat were exactly what Botan did at the time. "Whaa?" she mouthed before she let out a panicked squeal as Kaoru took hold of her wooden oar and pointed it at her neck. "Huh? HUH? Y-You can SEE me, K-K-Kaoru... san?!"
"Oh-ho! So you thought you can hide from me, eh? Little Miss Pink and Blue..." Kaoru accused as she slithered her way into Botan's personal space with a disturbing cackle, wielding the awkward-looking boat paddle like a long, wooden version of a naginata. "But you CAN'T! No, no, no, no... No. Don't speak, listen," the relatively younger girl shushed after spotting a flicker of resistance in the aged shinigami's eyes. "I've been watching you, and I've seen some fairly disturbing stuff from you and your 'exchanges' with the vagabond, you li'l harlot!"
"...Stuff? 'Exchanges'? H-Harlot?" Botan squeaked incredulously just as Kenshin slid the dojo door shut and apprehensively made his way towards the mentally 'unhinged' Kaoru. Of course, it was only natural that it was now his turn to sweatdrop; it just wouldn't be proper otherwise. "Er, Kaoru-dono. Who are you talking to? And, um, maybe you should get some rest. It's been a long day."
Kaoru took one look at Botan, then at Kenshin, then at Botan again, then put a dainty hand over her mouth to hide her laugh. In a singsong voice, she related, "I knew what you did during the time Kenshin first got to see Modern-Day Tokyo; it was real cute, the whole 'Welcome back home, Kenshin!' thing... but that shtick should have been mine, and you totally ripped it off, you flirtatious TROLLOP!" She moved in closer, which prompted Botan to move back a couple of more inches. "I've had this funny feeling about you two from the get go, and let me just say this outright; FORGET IT! Hands off my KENSHIN!"
"Um, when did you find out about my name? I haven't given it to you yet," Kenshin ventured curiously, going into full 'peacemaker' mode as Kaoru continued to close in on the empty space in front of her; the empty, embarrassed, and furiously blushing space, to be exact.
"Eh?" Botan reacted most interestingly to Kaoru's words, her pale face shifting to variegating shades of red; from embarrassed pink, to fuming scarlet, to indignant burgundy. "I-It's not like that at all! I mean, Himura-san's a nice guy and stuff, b-but... I don't think of him that way! NO! Nuh-uh. An affair between a ferry-girl and an earthbound spirit simply won't cut it in Reikai!"
Kaoru stared at Botan with half-lidded eyes. "So he's 'Himura-san' now, isn't he? Well, Kenshin already has enough ex-girlfriend issues as is, and I for one have no intention of becoming his Yukishiro Tomoe number two!" she imparted as she tossed her pony-tailed hair to the side and thrust her finger in front of the ferry-girl's nose.
"..." Kenshin elucidated, floored and nonplussed by the non-sequitur mention of his former fiancée.
"I don't even know what you're talking about!" Botan protested as she did her best to keep her distance from the sword-... well, paddle-... wielding madwoman. 'This isn't happening! I must be going crazy! Just who is this girl anyway? What does she have to do with my life? Why am I remembering her memories, and dreaming her dreams? She couldn't possibly be part of my repressed past; she just couldn't!'
Kaoru flicked the tip of Botan's nose with the finger she used to silence her. "Pay attention, sister. Listen and listen well: The only way I can possibly forgive you for your trespasses and out-and-out flirting with my Kenshin is for you to..." And so Kaoru Kamiya dispatched her final ultimatum on the cowed shinigami.
Botan couldn't believe her ears. "Huh? Come again? I didn't catch that last part... Oh, and the first part too." And so Kaoru Kamiya leisurely repeated what she just said syllable-per-syllable, leaving no room for doubt and confusion on Botan's part.
The ferry-girl tilted her head to the side as she clumsily shifted on her sandaled feet. "Oh, is that all? I'd ask why, but... Eh. Whatever." The death goddess shrugged, coughed primly, inhaled, then incessantly chanted, "Iehik!" over and over again.
"Now say the name of that other guy; the big, bulky demon that can merge with other monsters." Not bothering to ask Kaoru how she knew of Iehog, Botan merely complied to the girl's wishes, renewing her mantra with a fresh peal of "Iehog!"
"LOUDER! I can't hear you!" Kaoru commanded, her arms crossed in defiant audaciousness.
"IEHIKIHEI!" Botan squeezed her eyes shut, screeched her throat ragged, hacked like a cat, doubled back, and resumed, "IEHOGOHEI... Goheiehog. G-Gohei... Iehog. Kihei... Iehik. Gohei. Kihei. Iehog. Iehik. GOHEI. KIHEI. Oh my...!"
Botan's pinkish eyes widened in sublime, uplifting comprehension as her long-awaited epiphany finally happened. "Those bumbling demons that Kenshin fought are Hiruma Gohei and Hiruma Kihei! GOHEI AND KIHEI ARE IEHOG AND IEHIK!"
To be Continued...
Next: Iehog and Iehik.
First off, the thing Iehik was blabbering about in regards to the Demon Sword being an instrument of destruction is purposely vague. Was he citing a rumor about the sword? Did what he said happen after Kenshin was first sealed by Koenma? You'll have to read on to find out. Secondly, the flashback parts are obviously taken wholesale from Maigo-chan's translation of the Ruroken manga, so much props to her as well as to Watsuki-sensei.
Paalam!
Abdiel