Botan was asleep once more. She'd been doing that a lot lately. 'It's like I'm stuck in the Elysian Fields again... but I digress. Where am I?'
She dared to crack an inquisitive eye open, but everything before her became more obscure than clear, as though she had never opened her eye in the first place. There was no clarity, no scene, and no gravity around her. A sense of floating outside herself pervaded.
The only sound that reached her ears was a rapid heartbeat; whether it was from her own or another's, she was not quite sure. The pulsing tone echoed like a soothing earthquake or a quiet riot: calming but demanding of attention.
Why was it that she'd been experiencing these bizarre situations more and more often as of late? It was as if the gods themselves were making her into their own personal chew toy of sorts. It was getting a bit too frustrating for her to bear, to say the least. Hmmm. Perhaps it was Kenshin Himura's fault that she'd come to this point.
Yes, of course; things like this didn't happen to her on a regular basis until that half-wimp, half-badass swordsman spirit came into her life and turned it upside-down. Without him, she wouldn't have to deal with the ex-rurouni's emotional baggage, their long-dead enemies coming back to life, and reincarnated demonic brothers who were foolish enough to adopt their human names as their demon names by simply reversing the way they were pronounced.
Wait a minute.
Thanks to her embittered train of thought, Botan finally remembered that she had been swallowed by the amalgamated beast known as Hiruma and, thusly, was now part of the wily chimera the same way that Iehog, Iehik, and two Shisejyu were. Those fused sons of bitches were indeed a savvy lot; because currently, Kenshin couldn't help but transform into his scarier... but admittedly sexier... Battousai self now that he was about to be forced to take the life of an innocent in order to win this fight: Botan's life, in particular. The ferry-girl groaned at the very idea.
She afterwards recalled how... just after being absorbed into Hiruma's system... completely lost she'd become; how utterly, undeniably lost. She had existed somewhere in the consciousness of the thing she had become, howling and thrashing in an endless emptiness, unheeded and insignificant.
But then, like the onset of warm daylight amidst an endless tundra, Botan somehow espied Kenshin's visage and figure through an enraged Hiruma's vision, and what small part of her that was still awake focused on him, her spark of awareness growing ever-so-steady as her assortment of complicated emotions for the swordsman resurfaced upon the turgid waters of her bleary mind.
She could feel herself being swept along towards consciousness, as if she were caught in a strong current. She could sense that she was rising up from the blackness around her, towards the light and the promise of freedom or damnation that awaited her outside of this reverie.
Half-conscious, Botan blearily watched as a hazy image of Kenshin... the Battousai... she wasn't so sure anymore... as seen through the perspective of the being known as Hiruma slowly stepped onto the fray, the drawn katana in his hand gleaming in the dim light of the approaching morn. Also, she could literally feel Hiruma grind his pointed teeth in fury for some unfathomable reason. Was he angry at Kenshin? Why should he be? She'd thought that he was actually winning against the swordsman, especially after he'd managed to get her to merge with him. Why was he feeling so outraged and infuriated at someone he was sure to win against, no matter what he did?
Coincidentally, Kenshin raised that very same question. "Didn't you just say that whether you win or lose, you'll still win? So why are you trying so hard to beat me right now?" he demanded, his words tinny and metallic from Botan's present vantage point. The ferry-girl narrowed her eyes; yes, she definitely recalled Hiruma boasting about such a thing. She thought it was a strange thing to boast about, but didn't give the statement much thought until now.
"B-B-Because!" Hiruma's voice wavered uncertainly. "You don't need to know! I-I mean, I can beat you at any time at all, b-but even if you do manage to kill me, you still lose! That only means that... that... you're fighting a losing battle! B-But, if I were able to beat you, then I would win... some more! Yeah, a-and I'd rather I beat you and get the sword for myself than merely dying to... to... turn you into the Battousai." Soon, even the merged demon himself realized the contradictions behind his reasoning.
Why would the demon Hiruma... nee Iehik and Iehog, nee Kihei and Gohei... a demon hell-bent on taking revenge upon Kenshin, sacrifice his life just to make him into the infinitely more powerful Battousai? The Hiruma brothers were not psychotic like Toguro Ani, and they most certainly could care less whether or not Kenshin degenerates into his fearsome alter ego. If anything, it would make more sense for them to harness the powers of the Demon Sword for themselves instead of making Kenshin angrier and more powerful. What was going on?
"Are you even aware of your actions, demon?" Kenshin resumed his obstinate advance. "You imbecile. You don't have any idea of what you're doing."
"How dare you!" Hiruma hated the way Kenshin made him sputter, despite the fact that he had this fight nearly won.
"You have no idea of what you're doing because someone else is making you do the things you do, you stupid puppet."
"Bullshit! I know exactly what I'm doing! I'm making you suffer in every way possible! What the hell are you talking about?" Hiruma demanded.
"Can you explain what you want to do with me? Or why your memories are so fractured?"
"Shut up! I'm not a puppet! You're lying!" Hiruma shook his head in frantic denial.
"Then prove otherwise," came Kenshin's sharp retort. "What do you want to do? Kill me and get the Demon Sword? Make me kill you so that I can become the Battousai? Use Botan to save your hide by hiding underneath her kimono, yet still continue to prattle on about me fighting a hopeless fight? Do you even realize where you've been getting your jaki after all this time?"
"That's all part of my plan!"
"What's your plan, then?"
"Like I'm going to tell you! Fuck off, asshole!" hissed Hiruma.
The youkiri stated in a scornful tone, "I don't think you planned any of this."
"I did!" insisted Hiruma, sounding more immature with each passing moment.
The Battousai maintained, "You're too disadvantaged by your plan. It makes no logical sense whatsoever."
"That's complete bullshit!" Hiruma angrily roared and snarled in a combination of denial and aggravation.
At that moment, even though it was just talk, Kenshin transformed into the Battousai once more. And while Kenshin might have sighed and harrumphed at Hiruma's plight in pity and irritation, the Battousai would never do such a foolish thing. He would never provide his enemy the benefit of mercy. Indeed, his lack of compassion during combat was what separated him from Kenshin.
As Botan listened to the dialogue going on between Kenshin and Hiruma, she wasn't sure what astonished her more... the unexpected deterioration of Hiruma's mind or Kenshin's... well, Kenshin's obvious self-control.
'Seeing Battousai talk his opponent down is the last thing I expected from him. On the other hand, I've only seen this side of Kenshin just now, so I can't judge how evil Battousai really is. Or is evil the right word for him?' Botan shook her head inside Hiruma's pervasive subconscious.
'No, more like cold, pitiless, emotionless, unfeeling, and relentless... but never evil. Maybe I shouldn't be that astonished. Maybe I was so distressed, so scandalized by Battousai's brutality and resolve during his fight with Hiruma... caught up with Koenma's warnings... that I wasn't able to understand what was happening at the time. Battousai isn't a psycho. He isn't attacking his opponent with unstoppable rage. He has full control of the situation and his sanity right now.'
Botan ultimately reckoned that she had let rumors and legends of the Youkiri Battousai get to her head. Yes, he was a ruthless killing machine who saw death as a means to an end. Nevertheless, this supposed murderous monster was doing everything that he could to keep himself from killing his opponents. How many real-life murderers act like that anyway?
Then again, despite Kenshin still being Kenshin while in "Battousai Mode", there was still a marked difference between him and his other self. Kenshin often identified with his adversary; in contrast, the Battousai wasn't so kind. He mercilessly hauled his opponent's psychoses into the forefront and dissected them with clinical precision.
"Think for a minute," the Battousai implored, "and try to remember who you two were. Kihei was a master schemer, and Gohei had somewhat passable sword skills. But most importantly, you two had goals and motivations, no matter how petty and illegal they might be. At the very least, you weren't total morons. Now look at yourself. You're ranting and throwing a fit like a helpless infant, unable to come up with a logical purpose or justification for any of your actions. I assure you, you're no puppet master."
"You're just trying to trick me!"
"Trick you to do what? I thought you had plans. The Chojin may have given you the chance for vengeance, but it has cost you both dearly. You're nothing but mere pawns to the Overfiend's chess game, nothing more."
"Shut up!"
"How does it feel to realize that your whole reason for existence was to help the Chojin decide whether I'm an asset or liability to him and his diabolical schemes?"
"I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP!" His panic rising, Hiruma bared his fangs, the mist of his frostbite-inducing breath billowing from the gaps of his frothing mouth. "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND A THING! So I'll make it simple enough for you to comprehend: YOU'LL NEVER WIN AGAINST ME! NO WAY, NO HOW, NEVER EVER EVER!"
Truth be told, the Youkiri Battousai read Hiruma like an open book. The swordsman possessed an uncanny comprehension of the monster that would rival that of a parent's understanding of his or her child. In any case, Botan soon realized that the dark presence that supplied Hiruma of his jaki and his next course of action was currently missing. It hadn't completely left, but without its guiding hand, Hiruma looked lost, confused, and harmless.
'Could it be that the wraith Kenshin identified as an onmyouji was the one responsible for Hiruma's current state?' Botan wondered as she struggled to regain her bearings.
Actually, Botan could now clearly sense what the Battousai had noticed from the start. If a person's mind were like a house, then Hiruma's was a wreck teetering on the edge of destruction, its frames and foundations intentionally and methodically weakened by the Chojin's ruthless machinations. She could practically feel Hiruma's deteriorating mind and, in turn, weakening constitution.
Expectation surged within Botan's heart. This could be her opportunity to escape Hiruma's grasp. With that thought, she assailed the damaged and destabilized biological blockades holding her captive within the mutated body with renewed resolve.
Youtou Shinnoken: Demon Sword
A Yuyu Hakusho/Rurouni Kenshin fic
by Chester Castañeda
Original concept by Chad Yang
Botan has fused with the cunning Hiruma's body, so Kenshin is trapped in a losing battle. How will he survive this time around?
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 14: To Protect Loved Ones (Part 2)
Hiruma, a demon, was afraid; he was feeling an emotion that his old selves, Kihei and Gohei, hadn't felt for a long time. That wasn't really true, per se, but the kind of fear that demons felt was far different from the kind of fear that humans felt. For all intents and purposes, Hiruma was feeling the human kind of fear.
With a jolt, Hiruma became aware that the Battousai had managed to come dangerously close. He suddenly crouched down, balanced on his beastly hands, and spun both his fused legs forward in a sweep. Not at all taken by surprise by the unconventional counterattack in the middle of their dialogue, Battousai reacted in time and jumped backwards to safety.
Battousai landed on his feet as Hiruma immediately performed a charging headbutt into the redhead's chest, feeling his victim shift around and adjusting the trajectory of his gore accordingly.
"You cunning bastard! You've made me go into a monologue... I mean, you've tricked me!" Hiruma shrieked, infuriated both at the Battousai and himself. "But you've forgotten the most important thing! I still have the girl! HAHAHA!" Hiruma's dry lips curled into a smirk most grotesque as he consoled himself with the thought that he still had the upper hand.
'Not for long, and not if I can help it,' Botan thought to herself as she desperately used all of her shinigami powers to rend through Hiruma's grapple-hold upon her. Little did she know that the panicked chimera was somehow able to intercept her private musing.
Something flared briefly in the Battousai's golden eyes, but that was all. The cold, unshakable purposefulness of his expression was far more unnerving than any display of anger or rage could be.
"There's no way to stop me without killing her!" Hiruma taunted his opponent, mockingly flexing his Shisejyu claws and fingers at him as they brimmed with jaki anew. "There's no escape for you."
The Battousai replied evenly, "If that becomes necessary, I will."
Hiruma blinked in astonishment. "You... You're willing to KILL her?" he shouted, sounding hopelessly baffled. "W-Well, then f-fine! You'll become a mindless killing machine, and I'll still w-win by driving you to utter m-m-madness!
Battousai unsheathed his sword, which made Hiruma stutter, "B-But don't you care for her at all? Not that it will change the situation or anything, but have you become so far gone in your Battousai state that she no longer matters to you at this point?"
As his long red ponytail fluttered in the faint breeze, Kenshin unwittingly affixed his amber-eyed gaze upon Botan's pink eyes hidden behind Hiruma's hideous face and declared, "You're confusing me with Kenshin. He's the one who fights for ideals like truth or justice. Me? I fight to protect the people I care about who can't defend themselves. If an enemy appears, I don't hesitate... I kill them. And I'll kill you because I do care about Botan. Right now, you're just another demon to me."
Trapped inside Hiruma's body, a stunned Botan mentally whispered, 'Kenshin...'
She could not doubt the utter sincerity in his voice when he said that he cared, nor could she doubt his sincerity when he said that he was willing to kill her. She wasn't looking forward to a shinigami's death; unlike humans, dead shinigami didn't have anything to look forward to in the afterlife. They just disappeared into nothingness, as though they never even existed.
For a heartrending instant, Botan wondered if the Battousai truly intended to kill her. Wasn't that exactly what the swordsman stated that he was prepared to do? After all, that'd be the simplest and most efficient solution to the problem that was Botan trapped inside a chimera named Hiruma.
That really sucked and rocked at the same time. Not that Botan had any particular feelings for Kenshin or anything, since they'd just met and all. Nevertheless, for an instant, she was torn between joy and despair.
'No, I have to trust him. He was prepared to kill... has killed... but even as the Battousai, he didn't do it out of sheer pleasure or just because it was the easy thing to do. He only killed because he truly believed it was necessary. I have to trust that Kenshin will find another way to stop Hiruma's rampage.'
But despite her amazing steadfastness, Botan found herself inwardly bracing for the cold bite of steel.
'He's tried so hard to become someone different from the infamous Youkiri Battousai. The Battousai had killed often, so Kenshin had chosen to never kill at all. If Kenshin turned away from the Battousai... the killer within... then wouldn't that make his fight with Hiruma all the more difficult? Weren't demons supposed to be killed? Why was he so idealistic anyway? Was it his supposed idealism that drives him to do the stuff that he does?'
The answer to that, Botan realized, was that Kenshin wasn't Kenshin at that point, but the Battousai. He would not let her lose herself inside Hiruma's person even at the cost of her own life. That was the kind of person the Battousai was.
Her last statement opened up a whole new can of worms... or as Botan would call them, a whole new butt-load of uncomfortable and inconvenient questions... that stoked the flames of the ferry-girl's growing internal debate.
What was the best way to combat 'evil', anyway? A knife between the eyes or the power of friendship and love? Was Botan, that strange Kendo girl that kept appearing in her dreams, and Kenshin merely acting naive in their desperation to not let the Youtou Shinnoken kill demons? Yusuke and the other Reikai Tantei certainly didn't have such reserve or limitation, which resulted with them saving thousands, even millions, of lives for the common good.
More to the point, why would Koenma-sama make things so complicated as to add the stipulation that whenever someone was killed by the Youtou Shinnoken, demon or human alike, it would result in Kenshin turning into a mass-killing murderer? Wasn't that counterproductive? What was up with that?
On the other hand, why were demons automatically considered as "evil beings worthy of being killed" by default, while humans were given more leeway in regards to their actions and lives? Was a human's life more important than a demon's?
Sure, Hiruma could be considered as a devil by default, but he was merely acting as the Chojin's marionette. What gave Kenshin, or any of the spirit detectives for that matter, the right to take away his or any other demon's life? 'Whoa... Easy, girl. You're beginning to channel a bit of Sensui rhetoric there with that rant of yours. Settle down,' Botan chided herself, but all the same, she knew she had made a good point.
In a lifetime that extended over a century and then some, the death goddess had trained her body to reenergize itself in an amazingly short amount of time. She knew how to conserve and use her spirit energy wisely and economically. Her reiatsu constantly recharged itself, sustaining both her astral body and her abilities as a shinigami.
Most people close to her already knew by now that she kept herself exuberant and bubbly through sheer will alone. Although something as strenuous as, say, keeping a crystal that housed the life force of an entire world inside her body or finding a way out of a body-absorbing chimera would take its toll on anybody's body, she was lucky enough to be a perpetual motion machine in the shape of a buxom sixteen-year-old albino girl with a paddle and a kimono.
Which was why, after going on what should have been an exhausting and traumatizing trip into Hiruma's body, she was now awake and alert. In any case, her idle mind continued to wander further into the ether as she continued to concentrate her power upon Hiruma's weakening hold on her ethereal body.
'Maybe Koenma-sama had no choice but to turn Kenshin into a spirit guardian. Perhaps guarding the Demon Sword was the best or even only sort of fate for a pacifist like Kenshin, considering his personality and circumstances. Knowing him, maybe the swordsman actually approved of or even wanted his so-called punishment of never being able to kill a living being again, regardless of who or what they were.'
If that truly was the case, had the idealistic and sanctimonious Kenshin gone too far by trying to change from being the Battousai? If the Battousai was an integral part of Kenshin, then wasn't rejecting what he stood for mean that Kenshin was trying to reject a part of his own soul? The youkiri might not be an attractive or pleasing personality, but he was a part of Kenshin nonetheless. It was often said that an incomplete soul could never know true contentment.
'Maybe the fact that he's so good at swordsmanship is what bothers me; he makes the art of murder seem so effortless. I've never actually seen him kill anyone so far, but from what I can see, he could've killed Hiruma, Genbu, and anyone else that stood in his way a million times over if he hadn't held back.' She gazed intently at the Battousai. There was no eagerness or anticipation in him, only a determination to do what he deemed necessary.
It was as plain as day that Kenshin didn't want to kill anyone, even if killing one person would save many others. The Battousai... the other side of Kenshin's proverbial coin... at least knew that killing was necessary. In the end, because Kenshin kept holding on to his idealisms, he'd unwittingly risked the lives of the very people he'd sworn to protect and made relatively simple fights drag on and on. His idealism was his greatest strength and weakness.
'Looking at him now, I think I'm beginning to understand. The Battousai might be an expert at killing, but he doesn't do it casually. He doesn't enjoy taking people's lives. He kills because he believes that it's necessary to achieve the greater good.'
Ha! The greater good, huh? Seemed like Botan was channeling a bit of Enma Daio's reasoning this time around. 'If I had to protect someone I loved or an innocent person... if I had no choice... what would I do?'
A part of Botan whispered stubbornly, 'There's always a choice! You can always choose not to kill!' In particular, it was the raven-haired, kendo-swinging, pony-tailed part of herself that had taken residence at the back of her mind, much to her chagrin. It was Kaoru Kamiya, the master of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu, the "Sword that Protects".
But was that really true? Was there always a choice? If Kenshin's, Yusuke's, or Koenma's life truly was at risk, she knew what she would do in an instant. It was a very sobering realization for her.
If she were willing to take a life out of love... to protect the people she cared for... how could she possibly belittle Kenshin for being prepared to do the very same?
'But it wasn't belittlement,' the Kaoru in Botan's mind's eye insisted. 'I am not a child; I know that killing can be inevitable when push comes to shove, but you can't stop me from believing that avoiding all the pushing and the shoving in the first place will help greatly in not resorting to the madness of war, hatred, and violence.'
'Stop that now, missy; I have no intention of turning my head into a self-help book. What's your point?' Botan asked as she slowly gained leeway inside Hiruma's murky depths... she didn't just think that. Ew, ew, ew.
'I don't hate the Battousai, and I know he's neither evil nor malicious; he's a part of Kenshin, after all, and I care for them both. But please understand, Kenshin cannot become the Battousai again! I have no idea what the deal is with that Demon Sword thing of yours, but the more Battousai kills and gets to kill, the more it'll tear Kenshin's soul and humanity apart. Please understand Kenshin and my desperation for him not to kill ever again, Botan!'
'Has it ever occurred to you that maybe it's a good idea for Kenshin to become the Youkiri Battousai? I mean, the Battousai's stronger, faster, and does less speeches... but when he does do one, he can talk his enemy to death! Look at what he did to Hiruma just now! No offense to Kenshin or you, Miss... Kenshin's friend, but Battousai is a thousand times cooler than Kenshin, and since you've just admitted that Kenshin is still Kenshin even when in Battousai mode, then we won't have to worry about him going evil overlord or anything,' Botan reasoned out, feeling a bit flighty about the fact that the voice in her head was currently having a heated debate with her.
'Y'know, at the middle of this battle for the Demon Sword and whatnot, you have no place here, kendo girl. Believe me, sister; starry-eyed idealists like you, Kenshin, and Kuwabara are cannon fodder at best... people who need protection from others who know how the world really works... and naive fools who put everyone else at risk through their reckless gullibility at worst. Well, people like the Battousai, Kurama, Hiei, and Yusuke, on the other hand, know how the world works; they're smart, street-savvy tough guys who know that the only way to solve some problems is to beat them into submission.'
Botan shook her head again, feeling as though she were channeling a bit of Yusuke pragmatism in her argument. She should get more gal pals, or at the very least she needed to hang out with Keiko, Shizuru, and Yukina more.
'So I'm sorry, but I just don't see the problem with Kenshin becoming the dreaded Battousai. Instead of getting in the way of him winning this battle, here's what I'm going to do instead: I'm going to get out of the belly of this stinking beast, let the Youkiri Battousai kill him once I'm out, and we'll all live happier than we did before, when Hiruma was still alive and playing mind games on poor little pacifist Kenshin. We should just let things be so that I can go home and have some sexy Battousai loving already!'
'...'
'Oh right, you're a voice in my head. Of course you'd hear that. My bad.'
'Botan, I'm dead serious. Don't let Kenshin lose himself in this battle. I completely understand that there will always come a time when starry-eyed idealism and the power of love and friendship just won't cut it, calling forth the need to resort to violence.'
Kaoru paused, exhaled, and then worked herself up to a storm. 'But seeing that Kenshin has done everything in his power not to kill the stone demon, sacrificed his and your sleek-haired friend's usefulness in battle in order to rescue you and that other girl from that Kabuki-looking youkai, and only fought to survive against the Hiruma brothers' demonic reincarnation made me conclude beyond a shadow of a doubt that killing should always, always be reserved as a final option, if it's to be used at all.'
Botan was taken aback by Kaoru's statement. Both girls knew that Kenshin was a very complex yet simple character from the get go. He was a killer that had vowed to never kill again. That was very understandable; who would want to continue killing once the initial perceived necessity had passed?
However, though he didn't want to kill again, Kenshin continued fighting and using a sword. He also clung to the violent personality that made him such an effective assassin in the first place. As such, one could not help but confront the confusing complexity of Kenshin versus the Battousai. It was easy to simply say that the gentle persona of Kenshin was a mask that hid the violent Youkiri Battousai.
Then again, his situation was more complicated than that. If Kenshin were merely a mask covering for the assassin beneath, he would not have sacrificed his own comfort to ensure the safety of another time and time again, nor would he make it his permanent mission in life to protect innocent people without killing anyone else, innocent or not.
A mask was only that; a thin disguise that hid but didn't change the inner nature of the person. The mask was usually made up of some trait that the person had the potential for, but didn't entirely embody. When Kenshin was kind to Kaoru or played with children, people saw the true gentleness of a man who cared. While he was no bungling fool, Kenshin really was a kind and gentle man.
Kenshin was both a kind wanderer and a ruthless assassin. Both personas were part of who he was, and both were also masks. 'Battousai' was the face that hid 'Kenshin'. But what was the face that 'Kenshin' hid? If both of these people were, in essence, masks, then who was there when the masks were stripped away?
That was what both Botan and Kaoru wanted to know.
After a long and involved pause, Kaoru commented, 'Well, come what may, I trust that he'll do the right thing. He always had before, and even up until now, I have faith that he'll always do so. He's one of the few people that can never betray my trust. I trust him completely.'
Botan reflexively blinked. Her pure concentration of shinigami spirit energy had finally paid dividends for her; she could now see a clear exit path inside Hiruma's cavernous chimera body. She felt a touch of self-satisfied smugness for her accomplishment, especially after recalling Iehik's reason for bringing her in the middle of this war zone in the first place: as live bait and distraction for Kenshin. She then focused her attention towards Kaoru once more.
'While what you're saying would, well, sound scary coming from an abused housewife, I really think we shouldn't just lie around and simply wait for Kenshin and his super duper swordsmanship to defeat the foul beast, rescue us, and whatnot. Sure, I'm willing to give him my trust as well, but I will not let myself become some sort of dead weight around his neck while he fights for his life and sanity. Let's show him that he can rely on us too, shall we?'
'Hmmm... Wow. Okay then. Sounds good to me,' Kaoru murmured in what sounded like an impressed tone to Botan's ears. As such, they began their gradual egress inside the chimera's body. At the back of Botan's mind, aside from wanting to know who the real Kenshin was, she also wanted to know what Kaoru Kamiya was doing inside her head. But alas, that was a notion to be explored for another time.
Unseen, unheard, and unfelt by either Botan or Kaoru, Hiruma mentally chuckled.
A quiet breeze stirred the stagnant air of the mist-shrouded mountain housing what was left of Genkai's temple just as the dying night made way for the warmth of the breaking dawn. The black gloom that engulfed the decimated temple patio at that moment was pierced by the fires of Battousai's golden glare.
Flat-eyed and tight-lipped, the terrible calm of battle settling upon him, the Battousai turned, stepped out of the haze, and walked into a landscape that seemed almost as ruined and devastated as the moon's surface itself. His opponent then came upon him, shrieking and hissing, his body reeking of panic and fear.
Hiruma, a desperate demon at that point, heedlessly shot technique after blistering technique at the speeding Battousai, as though he were Rando with a hundred-and-one throwaway abilities in his arsenal. He wasn't, and by the time he'd attempted his thirteenth attack at the elusive redhead, he'd already exhausted all of the Shisejyu's conventional techniques.
He tried turning Battousai into an icicle once more by slashing his jugular with the Kaiwan and spraying the hapless swordsman with Seiryu's blood, but he soon found out that he could never use the same tactic on the wily Demon Sword Guardian twice.
The agile youkiri dodged and sidestepped his way around Hiruma like a hungry, frenetic swallow repeatedly swooping over an overcrowded fishpond, never letting the demon get a clear shot; Hiruma soon realized that he was merely injuring himself for nothing. Then, just as he prepared a massive Ma-Tou-Tou-Ryu-Ken and Mei-Kou-Shou-Kai-Ha combo, the Battousai counterattacked with ruthless aggression, unleashing the full potential of the Youtou Shinnoken. Impressive, certainly... a mere slash made even Jine's best maiming techniques seem like shaving accidents.
Hiruma's normally steel-tough skin parted cleanly before the Youtou Shinnoken's edge. Repeatedly. Even now, the slashes just kept on... slashing, eating at him like a corrosive acid. It was hard to explain; it was as if the Youkiri Battousai had somehow created a time paradox where he'd continuously mutilate Hiruma's body yesterday, today, tomorrow, up until the end of time in half an eye blink... past, present, and future tense be damned. Whatever the situation, the sheer agony of the mysterious attack drove the overgrown behemoth into the fringes of sanity and reason.
The demon's scream was disgusting... raw, hoarse, with a slight gurgle in the end. Hiruma still had his near Toguro-like ability to regenerate, but he quickly quaked in fear once he realized that the slashes that the Battousai cut through his body had torn not only his flesh but also the very fabric of reality itself, the air rippling inside his gaping wounds like miniature wormholes of sorts. He screamed again.
Hiruma couldn't possibly survive through this no matter how many times he healed himself. If anyone thought that the Hitokiri Battousai was a scary son of a bitch, then he was fucking Christmas Day compared to the bleak Halloween that was the Youkiri Battousai. All the same, the demon frantically backpedaled, lashing out at his personal Halloween with the Shisejyu's clawed hands, feeling the flames of jaki shoot out from their curled fingers, but the Battousai wasn't there. Swiftly, he turned...
...And leaped out of the way of the youkiri's flashing blade, tearing right through the air where his torso had been. His amalgamated heart pounded frenetically inside his chest.
His eyes widened. He knew that the Battousai was fast, but he didn't realize that he could defy physics, reality, and time so effortlessly.
Another slash. He dodged again, and it tore apart the reptilian side of his chest, leaving behind another permanent wound that made him bleed even more of Seiryu's icy serpent blood.
Hiruma cursed silently. The Battousai was a blur, a shadow, a flash of gleaming eyes in the mist. And even with the Shisejyu enhancing his battle senses to levels he'd never dreamed possible, he couldn't seem to get ahead. All his attacks were missing, merely flashing or exploding through numerous afterimages and tearing up the mountain landscape.
Whether it was skin, muscle, scales, fur, or bone, the Demon Sword zipped through them all in an instant as if they were nothing but clouds of smoke. All Hiruma could do was dodge blow after tireless blow. He fell into some kind of deadly rut as he tried to think of a way out of his dilemma. No such luck.
"It's not supposed to be like this!" Hiruma cried. The pain washed over him in waves with every beat of his heart, Seiryu's lifeblood pooling onto the ground around him, the sensation that connected him to the world now betraying him, taking him further away from it.
Hiruma had thought he would never be this weak again. He... or they, the reincarnated Hiruma brothers... had accepted the Chojin's promise of power, glory, and closure in exchange for loyalty and certain services. They had learned to welcome suffering and pain because of their determination to leave a more profound legacy in the world of the living this time around. This was their second chance at life, after all.
Hiruma was stronger now... ruthless and powerful, possessing both Iehog's brute strength and Iehik's manipulative cunning. He didn't have to be helpless. Not again.
Instead, here he was, gasping for air; Hiruma knew that he was really going to die this time around, even though he'd actually taken the trouble of getting insurance in the form of Kenshin's shinigami girlfriend inside of him. And albeit his claims time and again that even if he gets killed by the Battousai, he'd still win against him because of the nature of the Youtou Shinnoken's curse, he really wasn't feeling particularly triumphant at that moment.
Perhaps Battousai was right all along about the Chojin using Hiruma as canon fodder in order to mess around with the redhead's... well, head. He, the Shisejyu, and the Hiruma brothers that made his existence possible, were all just the Chojin's quaint little puppets, and they were about to get their strings cut by that very same redhead they were supposed to screw with to boot.
...Well, to hell with that.
Hiruma fell down in a boneless heap after Battousai callously cut the tendons connecting his knees and calves together. "That's everything. No more techniques. No more Shisejyu. No more hope. Take all that away, and what's left?" the youkiri simply queried as he regarded his fallen opponent with impassive yet fearsome eyes.
"Me," Hiruma groused, blasting the Battousai to seeming oblivion with a Fu no Senrei powered by his very own suffering... but he knew better. As such, he hastily backed a good distance away from the cloud of devastation and braced himself. The expected pain soon followed.
"To HELL with my PUPPET STRINGS!" the Iehog part of Hiruma stubbornly spat as the chimera weathered the scourging tempest of a retaliatory Ryu Kan Sen Arashi. "Come on, BUTT-OH-SAI! I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU OR ANYBODY ELSE STOP ME NOW! This is my moment of truth!"
"That's right! Even if Hiruma himself can't take the pressure, WE HIRUMA BROTHERS WILL NEVER SURRENDER!" Iehik boldly chimed in, counting the seconds before his... or rather, Hiruma's... little gambit fell into place. The old demon then came up with an idea to stall for more time.
And so, drawing strength from the remnant chill of the morning air on his worsening injuries, Hiruma tilted his head towards the boyish swordsman and his cursed sword... then breathed softly.
The Battousai flinched as Hiruma's icy breath swirled about his head, a few tiny snow flakes sticking against his face, not melting because of the cold spell that barely hovered over the surface of his skin. What was Hiruma doing? Was he trying to freeze him to death again? He would cut him apart before he could...
And then he felt it. A sudden, deep lethargy seeped into the edges of his mind. The Battousai blinked in surprise as his vision unfocused, blurring the image of the beast kneeling before him. His outstretched arms, held before him as he summoned his kenki into the Youtou Shinnoken's blade, sagged suddenly as a penetrating weariness swept through him, tugging at him, pulling him down on the ground in a peaceful, slumbering heap.
Battousai grit his teeth, shook his head violently, and fought against the sleep spell, his sword-ki blazing as he tried desperately to focus above the exhaustion that was creeping through his limbs, fogging his brain. If he succumbed, if he fell asleep, who knew what the merged monster would do to him?
But it was far too late for the Battousai in any case. "DIE, BATTOUSAI!" Seiryu's dragon claws dug deep into the swordsman's sternum, with Hiruma intending to freeze the immobilized spirit guardian from the inside out. Meanwhile, Iehik heartily congratulated himself on a job well done, surprised that a mere distraction would work well enough to kill his mortal enemy.
Battousai then lifted his head up, startling the self-satisfied demon. "'Die, Battousai,' huh? Humph. Like I haven't heard that one before," he harrumphed, waking up from his cold-induced stupor by concentrating on the torture inflicted to him by Seiryu's claws. He afterwards proceeded to carve Hiruma like a festive Thanksgiving turkey, even though he never did nor never will celebrate that particular foreign holiday.
Just then, just at that very inopportune moment, Botan's head emerged from one of Hiruma's many hamburger-like lesions, exiting from the wound like some sort of perverse Caesarian Section for the birthing of a grown woman. Or like the goddess Athena suddenly springing up from Zeus's head like an armored-to-the-teeth heap of warrior princess popping out of a pea-sized abscess. Or most anything else that would screw with one's psyche... melting clocks and cubism readily come to mind.
Simply put, the whole scene was really gross, but Kenshin was nonetheless floored by Botan's seemingly non-sequitur reappearance. "BOTAN! Oh, thank the gods, you're safe! Quickly, grab my hand and I'll pull you out!"
Take note though that it was Kenshin who was floored by Botan's sudden appearance... Battousai would have just raised an eyebrow at the strange spectacle. More to the point, the redhead had unwittingly regressed back to his pacifistic state once he was reassured that the innocent whom he was trying to save was already safe and sound.
Botan squirmed and wiggled out of Hiruma's "appendix" area... a strangely appropriate place for her to make her exit, even though demons didn't have appendices... resisting the urge to gag and vomit at the assortment of bodily fluids currently clinging on her hair, face, body, and kimono.
"Quite frankly, I don't really give a damn about what you'd do to Hiruma, but at least you won't have to worry about us... er, me, anymore. Do whatever you want to do. I trust you, oh magical redheaded swordsman!" the ferry-girl remarked tongue-in-cheek as she stretched her slimy hand towards Kenshin's.
"Oh, I wouldn't say that just yet, love," Hiruma sinisterly sneered, dropping all pretenses of anguish and despair and smiling a chilling, feral grin that hinted on the rictus edge of madness.
Botan halted her advance in mid-squirm as a sudden pain shot through her ribs; the large abdominal muscles of the chimera started to clench and and constrict around the orifice she was departing through, crushing her stomach and restricting her breath. Soon enough, she couldn't even feel her legs and lower extremities. Good thing she was already the personification of death, or else she'd be needing her own ferry-girl right about then.
"Let go of me! Let go of me, you goddamned stinking gorilla! Oh my god, Kenshin! I'm so sorry! Please, get the hell out of here!" Botan pleaded as the redhead could only look on in flabbergasted terror.
Right on cue, the unseen onmyouji started to again influence the unruly behemoth's emotions, feeding him with large helpings of negative energy until he swelled up into a balloon of unbridled rage and blinding arrogance. "GOTCHA! Thought you can escape me, eh girly? How about it, Battousai? Can you still kill me now, seeing that your girlfriend is trapped inside my girth? Then go ahead, you redheaded softie! I FUCKING DARE YOU!"
Kenshin was frozen in horror, his body as immobile as highway road-kill. He looked as shocked as he had been after discovering what he had done to his pretend wife's body so many years ago. He was as distressed as he would have been had he lived long enough to see Kaoru's corpse with a cross-shaped scar on her cheek and a sword protruding from her chest.
"...Whoops, time's up! MEI-KO-SHOU-KAI-HA-ZETSU-HOKO!" rumbled Hiruma in one breath, combining the vacuum surge of the Shout Blast and the fiery hurricane of the Screaming Tiger's Demolishing Wave in one formidable inferno, hurling the stationary Kenshin a good ten feet away by the sheer force of the blast.
"K-K-Kenshin! Don't just stand there! DO SOME... AAAAHH!" Kenshin heard Botan's voice; a strangled, choking gasp of torment and agony.
Kenshin clenched his teeth in agonized frustration, his violet eyes haunted and desperate as he struggled to stand and keep on fighting. He had to win! And fast! There was no time, and he didn't just need to defeat Hiruma, he also had to find a way to rescue Botan at the same time.
Meanwhile, Hiruma watched in bemused amazement as Botan struggled against his abominable (abdominal?) trap, the bright blue-green ki in her delicate hands building rather than diminishing. The skin of his cracked face tingled in pain, almost as if in response to the power buildup of Botan's reiatsu. He could feel it... feel the strength of her determination and resolve growing before him, focusing in the palms of her hands, and knew that, after what he had done to her, she would hold nothing back.
"Tough luck, toots. Once I'm through with your boyfriend, I'm going to rip you apart and turn you into my own personal hand puppet... if you know what I mean," Hiruma swore to Botan as he added injury to insult, making his scourged body's muscle mass grow and swell to one-hundred-and-twenty-percent Toguro Ototo proportions to compensate for all the unhealable injuries he'd suffered in the hands of the Youkiri Battousai.
Botan let out a long, horrified scream as she was crushed to complete submission, her hoarse voice sounding like the wail of a dying wildcat.
Kenshin's mouth went dry. 'Oh no. Not again. I don't want to fail again...!' His heart felt as if it was also being crushed within his chest. To Hiruma, he growled, "You coward! To think you'd actually hide behind a woman to protect yourself!" But Hiruma wasn't listening to him at all.
"It's time to tempt fate once again, Battousai! BOUKO HYOUGA!" Hiruma snarled in uncontainable excitement as he bull-rushed his diminutive ex-rurouni opponent straightaway, with the protruding, half-conscious Botan in tow. His body then quickly grew and hardened to its very limits as his muscles hypertrophied in the same manner Byakko's Kaiwan had.
Just then, as the chimera continued to charge with thunderous hooves, Kenshin and Botan shared a brief glance at each other's faces, but strangely enough, the ferry-girl seemed... different somehow. Her pink eyes were now in a familiar rich chocolate color, her pink cheeks a stark contrast to her quickly paling skin. In a resigned yet shrill tone that was just loud enough to be heard through Hiruma's rumbling stampede, she confessed, "Kenshin, whatever... you with... whole... but please, I need you to... in me as well!"
Kenshin strained his ears. "...WHAT?"
"I SAID: KENSHIN, WHATEVER HAPPENS, I TRUST YOU WITH MY WHOLE HEART, BUT PLEASE, I NEED YOU TO HAVE FAITH IN ME AS WELL... DUMBASS!"
"OH! OKAY! GOTCHA!" Kenshin gave Botan a 'thumbs up' sign as she merely rolled her eyes. Feeling a bit relaxed now, he went into his ready stance and took a deep breath. With a part of his mind that wasn't focused on the battle and his internal struggle to control the wild forces within him, he realized his hands were trembling.
He didn't care. He reached within... and let go.
Battousai's killer instinct felt Kenshin relax his steel will, and immediately flowed to the surface of his mind, swift and flaring with terrible power. He bared his teeth in a savage grimace as he struggled to keep his human soul from drowning under the deluge of malicious instinct.
Kenshin then made his decision right then and there as he and Hiruma leapt up high into the blue yonder simultaneously, his demonic blade shining brightly amidst the shadowy tendrils of the chimera's borrowed jaki. He had very little choice in the matter. It was either he let Botan stay permanently stuck inside Hiruma's mutant body, or he would mercy-kill both her and him so that she wouldn't suffer a fate worse than death. Truth be told, his ultimate verdict was merely the lesser of two evils.
Just then, Kenshin heard Botan say, "Kenshin, whatever happens, I trust you with my whole heart. But please, I need you to have faith in me as well," as six kinds of hell broke loose and headed towards the redhead's way, time seeming to stand still for his sake, the abstract idea itself ostensibly thunderstruck by the sincerity of Botan's words.
"I trust you," she had said. That was quite the statement to say to someone who was next to a complete stranger. Nevertheless, it served as the swordsman's wakeup call, rousing him from his brief trance of shellshock-induced inaction.
From there, without even pausing for breath, Battousai thrust his sword straight into Botan's heart. Afterwards, he shut his eyes and did an inward-to-outward Kuzu Ryu Sen, the nine strikes tearing away from the center of impact with movement reminiscent of a blossoming flower... a profusely bleeding flower blossom that was about to die a violent death. Hiruma didn't even see the strikes coming.
A swift flash of the Demon Sword later, and the pieces of Hiruma and Botan's respective bodies collapsed, quivering in a mishmash of chunky, dismembered flesh. What was left of the demon's muscular legs immediately curled up towards his exposed underbelly, his split face smiling a rictus death grin.
What the Battousai had done was nothing less than brilliant, if not brutal and heartless... or it would have been save for the fact that Kenshin wasn't "the Battousai" at that point. He simply couldn't muster enough killer instinct needed to transform into his Battousai state whilst seeing Botan trapped mid-waist inside Hiruma's abdomen.
Kenshin just couldn't do it. Not while he could still taste the tang and feel the warmth of Tomoe Yukishiro's blood trickling down his face and clothes even after all these decades past. Not while he could still remember how he'd betrayed his promise to Kaoru Kamiya to come back to her side by dying in the middle of his fight against Makoto Shishio a lifetime ago.
The redhead knew that he didn't turn into some sort of crazy berserker that would mindlessly raze through everyone in his path, friend or foe, because of his uncontrollable, unstoppable rage whenever he became the Battousai... or at least, that was the original intent behind the Hitokiri Battousai, regardless of the current stipulations Koenma made in regards to using the Demon Sword.
Moreover, Kenshin didn't become weaker when he wasn't the Battousai. He'd always had access to his boundless power, and he didn't simply increase in strength when provoked. It was just that, as the Battousai, he was basically able to gain full access of his ingrained pool of swordsmanship talents because he'd decided to let go of all his remaining inhibitions and reservations. He became ruthlessly effective in every last aspect of combat, combining a frightening amount of strength, resolve, and control in his movements, actions, and decisions that many people found absolutely terrifying.
To be Continued...
Next: Conflagration and confrontation.
Again, bits and parts of this fic were mostly inspired by MadamHydra's "That Which Lingers" fanfic, particularly Botan's introspective scenes while trapped inside Hiruma's body.
Paalam!
Abdiel