"The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough."
(Randy Pausch, "The Last Lecture")
Youtou Shinnoken: Demon Sword
A Yuyu Hakusho/Rurouni Kenshin fic
by Chester Castañeda
Original concept by Chad Yang
So I bet you're wondering what has happened to Keiko Yukimura, eh? Well then, just read on to find out.
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 18: To Protect Loved Ones (Part 6)
Back to the relative present, on the snowy cliff where the comatose Keiko lay...
"Granny! I thought you said that you can't...!" Yusuke protested halfheartedly, but his own desperate hopefulness and Genkai's assertion of "I know what I said. But I didn't say I won't help," silenced him just as soon as he mentioned the issue.
Nevertheless, Kenshin objected with, "Madam, the Demon Sword has different effects on different people. With Yusuke, it's our special bond and my appearance as a tangible entity. With certain demons, it increases their base power to a hundredfold or so. With Botan, it's... complicated. Depending on who touches the sword, the consequences can become beneficial, disastrous, or worthless to Keiko-dono's..."
But Genkai, following suit to Urameshi's precedent, had already taken Kenshin's sword before the swordsman even realized it, throwing caution to the wind this one time. Without so much as an "Oro?" of surprise, the ex-rurouni winked out of existence as the old woman held up the magic sword and started to charge up her dwindling energy using the most basic purpose of the Youtou Shinnoken... to increase the power of its user to unbelievable heights by any means necessary.
The power that the Demon Sword magnified inside Genkai felt like raw lightning in her veins. Her very bones trembled as if they were pulsing with light. She felt her body gradually change to its twenty-five-year-old peak, the brilliant flame of her reiki bursting through every muscle, every nerve, and every cell.
The Spirit Wave Master let out a howl somewhere between rapture and torment... it felt like she'd explode with her incredible power. She now had more power than she could ever hope to contain for any length of time without burning out, or perhaps exploding like a human bomb.
"She's going to do it! She must! There's no way we can let Keiko-chan just die! No way!" Kuwabara cheered hoarsely as he crawled forward military-style to get a better look at Genkai's gambit, rubbing his hands together in solemn prayer. He'd already given up most of his remaining strength in their earlier effort to revive the dead girl, so a prayer to the gods was all the help he could offer now.
"You... we... all of us... didn't waste our energies in vain. At least, I don't want it to be in vain. All we need is to focus these energies into Keiko's dead body. There's only one way I know how that can do just that: FIVE DAIKEN PURIFICATION!" Genkai announced as she willed the blade of the Demon Sword to turn into a crescent light and stabbed it straight into many different pressure points in Keiko's body.
To everyone's relief, Genkai's efforts to calm the raging ki-flow inside Keiko's body seemed to work; the schoolgirl's complexion eventually became rosier and livelier, and her chest starting to rise and fall in cadence with the pulse of the Demon Sword. On the other hand, to everyone's horror, Genkai herself started to age rapidly as she spent all her strength to save Keiko. And it wasn't even her normal de-aging process; she was going beyond her actual age of seventy-something, her body becoming more wrinkled and frail as mere seconds passed.
"Don't look so shocked, everyone. Yusuke's right; I shouldn't even be alive now. It was the Spirit World's capriciousness and need for help and guidance that brought me back from the grave. As such, I'm going to offer my life, this stolen youth, every last bit of my power, to Keiko-chan!"
"What... NO! Don't do this, Genkai-baasan!" Yusuke suddenly cried out, unsure of whether or not he should let the quickly aging martial artist give up her second chance in life in order to save another important person in his life.
"I told you not to act so spoiled, Yusuke!" Genkai reproved huskily as her age suddenly doubled, her body looking more like it was more than a century old rather than just about seventy years old. "For every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. You cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. You want Keiko to live? Fine. But you have to pay a steep price for it."
Yusuke was about to put a stop to Genkai's reckless, suicidal plan when, out of the blue, Keiko's body itself reacted negatively to the blade of light embedded in its chest, pushing it and Genkai away before the old woman turned into dust and bones right then and there. The life energy was still inside the corpse, but it... or perhaps Keiko herself... seemed to say that, "I will not allow myself to be resurrected at the cost of another's life. It's immoral, and I will not stand for it!"
Botan wiped the tears she couldn't help but shed off of her eyes. Was there really no way to save Keiko Yukimura at that point? Couldn't the ferry-girl give a good word to Koenma to somehow spare a person who, in the Spirit World's eyes, was nothing more than collateral damage? A victim of circumstance? This was so unfair. Keiko was just visiting Genkai after her date with Yusuke; she had nothing to do with this sudden attack from the Chojin's forces! She'd survived countless encounters with demons before, so why did she have to die now?
But just as the shinigami entertained thoughts of using Spirit World bureaucracy to help her friend out, a voice inside her mind that wasn't Kaoru reminded, 'This is how death truly works. Out of every Yusuke, Genkai, Toguro, and Sensui, there are thousands more who die for the most pitiful of reasons. No amount of determination, magic, life force manipulation, or willpower could ever save them, and now Keiko is among their number. You of all people should know that truth, right?'
With a defeated sigh, Botan summoned her flying oar and wordlessly prepared to make her trip down the limbo of the Dream World, intending to finally accomplish her foremost duty as a shinigami of the Reikai. "That's enough, Yusuke. You've... had your chance."
"No... NO! I can't... I won't... Please. Dammit, please."
"Yusuke..."
Yusuke perked up, thinking he'd heard Keiko say his name, a vision of her with shimmering eyes and a lonely face haunting his subconscious. He must be going crazy. "I'm so sorry, Yusuke." There it was again.
"No. Don't be. It's not your fault that you died. I don't want to give up, but I have nothing to back up my determination. There's nothing more I can do but this," Yusuke despondently murmured to Keiko's unmoving body as he knelt down and moved his face closer to hers.
Genkai and Kuwabara tried to pry Yusuke away from Keiko's slumbering form, thinking that the half-demon had already jumped the slippery slope and was now driven stark raving mad with grief and loss, but they were both too weak and exhausted to do so. Meanwhile, Kenshin winked into existence, the presence of Yusuke's power awakening him once more.
'Yusuke-dono... I can feel your emotions. What are you trying to do?' Kenshin thought as his ghostly cheeks grew warm for some reason. 'The origin for your sadness, I can understand, but why are you feeling so... embarrassed all of a sudden?'
At the back of Yusuke's mind, Rando's Kugai tried to take advantage of his despair, but bigger, greater feelings overwhelmed his hopelessness as the boy leaned forward, whispered, "Good-bye," to Keiko's heartbreakingly beautiful face, and kissed her on the lips.
If Keiko's unmoving body could blush, then it would've done so by then. Keiko's ghost certainly would've, if it were there, or if it could.
Yusuke could only taste bittersweet coldness from Keiko's icy lips, but he gave it no mind as he released all his pent-up frustrations and energy into what he hoped was a life-giving kiss. Because after this, he had nothing more left to give, and he wasn't sure if he could face the reality of loss just yet.
Sadly, this was only their third kiss to date since they first became a couple. The first was when Keiko helped him resurrect his body, the second was when he finally came back from his shortened trip in the Demon World. Hopefully, it was three times the charm, and not three strikes and they were out.
Just then, the immobile Keiko's eyelids started to flutter...
Three weeks later, in the Urameshi residence, early in the evening...
Yusuke and Keiko sat close together, closer than they ordinarily would, for they had the apartment to themselves that night, with Atsuko out for a session of drinking and partying with her friends. A romantic film played out on the television, and Keiko seemed absorbed by it, swooning now and then at the movie's admittedly shallow but altogether sweet and endearing story. Her boyfriend, on the other hand, contemplated suicide, just to cut short his inevitable death from sheer tedium.
Their unacknowledged pink elephant in the room was, of course, the regrettable crisis at Genkai's temple. The memory of Rando and the Shisejyu's sudden assault was fresh in both their minds. But for now, they pushed those memories aside and enjoyed themselves. Or rather, one of them did.
Obviously, Yusuke paid the movie but shallow heed, with most of his interest focused on Keiko... on her firm bosom, in particular. Her breasts... warm, cozy, inviting, and familiar... were making his head dizzy with all sorts of thoughts and ideas. It also made him briefly wonder why he was thinking such crazy things, unaware of his subconscious's memory of his head resting on those very breasts during the semifinals of the Ankoku Bujutsukai.
Of course, there were other things of interest to Yusuke near the vicinity of Keiko's thighs... or rather, what was in between them. Thankfully, when his girlfriend finally noticed his stare... and where he was staring... she didn't think of the perverted thoughts that must've been running through his head, instead remembering the same thing his subconscious recalled: that of her chest pillowing his napping head, the spiky tips of his disheveled but rather becoming hairstyle puncturing through the fabric of her shirt and prickling her bare skin.
Yusuke was also thinking of Keiko's chest, bare skin, and slender form as he did more than just tickle her fancy, but bringing up his lewd thoughts to a girl who was merely being wistfully romantic wasn't very prudent at all, so he wisely kept his mouth shut, averted Keiko's gaze, and glanced at her lips out of the corner of his eye.
The urge to kiss her pulsed in his still heart like a renewed heartbeat as his body stiffened in more ways than one. However, he couldn't follow through his overwhelming feelings right now. Not after what had happened to them earlier on. He tried to stifle it, but it refused to relent, springing back up stronger after each attempt.
He shifted restlessly, turning his head away when Keiko looked at him quizzically. He was afraid she would guess what was on his mind and correctly call him a pervert, slap him around like a rag doll, or much, much worse, but she said nothing and returned her attention to her boring old chick flick.
Fuck this shit. Yusuke wasn't like the protagonist of the movie Keiko was watching: a yellow-bellied loser who filled his head with thoughts of sap or bawdiness but was too much of a wimp to act on his emotions. To be more specific, he wasn't someone who couldn't man up enough to do something about the mounting sexual tension between him and the object of his affections. At that point, he decisively decided that this wasn't the time or place to be indecisive.
As his last mission demonstrated, life was too short to dawdle and dither over the important things in life. Besides, he was just with Keiko... not some stranger in a club or a knockout beauty down the street... Keiko, his lone childhood playmate and friend whom he was always comfortable talking to and being with. She eventually became his honest-to-goodness girlfriend, for Koenma's sake! What was wrong with him? He should talk to her!
The fact of the matter was that Yusuke was far too familiar with Keiko to be intimidated by her. There was no reason for him to feel awkward around her; absolutely no reason at all. As such, nodding resolutely to himself, Yusuke purposefully turned and addressed her with what he thought was a cool and suave, "Hey."
"What?" Keiko unthinkingly asked, not even bothering to turn towards her boyfriend, most of her attention focused on the movie.
"Nothing." Dammit.
Keiko rolled her eyes and drolly asked, "So are you done ogling my chest?"
Yusuke thought for all of five seconds. "...No." Well, at least he was being honest with her.
"Har, har. Very funny," Keiko stated with a smirk, then warned, "And don't you dare follow up that line with something dirty, or I'll make you regret it."
"Yes'm," Yusuke assented, then digressed, "So are we going to hold hands and do mushy stuff now or are we going to play wet leapfrog?" Whoops.
An empty popcorn bowl flew onto Yusuke's noggin, the cheap plastic cracking in half upon the Class-S demon spawn's adamantine skull. With the grace and carelessness of Keiko's bowl hurl, it seemed to annihilate a whole culture, a whole system of thought, as though the blissfully unaware society of the living and the poignant community of the dead and damned could all be swept into nothingness by a single splendid movement of her throwing arm. Either that, or the force of Keiko's throw had made Yusuke uncharacteristically contemplative for a second.
Alas, the half-demon's brief reprieve of poetic wisdom didn't last. "Aw, come on, Keiko! You were asking for it! If you tell me not to say something dirty, it's like warning a kid not to touch the cookie jar before he even realized that the jar had been restocked... you were the one who gave me the idea to do the dirty deed in the first place!"
Keiko harrumphed in disdain. "U-huh. That's just peachy, Yusuke. Real peachy. Do you really think it's such a good idea to be condescending to your ex-girlfriend? That is, unless you've already found a new girlfriend and you now feel confident enough to make our break up official."
Yusuke scrunched up his face as though he just ate a box of lemons. "Wait a goddamn minute... ex-girlfriend? Can you care to explain to me how that happened again? I think I must have missed something."
"You think?" Keiko shot back with a flippant toss of her brown tresses. She then gave Yusuke "The Look"... the same look she gave him when he first told her that he'd become Demon Royalty and had to go back to the Demon World to know more about his ancestry and some such nonsense. She only made that blank, flat look on her face when she was really pissed off.
"Aw, come on, Keiko! You know I love you, right?" Yusuke confessed with a goofy grin on his face... the only way he could say such things without gagging at the sheer sap those three words induced in him.
Keiko shrugged. "Sure, sure. And so do I. That's not the point, though. Just because you've waltzed back in my life doesn't mean that we're automatically 'good', or anything. Remember, I never said that we were back together or anything."
"What? We were just on a date three weeks ago! We're even watching yet another lame movie right this very instant! What do you mean we're still not together? You're seriously giving me some mixed signals here, missy," Yusuke complained, but Keiko would not be swayed.
"Don't you remember that, before you went to the Demon World and promised to come back three years later, I dumped you? Oh sure, you swore that you'd marry me once you came back, but what did you do once you did? First, you got here in one and a half years instead of three years, so that's one promise broken..."
"I said I'll be back in about three years," Yusuke interjected, doing everything that he could to keep Keiko from riding that dangerous train of thought... at least, it was dangerous for him. "I only swore that it won't go beyond a day longer! I didn't say that I won't come back in less than three years! Besides, it's not my fault that I lost the Makai Tournament Semifinals and had to come back earlier than expected. Aren't you glad that I came back in advance? Have a heart, Keiko!"
Keiko cleared her throat primly and resumed, "Second, once you were here, you... didn't follow through with your marriage proposal. No ring. No engagement. No nothing. Of course, proposing just after you got dumped is a moronic thing to do anyway, so I probably shouldn't have bothered taking your word for it." She also didn't bother mentioning her disappointment, but the way she worded things, she might as well not have.
This time, Yusuke waited for Keiko to finish. Then, while carefully making sure his tone of voice didn't come off as flippant or rude, he ventured, "So I got here in half the time. That only means I'll marry you in one and a half year's time! I also have a freelance spirit detective job that's been in the dumps, so I get all my income from a ramen stand! I don't have the kind of money to buy you a ring... yet. Be reasonable!" Okay, he still needed to work on his "non-flippant and definitely not rude" words, but he was trying, at least.
Needless to say, Keiko was less than enthused by Yusuke's excuses. "On that note, you did set up a ramen stand as a front for your freelance work as a Spirit Detective... instead of following through with any of your promises. Dad was right; when you proposed to me the night before your trip to the Demon World, you were only doing that to appease my anger. Like when we were kids, whenever we fought the really big fights, you always flashed the 'marriage card' on me. Well, now that we're all grown up, it won't work this time around, buddy. All you have is lip service. So yes, as far as I'm concerned, you're not really my boyfriend anymore."
Keiko stopped her rant short once Yusuke began giving her his own version of "The Look". His eyes were so sharp, focused, and earnest that it was hard for his alleged former flame to avert her gaze. "W-What now?" she asked, gulping in anticipation.
"I'm going to start dating Botan, then," Yusuke proclaimed, sticking his tongue out at her churlishly. A fruit bowl flew to his head this time; he deftly caught it before it shattered on his thick skull.
"Yeah, right. Nice bluff. Botan's obviously too in love with Koenma to date a numbskull like you," Keiko retorted in a manner that resembled coy backtalk once she'd calmed down a bit... except her words didn't resemble coy backtalk in the least.
"Yeah, I've heard the rumors, but Koenma is actually hooked up with another shinigami named Ayame," Yusuke clarified; he figured that the least Keiko could do when making a rebuttal during their lover's quarrel was to get her facts straight.
"Well, um, how about Kenshin, then? They seemed pretty close after that Shisejyu debacle," Keiko suggested as she started to forget the topic that she and her not-boyfriend were discussing.
"That's a lot more complicated, but from what I've heard, Botan has the soul of Kenshin's ex-girlfriend inside her body or something. So... yeah," Yusuke replied, scratching his head. He could have left things at that, derailing Keiko's idle considerations of breaking up with him, but once he began talking unthinkingly, he really had a tendency to keep on going. "Hey, did you know that I once dreamed Botan was my wife, and Kurama and Hiei were my office mates or something like that? It was kind of freaky."
"..." Keiko threatened with a deadpan glare, her hands already clenched on the edges of a nearby table.
Backpedaling quickly, Yusuke blurted out, "I had an even freakier dream about a naked Genkai statue crumbling in front of me, cycling back to me accidentally groping her at an elevator. Seriously, Keiko! Naked Genkai Statue. Accidental Elevator Grope. Looping Dream. What more can I say?"
Keiko and Yusuke looked at each other for a full minute before bursting out in laughter at that last statement. Yusuke's dream about Genkai was just so unreal and ridiculous that they couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of its entire premise.
From there, after a passing glance at the clock, Keiko offhandedly reminded, "Oh yeah. Before you forget... it's going to be your turn to go to the hospital now, at about 9:00 PM. My parents should be back home by then. You did remember, right?"
"Oh yeah. I keep forgetting. What's your room number again?" Yusuke casually mentioned as he expressionlessly stared back at the television screen. The plot-less romantic drivel... er, movie had ended by then, and the credits were already rolling.
"Room 210, on the second floor. Jeez, do I have to remind you every time?"
Keiko got up, her feet not quite touching the ground as she floated a few meters up to the ceiling in wistful melancholy. Well, not really melancholy, but more of resignation and a touch of ruefulness. For an earthbound ghost, she was pretty well-adjusted, actually.
And just like that, the two woke up from their pretend lover's quarrel and their faux argument. Their exchange of invectives, long and involved relationship debates, verbal inventiveness, and "Will they? Won't they?" sexual tension was largely manufactured by their own boredom and, sadly, an overlapping web of unfortunate events that made their circumstances one where they had to laugh or else they'd cry.
Sure, the combination of Yusuke, Kenshin, Kuwabara, Botan, Puu, and Genkai's life forces, the Demon Sword's magic, Genkai's Five Daiken Purification, and Yusuke's Kiss of Life was able to save Keiko from the brink of lifelessness nearly a month ago, but it was barely enough to get her back from certain death to uncertain death. Her body had now returned to its original state of half-alive, half-dead coma... the Schrödinger's Cat Dilemma... simply because the obstacles they faced were far more difficult to overcome than they'd anticipated. Real life had struck again.
"The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough," was the quote Yusuke was trying to recall during the time he and his comrades were attempting to revive the dead Keiko.
Depending on Keiko's ultimate fate, he might soon find out that some brick walls were never meant to be scaled, such that no matter how hard he tried, how many tears he shed, how much energy he charged up, how unfair the situation was, how many worse situations he'd survived, or how badly he wanted something, he could not always get what he wanted.
In about one and half a years or less, Yusuke would eventually find out whether Keiko's dreamless death was just another brick wall for him to scale through or a past-due life lesson for him to learn from.
Three weeks earlier, while Botan was busy keeping Keiko from passing on in the Spirit World...
The ferry-girl's astral projection had finally reached its intended destination; the place where she spent much of her spiritual life in. Level 10 Block 1 of the Purgatorial Sector: The Elysian Fields.
It took her a long time to get there, and for a quite a while, she had gotten lost and somehow ended up in Level 17 Block 8 of the Corporeal Punishments Sector. She shuddered. Indeed, she had heard enough wailing and gnashing of teeth in that one awkward moment to last her a human lifetime.
Being there in the Elysian Fields brought back lots of memories for the ferry-girl. Actually, the exact opposite was instead true; being there in the Elysian Fields made Botan forget a lot of her memories... especially the memories of her past life.
Her past life. Huh. She must have been hard up on forgetting all about her past life to have willingly come there in the Elysian Fields... or so "Ayame-sempai" had her believe. In any case, something deep inside her gut told her that her senior was telling the truth: her past life as a human was something that she had desperately wanted to forget, so much so that even now in her state of willful amnesia, she still remembered not wanting to remember a single thing about her past.
She shook her troubled mind clear of such thoughts as she focused on the thing that somehow caught her attention: a pristine white lotus petal on the ground. That lone petal had the fragrance of a thousand roses, yet its scent was as subtle as a gentle summer breeze. However, its aroma couldn't possibly compare to its oh-so-scrumptious taste and the effects it had on a wandering spirit's general, um, wellbeing. 'But of course. Why else would it be called the 'Flower of Eden'?'
She simply couldn't describe the feeling. Even though at the time she'd already forgotten everything about her life, she couldn't possibly forget the overwhelming emotions she got from ingesting the delicious flower. Every time she ate one, everything around her became intense and exaggerated. Her surroundings also became very animated; in touch, color, sharpness, sound, and smell, they all acquired vivacity beyond compare. It was as if she were alive again, feeling all of the above sensations simultaneously with more exuberance and feeling than she could ever imagine. The lotus petals made her feel as though she could never be sad again so long as she kept on eating them.
The ferry-girl remembered many a day in her stay in the Elysian Fields where she would sit idly, munching on the petals of the nearest lotus blossom in sweet bliss, forgetting all about her bitter past and not having a care in the world. She simply could not describe the feeling she felt every time she consumed the satisfying blossom. The sheer thrill she experienced from eating it was indescribable. It felt as though she were drunkenly infatuated with someone, or maybe it felt more like she were climaxing during love-making. No, it felt even better than that. Every fiber of her being exuded freedom. She underwent complete and total abandonment of herself. The lotus blossoms made her feel like Buddha after he reached enlightenment.
'But I digress,' Botan remarked to herself, spewing the lotus petal that somehow ended up in her mouth and blowing it into the misty waters. 'Boy, that was close. Eating those things is dangerous! Sure, they taste so good and give you such a high that you'd want more and more, but... but... what was so bad about them again?'
Botan pinched her cheeks in frustration. 'Ugh, Botan! Focus! I can't eat any of that stuff! They'll make me fat... no, I mean, forget about my mission... and everything else, while we're at it... and turn me into a lotus-eating junkie... again. Though there are worse things that could happen to a person... and I can easily see myself staying here and eating lotus blossoms for the rest of my spiritual life... priorities are PRIORITIES! I need to find KEIKO-CHAN, and I need to find her NOW!'
Botan pointlessly breathed in and out, calming her frayed... and mostly imaginary, since she was in spirit form... nerves. 'Wow. It's been so long since I first came here, hasn't it? It's been fifty-something years since I first entered this place. I think.'
After an eternity of searching through thousands of lotus-eating junkies, Botan's heart got caught in her throat as she found a trail of rocks leading straight to the person she was looking for; she'd finally reached her intended target just in the nick of time.
"Keiko-chan! KEIKO-CHAN! It's me, Botan! I've come to get you out of here!" She excitedly landed on the nearby patch of land, relieved to see that the ghost of Yusuke's childhood friend was all right.
Her heart subsequently plunged into her stomach as she saw the bits of lotus petals on the side of her dear friend's chin; Keiko Yukimura was now one of them: one of the lotophagi.
Munching idly on a lotus blossom, Keiko deadpanned, "Hello there, miss. And you are...?"
"Uh, um, it's me... Botan." The ferry-girl tentatively reintroduced herself as she bowed, then scratched her chin in consternation. 'Oh great. It's like I'm talking to a senile old granny. I guess I'd better humor her for now.' "Uh, nice to meet you. Anyway, I've actually come here for you, Yukimura Keiko! Today, we need to..."
"Um..." Keiko stared at Botan blankly. "Who's Yukimura Keiko?"
Botan nearly facefaulted, but caught herself in the middle of her fall. 'No good. She's eaten enough lotus blossoms to forget her own name! Hmmm. Come to think of it, so did I once upon a time, BUT THAT'S NOT IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW!'
"Keiko we really need to get out of here or else you will become a lotus druggie and I... !" Botan explained in one breath, teary-eyed and terrified beyond words at her friend's present condition.
"What are you going on about? Slow down. Deep breaths," Keiko berated in level-headed calm and composure, her eyes half-lidded in indifference.
Botan slowed down, took deep breaths, then resumed her bout of panic. "C'mon, Keiko! Don't tell me that you've forgotten your own name!" 'You'd have to be plenty wasted to do that,' the aqua-haired shinigami said and thought respectively, concern marring her beautiful features. "You remember who I am, right? I'm Botan!"
Keiko tilted her head, then shrugged. "Humph. Names. Who needs them? A rose by any other name smells just as sweet and fragrant. You can call me Master Jericho for all I care. I'm perfectly happy just the way I am now."
"J-Jericho...?" Botan blinked soundly. 'Yep. She's wasted.'
Jericho, er, Keiko ate more of the delectable lotus blossoms at hand before offering one to Botan. "Want some? They're practically growing everywhere for easy pickings, and they taste oh-so-magnificent... like a piece of paradise in your mouth. You should give it a try."
"N-N-No. I really shouldn't, b-but thanks anyway," Botan stuttered as she hastily wiped the cold sweat off of her brow. 'Break the habit, Botan. Break the HABIT!'
Keiko shrugged once again. "Suit yourself." She afterwards focused her full attention on picking up more blossoms for her hearty consumption. "Well, it was nice meeting you... whoever you are. See you whenever. Ciao."
"Ciao?" Botan did an impressive double-to-triple-take at Keiko's declaration. "H-Hey! Wait! You can't let things end this way! You still have your whole life ahead of you. Just because Seiryu killed you doesn't mean that you'll have to spend the rest of your spiritual life in purgatory, stuck in a state of blissful ignorance of who you really are!"
But Keiko had already consumed three whole helpings of lotus blossoms during the course of Botan's impassioned speech. The schoolgirl then blinked, looked up at the ferry-girl, then cheerfully greeted, "Hello! And who might you be?"
"..." Botan detailed. 'I think I'm going to cry. How can I make you remember, Keiko-chan? What must I do so that I can remind you of who you really are?'
"So you don't know your own name too, huh? I've met lots of people here who are like that." Keiko gave Botan a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "But that's all right. As long as everybody has a steady supply of lotus blossoms to eat, then everything will be a-okay! Right?" She afterwards winked and did a thumb's up sign.
"Ah..." Botan started, boggling at Keiko's sudden shift of moods. 'Did I act this wasted when I was lotophagi? Jeez, Keiko-chan is becoming the poster child of a public service announcement on drugs right before my very eyes!'
Like a small child, Keiko again shifted her attention to other matters of great importance: matters involving lotus blossoms and lotus blossom consumption, no doubt. "Well, I guess that's that. I better get going, um..." The young ghost girl seemed to ponder something for a little bit before smacking her palm with a closed fist. Realization had apparently struck her at the back of her amnesiac mind. "Wait! I know who you are!"
Botan suddenly brightened like a halogen lamp as she elatedly jumped at her forgetful friend with uncontainable excitement. "Do you remember who I am? Who you are? Why you have to get out of here?"
But Keiko wasn't even listening to the Angel of Death. "Jeremiah! No, Michaela! Wait, no, Charlene! You're Charlene! I should call you Charlene, because you look like a Charlene to me!" the young girl chirpily assessed. "Well, anyway... Good-bye, Charlene! I hope you have a happy life! Try one of these lotus blossoms sometime, they taste fantastic."
Botan's mouth went agape as she reflexively bowed down and waved good-bye at Keiko in a dazed and confused manner. Once she regained control of her psychomotor functions, the blue-haired ferry-girl of death cried out, "Now just hold on a minute, Keiko-chan!"
"...Jenny. I like the name Jenny. Call me Jenny," Jenny helpfully supplied as she crouched down and picked up a fresh stash of lotus blossoms, putting them inside the folded hem of her uniform's skirt.
"Fine, Jenny-chan..." Botan blinked several times. "N-No. Just... no. Keiko. You're not a darn foreigner, you're Keiko-chan! And stop distracting me, your name is beside the point! You couldn't possibly forget everything about your life just like that, not after everything you've gone through!" Growling like a feral hellcat, Botan charged forward, startling the young girl and making her drop her prized lotus blossoms on the ground. Several lotophagi suddenly appeared out of nowhere and quickly snatched away the delightful, mind-altering plants.
The absentminded female was further taken aback when the ferry-girl grabbed her by the shoulders, holding her at arm's length. "Snap out of it, Keiko! You've got to remember who you are and where you came from, damn it! I won't allow you to become a lotophagi junkie! No way! You are not a lemming! We have to get out of here before this whole damn place swallows you whole!"
"Hey, let go! Stop shaking me, Charlene!" Keiko shrieked as she resisted the distressed girl's grip. Feeling ashamed for her sudden outburst, Keiko quickly got her breath back. Controlled herself. Forced herself to calm down and relax. Whatever it was that the crazy lady was ranting about, it didn't apply to her. So... she had nothing to worry about.
"Look, I barely know you, and I have better things to do. I couldn't care less why you're here, why you're calling me strange names, and why you'd actually think that I'd willingly come with you and leave this wonderful, magical place behind. So stop wasting my time if you have nothing better to say, okay?" Keiko admonished, laying down her ultimatum on the upset shinigami.
And with that, Keiko made her way out of the area, leaving Botan there like a child asked to think about what she'd done wrong. And the Goddess of Bereavement indeed had a lot to think about.
Feeling like she had little to lose at that point, Botan fumbled through the inside flaps of her kimono and took out the standard issue guidebook of all shinigami that detailed everything they needed to know about the lives of millions of humans: the Book of Fate. She hastily flipped through its pages before stopping on a particular profile. "Do you remember," she winced at the characters, "Daiichi All-Girls Academy? In that school, you're the class representative of your section, aren't you?"
Keiko didn't even miss a beat as she, in turn, rummaged through a nearby bushel of pre-picked lotus blossoms that a slumbering lotophagi carelessly left unguarded. "Yes! I've hit pay dirt. Sorry, mister. You snooze, you lose."
"And what about your best friends what's-her-face and the other girl?" Botan tried to find the names of Keiko's closest acquaintances in the book, but then decided that she had very little time to waste. "Don't tell me that you've forgotten their names the same way as I did! You're way nicer than that! Also, what about your parents who run the Yukimura Diner? Have you forgotten about them too?"
Keiko continued to ignore Botan as she added even more lotus flowers to her current supply while keeping a wary eye out for any wily lotus blossom thieves like herself.
"And I bet it's impossible for you to forget all about Urameshi Yusuke, right?" That got Keiko's attention. Botan prodded, "How can you not remember? He is, after all, a disgusting, irresponsible, and annoying brat who always teased you and caused you trouble. You were his only friend from way back when. Also, you were always there for him, even when his mother wasn't."
Botan laughed; she didn't care if it was an appropriate time for her to do so, she just did. "Who would have thought that a juvenile delinquent like him would end up with a straight-A student like you? I guess opposites really do attract."
"Shut up, Charlene. I'm not listening to you or any more of your weird stories," Keiko pointed out without looking up from her crouched position. She was about ready to eat yet another lotus blossom when she heard Botan's next lines, stopping her short of taking a bite out of flowery bliss.
"Most importantly, Yusuke's the most important person in your life, so of course you'd remember him! You brought him back to life with a kiss, he nearly died for you once or twice trying to save your life, and you waited for him oh-so-patiently for one and a half years while he was in the Demon World. A blind person can see how important you two are to each other. Even in your state of amnesia, your feelings for him should overcome your forgetfulness!"
Keiko threw the flower bud at Botan's face in frustration. "No! Stop it! SHUT UP! I don't want to REMEMBER! I don't want to dredge up the past! I don't care who Kyosuke or Eugene or Tetsuo is! I JUST WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE! Can't you just leave me in peace?" She proceeded to break down and cry in the middle of the lotus fields.
Botan bit her lip as she cautiously approached the sobbing Keiko. 'I'm so sorry about this, Keiko... but I had to say it! I can't stand the thought of losing you to this place.' She wistfully looked up at the foggy skies. 'Come to think of it, nearly the same thing happened when Ayame-sempai tried to get me out of the Purgatorial Sector. I couldn't stop myself from crying. I didn't want to leave.'
Botan's pensive gaze turned resolute. 'But I still have to do this. Even if... even if Enma Daio himself ordered Ayame to get Keiko in here for the sake of turning her into a ferry-girl just like me, I won't allow it. She still has Yusuke to take care of, after all.' She put a gentle, comforting hand on the bawling girl's shoulder.
The Death Goddess flinched as Keiko slapped her hand away. 'Boy, she's really angry now. I don't blame her. The shock of her death may have sealed the deal for her, causing her to drown all her problems with these lotus blossoms. At this point, she's too afraid to remember who she really was simply because it'd reveal to her everything she had lost by dying in Seiryu's hands. In short, she's in total denial.'
Botan let out a vaporous breath of resolution. 'I knew that it'd come to this. It looks like there's no other way. I have to give it to her now.' She fumbled through her sleeves again before getting a hold of what looked like, for all intents and purposes, a shiny apple.
"Look, I'm really sorry for all the trouble I've caused. Don't worry, I won't push the issue any further." The ferry-girl smiled friendlily at her contemplative friend. "Let me make it up to you. Are you hungry, Kei... I mean, Jenny-chan? I have something that tastes even better than all those yucky lotus blossoms you've been eating. It's a delicious apple," Botan lied through her teeth.
Keiko raised an eyebrow as she cautiously and suspiciously eyed the blood-red fruit.
"Oh, come on. Take a bite! It's just a harmless apple. And you know what they say, 'An apple a day...'" Botan insisted.
Keiko examined the fruit carefully, noticed its pear-like shape and multilayered skin, and declared, "That's not an apple. You can't fool me. There's no way you're making me eat that fruit. I've heard of it; it came from the Tree of Knowledge. People say that eating it will cause certain death, and I don't want to die!" Keiko hastily backed away from the ferry-girl, prompting several lotophagi, upon overhearing the conversation, to retreat into the fields of white and pink as well, away from the cursed fruit.
'That's a lot different from what I heard. Besides, of all the things she could remember, why did she recall that particular tidbit?' Botan snorted. "Get real, Keiko-chan. You're already dead. Eating this fruit won't kill you. Besides, if it really was supposed to kill you, then it should have been called, 'The Fruit from the Tree of Death', right?"
"Stop it. I told you to stop calling me Keiko-chan. And for the last time, stop telling me all these lies! I'm not dead. In fact, I've never felt more alive in all my life!" The obstinate Keiko slapped the apple-like fruit from Botan's hand. "Keep that thing away from me."
'You're as stubborn as ever, Keiko-chan,' Botan thought as she picked up the faux-apple off of the ground. She took great pains to obtain the forbidden fruit before getting to the Elysian Fields, so she'd damn well find a way to get Keiko to eat it even if it kills her. She afterwards developed another plan. Its consequences might just be too much for her to handle, but she was willing to take the risk.
"I don't see what you're getting all worked up about. This thing's delicious! Watch." As Botan said the words, she cleaned the fruit with her left sleeve and took a large bite out of it with no hesitation or contestation. 'This is all for your sake, Keiko-chan. So you better eat this damn fruit, or else!' After that, she did her best to conceal her displeasure over the bitter aftertaste. "Yummy!"
After Keiko saw the stranger eat the fruit with no ill effects, she reconsidered her first assessment. Truth be told, she would rather eat more of the delicious, ecstasy-inducing lotus flowers, but her curiosity quickly got the better of her. The schoolgirl saw that the fruit was good to eat and pleasant to the eyes; little did she know that it was also ideal for getting lost knowledge about one's self as well. With no signs of reluctance, she took a bite out of the contentious fruit.
Botan gulped, hastily wiping the tears that formed in her eyes. She didn't want to think about the consequences of her eating the fruit as of yet. 'If eating that damn fruit will cause me to remember a little bit of my past, then so be it. Jenny's worth it. Er, I mean, Keiko's worth it. Yeah.'
Keiko at first balked at the bitterness of the fruit, then her mind's eyes opened and saw her unlocked memories burst into her head like water from a broken dam. In that brief instant, Keiko indeed saw her life pass before her very eyes.
Keiko suddenly slapped Botan hard on the cheek, leaving a stinging red mark on the ferry-girl's face. That gave Botan her second greatest shock of the day; the first one was Keiko's death.
"Why did you make me remember? Why didn't you just let me forget, knowing the reality of the situation? Why now, after I've successfully forgotten everything? How dare you. How dare you let me suffer like this!" came the livid Keiko's tirade.
"Keiko-chan, I... I..." Botan started, searching for the right words to say; her search was futile.
"Actually, I've been thinking. Ever since I left that trail of rocks for you to follow, I've been thinking. I said to myself, 'What's the point of all this? What am I doing this for? Am I really that confident that I'll be found? That I'll survive?' These questions echoed in my mind over and over. I thought I was going completely insane..."
"But you can't give up now!" Botan interrupted, not liking the direction the conversation was going. "I'm sure there's a way for you to come back to life. There always is. No, there definitely is!"
"What a nice sentiment." Keiko chuckled somberly. "If there really is a chance for me to come back to life, then what am I doing here in this lonely, godforsaken land in the first place? Why am I a ghost now? What was I doing in the River Styx, floating towards 'where I'm supposed to be'? Why wasn't Genkai-baasan able to save me? Why wasn't Yusuke...?" Her lips trembled as her eyes moistened. "Just let me be. I'm tired. I've had enough."
After a fair amount of quiet contemplation and deliberation, Botan retorted with, "Resigning yourself to spend two human lifetimes here in purgatory isn't the answer, Keiko-chan! Please, don't run away from your past. I beg you, have more faith in Yusuke!"
"Then tell me, can Yusuke find a way to return me to my body? Can Koenma Daio? Can you?" Poignant tranquility reigned supreme as Keiko waited ever so patiently for Botan's answer. "I thought so," the ghost-girl stated with resolute conclusiveness.
Botan had just about enough of Keiko's angst-ridden cheekiness. "You want the truth? Fine. I don't know. I don't know whether or not I, or Yusuke, or Koenma Daio can save your life, seeing the permanent damage Seiryu did to your body." The shinigami's passionate avowal prompted a pained wince from Keiko. "I came here on a whim, with only a faint hope that Koenma-sama can somehow find a loophole or something to revive you the same way he did Yusuke. But that's probably just a delusion of mine, knowing the situation."
Botan sighed forlornly. "Maybe you're right. Maybe it was stupid of me to go here in the Elysian Fields to pick you up. Maybe this was all a big mistake, and ignorance truly is bliss. But you know what? I don't give a damn. I'm not only trying to save your butt for your own sake, but for Yusuke's as well. So what if there's little to no chance of you recovering? We'll find a way. We'll do whatever it takes to get you back. If that's still not enough, then tough luck; it's time to let go. But not right now. Not while you still have a shadow of a chance left. Never let go while that small spark of hope is still there!"
There was another pregnant pause. "B-But what if...?" Keiko sputtered in fear and apprehension.
"No more buts. No more buts, ifs, and whys. No more questions, please. We'll simply cross that bridge when we get there. For now, what's important is that we get out of here." Botan summoned her mystic oar and motioned Keiko to hop on. "We have to go, Keiko-chan. We still have some unfinished business to take care of."
Her eyes downcast, Keiko nodded in agreement as she made her way towards the ferry-girl's unusual mode of transportation.
Three weeks later, at the Gates of Judgment...
Yusuke comically boggled at what Botan had just revealed for thirty minutes straight. "Really? You did all that while Kenshin and I were fighting a whole gauntlet of baddies? You're pulling my leg."
Kenshin scratched his cheek sheepishly. "Actually, I was the one who was fighting the gauntlet of baddies, Yusuke-dono."
"Shut up! Rando was a hundred and one enemies in one, so... shut up!" Yusuke barked at Kenshin, unaccustomed to the swordsman's more caustic nature as of late. "Can you back Botan's bizarre story up, Jenny?"
Keiko coughed primly before making Yusuke's spine literally tingle with her ghostly touch. "Don't call me that."
Botan smilingly sighed, saddened over the fact that the forbidden fruit would eventually unlock her hidden past sooner or later..
To be Continued...
Next (for Demon Sword): The demon fox and the evil-eyed madman.
Next (for Youtou Shinnoken): Sano and Yahiko's day out.
On a more important note, you might be wondering about the two 'next' previews above. There's a reason for that, actually. Now that the first major arc of Youtou Shinnoken: Demon Sword is... oh dear Lord God in Heaven... finally, finally over, I'm now trying out something different to keep things interesting (for me and, hopefully, the readers), and the thing that inspired me to do this was... well, wrestling. Yeah.
In more specific terms, Demon Sword will now focus mostly (but not exclusively) on Yuyu Hakusho protagonists and Rurouni Kenshin antagonists, while Youtou Shinnoken will focus mostly (but not exclusively) on Rurouni Kenshin protagonists and Yuyu Hakusho antagonists. Instead of two plot lines running together on one fic, the other plot line has a separate story of its own, a la side story (but not quite). For sure, it'll be an interesting experience. Ergo, let my little Experiment with Prose begin!
Hajime!
Abdiel