Three weeks after the attack at Genkai's temple, in the Spirit World...
"I'm so sorry for troubling you with my stupidity and impulsiveness. I owe Botan a lot for rescuing me in the middle of purgatory and keeping my memories from getting lost forever."
Before Keiko Yukimura knew it, Yusuke Urameshi's hand had found its way to hers. They held each other's hands tightly.
Koenma Daio wanted to grill Ayame further... particularly regarding the fact that she didn't exactly help Keiko out after the latter ended up in the middle fork... but he ultimately decided against it.
There was nothing stopping the black-clad death god from fetching the lost soul and putting her back in the right destination. In fact, that was part of a ferry-girl's job description, the Sanzu no Kawa's sentient current be damned! Nevertheless, he had more pressing matters to attend to.
"Um," Yusuke abruptly ventured as he resolved to broach the subject regarding Keiko's condition (which he believed was long overdue, and he had an inkling feeling that Koenma was deliberately avoiding the topic all this time) but couldn't, because he still felt awkward asking favors from the toddler who saved his life once upon a time.
Koenma cleared his throat, motioned to Ayame to end her report, and addressed what was on Yusuke's mind because it was painfully obvious anyway.
"I would love to help you, Yusuke. I'd really do. If there's anyone in the mortal realm who deserves a free 'Get my loved one out of the afterlife' pass, it'd be you. Granted, I think you're a bit overdue when it comes to death yourself, but then again, you've accrued enough good karma as a Reikai Tantei to at least save your loved ones from any harsh judgments care of yours truly. Alas..."
"Alas? Alas? What do you mean by alas?" demanded Yusuke.
Koenma cleared his throat. "But Yukimura-san's case is a particularly hard nut to crack. My hands are a tied this time around in regards to her ultimate fate because of what Seiryu did to her three weeks past."
"You want to help but you couldn't? Then what was the point of all that posturing and lecturing you did earlier?" Yusuke somehow felt like the Spirit World was jerking his chain around like he were some sort of mangy mutt.
If Koenma wanted him to accept that Keiko's death was inevitable, then they shouldn't have bothered with all this... for lack of an acceptable term... bullshit.
They should've instead told him straightaway to leave things the way they were. Then again, he'd of course merely rely on other means, like modern medicine or even alternative remedies, to revive Keiko in the long run. What was the point of giving him a sense of false hope like that? This was bordering on sadistic!
"I'm not yet through, Yusuke. Take it easy," Koenma insisted after seeing the cross look on his former premier spirit detective's face and the worried features of Keiko's ghost.
"As Hinageshi explained earlier on, there are different types of ki. They each have a designated role when it comes to balancing the cosmos and perpetuating the survival of mortal life forms. The healthy flow of reiki and youki indicates good health, but once it's invaded by jaki, it could mean darkness and entropy because that's the role that jaki has to fulfill. However, jaki is usually produced from suffering and death, not the other way around."
Koenma took a deep breath. "It's kind of complicated. Yukimura... Keiko-san was used as a conduit of sorts for jaki, and it has now put her body and soul at odds with each other. This is an unusual case, but it's not unprecedented. The problem of course lies with how you're going to go about restoring Keiko-san back to life."
The Prince of the Dead rubbed his chin. "Actually, this case reminds me a lot of what happened to Yusuke when he first died. There are many parallels. He defied fate, and he was given the chance to come back to life because of his weird circumstances."
Yusuke blinked, and so did Keiko. What was Koenma trying to say?
"In Keiko-san's case, the problem is that jaki, like pure willpower, can also help defy fate. All of the zombies that the Chojin kept creating defied their fates as well through negative energy. The main reason why Keiko-san is in a coma right now is because her will to live and the jaki's fate-defying powers are fighting over her very soul. Ergo, because of this impasse, we have no choice but to eliminate the root of the problem: The fact that her spiritual chemistry has become a magnet for misfortune and bad karma care of her unceasing suffering."
"So what do you want us to do?" Yusuke ventured, his crooked mouth trembling between a hopeful smile and a dejected frown.
"You should amass good deeds the same way you and Botan did when you were the one who had died because of unusual circumstances, Yusuke. This is the best course of action that the Reikai can recommend to her just short of bringing her soul to purgatory and purging every trace of negativity in her system. When fighting bad karma, it's best done using good karma, I believe," came Koenma's ultimate decision regarding the matter.
Yusuke and Keiko stood up, their jaws mere inches above the floor. "Y-You're kidding, right? That's it? Do good deeds? Is that your half-assed way of throwing us under the bus, Koenma?"
"No, no, no. I'm dead serious. Good deeds are what you need... and not just any good deeds. In order to score major karma points, you should probably get reinstated as a spirit detective on a temporary basis and stop any and all of the Chojin's attempts at amassing more jaki to fuel his dark ambition in conquering all three worlds."
Yusuke smirked as he rubbed his nose with his finger. "You sly devil. You've managed to bail us out and help yourself at the same time."
"Does that mean you object to my methods?" Koenma asked with an eyebrow raised.
"No, I didn't mean it like that. Thank you for the opportunity. This really means a lot to me... well, to us, but especially to me," Yusuke effusively reassured, bowing down repeatedly at Koenma like a door-to-door salesman who'd just made a sale to a housewife while shaking the influential tot's hand.
"A word of warning. This isn't like the test I gave you to get your life back. This is more of an experiment than anything else. I have no guarantees that this will work, save for the fact that you'll get a small measure of revenge against the bastard who helped do this to Keiko-san in the first place... the Chojin... by interfering right at the heart of his operations. Also, you can only assist Keiko in doing her good deeds. She herself must accomplish the missions in order for the act to count as her karmic retribution of sorts."
Yusuke shrunk back a bit at hearing Koenma's stipulations, but he kept a brave front for Keiko's sake nonetheless. It was disheartening to hear that success wasn't a guarantee in his bid to get his girlfriend back to normal, but he was still relieved to hear that there was a way to help her after all.
In the back of his mind, Yusuke remembered Botan's insightful revelation regarding the true nature of spirit energy: "The strength of the spirit has nothing to do with physical strength but with feelings and emotions. What's within your heart becomes the source from which all power originates."
"Um, I'd hate to be a bother, but what good deeds are we supposed to do? That part of this deal is still kind of... vague to me," Keiko admitted.
"Sayaka, our newest shinigami-in-training, also needs more work experience to meet her own goals. She'll be the one who'll assign your mission objectives from this point on. In fact, you can start with an assignment right this instant!"
Koenma signaled Sayaka to stand, then turned to face Keiko.
"If anything, by accomplishing this goal, you'll be able to keep the jaki inside of you from completely consuming your soul. If you have any further questions, you may direct them to Sayaka. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to meet with Himura-san and Botan now. Can you please fetch them for me?"
Demon Sword
A Yuyu Hakusho/Rurouni Kenshin Crossover Fan Fiction by Chester Castañeda
Original Concept by Chad Yang
Keiko has a lot of homework to catch up to. No, I have no idea why I put that in this author aside either.
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, Shueisha, Shonen Jump, Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio Gallup, Studio Deen, and ADV. 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 27: Homework Never Ends (Part 2)
Three weeks after the momentous fight at Genkai's temple, in the upper stratosphere of the Human World...
Keiko's ghost screamed while Yusuke's ghost laughed at her. Feeling sorry for her cluelessness, the former spirit detective grabbed hold of her torso and halted her descent to the Ningenkai in midair.
"It's okay, Keiko. We're ghosts right now. We won't die from this or falling from any height. We can even go to space if you want, but it's a long way back to Earth if we do that," Yusuke explained, but not before suffering from the brunt of Keiko's rage at not being told of all these things before they made the jump to the Human World.
'Huh. Ghosts can hurt each other. I should remember that,' Keiko noted to herself as she admired her handiwork. The lumpy-faced Yusuke, on the other hand, considered the virtues of making Keiko freefall again as revenge for his girlfriend's overreaction.
"Oh, sorry! My bad! I should've warned you about how ghosts residing in the Human World travel. In contrast to the Spirit World, where a different kind of gravity keeps ghosts or their will-o'-the-wisp forms on the ground, a ghost on the world of the living can basically float anywhere it wants because it's incorporeal," Sayaka informed with a smile.
"Hey, wait. Before we, er, 'jumped' back to the Human World, you said something about meeting Yusuke before. Are you talking about Puu's egg that Yusuke sacrificed in order to save me from being burned alive? You know, when he first died from a car accident and he was trying to revive himself? Did you meet him them?" Keiko asked.
Both Sayaka and Yusuke looked at Keiko like they saw a ghost... not Keiko's ghost, of course, and knowing those two, the probably wouldn't bat an eye if they did see a ghost... Y'know what? Never mind. To reiterate, both of them had gaping maws and wide eyes in reaction to the Yukimura girl's statement.
"Who told you about that?" queried Yusuke as their descent slowed and they were within skyscraper distance of Tokyo. The half-mazoku held back his feeling of nostalgia at again being a ghost... granted, he was merely an astral projection this time around, but his wistfulness remained nonetheless. "I don't remember telling you about that adventure of mine!"
Keiko shrugged. "Botan told me everything about it during the year and a half you were gone." Her bangs obscuring her eyes as she looked away, she added, "You were supposed to take care of Puu's egg as some sort of Spirit World test, right? And yet you still threw it towards the fire to save my life..."
Yusuke cleared his throat and pulled at his collar, even though the clothes his astral projection wore was merely for show. Meanwhile, Sayaka's shoulders drooped as she breathed out a sigh while smiling.
"Oh, good! I'm glad Botan-sempai cleared everything up! Then I won't have to tell you about the time Yusuke-niichan spanked my bottom for almost turning a boy I liked into a ghost!"
Keiko did a double take, her hair tossing against something other than the wind as she turned her head towards the ferry-girl-in-training and inquired, "Pardon me? Yusuke spanked you?"
While catching Yusuke by the ear as he struggled to get away, one other thing occurred to the ghostly Yukimura. "Hey, wait a minute! You were a ghost? I thought you met Yusuke when you were already an agent of the Spirit World! You were the one checking whether or not Yusuke was fit to be resurrected! That's what Botan told me!"
"Now hold on a minute. Maybe Botan pulled the same shit she did when she 'told' you about my role as a Spirit World Detective, which gave you the impression that I was some sort of real-world private dick!" blurted Yusuke after escaping Keiko's ear grip, only to shrink back at the withering stare she gave him while covering Sayaka's ears
"Watch your language! There are children around!" Keiko turned Sayaka towards her. "It's possible that Botan may have fudged the details a bit for my sake. As far as I know, Yusuke was supposed to take care of Puu's egg, then Reikai had a change of heart and allowed him to live again by..."
Keiko remembered the life-giving kiss she had to give to Yusuke in order to ensure that he was resurrected (it was another one of the Reikai's stupid requirements), which made her cheeks literally glow red... the closest a ghost could ever get to a physical blush.
What made her go through such an embarrassing ritual anyway? Well, Botan told her it involved something about the human soul's wave cycles...
"I don't know much about Yusuke-niichan's situation myself, but I was an earthbound spirit before I even met him. I don't remember much about my childhood except sadness, I'm afraid to say." Sayaka scratched her cheek, her eyes downtrodden.
Even at that moment, long after she had died, the shinigami trainee had a hard time admitting that she spent most of her childhood inside a hospital, and she was only able to spend time with her family during the last six months of her life because of her sickness.
"After I passed away, I stayed at my parents' house till they abandoned it because I was haunting the place. Then one day, while looking out from the window of my old room, I saw this boy named Shota. I wanted to be friends with him, but..."
Yusuke chimed in, "Sayaka was possessed by her desire to make friends at that point, which eventually made her go a little nuts. She wasn't an evil spirit, but her broken hopes took a life of their own and made her almost take Shota to Heaven with her without a shinigami like Botan to direct them to the right path. They would've ended up stuck in limbo without a spirit guide's help."
Sayaka blinked back the ectoplasm tears forming around the edges of her moist, almond-shaped eyes. "I didn't mean to almost kill Shota. I only wanted someone to go with me to Heaven so that we could play together forever. Yusuke-niichan saved me from turning into an evil and lost spirit because of all the loneliness that corrupted my soul... or at least, that's what Botan told me."
Something occurred to Yusuke. "Come to think of it, are we sure we should trust Botan's words? I mean, she's told Keiko half-truths about what really happened to me twice in a row now!"
Keiko closed her eyes, turned her head to the side, and pushed her outstretched hands and open palms towards her spiritual companions. "Wait... This is a little hard to swallow, you guys. Um, so you aren't a Spirit World Inspector who wanted to see whether Yusuke was worthy of resurrection or not, Sayaka-chan?"
"Nope. At least, not during the time I first met Yusuke-niichan. Nowadays, I guess you can call me a Spirit World Inspector," Sayaka informed with a big, open-mouthed smile on her face, intentionally neglecting to mention her crush on Yusuke and the fact that she once checked out whether or not Keiko was "worthy" of her "Big Bro".
"Okay. Fair enough. And who is this Shota person?" Keiko further inquired.
"Oh boy, here we go..." Yusuke muttered as he rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.
"What?" Keiko asked as she raised her eyebrow and curled her upper lip.
"I guess Botan really did breeze through the things I went through in order to come back to life, huh?" Yusuke exhaled. "It's a long story, Keiko. The problem with telling you who Shota is involves the fact that it'll lead from one story to another, and before we know it, we'd have wasted the whole day chatting about my past exploits."
"Humor me. I have all the time in the world," Keiko insisted, her hands on her hips as she smirked.
"I don't think it'll hurt for Big Bro to talk about how he was revived, especially in light of Keiko's mission and how she'll go about removing Seiryu's bad karma off of her soul," Sayaka supposed as she took out her signature clipboard that bore her assignments for the day.
With an exasperated grunt, Yusuke started divulging the story behind his first brush with death and his subsequent adventures in the afterlife as they followed Sayaka's lead to Kami-sama-knew-where.
Yusuke first started with his unforeseen car accident while saving a young boy, his subsequent funeral, his meeting with Koenma wherein he was given a mysterious egg, his visit to Keiko in her dream to tell her he was coming back to life, and his possession of Kuwabara's body in order to prove to her that he was really going to be resurrected, which his girlfriend confirmed as things Botan already told her or stuff she still remembered.
He then told stories that Keiko wasn't familiar with, like the time when he first met Shota as the owner of a dog named Jiro that recently died and couldn't leave the Human World because of his lingering connections to his codependent master. The half-demon helped Shota let go of Jiro and allow him to go to Heaven by putting on a strange costume and pretending to be a bad guy who was out to bring the dog to Hell.
Then there was the time when, during Christmas, Yusuke found an earthbound ghost who couldn't leave a certain bench because she promised her date that she'd wait for him there during last Christmas, when she died.
She found out later that the boy she was dating, Kenji, was a jerk who dated her to kill time. Yusuke went out with the heartbroken girl until she was left with no regrets and went straight to Reikai. He then haunted Kenji as revenge for his insensitivity.
"I wonder if she ever found a new boyfriend in the Spirit World. She promised to contact me as soon as she got a new boyfriend," Yusuke wondered aloud, oblivious of the shushing sounds and gestures Sayaka gave him.
"Oh, and did you enjoy your date with the ghost girl?" came Keiko's passive-aggressive question that made Yusuke realize why Botan didn't tell Keiko everything about her exploits.
Sighing, he grabbed hold of the hand of his comatose girlfriend's soul and reenacted his date with the nameless earthbound spirit by watching a movie without tickets, riding a roller coaster, and riding atop a car without a care in the world because they were ghosts.
Although there were still remnants of Keiko's jealousy after her makeup date with Yusuke, she "defrosted" enough to allow the newly reinstated spirit detective to continue telling his stories about gaining positive karma to help revive himself.
Yusuke and Botan once assisted a tanuki in repaying its debts to a cantankerous, dying, and lonely old man who'd lost his entire family. In gratitude of the time both granddad and grandson released him from a foothold trap, the shape-shifting raccoon dog turned into the old man's dead grandchild, Shinji, before the elderly coot kicked the bucket.
"A tanuki? Are you serious? You're really pulling my leg this time," said Keiko, despite the fact that she'd seen Yusuke battle demons. "These stories all sound like the Twelve Labors of Hercules!"
"Hercules? Who's that? Isn't he from a television show or something?" asked the out-of-school youth who graduated from Sarayashiki Junior High mostly through the virtue of his mother's intimidating yakuza connections (i.e., she forced the principal to have Yusuke graduate or else while flanked by her yakuza bodyguards).
"This is part of the reason why I let Yusuke-niichan tell you about the things he went through in order to live again. You may have to go through the same 'labors' or 'tests' in order to balance out your karma and escape Seiryu's curse," Sayaka informed Keiko.
'I see. I didn't know it at the time, but Yusuke went through a lot in order to come back to us. Sure, he has demon blood in him, but during the first time he died, it hadn't even 'activated' yet. He earned his right to live, and so should I,' Keiko realized.
Yusuke skipped through the time when Kuwabara tried to keep his friend, Okubo, from getting expelled after their flint-toothed teacher named Mister Akashi threatened to cancel the school's special permission for Okubo to work part-time, because Keiko already knew that story. He instead told her about the time he was revived for one day.
"I... kind of already know about that story." Keiko fidgeted a bit. "I only pretended to not know about it at the time because it seemed important for you to not contact me. I overheard your conversation with Kuwabara while I faked being unconscious."
"Oh. You sneaky little...!" Yusuke trailed off, realizing that if Keiko had acknowledged knowing him at the time, then he would've broken Spirit World rules and could've ended up delaying his complete first resurrection indefinitely. "But that Moto Daisuke fellow who kidnapped you back then was a goddamn freak, wasn't he? His whole face was like fifteen inches long or something!"
"Oh yeah, I remember that guy! Yeah, he was a total weirdo! He has the same proportions as a baby!" Keiko giggled along with Yusuke in spite of herself as they both remembered the person who made it difficult for Yusuke to keep out of contact of Keiko.
"...I never had a chance to thank you for saving me from him," Keiko murmured, and Yusuke pretended to not hear her words while grinning from ear-to-ear.
From what she could recall, one of the goons of Daisuke Moto bumped into her friends. Then, Kuwabara's friends happened to pass them by, so they beat up the hooligans who were bothering them.
However, Kazuma's entire gang proved no match for Daisuke himself when he joined into the battle, so he beat them to a fine pulp. Keiko being Keiko, she slapped the bigheaded man for harming her friends' rescuers.
As such, Daisuke proceeded to force the impetuous girl to come with him to their hideout in Hangoroshi Bar or else he'd take her friends with him instead.
Yusuke overheard from Kuwabara and his beat-up friends what'd happened, so he decided to go to a novelty store and buy a new set of disguises (a signature trademark of his earlier rescues before he learned how to use the Rei-Gan) and save Keiko from her kidnappers.
After the Daisuke Moto incident, Yusuke and Botan met the lonely Sayaka and discovered her bid to steal away Shota's soul.
Sayaka herself then filled in one detail Yusuke neglected to mention, which was her kicking his butt by blasting him with spiritual power reminiscent of the Rei-Gan that rooted from her own hatred and loneliness.
Keiko remembered Ayame mentioning that earlier in their talk with Koenma. All the same, she needled her boyfriend over the fact that a little girl's ghost was the first being who defeated him in combat.
"Oh my gosh, so you're serious? All that loneliness inside Sayaka-chan was enough to defeat a tough guy like you?"
Keiko's laughter faded after she remembered that it was Seiryu's hate-filled determination to one day avenge his own death in the hands of Hiei that led him to curse her and use her suffering to energize his Fu no Senrei.
"Hey, you know what? That's also an important thing to remember! When it comes to mastering spiritual energy, it doesn't matter how big or muscular you are," Sayaka noted while scribbling something over her pad of paper that was fastened to her clipboard.
"Yeah. I remember Genkai telling me something about that. Oh wait, no, it was Botan who told me that the strength of the spirit doesn't have anything to do with physical strength, it's instead powered by feelings. I guess having 'feelings' is also the reason why earthbound spirits exist, huh?" Yusuke supposed.
Urameshi continued recalling his past exploits as a ghost, like the time when he rescued a girl from a demonic curse that her best friend brought upon her because of the needless academic pressure their selfish teachers were hoisting upon them, to the point of pitting them against each other.
Then there was the time Yusuke was forced to throw Puu's egg into a fire to save Keiko from being burned to death inside the firetrap that was the old Urameshi residence, but of course his girlfriend already knew about that.
The former full-time spirit detective had other adventures from there, like the time he aided a bullied weakling named Matsuo Suekichi into learning the virtue of courage and guts when it came to boxing.
What happened next was his actual revival with the help of Keiko's kiss, so he basically brought his girlfriend up-to-speed on how he became worthy enough to acquire his life back.
"...So that's everything you need to know about my resurrection. What do you think?" Yusuke asked Keiko, his hands in his pockets, his eyes wide and expectant.
Keiko could only nod as she and her ghostly companions flew past her house. A few blocks earlier, she sensed the presence of several other earthbound spirits who were stuck in the world of the living, unable to move on to the afterlife because of their regrets and lamentations.
Was she destined to end up like those lost souls? Should she give up this quest to wake herself up and accept her mortality in order to avoid becoming one of many ghosts who couldn't pass on?
'I should think positive. I can accept whatever fate will befall me, but not without a fight. I owe myself and my loved ones that much. Yusuke never once thought about giving up while there was still a chance for him to come back to life, and neither should I. I won't let this demonic curse bring me down.'
Keiko turned towards the ten-year-old shinigami-in-training and Spirit World Inspector, inquiring, "Am I supposed to do the same things Yusuke did in order for me to revive myself? Y'know, to 'balance out my karma', so to speak?"
Sayaka stared straight into the astral projection of the comatose Yukimura and answered, "Yes and no. From what I can understand from Koenma Daio's instructions, yours is a similar case to Big Bro's death in terms of how the both of you defied fate. However, a great deal of positive karmic energy must be collected in order to lift the curse that Seiryu placed on your body."
Keiko blinked. "So that's the reason why I'm like the Schrodinger's Cat thought experiment? I'm in an uncertain state where I'm both alive and dead?"
For one reason or another, Yusuke imagined Schrodinger's Cat as a feline with a toothbrush mustache popularized by the infamous Adolf Hitler himself.
"I... don't know who that is." Sayaka brushed off the huge dollop of sweat... or rather, liquid ectoplasm... that formed at the back of her pretty little head. She then coughed primly.
"But yeah, I guess that until we can discover how to lift your curse for good, we'll just have to depend on the tried-and-true tactic of doing good deeds and gathering up as much positive karma as possible while hoping for the best."
"We can only 'hope for the best', huh?" The girls backed away as Yusuke cracked his soul's equivalent of human knuckles. "If I'd been there, Seiryu would've been on the receiving end of my fists or Rei-Gan. Stupid Rando and his You-Gan. Stupid Genbu and his Genbu no Hoko. Stupid Demon Sword's effects on me and Kenshin. Stupid me," he muttered to himself.
Keiko exhaled and put up a brave front. "There's no use crying over spilled milk. What's done is done. Hoping for the best isn't so bad. Let's move on."
As if on cue, the gigantic spirit beast that was connected to Yusuke's soul named Puu arrived and greeted the three ghosts, the sun setting behind him, its rays shooting shafts of light over his gigantic wings.
"We're here," cheered Sayaka at the beaked monstrosity. They'd finally arrived at Genkai's abode. "Before you say anything, don't worry about your body, Big Bro. Genkai-baasan had Puu pick it up."
True to the little girl's words, the passed out, drooling body of a teenaged boy with a greaser hairdo was saddled on the back of the gargantuan bird creature.
Meanwhile, Keiko remembered that Botan herself had to depend on an artificial body in order to exist in the Human World from time to time. She then idly wondered if she could get her own artificial body from Reikai if worse came to worst before floating from behind Puu along with Yusuke and Sayaka.
Back at Genkai's temple after the momentous fight against Rando and the Shisejyu three weeks ago, in the evening...
"The Kugai did what to me now?" Yusuke cried out, which prompted Genkai to wallop him upside the head for being so loud. In the background, a new gate was being erected with the help of human and demon contractors.
"Don't make a scene! I don't want you to disturb the workers while they're rebuilding my home that you help wreck!"
The Kugai or World of Suffering was one of the techniques Rando used against Yusuke in order to incapacitate the teenaged half-demon. It was a move that made the recipient emphatic to the suffering of those around him, hence its name.
"They won't hear me anyway because of all the noise they're making from rebuilding your shrine, GRANNY!"
Unbeknownst to Yusuke, his body then and there exploded with a bright flash of energy that made Genkai stumble while the teacup she was holding shattered into pieces. "B-Baasan! I'm sorry! What is this? I don't even..."
Just beside Yusuke, the ghost of Keiko and the similarly intangible child spirit of the shinigami-to-be known as Sayaka were so surprised by Yusuke's display of power that their spiritual bodies were nearly repelled out of the rickety remnants of Genkai's home.
"Do you understand now, Yusuke? Your power is in a volatile state, like a power cable that's been stripped of insulation or an octopus connection without a surge protector. You should be more careful about unleashing it up until the time you learn how to control the Kugai that Rando inflicted upon you."
"But I feel perfectly fine!" objected Yusuke. "I'm in total control of my powers, thank you very much!"
"For now. But what will happen when you're forced to exert your full potential? You were lucky you only had to face Rando, especially now that you're leagues more powerful than him. But what if you were to battle against one of the Chojin's Class-S minions? Or the Chojin himself?"
"So Keiko and I are both cursed, huh? That goddamn Overfiend is a real pain in the ass." Yusuke smacked his fist into his palm, which sent another miniature shockwave across the house.
Even though she was faced with an upper-echelon Class-S warrior that could squash her like a bug if he saw fit, the lower Class-B-to-A Genkai was infuriated enough to whack the rambunctious Urameshi's head for a second time to keep him in line.
"I don't think the Kugai is actually a curse. I doubt gathering good karma will do anything to curb the effects of the World of Suffering on your body because it's something that was developed by monks to appreciate the destructiveness of worldly attachment. It wasn't even an offensive technique in the first place," said Genkai as she took a dustpan, a rag, and a small broom to fix yet another one of her former student's messes.
As she cleaned up, she mused, 'For good or for ill, Rando took my advice to him to heart. Instead of merely mimicking techniques, he has now learned the intricacies behind them. The source of Yusuke's power is through his extreme emotions, so using the Kugai on him is akin to adding gasoline to a blaze or making the immune system overreact to a foreign body. It's too much of a good thing.'
"What must I do then, Master?" Yusuke begged Genkai. This was one of the handful of times he ever acknowledged her authority. "I can't help out Keiko's coma while I'm like this. It'd be like the blind leading the blind. What should I do in order to go back to normal?"
'Huh. Normal. You're anything but normal, you little brat.'
Genkai took a look at Keiko's ghost and gave her a wan smile. She looked up and still saw the Star of Death right beside the Big Dipper... a star that only appeared to those who were at death's door.
She'd been seeing that star ever since she was revived by the Spirit World to assist Yusuke in subduing Sensui and his gang. She wasn't supposed to exist among the living anymore, the heavens seemed to be saying.
Genkai turned towards Yusuke and bluntly replied, "Remove the Spirit Light Wave Gem. Because your power is based on emotions, having a power amplifier like that in your body and soul will only spell disaster in the long run."
The old woman was of course talking about her concentrated ball of might that she passed on to Yusuke in order for him to gain the power to defeat the Younger Toguro.
"Y-You can't do that! C-Can you? I mean, Yusuke worked so hard in order to earn the right to use that power!" Keiko protested before the listless Yusuke could even react to the announcement, remembering the sorry state of her boyfriend's health after he'd just learned to control the power of the Rei-Kou-Gyoko.
He had all sorts of bruises, contusions, bloodstains, and wounds on him as he slept on her lap, exhausted beyond belief...
Hiding her ghostly blush by turning away at the last minute, Keiko further queried, "What will happen to his power level once you remove the gem?"
Genkai drew out a long sigh, her entire body seemingly deflating as she braced herself. Meanwhile, Sayaka furiously scribbled notes on her clipboard as though she were transcribing the entire conversation.
"Once upon a time, my Rei-Kou-Gyoko served as a way to amplify Yusuke's base power level, not unlike the Demon Sword's original purpose before... certain events happened." She was not yet prepared to divulge the true reason why Kenshin was sealed in the Legendary Shrine of the Sword.
The Rei-Hadou-Ken expert continued. "Anyway, I was sort of concerned when Yusuke came back to life for a second time through his demonic atavism. His human body was already at its limits when he received my Spirit Light Wave Gem ten years too early. Fortunately for him, he had mazoku blood and his natural penchant to allow his emotions to magnify his power to help him out, which enabled him to reach power levels that typically took decades or centuries for even conqueror-class demons to attain."
The diminutive elderly lady wagged her finger at the self-employed Reikai Tantei.
"However, your instantaneous evolution is both a blessing and a curse. Something has got to give, and the Kugai proved it's your sanity that's on the line when you became drunk with your own power. Had you been trained properly, you would've had the discipline required to control the wellspring of energy inside you. As it is, having both the Kugai and the Rei-Kou-Gyoko amplify your might can result in you being controlled by your S-Level powers instead of the other way around."
Yusuke shuddered. Whether it was because of his excitement at the prospect of achieving his ancestral father's peak powers at the tender age of almost seventeen or because of his dread that he could end up like Toguro or Sensui despite all his master's warnings to avoid those men's dire fates was up in the air.
Genkai also trembled. Even during the point that Yusuke had just killed Sensui, he was already many levels more powerful than her. If he wanted to destroy the world, she wouldn't be able to do a thing to stop him, then and now.
However, in spite of herself, she wondered how powerful the boy could become if he were to unleash his full might using his demonic atavism, Rando's Kugai, and her own Rei-Kou-Gyoko.
Could he scale the same heights that the Three Kings of Makai... Yomi, Mukuro, and the late Raizen... achieved? Could he even become Class-X, which was the rumored rating reserved for gods and the creators of the different realms? Did a young, reckless boy like him even have the right to possess such power?
"As for your other concern, there's some good news and bad news. The good news is that even though Yusuke's power level will go down once the Spirit Light Wave Gem is removed, he should be able to regain his former glory in a couple of years or more thanks to his being half-youkai. The bad news is that there's no way to remove the Kugai once his chakra points had been opened, and it all depends on him to learn to master living with the World of Suffering for the rest of his life."
Yusuke wiped the sweat off of his brow as it slowly dawned to him the severity of his situation. He'd become so powerful, his body and his mind couldn't take it, but the solution to his problem involves losing the powers he'd worked so hard to achieve.
Should he go back to being barely strong enough to take on a weakling like Gouki? Would he return to becoming a mediocre spirit detective who depended on the devil's luck to win? Would he end up a tantei whom either of the Toguro Brothers could wipe the floor with?
Although Yusuke was ashamed to admit it, he'd become rather attached to his current strength. Even though he also valued his relationship with Keiko and the normal, peaceful side to human life, there was a bloodthirsty part of him that craved endless battles.
That was what he had on his mind when he asked, "Is there no way for me to somehow control both the Kugai and your Spirit Light Wave Gem? Or am I shit out of luck and I have no choice but to remove it, like a rotten tooth that's a candidate for a root canal I couldn't afford?"
"That's a good analogy. Also, that poses another problem. We don't have any other host for the Spirit Light Wave Gem anymore. I'm too old and you're too powerful," Genkai informed, amazed at how much of a hydra-headed problem the World of Suffering turned out to be.
"You may be able to handle your severely amplified power. Or maybe not. I'm not sure. I took a gamble on you by transferring my power to you at such a young age, and you almost died. This time around, we're facing another dilemma... the same dilemma that Enma Daio was so concerned about when you revived for a second time. You might go insane with sheer power, and no force in Heaven or Earth will be able to stop you."
Feeling completely spent by the predicament he presently faced, Yusuke plopped down on the floor and stared at the ceiling. "Whatever. If Keiko wasn't in a coma, then my solution to that problem would be simple. Look for the Chojin and use up my so-called excess of power on him. Let him have a taste of his own medicine. Then maybe the Spirit World could finish off whichever one of us survives."
"Don't even joke about that, Yusuke! That's a barbaric way to go, you violence-obsessed brute! I won't allow it!" Keiko declared as she slipped her hand right into Yusuke's back and gave him a (literally) spine-tingling grab.
After recovering from Keiko's ghostly attack, Yusuke could only reply, "If we're left with no other choice, then that's what I'm going to do."
"Keiko, look up the sky. What do you see over there?" the old woman asked, pointing at the Star of Death she could discern as clear as day. To her chagrin, the sixteen-year-old responded, "I see a bright star over there. A really bright one. Why do you ask?"
"I see. Keiko, do as the Spirit World recommends. Do as many good deeds as you can. Pass as many of their tests as you can. Once you stop seeing that bright star beside the Big Dipper every night, then that means you're on your way to waking up from your coma."
"She needs to do all that just because she can see some stupid star in the sky?" complained Yusuke, which forced Genkai to explain to Keiko the significance of the mystical heavenly body.
"Only those who were about to die could see the Star of Death, and it also served as a way for those slated for death to change or accept their fate if they so chose."
Keiko nodded, repeating her mantra that everything was going to be all right or else... she too would make lemonade out of whatever lemons life, fate, and destiny gave her.
The combined life forces of Yusuke, Puu, Genkai, Kuwabara, Botan, and Kenshin helped bring her back from the brink of death. She wouldn't waste their efforts in reviving her, even though the unanswered question of, "What if good karma isn't enough to lift Seiryu's curse?" continued to nag her at the back of her mind.
Genkai turned towards her former student and beckoned him to stand up and face her. "As for you, Yusuke... FIVE DAIKEN WISDOM! JYU REI JOU SHU NO GYO!"
"Huh? Five Daikon what...?" blabbered the half-youkai before he realized that his former master had pulled a fast one on him.
Like before, prior to the Class-B-Minus Yusuke's confrontation against Toguro Ototo in the Dark Martial Arts Tournament (around the time he was finally able to survive the frightening power of the Rei-Kou-Gyoko), Yusuke was again subjected to the restraining powers of Genkai's Spirit Cuffs.
"Ow! You've given me these handcuffs and leg shackles again? What'd you do that for?" Yusuke attempted to break free of his bonds through his Class-S powers. However, he found them limiting his power the same way Raizen's head monk, Hokushin, used Demon World energy parasites when he and two other monks first came to visit the Human World.
"Hey, hold on! I'm already Class-S! Why do these things still feel heavy? Hell, they're even heavier than before! And what do they have to do with daikon and wisdom?" By "daikon", Yusuke referred to Japanese white radish.
Genkai took the knee-high table and slammed it onto Yusuke's head.
"Genkai-baasan!" Keiko yelped at the septuagenarian.
"You idiot! I said Daiken, not daikon! The Shu no Gyo is one of my Five Great Fists, the others involving offense, defense, emptiness, and purification. Wisdom can come from learning restraint. Also, like a Chinese finger trap, the more you struggle against the Shu no Gyo with your reiki or youki, the tighter your bonds will be."
"I've already learned to summon these cuffs on my own, Granny! That's how I was able to perform the Jyu Rei Jou Ante back when the Shisejyu first attacked!"
Ever since he returned to the Human World, Yusuke had been experimenting on ways to reduce his power in order for him to live his life normally.
"Apparently, your version of the Spirit Cuffs wasn't enough to reign in your full power. Or do I have to remind you that you wasted all your energy trying to kill Rando, which was exactly what that demon wanted you to do so that you couldn't help Himura-san with his fight?" riposted Genkai.
"Sheesh, all right. I get it." Yusuke rolled his eyes. "I can't say I missed being shackled by invisible bonds, but I guess they're working, because I think I'm now back to A-Level power. If Sensui were to come back from the dead and kick my ass, he'd be able do so in a snap! I can still kick Toguro's ass though, provided that he doesn't suddenly turn S-Level on me."
Genkai then confessed, "You're right, Yusuke. You can easily get out of the cuffs using the 'Jyu Rei Jou Ante' password. The point of this entire exercise is for you to learn how to use only a portion of your powers and having the discipline to not always rely on them even when the key to your freedom is within your reach."
Yusuke laughed out loud. "Ah, so now I'm at only fifty percent of my power! It'll take quite a lot to bring out one hundred percent of my abilities!" he declared in a mock baritone as he put on shades from out of his pockets while posing like a body builder.
The resulting pulse of energy from even Yusuke's Class-A self was enough to tear through the floor.
A vein popped on Genkai's head, which prompted Keiko to usher the furiously scribbling Sayaka out of harm's way (even though they were in ghost form) as the Rei-Hadou-Ken Master demonstrated to her cheeky ex-disciple three of her Five Great Fists.
Keiko sighed as she palmed her face. "Yusuke, you imbecile."
Outside Genkai's temple, as contracted workers from both the Human World and Demon World were finishing up for the day...
The scuffed-up Yusuke pouted. "I want to smash some heads and destroy buildings, dammit."
"Who are you, Godzilla? Leave those buildings alone!" berated Keiko as she floated alongside Sayaka while they descended on the partially damaged stairs. "Besides, Genkai-baasan already beat you to a pulp. Isn't that enough?"
Yusuke went silent, realizing that while the Five Daiken did keep him in line, his hidden power allowed him to take the brunt of Genkai's techniques. For good or for ill, he now knew what the Younger Toguro felt as he pounded him to the pavement without yet unleashing a hundred percent of his power.
He had already destroyed mountains by tenderizing them from the strong shockwaves of his own punches when he fought both Sensui and Yomi. Being forced to hold back his power made him feel a bit restless. Agitated. Unsatisfied.
"I'm done!" Sayaka declared, which caught her companions' attention. "So Big Bro already knows what he should do with his Kugai problem, and thanks to his stories, Big Sis also has a better idea of what's to come."
Keiko tilted her head to the side. "Big Sis...?"
"Yep! You're my Keiko-neechan now!" Sayaka hugged the somewhat bewildered teenager. Keiko then took note to herself that ghosts could touch each other even though they could pass through anything tangible in the world of the living.
"Anyway, I might as well tell you what Koenma-sama told me in regards to your upcoming tests. He intended to assign you to possible missions wherein people are suspected of being victimized by the Chojin to gather more jaki for his army."
Keiko winced. There was that word again: Jaki. It was as if she were tainted by the substance. She barely heard any mention of it during the Dark Martial Arts Tournament. It was always either spirit energy or demon energy that they had to deal with.
Her first taste of jaki came in the form of an energy ball that blew her away at the apex of Genkai's stairs, thrown by a muscular, white-haired being.
She asked Yusuke what that person's name was, because large patches of her memory remained blank regarding the time when Meikai attacked the Ningenkai for the sake of reviving their long-dead kingdom... or so she'd been told.
"Yakumo. And you're right about the jaki thing. That was the first time we ever had to fight against concentrated evil before... Oh, sorry. 'Negative energy' isn't supposed to be 'evil', says the little brat," Yusuke answered while using obnoxious air quotes with his fingers to emphasize his point.
"So what's our plan?" Keiko took turns looking at Sayaka and Yusuke while she shrugged. "I mean, when you were a ghost, you were tasked to hold on to an egg while helping out people. So do you have a list for me to follow or something...?"
Yusuke scratched the back of his head, glad that he was talking to two ghosts in his lonesome instead of at a public place as he walked down the steps of Genkai's shrine. He didn't need to look like an idiot in front of anyone but those two while in the middle of nowhere.
"Botan and I kind of played it by the ear. If something came up, I helped out. We weren't really given any missions or anything."
Keiko stared flatly at Yusuke. "You're kidding me." So Urameshi was able to find missions through his infamous dumb luck. She didn't nearly have the same hold on providence as he had, so how was she supposed to go about treading the same path he did?
Sayaka started to say something but cut herself off. "Never mind." Keiko merely looked at the innocently whistling... or blowing, since she didn't know how to whistle... ghost girl turned shinigami trainee.
'What are we supposed to do now?' Keiko wondered. Anyone who had been paying attention to what Koenma and Sayaka talked about while deliberating Keiko's ultimate fate could see that hers was a unique and troubling case.
She was a survivor who went from being killed to being turned into a vegetable that might or might not be better off dead. Then again, Yusuke's case when he first died was an exceptional one as well.
Keiko had a lot to mull over as she floated beside her weary boyfriend and their assigned shinigami-in-training. It seemed a little unfair. Yusuke was killed by a car accident, and over a year later, he survived the ordeal and became stronger than ever, turning into one of the Spirit World's elite Reikai Tantei (and he even discovered he had demon blood in him to boot).
Did she have demon's blood? Certainly not. Was she a fighter like Yusuke? She possessed a mean slap (and a powerful forehand on the same arm that she used often in high school volleyball), but aside from that, she wasn't exactly about to electrify the All-Japan Women's Pro Wrestling circuit. She was a normal Japanese school girl with a squeaky, chipmunk voice that she hated, damn it!
On the other hand, Yusuke wasn't exactly required to fight until he was "hired" to become a spirit detective. For detectives, they spent more time beating up people than solving supernatural crimes. All the other times he fought, it was him merely being himself. He fought because he loved to fight.
Not that she needed to battle anyone to the death to get out of her coma or anything (and not that she wanted to, either), but... something about her earlier chat with her two companions kept her from being too enthusiastic about the situation.
Their comments about ghosts who had such strong earthly desires, they were left earthbound because of them frightened her. She certainly didn't want that sort of fate.
As such, even though she remained hopeful that she'd pull through, she also considered the merits of letting things be and passing on like a good ghost would.
'Now is not the time to think about that. Whatever will be, will be. I still have this sliver of hope left. At the risk of becoming an earthbound spirit, I will dare to hope.'
Just as Keiko was abut to suggest that they go ghost hunting to find ways to save earthbound ghosts from their fate and "improve her karma" (whatever that meant), she turned and saw a familiar image before her that reminded her of her happier times with Yusuke. She covered her mouth to stifle a giggle.
"What?" Yusuke mumbled before feeling a familiar weight on his head. For her part, Keiko could only cover her face, point at the noggin of her significant other's head, and laugh out loud.
"PUU? What the hell...? Why are you small again?"
Sure enough, the former mascot of the Urameshi Team was once more roosting atop Urameshi's head. For some reason, Puu had been reduced from being a bird monster the size of a horse to a duckbilled... something with floppy ears that it flapped around in order to fly.
"I guess the poor guy must've shrunk back to its original size after you put on the Spirit Cuffs again," Sayaka supposed, oblivious of the choking sounds Yusuke made and Keiko's ghostly blush after making her innocent observation.
For Puu's part, it could only tilt its head in wonderment at the situation and squawk its own name.
The little girl pulled out a Spirit Energy Detector to measure what was left of Yusuke's power. She did a low whistle (or attempted to) and declared, "It says here that you're a little over A+ now, Niichan. Huh. That must've been an extra special Daiken."
The floating shinigami-in-training narrowed her almond eyes, gasped, and reeled. "Wait, I see four energy shackles on your feet and hands! Why?"
Yusuke held his hands up helplessly. "Like I said, I already know how to do the cuffing technique so that I'm only barely S-Level while I'm in the Human World as a favor to Koenma. With Granny doing another handcuffing move on me, I've now been double cuffed and reduced to the same power level I had after defeating Togoru but before facing a Class-S Sensui."
Sayaka looked at Yusuke blankly. "I don't know who those people are."
Although she did keep herself updated with her so-called big brother's adventures through the chatty Botan from time to time, she didn't know the people Yusuke namedropped. To be quite frank, she had been too busy with her promising afterlife career as a ferry-girl to learn more about them.
"What? Oh... Never mind," said Yusuke as he put his hands in his pockets and sulked. "Where are we headed anyway?" he asked as Puu flapped his ears and landed atop Keiko's waiting arms, chirping happily because for the first time in years, he was small enough for Keiko to carry.
Unfortunately for Puu, Keiko was in ghost form, so he ended up passing through a colder portion of air she occupied thanks to her incorporeal body. She pouted as the bird beast chirped a haunting sigh and slowly flew back to Yusuke's gelled head.
"Even though I don't know who those guys you mentioned are, Botan still told me everything there is to know about how you got your life back, Big Bro." Sayaka flipped through her clipboard.
"After Big Bro gets his much-needed rest, we're going to visit one of the people whose lives he'd touched and changed for the better tomorrow morning. That way, Big Sis will get a better idea of how to acquire more good karma for herself!"
"I guess that sounds... logical," Keiko supposed with a small shrug and a nod of her head while absently patting the hairy head of the feathered Puu, who crowed in satisfaction. "Who are we supposed to visit?"
"Are we going to find the kid whom I saved from being run over?" Yusuke asked. "Or the soul of the old man who rescued a tanuki from a bear trap? How about that classmate of mine who's trying to become a professional boxer? Are we going to go back to the Spirit World? I really want to know what happened to the ghost girl whom I took on a date!"
A dread chill passed through Yusuke's spine even though Keiko's ghostly hand was nowhere near it. He also flinched as the spirit of his comatose girlfriend stared back at him in askance. "...Or maybe we're going to meet up with, um, ol' bigheaded Moto Daisuke. Yeah."
Keiko rolled her eyes while Puu slapped Yusuke's forehead with his big, floppy ears. She then tugged at Sayaka's sleeves to catch the shinigami-in-training's attention.
"Which person from Yusuke's past are we visiting, Sayaka-chan?" Keiko bit her lip, hoping that it wasn't the nameless ghost girl his boyfriend dated despite knowing that what he did for her was a touching gesture.
Sayaka's cheeks reddened despite the lack of blood within her transparent, ectoplasm-filled body. "Actually..."
"I should've known," Yusuke declared while waiting outside the house of the person from his past whom Sayaka wanted to visit, his shrunken pet monster nuzzled atop his disheveled mane, turning it into a bird's nest of sorts.
He had a wheeled, mobile version of his noodle shop handy so that he could at least do some business early in the morning while serving as Keiko and Sayaka's lookout. The last thing he wanted was to appear like an out-of-school youth spying on other people's homes.
The half-demon Urameshi jibed to Puu, "I liked you better when you were as big as a Toyota and literally out of my hair."
Meanwhile, Keiko and Sayaka floated above Shota, the little boy with the dead dog Jiro and the thirteen-year-old crush of the ferry-girl trainee. He waved at his mother goodbye while biting down on a piece of buttered toast and slipping on his shoes at the doorway.
"Oh, I see. That's the boy that Yusuke helped out twice during his adventures as a ghost!" observed Keiko. "He's the kid whose dog died. He was also almost flung into an endless abyss by you and your loneliness, Sayaka-chan! Um, so what's his name?" came the high school girl's not-so-smooth backpedal after reminding Sayaka of her past sins.
"Shota-kun is his name, Big Sis," Sayaka said, her eyes never leaving the bespectacled boy's form.
"Shota? Isn't that name a little too on the nose?" was the question Keiko stopped herself from asking because she knew better.
"Where do you think you're going, little boy? You still have some studying to do!" said Shota's mom, her eyeglasses glinting from the glare of a stray sunbeam shining through a nearby glass-paned window.
"Aw, Mom! I've passed all my tests and I've already been accepted into Sarayashiki Junior High! Can't I catch a break? Let me play with my friends for once! School's not even here yet!" argued Shota.
The pair of ghosts followed the bespectacled boy as he went out, phasing right through the door before remembering that Yusuke and Puu weren't spirits like them, so of course Shota would see the two as soon as he got out of the house. 'Uh oh.'
"Hey, Mister! How much for two bowls?"
If Yusuke's heart were still beating, it would've jumped into his throat. He didn't even have time to hide the duck-like creature atop his head as his muscle memory involving noodle preparation kicked in.
To Be Continued...
Next: Keiko's first mission.
The conversation between Keiko, Yusuke, and Sayaka are actually references to the differences between the manga version (which took a great deal longer to get finished) and anime version (which is the abbreviated version of the manga's story) of Yusuke's resurrection. It covers most of the manga story arcs that the anime didn't address.
May kailangan pa ba akong sabihin?
Abdiel