Right atop the enchanted trees that combined themselves into one gigantic tree network, specifically at the spot that was intended for the Chikyusei suicide pact in Aokigahara...
The combatants were so high up the Sea of Trees, they could see the nearby Mount Fuji from where they were perched.
The Six of the Suzaku Seven burst through the thicket with another one of their Prism of Six Lightning Storm of Torment while apocalypse happened from behind them. The portion of Aokigahara that was under Kurama's control was set ablaze as lighting emerged from the thick plumes of the forest fire.
Kurama was able to rescue the Earth Club's members from a fiery death via Karasu's full body explosion earlier by getting a "backup" Kuwabara in the form the shape-shifting Mitsunari Yanagisawa.
However, the fox demon and his cohorts... Yanagisawa who was allowed to wield the Demon Sword to enable him to copy powers as well as shapeshift and Aoshi Shinomori's reincarnation, Detective-Investigator Daiji Matsudaira... still fell victim to Jine Udo's hypnotic Evil Eye, thus they were all injured severely with all of them none the wiser.
While sitting atop the amalgamated trees of the Sea of Trees, all three seemed at the mercy of the unstoppable Six of the Seven Suzaku, who'd so far turned the interconnected portion of Aokigahara into an apocalyptic wasteland filled with dirty thunderstorms, a forest fire that was about to consume them all, and the charred remains of the trees with an hyper-accelerated growth spurt.
"It's time to say your prayers to Koenma Daio. Perhaps he can use the rest of his remaining life force to resurrect you again like the Chojin resurrected the members of the Shin Juppon Gatana!" declared one of the six Suzakus.
Daiji attempted to injure Jine so that he'd be caught in the crossfire, but the serial killer understood his intent and simply fled beside the Suzakus.
"KANJI KILLER!" screamed Detective Matsudaira as he did one last attempt to take down the traitorous "Officer Hamada".
"Even though Karasu didn't turn into an S-Level demon as Xinhai planned, this ended up a rather fruitful mission... for us," said Suzaku as he aimed his energy bows at all three of the remaining Spirit World warriors in his midst. "Goodbye. ROKU-GOKU-ANKOKU-RAIKO-HA!"
"Kido-kun! NOW!" instructed Kurama.
"Kido...?" mouthed one of the six Suzakus as their auras shone in preparation of their devastating technique while Jine turned towards the person behind them while following Kurama's line of sight, half of his attention still focused on Daiji in case the detective somehow dodged the Shisejyu's lightning bolt arrows and made good on his death threats.
The two (technically seven) Shin Ju members froze on their tracks, completely immobile.
"What the hell is going on here?" demanded the different Suzakus at various times while Jine could only move around his animalistic black eyes that were devoid of white sclera and mostly composed of irises, his freakishly even teeth exposed in a twitchy grin.
From behind the six Shisejyu clones and one reincarnated serial killer stood Asato Kido, his shoed feet stepping on all seven shadows of some of the Spirit World's most dangerous enemies.
"Shadow Paralysis!" Kido's powers didn't really have a name, but he felt left out by the lack of attack names he could shout out, so he belatedly named them after the fact. All the same, his last-minute heroic shenanigans proved effective.
Out of the three Mushiyori City residents (actually four, but the boxer wannabe, the mind-reading Murota, was consumed by Sadao "Gourmet" Makihara of the Sensui Seven who had the power of taking the powers of others by eating them, hence his codename) who was gifted with special powers after the gates to the Demon World were opened, Kido's power was among the most unimpressive.
He had the psychic ability to control shadows, particularly the ones he stepped on. Big whoop.
When faced with actual missions, Kido ended up beat up or almost killed. However, one thing that those blunders would never take away was the fact that for a couple or so days, he rendered helpless the great Yusuke Urameshi, the Spirit World Detective who was able to beat scary dudes like the ones before him on a regular basis.
There was that lightning guy who could create shadow clones like some sort of ninja and the smiley man with the sword that the (Human World) detective called the Kanji Killer. Kido had heard about him on the news since the Eighties. He was Japan's answer to Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac Killer, wasn't he?
Asato's "Shadow" psychic powers might not be as fancy as Yu Kaito's "Taboo" or Mitsunari Yanagisawa's "Copy", but he was still the dude who brought Urameshi on his knees, figuratively speaking. He was also the guy who saved the behinds of the tactical genius known as Kurama thanks again to the underrated power of his territory.
However, it turned out that Jine had actually avoided getting his shadow stepped on, and he was about to ambush Kido. He was merely playing possum once again.
Asato's eyes then met the Kanji Killer's, which he remembered too late was something he was not supposed to do.
"Yanagisawa-kun! Give Kido-kun the Demon Sword!" Kurama ordered.
From looking like the spirit and image of Kenshin save for the Chikyusei robes he wore as a disguise, Mitsunari transformed back to his laidback, broom-haired self and shouted, "Catch!" to Asato while throwing the Youtou Shinnoken towards him.
Kurama knew that because the Spirit World and the wielder of the Demon Sword, Kenshin Himura, were dealing with former enemies that knew all of them like the backs of their hands, he had to get allies that neither faction had any significant data on, namely the psychics of Mushiyori City.
'Did I make the right decision in bringing him here, though?' the half-youko asked himself as Asato caught the Reikai artifact. 'We barely had enough time to test their full capabilities while using the Youtou Shinnoken. Yanagisawa-kun seemed okay afterwards, but what about Kido-kun?'
In any case, it was too late for regrets. Kido had taken hold of the powerful sword that the members of the Chojin's army tried to corrupt and/or steal for themselves.
Asato unsheathed the weapon, but instead of a blade, there was only darkness in the curved shaped of one. One word then escaped his mouth.
"Eclipse."
The blackness that was once the Youtou Shinnoken's blade melted like butter in the sun and fell to Kido's feet. It then spread far and wide, the same way the darkness would envelop the earth during twilight. Time afterwards stopped, and the entire area was bathed in the shadows of Kido's territory.
Demon Sword
A Yuyu Hakusho/Rurouni Kenshin Crossover Fan Fiction Story by Chester Castañeda
Original Concept by Chad Yang
The Spirit World's allies from past and present were able to prevent the birth of another Class-S demon among the Chojin's Army... but at what cost?
Disclaimer: Yuyu Hakusho is the rightful property of Yoshihiro Togashi, Shueisha, Fuji TV, and Studio Pierrot. Rurouni Kenshin is the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha, Shonen Jump, Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio 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 37: Red Rose in the Darkness (Part 5)
The forest fire, the dirty thunderstorm, and everything else surrounding Kido seemed to have stopped altogether. Died, almost. The only one that was alive, breathing, and moving was Kido himself.
"Way to go, Kido! You beat the monsters and saved the day, buddy!" cheered Yanagisawa, which was surreal, seeing that he couldn't move his body at all and had to rely on his voice to express his excitement.
Meanwhile, Detective Matsudaira breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment there, he thought he was about to be prematurely reunited with his dead wife whom Feng Xinhai killed.
"So the Spirit World has one of these humans under their wing too," observed Suzaku with a bitter chuckle. "I'm amazed. None of us could move or use our powers at all."
"You bet your hair antennas you can't! Good ol' Kido was able to do the same thing to Urameshi Yusuke, for your information," informed Mitsunari.
"Fascinating. I can't activate my Jagan either," marveled Udo. "I couldn't even blink. You've outdone yourself this time, Kurama. Bravo. I for one love the irony of being frozen stiff after years of using my Shin no Ippo to do the same thing to other people!"
Kido wondered why the Kanji Killer was praising someone else for his hard work. True, it was the half-demon who came up with the idea of the three Mushiyori City psychics using the Demon Sword's power-boosting capabilities, but aside from that, it was still the shadow master who brought the Shinjuku Group (or whatever) down!
This was already the second time Asato had taken control of the Demon Sword, but what the artifact did to his pathetic powers every time he took hold of it still amazed him. Neither Doctor Kamiya nor Murota would've stood a chance against him in this dark world. He doubted that even Yusuke could deal with it.
"Kido-kun! The Shin Ju! We have to finish them off!" Kurama's voice cut through the haze in Kido's mind.
"Uh, y-yeah. Of course. Heheheh." Asato scratched the back of his head, embarrassed that he let the power of the Youtou Shinnoken go to his head. He'd be no better than that electric demon if he were to keep on thinking this way.
Finish them off? Oh right, Kido was supposed to let go of his immobilization of Kurama and the others so that they could do the dirty deed of executing these monsters before him.
'Why should they hog all the glory?' Kido realized. This was his chance to show off... well, actually, discover... the true extent of his powers. So instead of releasing his hold over his friend, his acquaintance, and some police officer he just met today, he chose a different approach.
From there, one of the six Suzakus began to move on his own, as though he were a puppet on strings. "W-What's going on? Why am I m-moving? This isn't funny!"
"Fascinating. Instead of merely gaining the power to freeze whoever owned the shadows he stepped on, he could now, in this dark world, control anyone in any way he wishes. Such is the frightening power of the Demon Sword," observed one of the Suzakus as he watched his fellow clone do an awkward dance.
"Kido-kun? What are you doing? Just let us go so that we can finish these two Shin Juppon Gatana members off, or at least capture one of them alive so that we could interrogate him regarding the Chojin's plans," said Kurama, but he himself was under the influence of Asato's overpowering, Youtou-Shinnoken-boosted talent.
"No, that's much too dangerous, Kurama. Didn't these demons almost kill you three? Especially that smiley one who made you all think you were uninjured even though you were bleeding to death? It's much more practical to let me finish them off myself," murmured Kido softly as a hint of a smirk appeared on the edges of his mouth.
From there, using his mind, Asato forced the first Suzaku he manipulated using his control of shadows to grab hold of his own neck so that he could choke himself to death.
"W-What gives, Kido? That's not cool," protested an immobile Yanagisawa. "You're acting like a total psycho!"
"What's not cool, Yanagisawa? Kurama and the others have done far worse than make their enemies choke themselves to death. Did you even see how Kuwabara, who we know is a nice guy through and through, decapitated one of the electric dude's clones in a snap? I want in on the action."
The zombie-like teenager chuckled as one of the Suzakus turned blue, his saliva bubbling into a foam and flowing out of his mouth while he rolled his irises upwards. "He looks so stupid, man! I couldn't draw a sillier face than his! I didn't know demons needed to breathe too!"
"Dude, not cool," reiterated the brush-haired Mitsunari. Had he the ability to shake his head, he would've done so.
"Kido-kun, you need to stop. Let us handle this ourselves," Kurama beckoned again while Detective Matsudaira noted, "This friend of yours is every bit as psychotic as the criminals we've put behind bars, Kurama."
"He's not like that normally! He's a chill dude, Officer! I swear!" entreated Yanagisawa. "It's only when he's holding that sword that he's...!"
"You know what? You guys need to shut up," snapped Kido. Thusly, the trio lost their ability to talk. Immediately after, the Suzaku that Asato forcefully auto-asphyxiated gave his final death rattle.
'I was afraid of this. I thought I was the only one who could slide off the slippery slope when wielding the Demon Sword, but it looks like there's one other person I should be worried about,' Kurama belatedly thought.
"One down, five plus one to go," Kido chirped before he held his sides, unable to contain his own sadistic amusement.
"So why'd you let us talk, kiddo?" asked one of the Suzakus before he found himself face-to-face with himself.
Asato cackled. "I wanted to hear you beg for your life just in case."
Before either Suzaku could react, their hands were at each other's throats, each strangling the other using unbreakable choke holds.
"I should've done this earlier. I would've finished all six of you off sooner if I had you choke each other in three pairs," said Kido with a shrug as Kurama, Daiji, and Mitsunari glared daggers at him. "Eh. I was experimenting with my power. It couldn't be helped."
"You're my kind of sadist," said the grinning Jine through clenched teeth, although this time around, even though his smile was frozen, it appeared more genuine somehow. "You remind me of Xinhai during his own first kill while impersonating me. I remember my own first kill..."
Kido rolled his eyes. "Spare me the bedtime story, Gramps. He's a demon and if you were caught by the police, you'd be on death row by now. You both deserve to die."
"You've created quite the monster with your Youtou Shinnoken experiment, Kurama," said Udo even though he couldn't move his head towards the "humanized" demon fox. "This is what happens to anyone foolish enough to think that they could take control of the sword or the Battousai inside of it."
"Nonsense. If I were to wield the Demon Sword, I wouldn't let it control me the way it obviously did with this kid. The human is in over his head," swore one of the remaining (unchoked) Suzakus while the other Suzakus chimed in with their assent and approval.
As Jine and the surviving Suzakus chatted, the two Suzakus whom Kido forced to strangle each other to death kicked the bucket. A tear rolled down Yanagisawa's unblinking eyes as he saw his friend become just like the monsters they were hunting down and killing.
Even the three remaining Suzakus, who'd faced countless deaths before they even met their ultimate demise in the hands of Urameshi, balked at what this impetuous human was doing.
After much thought and deliberation as he scratched his pointed chin, Kido turned towards the Kanji Killer. "Hey, Mister Serial Killer. You know, you're kind of pissing me off."
"Really? How so?"
"You're too smug for your own good. I hate it."
Jine was intrigued enough to move his head down and glower up at the sadistic blond. "Oh? What are you going to do about it?"
With a snap of his fingers, Kido turned Udo into his marionette and had him run his uchigatana through the remaining three Suzakus, skewering all of them in the process.
"Huh. Well, that certainly showed me," came the half-bewildered, half-amused remark of Jine.
"Oh, we're not yet through. I have one more thing to test when it comes to my Eclipse Territory, you see," explained Asato before he pumped his fist forward... the one gripping the bladeless handle of the Youtou Shinnoken... and shouted, "ANKOKU-RAIJIN-KEN!"
All three of the surviving Suzakus followed suit and did the same movements as their puppeteer, except this time around, the act resulted in them actually performing their special move and blasting a threefold Storm of Torment Fist right at the immobile Jine, who promptly squealed and shrieked from the unbearable pain while his body didn't even have the ability to convulse and spasm thanks to Kido's paralyzing power.
They served as a complete circuit of electrical pain.
Asato was now on all fours, laughing his heart out from all the comical Schadenfreude he was witnessing. "You're shrieking like a girl! So much for being Mister High-and-Mighty, 'I've-killed-lots-of-people-so-I'm-better-than-you' Asshole! I can't wait to hear you beg for your life! Come on, dude! Squeal harder!"
Instead of heeding Kido's words, the electrocuted Udo himself guffawed at his own predicament. "HAHAHAHA! This is what your folly has wrought, Kurama! You might be able to kill me and Suzaku, but in the process, you've given birth to another monster just like us!"
Kido harrumphed and pouted like a petulant child who didn't get his favorite toy for Christmas after Jine refused to cave in to his demands of entertainment.
"Whatever, man. Let's see which of you four will die first. Will the electric dudes bleed out or will the Kanji Killer die from the rough equivalent of the electric chair? Also, don't compare yourselves to me. You deserve every single torture you're going through."
It was at that point that one of the hanging vines from the amalgamated Aokigahara trees that they were all standing on grabbed hold of the "empty" handle that Asato was wielding and threw it back to Yanagisawa.
Kurama did the same trick he killed Gama with in order to snatch the weapon away from Kido's grip even though he himself remained immobile.
In an instant, Kido's "Eclipse" territory disappeared while his powers reverted back to their basic "Shadow" form, his feet still firmly stepping on the shadows of three of the skewered Suzakus and a convulsing, mouth-foaming Kanji Killer.
Kido went on all fours again, but this time around it wasn't because of cruel mirth. "What the hell was I doing? What came over me? I was acting worse than those monsters were!"
The previously frozen Matsudaira, Kurama, and Yanagisawa (who now wielded the Demon Sword) breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Mitsunari himself reassured Kido, "Don't worry, man. That wasn't you talking. It was the sword. I mean, you were, like, drunk with its power or something. Don't let it get to you."
"But how come you aren't turning into a sadistic bastard when you're holding the weapon?" asked Asato, but before Yanagisawa could answer, a lightning bolt almost hit the shadow master clean. Luckily for Kido, the shot missed because it was fired by the dying seventh Suzaku... the one whom Daiji stabbed twice using his own magnetic force field against him.
The blurry-eyed Seventh Suzaku collapsed to the ground and promptly died. It took all of his strength to fire that one Lightning Storm of Torment.
"Holy shit, dude! That was a close one!" said a chuckling and bemused Yanagisawa after ducking away from the blast.
"I could've been killed!" were the last words Kido said before he was hit dead center with another Ankoku-Raiko-Ha. He convulsed and stopped moving soon after.
"KIDO!" screamed Mitsunari while, from either side of him, both the detective and the fox demon tensed. The lightning bolt that the seventh Suzaku fired off wasn't supposed to hit Kido. It was supposed to move the shadows of the three remaining Suzakus and one maniacal Kanji Killer away from the shadow master's "Shadow Paralysis" technique.
In an instant, Jine pulled out his sword from the Suzaku shish kebab... one of them blasted Kido square in the chest... and then he apparently used his Jagan again because he ended up splitting into two as though he himself had doppelganger powers.
The detective rose to the challenge, parrying his former fellow police officer's thrust with a Yin-Yang Cross then intending to finish him off with a riposte, but he ended up slicing through thin air. He attacked a mirage.
The second Jine... the real one... was upon Kurama in a split-second, as though all the millions of volts of electricity that coursed through his nerves and veins earlier helped reinvigorate him instead of almost kill him.
The half-youko attempted to mutate another blade of grass into a sword of grass... the Tsukayaki Blade... to block the incoming strike, but he had little to no youki left. He'd also lost a lot of blood.
A second later, the redhead was beheaded.
Daiji cried, "KURAMA!" Once again, he could only watch as a companion of his kicked the bucket while on his watch.
Thanks to his rage over seeing his friends die, Yanagisawa produced enough bloodthirstiness to not only transform into Himura Battousai, but to also end up healing all the wounds that Jine inflicted upon him earlier.
He also turned his robe into Kenshin's outfit during the swordsman's days as the Hitokiri Battousai the same way the powered-up Matsudaira was able to recreate Aoshi's trench coat using only spiritual energy.
The three Suzakus chuckled in unison. This was going to be a quick fight.
Back at the rooftop of the Kawaguchiko Station...
The Blood Wind took Natsuki Shinkai by surprise, unable to deal with the unknown technique that sapped her of blood and flung her away like she were experiencing Feng Xinhai's Tornado Ripper.
It took all her nimbleness to keep herself from landing on her head as she tumbled across the moonlike surface of the station's ruined rooftop.
This time around, Rando was able to bear the double-edged effect of the Blood Wind... sapping the energy of both the user and his opponent in order for the rising hot blood energy and the cold and dense spirit energy to create the crimson hurricane... thanks to the energy boost Natsuki gave him by deflecting his projectiles back at him.
He recycled, absorbed, and metabolized all that energy into youki care of his Inner Blood Turmoil.
Meanwhile, although the Ryui Tsui Sen was supposed to finish off the (admittedly) tough Rando, Yahiko Myojin's sakabatou was instead met with significant resistance that deflected the blow.
The teenaged-looking old spirit narrowed his eyes; he remembered the autopilot shield the kabuki youkai used against him and Sanosuke back when they first fought all over Shibuya.
"Suna no Tate," confirmed Rando with a smirk.
With a grunt, Yahiko redirected his deflected blow towards the ground with the intention of blasting away the pasty-skinned demon with his signature "DOU GAMI!" or God on Earth.
However, the youkai countered (or rather, amplified) the earth-shattering effect of the technique with a well-timed "BAKUSAI TENKETSU!" that he did with his index finger.
The combined forces of the two moves caused a fast combustion of dust particles in an enclosed space. Natsuki got up on instinct and defended against the attack, but there was no way her metal cane or her defensive prowess could deal with this sort of assault.
The Iron Body Technique and the Shield of Sand allowed Rando to survive the subsequent concussive explosion. The same could not be said of Myojin and Shinkai, who felt the full-brunt of the earthen blast.
It was the first significant hit that the demon was able to land against the dual defense and offense of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu masters, but it was powerful enough to blow them off their feet.
Rando then scowled after he saw the bruised yet otherwise fine pair of Natsuki and Yahiko land on their feet. Shinkai grabbed hold of Myojin in the nick of time, then whirled her pistol-grip cane around to ward off and repel the ensuing rock shards and debris.
'Why won't these children die?' lamented Rando
"Are you all right, Natsuki?" the demon overheard Yahiko say.
Natsuki gulped, wiped the bullets of sweat on her forehead, and slapped the Tokyo Samurai's behind. "That should be my line! I'm the one who saved you!"
"Oh, right. Uh, thanks?"
"Soo are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm good."
Despite the moronic exchange, Rando realized that thanks to the Blood Wind, the "Shield" portion of the duo's "Sword and Shield" tag team looked paler and weaker than before.
Xinhai's daughter looked almost anemic, to be more specific.
Yusuke Urameshi once called Rando a jack of all trades and a master of none. Nevertheless, the demon realized that he didn't have to be a master of any particular technique. He could use them all in combination and end up unbeatable regardless.
'Once you learn how to control the dozens of techniques in your arsenal, you'll be unstoppable,' the Chojin himself assured Rando, which the youkai turned into his own personal mantra as he flexed his right hand until it turned rock-solid while he screamed at his opponents, "I'm invincible. There's nothing you can do to me that I fear. KACHUU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!"
"Chestnut what...?" Yahiko repeated before he and Natsuki were bombarded with punch after punch after punch from all directions and all angles. They didn't even have room to breathe as they backtracked, dodged, parried, blocked, and countered Rando.
Or they would've countered had the youkai's Shield of Sand not block every last counterattack attempt they made, which left them open to the flurry of fists. The Suna no Tate served the same purpose as Natsuki did when it came to defending against their strikes.
The right crosses were especially bone-breaking because Rando's Kaiwan technique from the Byakko's Claw made his entire right arm as hard as steel. Because half of Shinkai's strength was sapped through the Blood Wind, her dodging and deflection abilities were now compromised. More and more of the tattooed demon's offensive strikes were landing.
Rando counted every strike and counterstrike that Yahiko and Natsuki landed on him earlier, with every intention of paying them back for it.
A strike was then able to land in the middle of Rando's barrage that the Suna no Tate wasn't able to block. Luckily, he'd already activated the Suna no Yoroi, so all it did was crack the earthen armor he wore on top of his pasty skin.
It must've been a fluke. Rando resumed the barrage, but this time he was caught right between the eyes that shook his already concussed brain.
The strike made him misjudge the distance between him and Natsuki, allowing the girl to cross her wrists above his Kaiwan with a Hawatari, then countered with a Hadome-assisted Cross Strike to the jaw that snapped his head back.
As he regained his bearings, he was again hit again with an attack he couldn't perceive every time he attempted to punch away with the "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" Fist. All he could see was Yahiko in his Joudan-no-Kamae or Fire Stance, then boom! Stars.
This went on for a while. Yahiko and Natsuki began to look like minced meat from the repeated blows. However, from time to time, a strike would land in the middle of Rando's hundred-fist flurry that would've been a match against Yusuke's own Hyaku Retsu-Ken.
Natsuki would take advantage, do the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu ougi or the Mugen Dai no Hyogo backlash block that riddled the kabuki demon's Armor of Sand with cracks.
But then a devastating blow from below followed the indecipherable strike from above that tested even the fortitude of Rando's Iron Body Technique.
However, the youkai didn't heed the early warnings of what was happening, waving them off as flukes since he was beating the humans to a pulp and to the punch with the sheer volume of the landed Joketsuzoku strikes.
That was a mistake. Soon, none of his flurry of punches were landing while more and more of the counterstrikes were tearing his Sand of Armor and even his Iron Body Technique apart. The rest of his wild fists were blocked, parried, and riposted, or altogether dodged by even the compromised Natsuki.
Rando then realized what techniques were being used against him. Yahiko had deployed the Inga Gami and Banzen Gami on Karasu earlier, but they looked altogether unimpressive compared to Yutaro Tsukayama's Symbol of Infinity in terms of destructive power.
However, from up close, the techniques were downright frightening when one was on the receiving end of it. Counterstrikes you couldn't see. Follow-up offensive strikes that doubled the power of the counters. That was what Rando was up against.
The nonstop offense of the Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken soon became a joke that only left the pasty-skinned demon wide open since the Inga Gami was specifically developed to precisely strike during small windows of opportunity, like throwing a pebble on the whirling blades of an electric fan without letting the blades repel it away so that it could pass through.
Rando could see Yahiko's muscle tense up in the instant he threw the counterstrike ougi, making it doubly damaging than either the Dou Gami or the Tsui Gami. However, the Banzen Gami was a different animal altogether. While the Karmic God relied on split-second precision, the Perfect God relied on subconscious reflex, allowing Yahiko to land an extra strike right after the Inga Gami even though the window of opportunity to do so was even smaller.
The tag team of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu experts pushed back the hyper-aggressive Rando. Even though the human and the resurrected ghost of one were rendered black and blue by the Chestnut Fist, they soon got the upper hand again and turned the tides, such that none of the youkai's attacks could land in the face of the Inga Gami, the Banzen Gami, the Hawatari, the Hadome, the Kousa Dageki, and the Mugen Dai no Hyogo.
In fact, the steel-hard Kaiwan throbbed and swelled, as if it were about to burst after the continuous Symbols of Infinity it suffered from. However, as Rando backtracked into a seeming retreat, his smile never left his face. Even as the Suna no Yoroi altogether gave way and his "iron body" felt the full brunt of those endless counterstrikes, he bore them head on.
He still had an ace up his sleeve (even though he had no sleeves).
For the second time in the fight, the demon was on the verge of getting knocked out. Nevertheless, his feet didn't fail him as he completed the spiral on the ground and caught the two hotheads in his trap hook, line, and sinker.
It was a Level Three technique of his... another Joketsuzoku technique he copied that was right up his alley... but he'd gathered enough hot energy from the "passive-aggressive" duo to make the move work without having to sacrifice too much of his own remaining power.
"HIRYU SHOTEN HA!" A tornado created from the cold energy that Rando enveloped his body with using his Ibuki ki conversion move and the heat-based energy borne of Yahiko and Natsuki's own bloodlust blasted the two upwards into the open sky.
After his failed Rasengan attempt thanks to Shinkai's traitorous and interloping father, Rando's losing streak had finally ended. The pasty youkai thusly collapsed, hoping he could wake up in time in case the duo survived the cyclone he blasted them with.
Right atop the enchanted trees that combined themselves into a gigantic tree network at the spot that was intended for the Chikyusei suicide pact in Aokigahara...
"Haven't you learned your lesson, Battousai? You can't use the same tricks Xinhai's living battery used against us. We, unlike you, have learned our lesson. ANKOKU-RAIJIN-KEN!"
As one of three Suzakus said this, his fist pumping forth enough electrical energy to overload the power grid of an entire city, Battousai-Yanagisawa sidestepped him, turned around, and cleaved him from shoulder to belly.
Yanagisawa considered touching Suzaku to gain his power and memories, but reconsidered once he remembered that the demon was after the Demon Sword and could electrocute him to death with one touch.
The next Suzaku fired off 92,000-miles-or-148,000-kilometers-per-second Ankoku-Raiko-Ha from a distance. None of the lightspeed lightning bolts touched the golden-eyed "Kenshin", each arrow-shaped projectile hitting nothing but afterimages.
Even though the Shinsoku-fast ex-hitokiri could only move at supersonic speeds at best, he was still faster than every arm movement, hand wave, and muscle spasm that the demon utilized in order to activate the lightspeed move and release its electrical payload.
A gun was only as fast as the person who pulled its trigger, even when it came to demonic railguns like Suzaku.
Just as the second-to-the-last remaining Suzaku noticed his double's troubles and elected to help by double-teaming the former vagabond, Yana-Kenshin raised his sword from the Joudan-no-Kamae stance... Yahiko's favorite stance... and screamed, "KUZU RYU SEN!" at them.
The technique was so fast, the nearest Suzaku was turned into eight equal halves of himself (the ninth move of the Nine-Headed Dragon Flash was a thrust) before Kenshin could even finish uttering the first syllable of the five-syllable name of the attack.
The last surviving Suzaku scooted as far away from Kenshin as possible while he mumbled, "Kaifuku," which was his Prism of Seven Restoration. He proceed to consume the souls of his copies in order to heal his injuries and return himself to full strength, the bodies of his clones turning into ectoplasm and dust.
The Battousai was scarily fast and efficient when it came to killing demons. Perhaps this was the reason why he was able to graduate from being a manslayer to a full-fledged demon-slayer. He was still a swordsman with a steel blade, though; that was something he could never change.
Suzaku created enough positively charged static energy around him to attract lightning from the negatively charged nimbus clouds and/or plumes of dust from the forest fire that never really went away to strike his body.
It also helped that they were in a high enough location right beside the world-famous Mount Fuji. The subsequent massive electric discharge gave Suzaku enough "juice" to gain complete psychic control over magnetic fields and metals, steel included. No force on earth was greater than magnetism, Suzaku decided.
In reaction to the glowing and powered-up Suzaku's challenge, Kenshin sheathed his sword and went into his signature sword-drawing stance that he was named for... the battoujutsu of Battousai.
The last surviving Shisejyu didn't care. The Battousai could have an Uzi or a Tommy Submachine Gun, and the bullets would stop dead on their tracts. To immobilize a mere sword strike would be child's play. As soon as he had Himura trapped, he'd blast him until there was nothing left of him.
'Then his sword will be all mine,' thought the Saint Beast leader.
Battousai stood stock-still while Suzaku already had electricity flowing through his veins so that Kenshin couldn't use the delay between triggering a lightning strike and releasing the electrical discharge to his advantage. With an arrogant step, the Crimson Sparrow sauntered towards his prey.
The Himura-possessed Yanagisawa didn't bother calling out the name of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu's Succession Technique, the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki. That was because even before the sound left his mouth, the move would've already be done.
Then again, no move, not even one that could produce a localized vacuum, could be faster than lightning or light itself. The magnetic field surrounding Suzaku... the one powerful enough to stop bullets in mid-flight... would render the Demon Sword's steel blade moot.
The screams of terror of Kenshin... or rather, of the shapeshifter the Battousai took control over... would be soundless, because the convulsive effects of a billion volts of electricity would not even allow the vocal cords to vocalize.
These things and more was all in Suzaku's mind as the top half of his body flew to the sky while the bottom half crumpled down on the ground (or rather, on the fat tree trunk and branches of a cluster of intertwined Aokigahara trees).
"What? Why...?" said one-half of the last surviving Suzaku, his guts and intestines flapping below him as he soared the skies and fell back down to the part of Aokigahara that wasn't influenced by Kurama's immense demonic energy.
The supernaturally strong Flash of the Heavenly Flying Dragon was even more powerful than supersonic bullets or an ESP-controlled magnetic barrier. This was like a child being able to separate or stick together small bars of magnets through physical strength alone, only this was a force that was many magnitudes higher.
The immense force of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu Ougi was able to overcome magnetism itself.
'I want that sword. So the gods help me, that sword will be mine!' thought Suzaku minutes before dying.
As Kurama's head flew from his body, his neck as smoothly cut as a sawed-off tree stump, Jine felt a tinge of regret. He'd have to find another vessel for the Demon Sword to possess in order for him to have his great, legendary "rubber match" against the one-and-only Youkiri Battousai.
Nevertheless, he didn't have time for regrets. The flying head of Kurama emitted a high-pitched squeal that shattered the eardrums of the serial killer and made his ears bleed.
"...A mandrake clone! When did he...?" Jine realized. The half-demon he decapitated was nothing more than a doppelganger himself. Again, the demon fox stayed one step ahead of him when it came to tactical battles.
'I was right. He's as worthwhile an opponent as the Youkiri Battousai himself,' the Kanji Killer thought as he, half-deaf and already suffering from the effects of a compromised sense of balance, was faced with the leaping Spiral Sword Dance (Six Series) of a new-and-improved (or at least more fit and athletic) Detective Daiji Matsudaira.
He leaped towards the police officer head on, intending to block the spinning slashes with his calligraphic brushstroke strikes, but the detective cut off his sword arm (and, frighteningly enough, his sword itself) before he could do so.
He became a sopping mess of flayed limbs and cuts of long meat an eye blink later, Kurama's ruse and Daiji's instant reaction ultimately defeating him.
As Jine's head tumbled around the massive tree trunk of the combined trees of the Sea of Trees like a hollow coconut, the earlier blaze from the burgeoning forest fire finally dying down because the merged collection of trees became literally too big for the flames to consume, Daiji stuck his kodachi to his thigh one more time just in case Udo bamboozled him again.
The Kanji Killer certainly did, because his next eye blink revealed not just the head of Udo, but his whole healthy (albeit slashed and bloody) body falling right into the forest below. Matsudaira cursed under his breath. "Officer Hamada" had managed to use the Jagan's hypnosis yet again.
From right below Daiji, hidden between the pulsating roots, vines, and stems of the gigantic Aokigahara tree collective lay Kurama and some medicinal herbs that helped coagulate the blood from his open wounds and heal the damage inflicted to him by Jine Udo.
Right beside the half-conscious redhead was an unconscious Kido, who himself was being treated for his electrocution via nonstick sterile (and organic) bandages that covered his second-to-third degree burns.
That wasn't the end of everything just yet, though.
Kenshin Himura... or at least a Kenshin who took advantage of Mitsunari Yanagisawa's shapeshifting abilities to gain a tangible form without sapping his own ghostly life force... was just about to walk away from the mess he left of the last surviving Suzaku when he felt many different presences surrounding him. Six of them, in fact.
"ROKU-GOKU-ANKOKU-RAIKO-HA!"
The Battousai barely had enough time to duck, dodge, and roll away as an endless blast of electrical arrows rained all over the Aokigahara mega-tree that Kurama made, which restarted the forest fire that was supposed to be done and over with. Kenshin proceeded to act like a lumberjack and cut down the overhanging branches and whole trees that sprouted from the amalgamated Sea of Trees.
The Battousai did this because the six Suzakus were probably again perched above higher ground, serving as cowardly snipers and whatnot. From behind him, Daiji appeared and wordlessly followed suit, the Oniwabanshu Okashira reincarnation's shorter kodachi somehow managing to cut even more effectively than a longsword or a chainsaw thanks to the Spiral Sword Dance.
It didn't take long for the six clones of Suzaku to come down from their lofty perches once more to face the two Tokugawa-to-Meiji-Era warriors.
This time around, the sinister six worked more like an army unit that Kurama could barely stop with the entire Aokigahara forest in his control rather than the standalone Tesla coils of before, razing through the entirety of the fox demon's Aokigahara mega-tree and enveloping it in flames, the forest fire from before reignited anew.
Soon, the six had both the retreating Oniwabanshu Okashira turned Shinjuku Detective and Hitokiri Battousai turned Spirit Guardian cornered between inferno and damnation: An all-consuming forest fire and six electrical demons that were collectively unkillable.
Just then, the Suzaku that Kenshin-Yanagisawa was supposed to kill... the one that produced those six new clones... rose up and absorbed the ghosts of the six deceased doppelgangers that Mitsunari and Kido finished off earlier.
"You were supposed to kill me, Battousai. You were quite efficient in mowing down all my clones, but when you came upon the opportunity of finishing me off once and for all, you balked. You held back. Why is that?" Suzaku wondered before rejoining the six of him, thusly completing the Suzaku Seven.
Daiji narrowed his eyes as his mind flashed back to his... or rather, Aoshi's... own fights against Kenshin. He remembered that the great Hitokiri Battousai, the strongest of the manslayers, refused to kill him too for some reason. 'Even until now, when we're up against demons, he still chooses to spare them and follow his non-killing vow. Why?'
Around the time the Okashira and the Battousai crossed swords, Kenshin the Vagabond was following some sort of non-killing vow. They had two battles a century ago (one ended in a draw and the other ended in Battousai winning), and in both instances, the supposed slasher refused to kill him.
"Could it be that the once great Battousai the Demon-Slayer is afraid of killing his own opponents, like Jine claimed?" came Suzaku's rhetorical question, his voice somehow remaining crystal clear despite the noise of discord, the crackle of thunder, and the raging flames that surrounded them all while the rest of the Suzakus kept firing their Lightning Storm of Torment everywhere.
Suzaku's eyes narrowed as his antenna bangs went erect thanks to static electricity. "I saw firsthand what happened to that Kido boy earlier. You're afraid of being consumed by your own madness and bloodlust by killing me, aren't you? It's the same with Kurama, who refused to even wield the Demon Sword even though it gave him power equal to the former Three Kings of Makai."
Kenshin attempted to repeat the massacre he did earlier, but the magnetic force of Seven Suzakus together created an even more powerful barrier than before, thus his steel (although enchanted) blade couldn't even touch any of the demons.
The Kenshin-disguised Yanagisawa... or perhaps Kenshin himself... clenched his teeth. "You're the person responsible for electrocuting Natsuki back in Nishi-Shinjuku, when Jine and Kurama first fought! You've been hiding in the shadows and spying on us all this whole time."
Suzaku spat back, "So what if it was me? That's beside the point. You're gifted with all this talent, all this power, and you choose to waste it! Give me that sword and I'll show you how to truly harness its abilities!"
The six Suzaku had a ceasefire as they saw their "leader" raise his hand. Then, in unison, they all posed with electric bows in their possession, their bodies slowly but surely getting filled with demonic might. At long last, the complete Suzaku Seven could show off the full extent of their youkai powers.
"SHICHI-GOKU-ANKOKU-RAIKO-HA!"
An entire "block" of Kurama's Aokigahara mega-tree was blasted away into ashes and dust, and it took Mitsunari-Kenshin's Shinsoku (Godspeed) and Daiji's Ryusui no Ugoki (Water Flow Movement) to avoid becoming mere stains on the bark of the hydra-like Sea of Trees. The Seven Hells Dark Lightning Wave was a technique to be reckoned with.
In between a forest fire consuming one mega-tree full of "Sea of Trees" and the marching army of Suzakus, Detective Matsudaira and Battousai Himura had nowhere left to run or hide.
"Give me that sword! Your reluctance to kill shows that you don't deserve that weapon at all. It should be mine and mine alone," said all seven Suzakus this time around, their combined powers allowing them to act like a hivemind of sorts.
Yana-Kenshin did another probing battoujutsu strike, but the sword wouldn't fly off its sheath; the electromagnetic field surrounding the Suzaku Seven proved too dense for even his signature move to penetrate.
"Fool! I will not be defeated by someone who cannot kill!" rebuked the Suzaku Collective as they pushed Battousai Yanagisawa away by manipulating the magnetic fields around them with their integrated minds.
"Then what about me?" asked Daiji as he did the Dusk to Dawn Strike or the technique that involved him hitting the handle of one kodachi with the tip of the other kodachi like how a pool player would hit a cue ball with a billiards stick.
This resulted in the blade embedding itself right at the forehead of the centermost Suzaku, the one whom Kenshin failed to kill. Also, to keep any of the Suzakus from repelling the blade with their control of magnetism, he made sure to create a ceramic short sword instead of a steel one, like he mentioned earlier.
It didn't even faze Suzaku or any of his other clones. All it did was anger him (or perhaps it lobotomized him into having a hyper-focused, one-track mind).
"The Demon Sword isn't a sword made to kill demons, but a sword that's made for demons. THAT SWORD BELONGS TO ME! GIVE ME MY SWORD! SHICHI-GOKU-ANKOKU-RAIKO-HA!"
Thinking fast (and after he created a spare kodachi out of thin air), the detective again utilized his Quest-Class powers to synthesize a domed wire mesh that caged off Kenshin and himself from the blast. Just as the Battousai was about to chide Matsudaira for creating such a flimsy shield, the Prism of Seven Lightning Storm of Torment was absolutely absorbed by the chicken-wire fence, such that it didn't produce the expected explosion, disintegration, or electrocution that nearly leveled the giant Aokigahara amalgamation that Kurama created.
"What's going on? Why aren't we being electrocuted even though we're standing on a dome made of wire mesh?" asked both Yanagisawa and Kenshin at the same time, their voices in chorus like the Suzaku hivemind earlier.
"It's a Faraday Cage," answered Daiji. Seeing the even more confused look that Yana-Battousai gave him, he expounded, "If an enclosure filled with conductive material is struck by electricity, it could serve as insulation on anything contained within it, even something as powerful as the Shichi-Goku-Ankoku-Raiko-Ha."
Invented by Michael Faraday back in 1836, the Faraday Cage or Faraday shield showed that electricity had no influence on the interior of any area, pen, corral, or enclosed space made of conductive material. Any room composed of metal... like an elevator or a car... when struck by lightning could serve as "insulation" because there could be no electrical charge present inside it.
It was an effect that Benjamin Franklin himself first demonstrated via his cork-and-can electricity experiments back in 1755 (which was misconstrued in pop culture as a kite-flying experiment during a thunderstorm). Faraday merely further established Franklin's observations by duplicating the effect and having it named after him (the "Faraday Cage" effect).
A second Seven Hell Dark Lightning Wave was attempted, followed by a third one. Afterwards, all seven of the Suzakus were struck by lightning, especially the middle one with a short sword stuck in his head, their bodies glowing with a sheer amounts of electrical energy they were converting to demonic energy.
"We need to get out," said Detective Matsudaira to "Mitsunari Himura" before he cut an human-sized opening out of the chicken wire fence with his ceramic knives. Kenshin himself exited from the Faraday shield with a powerful sword-drawing slash of his own.
They came out just in time before the metal dome collapsed unto itself from the robust magnetic forces that crumpled the Faraday Cage like a balled-up piece of paper.
Both the former Oniwabanshu Okashira and the former Ishin Shishi Hitokiri realized that they had no other recourse but to launch an offensive, especially after the Suzaku Seven ripped the wire mesh from Daiji's Faraday Cage apart and turned them into a hundred thousand shards of metal that rained upon the two Spirit world warriors at the speed of bullets.
Three of the Suzaku Seven were controlling the magnetic field required to move the metal shards. The other three were in archery stances, their bows made of light, electrical discharge, and youki as they prepared to fire wave upon wave of the Ankoku-Raiko-Ha. Meanwhile, the middle Suzaku with a kodachi stabbed into his noggin cocked his fist in preparation for the Ankoku-Raijin-Ken.
The stage had been set for the final battle.
Blood, sweat, and tears flew along with the shards of magnetized metal controlled by three Suzakus as Mitsunari and Daiji... or perhaps, to be more accurate, Kenshin and Aoshi... used their respective speed and acrobatic nimbleness to dodge bullet-like projectiles and lightspeed bolts of lightning at the same time from seven different opponents acting as one.
During all that time, all seven Suzakus chanted, "Give me the Demon Sword! That sword is mine!" over and over, their solemn pledge like the drone from a swarm of bees.
It was now a war zone up there. By then, the entirety of the combined Sea of Trees from Japan's World-Famous Suicide Forest was completely engulfed in a raging forest fire, the thick smoke serving as the nimbus clouds that bumped off their own dirt particles together until they become negatively charged, which would then result in electrical discharges similar to those from the volcanic plume of a dirty thunderstorm.
The only area not surrounded with the growing blaze was being ripped into shreds by the metal shards from Matsudaira's Faraday Cage that the Suzaku Seven tore apart and turned into projectiles care of their control over their own magnetic field. The detective and the spirit guardian looked like they were being gunned down by invisible mobsters wielding semiautomatics.
Daiji was the first one to take out a Suzaku, this time riddling him with ceramic short swords created from the ether of his own spiritual energy to ensure that the demon wouldn't survive like the middle Suzaku that Matsudaira lobotomized did.
The policeman then proceeded to grab two kodachi from the pin-cushioned Suzaku corpse (the holes of which produced a fountain of blood) in order to do the Spiral Sword Dance: Six Series on another Suzaku before his attempt at an Ankoku-Raijin-Ken could be completed, all the while dodging bullets made from his own Faraday Cage.
He wasn't so lucky with the third Suzaku he engaged with, who shot him with an Ankoku-Raiko-Ha while his vision was covered by the high pressure red fountain in front of him.
He would've been able to avoid the blast using his trusty Water Flow Movement, but the Suzaku with the kodachi in his head blasted him with a Storm of Torment Fist that, while he dodged, helped attract several metal shards towards his direction, ripping him apart and turning him into a sitting duck for the Lightning Storm of Torment.
As he convulsed from electric shock and was "shot" by a hail of shrapnel, he summoned enough of his pride and the last of his strength to do a Yin-Yang Cross on the nearest Suzaku, slicing him apart into four pieces like a pizza pie. He flashbacked to the moment wherein he... as Aoshi... managed to uppercut Kenshin after the redhead crushed his windpipe in their first encounter before collapsing in a pool of his own blood.
Meanwhile, right off the bat, Kenshin killed one Suzaku and dismembered another while deflecting and dodging shrapnel by doing a running battoujutsu strike turned into the Ryu Sou Sen.
The supersonic speed, growing momentum, and unpredictable pattern of Yanagisawa Battousai's attack enabled him to do four things, which was to hurt or kill the Suzaku clones, avoid the hail of magnetically controlled metal shrapnel, confuse the enemy on where to fire their lightspeed lightning bolts, and overcome the forces of attraction and resistance from the Suzaku Seven's magnetic field.
In an instant, Yana-Kenshin was boxed in. From all around him rained the bullet-fast shrapnel that were as fast (or even faster) than Kenshin's Godspeed or even Soujiro Seta's Reduced Earth.
Directly behind him was the recovering amputee Suzaku who was about to fire off a lightspeed Ankoku-Raijin-Ken. Right in front of him was a completely healthy Suzaku who was about to shoot him with an Ankoku-Raiko-Ha from a distance. He had nowhere to else to run but straight forward.
"RYU MEI SEN!"
As sawdust, fire, wood, splinter, lightning, and metallic shards came flying everywhere, Kenshin sheathed his sword. However, it wasn't an ordinary sheathing technique. It was a supersonic sheathing move that, while wasn't as fast as the Lightning Storm of Torment, was supersonic enough to reach the unharmed Suzaku's ears, shatter his eardrums, and make them bleed before he could pull the trigger of his Dark Lightning Wave.
Thusly, the supposedly unavoidable lightning bolt that was faster than any mere swordsman missed Battousai by a mile, which made the Suzaku clone's knees buckle. Yanagisawa-Kenshin then took advantage of this moment of weakness and used a sword-drawing strike to slice up the demon's thighs, which made him drop like sawed timber.
"RYU KAN SEN!"
Espying the approaching amputee from behind him, the ex-hitokiri continued the arching movement of his quick-draw battoujutsu technique even before the other Suzaku could slide off his sliced limbs in pure agony. The decapitating cut to the amputee Suzaku went from the back of his head to in between his lips, thus separating his upper jaw from his lower jaw.
However, because Kenshin didn't expect it, the amputee managed to electrocute the Battousai-transformed Yanagisawa by blasting forth electrical energy from the bleeding stump where his right hand used to be. While convulsing, the teenager-turned-hitokiri got hit several times by stray magnetized shards.
As Mitsunari stumbled and reverted back to his normal self for a few seconds before turning back into Kenshin again through sheer force of will, the legless Suzaku clone came up with an idea that would let him win against the Demon Sword Guardian even though, at present, he had (literally) no legs to stand on.
Summoning the last of his strength to turn himself into a demonic magnet, the Crimson Sparrow beckoned all of the metal shards towards himself while Kenshin was distracted, a black swarm of them floating towards the revived swordsman while tearing apart the landscape. Suzaku might as well use them all up, since even Detective Matsudaira had already fallen.
"DOU RYU SEN!"
The concussive wave delayed the ETA of the metal cloud of death, which gave Yanagisawa Battousai enough time to jump up ten feet into the air. Meanwhile, the limbless Suzaku didn't have enough time to turn his electromagnetic powers "off" before the shrapnel from Daiji's Faraday Cage turned him into red mulch in seconds.
There was only one Suzaku left; the one whose head the policeman stabbed with his ceramic kodachi. Harnessing the power of his deceased selves with a timely "KAIFUKU!" the (possibly brain-damaged) demon grabbed something near his feet then used his remaining hand to control and aim the metal shards right at the descending Kenshin.
"RYU TSUI SEN!"
Because of the wider amount of space given to him after jumping so high up the air, Yana-Himura was able to weave, bob, duck, and barrel roll his way out of the whizzing magnetic bullets before doing a single tumble and unleashing his signature aerial move, the Dragon Hammer Flash.
"Battousai! Let me give you a HAND!"
That was when the last remaining Suzaku threw what was in his other hand and let it latch onto the blade of the Demon Sword. It was, incidentally, the hand of the Suzaku clone that Battousai amputated and beheaded a while back.
The dismembered limb gripped the Reikai artifact tight, but because it wasn't a reverse-edged sword like Himura's former blade, the steel ended up slicing the limb's fingers.
Kenshin knew that, like Makoto Shishio, this Suzaku couldn't be left alive, so he planned to hit him with a Ryu Tsui Sen then combo it off with a Kuzu Ryu Sen, thus finishing him off for good... the consequences of taking the life of a demon and what its effects would be on the Demon Sword be damned.
But before he could do that, the Youtou Shinnoken slipped his grip. The dismembered hand that Suzaku threw magnetized the blade enough to fall under the Shisejyu's magnetic grip. This left a de-transformed Yanagisawa at the mercy of the airborne shrapnel bullets that ripped his lanky, untrained teenaged body apart, broom hair and all.
Suzaku did it. He outsmarted Kurama and the Hitokiri Battousai, overcame Xinhai's greatest rival, Detective Matsudaira, and did something that no other member of the Chojin's personal army could do: Claim the Demon Sword for himself.
'With this, even the Chojin wouldn't stand a chance against me.'
With a grin wide enough to split his face the same way his amputee clone's face was split when it was hit with the Dragon Wrap Flash, Suzaku was soon mere inches away from the Demon Sword's handle.
However, a flash of light blinded him for a second, and the next thing he knew, a portal had opened in front of him where the Demon Sword was supposed to be. His shoulder was also bleeding, a thin but deep cut rendering his arm numb.
"Wha...?"
Suzaku turned in time to see a winded but triumphant Kazuma Kuwabara emerge from the smoke and fire, his Dimension Sword in hand... the same Jigen Tou that could cut through dimensions, barriers, and time-space itself in order to create portals.
"We're even now. A cheap shot for a cheap shot," shouted Kuwabara with a one-eyed wince. The tall, muscular teenager didn't even hear the colorful curse words the Crimson Sparrow spat at him as the demon tripped into the closing portal, out of everyone's sight.
It was finally over.
"Nice aim, Kuwabara!" Yanagisawa cheered as he regained feeling in his body, his wounds healing thanks in part to him taking hold of the Youtou Shinnoken once more. "You were the one who've saved the day! That was awesome!"
Kuwabara scratched the back of his head as he let out boisterous laughter.
Meanwhile, the gigantic Aokigahara mega-tree composed of intertwined trees gradually shrunk in size as Kurama, its creator, reabsorbed his demonic energy into his body for the sake of healing all his injuries.
The shrinking forest also helped contain what could have been a wildfire that would've wiped out most of the corpse-ridden suicide forest into ashes and dust.
Had the demon fox not allowed the burning trees to grow and burn far away from the rest of the wilderness as possible, the Aokigahara forest fire would've been on the evening news.
"Nah, that was actually terrible aim," Kazuma confessed to Yana.
Mitsunari's jaw almost dropped to the ground as he asked, "Why would you say that?"
With a shrug, the Master of the Jigen Tou admitted, "I was actually aiming for Suzaku."
As the two teenagers laughed, the last of the enlarged Aokigahara trees were shrunk back to their original size. From one of the vines, branches, and tree barks emerged Kurama and Kido, as though awakened after a season of hibernation.
To Be Continued...
Next: A new target.
Heto na,
Abdiel