About more than a hundred years ago, during the Meiji Era, somewhere in Hokkaido...
The restaurant was a small place and quite dirty, but the locals had said it served excellent sushi, so the visitor saw no problem in checking it out.
Special, non-cheap, premium-grade sushi was a luxury he could afford today as the carriage he had saved from attack had insisted on giving him a sizable amount of money as thanks, and he certainly couldn't argue against it. It would be a good dinner.
When the waitress appeared to take his order, he only asked for small portions, thinking it'd be best to conserve his resources until he got to a larger town.
The food arrived a few moments later. The young man decided mentally that this was a place he'd have to remember so he'd have to at least get the name of the Hokkaido area he currently was in.
As he ate, he noticed an odd stare coming at him from another man in the next booth. The effeminate individual was clad in a white kimono and had long, unusually blue hair, which made him stand out from the rest of the people in the diner.
Finally, after about five minutes of waiting, the boy could see that the pretty-looking man had decided to emerge from his booth, apparently there to talk to him.
The bobbed-haired young man was right. "Excuse me." The stranger said in a smooth voice. "Are you Seta Soujiro, the one known as the 'Heaven Sword'?"
The younger-looking male looked up and smiled, closing his eyes and swallowing the last of his sushi. "I am. Is there something you need from me?"
"I think you already know the answer to that," the blue-haired man said, pointing to his sheathed sword adorning his waist.
Without speaking, the two swordsmen stood up and the two walked outside of the restaurant together.
Just outside of the building was a well-traveled road that currently had several merchants and children running through it.
Demon Sword
A Yuyu Hakusho/Rurouni Kenshin Crossover Fan Fiction Story by Chester Castañeda
Original Concept by Chad Yang
Is it just me, or does Mukuro's back story seem like it came straight out of a mind-break hentai doujin?
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 43: Daydream Generation (Part 1)
Back to the relative present, somewhere in Alaska...
Snow puttered onto the surface of the frosty hill and a nearby village of about five thousand humans could be seen from some of the more scenic footholds.
The sun, already dim from the thick clouds spouting forth snow, was just beginning to set down into the horizon, causing the bottom of the sky to morph from its usual blue hues into an amalgam of warm colors.
Usually a popular spot for backpacking and hiking, on this particular day no humans appeared to have chosen the hill for their adventuring, and it lay mostly bare, with only the occasional bird fluttering past.
That tranquility was soon broken when a very large figure approached the base of the mound from a worn road that would eventually lead back into the nearest village.
Entirely garbed in a brown trench coat that the being used to cover his face, his only distinguishing feature that one's naked eye could see was a pair of drown-out brown, hairy feet with unusually sharp toenails.
Gloves concealed the large hands of the creature, and one could only see patches of his legs and face as he emerged from a car that had been smashed into a tree. He meandered towards the hill in a disoriented daze.
Beginning the slow and steady clamber up the small mountain, the creature paused after a few minutes of climbing and looked over the view that the effort had given him. Right in front of him was a small batch of forested area, and a bit further yielded the first houses of the human village.
Surveying the situation briefly, the being concluded that more effort to climb would not be necessary, at least not for the moment. Shedding the trench coat and dropping it to the bottom of the hill, the creature revealed himself to be a seven-foot-tall demon with a skin shade the same color as his feet. Various horns adorned on his body, and he wore nothing more than his gloves besides a small, plain loincloth.
Turning away as he prepared to venture further up the hill to find shelter, he heard something rustling nearby and turned his head around quickly. He saw a bird skyrocket out of a small tree in the vicinity. The demon breathed a sigh of relief.
"That was a good scare there," he said to himself, sighing, "I should relax more. I'm safe, at least for the moment."
"Can you be sure of that, Rezo?" Another voice from below caused the heart of the demon to sink into one of his many stomachs.
In the blink of an eye, a flash of black streaked out of the tree so fast Rezo could barely detect its movement.
When it stopped, Rezo took a step back. Not ten feet in front of him was a midget demon, glaring at him with burning eyes. His black and white-streaked hair swayed against the wind, as did the robe he wore.
Rezo continued stepping back until he felt his backside hit a natural wall. Sweat began dripping down his face despite the cold. "How... How did you find me, Hiei? I fled Makai a week ago. Have you spent this whole time tracking me?"
Hiei snorted. "Of course not. I've got far better things to do with my time. However, do you think I'm so incompetent as to not be able to find you in Ningenkai? It doesn't matter if you're in the Demon World or in the farthest corner of the Human World, for if I search for you, I will find you."
The fire demon lowered his eyes and put a hand on his sword's handle. "And I will also kill you."
"B-But... this is the place humans call Alaska, a place of freezing temperatures. How are you able to stand it up here?" Rezo asked, hoping to buy some time to think of a way of escaping the situation with his life.
Again, a grunt came forth Hiei. "You insult me once more. You would assume that just because I'm a fire demon that I would be somehow vulnerable in this icy land? If you believed that, then you're even stupider than I had thought."
He moved into a charging position. "Prepare to die."
"No! Please!" Rezo bawled, holding his hands up, "I swear that I don't know anything about a takeover of Makai, Rekai, and Ningenkai! Oh, please! How many times do I have to tell you before you believe me, Hiei? Just don't kill me!"
A chuckle rose from the mouth of the smaller demon. "Seeing that you're facing the final moments of your worthless existence, I suppose it would be fair to reveal my intentions."
He released his sword from his sheath. "I know that you have nothing to do with the alleged plan to take over the three worlds. I've known that from the start."
"W-W-What?" Rezo sputtered, "But if you knew that, why have you been hunting me to the ends of the world?"
"Because I haven't had a hunt this enjoyable for a very long time," Hiei drawled, the thin smile on his face growing slightly wider. "A while back, I discovered you were among the underlings of Mukuro's abusive pedophile 'father' and slave trader, Chikou, who gathered little girls... children... like her to be turned into his unwilling underage wives."
Rezo gulped hard and Hiei continued. "I've since murdered many of your comrades and turned Chikou himself into a living ornament that Mukuro could torture as she pleased. Since then, I considered killing you personally and being done with it."
The Jaganshi readied his sword, "But you proved to be such a pathetic runaway that I tracked you down every step of the way, just to see how amusing it would be to do so." The smile dropped from his face. "I am no longer amused. And so, you die now."
Rezo closed his eyes. "V-Very well, Hiei. If you must kill me, you must kill me. But you would do that even though I was merely following the orders of my liege, Chikou, and I never meant any harm to Mukuro and the others? Even though I'm truly sorry for what I've done?"
As Hiei seemingly hesitated, Rezo attacked, demonstrating the powers he utilized to hunt down and kidnap all those slaves for Chikou by turning himself inside out and attempting to swallow the flying shadow hole with his inverted body that became many times larger than before.
"You are only sorry when a sword is being pointed at you." Hiei grasped his weapon in both hands, "Goodbye, Rezo."
Charging forward at a blinding speed even faster than before, Rezo never felt the blow from Hiei that would slice his inside-out self in half cleanly, nor would he even slightly sense his body being turned into small cubes of diced meat.
Hiei bent down and wiped a patch of snowy liquid across his blade, washing most of the ichor off of its steel. Deciding that he could clean it more thoroughly later, he looked at the corpse of Rezo, cut into a million pieces and spraying multicolored fluids on the rocks nearby.
Sliding his sword back in its sheath, the Evil Eye User turned his eyes away from his target and towards the view of the human settlements the small cliff gave him.
As the Jagan on his forehead opened, Hiei scoped out an automobile or two roam across the roads and pass the small buildings from many, many miles away, his third eye serving as his binoculars.
He sighed. "So this is the place they call Alaska," he mused. "Yukina would like it here. I should take her to his place sometime."
He looked at the sky, watching for a few moments as the snow stopped coming down and twilight began to emerge, "I had best get back to Makai."
"...He was lying, you know."
"Who's there?" demanded the diminutive youkai, his Jagan widening even further than before. How was this person able to hide his presence all this time?
"Rezo was lying and you were mistaken. You believed that he has nothing to do with the Chojin. That's a lie. He came here to Alaska in the hopes that he'd be rescued by his 'comrades' after all the hard work he's been doing in gathering humans for our little... operation."
The stranger chuckled. "I instead used him as bait. For you."
About more than a hundred years ago, during the Meiji Era, somewhere in Hokkaido...
Soujiro smiled at the curious man, unsheathing his wrapped-up sword and beckoning him towards his direction. "So I take it you've heard of my adventures and would like a challenge?"
"Of course." The blue-haired man said. "You are the apprentice of the shadow hitokiri known as Shishio Makoto, and I wish to test the fortitude of such a human."
The other people walking across the dirt road began to crowd around the two men, hoping to see a good fight in the making.
The expression on Soujiro's face didn't change in the slightest. "I accept your challenge, but tell me: How did you discover who Shishio-san is? He died a while back, and the government has been trying to conceal his name and exploits."
His opponent suddenly leaped forward at lightening speed, drawing his sword out. Soujiro, caught slightly off-guard, darted to the right, avoiding the attack.
When the effeminate man stopped in front of a bakery, he giggled. "I have my ways of finding out. You'd be surprised at what a demon is capable of doing."
Soujiro looked at the youkai with a tilted head. "Demon? What do you mean?"
"What I mean by that is I'm what Shishio wished he could have been. I must give you credit, though. Not many are able to avoid the attacks of Shishiwakamaru," said the demon.
As he spoke, two thin strands of hair just above his forehead stood upright, like twin antennae. "Then again," he continued, settling into a battoujutsu stance, "not many are rumored to have the Shukuchi at their command."
"Thank you! I'm very flattered, Youkai-san," Seta chirped. His eyes then moved to the masses shuffling to get a better view of the action.
"You should all probably move away now, if you don't want to get hurt," Soujiro warned the people, although most couldn't tell if he was genuine or not about his concern.
Shishiwakamaru gripped his sword with both hands. "I agree. Let this be a warning to you all."
As he finished his sentence, he pulled the hilt apart from the blade, revealing a huge mass of pulsating flesh that seemed to resemble human faces.
Immediately, a groaning sound came from the organic sword, and several blasts of energy erupted from it, flying in the sky and hurtling themselves into the crowd.
The bystanders instantly fled, not wanting to get killed by the sentient shots of spiritual ki. After a few seconds, the skull-shaped energy blasts returned to Shishiwakamaru and assimilated back into his blade.
The demon then showed off his perfect teeth after his Bakuto Doku Shoku So had ended.
"Don't worry. I made sure not to kill any of these sheep. Still, that must be a bit uncomfortable for you, knowing that I can use my 'Chorus of a Thousand Skulls' at any moment." Shishiwakamaru chuckled softly.
The human teenaged boy brushed aside a small lock of his brown hair that had fallen in front of his left eye. "Not at all. I know that if you resort to such an attack, you're not a true samurai or honorable warrior at all, but instead a poor imitator."
Shishiwakamaru grit his teeth, seemingly hissing at Soujiro's choice of words. "Enough of this," he barked, collapsing his sword back to its original form and raising it high above his head. "Let us begin the fight. I eagerly look forward to annihilating you."
"Very well," Soujiro said. With that in mind, the two charged forward at incredible speeds, each hoping to get in a quick death blow.
The two clashed swords, causing both of them to end their sprints and settle into a series of fast parrying maneuvers, each resulting in a block, parry, or other methods of avoidance.
After four or five unsuccessful stabs at Shishiwakamaru's head and torso, Seta finally succeeded in nicking the right shoulder of the youkai, causing a small amount of blood to squirt out from the wound.
The demon grunted in pain and took a step back.
Soujiro stopped his forward thrusts and waited for the demon to regain composure. "That's a very small wound, Shishiwakamaru," he pointed out, reverting to his standard grin. "Are you sure you're ready to fight against me?"
"Shut up, you impudent human!" Shishiwakamaru cried. "I've been battling both human and demon for over 900 years. I've even met legendary figures from your world, like the great Saito Musashibo Benkei! It will take much more than a flesh wound from a nobody like you to fell me."
'...To fell you?' Soujiro repeated inside his head.
Before the Ten Ken could respond, Shishiwakamaru darted forward to strike again. The human was ready for the assault, however, and again the two engaged in another long series of quick thrusts and stabs, all of which were blocked by the other blade.
Neither connected with any of the strikes, and finally Seta leaped backwards.
"It's obvious we're not going to get anywhere this way," the human said, his voice beginning to lower. "We might as well show each other what we're really capable of."
Soujiro then dropped into the battoujutsu stance. "I'll go easy on you and strike at one level less than I am able to do."
Shishiwakamaru watched in awe as the Heaven Sword charged so fast that the youkai couldn't even see the figure of his opponent initially. Sword outstretched, he watched patches of earth erupt into the air as Seta stepped on them.
Suddenly Shishiwakamaru's demon senses detected a sword coming at him from behind. Sidestepping the attack, the youkai knew he didn't have time for a swing of his katana, so instead he extended his left foot.
Soujiro ran too fast to avoid tripping and crashed to the ground, rolling forward several times so as to not get caught in Shishiwakamaru's immediate vicinity.
The boy climbed up to his feet, panting for air. "Not bad," Seta said, still smiling. "I've only met two people who could dodge me at that speed, and one of them is dead."
Shishiwakamaru smirked. "And what of the other one?"
Soujiro cocked his head slightly. He'd heard that "Himura-san" had kicked the bucket along with "Shishio-san", but he himself couldn't believe the news. Perhaps he was still in denial.
"I'm not exactly sure what became of him... Well, no matter."
"I agree. He's not here, but I am," the blue-haired demon said, extending his sword. "And now that you've shown what you can do, I'll return the favor."
He turned his sword upside-down and stuck it into the soft ground beneath him. Instantaneously, the Ten Ken felt a wave of energy pass over him, so he attempted to dodge it. He failed, however, and became encased in a wall of ki along with Shishiwakamaru.
Seta glared at the youkai. "What have you done? What is this thing?"
Shishiwakamaru guffawed. "This is my Onkosho Bakuheki. The cage won't disappear until I choose for it to do so, or unless you can defeat me. One or the other, so be sure you choose wisely."
The boy nodded. "Very well. I shall do my best to see that it's the latter."
Becoming a tiny bit irritated at the demon's actions, Soujiro jumped forward, hoping to catch Shishiwakamaru off-guard. He aimed his sword at the neck of his opponent, but the youkai pushed it aside with his own blade.
The Heaven Sword countered by elbowing Shishiwakamaru in the stomach, causing him to stagger backward a step and giving the human the opportunity to balance himself and grip his sword firmly.
The demon, now fuming, charged forward and thrust his blade at Soujiro's head. The Ten Ken caught the blade in his hand and attacked again, this time spinning around and connecting with a well-aimed kick to Shishiwakamaru's chest.
The youkai gasped, his face changing several colors, but he managed to catch Seta's leg and slash it with his naginata-like katana, creating a long, deep scratch along his calf.
Someone hurled endless fireballs at Hiei's person; the enemy he did not see earlier on now blasted him with impunity. It was around this point that the fire demon recognized the person who ambushed him.
He'd ask why this individual was after him, because honestly speaking, he was used to demons attempting to take his life away for whatever reason. Hiei shot first, asked questions... well, never.
"It sickens me that an ice maiden and fire demon half-breed like you could best me in mortal combat back in the Dark Martial Arts Tournament. I'm the pureblooded fire demon. I should be the one to have the power of both the mortal flame and the darkness flame!"
A barrage of explosive plasma burst forth Hiei's newest enemy. Dodging the fireballs that came at him from all angles with his unearthly speed, the smallish youkai returned fire against his nemesis with the Purgatory Scar.
"Jaou-En-Satsu Rengoku Shou!"
As the demon expected, the newcomer absorbed all of the blasts of the Fist of the Mortal Flame, their heat approaching that of molten lava (800 degrees Celsius to 1,100 degrees Celsius or 1,472 degrees Fahrenheit to 2,012 degrees Fahrenheit).
"Humph," Hiei harrumphed. "So it is you. The whipped dog still lives."
The golden-haired youkai in a muscle shirt harrumphed in kind. "I wish I knew you were the Imiko (Forbidden Child) of the Koorime (Ice Maidens) when we first battled. That way, I would've fought more seriously and plucked that Jagan of yours out rather than showboat!"
So this was a demon seemingly back from the dead, out for revenge against those that wronged him. Huh. That sounded way too familiar.
"Oh really? You actually believe you were defeated because of your showboating?" Hiei smirked, and the blond demon reacted by blasting him to kingdom come.
Both fire demons were so heat-resistant, they could probably handle the blood-boiling microwave radiation that an S-Class Suzaku could create, ending up none the worse for wear.
To illustrate, because of all the explosions, an avalanche soon happened, but this snowy landslide quickly turned into a flood of water and thick clouds of mist thanks to all the heat being released from both the fire youkai.
"You're the first victim of the Kokuryuha," the diminutive demon concluded, remembering his face but not the name. "How are you still alive? The last time I saw you, you were but a shadow on a wall."
The human-looking demon sneered. "You were forced to use the Dragon of the Darkness Flame by me, and from what I heard after my revival, it almost cost you an arm to do so. You better than anyone else should know that I can push you to your limits."
The vampirish man whose name escaped Hiei at the moment produced an abundance of flame that impressed even the Jaganshi. However, it was still plain old golden Human World fire, and not the pitch-black flames from the Demon World that had temperatures deadlier than a nuclear blast.
"Also, I have a name! It's Zeru! Remember it!" demanded the taller demon.
"Don't tell me what to do," rebuked Hiei. He then flinched and called out, "Stop hiding. I can sense your presence. Who are you? Zeru's ally?"
The Jaganshi's Evil Eye spotted another... demon? Or perhaps a super-powered human like Kuwabara... who walked into view, his face covered with a skull mask.
"Ah. You found me. As expected of an Evil Eye User. The name's Gein. Edward Gein."
The thin man in black clothes applauded, his voice like gravel. He then backed away when Hiei aimed a fireball at him.
"No need to worry. I'm a mere observer. Pay no attention to the old man behind the mound of snow."
"He's not aiming the fireball at you, Gein. He's aiming at me," another voice said.
The conduit of the boundless negative energy of the Overfiend, the Onmyouji, materialized. Or rather, one of his shikigami did so, serving as his own representative. "And I'm no mere observer."
"Stay out of this, Onmyouji. I don't need your help," growled Zeru. "I'm powerful enough to handle this pipsqueak on my own."
"Oh, hello, Houji! So you'll be helping with today's experiment?" Edward Gein nodded at Houji Sadojima (or, to be more specific, his familiar), the former member of Makoto Shishio's Ten Swords serving presently as the Saiko-Komon or Administrator to the yakuza branch under the Chojin's wing, the one headed by a man named Tenro.
Houji snorted. "Were you 'experimenting' on Shishio-sama's Juppon Gatana when you served as someone else's spy, pretending to be the wild man Iwanbo?"
Gein could only scratch the back of his head at that remark. "Not again, Houji. That was a century ago. Literally longer than a lifetime. We're on the same team, remember?"
"I wonder about that..." said Sadojima.
"Three against one, huh?" Hiei grabbed hold of his sword's handle.
"They're of no concern to you, little one. You should only be concerned about me," Zeru declared before rocketing towards the Jaganshi with seeming boosters on his feet, like what the currently Class-A Karasu used on Kurama during their impromptu "rematch".
"Like always, flames from Ningenkai cannot hurt me. Even the flames of Makai, I can absorb as easily as you would mortal flames. Where are you getting all this confidence?" said the Master of the Kokuryuha before disappearing from Zeru's midst.
While traveling at stuttered supersonic speeds, Hiei overheard Gein say to Houji, "Now we'll see which one of us has the superior technique when it comes to empowering the dead souls that the Chojin stole from Hell."
Hiei shook his head, his three eyes blinking at what happened before them. His steel blade melted from the heat of Zeru's fire blade, or rather a pressurized geyser of flame shaped like a katana or a scythe.
Now the youkai remembered why he didn't use his sword on the blond devil whose hair glowed white hot. Hiei retaliated by summoning the "Jaou-En-Satsu Ken!" which was a sword made of darkness flames or flames from the Demon World rather than mortal flames or flames from the Human World.
True to his word, though, Gein merely observed. Houji did so too at the moment, but he did promise otherwise, so Hiei kept a careful eye on him.
As expected, the black flames won out against the orange, yellow, and red ones, even though there was a denser concentration of flaring plasma from the fires bursting forth Zeru's hands.
However, despite this, the blond youkai reformed the fire and turned it into a spiraling firestorm that clipped Hiei's chin and singed his own burry hairdo with a white streak on it.
All the while, the already immense lava-level heat emanating from Zeru's own body rose from a thousand degrees Celsius to tens of thousands (or tens of thousands multiplied by 33.8 in Fahrenheit, since one degree was equivalent to 33.8 Fahrenheit).
In short, sooner or later, Zeru could become hot enough to burn even a fire demon. Maybe. Or perhaps the ambitious blond youkai would be consumed by his own powers.
To put this in perspective, it only took 538 degrees Celsius (or 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit) to vaporize human skin, boil brains, and blow skulls up in less than two-tenths of a second.
If there were any low-level humans or demons in the vicinity, they would've died already by the mere heat emanating from the two combatants alone.
'How is he doing this? He's only using mortal flames, so it's impossible for him to reach such high temperatures on his own,' thought the Jaganshi.
"Fight me at your full power, Hiei! I fear nothing from you, even your Kokuryuha!" screamed the flaming blond demon, his pyrokinetic whirlwind snaking all over the icy peaks of Mount McKinley, turning the permanent winter wonderland into spring for the first time since forever.
"..."
What appeared to be shooting stars or meteorites shot out from the red sky and rained death upon Hiei's general vicinity, the shower of falling celestial bodies exploding simultaneously, like a war had commenced.
At the same time, Zeru combined his fire sword and fire whip together to form a fire whip blade that could cut, burn, and fling more fireballs at the Jaganshi.
Hiei maintained the dark Makai flames of his melted and broken blade to slice and bat away the countless bombs headed his way while also avoiding the firestorm that Zeru turned into a fire whip-blade.
Soujiro yelped briefly in pain and jumped back again to examine the wounds on his leg and hands.
"You're very good. I should expect no less of one such as you," the boyish swordsman said, slightly out of breath and touching the scratches on his palms.
Shishiwakamaru licked his lips. "Have you ever fought a demon before?"
Still panting, Seta shook his head. "No, Shishio-san used to say that he had demon blood flowing through his veins, but I've never had the privilege of battling someone from Makai. I can only hope that I'll live through it," he said, resuming his grin.
Jumping into action, Soujiro aimed his katana at Shishiwakamaru's left arm, hoping to chop it off, but the youkai blocked the blade and thrust his own sword forward.
Seta lifted his head upwards (just in time to avoid having his throat cut out) and grabbed the demon's kimono, pushing him forward and hoping he'd lose his balance.
Shishiwakamaru didn't, however, and spun around instantly. The Heaven Sword stood motionless, still smiling, his muscles pulsing as if ready to spring into action at any moment.
A bit disconcerted at the sight of the grin, the youkai furrowed his eyebrows. "If that's true, then why don't you let me see your Shun Ten Satsu (Instant Heaven Murder) at full speed? I must admit Ive rarely fought humans of your caliber, and I'm interested in seeing what your kind can do."
Soujiro's smile widened and sheathed his sword. "As you wish."
Still bleeding, Seta darted forward, faster than Shishiwakamaru could've imagined. Unable to even see his opponent, the bishonen demon readied his sword, hoping that his senses would be able to pick up where the human was when he was close enough to strike.
If Shishiwakamaru could avoid the battoujutsu slash, Soujiro would be wide open like before, and he could kill the annoying human with little to no trouble.
Suddenly, he felt a movement coming from his left. Shishiwakamaru turned, but it was too late. A tremendous slash from Seta's sword burned across his chest, tearing right through his clothes' fabric.
Blood sprayed in all directions, including on the Heaven Sword, as Shishiwakamaru tumbled to the ground. Shrieking at the top of his lungs, a pair of demon horns sprouted on his forehead.
"What did you do?" the monster screamed as loud as he could. "You've tarnished my perfect body!" he yelped further before doubling over due to his loss of blood.
Soujiro closed his eyes. "I only demonstrated my power, just like you asked me to." He chuckled quietly. "Would you like to continue the match, knowing that I've won?"
Shishiwakamaru suddenly laughed. "Don't be so sure of yourself, boy. If there's one thing I know, it's that human folly has cost more than one of your kind's life to me."
Pulling his sword handle apart again, the flesh that was attached to the inside of the weapon emitted a low moan.
Shishiwakamaru held the naginata-like blade over his head and began twirling it, which let out a deafening shrill sound.
Soujiro tried to tune out the noise, but after a few seconds, he ended up crouching on his knees, holding his hands over his ears. "What... What is that?" he cried out in pain.
"Ma Koku Mei Zan Ken!" Shishiwakamaru threw his head back and let out a warbling laugh. "No human can resist it, and I can't possibly lose now!"
Soujiro grunted, trying to regain his senses. "If you're willing to use such a dishonorable maneuver, then you don't even deserve to defeat a child."
"SILENCE! You were unable to prevent the death of your master, and now you've failed to prevent your own!" Shishiwakamaru rushed forward, ready to stick his sword through the heart of the Heaven Sword.
With a grin as wide as possible and feeling a particularly strong sense of bloodlust as a result of the fight, Shishiwakamaru decided as he charged to drink the blood of Soujiro when he finished, for he truly had been an admirable opponent.
The white-garbed demon's thoughts were interrupted when he heard the sound of metal clanging against metal. Shishiwakamaru's eyes widened.
"What?" he growled, stepping back.
The youkai watched in shock when Seta opened his eyes, took his hands away from his ears and stood up. When the human smiled, Shishiwakamaru began quivering.
"How is it that you are able to avoid the pain of my Shrill Call of the Reaper from my Banshee Shriek Sword?" Soujiro shook his head slowly. "I've learned from my childhood how to fight, even with large amounts of pain. It's a skill that I suggest you learn. Even the real Benkei is capable of such a feat!"
To those who didn't know, the great Benkei Musashibo was such a tough Japanese warrior monk of great fame who died protecting his liege, Minamoto no Yoshitsune, while standing up, his statuesque body riddled with wounds and arrows at it succumbed to rigor mortis.
In an instant, Soujiro's smile disappeared and he executed his Shun Ten Satsu again.
Shishiwakamaru, still reeling from the fact that a human could overcome his aural torture, was like a rag doll after the Ten Ken unleashed his monumental strike against the demon, this time a few inches below his neck.
Blood again gushed from the long wound and the blue-haired imp disguised in human form collapsed on the ground. Immediately after, the piercing sound was gone and the cage surrounding the two had dissipated.
Sighing, Soujiro sheathed his sword. He hadn't had a fight that grand since he had left Kyoto. He walked forward to Shishiwakamaru, who was drowning in a pool of his own blood. The Heaven Sword did a closed-mouth, closed-eye smile.
"That was a wonderful duel, Shishiwakamaru-san. When you wake up, I'd like for you to realize that, had I aimed slightly higher, your head would've disconnected from your body. I've kept you alive so that you may learn from this match."
Soujiro predicted, "No doubt you will meet someone more powerful than me in the future, and hopefully your opinions of humanity have changed by then." On that note, he walked down the road, hoping to find an inn that still had rooms.
A few moments after Seta left, two blond-haired men walked through town and saw Shishiwakamaru's body on the ground. After discovering that it was indeed their demonic ally, they let out a cry of surprise and rushed towards him as fast as they could, checking to see if he was dead.
"Damn! He said to wait for him in this crappy little human town, but he didn't say he was going to get into a fight! What should we do with Shishiwakamaru now, Kuro Momotaro?" the first man asked as he got blood on his yellow shirt while investigating his comrade's wounds.
"Shaddap, Suzuki," Kuro Momotaro said, brushing dirt off the image of a spade on his own shirt. "We just have to get him back to Makai and he'll be fine."
Suzuki nodded. "You're right. Let's move him to the forest nearby, and I'll make a portal back to our home realm. His wounds will heal much faster in the Demon World."
"Right." Kuro Momotaro and Suzuki lifted their team leader over their shoulders and began carrying him off, confusing the humans in the city even more. As they hurried away, a strange thought entered Suzuki's mind.
'I couldn't detect the presence of any other powerful demons in the area. Could this have been done by a human?' He dismissed his own musings with a snort. 'How? They're so pathetically weak!'
Hiei heard thudding footsteps from the distance. He tried feeling its ki... whether it was reiki, youki, or jaki... but he all he could get was the faintest hints of life, so he gave it no heed.
Instead, he focused on his enemy at hand.
The Jaganshi's S-Class youki emanating straight from his surgically implanted Evil Eye served as better oxidation material for combustion, the gases ionizing with his demonic energy to form fire that was even hotter, more intense, denser, and deadlier than the ordinary flames Zeru produced.
At any rate, the (at the time) Class-C demon was vaporized (actually, sublimated) by a Kokuryuha with a "black body" temperature of 1.4 to 4.4 million degrees Celsius (or 50 to 150 million degrees Fahrenheit), the same temperature of a detonated nuclear bomb at ground zero.
It was called "black body" temperature because this was the temperature that could literally turn people's bodies as black as coal and as hard as rock.
Furthermore, the surface of the sun was 2 million degrees Celsius (or 3.5 million degrees Fahrenheit) and its core was 15 million degrees Celsius (or 27 million degrees Fahrenheit). In short, the heat of a nuclear explosion was hotter than the sun's core.
The Darkness Flame, especially the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, remained hotter than whatever mortal flames Zeru could muster. Even with the wide area devastation the blond caused, he couldn't hit Hiei cleanly or fatally with his endless volley of projectiles and fire-based weapons.
"A fire sword that's weaker than mine and a fire whirlwind that couldn't even hold a candle to the Kokuryuha? Is that the best you got?" asked Hiei from behind Zeru. "This fight is over."
The taller, muscular youkai attempted to turn and attack with his fire vortex again, but Hiei walked through the blast like it was a hot gust of wind, his flaming Jaou-En-Satsu Ken prepared to dismember Zeru like it did Kuro Momotaro a couple of years ago.
"What?!"
Houji the Onmyouji chose that particular moment to interfere, blasting Zeru with negative energy that Hiei recognized as the same energy that Meikai Lord Yakumo possessed when he invaded both the Reikai and Ningenkai.
In an instant, a firewall (or rather, a dome-shaped fire barrier as dense as the flames of the Sword of the Darkness Flame) appeared, which kept Hiei from penetrating through Zeru's guard.
Like what happened with Shinobu Sensui when he activated his Ki Kou Toi or Sacred Energy Armor. Or Bui and his Battle Aura.
"Dammit."
"Let's see how far your 'power up' technique can go, Houji," said Gein, his hands on his back while staring at the "light show" before him.
"If Zeru couldn't take it, then shouldn't the body you gave him be blamed for his demise, Doctor Frankenstein?" retorted the Onmyouji.
Gein's face or his mouth couldn't be seen thanks to his decorative cloth mask, but Sadojima could practically feel the sneer from Edward's tone. "Oho. Really? Let's see how long the whole thing lasts, then."
Hiei shifted from slashing at the barrier to blasting it with the Rengoku Shou, but to no avail. However, he noticed that Zeru didn't attack all the while he had his shield up.
Therefore, the Forbidden Child backed away, deactivated the Jaou-En-Satsu Ken, sheathed his sword (which, at this point, was the size of a dagger, or at least a kodachi), and waited for his enemy to drop his guard.
Once Zeru removed his shield, all hell broke loose.
The Jaganshi charged and slashed at his fellow youkai using speeds that would've impressed even Kenshin Himura or Soujiro Seta, renowned speedsters from a hundred years ago.
However, the Imiko of the Koorime ended up slashing a mirage, with the blond using his heat energy, youki, and jaki to bend light rays and produce a displaced image of distant objects (or, in his case, persons such as himself).
"You were born strong, but you lack creativity! Let me show you the full extent of the powers of a true flame master!" said the stocky, pale-skinned demonic fire starter, his bodily temperature steadily rising from 10,000 degrees to 100,000 degrees Celsius.
Zeru's jaki-energized aura released so much heat, nearby rocks and pebbles sublimated in his vicinity while part of Mount McKinley turned into a veritable volcanic rim because of the molten lava that flowed from all the rocks he couldn't "vaporize".
A barrage of firestorms, a rain of fire, fire vortices, firewalls, fireballs seemingly straight from Hell itself, and projectile fire sickles emerged from all over the blond devil's body, which replaced his barrier and kept Hiei on the defensive.
Light-bending mirages also kept Hiei guessing on whether he was dodging a real or fake projectile.
In light of their shared immunity to heat and fire, Zeru decided to do more concussive explosions via fire sickle bombs a la what Karasu would've done. If fire didn't hurt Hiei, then perhaps hot shrapnel and brimstone would.
The Master of the Jaou-En-Satsu Techniques shifted from defense to offense, slashing through the blitzkrieg with the Jaou-En-Satsu Ken or detonating the incendiary bombs in advance with a Jaou-En-Satsu Rengoku Shou.
Because Hiei's body began to memorize Zeru's attack pattern to the point of lacerating him before he could put up his fire barrier, the blond created yet another new technique. A quick one that even the Jaganshi couldn't outrun.
"AURRGGH!"
In two-tenths of a second, before Hiei could brace himself with a burst of youki to buffer the damage, his own body heat sharply rose from 37 degrees Celsius to 100,000 degrees Celsius from the inside, which made his demonic blood boil and skin melt, red vapor pouring out his pores.
Had he a human heart that pumped his blood rather than cell nuclei that circulated his blood for him, he would've had a heart attack then and there thanks to the sudden increase in blood pressure.
"You bastard."
However, even when unprepared, it took more than 100,000 degrees of heat to take down an S-Class fire demon. This was nothing more than a powered-up version of the burst of flames Zeru first used on Hiei prior to unleashing his own special kind of hell.
"You asked for this," Hiei said, his aura burning bright purple and shadowy black even before he undid the bandages of his right hand.
This alone raised his already S-Class powers to greater heights, far greater than the Spirit World could measure with their arbitrary power level standards. "Let's see if you were bluffing earlier."
The rock-sublimating, lava-creating Zeru cackled, his narrow eyes turning into slits while the flames of his aura closed up (arguably, cauterized) the slashes from Hiei's Sword of Darkness Flame.
"Looks like I forced you to use your ace up your sleeve once again, Hiei."
"And you're going to die again. JAOU-EN-SATSU KOKURYUHA!"
For a second, Zeru froze up, the traumatic memory of experiencing the demonic version of "black body" temperature coming back to haunt him. However, he steeled himself in time to consolidate all of his mortal flames and heat into a single point of energy, releasing them in a beam of light not unlike a magnifying lens concentrating the sun's rays into a single ray.
"!?"
Hiei couldn't believe his eyes (all three of them). The beam of light cut through the Dragon of the Darkness Flame like Mukuro did back in the Demon World Unification Tournament with her bare hands.
Again, pure light canceled out the deadliness of the black flames of Hiei's Black Dragon Spirit Technique.
The beam drove Hiei into the mountain with the impact of the Rei-Gan (and he had his fair share of Rei-Gan blasts), the concussive force and the blistering heat of the concentrated light reaching critical levels.
More laser beams followed, but the Jaganshi had the nimbleness, twitch reflexes, and presence of mind to dodge them all. Meanwhile, the aura surrounding Zeru reached critical mass. He shone and burned like a second sun, and he approached the temperature of one as well.
Soon, he'd literally burn (sublimate) Hiei with the heat of a thousand suns.
The Evil Eye User maximized the offensive capabilities of his Kokuryuha, his aura pulsating like a second heartbeat.
In order to penetrate through the blond youkai's barrier, he stabbed his right hand into the core of Zeru's miniature star, intending to blast him pointblank with multiple Dragons of Darkness Flame.
The day-walking "vampire" smiled a fanged, toothy grin that split his face in half. He made his barrier big enough to encase Hiei, trapping him and his Black Dragon Spirits inside with enough concentrated heat and light to shine like a quasar.
From within the barrier, Zeru slashed Hiei with the fire sword, whipped and burned him with a firestorm of fire whips, lacerated him with fire sickles, and bombarded him with fireballs that he couldn't escape from.
Zeru declared as he exited his dome, "You will feel the pain I felt in my demise a million fold, Jaganshi Hiei."
The barrier then exploded altogether, with the strength of a compact atom bomb, taking Hiei with it.
"That was rather... anticlimactic," mentioned Gein after Zeru trapped Hiei inside his fire barrier and blasted him to oblivion with multiple fire beams from the sky.
"You're just bitter that I'm right and you're wrong," said the Onmyouji. "A revived soul in one of those zombie bodies you've made can handle a short-term infusion of jaki to the point of producing jaki of his own. Like what that braggart Xinhai Feng does."
"Oh, you mean Raijuta? Well, yes, it would seem like what happened here is the same as what happened to him," Edward submitted, "but the thing that's consistent in my studies is that revived zombie spirits are often weaker than their living counterparts. Which can also be seen with Raijuta's, well, Xinhai's case when he became S-Class. He's a reincarnated human rather than a resurrected one."
"If you two are done blathering to each other, then maybe you can let me bask in this moment of glory!" berated the glowing-haired Zeru to Houji and Gein. "At last. Unlike that Chojin's pet, Rando, I was actually able to enact my revenge on the man who killed me!"
"You're welcome," deadpanned Sadojima to Zeru, since the Onmyouji was the one who powered him up.
"Also, technically, it was the Spirit World who executed Rando during incarceration," corrected Edward.
"SHADDAP," shouted Zeru before he ended up mumbling to himself, "I can't believe that Rando became part of the Shin Ju instead of me. I deserve that position more than he does. After all his failures, he should get demoted while I should end up with the Shin Juppon Gatana. But why wait? Maybe I should just kill him to get promoted..."
"You sure love counting your eggs before they hatch, do you?"
"?"
A smoking, scuffed-up, and slightly burned Hiei appeared in front of all three of the Chojin's minions. "Chojin this and Chojin that. Are you part of that new faction that's been terrorizing all three worlds?"
"HOW ARE YOU ALIVE? I THREW EVERYTHING AT YOU!" screamed Zeru before attempting to trap the Master of the Evil Eye back inside his barrier so that he could do more unspeakable things to him.
However, Hiei broke through the barrier with several slices of a more pressurized version of the Jaou-En-Satsu Ken. When the blond firebug busted out the fire beams, none of the Jaganshi's three eyes even flinched.
He walked right through them like they were rays from a flashlight rather than focused beams of pure heat and fire. "Give up. I absorbed everything you threw at me. And my flame dragons."
In hindsight, Zeru remembered hearing about how, while inside a barrier, Hiei managed to heal the damage done to his arm care of the Kokuryuha by absorbing the energy of some other demon.
Zeru tried hiding himself inside a barrier, but this time around, the diminutive demon grabbed him by the neck, the malformed shield not at all stopping him from making contact. Hiei then turned towards the mouth-agape Houji.
"If ever your leader... this Chojin... is foolish enough to show his face in Makai, then Mukuro would do something far worse to him than what I'm about to do to this piece of trash."
"What? NOOOO! NOT AGAIN!" Zeru struggled before the Master of the Dragons of Darkness Flame placed his right hand into his victim's chest and blasted him full of Jaou-En-Satsu Kokuryuha.
"What a poor choice of last words," said Hiei to the petrified charcoal statue that was once his opponent while a long, black, and snaking dragon roamed Mount McKinley's currently volcanic-looking panorama that wouldn't look out of place in the Demon World. Or perhaps the surface of Mars.
Even a fire demon couldn't survive that.
"Y-You... arrogant little shit!" A vocal disconnect between Houji the Onmyouji's incensed tone coming forth the faceless shikigami in a ratty cloak came about.
As for Gein, he chuckled. "Now that's more like it. I was afraid I'd have to redo my experiments again. My previous data is consistent with my present data. The zombie bodies of future Dai Kaijin will be stronger and more resilient thanks to you, Jaganshi Hiei."
"Talk or I'll make you talk. What are you experimenting on? What are you doing all the way here in Alaska? What are the Chojin's plans?" demanded Hiei.
Edward Gein (no relation to Ed Gein, infamous American serial killer) clucked his tongue on the roof of his mouth. "Ah, ah, ah. The experiment isn't quite over yet."
From ashes to ashes, dust to dust, emerged a firebird-lizard hybrid... a flame dragon phoenix... that turned the coal-black corpse of Zeru into flesh, bone, and blood once more. The dead brought back to life by its own power.
"?"
"He can't multiply like Suzaku does or regenerate at the rate that Toguro Ani did with the body I gave him, but Zeru is nevertheless a lot tougher to kill. Practically immortal, a Regent-Class demon," said Edward.
A Regent-Class demon, as opposed to a Quest-Class one, was a youkai capable of defying death and gaining immortality the same way Quest-Class youkai defied the Law of Conservation of Mass.
The flaming, resurrected body of Zeru grabbed hold of the Dragon of the Darkness Flame that Hiei used against him and turned it into an even denser bubble of solidified flame.
Then, as the exhausted Cursed Child of the Ice Maidens slumped down, reverting to his original three-eyed form, his temperature rose to millions of degrees, which made him cower in a fetal position and gnash his teeth.
Finally, a meteor shower shot forth from the bleeding heavens. However, this time around, instead of fireballs, they came as shafts of light.
Shafts of black light all headed straight for the trapped Jaganshi. Like the sky truly was falling, with the darkness converging into a singularity. A dying star about to go supernova.
The barrier turned back into Darkness Flames around Hiei's body, and so did the shafts of black light that Zeru shot him with. Mount McKinley rumbled, as though an honest-to-goodness volcanic eruption was about to take place.
"This is IMPOSSIBLE! How can you absorb so much energy!?" shrieked Zeru, who grabbed hold of his glowing hair, his hands seared by the heat of his throbbing head.
The Jaganshi fired twin Black Dragon Spirit Waves at Zeru, each with their own high black body temperatures that surpassed that of the sun's core temperature.
Millions of degrees Celsius that, were they not aimed at one focal area, would've wiped Mount McKinley off the map.
"No! Not after everything I've gone through in order to get revived by the Chojin! I can't let everything go to waste here!"
Like Bui, Sensui, and Mukuro before him, the golden-haired youkai merged all of his flames and heat into his aura to form a thick, dense shield that kept the multiple Kokuryuha from vaporizing/sublimating him.
"Is revenge all that you're living for? Is that the sole purpose of your existence?" asked Hiei. "If that's the case, then you really are a zombie. An empty husk of your former self."
The Jaganshi cleared his throat before he choked on his own hypocritical words, his tear gems necklace's glow fading once they cooled down, his control of his aura and internal temperature improving.
"TWO CAN PLAY THIS GAME!" a reddened Zeru said, red steam rising from his pores, the heat of his aura and stolen Makai flames reaching to his insides. He then blasted Hiei with a focused beam of energy, like a child would an ant with a magnifying glass and concentrated sunshine.
He continued, "You won't kill me again! You can't! I have the power of the phoenix resurrection backing me! I can be melted and forged again, like steel, over and over!"
Unfazed by Zeru's counterattack, Hiei fired three Dragons of the Darkness Flame in a row. Then another four immediately after, before the blond could completely absorb the previous three dragons.
Burning him with the heat of a thousand suns.
"Someone as shallow as you can never defeat me," Hiei rebuked. "Find a better purpose in life before even thinking about challenging me."
"Zeru, let go of that energy! The experiment is over! Your artificial body won't be able to take it! Your soul itself might die, so your resurrection skill won't work!" warned Gein, who for once showed tenseness in his tone.
"He can make it! If he can't, then he's not fit to be part of the Dai Kaijin, much less the Shin Juppon Gatana!" declared Houji's shikigami, who then blasted Zeru with another shot of negative energy.
However, it was Hiei who intercepted the miasma of jaki, the corrupting energy briefly turning him green with multiple eyes opened before he willed himself to remain in his original, three-eyed form, his mother's tear gems glowing in kind.
He reached the Monarch-Class levels that the Three Kings... Mukuro, Yomi, and Raizen... once solely enjoyed.
Speaking of which, he hadn't handled this much energy since making use of the cosmic forces contained within the Nether World Gem.
"I-INCONCEIVABLE! How can he control that huge amount of power?" asked Sadojima through his shikigami. "We need help, Chojin-sama! Where are the rest of the Dai Shin Kan...?"
"Truly, he is the Cursed Son of the Ice Maidens," said Edward. "As expected of Mukuro's newest right-hand man and an A-Level prodigy who survived a life-threatening operation, only to come out stronger later on."
"Jaou-En-Satsu...!"
Zeru's legs gave out from below him, his eyes streaked with tears of blood. His pores pouring blood and the liquefied remains of the internal organs of his newly created body. "N-No. T-This is... too much... p-p-power! H-How are you...?"
Hiei had taken even Mukuro to her limits as well as took control of the Meikai Gem (along with Yusuke Urameshi and company) that contained the sealed energies of a lost world. He could certainly handle this amount of power.
Afterwards, the Jaganshi felt it. The cringe-inducing appearance of a power source comparable to the one he could barely control in his fingertips, emanating from a distance the same way the sun emanated continuous heat from millions of miles away.
Not as hot as a nuclear blast but with temperatures that could last billions of years longer than one.
For a second, the flying shadow almost swore that Raizen had come back to life. Or Yomi had somehow decided to conquer the Human World anyway, starting with America. Or Mukuro came to Alaska to check on him.
An angry Mukuro. Bursting with malice and bloodlust, like the olden days.
"...KOKURYUHA!"
For that reason, Hiei shot all nine remaining black fire dragons at his disposal towards that S-Level someone from the distance instead of Zeru, who'd lost the will to fight.
Even in his match against Mukuro, Hiei didn't fire that many Black Dragon Spirit Waves at her.
The Jaganshi saw through the long-distance sight of his Jagan how this pony-tailed, lean-faced man with Edo Era clothing and a katana killed all of the Dragons of Darkness flames. With one hand.
The dragons stopped cold at the outstretched hand of this... Human? Demon? Half-breed? The fire demon wasn't sure. The most damage they did was singe his palm a little. Like an ordinary human who accidentally touched a boiling pot.
Yes, Hiei could see that much from where he stood, many miles away.
Who was that monster? Was he the Chojin?
"TENRO-SAMA! That was amazing!" the specter of the Onmyouji answered the Jaganshi's questions for him.
'Tenro, huh?'
It was through Hiei's telescopic vision that he espied a young man beside the flameproof tank of a colossus that stopped his ultimate attacks without using any ki to buffer the impact.
This boyish teen (or teenaged boy) sported a similarly old-timey wardrobe and a bobbed haircut. Hiei cringed at the kid, who might as well had been a statue, because like the rocks before them, he emanated zero presence.
He might as well been one of Zeru's light-bending mirages. Or a ghost.
In an eye blink, from that distant peak, the same child Hiei espied seemingly teleported right in front of him, his smiling, unassuming face lacking any and all malicious intent.
That was why Hiei didn't see the boy's deep slash (that went from shoulder to abdomen) coming.
Even with his afterimage technique, the smallish youkai couldn't avoid such an assault that it might as well had hit his blindside (although it was hard to find one thanks to his three eyes).
The fire demon who could survive fires hotter than the core of the Human World's sun got cut and damaged by a mere sword. Sure, it was a supersonic sword that even his Evil Eye could barely follow, but still.
As if reading his mind, the boy in the blue kimono, cream hakama, and straw sandals said, "I've also fought someone who can create afterimages of himself because of his speed. You're a little faster than he is, but I'm a lot faster than either of you."
"...Who the hell are you?" Hiei asked while his three eyes darted all over the place for a possible avenue of attack... or escape.
The demon, after all, had exhausted his energies on overloading Zeru's body with dark flames and (failing to) destroy that S-Class entity from afar.
"I'm not sure you'd survive long enough to make it worth telling you my name, Youkai-san." The young man chuckled before parrying the melted "kodachi" that was once Hiei's longsword.
The... apparition quick-sheathed his blade while at the same time batting away (half of) Hiei's (remaining) blade. "Sayonara, Youkai-san."
Sneering, the Forbidden Child of the Koorime answered back the stranger's battoujutsu (old-school, Edo-Era sword-drawing) technique with his own iaijutsu (modern, Meiji-Restoration sword-drawing) slash.
"SOU!" Sadojima('s shikigami) called out to the boy that appeared alongside the superman on a faraway peak.
"This should be interesting," said Gein while rubbing his chin, his wrinkled eyes behind his skull mask narrowing and shining.
The pony-tailed "Tenro", meanwhile, looked on from the peak where he blocked the assault of nine Dragons of the Darkness Flames, none the worse for wear even while he stood on what appeared to be molten rock and lava.
Who the hell were these people anyway?
As for Zeru, he fell on all fours, his whole body trembling from the huge amount of jaki, youki, and Makai flames roiling inside him, like it was about to burst like a swollen boil full of pus. "Godammit, no. I'm about to break...!"
Hiei, like he demonstrated with his fight against Seiryu, was capable of slashing through enemies at supersonic speeds faster than even Kenshin Himura and most of the techniques in his Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu arsenal.
For example, the Nine-Headed Dragon Flash or Kuzu Ryu Sen could hit, in an instant, nine strikes. These attacks came in succession, but they traveled so fast that it appeared to most people like a simultaneous assault.
However, the fire demon's striking speed more than doubled that of (the human) Himura Battousai when he was still alive, able to slash a target at sixteen times an instant rather than merely nine when he was only C-Level.
Unbeknownst to the Jaganshi, Kenshin's Kuzu Ryu Sen had completely missed the (ghost?) boy before him when they fought.
"!"
It didn't matter if it was nine or sixteen nigh-concurrent strikes, the kid got out of harm's way in that same split-second all the same.
To Be Continued...
The little Shishiwakamaru-Soujiro flashback and the Alaska scenes with Hiei were partly written by my former coauthor Danyal Herder. Here's to you, pal.
As any Nineties anime fan would recognize, all the powers that Zeru had were based off Recca Hanabishi's powers of Flame of Recca fame, particularly the abilities of his flame dragons Saiha (fire sword), Nadare (fireballs), Homura (fire whip/vortex), Setsuna (flash fire), Madoka(fire barrier), Rui (fire mirage), Koku (fire beam), and Resshin (fire resurrection).
Aloha,
Abdiel