Demon Sword
A Yuyu Hakusho/Rurouni Kenshin Crossover Fan Fiction Story by Chester Castañeda
Original Concept by Chad Yang
It's Team Shin Roku Youkai (New Six Demons) versus Gein's Dai Kaijin (Great Monsters).
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 46: Daydream Generation (Part 4)
At Bethel, Alaska (also known as Mamterilleq in the Yup'ik tongue of Central Alaska); around 640 kilometers or 400 miles west of Anchorage, which was where Hiei fought the Dai Shin Kan's forces at Mount McKinley...
Each armed with their own Spirit Detectors provided by Botan for their (Reikai-approved) mission against Chojin forces, Team New Roku Youkai plus Jaganshi Hiei from Team Urameshi traveled from Moscow to Alaska on foot.
They braved through blizzards and the remnants of winter snow. They even swam against huge tides that would've drowned any normal human to cross from one continent to another.
They were Class-S demons with no energy-sapping parasites or other power-restraining attachments holding back their abilities. Therefore, whatever it was that didn't kill them only (and literally) made them stronger.
Prior to organizing that trip to Alaska with the Shin Roku Youkai as his backup, Hiei made a "stopover" at Minato Ward, Tokyo as a favor to Kurama.
As the youkai kitsune predicted, the Jaganshi proved as an invaluable backup against the Chojin's other assault unit, the Shin Juppon Gatana (New Ten Swords).
The Spirit World Warriors composed of Yusuke Urameshi's and Kenshin Himura's allies had to join forces to defeat just one-half of the Overfiend's elite forces.
However, the New Ten Swords were mostly composed of A-Class rather than S-Class warriors.
When Suzaku stole the Demon Sword for the sake of becoming S-Level, that was a big deal for the group already. Merely achieving Class-S meant the world to them.
In fact, most of the terrorist schemes of the "Shin Ju" were for the sake of leveling up the superpowers of their weaker revived demonic members.
They were obviously an assault unit bred for combat in the Human World. A whole different level of zombie, perhaps.
In contrast, the members of the Dai Shin Kan that Hiei faced... one a swordsman ghost who was about as fast as him (if not more so) and another who could take nine Kokuryuha head-on... were definitely conqueror-level beings.
People who could take on Raizen's allies or the remaining two of the original Three Kings.
They were the Chojin's elite guard designed for Demon World combat.
And so Hiei, Touya, Chu, Jin, Shishiwakamaru, Rinku, and Suzuki arrived at the Kuskokwim or Kusko River in Southwest Alaska (ninth largest river in the U.S.), the demons intentionally avoiding human contact (in this case Yup'ik Eskimos) in minimize potential collateral damage.
They were only (more or less) 400 miles away from Anchorage when a smiling rotund monster that looked like a demented demonized fat Buddha bounced at them like a ball, halting their V-formation sprint towards their ultimate Alaskan destination.
"GIFU!" said the huge man-blob.
"Hey, Hiei! Is that the guy who beat you up?" asked Jin with wiggling ears, who went up in the sky along with the flying imp form of Shishiwakamaru to avoid being bowled over by the rolling mound of flesh and fat before them.
"...I've never seen him before," confessed the Jaganshi.
The three then spotted the bone-white, emaciated shikigami of the Onmyouji hover above them in a ratty cloak. Like the Western pop culture representation of Death.
"Him I've already met," added Hiei.
"So you've returned, Hiei. And you've brought backup. That's adorable," Houji "The Onmyouji" Sadojima said.
"So these Dai Shin Kan people met with us ahead of time? There must be something in Anchorage they don't want us to see," said Touya.
"DORYAA!" Chu grabbed hold of the roly-poly-like and obese... creature by throwing it into the river like so much garbage. "Take that, ya fat piece of crap!"
A huge splash later and the meaty organism emerged from the waters, opened its mouth, and revealed itself to be a meat puppet.
Gein's meat puppet, judging by how his skull-masked head popped out of his marionette's voluminous mouth. "Oh, hello again, Jaganshi Hiei. Oh wait, it's Jaganshi Hiei and friends, this time, huh? The more, the merrier."
Rinku attempted to finish off the puppet master inside his... well, fat suit, but the skin of the puppet proved too thick for even his yoyos to penetrate through.
"What the hell?" cried the yoyo master. "It's like he's made of rubber!"
"Ah, I almost forgot. This is Iwanbo Version 1.1. An upgrade of the first of the Iwanbo series," Gein told Rinku before donning the suit in full.
"Faaascinating," said the Beautiful Suzuki, his sparkling eyes admiring the workmanship of Gein's invention. He was, after all, a great artisan of demonic Dark Items himself. "What is that thing made off?"
"Would you believe, human flesh?" revealed Edward. "Or rather, it used to be human, till I found that mixing it with demon flesh resulted in a more pliable yet harder to penetrate covering."
Right off the bat, in the middle of a river that served as the Alaskan interior's principle drainage that flowed southwest into the Kuskokwim Bay on the Bering Sea, the Jaganshi fired his first shot.
"JAOU-EN-SATSU KOKURYUHA!"
Two things happened as soon as Hiei blasted Gein with the Dragon of the Darkness Flame.
His technique's first victim, Zeru, intercepted the Black Dragon Wave and absorbed the shadowy flames completely, rendering the technique moot.
Both Rinku and Chu exchanged glances at themselves and their former compatriot from the original Team Roku Youkai of the Ankoku Bujutsukai.
Also, while the high-temperature dragon made of Makai fire snaked through the river bank, turning the water into steam, footsteps emerged, exploding on the water like geysers and on the ground like landmines.
Hiei barely had time to unsheathe his sword and block what could've been an amputating slice from that ghost boy he fought on Mount McKinley.
He was the Meiji Era swordsman known as Soujiro Seta.
"You've gotten a new sword, Hiei-san? I can't wait to test your mettle with it. To think you almost defeated me with only half a sword left."
"Humph. Don't act so familiar or call me on a first name basis, kid. I'm going to wipe that annoying smile off your face."
"Huh. Kid? From what I heard from Gein-san's research, you're much younger than I am, Mister Forbidden Child of the Koorime. I was born a century ago!"
"..."
"Y-YOU!" stuttered Shishiwakamaru at Seta in recognition, who by then had transformed from his flying imp form to his bigger, prettier version. "You're the human that... that...!"
Soujiro sheathed his katana, looked over his fellow swordsman's direction, tilted his head, blinked repeatedly, and asked, "Do I know you?"
"RAAAGH! BAKUTO DOKU SHOKU SOU (VOMITING EXPLOSIVE SKULL RAMMING BURIAL)!" shrieked the Benkei-wannabe swords-demon, unleashing his signature Chorus of a Thousand Skulls technique upon the sole human who bested him in combat until he crossed paths with Genkai.
The explosion from his cursed sword caused the ground to spew snaking, flaming skull ghouls of darkness and gas that destroyed and consumed most anything in their path with their gaping maws.
They zeroed-in on anything that moved like heat-seeking missiles with trails of smoke from behind them.
Seemingly teleporting from one area to the next, Seta avoided the streams of flaming, sentient skulls like the ghostly apparition that he was, phasing though various distances in an instant.
Such was the power of the Shukuchi (Reduced Earth).
"Oh! Now I remember!" Soujiro slammed his closed fist on his open palm. "You were the demon who challenged me a century ago! Wow. That takes me back. It's been a while!"
"Stand still and die, YOU HUMAN BASTARD"
"Well, literally, I am a bastard, but I definitely won't stand still."
Seta waved at the demonic swordsman, never skipping a beat or missing a step of his Shukuchi technique while Shishiwakamaru himself kept missing him with every strike.
"We had quite the close match a century ago, but I doubt you can take me on now. I'm not a mere human anymore."
Hiei harrumphed (as usual) before going in hot pursuit of the retreating ghost boy. Who knew that Shishiwakamaru and Soujiro had already met?
"And what are you supposed to be?" asked Jin at the floating cloaked specter before him. "Are you human? Demon? Ghost? You don't look human to me, but you don't smell like a demon either. You smell like a corpse. Like that skull-masked friend of yours."
"It doesn't matter who or what I am, demon. I am the loyal Dark Priest of the Overfiend. The conduit of his power," said Houji through his familiar before its hand morphed into a scythe. "If you don't understand what that means, then let's get better acquainted."
"Uh, are you coming on to me or something?" Despite his joke, the lion-haired Jin flew at a safer distance away from the shikigami and whirled his forearm around in preparation of unleashing a Shura Senpuken.
The flaming-hot Zeru then said to Chu and Rinku, "You've actually sided with the humans and became part of Urameshi's group? How pathetic. You're no better than Kurama and Hiei. You're both ningen (human) lovers now, and that sickens me."
While both Chu and Rinku shook their heads, it was Touya who confronted the former Roku Youkai member. "And so what if they did? What are you going to do about it, fire demon?"
"Out of my way, ice demon. Let me deal with these traitors," said Zeru, but his burst of spiraling flame exploded into nothingness after Touya blew the Ma Teki Sandan Sha (Shards of Winter) at the flaming vortex.
"They're my comrades now... and I won't let you do anything to them," said the former member of Team Masho, who then produced the Ju Hyo Ken (Ice Cutlass) to stab Zeru with.
"T-Touya, you're so..." Rinku began with a sniffle.
"Cool?" a grinning Chu finished Rinku's sentence for him, which earned him a yoyo to the face.
Regardless, the former member of the original Team Roku Youkai grabbed hold of the ice blade and instantly vaporized it into steam. "You don't know who you're dealing with. I'm the demon who brought Jaganshi Hiei to the brink of death before Seta Soujiro interfered with our fight!"
"Oh, so you've fought Jaganshi Hiei and almost won too? So did I. Let me show you what happened in our match."
Touya shut his eyes and concentrated on cooling down the area around him with his ice powers, turning his immediate vicinity into a Gokkan Jigoku (Frozen Hell).
"RAINBOW CYCLONE!" shouted the self-proclaimed Pretty Boy Suzuki after espying Jin fly away from the Onmyouji, deciding to do a little sneak attack of his own before the Chojin's top general got any ideas. "Beautiful as always! I scare myself sometimes with my skill!"
"Watch it, Suzuki!" said Jin before sighing and blasting the familiar with a twister of his own. "You almost hit me with that lame attack of yours!"
"You're welcome, elf ears! Anyway, according to Kurama, that's the Onmyouji's shikigami. It's not his true form, so it can attack us at will without any major consequences! The sooner we get rid of it, the better!" Suzuki explained to Jin.
Regardless, the shikigami withstood the pressure of the attacks, regenerating its lost limbs and even its ratty clothes all the while.
Houji mocked, "You're wasting your time. The power of the Chojin is eternal. While I am under his protection, I am untouchable!"
As for Chu and Rinku, they double-teamed the Iwanbo-suited Gein. Instead of yoyos, the yoyo master used his weapons to grab hold of boulders made of rock and/or ice to bury the bouncy meat puppet with while the drunkard demon fired off volley after volley of Ogre Killers (his youki projectiles), turning the debris into sharp shards and shrapnel.
"Gifu. This is getting us nowhere. I believe it's time for our little experiment to begin... Itsuki," said the Iwanbo-suited Gein. "Teleport them here now. Come forth, my Dai Kaijin!"
The strings of Rinku's yoyos got tied up around what appeared like fishing lines or piano wire, preventing him from hurling more rocks and stones at Iwanbo.
As for Chu, he dropped his youki spheres and had them explode in his face because someone decked him from behind in mid-swing that shook his brain inside his skull.
The resulting concussive bang produced a shockwave that reached all the way into the riverbank of Kuskokwim, making it overflow.
A white fog then appeared, the floodwaters turning into steam, covering the escape of both the Onmyouji's shikigami and the skull-masked body-snatcher "piloting" a skin suit made of corpses.
When the Charming Suzuki tried to illuminate everything with an aurora borealis of his Rainbow Cyclone Redux, he got swallowed by the mist instead, its acidity eating at his skin.
When Jin attempted to blow the nasty, funky white cloud away with his whirlwind abilities, boulders began flying up in the sky and raining down on him, falling in his path care of gravity after they levitated upwards. This forced him to grind the boulders and rock shards into dust with his Shura Senpuken.
Shishiwakamaru's jaw dropped when his frightening, skull-based technique full of predatory ghouls disappeared into the ether, his concentration breaking. For some reason, his hands and feet felt like they weighed multiple megatons, thus limiting his movements.
"!?" was the silent interrobang exclamation of the New Six Demons. They then figured out who were the youkai that emerged from Itsuki's dimensional portals:
It was Bakken, Ura Urashima, Gama, Risho, and Kuro Momotaro. The rest of Gein's Dai Kaijin had finally arrived.
Unhindered by the demon samurai's Bakuto Doku Shoku Sou, Soujiro raced with Hiei towards the battling ice and fire demons... Zeru and Touya respectively... and ended up interspersing themselves between the two with a rain of sparks and steel.
"I was a hair away from chopping your friend's head off," bragged Seta with a chuckle, who then wiped the dripping ectoplasm on his sliced thigh and licked the liquid off.
As expected of the Jagan User's hand speed. He could do what Battousai Himura couldn't.
"Tsk," Hiei clucked his tongue on the roof of his mouth, his torso lacerated by the Heaven Sword's counterstrikes.
"What's the matter, Hiei-san?" asked Soujiro.
The Jaganshi replied, "I was aiming for something else."
"..." Even the ghost boy's eternal smile went crooked by an inch or so after hearing that confession.
One of the Dai Kaijin moved forward and addressed the stunned and silenced Shin Roku Youkai.
"Hey. Long time, no see, Suzuki. Shishiwakamaru. Guess who our new boss is?" Kuro Momotaro... the demon who first fell victim to Hiei's Jaou-En-Satsu Ken or Sword of Darkness Flame... raised his hand and waved it at his former fellow Team Uraotogi (Team Fractured Fairy Tales) teammates before blowing a bubble with his chewing gum.
Shishiwakamaru snarled. "Kuro Momotaro, you bastard...!" He would've charged right at the man, only to realize that markings had appeared on his wrist and ankles that somehow weighed him down. 'What in the world...?'
"By the way, Shishiwakamaru... Soujiro is the same human who defeated you a hundred years ago, during the Meiji Era of the Human World. The kid that was even faster than a demon is still alive and one of the leaders of the Chojin's army. Small world, isn't it?"
"Let me see that," said Jin to Shishiwakamaru, grabbing his wrist. "Those markings are from...!"
Touya shot a glare at the albino demon with a paintbrush and green bandanna. Whiter and paler than Rando, he served as Team Masho Tsukai's Body Painter Shinobi. "Gama. How could you? Why are you part of the Chojin's army?"
The toad-like demon that almost killed Kurama with his demonic body painting powers... Gama the Body Paint Bearer... shrugged. "It's nothing personal, Touya. Jin. I merely wanted to live again. To fight again. Even if it's at the cost of being the Chojin's servant."
Jin then sneered at the former leader of Team Masho: Risho the Earth Charmer, the man who used technicalities and cheating to "defeat" Yusuke Urameshi at the Dark Martial Arts Tournament.
"And what's your excuse, Risho? Kuwabara didn't kill you after defeating you in the Ankoku Bujutsukai."
"Please, you ex-shinobi. Our ninja clan was abolished because you lacked vision. I'm always ahead of the curve."
Risho smirked, the ground from underneath him rumbling in accordance to his will. "When I found out what the Chojin's group were doing here in Alaska, I joined the winning team. I've heard you've grown strong under Genkai's tutelage... but so have I."
Hiei felt a chill crawl down his spine after he felt the glares of both Kuro Momotaro and Zeru, which were Ankoku Bujutsukai participants whom he murdered during mortal combat. Back from the dead. Out for revenge.
The Jaganshi then checked the readings of his Spirit Detector. He scowled. "Don't waste too much of your time on these weaklings. The Dai Shin Kan is the real threat here."
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A WEAKLING, SHORTY?" howled the tan and muscular Bakken, the youkai who beat up Kurama while unconscious and was, in turn, killed by Yusuke. "I have half a mind to poke that pussy on your forehead!"
"Well, you're right about one thing, Bakken," chimed in the fisherman demon known as Ura Urashima, the youkai who based his modus operandi on the Human World tale of Taro Urashima, "You only have half a mind to spare!"
While the livid, brown-skinned, and muscular Bakken had a fist fight with the short, squat, and pale Ura Urashima, Chu shuddered.
"I'm not the only one freaked out by all this... Right, li'l buddy?" the stubble-faced drunkard asked Rinku. "It was creepy seeing Zeru alive and well again after Hiei turned him into a silhouette on the wall! They're ghosts, man! Ghouls from the afterlife!"
"I know that feeling, ya big lug," replied Rinku, who also cringed. "Jeez. I didn't totally believe Hiei when he said that the Chojin was reviving dead demons and humans, but hot damn! It's the Night of the Living Dead here!"
"Oh, I remember that Ningenkai 'movie'! It's about the human version of the undead, right?" said the wiggling-eared Jin. He then took one look at demons before them. "Then again, even though these guys smell like graveyard dirt, they don't look like half-rotted zombies, do they?"
"That's because I made them new bodies. These are not the bodies they originally had... especially in Zeru's case. Even Risho, who was never killed by... some human, I forgot his name... got his body modified care of me too," informed Gein from far away while he and Houji watched the brewing war from a distance.
"So you've continued the human-demon hybrid research that Mukuro and Kirin started to end the Cold War between her, Yomi, and Raizen, huh?" said Hiei.
"Well now. If you already know as much, then I don't need to tell you what happens next!" said Gein, who clasped his hands together and rubbed them in anticipation of what was to come.
To the six Dai Kaijin, the skull-masked man said, "The Shin Juppon Gatana recently lost two members, Jine and Suzaku. If you wish to take their place and fill in the ranks of the New Ten Swords... we can't have just Eight Swords, after all... then kill these demons using the bodies I gave you!"
Soujiro nodded in approval. "That's the spirit. The strong will live and the weak will die. That's the truth that Shishio-san taught me."
The Jaganshi harrumphed (as usual), eyed the Onmyouji and the theatrical yet Frankensteinian doctor who conducted jintai jikken (human experiments) and youkai jikken (demon experimentation), and turned towards Seta.
Hiei said, "Let's not waste time. I'm here to finish you and your boss off."
"...My boss? Oh, you mean Tenro-san?" The Ten Ken chuckled, almost giggled. "Silly Youkai-san. You're getting ahead of yourself."
The two disappeared into the ether, traveling at (presumably) supersonic speeds that couldn't be traced by the naked human eye or even a demonic eye.
The Dai Kaijin took this as their cue to attack, starting with Touya and Zeru continuing where they left off. The ice demon summoned another Ju Hyo Ken, imbuing it with more of his temperature-altering youki to keep it from vaporizing again. It even cut a fireball in half.
However, Zeru reacted in kind, producing a sickle-shaped, high-pressure flame that sliced the Ice Cutlass into hot steam.
However, like the ninja that he was, Touya disappeared into the mist of water vapor and hissed, "Ma Teki Sandan Sha."
The Shards of Winter ripped through the air like so much shrapnel from a fragmentation bomb, but in an instant, they got neutralized by Zeru's buckshot fireballs thrown en masse into the rain of death, making them explode in midair.
"Is this how you fought Hiei before he kicked your ass, ice demon?" The fire demon cackled. "Don't make me laugh. Once I've killed you, I'll take my rightful place as one of the New Ten Swords!"
"..."
As for Chu, he ended up punching the gnawing, clawing, and jaw-snapping former Team Uraotogi teammate of Suzuki, "Poison Peach Boy".
"HEY! I might've been a little tipsy when I watched your fight with Hiei, but didn't you eat steamed meat buns before transforming into whatever monster you were supposed to transform into?" asked Chu.
At the moment, Kuro Momotaro had already donned his Canine Armor Pelt, one of three Beast Armors, his body physically memorizing every megaton body blow delivered to him by the drunk youkai, thus allowing him to build an immunity against the punches.
"Even without Suzuki's Dark Item Peaches, I can change my shape and form at will. I only used them to enable me to control what I can shift into, which I eventually learned to do by myself through training with this new body of mine!"
Shishiwakamaru avoided the stone-cutting whiplashes from Reverse Urashima's fishing pole weapon, occasionally parrying them with his sword. The pretty boy, after all, was the one who murdered the fisherman demon after his defeat in the hands of Kurama.
The attacks made it even more difficult for the pretty boy swords-demon to avoid the deadly brushstrokes of Team Masho's Gama, who already tattooed shackles on the Team Uraotogi ex-member's wrists and ankles, limiting his movement. 'Dammit.'
Speaking of Taro Urashima's evil counterpart, Ura Urashima had enough nimbleness to avoid by hairbreadths every entangling attempt done by Rinku and his snaking yoyos of doom. As though the fisherman could read the (relatively) young demon's every movement.
"You got lucky that time, Shorty! However, like Kuwabara, your luck won't last for long!" said Rinku.
"Whatever, kid. I make my own luck. You'll see what I'm capable of soon enough," said Urashima.
Bakken, who exuded steam like London at night, a sauna, or a 19th Century locomotive, grappled the rainbow-shooting Master of Disguise, the Handsome Suzuki (also known as Onji and various other personas, including a clown), his acidic sweat burning the creator of the Dark Items.
"AHH! You smell like onions! LEGGO OF ME!"
"HAHAHA! Try and shoot me with your gay rainbows now! I'd sooner melt you until there's nothing left of you, your skin, your hair, or your bones, you weirdo faerie ass-clown!"
The S-Class Jin whirled a compact arm tornado with the wind velocity comparable to that of Rando's stolen Rasengan technique or even Feng Xinhai's Tornado Ripper, reaching wind velocities of an F2 twister (113-157 miles per hour or 181-253 kilometers per hour).
This was according to the Fujita Scale (AKA Fujita-Pearson Scale) that rated tornado intensity.
Like a mountain suppressing the landfall of even a super typhoon, Risho... the former leader of Team Masho as well as a former teammate of Jin... used a more advanced version of Rando's Armor of Sand or Shisejyu Byako's Tetsuzan Kou to suppress the gale winds, absorbing the impact like a tank or an underground bomb shelter would mortar shells.
The same man who got defeated by the adrenalin-rush surge of power from a love-struck Kuwabara could now withstand the assault of an S-Level. "No wonder you couldn't advance from the second round of the Demon World Unification Tournament!" Risho mocked.
"I don't want to hear that from the guy who was one of the few victories of Kuwabara in the Ankoku Bujutsukai!" rebutted Jin.
"Oh please, I merely underestimated his power. He even beat Toguro Ani in the finals." Risho did a roundhouse kick, producing a Dou-Ryu-Sen-like landslide that Jin barely escaped.
"However, with these jaki powers I should've gotten long ago as my birthright, I can now crush both that worthless human and you like the insects that you are."
Meanwhile, Gein whispered to the Onmyouji's shikigami, "Better stand back or clear out. This isn't going to be pretty or pleasant. I daresay it's a massacre waiting to happen."
"..." Houji had his familiar leave and said nothing more, following Edward's advice.
The birds of Bethel (such as the Canada goose, the American black duck, and the Tundra swan) flew to escape the approach of two nearly undetectable phantoms that reeked of blood and death.
Hiei and Soujiro's footrace had them end up somewhere in the middle of the snaking, 702-mile Kuskokwim River, their feet never breaking the surface tension of the water.
"What are the Chojin's plans?" the Jagan User demanded. "Why is he reviving all our enemies? What is he after?"
"Who knows?" said the fleeting Heaven Sword with a shrug, his sword sheathed and his hand hovering above his katana's handle as he ran.
The waters then turned red from spilt blood. Demon blood, because a solidified ghost, at most, could only exude ectoplasm when hurt.
Soujiro's superior footwork won out. Learning from his previous mistakes, the Ten Ken counterattacked rather than led the attack, escaping Hiei's faster hand speed with his faster foot speed.
Hit and run.
"You're faster than Himura-san, but your sword technique isn't as polished as his. Regardless, I'm faster and better than the both of you. Combined."
"You're talking about Himura Kenshin again, are you? You're obsessed with him."
"Wait... You know Himura-san, Hiei-san?"
"..."
Leaving a crimson trail on the waters that Seta followed like a shark on a feeding frenzy, the Cursed Child of the Ice Maidens ended up on the banks of the River Kuskokwim, on his knees, panting heavily.
Unlike the current Demon Sword guardian, Hiei's swordsmanship hadn't advanced enough to allow him to read the moves of his opponents in accordance to their bloodlust (a la what Munenori Yagyu from the famed Yagyu Clan was famously capable of).
However, this worked to the Jaganshi's advantage because he wasn't distracted by the lack of murderous intent from the boy. He instead concentrated on Soujiro's movements alone.
Then again, the ghostly apparition proved too fast for even his eyes to follow.
The eyes he was born with, at any rate.
"Any last words before you die, Hiei-san?" asked Soujiro after dodging the fire demon's attempt at his own counterattack.
"Humph."
"I guess that sounds about right. Goodbye, Youkai-san."
The bandage covering Hiei's forehead then fell to the ground.
Pinpoints of light and ectoplasm overflowed from a wounded Soujiro as he, for a change, retreated from the furious attack of Jaganshi Hiei.
Thanks to the Evil Eye implanted on the fire demon's forehead by Shigeru the Doctor of Darkness, the smaller man could see Seta's every move.
'He never ceases to amaze me,' thought Soujiro.
The Heaven Sword of the Original Juppon Katana expected to defeat the pine-cone-haired midget in the heat of the battle between the Dai Kaijin and the Shin Roku Youkai.
Something else happened within the Alaskan wilderness of Mamterilleq near the River Kuskokwim by the time the retreating Seta got back to his Dai Kajin allies.
"Eh?" Soujiro tilted his head to the side, a smile plastered on his face. "Something's not quite right."
He was only gone for a minute, and this happened?
Trees were uprooted, flames and molten rock mingled with ice shards and snow (thus producing a flood of hot water and steam), various sizes of debris spread around the epicenter of the devastation, and rock shards lined the landscape.
It was total destruction... but that wasn't unexpected. What was unexpected (to Soujiro, anyway) was what happened to the combatants.
Jin yawned while napping on a cloud. Right under him was the imp version of Shishiwakamaru being cradled like a pet by Rinku, who in turn lay in the shade of an Aspen tree.
A bubble expanded and constricted on the tired yoyo master's left nostril while he slumbered.
As for Chu, he was mixing his gourd of Onigoroshi with vodka to see how that would taste like. He then burped, signed, and smiled a closed-mouth smile at the taste sensation he received.
The Shin Roku Youkai weren't knocked out or injured. The ones who were instead unconscious and otherwise beaten were their enemies, the Dai Kaijin.
There was Chu's opponent, Kuro Momotaro, who looked like road kill that got mangled by an eighteen wheeler truck.
Although Poison Peach Boy developed immunity to any damage he received (like how vaccines helped a person develop immunity over viral infections), the drunkard overwhelmed the shape-shifter's immune system before it could create the antibodies needed to resist S-Level pressure and power.
The same could be said of Risho, Jin's opponent, who lay in a fetal position in the middle of a crater. Unmoving. As expected, the wind user came at the earth bender like a wrecking ball. Or rather, like Hurricane Jin.
"Took you long enough," said Hiei to the New Six Demons. "There's nothing more shameful for an S-Level than letting A-Levels and B-Levels get the jump on you."
"I was kind of disappointed, bro," said Jin, who didn't even open his eyes to address the Jaganshi. "The first Shura Senpuken I used at full power, and BAM! Risho crumpled like a piece of paper. So anticlimactic."
When he came to, Risho scrabbled his hands on the edges of the crater he slept in, weeping and gnashing his teeth. "Gein, you liar! You promised that this modified body will make me as powerful as them! This is all your fault!"
Incidentally, S-Level wind users like Jin and Raizen's ally, Souketsu, were forces of nature that were capable of producing F5 tornadoes in accordance to the Fujita Scale (any twister that went beyond 261 miles per hour or 419 kilometers per hour was considered an F5).
Touya, meanwhile, stood on another part of the completely frozen river bend of Kuskokwim, with Zeru cringing at his feet. Purple and black flames engulfed the blond fire demon (which came from the Kokuryuha he absorbed earlier), but at that point, they'd turned into mere embers.
"W-What have you done to me?" asked the blond.
"I didn't only fight Hiei, Zeru. I also fought a semifinalist of the Demon World Unification Tournament, Kujo," said Touya, his glassy, iridescent eyes shining.
"Oh, I know him! He's Natsuki's twin bro, isn't he? He'll be family soon when his sister and I get married!" was the drunken Chu's side comment while enjoying his Vodka-Onigoroshi mix with some ice cubes care of Touya.
The ice demon continued. "Ice doesn't only absorb heat, it also absorbs energy. Demonic energy. Enjoy this Frozen Hell of mine."
Finally, the three remaining Dai Kaijin left standing... Gama, Bakken, and Ura Urashima, who were themselves scuffed up beyond recognition... were under the mercy of the weakest of the New Six Demons (but still Class-S all the same), the Stunning Suzuki.
"Rejoice, fools. You'll get to see something I've wanted to test out for quite sometime... since you're all so obsessed with experiments and everything," the Cocky Suzuki said to his three opponents while eyeing Gein.
He then slipped on gaudy goggles filled with prisms for lenses. "Behold my newest Dark Item! KALEIDOSCOPE WORLD! I can now isolate the colors of my Rainbow Cyclone in order to give me new and amazing superpowers!"
The black-and-blue Gama attempted to seal the Ridiculous-Looking Suzuki's power with his body-painting powers the same way he did Shishiwakamaru (who changed into an imp in order to reduce the potency of the paint, since his shrunken size also shrank the area covered by the shackle-like markings).
To be more specific, the pale-faced demon wrote the kanji for yowai (weak) on the blond demon's chest, who didn't even bother dodging. However, the markings that appeared like twin little birds disappeared, the black ink made invisible by Suzuki's superpowers.
From there, Suzuki glowed red like a Human World stoplight or magma from within a volcano. Gama then put on battle makeup to increase his dexterity, agility, and strength, but all his punches and kicks he rained on the S-Level youkai couldn't even move the shining-red blond an inch.
With one backhand, Suzuki bruised the "yowai" demon easier than one would a bunch (or a "hand") of bananas. "Red means stop, Gama. You should've paid attention."
Bakken gathered all his poisonous sweat back into his body, turning the acidic liquid into mercury (he, like Detective Daiji Matsudaira or Karasu, had reached Quest-Class in terms of abilities, meaning he could transform his youki and jaki into other things) with the intention of giving Suzuki mercury poisoning or hydrargyriasis.
After walking down the boulders Bakken threw at him, the Crimson Suzuki let himself get caught in the tan demon's bear hug, his skin filled with the poisonous heavy metal.
"Wha...?" was all Bakken could say before Suzuki pried him loose and headbutted him into the ground, cracking his skull and pounding his face in at the same time.
"I hate to be blunt, but I want to hammer the point in. You're no match against me."
The broken-toothed Bakken mumbled something incomprehensible, his pores full of mercury, which Suzuki guessed was some clich one-liner about how it was the brawny youkai who'd have the last laugh.
However, instead of suffering from the symptoms of mercurialism like lack of coordination, disturbed sensation, and sensory impairment (of vision, hearing, or speech), Suzuki instead glowed yellow, rendering him immune to the chemical's effects.
Nevertheless, while the Distracted Suzuki was busy "exchanging" verbal barbs and quips with Bakken, his former teammate in Team Uraotogi... Reverse Urashima... took that opportunity to wrap his sharp fishing line all around the blond youkai's leg.
Then, with one powerful tug, the diminutive demon in human guise lopped off the Handsome Suzuki's just-as-handsome calf off. "That's for all the lame jokes you've been making, you... you... lame-ass lame-wad!"
Hopping on one leg, the Lame-Ass, Lame-Wad Suzuki pointed both index fingers at Ura Urashima and said, "Good one!" which made the fisher demon slap his face and groan. "However, let me show you that the 'S' in 'S-Level' stands for 'Suzuki'!"
Thusly, with the Kaleidoscope World's help, Suzuki again unleashed his Rainbow Cyclone and isolated its yellow and blue hues, resulting in him glowing green. Afterwards, his lost leg was replaced with another leg.
"EEEHH!?" was the last thing Ura Urashima said while conscious before Suzuki glowed blue and said, "GOTTA GO FAST!" turning into an azure streak of lightning and accelerating hundreds of punches per second into every inch of the faux Urashima's body, complete with Bruce-Lee-like shouts of "ATATATATATA!"
The Great and Powerful Suzuki's magical goggles then isolated his Rainbow Cyclone's red and yellow colors, resulting in him having an orange aura.
Thusly, his body began mutating a la that muscle-building technique he mimicked from Toguro, except this time around he also grew to about 15 meters or 49 feet.
"EVEN IF THERE ARE A HUNDRED OF YOU, I CAN KICK ALL YOUR ASSES! BRING IT ON, DAI KAIJIN!" roared the Titanic Suzuki before he stomped and punched the hapless Gama, Bakken, and Ura Urashima to oblivion.
Hiei shook his head, the feeling of deja vu filling his mind. The way the Clownish Suzuki (of all people) outclassed those three Dai Kaijin reminded the Jaganshi of the desperation he, Kurama, and Kuwabara felt while fighting a reawakened S-Level Sensui.
To put things in perspective, this (literal) clown (and sometimes old man, among many other disguises) was currently more powerful than fellow Class-S beings like Shinobu Sensui, Shigure, Kirin, or the vast majority of Mukuro's 77 Elite save for Hiei.
The man who humiliated Suzuki and made him join the Ankoku Bujutsukai, the B-Plus Younger Toguro, was so underpowered compared to him now that he could probably take on a hundred full-powered Toguros with no problem. Or perhaps five Sensuis.
"If your Shin Juppon Gatana already had trouble handling the Spirit World Warriors, then this goes double for the Shin Roku Youkai," said Hiei. "Unlike Yusuke's Ningenkai-based group full of beginners and B-Class ghosts, the New Six Demons are all S-Level."
"What's the meaning of this, Gein? Your experiment is a complete failure!" raged Houji the Onmyouji's shikigami at the cross-armed shinobi. "Every one of your Dai Kaijin is overmatched!"
"Relax, Houji. It's all going according to plan, gifu," insisted Edward, but Sadojima had a hard time taking the Iwanbo-suited freak of nature too seriously.
"Enough of your excuses and fix this right now!" came the President of CCO Enterprises' demand.
"Isn't it fascinating, Soujiro?" the man scientist asked, his shoulders trembling from withheld cackles... the muffled rumbles of an incoming peal of maniacal laughter. "Isn't it fascinating how, after centuries of being C-Level to B-Level demons, they've finally evolved and became A-Level to S-Level instead?"
"Gein-hakase..." Seta trailed off.
The Iwanbo puppet turned towards the Shin Roku Youkai. "You're now so powerful that even though these people attempted to get a power up themselves, you still ended up overpowering them. It couldn't be helped, though. Most of them are supposed to be dead. It's already taken so much jaki just to resurrect them and keep them alive."
Even while the Gigantic Suzuki carved ruts into the ground like a modern-day Paul Bunyan about to create the Grand Canyon, intending to bury the Dai Kaijin there (dead or alive), the Iwanbo-suited Edward continued his soliloquy.
"Weren't you all petrified by the might of Toguro the first time you saw him at 100%? Yet now, you're able to take on entities many times more powerful than him at full strength all at the same time. What was the difference? What great event made you gain a power boost in half a year that you couldn't get centuries ago?"
"Uh, Granny Genkai trained us so we can reach that power level?" suggested Jin.
"Naw, man! It'sh because we all wanted to take down Team Urameshi again!" said a hiccupping, red-faced Chu.
"No. Although that probably helped. You went from B-Class and A-Class to S-Class exactly because of mind over matter." Gein tapped Iwanbo's fat face with his finger. "What your mind can perceive, your body can achieve."
"Seriously? Mind over matter? You sound like a vitamin commercial!" heckled Shishiwakamaru.
"Demons are in every way superior to humans, from their lifespan to their ability to manifest their spiritual energy, but there's one thing that the weak ningen have that the stronger youkai lack: Adaptability."
One by one, the broken-down hybrid bodies of the Dai Kaijin extricated themselves from the ground. The ones still stuck in combat, meanwhile, began deploying evasive maneuvers.
"The toughest of demons, mostly mazoku, could all reach S-Level only after centuries of strife, suffering, hard work, and training in one of the most merciless environments in our reality. However, you and your generation of fighters have managed to achieve in a fraction of the time what 'normal' demons take centuries to acquire."
The previously slumbering members of Shin Roku Youkai awoke, as though detecting the change of the mood in the air. The building, suffocating tension.
"There's a reason why most of the participants of the Dark Martial Arts Tournament," the Iwanbo meat suit spared a glance at the sneering Risho, "were able to one way or another leap forward and become S-Level monsters. It's because you demons were exposed to humans and learned from their ways."
Rinku gulped and kept his eight Devil Yoyos on standby. Perhaps they should've finished the Dai Kaijin off while they had the chance, although many of them weren't even supposed to be alive in the first place.
"I believe that half-demon, half-human hybrids that are capable of adopting or mimicking the human ability to adapt and acclimatize to any environment or change for the better in a relatively short amount of time are the next evolution of both humankind and demonkind."
The Humongous Suzuki loomed over both the Dai Kaijin and the Shin Roku Youkai like some sort of ancient deity with an orange glow, his every step seemingly making the entirety of Kuskokwim shudder.
"You've become a new generation of class and hierarchy leapers, going from one level to the next in whole strides, because you were exposed to humans and learned from one another's ways."
Hiei wasn't even paying attention to Gein and his longwinded speech anymore. Instead, his three eyes were all darting back and forth between Soujiro and... Houji.
"I guess it's best that I showed you rather than just told you what I mean. Houji, if you would please?"
From there, bedlam erupted.
The New Six Demons (plus Hiei) didn't know what to expect when Kurama first relayed that a minion of the Chojin, the Onmyouji, was capable of leveling up demons the same way the Demon Sword could magnify the powers of anyone who wielded it.
They all predicted that the Onmyouji would use his power-amplifying abilities at the last minute, when the Dai Kaijin had their backs against the ropes, because the effects of his jaki bombardment was temporary and he wanted Gein's "zombies" to scope out the new tactics and techniques used by the powered-up Shin Roku Youkai first.
The dark priest's shikigami cloak billowed from a wind from out of the blue, its long bone-white fingers curling up like tree branches on fire, the shadows spreading while it seemingly blotted out the sun in an eclipse of negative energy.
Because they had expected this development from the beginning, the New Six Demons (plus Hiei) attacked Houji together to keep him from leveling up their B-Class to A-Class foes.
"BAKUTO DOKU SHOKU...!" cried Shishiwakamaru, his Dark Item sword forged by the Multi-Talented Suzuki pulsating with his youki. However, Soujiro immediately reacted, blocking the Ma Koku Mei Zan Ken (Banshee Shriek Sword) before the deadly Demonic Sabbath technique could be summoned.
"YOU...! You dare get in my way again, you filthy human!?"
"Ah, ah, ah! The show's just about to start, Shishiwakamaru-san. Let's not spoil the fun for everyone just yet," said the smiling Ten ken to the cursing pretty boy imp demon.
Hiei commanded, "Touya, Rinku... get the Onmyouji. Chu, Jin... get Gein. Suzuki and I will make sure that none of the Dai Kaijin get powered up by that Houji bastard!"
"I don't think so," began Soujiro, who attempted to overrun the Jaganshi or any of the nearby Shin Roku Youkai, but Shishiwakamaru had one more trick up his sleeve in the form of the Dark Item: Shide no Hagoromu or the Cape of No Return (the same cape he used to teleport Kuwabara out of the ring to win their fight).
This item (also made by Suzuki) transported Soujiro to parts unknown, but just within Bethel, since Shishiwakamaru hadn't upgraded that old cloak since the Ankoku Bujutsukai, which kept him from using his youki to teleport enemies any further than within the perimeter of a whole city or a small island.
Gein saw through the Shin Roku Youkai's plans though, and reacted thusly. His fat suit made of human-demon hybrid skin... the Iwanbo 1.1... inflated like a balloon with a grinning "Gifu," and caught both the approaching drunk demon and wind youkai by its obese fat sacs.
"OOOFF!" said Chu, stuck inside the enlarging, 6-meter (or 20-feet) Iwanbo's gynecomastic "breasts", specifically the cleavage. "HOLY SHIT! Get this thing off me! This is wrong, man! WRONG!"
"Hold on, Chu!"
"Like hell I'm going to hold on! I want OFF of this thing!"
"Yeah, fine! Whatever! I'll get you out of there in a jiffy!"
"Gifu. I'd like to see you try, Peter Pan!"
As for Jin, he blasted one Shura Senpuken after another, but the twirling gales bounced off the gelatinous blob like they were light breezes instead.
Iwanbo then ate him, which made the giant blow up in size more thanks to the wind user's blasts of air, ballooning like a puffer fish or a Goodyear blimp.
After hearing Jin's muffled cries from within Iwanbo's gullet, Chu decided while squirming inside the huge puppet's... boobs, "Well, shit. I guess you're worse off than me after all."
From there, when Touya froze the crotchety shikigami and Rinku shattered the frostbitten effigy with his eight whirling Devil Yoyos all at the same time, another familiar soon appeared in its place.
"Let's use our full powers, Rinku! That Onmyouji is channeling the Chojin's powers, so he might be S-Class, unlike the Dai Kaijin!"
"Roger that, Touya!"
The ice demon blew into the air and let Ma Teki Sandan rain right on the Onmyouji's shikigami, damaging it continuously even while it attempted to regenerate itself. The yoyo kid, on the other hand, put Devil Yoyos on his toes as well as his fingers.
The shikigami had nowhere to escape. Whenever one avoided the bullet-fast, gravity-assisted hale of crystalline shards of varying sizes and shapes, it suffered blunt-force trauma care of the whirling yoyos that moved around in any direction.
However, while Jin and Chu were busy with one oversized Iwanbo, the former member of Unit 731 escaped through his meat suit's ear and sprinted in true shinobi fashion (arms thrown back, body leaning forward, and rolling feet from their heels to their balls) straight for Rinku and Touya.
"I have more than one Iwanbo puppet, you know. Also, if you didn't know, like Karasu and Bui, I myself am a Quest-Class being."
A Quest-Class demon or human (or even ghost or zombie) could create inanimate or organic objects through pure spirit energy.
With Karasu, it was bombs. With Bui, it was axes and even his energy-withholding armor. With Detective Matsudaira (Aoshi's reincarnation), it was short swords and guns. With the puppet master, it was his meat puppets.
Matter was at their command.
"Let me introduce to you Iwanbo Version 2.1 of the Iwanbo series!" In an instant, a new fat suit surrounded the skull-masked puppeteer's body, his meat puppet this time sporting a huge head and was a meter taller (7 meters or 23 feet) than the inflated Iwanbo Version 1.1, with most of its hugeness (about a third) due to its oversized, grinning head.
The (comically) disproportionate second Iwanbo bobbed its head back and forth while traveling on all fours towards the shikigami, shielding the familiar from the rain of death while it traveled using the knuckles of its hands like an ape would to support its crawl-sprint.
Touya and Rinku avoided him the best they could, but the new Iwanbo got their attention when it vomited bombs at them, which harkened back to the second Iwanbo in Gein's past life that was a suicide bomber suit.
Amidst the destruction and the impact-activated bombs detonated by the hale storm, a shikigami escaped. The yoyo master attempted to throw lassoed bombs back at the second Iwanbo and the escaping familiar with his almost-prehensile yoyos, but to no avail.
"Dammit, if you want something done, you've got to do it yourself!" Shishiwakamaru ended up within close range of the Onmyouji's tsukaima then stabbed its mouth (presumably, the cloak hid its face in darkness) with his Banshee Shriek Sword.
Meanwhile, Hiei had by then decapitated, drawn, and quartered Bakken, Ura Urashima, and Gama while the 15-meter Suzuki turned Risho, Zeru, and Kuro Momotaro into chunky stains and giblets on the ground.
There were no zombie demons left for the Onmyouji to power up.
As for Jin and Chu, they literally turned Iwanbo Version 1.1 into a blimp, with the (finally free) alcoholic demon plugging up every orifice with rocks or uprooted trees and the windy demon brewing up an F5 storm inside the meat suit, making it more bloated than a Macy's parade float.
"Your plan failed, Onmyouji," hissed Shishiwakamaru at the darkness within the hood. "The Dai Kaijin are dead. Now show us where your base is! Your damn wannabe overlord's days are numbered!"
"So you don't have any idea who you're talking to, demon?" a voice from the shikigami said before a hand... a human hand... emerged from the ratty cape, bleeding because it gripped Shishi's sword tight. "I AM SADOJIMA HOUJI OF SHISHIO MAKOTO'S JUPPON GATANA, NOW PART OF THE DAI SHIN KAN! THE CONDUIT OF THE LIVING SIN! YOU WILL NOT TALK DOWN TO ME, YOU FILTHY YOUKAI!"
"GUUUUAAA...!"
The shikigami peeled itself off from the body of Houji the Onmyouji, like the scales of a molting snake. The imp demon then ended up bowled over by the pulsating conflagration of dark power that bathed Sadojima in pure black jaki flames.
This time around, Houji had actually arrived there in the flesh rather than let his familiars serve as his proxies as usual.
"I'm a filthy youkai? This coming from a mere human? KNOW YOUR PLACE! BAKUTO DOKU SHOKU SOU!" screamed Shishiwakamaru after regaining his bearings and footing, who blasted forth his most powerful attack for good measure at the hapless Onmyouji.
Because Jin, Chu, Rinku, and Touya were a little busy at the moment, the bloodstained Hiei and gigantic Suzuki charged at the gathering darkness and negative energy that was Houji, one of the top generals of the Overfiend.
"There's no point to this! Your allies are dead!" said the fire demon, but the burning Sadojima paid him no heed.
Hiei then paused when a flashback of a memory that wasn't his... of the Onmyouji when he was still alive, along with a courtesan and what appeared to be a man in bandages that looked like an Egyptian mummy all stood on a tiled arena not unlike the stage in the Ankoku Bujutsukai... invaded his mind.
It was Kenshin's memory of Houji Sadojima, perhaps. Even though Hiei's contact with the Demon Sword was brief, the presence of Battousai continued to haunt the Jaganshi's head.
However, when the spiky-haired youkai charged, his western-style longsword got blocked by none other than Soujiro himself, the Heaven Sword of the Dai Shin Kan, who'd found his way back and ran all the way from the edge of Bethel to Kuskokwim River.
"Long time, no see, Hiei-san."
"..."
Hiei harrumphed and Soujiro grinned.
"You dare stand in my way? I can see your every move now," said the koorime-born Jaganshi while pointing at his Evil Eye.
"Ah, but there's one thing you weren't aware of," replied Soujiro before disappearing from even the hawk-eyed Jaganshi's line of sight, "I haven't fought you at full Shukuchi speed yet."
Hiei was thusly punished by his presumptions and arrogance, scourged like a common criminal in Roman times by the Nagasone Kotetsu.
"DON'T WORRY, HIEI! I GOT HIM!" boomed Suzuki, who clasped the floating form of a business-suited, bowl-cut, and mink-coated Houji in between his colossal hands with the intention of crushing him.
"BEHOLD THE MIGHT OF THE CHOJIN!" screamed the burning, bleeding, and skinless (but still alive) Houji, who blasted six beams of darkness right into the enormous frame of Suzuki, creating gaping holes in his giant form as he screamed and fell.
The miasma of negative energy sapped the light of the entirety of Kuskokwim, rendering the tundra into a hinterland of discontent.
Learning from his mistakes before (wherein Hiei absorbed his dark energy), the Chojin's conduit fired off concentrated jaki that could only be absorbed by the Dai Kaijin and destroyed everything else in their path.
...Right into the decapitated, drawn, quartered, or otherwise crushed remnants of the Dai Kaijin, the swirling vortices of power regenerating in an instant all the damage that these carcasses suffered.
Just in time too, because Touya had already rendered inert all of the bombs inside the 23-feet Iwanbo by freezing it to the point of it crumbling under the impact of Rinku's yoyos.
As for Jin and Chu, they'd built up enough pressure inside the inflated 20-feet land whale of a puppet known as Iwanbo Version 1.1 to make it explode into a rain of meat chunks, blood, guts, and gore.
The Shin Roku Youkai, right after dealing with Gein's puppets, never knew what hit them, their Spirit Detectors indicating that six new Class-A-Plus to Class-S youkai had emerged.
At the lower Kuskokwim, around where the Yup'ik Eskimo lived...
"So the reports from the Spirit World were right! You revived youkai were depending on that whack-job Onmyouji's jaki in order to power up, like taking advantage of a bug or a cheat device in Dragon Quest to level up!" concluded the two-century-old demon "child" known as Rinku, who wore an outfit fit for a kid from the Makai circus.
Reverse Urashima... a red-skinned demon that took on the guise of a human fisherman while epitomizing everything that the legendary folk hero, Taro Urashima, wasn't... cackled and tumbled around, avoiding and countering every trick in the book pertaining to yoyos, from Walking the Dog(s) to the Hidemasa Hook (an unresponsive slack string yoyo trick to make the toy responsive again).
"What of it, boy?" mocked the human-disguised demon.
Unfazed, Rinku said, "My Spirit Detector says you've only increased your power by A-Plus. You really think it's a good idea to challenge me at such a low power level, old man?"
He then illustrated his point by reducing the trees, shrubbery, and rocks to debris of varying sizes, the supersonic speeds of the stringed weapons quick enough to cut through solid objects or even liquid ones, like the water that served as the basin drainage area of the river parting like the Red Sea, or any of the moist soil and swampy moss by the riverbanks.
Rinku did all this by doing the "Around the World" (the yoyo swung by 360 degrees aided by centrifugal forces) and "Shoot the Moon" (it used the same motion, but this time, the yoyo went upwards to the sky, which was handy whenever Urashima attacked from the air) on all eight of his finger-and-toe-triggered Devil Yoyos.
A curious thing happened to Urashima. Like a fly or a small insect, his movements became jittery, darting to and fro the forest and the banks of lower Kusko River.
Several times, he disappeared altogether, although when he did his ducks, rolls, tucks, and counter string slices to avoid becoming cut up like ham, he moved at normal pace, like the speed of a Kuwabara rather than a Hiei.
"It doesn't matter. I can level up like a character from that Dragon Quest videogame you're talking about without getting power ups from Houji or body upgrades from Gein."
"Stop calling me boy, you ugly fisherman midget! And what powers are you even talking about? The ability to fish for tuna or whatever fish they have here in Alaska?"
It wasn't his fault that he looked like a human child of about twelve years of age! And so what if he was a late bloomer? Darn. Was that the reason why Kotei, his monkey demon "girl friend" (as opposed to "girlfriend") couldn't take him seriously as a man?
Ura Urashima smirked. "Oh, you'll see soon enough. Normally, I would've died ten times over while fighting you. But not today. Not after I've realized my potential."
The child youkai bristled and turned his hat backwards, attempting to do a "Loop the Loop" (where his yoyos seemingly orbited his fingers and allowed him to strike with sufficient force).
Reverse Urashima caught one of his yoyos (which came at speeds quick enough to have the impact of a mortar shell or a miniature wrecking ball) with the hook of his fishing rod, then pulled so that the kid demon almost had his own Devil Yoyo crush his skull and kill him then and there (he dodged in time).
Did the fisherman youkai see his trick performed before? How did he know when to hook the yoyo? 'Must've been a lucky shot,' Rinku rationalized and attacked again.
The yoyo kid then did a "Three Leaf Clover" (the first loop of this Loop the Loop variant was thrown 45 degrees upwards, the second one leveled, and the third one 35 degrees downwards before the yoyo got caught) on all eight of his finger yoyos.
Again, instead of getting "faked out" by thinking that Rinku would do another Loop the Loop, only to get his brains bashed with the Three Leaf Clover, the jittery Urashima avoided the new three-hit technique with split-second accuracy.
"How did you know about the Three Leaf...?" trailed off Rinku.
"HAHAHA! You'll never guess what my power is, pipsqueak!" mocked Ura Urashima.
"You're calling me pipsqueak? Have you..."
"...Looked in the mirror lately?"
"..."
Before Rinku could change into another "Loop the Loop" variant (i.e., the more complicated "Outside Loops", which could be alternated with "Inside Loops" or "Loop the Loops"), Reverse Uramshima sliced the string of the yoyos, making them fly everywhere.
So was that Urashima's power? Split-second reaction time? Maybe he could read minds? In Ura Urashima's fight with Kurama, it was implied that they had a telepathic conversation where the former tricked the latter. Was that his special move?
In the middle of all the bedlam, while Rinku dodged and cracked the deflected bombshells with his toe-tied Devil Yoyos, the demonic fisherman came up from behind.
The kid managed to slice the older-looking midget's string apart, only to get stabbed in the chest by rod itself, with its tip as sharp as a fencing epee or foil.
Rinku tumbled away, extricating himself from Reverse Urashima's long fishing rod, grasping his chest while his blood stained his colorful shirt in crimson and brown.
Checkmate. Or rather, was he in "check"? He didn't know, he was an avid yoyo practitioner, not a chess master.
"It doesn't matter how powerful you are. Even Raizen succumbed to hunger. Even Mukuro ended up with a scarred body. Even Yomi, after leveling up, could never bring his sight back. You're only mortal. Even S-Classes have limits."
Rinku paled, his blood collecting outside his circulatory system. Ura landed a critical hit. Like the fisher-demon said, even though powerful demons were tough and fast healers, they were also mortal.
The demon child couldn't heal if he lost too much of the blood required for healing and clotting a damaged area or organ.
Urashima's prescience to whatever yoyo trick Rinku used reminded the yoyo kid of Kotei and her nimble flexibility at whatever it was he threw at her. She always found a way around his Devil Yoyos.
The toy master's eyes lit up. Wasn't Ura Urashima's Dark Item from Suzuki when they were still teammates the...?
Rinku then told his opponent, "I was planning on using this technique to defeat a monster who didn't resort to tricks but skill to win! Consider yourself lucky!"
To Be Continued...
The Beautiful Suzuki's Dark Item, "Kaleidoscope World", is a reference to a Francis Magalona rap song in 1995. Not to be confused with the earlier 1989 album of the same name by the British band Swing Out Sister.
As for Houji's role in the Dai Shin Kan, he's a lot like Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh (or Raijin Ou) villain, Evil Commander Belzeb of the Jaaku Empire, in how he powered up Jaaku Beasts with his dark energy.
No, an evil fairy didn't emerge from his cabinet chest a la Belzeb's companion, Felzeb, but it's roughly the same idea.
Aloha,
Abdiel