Youtou Shinnoken
A Rurouni Kenshin/Yuyu Hakusho Crossover Fan Fiction by Chester Castañeda and Danyal Herder
Original Concept by Chad Yang
The brand split has at last arrived. This chapter mostly deals with the myriad of plot points that my former co-author Danyal Herder wanted to expand. In any case, I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Disclaimer: Yuyu Hakusho is the rightful property of Yoshihiro Togashi, Shueisha, Fuji TV, and St. Pierrot. Rurouni Kenshin is the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki and Sony. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted material that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.
Chapter 19: Freckles (Part 1)
Three weeks earlier, in the underground tunnel created by Genbu's coup de grace attack against the nigh-unkillable Iehog...
Rando shambled through the barely person-sized burrow in the ground, his face pallid and sallow, his lungs burning for air, and his soul fully depleted of any type of ki, youki or otherwise. Every little action he did was pure suffering. Every inch of his heart felt as though it were pierced by nails.
That damn Urameshi had beaten him to a pulp yet again. However, the half-human, half-demon hybrid had the upper hand of leveling up to ungodly proportions via a variety of methods... for instance, his natural ability to increase his power through his emotions, the coincidence of being the descendant of a powerful mazoku, and his possession of Genkai's Spirit Light Wave Gem... that made him some sort of S-Class God of War that was beyond Rando's caliber.
But Rando didn't give up. Just like Yusuke did in their first fight, he never once let up on his assault, despite being obviously outclassed by a superior foe. He used all of his available techniques... several of which were so deadly that he could only use them once per day... just so he'd have no regrets once their fight was over, win or lose.
So why was it that he felt so unsatisfied with the result of their rematch, despite the fact that he'd fought with everything that he had? He had this burning desire inside him to utterly defeat Yusuke, and instead of sating his appetite, his second defeat served to whet it somehow. The feeling of manhandling a powerful foe using a variety of maneuvers left him somehow punch drunk with longing. Either that, or Yusuke's straights and uppercuts left him punch drunk with delirium.
Little did Rando know that his efforts weren't totally in vain; for one thing, Yusuke was still infected with his cumulative Kugai technique, his earlier You-Gan to Kenshin's shoulder confused his enemies so badly that they made costly mistakes throughout most of their fights, and he was still alive to tell this gruesome tale.
But as of now, he didn't exactly look like a winner. There was barely anything left of him, even... his entire left forearm was gone, and whole chunks of his pasty flesh were missing. To his credit, he was able to convert the power of the Rei-Gan into youki by means of his special energy-converting Ibuki and using that very demon energy to fire off a second Jagan illusion. It was only through his ingeniousness in using multiple techniques at once that he accomplished the double whammy of escaping death and depleting Yusuke of his power during Kenshin's time of need.
"Aniki! I want my aniki!" a voice whimpered as something popped out of the center of the tunnel... a bloodied, torn, and limbless Iehog, crawling on his belly like the lowly worm that he had become. If Rando were capable of feeling compassion for the browbeaten failure, he would've felt so by then. Iehog was just that pathetic, even though he did survive the Youkiri Battousai's wrath for some reason. It didn't really matter; failure was failure. Period.
"Rando-sama!" Iehog groveled at Rando's feet just short of licking the tattooed demon's boots. "Have you seen my aniki? I can't find him! He was in my head, but now he's gone!" From what Rando could gather, the lone surviving Hiruma brother had apparently regressed to the mental age of a child, what with him drooling, slobbering, and looking for his presumably dead brother like a lost toddler.
"Shush now, Iehog. I'll soon send you to where your brother is," Rando soothingly cooed to the tragically retarded demon, knowing full well that the once potentially powerful warrior demon whom he taught his special body absorption technique was no longer of this world, replaced by a broken bird whose best prospect in life was a swift death.
Even though his lobotomized crony could not understand his next few words, Rando offered them to him as an elegy of sorts. The paste-white redhead spoke in a deep, sonorous tone that reverberated through the floor and walls of the tunnel until it seemed to be coming from every direction at once.
Iehog could not make out the words: they were horrible words, words that distorted the very fabric of reality until he could feel the stinging sensation of something flowing out of his ears. Indeed, anything that needed to be said in a language like that couldn't possibly be saying anything that was worth comprehending.
Silence arrived, and it soon stayed and spread inside Iehog. It grasped his head and embraced him in its boggy arms. It shook him to the cadence of a primordial heartbeat. It stripped his thoughts of the words that described them and left them naked and exposed. Inexpressible. Deadened. And to an outside observer, perhaps barely even there.
Rando admired his newly formed body made out of Iehog's flesh, his chanting to the Elder Spirits alleviating him of the need to expend any more youki to accomplish his Body Absorption Technique, but for some reason, he couldn't quite fully appreciate his act of mercy for a mere pawn who didn't really deserve it.
He wasn't quite sure, but along with the feelings of exhilaration and determination that Yusuke introduced to him during their two momentous fights came an almost rudimentary sense of guilt and pathos over his former minion's unfortunate demise. Like feeling bad over shooting a rabid pet or something; he couldn't tell. He would've preferred experiencing schadenfreude, but that wasn't the case here. He felt rather ambivalent over it, and it confused him so.
"Iehik. Iehog. Rest in peace, you pieces of shit." Alternately wailing and cackling at the same time, driven to nigh psychosis with residual anguish and some other emotion he couldn't identify, Rando staggered away from underneath Genkai's decimated abode, into an unknown destination.
Three weeks later, in the Hall of Judgment...
Koenma went about his business in a deliberate pace, continually sifting through the endless papers strewn all over his desk... a process he actually enjoyed every once in a while. It was an excellent way to pass time in a job as painfully boring as his, and it also gave others the impression of him actually doing work in case one of his rude servants... of which there were many... barged in without knocking first.
Nevertheless, Koenma eventually became tired of the tedious activity. In fact, the sound of rustling papers soon began to grate on his nerves after seven hours straight of document shuffling. Sure, hundreds of years of handling paperwork should've made him more tolerant of its monotony, but not today. At the moment, he was about to meet with two very important individuals, so he was understandably more impatient than usual.
The Prince of Hell ultimately resigned himself to leaning on the back of his oversized chair and thinking about what his next command would be, which was yet another way to distract himself from his imminent dilemmas. Just then, after countless glances at his multi-time-zone, multi-world clocks and numerous idle twiddles of his thumbs, he heard a timid knock at his office's large double doors. His head snapped to attention.
"Is that you, Jorge?"
"Yes, Koenma-sama. I've found the humans you were searching for, but they came somewhat reluctantly, and I..."
"Whatever," Koenma waved Jorge off hurriedly. "Just get in here!"
"Yes, Koenma-sama!" The wooden entrance swung open and Jorge rushed in, his face drenched in sweat as he panted. As soon as he came into the room, he doubled over and gasped for air. The scene caused Koenma to arch an inquisitive eyebrow. "What the heck happened to you?" the godly toddler asked.
Koenma heard boisterous and obnoxious laughter from the hallway; the warbling, bullying kind that demonstrated its superiority over mere chuckles and giggles by deriving its humor from the suffering and inferiority of others. "You should keep your worker drones in better shape, pal. If ever warlord-type demons bothered to invade this realm, you and your little friends would be toast."
"Don't tell me how to run this operation!" Koenma screamed, inwardly disregarding his sudden flashback of the Nether World King, Yakumo, flooding the Spirit World by making the River Styx overflow; that was so a one-time fluke that would never happen again, or his name wasn't Koenma Daio. "The oni handle file management! The shinigami handle soul ferrying! The Tokubetsu Boueitai handles security details and guard duty for the Reikai barriers! And the Reikai Tantei handle missions and police work! Do your research first before criticizing things you know nothing about! Also, I recognize your stupid voice. Get in here, Sagara Sanosuke!"
The double doors opened again, and a very tall human who was seemingly in his late twenties (but was actually just eighteen or so in terms of his "manifested" age) immediately sauntered inside the spacious quarters. His wild, dark-brown hair was arranged in pointy spikes on his head, and a red bandanna hung just over his eyes. Aside from white sweats and an extremely loose white jacket that sported the character for "evil" on its back, his torso also served as a spool for several bandages.
The man identified as Sanosuke guffawed conceitedly. "Come on. I've busted gambling halls with twice the security you've got around this joint. It's pretty pathetic, really. Who are the ones who guards these halls anyway? The Reikai Tantei or Boueitai? I'll bet you that I can kick both their asses!"
Koenma, fuming at the sight of a mere human... a dead one, at that... insulting his management skills, pulled his pacifier out of his mouth and shook it in admonishment. "I wouldn't be so quick as to mock the ruler of the world you inhabit, Sagara Sanosuke. I can always transfer you to a less desirable location, you know," he hissed. "Do you want to end up in a river of boiling blood, surrounded by a Stygian marsh, or engulfed by flaming sand?"
Sanosuke squinted in contemplation. "Hey! Those punishments aren't supposed to be part of the Spirit World or Buddhist philosophy! You stole those ideas from the Christians! I'm not a particularly religious guy, but whatever happened to the Yomi Road? The Seven Hells? Pulling out the tongues of lying children? Tell me, you unoriginal, unimaginative hack!"
Koenma coughed primly and waved Sanosuke's complaints off as though he were talking to Jorge or any of his other multicolored minions. "We've always redecorated hell throughout the centuries and tried out the ideas used in other religious denominations to see what fits and what doesn't. Furthermore, those Italians sure knew a thing or two about punishments, let me tell you! Don't misunderstand; we still follow Buddhist and Hindu tradition, but if there's something that can be done to somehow streamline our operation, then I'll have it approved."
"Huh. I knew there was something fishy about that big-ass wall blocking one of the Sanzu no Kawa's forks," Sanosuke murmured to himself. Ever the doubter, he nonetheless posed the miniature lord yet another question that'd been bugging him since he'd arrived at the Hall of Judgment. "Where the hell is that large tub of lard with the funny beard? Your father, who's also known by the names of King Yama, Yan Luo Wang, Yama Maharaja, Emma-Ou, and good old bulging-eyed, red-faced Enma Daio?"
"He's not 'Enma Daio' anymore. Or rather, he's recently been deposed and incarcerated for his crimes against humanity and the demon populace. I've since taken over the position and the title of 'Enma Daio'," Koenma stated briskly and matter-of-factly as he placed his pacifier back into his mouth and produced his usual, closed-eye expression that was nigh-unreadable. "You can still call me Koenma Daio, though."
"Koenma, you know that Sanosuke loves to talk out of his ass, so let him be," another voice quipped as the door to the spacious office was pushed open yet again. This time, the figure that entered was a much darker-skinned individual that looked several years younger than Sanosuke, but wore the same unruly hairstyle that the taller man sported. A metal-sheathed sword was tucked underneath the obi of the boy's outfit, and he even smirked at the sight of the Spirit World Prince. "Good to see you again, Koenma. It's been quite a while since I last saw you."
Koenma jumped onto his desk. "Yes, it has. Jorge, would you please excuse us? I have some private things to discuss with these two gentlemen."
Jorge nodded. "Yes, sir." Without another word, he hastily exited, content with the thought that he could find something else to occupy his time with.
Sanosuke watched the ogre leave and rolled his eyes. "What a dork." He turned towards Koenma. "So what's this all about? Last I heard, paradise didn't include being dragged out of a perfectly good nap by that goon and forced into this stupid place. Wasn't my soul already judged decades ago?"
"Reikai isn't your personal playground, Sanosuke. I'm sorry to see that a century of peace hasn't taught you a little more respect for your elders," Koenma berated further, which the two humans found somewhat amusing because of the toddler's youthful form.
"Just shut up, Sano," Yahiko scolded after recovering from his own hidden mirth. "It's not like you've suffered from a lack of sleep, anyway." He turned his attention towards Koenma, who was now pacing back and forth on his wooden desk. "So what's the deal? It must be important for you to call us all the way here. Descending from Level 6 to Level 0 of Reikai isn't exactly a walk in the park, you know."
"Well, yes... and no," Koenma clarified slowly, unsure of the correct way to focus the conversation. He wasn't even sure if he should bother telling them about Kenshin Himura's connection with the Demon Sword at all. "You see, one of my spirit detectives came across a powerful sword a few months back... one that I had feared could fall into the wrong hands. He was indeed attacked by some demons, but he repelled them with the help of his trusted allies and the spirit guardian of the sword itself. Anyway, the special artifact's safe at the moment, but..."
"What does this have to do with us?" Yahiko interrupted. "If the sword is on Earth, we can't help in protecting it. We're dead."
Koenma groaned and shook his head. "I know that, you idiot. Just let me finish. Anyway, the sword has the ability to drastically amplify the power of whoever wields it, among other strange side effects that we're still investigating. The reason it's able to do this is because it holds an incredibly powerful spirit inside of it; one who has recently been unleashed."
Sanosuke bumped his fists together. "And you want us to get rid of that stupid-ass spirit?"
"Not unless you're interested in destroying your old friend, Himura Kenshin," Koenma slyly dropped his bombshell after he at last decided to let the cat out of the bag and reveal the truth behind Kenshin's ultimate fate. He then waited to see how the two spirits would react to the news.
Kenshin's sudden death at the hands of the demented Makoto Shishio was a big, saddening shock to everyone related to him at the time. Sure, his friends were somehow able to persevere and move on after their loss... some faring far better than others... but the overall impact that the red-haired hitokiri-turned-rurouni left on these people's lives remained immeasurable to this day.
Anyway, the response Sanosuke and Yahiko shared was absolutely predictable: a mixture of flabbergasted awe and complete disbelief. "What the hell are you talking about? Kenshin's trapped in a freaking sword? Why would you trap him inside a sword? I thought you had him reincarnated as a shinigami or something, or at least made him live a penitent afterlife in your Spirit World's damned Purgatorial Sector! How did this come about?" Yahiko hollered. "Kenshin is way too nice and powerful for his own good to be punished like this!"
"I know that he's very strong; I saw him fight during the Bakumatsu no Douran. And don't worry, his 'punishment' fits both his crimes and his good deeds. He's not stuck in that special blade for nothing. All the same, Yusuke... a freelance spirit detective of mine... has helped unleash him, and this very act is a sure sign that people who should never have access to the sword are trying to get their hands on it. As both a ruler and protector of the three worlds, I cannot allow that."
Sanosuke and Yahiko looked at each other before they shrugged their shoulders simultaneously. It'd been years since either of them saw the former Ishin Shishi assassin, so neither of them was sure of how to react to the news of Kenshin's supposed reawakening.
It had already been a hundred and fifteen years since Kenshin died; it took the gangster look-alike a long time to come to terms with the fact, but a century, a decade, and five years should be more than enough time for him to finish his mourning, right? At any rate, for him, it had already been an eternity since he last saw the redheaded warrior of the bakumatsu; a small yet significant blip in his long, adventurous, and fulfilling life.
"Well, okay, I can believe that," Sanosuke yielded. "But then again, even with Kenshin running around, what does that really have to do with us? You said that that Keisuke or whoever is on the case, so why can't he handle it? I'm sure Kenshin will help him out in any way possible."
"Because Yusuke and Kenshin, for all their great strength, could very well be in over their heads this time. I'm not exactly sure who's the puppet master behind these recent events, but I have my suspicions. Nevertheless, it's too early for me to draw any conclusions on the matter. Don't worry, though; I'll keep you two posted when more information about this case comes to light," Koenma replied in the most vague and evasive manner possible, which could be his way of hiding his knowledge... or lack thereof... of the circumstances.
"What do you mean? You have access to spirits and souls of warriors for centuries on end, yet you chose the two of us in particular to help your cause. Why is that?" Yahiko pressed, finding the whole state of affairs highly suspect for some reason.
"I'll tell you in due time, Yahiko. I won't be able to give you all the details of this operation in one sitting, but in a nutshell, an unknown entity assimilated the jaki of a demonic overlord I knew to be very, very powerful, and I received word that he's sending his subordinates to retrieve the sword even as we speak. As you can see, this makes me very anxious." The Tokyo Samurai Descendant merely shook his head and sighed at Koenma's second non-answer.
Sanosuke exhaled. "This is all utterly fascinating," he drawled, "but you're forgetting that we're dead." He barked the last word of his statement for emphasis. "It's not like we can just jump back to the Human World and crack open some skulls."
Koenma smiled. "Actually, you can."
"What?" Sanosuke and Yahiko called out, again at the same time.
Koenma folded his arms together. "It's not a process I like to use very often, and I'd be lying if I said this wasn't bothering me a bit. Look, I know that you both led very honest and honorable lives when you walked the Human World, and you certainly deserve eternal comfort as a reward for all that hard work. But if you're willing to risk losing your souls by saving all the three worlds from this threat, I can send you back to the world of the living indefinitely, until the threat is gone. The decision is completely yours."
Yahiko stepped forward eagerly. "If humanity is in danger, they can always count on Myojin Yahiko to save them!" he declared. The utter cheesiness of his heroic line aside and his suspicions of duplicity be damned, that was how he truly felt.
"Excellent!" Koenma grinned. "I knew you'd be up to the task, Yahiko. You're truly one of the finest of Reikai's spirits." He cocked his head and glanced at Sanosuke. "And what about you, Sano? Do you want to go back to your nap, oblivious of all the suffering going on around you, or do you want to take a stand and eradicate those who would victimize innocent mortals?"
After thinking about it for a few seconds, Sanosuke exhaled deeply. "Jeez, one second I'm in the middle of a nice snooze, and the next..." He glared at Koenma. "What are you looking at? You know what my answer's going to be. I'll help, of course."
"Yes!" Koenma cheered, gleefully jumping up in the air and pumping a smallish baby fist up. "That's wonderful! Fantastic!" Once he saw Yahiko and Sanosuke look at him with arched eyebrows and wry smirks, he straightened himself up. "Well, I'm very pleased that you two have decided to loan your help to me," he addressed in what he deemed to be a dignified tone, plopping back onto his chair in inward satisfaction.
"Hey, if you're going to send us back to the Human World, why not do the same for the rest of our friends?" Yahiko inquired. "There's Kaoru, Aoshi, Misao, Hiko, and even Saito. They'd all be able to kick some demon ass too, you know."
Koenma shrugged. "I'm not yet at the point where I think it's necessary, and as I've said before, I'm going to try and avoid sending too many dead spirits back to the Human World, if possible. I've had a pretty good track record in the time that I've been running this place, and I'd like to keep it that way."
The Spirit World Prince didn't add the little tidbits about the ultimate fates of some of those people Yahiko mentioned for the simple fact that it would needlessly complicate matters. He needed to send these two souls out fast so that he could have his investigations regarding the Overfiend underway.
"Whatever. So where're you taking us? To Japan? India? China? Those are under the jurisdictions of the Buddhist and Hindu afterlife, right?" Sanosuke snidely inquired.
"Don't be silly. You're both going back to Japan. Tokyo, to be exact. Though I must warn you both; in the very short time since you two departed, Tokyo has changed a lot from the Tokyo you once knew. Technology now runs people's lives, and you'll more than likely have to learn how to operate some of those machines yourselves."
Yahiko nodded as he let Koenma's "very short time" understatement slide without further comment because he figured that a hundred and fifteen years would probably seem like a brief period to a being that had lived for millennia-on-end. "Yeah, I've met some of the newer spirits in heaven. They wear some really weird clothes now, from what I've noticed."
Koenma snapped his fingers. "Ah, there's that to consider as well. You two can't be running around in those outfits." A glowing yellow light flashed above Koenma's hand, and after a moment, a huge wad of paper bills appeared in it. He tossed half of them to Sanosuke and the other half to Yahiko. "That should be enough money to get you two set up. If you can't find Yusuke or Kenshin in the first day, just crash at a hotel. There are a million of them in Tokyo.
"Right," Sanosuke assented as he pocketed the money automatically, which earned him a token narrow-eyed, pouted-lip look from Yahiko. "Hey, while we're on the subject, how're we going to find Kenshin and Kyosuke? Tokyo was big when we were last there, so by now it's probably huge."
"There are about twelve million people living in Tokyo right now; give or take a million, anyway. And you're mostly correct on your assessment, save for the 'Kyosuke' part... His name is Yusuke, you dumb rooster head." Koenma proceeded to open one of his desk drawers and rifle through it hurriedly. Within five seconds, he slammed two small wristwatches... complete with retractable antennae and small radar screens... on his table's main writing area. Hopping off of his chair, he handed one to each of his newly enlisted fighters.
"These," Koenma began, "are spirit energy trackers. They're a lot more advanced than the ones given to Yusuke when he first became a spirit detective because, let's face it, since I closed down the barriers separating the Demon World from the Human World, you'll be facing a lot more than just Class-Ds, Cs, and Bs. It's really annoying to have these devices malfunction and explode whenever you're facing a Class-S and higher demon, so we fixed that."
Sanosuke and Yahiko absently nodded, feigning understanding even though they couldn't relate to anything Koenma had said thus far; they had never experienced any such event in both their past lives and afterlives.
"These trackers can gauge power levels ranging from zero to googol, with googol equivalent to god tier beings," Koenma continued. "Anything higher than that, and it just gives out an error message. Granted, if it's broken, then it will still produce an error message regardless, but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, I'm going to send you to the home of another one of my detectives: Kuwabara Kazuma, Yusuke's best friend. If he or his sister is there, just say that I sent you and either of them will help you out."
Yahiko and Sanosuke were just about to ask why Koenma didn't just send them back into Yusuke Urameshi's home since Kenshin was staying with him, but Koenma wouldn't even pause for breath as he blabbered, "After you're all prepped and ready, you'll be able to trace large amounts of spirit energy waves with those trackers. They will let you determine the distance and the youki or reiki levels of the beings nearest to you. Moreover, their effectiveness depends on the wearer; the higher your reiki ability, the further you can probe. You could be led to Kenshin and his sword, or demons; unfortunately, those trackers aren't advanced enough to tell the different kinds of energy apart. Either way, you should still be able to find out more information with the help of these tools."
Koenma chuckled, hoping that Sanosuke and Yahiko wouldn't be annoyed by this fact. They were.
Sanosuke looked at the gadget for a moment, grunted, and stuffed it into his jacket with the wad of cash, too unconcerned with the foreign concept of wristwatches to know how they were worn. "Whatever. Look, enough of this talk, Enma Junior. Just tell me whose face I need to smash in, and I'll do it. I'm a simple kind of guy that way."
"Is it really that hard to address me as Koenma-sama, Sagara Sanosuke? I know you've got something of an issue with taking orders from authority figures, but you really ought to have more respect for the ruler of the world you inhabit," Koenma scolded.
"Just ignore him, Koenma. Sanosuke can be like that sometimes. Right, rooster head?" Yahiko drolly jibed, knowing that the name would get a rise out of his companion.
Instead, Sanosuke just kept his rage bottled up and glared at Yahiko and Koenma. "Just get us back to Japan, Koenma... or Koenma-sama, whichever you prefer," he grunted.
"Fantastic. That's all I need to say to you two for now. Just keep your eyes closed, and I'll take care of the rest of the process. You'll have nothing to fear at all; your faux-bodies will come up shortly. I just want to get you two mobilized in the Ningenkai as quickly as possible," Koenma informed.
Yahiko and Sanosuke obliged, although Sanosuke peeked long enough to see Koenma clasp his hands around his head in solemn concentration.
"Hey, Sano," Yahiko murmured.
After hearing his compatriot speak, Sanosuke closed his eyes again. "Yeah?" he replied.
"Isn't this weird? In the span of less than an hour, we've gone from spending our lives with our ancestors to getting our mortal bodies back. We're about to return to the world of the living and save mankind from a hideous evil... again. Isn't it funny how fate works?"
"Yeah," Sanosuke answered. "But do you think you'll be able to handle it, you snot-nosed brat?"
Yahiko snorted. "Of course. My picnics with Tsubame as we watch over our descendants are nice, but once in a while, I yearn to kick the devil's ass once more." He flashed a roguish grin. "Besides, I became the strongest samurai in Japan next to Kenshin and Hiko in the span of a mere decade. I wonder how good I've gotten after a hundred and fifteen years of practice."
Before Sanosuke could utter an appropriate retort or demonstrate his sentiments in the form of a kick to the arrogant Yahiko's head, a huge blast of white light shot out from Koenma's forehead and engulfed the two spirits, preventing either of them from speaking or moving.
The luminescence formed a large sphere around the pair that tore away at the ether like a shining anomaly of sorts. After about ten seconds, the glow dimmed from Koenma's view. Within another half-minute of silent observation, the orb of energy, along with Sanosuke and Yahiko, wholly vanished from that plane of existence. In another couple of seconds, Sanosuke and Yahiko would find themselves in front of Kuwabara's television set.
Two hours later, in Koenma's office at the Hall of Judgment, unaired questions were being asked by Botan. Who was Kaoru Kamiya? What was her connection with Botan? Those were the unanswerable queries running through both Kenshin's and Botan's minds as they waited for their turn to face the Prince of the Dead.
Yusuke and Keiko were discussing matters of grave importance concerning the events surrounding Rando and the Shisejyu's sudden attack in Genkai's temple, and both Kenshin and Botan didn't see it fit to intrude as they patiently sat on the waiting chairs overlooking the stock-market-like atmosphere of the scurrying, necktie-wearing ogres.
Ever since Botan ate the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge... which was incidentally located at the summit of Mount Rengoku at Level 10 Block 3 of the Purgatorial Sector... in order to make Keiko's amnesiac, drugged spirit eat the lotus blossom antidote, the ferry-girl had been getting these strange flashes in her head.
She saw images of places, people, and things that she couldn't comprehend or recognize. These were memories that ate her up inside, as though her soul didn't want her to remember her past life... what she was before she became a ferry-girl.
Why? What happened to her back then? Was she a murderer? A temptress? An adulteress? A person who had committed suicide? A traitor? A usurper? A filibuster? A woman with accommodating morals? Someone who knew too much? Someone who was at the wrong place and at the wrong time? What was Kaoru Kamiya's link to her past? Did she kill the kendo master? Did she get killed by the kendo master? Was she Kaoru's ferry-girl? Was it the other way around and she was actually much younger than she thought she was? Or was it something else altogether? How was she able to take possession of Kaoru's memories? Was she...?
And for the briefest yet single-most terrifying moment Botan had ever experienced in recent memory, everything suddenly clicked. Everything abruptly made sense in her so-called life; her past life in particular, and the reason why she became a ferry-girl... a shinigami... in the first place.
She, who was once upon a time a ghost just like Keiko, also went into the misty middle fork of the Sanzu no Kawa and cleansed her sordid memories clean of all her past mistakes, of all her sins, of all her pain, and of all the stupid things she had done out of misery, fear, confusion, and loneliness, drowning it all into oblivion by means of the delectable, hallucinogenic lotus blossoms of the Elysian Fields. It wasn't her proudest moment, she knew, but she felt it had to be done at the time.
The Fruit of Knowledge that she had bitten into to keep Keiko from following her path of forgetful self-indulgence... the copout life she chose for herself after her own life had turned into shambles... had finally worked its "magic" and opened her eyes to the awful, bitter truth about her previous existence's sins.
She remembered everything. She understood what her dreams of Kenshin, Kaoru, Kihei, and the fake Battousai all meant, and she hated herself for discerning it all.
But why did she do it? Why did she go into the middle fork? Why not opt to be reunited with her ancestors in the right fork and have her soul pass on, or at the very least get reincarnated as another person... or maybe even a slug or bottom-feeding scum, if karma so chose... by staying in the riverbank? Hell, if she really felt so guilty about her past actions, then why didn't she simply swim through the bloody left fork, where she could be punished for and rinsed of her sins entirely?
She knew the answer: It was because she was a coward. She had been hurt, she had hurt other people, she had been compelled to do things... terrible things... that she felt were beyond her control, and she made mistakes, lots of mistakes that went way over her head. She simply didn't want to get hurt anymore; she wanted to run away from all that drama by drowning it into nothingness; to forget it had ever happened.
Most of all, she just wanted to keep herself from remembering her skeletons... yes, those damn skeletons... in her proverbial closet. She wanted to keep them in the back of her head; out of sight, out of mind, for all time.
A mocking yet bitter voice started to echo inside the blue-haired girl's psyche. 'Have you ever wanted to be in love? It's a lot different than actually being in love. Wanting to be in love involves shallow satisfaction with the idea behind love. That's what people like about love; the idea behind it, but not the concept itself. Why? Actually being in love leaves you exposed, vulnerable, and susceptible to the insensitive whiles of other people who may or may not care about you at all. If they do care for you, then that only means you both share in the pointless suffering that is love.'
Botan clutched her aching head in frustration. Damn that Fruit of Knowledge for opening up her memories of the past! Damn it to the River Styx's Left Fork! No amount of fire and brimstone from Level 17 Block 8 of the Corporeal Punishments Sector could ever convey how intensely she loathed and despised that damned fruit.
'People usually build up walls in order to keep themselves from suffering the ravages of emotions like love... until that one person who's just like any other person except for your prejudiced eyes enters your life and changes everything forever. Your defenses then crumble away like so many insignificant rocks and pebbles amidst an unstoppable flood because you're lured into the false promise of happiness and contentment that you thought being in love would bring.'
Botan wanted to cry, and yet she couldn't. She was so, so tired and the walls were closing in on her and she just hated everything about herself and her life right now. Even after all this time, after nearly a century of blissful ignorance, this one event was enough to push her so close to cracking that it was hard to keep the pieces together.
'Being in love is all about moronic sacrifice and selflessness to the point where you're compelled to offer a piece of your soul to another person just to appease this painful and illogical feeling. And it will be the most excruciating thing you'll ever do, because this insidious condition will rip you apart to the very core of your being until you've fully submitted yourself to the welfare and happiness of your loved one, regardless of whether or not he reciprocates your so-called love. If he loves you back, that only means you'll be doomed to the same ignoble fate.'
In order to cope with her ripped and torn sense of self, her mind worked overtime to suppress her bad memories once more, forcing them back into its dark, septic recesses before they corroded her sanity any further. She grabbed hold of her head as she let out a silent scream.
Botan winced as a fresh wave of panic engulfed her. Though she had somehow managed to wake up from her unblocked stream of horrible past memories, the Fruit of Knowledge's continuous attempts to nullify the Elysian Field's untold years of handiwork kept on scrambling her already shaky thought processes. Still, she persevered.
"Botan? Botan, it's time for us to go in," Kenshin softly interrupted the shinigami's disinclined meditation, which in turn derailed her dangerous train of thought. Then, after she was awakened from her daze, she forgot what it was she was thinking about, her sense of urgency and desperation fading into the depths of her subconscious.
The cycle of pain had run its course inside Botan's mind, and she was currently back to square one. She went from wanting to know the truth, to not being able to handle the truth, to forgetting about the truth, to wanting to know the truth once more. Then again, her inner being's fright and alarm remained, continuously warning her of the tragedy of her past life.
As Botan started to get up from her seat, her left hand tucked demurely over her kimono's bosom as her right hand grabbed hold of the chair's edge for support, she chanced upon seeing Yusuke and Keiko slowly leave Koenma's office, both sporting deadpan looks and subdued, unreadable expressions. The ferry-girl was no mind reader, so she had no idea what Koenma told the pair in regards to Keiko's present comatose state or what they felt about it afterwards.
However, if she had to hazard a guess, then she would deduce that the two childhood friends weren't too happy with the Reikai Prince's ultimate analysis of their sensitive circumstances. She'd hoped that Koenma would somehow find a way to accommodate Keiko's resurrection the same way he did with Yusuke and Genkai, but it was quite easy to forget just how lucky those two were with their own past state of affairs.
In Yusuke's case, he was lucky to have done something that the Book of Fate didn't expect him to do when he got into that car accident, and he was even luckier to have his hidden mazoku powers activate right after Sensui killed him for a second time. As for Genkai, she was blessed by the fact that Yusuke used the wish he'd earned after winning the Black Martial Arts Tournament for her eventual revival.
Apparently, Keiko was just a hapless victim of bad luck and unjust circumstances: a person who didn't have the ability to defy fate or earn reality bending wishes to undo the normally undoable. The whole situation reeked of injustice, especially considering that Keiko happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when the Shisejyu and Rando attacked. Then again, Botan herself was still a grim reaper, so she knew firsthand that regardless of whether or not it was unfair, death was the constant every mortal faced... no exceptions.
Kenshin stood up and greeted Yusuke with a wordless nod; the reawakened spirit guardian had enough prudence in him to not ask what had happened during the duo's meeting. The unretired spirit detective subsequently stared at the redhead for a few more seconds before clasping Kenshin's shoulder and smiling back encouragingly.
"Koenma wanted me to tell you that you and the Demon Sword are now under Botan's care for the time being. He's still trying to decide whether or not it's safe to put you in my other comrades' hands because of the unpredictable nature of your weapon. Also, the little brat added that if a midget demon named Hiei ever tries to take possession of the Youtou Shinnoken, you're free to do everything in your power to stop him, because the last time he took hold of a Reikai Artifact, he made a real mess of things across the Human World."
Kenshin blinked absently at Yusuke's revelation, an unsaid "Oro?" at the tip of his tongue. Instead of blurting out his trademark catchphrase, he somehow came up with an unthinking "Okay," as he wondered why Koenma would warn him about one specific youkai when he practically had the supposed Chojin and his thousands of undead minions to worry about.
He then figured out the reasoning behind the Spirit World Leader's decision; both Yusuke and Keiko presently had their hands full with other, more pressing concerns. "No problem, Yusuke-dono. I understand. Take care."
Yusuke paused for a few more seconds before making a face that even his mother would throw pitchforks and torches at, his features scrunched up like a squashed, moronic-looking grapefruit. "What's up with that serious look of yours, Kenshin? Keiko and I will be fine, don't worry! I don't give a fuck about what happened back in granny's temple! What's done is done, and we're going to move forward from this mess as soon as possible! Nothing will ever get Urameshi Yusuke down, and Keiko's going to wake up from that coma of hers no matter what it takes, jaki poisoning or no jaki poisoning! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Kenshin and Botan exchanged sheepish, sweaty glances at Yusuke's forced and awkward attempts at jovial nonchalance, while Keiko herself would have none of that condescending nonsense. As such, she unleashed a head-rattling slap that sent her guffawing boyfriend's soul to the ground as she shouted everyone else's unaired sentiment of "STOP ACTING LIKE A MORON! If you're going to try to act cool, then at least don't overdo it! Jeez!"
Noticing the confused glances of Kenshin, Botan, and half a dozen ogres who stopped in the middle of their ever-busy schedule of handling the paperwork of the recently deceased, Keiko realized that it was now her turn to perform in the "embarrassment" spotlight. "Oh, I'm sorry. Don't worry; he's okay. He's used to it, really." With a more determined grin as she gave Yusuke's limp astral body a piggyback ride, she insisted with unwavering conviction, "We'll be okay, no matter what happens."
"Shall we go back to the Human World now?" the Spirit Guide Koenma assigned to bring the pair back to Ningenkai while he talked to Botan and Kenshin... Yusuke's old acquaintance, Sayaka... asked before reprimanding, "You didn't need to hit him so hard, big sister! Roughhousing big brother like that is a big no-no. And to think, I even approved of your relationship back when he was still a ghost!"
"Er, okay. Um, have we met before?" Sayaka's overly familiar behavior around Keiko made the latter idly wonder if the residual aftereffects of the Elysian Field's lotus blossoms somehow wiped her memory of the diminutive shinigami-in-training before her. 'Big brother? Big sister? Approved relationship? What's this about?'
From there, with a flash of light and a cross-dimensional portal, Keiko and Yusuke were thusly escorted out of the Spirit World with Sayaka's help.
"Let's go, Botan. It's our turn to face the music," Kenshin announced as he tapped the ferry-girl's shoulder in order to rouse her out of her intermittent reverie. "I don't know about you, but I'm really curious about what Kaoru-dono is doing inside your head."
The distracted Botan mutely shook her head while the feeling of a forgotten memory within the depths of her mind struggled to surface and haunt her to no end. She then rapped her head with her knuckles in what she deemed as a cute manner and declared, "I'm not sure I want to know, but let's just cross that bridge before we burn it."
"Oro?"
"Good answer," came Botan's tongue-in-cheek response as she followed Kenshin inside Koenma's office. Even though she'd realized that she didn't have a lot of time left, she still felt quite hesitant about uncovering the truth behind her past. The lone piece of magical fruit inside her belly was already getting metabolized by her shinigami soul's ectoplasm, so she may soon forget who she truly was altogether. It was now or never.
"Hey."
This was the statement from which it all began. It was a simple address that summarily showed the insistence and impatience of the one who spoke it.
"What is it, rooster head?" was the other person's eloquent reply.
The taller figure coughed once, then twice. He afterwards pointed at something with a shaking finger, stating a wee bit nervously, "Why are those little people trapped in that box?"
"..." the younger one wittily rejoined. He snorted in reply in order to somehow keep up with his aloof attitude even though he himself had no idea what the weird... box-type something was.
The sheer barrage of colorful images, mesmerizing sights, and melodic sounds hypnotized the two friends for quite a bit... still, their condition at hand remained just beyond the grasp of their mental capacity. "Hey, look. Do you think that if we smash it to bits, we can kill this demon box?"
"Don't ask stupid questions, rooster head; you sound like an idiot."
"Well, do you have a better idea, Mister 'I'm a great, badass Tokyo Samurai'?"
"Yeah."
"What?"
"We'll leave it alone, and the problem will solve itself."
The sound of flesh connecting to bone was heard.
"OW! What was that for?" the adolescent wearing the hakama and blue kimono demanded.
"You're the one who's talking stupidly, moron! Let the problem solve itself... HA! It's not as if that demon box will magically turn itself off or something!"
Suddenly, the supposed "demon box" ceased its anarchic, chaotic, visual, and generally noisy acts.
The younger lad waited all of two seconds before saying, "Ha! I told you so!"
"Now wait just a goddamned..." the elder and scragglier man began.
"..." the two recently revived companions chorused as they stared at an auburn-haired woman that suddenly appeared near the demon box. They watched in silence as she extracted her finger from one of the buttons on the lower left panel of the strange device, too frozen in befuddlement and confusion to speak.
"Hey," she beckoned.
It was a simple address that summarily showed the insistence and impatience of the one who spoke it... and the woman who did so was one irritable, annoyed, and generally unhappy Shizuru Kuwabara.
She cocked what the two hapless companions identified as a sawed-off, double-barreled shotgun, which made the duo incorrectly believe that modern-day Japan had guns available in every last convenience store and supermarket. And so from where it began, so will it end.
"Well?" Shizuru prodded as she pointed the shotgun at the two strangers. "Let's cut the crap. Explain yourselves."
"Hey, Yahiko," Sanosuke whispered conspiratorially to his fellow revived companion. "We're in deep shit because of what that little brat has done to us. He got us screwed big time."
"I'm sure he has a reason for this," Yahiko replied in kind. "After all, he did get us some leads on Kenshin after all this time, which should count for something, right?"
"Less whispering and more explaining," Shizuru calmly yet earnestly growled. "You can't just barge in a house without explanation; it better be a hell of a good one, if you still want your heads to remain attached to your bodies."
'Oh great. We were just recently revived, and soon, we'll be recently deceased... again.' Yahiko groaned. 'I went out of heaven for this?'
"I got it!" Sanosuke unexpectedly exclaimed, not minding the slight flinch of Shizuru's eyes and the curl of her finger over the trigger of her weapon. "This is some sort of house-for-rent setup, isn't it? And you're the lady geisha of this fine establishment, am I right?"
Shizuru just glared at the taller man with an incredulous look on her face, though her countenance was still unflappable as she maintained her aim at the uncouth stranger's throat. "Perhaps I should be insulted with what you're trying to insinuate... Hmmm, mister?"
"Hey, easy! Easy, missy! I said geisha, not oiran, right? The oiran are the prostitutes, and the geisha are the entertainers! Big difference! Though I do prefer shamisen-playing geisha over the modern age's shotgun-wielding ones any day," Sanosuke backhandedly cooed as he took something out of his pocket.
"HEY! No sudden moves!" Shizuru shouted as she methodically shoved her shotgun over Sanosuke's nose. "Put your hands up where I can see them!"
"No worries, sister!" Sanosuke assured as he took out the money Koenma gave them. "We'll pay you!"
Yahiko merely palmed his face in aggravation. 'Sano, you idiot!'
The trio proceeded to look at the wad of money the tall, white-clad man was waving. Then there was silence which they all felt forever.
"..." Yahiko stated.
"Eh?" Shizuru detailed.
"Wah!" Sanosuke elaborated.
The three of them stared in shock, confusion, befuddlement, and a myriad of other related emotions as they beheld the legal tender that they had in their hands.
Well, it did look, for the most part, like yen notes... save for the smiling picture of a baby Koenma waving a peace sign printed on each of the bills.
One thought entered the minds of the two recently revived spirits as they gaped down the twin barrels of Shizuru's firearm.
'We're screwed.'
To be Continued...
Next: You and me against the Human World.
Doctor Kamiya: Are we related, miss? (laughs maniacally)
Kaoru Kamiya: I hope not. ;_;
The lengthy "Have you ever been in love?" paraphrase was based on a Neil "Master of Fandom" Gaiman character: Rose Walker from Sandman Issue #65. All rights reserved.
Meron pa ba akong masasabi?
Abdiel