"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."
(Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man)
Youtou Shinnoken
A Rurouni Kenshin/Yuyu Hakusho Crossover Fan Fiction Story by Chester Castañeda
Original Concept by Chad Yang
What is beyond good and evil? What lies across the darkness and the light?
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 34: The Other Side of Bloodlust (Part 2)
At the docks of Tokyo Bay, inside the boiler room of an unattended cargo ship...
Suzaku had longed for this day to come.
As the Shisejyu Leader predicted, Jine "Kurogasa" Udo (also known as Tokyo's Kanji Killer) had failed to kill Kurama, the present wielder of the Demon Sword, after insisting on having a death match against the Youkiri Battousai that resided inside the Youtou Shinnoken.
Long story short, Jine forced Kurama to fight while wielding the Demon Sword using a childhood friend of the half-youko... Maya Kitajima... as bait. Kurama took the bait but used a Demon-Sword-powered Yu Kaito to assist him. Udo forced the redhead to use the Youtou Shinnoken anyway, and the Kanji Killer lost both his hypnotic Evil Eyes as a result.
Meanwhile, Kaito ended up injured throughout the gambit and the damsel in distress, Maya, was spared from becoming a sacrificial lamb to make Kurama angry enough to awaken the Youkiri Battousai sleeping inside the Demon Sword.
And now here they were, with Suzaku hiding his presence and power level all the while in order to watch the proceedings in silence. He used the same technique to ambush Natsuki Shinkai during Kurama's first encounter with the Kanji Killer, in fact.
Kurama had defeated the dragon and had rescued the princess, all the while denying his true nature as a demon fox by insisting on minimizing his contact with the Demon Sword and never using its full potential.
This pissed off Suzaku more than anything else. What was going on in the mind of that youkai? Wasn't Kurama the demon who, once upon a time, terrorized Makai for centuries, when even Raizen was a mere Class-C demon that could be killed by spears and arrows?
Suzaku himself had, before Yusuke Urameshi killed him, lived for four centuries. He and the rest of the Four Saint Beasts were around during the time Kenshin Himura was still alive. They were alive and well during the Tokugawa and Meiji Eras. He himself saw civilizations rise and fall as well as human technology grow.
He was six centuries younger than Kurama, yet apparently he should've been the one who was a thousand-year-old youkai in light of the foolish, immature way the half-youko acted. Whatever happened to all the insight the redhead should've gotten as one of the oldest living beings in existence?
Older didn't necessarily mean wiser, it would seem. The Crimson Sparrow's stomach churned at seeing someone turn his back on ultimate power for the sake of pretending to be something he was not: A filthy human.
The Demon Sword came with the opportunity to rule as the King of Makai, and Kurama willfully threw away the chance like a piece of human garbage.
In Suzaku's mind, that made the supposed legend as worthless as one of those non-biodegradable plastics that, incidentally, also lasted for a thousand years or so before decomposing.
That was right. Suzaku just compared Kurama to the PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) component of plastic bottles used for bottled water: A waste of indestructible space that filled landfills and never biodegraded or decomposed no matter how many decades had flown by.
Immortal garbage.
'That crazy old coot has been alive for far too long. He's like a vampire, almost. His age is finally getting to him, I bet. He threw away his chance at restoring his former glory? What the hell was he thinking?'
Suzaku performed the Prism of Seven or the Ankoku-Yoro-Jin, which allowed him to split himself into seven shadow clones, each armed with their own electrical bow. 'It's about time the Youtou Shinnoken acquired a master worthy of its strength.'
Kurama was just about to transport (the unconscious) Kaito and (the conscious) Maya out of the empty ship when he felt the presence of Class-A demons whose combined powers approached Class-S might.
By reflex, he looked over Jine's direction, who was still wailing and gnashing his teeth on the floor. No, the energy signature wasn't coming from the Kanji Killer, whose Evil Eyes the half-youko plucked out of their sockets.
"Mina... I mean, Kurama? Is there something wrong? You look upset," Kitajima, Shuichi's former classmate and childhood friend, asked.
He patted his torn vest. Inside it was the shrunken head of a humanoid mandrake plant that held the Jagan of Udo, its roots acting like nerve endings that allowed the redhead control of the eyes that led him to win his rematch against the serial killer ex-cop.
Thankfully, Jine didn't somehow snatch his eyes back. This, however, raised the question, 'So where was this foreboding energy coming from?'
A bolt of energy then shot out from the higher levels of the boiler room that led to the upper deck of the boat.
It was fired by a demonic sniper with red and white loose clothes, blond hair with red tips, and a forehead circlet plus other vaguely Arabic jewelry dangling on him.
'Suzaku,' Kurama thought before ending up behind the demon and attacking with the Ryu Sou Sen. It'd seem that Jine had a fellow Shin Juppon Gatana member around to back him up in case he failed in his mission.
To the half-youko's inward chagrin, the Crimson Sparrow activated his barrier that kept the metal blade of the Demon Sword from landing a crippling blow on him.
The slightly injured and exhausted humanized demon fox barely had enough time to block the subsequent Ankoku-Raijin-Ken that blew him back to where he stood, his feet leaving a hard dent on the gun-metal floor.
From behind Kurama, the Ankoku-Raiko-Ha fried a whole patch of his kudzu weeds into charred carbon while melting part of the steel construction of the boiler room into liquid metal.
This startled Maya enough to yelp out in panic. In her point of view, the whole exchange made it appear that Kurama winked in and out of existence while something from behind them exploded into a rain of sparks.
Nevertheless, keeping in mind that they were in a metal room and Suzaku could use his powers to electrocute them from the inside (it was impossible to do so from the outside, since the Faraday cage effect would insulate them instead), Kurama summoned his kudzu and wrapped them around Maya and the injured Kaito in order to keep them away from electrical currents while also acting as insulators themselves.
"W-Wait a second! Kurama, your vines...!" began the entangled Kitajima.
"I apologize for the inconvenience, Maya. Please bear with it for a little longer," answered Kurama.
Meanwhile, Suzaku spoke. "You disgust me, Kurama. From being one of the few demons who could stand up against the Three Kings of Makai, you turned into this weakling who could barely finish Genbu and Jine off! What happened to you? Have the humans tamed you? Turned you into a whipped dog?"
As Suzaku said this, his shadow clones appeared from all corners of the room. Kurama looked up in time to see seven Suzakus aim their Lightning Storm of Torment at him, with the (probable) intention of killing him to steal the Demon Sword.
Aided by the speed of light and the fact that Kurama realized Suzaku's ambush far too late, the resulting simultaneous Shichi-Goku-Ankoku-Raiko-Ha produced enough energy to blast a hole right through the metal boiler room walls and all the way out of the ship's hull. Like lasers.
Normally, there was no way any living being could avoid getting shot at by lasers, no matter how fast they were. After all, the speed of light (in a vacuum) was exactly 299,792,458 meters per second or roughly 186,000 miles per second. It was a speed that was beyond a normal person's reaction time.
However, not only did the Demon-Sword-wielding Kurama dodge all seven simultaneous blasts, he even managed to transform (out of anger and reflex, not intent) into his youko form. Within that same time frame, he killed six of seven of the Suzakus.
The first was sliced in half with a Ryu Tsui Sen, the second was beheaded with battoujutsu, the third was struck down from behind with a Ryu Kan Sen, the fourth was wrapped up and sliced apart with the Rose Whip, the fifth was ground into meat chunks with the Fuka Enbu Jin, and the sixth was fed to a piranha plant known as the Shoku Yo Shokubutsu, which was a carnivorous tree with acidic saliva that could melt skin and bone.
These deaths happened all at the same time, which boggled Suzaku's mind. Even after a protracted duel against the powerful Kanji Killer, Kurama still had enough energy to do all this. Did the Demon Sword give the half-youko enough power to supernaturally surpass even the speed of light? Inconceivable. Such was the power of Kenshin Himura's Youtou Shinnoken.
However, while Kurama attempted to finish the seventh Suzaku off, the youkai was somehow able to pump his forward fist and unleash the Ankoku-Raijin-Ken not on the half-youko, but instead on the hanging, vine-wrapped Maya and Kaito.
Whether this circumstance came about because the Kenshin inside him held back to keep his non-killing oath in check or Suzaku really did have enough foresight to predict that his ambush would fail and come up with a backup plan, Kurama could only guess.
All the same, the youko was forced to absorb the brunt of the attack through the metal blade of the Demon Sword, which resulted in him getting electrocuted.
"MINAMINO-KUN!" came Kitajima's muffled cry while the kudzu covered her and Kaito enough to form a gigantic green cocoon.
However, the Youtou Shinnoken again saved Kurama's hide by absorbing the brunt of the attack.
Instead of getting fried with one billion volts of electricity (which contained between 10,000 to 200,000 amperes of current), the redhead instead got a shock equivalent to a 975,000-volt stun gun or cattle prod.
"If you have the arrogance to deny the great power afforded to you by the Demon Sword in favor of becoming something that you're not, then give me the sword and let me show you how it's supposed to be used," said Suzaku.
While Kurama opened his mouth, smoke and steam came out of it, his hair standing up on end due to static. "There's no way Kenshin would ever accept you as his master. You'll never be able to harness the power of the Youtou Shinnoken the way I do."
"It doesn't matter. Neither you nor Battousai deserve the Demon Sword. And people call you a legend," the surviving Suzaku rolled his eyes, gagged, clenched his fist, and shone with electric light and sparks.
"It makes me sick to my stomach to hear such lies! A demon who denies being a demon has no right to wield such a treasure made for the use of demons. You should give it to someone who deserves that power!"
Right then and there, Kurama felt the Youtou Shinnoken begin to slip from his grip. He then realized that Suzaku had magnetized the steel of the Reikai artifact, which allowed him to manipulate the sword into floating into his hands through magnetic attraction.
Even the Juryo Yozan Ken wasn't enough to keep the Demon Sword's handle within Kurama's hands, the vines altogether breaking thanks to the concentrated magnetic wave that compelled the blade to go towards Suzaku's waiting fingers.
This prompted the half-youko to come after it with his signature Rose Whip. He was just about to lasso the weapon and bind it with kudzu tendrils for added leverage when he felt something from behind him start hacking and slicing apart the cocoon where Yu and Maya resided.
It was the blind Jine, his empty eye sockets still spurting blood. Even without his sight, he located Kurama's friends and used his Nikaido Heiho Ryu to chop up the shrubbery before him into mush, his other four (or five) senses giving him an rough idea of where Kaito and Kitajima were.
Kurama had two choices. Let Yu Kaito and Maya Kitajima die to keep the Demon Sword from falling into the wrong hands, or save them and abandon his responsibilities as the current bearer of the Youtou Shinnoken.
The logical part of Kurama's shared brain with Kenshin told him that as long as he had possession of the Demon Sword, he'd always be fast enough to save the day. He, after all, faced down six of seven Suzaku with lightspeed arrows, killing them all before they could blink.
Certainly, a blind cop-turned-serial-killer could never be a match against the Demon-Sword-empowered Youko Kurama, who himself was Class-S on his own... right? Then again, was Kenshin willing to break his vow not to kill Suzaku for one last time?
The emotional part of Kurama's shared brain with Kenshin, however, reacted to Maya's screams after Jine was almost done slicing apart the kudzu cocoon. The same part of his mind that compelled him to blindly believe Ura Urashima's lies about fixing their fight in the Dark Martial Arts Tournament.
It was his "human" heart, as Suzaku would've called it (with a sneer of contempt), that made him do what he did afterwards... a move that Kenshin himself agreed with.
The silver-haired, golden-eyed demon fox transformed back into his red-haired, green-eyed self while the ex-copper reached right into the heart of the kudzu cocoon, where Maya and Yu lay like two peas in a proverbial pod.
Because of Udo's blindness and without the hypnotic Jagan, Kurama was able to do to him what he hadn't been able to do in their previous encounters; tear him apart limb from limb with the Rose Whip.
However, the sightless swordsman had enough battle sense left in him to stab at Kurama's jacket with his wakizashi and extract the shrunken mandrake head from his enemy while also injuring him at the same time.
This small victory of Jine's didn't come without a price, of course... and it was worth more than an arm and a leg. As the Kanji Killer backed away from the bleeding Kurama, his body parts started falling off.
One by one, his fingers, his arms, and parts of his torso dropped or peeled off of him while his legs came under him. In a span of a second, he turned into a grisly display of gore: Like a morbid meat gallery from a grocery run by the Manson Family. Or by human cannibals.
All that remained of him was a scourged torso, one whole arm, part of his bicep, two stumps for legs, and a short sword with a shrunken mandragora head containing his plucked eyes. All the same, he had enough strength left in him to crawl into the hole produced by Suzaku's Prism of Seven Lightning Storm of Torment.
A while later, a splash was heard. Udo had crept all the way out of the boiler room and into the open sea where various cargo ships were docked at Tokyo Bay.
The Kanji Killer had managed to escape death once again.
Kurama winced and braced himself while he turned. He had bigger problems to face than the Kanji Killer getting away with his Jagan as loot.
Meanwhile, an apologetic Maya went right beside the teenager, who helped him up as his blood stained her clothes. "I'm sorry for getting in your way."
"It's not your fault. It couldn't be helped," reassured Kurama, his green eyes flashing gold at the spectacle before him: A chortling and delirious Suzaku holding up the magic sword and saying, "HAHAHA! I'VE WON, KURAMA! I HAVE THE POWER!" as electricity and energy surged right into the blade itself, making it glow white with a pulsing light as bright as daylight.
"Can you hear me, Jine? How it must frustrate you to 'see' me achieve something you could never get. I'm the one who'll enslave and conquer Battousai by becoming the Youtou Shinnoken's new guardian!" Suzaku cackled, mocking the failed attempts of his fellow New Ten Swords member.
In an instant, Kurama bound his stab wound with the same healing herbs he used on the injured Kaito (yarrow, agrimony, Saint John's wort, aloe vera, and gel from the houseleek plant), the vine from his Binding Fist of the Demonic Vine serving as his bandages.
He proceeded to summon all the kudzu inside the boiler room and made them compress into three separate pods containing himself, Maya, and Yu.
The Japanese arrowroot then turned into a moving jungle of tangled creepers that tore apart the roof of the boiler room and moved the three out of the cargo ship.
While grabbing hold of Kaito and Kitajima using the thick kudzu vines as his puppet strings, Minamino transformed the trailing, coiling, and climbing noxious weed into the biggest Fuyoka no Makai Shokubutsu (otherwise known as the Floating Leaf) he'd ever made.
It was even bigger than the butterfly-like plant wings he made when he, Hiei, and Kuwabara fought Shinobu Sensui in the Demon World.
With all his friends in tow, Kurama escaped from Tokyo Bay's docks before the night sky darkened more than usual, became overcast, then produced consecutive lighting strikes that blasted through the roof of the boat they were on and into the boiler room of the cargo ship where Suzaku replenished his power.
Never mind lightning striking twice at the same place. At that moment, lightning bolts struck and converged into that one point repeatedly, blasting away at the watercraft and turning it into a flaming, exploding shipwreck in mere seconds.
Bolt after bolt of electrical energy crashed into the Youtou Shinnoken's naked edge with repetitious regularity reminiscent of the ebb and flow of ocean waves.
It was a beautiful sight, like the arching branches of an ancient, gigantic tree made of light. Awe-inspiring. Terrifying. Like Zeus or Jupiter descending from Mount Olympus unto mortal grounds, Suzaku had become a myth turned real. A true legend that put Kurama's or Kenshin's own so-called legends to shame.
The Class-A Phoenix of the New Ten Swords had been reborn yet again, this time as the newest Class-S being of their group.
While Kurama floated in midair with his companions, the fully recharged wielder and master of the Demon Sword blasted off into the horizon, arriving at his intended destination in around eleven minutes.
The worst-case scenario had finally happened: The Youtou Shinnoken ended up in the hands of the least likeliest person among Koenma's spirit detectives to screw up.
The Spirit World went on red alert. It was one thing to have friendly Class-S half-demons lounging around in the Human World with no intention of abusing their powers, but getting S-Level youkai... hostile ones, at that... ready to attack and conquer Earth (or at least Japan) was a whole different ballgame altogether.
The Reikai Tokubetsu Bouetai (Spirit World Special Forces) were on standby, but to be honest, what good were they against a Class-S creature? Then again, a couple of Class-Bs and Class-As were headed straight towards the heart of Tokyo at the moment, right at Shiba Park in the Minato Ward.
Everyone from the Reikai Army composed of Kenshin's past allies and Yusuke's present comrades had been informed of the breaking news. Kurama was ambushed and the Demon Sword was now in hands of one of the Chojin's own soldiers, Suzaku of the Shin Juppon Gatana.
From Tokyo Bay, the super-powered, super-charged, and S-Level Shisejyu traveled to the spire of Tokyo Tower while using his youki to fly like a rocket of sorts, the Youtou Shinnoken's shining blade propelling him to the heavens with a continuous flow of electrical energy.
Meanwhile, it took at least half an hour for Kurama to mobilize the rest of Reikai's finest while also taking care to bring Kaito into the emergency room of the hospital nearest Tokyo Bay. Furthermore, Maya herself took a taxicab back home.
During those thirty minutes, reports of a power outage and a sudden thunderstorm that no weatherman had expected in Shibakoen spread across Minato.
Putting two and two together, the ferry-girls of Reikai contacted the people closest the site about the situation in order to have them mobilize and stop the Class-S Shin Ju from running amok Tokyo.
Tokyo Tower, incidentally, was the highest manmade structure in Tokyo overlooking Mount Fuji in 1993 (in 2012, it was replaced by the Tokyo Skytree).
By traveling there and using the communications and observation tower as his lightning rod, Suzaku made it possible to summon more lightning and thunderstorms towards him to increase his already significant S-Class strength exponentially.
The structure also allowed him to test out the power-boosting limits of the Demon Sword (if it even had limits).
With their Spirit Detectors that they got from Botan in tow, Kazuma Kuwabara, Yahiko Myojin, and Sanosuke "Zanza" Sagara were the first ones on the scene, with the ferry-girl briefing them on the latest developments concerning Suzaku's assault.
A Spirit Detector was a watch-like device that measured the power level and location of powerful beings both demon and human, dead or alive, via a digital display. The grades for this device ranged from D-Level to S-Level. Since it could detect location, it also doubled as radar.
It was the same gadget Yusuke used during his early spirit detective missions, when he was still a "rookie" Reikai Tantei. However, this time around, the Spirit World had gathered enough information to measure Class-S beings instead of merely ranking these S-Level entities as out of measuring range (Class-X was now the new out-of-range grade).
It also helped that Kuwabara served as the wielder of the Jigen Tou or Dimensional Sword, which meant he could create portals that shortened the distance of their destination and kept them away from the difficulties of an early-morning commute (since the last train had already left the station).
They were now at Foot Town, which was a four-story building located at the base of the tower. The power was out all over Shibakoen, and the only light they had on hand was through the ethereal glow of the moon.
Not that the blackout made a difference. Tokyo Tower's closing time was at 9:00 PM, and it was already the early hours of the morning before sunrise. Everything from the elevators to the Aquarium Gallery had already closed down, and the quartet of Botan, Kuwabara, Yahiko, and Sanosuke were careful not to alert any security guards of their presence.
"So you're telling us that Suzaku was the one who somehow won the Demon Sword lottery? He's the first demon in the Chojin's Army to actually get his hands on the damn thing?" asked Kuwabara, slightly out-of-breath from the exertion of using his special technique consecutively.
Botan nodded while floating on her oar. "It's a bad idea to engage Suzaku directly. He's S-Level now, and you guys are only at around B to A in power. You definitely won't be able to overpower him. The plan here is to somehow steal the Demon Sword back then engage Suzaku after he's been de-powered. Got it?"
Sanosuke hit his palm with his fist. "I don't think I was even able to fight this Suzaku joker yet, Boke. I fought someone different during that skirmish we had against the Shin Ju in Aokigahara. You know, that guy with long, green hair that can make portals like you."
"Remember that Chinese dude with his army of same-faced bodyguards, Sano? Is this Suzaku anything like the Chinese Suzaku that Aoshi fought when we were still alive?" asked Yahiko while Sanosuke shook his head.
"If he were that weak, then we wouldn't have a problem. What's the difference between S-Level and A-Level or B-Level anyway, Jo-chan?" asked Sagara, which made Kazuma freeze.
While Botan protested to Sanosuke, "I'm not 'Jo-chan'! That's Kaoru's nickname, not mine!" Kuwabara remembered when he, Hiei, and Kurama fought the S-Class Sensui.
They were absolutely outclassed and outmatched in every way, shape, and form. No amount of tactics or special powers even fazed the experienced former Reikai Tantei.
Even the brash Jaganshi Hiei and his usually overpowered Kokuryuha appeared absolutely terrified of the powered-up Dark Angel and his Sei Kou Ki.
Granted, there were times when weaker beings could luck out and take out a stronger entity, like Rando or Kido outsmarting Yusuke during their fight. However, if the more powerful being they faced was himself a master tactician like Kurama, they were practically screwed on both ends.
Before Botan could answer Sano's question, someone else already replied for her. "You want to know the difference between you and me, human? Let me show you the difference," said an impish Suzaku while saluting at the four with the glowing blade of the Youtou Shinnoken.
A minute later, an entire double-decker bus broke through the rolling shutters of the building, floating in midair through Suzaku's magnetic field, and was thrown right at them wholesale along with the gates it just crashed into.
Suzaku and his Reikai opponents ended up out on the streets of Shiba Park... specifically along Sakurada Dori... near the Akabanebashi Station, the Zoujouji Temple, and the Tokyo Prince Hotel.
Thanks to Kuwabara and Sano's traumatizing experiences while trapped inside the pocket dimension of "Gatekeeper" Itsuki, Sensui's former right-hand man (they also had to destroy multiple floating objects hurled at them at the time), they survived the onslaught of flying cars, trucks, billboards, rebar, and anything else large and metallic thrown at them.
Kuwabara traveled from portal to portal, Sanosuke sliced entire double-deckers up after summoning his horse-chopping blade known as the zanbatou, and Yahiko might as well have been nicknamed the "Artful Dodger" with all the artful dodging, twisting, and turning he did to avoid being crushed, mauled, or otherwise broken by flying steel debris.
After Botan flew up and away from the wreckage and devastation while Sano and Yahiko ran interference so that Suzaku wouldn't end up using her as bait the same way Jine did with Kurama's childhood friend, Kazuma had one request for her.
"Get help. Quickly. We need all the help we can get."
"Kuwabara-kun, what about you and...?" sputtered Botan.
"Don't worry, Jo-chan. We can handle this electric eel. We'll fry him and have unagi for lunch," reassured Sano, who charged closer and closer towards Suzaku while swatting away or slicing apart anything that the Shisejyu threw at him, which was everything and the kitchen sink.
"What are you waiting for, Raccoon Girl? GO!" said Yahiko after he evaded a Harley-Davidson motorcycle whizzing past him at 200 miles per hour while upside down.
"Don't any of you dare die, or else I'll kill you!" shouted Botan before leaving for Kamikitazawa.
She heard from her fellow ferry-girl, Sayuri (also known as Uchiko Shikoku) that it was the place where Daiji Matsudaira (Aoshi Shinomori's reincarnation) and Natsuki Shinkai (Yutaro Tsukayama's reincarnation) were currently at for whatever reason.
They were staying at some sort of mental hospital, according to Uchiko's reports. Botan had no idea why, nor did she have time to wax poetic on the implications of such questionable info.
Suzaku shot an Ankoku-Raiko-Ha at Botan, only for it to be intercepted with a timely energy-cutting slash by Kuwabara's Jigen Tou, the arching waves of energy branching out like the illuminated cracks from a broken eggshell or pieces of glass.
The demon frowned. 'It's that annoying Dimension Sword again. I have to do something about it.' At the corner of his eye, he espied humans fleeing from the scene. He then remembered Kenshin's unwillingness to kill even during battle. Even in the face of a ruthless demon out to murder him.
What a disgusting, self-righteous hypocrite. Suzaku hated the type. As far as he was concerned, those who claim they were evil were usually no worse than others. It was the people who claimed they were good and were better than others that people should be wary of.
'I'll show him.'
In the blink of an eye, he turned all of the civilians into human-shaped stains on the ground with the Lightning Storm of Torment. The Crimson Sparrow cackled and mocked the sleeping Himura inside the Youtou Shinnoken.
"What use is all your morals now that I have control of your sword, Battousai? The Demon Sword has finally tasted blood... the blood of innocents, at that... and there's nothing you can do about it."
"Murderer! Thief! Monster! Don't you dare taint Kenshin's sword with your filth! Give that sword back to us!" Yahiko shouted then dodged his way into striking distance. If he had to fight toe-to-toe with the electrical demon, he would.
"Give it back?" Suzaku smirked. "That would imply the Spirit World owns this weapon, which is not the case at all. The sword belongs to anyone who holds it, and it has been that way since time immemorial, even before Battousai was turned into this blade's guardian. It's mine, and I'd love to see you take it away from me."
'Oh shit, I forgot to tell him...!' Kuwabara realized before he teleported two magnetized trucks with no drivers in them towards each other so that they'd crash into one another. "SAMURAI KID! It's a bad idea to fight Suzaku with that metal blade of yours!"
"NOW YOU TELL ME!" screamed Yahiko after his strike stopped in mid-swing right in front of Suzaku's chuckling face.
The boyish-looking spirit found out too late that no matter how hard he struck the youkai, his steel blade (and metal sheath) would not land on the demon thanks to the magnetic field that served as his impenetrable spherical shield to such straightforward physical attacks.
By the time Suzaku batted the Tokyo Samurai Descendant right into a glass display of a nearby store within a gasoline station (Yahiko wouldn't let go of the sakabatou, so he got dragged all the way there), he had to avoid the incoming concrete post thrown at him by Sanosuke by levitating upward.
Yes, his increased control of the magnetic field had granted him the powers of flight that defied the earth's gravitation pull.
"If metal things can't harm Cockroach Bangs because he's some sort of super magnet, then the zanbatou is out of the question too, isn't it, Boke?" said Sanosuke and Kuwabara could only nod in response.
Meanwhile, Yahiko got up from the wreckage of the store he crashed into, the aisles filled with groceries cushioning his fall. 'Dammit, how am I going to fight him with a metal sword? I might as well not be here at all!'
Golden electrical energy soon covered the Youtou Shinnoken's blade while Suzaku held the weapon horizontally and turned it into a pseudo-crossbow made of lightning that shot thunderbolts at people.
"You think you weaklings actually stand a chance against me? Learn your place. You're like candlelight compared to the sun, which has heat that can reach all the way to the Human World and light that could blind when stared at directly even though it's millions of miles away from Earth! There's no comparison."
"Yeah, yeah. 'I am rubber, you are glue,' and all that crap. Get on with it, you electric bug!" said Sano.
Suzaku harrumphed. "Very well. Witness what your folly has wrought. Come at me. I will end you."
The difference between their power levels soon became apparent once Suzaku shot his arrow-like Ankoku-Raiko-Ha through the Demon Sword instead of how he normally shot them, which was through his fingers.
Kuwabara attempted to slice through the blasts and turn them into harmless heat and light, but before his arm could swing down, he was already hit by billions of volts of electricity.
'Wha...! He's shooting them faster than before!'
'Those lightning strikes are moving too fast! I can't read or react to them at all!'
'Goddamn you, Cockroach Bangs!'
Kuwabara, Yahiko, and Sanosuke served as sitting ducks to Suzaku's Lightning Storm of Torment, with every blast homing in on them at more than 180,000 miles per second before they could even react. Even those that missed doled out damage in the form of electricity that traveled from the ground to the soles of their feet.
Normally, the trick to avoiding laser beams and lightning bolts that traveled at the speed of light was to watch out for the one pulling the trigger, because he wasn't traveling at lightspeed even though his projectiles were.
However, the problem with Suzaku was first, he could levitate now, and second, he was raining death from above at speeds worthy of Hiei or even Soujiro Seta, his trigger finger moving faster than the speed of a bullet while his projectiles traveled at what the Laws of Physics claimed was the fastest speed in the known universe.
They all fell from Suzaku's might... all except one, who kept standing and walking with unstoppable resolve towards the Shisejyu even while his burns and damage piled up: Sanosuke Sagara.
He wasn't even bothering to dodge that blasts at all, the strikes absorbed either by his body or by the occasional swats from his humongous blade.
"Rooster Head, you idiot! You're using your face as a shield again! Learn some fucking defense!" berated Kuwabara while managing to slice apart the beams not aimed at him but instead at Sano with the Jigen Tou.
"Shut up, Boke!" said Sagara. "This is how I fight! Offense is the best defense! It's been a hundred years, do you really think I'm going to learn how to dodge all of a sudden?"
"Yes, it's a pity. An old dog can never learn new tricks," Suzaku chitchatted before he crushed the approaching Sanosuke with a steamroller that he controlled with a wave of his hand and the telekinetic flow of the magnetic field that surrounded him. "Don't you wish you've learned how to dodge a hundred years ago?"
"Nah."
In a few seconds, Sano made short work of the vehicle with copious use of the Futae no Kiwami, Sanjo no Kiwami, and his version of the Tou Ate (the Zanbatou Ate) or the ground-based version of the Dual Extreme that made use of a weapon to bring forth a landslide or sorts, turning the construction vehicle into scrap heap.
'Just wait a little longer, Kenshin. I'm coming for you, buddy,' Sanosuke thought while he kept his eye on the prize, which was the Demon Sword.
Sano gave Suzaku a look that made the latter sneer: A look that said, 'Is this the best you could do?'
The demon glowed with energy and screamed, shooting all his lightning strikes over and over at Sanosuke until he realized too late that they'd become predictable and aimed at the one target that wouldn't go down.
"Well, call me a monkey's uncle. Sano did it. He has turned himself into a lightning rod for Suzaku's energy beams and hatred," Yahiko murmured with a smirking shake of his head.
"Oh yeah? None of us have landed a significant blow against Suzaku yet. It's too early to celebrate, Samurai Boy," reminded Kazuma.
"Then let's do something about it," the Son of Tokyo Samurai swore with shining eyes and eagerness bordering on bloodlust.
Suzaku then harrumphed because his Ankoku-Raiko-Ha aimed at "Zanza" became moot after Kuwabara used his Dimension Sword to slice the space in front of the demon apart in advance, before the projectiles were fired off, thus creating a rend in space-time that even lightning bolts couldn't pass through.
"You've impressed me quite a lot, human. In fact, you've impressed me enough to remember your name. It's Kuwabara, isn't it? Come to think of it, you were the one who kept me from gaining Class-S powers during the last time we met, weren't you?" said the demon.
Kuwabara shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about, Blondie."
"Oh, I think that you do." The Shisejyu's skin crackled with sparks and static. "You teleported me away just as I was about to get hold of the Demon Sword in Aokigahara. This is the perfect opportunity for me to get payback, don't you think?"
Suzaku then had to land back on the ground after Sagara tossed the wrecked remains of the steamroller at him with one hand, the demon blasting the vehicle into molten metal and plastics with a Lightning Storm of Torment.
The intensity of the recoil sent Suzaku back to the ground, his feet creating a crater from below him.
Just as Suzaku attempted to fire off another one of his near-lightspeed arrows, Myojin did a combination of the Dou Gami (a crater-making bomb blast of a technique), a Dou Ryu Sen aimed at Suzaku (the Dou Gami made it easier for him to do Kenshin's signature avalanche blast), and the Ten Gami (an extra-powerful Dou Gami that allowed him to fly into the sky) in three strokes.
In particular, the Earth Dragon Flash that Yahiko mimicked from Himura himself enabled the samurai ghost to fight Suzaku without worrying about his attack being deflected back at him due to magnetic shenanigans.
Presently, Suzaku had three attacks to watch out for. The earthy inundation headed towards him, the flying samurai with righteous indignation, and the charging street fighter with a twelve-foot blade that could turn survive lightning strikes and a car crash.
The Crimson Sparrow stopped the incoming waves of earth with a tempest of his own made from microscopic metal particles from the streets, buildings, vehicles, and everywhere else in the dense urban jungle of Shibakoen, Minato.
Following Kuwabara's advice for once (although his survival instincts were at play as well), Sano ducked underneath the black cloud of flesh-rending magnetized metal debris while he cocked back his zanbatou for a full-swing blow powerful enough to cut entire trees down with one chop.
Meanwhile, Kazuma shortened Yahiko's flight by creating a portal that the teenaged-looking ghost passed through, which had him end up in another portal right above Suzaku.
Both Myojin and Sagara were going to hit the demon at the same time, with the samurai hitting high and the street fighter hitting low.
'Aren't these idiots forgetting something?' thought Suzaku, laughing to himself. His invisible magnetic shield then pulsed with energy.
"I knew you were going to do that!" declared Kuwabara before he cut the magnetic barrier with his Jigen Tou, thus nullifying Suzaku's control over magnetism. "NOW! ROOSTER HEAD! SAMURAI BOY!"
Suzaku's eyes bugged out. He screamed, "KUWABARA...!"
"TSUI GAMI!"
"ZANKUU ZANBATOU ATE!"
Both attacks hit the defenseless demon full force.
The God Hammer was essentially Yahiko's version of the Dual Extreme, particularly the Sanjo no Kiwami, because it was able to hit at the same point three times in succession with a sword instead of a fist.
Meanwhile, Sanosuke's aerial version of the Zanbatou Ate, like Raijuta's Tobi Izuna, made use of a far-reaching vacuum slice.
Suzaku's jaw unhinged itself, his face paling and his irises rolling all the way at the back of his head, with only his eye whites visible.
"Did we get him, Sano?" asked Yahiko.
"I hope we pureed his insides!" answered Sanosuke.
Both blades proved too blunt to slice anything, but they traveled fast enough for chopping, and if Suzaku weren't a demon, he would've been cut into quarters by them.
However, his grip on the Demon Sword never faltered despite the devastating attacks.
"Sano! Yahiko! LOOK OUT!" screamed Kazuma too late.
The continuous thunder strikes from before, when Suzaku first held the Demon Sword, came about again, electrocuting both Sagara and Myojin with billions of volts of electricity that would've killed or even vaporized (sublimated) lesser men.
Suzaku then stabbed the Youtou Shinnoken into the ground and blasted it with an Ankoku-Raijin-Ken that resulted in an electromagnetic shockwave that juggled the two Meiji Era warriors in the air through exploding pillars of light from underneath them that appeared one after another like energy geysers.
Such was the terrible might of a Class-S demon.
Kuwabara clenched his teeth so hard, his gums bled. "SUZAKU! Get over here, you son of a bitch!"
"Your little gambit has failed." The Crimson Sparrow turned his head towards the sprinting human and smiled. "Come forth, Kuwabara, so that I may end you too."
"You had to make a stopover where? What's the matter with you guys?" demanded the flying Botan while she detoured from Shibakoen to Uedo instead of Kamikitazawa.
"This is an emergency situation! These are A-to-B-Levels fighting an S-Level!" the ferry-girl admonished. "It's like several children fighting a full-grown adult! Kuwabara mastered using his Jigen Tou only recently, plus Sano and Yahiko were revived just weeks ago! I don't want them to die just like that because you people were playing around!"
"We aren't playing around! Jeez, don't get your underwear in a bunch!" Uchiko "Sayuri" Shikoku berated.
"W-What did you say to me?" Botan felt the water in her eyes sizzle.
She was using her Spirit Compact to communicate with her fellow shinigami, Uchiko, via mobile Spirit World technology so advanced that, in 1993, it was only available to the wealthiest of people in the Human World.
It wasn't until well past the Turn of the Millennium (around the time cellular phone technology had become advanced enough to give birth to the "smartphone"), that such advancements would become commonplace in Japan and elsewhere in the world. Prior to that, the idea had been fantasized about and referenced in popular fiction.
Furthermore, primitive versions of "videoconferencing" were already around in 1993, such as the CU-SeeMe (early videoconferencing software developed for the Macintosh in 1992 that was video-only until sound was added in 1994 and 1995, around the time it was transferred for use in the Windows platform).
In fact, the concept of videoconferencing was first demonstrated through "The Mother of All Demos", which was a demonstration way back in December 9, 1968 involving computer technologies that would eventually become commonplace consumer items. Specifically, the NLS computer technology of the Stanford Research Institute was used to make the videoconferencing demo possible.
"Look, I'm really sowie, Botan-chan! But as soon as they heard that it was Suzaku who got the Demon Sword, the Ikemen (Hot Guy), I mean, Detective Matsudaira insisted that we go back to the mansion to get some stuff they needed to prepare for battle," a "contrite" Sayuri apologized.
"...Prepare? How are they going to prepare? What do you mean?" asked Botan.
"Oh wait, Tsuki-chan wants to talk to you!" said Uchiko.
"Eh? Why...?" Botan stuttered.
"...I'm so sorry, Sensei! We went back to Likka-tan's house to get a ceramic cane!" Natsuki Shinkai told the ferry-girl. By "Sensei", she was actually referring to the Kaoru personality inside the shinigami instead of the shinigami herself.
Botan blinked and tilted her head to the side. "Ceramic cane? Whatever for? And isn't ceramic... easy to break or something? Like a ceramic vase?"
The ferry-girl then heard a monotone voice in the background explain, "We're talking about a different ceramic. This is a hard and tough type of ceramic that can double as steel without its magnetic properties. To be more specific, it's zirconium dioxide. It's even harder than steel."
Botan nodded in animated understanding. "Oh, right! Good thinking, Shinomori Aoshi! Way to go! As expected of a ninja turned detective! Suzaku can magnetize blades, so of course having nonmagnetic ceramic weapons is the smart thing to do! I'm sorry I ever doubted you guys!"
"I also needed a sample of a ceramic knife and cane so that I could synthesize my blades with the material," continued Daiji, Aoshi's reincarnation. "The last thing we need is Suzaku using our own weapons against us."
"Botan-san, where are you?" a fourth, rather exhausted voice asked.
"Hinageshi? What are you doing there? Shouldn't there just be Uchiko, Natsuki, and Daiji floating around?" Botan asked a question that apparently no one had time to answer.
"It's a... long story, Botan-chan," insisted Sayuri after the Spirit Compact was passed back to her.
Botan rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. Anyway, I'm already nearing Uedo. Where should we rendezvous?"
"How about above Uedo Park?" suggested a voice that Botan didn't recognize but somehow sounded familiar.
"...I'm already here. Where are you?"
"We just got here too. Just stay right where you are so that we could find you without missing you, okay?" said Shikoku.
Botan confirmed, "Fine."
A minute or two later, and the two parties met up. Also, as soon as Botan saw them float in front of her, she figured out why there were more of them than she initially expected.
Right behind Uchiko Shikoku and her floating boat battle rode Detective Daiji Matsudaira. Meanwhile, Natsuki flew with the redheaded, priestess-garbed Hinageshi.
However, there was a fifth person in the party that Botan didn't take into account at all: It was the one who suggested that they all meet up together above Uedo Park.
The girl in purple with long, braided hair rode with Hinagashi as well, which explained why the ferry-girl "underclassman" sounded so tired; she had to lug around more than Uchiko did.
"Long time, no see, Kaoru-san," greeted Misao Makimachi, or at least the spirit and image of her.
"W-What's going on here?" the Kaoru Kamiya inside Botan (and not Botan herself) stuttered. "What is Misao-chan doing here?"
Kuwabara lasted longer than Suzaku expected. However, with all things being fair and equal, an A-Level alone could never take down an S-Level.
Nevertheless, the human gifted with the once-in-a-lifetime ability gave the powered-up Shisejyu leader hell.
None of the Lightning Storm of Torment projectiles reached Kazuma this time around for a multitude of reasons.
One, his twitch reflexes had increased, such that even if Suzaku so much as blinked, he'd be on guard. He also kept his distance and found great cover for the laser beam lightning bolts.
Most importantly, he had begun to abuse the rips in space-time that the Dimension Sword afforded him, the multitude of portals serving as his net, shield, or escape routes against the onslaught of lightspeed bullets from the Crimson Sparrow's Demon Sword lightning crossbow.
Kuwabara played the hit-and-run game and soon, Suzaku acquired cuts and slashes all over his body while the human remained none the worse for wear, scourging him at will.
Kazuma then (literally) cut the distance between him and Suzaku while the previously unconscious Sanosuke and Yahiko regained their wits from the devastating electromagnetic pulse that the Shisejyu delivered against them.
Speaking of which, Suzaku attempted to do another magnetic shockwave, with him stabbing the Youtou Shinnoken on the ground in order to create a second devastating wave at Kuwabara. To the demon's vexation, one slash of the Jigen Tou was all it took to cancel the move out.
"I got you now, you unagi bastard!" said Kazuma at the moment when he was about to cleave Suzaku in twain. However, the youkai had other ideas; specifically, he wanted to try out something he'd been considering to do ever since his defeat in the hands of Yusuke.
"BOKE!" both the freshly awoken Sagara and Myojin chorused after they saw the slack-jawed Kuwabara's Dimension Sword... a glowing blade made entirely of spirit energy... flicker and die.
Suzaku absorbed the power from the weapon into his body, converting the reiki into dengeki or electricity. "Suffer for your arrogance."
The electromagnetic pulse that the Shisejyu leader released in the form of the Ankoku-Raijin-Ken appeared different than usual. Powered by the Jigen Tou's own golden light, the Storm of Torment Fist emitted electromagnetic radiation that couldn't be seen by the naked eye but manifested itself to everyone else in more ways than one.
"Did you know that my electrical powers can be used to emit microwaves too? Yes, just like your little ovens you use to heat water and hot pockets. You're being cooked from the inside out by electromagnetic radiation, human."
In this particular instance, the microwaves emitted by the Crimson Sparrow's thunderous punch and superheated plasma flowing around him manifested its presence by the red steam that poured forth the pores of Kuwabara.
The microwaves from the Ankoku-Raijin-Ken had literally made Kazuma's blood boil and produce a red mist all over his body.
Sanosuke shivered in remembrance. He'd only seen a human exude that crimson haze once before, when he was alive. It was during Kenshin's fight against Makoto Shishio, when the latter was exceeding his natural limits.
Shishio was so badly burned that he couldn't sweat anymore. When he fought beyond an allotted time, the heat in his body rose so high that it literally made his blood boil and then turn into vapor. Red vapor.
"Holy shit, Sano. What's happening to Kuwabara?" said a still groggy Yahiko, who rubbed his eyes in disbelief and shook his shell-shocked companion awake.
The youngish-looking old spirit then took a gander at his Spirit Detector. From S-Minus, the Saint Beast raised his power level up a notch, to S-Flat. 'We really have to get that sword away from Cockroach Bangs somehow pronto,' thought Myojin.
Kuwabara screamed what could be considered a death rattle after Suzaku finally exacted his revenge on him, just as he'd promised. A lesser man that wasn't at least B-Class would've melted like candle wax right then and there.
Suzaku only stopped his attack after Sano threw a Volkswagen at him, which prompted him to throw the steaming-red Kuwabara away like a rag doll and convert his stolen energy into a magnetic bubble that allowed him to fling the car back at his attacker.
The street fighter easily wrecked the vehicle with one swing of his zanbatou.
"STOP USING THE DEMON SWORD FOR EVIL!" screamed Yahiko, who smashed the concrete beneath him with the God on Earth and did a golf-swing strike with the sakabatou that blasted the broken ground and asphalt shards straight into Suzaku's face.
The youkai again neutralized the attack by extracting iron particles from his surroundings and using the sandstorm of magnetized metal to stop the incoming waves of earth.
However, while Suzaku prepared to levitate above Sano and Yahiko in order to bring death from above in the form of Youtou-Shinnoken-assisted lightning blasts, a different deluge surrounded him all of a sudden: A flood of green, to be more specific.
'What is this?' thought the Shisejyu while verdant ropey clumps formed and crept around him, binding him and preventing his flight. He then remembered who it was that escaped earlier when he first gained possession of the sacred Reikai artifact. 'Oh right. Him.'
For whatever reason... perhaps he was still out of sorts or he might've suffered a concussion after going through the shockwave version of Suzaku's Storm of Torment Fist... Sano blurted out, "Hey, look! It's Kuwabara's redheaded girlfriend!"
Shuichi "Kurama" Minamino was too busy controlling the endless torrent of kudzu vines... a noxious weed that people typically saw in ghost towns and abandoned cities that Mother Nature had "reclaimed" for herself... in order to "drown" Suzaku in vegetation to pay Sanosuke's faux pas any mind.
Therefore, Yahiko hit Sanosuke with a God Hammer to the head on Minamino's behalf. "You bonehead! He just saved our bacon! Show some gratitude!"
Unnoticed earlier, Kurama had landed in the middle of Minato's Sakurada Dori with his Floating Leaf hang glider made entirely of kudzu. He then snuck up and started his assault when Suzaku least expected him.
"...So you want to fix your mistake and reclaim what's rightfully mine, Kurama?" asked Suzaku in between shots of the Ankoku-Raijin-Ken that fried most of the plants before him.
However, the Shisejyu couldn't quite keep up with the leafy vines' continuous, hydra-like growth. Whatever he destroyed grew back immediately, as if nothing happened.
"That's right. That sword doesn't belong to you," said Shuichi.
"Oh, yes it does. And spare me the spiel. I've heard it all before. Besides, someone who outright rejected using the full power of the Demon Sword for the sake of indulging his little fantasy of being a real human boy has no right to lecture me."
"..."
While Sano checked on the red-hot and steaming Kuwabara to see if he was all right, Yahiko stared in amazement because Kurama managed to do something the three of them couldn't do at all; back the S-Level Suzaku to a corner and keep him from advancing, the kudzu binding his movements.
"Kurama looks pissed," observed Sagara before returning to slapping the unconscious Kuwabara awake. Meanwhile, Myojin sweated in vexation at Sano's antics.
"That's a good thing, right? Boke told us to never make that redhead angry under any circumstances unless you can take his wrath," said Yahiko.
"Yeah. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, right?" supposed Sanosuke.
"...Do you want Kurama to suffocate you in vines next?" came Myojin's remark after he smashed is reversed-edged sword at Sano's head again.
"What are you going to do now?" asked Kurama calmly after Suzaku fried even more of the climbing weed with his Ankoku-Raijin-Ken and Ankoku-Raiko-Ha to escape from getting tangled. "I'm not using youki or reiki attacks because you can now absorb energy. Your one advantage is now gone."
In response, the demon harrumphed. "My one advantage? You don't know what you're talking about. You're sadly mistaken." However, Suzaku remained on the defensive, fighting against one of the few (tactical) A-Level beings that could give even S-Levels a run for their money.
Using magnetic currents and electrical bolts as his rope, the Saint Beast proceeded to climb the Tokyo Tower anew, as though he was a weird cross between the superhero Spider-Man and the supervillain Magneto. He could even cling to metal walls like Peter Parker could.
Kurama went in hot pursuit of his fellow youkai, using the ever-growing vines he'd brought along with him to climb up right after Suzaku. Soon, as though they were stuck in a post-apocalyptic Minato Ward that had suffered a nuclear strike, the structure designed to mimic the Eiffel Tower was covered in vegetation.
It didn't help that part of the tower had been damaged, melted, and otherwise blown up thanks to the constant blasts of Storm of Torment Fists and Lightning Storms of Torment from Suzaku.
This was the sight that greeted the half-conscious, "microwaved" Kazuma after recovering from the severe injuries he'd taken from Suzaku's Ankoku-Raijin-Ken
"Holy shit. HOW LONG HAVE I BEEN ASLEEP?"
This time around, both Sano and Yahiko conked Kuwabara upside the head despite the fact that the teenager had been recently injured.
"So let me get this straight. Your best friend in Japan all this time has been Misao-chan all along? And she's been living with Aoshi in his apartment as well?" announced the Kaoru "personality" of Botan a little too loudly for comfort (as far as Daiji Matsudaira and Likka Ikumi were concerned).
"IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK, KAORU-SAN!" Likka protested to Kaoru on behalf of herself and Daiji, who himself had the faintest tinge of red on his cheeks.
Natsuki cleared her throat and answered the question of Botan/Kaoru. "Y-Yes. But I had no idea at the time! I've only gotten to talk to my past self, Yuta-kun, fairly recently, and even he had problems remembering Weasel Girl... I mean, Misao."
Had Botan (or Kaoru) met Likka earlier, she would've recognized her immediately. Ikumi was the spirit and image of Misao Makimachi, from her tomboyish yet cheerful voice to her long, braided hair.
...Or perhaps not, seeing that this present incarnation of Misao loved putting on different clothes and costumes that mimicked the looks of various famous fictional characters in anime and manga.
"Long story short, we were reunited recently, and Misao... Likka... came long with us once she found out we're taking on the enemies of the Spirit World and the New Ten Swords," came Daiji's explanation. "She won't take no for an answer."
"Can you blame me? I was lucky enough to be reincarnated along with you in this lifetime, only for me to also find out that you're now fighting supernatural entities and super-powered versions of our past enemies!"
The Kaoru inside Botan closed the ferry-girl's eyes and nodded sagely.
"I understand. I was bewildered when I found out that Kenshin is the guardian of the Demon Sword. Granted, I was even more shocked when I found out it's a hundred years later since we last met, but seeing him fight against ghosts and goblins also... worries me."
Misao looked at Kaoru... or rather, Likka looked at Botan... as though the possessed ferry-girl were speaking a foreign tongue. "Actually, I tagged along because I wanted to help. I'm more than confident that Aoshi-sama... wow, it's been a while since I called him that... can deal with anything this Chojin character can throw at him, even if he was reincarnated as Uncle Jiji."
"Oh! Oh. I see..." Botan wiped the sweat drop (actually, ectoplasm) on her forehead. Yep, this sure was the overenthusiastic Misao she remembered. There could be no doubts about that.
The eyebrow of "Uncle Jiji"... or rather, Detective Daiji... quirked up, which prompted Likka to give him a peace sign while winking at him and sticking her tongue out. "I'm just joking, Uncle Jiji! You're as good as Aoshi-sama ever was!"
Only the Ikumi Sisters could catch the subtle changes in Daiji's visage on his otherwise stone-faced expression.
Botan could only look on along with Kaoru while their shared mind marveled at the changes in Misao and Aoshi's relationship after being reincarnated in the Heisei Era.
While Makimachi dealt with the seemingly emotionless Shinomori with reverence, Likka treated her "Uncle" with joking familiarity.
At any rate, because Botan had finally arrived to help carry the load of three passengers, their riding "configuration" at present was as follows:
Natsuki rode with Botan, Likka rode with Hinageshi, and Daiji rode with Sayuri. Indeed, the shinigami really were serving as ferry-girls this time around by the truest meaning of the term.
Nevertheless, Kaoru's curiosity got the better of her, which compelled her to say to Natsuki, "Hey, back in the Meiji Era, Misao-chan and Aoshi were kind of an item. Do they still share the same feelings for each other?"
"EH?" At the back of the Taiwanese girl's mind, Yutaro provided her with his own memories that confirmed what Miss Kamiya said.
Natsuki went silent for a couple of minutes, biting her lower lip while she considered her words carefully. There were some things Kaoru didn't need to know about the history of the Ikumi and Matsudaira families.
"It'd be so romantic if their love from a hundred years ago were to somehow blossom today!" said Kaoru.
Shinkai chuckled weakly. "I-I guess?"
Even Botan herself became curious enough to slow down the speed of her flying boat paddle so that they would end up at the back of the ferry-girl flying-v formation (she was the lead oar) out of everyone else's earshot.
Natsuki then cleared her throat and gulped aloud. "Um, maybe more for Likka-tan than for Daiji-sempai? She's still in high school too, so I'm not so sure about their feelings being mutual."
"I KNEW IT! It was the same situation back in the Meiji Era!" exclaimed Kamiya.
To Be Continued...
Next: The Seven S-Levels.
Suzaku: PIKACHU!
The powers that Suzaku are displaying aside from his canon ones are taken from various electrically powered characters in fiction like Magneto from the X-Men comics, Yaiba Kurogane when he's using the powers of Raijin, Blanka from Street Fighter and his cheap-ass special move, Ginji Amano of Getbackers' fame (particularly his Raitei form), and (of course) Mikoto Misaka of A Certain Magical Index/A Certain Scientific Railgun fame. Among many others.
So long! Farewell!
Abdiel