Hakusho Reaver
Chapter 4- Botan's obsession
I continued down the dark tunnel, using my reaver as a flashlight. It wasn't much, but it was all I had.
"I swear," I muttered. "Taujecht is so going to pay for."
Before I could finish, a loud crack interrupted my train of thought. I backed up a couple steps, and shined the light of my reaver on what I had stepped on. It was a corpse; skinned of all of it's flesh, and lying on the ground in a pool of it's own blood. Of course the blood had dried out by now, so it was more like dry paint now.
"Oh god, that's brutal!" I shouted upon discovering the body. "What could've. Wait a minute."
I shined the light of the reaver upon the walls, and saw a few more dead bodies on the wall. All stripped of their skin, some were still fresh, some were fairly old.
"Obviously, this is some sort of underground cemetery." I said to myself. "Either that, or."
Just then, I heard a blood curdling scream! I made a run in the direction where I heard the screaming, leaping over corpses on the floor as I did so.
At the end of the tunnel, I started to se a faint red light. The reaver no longer needed to be used as a flashlight, for now I could se where I was going. However, once I saw what was going on, I kept it out anyway. I saw a human woman being dragged into the mouth of a nearby cave. This wasn't as disturbing, but what dragged her in there was.
They looked like humans, but had red afro like hair. Their skin looked decayed and green, and their clothing looked rather tattered. They moved at a fairly slow pace as they drug their victom into what I judged was their hide out.
(CULTIVATED HUMANS- The lowest form of demon. Though they can take one hell of a beating, they have little strength, little intelligence, next to no speed, and often travel in groups. Though not much of a challenge even in hords, they are often used as servants.)
"Cultivated humans." I thought, realizing instantly what these new demons were. Back in the good old days when Hiei, Kuwabara, Yusuke, and myself were still human, we encountered these creatures before. They were pretty easy to beat compared to the monsters that midget girl called rakonki.
I prepared for a fight, but froze once I heard a series of rattles and moans. I looked behind me, and could see that the corpses from back in the darker part of the tunnel had come to life! Whether these were cultivated humans or just your average zombie, I didn't care. Either way, they'd be against me. So I got ready for what would be a pretty one sided battle between me and a bunch of skeletons.
One by one, each one fell. Limbs were severed, decapitations occurred, and lots of other really disgusting stuff occurred. I was just thankful they were already dead on this occasion. Something told me these things used to be human, but I couldn't help but wonder what transformed them into these skeletal versions of what would appear to be cultivated humans.
Once I had completed my warm up exercise, I looked back, and saw the woman and the two cultivated humans were gone. But I wasn't about to run. After all, it was a tunnel. How could you lose anyone in a tunnel? There weren't any forks in the road from what I could tell, even though there WAS a turn here and there.
The tunnel ended at the mouth of the cave I mentioned earlier. Though much much wider, it was still rather tunnel like in here. And I could see more dead bodies lying on the ground!
"Oh, whoever did this is so going to pay." I muttered. "About one cut per corpse should do the trick. And let's see here. One, two, five, ten, twenty."
"Count all you like." A familiar voice echoed. "You'll never be able to count how many are down here."
I turned around, and saw what appeared to be a zombie! She only had a few strands of black hair left, and her skin was decaying all over the place. However, her orange eyes managed to stay in tact. She looked more like a zombie than a cultivated human, seeing as how she knew how to speak.
"Botan I presume." I said.
"In the flesh." She laughed, putting a decayed hand to her decaying face, and ripping it off. "But not for long.! You're just in time."
She snapped her fingers, and the two cultivated humans from earlier drug out the woman I saw from before. Except she looked more flattened: more two dimensional than before. Then, I put two and two together instantly. The skeletons in the tunnel, Botan's new found skin, the woman who now seemed to lack a three dimensional shape.
"You monster!" I shouted.
"Come now," she said. "Name calling will get you nowhere."
She crossed her arms over her chest, and instantly ripped the decaying flesh off of her body! The rest of her skin fell to the ground in a bundle as she continued to shed her skin in such a matter that looked like a combination of stripping and mutilating. Once the flesh was completely off of her, I could see her vampiric skeleton form. She put one arm over her ribs, and another over the area where hip and thigh bones connected.
"Ooh, silly me." She laughed as if she were embarrassed. "I forgot I had company. I really shouldn't be exposing myself like this. Really, we haven't even had a date!"
The cultivated humans dropped the skin of the woman I intended on rescuing, and I watched in what would be considered a combination of amazement and horror as the skeleton like Botan stuffed her foot in the corpse's mouth. She continued to shove more and more of herself into the lifeless outer shell of the woman until it became a perfect fit.
She stood up, stretched out, and let her fingers trace little patterns across her new skin.
"Perfect fit." She laughed. "And it's so smooth and luxurious. I just wish it didn't have to decay in a couple weeks or so, then I'd never have to shed it again."
I made a lunge for her, but one of her cultivated humans leaped in front of her, and took the perverbial bullet. Botan laughed as I jammed the reaver into his heart, and withdrew a marble sized scarlet sphere of a soul. This figured. Cultivated humans didn't have a brain, didn't have strength, and apparently didn't have much soul in them either.
"Ooh, big bad Kurama's going to cut me into pieces." She mocked, then burst out laughing. "Good thing I have these guys."
She threw her hands up in the air, and I could only watch as they began to omit vapor like beams of spirit energy that went in every which way. Once a vapor stream hit the ground, it began to crack open, and a new cultivated human rose from the newly formed hole. Till finally, an entire army had appeared on the battlefield of choice!
"I'll be in the Jacuzzi." She told her servants. "Take care of him while I'm gone. And if I find out he's still here when I'm done, you're all in for it."
She began to float upward, and fade out of existence.
It became oh so clear to me now. Botan was skinning innocent women, and using them to hide her hideous vampiric skeleton form. Meanwhile, she used some sort of magic on the men to turn them into cultivated humans. I don't know when Botan became embarrassed about her true form, but it was obviously an obsession now. Those skeletons, for all I knew, were probably cultivated as well for security purposes.
It would appear the only way out would be to fight. Not like I really wanted to, but cultivated humans just can't be reasoned with! It was almost too easy to kill all of them, and their marble sized souls didn't provide me with any extra strength. But somehow, I managed to kill all of them, and leave the floor littered with dead bodies!
Now then, I thought as I let the reaver fade out of existence, If I was Botan, where would I be going right about now?
At that moment, I noticed something. There was a doorway on the far left. It was sealed shut, so I'd have to use the reaver to cut it open, but I garanteed Botan was either in there, or this doorway led to a tunnel of some sort leading to her.
Sure enough, Botan was behind this door. I looked closely, and could see her wearing only a black Bikini, and reclining in what appeared to be a Jacuzzi. Apparently, she didn't take very many things seriously. And apparently, the value of her life seemed to be one of them.
"You're just wanting to die, aren't you?" I said, walking over to the side of the Jacuzzi.
Those words apparently woke her up. For she looked over to her right, freaked out, then stood up.
"You have quite a lot of nerve!" She insisted. "Bursting in here during my me time."
"What happened to you?" I asked disappointedly. "You used to be such a fun loving girl who knew just about everything about life in the spirit world. Now look at you. You use dead people's skin to hide your own hideous form. From what I can tell, you just stay here in this red cave of yours; waiting for innocent humans to wander down here. Or maybe your cultivated humans bring them down to you."
"SHUT UP!" She shouted, taking a swing at me. I avoided it, and let my reaver fade for now.
"If you really want to fight me, come out of there, and face me demon to demon!"
She leaped upward, and landed a foot away from the doorway I had made. She gave me an ice cold glare as she began to power up for what would appear to be an energy attack.
"You'll wish you never said such things about me!" She shouted. "Let's see how you like to be CULTIVATED!"
She threw her hands forward, and vapor like beams of blue spirit energy quickly shot from them. They tangled me up, and tried to electricute me, but for some reason, they weren't working! Not like that's a bad thing, but apparently, she did something wrong. Or something else made it impossible for me to become cultivated.
She allowed the vapors to return to her hands as a shocked look went across her face.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" She demanded. "CULTIVATE ALREADY!"
"Sorry," I said. "But I'm afraid your magic doesn't work on me."
For some reason, she then laughed as she began to consentrate more spirit energy into her hands. I could see them glowing, and then morphing into some sort of weapon. The glow faded on her hands, but not on her fingers; which had now become foot long blades of spirit energy!
"In that case," She said, "How about I show you how I USED to skin humans before I learned cultivation. It gets a little messy, and a few stitches end up needing to be applied, but either way, I could use a fur coat right about now!"
She lunged forward at me and attempted to strike me. I moved out of the way, allowed my reaver to reappear, and waited for her to attack. Sure enough, she lunged at me again. So I struck her down with one cut across her chest.
She backed up a couple steps, and placed a hand across her chest in agony. But when she removed her arm from around herself, the skin from her belly downward fell down to her ankles. She looked down, and screamed once she had seen what I done. At the same time, she attempted to cover herself.
"MY SKIN!" she shouted.
I watched as she ripped her face off, and removed her new skin in the same manner she shed the old skin. Before anything else could happen, I could sense her energy increasing as the energy blades of her spirit claws grow an extra four inches.
"Looks like I'll have to find another woman." She said. "But in the meantime, I'LL SKIN YOU!"
She leaped upward, only to end up getting impaled through the chest on my reaver. The spirit claw quickly faded as her life slowly drained from her body, and into my blade like arm. Once the feeding was complete, I pointed the tip of the reaver at the ground, and let her corpse slide off of it onto the ground. I let my symbiotic weapon fade as I looked at her.
""Believe me," I said, even though I wasn't going to get a reply, "That hurt me a lot more than it hurt you. Hopefully now, you can rest in peace."
I left this room, and stood there; looking at the bodies of the cultivated humans. If I hadn't taken their souls, they would've returned to normal by now. But it was too late. Worst of all, I never got the chance to ask Botan if she knew where Taujecht was.
It would appear I'd have to ask either Hiei or Yusuke, depending on which one I met next. But first thing was first. Before my quest could continue, I had to find a way out of here. And judging by the looks of this place, that was easier said than done. God, I wish I had a map.
Chapter 4- Botan's obsession
I continued down the dark tunnel, using my reaver as a flashlight. It wasn't much, but it was all I had.
"I swear," I muttered. "Taujecht is so going to pay for."
Before I could finish, a loud crack interrupted my train of thought. I backed up a couple steps, and shined the light of my reaver on what I had stepped on. It was a corpse; skinned of all of it's flesh, and lying on the ground in a pool of it's own blood. Of course the blood had dried out by now, so it was more like dry paint now.
"Oh god, that's brutal!" I shouted upon discovering the body. "What could've. Wait a minute."
I shined the light of the reaver upon the walls, and saw a few more dead bodies on the wall. All stripped of their skin, some were still fresh, some were fairly old.
"Obviously, this is some sort of underground cemetery." I said to myself. "Either that, or."
Just then, I heard a blood curdling scream! I made a run in the direction where I heard the screaming, leaping over corpses on the floor as I did so.
At the end of the tunnel, I started to se a faint red light. The reaver no longer needed to be used as a flashlight, for now I could se where I was going. However, once I saw what was going on, I kept it out anyway. I saw a human woman being dragged into the mouth of a nearby cave. This wasn't as disturbing, but what dragged her in there was.
They looked like humans, but had red afro like hair. Their skin looked decayed and green, and their clothing looked rather tattered. They moved at a fairly slow pace as they drug their victom into what I judged was their hide out.
(CULTIVATED HUMANS- The lowest form of demon. Though they can take one hell of a beating, they have little strength, little intelligence, next to no speed, and often travel in groups. Though not much of a challenge even in hords, they are often used as servants.)
"Cultivated humans." I thought, realizing instantly what these new demons were. Back in the good old days when Hiei, Kuwabara, Yusuke, and myself were still human, we encountered these creatures before. They were pretty easy to beat compared to the monsters that midget girl called rakonki.
I prepared for a fight, but froze once I heard a series of rattles and moans. I looked behind me, and could see that the corpses from back in the darker part of the tunnel had come to life! Whether these were cultivated humans or just your average zombie, I didn't care. Either way, they'd be against me. So I got ready for what would be a pretty one sided battle between me and a bunch of skeletons.
One by one, each one fell. Limbs were severed, decapitations occurred, and lots of other really disgusting stuff occurred. I was just thankful they were already dead on this occasion. Something told me these things used to be human, but I couldn't help but wonder what transformed them into these skeletal versions of what would appear to be cultivated humans.
Once I had completed my warm up exercise, I looked back, and saw the woman and the two cultivated humans were gone. But I wasn't about to run. After all, it was a tunnel. How could you lose anyone in a tunnel? There weren't any forks in the road from what I could tell, even though there WAS a turn here and there.
The tunnel ended at the mouth of the cave I mentioned earlier. Though much much wider, it was still rather tunnel like in here. And I could see more dead bodies lying on the ground!
"Oh, whoever did this is so going to pay." I muttered. "About one cut per corpse should do the trick. And let's see here. One, two, five, ten, twenty."
"Count all you like." A familiar voice echoed. "You'll never be able to count how many are down here."
I turned around, and saw what appeared to be a zombie! She only had a few strands of black hair left, and her skin was decaying all over the place. However, her orange eyes managed to stay in tact. She looked more like a zombie than a cultivated human, seeing as how she knew how to speak.
"Botan I presume." I said.
"In the flesh." She laughed, putting a decayed hand to her decaying face, and ripping it off. "But not for long.! You're just in time."
She snapped her fingers, and the two cultivated humans from earlier drug out the woman I saw from before. Except she looked more flattened: more two dimensional than before. Then, I put two and two together instantly. The skeletons in the tunnel, Botan's new found skin, the woman who now seemed to lack a three dimensional shape.
"You monster!" I shouted.
"Come now," she said. "Name calling will get you nowhere."
She crossed her arms over her chest, and instantly ripped the decaying flesh off of her body! The rest of her skin fell to the ground in a bundle as she continued to shed her skin in such a matter that looked like a combination of stripping and mutilating. Once the flesh was completely off of her, I could see her vampiric skeleton form. She put one arm over her ribs, and another over the area where hip and thigh bones connected.
"Ooh, silly me." She laughed as if she were embarrassed. "I forgot I had company. I really shouldn't be exposing myself like this. Really, we haven't even had a date!"
The cultivated humans dropped the skin of the woman I intended on rescuing, and I watched in what would be considered a combination of amazement and horror as the skeleton like Botan stuffed her foot in the corpse's mouth. She continued to shove more and more of herself into the lifeless outer shell of the woman until it became a perfect fit.
She stood up, stretched out, and let her fingers trace little patterns across her new skin.
"Perfect fit." She laughed. "And it's so smooth and luxurious. I just wish it didn't have to decay in a couple weeks or so, then I'd never have to shed it again."
I made a lunge for her, but one of her cultivated humans leaped in front of her, and took the perverbial bullet. Botan laughed as I jammed the reaver into his heart, and withdrew a marble sized scarlet sphere of a soul. This figured. Cultivated humans didn't have a brain, didn't have strength, and apparently didn't have much soul in them either.
"Ooh, big bad Kurama's going to cut me into pieces." She mocked, then burst out laughing. "Good thing I have these guys."
She threw her hands up in the air, and I could only watch as they began to omit vapor like beams of spirit energy that went in every which way. Once a vapor stream hit the ground, it began to crack open, and a new cultivated human rose from the newly formed hole. Till finally, an entire army had appeared on the battlefield of choice!
"I'll be in the Jacuzzi." She told her servants. "Take care of him while I'm gone. And if I find out he's still here when I'm done, you're all in for it."
She began to float upward, and fade out of existence.
It became oh so clear to me now. Botan was skinning innocent women, and using them to hide her hideous vampiric skeleton form. Meanwhile, she used some sort of magic on the men to turn them into cultivated humans. I don't know when Botan became embarrassed about her true form, but it was obviously an obsession now. Those skeletons, for all I knew, were probably cultivated as well for security purposes.
It would appear the only way out would be to fight. Not like I really wanted to, but cultivated humans just can't be reasoned with! It was almost too easy to kill all of them, and their marble sized souls didn't provide me with any extra strength. But somehow, I managed to kill all of them, and leave the floor littered with dead bodies!
Now then, I thought as I let the reaver fade out of existence, If I was Botan, where would I be going right about now?
At that moment, I noticed something. There was a doorway on the far left. It was sealed shut, so I'd have to use the reaver to cut it open, but I garanteed Botan was either in there, or this doorway led to a tunnel of some sort leading to her.
Sure enough, Botan was behind this door. I looked closely, and could see her wearing only a black Bikini, and reclining in what appeared to be a Jacuzzi. Apparently, she didn't take very many things seriously. And apparently, the value of her life seemed to be one of them.
"You're just wanting to die, aren't you?" I said, walking over to the side of the Jacuzzi.
Those words apparently woke her up. For she looked over to her right, freaked out, then stood up.
"You have quite a lot of nerve!" She insisted. "Bursting in here during my me time."
"What happened to you?" I asked disappointedly. "You used to be such a fun loving girl who knew just about everything about life in the spirit world. Now look at you. You use dead people's skin to hide your own hideous form. From what I can tell, you just stay here in this red cave of yours; waiting for innocent humans to wander down here. Or maybe your cultivated humans bring them down to you."
"SHUT UP!" She shouted, taking a swing at me. I avoided it, and let my reaver fade for now.
"If you really want to fight me, come out of there, and face me demon to demon!"
She leaped upward, and landed a foot away from the doorway I had made. She gave me an ice cold glare as she began to power up for what would appear to be an energy attack.
"You'll wish you never said such things about me!" She shouted. "Let's see how you like to be CULTIVATED!"
She threw her hands forward, and vapor like beams of blue spirit energy quickly shot from them. They tangled me up, and tried to electricute me, but for some reason, they weren't working! Not like that's a bad thing, but apparently, she did something wrong. Or something else made it impossible for me to become cultivated.
She allowed the vapors to return to her hands as a shocked look went across her face.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" She demanded. "CULTIVATE ALREADY!"
"Sorry," I said. "But I'm afraid your magic doesn't work on me."
For some reason, she then laughed as she began to consentrate more spirit energy into her hands. I could see them glowing, and then morphing into some sort of weapon. The glow faded on her hands, but not on her fingers; which had now become foot long blades of spirit energy!
"In that case," She said, "How about I show you how I USED to skin humans before I learned cultivation. It gets a little messy, and a few stitches end up needing to be applied, but either way, I could use a fur coat right about now!"
She lunged forward at me and attempted to strike me. I moved out of the way, allowed my reaver to reappear, and waited for her to attack. Sure enough, she lunged at me again. So I struck her down with one cut across her chest.
She backed up a couple steps, and placed a hand across her chest in agony. But when she removed her arm from around herself, the skin from her belly downward fell down to her ankles. She looked down, and screamed once she had seen what I done. At the same time, she attempted to cover herself.
"MY SKIN!" she shouted.
I watched as she ripped her face off, and removed her new skin in the same manner she shed the old skin. Before anything else could happen, I could sense her energy increasing as the energy blades of her spirit claws grow an extra four inches.
"Looks like I'll have to find another woman." She said. "But in the meantime, I'LL SKIN YOU!"
She leaped upward, only to end up getting impaled through the chest on my reaver. The spirit claw quickly faded as her life slowly drained from her body, and into my blade like arm. Once the feeding was complete, I pointed the tip of the reaver at the ground, and let her corpse slide off of it onto the ground. I let my symbiotic weapon fade as I looked at her.
""Believe me," I said, even though I wasn't going to get a reply, "That hurt me a lot more than it hurt you. Hopefully now, you can rest in peace."
I left this room, and stood there; looking at the bodies of the cultivated humans. If I hadn't taken their souls, they would've returned to normal by now. But it was too late. Worst of all, I never got the chance to ask Botan if she knew where Taujecht was.
It would appear I'd have to ask either Hiei or Yusuke, depending on which one I met next. But first thing was first. Before my quest could continue, I had to find a way out of here. And judging by the looks of this place, that was easier said than done. God, I wish I had a map.