The Final Fight: Kai's Declaration
The party continued to enclose Kahn. They drew there weapons ready to fight him. Kahn however, only began to chuckle ferociously.
"What can possibly be so funny?" Saito asked.
"You truly have underestimated me." Kahn replied. "Apparently, you have underestimated the power of Master Kahn, second in command of the Cavendish Shinobis!" Kahn suddenly disappeared and reemerged behind the party. He found one of the sword hilts and using psychic powers, he lured the hilt into his hand. He then deployed the light saber again. "Cuchulain's weapon was impressive. It was able to withstand the intense heat of the light saber. But how will your own weapons stand against me!" Kahn disappeared again and reappeared before the group. Taking a 360 turn, he cut all the weapons of the party in half, spare for Riku, Sora, and the other members of the KH group. Kenshin's reverse-blade sword was cut in two as if his blade were made of butter. Saito Seijuro, and Kaoru's sword were destroyed instantly. "Does anyone else wish to confront the wrath of Kahn."
"You bastard!" Sora shouted deploying his sword. Kahn only disappeared again and reappeared behind Sora.
"Not even your sword can stand up to this light saber." But as the sword made impact, Kahn was again shocked, realizing that Sora's sword also managed to withstand the heat from the light saber. "How can this be?"
"I see now." Riku said. "Our swords are protected by the power of the rune. Therefore, your light saber can't cut through ours either!" Riku jumped up and cut the hilt of the light saber in half, leaving Kahn unarmed. "Sorry Kahn! Your chances of retaliation have been denied."
"You'll pay for this!" Kahn roared.
"Give it up already." Sanosuke said. "Its over."
"Yes, you're right there, boy! It's over alright…for you!" Kahn suddenly burst into the air, almost touching the top of the dome. "You've humiliated me long enough! Therefore, I will use the full bulk of my remaining energy to destroy you all!" The ground suddenly rumbled beneath the feet of the KH and Kenshin groups, the wind picked up ten fold and structures were being destroyed before their eyes.
"What the hell is he trying to do!"-
"Imbeciles! This is my ultimate attack called the Apocalypse Dome! I convert all of my energy to manipulate Goten's energy! When reaching my full mark of strength, I will deploy a great wave of darkness that will consume you entirely! Everything within this dome will be polluted by my negative energy and destroyed! There is no way that any of you will possibly be able to escape its effects in less that a minute! One minute to say your prayers, and then all will be ended!"-
"One minute!" Yahiko cried.
"Kenshin! Do something!" Miss Kaoru said, grasping onto the Battousai's shoulder.
"There's nothing I can do against something like this." Kenshin uttered. "I'm useless in this particular situation. He's too high for me to reach. And even if I did managed to reach him, he'd see my attack before it could get within an effective striking range."
"Not to mention, these winds are intense." Lu Xun said. "What'll we do!"
"I told you to leave everything to me…" a voice uttered. The team looked to see Cuchulain stagger to his feet. "This is my fight and mine alone! I will take revenge for my friend, Ferdia."
"But Cuchulain," Sora implied, "you don't have enough strength left."
"I told you before, Sora. Never underestimate the strength of the Hound of Ulster." Cuchulain stood up and began to near Kahn, who was still powering up.
"You standing again, boy!" Kahn chuckled. "If you planned on doing something, you should have done it before all this! Now, I'm no longer within your reach and this entire city will be consumed by darkness in less that thirty seconds! You and your comrades are doomed!"
"Then as the Hound I will make one last effort!" With the Gae Bulga clutched in his hand and held it over his head. "For Ferdia, for my family, for my home and the Red Branch, for all worlds, for my fellows in arms, I will see you dead!" Cuchulain thrust forth the Gae Bulga straight at Kahn. The ear piercing scream of the Gae Bulga could be heard for miles around. But despite the flying rubble and gusting winds, Kahn saw the Gae Bulga come straight at him. Thus, as the spear was about to strike, Kahn vanished and reappeared in the same place as soon as the Gae Bulga passed harmlessly by him.
"Oh no!" Sano uttered.
"It missed!" Riku said.
"It's over for us then!" Kenshin uttered. "It truly is over."
"Ha! Ha! You fool!" Kahn chuckled. "Your last ditch effort and you failed! Did you really think that an attack from the ground could outdo my observation from this altitude!" However, Cuchulain's smile did not diminish. "Are you so caught up in such a false hope that you don't even realize the inevitable end of your lives!"
"It is you who are the fool and it is your life that has ended." Cuchulain said. "You truly don't understand the nature of the Gae Bulga!" It was then that Kahn heard that same loud scream. This time it was closer than ever. "You should know better than to turn your back on the Gae Bulga when it's in flight! And since you are the one accumulating the most energy, you will be the Gae Bulga's target!" Kahn suddenly turned to see the three prongs of the Gae Bulga coming ever closer. "And the Gae Bulga never misses!"
"Impossible!" Instantly, before Kahn could react, the Gae Bulga struck the place where the armor was broken and impaled straight through the shinobi. Kahn went flying down to the ground and broke through several homes and walls before finally hitting a stone wall a block away from the Aoiya. It didn't take long for Cuchulain and the others to hobble where Kahn was impaled. "How can this be? I am Kahn, master of the dark element, and second in command of the Cavendish Shinobis…" Kahn gazed in a blank stare before he finally fell limp on the Gae Bulga.
"It's over." Cuchulain uttered. "My dear Ferdia. You have been avenged." Within seconds, the darkness diminished and gave way to the bright, warm sun. The trial within the "Rurouni Realm" was over.
"At last, the end has come." Sora uttered. At that moment, Riku and Sora felt their bodies fill with a great energy. They had achieved two new techniques. Riku learned the power of the Darkness Decoys and Sora gained the power of the Shadow Death Wave.
"After enduring so much, we managed to survive this ordeal." Lu Xun uttered. "Well, I better go check on Goten. The umbrella's diminished, so he must be back to normal." Lu Xun went on his very way to find Goten.
Meanwhile, Cuchulain pulled the Gae Bulga from out of the shinobi's corpse. In the process, the information disk fell out from under Kahn's armor. Sora picked it up and put it in his pocket.
"That's that then." Cuchulain uttered.
"Not quite…" a voice suddenly uttered. Suddenly, Cuchulain felt a shard pain in his back. His body suddenly grew heavy and he fell to the ground.
"Cuchulain!" Sora cried. The party looked up to see Kahn sneering at them.He had survived the impact of the Gae Bulga.
"Yes, Hound." Kahn chuckled. "You had your revenge and I had mine, so now we're even!" In his hand, he held a dagger, which was about 1.5 feet long. "So the Hound has fallen by my hand after all!"
"It can't be!" Sanosuke uttered.
"He's still alive!" Kenshin added.
"Now you will all feel the wrath of Kahn!" the shinobi scowled.
"You bastard!" Riku shouted. Unsheathed his sword and leveled the shinobi's head from his shoulders. Thus, the mighty Kahn finally fell dead. "Try coming back to life after that!"
"Cuchulain!" Sora shouted, rolling the Hound on his back. "Are you alright! Speak to me!" Cuchulain's blood began to drip down his mouth.
"He suffered a punctured lung." Kenshin uttered.
"Don't worry!" Goofy shouted. "I'm coming to the rescue!" Taking out his bag of senzu beans, he gave one to the dying Hound. Cuchulain, after immediately swallowing the bean, arose to his feet. He wiped the blood from his face, revealing that the wounds on his body had been completely healed.
"Once again, I've been spared a brush with death." Cuchulain uttered. "Thanks Goofy."
"It's alright."-
"Now at least we can get out of here without any further problems." Riku said. "I don't think Kahn will be coming back anytime soon."
But as he finished his statement, Riku and the others suddenly heard a loud tormented scream sounding out from the distance. It was then that Cuchulain saw a figure hovering in the air, at least a thousand yards away.
"Oh no, it can't be!" Cuchulain uttered. "It's…it's General Kai!" Riku and the others looked up to see the face of the angry shinobi leader looking down on them.
"It can't be!" Kai uttered. "It just can't be!" After witnessing the death of his closest friend, Kai filled with a great and terrible rage. He rushed at light speed into the group, causing a massive explosion, which caused Sora and the rest to be blown away. As the dust settled, there stood Kai, hovering over the impact crater. His eyes were filled with rage as he saw the reality of the situation.
"So Kai," Riku uttered, "Since you're here, fight us!"
"Oh, don't you worry about me…" Kai replied. "We'll fight, but we'll fight under my terms! We fight in a time and place of my choosing! So don't bother using the information disk, because I've decided to make a few last minute adjustments!" Kai picked up the body and severed head of his closest friend. "You've killed my best friend! A friend whom I've known since childhood! Do you know how it feels to lose your best friend!" Kai's eyes grew tighter in rage and he made a sinister smirk on his face. "Well, you will soon find out, Riku, what it means to lose a best friend!" Kai gazed at Sora. "That's right! I'll exact my revenge by doing the same to you, Riku! I will make you suffer such a loss by killing your closest friend!"
" No you don't!" Riku shouted, putting himself in front of Sora.
"And why not! You took my friend's life away! It should only be fair that I return the favor!"-
"If you touch Sora, I'll kill you!"-
"Not if I kill you first! Either way, whether you die, or he dies, it doesn't make any difference! You will suffer sooner, or later at such a loss!"-
"You will not harm them!" Cuchulain shouted.
"You stay out of this, Hound! This is none of your business!"-
"Oh yes, I'd say that this affair concerns me very much! I'm glad that your friend is dead! My revenge has been fulfilled! It was your best friend that killed my best friend, Ferdia, back in my homeland! The loss that I felt then is the loss that you feel now!"-
"But this is different! Kahn was of noble blood! He was like me, a person high in esteemed status!"-
"Ferdia and I were like you as well! As esteemed members of the Red Branch, we held a high reputation within all of Erin that we were the greatest fighters ever to live! So what makes you different from me, besides the cause to which we fight!"-
"Very well then." Kai uttered. He turned to Riku and Sora. "I hope that you two enjoy your last few days of friendship together, because I guarantee that in the future, one of you will die! Then, my revenge will be fulfilled! This time, I will not hold back, I will show you the true wrath of General Kai of the Cavendish Shinobis!" Kai turned his head towards Riku. "You especially better watch out! Because sooner, or later, you'll find me ramming a sword into your chest!"
"I'll be sure to come well protected then." Riku replied. Kai sneered ferociously and flew off into the distance, only to disappear from sight.
"Sometimes, I can't help, but feel sorry for him." Cuchulain uttered.
"Are you listening to yourself, Cuchulain!" Sora uttered. "How can you cay that! He just threatened to take either my life, of Riku's."
"Then, he'll only be feeling what I feel now. It's easy to kill someone when they're a stranger to you who dares to stand in your way. It's an entirely different matter to kill someone you know is a friend to someone else. And then later to confront that vengeful friend who wants retribution for the death of their comrade. If I had managed to deal that final blow and make his death permanent, then Kai's rage would have been fixed on me. Then, at least if I died, I'd be united with Ferdia. But now, he wants revenge on you two and will take the life of one and leave the other in despair."-
Riku suddenly pounded his fist to the ground.
"Damn it all!" he shouted.
"What's wrong?" Sora asked.
"If I had only managed to fight and defeat him here, then at least we would've been able to cut our journey a little shorter. We would have saved Kairi sooner and would've been on our way home earlier. But because of my incompetence, I let that one chance slip between my fingers. I hate Kai, I hate Arakis, I hate the Dark Empire and this sick little game that they're playing with us! They toy with out lives for the sake of their own twisted amusement! Well I can tell you this much, when the time comes again, and I confront either Kai, or Arakis, I will fight them no holds barge! I won't hold back! I will kill them!"
"Riku…" Sora uttered. The thoughts of the fight he had with Arakis still dwelled deep within his mind and his guilt still throbbed in his heart. "I should've finished that fight with Arakis no matter what! But what chance would I have against someone like him by myself."
"You say something, Sora?"-
"Oh, nothing, Riku! Nothing at all!"-
"Hey!" Lu Xun shouted from a distance away. The group saw him carrying Goten, with one arm around his neck. Goten continued to stagger as he tried to walk himself, but slipped every once in a while. "Goten could use a whiff of Curaga!"-
"Just a moment!" Sora said. He turned to Donald. "Donald?"-
"Right ahead of you!" Donald replied. "Stand still Goten!" Donald cast the Curaga and Goten was back on his feet.
"Thanks, you guys!" he replied.
"Now what?" Lu Xun asked.
"We return to Traverse Town." Cuchulain replied. "Sneer wants us to carry out with a new mission."
"All of us?" Mickey asked.
"No, Your Majesty. Only Lu Xun, Goten, and I are to report back. You five are to continue on your way and defeat the last of the Cavendish Shinobis."-
"Then let's get going." Goten said.
"Thank you all for helping us." Kenshin said. "We're glad that you came along when you did, that we are."
"If it wasn't for you guys giving us a hand, we'd still be duking it out with Kahn." Sanosuke added.
"Sorry about the destruction of Kyoto." Lu Xun said.
"Don't worry." Kenshin replied. "Kyoto will be rebuilt to its former glory, that it will."
"But what about everything that's happened though?" Kaoru asked. "Don't you think the locals will be scarred for life after what went on?"
"It'll most likely be dubbed as a natural disaster." Saito implied.
"What about the power stones?" Goofy asked.
"Oh, that's right! We forgot all about the power stones!" Yahiko said.
"Did someone ask for these!" a voice sounded. The group turned to see Omasu and Ochika gazing down at them from atop a demolished building.
"Omasu! Ochika!" Misao cried. The two your women descended to the ground and handed them to Lu Xun.
"Here you go, safe and sound."-
"Thank you very much." Lu Xun replied as he retrieved the box. He opened it and there they were, the three bright gems of yellow, blue, and red. "We can give these back to Sneer in Oceansburg."
"Well, either way, I'm just glad to see that everyone is still alive and kicking." Kaoru said. "Everyone has returned to normal."
"Does that include me as well?" a voice uttered from behind. The group turned to see a familiar face and former foe walking towards them.
"Aoshi Shinomori!" Yahiko uttered.
"Aoshi," Kenshin said with a silly grin on his face, "I see that you've returned to normal, that you have."
Aoshi walked up to Misao and the other members of the Oniwaban group.
"Can you ever forgive a man blinded by darkness all this time?" he uttered.
"Well, I don't know…" Misao said, turning her back on him. "I guess I could forgive you just this once, Lord Aoshi." She turned towards him again and lunged at him, hugging Aoshi tightly. "Aw, what the heck! I forgive you!"
"I'm glad to see that Aoshi's back to normal, that I am." Kenshin chuckled. He then turned to the KH team and the members of the Alliance. Kenshin presented himself to Riku and held out his hand. "We thank you all for what you've done for us, that we are." Riku grasped Kenshin's hand and engaged in a hardy handshake.
"The pleasure was ours."-
"But by all means take this as a token of our gratitude."-
"You might say that they may come in handy later." Saito uttered as he lit a cigarette. Kenshin handed three energy icons to the party.
"Thank you." Riku said. He handed one icon to Mickey and the other to Sora. He kept the third for himself. They were new abilities. Riku inherited Kenshin's Kuzu ryu sen, Mickey was given Saito's four styles of Gatotsu, and Sora was given Kenshin's ultimate attack of the Hiten Mitsurugi style, the Amakakeru ryu no hirameki. With a final farewell, Riku, Sora, and the others left Kenshin and his friends and headed back to where their cruisers awaited them.
The parties were prepared to board their separate ships and set off for their separate destinations. While Sora, Riku, and the KH team would look for Kai and rescue Kairi; Cuchulain, Goten, and Lu Xun would return to Traverse Town and Oceansburg to fulfill their mission and carry out with the next.
"So hopefully, we'll see you back in Traverse Town." Cuchulain said.
"Same here." Sora replied. They prepared to beam themselves back up when they heard someone approaching them. They turned to see Sojiro Seta running towards them.
"Hey, wait up!" he cried.
"Sojiro?" Sora uttered. "What're you doing here?"
"Please, take me with you!" he said.
"Take you with us?"-
"That's out of the question!" Riku explained. "We can't get you involved in any of this anymore than we have already."
"He does have a point, Sojiro. You have your entire life in front of you. You can start all over again. You have Kenshin and the others to be with."-
"But I have nothing left to live for here anymore." Sojiro explained. "Besides, I'm intrigued with where you came from."
"Well, I guess we could…"-
"Of course he can!" Cuchulain implied. He placed his hand on Sojiro's shoulder. "Listen, kid, you can come with us and we can integrate you into our group. What do you say?"
"Alright." Sojiro replied.
"We'll see if we can get you a new wardrobe too."-
"OK, you guys," Lu Xun said, "We'll see you later."
"See ya!" Sora replied. With that Sojiro, Goten, Cuchulain, and Lu Xun vanished from sight, leaving Sora, Riku, and the others to deal with their own affairs.
"Well, shall we get going too?" Mickey implied.
"That we shall. Let's get on our way to find General Kai." Riku said. "That way, we can finish this twisted little game of theirs."
"Wait a minute!" Donald said. "We don't even know where Kai is! Remember, he said that he changed the location of his whereabouts!"
"That's right!" Mickey added. "He did change the location of his whereabouts. So what do we do?"
"Well, it couldn't hurt to see what was on the data disk." Sora explained. He pulled out the disk that he took off of Kahn. They returned to the cruiser and placed the information disk into their decoder.
New orders! General Kai has been assigned to participate in the assault against the stronghold at Hollow Bastion. We will take over that world and see if we can reopen the door to darkness by using the sophisticated technology, which had been developed by the previous leader of that world, Lord Ansem.
"Are you kidding me!" Sora uttered, fearfully. "The Dark Empire is attempting to reopen the door to darkness!"
"That's impossible for them to do that!" Mickey said. "The door to darkness has been shut forever! Nothing can ever open it again, nothing!"
"But do we really wanna take that chance? We're seen what the Dark Empire can do. There's no reason why they shouldn't successfully reopen the door."-
"We can't let 'em do it!" Goofy said. "Then we'd be doing the same thing all over again!"
"The best course of action would be to stop the Empire's assault on Hollow Bastion." Mickey implied.
"I would have to agree with Mickey." Donald said. "We let the Empire have a chance, they might just pull it off!"
"Delays," Riku uttered, "Delays! Nothing, but delays! Every time we're so close to achieving our goal, more people have to be rescued! The Empire is really starting to tick me off!"
"Now, now," Sora said, "Calm down, Riku. It's not as if this entire trek has been easy for any of us."
"But don't you see, Sora! With every passing minute, Kairi's life could be put in jeopardy! I just want this all to end so we can finally go home and live in peace! But the Empire causes us to procrastinate! Procrastinate with every turn we take!"
"Riku…" Sora grabbed him by the shoulders and looked straight into his eyes. "It's no walk the park for me either. I wanna save Kairi as much as you do, but we can't rush into battle without any leads of the enemy's whereabouts. Otherwise we'd be going around searching worlds at random. Each world is vast. Some vaster than others and we're searching for one, or two individuals. What are the chances of us actually finding them?"
"You do have a point." Riku calmed down and gazed into Sora's sky blue eyes. "I have to calm down. Raving in rage won't help our cause a bit. Let's go to Hollow Bastion and give them a hand then."
"That's the spirit!"-
With that, the KH team took off in their Gummi ship and headed towards Hollow Bastion, ready to give their immediate assistance.
Meanwhile, Kenshin and the others gazed around at the damaged area of Kyoto. There was a great amount of work to be done and their spirits were high.
"This city will return to its former glory!" Misao shouted.
"That's the spirit, Misao!" Miss Kaoru replied.
"After so much hell that's gone on," Sano said, "I could use a nice long rest."
"I'm just relived that it's all over, that I am." Kenshin added.
"On the contrary," a loud voice suddenly blew out, "Your hell has just begun!"
"Who's there?"-
Kenshin and his friends gazed around to see who had spoken.
"Look Kenshin!" Yahiko shouted out. "Up there on the roof top of the Aoiya!" The group gazed up to see a man cloaked in black with a cavalier style hat and a large plume. His one red eye gazed at them.
"Who are you?"-
"Does it really matter now?" The figure implied.
