**Standard Disclaimers Apply** Woohoo! Another chapter! I thought I was losing steam...but apparently not! I felt like I haven't spent enough time in this story on Yusuke, hopefully this makes up for it!
There was nothing like the feeling of power fragments drizzling gently to the ground like early spring rain. Each spirit gun blast was as thrilling as the largest fireworks exploding in the night sky, trails of smoke and ashes cascading a refreshing scent of freshly cut grass and citrus over him. Yusuke stood in the clearing feeling his own powers rain down upon him. Eye closed, he allowed his other senses to take over. Every speckle of ki that touched his skin warmed him, every breath revitalized his spirit. The remnant energy of his blast swirled around him like a protective embrace with the breeze.
As Shuichi had likely intended, the concentration ring provided a big boost to Yusuke's morale. As soon as he had received it, Yusuke ran out to the forest to experiment. With the ring on his finger, he posed with his arm outstretched, his right thumb and index finger extended making a gun, and concentrated his energy on the ring. Feeling his energy surge towards the ring, Yusuke released it all at once. The force of the energy caused his body to lurch in backward momentum and Yusuke had to take several steps back before he could regain his balance. Above him, the spirit gun blast brightened the sky with a fluorescent blue glow. Excited by the display of power, Yusuke fired the two remaining shocks consecutively.
Confirming Shuichi's warning, using the concentration ring was taxing on his body and Yusuke spent the entire next day in bed recovering. As soon as he felt well enough again, the pumped half-mazoku fired another three consecutive shots into the air towards the Alarican border. That time, Kuwabara had accompanied him to watch the blasts. Amazed by the show of power, the carrot top had tried to used the ring as well, but the two of them quickly found out that it only worked with demon power and not spirit power.
Yusuke continued to follow the pattern of using the ring and resting on alternating days until over a week had passed. The Tourinese king could feel himself growing stronger every time he used the ring.
One day, Kuwabara visited him while he was in recovery, bringing news that Mukuro's troops were performing blitz exercises when he was sleeping. In response, the demon monks departed to search for Raizen's fighting buddies, in hopes of gaining their support and building up their power base for the potential battles ahead.
Kuwabara then invited Yusuke to train with him, but Yusuke was too drained by the concentration ring to even to retort with snappy comebacks for the carrot-top's insults. Perhaps disappointed by the lack of banter, the tall boy retreated from Yusuke's quarters with the open invitation to join him at the castle library when he felt better.
Shuichi also stopped by a few times to check on him. The redhead was looking increasingly wary and on one occasion, he looked outright unwell. The sparkle in his emerald eyes was missing, his hands were cold to the touch, his red hair was in a tangle as if he hadn't brushed it for days, and he looked paler than before. When asked about his health, Shuichi explained that he have been experimenting his potions on himself, to varying results. Yusuke was completely appalled that the redhead was putting his human body under such strain and offered to be guinea pig instead, but Shuichi reminded him that his half-demon body would react differently to the chemicals.
Today, Yusuke decided to retain his energy instead of firing all of the spirit gun shots in his daily quota. To make up for his absence over the last week, he decided to grace Kuwabara with his presence by taking up his offer to join him in the library. He found both of his human advisers huddled around a table reviewing reference material. Stacked neatly next to Shuichi were a couple volumes on botany and pharmacognosy. At the moment, however, the two tall boys had placed their heads together over tomes on spiritual energy and ki manipulation.
"...so if your goal is to both defend and attack simultaneously, your focus should be on technique rather than increasing power." Yusuke overheard Shuichi explaining. Not realizing his king's presence, the redhead pulled a book from the messy center pile. "This is what you need to study…"
Peeking over the carrot top's left shoulder, Yusuke shouted, "Oi Kuwabara! Didn't know you were such a bookworm!"
"Moron! You trying to burst my eardrums?" Kuwabara jerked away with a hand on his left ear and a kick towards Yusuke's direction.
Yusuke deftly dodged the kick and settled next to Shuichi, leaning forward with his elbows on the table. Still dodging kicks and punches, he thumbed through a few pages of the thick book Shuichi have just extracted from the pile. "What is this? Some kind of encyclopedia?"
"Yes actually," said Shuichi, flipping the book to a section that focuses specifically on spiritual combat techniques. "This reference book records known fighting techniques—"
"Cool! There are diagrams too!" Yusuke interrupted, trying to grab the book while kicking Kuwabara's chair out from underneath him.
Faster than Yusuke could see, Shuichi snatched the book from beneath his hands and gave him a stern look that Yusuke was very much used to seeing from his teachers. Yusuke gaped at the sudden show of speed. The redhead ignored him and turned back to the carrot-top who is now sitting on the other side of Shuichi, as far away from Yusuke as the small table allowed, "as I was about to explain just now, Kuwabara san, while your brawler fighting style is appropriate in street fights, this style would not be useful in a battle situation. I suggest you review the techniques in this book to see what is appropriate for you and then adapt them to suit your abilities." He pointed out a few specific techniques to the carrot top before turning his attention to Yusuke.
"Yusuke san, any reason why you didn't use up all three blast of the spirit gun today?" Yusuke made a mental note of both the redhead's increase in speed and his return to health.
"I was saving up my energy to brawl with Kuwabara. I think using the concentration ring is making me stronger. Is that a known effect?" Absently, Yusuke took the ring off to spin it on the table.
"Perhaps it is awakening your awareness of your own ki," Shuichi leaned forward to inspect Yusuke, and the dark hair youth caught a scent of fresh dew and roses. Had Shuichi always smelled this good? "I've always felt that your biggest problem was awareness rather than power levels. Are you able to feel your energy swirling around you?"
"Yeah, I feel it," Yusuke exclaimed, thinking about how much he enjoyed the feeling of his own energy raining down on him earlier that day. "I smell it too, it has a distinct smell that I've never noticed before." Wait. Is that what Shuichi's smell is? His energy signature? That can't be it. As far as Yusuke knew, Shuichi lost his demonic powers when he was reborn as a human.
"Well, it certainly feels stronger. You're radiating more energy and the waves feel more stable than before."
"So how do I become more aware of my ki?"
Shuichi pulled out another book from the messy pile. "Perhaps meditation would help."
Looking up from his own book, Kuwabara gave a hearty laugh. "Meditation? Him? You're kidding me right? Urameshi can never sit still!"
Yusuke gave him a jab on the arm. "Shut up. Shuichi's getting to the good part." Deep down though, he knew the carrot top was right, he was definitely lacking in the attention span department.
"Alright then," Shuichi replaced the book. "Think about it as self-observation instead. The first step is to be cognizant of how your mood affects your energy levels."
"Ok, sounds reasonable enough."
"Once you grasps the unique configuration of your muscles when your energy is most stable, you need to reach within to find your hidden demon and communicate with that ki."
"You can communicate with ki?"
"I believe for someone half-human like you, it would be a demonic voice in your head or perhaps the feeling of ki swirling within you. The goal is to find that connection and open it. Once you are accustomed to it, summoning and controlling your ki should be as easy as turning on a faucet."
"That's too abstract." Wanting to test his theory on Shuichi's returning demon energy, he commanded, "Show me!"
"You know that's not possible," Shuichi chided. "I no longer hold any demon energy of my own. Just try being more self-aware. Could you do that for me?" Shuichi pleaded with a look of innocence in his eyes, reminding Yusuke of pet adoption posters or puppy youtube videos.
"Fine. I'll give it a shot." Yusuke folded his arms on the desk and rested his head on them. He turned to look at Shuichi who was now skimming through a book. Is it possible that Shuichi's demon energy was slowly coming back due to all tests he'd been running on himself? "Have you figured out your potion yet?"
"I believe I am getting closer. I will be running more experiments."
Before Yusuke could inquire about the effects of Shuichi's research in greater detail, the redhead continued, "I may also have to return to ningenkai. Kuwabara san, summer vacation must be over for you soon as well."
The tall boy nodded in confirmation. He was clearly fixated in the book before him and was making notes on a parchment.
Gesturing to Kuwabara, Yusuke said, "I don't care about the moron over here, but you not being here is gonna suck." His mind wandered to how he was going to handle the imminent war without his best friend and best adviser by his side. Well, at least the concentration ring have achieved its purpose of buying them more time, Mukuro have not taken any action in the last 3 days. His thoughts drifted to the monks. What's taking them so long to locate Raizen's old fighting partners?
"Hey, any word from Hokushin?"
Shuichi looked extremely apologetic, "I'm afraid I've been held up in my room until today. I don't have any news."
Kuwabara looked up from his book and shook his head, "Sorry, Urameshi. No news. I take it they haven't found anyone."
"I'm sure they would eventually find them," Shuichi was trying to reassure Yusuke by patting lightly on his shoulder."If not, there's actually a group of demons I'd like to approach when I return to ningenkai. They've been living in peace amongst humans and might be open to helping us given our stance against killing and eating humans."
Tucking his two pharmacognosy books under his arm, Shuichi got up from the table. "Now if you'd excuse me, I have to return to my experiments. In the meantime, you two should train."
Yusuke nodded. At the very least, his energy levels have been steadily increasing. Watching Kuwabara studying keenly at the table, he became aware that just like him, his human advisers were working to increase their powers for the potential war. Determined not to let them down, Yusuke took Shuichi's advice to heart. Somehow, he was certain, things will work themselves out. If not, he would make it work out.
Two days later, Hokushin returned in the middle of the night. Yusuke had spent the last two days being more conscious of his own powers. To his surprise, his energy was the most stable when he feels challenged, and not so when he is calm or excited. Since then, he'd been trying to break down the characteristics of each muscle component that helped him achieve energy stability. He'd also become more aware of the demon energies around him, that was how he was alerted to Hokushin's return.
Yusuke was in his quarters playing video games with Kuwabara. As inappropriate as it seems for Yusuke to be gaming while his country was facing a crisis, the first person shooter game helped him harness the feeling of being challenged and allowed him to commit the muscle configuration to memory. Noticing an erratic ki signature smelling of sandalwood and incense, Yusuke paused the game and yelled at the closed door before Hokushin even had a chance to knock, "Welcome back!"
Hokushin gave a deep bow. "Your Highness. Kuwabara san." He looked like he was breathless from running, there were beads of sweat on his brow.
"Hey Hokushin!" Kuwabara gave the monk a wave, getting up to fetch the exhausted adviser a drink.
"Glad to see you back! Where are the other two? Slacking off?"
"Your Highness, they are still conducting the search for King Raizen's old comrades," Hokushin stepped forward to kneel next to his king. Yusuke could see the apprehension in his eyes. "I come bearing other news…ah, much appreciated, Kuwabara san," Hokushin thanked the tall boy when he returned with a glass of water.
Yusuke gave his demon adviser time to take a long swig of water before nodding for him to continue.
"We chanced upon a Gandaran messenger with a communication orb and intercepted it," Hokushin started. "Long story short, Alaric and Tourin are forming an alliance through the marriage of their kings."
"No way!" Yusuke and Kuwabara both shouted at the same time.
"I wish this was a jest, however, once we had watched it, it became clear that the communication orb was a wedding invitation."
"That's why Mukuro has been so quiet the past five days." Yusuke concluded. Even though this alliance was bad news for Tourin, Yusuke felt oddly collected. His soaring confidence buffered the impact. "Are we invited?"
Taken aback by the question, Hokushin stammered, "I..I don't believe so, your Highness. I can't imagine why we would be invited."
"That's too bad," Yusuke mused, stretching his arms skyward and arching his back to work out the knots in his muscles. "It would have been a good opportunity to take them both out."
"This is a serious matter, Your Highness."
"He wasn't joking. He's gotten stronger," Kuwabara came to Yusuke's defense. "And I've been working on my techniques."
Hokushin paused, Yusuke could tell that he was assessing their energy levels. "Yes, Your Highness, you have in fact gained better control of your powers since we last met. Nevertheless, attacking your hosts at a wedding is inadvisable and poor etiquette."
"There is an upside, however," Hokushin continued as Yusuke and Kuwabara cackled at his comment, saying something about Yusuke having the etiquette of a monkey. "The Alarican army is assumably divided by this news. Alaricans have always been proud of their independence and warrior culture. Mukuro may have a rebellion on her hands, and will be too distracted to consider us."
Author's Notes: I'm still wanting to hear feedback on whether a disturbing scene is appropriate in the climax of this story. Also, I've decided how Yusuke would find out about Shuichi's identity. I hope that scene won't be too difficult to write.
Until next time!