#but if they get even a little demonic/spiritual energy then yusuke is all over them

[sadisticyouko]

i actually hc that yusuke and keiko get a divorce a few years down the line of them living together, getting married, and after having one or two kids

he’s just not suited for “human” life. never been the type. he was at his happiest fighting demons and challenging his own physical strength. being a detective gave him a purpose and put him in an environment where he was truly free to be himself.

at first he tried to fit in. really gave the whole “husband” and “father” thing a shot, but I think even keiko could notice the eventual dulling of his eyes. his lackluster attitude and eventually everything just seemed to make him mad. make him lash out.

and he’d never mean it like that. really. he’s a nice guy, they both know that to be a fact. but he’s just off. not really feeling this whole “living” vibe anymore and he thinks again maybe it’s because he’s not really supposed to be alive

but keiko knows better. it becomes obvious with age and it’s something she learns not to force on him. not anymore, at least.

i think they’re both happier after the divorce too. now that they can stop pretending and forcing their own ideas of “normal” on each other. yusuke mostly resides in the demon world, switching back from time to time and always visiting her. it’s kind of like they’re dating again.

she never remarries or even goes out with anyone else. her heart belongs to him. and his to her. they’re just better worlds apart from time to time.

she sees him smile more often. the energy around him is completely different when he’s set free. when he can fight and train and let himself be. and it’s a little sad that she can’t share the life she always wanted to with him. the one she’d picture after watching corny romance movies while he’d be away. but then again, she always knew they’d be kinda different. yusuke was always different.

their different works for them.

#sadisticyouko rants #yusuke yyh #keiko yyh #yusuke x keiko #yusuke headcanons #if u can even call it that lol #i just think that the happy ending we see at the end of yyh #is not actually yusuke’s happy ending #I’m sure he liked being with keiko and working at the ramen shop for as long as he did #but it’s like not his true nature #yanno? #anyways #i also kinda think he’s an absent father #his kid/kids might resent him for that #but if they get even a little demonic/spiritual energy then yusuke is all over them #teaching them everything he knows #which can be alienating to the one that doesn’t inherit any energy #okay i need to stop #yyh #yu yu hakusho

[rouge-the-bat]

Please tell me more about Kurama (Shuichi Minamino) going to school with Yusuke and Kuwabara.

Personally I don't think he'd be close to either of them prior to Yusuke coming back to life, wherin he would call spirit world shenanigans. If we go with the idea that Hiei would follow Kurama around even prior to his arrest, I would not be shocked if local anime protag who hangs out on roof would find the little hellion once or twice.

Hiei would watch Yusuke beat up Kuwabara on a near daily bases, and when they meet he would give Yusuke a little "nice work, try explaining me to anyone and I will kill you" before blinking away. Or the classic Bill Murray of "no one will ever believe you". Kurama overhears Yusuke yelling to Keiko about some short black blur of a boy on the roof and local fox in disguise has to keep a straight face.

You know, if anything, Keiko and Kurama might know each other best out of all the group. They are both top ranking students, so they were probably teamed up for assignments or class activities.

Just some of my thoughts, love to hear more of yours.

HEHE YEAS U ACTUALLY ARE RIGHT ON THE MONEY OF SOME OF MY THOUGHTS ALREADY !!!

i already figured that Kurama wouldnt be close to Yusuke and Kuwabara prior to the actual events of normal canon, he avoids most people to keep a distance from them since hes a demon, aside from Maya who would tag along with him on her own accord (and he ends up making an exception for her since he was lonely prior to meeting Hiei, i also have a little Maya-related thought ill get into later).

and i think hed expressly avoid Kuwabara, not out of dislike for him or anything and hed be rather polite about it, but Kurama would hear the rumors of Kuwabaras spiritual awareness and figured itd be safer to stay away from him so he wouldnt detect his clearly non-human energy. and despite Kurama often being distant to many people, Kuwabara still picks up on how Shuichi seems to avoid him particularly- which ofc Yusuke has to make a joke that Shuichi probably thinks Kuwabara is a freak and that he should stay away, and says his assumption is right [cue another fight between Kuwabara and Yusuke lol].

AND YES YES Hiei absolutely follows Kurama around all the time, and i defintely think at some point when Yusuke goes up to the roof during lunch he ends up finding Kurama sitting with Hiei and sharing his lunch (packed by shiori of course) with him. and catches Kurama being Very Flirty with Hiei, who gets VERY blushy hehe. finally it clicks to Yusuke why Shuichi never goes out with any of the many girls that fawn over him lol (though he also wonders how the hell the kid that doesnt go to their school even got up onto the roof in the first place). i didnt think about Yusuke encountering Hiei up there alone at some point but thatd also be really fun, i love the thought of Hiei not giving a shit and just disappearing into thin air in front of him, which would put Kurama in a bit of a weird spot when Yusuke later sees them together and clearly are close. i definitely have to think more about the weird meetings Hiei can have with Yusuke and Kuwabara more lol. so many possible interactions to make them think "wow Shuichis secret punk boyfriend is weird as fuck" HGJDHFJ

I do think Hiei would find Yusuke and Kuwabaras antics amusing, gives something more interesting going on to witness at the school besides people just going about their usual business (though of course he also enjoys just watching Kurama because hes very pretty :'3 though he doesnt understand why he keeps to playing the part of perfect school boy). at some point Yusuke probably sees Hiei watching Shuichi from a tree or something and thinks hes his stalker until he finds them hanging out together jfksjjfd

and yeah i figured Kurama probably interacts with Keiko the most before the main story! since shes part of the student council, i think theyd sometimes work together for that even though Kurama isnt actually a part of it, since many clubs and stuff tend to ask him for various favors since hes the top student and great at problem solving of all kinds n stuff. and through that Kurama would sometimes interact a bit with Yusuke because hed totally come in to bother Keiko while shes working lmao. and sometimes during their spats one of them- usually Keiko- will try dragging Kurama into it to share his opinion, to which hed usually give a polite smile and laugh and say its not his place- if he DOES tell his stance though Yusuke knows Shuichi is probably gonna give advice that mostly sides with Keiko jgksjfjd

i also think that when Yusuke comes back from the dead, itd get Kuramas attention and hed try prodding Keiko about it, since he figured itd be more natural to find out the situation from her rather than Yusuke directly since he never really had much connection with him. because it wouldnt be likely for spirit world to just bring someone back to life for no reason and it makes him wonder whats up. but when Keiko doesnt really know the specifics of what happened (and fumbles and shyly avoids the part where she essentially kissed Yusuke back to life), Kurama doesnt really pry too much into it in the end though because he doesnt find it worth his time or energy since hes basically depressed around this time because of his mothers illness and is already planning to be sacrificing his life for her.

he quickly puts the pieces together during the artifacts of darkness arc when Yusuke calls himself a spirit detective, but Kurama ultimately doesnt act too much different here compared to the events of canon, because what would it matter if a classmate knows hes a demon criminal if (according to his plan) hes going to be dead soon? i also think that before this while Shiori has been sick, Yusuke and Kuwabara noticed that Shuichi still seems to be acting as he usually does, and still smiles, but his eyes look completely drained of life like a zombie.

i also see that before Kurama had a total personality overhaul because of his mother protecting him, when he was little he was quite a little shit. he wasnt overtly confrontational like Yusuke and Kuwabara were, but he always clearly held himself as above everyone in school- students and teachers alike. he never shared and wasnt so polite about avoiding people back then, especially since he found being surrounded by a bunch of little kids quite annoying, on top of being agitated back then about being stuck in such a tiny weak child body. Kurama also totally pulled pranks all the time, both to appease his boredom and to get revenge on anyone that pissed him off- particularly any teachers that tried to talk down to him. they tended to be of the ~supernatural~ variety, like mushrooms suddenly filling up a teachers desk files like theyd been growing there for a month, so he was never found out.

and Yusuke never personally clashed with Kurama, but he did have a bit of a grudge against him because whenever it seemed like Shuichi was gonna get in trouble for something, he got off the hook because of him being such a model student, while Yusuke never got off easy. He was especially salty about it because he always swore Shuichi was a thief but no one believed him. sure he never actually saw him steal anything, but the day the snack he brought went missing, Shuichi later had that same snack during lunch, and Yusuke swore it wasnt a coincidence (and it wasnt lmao, but he couldnt prove it). anytime some kids brought their gameboys or whatnot and their games went missing, Yusuke always suspected Shuichi (and he was right :p ). Yusuke knew if he confronted Shuichi hed probably get into way worse trouble for punching the lights out of the model student than he does for his roughhousing with Kuwabara. he also figured it probably wouldnt be satisfying to hit Shuichi anyways, because he thought he looked fragile like a doll and would crumple like tinfoil (oh how wrong he was about that though LOL).

then over one summer the situation of Shiori catching Kurama so he doesnt fall on broken glass happens, and he begins to change to how he is now. so when hes back at school, he suddenly seems TOTALLY different and is actually polite to others. he may still be rather quiet and reserved, but he smiles more, and actually helps people out often. he doesnt distance himself quite as much as he used to. the number of pranks and missing items dont stop completely, but they diminish quite a bit. his change was so drastic and sudden that Yusuke and Kuwabara would joke that Shuichi got abducted by aliens, had his brain wiped, and replaced with an alien trying to fit in and gain the humans trust LOL. i think Keiko would also sometimes nag Yusuke about how he should make a change in himself and be nicer to others like Shuichi has, which would make Yusuke a bit irritable around Kurama even though it wasnt really him that was the source of his annoyance

also once they get into junior high, Yusuke and Kuwabara are happy to see the number of pranks around the school have skyrocketed again. because even though Kurama is fake nice to Iwamoto and Akashi, he HATES them because theyre such assholes, even if they tend to be nice to him because of him being the top student. and Yusuke doesnt even particularly care that he tends to be blamed for the pranks by those two teachers, because seeing them being pranked is VERY fun, and theyll pin anything on him and Kuwabara anyways so theres no point hating whatever genius is actually pranking them. im unsure though on if Yusuke has ever found Kurama before in the process of setting up a prank, and thus figures all of the crazy pranks he has no clue how someone could even pull off is from Shuichi, or if he and Kuwabara are totally clueless on whos doing them.

after the events of two shots, i think even though he never really interacted with her before, Kuwabara would notice that Maya suddenly stopped following Shuichi around all the time, and Kuwabara assumes (rather accurately, though of course clueless of the supernatural happenings) that Maya asked him out and was turned down, and feels sympathy for her. Yusuke is like, 'oh what, youre gonna swoop in and be her knight in shining armor?' Kuwabars ofc denies that, saying shes very pretty and if she wanted to date he wouldnt turn her down, but he will not take advantage of her in her time of sorrow! so he tries being nice to her and they become sorta-friends (though Kuwabara is a bit freaked out from her interest in paranormal stuff lol). through this would also be a key moment where Yusuke and Kuwabars start noticing that theres something strange about Shuichi, as from Kurama using his flower of forgetfulness on her so she forgets her feelings for him, so too came a bit of alteration of her memories where she no longer has much memory about him in general, and thus doesnt recall spending much time with him. so when at some point Shuichi becomes a topic of conversation, its clear that she doesnt know him that well and is confused when people are surprised about that, and even more so when people insist that she used to hang around him a lot. her saying that thats not true and never happened puts the idea in Kuwabaras head that theres something Very weird about the situation.

also Yusuke totally does a "your mom" joke to Kurama at some point and is met with a COMPLETE DEATH GLARE and feels a weird threatening energy, while Kurama says with a very flat unemotive voice 'do not make those sorts of jokes about my mother.' Yusukes like 'jeez he looked like he was going to strangle me over a your mom joke' fkdbjgbdjf

THIS GOT REALLY LONG BUT. I JUST THINK THIS IDEA IS REALLY FUN N I WANNA DO SOMETHING WITH IT FKBDJ its fun to think about :'3

#EE i posted that post at like midnight so i kinda figured ppl would end up probably not seeing it #so seeing this ask got me really excited hehe #yyh shared school au #kurama #yusuke urameshi #kazuma kuwabara #hiei #keiko yukimura #kurahi #youko kurama #shuichi minamino #yu yu hakusho #yyh #if anyone actually reads all of this... i love you #maya kitajima

[arashikitten]

Why has no one made a Yu Yu Hakusho x Danny Phantom crossover yet?

?I mean, honestly, look at these two shows! Look at them! How is it that no one (that I know of) has made a crossover with them yet? There’s so much potential!  I mean honestly! Both are about a 14-year-old who died in or before the first episode, came back to life through some sort of shenanigans, and ended up with supernatural abilities as a result. Both Danny and Yusuke have a very close knit friend group comprised of people who know about said supernatural abilities and help them fight all form of malicious supernatural entities (Danny fights ghosts, Yusuke fights demons). Both Yusuke and Danny have a rival/arch-nemesis who, at the start of the series, is leagues above the protagonists in terms of power, but ends up being surpassed by the main protagonist sometime during the second season of their respective show. Both Vlad and Toguro serve as foils to Danny and Yusuke respectively, and while they may feel some sort of kinship with them for some reason or other, they tend to see the young protagonist as someone who is below them in terms of power, intelligence, and skills (even after that is no longer the case). Both Danny and Yusuke are snarky and seem like delinquents to all but their closest friends, but secretly they have a heart of absolute gold. Both would (and have) died for any one of their friends, and they likely have a metric fuck ton of trauma from the many, many, many times they almost watched their friends and family die right in front of them. And of course, both Danny and Yusuke are likely to become kings of their own supernatural realm (if you disregard DP’s canon in favor of the fanon like I do).

So then the question becomes this: how would a crossover between the two shows go?

Here’s how I see it playing out:

Sometime after the last episode of Yu Yu Hakusho, and right after the events of Reign Storm, Yusuke (who I would say is about 18-19 years old now) gets a call from Koenma for the first time in almost 4 years. Koenma tells Yusuke that he needs him to come back for one final case: investigate a small town in Northeastern America for recent spikes in spiritual and demonic activity. 

When Yusuke asks why Koenma wants him to look into what is seemingly a tourist trap town, Koenma tells him that the town was recently encased under a dome of spirit energy, disappeared for almost 24 hours, and then suddenly reappeared again, and Koenma suspects that someone- or something- from spirit world might be responsible.

Three calls and four plane tickets later, Yusuke and the gang land in Illinois and make their way to Amity Park. Kuwabara takes one (1) step into the town and immediately freezes. He’s always been the most spirit-sensitive of the group, and this town is setting off all of his proverbial alarms. Kurama, Hiei, and Yusuke also notice something off about the town, like everyone here has way higher spirit energy than normal. 

The four make their way through town, noticing more and more as they continue. They notice the massive craters that litter the streets. They notice the constant smell of spirit and demon energy that drenches the town like a fog, covering everything and everyone. They notice the small, silvery-grey and green devices that almost everyone seems to have on their wrist, and Yusuke can’t help but think about how similar they look to the spirit-detecting gadgets he used to have back during the beginning of his detective career. They notice the metal panels that every store seems to have hanging above their windows, waiting to come down and defend from some unknown beast.

They notice how, whenever they appear in an area, everyone in the vicinity goes silent. Tense. Wary of them. Like they know three demons just appeared, even if all of them look human.

Yusuke and his team split up to search through the town and cover more ground, agreeing to meet by the local highschool in two hours. Things just get even weirder from there. 

 Kurama finds a patch of wild blood blossoms growing near the forest, despite the fact that they were declared extinct more than 200 years ago. Hiei sees a pair of burly men wearing all white suits and dark sunglasses dragging a young man with white hair and sunglasses away for questioning. Kuwabara is surprised when a small, glowing green puppy appears in front of him, only to vanish when he leans down to pet it.

Yusuke finds a massive stone brick building with what almost looks like a UFO perched on top, and huge neon sign with the words FentonWorks on it. Here, the spirit energy is almost suffocating, and it feels like molasses, thick and heavy and dense on Yusuke’s senses. He feels something else though, something that just barely manages to break through the thick ambient spirit energy that swamps this entire block: a ghost. And a powerful one at that.

By the time the group reconvenes at the high school, everyone is tense. They’re sure that there’s something sketchy in this town, but none of them have gotten any concrete leads on what caused the town’s sudden disappearance and reappearance. Almost none of the townsfolk give them any answers, and the few that do are vague and confusing, or outright lies. Kuwabara firmly believes that this town is haunted by ghosts, and that they’re what caused the sudden disappearance, but Yusuke, having been a ghost himself at one point, is less inclined to believe that. Yusuke is convinced that the house with the weird UFO thing and abnormal spirit energy has something to do with it, and the gang agrees that would be the best place to start.

Before they can do that though, they all suddenly sense a MASSIVE spike in spirit energy, coming from the center of town. Yusuke and the gang book it to where the spike is, hoping to get some sort of lead.

Meanwhile, Danny is having a fight with Skulker, made slightly more difficult than normal due to the fact that he’s still recovering from the whole Pariah Dark fiasco. He’s been on edge all day, ever since he sensed that weird ectosignature near his house. He’d felt the typical chill of his ghost sense, but the typical puff of blueish smoke wasn’t present like it usually was. On top of that, he’d felt a small jolt of electricity, too big to be chalked up to static electricity and carrying with it a hint of... something. Something not entirely human. 

But when Danny had tried to investigate, he’d come up empty handed. Which as you can guess, made Danny My-friends-and-family-have-all-almost-been-killed-by-a-ghost-disguised-as-a-human-at-least-once Fenton more than a little nervous.

So Danny’s fighting Skulker when he feels that not-quite ghost sense again, except this time it’s even stronger than before and waaaay the hell closer. And now Danny goes from nervous to flat out terrified, because whoever or whatever is triggering his not-quite ghost sense is really fucking strong, and oh fuck are there four of them?! Are they getting closer?!?! Whatever it is is really strong, like almost stronger than Pariah Dark and Danny was barely able to take him down at 100% strength with the enhanced suit, and he no longer has the suit and he still has not fully recovered since then, so how in the fresh hell is he gonna fight four beings who are at least on par with Pariah? 

Skulker notices the sudden power spike as well and immediately bounces, leaving Danny to panic over these four insanely powerful entities. 

Yusuke and the gang make it just in time to see Skulker leave while Danny hovers in the air, looking like he’s about to blow a gasket. Kurama takes one look at the panicking ghost kid floating above him, notices the weird spirit energy around the kid, and immediately puts two and two together and realizes the kid is a ghost, and a really powerful one. Yusuke, who if you remember spent about a week as a ghost at the age of 14, is confused because I thought ghosts couldn’t be seen by living people? But these bystanders are clearly seeing this kid? 

And then Yusuke senses that strange spirit energy he felt when he went by FentonWorks, and he’s like “You were the reason for the weird spirit signature!” at Danny, who panics and flies off because now he thinks these super powerful guys are working for the GiW, and he’d rather not spend the rest of his afterlife on an examination table.

So Danny flies off, hoping to lose Yusuke and his gang, but Yusuke I-used-to-fight-demons-who-could-move-at-the-speed-of-sound-for-fun Urameshi and Hiei have absolutely no problem keeping up with the panicking halfa, and they end up fighting. Yusuke and Hiei want answers, Danny is terrified of being caught by what are possibly government agents, and finally Kurama manages to trap the halfa with ghostly vines.

Unfortunately for Danny, these vines are phase-proof, meaning he can’t escape, and he’s already hurt and exhausted and he doesn’t know how much longer he can hold his ghost form.

Yusuke picks up on the ghost’s nervousness immediately, and again assumes that this ghost is the culprit for Amity’s sudden disappearance, demanding to know why he abducted an entire town.

Danny is confused, because what the hell are these people talking about? He never abducted the town? He’s not nearly that powerful?? Before he realizes that oh, these people are trying to figure out why the town disappeared for 24 hours because literally no one outside of Amity Park has any idea why.

So Danny starts to explain what really happened, when his time finally runs out and he detransforms. 

Right in front of what he believes to be four government officials.

There are five different reactions.

Hiei goes still. He’s completely silent. This shouldn’t be possible. He wants to believe that this is all a trick, but he can hear that fifth heartbeat that wasn’t there ten seconds ago and he smells that fear scent that only humans have and glamour can only do so much.

Kurama has the calmest reaction. He leans back a little, eyes wide, and lets out a soft “oh”. Yes, this is a surprise to him, but then again, Kurama himself is a demon hiding as a human, with a human family, so he immediately sympathizes with Danny a bit.

Danny is panicking. He’s just revealed his biggest secret to four complete strangers, all of whom are absolutely powerful enough to take him out on their own, and he is terrified that they’ll turn him in to the government. He’s about five seconds from a full-blown panic attack.

Kuwabara freaks out. He’s trying to wrap his mind around this whole thing, because he is 100% sure this kid was a ghost, that he was dead, but now he’s not sensing much of anything and how the hell is this possible???? How can someone be a ghost and a human at the same time???? WHAT????? He’s pulling at his hair as he tries to put the logistics of it together, pacing back and forth.

Yusuke freezes. Suddenly he’s 14 again, floating as he watches his body get carted off as he tries to come to terms with the fact that he’s dead. Then he’s in the temple of the four saint beasts, fighting with everything he has as he watches the love of his life get attacked by monstrous zombies. Then kneeling next to Genkai’s broken and bleeding body, begging her not to go even as she draws her last breath because he couldn’t bear to lose the woman that he’s come to see as family, as the closest thing he’d ever have to a grandmother. Then he’s watching Toguro plunge his hand into Kuwabara’s heart, watching as his best freind gasps for breath because Yusuke wasn’t good enough, he wasn’t strong enough, and he just lost Genkai he can’t loose Kuwabara too-.

And when he looks down at this small, skinny teenager with deep shadows under his eyes and knuckles covered in scars from god-knows haw many fights, he sees himself as he was in the beginning: Just a kid who was thrust into the world of the supernatural without any warning, desperately trying to stay alive and protect the human world despite the fact that he’s only a teenager, and he shouldn’t have to be fighting for his life against these ancient and powerful demons because he’s a kid, dammit!

Yusuke kneels down to get to eye level with the kid. He can’t help the painful twinge in his chest when the kid looks up at him with wide, icy blue eyes, and quietly begs him not to tell anyone, because this kid can’t be much older than he was when he started out as a spirit detective and he sounds absolutely terrified, and Yusuke can’t help but wonder why he sounds so scared of people learning about the whole ghost thing. 

“Listen, kid. We’re not going to hurt you. We were sent here to investigate something, and we were hoping you might know something. Can you tell us your name?”

“Danny. D-Danny Fenton.”

“Ok, cool. Don’t worry, none of here are going to tell anyone about... about whatever this is. We just want to know about something that happened here a week ago, and we were hoping you could give us some answers.”

Danny agrees, and Kurama frees him from the vines. After a couple of moments, Danny calms down as he realizes that no, these guys won’t rat him out to the government, and he agrees to answer some of their questions.

The group make their way to the outskirts of the forest, and Danny tells them about his status as a half-ghost: he tells them about his parents, how they were building a portal to the ghost zone (Everyone is more than a little freaked out at that, because now there’s a permanent portal to spirit world that Koenma doesn’t know about), how he’d gone inside to see if he could figure out why it wasn’t working, how it’d turned on while he was inside (Yusuke clenches his fists hard enough to draw blood. Both of the times he’d died had been excruciatingly painful, but at least they’d been quick. Getting electrocuted to death would be beyond agonizing, and getting caught in a portal like that...). He tells them about how his parents despise ghosts, believing them to be cruel, malicious, and emotionless, incapable of feeling pain. He tells them about how he’s TERRIFIED of telling his parents the truth, of telling them that he’s Danny Phantom because that seems to be the ghost they want to capture the most, and he’s seen what they do to the ghosts they capture (Kurama and Yusuke feel sick at that. No wonder the kid was so adamant about keeping this a secret.). 

“Does anyone else know? Anyone at all?”

Yusuke breathes a small sigh of relief when Danny tells them that his sister and his two best friends know. That sigh of relief is rescinded when the kid tells them that oh yeah, all the ghosts that are constantly attacking the town? Yeah, they know my secret identity too.

Yusuke has to force himself to move on from that last tidbit because he’s about five seconds from adopting this kid despite being only five years older.

“Ok, neat. That’s... that’s ok. Moving on to why we’re here. We were hoping that you would have some information regarding the sudden disappearance and reappearance of Amity Park a week ago? Do you know why or how it happened?”

Danny talks about how, one week ago, ghosts started pouring out of the portal in unprecedented numbers. How they were terrified, running from something in the ghost zone. How Fright Knight had appeared, declaring the reign of Pariah Dark (Kurama and Hiei suck in a breath. Had... had this kid seriously fought against the fabled ghost king?), and the massive green dome had appeared over the town. How he’d tried to fight Fright Knight off, how another ghost by the name of Vlad Plasmius had shown up and admitted that he was the reason for Pariah Dark’s temporary freedom, how Plasmius had decided to have a temporary truce with Danny in order to defeat Pariah, how Danny had pulled Fright Knight’s sword from the ground and accidentally teleported Amity Park into the Ghost zone, how the entire town had gone under lock down. How he’d stolen the power suit from his parent’s lab to go and face Pariah on his own, and bring Amity back to Earth. How he’d just barely been able to shove Pariah back in the sarcophagus of Forever Sleep, how the power suit had almost completely drained his life energy, how the town had been back on earth when he’d woken up (Again, Yusuke has a flashback to the Temple of the Four Saint Beasts. What is it with the powers that be and sending kids to do life-threatening missions like that?).

Kurama records the entire thing before sending it to Koenma. 

When Danny is finally done, he notices that everyone is staring at him. Yusuke is the first one to speak.

“Damn kid, you really fought the king of the Ghost Zone, huh?” Danny stutters for a moment, because this guy is saying it like Danny fought a god or something. Like yeah, it was difficult, but it can’t be that big a deal right?

Then Kurama speaks up. “Danny, I don’t think you understand. There are two ways to crown a king of the Ghost Zone: either the ghost zone itself must choose someone, or the current ghost king must be defeated in battle. You defeated Pariah Dark in battle. Meaning....”

Everyone goes silent for a moment, processing.

Then several things happen at once. Danny, who at this point still hasn’t fully processed that oh yeah, I defeated one of the most powerful ghosts in existence, freaks the hell out because I barely have time to protect one (1) town, how am I going to rule an entire dimension? Kuwabara is flipping his shit again, Hiei is contemplating, and Yusuke.... Yusuke decides screw it, I’m having an apprentice now, and after calming Danny down, he offers to help train him up a bit (Somewhere in spirit world, Genkai starts quietly laughing).

Danny agrees after a moment of deliberation. Yusuke hangs out in Amity for a bit to help Danny. His first interaction with Sam and Tucker is.... interesting. Yusuke snuck up on Sam and Tucker, and Sam promptly punched him in the face and almost broke his nose. But after a bit they start to warm up to him, and eventually Yusuke starts teaching Sam some hand to hand along with Danny.

Vlad makes one appearance while Yusuke is there. He sensed some sort of foreign presence in Amity and wanted to see if he could exploit it, only for Yusuke I-haven’t-slept-in-a-week-and-I-refuse-to-start-now Urameshi to wipe the floor with him. When he asks Danny who the new ghost is, he is surprised to learn that no, Danny is not the only half-ghost in existence, and also that guy is a famous millionaire and also knows my secret identity so maybe let’s not break into his mansion to fight him please? (Yusuke agrees not to after a very lengthy argument. Still, the whole situation reminds him a little too much of Toguro and the Dark tournament, and he quietly asks Koenma to open an investigation into this Vlad Plasmius guy.)

Yusuke’s introduction to Danny’s parents goes... surprisingly well, actually. Aside from one small incident where one of the Fenton ghost detectors lock on to Yusuke’s signature, everything goes fairly well. Jack and Maddie take a shine to him almost immediately, when they see him curb stomp Skulker with a practiced ease that only a professional should have, and within the week Yusuke is an honorary member of the Fenton family.  

There’s a lot more, but this post is waaaay too long as it is. Feel free to add on!

#Danny Phantom #yu yu hakusho #yusuke urameshi #danny fenton #Danny phantom crossover #Seriously tho why has no one done this one yet? #It would be so interesting #ESPECIALLY if Yusuke is older here #The dynamic between Yusuke and Danny would be so damn fun #I imagine it's similar to Genkai and Yusuke's relationship #Speaking of Genkai #The MOMENT she finds out that yusuke is training someone #She busts her way out of spirit world so she can find out who it is #she wants to know who her grandkid is teaching dammit! #she takes one look at Danny and is just like #Looks like I'm adopting yet another snarky half dead fourteen year-old #Also Danny can totally see her #and it throws her for one hell of a loop #Danny floats up to her and is like yo what's up? #and Genkai's chill abt it on the outside #on the inside tho #she's like #*surprised pikachu face* #Hiei #Kurama #yyh kuwabara #koenma #i will pay whoever writes this 50 dollars #jk i don't have any money #but like

[gabriel-gabdiel]

Youtou Shinnoken: Demon Sword Chapter 57: Living Sin (Part 9)

Hiei does his best to take care of Usui Uonuma, who’s gunning for his Jagan. In turn, Yusuke deals with his old behemoth of an enemy who was once merely B-Class in power level.

Kenshin in turn deals with an enemy from his past with the assistance of one of the Spirit World ferry-girls.

Credit for the pictures goes to Ozzy Oz da Vyrus. 

The original source of this idea comes from Chad Yang. I continued his story idea found here.

The rest of the chapters of my Yuyu Hakusho and Rurouni Kenshin crossover fan fiction are available here and here. Enjoy.

First | Previous | Next

Up above the Okushiri Military Base....

The flying fortress made of solidified reiatsu (spiritual pressure or pressurized spirit energy) care of the Quest-Class powers of Detective Daiji Matsudaira (the reincarnation of Aoshi Shinomori) landed on the helipad of the base, startling the soldiers there.

Yahiko had earlier requested Botan to fly even higher up than the flying castle with purple beams of light shooting out of it in order to get the drop on the structure.

Literally.

From 50 kilometers above the earth, Yahiko descended straight towards the moving castle, its concentrated jaki beams dissipating against the ghostly human missile and his neutralizing reiki.

He first skydived from the ferry-girl's oar (much to her surprise and chagrin) up in the stratosphere and did his imitation of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu's "RYU TSUI SEN! (DRAGON HAMMER FLASH!)" for starters.

The impact then cracked the topmost outer shell of the dense fortress.

A trickle of reiatsu leaked off of the spiritual construct, like scattering fireflies in the night.

He then did one of his own Revisal Techniques of the Kamiya Kasshin School, named, "DOU GAMI! (GOD ON EARTH!)", which rocked the castle further at its core and spread cracks all over its very foundations.

Daiji's solidified reiatsu then turned into a shower of outright sparks, the solidified energy sublimating and ionizing into pure spirit energy.

Finally, the Tokyo Samurai Spirit executed a "TEN GAMI! (GOD IN HEAVEN!)" that started the downward spiral of the moving building, the cracks turning into outright crags and debris as the teenaged ghost got jettisoned high above even the stratosphere, reaching instead all the way to the mesosphere.

He reached a height about 70 kilometers or 43 miles away from earth.

The young samurai kid drove the Onmyouji's prison that whole distance from heaven to earth with a sky-cleaving, earth-shattering strike, or at least a strike powerful enough to send cloudy shockwaves behind them as they broke through the speed barrier.  

"INGA GAMI! (KARMIC GOD!)"

Yahiko's first of two ultimate attacks had enough jaki-neutralizing power to push that huge pillar right into the middle of the military base like a meteorite. A shooting star.

The sublime mix of reiki (spirit energy) and jaki (negative energy) then ionized into their base forms, the kenki (swordsman energy) that bound them fading away into the ether.

All of these forms of energy were neutralized by Yahiko's own strange spirit energy. His own reiatsu or unique mixture of reiki and kenki.

His strike from his self-made sakabatou (Kenshin's reverse-edged sword that Yahiko manifested using his reiki) was powerful enough to warp time and space itself. Like a blunt version of the Jigen Tou.

Only a single helipad-sized spire of the formerly huge fortress was left by the time it crash-landed unto the base.

***

Youtou Shinnoken: Demon Sword

A Rurouni Kenshin/Yuyu Hakusho Crossover Fan Fiction Story by Chester Castañeda

Original Concept by Chad Yang

The Kenshingumi will now take care of their loose ends before fighting the final boss of this arc. This battle is about to explode! FIGHT!

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 Gallop, Studio Deen, and ADV. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted materials that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.

***

Chapter 57: Living Sin (Part 9)

***

Back at Kitaoimisaki Park...

Usui Uonuma shook his head. The newbie member of the New Ten Swords, Kuronue, was outwitted by the legendary demon fox Youko Kurama as well.

If you wanted something done right, do it yourself.

Amidst the burned shadows and silhouettes that were once Kuronue stood Usui, his previously broken Tinbe practically whole now.

With it now capable of withstanding the heat and impact of multiple Jaou-En-Satsu Kokuryuha (Dragons of Darkness Flames) from Jaganshi (Evil Eye User) Hiei, the black serpentine flames were unable to affect the turtle shell one way or another.

But Uonuma knew that Jaganshi Hiei had one more ace up his sleeve. The Chojin's spies had briefed him about the fire demon and his ability to absorb the power of the fiery dragon beings unto himself.

As expected, Hiei boosted his speed and power tremendously by absorbing the flame dragons of the Kokuryuha right into his body, his youki (demon energy) rising to astonishing levels. To S-Level and beyond.

Under the old Reikai rules, Hiei's presence there would've been considered outright illegal. A demon that powerful shouldn't be in the Ningenkai (Human World).

A demon that powerful was on par with one of the Chojin's Ten Swords.

'So this demon's name is Hiei, huh?' thought the blind man, waxing nostalgic. That was also the name of the mountain where the old Juppon Gatana (Ten Swords) stronghold was.

What a curious demon. He had the speed of Souiro "Heaven Sword" Seta and the strength (or even firepower) of Makoto Shishio.

If Usui could conquer this strong demon, then he'd get one more step closer to standing as equals with the Youkiri (Demon-Slayer) Tenro.

To sit at the right hand of an unborn god. To be able to challenge an unborn god and become one himself.

Nah, perhaps that last one was still a bridge too far for him. But this, defeating the fire demon, wasn't.

The dragons roared and gnawed against the Tinbe but like a mountain standing above the earth with a crown of clouds, it wouldn't yield.

His Tinbe then reformed completely, but there was a gap the size of a sword slash right on its upper top left corner.

That was where Hiei focused his attack, sticking the tip of his Jaou-En-Satsu Ken (Sword of Darkness Flame) right into it, forcing its way in.

Hiei learned a lot from Kurama's little trick earlier with the Demon World Moss. This time around, the jaganshi found a weak point before the shield was able to fully heal or reconstitute itself.

Hiei's aura of youki and black flames flared to life, increasing the pressure on that one little crack, like a pressure cooker about to burst.

More cracks appeared on the shield as the pressure built up further and further. It reached the boiling point and then went beyond it. Through this one weakness, Hiei was able to focus his demonic energies and bust through.

The Tinbe cracked apart in twain and then into a million pieces, and from there Hiei released all of the Dragons of Darkness Flame unto Usui's hapless form.

However, that was actually a ruse.

The blind swordsman and spearman had actually activated a second illusion from Jine Udo's Jagan as Hiei attacked with the full power of the Kokuryuha inside of him, knowing full well that his Tinbe wasn't complete yet.

However, by making Hiei dream that he had broken the false Tinbe, this bought Usui enough time to completely manifest his real Tinbe with the small crack or gap finally filled in.

It was this shield that stopped the Dragons of Darkness Flame cold.

Usui baited Hiei into wasting his one shot at him and it worked. Hook, line, and sinker.

Every last one of the flame dragons crashed uselessly against the reinforced and complete Tinbe, like the waves of the ocean crashing against the sea wall or dam. The tides turned but the wall remained unperturbed.

Hiei's Jagan was now his...!

However, as Uonuma began his counter Rochin stab with the intension of pinning both Hiei and Kurama into the nearest wall like twin butterflies, something felt amiss.

His body then literally fell apart into tiny pieces of meat cubes, red mist spraying all around him.

Usui was able to seal the crack on his Tinbe, but the gap of time he needed to do his counterstrike was all Hiei required to strike back.

In that fraction of a fraction of a second, the super-powered fire demon slashed at him at the rate of a hundred times per second. Or more.

Before Usui could block one strike with his shield. Or counter with a thrown spear to the heart or face.  Or even activate Jine's Jagan at the last second and create another illusion to fool Hiei with.

Moving faster than his sensitive hearing could detect. Or predict.

Moving faster than his mind could fathom.

Moving faster than sound itself.

***

About a hundred years ago, around the 1870s, inside Shishio's hidden fortress within Mount Hiei...

From out of the blue, Usui Uonuma asked Makoto Shishio a simple question.

"Between the Ten Ken (Heaven Sword) and myself, who is more powerful?" he had asked out of whimsy. "Who would win in a fight?"

Shishio chuckled, swirling the wine inside his wineglass as he considered Uonuma's unusual query. He decided to humor his former hitokiri (manslayer) rival.

"You can keep up with Sou-kun's speed up until he uses the Shun Ten Satsu (Instant Heaven Kill), which is him using both battoujutsu (sword-drawing techniques) and the Shukuchi (Reduced Earth) at the same time. If you're able to disable him before that, then you will win."

"Shun Ten Satsu, huh?" repeated Usui. "Why do you think that?"

Makoto drunk his drink in one shot and then gave the glass back to his courtesan and lover, Yumi Komagata.

"It's simple. You can counter anything you can hear, smell, sense, and react to, right? Sou-kun's Shun Ten Satsu is faster than sound. Your Shingan won't even hear him coming."

***

Back in 1993, at Mount Kannon...

Kenshin Himura sighed as he trudged on foot back to Mt. Kannon within the Hidaka Mountain Range of Hokkaido.

He had Kazuma Kuwabara place him near the mountain care of the trusty Jigen Tou (Dimension Sword).

Like in the case of the battle at Mount Kamui, Mount Kannon was outside of Okushiri.

Kenshin had absorbed enough spirit energy from all the Reikai Tantei (Spirit Detectives) earlier to manifest himself and his spiritual body on his own, without being wielded by any of them.

Although he was kind of curious what sort of powers would manifest if his sword were held by the likes of Yahiko Myojin, Natsuki Shinkai, Likka Ikumi, or Daiji Matsudaira.

Perhaps another time, they'd find out.

Most of the energy he soaked up came from Yusuke Urameshi, in fact. It should last him until the rest of the battle.

The fact that Yusuke's reiki was that immense was both reassuring and worrying.

Reassuring in that they had the big guns against the Shin Juppon Gatana (New Ten Swords) this time around. Worrying in that he wasn't sure if it was Rando's Kugai (World of Suffering) curse or Urameshi's own developing powers that led him to have this surplus of energy.

Without all those multiple seals that held back his power, Yusuke might still suffer from power incontinence. He might still be unable to control his full immeasurable strength.

Regardless, Himura had other concerns to deal with. He was busy taking care of this Chinese warrior earlier, who wounded him in battle that made it difficult for him to save Hajime Saito from Feng Xinhai's schemes and Toguro Ani's attempt at possession.

A Chinese warrior that ended up related to him and his dark past after all.

The stranger with white hair and crazed eyes that Kenshin fought was no stranger to him after all. He remembered who the man was.

The man's name was Enishi Yukishiro, all grown up. The younger brother of Kenshin's ex-wife, Tomoe.

Since Tomoe was Kenshin's ex-wife, that made Enishi his brother-in-law. A brother-in-law with a century-old grudge regarding Kenshin's (accidental) murder of Tomoe Himura (nee Yukishiro).

"...Tell me, Battousai. Is my sister smiling down on you from heaven?" so said Tomoe's brother, Enishi.

Enishi had somehow ended up in the Heisei Era and got himself mixed up in Kenshin's current affairs. Himura could've almost sworn that his brother-in-law had died back in the Bakumatsu.

The younger brother of Tomoe was one of many unsettled debts Kenshin left when he died fighting against Makoto Shishio back at Mount Hiei.

In their first meeting in a hundred years, Enishi even gave Kenshin the same wound that ultimately killed Tomoe.

Meanwhile, as Himura neared where he previously defeated the martial artist, the cross-shaped scar on his cheek flared with a twinge of pain. No, actually the cuts felt as painful and fresh to him as the first time they were made.

The scar somehow ached even more than the much deeper laceration on his chest that still hadn't fully healed.

Like a paper cut that microscopically tore through skin and thousands of nerve endings like a jagged handsaw.

As though Enishi's very presence had reactivated Tomoe's curse on him. The curse of the cross-shaped scar.

***

At the helipad of the Okushiri Military Base...

"Get the HELL out of THERE! Sadojima Houji!" beckoned Yahiko as he sheathed his sakabatou while Botan herself swooped down from above then behind him.

He further chided, "That strike wasn't enough to take you down, right? No, you still have the Chojin's powers inside you, you dirty rat. Of course that wasn't enough!"

"You're being too loud, Yahiko! You're bothering the military people!" was what Botan resisted herself from saying, inwardly reminding the Kaoru inside her, 'He's supposed to be loud, you silly goose! The Chojin and his forces are invading Okushiri, remember? If not Hokkaido altogether!'

The aforementioned military base had long ago been put on high alert ever since supernatural beings started attacking different parts of the island at once.

Many of their deployed teams didn't return to the base hours after deployment.

"Stand aside, kid!" one of the soldiers said, who in Yahiko's eyes should've looked more shocked at seeing the seeming U.F.O. land in the middle of their base. "Civilians aren't allowed in here. This is now official military business!"

Another private attempted to grab hold of Myojin, only for him to slip his grasp. The teenaged version of Yahiko willed his ghostly self to become incorporeal.

The Jieitai or JSDF (Japanese Self-Defense Forces) then surrounded what was left of Daiji's solidified reiatsu structure, their guns cocked and ready to go.

What remained of Matsudaira's seal broke apart like a hatching egg.

And from there came forth the Onmyouji (Occult Priest) in all his glory, wearing a mix of a business suit with an occultist robe serving as his overcoat. The true right-hand man of the Overfiend.

With purple glowing eyes and a miasmic aura that flowed all over his body like thick black and crimson smoke from a smoldering flame, Houji spoke in askance.

"Why do you want to fight me, Myojin Yahiko? Do you bear a grudge against me? Do you hate me from the bottom of your heart?"

Yahiko was taken aback by the question. "W-What...?"

"Right now, you have no such hate in your heart," said Houji the Onmyouji. "You're fighting out of a sense of duty to your friends. To your idol, Himura Battousai. Otherwise, you'd have no such quarrel against me."

Or perhaps Sadojima was merely acting as the representative speaker to one other person.

Perhaps Myojin was actually talking to the Chojin (Overfiend) himself. The mastermind behind all these resurrected baddies from the Meiji Era to the Heisei Era.

Just who the hell was the Chojin anyway? Was he Makoto Shishio? Or someone else entirely?

The Onmyouji's ghoulish shikigami (familiars) with their tattered robes and sharp scythes flew at the gathered soldiers, who fired at them to no avail.

"STOP!" screamed both Yahiko and Botan at the familiars prior to the massacre that was about to take place.

None of the military men stood a chance against these supernatural beings.

***

Back in Hokkaido, far away from Okushiri, at the foot of Mt. Kannon...

Kenshin witnessed Enishi's strength firsthand.

The Chinese warrior had become so powerful he drove Himura Battousai himself from the forests of Okushiri all the way to a whole separate mountain range in Hokkaido, miles away from the island.

By pure willpower and hatred, Enishi grew strong enough to give pause to even the powered-up version of Battousai that had his own magical Demon Sword.

The Overfiend had indeed prepared for every last contingency. He was every bit as cunning as Youko Kurama himself.

Earlier, Kenshin's chest actually got hit by Enishi Yukishiro's ultimate attack, the Kofuku Zetsu Tou Sei or Kofuku Zettousei (Crouching Tiger Severing Sword Rush), as a counter to the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki (Heavens Gliding Dragon Flash).

Kenshin was also distracted by the fact that Tomoe's brother managed to find him a century later to enact his rightful revenge. His Jinchu.

That was why he was defeated by a technique Enishi must've trained over and over again to counter all sorts of battoujutsu strikes, including the ultimate one devised for the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.

Luckily, instead of doing the follow-up strike that would've also missed, Kenshin had the foresight to do a more powerful version of the Dou Ryu Sen on the ground that was enhanced by the vortex created by the succession technique.

This last-minute creative counter was what initially buried Enishi right into the heart of Mt. Kannon.

Regardless, Kenshin arrived back at his earlier starting point.

By Himura's estimation, only he or maybe Yusuke could take Yukishiro out one-on-one. Enishi should not be allowed to join forces with the rest of the Shin Ju.

***

Yahiko manifested his neutralizing reiki and kenki all over the military base with a sparkling blue and yellow light that blended together and formed a green glow. This then warded off the raggedy evil spirits that served as the Onmyouji's shikigami.

It was his own form of spirit pressure. His spirit energy interacted with his swordsman presence in a way that sealed or canceled out the spiritual power of his opponents.

Botan, in turn, flickered back and forth between her original shinigami (death goddess) form and Kaoru Kamiya's form as she saved the soldiers from being reaped by Houji's soul reapers by using her floating boat oar like a bokken (wooden sword) or naginata (glaive).

The two Kamiya Kasshin Ryu practitioners made short work of the familiars before they could take one life of the JSDF military corps.

"Please evacuate from here. You're no match against them," explained Botan to one of the soldiers before swatting multiple weakened shikigami away with her weaponized boat paddle.

One of Myojin's shikigami-dissipating swings swiped mere inches away from Houji's face, creating a thin cut over the bridge of his nose.

"Swinging a sword mindlessly at someone out of hatred is just violence. Kenshin taught me that," said Yahiko. "My duty as the Son of Tokyo Samurai is to defeat you. That is all. I'll even stake my life on it."

Sadojima smirked. "So be it. Samurai-san."

From behind Houji teleported the ever-reliable Gatekeeper Itsuki.

Yahiko turned towards the blue-haired shinigami and told her, "Quick, call Boke (Moron) and tell him to come here right now."

"Boke...?" trailed off Botan.

"KUWABARA! Kuwabara Kazuma! We need him here now! If he needs healing, heal him up as well! He and his space sword are the only ones who can take on that green-haired yoga guy and his goddamn portals!"

"All right! I'll call him! Jeez," said Botan, who turned on her communicator.

"Language, Yahiko!" reprimanded the Kaoru inside her in turn.

Afterwards, Itsuki summoned a multitude of warp gates, this time rectangular and doorway-shaped instead of circular and hole-shaped.

Inside each dimensional door was either the corpse (as well as ashes) or unconscious body of the many different Shin Juppon Gatana members.

It was through these gates that the Occult Priest blasted his purple beams of negative energy. Before, they served as destructive pillars of neon plasma. Now, they were probably used to give the killed or otherwise heavily injured Shin Ju another lease on life.

"Oh no," said Botan. "Not again. He's not going to revive all the New Ten again, is he? Jeez, we just defeated those goons! Learn how to stay down and give up!"

The shining eyes of Houji the Onmyouji then dimmed and faded away, replaced with his actual normal eyes.

"Ah, you returned. The snotty little brat. How does it feel to go back to zero after all the effort you've spent killing the Shin Ju? Like Sisyphus and his rock, right?"

The boisterous nature of the Chojin's conduit had returned. Houji was seemingly awakened from his brief slumber earlier, when he actually sounded "cool" and "aloof" for a hot minute.

"Hey," said Yahiko. "What happened to you earlier? You weren't the one talking, were you?"

Houji raised an eyebrow at that. "What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb. It was the Chojin who talked to us back then, right?" asked Myojin. "Tell it to me straight: The Chojin is Shishio Makoto, isn't he? Of course, he is! Who else would start a war against the Spirit World with a team called the New Ten Swords? No one but him!"

The necromancer chuckled. "That's a... secret."

With a grunt, the samurai teen jumped and attacked the Chojin's right-hand man with a downward slash from the Jodan-no-Kamae (Fire Stance), which was then blocked by Houji's scythe.

They crossed blades, their different energies clashing against each other as arcs of lightning ripped through everywhere like light-filled cracks that broke through reality itself.

Houji's lack of formal training with his weapon was rendered moot due to his seemingly oceanic flow of negative energy that gave his simple block the weight of the world. Or at least the huge water pressure of the ocean depths.

However, regardless, the beams of purple plasma emanating from the dark priest flickered and wavered as it interacted with the reiatsu of Yahiko.

"That's it! You can do it, Yahiko!" said the Kaoru within Botan. "Show them why I consider you the number one pupil of the Kamiya Kasshin School!"

"Can you really do it, boy?" asked Houji, smirking. "Can you seal away the overflowing, overwhelming power of the Chojin himself? The Living Sin?"

The dimensional doors leading to the Shin Ju were then shut down. Or rather, slashed shut.

Gatekeeper Itsuki chuckled, his slashed eye that doubled as a dimensional portal opening. "He's here."

Sure enough, in one of the doors, the jaki beam was slashed in twain, the negative energy cut down by the spiritual might of the Jigen Tou.

It was from this door that Kazuma Kuwabara emerged, the transparent ghost of a recovering Sanosuke Sagara beside hiim.

"You called, Jo-chan (Missy)?" said Sano.

"YOSHA! (HELL YEAH!) Let's get this party started, samurai boy!" shouted Kazuma, the rambunctious teenager with bleached orange hair similarly styled like his best friend Yusuke Urameshi's hair.

***

And so there he was. Buried deep underneath Mt. Kannon itself like Son Goku the Monkey King from the literary masterpiece, "Journey to the West".

The rumbling inside the grumbling mountain roared deeper and harder. Like it was about to explode and turn into a volcano.

"...BATTOUSAI!" screamed Tomoe Yukishiro's little brother Enishi from underneath Kannon Mountain, spewing hot fire along with the brimstone and magma he was surrounded in.

His spectacles had long ago been lost or burned to smoke and ash by molten rock. The rest of his outfit remained intact though, probably protected by his body's significant aura.

Yukishiro crawled out of the hot magma pits of hell, or at least the otherwise dormant mountain in an explosion of fire, smoke, molten rock, and lava flow that scarred and burned the surrounding forest.

The singes and burns on Enishi's (literally) piping hot body, however, started healing right before Kenshin's eyes.

Not quite at the level of instantaneous regeneration as the Elder Toguro, but quick enough to survive a trip down a volcano and live to tell the tale. Still too quick compared to a normal mortal though.

Besides which, he wasn't supposed to only be burned from the fires of a river of magma anyway. It must've taken thousands of degrees of heat to even leave him slightly scalded at all.

His humongous amount of spirit energy kept him from suffering life-threatening injury. The same way Hiei or Yusuke would've survived such a predicament.

The red-hot blade of the Chinese-styled warrior didn't quite reach its melting point but it cooled down from the sheer blast of miasmic spirit energy from him.

If allowed to run rampant like the rest of the Ten Swords, Yukishiro could very well murder every last one of them. The Reikai Tantei, the Kenshingumi, and the Oniwabanshu.

All of them could die. This high-level martial artist could do what at least 8 of the 10 Shin Ju couldn't. He was a one-man army. He was like their Hajime Saito. A true wild card of sorts.

Kenshin foresaw it all through the Youtou Shinnoken.

The last thing Yahiko and the rest of the Reikai Senshi (Spirit World Warriors) needed right now while battling the Onmyouji and the Chojin's wealth of negative energy was a spanner in the works like Enishi.

***

The powers of most of the reincarnations or ghosts from the Meiji Era—most of Kenshin's comrades—were a result of how their spirit energy interacted with their swordsman energy or fighting spirit, creating what was known as reiatsu.

With Daiji Matsudaira (Aoshi Shinomori's reincarnation), it was the Quest-Class manifestation of objects and materials from his spirit energy.

With Natsuki Shinkai (Yutaro Tsukayama's reincarnation), it was the ability to manipulate kinetic momentum or acceleration, usually in the form of reflection or deflection.

With Likka Ikumi (Misao Makimachi's reincarnation), it was her skill to manifest her thoughts into reality, creating visual mirages or even holographic illusions seen by all.

With Sanosuke Sagara's soul, it was his pure fighting spirit that allowed his ghost to approach Regent-Class regeneration abilities, stamina, and pure brute force that allowed him to affect the physical plain like a rampaging poltergeist.

With Kaoru Kamiya's soul, it was a mix between Botan's soul reaper powers and Kaoru's past swordsmanship skills that allowed them to heal, boost, replenish, bind, manipulate, or otherwise enhance the spirit energy within them or of those around them.

With Kenshin Himura's soul, he became one with the Demon Sword, a demon-slaying blade that could arguably injure or kill a god. His own reiki, kenki, and reiatsu interacted with anyone who wielded his blade in ways that raised their very power levels.

Finally, with Yahiko Myojin's soul, his unique brand of spirit energy interacted with other spirit energy (whether it was human or demonic) in a way that suppressed or neutralized them into nothingness.

Yahiko's unique powers worked like how an acid and a base reacted quantitatively with each other when mixed until the acidity of the acid disappeared. Or how Hiei's Jaou-En-Satsu Kokuryuha was cancelled out by Shinobu Sensui's polar opposite power of Sei Kou Ki (Saint Light Ki).

Their reiatsu was different from the reiki and youki used by Yusuke Urameshi and their comrades due to the use of other forms of reiki within the Meiji Era reincarnations and the use of classic shinigami warrior techniques among the revived spirits.

Reiatsu was more comparable to something like Sensui's Saint Light Ki or Yusuke mixing his reiki and youki together to form something approaching Sei Kou Ki instead of either pure reiki or youki. Even jaki.

It was through these souls—these seeds of hope—that Koenma Daio intended to defeat the Chojin and his unnatural powers that defied death and the natural order of the Spirit World.

***

Kurama's board full of chess pieces were in their proper places, which kept the Chojin in check. They were practically on the verge of a checkmate, even.

The pawns were positioned to divide and conquer the Shin Juppon Gatana, with each Reikai Senshi paired up to their appropriate members.

Their source of power, Houji, had his borrowed negative energy suppressed by Yahiko. Their means of transportation, Itsuki, got sealed off by the Reikai's own Kuwabara and his Dimensional Sword.

Botan was there to heal and replenish reiki as well as assist Myojin tactics-wise care of Kaoru. Sanosuke himself was gradually recovering his spirit energy and fighting spirit for good measure as "Jo-chan" or the shinigami she fused with nursed his flickering body back to health.

Kuwabara regained his second wind even, which allowed him to not only create portals but to close or destroy them with his twin Dimension Swords.

This kept the annoying Gatekeeper from transporting jaki to the injured/dead Shin Ju or even getting the recovered members to help Houji out.

Even with his use of Sensui's seven personalities and the new powers it brought him, Kazuma kept him at bay.

As for the shikigami that served as the Onmyouji's infantry, Sanosuke punched them out with the "FUTAE NO KIWAMI! (DUAL EXTREME!)" while riding shotgun on Botan's oar.  

So why did Myojin feel like something was amiss? Like he had a bad feeling about everything? Like something terrible was about to happen?

A new enemy descended from an unseen sky portal that Kuwabara noticed, slashed apart, and closed too late.

"Huh!?" was Yahiko's reaction to the new arrival. This distracted him even as he ended up on the verge of disarming the untrained Houji. "Who is that? Is it another replacement Shin Ju?"

Kuwabara said, "We've already confirmed that Toguro Ani and Kuronue replaced Suzaku and Udo Jine! It's not one of the New Ten! Must be one of the Dai Shin Kan instead!"

Sanosuke's jaw dropped. "No way...!" which made Botan and Kaoru ask in unison, "Who is that supposed to be, Sano?"

Kazuma jumped into action, intending to slash a portal and kick the newcomer into it, only for his Jigen Tou's energy to start unraveling before his eyes.

The woman in courtesan clothes smiled as she floated down using her umbrella as a parachute (like goddamn Mary Poppins, Botan realized), crimson energy emanating from her pale white skin.

"Ah, it's all coming together now." Houji cackled. "Welcome back, Komagata Yumi. Get rid of these insects for me, if you would please."  

And so Makoto Shishio's personal courtesan and lover arrived, dressed in her classic Meiji Era garb but this time there was a hole in her chest where her heart used to be.

The very place where Shishio stabbed her in order to do a surprise attack on Battousai Himura.

Also, she had long fangs inside her mouth.

"Inner Blood Turmoil," Yumi said as she sapped Kuwabara of all his spirit energy using the Kyuuketsuki Kakuto Ryu (Vampire Martial Arts) that Rando stole from her.

"SHIT! Now even Shishio's girlfriend has superpowers too?!" said Sanosuke, remembering the woman whom he did a bridal carry with as they traversed Shishio's Mt. Hiei stronghold.

"...BLOOD WIND!" she screamed, releasing a red energy-sapping tornado at the Reikai Senshi.

***

Originally, Kenshin was barely able to defeat Enishi and get back in time and save Sanosuke Sagara, Kazuma Kuwabara, and Hajime Saito from the nefarious machinations of Karasu, Feng Xinhai, Usui Uonuma, and Gatekeeper Itsuki at Mt. Kamui.

But now that his detour was over, he had to get back to his original business.

He had to. Or else Enishi would undo everything they'd done so far to suppress the New Ten Swords from conquering the island of Okushiri as well as Hokkaido.

"Sessha (This one) wonders why even though I thought I'd never met you before, you seemed to know everything about me de gozaru (that you did)."

"'Sessha'? 'De gozaru'?" Enishi repeated the words with a snarl and a dismissive snort. "Are you kidding me, Battousai? Why is the most fearsome hitokiri of the Bakumatsu acting like a gentle fool with flowery samurai language? Enough of your lies!"

"This one never thought to see you again after a hundred years. I was sure you were already dead," confessed Kenshin.

"I did die. But I live again. Reincarnated in a new era," said Enishi. "I willed this weak new body I was reborn into to become even stronger than I already was before you died in the hands of Shishio Makoto."

'So he survived the Bakumatsu after all,' thought Kenshin, who believed that Enishi had died of starvation as a little boy in the ensuing revolution.

"Now I will enact the revenge that I was robbed of a hundred years ago! If you've been dispensing Tenchu (Heavenly Retribution) in your time as a hitokiri, then this is Jinchu (Earthly Retribution) for all your sins! Prepare yourself, Battousai! ZETSUGI...!"  

From there, he didn't even give Himura the chance to breathe or any breathing room as he attacked, attacked, an attacked some more.

Tomoe's little brother had grown ridiculously strong. As though he'd been training the last hundred years for this one moment. Empowered purely by hate.

However, one way or another, Kenshin was able to contain Yukishiro's growing threat long enough to assist Saito's rescue or allow the Kenshingumi to go through their mission of taking out Houji.

Himura figured out how his Wattoujutsu (a mixture of Japanese swordsmanship and Chinese kung fu) worked after only seeing a couple of techniques from it.

The Demon Sword's blade then shone with an ethereal light before Kenshin's form changed altogether.

From a 30-year-old man, his body returned to his more youthful 15- to-16-year-old self.

The form he had before he developed the cross-shaped scars. When he was still known as the Hitokiri Battousai. This way, he could engage Enishi the same way he did against any other opponent.

Free of bias. Free of shame or guilt.

"SHUUGEKI TOU SEI! (KICKING SWORD RUSH!)"

This technique of Enishí's involved hitting his opponent from below then kicking the blunt side of his sword at the last second to maximize damage.

Thusly, Kenshin answered the technique back with his own, "SOU RYU SEN! (TWIN DRAGON FLASH!)"

"KAISHI TOU SEI! (BAYONET SWORD RUSH!)"

As for the Bayonet Sword Rush, it was a follow-up whirling counterattack or riposte involving Enishi putting the hilt of his sword against his opponent's sword to add momentum to his pivoting swing.

However, Kenshin had a similar counterstrike technique like that as well in the form of "RYU KAN SEN! (DRAGON WRAP FLASH!)"

"SHO HA TOU SEI! (PALM BREAK SWORD RUSH!)"

From the Jodan Stance, Enishi swept his sword starting from over his head down to the ground. Afterwards, he then placed the palm of his hand on the sword's blunt side to push it forward at full force.

The answer to this move that resembled the Dragon Hammer Flash was the "RYU SHO SEN! (RISING DRAGON FLASH!)", which was the natural Ryu Tsui Sen counter that doubled as a two-handed sword block wherein the sword was held by its handle and tip with either hand.

"CHOU TEN TOU SEI! (UP-AND-DOWN SWORD RUSH!)"

This was Wattoujutsu's version of the Ryu Sho Sen. It allowed Enishi to leap upwards using his sword as his pole vault then attack from the air by pulling his sword towards him by its hilt cord immediately after jumping.

Kenshin drew out the fearsome technique with a feinted Ryu Tsui Sen only to do the "RYU KAN SEN ARASHI! (DRAGON WRAP FLASH STORM!) at the last second, the multi-hit forward somersault sword strikes catching Yukishiro off-guard.

"Ugh!" Enishi landed bad on his ankle, his knees buckling from the force of the centrifugal strikes, the chainsaw-like windmill of strikes drawing a fine mist and squall of blood. "Damn you, Battousai...!"

Kenshin cut Enishi's cursing short with a jarring punch to his jaw.

Battousai Himura had a Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu answer to every one of the white-haired young man's Wattoujutsu techniques. He took advantage of Enishi's barrage of hateful, unfocused strikes with clinical precision.

The fact that Himura didn't realize who exactly he was fighting against until the last second helped him figure out the proper counters to Enishi's Wattoujutsu early on and even bury him right inside the Kamui Mountain itself. Albeit temporarily.

Kenshin imagined he'd have a harder time with the kung fu master swordsman were he distracted by his guilt for killing Tomoe and knowing Enishi's identity from the start.

"Is that all you've got, Battousai?" demanded the scuffed-up, bleeding-from-the-mouth Enishi, who spat away blood as his veins—no, his very nerves themselves—hypertrophied or thickened enough to become visible underneath his skin with vascular density.

This was his Kyokei Myaku (Nerves of Insanity) in action.

***

It was bedlam at the Military Base of Okushiri.

Ten things were happening at once, and barely anyone could keep up.

More soldiers were deployed to rescue the fallen and suppress the invaders.

They waged war against the Onmyouji's shikigami, even though many of them couldn't even see the grim reaper familiars.

They had to use their special thermal goggles to detect and shoot the enemy, but neither bullets nor grenades worked on them.

Botan had more luck dissipating the strange creatures into the ether, but that was because it was part of her job description as a soul reaper.

She did double duty in casting her healing and reiki-replenishing spells on Yahiko, Sanosuke, and Kuwabara while at the same time defeating her share of scythe-wielding reapers created from wayward earthbound spirits infected with the Chojin's jaki.

Also, the bodies were really hitting the floor now. Not due to the Kenshingumi (they were basically all ghosts) or their Reikai Tantei comrade falling into a dead faint.

It was because the vampire (or perhaps succubus) Yumi bit the necks and absorbed the blood of all the nearest JSDF soldiers to power her Kyuuketsuki Kakuto Ryu.

As for Gatekeeper Itsuki, he and Kuwabara were having a portal contest of sorts. He kept making portals while Kazuma kept slicing them apart.

Regardless, it took much longer for Yahiko to seal the power of the Chojin, the borrowed ocean of jaki overflowing with immense pressure from within gleeful Sadojima.

"TSUI GAMI...!? (HAMMER OF GOD...!?)"

Myojin's attempt at the sword-breaking, jaki-neutralizing Hammer of God was thwarted with a simple yet shuddering one-handed scythe swipe that belied Houji's actual physical strength.

"So you intend to beat me at this level of strength?" asked a smug Sadojima before releasing a pillar of jaki that made Yahiko kneel before him, as though bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Yahiko felt like he had plunged deep underwater, drowning in negative energy as the oceanic water pressure increased further and further the deeper he went.

Myojin grunted, grit his teeth, and rose up against the harsh and dense waves of pure jaki that bore down on him in waves, his green aura of reiatsu resisting the crushing force of the Overfiend's distant yet overbearing presence.

Like a black sun whose dark rays and heat reached the earth all the way from space despite being millions of miles away.

It was a tug of war between the Chojin's power boosts and Yahiko's neutralization skill.

Thanks to Botan and Kaoru, the ghost of Sanosuke had healed up and reenergized himself with reiki enough to summon his signature Zanbatou (Horse-Chopping Sword) again at long last.

He had more bandages than usual, half of which were spirit seals from Botan that kept his ectoplasm from escaping his ghostly form.

"ZANBATOU ATE! (ZANBATOU DISTANCE HIT!)"

Sanosuke's Zanbatou Ate, based on Anji Yukyuzan's Tou Ate (Bladed Distance Hit), created a landslide aimed at Houji, who shielded himself with his shikigami ghouls.

"ZANKUU ZANBATOU ATE! (ZANBATOU VACUUM DISTANCE HIT!) "

As for his Zankuu Zanbatou Ate, Sanosuke aimed it at the ensuing Blood Wind air funnel that the courtesan in revealing clothing fired off at him.

The last thing Sano expected was to use that 12-foot longsword against Shishio's lover, the non-fighter known as Yumi.

***

Enishi did a low split-legged crouch, only to charge with an onslaught of strikes instead of doing another Zettousei when he saw Kenshin sink his stance low in kind instead of taking his bait and attacking with the Hirameki.

"SENRAN TOU SEI! (WAR SWORD RUSH!)"

"RYU SOU SEN! (DRAGON NEST FLASH!)"

Sparks flew everywhere as though they were in a steel mill or foundry as they parried and attacked each other with impunity, their swords crossing and chipping at their edges.

Blood and ectoplasm stained the ground soon afterward from both combatants.

Enishi moved faster than Kenshin could react. Like an unswattable fly. Or perhaps a whole swarm of flies. Locusts. Bees. Wasps, even. A plague of wasps. His twitch muscles able to react to attacks or counterattacks by lightning-fast reflexes.

It was like dealing with Soujiro Seta's Shukuchi all over again. Himura couldn't even predict Enishi's strikes by reading his sakki (bloodlust) because he was exuding hatred and killer instinct at all times. At every waking moment.

Like the polar opposite of the Heaven Sword. It was no different to deal with someone who lacked bloodlust compared to someone who always exuded bloodlust. There was no sudden spike of killer instinct you could use to read an opponent's moves.

This forced Kenshin to take the initiative and jump high into the air in order to become the aggressor for a change, even if only to draw out a counterstrike that he could then counter.

"RYU TSUI SEN! (DRAGON HAMMER FLASH!)"

Yukishiro countered by also leaping vertically before Kenshin could drop him with the Dragon Hammer Flash. Afterwards, at the point where his jump force was equal to Earth's gravity, he jumped even further, thus essentially doing a double jump or what was known to basketball players as an airwalk.

"SHIKKU TOU SEI! (SLASHER SWORD RUSH!)"

Kenshin's youtou (demon sword) and Enishi's watou (Chinese-style katana) clashed hard against each other, their impactful vibrations strong enough to shatter steel. However, their mystical swords forged from spirit energy and the life force of their very souls both held true.

However, Battousai or no Battousai, the scarless Kenshin realized he had to take Yukishiro out before his own feelings of despair, depression, shame, and remorse got the better of him.

For even now, he felt like he deserved to get hit by every last strike from Enishi for the sin of accidentally killing his ex-wife in an attempt to rescue her from her kidnapper.

"KUZU RYU SEN! (NINE-HEADED DRAGON FLASH!)"

"UGH!"

Like water crushing rock over time, the constant barrage of counters from earlier finally took its toll on Enishi, leading to several lapses of attention that the Battousai took advantage of to great effect.

Kenshin's persistence paid off, with that last multi-hit attack finally landing on his nerve-filled brother-in-law.

He then prepared to do a supersonic noutoujutsu (sword-sheathing technique). The same one he used to disable the super sensitive hearing of Usui Uonuma's Shingan.

"RYU MEI...! (DRAGON CRY...!)"

Kenshin stopped short of doing his high-pitched sheathing technique when he saw a familiar young woman with jet-black hair, doe eyes, a white kimono, and purple shawl appear out of the half-burnt forest.

She brought with her a nostalgic, heartbreaking scent.

"T-Tomoe...?!" stuttered Kenshin before Enishi's Watou ended up stabbing him right in his chest, on the same wound made by the Zettousei that got him earlier.

The pair of scars on his left cheek reappeared. Bleeding with fresh blood (or, in his case, ectoplasm).

***

Back at the Okushiri Military Base...

The Blood Wind dissipated from the strength of Sanosuke's vacuum slash, but Yumi herself blocked the wind pressure with her open, glowing-red umbrella serving as her shield.

Ah, yes. The Blood Wind.

The double-edged, energy-sapping red tornado created from the heat of the spirit energy it stole and the coldness of an injured body that was losing blood.

However, this woman somehow managed to do Blood Winds without the need to be injured. Or perhaps the hole in her chest served as her injury?

Sagara originally thought it was one of Rando's ultimate moves, only to remember something about him stealing techniques. So this energy-sapping technique was actually her move, wasn't it?

Regardless, what was a desperation move for Rando was a normal move for her. It all made sense now. Or at least that part did.

"How the hell did you get superpowers too, lady?" Sano demanded to Yumi. "You even went so far as to change yourself into a vampire! You really are something else!"

"Stop acting so friendly around me, you boorish lout," said Komagata to Sagara with half-lidded eyes, parrying his probing zanbatou stab from more than 12 feet away with her closed umbrella that doubled as her sword. "You should've stayed as a ghost in the Spirit World. You'll regret crossing paths with us again after a hundred years, Sagara Sanosuke."

Sano left his cumbersome giant sword behind, charged unimpeded, and backhanded the woman. "Nothing personal, Neechan. We can't let you or your psycho boyfriend run amok again in this era either."

"...Bastard! You dare hit a lady?! Youki Duantoutai! (Spirit Guillotine!)" Yumi reeled from the slap that caught her by surprise but then kept Sanosuke at bay with the Spirit Guillotines.

"...Son of a bitch! Rando stole that move from you too?!" said Yahiko before breaking the paper-thin waves of demon energy with "Men (Head)" strikes from the Fire Stance and flying skyward with the God in Heaven technique.

"Not exactly," Yumi chatted with a nonchalant smirk. "I stole some of Rando's moves myself in exchange for the moves he stole from me. Tit-for-tat."

As for Sanosuke, his follow-up attempt at chopping Komagata in half with his 12-foot sword led to it getting blasted full of huge holes care of Itsuki. This made the zanbatou look like a macroscopic slice of grey Swiss cheese.

The scattershot blasts responsible for Sano's predicament originated from a gun attached to Itsuki's right arm. It shot out miniature black holes the size of pinholes but had event horizons the size of bowling balls or bigger. They ate up any type of matter nearest them.

It was a (literal) handgun with black holes as its bullets that the Gatekeeper developed through the help of Shinobu Sensui's Kazuya personality.

Itsuki's Black Hole Gun also ate up chunks of Sano's ghostly flesh whole.

"GUUAAAHH!"

The Gatekeeper had taken advantage of Sanosuke's moment of hesitation in killing Yumi. Sano remembered mid-swing how she had originally died by Shishio's hand and then had her corpse burn along with his in a sudden unintended funeral pyre.

Meanwhile, as the flying Myojin attacked Yumi from above, Botan attacked from below. She flew on her oar mere inches from the ground before getting off her ride and using her forward momentum to smash her paddle right into the vampire. She then let the more athletic Kaoru inside her do the rest.

Using jaki and youki together, the succubus imbued her foldable fan and her closed umbrella with enough blood-red energy to stop the oar cold with a cross-block. She then unfurled her umbrella in time to also prevent Yahiko's Ryu Tsui Sen from hitting her noggin.

From this close proximity, she then used her Inner Blood Turmoil to absorb her attackers' spirit energy unto herself, sapping the two of their reiki and making their souls flicker and fade.

Neither the living nor the dead were safe from this vampire queen.

***

"GOU TSUI TOU SEI! (FALLING BLADE SWORD RUSH!)" screamed Enishi after impaling the distracted Kenshin in the chest.

The Falling Blade Sword Rush allowed the white-haired martial artist to pin Battousai at last, lifting him high up and over his head with his sword and upper-body strength.

"At last. At long last. You're going to die, Battousai! You scum! You criminal! You took away everything from me! Now I will return the favor and take away everything from you! This is my Jinchu!"

The Guardian of the Youtou Shinnoken grunted and coughed, his eyes unable to tear themselves away at the visage and silhouette of his ex-wife Tomoe Yukishiro.

Red tears streamed down his cheeks and bloodstained scar.

"T-Tomoe? I-Is that really you?" he mumbled in disbelief, as though not even noticing Enishi's watou inside of him.

He was no longer Hitokiri Battousai (Battousai the Manslayer). Instead, he transformed back to Rurouni Kenshin (Kenshin the Vagabond).

"Tomoe" then told Enishi with an old man's deep voice, "My apologies. This is the best help I can give you for now. That damn Okashira stole all of the jaki that the Chojin gave me and sealed me and my precious Iwanbos away with it, turning the energy into solidified reiatsu."

"You did splendidly, Gein," said Enishi, who smiled for once. He couldn't face the reanimated corpse of his elder sister eye-to-eye, though. "Now please take that puppet away. I don't want you to soil my sister's memory with it."

Kenshin went pale. He'd been duped by one of Gein's puppets. However, his trickery paid off. He didn't feel like hurting Tomoe's little brother any longer.

"Did you know what I went through to get to this moment, Battousai? As an orphaned boy, I ate human flesh in the battlefield to survive. I was adopted by a rich couple, only for me to kill them because I hated how happy they were. I ended up becoming an arms dealer using their wealth for good measure. I then found out you already died, which sapped me of my will to live. Only to be reborn in this era after I found out you became the Demon Sword's guardian."

Enishi dragged Kenshin's bloody (or ectoplasmic) body all over the forest at the foot of Mt. Kannon, savoring the moment before pulling his sword out and stomping on the Battousai's bleeding wound for good measure.

"I'm not sure whether I should wield your damn sword myself or just destroy you along with that sword. Oh well. It doesn't matter. You could die a thousand deaths and it won't bring back my sister. Even after I died, I couldn't find her anymore. I've lost her forever. All that's left is to make you feel the despair I felt when you stole her away from me."

***

Back at the Okushiri Military Base...

Chaos continued. Fires broke out everywhere.  The wind howled like wolves to the moon. The base crumbled and turned into shambles. It was Hell on Earth.

Hell in Hokkaido.

Komagata's Inner Blood Turmoil created her own version of reiatsu—her youki mixed with the Kenshingumi's reiki, the blood of the soldiers she fed on, and the Chojin's jaki—before releasing that pent-up energy towards Yahiko in the form of the "BLOOD FIRE WAVE!" projectile.

However, thinking fast on her feet, Botan purified the surplus of jaki around them then used it to replenish the reiki she and Myojin lost from being in contact with Yumi.

'Wow. She's doing the thing! The same thing Urameshi did when he got hold of the Meikai's crystal ball thingy,' thought Kuwabara. 'She's purifying jaki into reiki!'

Again, Botan used spirit bandages that doubled as spiritual energy seals, acting more like a priestess than Hinageshi the Shrine Maiden or Houji the Onmyouji.

"Nice one, Tanuki-chan!" said Yahiko. "I mean, thank you, Botan."

Botan smiled at the samurai boy. "You're welcome. Now go get 'em."

'This woman is seriously getting on my nerves,' thought Yumi while eyeing the ferry-girl whose astral body housed two souls instead of just one.

A rejuvenated Myojin then did the sword-breaking "TSUI GAMI!" to neutralize the Blood Fire Wave and the pinhole-sized black holes that Itsuki's sneaky Kazuya personality shot right into his heart and head with the Black Hole Gun.

The samurai kid kept moving forward, practically swimming in the thick of "it", with "it" being the Chojin's ocean of jaki.

Meanwhile, Houji frowned, his arms crossed. 'This goddamn brat! For Chojin's sake, he sure is persistent.'

He thought that the Chojin allowing him more access to his boundless negative energy—enough jaki to, quite frankly, revive the long-dead kingdom of Meikai (Nether World)—was sufficient to neutralize the neutralizer.

However, Houji's jaki output remained relatively low and it even started dwindling.

Like opening your water main at full capacity yet still ending up with less water than you expected when filling up your bathtub. Defying the very will of the Overfiend himself.

'The boy is starting to get better control of his neutralization powers, isn't he?' the Onmyouji thought, tapping his scythe's handle to the ground impatiently.

To Yumi and Itsuki, he only had one command. "Kill him."

Yumi then made it rain blood like the Battousai would back in the Bakumatsu.

A literal rain of blood poured down on them, but each droplet contained razor-sharp scalpels. A bloody rain that cut you apart in order to induce a thicker bloodbath afterwards. It pelted the ground like suppressive fire from a machine gun.

She aptly named the technique, "Bloody Rain."

It was the bloodsucker's way of creating the energy-absorbing Blood Wind without having to sacrifice all the plasma that she had already drained from her other victims.

"I don't know who you are, lady, but you leave that boy alone!" said Kuwabara, who finally had time to intervene.

***

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the island...

Yusuke Urameshi had actually been in a punching match with Toguro Ototo all this time.

Right in the middle of Okushiri Island, in fact. Along the Tsurikake River.

Instead of playing with the percentages of his power, the Younger Toguro instead went all out from the start, displaying 100% of his full strength.

'His B-Level strength,' was Yusuke's unsaid sentiment. He recalled how easily he manhandled the A-Level Rando earlier now that he wasn't faced with any distractions or dirty tactics.

So dealing with Toguro should be a cakewalk now, right?

In kind, Urameshi himself released his first pair of Spirit Cuffs. Just like the good ol' days, they ended up in a slugfest that turned the peaceful river into roiling rapids from the shockwaves of their punches.

"You've struggled in every encounter you've faced with the Chojin's forces so far yet won every time," said the Younger Toguro. "Why is that?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, man," said Yusuke before blasting the gigantic hulking grey behemoth before him with the "SHOT GUN!" technique, bombarding him with the purest of reiki bullets.

The vascular and muscular Toguro pressed on, healing the missing pieces of his flesh instantly like his older brother would.

An impressive feat a power level or two ago. To Yusuke, it had somehow become old hat. Any S-Level worth their salt should be able to regenerate fast enough as long as they had an abundance of spirit or demon energy inside them.

"I took on Rando, Souther (Xinhai), Suzaku, the blind guy (Usui), and the rest of the Chojin's New Ten Swords fair and square. All I'm doing now is killing time and keeping you from ruining Kurama's plans to take your new gang out. Right until your big bad boss, the Chojin, shows up."

Toguro's eyes narrowed behind his shades. 'His reiki is... overflowing. It almost reminds me of the Chojin's own jaki. Immeasurable.'

Yusuke dodged the Shi Dan (Finger Flip Bullets) by reflex even though he had a feeling he could survive direct hits from Toguro's unnaturally strong finger flicks at this point in time.

It was a B-Level against an S-Level (albeit one who was holding his strength back), after all.

The Shi Dan were even more powerful than the strongest human punches, capable of blasting through concrete, but against Urameshi's wealth of spirit energy, he doubted that they'd even penetrate his skin.

Even with his powers sealed, he teetered from being a high A-Level to a low S-Level.  

'Are you hiding your present power level, Toguro? Is your 100% form not your full power?' Urameshi thought.

There was just no way that the likes of Rando, Xinhai, Usui, Saito, or Suzaku would end up stronger than the Toguro Ototo himself.

Then again, while it took Toguro 50 years to reach B-Level, it took only 10 years for Sensui to reach S-Level. Meanwhile, it took less than 3 years for Yusuke to surpass them both and take on a centuries-old S-Level archdemon, Yomi, to the brink of defeat.

To Toguro, Urameshi asked, "What happened to you deciding to stay in Hell for 100 million years to atone for all the crimes you've committed? Were you plucked from Hell by the Chojin and forced to work for him? Answer me, Toguro!"

"...We're not so different, you and I."

"OH, COME ON! Not this tired cliché again!" the teenaged living warhead told off the demonized human strongman in between bone-crushing punches.

He didn't want to hear such things from someone much weaker than him.

***

The veiny (actually nervy) Enishi got talkative all of a sudden, Kenshin realized.

His life story was as unfortunate as the vagabond expected. Maybe even more so. So he even killed a family after he was given a new lease in life? How much of a monster had he become?

This was a lot for Himura to take in. He could barely breathe right now; much less digest Yukishiro's words.

Meanwhile, Enishi snarled in remembrance of the things he'd been through. The people he killed. The opportunities of happiness he turned his back on in favor of a century-old grudge.

The innocents he murdered in order to harden his heart enough to take on a monster like the Battousai. When he died, he resisted the reincarnation cycle for so long, hoping against hope he'd find Himura's soul in the afterlife and drag him to Hell along with him, torturing him for a million years.

However, his chance had finally arrived only a few decades ago. He reentered the reincarnation cycle and avoided becoming an insect or a slug, getting instead the body of a Chinese boy with his memories of the past as a Japanese man intact somehow.

He then trained his body in martial arts, went to prison more than a few times, became a career criminal, and climbed the ranks of organized Chinese crime known as The Triad (what the Shanghai Arms Dealers eventually developed into a hundred years down the line).

In fact, until a few couple of years ago, Enishi occupied the position of Dragon Head that his protégé, Feng Xinhai, currently had. He had a Chinese name himself, but he long ago abandoned that identity in order to completely become Enishi Yukishiro.

He dedicated himself into becoming what he was in his past life and more.

It was because the Chojin himself reawakened his soul's past memories for the purpose of taking down Kenshin Himura.

Under the guidance of the Chojin and his reformed Shin Juppon Gatana, he even learned how to use his spiritual powers on top of reviving the lost martial arts of Wattoujutsu. He studied the Japanese language.

He began slaying demons himself by helping fund technology that linked the Demon World to the Human World with the money he made by being the Triad Dragon Head.

And now, while serving under Tenro the Demon-Slayer's Yakuza Family as one of his enforcers, he finally crossed paths with the man who stole his happiness a hundred years ago.

His revenge, his Jinchu, was literally a hundred years in the making.

"I will kill you now and then the rest of your friends afterwards. I'll break apart the Demon Sword or steal it for myself. Become its new master. From there, in the Spirit World, I will also hunt your ghost and kill you again until all memory of you is erased. Suffer like I did. Suffer for eternity, Battousai!"

Something stirred inside Kenshin when he heard those words. It was one thing for Enishi to swear to kill him. However, what did the rest of his comrades have to do with his revenge? Was he really going to kill the Kenshingumi or even the Reikai Tantei and the Oniwabanshu all in the name of his Jinchu?

Just as Enishi prepared to finish Himura off, a shinigami flew between them like a bolt from the blue.

The woman who sported a black kimono and raven hair zeroed in not on Enishi and Kenshin but instead on the Tomoe puppet of the Puppet Master.

'Ah, I remember her,' thought the Guardian of the Demon Sword. He met that death goddess before while assisting the training of Sanosuke and Yahiko when they first arrived in the Human World.

From his limited interactions with the shinigami, Kenshin surmised that she mainly did research work for Koenma Daio, not unlike the child inspector Sayaka.

'Ayame, was it? She's the shinigami that Kurama assigned to the Southeast Quadrant of Okushiri. Did she follow us all the way here?'

***

Yusuke wanted to end the fight with Toguro using one gigaton punch or one Chou Rei-Gan (Mega Spirit Gun), but he held back. Kept his cool.

He wanted to bet on a "maybe".  As in, "Maybe Toguro is holding back and is about to show me something more amazing than 100% of his power".

Otherwise, Urameshi would've already blasted Toguro back to Hell where he belonged and had a 100 million year sentence to serve. From there, the teenager would've waited for the Chojin or someone to arrive and force him use 100% of his power instead.

Finishing this fight early presented too much of a risk. Like eating an unripe fruit or something. Besides which, if Yusuke went all out, he'd wipe out several mountain ranges and riverbanks off of the map.

But maybe he was risking hundreds of thousands of lives over his own selfish whims.

'Fine. I'll push a little harder, then.'

The ensuing "REI-KOU-DAN! (SPIRIT WAVE BULLET!)" that fissured the surrounding ground and threatened to break the world in half was mostly absorbed by Younger Toguro's beefy body.

Toguro's 100% form before might instead be his 000.1% now. Maybe he'd been training all this time in Hell. Training from Hell.

Or maybe this was all wishful thinking on Urameshi's part now that he had outgrown his boogeyman from his past.

Yusuke put his hip into his last punch, manhandling the "ultimate" form of Toguro that earlier on threw him around like a rag doll the first time they fought.

"You want to rise to your greatest potential, but unfortunately you've already been there and done that and more. You've become too powerful," Toguro said after fixing his twisted neck that had his head staring straight behind him.

"You're not somehow begging for mercy, are you?" asked Yusuke as he hit another bone-crushing uppercut to Toguro's jaw.

"...Nothing challenges you anymore, but you don't want to sever your attachment to this world of weaklings."

Toguro flexed and did a full-powered tackling punch with enough force to move or even obliterate mountains. Alas, this version of Yusuke ate mountains for breakfast ever since achieving S-Level during his fight against Sensui.

This was nothing to him. Drop a building on him, and he'd wonder if it was raining.

He hated to think in such a way, but to him fighting Toguro now was akin to fighting Kuwabara. It didn't help that the behemoth fought straightforwardly and without trickery, unlike Xinhai and Rando.

"You honestly sound pathetic now, Toguro. What happened to you? Keiko can hit harder than that. Put your hips into it!"

But nothing major really happened to Toguro after dying back in the Ankoku Bujutsukai (Dark Martial Arts Tournament). It was Urameshi who had changed.

Any of the current roster of Roku Youkai (Six Demons) could take him on and turn him into roadkill, to be honest.

Toguro's form doubled or even tripled in size. He was now doing his "100% of 100%" technique that had him stake his very soul's life force in order to unleash his fullest potential.

However, his fullest potential ended up just B-Plus in the end. Not even at A-Level.

'Quit messing around and go 1,000% power or something already, Toguro!' Yusuke inwardly begged. But that never happened. He kept dealing with a Toguro who could barely make him flinch.

"In order to continue to live the lie you call your life, you're someone strong pretending to be weak so you could fit in with the rest of the weaklings."

"Stop yammering! I'm more impressed with your big mouth than any of your punches!"

Yusuke did his signature finger gun pose and focused his ocean of reiki at a single point of his index finger, gathering all that limitless energy into one concentrated shot.

"Great fighters refuse to lose, but you refuse to win just to get back that feeling and exhilaration of conquering something greater than you. So what do you do now that you're in a world where nothing is greater than you?"

"Jeez. Shut up already."

Yusuke sighed. If Toguro really was going to unleash a new superpower on him, he would've done so by now. Meanwhile, he himself hadn't even worked up a sweat.

Was this some sort of long-con, "Sun Tzu's Art of War" deal? Was Toguro hiding his power level like he always had, using only a small percentage of his potential? Or was this indeed his limits after his defeat in the Dark Tournament?

"Maybe you're right. Maybe I have been a little careless in my fights lately. However, in the end, I kept winning anyway. So who cares? It's my curse, I know. REI-GAN!"

***

Back at the foot of Mt. Kannon...

Ayame the Shinigami grabbed hold of the corpse puppet of Gein and cut off its spiritual connection with the mad scientist using her reaper powers.

She then said to Enishi, "There's no way your sister is smiling down on you in heaven! Not while you're doing something as terrible as this, stalking Himura-san for decades! A whole century!"

Enishi scowled at the impudent ferry-girl. How dare she say such things to him.

"What do you know? How can you possibly know the pain I've been through? The pain that my sister and her fiancé suffered from? You're nothing but a stranger! You have nothing to do with me!"

Kenshin tried standing up, but Enishi kicked his chest wound and pinned him down with a foot stomp. "And as for you, stay down! I'm not done with you yet!"

Yukishiro was about to punch Koenma's ferry-girl away when she chanted an incantation that led to the body double of his sister Tomoe to frown at him and cry tears of blood.

"Don't you hear it? Don't you hear the cries of despair of your dearly departed sister Tomoe from a hundred years ago? The last thing she wants to see is you suffering or making everyone suffer along with you!"

Enishi shook and shuddered before he himself screamed in anguish, screaming until his throat became ragged. Clutching his chest at that baleful look that rocked him to his very core.

"Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up, SHUT UP! Enough of your lies, Reikai! I don't believe any of them for a second!

However, he couldn't for the life of him kill even a puppet of his sister. Any young woman who reminded him of his sister, he couldn't bring himself to kill.

He damn well tried to though, his hatred rising. His cognitive dissonance assuring him these were all lies. That his sister had wanted to kill Battousai all along to avenge her fiancé's death.

That the rumor of how Battousai pledged to not kill ever since he killed Enishi's sister was just a rumor.

That Enishi hadn't wasted his multiple chances at a new lease on life for nothing.

He slashed the Tomoe corpse puppet apart with the Sho Ha Tou Sei, his own tears flowing down as he did so. Nauseated by the act, he moved away and puked soon after.

Even though she wasn't the real Tomoe.

'I have to do this. I have to destroy all their lies!'

He had waited for so long and come so far. In the end, it should still matter, right? If it didn't matter then what was the point of all this?

It was all Battousai's fault. He was the one who ruined his life. He was the one who forced him to suffer like this. Everything was perfect until he came along.

Even in the afterlife, Himura haunted him.

"Himura Battousai must die! Suffer! Die a thousand deaths! A million deaths! I won't rest until he has suffered as much as I have and MORE!"

Yukishiro prepared to do his ultimate attack on Kenshin, only for Ayame to get in his way.

This looked mighty familiar.

He hesitated for a whole second in cleaving the shinigami in half. Here was another woman the same age as his sister. Everywhere he looked, such maidens like her kept reminding him of what he had lost.

A second was an eternity in a fight, though.

Kenshin rose up and blocked Enishi's ensuing sword strike even though, unbeknownst to him, his brother-in-law intended to miss Ayame by a mile anyway.

Himura's heart swelled at doing so. Here and now, the vagabond was able to do the sword block that he failed to do against Shishio.

Had he done the same block against his hitokiri successor, would he have survived their mutually assured destruction? Had he not given up back then and decided to fight on, would he have been able to come back to Tokyo with the rest of the Kenshingumi? With Miss Kaoru?

Kenshin really wished he had fought on instead of giving up and dying along with Shishio. That he did.

"...I will fight to the end to protect those I hold dear! That is my truth!"

Himura's resolve in defeating Enishi finally hardened after wavering for so long, his cross-shaped scar seemingly glowing with a red bioluminescent light.

The crouching tiger faced off against the unhidden dragon one more time.

"KOFUKU ZETTOUSEI! (CROUCHING TIGER SEVERING SWORD RUSH!)"

"AMAKAKERU RYU NO HIRAMEKI! (HEAVENS GLIDING DRAGON FLASH!)"

Last time, the tiger was able to cut deep wounds into the flying serpent even though it was driven deep underground by sharp dragon claws.

Would the tiger finish what it had started? Or would the dragon have something hidden behind its upward flight into the heavens?

***

Kazuma attempted to create a portal to serve as a shield over Yahiko, only for Itsuki to seal that portal with Kazuya's Black Hole Gun, the twin rips in space-time canceling each other out.

However, Kuwabara expected the maneuver and teleported right in front of Itsuki in order to slash apart the firearm at pointblank range with the Jigen Tou.

"Motherfucker...!" shouted the foul-mouthed Kazuya possessing Itsuki's body, grasping his damaged handgun.

Itsuki then awoke Sensui's George personality in order to gain access to a hyperdimensional gun vault filled with Tommy guns, pistols, Desert Eagles, mini guns, shotguns, AK-47 rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers, and bazookas.

He had actually restocked his gun collection by stealing many of the armaments and ammunition available in the very military base they were invading right then and there. Knowing full well that ordinary guns were more useful against living, flesh-and-blood beings like Kuwabara versus the solidified souls of shinigami and ghosts from the past.

In retrospect, this made Houji's efforts to shoot Yahiko, a ghost, with a gun moot. However, Itsuki at least had a backup plan.

"I'll kill you all!" said Hitoshi. "I will purify the Human World by getting rid of all the humans!" His shtick was that he wished for human extinction.

However, before he could use one magazine or clip from his guns, he got pummeled to submission by a revived Sanosuke Sagara.

Botan had healed up the wounds of Sano's ghost yet again with purified jaki turned into reiki. He then got the jump on the green-haired youkai through brute strength instead of fancy teleportation techniques.

'Her again?' thought Houji, noticing how Battousai's woman served the same function as he did with the rest of the Shin Ju. 'That Reikai shinigami is making this mission of ours needlessly difficult.'

Furthermore, every attempt Itsuki made to get away from Sagara was blocked by Kuwabara, who himself punched the demon back into portals of his own that redirected him towards Sano's waiting fists and "FUTAE NO KIWAMI!"

"All right, enough of this!" declared Yumi, who shifted from targeting Yahiko to focusing her Spirit Guillotines and Blood Fire Waves at the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu kendoist turned shinigami Botan/Kaoru Kamiya.

Kaoru assisted Botan in deploying evasive maneuvers against the succubus, with her using the reiki-imbued boat paddle to bat and parry away the projectiles headed towards her before flying away from the bloodsucker.

She then ended up blocking the scythe of the unskilled but jaki-empowered Houji, which kept her from taking flight and escaping. "Keep still like a good girl."

Finally, a black hole appeared where her chest used to be. It was actually a dimensional rift that sucked the ferry-girl's ghostly flesh and ectoplasm away.

Gatekeeper Itsuki then closed the portal that mortally wounded Botan/Kaoru with a wave of his hand.

The ferry-girl's jaw opened, clenched, and froze at a silent scream, her red eyes rolling upwards until only her eye whites were visible.

"KAORUUU! BOTAAAAAN! NOOOO!" said Yahiko with an anguished, bloodcurdling shriek of his own.

Itsuki's mouth curved upwards in curiosity. 'What will you do now, Samurai-san? Is this enough to break you into pieces like what happened to my dearest Shinobu (Sensui) when he saw the Black Chapter Tapes?'

***

Back at the foot of Mt. Kannon...

As Enishi Yukishiro's heart wavered, Kenshin Himura's resolve hardened. Tempered by his will to protect those around him.

The Kofuku Zetsu Tou Sei should've countered the Heavens Gliding Dragon Flash by avoiding the first slash completely and countering the second slash with a well-time riposte, unfazed or even aided by the void created by the first slash.

The Zettousei was seemingly designed to break apart or deconstruct the Hirameki, as demonstrated earlier by Kenshin barely surviving it the first time it was used.

It should've halved the effectiveness of the second slash, but by Kenshin drawing the sword low and removing the ground-based leverage of his crouch, Enishi stood no chance.

Kenshin's much faster and stronger Heavens Gliding Dragon Flash hit low to weaken Enishi's strong crouch then hit high with the multiplied centrifugal force of the follow-up second strike of his ougi, the Crouching Tiger Severing Sword Rush buckling under pressure.

Enishi's counter was ultimately overpowered by the much stronger and better applied succession technique.

However, like before, even after his counter was countered by a more experienced, worldlier version of Battousai guarding a powerful demonic sword, he still kept standing.

Sure, Yukishiro shook like a leaf and heaved belabored breaths because his double-edged, hypertrophied Nerves of Insanity multiplied his pain to the point where an ordinary man would've blacked out in a dead faint.

But he wouldn't go down. He refused to go down. He'd rather die than go down.

Whether he was thrown into magma inside a mountain or cut down to oblivion with the Legendary Youtou Shinnoken (Demon Sword: The True Blade), his willpower continued to defy fate and destiny itself.

He braced himself for Battousai to deliver the finishing blow, relying on his twitch reflexes and his thick pulsating nerves that were practically on fire at this point to launch another counter.

Instead, Kenshin told him, "You didn't really mean to raise your sword at Miss Ayame, did you? Cutting down the fake Tomoe puppet to you was like ripping your heart out."

He spat, "What of it, Battousai?! That's just a puppet I tore apart, not my real sister! My sister that you killed!"

"It doesn't matter if the puppet was fake or not. Ripping her apart hurt you at your core. The pain you felt is real."

"DAMN YOU TO HELL! Push me any further, and I'll do the same to the shinigami!"

Himura replied, "Even though you've murdered others because you couldn't stand how happy they were, you hesitated in killing Ayame-dono. She reminded you too much of Tomoe to go through with it, didn't she?"

"DON'T YOU DARE SAY HER NAME, BASTARD! Her murderer has no right to do so!"

"...In the end, what stopped you was your sister. So I ask you the same question you asked me. Is your sister smiling down on you from heaven?"

Delirious, he started having visions.

Visions of his sister taking care of him when he was sick with the flu, sleeping at his bedside. Cooking for him. Taking care of him. Serving as the only family and mother figure that he ever knew.

His revenge against Kenshin was all he had left. All that mattered. His only reason for being, since Battousai robbed him of the original reason for his being. Without this one goal, he'd be nothing.

He could do anything as long as his sister was smiling back at him.

He closed his eyes. All he could see—the face he claimed was a lie made by the Spirit World—was his sister frowning at him with sad eyes full of pity.

The things he'd ignored earlier that bothered him also started making sense.

Why his sister threw herself in between Battousai and the leader of the Yaminobu.

Why his sister stayed with Battousai for so long and even became his wife (being a deep cover agent wasn't enough to explain that away).

Why Battousai vowed never to kill after "easily" killing so many people for such a long time.

'He did that because he felt guilty after killing my sister! And everyone around him! He's a criminal who's celebrated as a hero because he killed during a war when it's 'legal' to do so!'

He opened his eyes. The image of his unhappy, melancholic sister coalesced into Shinigami Ayame's face while bearing the same grim expression with her mouth.

He fell to his knees and broke down bawling. A broken man.

It wasn't the strike from a mystical demonic blade or the most powerful technique of a ghostly guardian from the Bakumatsu that brought him down to his knees.

No. It was him realizing his sister's disapproval of his Jinchu that unraveled his single-minded determination to kill Kenshin and/or make him suffer for an eternity and a day.

Only sheer willpower kept Enishi standing. So when Kenshin broke even that, he had nothing left.

His will to fight went away. All that was left was anguish, despair, and hopelessness.

"Neesan... Neesan...! (Big sis... Big sis...!)"

What was he supposed to do now?

***

To Be Continued...

The main event is about to start, and it's a doozy. Tenro will finally make his appearance to complete the Okushiri Arc!

Ciao, Abdiel

#kenshin himura #yukishiro enishi #jinchu #hiei #yusuke urameshi #usui uonuma #toguro ototo #toguro #jaganshi hiei #yuyu hakusho #幽☆遊☆白書 #rurouni kenshin #るろうに剣心 #demon sword #youtou shinnoken #妖刀真の剣

[kazimakuwabara]

Counundrum 4

Part 4 to this

Kuwabara remains seated on his spot on the ground, his mouth open in awe as Toya and Hiei fight.

He can’t see a damn thing with his eyes, but his spiritual awareness is going crazy. He has a feeling if he closed his eyes, he’d have a better understanding of how the fight was going, but he's too stunned to do that just yet.

Kuwabara eases himself up slowly, and rotates his shoulder until the tense muscle in his back, behind his shoulder blade, unwinds. He sighs with relief as the pain eases off, and looks out in front of him and up, where he can sense the two demons fighting. He manages to catch a flash of blue, and then black, and catches a few angry words.

“What were you doing?” That was Toya.

“What right do you have to know?” And that was Hiei.

Kuwabara catches a few more words like, “Apologize,” and, “Fuck off,” but like the two dueling demons fight, he can’t keep up with the conversation either.

Kuwabara rubs his temple, and shouts, “Guys would you fuckin’ stop! Why the hell are you two even fighting!? Toya! You overreacted! I’m fine! Hey!”

There is no answer, but Kuwabara sees a tree get knocked over to the left, and then sees Toya struggling to get up from the remains. Hiei stands several yards away, his sword drawn and his left sleeve torn.

The hairs on the back of Kuwabara’s neck stand up, as he suddenly worries about the fight getting deadly. He hopes that's not the case, but the sight of the two glaring at each other makes Kuwabara's skin goosebumps anxiously. This is not going well.

“Guys! GUYS! Stop being idiots!” Kuwabara shouts jogging towards them. He needs to explain. Hiei didn't hurt him. Whatever Toya thought he saw, didn't happen. And Kuwabara also wants to tell Hiei he rejected Toya already; that there is nothing going on between them. Kuwabara's not sure what good that would do for Hiei to hear, but it would make Kuwabara feel better.

Toya disappears, and Kuwabara tries to do a retreat as he senses what is about to happen. He doesn’t have enough time to dodge or stop, as Toya reappears in front of him, hooking his arm around Kuwabara’s waist, and picking him up like he is nothing. It's rough, and he makes an, "Oof!' sounds as the air is knocked out of him.

Kuwabara fucking hates how strong demons are.

He hears Hiei growl somewhere behind him, but Kuwabara is lifted in the air, and then deposited underneath a shade of a tree. Toya’s brow is bleeding as he sets Kuwabara down with gentle care and cautions, “Stay here, you’ll be safe.”

Toya’s gone in a blink, but Kuwabara hopes he hears his angry shout of, “Are you fucking kidding me???” 

Kuwabara did not need to be scooped up and shuffled out of the way, because if there’s one thing Kuwabara can trust, is Hiei is not going to hit him. Not on purpose or accident. They've gone after each other before, but in a real fight, Hiei would never hit a teammate, or even a civilian for that matter. Hiei is in perfect control, even with his explosive abilities. Kuwabara wonders if that means Toya has less control of what he might do. If that’s the case, then if anyone is a danger to Kuwabara here, then it’s Toya.

Kuwabara hears Hiei’s energy collide with Toya’s, and the intense pressure of it makes Kuwabara think Hiei has come to the same conclusion.

This day, this plan Kuwabara had.... has gotten really fucking messy really quick.

Kuwabara is getting to his feet, when a hand clamps on his shoulder, and he jumps, shrieking in fright.

“Jesus! Chill, Kuwabara!” Yusuke says, flinching a little from Kuwabara’s reaction. 

Kurama is at Yusuke’s side, eyes darting left and right, mouth open in surprise. Kuwabara's a little jealous Kurama can keep up with it all. Can Kuwabara do more training? Does he have time after classes?

“We felt the fight from Kurama’s!” Yusuke says drawing Kuwabara’s attention again. “What’s going on? What’s Toya doing here?”

“He came to talk to me,” Kuwabara tries to explain, wondering if he should come clean about his lie about actually going to the demon world.

“What caused this?” Kurama asks, wincing as another tree is knocked over. Half burnt, and half covered in ice.

“Shit, they’re really trying to take each other out!” Yusuke says, fighting to sound serious and not amused.

The pair of them keep talking over Kuwabara, and he can’t get a word in. He growls in frustration as he realizes that they aren’t going to let him answer. Why ask a fucking question, if you don't want an answer?

“We should stop them before this gets out of hand!” Kurama continues, as Kuwabara tries to speak again.

“Stay right here Kuwabara, we got this!” Yusuke says, a hand squeezing Kuwabara’s shoulder.

Kurama and Yusuke take off the join the fray, and Kuwabara takes in a long breath.

This is all really, really, really stupid, and really frustrating.

‘It’s what I get for trying to come up with a fuckin' plan to trick these guys. Why the hell did I think I could trick them? I should have just told them they were assholes, and punched Hiei in his stupid head, and made him admit to Yukina who he was! I don’t have the smarts, and I don’t have the fuckin’ luck to get away with tricking them!’ Kuwabara thinks angrily, as his friends' burst of power explodes all around them.

Yusuke is trying to stop Hiei, and Kurama is trying to stop Toya.

He’s pissed that people keep shuffling him around, physically and emotionally. He’s even madder that apparently no one thinks he can be trusted to take care of himself. So they can keep Kuwabara out of the loop and feel fine by that, and now apparently he can be left out of a fight, that was about him.

No one can trust him with secrets, no one can trust that the can handle anything... is that it?

It's unfair. Hasn't he done enough to prove he's part of the team? He's with them? Is he just doomed to be left behind?

“I’m fucking done with this!” Kuwabara growls out, and steps out into the area where he feels his friends power the most. He kneels and presses glowing fingertips to the ground.

There’s a new technique he’s been trying to do with his spirit power. He got the idea from reading X-men comics in between study sessions. There’s a character, Gambit, who can put his mutation in cards, and when he throws them, they explode. He is dispersing his power so that it can be used in another way.

Kuwabara’s been wanting to try that.

He closes his eyes, and he can feel his friends’ presence much stronger than he could with his eyes open. Kurama and Genkai have said something about this making it easier for the third eye to open, or something like that. All Kuwabara knows is it works, and he pinpoints the quarreling demons with ease.

He splits his Jigen To into four, has it splits itself down his fingers. Kuwabara attaches more of his energy to the ends. Like needles and thread, he sends his splintered sword down into the ground, and cuts through the current dimension to disappear, and then reappear above his friends. The swords shoot down and loop his energy under one of their arms, and around their necks.

He pulls his energy taught.

It’s a hunting trick you use on clever animals, like raccoons, coyotes, and foxes. It forces them to have an arm up close and useless near the vulnerable part of their throat, while throwing the rest of their body off balance, forcing the panicked animal to try and not to lose balance, or choke. It is not enough to really stop or hurt his friends, but it’s enough of a bother, to get his friends’ attention, and separate them from the fight.

“Enough with this fucking bullshit!” Kuwabara says, his hand glowing as he pulls his energy tight, keeping his friends dangling from the string of his energy through the dimensions he had cut open.

All four of them, Kurama, Yusuke, Hiei, and Toya, look baffled, surprised, and impressed. They dangle like marionettes in the air.

Kuwabara is too pissed to feel flattered by their looks, “Stop pushing me aside! I can protect my damn self. And can take care of my own feelings too! And I’m not the only one. Yukina can handle her fucking self as well!” 

He is mad for the both of them, but if he admits it, he’s also mad at himself. 

“Look! Yukina fucking knows Hiei is her brother,” Kuwabara snaps, Kurama and Yusuke flinching in their caught snares. Toya looks confused, and Hiei’s lips purse tightly together.

“She just wants Hiei to be honest, and since all you assholes seem to know about it, but felt for some reason not to clue me in about it, I thought I’d fuck with you all and trick you into admitting it!” Kuwabara hotly confesses. He puts his free hand to the bridge of his nose and adds, “But apparently, at least from my guess, Hiei doesn’t really care that I know about him being Yukina’s brother, but for some fucking reason Yusuke and Kurama thought it’d be a great idea to keep it from big ol' dumb Kuwabara! So thanks for that, I love being the butt to everybody’s big fucking joke!”

Another nice thing about the snare Kuwabara has made, the energy is tight enough around their throats, that they are all struggling to speak. They can’t shout, and can only whisper, but for once, Kuwabara doesn’t wait for them to talk.

He talks over them.

“Toya! I’m sorry, but I’m a piece of shit, and I told these idiots I was going to your place this weekend, a lie, I thought would make them all nervous enough, to fucking fess up, because your crush on me has been a little... intense. I’m sorry. I’m a real asshole, I shouldn’t have done that. And it doesn’t matter that I didn’t think you’d show up out of the blue, the point is I was still willing to use your feeling to put pressure on my friends, and that was shitty of me! I’m not the type of person to come up with a plan to trick people into doing what I want. I should have done what I do!”

Kuwabara releases his powers, and his friends collapse to the ground, Yusuke making a startled yelp. 

Kuwabara is breathing hard. That technique is harder than he thought it would be and took more out of him, than he thought. After a beat he growls, “I should have just told you guys I felt like you were being dicks, and keeping shit from me. And I don’t fucking know why. I don’t deserve it. And Yukina definitely doesn’t deserve it.”

Kuwabara turns towards Hiei, and opens his mouth. He can't bring himself to look at him or confess how he feels. Something he desperately wants to do at this moment. He clamps his mouth shut, and puts a hand over his face, his skin burning hot beneath his touch. Into his palm, he confesses, "I love you, Hiei." He didn't say it to Hiei, but at least its out, even if no one heard it.

Kuwabara is actually feeling like he might pass out, but he’ll be damned if he lets them see it.

Not waiting for any other answer, he cuts a portal open, beneath his feet and falls through it. He seals it, as he passes through it and lands on something wooden, which shatters. A chair most likely. He hisses, tears filling his eyes, as his foot turns under him. He’s twisted that pretty good and run out of energy, and maybe will really pass out. What a sorry state to be in, but Kuwabara decides he deserves it.

It's what he gets for trying to scheme. Karma.

He looks around and is relieved to see he at least came to where he wanted to be, and a second later, Yukina is running into the spare room of Genkai’s shrine. The place Kuwabara had wanted to go.

“Kazuma! Oh! Are you alright?”

Kuwabara is not alright. He’s a piece of shit, who feels like he used Toya’s feelings to play a trick on his friends, and it’s good that the stupid idea of his blew up in his face. He shouldn’t have done it.

Yukina’s hands are on his face, and only then Kuwabara realizes he’s crying.

“No.” He finally answers.

“I’ll heal you,” Yukina says gently, red eyes swimming with concern.

Kuwabara wishes they belonged to someone else.

“Don’t tell them I’m here?” He pleads as his head is lifted gently and cradled into her lap.

She doesn’t look like she understands, but promises him anyway.

Kuwabara nods, too tired to verbally thank her. 

He goes to sleep.

#kazi fanfic #hieibara #hiei #kuwabara #yyh #yu yu hakusho #boys being dramatic! #hiei x kuwabara

[insanescriptist]

So ever going to do anything more with that YYH and BnHA crossover fic? I want the Todorokis to be happy! And what about Dabi? Is he a thing here? (Because Dabi is Touya)

I’ve been nailing down details and history for it when thinking about it. Like what year is it in BnHA; we know it’s at least a century ahead -there’s a technology stall mentioned due to increased social upheaval- so the technology is similar to modern day so in theory you could slide the BnHA timeline to 2120 with ease. In theory. Except...

There’s more evidence to support Quirks being a phenomena of about 100-150 years; Inko -Deku’s mother- mentions that there’s five generations of Quirks on her side of the family. That’s about 100-150 years of Quirks being a thing, with Quirks implied to have happened longer than that before her family started displaying Quirks.

So if the bio-luminescent baby is born in 2000 for ease of math, go for a more advanced maternal age (generation of 30 years) as befitting a first-world nation like Japan and at least six generations that’s roughly 180 years, so 2180. At minimum; add in Izuku’s age and it’s probably closer to 2194 if each of his parents and recent ancestors had children at an average age of 30. There’s wiggle room of about 40 years, depending on length of generations and how many generations other people had Quirks but Inko’s ancestors didn’t.

It’s probably not 2238 or later, as it’s mentioned that the laws that turned Heroes into a genuine profession were passed in ‘38 so it’s unlikely. It does imply that Quirks were around for at least enough time for the early vigilantes and quirk-using villains to grow up though and be old enough and numerous enough that legislation was passed by whenever this ‘38 was. As there are Heroes that have been Heroes for decades in BnHA and the early vigilantes turned professional heroes are mentioned in history... it’s not going to be 2238 or later. But you’re not really going to get earlier than 2180 and that’s compressing generations. Which yes, people do have sex and children at twenty or younger but that’s not the average for people in wealthy, highly educated countries, especially in higher socio-economic classes. Even if they clearly have arranged for families to be easier to have and pay for on a national level somehow as multiple families are shown to have more than one child in BnHA. Yay tax incentives?

Also food for thought: if Quirks have to be inherited, then the genes for Quirks have to have already been present in the human species for far longer than people would want to think about for Quirks to be a world-wide phenomena; otherwise it would be limited to the descendants of one individual (and seven generations of doubling, with gen 1 having 1 Quirk-person, gen 2 having 2 Quirk-people and gen 3 having 4 quirk people only gets you 120 individuals with Quirks when you add gen 4, 5, 6 and 7 together is far too small to cause a world-wide genetic phenomena) or a distinct ethnic group. For Quirks to be a population-majority within seven generations, they would have to follow some sort of ‘contagious model.’ Being around individuals with Quirks helps a Quirk to develop, or something. Doesn’t explain the toe-joint thing but the toe-joint thing never made much sense to Izzy anyway. It’s more ‘word of God’ than ‘I researched science’ so it being a strong correlation, Izzy can buy but not ‘having a Quirk means the majority of the world lost a toe joint.’ Genetics don’t work like that! Popular-science unfortunately does. And even doctors are not immune to pop-science like that even if they should know better.

Thankfully YYH does have a valid way of explaining the development of ‘humans with strange powers.’ Exposure to youki and youkai; not just the demons but demon energy. Genkai shows off three new students she uses to test Yusuke at the start of the Chapter Black saga, where exposure to Sensui’s ‘dimensional gate’ to Makai makes them gain differing ‘psychic’ abilities. And they’re not the only ones either; a number of Chapter Black’s antagonists are also human: Gourmet, Sniper, Seaman, Gamemaster and the Doctor. The strength of their ‘spiritual energy’ is noted as ‘poor’ and ‘D-class’ for the majority of the known but their individual abilities do make them ‘A-class’ as threats, by canny usage of it. Please note that those mentioned are those that were found and used by Sensui or went to Genkai for training. Genkai also said she had others come to her for training, the sum of which was about 30 people. Note that those were all those that were known to be effected by Sensui’s plot to open a wormhole to Makai, not all those that were effected. Yeah. So that’s about 40-people who were known to have gained powers that incident. Which as YYH takes place in the mid-90s... does make BnHA’s Quirk history timeline a lot more plausible. Especially in light of YYH’s ending where youkai could openly move into the Human World. Thus increasing the concentration of youkai and youki in the world; there were already plenty of illegal immigrants of the youkai sort... and as Kurama in the 2018 OVA/Two-shot proves, being around a youkai long enough can increase a person’s sensitivity to supernatural phenomena and thus more likely develop a supernatural ability.

So about a decade later, bling baby is born, flashing the world and ‘Quirks’ start appearing all around the world, with some people using their abilities to commit crimes and others to save people. Fast-forward a generation or two and ‘Heroes’ become a genuine profession and start an obsession of society for ‘Heroes.’ And that eventually becomes BnHA, except with youkai discreetly in the background. I really want to know about the paperwork/identity shenanigans to keep youkai who live for ages with proper papers.

Izzy isn’t quite fully caught up with the BnHA manga; she kind of stopped reading when Izuku started displaying One For All’s recessive Quirks as it seemed very very Gary-Stu to get new powers instead of refine his strength and skill more. So timeline is going to be ambiguous as fuck until I nail it down further but here, has more Yukina is Boss and the YYH anime did her a disservice; people forget she was B-class and crossed Makai a few times all by her lonesome. Just because she doesn’t want to, doesn’t mean she can’t.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

“Oh wow, her outfit is so pretty!” Urakaka said suddenly, leaning against Izuku’s back unintentionally. Focus more on where she’s looking instead of what you’re feeling against your back Deku!

Deku looked. “Isn’t that Todoroki-san?” His classmate’s hair was distinctive and it wasn’t hard to see, even from across the street and down a ways. He was with someone with white hair and red patches -the angle was wrong to see who that was beyond that- and the other person had to be the one Urakaka was talking about; the clothing stood out for being more traditional but it clearly had modern influences so he had very little idea of what it was beyond something possibly Chinese.

Urakaka said something about the outfit again but Izuku didn’t hear it with Urakaka slumping against and down. Stupid libido, he needs that blood!

Iida, their previously silent third explained, “Yaoyorozo-san said Todoroki-san did tell her that Todoroki would be meeting with some family today. It’s why he would be missing the Class 1-A study session we’re supposed to be getting snacks for.”

Izuku heard some of the disapproval in his voice but either Izuku admitted what took him so long that one time for the school festival or accept the minders for any simple errand. It helped that everyone wanted different things and was way too much for one person to feasibly carry. He did kind of want to know about Todoroki’s family’s Quirks -did they have something like his classmate’s Half-hot, half-cold or did they have ice or fire or some sort of water as a possible mutation?- but that would be prying and that was a guy with a knife that people were moving away from, oh shit-

“Guy with a knife, near Todoroki!”

Iida dropped the snacks, engines revving towards them. Izuku followed with a pounce only to stop short of the cafe’s boundaries; the guy with the knife had horns and multiple sets of them -a horn quirk?- and was shouting about Endeavor. And the knife was at the throat of the pretty woman with mint-green hair and the pretty clothing that Urakaka was just admiring.

Hostage situation! Wait, they had a class on this- no, something was wrong here.

Todoroki was glaring but the hostage taker, she-

She wasn’t afraid and somehow that made things better for Izuku; he could breathe easier now, he could think-!

“You’re holding the knife wrong, someone could break your wrist like this.”

Knife guy told her to shut up or he’ll slice her throat and then Izuku heard a crack! That sort of dull snap that sounded like broken bones-

And knife guy was tossed over her shoulder and landed hard on the ground and-

It was over. The knife in the hand of the one who was once hostage. “What cheap metal.”

#Izzy answers #BnHA's timeline is kind of screwy when thought about #As are the 'basics of Quirks and Quirk history' as commonly taugh #just doesn't stand up to in-depth examination #not on its own anyway #Yukina is Great #or 'selectively oblivious Yukina is so savage' #and yet she's so sweet #and purposefully kind

[hufflepuff-ravenclaw-reviews]

Nostalgia Rewatch: Yu Yu Hakusho S01E21

Suzaku scoffs over Yusuke's lack of dying, and starts to charge up his six-man energy arrow attack again. However, he's all out of juice for a moment. This gives Yusuke the opportunity to hit all seven of them with his shotgun attack, and they all fall over...

Except that Yusuke also collapses as well. He watches on the screen as Botan is knocked around the head with a group of bug-zombies that snuck up on them, and the two of them are pinned in from both sides (they're in a hallway, and I'm assuming that the windows are difficult to break...) This gives Yusuke enough energy to start to crawl towards the bug flute, but the bird gets in front of him to try and stop him. Yusuke threatens that he has enough energy to roast her, so get out of the way or die.

She does, and as Yusuke reaches for the flute, Suzaku comes over and stomps on Yusuke's hand. He scoffs and says that Yusuke had horrible aim, and missed his vital organs. Ergo, he can still fight. However, he continues on and chuckles that Yusuke appears to be all out of energy, as evident that Yusuke didn't immediately destroy the flute.

Yusuke struggles to his feet, even though it's clearly difficult for him to do. He knows that he's out of energy, too, but he has to fight for Keiko. Suzaku summons the demonic energy from his counter parts out from their bodies, which vanish. He then takes the energy back inside of himself, splits himself into seven once more, and gets ready with another attack.

Just then, as Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei finally break through the mob of swamp-thing demons and start up a long spiral staircase, the entire tower shudders with the might of Suzaku's attack. The stairs above and below them crumble and fall away... everything seemingly except for a little bit where the three of them stand, conveniently.  Kurama says that this won't stop until one of them is dead, and that they have to get up there ASAP. Hiei chucks his sword with deadly accuracy at the bit of stairs above them, where it sinks into the stone. Kurama then uses his rose vine whip to attack onto the hilt of the sword, and asks Hiei and Kuwabara to hold onto him while he swings them up and across. (Of which we don't get to see, I'm sad to report...)

Meanwhile, Suzaku fires on Yusuke, except that the attacks go a bit wide. He's surprised until he realizes that his antenna was cracked, probably when Yusuke fired his shotgun at him earlier. Because yes, those random red bits by the side of his face that I thought were just his bangs turned out to be antenna... And Suzaku says that they're supposed to be harder than diamonds, which... uhh... explains a lot about anime hair!

As he starts to charge up his attack again, Yusuke looks past him and sees that Keiko is about to be stabbed to death by the bug-infested nasty teacher. He then gets super powered up, and I'm honestly disappointed that “that's the power of love” didn't start playing in the background. Suzaku is surprised, and then realizes that Yusuke is using up his life energy instead of just regular spiritual energy.

The other three race into the room just in time to see a massive explosion. It destroys the bug flute in the process, which is the only thing Yusuke thinks about, and Keiko, before he passes out. Oh, and the bird was destroyed, too, if anybody gives a shit. Suzaku has enough energy to curse the fact that he didn't have enough power before he dies for good this time. Keiko looks up, surprised that everybody around her has simultaneously passed out all at once.

Kurama then goes over to Yusuke, and says that he's used up too much of his life energy, that his heart is close to stopping. Kuwabara says that he'll give some of his energy to save him, but Kurama is quick to point out that it would be suicidal. But Kuwabara doesn't care, and does it anyway. While he's doing that, Hiei scoffs and says that he doesn't understand the point of doing things for overs. Kuwabara passes out on top of Yusuke, which... probably not helping Yusuke any.

Yusuke wakes up in a room, with Kuwabara and Kurama watching over him. Kuwabara says that he's been asleep for the past three days. He goes on to say that the school's a mess, and most of it is closed. Yusuke asks about Keiko and Botan, but Kuwabara and Kurama remain silent. Yusuke starts yelling, to demand answers, and then Keiko and Botan come into the room to ask what all of the yelling is about Kurama says that it wasn't a very funny joke, but yet, he went along with it anyway.

Later, Yusuke and Keiko walk home, and Yusuke thinks about how mad that Keiko must be at him. He eventually says that all of this is his fault, so just hit me until you feel better. He braces himself as Keiko raises her hand, but he's surprised when she puts a finger to his lips instead. She says that Botan told her everything, and in the future, please just tell me when you're going to go off on dangerous missions, if you have time. He agrees, but then they start bickering about it, so things are pretty much back to normal between them.

#yu yu hakusho #The Ravenclaw mod #nostalgia

[grimtwin]

Little bit of H/B stuff

Was going through my saved story stuff. This a chapter I had written a couple of years ago, that I think I’ve only ever showed one person before. If you care to read it, it’s a Hiei/Botan scene. 

“After Yusuke and Koenma reject Botan" "Stupid Yusuke! Stupid Lord Koenma! Stupid everyone thinking I can't fight too!" Botan growled out, stomping through the forest surrounding Genkai's temple. She kicked angrily at a pile of leaves, sending the frail foliage into the air around her. "Why does everyone think I'm a weakling that I can't be strong too!?" Reaching down, Botan snatched up a fist sized rock and chucked it with all her might, the stone smashing the bark on a tall evergreen. "Because I like "girly" things and wear kimonos, I can't hang with the tough guys and train with them!? That's total crap!" Cocking her clenched fist back, Botan thrust the appendage hard into trunk of the same tree. The crunch of bark and thud of flesh and bone echoed throughout the quiet forest followed by a sharp hiss of pain. The shock of pain struck Botan and she pulled her hand quickly away, trying to shake the sting away. "Darn it!" She seethed through clenched teeth, her face burning red with embarrassment and anger. She'd let her temper get the better of her actions and now she'd gone and hurt her hand with an unprotected punch to a poor, innocent tree. The skin on her knuckles was broken and a small amount of blood seeped through the bark covered cuts. Botan pouted shortly before healing the wound with her left hand and wiped the blood and bark away on her jeans. "So what if a punch hurts my hand! That doesn't mean anything,” Botan spat, her words countering her own actions. She turned to the calm water of a nearby lake, “Because I can just do this!” Botan took the stance she'd seen Yusuke perform so many times in the past; feet spread shoulder width apart, arms held straight out in front of her, and right index finger extended. Channeling her spiritual energy with practiced ease, her fingertip began to glow with a bright, white energy.

"Spirit Gun!” Botan called out, before releasing the signature attack toward the lake's depths.

Her world was suddenly spun upside down as the force of the attack launched her backward into the ground, landing painfully on her backside. A squall quickly assaulted her, the gale force winds whipping at her clothes and hair, her ponytail being pulled from it's bind and blowing messily about her head. Through squinted eyes, Botan stared at the ball of energy shooting across the field. It was much larger than she had expected it to be, rivaling even one of Yusuke's most basic shots, and her entire arm stung from the backlash of releasing so much energy at once. A deep purple glow swirled around the attack and Botan watched curiously as it soared ever closer to the lake's waters; it had never looked like that the previous times she'd experimented with the attack. The ball of energy slammed into the water, sinking beneath the once calm surface, before exploding against the opposite shore, showering water and dirt down onto Botan and the surrounding forest.

“W-what in the world?” Stunned at the power she'd released, Botan stared down at her hand, before a triumphant smile crept over her face. “Ha! I told you so! Take that you jerks!” Botan cried joyously to the sky, jumping to her feet.

But her celebration was halted before it began as her vision swirled and a wave of exhaustion struck her. Botan slowly sank back down to her knees and tried to catch her breath, her heart pounding under her breast; it felt like she'd just non-stop for days. However, the smile did not leave her face. She must have used a lot more energy than she expected to have, but even so, she was beyond happy with the results.

“'Take that', you say? Am I to believe this was your doing woman?”

Botan froze in place upon hearing the unexpected voice directly behind her. Craning her neck toward the source, purple eyes widened in surprise at the sight of Hiei, dripping wet and sword in hand. His usual spiky hair now droop around his face, and rivulets of water poured down his bare chest and shoulders.

It took a moment to realize who she was staring out, his face hidden by a mess of raven hair, but the damp white starburst and piercing red eyes could only belong to one person.“Hiei? What are you- ,” Botan trailed off as her eyes moved downward from his stony glare down his body. A high pitched wail echoed throughout the surrounding trees and even Hiei had to admit he had been slightly startled by the sudden noise, dropping into a protective stance, sword raised defensively. Botan stared at him in a mix of horror and embarrassment, her face flush as she scooted back away from him on her hands and feet. "H-Hiei, you're naked! I can see your pe-pe-pe-," Botan stuttered, unable to finish her sentence, too mortified to form the word. She came to a stop when her back collided with the trunk of another tree and, unable to retreat any further, Botan slapped her hands over her eyes to block the sight she knew she shouldn't be seeing and was terrified to have seen. "No, wait! I didn't see anything! I really didn't look directly at it, I swear!" Botan lied profusely, bringing her knees up to her chest in a futile attempt to hide herself from the drenched fire demon.

Hiei glared at the girl with a pained expression of annoyance. Leave it to those from Spirit World to be terrified of even nudity. Ignoring the girl's antics for the moment, Hiei swept the wet hair from his eyes, and surveyed the surrounding area. He had been bathing in the lake near the temple, and mere moments after submerging himself in the cold waters, he had been seemingly attacked. The blast was a far-cry from being life threatening to him, but it had packed quite a punch, carving out the landscape on the shore opposite of him and the jittery woman. Hiei looked over the bashful blue hair, still hiding her face from his nudity, and focused on her.

From the girl's claim and previous exuberance, she had been the one responsible for the damage that now lay before them. He could tell from her labored breathing that she had expended a substantial amount of energy in a short time period; power he never thought capable from a mere ferry woman in human form. Hiei's eyes narrowed in concentration, focusing further on her spiritual energy. There was a significant drop in her overall reserves, but what intrigued him more was the strangely large well of energy she had to offer. Much larger than normal humans and spirits by far, rivaling even demons in the low C- Class ranks. Her body showed no particular training either; she was by no means unfit, but did not have the body of one who trained day in and day out, her muscles small and meek. She had always been a peculiar being to him and the once spirit detective team, but this made her even more-so.

Breaking away from his thoughts, Hiei searched the surrounding forest with his jagan to make sure no one else was around that could have been the cause. She was a blabbermouth, but Hiei had never known the woman to be a liar. He had to be sure though, especially being so close to Yukina's occasional home. Finding no one but the ferry girl and himself around for some distance, Hiei turned back to the girl and found her in a compromising position. No longer was she hiding behind her hands, her head poked up ever so slightly over her knees, and one bright eye peaking at him through a gap in her fingers.

Their eyes connected and Botan let out a squeak as a dark smirk spread across Hiei's face and he began to stalk toward her.  Apparently she wasn't as frightened of his exposure than she originally let on, though with her nosy mannerisms, he should have known better.

“W-wait! Wait wait wait! Stay over there, you're still naked!” Botan shouted, clambering to her feet as Hiei came closer, holding her hands out in front of her and squeezing her eyes shut. “Please Hiei, I'm not that type of girl! I'm not ready for something like this!”

When no reply came, Botan dared another peak, and was surprised to find that Hiei had vanished from her sight completely. Glancing around her, there was no trace of the fire demon to be seen. Botan let out a deep sigh and leaned back against the tree to steady her breath.

“Phew...that was a close one Botan ole' girl,” she sighed to herself, rubbing at the back of her head, a dark blush staining her cheeks. “This curious kitty almost got more than she could handle!”

“Yes, you were oh so nearly pounced upon woman,” came a dry, sarcastic reply, from the opposite side of the tree she was leaning against.

Botan nearly jumped out of her skin, turning on the spot and stumbling backward. “H-Hiei! You really must stop doing that to me. You're going to give me a heart attack!” The sound of rustling clothes and the clinking of belts could be heard, and Hiei stepped out from behind the trunk, fully dressed in his usual black attire.

“Then pay more attention to your surroundings. Now, explain yourself woman,” Hiei ordered shortly, arm outstretched to the damaged shore and debris strewn about them, “What is the meaning of attacking me during my bathing, and where did you acquire such power?”

A look of realization passed over Botan's face, before she rocked back on her heels and thumped her fist in her open palm. “Ah! That's why you were naked in the forest! I thought you were just being a naughty flasher or something!”

Hiei's glare hardened in response.

“I'm sorry Hiei, I had no idea you were taking a bath when I shot my spirit gun at the lake. I was just...frustrated with Yusuke and Lord Koenma, and needed to let off some steam,” Botan answered, laughing nervously, “I guess I let my emotions get the better of me and used up too much of my strength. I could have hurt you on accident, so I'm very sorry.”

Hiei scoffed at her explanation, “Don't be foolish woman, something of that magnitude would barely leave a scratch on me.”

A crestfallen look quickly passed over Botan's face, her eyes rolling downward, and she slouched dejectedly. Hiei was an S-Class demon, an incredibly strong one at that, so it shouldn't have hurt so much to hear that her attack, surprisingly stronger than ever, was as insignificant as a scratch to him, but it did.

“You think so as well, huh?”

“What?”

“That I'm weak and have no business getting stronger.”

Hiei raised an eyebrow, a look of confusion marring his face at Botan's words. What in the hell was talking about? He watched in silence as Botan turned away from him and looked up toward the sky before taking a steadying breath.

“Shizuru...said she felt a bad omen,” Botan started solemnly, “Something that felt even worse than when Sensui pulled his scheme on us, all those years ago. She's incredibly gifted in that area you know? Even better than her brother is.”

“And? What does a Kuwabara's psychic abilities have anything to do with what you're on about?”

“Everything Hiei,” Botan spoke softly, finally turning back to him, “Kuwabara and Shizuru's psychic abilities are never wrong. If Shizuru says something bad is going to happen, then it absolutely will. Whenever the three worlds are in trouble, you boys always go racing off into the face of danger, getting beaten to bloody pulps and nearly dying. We girls have to sit back and watch, just being protected or getting in the way. I thought that maybe I could finally be of some use to everyone.” Botan let out another deep sigh before crouching down and began to lazily draw in the dirt with one of her index fingers.

“I asked Lord Koenma to allow me to train with the SDF and leave my duties of ferrying souls to the others for the time being. He flat out rejected me telling me that I'd be wasting my time, and there's no way I could be powerful enough to be of any use in a fight alongside you guys.

Hiei remained silent, listening to the girl speak. Despite his dislike of the infantile prince, he wasn't wrong. Fighting alongside the likes of  A and S-Class warriors was going to get the girl killed immediately.

“So then I asked Yusuke to help me get stronger. With all the time he spent training in Demon World and under Genkai, I thought for sure he'd be perfect for the job,” Botan continued on, a wry smile on her face now, “If Koenma wasn't going to help me, I was going to find my own way! But imagine my surprise when he laughed in my face! He said that someone like me, someone so 'girly' and 'cheerful', had no business getting into fights, and that I should leave it to the 'tough guys' like you and him.”

Again, a sentiment Hiei agreed with.

“Hn. So you're angry that you're too weak to defend yourself and no one will help you get stronger? How foolish.” Botan's somber expression quickly turned sour and she shot up, stomping her foot angrily into the ground, purple eyes ablaze with anger.

“I'm not weak Hiei! I can fight too!” she spat hotly.

“You are no warrior, woman. Everything that you are, is the exact opposite of what one should be,” Hiei countered calmly, shoving his hands into his pockets and turning fully toward her. The look on his face was unreadable, and Botan's anger wavered momentarily, confused at Hiei's words.

“What...do you mean by that?” Botan asked quietly, suddenly finding herself nervous of Hiei's response.

And that’s it so far. 

#Hiei #Botan #Yu Yu Hakusho #YYH #Still annoyed though.

[yyh-revival]

Ok so about hxh I don't dislike the show it's a good show. But the reason I prefer yyh is the set up makes more sense. It makes sense for a place like the demon world to have a fucked up tournament like the black tournament. The stuff that Koenma's dad pulled to fuck over demons given the system and that kind of character. You know what doesn't make sense? Giving known assasins and psychopaths more access and power. In HxH becoming a hunter means you get access to all sorts of locations pt.1

That regular civilians dont have access to and a liscence to kill without getting into trouble and all sorts of other shit. And they give that power to Hisoka who never tries to hide the fact he just likes killing people and randomly killed one of the examiners last time. And Illumi a assasin who freely admits that he wanted the liscence for a job. He says this to the people in charge of the exam. And he still gets his liscence what the fuck. Not to mention his family the secret pt2

oldeck family who the public doesnt know their faces have a house so famous that tour guide point it out while going through the city. Like it might have unbelievable security but why would you risk people knowing? Not that it’s a bad show or I dont enjoy it. I’m not that far into the series. But things like that kinda take out of it. It kinda takes me out of it. Especially when this world isnt like this world of chaos its actually kinda like our world. Or supposed to be Pt.3

Yes, I have to confess the setting didn’t sit right with me, either. I typically enjoy fantasy (in fact it’s my #1 favorite genre, and my preferred to write in, whether that’s high fantasy like LOTR or something like Fullmetal Alchemist, or even modern fantasies like stories about vampires, etc. All of my childhood favorites have fallen into this category… aaaand still do haha)

But the setting always did feel strange to me. I never understood who or what was in control of this Hunter licence, and why they were giving them out to children, or what the point of them even was.

More under the cut. Long analysis of character, slightly more productive than what I wrote yesterday, and some more dissing of HxH (I’m sorry) and its poor management of plot, setting, and character.  Also, from now on, tagging all discussions and comparisons of HxH and YYH as HHD (for hunter hunter discussion) to keep it out of the hxh tag. 

Once again, this is all just my opinion, my personal feelings, and are not meant to grade the merit of the show or insult anyone who enjoyed it!

See, I typically also like “secret clubs.” But I like them being fleshed out. In Mass Effect, we know what a Specter is. They have almost unlimited power, but 1) they answer to a council which can strip them of this power, and 2) they have a clear goal – serving the council and the interest of the council races.

For YYH, we have the same thing. Yusuke has more power than the average human, having the authority to kill and having access to knowledge most humans do not have. But he 1) answers to Koenma, 2) has a clear goal of protecting the innocent from evil demons and other psychic phenomena. 

And that stuff is outlined the MOMENT our protagonists enter the secret club, in clear words, and it doesn’t take, you know, forever… But HxH, I have no idea what the whole Hunter organization even is? I looked it up and turns out I saw the whole 1st season, 31 episodes… and I have no idea what this hunter thing is.

So yes, I totally agree. For comparison, in YYH, we go through a rather good introduction to Spirit World all before episode 5, an intro to what Spirit Detectives are without learning all the details, but enough to understand, by what, episode 8ish? We learn how Spirit World can bend rules with Kurama and Hiei within the first few episodes, too. We learn Spirit World is a bureaucracy, that it has rulers and managers (Enma and Koenma), that it is occupied by mostly two species (ogres and Spirit World citizens, who are like spirits, neither alive nor dead), that they have prisons, that they take interest in human lives and society, that they have the power to revive the dead but that there are clear rules and procedures. We learn Spirit World citizens can inhabit human bodies made specifically for them. We learn Spirit World can unlock human’s innate spiritual awareness. We learn the Spirit Detective job is sorta a new and untested thing (sending a kid to fight 3 demons… Koenma seriously didn’t think the job through yet). We learn Spirit World houses powerful treasures like the 3 artifacts. We learn they have a freakin’ treasure room to start with. We learn you can break into Spirit World and its vaults. We learn that living creatures, even demons, can enter it. We learn spirits and living creatures can interact with each other as if both were on the same plane, tangible and all, while in Spirit World. We learn Spirit World watches and records events of interest in the Human World, sometimes flat out spying on humans like when they watch Keiko being chased or when the little girl (the investigator) stalks Keiko along with Yusuke and Botan. We learn ghosts aren’t allowed to stay forever in the human world. We learn that the spirit and the body have separate energies that converge together. We learn Spirit World uses actual technology, not just magic, like VHS types and pocket watches. We learn Spirit World citizens can live incredibly long lives and look like babies while being a couple hundred years old or more.

^^ See all that? That’s what I know about Spirit World from watching the first EIGHT episodes. Episode 9 Yusuke enters Genkai’s tournament… How insanely concise is that? Episode 8, and we know so much about just one aspect of this world.

Whereas HxH? episode 31… and I still have zero clue what hunters are, what their purpose is, what they can do, who they work for if anyone, what the qualifications for them are (just being able to fight?) We know nothing. 31 episodes!! 

For another comparison, by episode 31, Yusuke is in the Dark Tournament, fighting Chuu. By this point, we had all four main characters go through the first cycle of their character arcs, we were introduced to most of the supporting cast, we had relationships established, we got backstory on some characters, we learned how spirit energy and psychics work more, we saw Yusuke begin his second cycle, we saw the introduction of a major villain… we had a lot. Whereas with HxH, all I remember is the damn big boat in the storm thing.

Speaking of character arcs… I wrote this in a response to something else, but I think it also makes my point here. I am incredibly fascinated with character arcs and character in general, even more than plot or setting or anything else. To me, character is all. So here’s my breakdown of some character growth within the first 8 episodes.

YYH never really feels like it drags, maybe only in those moments I mentioned before. But it had an incredibly strong opening. Excluding Hiei, within the first 7-8 episodes, we have two characters (kurama and Yusuke) go through full character arcs that affect them all the way down the line of the show. The other two join after episode 25, though we also get to see glimpses of character background and some development even earlier (Kuwabara’s sensitive side is shown with the kitty, his devotion to friends, his honor code – all before episode 8 as well, but that’s not really an arc. He doesn’t have one till about the Yukina Rescue arc concludes. Though his is a bit weak, mostly because Kuwabara was… pretty alright to start with? It’s hard to develop when there isn’t many places you can go. And out of all the 4 boys, Kuwabara had the least amount of baggage.)

For Yusuke, we have the theme of “caring/not caring.” Yusuke stars off believing no one loves him and that he’s better off not being in anyone’s life. The wake proves him wrong enough that he makes an effort to come back. Then when he thinks he’s missed his chance by throwing the egg, and sees his friends and family happily talking about him returning, he mourns because he knows he’s not coming back. 180 from “meh, ima stay a ghost it’s better I’m not in their lives.” So, he goes through a complete cycle just in that moment, from I don’t care, to I do care and I’m happy, to I do care and I am sad. Not just a simple arc, from point A to point B, but A to B to C. It’s a very well constructed growth of a character. Full arch, full growth, and that’s why it tugs at the heartstrings. Because the moment he started to care… he thought lost his chance.

That arc he goes through all before episode 5 cycles throughout the show, and makes us care because such a strong arc, such an emotional one, too, grabs the viewer’s heart by the balls and refuses to let go. 

It cycles in the Suzaku fight – he experiences horrible pain to save people, but in order to really motive himself, he must see Keiko in danger. He’s getting there, to the point of caring about humanity, but not quite. Then in the Dark Tournament, the lives of multiple people hang on his victory. But they’re still mostly people he cares about, though now that has extended beyond Keiko into Shizuru, Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, Yukina, etc., all of those people. He’s getting there, increasing the circle of people he cares for.

It keeps going up, challenging Yusuke to care more. The hospital had Keiko and shizuru in it. But also the new psychics. Then Sensui threatening all of humanity. Then the 3 kings arc threatening all of the realms. Yusuke progressively gives more of a shit about more people with time and new challenges and as he earns more friends.

And all of that is outlined in he first Fucking 4 episodes!! We know what hsi arc is, we know where he is going, we know what sort of character he is, and we get to see him become truly fleshed out in just 4 episodes.

That’s just Yusuke, too. Kurama also has a complete arc within the span of like two or three episodes, and those themes cycle throughout the show. (guilt, suicide and redemption – think Ura Urishima fight, when Kurama projects his want to sacrifice himself for Shiori to make up for his deception, where he tells the guy that suicide has no honor or redemption in it, even though the guy didn’t care for that, his lie was about getting out of having to hurt people without causing harm to his grandmother, not about redeeming himself – family, lies, the better of two evils – to lie to shiori and stay with her so she has a son, or stop lying to her and punish self for stealing her “real son” away)

It’s consistent, mostly concise, cyclical, and oh so fucking satisfying to my literature loving senses….

And then hxh… where apparently nothing of substance happens in the first Twenty Freakin Episodes. I legit cannot tell you about any character growth in that time. Or plot? They take a test. For who knows how long. Uh… kurapika starts to like leorio when before he didn’t? So he gets friendlier?? Maybe?? Killua begins a friendship with gon instead of getting himself that therapist… they play a ball game together. That gets them to like each other so much Gon goes chasing after Killua when he goes missing at the end of the season. Uh…. they are faced with the horror of fighting people they had to cooperate with before I guess. *shrugs* 

If you put a gun against my head, the only character growth or arc I could maybe try to name for the first 30 episodes is that Kurapika started to like Leorio and starts to address him with a bit more respect, cause they worked together, so uh… nope, nope, that’s not an arc in the slightest. Kurapika can simply be a person who doesn’t like others until he gets to know them… So yes, I’d get a bullet in the head.

And the fact that you need to skip the whole beginning of the show to even enjoy it, as @perpetuallyfrowning suggested … I can’t do that. I cannot enjoy any change in Gon if I don’t know where he was before. But I hate where he was before, and we’re stuck with that for so long… Even if you didn’t like Yusuke’s personality at first, you only have to deal with it for a bit because he changes so much so quickly.

So there it is, my rather lazy analysis of the beginning of YYH and HxH, looking at setting and character.

- Mod Lola

#ask #anon #analysis #meta #character analysis #setting analysis #hhd #yusuke #character arc #mod talk

[urameshiy-blog]

Episodes 10 and 11: Kuwabara and Yusuke Take a Beating

Again a two-fer review, partially because Yusuke’s fight is left on a cliffhanger in episode 10, and partially because talking fight scenes sounds great, until you actually have to do it for two episodes straight and realize you can’t analyze every single punch, even if you wanted to.

Having completed the first round of tests, Kuwabara and Yusuke are instantly thrown into their first tournament. But Genkai has a twist: everyone will be fighting in the dark, and must utilize their spiritual awareness to see. For the spiritually aware Kuwabara, this will be a piece of cake. But for Yusuke, who has the perception of a newborn cat, this will be a bit more tricky.

After a brief fight where Kazamaru, the buddhist ninja, wins against creepy Assassin for Hire Dude, Kuwabara is up next. He’s paired up against samurai expert, Musashi, who can mask his spirit energy so Kuwabara can’t see him. For neither the first time nor the last time in this series, Kuwabara takes an intense beating; but he’s a determined Angel of a Teenage Punk and refuses to stay down. Kuwabara manages to break a small piece of Musashi’s sword off, and out of desperation, materializes the Spirit Sword! He knocks Musashi out, and takes his win.

Meanwhile, Botan appears outside to remind Yusuke about his mission (I guess she really doesn’t trust his attention span, which, fair). Kuwabara immediately thinks Yusuke is cheating on Keiko with Botan, as if blue haired girls don’t just randomly appear in Dark Forests all the time! But Yusuke quickly corrects him and catches him up with the Spirit Detective gig… which Kuwabara pretty much just shrugs off and is just glad Yusuke and Keiko are still together.

Genkai comes outside to yell at them for ignoring the tournament, and the three return for Yusuke’s. After Yusuke’s done being an idiot, she throws a cigarette at him and tells the two to start.

Aaand then Yusuke proceeds to get beat up. A lot. A looootttttttt. You see, he’s useless in the dark, but Kibano has nightgear that allows him to see in the dark. So he spends about 10 minutes just punching on Yusuke, right to the end of episode 10. He then resumes raging on Yusuke in episode 11 for the first half; however, Yusuke’s a boy with dumb luck, and uses the cigarette that Genkai threw at him to track Kibano, allowing him to take him out with a Spirit Gun blast. 

The first round complete, Genkai leads the remaining fighters to an ancient site, said to have been witness to a battle where everyone was overcome by madness, and murdered their own teammates. This site will be where Yusuke fights Kazemaru in the first round of the semi-finals. Yusuke takes another beating during this fight, and thinks he’s going to die. However, he manages to pull out a lucky win, when he slips into the swamp, and Kazemaru accidentally blows himself up! It’s… not the most graceful, but it does the job, and Yusuke gets to move on to the finals!

First though, Kuwabara has to face Shorin, who our team definitely suspects is Rando, in the next episode.

I’ve always said that the Genkai tournament arc is a test run for the Dark Tournament arc. And I kind’ve still stand by it, but I don’t.

I think in terms of characters, all of the side characters here are pointless. While fighting in the dark is an interesting concept, I don’t feel like there’s any stakes because we know Yusuke has to advance to fight Rando somehow. Musashi is a throwaway used to spark Kuwabara’s energy; and Kibano and Kazamaru are there just to add extra filler before he fights Yusuke. This is why the Dark Tournament arc is leagues better: the antagonists are more interesting, developed, and we’re never quite positive how our protagonists are going to get over the next obstacle.

That said, I do think we learn a lot more about Yusuke as a fighter here. His first case with Gouki, Kurama, and Hiei was more of a trial run for Yusuke to introduce him to the demon world and to test what he fights for. The Genkai Tournament demonstrates to us his fighting skills that will be pretty consistent later on; in the first battle against Kibano, he win off a lucky strategy that would only work for him. Against Kazamaru, he only wins because of an accident. Thus, we see he both has enormous amounts of luck, but can be a brilliant strategist when he’s in the thick of battle. This preps us to know what to expect from later fights that do have more at stake.

Kazamaru’s battle also re-confirms that Yusuke has not stopped trying to throw his life away. As soon as he thinks that he’s going to lose, he decides that he’s just going to take both himself and Kazamaru out and pass Rando onto Kuwabara. Which, nice, I’m glad you’re trusting your friend! On the other hand, stop thinking you can just die, Yusuke!! You’re supposed to have gotten past this!!!

Episode 10 is also extremely important for Kuwabara, since it places him firmly in the realm of the fantastical with the Spirit Sword! By gaining this power, he’s technically on equal footing with Yusuke. I also love how perfectly each of their powers fit. Kuwabara, chivalrous and honor bound, gets the sword, which is historically associated with knights and duty. Yusuke, on the other hand, gets a flashy bang, because he fights dirty and uses any trick in his repertoire to win. It’s simply perfect for their characters, and its little details (intentional or not) like this that make me love the show.

Final thoughts:

Favorite line these episodes: “It’s true, I punched him quite a few times.” Yusuke says, so proudly, when Kuwabara tells Musashi that this fight was nothing compared to taking all of Yusuke’s hits. Friendship.

I love that Kuwabara is like "huh demons exist? Cool." But I guess when he's seen ghosts his whole life it makes sense.

Man, Koenma is horrible to his ogre staff.

I really love the detail of the ancient site that the last half of the episode takes place on; it makes you feel like there’s history to this world and makes the story feel larger. Yay worldbuilding!

TL;DR: These episodes still aren’t my favorite upon rewatch, seeming a bit lukewarm in comparison to later fights. But the show makes up for it with some quick lines, and Yusuke and Kuwabara being as dumb as ever when they’re put together!

#yyh #yyh rewatch #yu yu hakusho #yyh review #anime review

[kazimakuwabara]

Kuwabara knew when he transferred to Tokyo, that there were rumors of monsters and weird happenings in that city. He’d heard all about the odd creatures popping up seemingly at random around the city. And that was partly why Kuwabara wanted to continue his education there. 

Kuwabara may not have been in the business of working for Koenma anymore, but he sure wasn’t going to sit back while people were in danger again! 

When he arrived at Tokyo, he settled in his new job of being a teacher’s assistant at the Juban middle school, and soon through excited students and teacher’s alike he heard the first whisperings of Sailor Moon. A girl who fought the monsters, alongside others known as, “the sailor scouts.”

He had seen a few sightings of these monsters, but nothing of the heroes who fought them. People who encountered the heroes couldn’t ever seem able to describe their saviors, and even photos of them seemed to be confusingly hazy. 

Through calls with Kurama, Kuwabara had been trying to pinpoint what type of demons could be plaguing his new residence.

“Well to be frank Kuwabara, I’ve never heard of a demon quite looking like...what was it? An amazonian tennis ball player? I mean-I’m not sure these are even demons!” Kurama had said, his voice slightly cracking on the other end of the line, “Do you want us to come down? See what’s going on?”

Kuwabara had smiled, clutching his phone a little tighter, “Nah...You guys are busy with Makai stuff...I’ll get you guys when I think it’s really too crazy down here!”

Kurama had sighed, his voice sounding as far away as Kuwabara’s hometown and Tokyo actually were, “Don’t give us cause to worry.”

Kuwabara had hung up missing his friends, and the days of his past all the more.

Months later from that phone call, as Kuwabara laid on his back, he wondered if his current situation was enough to worry his friends. Someone screamed near him, and Kuwabara had to admit that his friends would indeed be worried.

And if Yusuke Urameshi ever found out about this day, he’d get his ass handed to him on a silver platter for letting things turn out as they had.

Kuwabara had just finished grading papers and was heading home when he had heard screaming. In the center of a water fountain, on the route to Kuwabara’s apartment, was some sort of demonic looking woman screeching about, “energy for the Nega-verse!”

The woman seemed to be made up of water, and lashed out wet tendrils at the passersby, causing the people to scream and seemingly faint as something was sapped out of them. At the sight of one of his students, Naru Osaka, fainting from the attack, Kuwabara leaped into the fray.

Calling his spirit sword forth he cut the demonic woman in half who shrieked, and dissolved, her face rent in complete shock from the attack. Kuwabara had thought that was perhaps it, but the water in the fountain (which he was now standing in) began to bubble and move as if it had a life of his own. A woman’s cackle echoed around him and Kuwabara was sealed in a bubble of water.

But Kuwabara had been trapped in water before...and it hadn’t held him then!

Summoning his stronger Jigen To, Kuwabara sliced through the water hearing another high pitched wail. Scrambling back from the fountain, Kuwabara began to inch away towards a secluded alley, away from the passed out people in the street.

As he hoped, whatever this creature was, followed him.

“Whatever you are I will zap every bit of life force from your body, and give it to my master! ” a garbled voice hissed as the demonic form of a woman made of water took shape towering in front of him.

“My mom always told me never to hit a lady,” Kuwabara growled, bracing his sword in front of him, “But I learned from some friends of mine, that if crazy powerful demon women are trying to take you out-you should hit back!”

The water woman made and odd face at Kuwabara, as if he’d said something ridiculous but rose, seeming to be reading another attack. 

“Hold it!” a young girl’s voice interrupted the scene, causing both monster and intended victim to look for its source.

Standing at the opening of the alley, light casting off her figure as if she was a hero in a book, stood a young girl in an odd outfit bellowing confidently, “Attacking people while they try to head home is unforgivable! But cornering this brave man who would take you on, really is the worst! I am Sailor Moon, and in the name of the moon, I will punish you!”

And then in a stunned trance, Kuwabara watched as this young hero began a battle with the woman made of water. Was this really the hero people talked about? A young girl in a mini skirt, who couldn’t be older than 14?

‘No older than a 14-year-old boy mysteriously brought back from the dead who then went on to face demons...’ his brain chided.

Kuwabara shook his head muttering in protest, “Urameshi never looked that young, and neither did I!” He tried not to think too hard that he was probably lying to himself.

A scream brought him out of his thoughts, as he watched the young girl smash into some trashcans, the water woman cackling over her. 

“Now you die sailor brat!” The creature promised.

Gritting his teeth, Kuwabara rushed forward and flung himself between the pair.

Something coiled around his body, and then a strange terrible feeling began to take over him. Something was being pulled out of him, wrenched and dragged from his body, against his will. There was no way to fight against him, and even as Kuwabara flared up his aura, it just felt like he was hurrying the process along. 

“Such...Such power!” the water woman’s voice crooned, her tendrils tightening around Kuwabara.

Whatever was being done to him was painful, and Kuwabara could recall long ago the feeling of using too much spiritual energy on his unconscious friend. It had hurt then too, but that time his energy had been given. Freely given in hopes of saving someone he treasured.

This time it was being taken, and felt...too indescribably terrible to ever hope to put a name to it.

When it was over he sunk to the ground, collapsing onto his side and then rolling onto his back.

Which is where he was now, blearily trying to make sense of the goings-on around him, as someone screamed out, “Mr. Kuwabara!”

The heroine knew him...?

Time passed around him, and he was sure he heard the defeat of the monster woman. And then he was being hauled into small young arms, while a teary voice called, “Mr. Kuwabara,” over and over again.

Weary, and losing consciousness Kuwabara was shocked to recognize the gentle aura that was surrounding him.

‘Tsukino?’

And with that last thought, Kuwabara passed out.

#kazi fanfic #doodle #sailor moon #yyh #crossover #kuwabara #one day i'll sit down and write a proper sailor moon yyh crossover fic #i just love the idea #also no romance here. #i totes just want kuwabara and sailor moon to be like bffs