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#i thought of a name for the twin. its kazuma i think the name is pretty
worldend · 3 years
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let me ramble abt my genshin ocs for a bit.. tsukasa has only one earring and its on his left ear becuz thats a thing they do in genshin a lot for some reason so i wanted to do that too.. anyway after some shit happened with her and he went 'missing' akami decided to go look for him but before that he also decided to steal her other earring becuz well its not like tsukasa was gonna use it. i think it wouldve made more sense for his twin to have used it instead becuz they wouldve matched but whatever. theyre already identical twins they look basically the same already so im keeping it like this
#i thought of a name for the twin. its kazuma i think the name is pretty#anyway they (kazuma) thought she was well. dead becuz 'why would he go on a little adventure and not come back after several months'#but he actually just lost his memories.... still cant decide how but after she got to liyue he somehow got his ass kicked and probably*#*hit his head on smth rly hard 😐#well anyway akami didnt believe that his brother was dead so he decided to do what every 15 yr old shounen protagonist does#and by that i mean go on an adventure completely alone. kazuma ended up staying alone for a long while tho :/#theyre from inazuma if that wasnt clear.. tsukasa just wanted to go travel for a bit but well. shit happened#my other genshin ocs are related to this little story also.. like the hydro claymore that i talked abt#she and tsukasa have smth gay going on i think... i still have to draw her and the others#the Other one i talked abt which is kind of a self insert is in there somewhere too i decided to make him a cryo claymore#and the hydro claymore trains him and stuff.#ive said it before but tsukasa has an electro vision and uses a scythe and akami has a geo vision and uses a sword but i was thinking abt*#*giving him a scythe as well... so it could be like a cute family thing or smth..#kazuma is just there.. they know how to fight a little but they dont have a vision. they like gardening though so thats smth#BTW. tsukasa is trans bi and uses he/she akami is a nb girl and uses he/him and kazuma is nb bi and uses they/them. this was one of the*#*first things i thought of when i made them up 😐#ohh i wrote a lot... whatever girl idc
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Double Decker 12 - 13 (FINAL) | Golden Kamuy 23 - 24 (FINAL) | Merc Storia 11 - 12 (FINAL) | Zombieland Saga 12 (FINAL) | Gridman 12 (FINAL) | Cells at Work! 14 (OVA) | Shield Hero 1 | Boogiepop 1 - 2 | Egao no Daika 1
Trigger warnings for rape and slavery in the Shield Hero commentary.
Double Decker 12
Deana’s actually kinda tsundere…that’s kinda amazing to see, really.
I noticed Doug’s phone says “Dr. Apple”. Haha.
Kirill’s special. But why? You never answered that, people! Update: It’s because his antibodies are an antidote for Anthem.
There appears to be a Shell logo on one wall of Derick’s bar…LOL. Shell exists in real life. Why do we want it in an anime, now…?
I laughed so hard when I saw the landlady with what remained of Seven-O, hahaha.
Travis and Sophie, huh? Is it a ship or a working relationship? Who knows?
Oh! This didn’t make sense until Derick declared the bus was a bar. Rigggggggggght.
Kirill, believe in the Doug that believes in you…or something like that…
Kirill’s holding two guns, so when Cooper says, “Put down the gun,” which one does he mean???
“And Then There Weren’t None!” – Parodying (Agatha) Christie again, I see? (Referring to Hyouka’s Why Didn’t They Ask Evans parody, Why Didn’t She Ask Eba?.)
Golden Kamuy 23
How did “pig food” in a sentence become so terrifying???
Why is Tsurumi’s head leaking???
*Sugimoto bashes the earless twin with his prosthetic foot* - Well, that’s one way to get a leg up on someone…okay, I’ll see myself out.
Merc Storia 11
If Orthos is complaining about rain, why is he a water-element unit in the game???
This show is gorgeous. Not to mention the backgrounds look like they’ve been ripped out of the game…
Aw, Orthos is kinda cute. Kinda tsundere. I wonder if he wanted to hear “happy birthday” from Raviol…?
Every time I watch through the ED, I think Raviol’s going “Geddof me!” to Yuu.
Zombieland Saga 12 (FINAL)
The Yuugiri slap returns!
The 21st of December seems to have been the original airdate of this episode…
Karatsu-jou is Karatsu Castle, quite obviously.
Wait…does this mean Kotaro Tatsumi’s real (last) name is Inui? Or was this a “I changed my name bcause my mother/I (re)married” thing?
There’s an end of episode segment…keep watching.
That was…such a non-ending! This definitely needs a season 2 if it wants to finish its storyline! Plus, Yuugiri, Tatsumi and Tae never got their focus episodes!
Gridman 12 (FINAL)
What the heck was up with that smoke cloud? It looked so real, and yet so out of place!
Ooh, I see Anti now has the ability to transform by himself…although I should’ve figured that out last episode, since I think that happened then as well.
*Anti gets stabbed with Alexis’s sword* - What the hck just happened to my garbage son??? (refer to This Week in Anime for how that nickname came about for Anti)
Eyy. So you’re saying Gridman was a magical girl robot all along? Haha…hahahaha.
So basically, it’s Boueibu LOVE! but with less meta. With lessons of mortality instead of the Kabuki Rule. Akane’s basically female!Kinshiro, right down to the hairdo…
Wow…someone really ran out of budget. It’s literally just a slideshow, but with black and white over it.
Oh, there’s actually a nice piano song in the background. So maybe I was wrong about the budget…? I don’t really want to go and watch the slideshow again, y’know.
There’s a random live-action segment at the end of this show??? Wuh??? What do I need to expect next, a talking meteorite??? (referring to Dimension High School)
Okay, seriously??? What was up with live-action Rikka???? I don’t get it… Update: Okay, so the live-action girl was Akane, not Rikka. That’s why it was so confusing…
Double Decker 13 (FINAL)
I laughed really hard at the explosions. Probably because I Photoshopped someone into a picture of an explosion and the scene with Kirill being shoved forward by an explosion reminded me of it…
I wanted Max to slap Travis, as weird as that might be for a show like this (but not for a show like Zombieland Saga). A punch in the gut’s good too, though.
“To be continued?” – Oh. Ohh. Ooh…Heh. I already knew there were some extra episodes, but at this point, there’s no ruling out a season 2, either…hmmm. I really wouldn’t mind a season 2, y’know.
Golden Kamuy 24 (FINAL)
For some reason, I’ve ben referring to Hijikata as “old fart” for the length of this episode (meaning “not long”). He’s an impressive old fart, to be sure, and he was hella nice-looking in his heyday, but in the age of Golden Kamuy, he’s still an old fart.
I thought “Say hello to my little friend” was from Scarface, not…whatever Tsurumi’s pulling here. (commnt made in jest with straight face)
Seriously, what happened to ruin Nopperabo/Wilk’s face, anyway?
Someone make me a Civil War poster with Golden Kamuy characters, stat!
Wait, so Kiroranke, Asirpa and co. are headed north to meet up with Kiroranke’s allies, which could cause a civil/national war. Hijikata and Blockhead Dick-sensei (forgot his name) are headed south due to the info they got from Inudou’s hut (the chapel). I’m pretty sure that’s what just happened, but…I could have missed a bit and then I’d be wrong.
“Send the beloved child on a journey” is a Japanese saying, by the way. That’s (probably?) what Sugimoto’s referring to when he talks with the boat captain (the elder Koito). Oddly, the elder Koito seems to drop the last O from “-dono”, which seems to be a Satsuma thing…?
Cells at Work Special Ep (Ep 14)
Oh, you can see the effector cell amongst the other T Cells! Hello there!
I remember studying stuff about how a cell divides…man, that was at least 2 years ago! You’re making me feel old…
*Helper T Cell appears* - Gaddangit, Kazuma! (from Noragami)
Merc Storia 12 (FINAL)
There’s just something too awfully cute about a brother leaving the “nest”.
Even birds need to learn to fly. I wonder why Orthos didn’t…?
Ah! It’s one of those low-level hooting monsters! I’ve seen them in the game but I don’t know what they’re called…Update: They’re called Goldories. Spoke too soon…
Well…that’s a bit frustrating. That’s the second non-ending this season…hey! I’ve seen that elephant in the game! Plus that slime! (LOL, I’m so easily distracted…)
Ooh, that non-ending. I’ll give it a piece of its mind by giving it an average rating on my AniList!!! Rah!!! Anyways, see ya later…for 2019 anime.
Shield Hero 1
First anime of 2019 and it’s this one. Hoo boy – I’ve read one chapter of the manga, courtesy of CR. It’s gonna get nasty down in here, judging by the buzz that seems set to replicate Goblin Slayer’s…
Oh…that’s not a very favourable opening, the “It was all a dream” opening. Sure, it was gripping and showd Raphtalia (saw her name in promo material from ANN), but f*** if it weren’t overused at this point in time…
I always thought Shield Hero started out like Fushigi Yuugi…speaking of which, is that no longer on Crunchyroll?
Motoyasu’s got his own spinoff, so I’m hoping I’ll get to know him well over the next 12 weeks or so.
I find it interesting that they put the heroes together to reveal they’re from different versions of Japan so quickly. I’m pretty sure that didn’t happen in the manga.
Honestly, that “NOOOOOOOOOOOo!” could be an awesome reaction GIF. Just sayin’.
Sigh…Myne, Myne, Myne…you and your ways with Naofumi…
(Trigger warning: rape discussion) See? As I said, I knew this was going to happen. The thing is that it played out a lot more clearly in the anime than it did in the manga. As much as I don’t like the trope of “rape as accusation” enough (enough to have never encountered it before), it would be hypocritical of me to say I haven’t used it before – it appears in Half-Paid Heroes. However, one year out from having written it (due to the #MeToo movement), I can only say “rape is so not on”. I do not condone rape, but from a storytelling perspective it’s the perfect trope to make a character look like a monster and it makes a clearly false accusation have more oomph behind it, so…let’s just say Shield Hero’s doing its job here, making me despise Myne and the system in this world. Besides, I only stand on the side that does the better story.
For some reason, Naofumi’s “You can shove it all up your a***!” demand reminds me of when I’m angry and doing unreasonable demands…which means it’s won me over now.
I just realised…there hasn’t been much music until now…
(Trigger warning: slavery discussion) Oof. Now they’ve gotten to a new low of depravity in this show. Naofumi’s probably gonna buy a slave…again, I don’t condone this, but I assume Raphtalia is here.
Yep, even without knowing past ch 1, I was right on the money. That’s Raphtalia!
Poppies, huh? The symbol of bloodshed. What a perfect flower for this show, which demonstrates Naofumi’s blood, sweat and tears…
As much as I don’t condone some of the acts done in this show, I see some huge potential. Even if it’s got controversy flying around it like flies, I’ll stand with it. Are you with me?
Boogiepop 1 – 2
Double length premiere…oof, this’ll be tough on my spare time. Lately, I’ve been told to clean up the house a bunch and doing all manner of other things, so it’s just eating up time on all sides.
OP start is…for some reason, never a good start. For some reason, I just don’t like it. Maybe that might be the fact I was taught to start with a compelling opening scene when I was a fiction writer, though.
The subber got so bored they even subbed the Dengeki Bunko logo in the corner…wow. (sarcastic)
For some reason, the art style reminds me of Banana Fish (or Parasyte). Must be the chara designs.
This seems to be coated in a fine film of 90s edge. Or maybe the early 2000s, because that’s when this really comes from. C’mon, Takeda doesn’t even seem surprised when his mouth hangs open!
Notably, Boogiepop uses boku.
Wait, I don’t get why Boogiepop is called that. They pop the boogie(men)? That right?
I started zoning out and fiddling with my wrist in the middle of this episode. That’s another bad sign…
Wow, that ending’s really minimalist.
Currently, this episode raises more questions than it answers. Its overall impression level is trending slightly towards the negative. There must be a double premiere for a reason, though…let’s move on.
Wait - Kirima Seiichi? Is he Nagi’s father??? How did I not notice that earlier?
That manticore business seems to be correct…according to Wikipedia.
This doesn’t add up. Taniguchi. Kirima. Maybe Taniguchi is the name of the mother/father and Kirima is the name of the other parent? Update: Spoke too soon on this point and a previous one.
Kirima’s OS appears to be Windows 10 with a few adjustments.
Wait, but isn’t Suema meant to be the girl’s surname? Or is it Kinoshita? Update: It’s Suema. Kinoshita is another girl.
This white-haired man is the one from last episode, right? I didn’t really recognise him since there’s always terrible lighting plus he was wearing orange then, but yeah. Can’t believe I didn’t connect the dots there either.
White-haired man seems to be like Anti from Gridman. I presume he’s Echoes…? Update: Yup, Echoes it is.
Egao no Daika 1
This sounds like it’s outside my field of expertise, but I’ve been proven wrong before with Planet With, not to mention Toshiki Masuda is a character called Huey Malthis. It seems to be pretty standard Princess and the Pauper fare though…
There’s just a bunch of tablets with fancy-looking English on them…the heck?
Is it just me, or did the mecha game have the solitaire success sound effect…?
Ooh, I sense animosity regarding Japan’s emperor abdicating within this show (in a metaphorical sense)! I could analyse this show to bits, maybe…
The CGI in this actually ain’t that bad. Then again, we are talking about mechs here…
Oh, end of episode segment. Keep watching…
Well, I noticed the characters go off model if you’re paying attention to something you shouldn’t be, but otherwise, it’s a respectable first episode…respectable, but fairly average.
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gabriel-gabdiel · 4 years
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【Draft】Youtou Shinnoken Chapter 57: Living Sin (Part 9)
Kenshin’s long-awaited match against Enishi Yukushiro is a hundred years in the making.
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.
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 it. Literally.
From 50 kilometers above the earth, Yahiko descended straight towards the moving castle, its concentrated jaki beams dissipating against the ghostly human missile.
He first skydived from the ferry-girl's oar (much to her surprise and chagrin) the stratosphere and did his imitation of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu's "RYU TSUI SEN! (DRAGON HAMMER FLASH!)" for starters, which 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 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 spirit energy.
Finally, the Tokyo Samurai Spirit did a "TEN GAMI! (GOD IN HEAVEN!)" that started the downward descent of the moving building, the cracks turning into outright crags and debris as the teenaged ghost flew high above even the stratosphere, reaching instead all the way to the mesosphere.
"INGA GAMI! (KARMIC GOD!)"
He this time reached a height that could've resulted in a 70 kilometer drop back to earth.
The young samurai kid traversed that whole distance from heaven to earth with a strike that shook the sky itself, or at least sent cloudy shockwaves as they broke through the speed barrier.  
Yahiko's first of two ultimate attacks had enough jaki-neutralizing power to drive that huge structure right into the middle of the military base like a comet.
The sublimated gaseous mix of reiki (spirit energy) and jaki (negative energy) then ionized into their base forms, the kenki (swordsman energy) binding them fading away into the ether.
All of which were neutralized by Yahiko's own strange spirit energy. His own reiatsu or mixture of reiki and kenki.
His strike from his self-made sakabatou (reverse-edged sword) 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 huge fortress was left by the time it crash landed into 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.
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 unable to affect the turtle shell one way or another.
But he 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 into his body, his youki (demon energy) rising to astonishing levels. To S-Level and beyond.
'His name is Hiei, huh?' thought the blind man, waxing nostalgic. That was also the name of the mountain where their old stronghold was.
What a curious demon. He had the speed of Souiro "Heaven Sword" Seta and the strength (or even firepower) of Makoto Shishio.
Under the old Reikai rules, Hiei's presence there would be 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.
If Usui could conquer such a demon, then he was yet another 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 the 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 ocean and clouds, it wouldn't yield.
His Tinbe was now complete, but there was a gap the side of a sword slash 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 from Kurama's little trick earlier, with the Demon World Moss growing roots at small cracks and gaps on the shield before it could heal or strengthen it, thus compromising its integrity.
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 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 bust through.
It then cracked apart into two then into a million pieces, and from there Hiei released all of the Dragons of Darkness Flame unto Usui's 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 power of the Kokuryuha inside of him, knowing full well that his Tinbe wasn't complete yet.
However, by making him 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 Flames cold.
He 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 complete Tinbe, like the waves of the ocean crashing against the sea wall or dam. The tides turning but the wall remained unperturbed.
Hiei's Jagan was now his...!
However, as he began his counter Rochin stab that he intended to pin both Hiei and Kurama into the wall like twin butterflies, something felt amiss.
His body then literally fell apart into a fine rest mist and tiny pieces of meat cubes.
He was able to seal the crack on his Tinbe, but the gap of time he needed to do his counterstrike was all Hiei needed 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 he could block one strike with his shield. Or counter with a thrown spear to his 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...
One day, from out of the blue, Usui Uonuma asked Makoto Shishio a simple question.
"Between and 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 probably 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.
He 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 the Reikai Senshi (Spirit World Warriors).
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 Ju (New Ten). 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 to him having this energy surplus.
Without all those multiple seals in his power, he might still suffer from power incontinence. He might still be unable to control his immeasurable strength.
Regardless, he 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.
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.
Kenshin remembered who the man was.
He was Enishi Yukishiro, all grown up. The younger brother of Kenshin's ex-wife, Tomoe Himura.
"...Tell me, Battousai. Is my sister smiling down on you from heaven?" so said Tomoe's brother, Enishi.
He'd somehow ended up in the Heisei Era and got himself mixed up in Kenshin's current affairs. Himura could've almost sworn that Enishi had died back in the Bakumatsu.
The boy was one of many unsettled debts Kenshin left when he died fighting against Makoto Shishio back at Mount Hiei.
Enishi even gave him 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 had a twinge of pain to it. 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 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.
***
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 have the Chojin's powers at your side, you dirty rat. Of course it wasn't enough...!"
"You're being too loud, Yahiko! You're bothering the military people!" was what Botan resisted 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 was actually on high alert, with the supernatural beings attacking different parts of the island at once.
Many of their deployed teams not returning 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 official military business!"
Another private attempted to grab hold of Myojin, only for him to slip his grasp. The teenaged version of Yahiko was a ghost, after all.
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 billowing 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 he was merely acting as the representative speaker to one other person.
Perhaps Myojin was actually talking to the Chojin himself.
Just who the hell was the Chojin anyway?
Was he Makoto Shishio? Or someone else entirely?
His ghoulish shikigami (familiars) with their tattered robes and their own scythes flew at the soldiers, who fired at them to no avail.
"STOP!" screamed both Yahiko and Botan after the soldiers 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 the man's strength firsthand.
The Chinese warrior was so powerful he drove Himura Battousai himself from the forests of Okushiri all the way to a whole separate mountain range in Hokkaido, far away from the island.  
Only Kenshin or maybe Yusuke could take him out one-on-one. He should not be allowed to join forces with the rest of the Shin Ju.
He was that powerful. By pure willpower and hatred, he grew to become strong enough to even give the version of Battousai with his own magical Demon Sword pause.
The Chojin (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).
Distracted by the fact that Tomoe's brother managed to find him a century later to enact his rightful revenge.
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 presence of mind 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 creative last-minute counter was what initially buried Enishi right into the heart of Mt. Kannon.
Regardless, Kenshin had arrived back at his earlier starting point.
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 and presumably burned to smoke and ash by molten rock.
Since Tomoe was Kenshin's first wife, that made Enishi his brother-in-law. A brother-in-law with a century-old grudge regarding Kenshin's murder of Tomoe Himura (nee Yukishiro).
***
Yahiko manifested his neutralizing reiki and kenki all over the military base with a sparkling blue and yellow light that mixed and turned green, which 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 him," explained Botan to one of the soldiers before swatting multiple weakened shikigami away with her boat paddle weapon.
Myojin's last shikigami-dissipating swing swiped mere inches away at 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 opened her Spirit Compact Communicator.
"Language, Yahiko!" reprimanded the Kaoru inside her in turn.
Afterwards, Itsuki summoned multiple warp gates, this time rectangular and doorway-shaped instead of circular and hole-shaped.
Inside each dimensional door was either the corpse, unconscious body, or even ashes of the many different Shin Juppon Gatana.
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 cleaned their mess up! And cleaned house with them! Learn how to stay down and give up!"
The shining eyes of Houji the Onmyouji then dimmed and faded away, replaced with his actual 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 returned. Houji was seemingly awakened from his brief slumber earlier, when actually sounded "cool" 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 was talking 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 the Spirit World with the so-called 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 he blocked with his 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 training with the weapon irrelevant due to his seemingly oceanic flow of negative energy giving 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 doors leading to the Shin Ju were then shut. 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 entered, 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 the rambunctious teenager with bleached regent hair.
***
Yukishiro was able to crawl 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.
Besides which, he wasn't supposed to only be burned from the fires of a river of magma anyway. It must've took 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 Urameshi himself would've survived such a predicament.
The red-hot blade of the Chinese-styled warrior that didn't quite reach its melting point yet cooled down from the sheer blast of miasmic jaki from him.
He was one of the strongest of the Ten Swords indeed.
If allowed to run rampant like the rest of the Ten Swords, Yukishiro could very well murder every one of them. The Reikai Tantei, the Kenshingumi, and the Oniwabanshu.
All of them could die. The 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.
He foresaw it all through the Youtou Shinnoken.
The last thing Yahiko and the Kenshingumi 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 the reincarnations or ghosts from the Meiji Era—most of Kenshin's comrades—were a result of how their reiki interacted with their kenki, 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 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, it was spirit energy that 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 was gone. Or how Hiei's Jaou-En-Satsu Kokuryuha was cancelled out into nothing 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 presence of kenki 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 than either pure reiki or youki. Even jaki.
It was through these souls, these seeds of hope, that Koenma Daio wished to defeat the Chojin and his unnatural powers that defied death and the natural order of the Spirit World.
***
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 he would undo everything they'd done so far to suppress the Shin Juppon Gatana (New Ten Swords) from conquering the island of Okushiri as well as Hokkaido.
Meanwhile, the cross-shaped scar on Kenshin's cheek had a twinge of pain to it. No, actually the cuts felt as painful and fresh to him as the first time they were made.
"Sessha (This one) was wondering earlier why even though I thought I'd never met you, you seemed to know everything about me de gozaru (that you did)."
"'Sessha'? 'De gozaru'?" Enishi repeated 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? 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 that I was reborn into to become as strong as 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 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 even any breathing room as he attacked, attacked, an attacked some more.
***
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, was 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 her shinigami she fused with healed his flickering body.
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.
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.
"!?" was Yahiko's reaction to the new arrival. He was distracted even as he was on the verge of disarming the untrained Houji of his scythe. "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 leapt 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 the vampire version of Makoto Shishio's 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.
"Inner Blood Turmoil," Yumi said as she sapped Kuwabara of all his energy using the Kyuuketsuki Kakuto Ryu (Vampire Martial Arts) that Rando stole from her.
"SHIT! Even Shishio's girlfriend has superpowers now too?!" said Sanosuke, remembering the woman whom he did a bridal carry with as they traversed Shishio's Mt. Hiei stronghold.
"...BLOOD WIND!"
***
Tomoe's little brother had grown strong. Frighteningly strong. Ridiculously strong. Like 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 was able to figure out how his "Wattoujutsu" (a mix of Japanese swordsmanship and Chinese kung fu) worked after only seeing a couple of techniques from it.
The Demon Sword then shone, and Kenshin's form started to change.
From a 30-year-old man he 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 regarded 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 that back with, "SOU RYU SEN! (TWIN DRAGON FLASH!)"
"KAISHI TOU SEI! (BAYONET SWORD RUSH!)"
As for the Bayonet Sword, it was a follow-up whirling counterattack or riposte involving him 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 the "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 like 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 blade strikes drawing a fine mist and squall of blood. "Damn you, Battousai...!"
He had a Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu answer to every one of the white-haired young man's sword techniques. He took advantage of Enishi's hateful, unfocused strikes with clinical precision.
In fairness to him, the fact that Himura didn't realize who exactly he was fighting until the last second helped him figure out the proper counters to Enishi's Wattoujutsu early on and even bury him right inside the mountain itself. Albeit temporarily.
He 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 be visible under 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 see 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 shinigami.
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 to a dead faint.
It was from the vampire (or perhaps succubus) Yumi biting the necks and absorbing the blood of 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 and Yusuke's best friends kept slicing them closed.
Regardless it was taking much longer for Yahiko to seal the power of the Chojin, the borrowed jaki overflowing with immense pressure from within gleeful Sadojima.
"TSUI GAMI...!? (GOD HAMMER...!?)"
Myojin's attempt at the earth-shattering, jaki-neutralizing God on Earth was thwarted with a simple one-handed scythe swipe and 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.
The negative energy felt like he was drowning and plunging deep underwater and feeling the oceanic water pressure increase 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 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 complete neutralization.
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 that kept his ectoplasm within his soul.
The last thing he expected was to use that 12-foot long sword against Shishio's lover, the non-fighter known as Yumi.
"ZANBATOU ATE! (ZANBATOU DISTANCE HIT!)"
Sanosuke's Zanbatou Ate, based on Anji Yukyuzan's Tou Ate (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, he aimed it at the Blood Wind tornado that the courtesan in revealing attire used to gather the bodies of soldiers towards herself for her to feed on like the vampire she was.
***
Enishi crouched low again with a leg split, 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/or ectoplasm) stained the ground soon afterward from both combatants.
Enishi was now moving faster than Kenshin could react. Like an unswattable fly. Or perhaps a whole swarm of such flies. Locusts. Bees. Wasps, even. A plague of wasps.
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 every second. At every waking moment.
Like the polar opposite of the Ten Ken (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 such an opponent's moves.
This forced Kenshin to take 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 jumping high in the air before Kenshin could drop with his Dragon Hammer Flash the, at the point where his jump force was equal to the gravity, he jumped even further, thus essentially doing a double jump or what basketball players would call 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 shuddering vibrations enough to break steel but their mystical swords forged from spirit energy and the life force of their very souls held true.
"KUZU RYU SEN! (NINE-HEADED DRAGON FLASH!)"
Like water crushing rock over time, the constant barrage of counters from earlier took its toll on Enishi, leading to several lapses of attention, which Battousai took advantage of to great effect.
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 for the sin of accidentally killing his ex-wife in an attempt to rescue her from being kidnapped.
He was 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 in the half-burnt forest in a rain of white plum petals.
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 reappearing. Bleeding fresh blood (or, in his case, ectoplasm).
***
Back at the Okushiri Military Base...
The Blood Wind dissipated by 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 moves, only to remember something about him stealing techniques. So this spirit-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. As for the rest:
"How the hell did you get superpowers too, lady?" demanded Sano to Yumi. "You even went so far as to change yourself into a vampire! You really are something else!"
"Stop acting so familiar with me, you boorish lout," said Komagata to Sagara with half-lidded eyes, parrying his probing zanbatou stab from 12-feet away with her closed umbrella.
She then dug her fingers deep into his sizes until it hit a vein. A ghostly vein full of ectoplasm rather than blood. Feeding on his reiki instead of his plasma.
"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. Youki Duantoutai (Spirit Guillotine)."
Sano backhanded the woman and raised his zanbatou high up his head. "Nothing personal, Neechan. We can't let your boyfriend run amok again in this era either."
"...Son of a bitch! Rando stole that 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," she said. "I learned some of the moves of the Vampire Discipline from him. The Blood Wind is one of my original moves from it."
As for Sanosuke, his attempt at chopping Yumi in half led to his 12-foot zanbatou getting blasted full of huge holes on it care of Itsuki, making it look like a macroscopic slice of Swiss cheese.
Black holes that also ate up chunks of Sano's ghostly flesh whole.
"GUUAAAHH!"
It was all due to a gun attached to where Itsuki's right hand used to be that shot miniature black holes the size of pinholes but had an event horizon the size of bowling balls that ate up any type of matter near it.
It was a (literal) handgun the Gatekeeper developed through the help of Shinobu Sensui's Kazuya personality.
The Gatekeeper took advantage of Sanosuke's moment of hesitation in killing Yumi, remembering how she originally died by being stabbed by Shishio and then having her corpse burn along with him.
Meanwhile, as the flying Myojin attacked Yumi from above, Botan attacked from below, flying low on her oar before getting off her ride and using the paddle as her weapon, letting the 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 stop Yahiko's Ryu Tsui Sen.
From this close proximity, she was able to use her Inner Blood Turmoil to absorb their 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 reeling, his eyes unable to tear themselves away at the visage and silhouette of his ex-wife Tomoe Yukishiro.
Red tears streaming 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 him.
He was no longer the Hitokiri Battousai (Battousai the Manslayer). Instead, he transformed back to the Rurouni Kenshin (Kenshin the Vagabond).
"Tomoe" then told Enishi with a deep old man's voice, "My apologies. This is the best help I can give you for now. That damn Okashira stole all the jaki the Chojin gave me and sealed me and my precious Iwanbos away with it, turning it into solidified reiatsu."
"You did splendid, Gein," said Enishi, who was smiling for once. He couldn't face the reanimated corpse of his elder sister, 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? I ate human flesh in the battlefield to survive. I was adopted by a rich couple, only for me to kill them. I ended up becoming an arms dealer for good measure. I even waited and died, only to be reborn in this era when I found out you're still in existence as the Demon Sword's guardian."
Enishi dragged Kenshin's bloody (or ectoplasmic) body all over the forest on 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 the 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. 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...
The chaos continued. Fires broke out everywhere.  The wind howled like wolves to the moon. The base was in 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 the 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, she used spirit bandages that doubled as sealing magic, acting more like a priestess than the shrine maiden Hinageshi or Houji the Onmyouji.
"Nice one, Tanuki-chan!" said Yahiko. "I mean, thank you, Botan."
Botan smiled at the samurai boy. "Go get them."
'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 black holes that Itsuki's sneaky Kazuya personality shot right into his heart and head using 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.
However, Houji frowned, his arms crossed. 'This goddamn brat. I swear.'
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)—but his output remained 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 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.
It was literally a rain of blood, but each droplet contained razor shape scalpels. A bloody rain that cut you apart in order to induce a bloodbath as well. It pelted the ground like suppressive fire from a machine gun.
She called technique, "Bloody Rain."
It was a bloodsucker's way of creating the energy-absorbing Blood Wind without having to sacrifice the plasma that they had already drained from their other victims.
"I don't know who you are, lady, but you leave that boy alone!" said Kuwabara.
***
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 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 what Yusuke avoided in even thinking, remembering how easily he manhandled the A-Level Rando earlier, now that he wasn't faced with any distractions or dirty tactics.
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 river in roiling rapids from the shockwaves of their punches.
"You've struggled in every encounter you've faced with the Chojin's forces 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 reiki.
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. Now it somehow became old hat. Any S-Level worth their salt should be able to regenerate fast enough given they have enough spirit or demon energy left in their person.
"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 in keeping you from ruining Kurama's plans to take your whole lot out. Right until your big bad boss the Chojin shows up."
Toguro's eyes narrowed behind his glasses. 'His reiki is... overflowing. It almost reminds me of the Chojin's own jaki.'
Yusuke dodged the Shi Dan (Finger Flip Bullets) by reflex even though he had the feeling he could survive direct hits from Toguro's finger flicks at this point in time.
They 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 faze him.
Even with his powers sealed like this, he teetered from a high A-Level to low S-Level.
'Are you hiding your power level, Toguro?' he 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 a centuries-old 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? Where 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, Toguro!" the teenaged living warhead told off the mountain of a demonized human 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 pathetic as the vagabond expected. Maybe even more so. He even killed a family after he was given a new lease in life? How much of a monster did 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.
The innocents he murdered in order to harden his heart enough to take on a monster like Battousai. When he died, he resisted the reincarnation cycle for so long, hoping against hope he'd find Himura's soul 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.
He 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, he occupied the position of Dragon Head that his protégé, Feng Xinhai, currently occupied. He had a Chinese name himself, but he long ago abandoned that identity as well to become Enishi Yukishiro.
Under the guidance of the Chojin and his reformed Shin Juppon Gatana, he also learned how to use his spiritual powers on top of reviving the lost martial arts of Wattoujutsu. He studied Japanese. He began slaying demons himself by helping fund technology that linked the Demon World with the Human World.
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 take away the rest of your friends afterwards. I'll break apart the Demon Sword or steal it for myself. Become its new guardian. From there, in the Spirit World, I will also hunt you and your friends down 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 him? 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 Kenshin 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 one gigaton punch or one Chou Rei-Gan (Mega Spirit Gun) on the gigantic muscle-bound freak of nature before him, 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 blasted him back to Hell where he belonged and has a 100 million year sentence in and 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.
But maybe he could go all out and wipe the map out of several mountain ranges and riverbanks. So far, none of his attacks fazed Toguro in turn.
Or maybe he was risking hundreds of thousands of lives over his own selfish whims.
'Fine. I'll push a little harder, then.'
The "REI-KOU-DAN! (SPIRIT WAVE BULLET!)" that fissured the surrounding ground and threatened to break the world was all absorbed by Younger Toguro's beefy body.
His 100% form before might instead be his 000.1% now. Maybe he'd been training all this time in Hell. A Training from Hell.
Or maybe it was all wishful thinking and Urameshi had outgrown his boogeyman from his past.
He 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 he saw it.
"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 begging for mercy now! Are you?" asked Yusuke with an 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, Yusuke ate mountains for breakfast ever since achieving S-Level in 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 this, but fighting Toguro now at this point was akin to fighting Kuwabara.
"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.
Toguro's form doubled or even tripled in size. He was now doing his "100% of 100%" technique that had him stake even his very soul's life force in order to unleash his fullest potential.
Any of the current roster of Roku Youkai (Six Demons) could take him on and turn him into roadkill, to be honest.
However, his fullest potential ended up just B-Level 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."
"You're still talking, huh? I'm more impressed with that fact than any of your punches."
Yusuke did his signature finger gun pose and focused his ocean of reiki at a single point of his 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?"
Yusuke sighed. If Toguro really was going to unleash a new power on him, he would've done so by now. Meanwhile, he himself hadn't even worked up a sweat yet.
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 power? 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 keep 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 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 this!"
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!"
Enishi 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 see you suffer or make everyone suffer along with you!"
Enishi shook and shuddered before he himself screamed in anguish, screaming until his throat was 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 it for a second!
However, like with Kaoru Kamiya, 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 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 how Battousai pledged to not kill ever since he killed his sister was just a rumor.
That he hadn't wasted his multiple chances at a new life all 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 lies!' He had waited so long and come so far. In the end, it should matter. 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 even though he was the one who was ghost at the time."
"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!"
Enishi prepared to do his ultimate attack on Kenshin, only for Ayame to get in his way.
This looked mighty familiar.
He hesitated for a split-second in cleaving the shinigami in half. Here was another woman the same age as his sister. Everywhere he looked, maidens like her kept reminding him of what he lost.
A split-second was an eternity in a fight, though.
Kenshin rose up and blocked Enishi's sword strike even though, unbeknownst to him, his brother-in-law intended to miss Ayame by a mile anyway.
His heart swelled at doing so. Here and now, he 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 assured mutual 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?
He really wished he had fought on instead of gave up and died 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 light.
The crouching tiger faced off against the hidden 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 as it was buried into deep underground.
Would the tiger finish what it had started? Or did the dragon have something hidden behind its sharp claws?
***
Kazuma attempted to create a portal to serve as an shield over Yahiko, only for Itsuki to seal that portal for a change with Kazuya's Black Hole Gun, the twin rends in space-time canceling each other out.
However, Kuwabara expected this 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, grasping his damaged handgun.
Itsuki then awoken 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 guns 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, fleesh-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, but at least he had a backup plan.
"I'll kill you all!" said Hitoshi. "I will purify the Human World by getting rid of all the humans...!"
However, before he could use one magazine or clip from his guns, he got pummeled to submission by a revived and teleported Sanosuke Sagara.
Botan had healed up his wounds yet again with purified jaki turned into reiki, which allowed him to get the jump on the green-haired youkai through brute strength instead of fancy teleportation techniques.
'Her again?' thought Houji, noticing how Battousai's woman had again served the same function as he did with the rest of the Shin Ju by supporting the Reikai Senshi. 'That Reikai shinigami is making this mission needlessly difficult.'
Furthermore, every attempt Itsuki made to get away was blocked by Kuwabara, who himself punched the demon back to portals that redirected him towards Sano's waiting fists and "FUTAE NO KIWAMI! AHHH!"
"All right, enough of this!" declared Yumi, who instead of targeting Yahiko now instead aimed 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 hole where her chest to be appeared as a portal sucked all that ghostly flesh and ectoplasm away.
Gatekeeper Itsuki closed the portal that created the cavity in Botan's person with a wave of his hand.
The ferry-girl's jaw opened, clenched, and froze at a soundless shriek, her red eyes rolling upwards until only her eye whites were visible.
"KAORUUU! BOTAAAAAN! NOOOO!" said Yahiko with an anguished, bloodcurdling scream of his own.
Itsuki 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 the Hirameki, as demonstrated earlier with 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 weakening the ground-based leverage of his crouch, Enishi stood no chance.
Kenshin's much faster and stronger Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki (Heavens Gliding Dragon Flash) hit low to loosen Enishi's crouch then hit high with the multiplied centrifugal force of the follow-up second strike of his ougi, his Kofugi Zettousei (Crouching Tiger Severing Sword Rush) buckled 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, he was shaking 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 from the pain 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 at the center of the earth 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 (death goddess)!"
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 in his bedside. Cooking for him. Taking care of him. Serving as the only family and mother that he ever knew.
His revenge against Kenshin was all he had. 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 Battousai vowed never to kill after "easily" killing so many people for such a long time.
'He did that because he's guilty of 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!'
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).
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 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 eternity.
Only sheer willpower kept Enishi standing. So when Kenshin broke even that, he had nothing left.
His will to fight was gone. 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
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