[FFML] [yyh][ry][xover] Youtou Shinnoken Chapter 19: Freckles (Part 1)

Fri Jan 6 23:52:01 PST 2012

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Youtou Shinnoken
A Rurouni Kenshin/Yuyu Hakusho Crossover Fan Fiction
By Chester Castañeda
chester.castaneda at gmail.com
gabriel_gabdiel at yahoo.com
And Danyal Herder
dherder222 at hotmail.com
Original concept by Chad Yang
chadjill at ms3.hinet.net
http://www.fanfiction.net/~abdiel

The brand split has at last arrived. This chapter mostly deals with the
myriad of plot points that my former co-author Danyal Herder wanted to
expand. In any case, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

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Chapter 19: Freckles (Part 1)

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Three weeks earlier, in the underground tunnel created by Genbu's coup
de grace attack against the nigh-unkillable Iehog...

Rando shambled through the barely person-sized burrow in the ground, his
face pallid and sallow, his lungs burning for air, and his soul
fully depleted of any type of ki, youki or otherwise. Every little
action he did was pure suffering. Every inch of his heart felt as though
it were pierced by nails.

That damn Urameshi had beaten him to a pulp yet again. However, the
half-human, half-demon hybrid had the upper hand of leveling up to
ungodly proportions via a variety of methods--for instance, his natural
abilityto increase his power through his emotions, the coincidence of
being the descendant of a powerful mazoku, and his possession of
Genkai's Spirit Light Wave Gem--that made him some sort of S-Class God
of War that was beyond Rando's caliber.

But Rando didn't give up. Just like Yusuke did in their first fight, he
never once let up on his assault, despite being obviously outclassed by
a superior foe. He used all of his available techniques... several of
which were so deadly that he could only use them once per day... just so
he'd have no regrets once their fight was over, win or lose.

So why was it that he felt so unsatisfied with the result of their
rematch, despite the fact that he'd fought with everything that he had?
He had this burning desire inside him to utterly defeat Yusuke, and
instead of sating his appetite, his second defeat served to whet it
somehow. The feeling of manhandling a powerful foe using a variety of
maneuvers left him somehow punch drunk with longing. Either that, or
Yusuke's straights and uppercuts left him punch drunk with delirium.

Little did Rando know that his efforts weren't totally in vain; for
one thing, Yusuke was still infected with his cumulative Kugai
technique, his earlier You-Gan to Kenshin's shoulder confused his
enemies so badly that they made costly mistakes throughout most of their
fights, and he was still alive to tell this gruesome tale.

But as of now, he didn't exactly look like a winner. There was barely
anything left of him, even--his entire left forearm was gone, and whole
chunks of his pasty flesh were missing. To his credit, he was able to
convert the power of the Rei-Gan into youki by means of his special
energy-converting Ibuki and using that very demon energy to fire off a
second Jagan illusion. It was only through his ingeniousness in using
multiple techniques at once that he accomplished the double whammy of
escaping death and depleting Yusuke of his power during Kenshin's time
of need.

"Aniki! I want my aniki!" a voice whimpered as something popped out of
the center of the tunnel--a bloodied, torn, and limbless Iehog, crawling
on his belly like the lowly worm that he had become. If Rando were
capable of compassion for the browbeaten failure, he would've by then.
Iehog was just _that_ pathetic, even though he _did_ survive the Youkiri
Battousai's wrath for some reason. It didn't really matter; failure was
failure. Period. 

"Rando-sama!" Iehog groveled at Rando's feet just short of licking the
tattooed demon's boots. "Have you seen my aniki? I can't find him! He
was in my head, but now he's gone!" From what Rando could gather, the
lone surviving Hiruma brother had apparently regressed to the mental age
of a child, what with him drooling, slobbering, and looking for his
presumably dead brother like a lost toddler. 

"Shush now, Iehog. I'll soon send you to where your brother is," Rando
soothingly cooed to the tragically retarded demon, knowing full well
that the once potentially powerful warrior demon whom he taught his
special body absorption technique was no longer of this world,
replaced by a broken bird whose best prospect in life was a swift death.

Even though his lobotomized crony could not understand his next few
words, Rando offered them to him as an elegy of sorts. The paste-white
redhead spoke in a deep, sonorous tone that reverberated through the
floor and walls of the tunnel until it seemed to be coming from every
direction at once.

Iehog could not make out the words: they were horrible words, words
that distorted the very fabric of reality until he could feel the
stinging sensation of something flowing out of his ears. Indeed,
anything that needed to be said in a language like that couldn't
possibly be saying anything that was worth comprehending.

Silence arrived, and it soon stayed and spread inside Iehog. It grasped
his head and embraced him in its boggy arms. It shook him to the cadence
of a primordial heartbeat. It stripped his thoughts of the words that
described them and left them naked and exposed. Inexpressible. Deadened.
And to an outside observer, perhaps barely even there. 

Rando admired his newly formed body made out of Iehog's flesh, his
chanting to the Elder Spirits alleviating him of the need to expend any
more youki to accomplish his Body Absorption Technique, but for some
reason, he couldn't quite fully appreciate his act of mercy for a mere
pawn who didn't really deserve it. 

He wasn't quite sure, but along with the feelings of exhilaration and
determination that Yusuke introduced to him during their two momentous
fights came an almost rudimentary sense of guilt and pathos over his
former minion's unfortunate demise. Like feeling bad over shooting a
rabid pet or something; he couldn't tell. He would've preferred
experiencing schadenfreude, but that wasn't the case here. He felt
rather ambivalent over it, and it confused him so. 

"Iehik. Iehog. Rest in peace, you pieces of shit." Alternately wailing
and cackling at the same time, driven to nigh psychosis with residual
anguish and some other emotion he couldn't identify, Rando staggered
away from underneath Genkai's decimated abode, into an unknown
destination.

===

Three weeks later, in the Hall of Judgment...

Koenma went about his business in a deliberate pace, continually sifting
through the endless papers strewn all over his desk--a process he
actually enjoyed every once in a while. It was an excellent way to pass
time in a job as painfully boring as his, and it also gave others the
impression of him actually doing work in case one of his rude servants--
of which there were many--barged in without knocking first. 

Nevertheless, Koenma eventually became tired of the tedious activity. In
fact, the sound of rustling papers soon began to grate on his nerves
after seven hours straight of document shuffling. Sure, hundreds of
years of handling paperwork should've made him more tolerant of its
monotony, but not today. At the moment, he was about to meet with two
very important individuals, so he was understandably more impatient than
usual.

The Prince of Hell ultimately resigned himself to leaning on the back of
his oversized chair and thinking about what his next command would be,
which was yet another way to distract himself from his imminent
dilemmas. Just then, after countless glances at his multi-time-zone,
multi-world clocks and numerous idle twiddles of his thumbs, he heard a
timid knock at his office's large double doors. His head snapped to
attention.

"Is that you, Jorge?"

"Yes, Koenma-sama. I've found the humans you were searching for, but
they came somewhat reluctantly, and I..."

"Whatever," Koenma waved Jorge off hurriedly. "Just get in here!"

"Yes, Koenma-sama!" The wooden entrance swung open and Jorge rushed in,
his face drenched in sweat as he panted. As soon as he came into the
room, he doubled over and gasped for air. The scene caused Koenma to
arch an inquisitive eyebrow. "What the heck happened to you?" the godly
toddler asked.

Koenma heard boisterous and obnoxious laughter from the hallway; the
warbling, bullying kind that demonstrated its superiority over mere
chuckles and giggles by deriving its humor from the suffering and
inferiority of others. "You should keep your worker drones in better
shape, pal. If ever warlord-type demons bothered to invade this realm,
you and your little friends would be toast."

"Don't tell me how to run this operation!" Koenma screamed, inwardly
disregarding his sudden flashback of the Nether World King, Yakumo,
flooding the Spirit World by making the River Styx overflow; that was
_so_ a one-time fluke that would never happen again, or his name wasn't
Koenma Daio. "The oni handle file management! The shinigami handle soul
ferrying! The Tokubetsu Boueitai handles security details and guard duty
for the Reikai barriers! And the Reikai Tantei handle missions and
police work! Do your research first before criticizing things you know
nothing about! Also, I recognize your stupid voice. Get in here, Sagara
Sanosuke!"

The double doors opened again, and a very tall human who was seemingly
in his late twenties (but was actually just eighteen or so in terms of 
his "manifested" age) immediately sauntered inside the spacious
quarters. His wild, dark-brown hair was arranged in pointy spikes on his
head, and a red bandanna hung just over his eyes. Aside from white
sweats and an extremely loose white jacket that sported the character
for "evil" on its back, his torso also served as a spool for several
bandages.

The man identified as Sanosuke guffawed conceitedly. "Come on. I've
busted gambling halls with twice the security you've got around this
joint. It's pretty pathetic, really. Who are the ones who guards these
halls anyway? The Reikai Tantei or Boueitai? I'll bet you that I can
kick both their asses!"

Koenma, fuming at the sight of a mere human--a dead one, at that--
insulting his management skills, pulled his pacifier out of his mouth
and shook it in admonishment. "I wouldn't be so quick as to mock the
ruler of the world you inhabit, Sagara Sanosuke. I can always transfer
you to a less desirable location, you know," he hissed. "Do you want to
end up in a river of boiling blood, surrounded by a Stygian marsh, or
engulfed by flaming sand?"

Sanosuke squinted in contemplation. "Hey! Those punishments aren't
supposed to be part of the Spirit World or Buddhist philosophy! You
stole those ideas from the Christians! I'm not a particularly religious
guy, but whatever happened to the Yomi Road? The Seven Hells? Pulling
out the tongues of lying children? Tell me, you unoriginal,
unimaginative hack!"

Koenma coughed primly and waved Sanosuke's complaints off as though he
were talking to Jorge or any of his other multicolored minions. "We've
always redecorated hell throughout the centuries and tried out the ideas
used in other religious denominations to see what fits and what doesn't.
Furthermore, those Italians sure knew a thing or two about punishments,
let me tell you! Don't misunderstand; we still follow Buddhist and Hindu
tradition, but if there's something that can be done to somehow
streamline our operation, then I'll have it approved."

"Huh. I knew there was something fishy about that big-ass wall blocking
one of the Sanzu no Kawa's forks," Sanosuke murmured to himself. Ever
the doubter, he nonetheless posed the miniature lord yet another
question that'd been bugging him since he'd arrived at the Hall of
Judgment. "Where the hell is that large tub of lard with the funny
beard? Your father, who's also known by the names of King Yama, Yan Luo
Wang, Yama Maharaja, Emma-Ou, and good old bulging-eyed, red-faced Enma
Daio?"

"He's not 'Enma Daio' anymore. Or rather, he's recently been deposed and
incarcerated for his crimes against humanity and the demon populace.
I've since taken over the position and the title of 'Enma Daio'," Koenma
stated briskly and matter-of-factly as he placed his pacifier back into
his mouth and produced his usual, closed-eye expression that was nigh-
unreadable. "You can still call me Koenma Daio, though."

"Koenma, you know that Sanosuke loves to talk out of his ass, so let him
be," another voice quipped as the door to the spacious office was pushed
open yet again. This time, the figure that entered was a much darker-
skinned individual that looked several years younger than Sanosuke, but
wore the same unruly hairstyle that the taller man sported. A metal-
sheathed sword was tucked underneath the obi of the boy's outfit, and he
even smirked at the sight of the Spirit World Prince. "Good to see you
again, Koenma. It's been quite a while since I last saw you."

Koenma jumped onto his desk. "Yes, it has. Jorge, would you please
excuse us? I have some private things to discuss with these two
gentlemen."

Jorge nodded. "Yes, sir." Without another word, he hastily exited,
content with the thought that he could find something else to occupy his
time with.

Sanosuke watched the ogre leave and rolled his eyes. "What a dork." He
turned towards Koenma. "So what's this all about? Last I heard, paradise
didn't include being dragged out of a perfectly good nap by that goon
and forced into this stupid place. Wasn't my soul already judged decades
ago?"

"Reikai isn't your personal playground, Sanosuke. I'm sorry to see that
a century of peace hasn't taught you a little more respect for your
elders," Koenma berated further, which the two humans found somewhat
amusing because of the toddler's youthful form.

"Just shut up, Sano," Yahiko scolded after recovering from his own
hidden mirth. "It's not like you've suffered from a lack of sleep,
anyway." He turned his attention towards Koenma, who was now pacing back
and forth on his wooden desk. "So what's the deal? It must be important
for you to call us all the way here. Descending from Level 6 to Level 0
of Reikai isn't exactly a walk in the park, you know."

"Well, yes... and no," Koenma clarified slowly, unsure of the correct
way to focus the conversation. He wasn't even sure if he should bother
telling them about Kenshin Himura's connection with the Demon Sword at
all. "You see, one of my spirit detectives came across a powerful sword
a few months back--one that I had feared could fall into the wrong
hands. He was indeed attacked by some demons, but he repelled them with
the help of his trusted allies and the spirit guardian of the sword
itself. Anyway, the special artifact's safe at the moment, but--"

"What does this have to do with us?" Yahiko interrupted. "If the sword
is on Earth, we can't help in protecting it. We're dead."

Koenma groaned and shook his head. "I know that, you idiot. Just let me
finish. Anyway, the sword has the ability to drastically amplify the
power of whoever wields it, among other strange side effects that we're
still investigating. The reason it's able to do this is because it holds
an incredibly powerful spirit inside of it; one who has recently been
unleashed."

Sanosuke bumped his fists together. "And you want us to get rid of that
stupid-ass spirit?"

"Not unless you're interested in destroying your old friend, Himura
Kenshin," Koenma slyly dropped his bombshell after he at last decided to
let the cat out of the bag and reveal the truth behind Kenshin's
ultimate fate. He then waited to see how the two spirits would react to
the news. 

Kenshin's sudden death at the hands of the demented Makoto Shishio was a
big, saddening shock to everyone related to him at the time. Sure, his
friends were somehow able to persevere and move on after their loss--
some faring far better than others--but the overall impact that the red-
haired hitokiri-turned-rurouni left on these people's lives remained
immeasurable to this day.

Anyway, the response Sanosuke and Yahiko shared was absolutely
predictable: a mixture of flabbergasted awe and complete disbelief.
"What the hell are you talking about? Kenshin's trapped in a freaking
sword? Why would you trap him inside a sword? I thought you had him
reincarnated as a shinigami or something, or at least made him live a
penitent afterlife in your Spirit World's damned Purgatorial Sector! How
did this come about?" Yahiko hollered. "Kenshin is way too nice and
powerful for his own good to be punished like this!"

"I know that he's very strong; I saw him fight during the Bakumatsu no
Douran. And don't worry, his 'punishment' fits both his crimes and his
good deeds. He's not stuck in that special blade for nothing. All the
same, Yusuke--a freelance spirit detective of mine--has helped unleash
him, and this very act is a sure sign that people who should never have
access to the sword are trying to get their hands on it. As both a ruler
and protector of the three worlds, I cannot allow that."

Sanosuke and Yahiko looked at each other before they shrugged their
shoulders simultaneously. It'd been years since either of them saw the
former Ishin Shishi assassin, so neither of them was sure of how to
react to the news of Kenshin's supposed reawakening.

It had already been a hundred and fifteen years since Kenshin died; it
took the gangster look-alike a long time to come to terms with the fact,
but a century, a decade, and five years should be more than enough time
for him to finish his mourning, right? At any rate, for him, it had
already been an eternity since he last saw the redheaded warrior of the 
bakumatsu; a small yet significant blip in his long, adventurous, and
fulfilling life.

"Well, okay, I can believe that," Sanosuke yielded. "But then again,
even with Kenshin running around, what does that really have to do with
us? You said that that Keisuke or whoever is on the case, so why can't
he handle it? I'm sure Kenshin will help him out in any way possible." 

"Because Yusuke and Kenshin, for all their great strength, could very
well be in over their heads this time. I'm not exactly sure who's the
puppet master behind these recent events, but I have my suspicions. 
Nevertheless, it's too early for me to draw any conclusions on the
matter. Don't worry, though; I'll keep you two posted when more
information about this case comes to light," Koenma replied in the most
vague and evasive manner possible, which could be his way of hiding his
knowledge--or lack thereof--of the circumstances.

"What do you mean? You have access to spirits and souls of warriors for
centuries on end, yet you chose the two of us in particular to help your
cause. Why is that?" Yahiko pressed, finding the whole state of affairs
highly suspect for some reason. 

"I'll tell you in due time, Yahiko. I won't be able to give you all the
details of this operation in one sitting, but in a nutshell, an unknown
entity assimilated the jaki of a demonic overlord I knew to be very,
very powerful, and I received word that he's sending his subordinates to
retrieve the sword even as we speak. As you can see, this makes me very
anxious." The Tokyo Samurai Descendant merely shook his head and sighed
at Koenma's second non-answer.

Sanosuke exhaled. "This is all utterly fascinating," he drawled, "but
you're forgetting that we're _dead_." He barked the last word of his
statement for emphasis. "It's not like we can just jump back to the
Human World and crack open some skulls."

Koenma smiled. "Actually, you can."

"What?" Sanosuke and Yahiko called out, again at the same time. 

Koenma folded his arms together. "It's not a process I like to use very
often, and I'd be lying if I said this wasn't bothering me a bit. Look,
I know that you both led very honest and honorable lives when you walked
the Human World, and you certainly deserve eternal comfort as a reward
for all that hard work. But if you're willing to risk losing your souls
by saving all the three worlds from this threat, I can send you back to
the world of the living indefinitely, until the threat is gone. The
decision is completely yours."

Yahiko stepped forward eagerly. "If humanity is in danger, they can
always count on Myojin Yahiko to save them!" he declared. The utter
cheesiness of his heroic line aside and his suspicions of duplicity be
damned, that was how he truly felt.

"Excellent!" Koenma grinned. "I knew you'd be up to the task, Yahiko.
You're truly one of the finest of Reikai's spirits." He cocked his head
and glanced at Sanosuke. "And what about you, Sano? Do you want to go
back to your nap, oblivious of all the suffering going on around you, or
do you want to take a stand and eradicate those who would victimize
innocent mortals?"

After thinking about it for a few seconds, Sanosuke exhaled deeply.
"Jeez, one second I'm in the middle of a nice snooze, and the next..."
He glared at Koenma. "What are you looking at? You know what my answer's
going to be. I'll help, of course."

"Yes!" Koenma cheered, gleefully jumping up in the air and pumping a
smallish baby fist up. "That's wonderful! Fantastic!" Once he saw Yahiko
and Sanosuke look at him with arched eyebrows and wry smirks, he
straightened himself up. "Well, I'm very pleased that you two have
decided to loan your help to me," he addressed in what he deemed to be a
dignified tone, plopping back onto his chair in inward satisfaction.

"Hey, if you're going to send us back to the Human World, why not do the
same for the rest of our friends?" Yahiko inquired. "There's Kaoru,
Aoshi, Misao, Hiko, and even Saito. They'd all be able to kick some
demon ass too, you know." 

Koenma shrugged. "I'm not yet at the point where I think it's necessary,
and as I've said before, I'm going to try and avoid sending too many
dead spirits back to the Human World, if possible. I've had a pretty
good track record in the time that I've been running this place, and I'd
like to keep it that way." 

The Spirit World Prince didn't add the little tidbits about the ultimate
fates of some of those people Yahiko mentioned for the simple fact that
it would needlessly complicate matters. He needed to send these two
souls out fast so that he could have his investigations regarding the
Overfiend underway.

"Whatever. So where're you taking us? To Japan? India? China? Those are
under the jurisdictions of the Buddhist and Hindu afterlife, right?"
Sanosuke snidely inquired.

"Don't be silly. You're both going back to Japan. Tokyo, to be exact.
Though I must warn you both; in the very short time since you two
departed, Tokyo has changed a lot from the Tokyo you once knew.
Technology now runs people's lives, and you'll more than likely have to
learn how to operate some of those machines yourselves."

Yahiko nodded as he let Koenma's "very short time" understatement slide
without further comment because he figured that a hundred and fifteen
years would probably seem like a brief period to a being that had lived
for millennia-on-end. "Yeah, I've met some of the newer spirits in
heaven. They wear some really weird clothes now, from what I've
noticed."

Koenma snapped his fingers. "Ah, there's that to consider as well. You
two can't be running around in those outfits." A glowing yellow light
flashed above Koenma's hand, and after a moment, a huge wad of paper
bills appeared in it. He tossed half of them to Sanosuke and the other
half to Yahiko. "That should be enough money to get you two set up. If
you can't find Yusuke or Kenshin in the first day, just crash at a
hotel. There are a million of them in Tokyo.

"Right," Sanosuke assented as he pocketed the money automatically, which
earned him a token narrow-eyed, pouted-lip look from Yahiko. "Hey, while
we're on the subject, how're we going to find Kenshin and Kyosuke? Tokyo
was big when we were last there, so by now it's probably huge."

"There are about twelve million people living in Tokyo right now; give
or take a million, anyway. And you're mostly correct on your assessment,
save for the 'Kyosuke' part... His name is Yusuke, you dumb rooster
head." Koenma proceeded to open one of his desk drawers and rifle
through it hurriedly. Within five seconds, he slammed two small
wristwatches--complete with retractable antennae and small radar
screens--on his table's main writing area. Hopping off of his chair, he
handed one to each of his newly enlisted fighters.

"These," Koenma began, "are spirit energy trackers. They're a lot more
advanced than the ones given to Yusuke when he first became a spirit
detective because, let's face it, since I closed down the barriers
separating the Demon World from the Human World, you'll be facing a lot
more than just Class-Ds, Cs, and Bs. It's really annoying to have these
devices malfunction and explode whenever you're facing a Class-S and
higher demon, so we fixed that."

Sanosuke and Yahiko absently nodded, feigning understanding even though
they couldn't relate to anything Koenma had said thus far; they had
never experienced any such event in both their past lives and
afterlives.

"These trackers can gauge power levels ranging from zero to googol, with
googol equivalent to god tier beings," Koenma continued. "Anything
higher than that, and it just gives out an error message. Granted, if
it's broken, then it will still produce an error message regardless, but
that's neither here nor there. Anyway, I'm going to send you to the home
of another one of my detectives: Kuwabara Kazuma, Yusuke's best friend.
If he or his sister is there, just say that I sent you and either of
them will help you out."

Yahiko and Sanosuke were just about to ask why Koenma didn't just send
them back into Yusuke Urameshi's home since Kenshin was staying with
him, but Koenma wouldn't even pause for breath as he blabbered, "After
you're all prepped and ready, you'll be able to trace large amounts of
spirit energy waves with those trackers. They will let you determine the
distance and the youki or reiki levels of the beings nearest to you.
Moreover, their effectiveness depends on the wearer; the higher your
reiki ability, the further you can probe. You could be led to Kenshin
and his sword, or demons; unfortunately, those trackers aren't advanced
enough to tell the different kinds of energy apart. Either way, you
should still be able to find out more information with the help of these
tools."

Koenma chuckled, hoping that Sanosuke and Yahiko wouldn't be annoyed by
this fact. They were.

Sanosuke looked at the gadget for a moment, grunted, and stuffed it into
his jacket with the wad of cash, too unconcerned with the foreign
concept of  _wristwatches_ to know how they were worn. "Whatever. Look,
enough of this talk, Enma Junior. Just tell me whose face I need to
smash in, and I'll do it. I'm a simple kind of guy that way."

"Is it really that hard to address me as Koenma-sama, Sagara Sanosuke? I
know you've got something of an issue with taking orders from authority
figures, but you really ought to have more respect for the ruler of the
world you inhabit," Koenma scolded.

"Just ignore him, Koenma. Sanosuke can be like that sometimes. Right,
rooster head?" Yahiko drolly jibed, knowing that the name would get a
rise out of his companion.

Instead, Sanosuke just kept his rage bottled up and glared at Yahiko and
Koenma. "Just get us back to Japan, Koenma... or Koenma-sama, whichever
you prefer," he grunted.

"Fantastic. That's all I need to say to you two for now. Just keep your
eyes closed, and I'll take care of the rest of the process. You'll have
nothing to fear at all; your faux-bodies will come up shortly. I just
want to get you two mobilized in the Ningenkai as quickly as possible,"
Koenma informed.

Yahiko and Sanosuke obliged, although Sanosuke peeked long enough to see
Koenma clasp his hands around his head in solemn concentration. 

"Hey, Sano," Yahiko murmured. 

After hearing his compatriot speak, Sanosuke closed his eyes again.
"Yeah?" he replied.

"Isn't this weird? In the span of less than an hour, we've gone from
spending our lives with our ancestors to getting our mortal bodies back.
We're about to return to the world of the living and save mankind from a
hideous evil... again. Isn't it funny how fate works?"

"Yeah," Sanosuke answered. "But do you think you'll be able to handle
it, you snot-nosed brat?"

Yahiko snorted. "Of course. My picnics with Tsubame as we watch over our
descendants are nice, but once in a while, I yearn to kick the devil's
ass once more." He flashed a roguish grin. "Besides, I became the
strongest samurai in Japan next to Kenshin and Hiko in the span of a
mere decade. I wonder how good I've gotten after a hundred and fifteen
years of practice."

Before Sanosuke could utter an appropriate retort or demonstrate his
sentiments in the form of a kick to the arrogant Yahiko's head, a huge
blast of white light shot out from Koenma's forehead and engulfed the
two spirits, preventing either of them from speaking or moving. 

The luminescence formed a large sphere around the pair that tore away at
the ether like a shining anomaly of sorts. After about ten seconds, the
glow dimmed from Koenma's view. Within another half-minute of silent
observation, the orb of energy, along with Sanosuke and Yahiko,
wholly vanished from that plane of existence. In another couple of
seconds, Sanosuke and Yahiko would find themselves in front of
Kuwabara's television set.

===

Two hours later, in Koenma's office at the Hall of Judgment, unaired
questions were being asked by Botan. Who was Kaoru Kamiya? What was her
connection with Botan? Those were the unanswerable queries running
through both Kenshin's and Botan's minds as they waited for their turn
to face the Prince of the Dead. 

Yusuke and Keiko were discussing matters of grave importance concerning
the events surrounding Rando and the Shisejyu's sudden attack in
Genkai's temple, and both Kenshin and Botan didn't see it fit to intrude
as they patiently sat on the waiting chairs overlooking the stock-
market-like atmosphere of the scurrying, necktie-wearing ogres.

Ever since Botan ate the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge--which was
incidentally located at the summit of Mount Rengoku at Level 10 Block 1
of the Purgatorial Sector--in order to make Keiko's amnesiac, drugged
spirit eat the lotus blossom antidote, the ferry-girl had been getting
these strange flashes in her head.

She saw images of places, people, and things that she couldn't
comprehend or recognize. These were memories that ate her up inside, as
though her soul didn't want her to remember her past life--what she was
before she became a ferry-girl.

Why? What happened to her back then? Was she a murderer? A temptress? An 
adulteress? A person who had committed suicide? A traitor? A usurper? A
filibuster? A woman with accommodating morals? Someone who knew too
much? Someone who was at the wrong place and at the wrong time? What was
Kaoru Kamiya's link to her past? Did she kill the kendo master? Did she
get killed by the kendo master? Was she Kaoru's ferry-girl? Was it the
other way around and she was actually much younger than she thought she
was? Or was it something else altogether? How was she able to take
possession of Kaoru's memories? Was she...?

And for the briefest yet single-most terrifying moment Botan had ever
experienced in recent memory, everything suddenly clicked. Everything
abruptly made sense in her so-called life; her past life in particular,
and the reason why she became a ferry-girl--a shinigami--in the first
place.

She, who was once upon a time a ghost just like Keiko, also went into
the misty middle fork of the Sanzu no Kawa and cleansed her sordid
memories clean of all her past mistakes, of all her sins, of all her
pain, and of all the stupid things she had done out of misery, fear,
confusion, and loneliness, drowning it all into oblivion by means of the
delectable, hallucinogenic lotus blossoms of the Elysian Fields. It
wasn't her proudest moment, she knew, but she felt it had to be done at
the time.

The Fruit of Knowledge that she had bitten into to keep Keiko from
following her path of forgetful self-indulgence... the copout life she
chose for herself after her own life had turned into shambles... had
finally worked its "magic" and opened her eyes to the awful, bitter
truth about her previous existence's sins.

She remembered everything. She understood what her dreams of Kenshin,
Kaoru, Kihei, and the fake Battousai all meant, and she hated herself
for discerning it all.

But why did she do it? Why did she go into the middle fork? Why not opt
to be reunited with her ancestors in the right fork and have her soul
pass on, or at the very least get reincarnated as another person... or
maybe even a slug or bottom-feeding scum, if karma so chose... by
staying in the riverbank? Hell, if she _really_ felt so guilty about her
past actions, then why didn't she simply swim through the bloody left
fork, where she could be punished for _and_ rinsed of her sins entirely?

She knew the answer: It was because she was a coward. She had been hurt,
she had hurt other people, she had been compelled to do things...
terrible things... that she felt were beyond her control, and she made
mistakes, _lots of mistakes_ that went way over her head. She simply
didn't want to get hurt anymore; she wanted to run away from all that
drama by drowning it into nothingness; to forget it had ever happened.

Most of all, she just wanted to keep herself from remembering her
skeletons--yes, those damn skeletons--in her proverbial closet. She
wanted to keep them in the back of her head; out of sight, out of mind,
for all time. 

A mocking yet bitter voice started to echo inside the blue-haired girl's
psyche. 'Have you ever wanted to be in love? It's a lot different than
actually being in love. Wanting to be in love involves shallow
satisfaction with the idea behind love. That's what people like about
love; the idea behind it, but not the concept itself. Why? Actually
being in love leaves you exposed, vulnerable, and susceptible to the
insensitive whiles of other people who may or may not care about you at
all. If they do care for you, then that only means you both share in the
pointless suffering that is love.'

Botan clutched her aching head in frustration. Damn that Fruit of
Knowledge for opening up her memories of the past! Damn it to the River
Styx's Left Fork! No amount of fire and brimstone from Level 17 Block 8
of the Corporeal Punishments Sector could ever convey how intensely she
loathed and despised that damned fruit.

'People usually build up walls in order to keep themselves from
suffering the ravages of emotions like love--until that one person who's
just like any other person except for your prejudiced eyes enters your
life and changes everything forever. Your defenses then crumble away
like so many insignificant rocks and pebbles amidst an unstoppable flood
because you're lured into the false promise of happiness and contentment
that you thought being in love would bring.'

Botan wanted to cry, and yet she couldn't. She was so, _so_ tired and the
walls were closing in on her and she just hated everything about herself
and her life right now. Even after all this time, after nearly a century
of blissful ignorance, this one event was enough to push her so close to
cracking that it was hard to keep the pieces together.

'Being in love is all about moronic sacrifice and selflessness to the
point where you're compelled to offer a piece of your soul to another
person just to appease this painful and illogical feeling. And it will
be the most excruciating thing you'll ever do, because this insidious
condition will rip you apart to the very core of your being until you've
fully submitted yourself to the welfare and happiness of your loved one,
regardless of whether or not he reciprocates your so-called love. If he
loves you back, that only means you'll be doomed to the same ignoble
fate.'

In order to cope with her ripped and torn sense of self, her mind worked
overtime to suppress her bad memories once more, forcing them back into
its dark, septic recesses before they corroded her sanity any further.
She grabbed hold of her head as she let out a silent scream. 

Botan winced as a fresh wave of panic engulfed her. Though she had
somehow managed to wake up from her unblocked stream of horrible past
memories, the Fruit of Knowledge's continuous attempts to nullify the
Elysian Field's untold years of handiwork kept on scrambling her already
shaky thought processes. Still, she persevered.

"Botan? Botan, it's time for us to go in," Kenshin softly interrupted
the shinigami's disinclined meditation, which in turn derailed her
dangerous train of thought. Then, after she was awakened from her daze,
she forgot what it was she was thinking about, her sense of urgency and 
desperation fading into the depths of her subconscious.

The cycle of pain had run its course inside Botan's mind, and she was
currently back to square one. She went from wanting to know the truth,
to not being able to handle the truth, to forgetting about the truth, to
wanting to know the truth once more. Then again, her inner being's
fright and alarm remained, continuously warning her of the tragedy of
her past life.

As Botan started to get up from her seat, her left hand tucked demurely
over her kimono's bosom as her right hand grabbed hold of the chair's
edge for support, she chanced upon seeing Yusuke and Keiko slowly leave
Koenma's office, both sporting deadpan looks and subdued, unreadable
expressions. The ferry-girl was no mind reader, so she had no idea what
Koenma told the pair in regards to Keiko's present comatose state or
what they felt about it afterwards.

However, if she had to hazard a guess, then she would deduce that the
two childhood friends weren't too happy with the Reikai Prince's
ultimate analysis of their sensitive circumstances. She'd hoped that
Koenma would somehow find a way to accommodate Keiko's resurrection the
same way he did with Yusuke and Genkai, but it was quite easy to forget
just how lucky those two were with their own past state of affairs.

In Yusuke's case, he was lucky to have done something that the Book of
Fate didn't expect him to do when he got into that car accident, and he
was even luckier to have his hidden mazoku powers activate right after
Sensui killed him for a second time. As for Genkai, she was blessed by
the fact that Yusuke used the wish he'd earned after winning the Black
Martial Arts Tournament for her eventual revival.

Apparently, Keiko was just a hapless victim of bad luck and unjust
circumstances: a person who didn't have the ability to defy fate or earn
reality bending wishes to undo the normally undoable. The whole
situation reeked of injustice, especially considering that Keiko
happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when the Shisejyu
and Rando attacked. Then again, Botan herself was still a grim reaper,
so she knew firsthand that regardless of whether or not it was unfair,
death was the constant every mortal faced--no exceptions.

Kenshin stood up and greeted Yusuke with a wordless nod; the reawakened
spirit guardian had enough prudence in him to not ask what had happened
during the duo's meeting. The unretired spirit detective subsequently
stared at the redhead for a few more seconds before clasping Kenshin's
shoulder and smiling back encouragingly.

"Koenma wanted me to tell you that you and the Demon Sword are now under
Botan's care for the time being. He's still trying to decide whether or
not it's safe to put you in my other comrades' hands because of the
unpredictable nature of your weapon. Also, the little brat added that if
a midget demon named Hiei ever tries to take possession of the Youtou
Shinnoken, you're free to do everything in your power to stop him,
because the last time he took hold of a Reikai Artifact, he made a real
mess of things across the Human World."

Kenshin blinked absently at Yusuke's revelation, an unsaid "Oro?" at the
tip of his tongue. Instead of blurting out his trademark catchphrase, he
somehow came up with an unthinking "Okay," as he wondered why Koenma
would warn him about one specific youkai when he practically had the
supposed Chojin and his thousands of undead minions to worry about. 

He then figured out the reasoning behind the Spirit World Leader's
decision; both Yusuke and Keiko presently had their hands full with
other, more pressing concerns. "No problem, Yusuke-dono. I understand.
Take care."

Yusuke paused for a few more seconds before making a face that even his
mother would throw pitchforks and torches at, his features scrunched up
like a squashed, moronic-looking grapefruit. "What's up with that
serious look of yours, Kenshin? Keiko and I will be fine, don't worry! I
don't give a fuck about what happened back in granny's temple! What's
done is done, and we're going to move forward from this mess as soon as
possible! Nothing will ever get Urameshi Yusuke down, and Keiko's going
to wake up from that coma of hers no matter what it takes, jaki
poisoning or no jaki poisoning! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Kenshin and Botan exchanged sheepish, sweaty glances at Yusuke's forced
and awkward attempts at jovial nonchalance, while Keiko herself would
have none of that condescending nonsense. As such, she unleashed a head-
rattling slap that sent her guffawing boyfriend's soul to the ground as
she shouted everyone else's unaired sentiment of "STOP ACTING LIKE A
MORON! If you're going to try to act cool, then at least don't overdo
it! Jeez!"

Noticing the confused glances of Kenshin, Botan, and half a dozen ogres
who stopped in the middle of their ever-busy schedule of handling the
paperwork of the recently deceased, Keiko realized that it was now her
turn to perform in the "embarrassment" spotlight. "Oh, I'm sorry. Don't
worry; he's okay. He's used to it, really." With a more determined grin
as she gave Yusuke's limp astral body a piggyback ride, she insisted
with unwavering conviction, "We'll be okay, no matter what happens."

"Shall we go back to the Human World now?" the Spirit Guide Koenma
assigned to bring the pair back to Ningenkai while he talked to Botan
and Kenshin--Yusuke's old acquaintance, Sayaka--asked before
reprimanding, "You didn't need to hit him so hard, big sister!
Roughhousing big brother like that is a big no-no. And to think, I even
approved of your relationship back when he was still a ghost!"

"Er, okay. Um, have we met before?" Sayaka's overly familiar behavior
around Keiko made the latter idly wonder if the residual aftereffects of
the Elysian Field's lotus blossoms somehow wiped her memory of the
diminutive shinigami-in-training before her. 'Big brother? Big sister?
Approved relationship? What's this about?'

From there, with a flash of light and a cross-dimensional portal, Keiko
and Yusuke were thusly escorted out of the Spirit World with Sayaka's
help.

"Let's go, Botan. It's our turn to face the music," Kenshin announced as
he tapped the ferry-girl's shoulder in order to rouse her out of her
intermittent reverie. "I don't know about you, but I'm really curious
about what Kaoru-dono is doing inside your head." 

The distracted Botan mutely shook her head while the feeling of a
forgotten memory within the depths of her mind struggled to surface and 
haunt her to no end. She then rapped her head with her knuckles in what
she deemed as a cute manner and declared, "I'm not sure I want to know,
but let's just cross that bridge before we burn it."

"Oro?"

"Good answer," came Botan's tongue-in-cheek response as she followed
Kenshin inside Koenma's office. Even though she'd realized that she
didn't have a lot of time left, she still felt quite hesitant about
uncovering the truth behind her past. The lone piece of magical fruit
inside her belly was already getting metabolized by her shinigami soul's
ectoplasm, so she may soon forget who she truly was altogether. It was
now or never.

===

"Hey."

This was the statement from which it all began. It was a simple address
that summarily showed the insistence and impatience of the one who spoke
it.

"What is it, rooster head?" was the other person's eloquent reply.

The taller figure coughed once, then twice. He afterwards pointed at
something with a shaking finger, stating a wee bit nervously, "Why are
those little people trapped in that box?"

"...." the younger one wittily rejoined. He snorted in reply in order to
somehow keep up with his aloof attitude even though he himself had no
idea what the weird... box-type something was.

The sheer barrage of colorful images, mesmerizing sights, and melodic
sounds hypnotized the two friends for quite a bit--still, their
condition at hand remained just beyond the grasp of their mental
capacity. "Hey, look. Do you think that if we smash it to bits, we can
kill this demon box?"

"Don't ask stupid questions, rooster head; you sound like an idiot."

"Well, do you have a better idea, Mister 'I'm a great, badass Tokyo
Samurai'?"

"Yeah."

"What?"

"We'll leave it alone, and the problem will solve itself."

The sound of flesh connecting to bone was heard.

"OW! What was that for?" the adolescent wearing the hakama and blue
kimono demanded.

"You're the one who's talking stupidly, moron! Let the problem solve
itself... HA! It's not as if that demon box will magically turn itself
off or something!"

Suddenly, the supposed "demon box" ceased its anarchic, chaotic, visual,
and generally noisy acts.

The younger lad waited all of two seconds before saying, "Ha! I told you
so!"

"Now wait just a goddamned..." the elder and scragglier man began.

"...." the two recently revived companions chorused as they stared at an
auburn-haired woman that suddenly appeared near the demon box. They
watched in silence as she extracted her finger from one of the buttons
on the lower left panel of the strange device, too frozen in
befuddlement and confusion to speak.

"Hey," she beckoned.

It was a simple address that summarily showed the insistence and
impatience of the one who spoke it--and the woman who did so was one
irritable, annoyed, and generally unhappy Shizuru Kuwabara.

She cocked what the two hapless companions identified as a sawed-off,
double-barreled shotgun, which made the duo incorrectly believe that
modern-day Japan had guns available in every last convenience store and 
supermarket. And so from where it began, so will it end.

"Well?" Shizuru prodded as she pointed the shotgun at the two strangers.
"Let's cut the crap. Explain yourselves."

"Hey, Yahiko," Sanosuke whispered conspiratorially to his fellow revived 
companion. "We're in deep shit because of what that little brat has done
to us. He got us screwed big time."

"I'm sure he has a reason for this," Yahiko replied in kind. "After all,
he did get us some leads on Kenshin after all this time, which should
count for something, right?"

"Less whispering and more explaining," Shizuru calmly yet earnestly
growled. "You can't just barge in a house without explanation; it better
be a hell of a good one, if you still want your heads to remain attached
to your bodies."

'Oh great. We were just recently revived, and soon, we'll be recently
deceased... again.' Yahiko groaned. 'I went out of heaven for this?'

"I got it!" Sanosuke unexpectedly exclaimed, not minding the slight
flinch of Shizuru's eyes and the curl of her finger over the trigger of
her weapon. "This is some sort of house-for-rent setup, isn't it? And
you're the lady geisha of this fine establishment, am I right?"

Shizuru just glared at the taller man with an incredulous look on her
face, though her countenance was still unflappable as she maintained her
aim at the uncouth stranger's throat. "Perhaps I should be insulted with
what you're trying to insinuate... Hmmm, mister?"

"Hey, easy! Easy, missy! I said geisha, not oiran, right? The oiran are
the prostitutes, and the geisha are the entertainers! Big difference!
Though I do prefer shamisen-playing geisha over the modern age's
shotgun-wielding ones any day," Sanosuke backhandedly cooed as he took
something out of his pocket.

"HEY! No sudden moves!" Shizuru shouted as she methodically shoved her
shotgun over Sanosuke's nose. "Put your hands up where I can see them!"

"No worries, sister!" Sanosuke assured as he took out the money Koenma
gave them. "We'll pay you!"

Yahiko merely palmed his face in aggravation. 'Sano, you idiot!'

The trio proceeded to look at the wad of money the tall, white-clad man
was waving. Then there was silence which they all felt forever.

"...." Yahiko stated.

"???" Shizuru detailed.

"!!!" Sanosuke elaborated.

The three of them stared in shock, confusion, befuddlement, and a myriad
of other related emotions as they beheld the legal tender that they had
in their hands.

Well, it did look, for the most part, like yen notes... save for the
smiling picture of a baby Koenma waving a peace sign printed on each of
the bills.

One thought entered the minds of the two recently revived spirits as
they gaped down the twin barrels of Shizuru's firearm.

'We're screwed.'

===

To be Continued...

Next: You and me against the Human World.

Doctor Kamiya: Are we related, miss? (laughs maniacally)

Kaoru Kamiya: I hope not. ;_;

Disclaimer: Yuyu Hakusho is the rightful property of Yoshihiro
Togashi, Shueisha, Fuji TV, and St. Pierrot. Rurouni Kenshin is
the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki and Sony. This
disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted material that
are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very
poor.

Meron pa ba akong masasabi?
Abdiel