[FFML] [yyh][ry][xover] Youtou Shinnoken Chapter 21: Freckles (Part 3)

[Chester Castañeda]

========================================================================


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

Fights are around the corner.


========================================================================

Chapter 21: Freckles (Part 3)

========================================================================


Back in Koenma's office at the Hall of Judgment...

"Hey, if you two are so curious about why Kamiya Kaoru's soul is
residing within Botan, then why don't you ask her for yourselves? I
mean, she appears whenever Botan is holding the sword, right?" Koenma
rejoined defensively, desperate for any possible distraction he could
come up with to divert Kenshin's attention from the chaotic magic issue.

Little did Koenma realize that his hasty and defensive proposal made a
lot of sense to his appointed guardian for his easily corruptible relic.
As soon as Kenshin put two and two together, he thrust the Youtou
Shinnoken's handle to Botan's face and pleaded, Please, grab on to my
sword and pull it from its sheathe," which prompted her to slap him
Keiko-style.

A few minutes later, Botan apologized for her conclusion-jumping and let
Kenshin finish what he was saying. "You may not remember, but during the
aftermath of our battle against the Shisejyu, the Demon Sword reacted to
your presence by bringing Kaoru-dono back in your place for some reason.
I want to see Kaoru-dono again so that I can ask her how she ended up
with your soul."

"Oh, is that it?" Botan remarked as she looked at the sword warily. "It
can change me back to being me, right? I... kind of believe Koenma when
he said that Kaoru isn't me, so I wouldn't want her to take over or
anything. Not that I'm against you reuniting with your girlfriend and
all, but..."

"She... _wasn't_ my girlfriend," Kenshin confessed, remembering that his
non-relationship with the orphaned kendo school instructor had been cut
short because of his death in the hands of Makoto Shishio before it even
had the chance to develop into something serious.

Botan let out a sigh, but she wasn't sure if it was out of relief or
disappointment. She had no reason or right to feel either, especially if
Kaoru proved herself the reason why she'd been feeling quite weird
around Kenshin when she first met him. However, she was surprised that
the statement didn't compel the Kaoru in her mind to suddenly burst into
her psyche like she did back in Genkai's shrine.

"Okay, here's another ground rule I want to establish before summoning
your not-girlfriend. Promise me you won't summon 'Kaoru-dono' without
asking for my permission, okay? I may have had my identity purged eons
ago, but Koenma's right when he says I'm still Botan. Just Botan. And I
think I can live with that."

"I promise," Kenshin pledged, which Botan took as her cue to unsheathe
the redhead's sword and close her eyes in anticipation of the switch
that was about to take place. From there on end, the Youtou Shinnoken
worked its earlier disclosed chaos magic to transform the blue-haired,
paddle-wielding, and lithe-shaped ferry-girl into the dark-haired,
bokken-sporting, and athletically inclined raccoon-dog girl.

In contrast to when Botan "wore" a humanoid body three weeks ago, it
wasn't only her demeanor that changed when holding the Demon Sword. The
blue-haired girl's spirit literally transformed into Kaoru Kamiya's
soul. As such, the former hitokiri found himself even more overcome with
emotion than the last time he talked to the kendo master.

Kenshin had just seen Kaoru Kamiya--the last person that flashed in his
mind before he, Shishio, and Shishio's by-then dead female companion
were enveloped in a firestorm produced by the power-mad, would-be
despot's Kazuguchi technique and his spontaneously combusting body--
barely a month back, but for him, it felt like an eternity. Perhaps it
was her instead of Botan that welcomed him back to Tokyo just a couple
of hours before the Shisejyu's attack on Genkai's temple.

Granted, because of his missing memories and decades-long slumber as the
Guardian of the Demon Sword, his death and his hopeful goodbyes to Kaoru
and the others at Aoiya were still fresh in his mind. Nevertheless,
seeing the Adjutant Master of the Kamiya Dojo then and there in the
metaphoric flesh made his insides twist and turn like nobody's business.

"K-Kenshin?" Kaoru ventured as she rubbed her eyes while still wearing
Botan's kimono. Even as a spirit without some sort of physical
manifestation, she was able to still transform the ferry-girl's astral
projection into her teenaged self a century or so ago. The only thing
that remained unchanged in the middle of her shape-shifting was her
clothes; she still wore Botan's festive light-pink, long-sleeved kimono.

Not that the redhead was thinking of anything else other than his
flooding feelings of relief and regret. To be honest, he didn't really
care why or how the tanuki-girl, as Yahiko would've called her, managed
to end up inside Botan's soul. He was just glad she was there.

With that said, he didn't know what to expect from the slightly woozy
and discombobulated Kaoru, so he merely winced in anticipation of either
a hug, a slap, a wallop, or whatever else reaction Kaoru could come up
with. She opted to instead stare blankly at Kenshin.

"What is it? Is there something on my face?" Inwardly, Kaoru was
surprised to hear a voice that wasn't her own exclaim, 'Eh? What
happened to all your angst three weeks ago?' within her mind.

The Guardian of the Demon Sword himself was taken aback by Kaoru's
continuing bemusement. Whatever happened to her melancholic first
appearance after a hundred and plus years? The extreme regret she had
back then was so palpable that the swordsman opted to reassure her
that whatever it was she did back then, it didn't matter to him. All
her eyes reflected back at him at that point was... mystification and
bewilderment.

He opted to break the ice with an apology. "I'm sorry for waking you up
from out of the blue, but I have something important to ask you."

"You woke me up because you wanted to ask me a question? W-Well, sure.
Whatever. Go on right ahead," she murmured as she rubbed her bleary eyes
and gave Koenma's office a wary once-over. However, before Kenshin could
ask where she came from, she paused, gawked Koenma, and wondered aloud,
"Whose kid is that?"

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. How rude of me," the toddler prince
berated himself before directly facing the apprehensive Kaoru and bowed
low. "I'm Koenma Daio, the son of Enma Daio and the current ruler of
the Spirit World. It's nice to meet you."

"K-Kenshin? Did this little kid say 'Enma Daio'? He's kidding, right?"

"Er, Kaoru-dono? I'm dead. You're dead. It's been a hundred years or so
since we've died, more or less. Don't you remember?"

An awkward and impromptu staring contest between Kaoru, Kenshin, and
Koenma ensued.


===


As the trio boarded one more train station to... wherever it was that
Shizuru wanted them to go, Yahiko sighed in resignation, inwardly
relieved that Sanosuke--a spirit who was rather forgetful of his years
as an older but wiser war veteran before leaving the mortal coil--
somehow remembered that he'd already gotten over his unreasoning fear of
new technology, so their train ride on the modern-day version of the
steam locomotive was thankfully uneventful, even though both Sanosuke
and Yahiko were clandestinely stared at or outwardly ignored by
everybody else other than Shizuru because of their out-of-date clothing.

'I hope nobody tries to take his picture or anything, or else he'll
really be freaked out,' Yahiko mused as he observed the swishing
concrete jungle before him that attempted to grasp at the clouds
themselves. He heard from his latest descendants to kick the bucket and
end up in heaven that the sixties--about twenty years after he died--was
a particularly hectic time of industrial growth and progress for Japan.
'I can barely recognize Tokyo right now, and I'm not sure if that's a
good or bad thing.'

Shizuru opted to continue her small talk with Yahiko from before as she
casually broke the hand of the "salary man" that tried to cop a feel
from her behind as the congestion of train riders increased to canned
sardine proportions. "To be honest, grandpa, I think that the bombings
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were overkill on America's part. Also, the
anti-Japanese sentiment that many nations had and continue to have to
this day and age has been somewhat tough on foreign relations."

"So I've heard," Yahiko stared at the train's white floor--or at least
what was left of it in the sea of shoes--as the deluge of his
undisclosed memories flooded his mind, leaving him with a feeling of
bittersweet regret in regards to the mutual atrocities that Japan
unleashed and received.

'No, Shishio wasn't right all along despite what had happened. Human
nature be damned, might doesn't make right. Kenshin's ideals aren't
naive, and it's not wrong to aspire to be the best that you possibly can
despite human limitation and the so-called harsh realities of life.
That's part of the reason why I've taken this mission as well--to prove
that Kenshin's views were right all along.'

To Shizuru, Yahiko said, "It took Japan quite a long time to regain its
pride back after its surrender to the Allied Forces. I'm just glad that
things worked out in the end. Tokyo today barely resembles the Tokyo I
knew from my childhood, but it's still Tokyo nevertheless. I'll do
everything that I can to protect the happiness of this new Japan so that
it doesn't suffer from the mistakes of its own past."

"Okay, gramps. I read you loud and clear," Shizuru mumbled in begrudged
acceptance of the old soul's uncompromising optimism. They ultimately
arrived at the Harajuku Station without incident, but Shizuru couldn't
shake off the feeling that something was amiss. She made a footnote to
investigate her feminine intuition's feelings of dread later on, opting
to focus on her mission at hand.

Yahiko's attitude towards his sense of duty as Koenma's lackey was the
complete opposite of his aversion towards the "mindless tripe" of
television that the samurai ghost boy and his endless parade of
descendants lambasted so much. On second thought, she realized that she
shared many of Yahiko's sentiments about the medium; if anything, TV had
really become worse nowadays because it was now filled with endless
programs about cooking, celebrities eating food, and unfunny comedy
hosts.

Add to the fact that she'd outgrown cartoons long ago, and she was left
with nothing of interest to watch save for old yakuza movies featuring
Ken Takakura or Bunta Sugawara. 'Oh great, now grandpa samurai here has
now ruined my enjoyment of TV, of all things. My goodness, it's like
these guys are acting like stand-ins for the crazy uncles I've never
had!'

She added, "Y'know, for a couple of ghosts, you two don't seem all that
scary. I mean, granted, you both look like you're going to a feudal-
themed costume party or a new year's festival, but other than that,
you're not very ghost-like."

"Well, it helps that we aren't the damned, we've been granted brand-new,
flesh-and-bone bodies instead of rotting, putrid ones straight from the
grave, and we aren't earthbound, unforgiving poltergeists seeking
vengeance upon the living," Sanosuke jibed as he surveyed the flood of
people all around them, eager to confront contemporary Japan and stare
it right in the face. He was not as prepared as he thought he was.

At any rate, in a complete turnaround of what had happened earlier, it
was soon Sanosuke and Yahiko's turn to gawk at the bystanders while the
sea of colorful humanity mostly ignored their presence.

"Wow," was the overused word Yahiko and Sanosuke spouted out to Chizuru
as they toured the metropolitan urbanity of Harajuku, Tokyo. For the two
spirits whose fondest memories of their hometown involved Tokugawa-era
housing, trees, dirt roads, cobblestone paths, and horse-drawn
carriages--and whose _last_ memories of Japan involved industrialization
for the sake of winning the Second World War--it was somewhat of a
culture shock for the two of them, to say the least.

Nonetheless, the congestion of taxicabs and economy cars, the endless
monoliths of cement and glass, and the palpable smell of smog from the
ashen-blue sky wasn't the source of the resurrected souls' dumbfounded,
flabbergasted, and perplexed reactions. It was the _people_ that
surrounded them that truly confused them to the point of utter
speechlessness.

Mingling with the normal, business-suited salary men, stewardess-like
office ladies, and sailor-uniformed high school girls were orangey,
humanoid abominations of nature that had hair that ranged from platinum-
colored to corn-cob-yellow, wore more gaudy bracelets and trinkets than
a single flea market rack could handle, and sported harsh pastel rags
that even a beggar would be ashamed to wear. No wonder Shizuru wanted
to bring them to this place--because no matter how out-of-place they
might seem, they would still fit in within a city of misfits.

"Did we take a wrong turn and somehow ended up in the Demon World,
sister? What's with the youkai?" Sanosuke asked, which earned him a
timely knuckle rap on the head care of Shizuru.

"Stop acting so retarded. Jeez, you're worse than Kazuma. They're just
weird, delinquent human girls with dyed hair, neon-color makeup, and
horribly tanned skin. They're called kogals or ganguro; I couldn't tell
the difference between the two, to be perfectly honest. It's the 'in'
thing nowadays for these bimbos. It makes them feel liberated or
something."

"I could have sworn they were monsters," Yahiko professed as he made a
face. The throng of bronzed non-beauties reminded him of the legendary
yama-uba, which were hideous female trolls that lived deep within the
mountains and forests of Japan. 'So in my lifetime, I've seen raccoon
dog girls, fox ladies, and weasel girls. Once I got resurrected, I was
able to chance upon blackface beast girls. What next? Werewolf women?
Bat-winged succubi? Sparkling vampires? Seriously.'

As for Sanosuke, he privately compared the horridly tanned monstrosities
to the old minstrel shows of yore that were popular within America when
he was already an old man who'd traversed the entire world before he did
a spit-take on a seemingly random topic. "Wait, tan? What do you mean,
tan? Tan, as in making leather? These 'girls' actually turn their skins
into crocodile-like bags of flesh?"

Shizuru gave one baleful look at the Guccis and Louis Vuittons that the
girls clutched and chuckled at Sanosuke's comment. "Speaking of bags..."

"Oh right. You were already dead when sunbathing became popular. My
great grandson or great-great grandson told me about that." Yahiko shook
his head in remembrance. "From the talks I've had in heaven, cooking
yourself in the heat of the sun while barely wearing anything at all is
also an 'in' thing nowadays. It had something to do with a foreign movie
about a British spy, I believe."

"Well, that's strange. Back in my day, the only intentionally tanned
people were the burakumin or lower class peasants like my dad back in
Nagano. Now _he_ was a man of the soil. You're telling me that 'modern'
people are intentionally frying their skins to look hip or--pardon the
pun--hot?" Sanosuke barked in laughter as he covered his snickering face
with his palm. "What next? Are you going to tell me that street food like
sushi is now being served in fancy restaurants for a hundred times their
actual price?"

"Er, can we skip the history lesson and move on? I've had visits with my
grandparents that weren't this involved in nitpicking every last aspect
of modern life," Shizuru pleaded as she bit her lower lip and rubbed her
fingers over her throbbing temples. The irony was killing her.


===


Back in Koenma's office at the Hall of Judgment...

"I'm dead? How could I be dead? I don't remember dying, and I don't feel
like I'm dead! Is this some sort of joke?" Kaoru demanded to both
Kenshin and the weird toddler pretending to be the baby version of Enma
Daio while wondering why her kimono was so... pink, stuffy, and
ceremonial-looking. Perhaps she misunderstood what they were saying and
she was actually attending the funeral of somebody who'd just passed
away? That still didn't explain her brightly colored wardrobe, though.

"Actually, for all intents and purposes, you're not only dead, but
you're also, well, _death_, so that complicates matters quite a bit,"
Koenma commented, feeling slightly perturbed about the circumstances
surrounding Kaoru Kamiya's revival.

"Please, don't confuse Kaoru-dono any further, Koenma-dono," Kenshin
requested to the Lord of the Dead while pondering about how he was
going to prove to Kaoru that they we indeed dead spirits within the
Spirit World. At the back of his mind, he was also worried about how
different Kaoru was acting from the Kaoru he'd met during and after his
long and involved fight against the demonically reincarnated Hiruma
brothers.

Koenma opted to go back to his chair and let Kenshin sort this situation
out. Even so, although he personally found the idea patently ridiculous
and despite all the debunking he did earlier, he was starting to think
that maybe Kaoru really was Botan's past self or Botan was Kaoru's
reincarnation or something. He just had no idea how _that_ came about,
and blaming the forbidden fruit for "triggering" her memories back was
blatantly preposterous in and of itself.

On the other hand, Koenma was also quite bothered by the fact that he
couldn't, for the life of him, remember judging and sending Kaoru Kamiya
to her ultimate destination after she died. Granted, he couldn't be
expected to remember one out of the billions of lives he'd judged for
his father's sake, but Kaoru Kamiya had ties with Kenshin Himura, so he
should've at least had a clue in regards to her whereabouts. However,
perhaps she had been an earthbound spirit all this time? It boggled the
centuries-old boy's mind.

A visibly upset Kaoru went outside Koenma's office to get some fresh
air that didn't exist in the mostly metaphysical Spirit World, only to
be greeted by business-suited ogres taking calls and running errands
across what looked to be a stock exchange floor. Nonplussed beyond
words, the Demon-Sword-wielding kendo instructor stood there in the
middle of ogre chaos as stiff as a board until Kenshin retrieved her
just in time.

Her head slowly and unnaturally turned towards Kenshin like a windup
doll, her face a mask of hysteria and disbelief. "Is it the Setsubun
already? Are these people dressed up as oni? Where's my bag of beans,
Kenshin? I want to pelt the oni!"

Kenshin wiped the imaginary droplet of sweat on his forehead. "No,
Kaoru-dono. Those are real oni."

"Right. Gotcha. And I'm the emperor's blushing bride-to-be."

Kenshin pouted, which really put Kaoru in a loop. "Obviously, you won't
believe me until I prove what I'm saying to you. I can't really blame
you, but... you were acting a lot differently than you did the first
time I saw you again in years."

The redhead stared at the woozy and faint Kaoru sadly. "Can you not
recall our first meeting in decades? Have you forgotten what you said
to me? What I said to you? What was the last thing you remember?"

"I... I don't remember. My mind's a blank. Wait," the tipsy Kaoru looked
as though she was about to fall over, so Kenshin immediately caught her
in his arms, which elicited a momentary, "Awww!" from the nearest ogres.

"It's all coming back to me now. I remember Jine. I remember the over-
muscled man with the thick eyebrows. He sucked. Oh, and I remember
Yutaro-kun, the only other student that the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu had other
than Yahiko. I remember Saito's fight with you, and your decision to
face yet another hitokiri from your past. I remember you saying goodbye
to me, holding me just like this." Kaoru buried her face on Kenshin's
shoulder, her spiritual heart bursting with inexplicable guilt, her mind
throbbing with a lifetime of memories.

Kenshin gripped Kaoru tight and placed his tapered chin on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry for putting you through that." He didn't promise Kaoru that
he'd never put her through such a horrible experience again, because the
events that happened afterwards showed that he was terrible at keeping
promises. After a few moments of silence passed, he prompted the girl to
continue her story. "Tell me more, Kaoru-dono. What else do you
remember?"


===


Back at Harajuku...

"Ah, my eyes!" Sanosuke mimed clawing his eyes out for Shizuru's sake
as he continuously needled her with the sillier aspects of contemporary,
circa-1993 life further. "There's so much... what do they call them
again?"

"Neon colors," Yahiko helpfully mentioned while Shizuru led the pair to
Omotesando by following the unmistakable smell of freshly upholstered
leather on new cars, expensive handbags, and freshly printed money that
wafted in the air. The boy boggled at the street signs indicating that
they were presently traversing Meiji Street, but otherwise kept to
himself.

"That's right. Neon colors! And look at all these harsh pastels and
purples! The complete drabness! Also, is leaving your clothes faded,
stiff, and starched like two-week-old laundry the cool thing to do?
Looking like a walking fruit stand from far away is supposed to be cool?
Come on! Hobos have better fashion sense than this!" Sanosuke complained
loudly enough to force the rest of the teeming masses around him to
avoid him like the plague because he was apparently one of those few
Japanese men that possessed no sense of tact or politeness whatsoever.

"On the bright side, you'll fit right in," Shizuru rebutted, now knowing
what it was like to take care of foreign exchange students. "Look, the
thing with the unwashed acid jeans is that it's supposed to be part of
the _grunge_ look. In the last decade, people got fed up with all the
manufactured bullshit that companies were putting out, so people
started idolizing poor musicians who sang for the sake of art and
weren't preppy, materialistic jerks. Therefore, that's the reason why
you see so many guys have adopted that... unwashed look. It's all about
the anti-fashion movement."

"I'd _say_ it's the anti-fashion movement. More like the anti-good-taste
movement. Still, I don't get it. Why are these yama-uba gals making
themselves look like toasted girl clowns? Since when was hygiene a bad
thing? It's kind of creepy. I mean, what's up with all this shit? It's
ridiculous! It's almost as bad as the seventies, where nearly everyone
seem to wear bird-nest hair, handle-bar mustaches, and synthetic jackets
regardless of how warm it was."

"Even though I was kind of a delinquent myself back when I was in high
school, I only have a passing knowledge about kogals." Shizuru tapped
her finger on her chin and stared sightlessly at the smoggy sky for a
little while. "I think it has something to do with the cuteness trend
that has infected Japan. These girls don't want to be overbearingly
cute, they want to be sexy, sultry, and liberated, just like those
African American foreigners and their hip-hop culture. I heard that the
word 'kogal' also had something to do with a brand of jeans in the
seventies, but I'm too young to actually confirm it from memory."

Sanosuke chortled in remembrance as they passed Meiji Dori. "Speaking of
the seventies, boy, everyone in heaven had a _really_ nice and long
laugh when those seventies-era people kicked the bucket and brought
their bad taste along with them to the afterlife. It was so horrible,
even they had to admit that they didn't know what they were thinking at
the time once the disco fad ended back on earth."

"Come to think of it, maybe _this_ was what our descendants kept praying
to us about; this was the reason why we kept receiving constant 'eternal
shame to your ancestors' curses and whatnot. I completely understand
their torment," Yahiko quipped.

"So says the guys who look like they're going straight to a tea
ceremony, wedding, or funeral!" Shizuru rejoined once again, taking a
cigarette out and lighting it while feeling as though she were arguing
with a bunch of old coots who were blinded by their nostalgia and
senility.

"Well, maybe Yahiko. _I'm_ wearing pants," Sanosuke contended while
staring up at the smoggy sky. He sighed. 'Even the sky looks acid washed
nowadays.'

"You? You're worse. You look like an electrified Korean competing for
the Tae Kwon Do Event for the Special Olympics," Shizuru spouted out
with a puff of smoke right at Sanosuke's face. From behind them, a bunch
of ganguro kogals they met before guffawed at the eldest Kuwabara
daughter's wisecrack; it looked like they'd been eavesdropping on the
motley crew's conversation for quite a while. Even Yahiko had to snigger
at that.

"Fine, fine. We'll let those freak shows be themselves, if that makes
you happy," Sanosuke flippantly acquiesced, realizing that his jokes had
run their course. "Where are we, anyway? And why does everything smell
like a cattle ranch in the summer?"

"We're at Shibuya, and a talking paper bill told me to go here." Shizuru
took out her wallet from her purse and fished for the currency that was
incidentally self-aware. "Okay, Koenma. We've arrived. Which of the
stores here accept your legal tender? Or maybe we should go the opposite
direction and visit Takeshita Street instead for some bargain-priced
merchandise? You know I won't take it against the Spirit Word if the
only stores that can accept its money are trashy and cheap ones."

"Spare me your attempts at reverse psychology, Miss Kuwabara's Sister.
My father does that better than anyone else," the moving Koenma picture
on the yen note drolly admonished before warning, "I'm fine with you
trying to play dress-up with these boys so that they can better adapt
with Human World life. However, you can only shop at Shibuya's Nalanda
Shop and not anywhere else if you want to help with their mission."

"Hey, I thought you said we could visit any shop we want."

"There's been a change of plans. It's now the Nalanda Shop or bust. It
may sound cliche to you, but the fate of your mortal realm depends on
this."

"I don't know what you're talking about, but whatever. Let's go shopping
at this Nalanda Shop, then," Shizuru declared as she went to the
nearest ashtray and dramatically extinguished what was left of her spent
cigarette. Ergo, it was unfortunate that Sanosuke chose that very moment
to ruin her good mood by gibing, "I'd rather check out Shibuya's hotels,
if you know what I MEEAAA...!"

Yahiko had to admit, the way Shizuru whipped out her lighter and put
Sanosuke's ridiculous hairdo on fire deserved applause. If anything, the
elder Kuwabara sister was quite creative with her random acts of
violence. Kaoru should take notes from her. 'Then again, maybe not,'
the boy concluded as he unconsciously shielded his own gravity-defying
hair from the auburn-haired former delinquent and her lighter of fiery
retribution.


===


Back at the Hall of Judgment...

Kaoru blinked back tears she didn't know she cried and relayed, "We met
back at your master's cabin. Then you, Sano, and Saito as well as me,
Yahiko, Misao, and the rest of the Oniwabanshu protected Kyoto from
being burned to the ground. After that, you went ahead and faced Shishio
while we were forced to protect Aoiya from the rest of the Juppon
Gatana."

Kenshin let go of Kaoru, which startled the girl but jolted back his own
memories of his storming to Shishio's fortress at Mount Hiei. The blind
swordsman, Usui, had told them that Shishio was prompted by one of his
lackeys to send a couple of the Juppon Gatana to Aoiya to kill off the
Oniwabanshu. He made a mental footnote to ask Kaoru later on what had
happened back then. "Is that all you remember?"

Kaoru hugged herself tightly, not at all minding the fact that she was
brandishing an unsheathed sword as she slowly nodded in response,
averted her gaze, furrowed her eyebrows, and bit her quivering lips.

"I remember Master Hiko helping us out with one of our tougher Juppon
Gatana opponents, and we even won the fight against them in the end.
>From there, Master Hiko reassured me that you'll certainly win against
Shishio so long as you had your school's ultimate technique and your
heart was in the right place." Kenshin winced at Kaoru's last comment.
"Other than that, my mind's a blank. Do you remember what happened
afterwards?"

'That's supposed to be my line,' Kenshin dejectedly mused, feeling
disappointed that Kaoru couldn't remember what happened after he died
and feeling somewhat frustrated that Koenma disintegrated the Fruit of
the Tree of Knowledge so hastily. It would seem that the forbidden
fruit's effects on Kaoru's memories had already faded away to oblivion,
so her reaction over his death and broken promise remained a mystery.

Mistaking Kenshin's unwillingness to reveal the circumstances behind his
death as frustration over her persistent selective amnesia, Kaoru
explored, "So everything you said was true? About us being dead, I
mean?"

Kenshin gazed deep into Kaoru's eyes and mouthed, "I'm afraid so."

Kaoru stared at the humongous tiled floor of the Hall of Judgment for a
little while longer. "It's kind of hard to believe. 'Dead' to me means
crying over your unmoving body, with your face covered with a white
sheet of cloth. 'Dead' to me means mourning over a cold slab of stone
year in and year out while you're buried several feet underground inside
a wooden barrel. 'Dead' to me is not talking to you right now,
quarreling about whether we're dead or not."

An uncomfortable yet refreshing laugh was shared between the two long-
lost... acquaintances; they were less than lovers, but they were also
more than friends. "If that's the case, then I'm glad that even though
we're already dead, we're still able to meet like this in the
afterlife."

"To be honest, I still have a lot of explaining to do," Kenshin admitted
with that half-cheerful, half-melancholic smile that Kaoru was used to
seeing from him. He didn't quite know how to break the news of the
manner by which he died, and he would rather show than tell her about
her host, Botan, and the fact that it was already 1993 instead of 1878.
He also hoped to somehow retrieve the rest of her missing memory.
Obviously, the redhead had a lot in his plate right now.

Koenma eventually joined the two nineteenth-century spirits and asked if
they were okay. The Demon Sword guardian assured that everything had
already been taken care of, to which Kaoru shrieked, "What am I? Chopped
liver? Don't you two dare talk over me! I have the right to know where
I'm supposed to end up in, Mister Enma Junior!"

Koenma scratched the back of his head and grinned sheepishly. "To be
quite frank, I'm not sure what to do with you just yet, Kaoru-san; but
since Kenshin here has an important mission to take care of right now,
I'll be leaving you in his jurisdiction." To Kenshin, he ordered, "I've
sent two special operatives over to the Human World, so you'll be
meeting a few more familiar faces soon enough. Once Botan... wakes up,
ask her for a spirit detector."

Kenshin raised an eyebrow at the vagueness of Koenma's request. "More
familiar faces, huh? I'd rather you be straight with me for once instead
of making me play one of your mind games, Koenma-dono. This is something
that I'd expect from your father, not you." To Kaoru, Kenshin murmured,
"Botan, are you there? Are you listening?"

To Kaoru's surprise, she suddenly found "her" body moving in its own
accord, particularly its lips and its voice box. "Yeah, I've been
listening, Kenshin. Congratulations on meeting your not-girlfriend
again. It's too bad she's more forgetful than a goldfish, but I'm
guessing you want to find ways to fix that."

"AHHHHH! Kenshin! There are voices inside my head! I mean, outside! I
mean, it's possessed my body!" Kaoru shouted, freaked out by her "out of
body" experience reminiscent of what Jine did to her many, many decades
ago. Unbeknownst to her, that wasn't her body any longer... or was it?

Not knowing what else to say, Kenshin deadpanned, "Yeah, I can see
that."

Kaoru didn't take Kenshin's lack of a reaction too well. "DON'T 'YEAH'
ME! And don't act so nonchalant, as though you expected me to have
voices inside my head, you idiot!"

"ORO?" Kenshin gurgled as Kaoru choked him with one hand while
threatening him with his own sword with her other hand. "Botan, please
stop her!"

"WHO'S BOTAN? WHO IS THIS FLOOZY? TELL ME! HAVE YOU BEEN SEEING OTHER
GHOSTS ON THE SIDE? FIRST MEGUMI, NOW BOTAN? WHO'S NEXT?"

"...." Botan detailed, rightfully assessing that this time around,
there were no words that could be uttered in such a situation.


===


Back at the Nalanda Shop, Shibuya...

The charred-to-the-point-of-looking-ganguro-but-still-alive Sanosuke
made a face as he scanned rack after rack of nineties-era apparel and
accessories. "What is with these prices? Why are the prices for these
commodities upwards to _thousands_ of yen? Granted, we're spending
Reikai yen, but it's following the same pricing scheme as the shops
outside! None of you use one or two yen coins anymore, even for
change? Besides, who would want to pay anything for these ridiculous
pieces of shit?"

"Yeah, the inflation rate really did a number on the yen. You're used
to paying for coins back in your day, huh? Well, nowadays, if you want
to buy something really expensive, you'll have to shell out thousands
instead of just hundreds of yen," Shizuru calmly explained while
Sanosuke stayed away from her for obvious reasons. "And what's taking
the store clerk so long?" she complained.

"Sorry I'm late! Here are the shirts you've ordered, sirs, ma'am!" the
flighty and strawberry-haired Hinageshi cheeped as she handed the
specialized outfits to the two new warriors Koenma plucked out of heaven
itself in order to fight against the vague yet daunting machinations of
the infamous Chojin. She was immediately deployed as soon as she was
done helping Koenma explain the complicated circumstances surrounding
Keiko Yukimura and Yusuke Urameshi's situation. "I do hope they meet
your requirements."

Sanosuke slapped his knees and guffawed as Yahiko came out of the
dressing room wearing a Hawaiian shirt and skintight jeans. "Seriously,
dude. What's up with all the floral-pattern wardrobes? Is there
something you want to tell Tsubame? Do you have a thing going on between
you and your 'eternal rival', Yutaro?"

"You should just shut up and help me humor Shizuru as fast as possible,
Sano," Yahiko scolded as he thought about trying out the black polo
shirt with kanji next. "It'll be better for us to get this over with as
soon as possible instead of letting it drag on for too long. Besides,
I'm not about to get lectured by someone who smells like fried chicken."

Sanosuke grumbled as he used the handkerchief he'd just bought to wipe
the remaining soot and burns over his forehead. "Me being a ghost is no
excuse for her to set my hair on fire. She can't even take a joke! Jo-
chan never set my hair on fire, and she's as violent a tomboy as can be!
Man, that crazy bitch may even be worse than Saito. Or hell, maybe she
_is_ Saito's reincarnation, or at least a distant relative of his! Man,
I'd hate to see that antennae-banged cop be reincarnated as anything
other than a bug or a worm."

Just then, Shizuru popped out of the women's undergarment section and
glared at the still unprepared Sanosuke. "Why aren't you wearing the
Visual Kei clothes I picked up for you yet, Sano? Instead of obsessing
about your unrequited feelings for me, you should instead spend these
talking yen note thingies the way they want to be spent. Don't you want
to complete your mission?"

Shizuru smirked as Sanosuke choked on his own ectoplasmic spit, unsure
of which of her many accusations should he answer first. "My _mission_
wasn't to shop for one of your time period's crazy carnival clothes,
lady! I'm here to kick demon ass until Koenma is forced to give me
another body because I've busted this one to oblivion. There's no way
you're going to make me look like a cross-dressing hooker wearing granny
makeup!"

"Aw, but you have the waist and build of a really tall fourteen-year-old
girl! Speaking of which, how do you feel about the gothic look?" Shizuru
condescendingly asked as she picked out some wardrobe fit for a haunting
Victorian funeral.

Sanosuke tore at his slightly singed hair and screamed in frustration
before hoarsely complaining, "What if I _want_ to look like a
thunderstruck karate master? Huh? What then? I don't care what people of
the modern age think, they have horrible taste in clothes anyway!" Sano
spat while Yahiko snickered from behind the brash and short-tempered
street fighter.

Satisfied in confirming that she had the rambunctious spirit wrapped
around her pinky finger, Shizuru walked over to the lone attendant in
the store and talked to her about something that had been bothering her
since they entered the establishment. "I don't understand. Where are all
the other customers, miss? It almost seems like we're the only ones
here."

"Oh, you didn't know? The Nalanda Shop isn't placed within the
boundaries of the physical world. We're actually occupying a separate
plane of existence altogether; Yumekai, to be exact, which is otherwise
known as the Astral Plane or Level 10 Block 2 of the Purgatorial
Sector," Hinageshi happily exposited. If she didn't know any better,
she'd swear that _that_ was her reason for existence.

Shizuru's jaw slackened and gaped. "The _Dream_ World? Are you serious?"
She afterwards closed her mouth, raised her hands in a defensive
posture, and stopped the red-haired, priestess-garbed girl from
answering. "Wait, never mind. I'd just argued with nineteenth-century
spirits and sentient legal tender about current fashion trends. _Of
course_ you're serious. By any chance, are you also a part of Koenma-
sama's death squad, just like Botan?"

"It's _death gods_, actually, and yes, I'm very good friends with
Botan," Hinageshi confirmed as she dutifully folded the clothes that
Sanosuke and Yahiko discarded and merrily skipped back to the supply
room. "Oh, and by the way, you're Kuwabara-kun's sister, right? I was
meaning to ask where you were when the Meikai invasion happened. I was
able to meet nearly everyone from your group except you."

"Meikai invasion, huh? So _you're_ the miko-like shinigami Kazuma was
talking about. What a small world." Shizuru shrugged. "In regards to
your question, I may have been out of town at the time. I did see the
devastation and destruction that these Meikai people unleashed on the
news. It's kind of funny how demons who want to conquer the world always
start with Tokyo. Or maybe not, because it's the oriental, Japanese-
speaking demons that mostly do that."

"It's wonderful that we don't have to deal with western monsters like
vampires, werewolves, zombies, succubi, incubi, devils, goblins, elves,
dwarves, fairies, kobolds, bogarts, pixies, gnomes, gremlins, ogres,
leprechauns, banshees, sprites, poltergeists, sylphs, nymphs and so on.
The world religions aren't just there because people grew up with
different beliefs; they also help protect us from having all our demons
band together and destroy the world as we know it. Let them all remain
in whatever jurisdiction they belong to," Hinageshi elucidated, pleased
as a peach that she could finally make use of all her extensive
knowledge of the metaphysical in just one day.

"Er, right. We wouldn't want that to happen," Shizuru agreed as she
backpedaled away ever so slowly from the bizarre and gibbering
shinigami. Ever since her brother ended up becoming a spirit detective,
she had had to deal with all sorts of weirdness; it still wasn't enough
to prepare her for this character, though.

In any event, Shizuru felt someone tap her on the shoulder. Evidently,
Sanosuke was trying to call her attention. "What?"

"Here, I wore your stupid modern clothes. How do I look?" Sanosuke asked
while Yahiko was gasping for breath from behind him. He wore a buckle-
and-strap-filled black jacket that even Aoshi would call gaudy, a tight
leopard-spotted shirt, and pants with elaborate gold trimmings.

Shizuru looked at Sanosuke for all of one second before bursting into
unrestrained hysterics. "I can't believe you _really_ wore it! You look
just like the handsome Suzuki Matuoka! Now _there's_ a clown if I've
ever seen one!"

Just as Sanosuke let out a stream of expletives concerning bestiality
and defecation, the wristwatch-looking spirit detectors that Koenma
handed the two ghosts began emitting warning signals and some such,
which sort of made Shizuru glad that they were in the middle of another
plane of existence, because those irritating sirens would have made a
scene back in the Human World.


===


Back in Koenma's office...

Kenshin and Botan had already left. After the ex-rurouni managed to
retrieve the Demon Sword from the hysterical Kaoru's hands, she
immediately reverted back to Botan. From there, the swordsman bid his
farewells to Koenma and his oni and had the ferry-girl transport him
back to Ningenkai, where he could better explain to Kaoru the situation
at hand.

"Jorge," Koenma said to what he considered to be his most loyal, blue-
skinned oni assistant, "I can always depend on you, can't I?"

"O-Of course, Koenma-sama!" Jorge hurriedly groveled, nodding copiously.
"You can trust me with anything, my lord!"

"Good old faithful Jorge," Koenma praised, smiling widely. "You didn't
even question my decision to revive those two souls, even though you
knew that it was an illegal act for me to do so. After all, the dead
should only remain as such."

"It was not my place to do so, Koenma-sama." Jorge humbly bowed. "But I
_was_ curious as to why...?"

"...Why I broke the precious laws of the Spirit World just to grant a
couple of spirits a few more moments in the world of the living even
though they have a permanent, binding contract to rest in eternal
peace?" Koenma finished for his underling, sighing. "What I did for
these spirits was different from what I've done for Yusuke. Yusuke's
case was an accidental breach of contract. This was far more..."

"Intentional, sir." Jorge nodded grimly.

Koenma chuckled. "Breaking the very laws of the Spirit World. So many
things have happened in such a short period of time." His eyes were
again fixated on the ceiling. "The Chojin; he worries me, Jorge. All
of the three worlds are now in the grip of a hidden peril, and we can do
next to nothing about it, just like with Sensui."

"K-Koenma-sama," Jorge stuttered concernedly, trailing off a bit in the
end of his half-thought statement. "No one could do anything about--"

Koenma slammed his fist on the oak table, his eyes aflame with rage and
frustration. "I was desperate then, as I am now. Tantei shouldn't fight
against tantei, as dead spirits shouldn't fight against living beings!"

"Koenma-sama," Jorge reiterated, only because he did not know what else
to say beyond that.

"The Chojin is using the souls of the dead... the evil spirits of those
thrown into eternal nothingness... and reviving them somehow through his
awesome power. Keep in mind that the living and the dead aren't supposed
to fight each other, and if things go on the way they are, then the
Chojin will have his own Army of Darkness roaming across the entirety of
the three worlds."

"Forgive this humble servant of yours for his stupidity," Jorge stated,
bowing, "but what does that have to do with your reviving of these
humans?"

Koenma inhaled deeply. "Death was the greatest power the Reikai had over
all living things--over both of the two living worlds. Meikai shared
that power with us once upon time, but one thing led to another and, in
the end, it was Reikai alone who held that power. Once the bind of
death befalls any being, then they are now at our complete control.
Itsuki knew as much, which was why he kept Sensui's ghost from us."

Koenma stood up, plucked his pacifier out of his mouth, and studied it
closely. "The Chojin cancels out our power over the dead, particularly
evil spirits. He has somehow gained the ability to revive most of
Reikai's most dangerous foes. This... Overfiend of sorts now has the
power of life over death, just as we do, because of his uncanny ability
to control the once uncontrollable jaki."

"Oh no," Jorge muttered in dismay. "So this Chojin is now as powerful as
Reikai itself? As Enma Daio once was? As you are now?"

Koenma nodded. "That's right." The tot gripped his pacifier tightly.
"Even at the price of breaking one of our sacred laws, I just had to
revive these fighters from the past. They are our only link to the
Chojin other than the Demon Sword and Himura-san. It would also put us
at least in equal footing with the Chojin himself, with what he's been
doing and all."

"If you don't mind my asking, Koenma-sama, did you use the surplus power
of the Reikai Barrier to do this? After all, you were the one who
approved the destruction of the barrier in the first place. I mean,
reviving the dead uses up a lot of energy. You are now responsible for
managing the reiki in the entirety of the Reikai since your father's...
trial and conviction. Is that how you were able to revive Sagara
Sanosuke and Myojin Yahiko?"

"Between the two of us, Jorge, those two aren't the only warriors in
Japan's Meiji Era; I've actually awakened each and every last person who
has a connection between the Chojin and Himura-san. I believe that's the
best way to solve this impending dilemma."

"But that's dangerous, Koenma-sama! You already used up most of your
stored reiki while battling Sensui! It'll take at least half a century
to get back all the power you've saved, and using an outside source of
energy that's too immense for your weakened body to handle... it may
even overwhelm you!"

That was Koenma's cue to collapse on the ground in utter exhaustion.

"Koenma-sama...? KOENMA-SAMA!"


===


Back in the Human World--specifically, Tokyo, Japan...

"Are you sure she isn't your girlfriend? She could've fooled me," Botan
deadpanned with a bored expression on her face as she remembered how
she... or rather, _Kaoru Kamiya_... strangled Kenshin with one hand
while threatening him with a sword using her other hand; the same thing
happened back in the day when they were still both alive and had
unresolved sexual tension, except Kaoru used a shinai or bokken at the
time instead of a katana. 'Cute. Psychotic, but cute.'

The flying pair soared into a dark alleyway, with Kenshin jumping down
from Botan's oar to the pavement below before the death angel landed.

"It was just a misunderstanding. Relax, Botan. Besides, I'm quite glad
that after all these years of serving as the safe keeper of a Reikai
artifact, I got to meet and be around one of my old friends from my past
life. In fact, I believe Kaoru-dono was one of the last people I
remembered before kicking the bucket, so to speak," Kenshin relayed with
his usual contented, closed-eye expression that belied an unreachable
sadness in his heart.

Of course, Kenshin was disappointed with the way the meeting turned out.
He wanted to pressure Koenma a bit more in order to learn the truth
about the missing years of his life as a shinigami warrior. The power
he held as the Youkiri... not Hitokiri... Battousai also intrigued him.
During his fight with Saito, the revived historical figure contended
that the ex-rurouni had awakened the power of the so-called Battousai
the Demon-Slayer by murdering countless demons in his wake. However, the
redhead remembered none of these events, and it left him quite
perturbed.

On the other hand, he remembered the look on Botan's face while they
were still outside Koenma's office; the shrinking of her irises, the
bulging of her eyes, the trembling of her lips, and the shudder of her
body as for one brief moment, she remembered who she was and became
revolted at what she found out.

Therefore, even though he was deadly curious about the missing years in
his life, he reckoned in the end that some secrets were meant to be
buried. He had Kaoru back in his life after failing to fulfill his
promise to her to come back; that was enough for him for now.

The ferry-girl sighed as she felt her heart sink at Kenshin's mention of
"old friend"; or rather, she sensed _Kaoru's_ reaction to the spirit
guardian's comment about the kendo girl. As a woman, she instantly
recognized the tumult of emotions washing all over her, well, ghostly
tenant's confused, immature heart: anger at Kenshin for being called a
friend, sympathy over Kenshin's plight, self-pity at being called a
friend, nostalgia for an era that never quite ended to her amnesiac
mind, and frustration at not being able to let go of the "friend" thing
in her mind.

'HEY! Stop your... psychoanalysis mumbo-jumbo about my feelings and keep
your opinion to yourself, you overly cheerful representation of death!'
the Kaoru in Botan's head berated.

Thusly, Botan wondered, 'Uh, if you're a nineteenth-century spirit who
can't remember anything beyond Kenshin's death, then how were you able
to know about psychoanalysis?'

Botan felt Kaoru roll her eyes at... her. 'Well, duh. I used the same
method you used to learn about my past memories of the Hiruma brothers;
I rifled through your brain and checked out your memories.'

'I suppose the _duh_ comment was from my brain too, huh?' Botan reasoned
with mild fascination before she realized something alarming about
Kaoru's words. 'HEY! Stop ransacking through _my_ thoughts and
experiences, you Amazonian wench with a sadomasochistic stick fetish! At
least when I did it, it was by accident, and it _helped_ Kenshin save
all our butts at the time!'


===


To be Continued...

Next: The Chojin's second assault.

Will Sanosuke and Yahiko prove their mettle in Nineties Japan?
Will Kaoru and Botan ever get along? Will Kenshin know the
truth about the Youkiri Battousai? Stay tuned.

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