[FFML] [yyh][rk][xover] Youtou Shinnoken Chapter 35: The Other Side of Bloodlust (Part 3)

[Abdiel]

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Youtou Shinnoken
A Rurouni Kenshin/Yuyu Hakusho Crossover Fan Fiction Story
By Chester Castañeda
chester.castaneda at gmail.com
gabriel_gabdiel at yahoo.com
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/223441/
Original concept by Chad Yang
chadjill at ms3.hinet.net
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/56473/

What if Multiple Man or Jamie Madrox has powers on top of multiplying
himself? How overpowered would he be?


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Chapter 35: The Other Side of Bloodlust (Part 3)

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In the middle portions of Tokyo Tower in Shibakoen, Minato Ward...

Suzaku scaled Tokyo Tower like King Kong would the Empire State Building
to escape the kudzu vine creepers of Shuichi "Kurama" Minamino.

The Shisejyu made use of bolts of electricity as his crackling energy
"ropes", the naked Demon Sword blade as his "grappling hook", and
magnetism that allowed him to cling to the metal bars of the structure
like a bizarre fusion between Spider-Man and the superhero's arch-
nemesis, Electro.

He would've levitated, but that would've taken too much time and wasted
too much energy. He wanted to conserve as much youki as possible when
confronted with an opponent of Kurama's caliber.

It was around this juncture that Minamino reactivated his Floating Leaf
hang glider made of the same kudzu that he attacked Suzaku with in order
to enable him to pursue the blond youkai without wasting too much of his
demon energy or youki.

Even though the electromagnetic radiation emitted by the Crimson
Sparrow's body kept the crawling weed from cocooning him completely, the
microwaves killing the plant from the inside out, the verdant greens
kept on coming like an endless flood of flora, with Kurama's raging
demon ki serving as fuel for their continuous growth.

In the meantime, while the recovering Kazuma Kuwabara was still out of
sorts and unable to summon his Jigen Tou, he, Yahiko Myojin, and
Sanosuke Sagara followed the two combatants the old-fashioned way, which
was to climb right after them using the kudzu left behind by Shuichi's
ecological onslaught.

For the time being, Sano "decommissioned" use of his twelve-foot iron
horse-cleaving zanbatou, letting it dissipate into spirit energy for
fear that it could be used against him through Suzaku's magnetism. If
push came to shove, he might have to make the battle into a fistfight.

Even Yahiko himself had sheathed his inheritance from Kenshin, the steel
sakabatou, inside its metal sheath (a double whammy of disadvantages
against a master of magnetism) while trying hard to figure out how best
to attack the Crimson Sparrow without using a sword.

But that was ridiculous. What kind of swordsman would he be if he didn't
use a sword?

He couldn't come up with any satisfactory answers. The teenaged-looking
ghost did utilize the Ten Gami or the God in Heaven to scale the tower
faster from time to time, hitting the sheathed sakabatou hard enough on
any given surface to propel the Spirit World warrior high up in the air.

The gliding Kurama and the lightning-bolt-swinging Suzaku were almost
at the zenith of the famous building when the latter raised the Youtou
Shinnoken and used it as a rod to summon lightning with from the sky.

He then converted the energy into a disruptive electromagnetic pulse
filled with microwave radiation that killed off the kudzu nearest him in
an instant, forming an electrical sphere of destruction that covered a
radius of about ten meters, turning them into burned wicks of ash and
flaming embers in an instant.

Several of the light bulbs surrounding Tokyo Tower that allowed it to
illuminate Minato at night and the early morn surged with so much energy
that it resulted in them exploding in a shower of sparks, superheated
glass, and the distinct smell of ozone.

"I will not be defeated by someone who holds his power back in order to
pretend to be something he's not," rebuked the Crimson Sparrow amidst
the spectacular "fireworks display" behind him while he himself glowed
in ethereal light; the physical manifestation of his electromagnetic
field.

The supercharged Suzaku then attempted to shoot his lightspeed lightning
bolts at Kurama, but the half-youko merely sacrificed his endless supply
of kudzu to block every last one of the laser blasts while also
dissipating the energy by absorbing part of it into through the thick
jungle that was just about to envelop the entirety of Tokyo Tower.

"You should stop abusing the Demon Sword, Suzaku. The more you use it,
the more you'll lose yourself. Even Kenshin, the sword's guardian, isn't
immune to its influence," warned Kurama while speaking from experience.

"I don't fear that at all. I'm not a coward like _you_. I am a proud
member of the demonic race, while your existence is proving to be an
insult to it." Suzaku harrumphed. "If you wish to deny yourself power
handed to you on a silver platter, then as far as I'm concerned, it's
something you've already relinquished that's ripe for the picking."

"Suit yourself. Like a fool, you'll have to learn from your own mistakes
instead of the mistakes of others." After saying those words, Kurama
summoned a Rose Whip on one hand and a kudzu vine on the other hand that
he cracked at Suzaku so hard, it cut through the steel I-beams of the
radio tower.

Kuwabara, Sanosuke, and Yahiko were neared the main observatory of Tokyo
Tower (the lightning from earlier illuminating the sky bright enough for
them to see Mount Fuji from where they were) while they climbed the
exterior of the world-famous structure when from amongst the ashes of
the thick kudzu emerged a familiar carnivorous plant.

Kazuma in particular shivered and shuddered at the sight. He had seen
Kurama turn roses into whips, leaves into blades, vines into daggers,
foliage into butterfly wings, and bamboo shoots into sharpened death
traps. Even something as innocuous as a mimosa plant or flower petals
turned deadly in the hands of the redheaded demon in disguise.

How much more deadlier would Kurama be if he got in his hands on a plant
that was already deadly in the first place? Those were the thoughts
running in Kuwabara's mind while Suzaku found himself in the wrong end
of a gigantic Venus Flytrap. No, rather it was a mutant Venus
_Deathtrap_.

Suzaku screamed because the voracious piranha plant ate the lower half
of his body as soon as his foot stepped on its leaves, its sharpened
teeth tearing apart his supposedly Class-S body with no problem
whatsoever.

The mutated plant grew big enough to eat a full-grown man; a carnivorous
man-eater in every sense of the term. It its "normal" state, a Venus
flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) ate spiders and other insects with a literal
hair-trigger clamp (sensitive tiny hairs on the surface served as its
sensors) that closed whenever creatures crawled on its leaves.

Kurama wasn't born yesterday, though. As soon as he saw the upper half
of Suzaku's lifeless body fall down on the steel railings and right into
the windows of the lower observation deck, his blood painting the tower
an extra coat of red, he wrapped his plant-based butterfly wings around
him.

A radioactive blast of the Roku-Goku-Ankoku-Raiko-Ha then disintegrated
his cocoon. The half-youko was aware of Suzaku's ability to clone
himself six times at a time, so he prepared in advance to make a bait-
and-switch exit using his glider as the bait.

The Spirit Detectors of Yahiko and Sanosuke bleeped and blared after six
Suzakus emerged from all over the tower observatory, their lightning
bows and glowing fists of electrical might at the ready. One Class-S was
already a handful, so how much more six?

One of the six Suzakus pried the Youtou Shinnoken from the cold, dead
fingers of his deceased self before stabbing the perpetrator of the
heinous murder... the Venus Demon-Trap... with the sword and proceeding
to electrocute the errant piece of mutated vegetation.

"Let's help Kurama!" declared Kuwabara, who summoned his Rei-Ken (his
Jigen Tou was still out of sorts), and both Myojin and Sano obliged by
opting to do hit-and-run tactics at the clones.

The trio did things like hurling non-metallic debris at them, doing
long-range attacks like the Rei-Shuriken, or even _attempting_ to hit
the Suzakus from close-range following a distraction, even though the
demons could easily control metal or absorb reiki unto themselves.

Strangely, their guerilla tactics worked well enough that they allowed
Kurama to grow more kudzu and round up the Suzakus into more of the
Venus Deathtraps (there were more than one, and some were even bigger
than the one who bit the first Suzaku in half).

Minamino also took care to alert his comrades if they're unwittingly
moving into a Venus Deathtrap of his.

The quartet was able to kill three more Suzakus this way. The combined
attacks of the Rei-Ken, the sakabatou, the Futae no Kiwami, and the
Rose Whip pushed the confused S-Levels into a corner, allowing them to
get eaten up by the demon-eating plants where they least expected it,
as though they were inside a dense kudzu forest filled with metal bear
traps.

The three remaining Suzakus transmitted their thoughts to one another in
the form of radio waves that doubled as their psychic or telepathic
link. Their combined mental power came up with this conclusion: The
kudzu vines were a distraction, and Kurama had actually planted the
Venus Deathtrap right into the observation deck, their roots shooting
right into the ground below, hidden by the vines.

The Suzaku who had possession of the Demon Sword had to relinquish the
weapon to the healthiest of the surviving Shisejyu because he'd already
lost an arm and a leg from the youkai-eating carnivores. The other
Suzaku, meanwhile, missed a whole chunk of his right side and was about
to die.

Kurama, Kuwabara, Myojin, and Sagara surrounded the remaining three
demons. The regrown kudzu had become obstructive enough to prompt the
Suzaku holding the Youtou Shinnoken to chop up the growing weeds before
it entangled them and left them open to the chomping mouths of the Venus
Deathtraps.

"You already had your chance, fox! You could've used the Demon Sword to
achieve the yet unachieved X-Level and conquer this miserable realm. You
instead threw your opportunity away, and for what? To play house with
these disgusting humans?" one of the Suzakus practically whined.

Unperturbed, Kurama declared, "I won't let you corrupt the Demon Sword
any further. You're dealing with a volatile gunpowder keg that you
shouldn't play with at all. You're not the master of the Youtou
Shinnoken, it's actually the other way around."

One of the three Suzakus decided to turn himself into a suicide bomb a
la Karasu, but the trio of Sano, Yahiko, and Kuwabara intercepted the
heavily injured youkai high and low, with Myojin breaking his knee,
Sanosuke smashing his head to a pulp, and Kazuma disintegrating him
into dust with the Giant Spirit Energy Staff or the Kiyodai Reikibo.

Only two left, and the one with missing limbs was about to expire.

The twin Suzakus then emitted intense electromagnetic radiation that
superheated the area enough to trigger the Venus Deathtraps without
stepping on the natural landmines.

The microwaves also reduced the kudzu jungle to ash and embers while
keeping the quartet of Reikai Tantei and revived warriors from the past
from attacking them.

"It's over," murmured Kurama under his breath befre he signaled for his
comrades to back away from the site.

"What do you mean, Kurama?" asked Kuwabara, only for his question to be
answered a second later with a crunchy, squelching snap.

The last Venus Deathtrap... the biggest one of the bunch... was hidden
right in the middle of the main observatory, and the duo of Suzakus
inadvertently triggered its sharp, electricity-resistant snapping jaws
with their own last-resort blast of energy.

"Is it _really_ over?" asked Kuwabara after he saw the gigantic,
metamorphosed Venus flytrap masticate lovingly on the bloody, chunky
corpses of the Suzakus.

He then, along with Kenshin's best friends back from the Meiji Era, were
unceremoniously wrapped in kudzu by a worried Kurama after they all
heard the self-satisfied voice from within the humongous flesh-eating
plant.

"I expected this trap of yours. _We_ saw it a mile away. We were able to
use x-ray vision to see underneath the floor of this observatory
beforehand and come to this conclusion. You did nothing unexpected."

It was Sanosuke who noticed the black particles gather right inside the
jaws and teeth (actually, sharpened leaves) of the Venus Deathtrap. The
street fighter remembered it because that iron sand sent his senses on a
high enough alert to duck underneath a dark cloud made of it that Suzaku
shot at him earlier.

Therefore, it came as no surprise to him that Suzaku emerged from the
plant carnivore surrounded with the particles, mauling and ripping apart
the rosette into fine mulch with a Demon Sword that was covered with a
cloud of black iron sand the same way its leaf blades ground up the
Crimson Sparrow's doppelganger and sacrificial pawn.

Even the sacred blade of the Youtou Shinnoken alone couldn't have dealt
such a huge amount of damage in a few swings. The iron sandstorm
encircled him in a nimbus of absolute devastation as controlled by his
magnetic powers vibrating in accordance to his will, thus increasing the
blade's cutting power to the level of a chainsaw.

Breathing in and out, Suzaku performed the Kaifuku or his Restoration
technique that enabled him to consume the souls of his copies, thus
healing his injuries and replenishing his lost strength from having to
deal with, for lack of a better term, Kurama's "bullshit".

"_You're_ supposed to be the _Legendary_ Youko Kurama? I'll crush that
legend of yours and make myself legendary in your place!"

Kurama didn't even bother to retort. He instead let the kudzu he'd been
growing all this time travel to the observation deck in a large green
blanket of leaves and vines that blotted out the windows of the
observatory and made the entire room dark.

"Kurama! What the hell do you think you're doing? Don't be a hero! Let
us help you!" said Kuwabara.

A separate group of prehensile weed tentacles ushered the tied-up
Myojin, Sagara, and Kuwabara out of the observation deck and into the
metal railings like three peas in a kudzu pod.

Minamino then combined the kudzu with the vines of the Shimaneki Grass,
which made for a denser forest that even the swirling iron of Suzaku
would have a hard time of cutting. It would seem that the half-youko had
decided to turn this into a contest of wills and endurance.

Careful to not let the Demon Sword get tangled into the combined hybrid
forest of kudzu weeds and death grass, Suzaku relinquished his magnetic
hold on his barrier of iron sand, grabbed hold of one of the thick
vines, and stabbed the Youtou Shinnoken into the floor.

From there, even though it was the middle of spring approaching summer,
the Crimson Sparrow summoned lightning that struck Tokyo Tower itself
and let all those billions upon billions of volts travel towards the
sword and him, with his body and the vines surrounding them serving as
a giant conductor of the continuous surge of power.

The accelerated growth of the jungle of grass and vines actually proved
to be a detriment to Kurama this time around, because they now served as
sturdier power cables that electrocuted the half-youko and his not-as-
sturdy human body.

"AAAAHHH!"

"KURAMA!" Kuwabara screamed while he himself along with the others
wrapped in kudzu suffered through convulsive electrical shocks, though
not as severe as the one Shuichi went through.

"You should've transformed into your youko self," the grinning Suzaku
licked his lips. "At least _then_ you might have stood a chance of
surviving. Goodbye, Kurama... Oh wait. My bad, 'Minamino Shuichi'."


===


Inside the parking lot of the Keishicho (Tokyo Metropolitan Police)
Headquarters at Chiyoda Ward, Fujita Goro lay in wait.

He had requested overtime from his superiors because he felt that
trouble was afoot, and his intuition proved correct as soon as the
citywide blackout happened and lightning started striking Tokyo Tower
repeatedly in the early morning, before the sun was up.

The lieutenant turned the key on the ignition of his Honda Accord and
drove to Tokyo Tower from the Keishicho Headquarters (essentially, an
eight-minute drive from Chiyoda to Minato depending on traffic
conditions, which was light to moderate considering it was so early
before dawn).

He couldn't stop smiling in anticipation of what was to come. If his
past predictions were right on the money, then the Youtou Shinnoken had
by then fallen into the hands of a youkai brash and foolish enough to
steal it from the Spirit World.

It seemed like he'd been waiting forever for this moment to come. In
their first fight in a hundred years back at Genkai's Temple, Kenshin
Himura couldn't even land a hit on him.

Hopefully, the turn of events signified the return of his old nemesis
turned shinigami warrior, Battousai the Demon-Slayer. He had no desire
to fight the vagabond. Nothing less than the Youkiri Battousai would
sate Hajime Saito's century-long bloodlust.


===


The reinvigorated Suzaku was on the verge of Kurama off with huge volts
of electricity when Kuwabara burst out of his kudzu cocoon, leaped into
the balcony of the Tokyo Tower observatory, entered through the room via
on of the openings made by the half-youko's plants, and sliced the
cable-like vines with his Dimension Sword.

Harrumphing, Suzaku attempted to steal the energy from the Jigen Tou yet
again, but he had to step back as the gangly teenager slashed at him at
varying distances, with part of the roof of the observatory caving in.
The demon had no choice but to go on the defensive while using his
Ankoku-Raijin-Ken to blast away the debris nearest him.

Despite Suzaku's efforts to dodge, the human managed to leave a slash on
his chest deep enough to draw blood and leave a mark even while he
accelerated his regeneration abilities. The youkai clucked his tongue.
'I should've finished that meddler off first.'

Speaking of meddlers, Yahiko and Sanosuke eventually got out of their
own plant pods and batted the pieces of debris that missed Suzaku with
the sakabatou and zanbatou. This allowed Kuwabara to run to his fallen
comrade, Kurama, and tend to him.

Minamino's eyes fluttered open while Kazuma held him in his arms.
"Ugh... K-Kuwabara-kun. My apologies. Suzaku saw through my trap. I
shouldn't have..."

"Hush. You don't need to apologize. You were the one who saved us from
certain doom earlier, Kurama. We owe you one," Kuwabara reassured before
he helped his redheaded friend up. "Hey, you're bleeding! Did you fight
Suzaku before you got here?"

"Actually, it was Jine whom I fought and beat. But it's also my fault
why Suzaku has the Demon Sword. Botan must've told you all about it,
right?" said Kurama.

"Never mind that! We're going to get that sword back. After everything
you've been through and everything that you've done for the team, no one
can blame you for this shit!" insisted Kazuma.

"Kuwabara-kun..."

Suzaku resorted to manifesting his black iron sand technique with his
control of magnetism to repel any and all wreckage coming his way.

Yahiko attempted to attack with the Defensive Ougi Inga Gami and the
Counterstrike Ougi Banzen Gami in order to make an opening through the
demon's magnetic field with the Karmic God then strike with impunity
using the Perfect God.

The sword ended up clipping Suzaku's chin. The technique transcended the
power of magnetic force, but it used up too much energy to do so, thus
it only had a fraction of its sting.

While the initial strike was successful in blowing away the black iron
particles that tore apart bricks and thick plant fibers alike, the
subsequent strike could still not produce a strong enough impact to
hurt Suzaku.

'Dammit, I heard Kenshin could land blows even with a metal sword! Why
can't I?' thought Myojin.

"You haven't learned your lesson, boy?" Suzaku mocked before he twisted
Yahiko's wrist the other way and started to force him to slit his own
throat with his favored weapon's reverse edge. "Then I guess you'll just
have to learn things the hard way."

"SAMURAI BOY!" shouted Kuwabara.

A memory from the past came unbidden to Kazuma while his eyes traveled
from Yahiko to Suzaku to Sanosuke to Kurama. Something about what the
half-youko said about S-Classes and crushing ants.

Oh, that was right. To an S-Class, breaking an arm was as simple as
crushing an ant with a thumb to a normal person.

Suzaku didn't even know what hit him after Sanosuke dropped right in
front of him and delivered a Futae no Kiwami to his face while the
demon was about to teach Yahiko a lesson.

The tall street fighter was able to make it in time because Kuwabara was
able to create a portal that shortened the distance between him and the
Shisejyu.

"KENSHIN! I know you're in there somewhere inside that stupid sword!
Don't let this electric unagi get the best of you and use your sword for
evil! I know you're made of sterner stuff, pal!" said Sano.

A punch shouldn't be more powerful than a zanbatou to the gut, but
somehow the focused strength of the Double Impact made the youkai's
knees buckle.

But only slightly.

"Use the sword for 'evil'? What a bizarre thing to say from someone who
has the word 'evil' emblazoned on his jacket like some sort of banner!"
mocked Suzaku.

Soon, Sanosuke was on the receiving end of a lightning strike with a
billion volts of electricity, a black iron sand cloud that tore through
his ethereal flesh and Spirit World standard-issue clothing, an Ankoku-
Raijin-Ken to the gut with electromagnetic microwave radiation that
boiled his "blood", and follow-up lightspeed Ankoku-Raiko-Ha while he
flew backwards by the impact of the combined attacks.

"The Battousai is no more. There is only... Suzaku!"

The consecutive lightning bolt arrows would've finished off even the
tough Zanza that was able to survive Kenshin Himura's Ryu Sou Sen,
Hajime Saito's Gatotsu Ishiki, Anji Yukyuzan's Futae no Kiwami, and
Makoto Shishio's otherworldly punches had Yahiko not sneaked in an Inga
Gami and Banzen Gami at the distracted Suzaku that redirected the
blasts.

Meanwhile, Kuwabara teleported Sano out of harm's way.

Yahiko predicted that Suzaku's magnetic barrier would again halt the
upward strike of the Perfect God, so he bended his knees lower and let
the sakabatou scrape the floor, thus shooting nonmetallic debris at the
demon in the form of the Imitation Technique Dou Ryu Sen that would've
penetrated his defenses.

Another barrier served as the Crimson Sparrow's shield, though. It was
the magnetized swarm of gritty black iron sand he psychically controlled
with his magnetic field. He then deployed the flakes of magnetic metal
and debris to form a whip-blade around him and the Youtou Shinnoken's
blade.

Kuwabara grit his teeth. Every time he attempted to summon his special
blade in order to run interference for Myojin's sake, Suzaku would
stretch his hand out to steal more ki from the Jigen Tou the same way
Byakko would've his Rei-Ken back in the day.

"No swordsman with a metal blade would ever best me in combat now that
I'm Class-S, whether it's you or Battousai," declared Suzaku while
scourging Yahiko and putting him on the defensive with chainsaw-like
strikes, the samurai's blood (or rather, ectoplasm) spraying all over
the observatory.

"I'd like to test out that theory."

The bleeding Yahiko, the tired Kuwabara, the half-conscious Kurama, and
even the singed and convulsing Sanosuke gasped after recognizing who
that monotone voice belonged to.

It was Detective-Investigator Daiji Matsudaira who entered the scene
using his ninjutsu-based Flowing Water Technique, thus allowing him to
phase into existence without anyone noticing until the last minute while
hurling multiple kodachi at Suzaku.

Incidentally, like the Quest-Class Karasu, the reincarnation of Aoshi
Shinomori recently discovered his talent for creating things by using
his mind and reshaping his spiritual energy into solid objects.

This allowed him to create his own weapons... as many as he wanted... at
will instead of lugging around short swords hidden inside a false
longsword sheath.

Suzaku rolled his eyes after, yet again, a swordsman was foolish enough
to challenge him with blades he could control with his magnetism.

"Eh...?"

However, Suzaku immediately noticed that something was amiss as soon as
the first blade plunged into his neck even with his magnetic barrier up.

As though he had touched a hot stove, the Crimson Sparrow reacted
immediately by covering the nonmetallic blades with his gritty nimbus of
iron and tearing them apart piece by piece until they crumbled into fine
dust.

After the youkai plucked the blade from his neck, he spat, "These aren't
made of metal at all!"

"You're correct. Those are ceramic blades. Harder than steel. I guess
you're right, though. No swordsman with a metal blade can beat you, or
he'd at least have a hard time doing so," Daiji said with a straight
face.

Meanwhile, the red-faced demon bared his fangs and pulsating veins. Even
though his neck wound healed almost immediately, his pride didn't.

"What? Are you upset that a ninja deceived you? You must not know a lot
about ninjas if you're angry about that," quipped Yahiko before he
ducked away from another deluge of black iron sand that turned the
floor he stood on into an uneven pitfall.

"Six against one, huh? Fine. I'll kill you all!" pledged the S-Level
Suzaku, who this time blocked the next set of short swords headed his
way with an I-beam he ripped right out of the steel structure of Tokyo
Tower.

Suzaku moved away and prepared to blast Daiji with an Ankoku-Raijin-Ken
and a black iron sandstorm as soon as the shinobu-turned-detective
attacked with his Kaiten Kenbu Rokuren. However, someone else emerged
from behind the metal bar filled with ceramic blades.

It was Feng Xinhai's daughter, the half-Chinese (Taiwanese), half-
Japanese Natsuki Shinkai (or Natsuki Xinhai, if one were to use a mixed
romanization scheme involving Romaji and Hanyu Pinyin). Suzaku hesitated
for all of one second before blasting her with the combined attacks.

He possessed S-Class powers like Xinhai, so he need not be concerned
about angering the overpowered human after killing his daughter. The
demon shouldn't have hesitated, though.

With a quick Passata Sotto striding technique she learned from her
fencing master of a father and a shift of techniques from fencing to
kendo, she deflected both attacks by going under them, crossing her
arms, and then hitting the wrists of Suzaku so that the attacks would
cross streams, forcing him to cancel them out.

"HADOME!" she called out the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu's sword-blocking,
weapon-trapping, and attack-guarding technique along with her past self,
Yutaro Tsukayama. However, before she could do an advancing-guard
Hawatari, Suzaku punched forward with a second Storm of Torment Fist.

She didn't have time to do the Mugen Dai no Hyogo technique that allowed
her to rip her father's arm using his own cyclone move against him, but
she did have enough presence of mind to do another Hadome.

Suzaku expected this and had intended to electrocute the girl like he
did with Kurama. However, the metal cane she usually had in her
possession appeared different than usual. None of his electricity
passed through it, even while she held her pistol-grip weapon with her
bare hands.

"That's a _ceramic_ cane too. It won't corrode, rust, or be magnetized
by your powers either," came the Aoshi reincarnation's helpful
explanation.

Suzaku screamed and blasted a magnetic tempest of iron debris at the
nimble Shinkai, who avoided the metal projectiles even more effectively
than her fellow Kamiya Kasshin Ryu practitioner, Myojin the "Artful
Dodger".

Actually, Daiji used Natsuki's cane and ceramic knives in order to know
the feel and texture of zirconium dioxide or yttria-stabilized zirconia
(YSZ) for the sake of reshaping his spiritually formed steel blades into
ceramic ones.

Suzaku redirected the tempest in Daiji's direction, but the detective's
Ryusui no Ugoki made him miss even though he utilized a wide-range
attack... a magnetic storm... filled with flying metal debris that
sheared through anything in its path.

The I-beam that Matsudaira turned into a ceramic-knife pincushion got
sliced into metal chunks, but many more like it were eventually thrown
at the copper's direction... so many, in fact, that the gathered six of
Koenma Daio's Spirit World warriors had real concerns about Suzaku using
up all the steel within Tokyo Tower to the point that the world-famous
monument might collapse.

None of the debris touched the Aoshi reincarnate, though. He bobbed,
weaved, and sliced through everything thrown at him like they weren't
there at all, using ceramic knives made by his mind and spirit energy.

The Water Flow Movement passed through the windfall like... well, water,
such that even the S-Class Suzaku couldn't follow its "movements".

The youkai shifted tactics and shot Ankoku-Raiko-Ha at Aoshi, but he had
the recovering Yahiko and Natsuki to contend to as well, who now paired
off and took turns attacking and defending against the lightspeed arrows.

Even if they were as quick as lasers, Suzaku could only shoot them one
at a time, plus there was now enough debris to go around for Myojin to
do that damnable Imitation Technique Dou Ryu Sen of his that allowed him
to hurl wreckage back at the Shisejyu.

From time to time, Kuwabara helped out with fight by making portals that
led the debris back to Suzaku every time they were dodged or "sniping"
the demon with slashes that traveled well-beyond what would've been his
striking range, thus showcasing the blade's nigh-infinite reach.

Even Kurama had recovered enough to revive his fried kudzu anew, this
time making sure the thicker vines stayed as far away from him as
possible lest Suzaku turned them into power cables to electrocute him
once more.

Meanwhile, Daiji ended up beside the groggy Sanosuke.

"You're Battousai's street-fighting friend, aren't you?"

"Ugh. What's it to you, Aoshi Lite?"

Apparently, Sagara had learned enough about Nineties Japan and consumer
items in the Kuwabara household to know what "Lite" meant.

Matsudaira said, "Here."

Sano put his guard up, thinking that Shinomori's present self was about
to stab him with his kodachi, but instead he was handed one. "What am I
supposed to do with this? This tiny weapon is not my style!"

"Your clothes allow you to have the same powers I possess, correct? It
enables you to resist spiritual damage and create that huge zanbatou of
yours, I believe," concluded the detective.

Sagara shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. That's what one of Koenma's ferry-girls
told me."

"That kodachi I gave you is made of ceramic. Learn its properties from
touch and create a zanbatou made entirely of that material. You'll have
an easier time fighting Suzaku with a ceramic weapon instead of a metal
one," explained Matsudaira.

"...Hey, aren't ceramics easy to break, like ceramic pottery? Are you
sure this is a good idea?"

"...."

The one time Suzaku successfully blasted Natsuki with his Ankoku-Raiko-
Ha without the teenage girl dodging, using nearby wreckage as cover, or
getting Kuwabara to neutralize the arrow with the Jigen Tou, she ended
up crossing her arms and doing her ultimate move.

"MUGEN DAI NO HYOGO!"

The bolt of lighting was deflected back to Suzaku, which surprised him
enough to let the recoil of the electric beam throw him across the
lengthy observatory. He then converted the projectile into electricity
that he absorbed into his body, much to Shinkai's chagrin.

"Tsk. Feeding him his own medicine won't work against him," she thought
out loud.

Suzaku then levitated to avoid another one of Yahiko's Dou Ryu Sen, only
to nearly have his head cleaved open by a leaping Daiji and his one-
bladed Jissen Kenbu. He then landed in time to receive the full brunt of
Sanosuke's Zanbatou Ate, blasting him backwards into a wall.

He shot a Dark Lightning Wave while he was blown back by the ground-
based assault, but the lightning arrow didn't do a thing to Sagara
because he used his gigantic _ceramic_ blade to insulate himself from
the lightspeed projectile.

"Enough of this nonsense."

Kurama and Kuwawbara's eyes twinkled in recognition after Suzaku again
held aloft his magic sword and said _neither_ "By the Power of
Grayskull!" nor "For the Honor of Grayskull!" but instead, "Vanish."

All the same, he definitely did have the "power" at that moment.

Thinking quickly, Kurama revived one of the Venus Deathtraps the
electric youkai killed earlier and deployed it as a shield against the
sphere of electromagnetic destruction headed their way; the same one
that killed so many of his kudzu plants.

Because of Suzaku's preoccupation with his special move, Kuwabara had
the chance to summon a Jigen Tou without the demon stealing the energy
from it, which allowed the teenager to slice apart the ensuing blast of
a billion volts, making it fizzle into a shower of electric sparks.

After the Jigen Tou neutralized Suzaku's energy bubble, that was when
Daiji charged into action with an "Onmyou Hasshi," or the Dusk to Dawn
Strike.

It involved him throwing both kodachi at the same time, with the back
blade hitting the end of the front blade's hilt for an extra boost like
a pool stick would a cue ball.

Suzaku batted away the first kodachi with the Demon Sword and then
grabbed hold of the second one with his hand. Detective Matsudaira was
just about to do a follow-up roundhouse kick on the S-Class demon's face
for good measure when he backed off as soon as he saw his blade
disintegrate and evaporate in the Shisejyu's grip.

That was the final straw.

Before Sanosuke could chop him with his gigantic ceramic blade, before
Yahiko could distract him long enough to sneak in another Banzen Gami,
before Kurama could drown him in vines, before Kazuma could cut him up
with the Jigen Tou, before Natsuki could deflect his energy blasts, and
before Daiji could do the Kaiten Kenbu Rokuren, Suzaku made his move.

His signature move, specifically.

"ANKOKU-YORO-JIN!"

In an instant, the outnumbered Suzaku was able to turn the tables and
instead outnumber the Reikai Tantei, the Kenshingumi, and the
Oniwabanshu Okashira, going from six against one to six against seven
using his tried-and-true cloning technique.

Also known as the Dark Demon Cage Formation or the Prism of Seven, the
Ankoku-Yoro-Jin allowed him to split himself from one person to seven.

The seven Suzakus chorused, "I am the seven and the seven are me. Now
despair as you face seven times my fury. SHICHI-GOKU-ANKOKU-RAIKO-HA!"


===


At the foot of Tokyo Tower, near the appropriately named "Foot Town"...

"Mommy? Mommy, where are you?" cried a little girl in a dress who looked
for all intents and purposes like a doll amidst total devastation that
might as well have been one of the Circles of Hell from Dante's Inferno,
Yomi, the Shinto Underworld, or the Narakas of Buddhist lore.

Earlier, after delivering Natsuki and Daiji into the observatory of the
world-famous landmark during what appeared to be the heat of the battle
against Suzaku, an insistent Likka Ikumi (who, coincidentally, was also
the look-alike reincarnation of Misao Makimachi) asked... begged... to
be of assistance to Botan, Sayuri (also known as Uchiko Shikoku), and
Hinageshi.

"I'd rather you return home and sit this one out, Misao-chan. I mean,
Likka-tan," insisted the concerned Botan. Within her, the memories and
spirit of Kaoru Kamiya lay, which led her to suspect that she herself
was the reincarnation of Kenshin's long-lost... female companion.

Yes, she remembered who Misao was through the recollections of the
Kamiya Kasshin Style's master. This would've left her in an existential
crisis, making her wonder where Kaoru ended and where Botan began, but
the shinigami had far more important things to think about.

"As long as those six are able to hold out long enough for Yusuke to
arrive, we should be okay," the blue-haired Angel of Death wearing a
pink kimono further reassured while patting the young ninja girl's head
and idly played with her braids.

"B-But what if they don't...?" began Likka, who remembered that one time
when Daiji ended up in the hospital after being injured in a suicide
bombing during his failed sting operation against the Kanji (One-Eight-
Ten) Killer.

"They will. I have faith they will. Yusuke isn't the only one who could
stand up against an S-Level. There's also Kurama, provided that he
transforms into his youko self."

Botan bit her lip, remembering how Kurama ended up forfeiting his spot
at the Demon World Unification Tournament due to injuries because of his
insistence on fighting as Shuichi Minamino.

'But this is a 'Do or Die' situation! Maybe he'd give in. Or maybe not.
Or maybe he'd find a way to win without the youko. Who knows?'

To Likka, Botan continued. "There's also Aoshi's reincarnation, Daiji,
who gave Kenshin a run for his money back in the day! Did you know that
he's one of the few humans who was able to achieve A-Class in almost
next to no time at all? Even Toguro couldn't do that! Oh, right, you
don't know who that is..."

Likka hugged herself and nodded, her face red enough to be noticeable
even through the lowlight conditions of the area thanks to a citywide
blackout that plunged that portion of Minato into darkness. "As expected
of Uncle Jiji."

"So relax. All they really need to do is get the Demon Sword away from
Suzaku, and then we'll all be home free!"

"We're not out of the woods yet, Botan-san. The more Himura Kenshin and
his the Demon Sword gets tainted by violence and malicious intent, the
more they'll be corrupted by Suzaku's influence!" informed the panicky,
red-haired, and miko-garbed ferry-girl known as Hinageshi.

The redhead squeaked out a little "Eeep!" as her "sempai", Botan, glared
daggers at her that said, 'I'd just calmed Likka-tan down! Don't ruin
this for me!' Hinageshi sniffled, her watery eyes sparkling.

"B-But it's true! Didn't Koenma-sama brief us that we should never let
the Youtou Shinnoken fall into demon hands _exactly_ because things like
this would happen? Even worse, if the sword gets tainted enough by sin
and murder, the Youkiri Battousai might awaken and turn into a threat
that's even bigger than an S-Class Suzaku!"

Meanwhile, Likka herself crossed her arms, her eyebrows raised way up
while she blinked repeatedly and made a little "o"  shape with her mouth
after hearing the news.

"Wait, what's this about Himura and a... D-Demon Sword? What happened to
Himura after he died in the hands of Shishio Makoto? Is this 'Youtou'
the reason why so many of us people from the Meiji Era ended up in the
Heisei Era?"

"I know what you could do to help out," Uchiko, the blonde shinigami in
a black kimono, piped up just in time.

"W-What?" sputtered the Misao reincarnation. "But...!"

Botan grabbed hold of Likka's shoulder and squeezed it. Afterwards, the
spirit of Kaoru took possession of the ferry-girl's body while she said,
"I'll tell you everything about Kenshin and the Demon Sword later. I
promise."

Uchiko added, "If you help us out now, we'll be able to keep as much
bad karma as possible from reaching Battousai and his sword. Nothing is
as powerful as the grudge from an earthbound spirit, after all. Or don't
you want to help out?"

Likka bobbed her head in understanding. "What can I do to help?"

Sayuri started. "In case Hinageshi forgot to mention, we're _soul
reapers_, which means exactly what it sounds. However, not everyone here
has died in the hands of Suzaku and the Demon Sword, so..."

At any rate, it was Likka... still dressed in her kunoichi garb and boy
shorts... who consoled the crying girl and held her hand before she led
her to the nearest ambulance (several emergency rescue teams were
deployed as soon as the blackout happened).

"Will you take me to Mommy?" the dollish girl asked.

Likka looked away and gulped. "I'm going to take you some place safe,
okay?" she reassured while, in the corner of her mind, she hoped her
good deeds did keep Kenshin from... becoming "corrupted", whatever that
meant.

"Wait for me!" a slender, forty-year-old woman who looked like a
grownup version of the girl Ikumi rescued called out, only for her to be
stopped by Botan.

"No, you're not supposed to go that way, Obaasan. You're coming with
me."

The office lady brushed her bangs away and beseeched. "No, you don't
understand, Miss. I'm that girl's mother. I have to be with her...!"

The shinigami smiled while, from across the street, she saw the body of
the same mother she talked to stuck underneath a huge pile of rubble and
a crushed car, drowning in a pool of her own blood.

"I understand. Listen to me carefully..."


===


Meanwhile, back at the Tokyo Tower's main observatory...

It was bedlam.

Even though earlier on, Yahiko, Sanosuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama were able
to keep the "population" of Suzakus at bay the first time the Ankoku-
Yoro-Jin was used via deception, hit-and-run tactics, and hidden Venus
Deathtraps, they now dealt with seven instead of six Suzakus and their
overwhelming might this time around.

The situation was akin to Toguro Ototo using only eighty percent of his
power as opposed to one hundred percent. That last twenty percent made
_all_ the difference.

Yahiko checked his Spirit Detector. Each and every one of the Suzakus
were S-Minus in power, except the "lead" Suzaku who had in his
possession the Youtou Shinnoken, who was about S-Flat.

The power levels of those gathered ranged from B to A, with Kurama being
the strongest at A-Plus and Daiji and Kuwabara following suit with A-
Flat and A-Minus respectively.

How were they supposed to beat seven S-Level Suzakus?

The short answer was that they couldn't.

As soon as the biggest Venus Deathtrap that Kurama could propagate...
its gaping toothy maw and humongous body serving as cover for the
gathered Spirit World warriors... intercepted the Prism of Seven
Lightning Storm of Torment, Suzaku put his plan into motion.

The Suzaku who had the Demon Sword in tow quickly skid across the metal
surfaces of the radio tower at nigh-lightning speed and ended up at the
topmost "special" observatory, bursting through the roof of the main
observatory and into the topmost one nearest to the spire of the
building.

Learning from his mistakes last time, Suzaku opted to assist his clones
by "sniping" the Reikai warriors from afar and becoming their "death
from above", like Zeus or Jupiter in the heavens hurling lightning bolts
forged by Hephaestus or Vulcan himself.

This allowed the six remaining Suzakus to not let themselves be overcome
by the numbers game. In other words, each had a one-on-one fight against
beings who were significantly weaker than them, thus allowing them to
gain back their advantage of having higher power levels.

None of the Reikai's "soldiers" stood a chance. Only a couple did, and
they too fell under the might of the six of seven Suzaku while the
seventh one stayed atop the upper observatory, serving as sniper
assistance to his clones whenever they were in trouble.

Yahiko couldn't keep his distance from the Suzaku nearest him while the
demon skid, crawled, and skated across the observatory, the exposed
steel frame of the pockmarked floor serving as his main means of
transportation. Ironically, the repeated Dou Ryu Sen that the samurai
descendant "did" also "did him in".

Myojin lay in wait, knowing full well that this was now or never. He'd
make the reverse-edged blade penetrate the magnetic shield if it was the
last thing he'd do.

Suzaku lifted one of the I-beams he traversed on like a bullet train and
hurled it towards the boyish spirit. By reflex, Yahiko dodged and
swatted the metal pillar, but his jaw dropped once the sakabatou ended
up stuck on the humongous magnetized iron bar.

He'd been duped.

The Crimson Sparrow then moved in for the kill with his Storm of Torment
Fist.

"ANKOKU-RAIJIN-KEN!"

"HADOME!"

Myojin countered Suzaku's fist of crackling electricity with his
crossed-arm block and deflector technique. The spiky-haired lad then
proceeded to whip out his metal sheath right at Suzaku's face with a
"HAWATARI!" that doubled as his Tsui Gami since it cracked the demon's
skull by hitting it three times fast at the same point, like a hammer
would a nail.

Yahiko convulsed after the bruised Suzaku electrified him by grabbing
the sheath and feeding it with a live current. However, the Meiji Era
samurai descendant wasn't done.

Myojin converted the stuck sakabatou into spirit energy with his mind
and created a new, non-magnetized one in his other hand then did a one-
handed "INGA GAMI!" at the youkai.

Suzaku summoned his magnetic field that repelled the reversed-edge
blade, but then a curious thing happened: This act allowed Yahiko to
stick the magnetized sheath into the Suzaku clone's eye, compromising
his vision, its magnetization enabling it to go through the shield.

As the demon yelped and reversed the polarity of his magnetic field, the
human ghost swung his blade and brought it down with enough force to hit
Suzaku's skull with an "INGA GAMI!" and "BANZEN GAMI!" combo.

The attacks penetrated through the demon's defenses during that small
window of opportunity wherein the magnetic polarity of his force field
coincided with the polarity of one of the weapons.

While Suzaku gurgled blood from cracked ribs and winced from a shooting
headache, he remembered Matsudaira doing something similar to him during
the time they first battled in Aokigahara.

All the same, the demon had long ago devised a way to counter that
trick. Half-blind, the Crimson Sparrow used electromagnetic radiation to
create a physic radar that allowed him to feel the ghost's tangible
presence without seeing him.

From there, while Yahiko charged with another Karmic God and Perfect God
onslaught, his sheath on standby in case Suzaku changed the polarity of
his magnetic force field, the demon allowed the youngster to hit him
with his best shot.

As soon as the sword got into contact with him, he increased the
magnetic pressure and never let go, the sakabatou stuck on his skin.

Before Yahiko could dissipate and reform his reiki-created sakabatou,
Suzaku grabbed the young man tightly and let his electrical energy shoot
out from every pore of his body.

Meanwhile, the Suzaku from above with the Demon Sword assisted his clone
by shooting Ankoku-Raiko-Ha at them, thus increasing the voltage of the
electric shock.


===


While the disturbing smell of ozone, burning flesh, and boiling blood
(ectoplasm) wafted across Natsuki's nostrils... because Yahiko got
electrocuted in the corner of her eye... she wished that she could've
had time to hand the ghost her ceramic cane like how Daiji handed his
ceramic kodachi to Sanosuke.

At least then Yutaro's rival would've had the chance to make his own YSZ
sakabatou.

'Don't worry about Myojin Yahiko. He's a big boy. He can take care of
himself.'

'I know, Yuta-kun.'

She had more pressing concerns right in front of her. Even with her
nonmagnetic cane on hand, she couldn't catch, touch, or hurt Suzaku
clone before.

She executed fencing's Tactical Wheel on him comprised of the Parry and
Riposte against the Ankoku-Raijin-Ken or an outright Counterattack every
time she suspected that he'd grab her if she tried to parry.

She also did the occasional Feint into Time, which was an advanced
counter move that involved feinting a counterattack then
counterattacking after the enemy fell into the trap.

For example, she'd feint a counterattack at every Ankoku-Raijin-Ken,
which would result in Suzaku reacting and countering that counterattack
with a magnetic tempest or an abrasive cloud of iron.

She'd then counter the baited counterattack with a quick-contact Kousa
Dageki or a cross-armed strike that fused a throat (tsuki) strike and a
head (men) strike in kendo together in one move.

Speaking of the Kousa Dageki, the Yutaro part of her "personality"
helped set and control the pace of the fight by doing kaeshi (the kendo
version of fencing's riposte) to mix her attacks up while also
increasing her defense with the Hadome-Hawatari combo and the Mugen Dai
no Hyougo.

Suzaku shifted tactics and deployed his black iron magnetic sand as his
razor whip, but Natsuki countered him at every turn with the Kamiya
Kasshin Ryu Ougi, so he instead overpowered the Yutaro incarnate with
lightning bolts, magnetic shockwaves, and other long-range attacks.

Nevertheless, the girl always managed to keep him within striking
distance to avoid becoming a sitting duck to the Ankoku-Raiko-Ha.

This was so until the Demon-Sword-powered Suzaku from the upper
observatory filled in the holes in his fellow Suzaku's defense with
lightspeed Ankoku-Raiko-Ha arrows that kept Natsuki on her toes.

The frenetic pace of the battle eventually led for a Lightning Storm of
Torment from above to slip through.

Thinking fast, instead of deflecting the energy bolt back at either of
the Suzakus (they merely absorbed the energy anyway), Natsuki instead
redirected it towards the ceiling right above the Crimson Sparrow clone
she fought, which sent tons of debris to crash down on him.

The Suzaku from below and the Suzaku from above blasted the hunks of
rocks away with combined Ankoku-Raiko-Ha, their movements synchronized
through telepathic radio communication.

They afterwards blasted the roof above Natsuki in retaliation before she
could get out of the away, crushing her underneath tons of metal, glass,
and plaster.


===


As for Kuwabara, even though he could teleport in every which way, he
still had the definite problem of Suzaku absorbing his reiki and using
it against him.

The Reikai Tantei tried everything from teleporting the Shisejyu out of
Tokyo Tower so that he'd fall to his death (he merely levitated his way
back to the observatory) to fighting from a distance (he ended up at the
mercy of the cowardly sniper from atop the tower).

Even after he attempted to attack from behind by teleporting himself at
Suzaku's blindside (all was fair in love and war, plus Suzaku wasn't
exactly playing fair himself), the demon still detected his presence
and absorbed the energy from his blade.

Unbeknownst to Kazuma, the Suzakus now had radar which allowed their
"eye at the top of the tower" to inform them of where their enemies
were.

Two could play this game.

While Suzaku unleashed his electrical blast full of electromagnetic
radiation, Kuwabara grit his teeth and allowed himself to absorb the
energy and convert it back into reiki the same way Yusuke Urameshi
converted his life force into spirit energy in his last-ditch effort to
defeat the Crimson Sparrow when they first fought.

"REI-SHURIKEN!"

To Suzaku's surprise, he faced a bombardment of sharp blasts of energy
that scourged and sliced him with cuts that would've chopped him up
into various slices of "long meat" were he not an S-Class demon. This
was the technique that rendered the frightening Elder Toguro to little
bits and pieces of flesh, after all.

The demon was about to counterattack when he realized that Kuwabara had
disappeared; gone without a trace. He asked the Demon-Sword-wielding
Suzaku where Kazuma went through their radio waves, but even that Suzaku
had no idea.

The Suzaku who had the Youtou Shinnoken in his possession realized too
late (via radar) that Kuwabara had actually teleported right behind him
as soon as the other Suzaku was distracted by the energy ninja stars.

The blade must've been able to cut through the clone's electromagnetic
field as well, dulling his senses.

By reflex, the demon absorbed the Dimension Sword's energy to avoid
being cut in half by it, but this was what Kazuma wanted to happen,
because it allowed him to grab hold and wrestle him for the Demon Sword.

"Without Kenshin's sword, you and your shadow clones will go back to
being A-Class, won't you? Gimme that blade back! I'll finish this
stupid battle here and now!" screamed Kuwabara, his aura glowing bright
yellow while he kept the Jigen Tou from dissipating by allowing Suzaku
to steal as much of his energy as he wanted.

However, Kazuma forgot one thing. Before the portal from behind him
closed, the Suzaku clone he'd been fighting emerged from it and stabbed
him with the black iron sand whip sword i the stomach, which led him
to double over in agony after the chainsaw-like dagger pureed his
insides.

From there, the Suzaku without the Demon Sword punched the teen with a
Storm of Torment Fist for the ages that sent the both of them back down
from the topmost observatory of Tokyo Tower to the main one.


===


Officially, Kurama was the only one who managed to kill Suzaku (or at
least one of his clones) on his own even after the demon turned Class-S.

However, because of the growing amount of superpowers that the Shisejyu
discovered the longer he maintained his grip on the power magnifier
known as the Youtou Shinnoken, this fact had become a moot point.

Suzaku harnessed the excessive ambient electromagnetic radiation of his
brethren to microwave and kill the surrounding kudzu around them even
before Kurama could gather enough of the plants to swarm the demon in a
sea of greenery.

It was back to basics for Minamino, then. He had no choice but to create
a Rose Whip and fight the old-fashioned way, with him sticking and
moving while running circles around his enemy, attempting to devise a
new plan in the meanwhile.

Suzaku smirked and snarled while he let the thorny vine wrap around his
forearm. Then, like a long-distance taser or cattle prod, he zapped the
demon fox with millions of volts to keep him steady while he pointed to
the heavens in preparation of being fed billions of volts of more
electricity by summoning lightning.

However, Kurama anticipated this move. Seeing as how low his demon ki
was, the observant hanyou took cues from what little he saw of
Kuwabara's fight with his Suzaku clone, particularly the instance where
he converted the electricity flowing into him to spiritual energy.

This allowed Kurama to end up with an even thornier and thicker Rose
Whip while absorbing the electrical energy flowing through him care of
the cable-like vine. As long as he could cushion the continuous current
of volts with demon energy and convert them into youki as well, he
could use Suzaku as the means of his own demise.

Before the Suzaku doppelganger could react or let go, Kurama had
already spun around him like a merry-go-round with the intention of
tearing him apart with a deadlier version of his favorite weapon.

Unfortunately, the Demon-Sword-wielding Suzaku on the topmost
observatory shot his laser beam arrow at the Rose Whip before Shuichi
could tighten the metaphorical noose on his demonic hangman.

Kurama looked up in time to see Kuwabara teleport from behind the
Suzaku with the Demon Sword. 'I'm coming to help, Kuwabara-kun. Just
wait a little while longer.'

The tied-up Suzaku attempted to counterattack by disintegrating the
thorny vines wrapped around him when, from underneath him, a medium-
sized Venus Deathtrap gnawed and chomped at his body, bathing him in his
own demonic blood.

The Rose Whip was a distraction. The actual attack was another mutated
Venus flytrap.

However, when Kurama sprinted to finish off the hapless Suzaku, another
Suzaku came up from behind him and grabbed hold of what was left of the
Rose Whip he held.

"Wha...?" Kurama trailed off, his face as white as a sheet. His body
began moving on its own accord. Or someone else's accord.

Using the constant flow of electricity to induce galvanism or
bioelectrical muscle contraction wherein movement was manipulated by
using electricity to stimulate muscles and nerves, Kurama became this
particular Suzaku's unwilling puppet.

The clone then grabbed hold of one of the stems of the Venus Deathtrap
to control its movement as well (and keep one of his brethren from
dying), took his blond duplicate out of the creature's maw, then placed
Kurama in the chewed-up Suzaku's place, right at the mutant plant
monster's leaf-bladed mouth.

In the meantime, while the bleeding and shaken Suzaku summoned lightning
from above to heal his severe wounds, the other Suzaku made Kurama stand
stock-still then forced the Venus Deathtrap to gnaw and tear its own
redheaded master apart.


===


The Suzaku assigned to take down Sanosuke had a tougher time than he'd
expected.

For one thing, the zirconia version of the zanbatou had a sharper edge
than the blunt metal one. It completely insulated the already durable
Sano from any and all lightning attacks, the main ones being the Storm
of Torment Fist (close-range) and the Lightning Storm of Torment (long-
range).

Like a twelve-foot shield, Zanza the Street Fighter lugged around his
horse-chopping sword and blocked the lightspeed Ankoku-Raiko-Ha coming
from above and right in front of him, his nonmagnetic, nonconductive
weapon serving as his "rubber umbrella" from the electric rain of death
that poured all around him.

Even after Suzaku managed to break or tear the weapon apart with the
magnetic tempest, all Sano did was reform it with his boundless spirit
energy.

What was worse was that Sanosuke could attack from far away and close
by. In boxing terms, he could serve as an all-rounder who could outbox
an opponent (fight from the distance or from long-range) and have an
in-fight with him (fight toe-to-toe or from close-range).

Suzaku once allowed Sano to fight close, intending to grapple him down
and finish him off with rivulets of electrical energy or microwave his
blood with the Ankoku-Raijin-Ken.

He quickly regretted that decision because of the resulting swarm of
Futae no Kiwami and the occasional Sanjo no Kiwami punches that felt
like sledgehammer blows, any one of which would've killed an ordinary
human or even low-level demons.

"FUTAE NO KIWAMI! AHH!"

Suzaku's blood curdled. Sano was merely B-Plus. How much more of a
powerhouse would he end up at higher levels?

Even from far away, while the Crimson Sparrow lobbed endless I-beams,
rebar, nuts, bolts, screws, doorknobs, hinges, window sills, grates, and
(of course) Ankoku-Raiko-Ha, Sagara still had his Zanbatou Ate on hand:
A Dou Ryu Sen landslide move that traveled underground and attacked
enemies from below like a landmine.

The aerial version of the Zanbatou Ate... the Zankuu Zanbatou Ate...
created a whirlwind that twirled Suzaku's body one way and then reversed
its directions to the other way suddenly to twist and tear the hapless
Shisejyu's muscles and tendons with the impact of a car crash.

'No wonder Itsuki was black and blue when he fought this human ghost,'
thought Suzaku through the blinding pain.

Meanwhile, even though the black-and-blue Suzaku threw enough metal at
Sanosuke to make a car (or at least a Japanese economy car), the street
fighter shrugged the impact like it didn't exist at all by either
letting the I-beams hit him full force or slicing them apart with the
zanbatou.

Trouble started brewing for Sano once the other Suzakus had knocked out
or disabled their own foes. Soon, one of the last members of the
Sekihoutai ended up facing and fighting three Suzakus at the same time.

Even the tough Sano could only fight one Suzaku at a time.

"You want to take me on all at the same time? FINE! TAKE THIS! ZANBATOU
ATE! AHH!"

He attempted to take the nearest one out with his zanbatou, but he
ended up on the receiving end of a magnetic shockwave, a magnetic
tempest, Ankoku-Raijin-Ken, and Ankoku-Raiko-Ha (to be more specific,
the San-Goku-Ankoku-Raiko-Ha or the Prism of Three Lightning Storm of
Torment).

His astral projection of a body flickering in and out of existence from
the combined attacks full of electromagnetic radiation, Sanosuke Sagara
crumpled and convulsed on the ground in a pool of his own ectoplasm.


===


To Be Continued...

Next: Phoenix versus Phoenix.

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

So long! Farewell!
Abdiel
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