[FFML] [yyh][rk][xover] Youtou Shinnoken Chapter 36: The Other Side of Bloodlust (Part 4)

[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/

Here he comes to save the day! The Mighty Yusuke is on his way!


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Chapter 36: The Other Side of Bloodlust (Part 4)

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Back inside the main observatory of the world-famous Tokyo Tower...

It didn't appear so at first, but soon enough, the last man standing of
the six Spirit World Warriors was Detective-Investigator Daiji
Matsudaira, also known as Aoshi Shinomori's Heisei Era reincarnation.

The Reikai's personal army had arrived in the scene to take back the
Demon Sword that Suzaku stole, but they proved no match against the S-
Level youkai.

Among the six, Daiji performed the best not because he had the highest
power level of them all (Kurama had that distinction, and the half-youko
could probably go higher had he allowed himself to revert to his youko
form), but because he did the most research when it came to electricity
and all its forms.

He wasn't any expert on science and natural phenomena by any stretch of
the imagination, but as an avid sleuth since his youth, he had made it a
point to increase his general knowledge as much as possible.

Thusly, he was aware of electricity, the effects of electrocution, what
materials were considered conductors/semiconductors/insulators,
magnetism, galvanism, electromagnetic radiation, the full
electromagnetic spectrum, the  different waves and rays incorporated
into the field, and so on, and so forth.

The use of nonmagnetic, nonconductive ceramic kodachi was only part of
his anti-Suzaku plan.

For example, any enclosure formed by conducting material could block
electrical and non-static electric fields. In short, if one were inside
an elevator or even a car as he was struck by lightning, the conducting
material would absorb the electricity without harming the person inside.
This was called a Faraday Cage.

This was also the temporary shield that kept Daiji from getting
electrocuted by Suzaku's rain of Ankoku-Raiko-Ha from above and before
him. Of course, the Quest-Class human (he was Quest-Class because he
had the ability to psychically turn spirit energy into solid objects)
had enough presence of mind to dissipate his Faraday Cage before Suzaku
used the metal material against him.

Every time Suzaku attacked with something long-range, Daiji created a
Faraday Cage and threw ceramic short swords to the sky from behind his
shield while letting gravity rain blades on his foes. As for close-range
techniques like the Ankoku-Raijin-Ken, the Oniwabanshu Okashira either
blocked them with his ceramic blades or kicked nonmetallic debris at
the demon (so that he wouldn't risk getting shocked while making limb or
skin contact with the walking taser).

He slowly but surely tore apart the supposed Class-S Suzaku while he
remained elusive thanks to his Ryusui no Ugoki or Water Flow Movement
that he accomplished by making his body move like the waves from a
stream, making it difficult to time an attack against him and his
afterimages.

In fact, one drawback of lightspeed arrows was the fact that they came
out too fast, as soon as one triggered them, so they should be used with
incredible pinpoint accuracy and increased reaction time on the
shooter's part, or else their timing would become "off".

Long story short, Suzaku couldn't even touch the Aoshi reincarnation,
especially after the human gathered enough energy to create a ceramic
gun with ceramic bullets.

The demon ended up a sitting duck against the shinobi's different moves,
from the Spiral Sword Dance Six Series to the scissor-like cut of the
Gokou Juji or the Yin-Yang Cross.

On his way to score a flawless victory against the Suzaku clone he
fought, Daiji hoped his victory could turn the tides when it came to
dealing with this demon who had the ability to clone himself with
doppelgangers that shared his same power level.

Huge clumps of pure iron... this time silvery because of the removal of
the impurities of the gritty black iron sand... formed on either side of
the ragged, out-of-breath, (ceramic) bullet-ridden, and heavily
lacerated Suzaku.

Daiji recognized that move: A magnetic tempest of metal clumps that hit
targets with the speed of bullets.

Well, he _could_ evade projectiles that went at the speed of light
(almost lightspeed anyway, since the top speed of light could only be
achieved through a vacuum, so even the Ankoku-Raiko-Ha traveled slower
than top lightspeed thanks to the atmosphere) by gauging and predicting
where Suzaku fired them, so how much more bullet speed?

'I'll finish this Suzaku off with a Kaiten Kenbu Rokuren then help the
others with their Suzakus.' However, when he was about to do the
ultimate Spiral Sword Dance, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck
rise up in premonition (or perhaps through static shock).

He escaped the magnetic shockwave from behind that would've juggled him
in the air while pillars of light shot up from beneath him, but he got
torn apart by flying metal debris in the other direction.

He then landed many feet away in time to see _another_ Suzaku absorb the
electromagnetic dispersal and shoot Ankoku-Raiko-Ha at him with renewed
vigor.

He took on the two Suzaku at the same time, his ceramic gun blazing
while he kept throwing endless short swords into the air above his
enemies (who deflected them with metal debris, objects, and whatnot.

Daiji's troubles weren't over. A third upside-down Suzaku shot at
Aoshi's present self from the ceiling.

Matsudaira couldn't form a Faraday Cage anymore for fear of the nearest
Suzaku magnetically turning it against him. Nevertheless, their
projectiles of choice remained the one-shot-at-a-time Lightning Storms
of Torment, which he could avoid with ease care of the Water Flow
Movement. He remained safe.

One of the Suzakus screamed after Daiji managed to stick a ceramic blade
into his eye; specifically the one acting as a second sniper aside from
the Demon-Sword-wielding one at the uppermost Tokyo Tower observatory.

The healthiest of the three Suzakus summoned a lightning bolt and
energized himself enough to make an electrical sphere of blood-boiling
electromagnetic radiation that microwaved anyone it its path who wasn't
a Suzaku.

The decidedly non-Suzaku Daiji summoned a Faraday Cage to survive the
"choudenji" explosion.

The cage then crumpled like an aluminum soda can thanks to a nearby
Suzaku. Daiji had no choice but to bail out with a Kaiten Kenbu Rokuren
and resist the painful surge of radiation that made his blood evaporate
from his pores in a red-colored steam.

A fourth Suzaku ambushed the detective with the black iron sand sword
whip. Matsudaira left a deep, cross-scar on that demon's chest that
exposed his internal organs and rib cage, but in return, the human
looked like he had survived in a car crash.

A Dusk to Dawn Strike traveled towards the Suzaku that produced the
energy sphere. He swatted the first blade and the second blade hidden
behind it, but he didn't expect the third one that stabbed at his throat
or the fourth one that came from above his head.

All things considered, Matsudaira did well for a Class-A faced with
multiple Class-S beings. However, he was hopelessly outmatched,
especially after he saw that the Suzakus could heal themselves by
summoning lightning unto their bodies (which the nigh-lobotomized Suzaku
did after removing the swords stuck in him).

Daiji went into permanent Ryusui no Ugoki mode, becoming a one-man army
of afterimages that sliced up the gathering Suzakus... there were now
five of them around... bit by bit, from nose to ear, from finger to
finger, from limb to limb, until they were injured enough to be finished
off by the Kaiten Kenbu Rokuren.

None of their Ankoku-Raijin-Ken or Ankoku-Raiko-Ha were landing, and
they were getting injured too much by this uncatchable apparition of a
ninja to do much damage or anything else. It looked like Matsudaira
could win the war of attrition against the Suzakus, at the very least.

However, the Suzaku atop the topmost observatory had other ideas. First,
he informed his clones to disperse themselves across the observatory via
telepathic communication through radio waves. He then shot an Ankoku-
Raiko-Ha arrow (using the Demon Sword as a bow) not at the elusive
detective, but at one of the six Suzakus.

The energy bolt traveled at the (near) speed of light from one Suzaku to
the next, ricocheting like a pinball would inside a pinball machine,
becoming stronger and gathering more voltage each time.

It didn't hit the detective at first, but soon, because that one
energized lightning bolt covered more ground thanks to its speed and
repeated recoil from Suzaku to Suzaku, even Aoshi's incarnate couldn't
avoid getting partially electrocuted by the traveling blast.

It hit Daiji repetitively until he stopped and convulsed from shock and
paralysis, and soon the Lightning Storm of Torment hit him in full force
with voltage upwards to a billion.

Once Matsudaira collapsed along with the rest of his comrades, the six
Suzakus levitated towards the special observatory along with the seventh
one a hundred meters away.

They then charged up their power with repeated summoned lightning
strikes, their auras glowing like daylight. They all cackled while they
prepared a Prism of Seven Lightning Storm of Torment that was so
concentrated with energy, it could very well blow up the half-a-
century-old historical landmark to oblivion in an instant, like it was
never there.

"Goodbye, warriors of the Spirit World. We will now send you straight
back to Koenma Daio. SHICHI-GOKU-ANKOKU-RAIKO-HA!"


===


A voice from out of the blue roused Daiji Matsudaira, Sanosuke Sagara,
Shuichi "Kurama" Minamino, Kazuma Kuwabara, Natsuki Shinkai, and Yahiko
Myojin from their slumber.

To Kurama and Kuwabara, it was a familiar voice.

"Hey, Suzaku. I see you're still full of shit as usual. CHOU REI-GAN!"

It was the voice of Yusuke Urameshi.

"Y-Yusuke..." Kurama murmured, his muscles still aching from being eaten
alive by one of his own plants.

The (out-of-school) youth seemingly phased into existence in the middle
of the Tokyo Tower's main observatory right when the seven Suzakus
blasted seven simultaneous lightspeed lightning bolt arrows through the
hole in the floor they made in the topmost observatory.

He'd been charging up the Spirit Gun (or "Ray Gun" or "Spirit Bullet")
he'd just unleashed for quite a while; since he heard the news of the
Demon Sword falling into enemy hands, in fact, so his index finger
cramped up a little.

All the same, the shot did the trick, and two irresistible forces
slammed into one another and cancelled each other out thusly. It was an
explosion of concentrated energy.

"RENSHYA!"

Except Yusuke wasn't quite through.

Urameshi shot another Rei-Gan right after the first one disintegrated
the Shichi-Goku-Ankoku-Raiko-Ha, with the intention of ending the fight
in two shots.

The half-conscious Daiji nodded in approval of the tactic. It reminded
him of a spiritual version of his own Onmyou Hasshi, which involved
shooting projectiles consecutively, with one sword hidden behind
another kodachi.

After Kuwabara gathered enough of his wits to form coherent words and
realize what was happening before him, he shouted, "URAMESHI!"

"Hey, Kuwabara! Whaddya think? I'm kickass, aren't it?" said Yusuke.

"No, you're a _dumbass_! Suzaku can absorb energy now!" retorted Kazuma.

Urameshi's jaw dropped. "...WHAT? Bullshit! Since when did that happen?"

Sure enough, the seven demons outstretched their hands and absorbed the
energy from the Rei-Gan, rendering the attack null and void. However,
Yusuke didn't take the sudden turn of events lying down.

He leapt up while the Suzakus were busy gathering energy and used his
speed and power to _physically_ overwhelm them.

In an eye blink, he showered the first three Suzakus with a swarm of
punches from his Hyaku Retsu-Ken, finishing each combo with an uppercut
to the chin that blew them back one after another.

As for the remaining four Shisejyu, he blasted them with his "SHOT GUN!"
or a spray of energy buckshot that lived up to its rifle namesake.

Even the dizzy Sano had to smilingly shake his head at the recklessness
of the sleek-haired youth. "Jeez, that kid's crazy!"

While Yahiko helped Natsuki up from the rubble she got buried in
earlier, he stared up, rubbed his eyes as if to clear them, then gasped
at what he saw.

"Holy shit. Did you see that, Cat Eyes? That guy just punched the piss
out of the Suzaku clones! The same ones that kicked our collective asses
seven ways till Sunday. Who the heck is he?"

"He's Urameshi Yusuke. A comrade of _ours_ this time around," said a
bloody Kurama after he crawled military-style to where Myojin and
Shinkai were. "He's arguably the strongest one of us spirit detectives."

To himself, Shuichi added, 'The only one missing now from Team Urameshi
is...!'

"E-Even stronger than... Xinhai?" wondered Natsuki out loud.

"Hell yes, he's stronger than that Raijuta loser!" said Yahiko, unaware
that he was actually insulting Natsuki's abusive father (not that
Shinkai particularly cared). "I think he can even give Kenshin a run for
his money. Kenshin would still win against him, though."

After the dust settled, Yusuke's eyes widened at seeing one last Suzaku
standing after he left three other Suzakus down for the count.

The half-mazoku cocked his fist back to deliver a "REI-KOU-DAN!" to the
antenna-haired bastard's face, but his arching energy blast merely
grinded against the black-iron-sand-covered blade of the Youtou
Shinnoken, sending sparks flying everywhere.

"Ah. This brings me back. How many years has it been since we last
fought? As I've heard from Hell, you've grown stronger by leaps and
bounds," the steaming Suzaku chatted while completing his energy
absorption of the second Rei-Gan and proceeded to soak up the reiki from
the Rei-Kou-Dan.

"But that's to be expected of a descendant of mazoku, even if you are
the bastard human child half-breed of one. No wonder you managed to beat
me."

"That's the last thing I want to hear from you, you cheating bastard."
Yusuke thrust his pointer finger up at Suzaku's face and began charging
his third Rei-Gan for the day.

Sanosuke went beside Kuwabara, tapped his shoulder, and asked, "Have
these two... met before? I've never seen Suzaku so... excited. They
sound like they've... dated or something."

Kazuma guffawed at Sagara's quip. "Kind of. They have a history. They've
gone through a death match already. Urameshi even used up his life force
just to beat Suzaku once upon a time. If I hadn't spared him part of my
own life force, that idiot would've been a goner."

Sanosuke took one look at the regent-haired teenager's wistful eyes and
asked, "...Did you and 'Urameshi' used to date too?" which earned him an
uppercut care of Kuwabara.

Yusuke continued. "The only reason you're Class-S right now is because
the Demon Sword leveled you up. This power you have is not your own.
Have you no shame? No pride? This is just like the time you had mind-
controlled humans attack Keiko so that I'd be too distracted to fight
you properly. You haven't changed one bit."

"It doesn't matter _how_ you win as long as you _win_." Suzaku himself
aimed his fist at Yusuke's face, his thumb tucked behind his forefinger,
closed one eye, and said to the freelance Reikai Tantei, "I only have
one question for you, Urameshi Yusuke. Have you ever heard of the
Railgun?"

"_Railgun_? What the hell is that? A knockoff of my Rei-Gan?" asked
Yusuke.

Suzaku chuckled. "No, not exactly."

Daiji's blood curdled upon hearing the word "Railgun". 'Oh no. He
couldn't mean...! Suzaku can simulate that weapon too?'

Despite being the most recently injured of the six Spirit World Warriors
the Suzakus had defeated, Detective Matsudaira stood up on unsteady,
spaghetti-legged feet and beckoned the powerful stranger.

"Kid, get out of there! If Suzaku's not bluffing, his Railgun is going
to blow your head off!"

"Oh, hi there, Ossan (Old Guy)!" said Urameshi. "What's a Railgun?"

"...Ossan," repeated Daiji in deadpan while in the background, the rest
of the Reikai Senshi... most of all Natsuki... resisted the urge to
laugh."I'm not that old. The name's Detective Matsudaira Daiji. Also,
the Railgun is an electromagnetic projectile launcher based on the
principles of the homopolar motor..."

"What? Homosexual motor? Speak in plain Japanese, please! I didn't go to
college!" said Urameshi, his hands held up in surrender.

"...It's a gun that can fire off anything metal at mach three."

"Well, why didn't you just _say_ so?"

Using his magnetic field, Suzaku telekinetically moved one of many metal
bolts lying around and let it float towards his waiting thumb. He then
fired that object at Yusuke's head at three times the speed of sound,
the blast breaking the sound barrier and destroying everything in its
path.

Yusuke shot the Rei-Gan, but it too dispersed from the might of the
Railgun. It would've eaten up a good chunk of Yusuke's head had the
youth not used the Spirit Gun and blew himself back from the recoil
before the supersonic bullet did fatal damage to his person.

Nevertheless, even though Suzaku's electromagnetic cannon wasn't as fast
as the Ankoku-Raiko-Ha, shooting solid objects at speeds they had no
business traveling in left an impact far more destructive than a normal
gun or even lightning bolts.

"YUSUKE!" came a female scream. The six looked up in time to see the
ghost (or rather, the astral projection) of Keiko Yukimura call out to
her falling boyfriend in despair while grabbing hold of Puu in her cold,
transparent bosom.

The A-Level Yusuke (the rating on the Spirit Detector surprised Yahiko)
crashed back to the main Tokyo Tower observatory hard, the obliterating
force of the red laser beam that traveled about a thousand meters per
second almost melting his clothes into his skin.

Kurama and Kuwabara shouted, "YUSUKE!" and "URAMESHI!" respectively
after they saw their comrade fall.

"Yusuke! Yusuke, are you all right?" the ghostly form of Keiko, which
wasn't in a solidified state like the spirits of Yahiko and Sanosuke,
drifted beside her beloved while the Demon-Sword-wielding Suzaku watched
the drama unfold.

Behind the demon, the rest of his clones had begun recovering from
Urameshi's assault.

"I'm fine. Really. My skin stings like it went through a bad suntan,
though," reassured Yusuke while rubbing his nose with his forefinger.

"D-Dummy. Don't scare me like that," said Yukimura before she stuck her
intangible hand into Yusuke's stomach and grabbed hold of (or rather,
"tickled") his spine in order to make it tingle.

Urameshi shuddered. "STOP THAT, KEIKO! It's _creepy_!"

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Yukimura Keiko, in the flesh?
Or rather, _not_ in the flesh. I guess the rumors were true. Seiryu did
get away with cursing her so that he could gain the same power as Xinhai
possessed."

"...What did you say?" demanded not Keiko, but Natsuki. "What does the
One-Eight-Ten Killer have to do with anything?"

Keiko herself couldn't get a word in edgewise because she had no idea
who Feng Xinhai was nor did she care at the moment. Yusuke's wellbeing
worried her more. Besides, she didn't want to remember what Seiryu did
to her. Not right now.

Yusuke himself took note of that name: Xinhai. The person who taught
Seiryu the technique that cursed Keiko with jaki and left her in a
comatose state.

"Ah, I said too much. Forget I said anything." The Suzaku Seven were
again shoulder to shoulder while they floated right above the main
observatory and prepared to shoot their Railguns at the supine Yusuke.

"Rejoice, Urameshi Yusuke. Soon, you'll be a ghost just like your
girlfriend!"

Even though it was, at most, a meaningless gesture, Keiko set Puu aside,
beckoning him to fly away, and then stood in front of Yusuke with her
arms outstretched as though to protect him from the upcoming cannon
blasts.

"Please don't do this."

From behind her, to her alarm, Yusuke began to chuckle heartily. She
knew better than to think he was going mad. She heard that laughter
before.

He laughed like that whenever he enjoyed himself and let loose in
battle.

"If your only power is to blow up stuff like some sort of living nuke,
there's surprisingly not a lot you can do," began Yusuke.

"What nonsense are you blathering about? Having the power to decimate
cities can make you do _anything_! No one can stand in your way. You can
become a god, worshipped by lowly humans and lesser demons," orated
Suzaku.

"I don't think so. I disagree. Maybe because I don't want any of that.
Who the hell wants to become a 'god', whatever that means?"

For a while now, since he'd been hit by Rando's World of Suffering or
Kugai technique, Yusuke had been suffering from a bit of power
incontinence.

His increased empathy for others had made it difficult for him to
control his own strength, since his emotions were directly connected to
his superpowers.

None of his special abilities as a half-human, half-demon hybrid were of
any use all throughout his misadventures with the ghost of his comatose
girlfriend.

It was because most of those missions to wake Keiko from her coma were
designed to gather _good_ karma for Keiko so that she could clear out
all the bad karma (jaki) she'd been "infected" with care of Suzaku's
second-in-command, Seiryu.

The missions had nothing to do with killing, maiming, or defeating any
demons at all. No tournaments or monsters that could level mountains
were involved.

Yusuke soon realized he became _too powerful_ to be of any significant
use when he pulled out all the stops during such missions. It was like
using a blowtorch to light candles. He was overkill.

How Urameshi missed moments like this wherein he could let loose without
a care in the world, like he was back in the Demon World picking endless
fights with the best and most powerful demons that realm had to offer.

"I mean, unless you're some sort of psycho who loves killing everything
in sight or a megalomaniac  who wants to take over the world, it's a
nearly worthless power. So I'm glad that you're here, Suzaku. I've now
found something I can use my worthless power on until the next Demon
World Unification Tournament!" said Yusuke.

"Ramblings of a man gone mad. Be gone," said Suzaku.

Seven Railguns fired off simultaneously, acting like the Prism of Seven
Lightning Storm of Torment. The screws, nuts, and bolts that they shot
were able to travel that fast because the Suzakus formed parallel
currents on both sides of their arms with their electrical might.

They worked like a real-world Railgun, which was an electromagnetic
projectile launcher the size of an entire building (thus the bigness,
mass, and cost of acquiring one was never feasible enough for practical
military application in light of 1993 technology).

While not as fast or long-reaching as the Shichi-Goku-Ankoku-Raiko-Ha
with its shorter range (about 50 meters) and speed (1,030 meters per
second or 2,307 miles per hour), the Railgun was filled with a denser
and more concentrated energy.

The technique shot out a solid object at three times the speed of sound,
thus these cannons were harder to neutralize even with the presence of
spirit energy that could normally buffer the damage.

Its range might be wide enough to level Tokyo Tower, but whatever it did
touch, it could obliterate into atoms. It could even pierce through the
Rei-Gan and vaporize everything else within its fifty-meter range.

So, while seven red beams of supersonic death converged towards Yusuke's
form, he only had one thing to say.

"JYU REI JYOU ANTE!"


===


A blast of wind tousled Yusuke's hair and lifted him off the ground
after he said the magic words. The spiritual handcuffs that partially
absorbed his strength disappeared in an instant, his aura flaring and
forming itself into the shape of a winged creature surrounded in blue
spiritual flames.

'I knew it! He was hiding his power level all this time! That technique
of his... the Luminescent Spirit Ante... must be something that held
his full potential back!' thought Yahiko. Sure enough, Yusuke's power
rose from A-Plus to S-Minus according to his Spirit Detector.

Yusuke, like the projectiles shooting towards him, charged into action
right over Keiko's head at speeds that his not-so-insignificant body
mass had no business of traveling under.

He was, after all, one of the few people in all the three worlds who
could match Jaganshi Hiei's speed sprint for sprint, fist for fist, and
dodge for dodge.

He dove head-on against the blasts, his skin melting and his muscle
sinews unraveling because of their sheer overwhelming power, but not at
a rate his healing factor could not take.

He didn't have the same frightening regenerative abilities as someone
like the Elder Toguro, but anything that didn't kill him made him
stronger. Like the X-Men's Wolverine. Or a Super Saiyan.

He also glowed white-hot with energy that partially kept the supersonic
masses fired off by super electromagnetic cannons from totally atomizing
him. All those three factors... speed, healing, and an energy shield...
kept him from becoming a faded stain on the floor while he raced to face
the Shisejyu and his clones head on.

The Suzaku Seven attempted to fire off a second round of Railgun shots
when Urameshi tapped into his vast reserves of energy, cocked both fists
back, and did a "DOUBLE BARREL SHOT GUN!" at them.

It was 'double barreled' because he used both fists instead of only one
to unleash his special kind of mayhem in the form of reiki bullets.

Six of seven Suzakus jumped right at Yusuke to avoid getting filled with
fist-sized holes, each of them prepared to used their different
electromagnetic powers at the teenage demon hybrid before finishing him
off altogether with the Roku-Goku-Ankoku-Raijin-Ken (just like old
times, when Urameshi and Suzaku were both B-Level fighters).

A pair of Suzaku had metal orbiting around them, one with clumps of pure
silvery iron forming some sort of asteroid ring, the other with smaller
black iron sand particles moving like a swarm of angry hornets, their
grit powerful enough to grind a car into metallic dust.

Two other Suzakus glowed with electromagnetic radiation, which gave them
access to the full electromagnetic spectrum: Visible light, radio waves,
microwaves, infrared rays, ultraviolet rays, x-rays, and even gamma
rays were within their control. Plasma orbs that superheated the air
formed all over their bodies while they bathed in a deluge of
electromagnetism.

The final couple of Suzakus had their electromagnetic powers magnetize
the entirety of Tokyo Tower in order to psychically and magnetically
control all the metal nearby... from cars to consumer electronics to I-
beams... in order to throw them right into Yusuke's path while they, the
demon clones themselves, blasted continuous Ni-Goku-Ankoku-Raijin-Ken or
Prism of Two Lightning Storms of Torment at the spirit detective.

The Demon World Unification Tournament participant finished them all
off with a Double Beretta Rei-Gan, blasting six shots to their chest
(three shots each from either side of him) before they could even get
near them, with everything metal they were "carrying" falling back to
the earth care of gravity after they all died simultaneously.

All except one.

The Suzaku wielding the Demon Sword increased his power output by again
summoning lighting and using his magnified magnetism abilities to make
an I-beam wrap itself around Yusuke like a stiff boa constrictor.

"H-Hey, what's the big idea? Take this shit off me!"

"I'm going to turn you into a Railgun projectile now, Urameshi Yusuke!"
Suzaku practically twittered with glee, his antennae-like bangs standing
up on end like rabbit-ear antennas on a CRT television set. "I'm going
to finish you and your friends off in one big shot! Happy landings!"

Various worried iterations of "YUSUKE!" or "URAMESHI!" echoed from below
the Spirit World Detective, even from people that Yusuke didn't know or
barely knew, like Kenshin's friends and comrades from the Meiji Era.

However, Suzaku made the mistake of bringing Urameshi within striking
range through psychic magnetism, even if it was to shoot his entire mass
at mach three and burn off every trace of his flesh and bones through
friction, like a meteor entering Earth's atmosphere.

If to a Class-S, breaking an arm was equivalent to crushing an ant, then
shrugging off a coiled metal bar used for construction purposes wasn't a
stretch of the imagination.

Had Suzaku fought Yusuke as soon as he resurrected for a second time
(and became S-Level for the first time), the demon might've stood a
chance since even the half-youkai was just getting used to his powers.

However, that wasn't the case anymore, and Urameshi had long ago become
adept at controlling his monarch-level abilities.

After Yusuke broke through the iron bar by melting it with the heat of
his pseudo-Sei Kou Ki powers, he melted the metal into liquid sparks
before he became hot enough to cause the metal to sublimate altogether,
his aura glowing as golden as Suzaku's while he combined spirit energy
and demon energy together.

Suzaku attempted a Storm of Torment Fist at Yusuke, but his electrical
energy got swallowed by the immense mass of power the half-demon had
become. It was like firing a rocket at the sun; it made no difference.

The sweat dripping from the youkai's pores instantly evaporated because
the heat from Urameshi's might burned him from the inside out far more
effectively than his microwave radiation powers ever could.

Even though Yusuke was no taller than Suzaku, to the demon, the half-
demon practically towered over him while he felt his body burn in the
teenager's light. He had nothing left under his sleeve. His bag of
tricks were empty. He had no other recourse.

"TAKO NAGURI...!"

Yusuke's glowing fists went from two to eight and he became Mahakala or
Shiva, the eight-armed (usually, it was six) male god who transcended
time and death and was the male equivalent of Mahakali or Kali, the
goddess of empowerment or shakti.

The supersonic fists struck the Shisejyu eight times simultaneously,
and the punches would've vaporized the demon like eight Railgun shots
had his survival instincts not kicked in and prompted him to
counterattack with Kenshin's own powerful move.

"...KUZU RYU SEN!"


===


Lieutenant Fujita Goro felt a chill run up his spine after he stared up
the foot of Tokyo Tower and grinned while consuming the entirety of his
cigarette in one breath.

"Battousai. Have you finally awakened? Will you give me an even better
fight than before, when you were hopelessly outmatched because the
vagabond in you refuses to unleash your true capabilities?"

He popped open the trunk of his car and retrieved his (not-standard-
issue-to-the-Heisei-Era-Japanese-police) curved katana. It was no Ikeda
Kishimaru Kunishige (Saito's sword during the Ikedaya Affair of 1864),
but it wasn't the sword but the skill of the swordsman who made the
difference in any given fight.


===


Sano's jaw dropped. 'Kuzu Ryu Sen? That's one of Kenshin's moves! He
used it on Shishio before they both died!'

Even Yahiko, who had never seen the Nine-Headed Dragon Flash before,
reacted thusly by his eyes bugging out. Almost every move from Himura's
Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu was some sort of "Ryu Sen" variant.

The Demon Sword stood up against the might of Urameshi's version of the
Sacred Light Energy, blocking each of the fists with his own concurrent
attack that hit nine times versus the teenaged demon's eight.

In short, Suzaku blocked all of Yusuke's strikes and did an extra one...
the stabbing tsuki or throat thrust that misfired and hit the youngster
on the chest instead... that sent the Reikai Tantei reeling and bloodied
into the nearest metal column, his body leaving an imprint on the rigid
iron bar.

However, Suzaku didn't really win the exchange. Instead of firing off a
normal (albeit Sei-Kou-Ki-assisted) Octopus Assault, Urameshi did
something extra and unleashed a Tako Naguri _Shot Gun_ at the Shisejyu.

So even though the demon drove the half-breed back with a Gatotsu-like
stab, Yusuke's blocked fists were still able to blast eight synchronized
clusters of energy buckshot that pierced through Suzaku's guard and
dealt huge damage to his person.

The Crimson Sparrow dropped down to the main observatory on unsteady
feet while the rest of the Reikai's chosen ones regarded him and Yusuke
warily.

The Mazoku Phoenix had ended up in a deadlock against the Shisejyu
Phoenix, but with the Youtou Shinnoken serving as their equalizer of
sorts.

"I was having so much fun, I almost forgot you had Kenshin's sword on
you. He totally saved your ass that time." Yusuke harrumphed before
dropping back down to the main observatory along with the others and
tapped into his endless reserves of power to heal the stab wound he
suffered in the hands of the Youtou Shinnoken.

"S-Silence! I'LL KILL YOU! All this means is that I've mastered both
the magnifying powers of the Demon Sword as well as the abilities of
its guardian, Battousai! Nothing more, nothing less!" sputtered Suzaku.

"I knew it. You're regaining control of that Demon Sword, aren't you,
Kenshin?" Sanosuke said after he clenched his fist and pumped it inwards
in anticipation.

"That may be a bad idea," Kurama interjected in the middle of Sano's
celebration.

The street fighter carefully regarded the one Heisei Era Reikai Tantei
that reminded him of the twin-personality Kenshin the most (jokes about
him being Kuwabara's girlfriend aside).

"What? Why? If Kenshin wakes up and takes the Youtou Shinnoken away from
Goldilocks, all our problems would be over," said Sano.

"I have a feeling it's not Himura Kenshin that's awakening at Suzaku's
every swing of that sword. It's instead the Youkiri Battousai that's
taking control," said Minamino.

"Is that really a bad thing? Is there supposed to be a difference?"
asked Sagara.

"Is there supposed to be a difference between the Hitokiri Battousai and
Rurouni Kenshin?" rebutted Kurama. "We're not sure if even Kenshin could
keep his sanity in check while controlling a sword filled with murderous
intent."

A cold, ectoplasmic sweat manifested itself on Sano's head even though as
a ghost, he didn't need to perspire. He remembered how unhinged, berserk,
and bloodthirsty Battousai became during his fight with Saito.

"I-Is this Youkiri Battousai anything like the Hitokiri Battousai?"
inquired the street brawler. What he was implying was actually, 'Is
Battousai the Demon-Slayer an even bigger threat than even an S-Level
Suzaku?'

Shuichi confessed, "I don't know, and neither does Kenshin. All I know
is that the more corrupted with power and bloodlust the Demon Sword is,
the more Suzaku would lose himself to Battousai the Demon-Slayer. And
I don't think any of us would stand a chance against a berserk, super-
powered Kenshin. Let's hope this is not the case."

Sanosuke gulped, wondering how dangerous would the Hitokiri Battousai be
if he gained superpowers that could rival a self-described living nuke.

Sagara had kicked the bucket long before the atomic bombs in Nagasaki
and Hiroshima were dropped, but he'd heard the haunting tales about it
in the afterlife. Disturbing stories. By people from Heaven, Purgatory,
and Hell.

"You're all blabbing about Battousai like he matters! Like I'm not even
here! The only person who matters right now is _me_! Suzaku of the
Shisejyu! Remember that!"

Using the Kaifuku or Restoration by absorbing the souls of his deceased
duplicates, the last surviving Shisejyu healed up all the wounds
inflicted upon him by (arguably) his greatest rival.

Never again. Never again would he rely on Battousai Himura's power to win
this fight. He'd master the Demon Sword and become its one true bearer if
it was the last thing he'd do.

Kuwabara, using his spiritual sensitivity, saw and talked to Keiko's
ghost, asking her how her condition was.

She answered, "I've been doing a lot of good deeds lately. Hopefully,
I'll wake up from my coma like Yusuke did back when he went comatose."

Kazuma turned blue. "Er, you're not going to go around kissing people
in order to live again like Yusuke did, are you?" he asked, remembering
that gross dream he had of him kissing Yusuke when the latter was still
a ghost.

Yukimura blushed, remembering when she kissed Urameshi in the lips in
order to wake him up from his slumber, like a reverse Sleeping Beauty.
"W-Who knows?"

Kuwabara himself reddened when he imagined Botan kissing Keiko to revive
her. No, wait, Botan was an Angel of Death. That didn't make sense.
Nevertheless, he kept on imagining it.

Both phoenixes glowed with blinding light. Like twin miniature suns,
their auras battled each other for supremacy, which reminded Yusuke of
his initial encounter with one of the Three Kings of Makai, Yomi.

"I've put you to the brink before, Urameshi Yusuke, and I could do it
again!" swore Suzaku. "I won't only force you to use up your life force,
I'll also snuff it out!"

This time around, it was Suzaku who acted cautious because he suspected
that Urameshi had not unleashed his true power yet. Even Yusuke kept his
trigger-happy pointer finger holstered, remembering that the Shisejyu
had access to Kenshin's unknown spiritual powers and intimidating
swordsmanship.

"YUSUKE, WATCH OUT!" Keiko warned in time, allowing both Suzaku and
Yusuke to avoid the barrage of vacuum slices that cut apart the I-beams
surrounding them.

The two turned in time to see a burly, (dyed) blond Chinese man with
slicked-back hair, gloves, a three-piece expensive suit, and a nodachi
emerge from a portal that looked quite familiar to the Reikai Tantei
freelancer and ramen cart vendor.

"Hey, isn't that Itsuki's portal?" said Yusuke before his suspicions
were confirmed by the appearance of three other portals from behind
Suzaku.

Out came forth the owner of the portals, Itsuki, and two others, which
was Karasu the "Mad Bomber" and Rando the copycat demon.

"YOU! What are you doing here?" demanded Suzaku, holding _his_ Demon
Sword tight in his grip.

"Relax, Blondie. We're not after your little Reikai trinket..." started
Rando.

"_Reikai_ trinket? It doesn't belong to the Spirit World! It belongs to
_me_ now!" spat Suzaku.

"...Whatever. We're on official Shin Juppon Gatana business here.
Chojin-sama doesn't quite trust you'd be able to handle the power of
that sword by yourself, so he sent the rest of us Shin Ju as backup.
_You're welcome_," declared Rando with a snort while he snarled as soon
as he spotted Yusuke at the corner of his eye.

The rest of the gathered Reikai Warriors tensed in attention. Five of
the New Ten Swords were now together inside the tall metallic tower.

The "Hei" scar or the wound bearing the combined kanji for one, eight,
and ten burned on Daiji's chest while he shouted, "XINHAI FENG!"

Matsudaira did an afterimage-filled charge towards the Taiwanese Triad
mafia boss, noticing that one gloved hand was bulkier than the other
after he executed a Jissen Kenbu at him, with the intention of doing a
combo with a Kaiten Kenbu then a Kaiten Kenbu Rokuren.

The right-handed Xinhai switched his platinum sword from the right to
the left, grabbed hold of Daiji's ceramic short sword, and crushed it
with a titanium prosthetic hand reminiscent of the iron one worn by
Gottfried "Gotz" von Berlichingen (also known as Gotz the Iron Hand who
was a German mercenary and imperial knight during the Thirteenth to
Fourteenth Century).

Feng probably opted for a nonmagnetic prosthetic hand and sword in case
Suzaku really _did_ manage to get the Demon Sword. At any rate, Daiji
pressed on, spinning into his Spiral Sword Dance with the intention of
transitioning into a Spiral Sword Dance Six Series at the last minute
(by producing a new ceramic kodachi), but his assault halted not by the
metal-handed Triad boss but another figure with a Japanese longsword.

A fiery humanoid form made of jaki flame and shaped like the Triad
Mountain Master appeared beside Xinhai, black nodachi and all, blocking
Detective Matsudaira's attempt at the Kaiten Kenbu with a One-Eight-Ten
kata from the original Kanji Killer's Nikaido Heiho Ryu.

It then finished strong with the from-behind hand-switch technique that
stopped the Kaiten Kenbu Rokuren short by disarming the officer of both
swords.

'So this is the shikigami I heard about from Battousai and his friends!
This Xinhai is different. He's using his full power!' thought Daiji
after being pushed back by Feng's familiar.

"All things in due time, Blue Meanie. We'll have our fight later,"
promised the titanium-handed Xinhai.

Natsuki also saw the (nonmagnetic) metal hand and forearm of her father
while her own arm throbbed in pain. Xinhai had hurt her twice over
before, first by nearly chopping the arm of her past self, Yutaro, when
Feng was known by the name Raijuta Isurugi. He then broke her arm during
the present Heisei Era when she was a child.

How she wished she'd finished him off back at the Shinjuku Hisashi
Building when she had a chance so that he wouldn't have regained his
full power now.

"Ossan, what did you say his name was?" Yusuke, the man... really, more
like a boy... who took down all seven Suzakus at the same time asked
Matsudaira.

"Xinhai. Xinhai Feng." At the back of his mind, Daiji wondered if he
could somehow "trick" the out-of-school youth into fighting and
"softening up" the Triad Dragon Head before he himself moved in for the
kill, but the thought somehow didn't sit well with him.

Urameshi rubbed his chin and narrowed his eyes. "So _he's_ Xinhai Feng."
The man who taught Seiryu how to use Keiko's suffering to power himself
up even at the cost of the girl's health. That guy. Instinctively, the
hanyou cracked his knuckles.

"I heard you were the one who screwed up and let Suzaku get the Demon
Sword," came Karasu muffled voice, addressing Shuichi. The masked demon
guffawed. "How unbecoming. You're not the Kurama I used to know."

Kurama rejoined, "As opposed to you, who has already died but allowed
yourself to become the Chojin's zombie slave all because you want a
rematch against me as an S-Class demon?"

Kuwabara chimed in, "Ooh, BURN! He got you there, Karasu!" and nudged
the sweatdropping Kurama's ribs.

"We'll see who has the last laugh," pledged the alleged Mad Bomber.

Karasu got the moniker because he'd been conducting some "suicide
bombings" under the Overfiend's orders. The news media presumed there
was a whole group of look-alike suicide bombers with facemasks, high-
collared attire, and long, stringy hair called the "Mad Bombers" doing
all the bombing.

This was because normal human beings who didn't believe in the
supernatural couldn't wrap their mind around the fact that all the
bombings were perpetrated by _one_ demon who could survive multiple
explosions and still come out of them intact and alive.

Meanwhile, Kuwabara and Yusuke greeted each other by shaking hands and
bumping fists. "It's been a while, bro. Where've you been?"

"We're making great progress in gathering positive energy for Keiko so
that she can finally wake up from her coma," informed Yusuke.

"That's awesome, man!" cheered Kuwabara.

"So there's you, me, and Kurama in this mission. There's only one more
guy left before Team Urameshi is complete once more!" added Yusuke.

Kazuma harrumphed. "That midget better be here. He's missing out on all
the fun." He then turned his back on Urameshi. "It sure is nice that
you remembered _him_ yet forgot all about _me_ during the Demon World
Unification Tournament..."

The sheepish Yusuke slapped Kuwabara's back (although he overdid it and
made the ginger-haired teenager choke on his spit). "Oh, come on, dude!
Don't be like that! And don't take it the wrong way! It was a demons-
only party back then!"

"THAT'S DISCRIMINATION! And you're half-human, at least!" yelped
Kazuma.

As for Rando, the pasty-skinned kabuki demon with red hair and blue
veins swaggered over the pair of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu kendoists he
defeated once upon a time and sneered at them while beckoning them to
fight him with a mocking "Come hither," gesture with his index finger.

While Yahiko made his move and Natsuki held him back, the white-skinned
youkai's smile grew wider. The demon then summoned sand and dust from
all the wreckage and destruction caused by the momentous battles that
took place inside the observatory in order to turn it into the Armor of
Sand and Shield of Sand.

Rando then turned towards the distracted Yusuke and remarked, "So how is
my Kugai curse affecting you? That was smart of me to use, wasn't it?
The World of Suffering is the perfect kryptonite to the Superman that
is Urameshi Yusuke, whose power is influenced by his emotions!"

The spider-like demon attempted to surprise Urameshi with a silken web
followed by the Genocide Cutter when in a split second, Yusuke's arms
disappeared and reappeared within his midst. Afterwards, the youkai fell
while the half-human ignored him and walked away.

"!?" were the symbols of wordless exclamation in Rando's mind after
collapsing on the ground with a fat lip, a bleeding nose, eyes he could
barely open, a swollen face, bruises, lumps, open and closed fractured
bones, internal bleeding, external bleeding, torn tendons, torn
muscles, and a concussion.

"U-Urameshi, you bastard...!" Rando croaked, realizing his folly. This
was how powerful Yusuke was without the handicaps of an injured
shoulder or a pacifistic swordsman holding him back. He then cocooned
himself in his silken threads in order to heal his damage as quickly as
possible.

Nothing short of an interabang or interrobang (the informal, nonstandard
use of an exclamation point and a question mark together) could convey
how flabbergasted Rando was at the turn of events.

Never mind lightspeed lightning bolts or coin-sized objects going at
three times the speed of sound. Going at speeds before even a demonic
mind could react was something far more... mind-boggling.

Sano did a low whistle before nudging Yahiko's shoulder. "That guy's
something else, isn't he?" He didn't get any response from the younger
ghost. "Hey, Yahiko-chan, what gives?"

After seeing (or not seeing) that exchange, Yahiko started to doubt
whether Kenshin could really beat Yusuke on a one-on-one duel. It'd be a
tossup, most likely. Like when pitting Himura against Hajime Saito.

Actually, he already had reservations about the idea after Urameshi
countered the Kuzu Ryu Sen with eight Shot Gun blasts. The man was
extraordinary.

Myojin hadn't felt this awestruck since seeing the vagabond swordsman
beat up an entire army of yakuza with a sword that couldn't cut unless
used like a sickle for the first time.

Yusuke sighed. The way he manhandled Rando with a supersonic Hyaku
Retsu-Ken reminded him of how Toguro Ototo practically turned his older
brother, Toguro Ani, into ground meat. Sometimes he forgot how strong
he'd become. It gave him a complicated feeling.

Just then, the black-haired teenager blanked out and had his own
interrobang moment after he saw a bandaged fist fly towards his face.

Was Rando out for revenge (again)? Yusuke reacted thusly, making a homage
to that famous moment in the Ashita no Joe series between rivals Joe
Yabuki and Toru Rikishi with a cross-counter exchange.

"FUTAE NO KIWAMI!"

"ROOSTER HEAD! What's the big idea?" both Kuwabara and Yahiko exclaimed.

Sagara collapsed into Kuwabara's arms while Yusuke was left standing, a
trickle of blood trailing on the side of his lip.

"What's the big idea, Kuwabara? What the hell, man? Is that friend of
yours really one of the Reikai's allies or did he become a turncoat all
of a sudden?" ranted Yusuke while spitting out saliva and blood all over
Kazuma's face. "Hell, look the kanji on his coat! It says 'Evil'
outright!"

"I have no fucking clue, Urameshi. Hey, Rooster Head! Explain yourself!"
said Kuwabara before he slapped Sano awake. To both Yusuke and Kazuma's
chagrin, the nineteen-year-old (by appearance) ghost cackled like a
madman. "What's so funny?"

"I haven't been hit that hard since Shishio Makoto punched my lights
out back in Mount Hiei. So this is the guy who you never won against,
Boke?" sniggered Sano while he got up on wobbly feet. "He's a helluva
guy."

"Yeah, the same way you never won against Kenshin, Rooster Head,"
retorted Kazuma before he karate-chopped Sagara's head. Contrary to the
nickname given to him, Kuwabara acted more like the "Tsukkomi" (straight
man) to Sanosuke's "Boke" (comic or stooge) more often than not.

It was Yusuke's turn to do a belly laugh. "You guys are hilarious! You
should go on tour or something." Sanosuke's demeanor reminded Urameshi a
lot of Chu, especially their boisterousness and love for fighting. "You
have some seriously crazy-ass friends, Kuwabara."

"Hey! That's my line, kiddo," said a grinning Sano.

Kurama was the one of the seven Spirit World Warriors (and the ghost of
a Reikai Senshi's girlfriend) who addressed the quiet demon with loose
garments and verdant hair, asking, "Itsuki, what are you and the Shin Ju
doing here?"

Instead of answering the half-youko, the one-eyed Gatekeeper and Triad
Vanguard turned towards his superior and asked, "489, is it time for the
operation to start?"

"Yes, 438. It is." Feng Xinhai crossed his arms and told Suzaku. "Under
the Chojin's orders, you're going to have to cooperate with the rest of
the Shin Ju so that we could finish off all the Spirit World Warriors
together."

"I cooperate with no one, _human_," Suzaku drawled while he formed a bow
of light using the blade of the Youtou Shinnoken as the spine of his
weapon and aimed his Ankoku-Raiko-Ha arrow at the Taiwanese mountain of
muscle. "You're not the only one who's an S-Class Shin Ju now, Xinhai.
I'm the one who's calling the shots. I can finish the Reikai Warriors
off _alone_."

"You were barely able to hold your own against Urameshi Yusuke. Know
your place in the Shin Ju, Suzaku," rebuked Feng.

After hearing Suzaku mention Xinhai's S-Class standing, Yahiko couldn't
help himself; he just had to check the mafia boss's power level. Indeed,
he was S-Flat, like Suzaku.

"Hey, wait a minute. You're supposed to be the New _Ten_ Swords, but I'm
only counting five of you. Where's the rest of the Juppon Gatana?"
Myojin then asked the Shin Ju.

Kurama tapped Yahiko's shoulder. "Actually, Jine is... indisposed at the
moment, so that only leaves four more. There are only nine of ten of the
Shin Juppon Gatana left," informed the demon fox.

"Obviously, we have the remaining five... or maybe four... Shin Ju as
backup," said Karasu. "If worse comes to worst, we can always mobilize
the entirety of the Shin Juppon Gatana against you Spirit World
Warriors. We're holding all the cards this time around."

The Triad Dragon Head considered his deputy's words. "You know what?
I'll be merciful to them." He then spoke to the gathered Reikai Tantei,
Kenshingumi, the Oniwabanshu Okashira, and the ghost of Keiko Yukimura.

"Let us have the Demon Sword, and we'll withdraw our forces. If you
insist on trying to get that weapon back, then there's a real
possibility of Minato being wiped out of the map, whether it's by five
of us or ten of us Shin Ju."

"We don't negotiate with terrorists," snarled Yusuke, pointing his
pointer finger at the Chinese Dragon Head and letting it fill up to the
brim with spiritual might while it whistled an ever-familiar sound.

"So you five jokers are all part of this Ten Swords group, huh? Well,
it's seven against five. The odds are against you," added Urameshi
before Kuwabara, Sanosuke, and Yahiko groaned. They knew exactly what
was coming next.

"No. It's seven against seven. ANKOKU-YORO-JIN!" As Suzaku spoke, he
again split off from one Suzaku to seven, with each and everyone of his
clones having a mind of his own and powers roughly equivalent to that of
the original.

"Don't you mean seven against _eleven_, Suzaku?" an unfazed Xinhai asked
while he allowed his sheathed nodachi to rest on his back like some sort
of long pole. Directly in front of him, his flaming shikigami clone
interspersed itself between him and the saint beast.

"What happens _after_ we kill all the Reikai Tantei and Battousai's
allies?" asked Suzaku. "Am I supposed to hand over the Demon Sword to
our great leader quietly? NO! THE YOUTOU SHINNOKEN IS MINE! Even if I
have to fight the Overfiend himself and win, I'd do so! It's in my
blood! It's my destiny to become the One True King of Makai!"

"...So says the rambling madman. GATOTSU ISHIKI!"

Someone should've noticed the footsteps along the rails and metal I-
beams of the Tokyo Tower growing louder and louder a minute or so ago,
but everyone was too distracted by the appearance of the Shin Juppon
Gatana to notice this bizarre phenomenon.

Ergo, neither the Spirit World Warriors nor the New Ten Swords expected
the tall, lean, and wolfish form of Goro Fujita... better known by the
name of Hajime Saito... leap (or even fly) up into the broken windows
and the gaping hole in the wall before he charged straightaway at the
Suzaku who wielded the Demon Sword.

Coincidentally, even though Saito was too far away at the time to hear
Suzaku call Yusuke "a man gone mad" earlier, the former Shinsengumi
Captain managed to throw the youkai's own words back at him.

"Lieutenant Fujita?!" blustered Kuwabara. "What are you doing here?"

"SAITO...!" both Sanosuke and Yahiko chorused.

The younger of the two solidified ghosts then aimed his Spirit Detector
at Saito, which gave off a reading of A-Plus. 'Not bad. Around Kurama's
power level, huh?'

"Saito Hajime," murmured Detective Daiji while he beheld his fellow
police officer, remembering the Mibu wolf's name thanks to the memories
of the Oni Gang Boss and his past self, Aoshi Shinomori.

While they were also surprised by Goro's sudden appearance, both Natsuki
and Keiko could only stare blankly at the unknown police officer.
"Who...?"

Even Yusuke was taken aback. He'd met the man before while fighting off
more of the Chojin's goons, but he couldn't exclaim his name because he
forgot what it was.

"!?" This was the Shin Ju's own interabang moment while they stared at
the policeman who successfully scaled 145 meters without using an
elevator or stairs.

Even the usually nonchalant and verbose Xinhai was at a loss for words.
There weren't many humans like Saito and himself who could do such feats
of strength, and the only other human near their power level (that was
still alive) was half-demonic.

Suzaku wasn't as impressed as his fellow Shin Ju with Hajime once he
recovered from his initial surprise, _especially_ after he saw that
the copper was using a _steel_ weapon.

He levitated before the police officer lunged with his blade, then aimed
his lightning bolt arrow at the human.

The rest of the six Suzakus formed their own Lightning Storm of Torment
energy bows and arrows, with the intention of doing a variant of the
Prism of Seven Lightning Storm of Torment on Saito.

Hajime's eyes glowed as yellow as a wolf's, his muscles flexing while he
redirected his momentum by doing what Natsuki identified as a "Reprise".

In fencing, when one were to miss a lunge, the fencer could do a Reprise
surprise attack by performing a short forward recovery and an immediate
second lunge without missing a beat.

The second lunge in this instance was the "GATOTSU SANSHIKI!"

Even though Suzaku activated his magnetic barrier to arrest Fujita's
movements (by repelling the metal sword away in order to allow him...
actually, _them_... to shoot lightning bolts at the cop with impunity),
something unexpected happened.

As though there weren't any barrier at all, Goro's sword pierced right
through Suzaku's midsection, with the tip of his blade sticking out of
the demon's back while they were both showered with youkai blood and
ichor.

Furthermore, before the rest of the six Suzakus could assist their
seventh self, Saito's lunge became a leap after the lieutenant pushed
himself and the bleeding, shell-shocked Suzaku into the sky in a single
bound. Like a bird or a plane.

They disappeared into the overcast skies, their ascent parting the
clouds before they turned into a twinkle in the heavens after they were
launched off the ground with sufficient strength to overcome both
Suzaku's magnetic force _and_ Earth's gravity.

"Shit! Roach Bangs got the other Roach Bangs!" said Sano before he raised
his head up, put his hand over his bushy hair, and stared at the two
figures of Saito and Suzaku fly off into the darkness before the dawn.

This prompted Yahiko to kick Sano's butt and Kazuma to smack the street
fighter upside the noggin with his forearm.


===


As Yusuke, Kurama, Kuwabara, Yahiko, Sanosuke, Natsuki, Daiji, and
Keiko as well as Karasu, Rando (he just got out of his cocoon to see
what the racket was all about), Xinhai, and six other Suzakus stared
at the unbelievable sight of a man with a steel blade besting the master
of electromagnetism...the seventh Suzaku who possessed the Demon
Sword... Itsuki went to work with the operation that the Shin Ju was
supposed to conduct.

The One-Eight-Ten Killer set his sights on Urameshi and barreled over
him like a raging bull, the very sinews of his taut muscles visible on
his tight undershirt while he unsheathed his lengthy, washing-pole-like
blade and began slashing and stabbing at the Reikai Tantei with it
using the sword style he mimicked from Jine Udo.

By reaction time alone, Yusuke avoided every one of the slanted,
vertical, and horizontal brushstroke-like slashes of the ginormous
muscleman before he got nicked from behind by the Triad Dragon Head's
shadow, the shikigami made of flames that wielded a blackened, flaming
version of Xinhai's sword.

It was the same familiar that made the Kenshingumi believe they were
facing the Chojin himself when they first engaged battle with it.

At any rate, the beefy Feng attempted to take advantage of the
distraction by switching his sword from one hand to another behind his
back and attacking out of left field (literally).

Yusuke ducked that slash, fired a "SHOT GUN!" at the scorching familiar
to keep it at bay, then pounded on the large target before him with a
"HYAKU RETSU-KEN!" his fists aching by the end of the exchange.

Goddamn. Punching the Taiwanese Triad leader was like punching a man
made of rubber.

However, unlike with his encounters with Sanosuke and Rando, Yusuke
ended up getting blindsided with a punch to the temple by a titanium
prosthetic fist that had him reeling.

As Urameshi stumbled forward to regain his balance, both Feng and his
shikigami tackled the teen into a waiting portal made by Itsuki to
"Kami-sama" knew where.

"YUSUKE!" shouted Keiko upon noticing her boyfriend and that scary
yakuza (actually, Triad) boss disappear into the void.

"XINHAI!" both Natsuki and Daiji screamed before many different portals
leading to different parts of Minato (or even outside of the ward
altogether) opened all over Tokyo Tower's heavily damaged main
observatory.

The pair then fell into separate portals after being pushed into them by
two of the six Suzakus.

It was then that chaos ensued.

Some of the Spirit World Warriors were able to avoid getting sucked into
the multiple black holes (like with Kurama and his glider or Kuwabara
with his Jigen Tou).

However, the trio of Itsuki, Rando, and Karasu coordinated with each
other to get every one of the Meiji and Heisei Era soldiers of Koenma's
army to fall into those openings one after another.

Energy mines that exploded upon contact flew all over the pockmarked
enclosure care of Karasu, while Rando himself swung around with his
silken webbing like Spider-Man and kicked several people into waiting
portals. Then the Shin Ju went into their own portals along with the
clones of the currently missing "original" Suzaku.


===


To Be Continued...

Next: Old and New Rivalries.

Yusuke: (after firing his Double Beretta Rei-Gan at Suzaku) I know what
you're thinking. Did I fire seven shots or six? Well, with all this
confusion, I've forgotten myself, so you have to ask yourself one
question: Do you feel lucky? Well, do you, punk?

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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