[FFML] [yyh][rk][xover] Youtou Shinnoken Chapter 41: The Other Side of Bloodlust (Part 9)

[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/

Tag team matchup between the Yusuke and Puu pair versus Xinhai and his
shikigami.


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Chapter 41: The Other Side of Bloodlust (Part 9)

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"Weren't you supposed to be a living nuke with powers so great, they've
ended up becoming worthless because using them in most any given
situation is overkill? So stop holding back already!" mocked Feng
Xinhai, the One-Eight-Ten Killer (the copycat of Jine Udo, the Kanji
Killer), and the Triad Dragon Head of the Shinjuku Underground Society.

"N-No, Yusuke! Don't listen to that creep! Do what Genkai-baasan said.
H-Hold back... AUGGH!" Keiko Yukimura's shaking voice turned into a
screech in the end.

Puu tackled Xinhai's familiar from behind, making it lose control of the
supercell it created and inadvertently turning the updraft into a full-
fledged Tornado Ripper.

The bird monster then wrapped its wings around the flaming creature,
ignoring the burns that the shikigami caused him.

"...Puu!" exclaimed Yusuke Urameshi after burn marks appeared all over
his own body in reaction to his spirit beast's injuries thanks to their
emphatic bond.

Puu squawked for Yusuke to go on and save Keiko before it tumbled around
with Xinhai's undead shadow warrior inside the twisting air funnel.

"Yukimura Keiko was as good as dead back then in Genkai's Temple, but
you didn't allow her to rest in peace. She's like a zombie now, stuck
between life and death. Maybe I should put her out of her misery and
serve as her grim reaper," suggested Xinhai.

The Chinese man then lifted Keiko Yukimura's astral projection up like a
corpse on a pike before reciting his favorite quote from the first
serial killer he ever served as a copycat to.

"When I die, I will be reborn in paradise, and everyone I killed will
become my slaves," he paraphrased the translated cipher from the
legendary serial killer from San Francisco, the Zodiac Killer, in
Chinese-accented Japanese.

"No, you're definitely going to HELL!" Yusuke arrived in time to save
Keiko, which (again) Feng expected.

What the mobster didn't expect was the speed that Urameshi displayed to
rescue Yukimura, delivering a thousand blows upside his head and body
before he could even counter one punch.

'What is this? He wasn't this fast before!'

After Keiko slipped off the nodachi, ectoplasm and pinpoints of her
spiritual light spraying all over her, Yusuke caught her wisp-light body
in his arms.

He then chewed her out. "'He can't possibly hurt a ghost!' you said!"

"Sh-Shut up! Anybody would've presumed the same thing! I didn't know
that the scary Chinese dude can hurt ghosts! I didn't know he taught
Seiryu that stupid curse! I-It's not as if I came here because I was
worried about you or anything, dummy!"

After Yukimura sniffled, she stopped and felt Urameshi's fingers tighten
on her body. He then set her down. "Hey, Keiko."

"W-What?"

"Thanks for bringing Puu here. He got that shikigami bastard out of my
hair."

"Oh... Um, okay. Y-You're welcome."

"Sorry for shouting at you. My bad. It's not your fault."

"W-Wait, Yusuke, what are you...?"

"You're not the one I'm pissed off with, after all."

"...Yusuke, NO!" shouted Keiko, who gripped her astral projection's
stomach, her body reacting to the negative energy injected unto it like
poison.

Yusuke smothered Feng with punches from up close... too close for the
overly large nodachi to hit him... then bobbed, weaved, and threw hooks
towards Xinhai's blind spots. Rinse, repeat.

The half-breed human and demon rallied forth with a blitzkrieg that made
the decently quick Triad Dragon Head look like a plodding glacier.

Had the fight continued unhindered, they could very well decimate or
completely annihilate one of Japan's most recognizable landmarks.

'Why is he suddenly so fast? He's like Himura Battousai! Or that ghost
boy under Tenro's command in the Dai Shin Kan...!'

The Taiwanese mob boss clenched his teeth. 'No, he's only human. A half-
breed mongrel. He couldn't possibly come close to the _real deal_.'

Regardless, Xinhai held on as long as he could, scoring as many hits,
slashes, and thrusts as he could while attempting to create distance
between him and Yusuke in any way possible, including punching the
teenager in the testicles with his prosthetic titanium fist.

Yusuke didn't even flinch. Come to think of it, the double stab wounds
that resulted in him losing blood earlier had turned into scars
already, even though the blood on his body had barely dried up.

He also didn't let up on his offense, which left Feng in the
uncomfortable position of going on the defensive, which he wasn't used
to.

All that time, even while the muscle-bound tank that was Xinhai began to
tire out, the comparatively thin Yusuke kept on punching and firing his
energy shots, the same ones that broke mountains apart, save this time
Fuji didn't break because Feng received the brunt of the impact.

"You should think twice before trying to piss people off. You messed
with the wrong guy, Souther!" spat Urameshi, referencing a character in
Fist of the North Star that Feng looked like.

Like with Rando's stolen Joketsuzoku technique, the Hiryu Shoten Ha,
Xinhai produced a spiraling supercell around his nodachi utilizing the
hot reiki and youki soup emanating from Yusuke's body while cooling it
down with his vacuum slices, effectively using Urameshi's own power
against him.

"TORNADO RIPPER!"

"TAKO NAGURI"

The eight-hit combination super attack from Yusuke countered Feng's
whirlwind the same way the Rei-Kou-Dan countered Wind User Jin's arm
twisters in the Ankoku Bujutsukai.

However, this time around, Yusuke produced eight times the impact since
the lumbering One-Eight-Ten Killer was such a huge target to begin with.

The Octopus Assault "broke" the Mountain Master, such that Xinhai wasn't
able to absorb the impact of the punches thrown in an instant any
longer.

This resulted in Mount Fuji finally cracking under the pressure and
getting _literally_ decimated by the shockwaves of Yusuke's onslaught
(i.e., 10% of the mountain caved in and shattered), just like how
Urameshi and Sensui reduced whole mountains to molehills.

Again, Feng's shikigami disappeared almost in-sync with the destruction
of its master, much to the exhausted, battered, but persevering Puu's
relief.

However, to Yusuke's chagrin, after the dust settled, Xinhai remained
standing, albeit his tree-trunk legs and python-like biceps shaking like
leaves. "Fuck. Seriously? What the hell does it take to bring you down?"

Proud and rebellious, Xinhai claimed, "I've been through worse things.
This is not enough to defeat me. Not even close. Believe me, I've seen
and experienced events that would break a lesser man. You are not better
than me. Give me your best shot, kid."

"Is that so? I sure hope you don't end up eating your words, old man,"
said Yusuke before chanting, "Jyu Rei Jyou Ante," and releasing the
last of his manacles that held his power back to the same levels he
reached during his second resurrection, when he first battled Shinobu
Sensui.

'...Yusuke,' thought Keiko, who resisted getting blown away by the blast
of air produced by the (pseudo) Saint Light Ki emanating from Urameshi's
power up by hiding behind another boulder.


===


'...He still has an extra gear left?' was what Xinhai thought before one
of his molars was shattered by one of Yusuke's dynamite punches, his
vision blurring and his whole body crumpling from the impact.

The topless, bruised Urameshi clad in ripped jeans and sneakers charged
at the choking and coughing Xinhai, looking the same way he did when he
first fought Sensui at full power, Class-S against Class-S.

The entirety of Fuji shuddered from his every punch.

'Calm down. He's just a kid. A little boy who has gotten a hold of
daddy's gun hidden in the basement,' the Chinese mafia boss reassured
himself, forgetting the strict gun ban in Japan.

'He doesn't know how to use his powers properly. He has no idea how
powerful he really is. I should take advantage of that. At the pace he's
going, he'll sooner or later burn out of stamina and run out of ki
anyway.'

Xinhai attempted to keep his distance from the demon spawn with
countless Matoi (Ground) and Tobi (Air) Izuna, but Yusuke nullified the
vacuum slashes with his Shot Gun and Rei-Kou-Dan. This prompted Feng to
shift into his more aggressive Nikaido Heiho copycat techniques that
gave him the name "One-Eight-Ten Killer".

However, like before, Yusuke used the denseness of his combined reiki
and youki (which turned into golden Sei Kou Ki) to keep the stolen,
brushstroke moves from penetrating his skin, his spiritual energy
particularly concentrated on his forearms, which he employed to deflect
most of the longsword's slashes and stabs.

This then forced the Copycat Kanji Killer to shift to his original sword
style, which was fencing; the same style that allowed him to overcome
Yusuke's parries with the Counter Parry, or use his Tactical Wheel to
keep the teenager second-guessing on what his next move would be.

Xinhai's expectations soon came crashing down the ground after he
attempted a Beat Parry Riposte. There was at least one way to overcome a
fighter that employed traps and mind games; a way to cut through the
Gordian knot, in other words. It was unstoppable, unrelenting attacks.

The best offense truly was the best defense.

A minute turned to three minutes, followed by thirty, followed by sixty.

'What's going on? He's still not tired? He still has a lot of spirit
energy left?' Xinhai turned his head in time to see Keiko shouting
something at the inexhaustible punching machine that turned him into a
punching bag, tenderizing his meat and bones.

'...His anger! His bloodlust! He's angry about how I indirectly led his
girlfriend to go into a coma!  It's his anger that's allowing him to
replenish his ki faster than he could burn it out! Infinite energy.
Perpetual power.'

The One-Eight-Ten Killer hollered and hooted to himself. 'So the rumors
_are_ true. This boy is just like me. He's able to harness his emotions
to increase his spiritual energy. He has a natural talent of tying his
emotions with his powers. However...'

Feng's shadow clone manifested itself again, but hid before Puu, who was
searching for the shikigami, could spot it. It then teleported from
multiple places before appearing right behind Yusuke and stabbing him in
the back.

The nodachi broke, and before both the shikigami and Xinhai attempted to
salvage the situation with a follow-up double-team assault, Yusuke did
the Double Beretta Rei-Gan and You-Gan combination on either side of
him, hitting both targets with Spirit Guns full of demonic and spiritual
might.

The shikigami screeched a death rattle and disintegrated from the
comet-like impact of the You-Gan. As the burnt and bruised Xinhai puked
blood and got his own business suit ripped apart by the shining, burning
Rei-Gan of a glowing Yusuke (whom he couldn't even directly look at
anymore because the hanyou shone as bright as daylight), he did a Blood
Wind to partially sap the teenager of his spiritual energy.

However, it was to no avail. It was like trying to put out the sun with
a bucket of water. Nothing short of a black hole could take out the
surplus of energy emanating from Urameshi's body. Indeed, he had truly
become a living nuke.

'He has a _surplus_ of energy, huh?'

The Blood Wind might not have been enough to finish the job, but it did
do the trick in breaking the fused bonds between Yusuke's reiki and
youki, thus nullifying his imitation Sei Kou Ki he learned from Sensui.

'Perfect.'

To Yusuke, Xinhai said, "You're already _this_ angry just because I
_might_ have caused your girlfriend to end up in a coma? Is that it?
You're like an immature child throwing a temper tantrum!"

"...Temper tantrum? Is that what you think this is?" hissed Yusuke.

"Yes. You have a low emotional quotient. You're reckless, stupid, and
impulsive. What's worse is that you're blaming _me_ for what happened to
Yukimura Keiko when you should instead blame Seiryu. Or _yourself_ for
not being able to save her in time."

Feng's shikigami appeared again, but not as his clone; it instead
materialized as a black, miasmic aura that surrounded his nodachi,
tempering and bolstering it even while Yusuke's massive aura weakened.

"You can't do a thing to Seiryu to avenge your girlfriend's predicament
because he's already dead, so you've resorted to venting your
frustrations on _me_ instead. But we both know the truth. You only have
yourself to blame for everything that happened."

"Shut up! Shut UP! SHUT UP!" Instead of fighting and punching at blind
spots and angles Xinhai couldn't see, Yusuke swung for the fences and
telegraphed his next couple of moves, which allowed the One-Eight-Ten
Killer to penetrate the sleek-haired teen's aura of invincibility with
a drilling thrust powered by his own shikigami right into the mazoku
descendant's non-beating heart.

Puu writhed in agony and fell to the ground, his emphatic bond with
Yusuke acting up. Keiko screamed louder, but no one could make out what
she was saying because of all the rumbling and explosions that happened.

While Urameshi gurgled and choked, Xinhai sneered. "Even Rando, who is
many leagues less powerful than I, was able to best you. Not defeat you,
but outsmart you. It's insultingly simple to do it too. It's all about
using your emotions against you."

Finally, after all the white noise from Urameshi's booming punches
ceased, Keiko's voice was able come through loud and clear.

"DON'T LISTEN TO HIM! It's a trap! Remember what Genkai-baasan said! The
Kugai...!" She then slapped her hand over her mouth, realizing she had
said too much.

'...The World of Suffering, huh?' The gears inside Feng's head began
turning, realization dawning on him. "So _that's_ why a B-Class demon
was able to defeat you with a technique designed by monks to become more
emphatic of the suffering of others, isn't it? Your greatest strength...
your intense emotion... is your greatest weakness."

Xinhai was about to cut open Yusuke like a coconut when the latter
grabbed hold of the former by his titanium prosthetic hand and pulled
him close. Even though his ki was too unstable to do the Sei Kou Ki,
Urameshi had more than enough reiki and youki to go around.

"SHOT GUN! REI-KOU-DAN! YOU-KOU-DAN! REI-GAN! YOU-GAN!"

At pointblank range, Yusuke fired off his projectile attacks, allowing
him to hit a hundred percent of his shots on the broadside of the
Mountain Master, who was currently weaponless because his nodachi was
stuck inside Urameshi's chest.

Furthermore, a stab to the heart did nothing to the (freelance) Reikai
Tantei since it had stopped beating long ago, when Sensui first struck
it.

Yusuke had revived into a demon (a half-demon, at least), so his
circulatory system was currently managed by the nuclei of his cells
instead of his beating heart.

Harnessing Yusuke's hot energy and the jaki on his nodachi, Feng created
another supercell that whirled around the lengthy blade embedded inside
Urameshi, then activated the Blood Wind again (this time with the teen's
blood) to summon a full-blown Tornado Ripper.

Then, the shikigami clone reappeared from behind the mazoku, its nodachi
reformed. It swung back and prepared to shoot out a supersonic Tobi
Izuna in order to create a Sonic Shockwave big enough to destroy even a
Class-S juggernaut like Yusuke.

However, Puu had revived just in time to run interference again. Instead
of merely tackling the specter, the bird monster shot out a beam of
energy(!?) straight from its maw, like he was "kaiju" from a Godzilla
movie.

Xinhai's shadow clone attempted to counterattack by cutting apart the
creature's wings, but it instead burned inside Puu's light after the
floppy-eared avian monster turned into a conflagration of blue flames
that dive bombed the shikigami with impunity.

Yusuke exploited the extra boost given to him by the Tornado Ripper to
smash his fist right into Xinhai's face and drilled him towards Mount
Fuji's crater with a Double Barrel Shot Gun. Meanwhile, Feng pulled his
sword from his opponent's chest after the teenager withdrew from him.

Even after all that abuse, Xinhai remained breathing and conscious, if a
bit mangled and torn. "I am a manifestation of sin, perversion, and the
worst of humanity. You will not kill me easily. If there were no god,
then I will become god. If the Chojin didn't exist, I might as well turn
into the Chojin."

"STOP BEING SO EDGY! My GOD! You sound like a 14-year-old kid!" Yusuke
punched Feng's teeth in, breaking several in the process.

"Who the fuck is the Chojin anyway? Why the hell are you and the New Ten
Swords doing all this shit for? What are you after? The Demon Sword?
World domination? The destruction of the Human World? TELL ME!" the
teenager demanded.

"You have far bigger concerns right now than the Chojin and his war
against the three worlds. Keep your priorities straight."

For all of the bulky Taiwanese mob boss's bravado, he ended up being
barely able to stand on his own two feet, his knees knocking against
each other like a crotchety old man's legs while spitting blood
everywhere.

Where was Xinhai getting all his confidence from?

"You're an infant compared to me. I know how to harness my emotions far
better than you could ever hope to achieve. No wonder that old master of
yours begged you to hold back. You couldn't handle going _all out_.
You're afraid of destroying everything, like an atom bomb! Let me show
you what I mean."

'Yusuke, please knock him out soon,' Keiko begged inwardly, for the
first time wishing for the bodily harm of a fellow human. 'If you don't,
then I'm afraid that what he's saying will come true.'

Because Feng couldn't even get near Yukimura without having his insides
liquefied by Yusuke's hard punches, he attempted a different tactic to
make Urameshi's emotions go haywire.

Unbeknownst to Keiko and her boyfriend, Feng had been keeping an eye
on them ever since he found out that Seiryu attempted to gather jaki
from Yusuke's junior high school sweetheart.

In particular, he was aware of their attempts to counteract the
"poisonous" bad karma in Yukimura's system with good karma from good
deeds so that she'd finally wake up from her coma.

Xinhai got a hold of a "double agent" he tricked into meeting with
Yusuke and Keiko after they attempted to gather as much positive energy
as possible to counteract the negative energy Seiryu infused unto Keiko.

To be more specific, someone near and dear to Detective Daiji
Matsudaira.

Glowing Blue Triangle Butterflies flew all around Mount Fuji before they
gathered and coalesced into a familiar form right beside Feng. A female
form.

"A-Aloise...?" both Yusuke and Keiko trailed off. Even Puu recognized
the face of the woman they rescued recently from being an earthbound
ghost or shinentai.


===


"A-Aloise, what's going on? What are you doing here?" the confused Keiko
asked the questions Yusuke didn't have the heart to ask, for fear of
what the answers would be.

It was hard not to forget the bobcut-wearing, glasses-sporting "Aloise"
that Uramesi, Yukimura, Puu, and Sayaka (the ferry-girl trainee) helped
out a few weeks ago.

They assisted this "lost spirit" in making amends with her old boyfriend
whom she left before confessing her true feelings to him so that she
could pass on to the Spirit World and cease being an earthbound spirit.

Little did they know that something (or someone) else anchored her in
the world of the living, keeping her from resting in peace.

"Oh, is _Aloise_ the pseudonym she gave you when you first met? That's
not her real name, for your information. She's actually Matsudaira
Itsumi, nee Ikumi, Detective Matsudaira's lovely..."

"...Well, aren't you a piece of work. You know you're about to get
beaten by a kid, so you're now hiding behind my skirt to protect
yourself," said "Aloise".

Yusuke narrowed his eyes. "Detective Matsudaira? You mean Ossan? But
didn't she...?" The ex-delinquent tensed after Feng grabbed hold of
Itsumi's pixie cut and tugged her head back.

"OW! WATCH IT!"

"You want to know the truth? The most famous murders linked to the Kanji
Killer was actually done by _me_. I am the _true_ Kanji Killer, or at
least the one that the Blue Meanies have the most evidence against. And
one of those murders just happened to be _Itsumi's_."

All the color drained from Urameshi's face. The hulking brute he'd been
fighting was the notorious and infamous Kanji Killer? The one who was
all over the news?

"I remember the date well. July 5, 1989. Around three to four years ago.
It was the craziest of coincidences. I stalked Matsudaira Itsumi in the
hopes of following the same pattern of murder as the Zodiac Killer's
killings of Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin and her boyfriend, Michael Renault
Mageau."

As high-strung as Yusuke already was, the Kugai chose that inopportune
moment to activate and reveal to him the turmoil of feelings within
Aloise, also known as Itsumi Ikumi.

Urameshi then aimed a Rei-Gan at the smirking Feng.

"...I found out quite a lot about Ikumi Itsumi in the process," resumed
Xinhai. "I can say without a shadow of a doubt that out of all my
victims, she deserved to die the most. You want to know why? Maybe
you've already figured out as soon as I mentioned the detective's name.
She was Missus _Matsudaira_ Itsumi, and yet..."

"SHUT UP! Shut up, you son of a bitch!" Itsumi screeched, but then got
stabbed by Xinhai's platinum nodachi. She crumpled into Feng's arms
before exploding into a spray of blue light and butterflies.

"Don't worry. She's already dead. She died four years ago, to be exact.
Her soul has belonged to me since then. As long as she's trapped as a
shinentai, she could never pass on. She is the wind beneath my wings,
one of the slaves I've acquired in paradise."

Xinhai's grin almost split his face. His old swordsman instincts during
his past life as Raijuta Isurugi allowed him to sense Yusuke's growing
killing intent and malice. "Ah. I love the sweet smell of bloodlust in
the early morning."

"I'll kill you." Yusuke's Kugai, in reaction to the "death" of "Aloise",
burned anew. He didn't rage out like he did when he desperately tried to
keep Xinhai away from Keiko, but his anger had already reached beyond
the boiling point. "You're dead."

The feeling Urameshi felt at that point was more like the cold, subdued
fury he had after he thought the Younger Toguro had killed Kuwabara.

Thanks to the World of Suffering, the half-mazoku knew exactly what was
going through Itsumi's head. Her circumstances. Her mistakes. Her guilt.
Her depression. Her regrets. Her sadness. Her suffering.

She didn't know what to do. Every little bit of thought, memory, and
emotion, including her growing desperation and resignation over her
fate, he empathized with.

And if there was one thing he couldn't stand, it was someone taking
advantage of the helplessness of another. In that regard, he and Kenshin
were a lot alike.

"Don't you dare say she deserved to die. You're the one who deserves to
die."

"But she did. She's a whore. _And you know it_. You saw it through your
World of Suffering, didn't you? What's more, Yukimura Keiko will soon
end up just like..."

Urameshi's comet-sized Rei-Gan would've torn vaporized (sublimated)
Xinhai had the gangster not dodged in time. Even though Feng
sidestepped, the shockwaves the sonic boom of the supersonic blast
dragged him through the ground so hard that it might as well have hit
him.

The one-eight-ten kanji scar on his back given to him by Jine throbbed
while the suffering and pain resonated between his one of many victims,
Itsumi, and his would-be victim, Yusuke, giving him enough strength to
make his choleric, jaki-filled aura dense enough to withstand physical
impact.

Yusuke would've followed through with a world-stopping punch and reduced
Feng to road kill had the mobster's shikigami not chosen that moment to
attack the energy-breathing Puu and stuck his sword right into the
gigantic bird's gullet, which also had Urameshi end up choking.

The shikigami, thanks to the increase in negative energy, had huge
batwings now, its flaming body roaring with a firestorm of purple and
black jaki flames. Feng's aura grew many times bigger as well, fueled by
the hatred and malice directed towards him.

"The angrier you get at me, the more powerful I become! Your perpetual
power is now _mine_!"

Again, Xinhai stabbed at Yusuke's heart, this time contaminating it with
jaki. In turn, this allowed his familiar to halve the tortured Puu and
chop him up into bits like roasted chicken, which was also was happened
to Yusuke.

Both pairs of combatants synchronized with each other, with each
shadowing the other's grisly act of barbarism.

Keiko went down on all fours, cried, and dry heaved. Since she was a
ghost, she had nothing to regurgitate, so she ended up nauseated instead
of outright vomiting. When would this nightmare end?

"See what I mean? You have all the power in the world, and you don't
know how to use it properly. No wonder Yomi defeated you in the Demon
World Unification Tournament. No wonder _Rando_, of all people, found a
way to outsmart you. Only someone like _me_ can master emotion-based
powers like yours. I've been through worse than either you or Matsudaira
have experienced, and you don't see me blowing a gasket over it."

Yusuke pulled his amputated limbs back together, his hair growing in
length while black markings appeared all over his torn body. The miasma
of jaki in his chest then turned into blood-red youki.

Urameshi's next punch connected this time around, and Xinhai's bat-
winged shikigami barely had time to sacrifice itself to absorb most of
the impact. Regardless, Yusuke's red-hued, shining punch tore through
the familiar and landed on the One-Eight-Ten Killer's chest.

"URK!" Xinhai's heart stopped for a whole minute. All that time, he was
clinically dead. It was only through his shikigami massaging his heart
with its ethereal fingers that Feng survived the cardiac arrest he'd
just suffered.

In a mere millisecond, Yusuke turned around the fight with one punch.

As for the shikigami, when it tried to gouge Urameshi's bloodshot eyes
out, a more monstrous-looking Puu attacked with a fanged beak and
reanimated body parts that intertwined themselves with wriggling
tentacles and the same healing factor that Toguro Ani had.

No matter how many times the shikigami chopped Puu up, he revived, like
the immortal Hydra of myth and legend, his aura making him burst into
spiritual flame.

Without his familiar to protect him, Xinhai was forced to toss
everything but the kitchen sink at Urameshi.

Three times, Feng hit Yusuke with the Sonic Shockwave. Three times,
Urameshi emerged none the worse for wear, his limbs completely intact,
his huge bush of hair that reached all the way to his ankles swaying
like wildfire.

It was Xinhai's turn to ask himself what did it take to take down a
fully awakened _Toushin_ (God of War) Yusuke.


===


Keiko wiped her eyes clear of moisture (or whatever it was that astral
projections had in their eyes to clean them, if they needed cleaning).

Just when she thought things couldn't get more ridiculous, she was again
proven wrong by the people before her.

The long-haired, tattooed Yusuke rode what looked like a zombie version
of Puu while the Chinese man with the Japanese longsword somehow gained
batwings while being set on blue and purple fire.

What.

She didn't know how else to describe it except a twelve-year-old boy's
wet dream... had that twelve-year-old not found daddy's stash of dirty
magazines yet.

What was she supposed to do now? By the looks of things, that braggart
of a serial killer (if his claims of being the Kanji Killer were true)
was no match against Yusuke at this point, so there was no need for her
to interfere.

Right?

'But Genkai-baasan said that it's dangerous for Yusuke to go full power!
He might short circuit or blow a fuse or something... I don't know!'

Yukimura debated with herself. What she saw her boyfriend transform into
kind of scared her. He looked no better or worse than the monsters he
fought in the Dark Martial Arts Tournament.

An earthquake happened due to the sheer impact of two S-Levels battling,
and it wasn't just Mount Fuji that shook from the collision. Probably
the entirety of Tokyo felt those tremors.

It could only get worse from hereon end.

Was there anything she could do to stop this? Should she stop this? The
last time she got involved, she... well, went comatose.

She whispered a prayer of forgiveness from Yusuke in advance, because
she was about to do _yet another_ stupid thing since that last one where
she decided to watch him battle against a serial killer mobster because
she presumed her ghost couldn't get hurt.

'You've been protecting me all this time. I want to protect you too, in
my own way.'


===


"You're really _this_ desperate to kill me, aren't you? You really want
me dead."

This was the second closest Xinhai was at death's door. Fighting a
raging Yusuke brought him worse pain than getting slashed repeatedly by
Detective Matsudaira's Kaiten Kenbu Rokuren. Or having his right arm
torn off by his own deflected supercell care of his daughter, "Xiashu".

Was this the way he was going to die? In the hands of a half-demon
teenager, which was the same fate suffered by the only other Class-S
human of his generation, Shinobu Sensui?

Huh. There were worse ways to kick the bucket. If this really was his
last day on earth, then he'd offer one last parting gift to Yusuke.

Genkai, the teenager's master, must've seen the signs from her pupil.
Urameshi was another Toguro or Sensui in the making.

When push came to shove, Yusuke's antagonists were more alike with him
than he thought. They too pushed boundaries and rose to glory before
the inevitable fall from grace once reality sunk in.

So Xinhai couldn't die yet. He had one last thing to accomplish.

Before Feng drew his last breath... fighting against an unkillable blue
phoenix-like creature and its rider, a battle god and power made
flesh... he'd teach one last lesson to the unhinged Urameshi.

"What would you do in the face of despair? How would you handle regret?
Would you act better than I, Sensui, or Toguro did in our darkest hour?
Or are you going to end up just like all of us did?" Feng asked the
mazoku, although he doubted the half-demon could hear him anymore.

"Who are you in the dark is who you truly are. Are you as incorruptible
as you think you are? Will you become Buddha or Lucifer? Sometimes, you
might surprise yourself with the answer."

Xinhai flew back and glided from the dueling You-Gan and energy blasts
from both Puu and Yusuke while he served as target practice for them.

All the same, he'd do something that would catch Urameshi's attention.
Something that spoke louder than words.

Feng charged at Keiko's astral projection, intending to corrupt her with
the jaki that was already inside her and absorb her unto him like he did
Itsumi, thus giving him either leverage to win against Yusuke... or a
ticket straight to Hell, as Urameshi promised.

Feng lost his batwings and his shikigami, his jaki reserves dwindling,
exhausted by the intensity of his war of attrition against a superior
foe. He fell, got back up, and trudged on foot.

To Xinhai's surprise, Yukimura flew right at him, making his job to
capture her infinitely easier. 'Good girl.'

Meanwhile, it was like they were in the middle of World War III. Or New
Year's Eve in the Philippines.

The injured Xinhai had lost too much blood to do another Blood Wind,
and his gathered jaki and his shikigami were the only things that kept
him from sleeping forever, which shouldn't come as a surprise from
someone who was still recovering from sudden cardiac arrest.

When Feng looked back, he couldn't believe his eyes. What once were two
had become one, with the demonic Yusuke entangled in the melting,
wriggling, and nebulous flesh of the horrifying bird monster that was
supposed to be a reflection of his own soul.

A soul that was tainted by rage and inebriated by power.

'One more push...' thought Xinhai before realizing he'd missed Keiko.
'Where did she go...?' He also noticed that the energy blasts from the
grotesque mutating avian and his master had ceased.

Feng looked back in time to see a blinking, falling, and nonplussed
Yusuke cover his topless self... his non-tattooed, short-haired self...
with a penguin-sized, floppy-eared, and stuff-toy-like Puu.

The mobster squinted and snarled. "What the hell is going on? Where did
Yukimura go? Why are you back to normal, Urameshi Yusuke?"


===


Yusuke... or rather, the Keiko-possessed Urameshi... covered himself (or
herself) up by reflex with Puu to preserve modesty that was nonexistent
for males.

This was the only way she knew how to wake up her boyfriend up from his
nightmare; take over his body and mind.

Even while (s)he fell and the scary blond-haired Chinese man glared at
him (or her), (s)he couldn't help but cover himself (or herself) up
with her boyfriend's arms.

Keiko willed herself to stop covering Yusuke's nonexistent boobs (or
rather, his hard pectorals) while standing in what she thought was a
heroic pose, his hands on his hips and his chest thrust forward.

She also wished the burning she felt on Urameshi's cheeks didn't end up
becoming an obvious blush.

Yukimura's mind rebelled over the fact that she could not feel a
heartbeat inside Yusuke's chest. Instead, it almost felt like his entire
body pulsed in order to move his blood from capillary to capillary, vein
to vein, and aorta to aorta.

She also pushed _way_ behind the back of her mind the fact that she now
(technically) had a penis. Because _ew_.

"How? How is this possible?" demanded Xinhai. "You were almost there!
You were almost at event horizon! The point of no return! Why did you
change back from being mazoku at the last minute?"

Gulping, the out-of-breath Keiko said through Yusuke's mouth and tongue,
"Um, y-you... you were wrong. Yusu... _I_ am no a monster like you.
Urameshi Yusuke is nothing like you, or Sensui, or Toguro!"

"That's right. I'm a monster. And you can't even hold a candle against
me. Not if the _Kugai_ is enough to make you go out of control," said
Feng.

Yukimura almost flinched when Xinhai rested his lengthy great katana on
his shoulders. "KYAAA!"

'Kyaaa...?' thought Feng before he slashed at Yusuke, but Puu jumped in
right in the nick of time and sacrificed himself to keep the nodachi
from reaching his other self.

This backfired, however, because any wound that the bird monster
received, Urameshi also acquired. "EEEK!"

'Huh. He's moving much slower than before. Also, he's acting strange,
almost like a... Wait a minute.' Xinhai's eyes widened. 'Oh, I see! I
get it now. I know where Yukimura Keiko went!'

After Yusuke tumbled and fell, his midsection sporting the same ugly
laceration as Puu, the quick-on-the-uptake Feng guffawed.

"I can't believe it. So you've actually possessed Urameshi's body to
keep him from losing control of his powers, Yukimura Keiko? That's
mighty clever of you. Clever _and_ foolish."

Not knowing what else to do, Keiko opened Yusuke's palm and delivered
multiple slaps to the advancing Xinhai's face that ended up smashing his
nose, breaking his cheekbones, and making him stagger.

She didn't pick fights on a regular basis like Yusuke did, but even the
infamous Sarayashiki delinquent acknowledged how painful her slaps were.

Not wanting to try her luck too much, Yukimura jumped back, and the
spring in Yusuke's step had her end up many yards away from the Chinese
mafia boss.

'He's still recovering from almost being 'laser-beamed' to death by
Yusuke and Puu! But I don't know how to use Yusuke's powers!'

She tried forming a finger gun the same way Yusuke did when shooting his
Spirit Gun, only for her to end up blasting a small energy pellet in
between Xinhai's eyes. It snapped the One-Eight-Ten Killer's head back,
but did nothing more.

'It's my turn to protect Yusuke. I won't let you have him, Xinhai! I
won't let you corrupt him!' thought Yukimura, who kept firing with her
hand pistol, but yet again, the energy bullets she made were still
hardly anything to write home about.

Although Xinhai didn't have enough jaki to summon his shikigami, he
still had some negative energy left in his body to form his protective
aura around him that served as his umbrella against Keiko's "pea
shooter".

"Is that the best you can do, Yukimura Keiko? Do you not love Urameshi
Yusuke enough to do better? Do you really want him to die? You're not
strong enough to protect him, just as he's not strong enough to protect
you."

In the place of Yusuke's nonfunctioning heart, something else began to
beat and pulse within the chest of Keiko's beloved, its warmth spreading
across the half-demon's body. 'Is this...?'

Energy flowed anew through Urameshi's body while Yukimura vaguely
remembered something about Yusuke inheriting a Spirit Light Wave Gem
(Rei-Kou-Gyoko) from Genkai.

It was something the grandmother herself admitted to have given the
teenager ten years too early. The same one that Rando apparently tried
to covet.

No, wait. Genkai never told Yukimura anything about that. It was
_Yusuke's_ memories that supplied her the information she needed.
Perhaps it was Urameshi's dormant subconscious making Keiko see _his_
life flash before _her_ eyes.

'Yusuke already died on me twice! I won't let him die for a third time!
Please, please work!'

With tears (or the ghostly equivalent of them) streaming from her eyes,
she cried out repeatedly, "REI-GAN! REI-GAN! REI-GAN! Please, REI-GAN!"
but none of the shots even made the S-Class Xinhai flinch.

"I'll say this. You must be willing to become a monster in order to
fight monsters. Even Battousai knows _that_ much. It's either you allow
Urameshi Yusuke to cross the line or you yourself can cross the line for
him. All other options lead to certain death."

"SHUT UP! M-MASHIN-GAN!" was the Japanese-accented way Yukimura shouted
for a Machine Gun, because Enma Daio knew she needed one (or an AK-47...
or a Tommy Gun...) right then and there.

The Rei-Kou-Gyoko seemingly heard her heartfelt request, so either by
survival instinct or primal fear, the adrenalin-charged Keiko fired off
from Yusuke's fingers the same stinging shots at the same (or faster)
rate as an Avtomat (Automatic) Kalashnikov 1947 Assault Rifle or a
Thompson Submachine Gun would.

"!?" came Xinhai's exclamation after he got pushed back by the hail of
ki bullets coming his way, some of which pierced deep enough to
penetrate skin and bone, like a real bullet would to an ordinary human.

By themselves, the individual spirit bullets didn't do any heavy, fatal
damage. When fired at the same rate as a Gatling/Maxim Gun or an actual
fully automatic portable or mounted firearm (or perhaps its submachine
gun counterpart designed for pistol cartridges), they arguably did more
concentrated, unwavering destruction than even Yusuke's Shot Gun.

Of course, Keiko had no knowledge of any of that; all she wanted was a
"Ray Gun" that could fire as fast as a "Machine Gun" so that she could
finally defeat this seemingly unstoppable monster that was after her
Yusuke.

Feng held his ground, trudging forward, his legs too tired to dodge, his
heavy muscles limiting his mobility after having all his stamina and
strength drained by dealing with the many versions of Yusuke Urameshi.
Even the Keiko-possessed Urameshi posed as a formidable challenge for
him.

"Why won't you LEAVE US ALONE?" screamed Keiko, the warmth in Yusuke's
chest turning ice cold, her pent-up frustrations mounting.

His face a crimson mask and his entire body bathed in blood that pooled
at his feet, Xinhai moved onwards, his upper body bobbing, weaving, and
tossing Tobi and Matoi Izuna at the Yukimura-possessed Yusuke to keep
her Mashin-Gan's accuracy down.

'Just a little bit more...'

Meanwhile, the jaki flames from Feng's aura burst anew while she cried,
"WHY WON'T YOU DIE? JUST DIE ALREADY!"

'Ah. There it is. Even _she_ is not immune to the corruptive powers of
negative energy.' It was a risky gamble, but Feng took it nonetheless
because of how familiar the "Mashin-Gan" technique looked to him.

If he wasn't mistaken, the Mashin-Gan was the reiki-powered version of
Seiryu's Ma-Tou-Tou-Ryu-Ken. Speaking of which, Keiko soon performed the
actual freezing technique on Feng's sluggish form, encasing his body in
ice. Despite all this, Xinhai still managed to stab Urameshi's thigh.

"AURGH!" exclaimed Keiko.

"Yes. Kill me. Kill me and _become me_. Let go of your arbitrary morals
and become _free_. Abandon all your inhibitions. Let me prove all your
preconceptions wrong once and for all."

A cold gale started to gather all around Yusuke and the reiki within
Yukimura turned into jaki in her desperation to end Xinhai's threat.

"Kyomei Jisatsu Jin...!" she recited, remembering the leviathan-like
finishing move that Seiryu gained access to through her own suffering.

In reaction to Keiko's growing amount of negative energy, Feng's
shikigami finally reformed from behind him, which prompted the One-
Eight-Ten Killer to formulate a counterattack composed of creating a
Tornado Ripper using the winds from the Fu no Senrei itself, then doing
a Sonic Shockwave to finish Yusuke and his girlfriend off once and for
all.

However, as soon as the familiar appeared, it disappeared, like a burst
bubble after a pinprick. Also, instead of ending up on the receiving end
of the Legend of Hades Onslaught: Trial of Negation, the reawakened and
non-possessed Yusuke gave Xinhai the middle finger.

"...."

"Keiko was right. I'm not anything like you... and so is she. We choose
not to become monsters like you. As long as we have each other to
protect, we'll never become like you."

"But only _if_ you still have each other to protect," said Xinhai while
he gave his nodachi a twist that made Yusuke's face twinge and contort
in agony.

"Suffer the consequences of your naivety. Remember that by keeping me
alive, many more people will die thanks to your selfishness. Just like
what happened to 'Aloise'."

Feng stopped short of shearing the muscle off of Urameshi's thigh after
he heard a familiar whistling sound, like from a synthesizer. 'No...!'

"Since even Keiko is making her own version of the Rei-Gan, I want to
join in on the fun! Just for you, I've created a new kind of Spirit
Gun, Xinhai Feng," a heavily perspiring Yusuke pledged, grinning.

His one-fingered salute then gathered part of his remaining spirit
energy into one point of concentrated light before he released it in one
shot. "It's a Rei-Gan that will definitely _fuck_ you up! FAKKU GAN!"

The "Fuck Gun" was nothing more than the Spirit Gun using the middle
finger instead of the pointer finger as the barrel. Nevertheless, it
at least had the element of surprise on its side once Urameshi shot
Xinhai right off the face of Mount Fuji, nodachi and all.

It wasn't nearly enough to kill the seemingly unkillable serial killer
since Yusuke held back at Keiko's behest, but it was enough to end the
fight.

Urameshi knelt down and leaned back, totally exhausted, before Yukimura
grabbed him from behind in a ghostly embrace. "I'm glad you're safe."

"Brrr. You're cold all over, Keiko."

Yukimura inserted his ghostly hand into Yusuke's back and made his spine
tingle. "Shut up and enjoy the hug, dummy. Warm me up."

"Yes'm." After a minute or two, Urameshi brought up, "Keiko, Aloise
is..."

"...I'm so sorry."

"Don't apologize. It's not your fault."

"I'm _really_ sorry, Yusuke..." Yukimura embraced Yusuke tighter, and
the teenager said no more. The two then smiled after Puu joined in on
their group hug.

"You did good out there too, didn't you? Yes you did! Who's the good
boy?" cooed Keiko while she gave Puu a belly rub, amazed at how fast he
healed from Xinhai's sword slashes.

Amazed and a little creeped out.


===


In Akasaka, Minato Ward...

Using the steel from the Youtou Shinnoken's blade itself, Suzaku's
Electromagnetic Cannon blasted Hajime Saito... or, as he was known in
the Heisei Era and his later years as a policeman under the Meiji
Government's payroll, Lieutenant Goro Fujita... right into the heart of
Akasaka, also known as the Red Slope.

They descended 31 miles from the air, assisted by gravity and the mach-
three electromagnetic blast of energy from the Railgun. Because the steel
used in the Demon Sword was no ordinary steel, it was able to travel all
the way to the ground before disintegrating altogether (normally, metal
of that size would travel only about 330 meters or barely 0.2 miles when
fired via Railgun).

Also, as expected of the Demon Sword, it "regenerated" its lost steel as
soon as the Phoenix King of the Four Saint Beasts landed back on earth,
which meant he might be able to fire more Railgun shots at Saito using
only the enchanted blade.

"Do you understand your place now, _human_? You were never a match
against me," said the Crimson Sparrow, who then hovered above the ground
and pointed the Demon Sword at the smoking crater where Saito lay.

"Come on. Fear me. If there's still something left of you after my
assault, then go down on your knees. Beg for your life. Amuse me."

Suzaku remembered something. His opponent wasn't only part of the
special police of the ancient shogunate. According to Rando's reports,
he was also the policeman murderer of Seiryu during the attack at
Genkai's temple.

"You might have been able to kill Seiryu, but I'm in another _league_
when compared to my second-in-command. It's not even _close_, especially
now that I possess the Demon Sword, Saito Hajime."

"Ah. So you ended up saying _my_ name before I could say yours,
_demon_."

The singed, smoking, and slightly burning Hajime got up from the rubble
and debris. The damage on Saito's body might've been impressive to
behold had he "merely" been in a traffic accident, but the fact that
he was able to withstand what should've turned him into a human-shaped
stain on the concrete boggled the demon's mind.

"Are you still going to play around, Youkiri Battousai?" asked Saito
while emerging from the crater he was drilled through and dusting off
his frayed uniform. "Will you continue humoring the delusions of this
clueless youkai?"

"_Clueless_? CLUELESS? How dare you!" Livid beyond words, Suzaku's
electromagnetic field that served as his S-Level battle aura grew in
size to encompass the entirety of Akasaka.

The youkai then took electromagnetic, psychic, and telekinetic hold of
the metal on Saito's blade using every bit of his S-Level energy.

Suzaku controlled enough magnetic forces around his body to warp and
bend the metal outright, but for some reason, all he could manage was to
bring the blade to Hajime's neck.

This time around, as the Crimson Sparrow used all of his electromagnetic
powers to control Saito's sword, the former captain of the third unit of
the Shinsengumi and ex-SAT (Japan's Special Assault Team or the Tokushu
Kyushu Butai, a paramilitary unit under the Japanese National Police
Agency) visibly struggled against his own blade, its tip drawing blood.

"You're the one who's clueless! You're Icarus, thinking that your waxen
wings can withstand the heat of the sun! Die by your own sword and choke
on your own folly!" rebuked the Phoenix King.

The sweating and bleeding Saito smirked in spite of himself. "Icarus,
huh? Yeah, that's the perfect description... _for you_."

"Is that the best answer you can come up with? 'I know you are, but what
am I?' Pathetic!" retorted the sole member of the Suzaku Seven who
wielded the power of the Demon Sword, thus by default, he was the most
powerful of them all.

The tip of the sword dug even deeper into Goro's throat.

However, before it could slide all the way through the other side of his
neck, Fujita resisted the electromagnetic impulse emanating straight
from Suzaku's body, his movements stuttered while nearly every muscle of
his body flexed in order to keep his sword from stabbing him on the
throat.

It took every last bit of Fujita's power (ghostly or otherwise) to go
into Gatotsu Ishiki stance, his grip so tight on his katana, one could
almost swear it weighed a ton, but he nevertheless succeeded in the test
of strength.

Snarling, Suzaku released part of his complete electromagnetic control
over the steel blade in order to hurl his favorite I-beams at the human.

The demon only let up a little, but that was more than enough leeway for
Saito to charge and tear through solid steel frames with his piston-like
lunge like they were made of tinfoil instead.

In mere seconds, the Former Captain of the Third Shinsengumi Unit went
from having his own sword aimed at his throat to getting the same sword
aimed at the Crimson Sparrow's throat after plowing through I-beam after
I-beam with the Gatotsu Ishiki and cornering the demon on a walled dead
end, their blades crossed against each other.

It was only because the Shisejyu Leader was able to refocus all his
electromagnetic energy into halting the blade that he didn't end up
breathing through his neck. However, he had a flashback of a memory that
wasn't his, but was instead from the spirit guardian of the sword he
coveted.

It was a flashback of an A-Level Kenshin Himura fighting and _losing_
against an S-Level (probably) Goro Fujita because of a pointblank
stabbing technique that made use of a whole-body torque instead of the
police officer's powerful legs.

"GATOTSU ZEROSHIKI!"

The Zero-Style Gatotsu almost tore the head of the blond demon clean off
his shoulders, like the fangs of a predator tearing through its prey's
throat, its impact strong enough to blast through the brick wall where
the youkai's back was against a minute ago.

The Shin Ju member (barely) escaped by magnetizing his body and sticking
it to the nearest steel structure, which was a nearby fire escape
ladder.

The youkai clicked his tongue at the roof of his mouth. Ashamed as he
was to admit it, it was Kenshin's recent fight with this new-and-
improved Saito that allowed him to escape instant death (or at least
"death" before he revived himself using the souls of his clones via the
Kaifuku).

'I don't need your help, Battousai. It'd be better if you simply left
and allowed me full control of the Youtou Shinnoken. You don't deserve
being the guardian of this blade. _I do_.'

Suzaku hovered back down to the ground while nibbling on his
fingernails. Again, the ghost of Hajime Saito did unexpected things. Who
was he anyway? Was the demon really supposed to believe the rumors,
folktales, and legend that Fujita was _literally_ the Immortal Member of
the Shinsengumi?

'Bullshit,' Suzaku thought, borrowing a common human turn-of-phrase
before an idea occurred to him.

While keeping his distance, he again used every last bit of his magnetic
power to control Saito's sword. Even the great Saito had difficulty
lifting his magnetically manipulated blade, as though it was covered in
tar and weighed a ton.

"Aku. Soku. Zan. Remember those three words. That is the code of honor
that all Shinsengumi followed. Even in the peaceful eras of Heisei and
Meiji, this motto remains true as it was during the Bakumatsu or the Edo
Era. The reason why I'm here is because something is wrong. An evil must
be stopped."

"And who are you to decide who's evil and who's not, you piece of human
filth?" snapped Suzaku, who then relaxed his hold on the blade of the
so-called "Mibu no Okami", "Miburo", or "The Wolf of Mibu" in order to
allow him to shoot out shrapnel at the speed of gun-fired bullets.

Incidentally, "Mibu" here referred to an old suburb of Central Kyoto
where the Shinsengumi were stationed. From being known as "The Ronin of
Mibu", the squad got the nickname "The Wolves of Mibu" mainly because of
their tarnished reputation as the bakufu's personal police.

Again, releasing even a little bit of his telekinetic control over
Hajime's sword allowed the Miburo to charge unimpeded, the magnetic
resistance actually giving him more leverage to attack and increase his
impact.

As the bullet-fast shrapnel tore Fujita apart, Suzaku found himself
forced to either release his hold and escape from the Mibu no Okami's
wrath via magnetic railways of his own creation or freeze Goro as hard
as he could with the hopes that his powers were enough to contain the
supernatural super cop.

The Crimson Sparrow chose a third option, releasing all of his magnetic
hold on the swordsman's blade and letting Saito overshoot his goal while
he sidestepped the charging police officer. It was a move that would've
made any aikido practitioner proud.

Then, while Hajime whizzed past him, the blond Shisejyu Leader
magnetically tugged at the sword as much as he could, the extra momentum
of the missed charge almost tearing the Mibu Wolf's vaunted left arm
right off its very socket because his body went one direction and his
sword-toting limb went the opposite direction.

"I am the Railgunner! The Master of Electromagnetism! The Lightning
Lord! The Phoenix King! You cannot beat me! You can't even touch me! NOW
BOW BEFORE YOUR BETTER!"

The Former Captain of the Third Shinsengumi Unit ended up favoring his
left (broken or strained) arm before he sprinted away from the storm of
magnetized shrapnel headed his way, with the Phoenix King cackling like
a maniac all that time.

"I don't care if you're a super-powered ghost zombie from beyond the
grave or a famous historical figure in _human_ history. It doesn't
change the fact that you're only _human_. You're inferior to demons.
Flawed. Have limits. As a species, you're all defined by your mistakes,
blunders, and shortcomings. And I'll expose each and every one of them!"

As sprays of Saito's blood (or perhaps ectoplasm?) painted the cityscape
red, every last metal thing (even those bolted down) flew right at the
injured police officer, from forklifts to billboards, rebar to various
electronic appliances.

However, even with the damage done to his left arm and the flying
shrapnel bullets punching holes all over his body, the copper still had
enough strength to turn and stab forward with a charge that tore apart
all the wreckage before him, the power of his thrusts still potent
enough to reduce a building full of steel threatening to crush him into
a scrap heap.

'He's still putting up a fight? He should already know that he's no
match against me!' Refocusing his electromagnetic powers, the Railgunner
stripped every vehicle, electronic device, construction material, and
factory equipment of all their metal, making them orbit around him.

The demon then took control of Fujita's steel blade once more, his
injured arm too weak to resist, his mulish brain too stubborn and stupid
to let go of the blade. Afterwards, he turned the chunks of orbiting
metal around him into an asteroid belt of metallic ions that destroyed
everything in its path, like a meteor shower from the heavens.

To the shock of the Lightning Lord, one charge and lunge from the
supposedly hurt police office proved impactful enough to turn the ultra
electromagnetic tempest inside out while Saito's piercing sword drilled
through the swarm like it wasn't there at all.

The resulting shockwave from the supersonic First-Style Gatotsu of the
Wolf of Mibu formed a vertical tornado around him, with the magnetized
metal forming a spiral as if caught by the winds of the storm of the
century.

'Impossible! Why aren't my electromagnetic powers hampering the flight
of Saito Hajime's _steel_ blade anymore?' Suzaku thought after he
abandoned controlling his magnetic tempest and concentrated on stopping
(or at least deflecting) the incoming katana.

'What's going on? Did he turn the blade into ceramic or platinum? Is
that sword a _spiritual_ creation of his? How is he _doing_ this?'

Because, for whatever reason, Fujita's sword was immune from Suzaku's
electromagnetic field, it was thrust unimpeded right into the alleged
Master of Electromagnetism's direction.

Again, the demonic wielder of the Demon Sword attempted to escape by
magnetizing himself at the nearest metal object or creating his own
magnetic railway, but Goro's sudden detour and burst of speed put an end
to his plans.

Like a fish, the Crimson Sparrow was speared by Hajime. Like a busted
garden fountain, Suzaku proved that certain demons didn't only bleed
multicolored fluids as blood; like a "dirty human", he also bled bright
red liquid, living up to his colorful name.

Spewing his own blood into Saito's face while bleeding internally as
well, the lightning youkai gurgled, "R-Reiki! Y-You've must've covered
your blade with r-reiki, you bastard...!"

Goro smirked. "Not exactly. Close, but no cigar."

As far as Suzaku knew, the Mibu no Okami had harnessed his own ghostly
aura to shield his plain katana, seemingly enchanting it so that it
wouldn't be influenced by electromagnetic powers the same way Yusuke's
thick and dense surplus of reiki defended his body from normal physical
attacks.

"Humans are the ones that taught you how to create your own Railgun.
It's their science that gave you the knowledge you needed to manipulate
the electromagnetic spectrum. You of all people should know how
intelligent and dangerous a species we are, _demon_. Don't underestimate
us."

"You mean _those_ humans?" said Suzaku, wiping the blood from his mouth
and pointing at the onlookers that had gathered... most of them drunk
businessmen with their ties on their balding heads, teenaged lovers
looking for love motels, cabaret girls on a smoking break, or gaudily
dressed old women attempting to find host bars... while an electrical
discharge wrapped around the tip of his finger.

He then absorbed every last bit of electricity in the area, causing
another blackout within another part of Minato, and unleashed hell.

The unfortunate passersby of the battle ended up on all fours, howling
and crying blood before their eyes melted altogether. Then, one by one,
their heads started exploding. Some melted into puddles of liquefied
human flesh, while others simply blew up into giblets.

"Please. They're all sheep to the slaughter. They're the masses reaping
the rewards and achievements of a few brilliant individuals. They're
only good for consumption and as consumers themselves. You humans don't
deserve half of the technological advances you've made as a species."

The stabbed and bleeding Lightning Lord manipulated and controlled with
his mind the full electromagnetic spectrum in ways that allowed him to
do things far beyond mere telekinetic control over metal or serving as a
lightning rod for lightning storms.

His electromagnetic field didn't only give him access to electricity and
magnetism, but also to gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet rays, visible
light, infrared light, and microwaves.

In particular, electromagnetic microwave radiation was one of his
favorite powers, because it allowed him to superheat the air and make
blood boil (as many of his Reikai-associated victims found out).

"Across four centuries, I've realized this much in my lifetime; humans
are a blight on this planet and demons are the cure." The Phoenix King
of the Four Saint Beasts chortled.


===


To Be Continued...

Next: The Miburo versus the Youkai.

What is the Demon Sword supposed to be? A Reikai treasure, a sword made
by demons for demons, a demon-slaying sword, or something even more than
that? Also, learn more about the Shin Juppon Gatana and the Chojin in
the next exciting chapter!

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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