[FFML] [yyh][rk][xover] Youtou Shinnoken Chapter 39: The Other Side of Bloodlust (Part 7)

[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 handicap match between the Sanosuke and Daiji (Aoshi) pair and
the trio of two Suzakus and Itsuki.


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Chapter 39: The Other Side of Bloodlust (Part 7)

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With the Sakurada Street burning with hellfire (actually, it was a
combination of gasoline explosions from a monumental pileup of cars that
happened thanks to friction and busted fuel tanks), Sanosuke Sagara and
Daiji Matsudaira (Aoshi Shinomori's reincarnation) could clearly see
their enemies, the cover of darkness from the blackout finally lifted.

His right leg throbbing but his face remaining too neutral to show his
pain, Daiji walked (not hobbled) towards the Suzaku twins and pointed at
each of them with both his platinum kodachi.

"It's the beginning of the end for you. As soon as Saito Hajime
retrieves the Demon Sword, your bid to play god will be over at last."

The clueless Sano kicked Matsudaira on the shin. His affected shin, to
be exact. "Hey, Aoshi Lite! We don't know whether or not Saito is on our
side! Back when we were fighting Shishio's Faction, that was the case,
but what about now? Can we really trust him?"

Daiji sidestepped then stomped on Sagara's foot for revenge while
whispering, "_They_ don't know that. Then again, Saito's 'Aku Soku Zan'
policy treats Shishio as the ultimate evil. If the Chojin truly is a
revived Shishio with his own New Ten Swords, it would make sense that
Saito is on our side."

"Oooh. Yeah, good point. They call themselves Jupon Gatana too, don't
they? I almost forgot." Sanosuke nodded to himself.

"Ya think ol' wolf face is a solidified ghost like me and Yahiko-chan?"
Sagara asked, and Matsudaira couldn't answer simply because he wasn't
sure... and _that_  irked him more than anything else.

Perhaps "irked" wasn't the right word. Like his idol, the fictional
detective Sherlock Holmes, mysteries for him were like itches just
waiting to be scratched.

"If you two sissies are done whispering sweet nothings to each other's
ears, then I'd like to start by saying, 'Hello,'" said not one Suzaku
or the other, but both.

These "Suzakus" had opted to make use of their control over radio waves
to telepathically link one another in perfect synchronization. They
were even in stronger sync than Kenshin was with Yusuke when the two
shared a bond care of the Demon Sword.

Abandoning use of the invisible-to-the-human-eye ultraviolet version of
their Lightning Storms of Torment (cancer-inducing for sure, but cancer
killed too slowly and one of their opponents was already dead), they
switched to firing lightspeed Ankoku-Raiko-Ha while traveling at bullet-
train speed by magnetically connecting I-beams together and turning it
into their magnetized railings.

Their battle plan was simple enough to follow. As soon as they got
close, they gathered electrical energy, emanated microwave radiation,
and shot energy-imbued blasts from their Ankoku-Raijin-Ken.

While they were far away, the hurled anything metal at the Spirit World
Warriors from the Meiji Era, then fired off their lightspeed Ankoku-
Raiko-Ha that shocked and electrocuted the tandem even when missed.

As for Itsuki, he crossed his arms and legs and sat, meditating, one eye
remaining open while he watched out for the best time he could summon
his teleportation powers against Sano and Daiji.

Here was one such exchange between the pure melee fighter Sano (Aoshi
was also a melee fighter, but he had more projectile attacks than
Sanosuke did, the twelve-foot zanbatou's longer striking range aside)
and the Suzakus:

As usual, Sano charged forward and attacked the nearest Suzaku with his
signature zanbatou (except this time, it was composed of ceramic instead
of iron), which his street fighter name originated from (i.e., Zanza).

In case the living bug zapper avoided that zanbatou chop, Sagara still
had his fists as back up, punching the demon out with the Double Impact
(also known as the Futae no Kiwami) that he learned from the fallen
monk of the original Juppon Gatana, Anji Yukyuzan.

However, it'd seem that by experience from fighting both combatants, the
Suzakus learned their lesson from before and proceeded to double team
Sano with impunity while staying away from the detective with the
nonmagnetic platinum blades.

As Sanosuke expected, one of the Suzakus avoided the slash and moved
close enough to be in fist-fighting range. What he didn't expect was
another Suzaku appearing from behind the first one, disintegrating his
zanbatou by its molecules with his own Storm of Torment Fist, and
converting the dissipating spirit energy into the demonic energy.

Cursing under his breath, Sano ducked under a clumsy, telegraphed
Ankoku-Raijin-Ken punch (it was Sano's belief that without his
electrical prowess, Suzaku was actually a mediocre fighter with poor
punching technique) and countered with his Dual Extreme punch.

However, at the same time, a lightspeed (or approaching lightspeed,
since the actual top speed of light... 299,792,458 meters per second or
186,282 miles per second... only happened in a vacuum and "actual"
lightspeed had to travel through a medium, like air, which slowed it
down) lightning bolt struck Sano, paralyzing him.

As for the Suzaku closest to Sagara, he proved the street fighter wrong
about his fighting style being clumsy by turning his missed punch into a
backhanded Ankoku-Raijin-Ken strike with enough microwave radiation to
boil Sanosuke's blood (or, in his case, his ectoplasm) like with what
happened to Matsudaira previously.

"AUGHH!" screamed Sano while having seizures.

What was worse was that the nearest Suzaku proceeded to shoot a stream
of Ankoku-Raiko-Ha electricity over the farthest Suzaku and vice-versa,
thus creating a closed loop of electricity that electrocuted Zanza
as long as neither of the Crimson Sparrows let up on him.

More so than the Suzakus that Kurama and Kuwabara fought, the Suzakus
facing Sanosuke and Daiji worked more in tandem.

The turn of events actually surprised Aoshi's Heisei reincarnation.
Daiji expected the Suzakus to again attempt to outwit him and Sano by
utilizing more scientific principles to further maximize their
electrical powers.

In a way, that was exactly what they did, but Matsudaira didn't expect
them to leave _him_ out in favor of targeting the "weak link", which
was the technology-ignorant "Luddite" Sanosuke.

Regardless, Daiji came to Sagara's rescue, his platinum swords on hand
while he intended to break the "circuit" formed by the energy absorption
and release (e.g., the Ankoku-Raijin-Ken and the Ankoku-Raiko-Ha)
techniques of the Suzakus.

Matsudaira could attempt to kill one or both of them, but an A-Class
doing so against two S-Classes was easier said than done.

The detective instead opted to do the Yin-Yang Cross or Gokou Juji that
involved slashing his twin blades crosswise unto the electrical stream,
acting as a metal insulator of sorts since platinum didn't conduct
electricity.

There was one problem with his plan, though: A teal-haired, one-eyed,
scarred, effeminate, psychotic, and gangly problem, to be exact.

After Itsuki teleported right in front of Daiji to run interference for
the sake of the Suzakus, the policeman shifted from the Gokou Juji to
the Onmyou Kousa or Shadow-Light Cross, which involved him hammering
the first kodachi strike with a second one, thrusting the first one
through.

Detective Matsudaira stopped himself short of completing the Shadow-
Light Cross right through Itsuki's neck because just then, a portal
opened in front of the Gatekeeper and the Shinomori doppelganger could
feel a second portal open from behind him using his swordsman sixth
sense.

Had he went through with the Onmyou Kousa, Daiji would've ended up
inadvertently stabbing himself in the back, his kodachi teleporting
from Itsuki's front to behind him. As expected of one of Xinhai's top
henchmen. "So this is how deep the rabbit hole goes, huh?"

"It's pretty deep, Alice," answered Itsuki with his own monotonous
voice. "Perhaps I should make like the Queen of Hearts and teleport
your _head_ elsewhere."

Matsudaira retracted his hand from the dimensional rift and began
varying the speeds of his bobbing and weaving so that he'd slip right
through the Gatekeeper's sight like the rolling waves of the riverbank.

Itsuki reacted in kind, producing black holes of varying shapes and
sizes that the Aoshi reincarnate had to dance through like an asteroid
field in order to get to Sano.

"You don't need to worry about me, Detective!" screamed Sanosuke with
grit teeth, which made Daiji wonder if the street fighter was being
sarcastic.

Apparently, he wasn't. Sano grinned and began pounding the nearest
Suzaku in front of him with multiple Futae no Kiwami strikes. "Y-You
were stupid enough to get close to me to electrocute me? Then pay the
price!"

The Suzaku nearest Sano was forced to cut the circuit of continuous
electrical flow in order to block and parry every one of Sano's Double
Impact punches the same way he defended against Yusuke when they fought
and he ended up in the receiving end of a Hyaku-Retsu Ken.

Meanwhile, the other Crimson Sparrow helped out with Ankoku-Raiko-Ha
bolts that Sanosuke didn't even bother to block or dodge at that point.

That was the way Sagara fought. He soaked up damage as much as possible,
then returned the favor ten to twenty times over (or, figuratively
speaking, "died" trying), like a tank ramming through a meteor shower.

However, this tank was fast enough to pop a wheelie while he was at it.
Nevertheless, with enough blasts, even a tank would fall. Hell, a pebble
in its gears would be enough to make it stop working.


===


"SANO! Don't charge at them like a fool! You're only asking for a second
death!" shouted Daiji in a decidedly un-Aoshi-like manner before he
attempted to rescue the "suicidal" ghost (a true oxymoron).

Matsudaira then paused after he felt a familiar presence manifest itself
in the far distance. Perhaps from Mount Fuji itself.

The savvy, long-range sniper Suzaku shot his electric bolt projectiles
through the interconnected minefield of black holes, which hampered the
detective's exit since the Ankoku-Raiko-Ha traveled seemingly everywhere
at the same time via the wormholes.

Sanosuke's muscles froze up, paralyzed from all the electric shocks his
ghostly frame received. A smiling Suzaku balled up his fist to deliver a
final Ankoku-Raijin-Ken that would blast a whole into the solidified
spirit's sternum while at the same time irradiating him with ultra
electromagnetic waves.

"!?"

The problem was that he couldn't ball up his fists.

Perhaps it was carpal tunnel syndrome (yes, even demons suffered from
those, especially those with five-digit hands like humans, primates, or
raccoons).

Perhaps blocking continuous strikes from the Futae no Kiwami wasn't the
wisest of choices. He could've ended up with broken hands... or worse.

This allowed Sano enough recovery time to gain back control of his
over-stimulated muscles, ball up his own throbbing fists, and do his
double-fisted version of the Dual Extreme fist.

"Behold, Blondie! I'm going to knock those frosted tips of yours out
with the purity of unarmed combat! Fuck your electrical powers! SANJO
NO KIWAMI!"

Suzaku forced his cramping hands and arm to move with his electrical
powers while rebutting, "Says the idiot who's bringing his fists to a
stun gun fight! ANKOKU-RAIJIN-KEN!"

"ARGH!" said a blank-eyed Suzaku, his head snapping back by the force of
the Sanjo no Kiwami.

"That's one down and one to go! Or maybe two if we count the yoga
instructor," remarked Sano.

He managed to make Suzaku reel and go down on one knee (he was still
Class-S after all, so a knockout was nearly impossible for a Class-B
like Sagara) with the Triple Impact.

However, it came at the cost of Zanza getting blasted with so much
electricity that his tattered clothes, karate-gi-like jacket, and pants
reverted back to their original leathery form.

"Sano! What happened to your clothes?" asked Daiji.

Instead of the red bandanna and "Karate Champ" clothing he usually wore,
Sanosuke ended up sporting a buckle-and-strap-filled black bomber jacket
that looked even gaudier than his trench coat, a tight leopard-spotted
shirt, and leather pants with elaborate gold trimmings.

'He looks like he came from an S&M club!'

"Oh, _this_? Isn't it nifty? It's from the Spirit World, I think. Both
Yahiko and I got it. I think it changes form depending on my mood or
something," answered Sanosuke.

"That isn't a mood ring. That's probably how you're able to summon the
zanbatou without having special object-creation powers from spirit
energy like Tuxedo Mask and I do," said Matsudaira.

"Tuxedo _who_...?" asked Sagara.

"Karasu. He can create bombs out of demon ki the same way I can create
blades with my spirit ki. The only way you can do the same is using
those clothes, I'm guessing," said Daiji.

"I guess the clothes do make the man!" quipped Sanosuke before he lost
his footing altogether, his legs rubbery from all the electric shocks
that he'd received. A late reaction.

The Aoshi incarnate shoved Sagara to the ground before a crossfire of
Ankoku-Raiko-Ha bombarded the two Meiji Era warriors care off a dizzy
Suzaku and his healthier and more accurate twin.

"HEY! What's the big idea?"

"Stay on the ground. Let me handle this."

"Fuck you! _You_ stay on the ground!"

To compensate for the damage Sagara caused one of the Suzakus, they
flanked Sano and Daiji while tossing their homing lightning bolts at
each other, absorbing the energy and returning each blast to each other
like they were playing a game of game of energy shot tennis.

Not only did their electrical powers allow them to home in on each
other; even if one missed hitting either Sagara or Matsudaira, the
other one could safely absorb the energy and shoot it back until they
got a hit.

This technique most certainly tested the limits of Daiji's Ryusui no
Ugoki.

Nevertheless, instead of heeding Matsudaira's advice, the hotheaded Sano
got up and ran through the barrage of electrical arrows with his fists
placed on his face as his guard even as his legs wobbled while he moved.

"Don't be reckless! Suzaku has gained control of his powers down to a
science, so if you're going to barrel around without thinking, you're
going to lose more than just your Spirit World clothing!"

"I know what I'm doing, Aoshi Lite! Their lightning attacks are
_nothing_ to me! I had that electric eel where I wanted him while _you_
were prancing around with that long-haired yoga instructor's little
black holes!"

"...You know what a yoga instructor is?"

"Hey, I get bored sometimes and I watch daytime television back at
Boke's place, okay?" By Boke, Sanosuke meant Kazuma Kuwabara.

"Stop being moronic and listen to reason. Before charging at them, we
need to formulate a plan. The Suzakus have too many powers in their
arsenal to go at them like cavemen, Sagara Sanosuke."

"We don't have time for plans, Matsudaira Daiji! You're overcomplicating
things! Fights aren't complicated! The first one who hurts the other guy
wins! Why waltz around with a guy for hours when you can knock him out
cold in seconds?"

"Suzaku knows electromagnetism in and out. He can beat you, a B-Level
fighter, in any way possible with his S-Level powers. If you fight
recklessly, you'll make mistakes. You can't afford to make mistakes when
fighting someone like him!"

"Then we should hit them so hard and often that they won't have time to
breathe, much less think! Jeez, if you want to pussyfoot around and
dance the waltz with Itsuki, then be my guest, Valentino! I'll be over
there, actually winning against the Shin Ju!"

Speaking of the "yoga instructor", Itsuki teleported Sano right in front
of one Suzaku then teleported the other Suzaku right behind him, thus
allowing the two saint beasts to double team the ghost further with
their microwave radiation and close-range Ankoku-Raijin-Ken.

'He's soaking up too much damage! That bonehead will really end up as
nothing more than ectoplasm and loose spirit energy if this keeps up!'
thought the cop, only for him to end up face-to-face with his teal-
haired nightmare, the Gatekeeper of the Sensui Seven.

Instead of pressing the issue in rescuing the hyper-aggressive street
fighter with a devil-may-care attitude (and letting history repeat
itself), Matsudaira opted to attack the one hindrance that kept him from
landing a significant blow against the Crimson Sparrows.

"KAITEN KENBU ROKUREN!"

To his chagrin, Daiji ended up having to parry his own blade after
Itsuki again made a vortex that kept him safe from the Spiral Sword
Dance Six Series while at the same time returning the detective's own
attack by making another portal from behind him.

"I noticed that ever since you turned your swords platinum, you weren't
able to produce more than two kodachi. Is the strain of synthesizing
spirit energy into a nonmagnetic metal too much for your body to
handle?" wondered Itsuki aloud.

"...."

Meanwhile, the leather-jacketed Sano went at it with both Suzakus in a
slugfest of double-impacting fists and electricity-imbued punches filled
with millions of volts of power.

As per his macho nature, Sagara ignored the woozy and weaker Suzaku in
favor of bringing the pain to the healthier Crimson Sparrow who
disintegrated his zanbatou.

'That idiot...!' thought Detective Matsudaira while his mind raced for a
viable tactic to defeat the master of portals, Itsuki. 'He's fighting
the Suzaku who could disintegrate his clothes or even his ghostly body!
He should've finished off the weaker Suzaku and reduced their chances to
double-team him!'

A thought occurred to Daiji. 'What if it's the clothes that are making
it possible for the spirits of Myojin Yahiko and Sagara Sanosuke to
interact with the world of the living...?'

The policeman version of Aoshi had no time to lose. He ignored the
screams of his knees and thighs while charging at Itsuki, which made
the latter remark, "You still haven't learned your lesson, Detective?"

However, this time around, Daiji had his blades hidden on his back,
which made it look like his arms were handcuffed behind him as he ran.

'Clever. This way, I won't be able to tell if he's attacking from the
left or the right,' appraised Itsuki before snorting. 'However, it's all
for naught.'

As soon as Matsudaira was within striking range, the Gatekeeper made a
person-sized hole for the detective to run into, keeping the demon safe
from harm.

To Itsuki's surprise, Daiji charged right into the portal. Then, when
half of his body had entered the wormhole, _that_ was when the
dimensional youkai felt twin blades bite through his back.

The wily detective had waited until the portal was opened before
attacking at angles Itsuki could not see, his vision blocked by his own
dimensional rift.

Normally, striking at that close a range with gangly arms that wrapped
themselves around Itsuki while circumventing the huge wormhole
would've resulted in both Daiji and the demon getting skewered by the
twin kodachi.

Thanks to the portal and its ability to distort space and distance, the
blades never touched the detective.

"I-Impossible! How...?"

Itsuki gurgled blood and fell after Matsudaira extricated his short
swords away from the youkai while smoothly exiting the rift before it
closed and chomped away a good portion of his head and midsection.


===


Sano didn't fare as well as Daiji did, though.

Because he wasn't alive anymore, Sanosuke didn't have his blood boil or
evaporate as red mist like what happened to Shishio prior to his own
spontaneous combustion.

Instead, like disturbed fireflies, pieces of light... his reiki... began
to escape from his body and fly away in little wisps and pinpoints of
light.

Sagara still fought with everything he got, though. Even if he lost,
he'd damn well take one or both of the Suzakus along with him to Hell,
if he had to.

The Suzaku he fought was wise enough to deflect the Futae no Kiwami with
the Ankoku-Raijin-Ken instead of blocking it like the other clone did.
Offense was the best defense and all that.

Sano licked his chops before he froze up from another Storm of Torment
Fist body blow. "That's it! This is the hardcore fight that I've been
waiting for! Bring it on, Goldilocks!"

Instead of being discouraged, the intensity of the battle made Sano's
blood boil (in a more metaphorical and positive manner instead of a
literal, microwave-related context), so much so that his bomber jacket
and leather pants ensemble turned back to his white cloth apparel while
he got his second wind.

'His own emotions are reenergizing his spirit energy reserves!' realized
Daiji before he helped out Sano in his own little way by turning his
platinum blades into ceramic once more so that he could throw a
multitude of them at the other Suzaku to distract him.

Itsuki was right; turning his short swords platinum sapped too much of
his power.

The Suzaku that the Aoshi incarnate attacked produced orbs of plasma
that orbited around him and helped him sublimate the solidified barrage
of spirit energy ceramic blades immediately into a gaseous state before
altogether ionizing them into plasma he could manipulate as well.

Sano gathered enough power to summon a zanbatou from out of nowhere that
blindsided the Suzaku he battled. Naturally, this made the demon
doppelganger turn the twelve-foot ceramic blade into spirit energy and
then electricity, but Sagara would have none of that.

Zanza drilled the Suzaku to the ground then reformed the zanbatou faster
than the demon could disintegrate it. From pure force of will, at that.

He almost succeeded in splitting the S-Class Crimson Sparrow in half
with a groundbreaking Zanbatou Ate (his version of Anji's Tou Ate) when
something struck his spine. The demon then tossed the human aside like a
used rag.

"SAGARA SANOSUKE!" screamed Daiji while the neglected and "weak" Suzaku
assaulted Sano from behind and lifted him up with his electrifying arm,
the street fighter's body lying limp and twitching from the force of the
cowardly blow.

The Leader of the Shisejyu glowed with electromagnetic radiation while
his superheated plasma orbs revolved around him like his own version of
the solar system.

The other Suzaku glowed along with his twin, their auras harmonizing
with each other. They then looked at Detective Matsudaira's leg and
grinned at each other.

The policeman gulped in realization.

The two demon clones probably figured through x-ray that he broke his
right leg during an earlier exchange.

Like lasers, the Ankoku-Raiko-Ha of the Suzakus pinpointed the leg of
Matsudaira, traveling too fast for the detective to react, which made
him resort to doing the Jissen Kenbu (a one-sword version of the Kaiten
Kenbu) to compensate and attack the S-Level demons with either his
sword or his martial arts while dodging.

They managed to hit his right leg enough to make him hobble at long
last, but they weren't the ones who did the policeman in. Daiji was
about to transition from the Jissen Kenbu into the Kaiten Kenbu when
something obliterated part of his shoulder.

"YA FUCKING BASTARD COP! FUCK DA POLICE!!" screamed the one-eyed Itsuki
while cocking and pointing his... gun? In the place of his hand was some
sort of high-tech bionic blaster that the copper had never seen before.

Where'd he get that piece of technology? More importantly, why was he
speaking like some sort of gangster? "...Itsuki, what happened to you?"

"Are you retarded? _Who's_ Itsuki? I'm not Itsuki! I'm KAZUYA! Remember
that name, you creepy, trench-coat-wearing BITCH!" spat "Kazuya" before
firing several more rounds from his firearm.


===


Sano woke up with no feeling from the neck down. His eyes darted around
in panic, his neck not allowing his head to move to get a better look at
himself.

'I need to get up. Why won't I get up? Move, godammit!' He almost got
'em. Or at least one of 'em. Almost. 'Fuck.'

Was it possible for a ghost to get paralyzed? The thought scared Sagara
more than the prospect of dying. Again. What if it was permanent...?

Sagara shook his head to clear it of his thoughts, which made him
realize that all was not lost. Why? He was able to shake his head!

He _lifted_ his head in time to see the know-it-all detective get
manhandled by three of the Shin Juppon Gatana (technically, two).

He was ashamed to admit it, but he was kind of glad they were kicking
his ass. It was petty, but he didn't like the way Aoshi Lite was
treating him like a rube, even though the cop himself was just a
shadow of the Oniwabanshu Okashira.

Sanosuke began wiggling parts of his body, from his little toe to his
twitching fingers.

He also hated to own up to the fact that so far, Detective Matsudaira
was right all along. The street fighter _was_ fighting the Suzakus too
recklessly. He almost managed to test the copper's theory of ghosts
getting a "second death", at that.

His legs still felt like jelly around the time he gathered enough
strength to sit upright.

"Why are you calling yourself Kazuya now when you were Itsuki before?"
Sano overheard Daiji ask Itsuki while he dodged getting shot at by
lightning bolts and (presumably) bullets from the Shin Ju that
surrounded him.

"Because I _am_ Kazuya, dumbass! And the guy you were fighting before
wasn't the real Itsuki. He's Minoru!"

'What the hell happened to the yoga instructor? Has he gone insane?'
thought Sanosuke.

This wasn't the Itsuki he fought back during their mission to quell a
mass suicide at Aokigahara. _That_ Gatekeeper was cold, calculating,
devious, and quiet.

_This_ guy before them with the prosthetic gun was a psychopath who, for
some reason, spoke like a stereotypical yakuza hoodlum (or like Kazuma
"Boke" Kuwabara when pissed of).

'Is Itsuki suffering from... what did the talking head on TV call it?
Oh, right. Is he a schizo? Or, in Meiji Era terms, nuts? Maybe he's
talking about his past life, like Jo-chan, Cat Eyes, and Aoshi Lite
are,' mused Sano before he slapped himself on the forehead.

'I don't have time for this! Aoshi Lite's life is in danger!'

Sagara hammered his motionless legs so they'd start moving. He had no
idea the "science" behind "Kazuya's" gun, but instead of bullets from a
firearm, every shot from the weapon created tiny distortions that warped
the space around it and sucked everything that could fit inside it in
sight.

Now, Sanosuke was no scientist (understatement of the century right
there), but even he knew that anything that could leave sinkholes _in
the middle of the air_ was bad news. They even sucked up nearby objects
like that vacuum cleaner thingy the Kuwabaras had in their house.

His bomber jacket, striped undershirt, and leather pants were in bad
shape, which meant he probably didn't have enough energy left to spare
to create a zanbatou (if Daiji's theory of him being able to do so
because of his clothes proved correct).

His legs were still fucked up, though, so he couldn't run and help
Aoshi Lite out. 'For fuck's sakes! For once in your life, just _think_
of a way to help out!'

A light bulb lit up atop Sano's bushy head. He then proceeded to take
off his leather jacket, gripped in real tight, and concentrated on it.
Afterwards, just as the detective suspected, the bomber jacket turned
into Sano's zanbatou.

A Zanbatou Ate from a seated position didn't have as much sting as a
standing, full-body Zanbatou Ate, but the sword-propelled avalanche was
enough to get Kazuya's attention, at least.

This allowed the bloody Aoshi incarnate to scourge Itsuki with a Kaiten
Kenbu then a Kaiten Kenbu Rokuren, allowing him to slash at the demon
nine times instead of just three or six.

"Nice going, Sano! Now you're using your head!" cheered Matsudaira while
Sagara gave him a thumb's up sign.

"I learned from the best! Maybe thinking things through before attacking
ain't so bad after all!" the street fighter confessed.

However, Daiji's ninth slash was blocked by Kazuya's strange gun after
the detective was shot at with a lightning bolt by one of the Suzakus.

Another idea occurred to Sano while all this happened. He turned his
ceramic horse-chopping blade into iron during the split-second that
both Suzakus' aura glowed with electrical might, their energy creating
branches of jagged light and electricity.

The polarity of the aura enabled Sano to charge at them without using
his feet. Instead, his twelve-foot iron blade that was attracted to the
Crimson Sparrows moved him towards them.

He'd noticed earlier on how metallic things orbited around their shared
aura as though it were a magnetic field.

He then just as instantaneously turned his iron zanbatou back into
ceramic as soon as he got close enough to the nearest Suzaku... the one
he almost finished off earlier... and swung as hard as he could. The
coward escaped, but Sano drew blood.

The Suzaku who electrocuted him by punching his spine then attempted to
do the same thing twice. However, Sanosuke expected this, thus he tore
off his leopard-skinned undershirt and turn it into a second ceramic
zanbatou.

He then batted Crimson Sparrow in the air so that he could execute a
double "ZANKUU ZANBATOU ATE!" The aerial version of the land-based
Zanbatou Ate produced dueling vacuums so powerful that it twisted and
bent the S-Level Suzaku clone's body in every which way.

Were Suzaku Class-B instead of Class-S, he would've been torn to pieces
like a piece of meat among hungry lions.


===


Even after suffering eight out of nine slashes from a Kaiten Kenbu and
Kaiten Kenbu Rokuren combo, the (presumably) A-Level Kazuya went to town
with the policeman, as though the strikes didn't even faze him.

"What the hell was that? Was that the best you could do?" mocked Kazuya
before he grabbed hold of Daiji (so that he wouldn't end up doing that
elusive movement of his), and pistol-whipped him with his arm gun.

"Guess what? IT. WASN'T. FUCKING. ENOUGH. BITCH!"

Matsudaira's head snapped back several times from the mauling before he
kicked some sense into what was presumably a schizophrenic, manic
depressive (later to be known in the 21st Century as "bipolar"), or
multiple personality disorder (later to be known in the 21st Century as
"dissociative disorder") sufferer.

The kenpo roundhouse made Kazuya stop for exactly a second before he
resumed shooting his gun at Daiji. His gun that could create miniature
portals that acted more like miniature black holes.

Kazuya got more and more accurate too, since the Suzakus electrocuted
Daiji long enough for the portal gun to eat a good chunk of his leg
off.

The detective's Ryusui no Ugoki's movements had become stuttered. His
actions had become more predictable since he kept favoring his right
leg, which meant he always pivoted away using his left leg now.

"I want all humans to die. That never changed since the time of Sensui
Shinobu. Even now, humanity makes me want to puke. They're so arrogant,
they get to have a world named after them! The 'Human World'!" ranted
Kazuya.

Daiji's use of the Jissen Kenbu to stall for time while he thought up of
a backup plan proved to be his own undoing; the nail to his coffin,
even.

He hated to acknowledge it, but Sanosuke Sagara had a point. His
hesitation and unwillingness to act until he formulated the right plan
proved fatal in a high pressure situation where every second counted.

"Do you have any idea what a paradise this world could become without
humans? No destruction of the ozone layer, no depletion of natural
resources, no landfills full of waste products... It'd be fucking
beautiful!" Kazuya continued.

While Matsudaira delayed coming up with a decision, his enemies figured
out the pattern of his attack and slowly but surely chopped down his
tree of defenses until there was nothing left of it but a stump on the
ground.

He collapsed and writhed in agony after yet another portal gun bullet
ate up part of his abdomen, the flying giblets converging into the
tiny pinhole that tore up a piece of the fabric of reality.

"The only downside to killing all humans is that they'd end up in the
Spirit World, call it the 'New Human World', and turn that paradise into
Hell! There'd be two hells, one above and one below, both occupied by
humans!"

This wasn't the time to dawdle. Not against an enemy like "Kazuya".
Daiji needed to act now, even if he had to do so in a manner more
befitting of Sagara than himself, the former Okashira of the Oniwabanshu
from a century ago and a Detective-Investigator of the Shinjuku Police.

In a split second, Daiji turned his platinum blades into ceramic so that
he could make more of them and threw them en masse at the multiple-
personality-suffering Itsuki like Misao used to do her own Kansatsu Tobi
Kunai technique.

Kazuya shot at the flying daggers like they were clay pigeons and his
firearm were a rifle. However, the few blades that he missed blasting
into oblivion, Matsudaira was able to grab hold and turn into platinum
kodachi.

Then, instead of doing what was expected of him, which was to execute a
variation of the Spiral Sword Dance, the detective did something
different.

He stabbed the loosely clothed, teal-haired, and one-eyed youkai on
almost every inch of his body, pausing only to deflect an incoming gun
blast by parrying the weapon's tip and shoving it away from close
range.

Daiji then asked, "Why do you hate humans? Is it because you're a
demon?" while Itsuki turned into a fountain of blood and collapsed into
a crimson pool of his own making.

It morbidly fascinated the copper how some youkai ended up bleeding the
same color of blood as a human would.

Kazuya harrumphed. "No, because _I'm_ human myself, and I know a piece
of shit when I see it. I'm also a shit eater that deserves death... or
worse."


===


Sanosuke attempted a combo of Zanbatou Ate and Zankuu Zanbatou Ate, his
legs finally steady enough to give his techniques sufficient torque, but
the twin Suzakus shrugged off the attacks by hurling projectile metal
objects at every telegraphed strike and letting a car, a bus, a
turnstile, a traffic light, or a billboard take the brunt of Sano's only
(and recently learned) long-range attacks.

"How's it going?" a bloodied Daiji asked Sano, his trench coat filled
with either his own blood or Itsuki's.

"Badly. After they figured out how my Zanbatou Ate works, they can
pretty much stuff it down at will. S-Levels are scary, man. I'm
surprised we were able to survive for this long," said a shirtless,
jacketless Sano.

The ghost had only three-quarters and a quarter of his greatswords left.

"It doesn't matter how many ways they can apply their electrical powers.
As soon as they're hit and hurt, we can take them down," reassured
Matsudaira.

"No, no. We got to outwit them at their own game somehow. We need to
think up of a game plan to use their powers against them. We can't just
barrel over there like cavemen," said Sano.

"...."

"...What?"

Both Sanosuke and Daiji smiled at each other knowingly before they
split up and wordlessly executed each other's plans: Sagara was in
charge of barreling over the Suzakus like a caveman while Matsudaira
handled all the technical stuff.

The final battle had just begun.

Daiji let Sanosuke sprint towards the Crimson Sparrows (since the street
fighter was the one who had the healthiest legs of the two).

Meanwhile, the detective did his tried-and-true technique of turning his
kodachi into a metal lightning rod, its handles made of rubberized
material while a chain was attached to another short sword stuck to the
ground.

While the Suzaku attempted to do the Prism of Two Lightning Storm of
Torment, Matsudaira shielded Sano with a wire mesh Faraday Cage (that
he immediately turned into spirit energy as soon as it absorbed the
dual lightning bolts in order to avoid giving the Suzakus more metal
for ammunition).

Most of the time, Daiji merely used his impeccable timing to detect
and predict energy blast trajectories so that he could use his platinum
blades to shield Sanosuke from almost every Ankoku-Raiko-Ha that came
his way.

Not that Sano couldn't take any more abuse. His zanbatou and his Futae
no Kiwami techniques allowed him to pretty much mow down any flying
metal debris hurled his way and absorb radiation-filled lightning bolts
like they were sunshine.

The fact that he barely needed to tough it out made it easier for him
to attack with impunity.

While the Suzaku twins were about to escape, Daiji turned his platinum
swords into ceramic again and stuck them into the feet of both Crimson
Sparrows so that they'd stay put from where they stood.

The blond twins screamed.

"What now, Officer?" drawled Sano before reintegrating his torn zanbatou
blades into one horse-chopping sword that could double as a lance.

The Suzakus were frozen, their hands twitching over their punctured feet
before they considered simply standing their ground and fighting the
Spirit World Warriors then and there.

"The time for making elaborate plans is over. So... attack."

"I thought you'd never ask, Shinomori Aoshi."

Matsudaira paused for the briefest of moments after Sano finally
acknowledged him as worthy enough to carry the name of his past self.

The detective then said, "It's Detective Matsudaira to you, punk,"
before he and a smirking Sanosuke hit high and low, the policeman
turning into a whirling dervish with ceramic knives for swords and the
street fighter attacking the legs and kneecaps of their S-Level
opponents while also hammering the swords on their feet deeper to make
sure they couldn't escape.

The free-for-all melee raged like a storm as sweat, blood, tears, and
pieces of flesh flew from all directions. The Railgun might or might not
have been fired.

Perhaps gamma rays were also used, although Daiji would only know if
that was the case down the line a few months or years later, if he'd
somehow developed cancer or other cell mutations thanks to this fight.

Regardless, both Suzaku clones glowed like the sun while lightning
struck them not once, not twice, but multiple times in succession at
the same spot, giving them a continuous streams of energy.

The twins fought their opponents off with superheated plasma and
radiation. Their aura kept sublimating Matsudaira's ceramic swords,
prompting him to create more and more of the blades.

Daiji collapsed after the Suzakus again pinpointed the closed fracture
of his leg, but this only prompted him to spin from the opposite
direction from the southpaw side to do the Kaiten Kenbu.

As for Sano, he swung for the fences, landing blow after blow of the
Futae no Kiwami and the occasional Sanjo no Kiwami with the intention of
turning the S-Level demons' insides into puree.

'What the hell is this? The more this ghost's blood boils, the stronger
he gets!' thought the Suzakus in telepathic, radio wave unison.

This went on for a full thirty minutes until everyone halted, hearing a
rumbling from the distance.

"What the hell is that?"

"I don't know. Is it from another Shin Ju member we didn't know about?"

"Holy shit, are those flaming...?!"

Daiji grabbed hold of Sanosuke by his signature red bandanna and pulled
him away while they ran as far away from the incoming conflagration of
power as possible.

The S-Level Suzakus could only look down dumbly before they began
shooting lightning bolts at the pitch-black serpentine shapes above
them.

One of the Suzakus got disintegrated... or rather, sublimated... by the
choleric burst of dark flame. The other Suzaku was about to follow suit
when something else swallowed him whole.

It was Itsuki's Reverse Man, the same dimensional being that swallowed
Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama into his pocket dimension during Yusuke
Urameshi's momentous battle against Shinobu Sensui.

'How nostalgic,' thought the demonic pretty boy, his gun replaced with a
new prosthetic arm by his dimensional creatures before his biggest
creation, the Uraotoko, spat out the battle-damaged and immolated
Suzaku.

As for the "thing" that almost killed the Crimson Sparrow, it homed in
on Itsuki's location.

While Sanosuke and Daiji found cover from the flaming barrage, the
former was able to espy even from that far a distance Itsuki opening his
damaged eye, revealing an eye-shaped void not unlike the portals he
usually made.

The Gatekeeper then proceeded to suck whatever it was that killed a
Class-S like Suzaku (even if he was a clone) right into his eye portal.

As for Matsudaira, he idly wondered if _that_ teal-haired person with
the dimension rift for an eye was the _real_ Itsuki: Not "Kazuya", not
"Minoru", but the Itsuki whom the Reikai Tantei led by Urameshi fought
once upon a time.


===


Meanwhile, back in Odaiba, on the construction site where the future
world-famous structure known as Tokyo Big Sight was still being
developed back in 1993...

Yahiko Myojin attempted to hit Suzaku with his sakabatou, but he ended
up having his strike deflected, thus exposing him to the full brunt of
the electric demon's Ankoku-Raijin-Ken.

"Dammit, Myojin Yahiko! Be reasonable and use a ceramic blade instead of
a steel blade! Using anything metal would never work against Suzaku!
Stop being such an asshole! I know you can turn that blade into ceramic,
so hop to it!"

Natsuki Shinkai... or rather, her past self, Yutaro "Cat Eyes"
Tsukayama... beseeched the Tokyo Samurai Descendant.

"His" pleas fell on deaf ears. Yahiko reasoned, "If Kenshin can defy the
magnetic force of Suzaku... hell, if he could defeat people without
killing them using a reverse-edged sword... then so will I! Kenshin was
never forced to use a real sword, and I won't be forced to use a ceramic
blade, Cat Eyes!"

"Kenshin this, Kenshin that... YOU'RE NOT KENSHIN, GODAMMIT! This isn't
the time to let your foolish pride dictate your actions! We're two B-
Class warriors facing A-Class and S-Class demons! It's suicide to let
them play to their strengths!"

Tsukayama attempted to go to his idiot partner's rescue, but he was
blocked by the weak link of the Shin Juppon Gatana, Rando. Of course,
according to the demon, he wasn't the weak link, but the way he was
manhandled by Urameshi earlier showed otherwise.

The problem was that Rando was actually good with his word. It didn't
matter that he was overwhelmed by Yusuke, most anyone in either side,
whether Shin Ju or Reikai Senshi, would've suffered the same fate. This
didn't make the demon any less troublesome in his own right.

Yutaro, using Natsuki's body, attempted to land his signature, jab-like
Kousa Dageki, which was a fusion between a thrust and a downward strike
with a checkmark-like movement using crossed wrists.

However, Rando easily memorized the pattern and no matter how many times
Tsukayama attempted to catch the demon flatfooted with the move, he
always missed.

It helped that the pasty-skinned youkai kept his distance and opted to
attack from afar with the space-cutting Jigen Tou, at times creating
portals to escape to.

What few Cross Strikes Tsukayama did land were stuffed down by Rando's
triad of defenses, which was the Iron Body Technique, the Armor of Sand,
and the Shield of Sand. It didn't help that most of Yutaro's offensive
attacks were setup by the Kousa Dageki.

Also, even though most of his techniques were projectile-based, Rando
limited Natsuki's melee attacks with fisticuffs, specifically his Kachuu
Tenshin Amaguriken, which he also used to block the Kousa Dageki.

And just like that, the defensive capabilities of Natsuki's past self
was thwarted by the savvy youkai.

This meant that the mule-headed Myojin was left to fend for himself
against two S-Class Suzakus. Using a metal sword, of all things.

Yet another strike from Yahiko was stopped cold by the resonating
magnetic fields of the Suzakus converging powerfully enough to keep
the blade from even getting near their skin.

For his troubles, Yahiko ended up on the receiving end of millions of
volts of electricity from the combined forces of two Ankoku-Raijin-Ken
that superheated his ectoplasm and almost reverted his Meiji Era
clothing into their original forms, which was a Hawaiian shirt and
skintight jeans (like the ones that Yusuke usually wore).

This time around, it was Natsuki herself who begged, "Please, Yahiko-
kun! Even Himura Kenshin would have a hard time penetrating the magnetic
defenses of two Class-S Suzakus at the same time, even if he uses his
ultimate attack!"

Yahiko swung his metal blade to partially absorb the lightning bolts
that were shot at him. It wasn't as effective as Matsudaira's lightning-
rod technique, but it reduced the volts coursing through his tangible
spirit body all the same, the bindings of his sword handle and the sword
handle itself acting as insulation.

The Suzaku with an orbiting ring of metal objects proceeded to move
forward and unleash all sorts of construction tools on the hapless
samurai boy.

"As usual, you humans display annoying resiliency. Like cockroaches,
almost. It's such a shame to see such intelligence be wasted on a bunch
of short-lived bugs like you."

"I don't want to hear that from you, Cockroach Bangs!" said the steaming
and slightly transparent Myojin, who bobbed and weaved through the
onslaught of debris while keeping a wary eye for any sudden Railgun
blasts in the middle of that chaos.

This lesson in magnetism reminded the teenaged-looking ghost of his
fight against one of Enishi Yukishiro's Six Comrades.

It was a strange, motiveless confrontation, seeing that Kenshin had
already died by the time Enishi attempted to exact his Jinchu or
Earthly Justice against him.

Regardless of their objectives, Yahiko still faced the flamboyant, wily,
and lipstick-wearing assassin known as Hyoko Otowa, who used a magnetic
sword that swung in the right direction of whomsoever he fought thanks
the sword reacting to either the steel blade or the iron fillings he
flung towards opponents who didn't have metal weapons.

The "Artful Dodger" managed to avoid all the I-beams flung at him with
deftness, grace, and perhaps a bit of luck seeing how fast those
projectiles were landing on the construction site.

The samurai kid was soon face-to-face with one of the Suzaku clones.
Yahiko swung with a Tsui Gami from the Joudan-no-Kamae position. As per
usual, the Crimson Sparrow's magnetic field repelled it.

However, Yahiko utilized that repelling force to take his metal sheath
and do a Tsuka no Gedan: Hiza Hijiki at Suzaku's knee. To the surprise
of Rando, Natsuki (and Yutaro), and the other Suzaku, Myojin penetrated
the demon doppelganger's magnetic field.

'Wait! How...?' began Yutaro while Yahiko repeatedly pummeled Suzaku at
close range with his iron scabbard, only to occasionally shift to using
his sakabatou every time the reverse-edged sword was deflected.

'Oh, I get it. The scabbard has a different, opposite polarity as the
sakabatou, so every time Suzaku changed the polarity of his magnetic
field, Yahiko always had a weapon on hand that could stick to him no
matter what! The added magnetic force also doubled the power of his
blows!' Natsuki explained to her past self.

However, by the fifth time Suzaku changed polarity, he simply grabbed
hold of the sheathe and used it to electrocute Yahiko while at the same
time making its polarity the same as Myojin's blade.

"This again? You've already used this technique against me earlier, boy.
What makes you think it's going to work when I can counter...?"

Yahiko rectified his mistake by making his blade disappear (since it was
a construct of his mind anyway) then reappear, thus making it uncharged
with electricity while his scabbard remained charged. He then continued
to pummel Suzaku with his weapons.

"ENOUGH!" Both scabbard and sword ended up being in psychic control of
the Master of Magnetism, such that Yahiko couldn't move them an inch.

Suzaku the boasted, "This technique would've worked were I still A-
Level. But now that I'm S-Level, I can do a lot more with metal than
simply repel or attract them!"

Suzaku moved the magnetized scabbard in such a way that it twisted
Yahiko's arm in an awkward angle. While the ghost boy screamed, the
sakabatou got telekinetically snatched from his grip and then thrust
right into his abdomen.

"YAHIKO-KUN!" Natsuki screamed in concern, running to help save Yahiko,
but she got teleported away by Rando and his stolen Dimension Sword
technique.

However, Myojin ended up none the worse for wear because he made both
his scabbard and his sword disappear in the nick of time before either
did him significant damage.

Meanwhile, Suzaku raised his fist high and did an Ankoku-Raijin-Ken on
the ground, creating shockwave pillars that blasted consecutively like a
straight line of geysers.

Yahiko reacted by (still) summoning a steel sakabatou and doing an Earth
God and Dragon Earth Flash combo to dull the blast and penetrate through
the Crimson Sparrow's defenses with an attack that didn't require direct
metallic contact.

The teenager was still flung away by the concussive force of the
Shisejyu Leader's attack, though.

While both Suzaku and Yahiko reeled from their respective attacks,
Shinkai managed to escape Rando's delaying tactics by reentering the
portal he made for her before it closed and landing a Kousa Dageki into
the demon's eye.

"AUGH! You bitch!" Rando swung blindly at Natsuki, who ducked into his
blind spot, which resulted in him accidentally creating a portal.

Thinking fast, Shinkai kicked the demon right into the dimensional rift.

While Myojin's body was juggled by the ultra electromagnetic shockwave,
Natsuki crossed her wrists, dodged her comrade's flying body, faced the
million-volt energy landslide, and countered with a "Mugen Dai no
HYOGO!"

Hers was a counterattack that enabled her to use the powers of her
opponents against them. She'd already deployed it once on her father,
Feng Xinhai, which cost him his arm.

She attempted to use it on the Suzakus, but they usually reabsorbed the
Ankoku-Raiko-Ha that she deflected unto them.

This time around, the force produced by the magnetized avalanche was
more concussive than electric, which meant the dizzy Suzaku was left
wide open by his own returned magnetically induced earthquake, juggling
him in the air like it did Yahiko.

After the spiky-haired boy managed to tumble on his feet and stop his
backwards momentum, his sakabatou serving as his anchor, he smiled at
Natsuki and said, "I thought I was a goner for sure. Thanks, Natsu...!"

He was silenced with a crisp slap on his face.

He recovered and looked back in time to see Shinkai in tears while she
stared at him with dilated, moist eyes. However, vocal dissonance soon
occurred because from Natsuki's quivering mouth came forth Yutaro's
admonishing, accusatory words.

"What the hell were you thinking? Why are you being pigheaded about
this? Don't use a metal sword against a demon who can control metal! Are
you suicidal? You could've died back there, Myojin Yahiko! Stop making
Tsuki-chan worry about you!"

Natsuki, on her part, stuttered, "I-I wasn't worried about him, you
dummy! Stupid Yuta-kun!"

Yahiko gripped his stinging cheek but said nothing more.

"Go fight Rando. Watch out for his whirlwind counter technique when you
become too aggressive against him. I'll go after the Suzakus with the
Mark of Infinity. After you've beaten that ginger demon's pasty ass,
then help me out with a _ceramic_ sword instead of a steel one," ordered
Yutaro, who turned Natsuki's back on Yahiko and wiped his girl host's
tears away.

Myojin's answer was simple. "No."

Tsukayama whipped Shinkai's head back and grabbed Yahiko by his collar
and lifted him up the ground. "Do you have a death wish? Give me one
good reason why I shouldn't just punch you out cold to protect you from
your own recklessness."

"I want to earn the right to wield the sakabatou again."

"What? You're wielding it right now!"

"No. Not _this_ sword. It's only a replica of the real thing. I... I
lost the right to wield Kenshin's actual reversed-edge sword after I
used it to take another person's life."

Tsukayama's narrowed Shinkai's eyes while the gears of his present
self's mind started turning after hearing Myojin's confession. "Y-You
killed a man? Was that the reason why you retired from active
swordsmanship and simply became a kendo instructor?"

Yahiko nodded, gulping. "I now wield this reverse-edged replica of the
same sword as penance for my past actions. Just as Kenshin vowed to
never kill and use a sword that couldn't kill, I also promise to win
against Suzaku using a sword just like his."

"...That's a stupid promise! Think of the present circumstances, you
moron! You haven't changed a bit! This is the same attitude you had
when you first developed your Revisal Techniques! It's just an excuse
for you to use Hiten Mitsurugi Techniques instead of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu
ones!"

Yutaro rebuked Yahiko before he had to block a sakabatou strike that
used the inside _edged_ curve of the reverse-edged blade. "What the
hell? Are you really going to _fight_ me over this?"

"I-It wasn't me, Cat Eyes! The sword moved on its own!" Myojin swore
while pulling the reverse-edged blade away from Shinkai and her past
self.

"It was actually _me_. And I agree with Xinhai's little brat. You have
to be _really_ retarded or downright insane to think you can use metal
weapons against us," said the Suzaku who had metal flying all over him
while controlling the steel in Yahiko's hand.

From a distance, the Suzaku that got hit by an Earth God, Dragon Earth
Flash, and his own shockwave he created with his Storm of Torment Fist
was quickly recovering from the blows and his concussions, which was to
be expected from an S-Level demon.

"Here's a little tip, boy. The only reason Battousai got away with his
non-killing vow, using a sword that can't cut flesh when wielded
normally, or deploying a metal sword against _me_ is because he was
strong enough to do so. _You_ are not. No matter how many times you
swing that blade, it would _never_ reach me."

As for Rando, he arrived in yet another portal after figuring out where
he went and where Odaiba was. A black eye formed from where Natsuki
struck him. Shinkai and Myojin were again surrounded, outnumbered, and
outgunned by demons more powerful than them by one or two classes.

To Yutaro's vexation and Natsuki's chagrin, Yahiko yet again attacked
Suzaku with the sakabatou, with none of his strikes even coming near
the demon thanks to his control over metal.

The other (recovering) Crimson Sparrow then formed globules of plasma
that floated towards both Shinkai and Myojin. Natsuki, being the better
defensive wizard of the two, avoided the spheres, only for her to end up
facing Rando yet again.

"VAJRA!" the kabuki youkai screamed after a long spike emerged from his
elbows and almost impaled the Yutaro-controlled Natsuki had he not
countered with the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu's "INUKIDO!" which was a strike
from below that involved hitting the armpit pressure point to disable
an opponent.

It _did_ numb Rando's arm, though, but the strike gave the demon the
opportunity he was waiting for: Striking Xinhai's daughter down without
her countering with her damn cane.

Seeing that he'd lost feeling in one arm, he used his other arm to
deliver a "BURN KNUCKLE!" that blindsided Natsuki and set her up for a
"GENOCIDE CUTTER!" which was a rising vacuum-slice technique using his
feet instead of hands.

As for Yahiko, because he ended up too focused on finding even the
smallest gap in Suzaku's electromagnetic field defense (and aside from
the barrier, he had to contend with flying debris) using the pinpoint
timing and accuracy of his Inga Gami or Karmic God, he got ensnared by
the plasma orbs delivered by the other Suzaku.

His movements arrested, Myojin ended up a sitting duck for the metal-
manipulating Crimson Sparrow's hail of metal debris.

However, something made Suzaku stop short from turning Yahiko into
mincemeat (or, since he was a solidified soul, a pile of dissipating
reiki and ectoplasm), which resulted in him scourging instead of
grinding the revived Spirit World Warrior into ghostly mulch.


===


Via their control of radio waves, the electromagnetic Suzaku asked his
fellow metal-bending clone, 'You wasted my hyper gravitational orbs, you
moron! You should've turned him into an ectoplasmic stain on the
ground!'

As prideful as he was, the Crimson Sparrow telepathically apologized to
his other self on the same radio frequency. 'I'm sorry. The boy
surprised me, that's all.'

'...What? How?'

'It's nothing. I must have redirected too much of my energy to produce
that magnetic tempest. I got hit on the jaw just before he got trapped
by your hyper grav.'

'B-But he's using a metal sword! That's not supposed to happen!'

'Relax. It's okay. It was a light tap that surprised me more than
anything else. It didn't hurt a bit. Besides...'

After a brief pause, the Suzaku with the electron bubble asked,
'_Besides_ what?'

'He might be running out of reiki. When I hit him with the tempest,
there was no fuel left in his tank.'

'What do you mean?'

'I couldn't feel even a bit of spirit energy left in him. As in _zero_.
He might be close to dying... or rather, since he's a ghost, close to
ceasing to exist.'

'Then let's finish him off so that we can deal with Xinhai's kid. She's
more troublesome than the samurai boy is with her Mugen Dai no Hyogo.'

The Suzaku with orbiting metal debris chuckled. 'Are you prepared to
face Xinhai's wrath after we kill his precious daughter?'

The Crimson Sparrow inside a globe of electricity guffawed.

'I've heard that if she's killed, then Xinhai's power might become
halved, or at least significantly reduced. He's no match against us
seven as long as we have the Demon Sword in our possession anyway. No
one is. Not even the Chojin.'


===


While Natsuki pirouetted in order to reduce the impact of the vacuum
slashes of the Genocide Cutter (that was strangely reminiscent of her
father's Izuna strikes thanks to the fact that he was the reincarnation
of the man, Raijuta Isurugi, who used vacuum slices to cut her past
self's arm), she landed in time to see Yahiko get manhandled again by
the Suzakus.

Her jaw then dropped after Myojin's clothing turned into a Hawaiian
shirt and tight jeans, the impact from the metal storm taking its toll
on his body.

However, because she was not briefed on the nebulous nature of Spirit
World clothing, she could only look on in confusion while her ally
turned into what looked like a bleeding tourist.

"What are you looking at, Xinhai? Your opponent is _me_!" said an
indignant Rando, who began an elaborate combo full of flames and
whirling punches that he called the "128 SHIKI KONOKIZU!"

Natsuki made the mistake of blocking the first physical blow, which
resulted in her getting scorched and burned by the blasts of fire.

After Shinkai fell, she stopped the youkai's forward momentum by hitting
his kneecaps with the Tsuka no Gedan: Hiza Hijiki right before he could
complete his elaborate flaming dance.

Rando clipped her shoulders with dual Claws of Diva from both his
elbows, but she avoided the Blood Wind follow-up by driving a Suneharai
or an thrust from below aimed at his abdomen.

The sallow demon attempted to dodge the strike, but the nimble Shinkai
was quick enough to readjust her aim in the middle of her missed strike
and do a "Reprise" that smashed Rando's nose in.

"The name's _Shinkai_, not Xinhai," she told him afterwards.


===


To Be Continued...

Next: Pride versus Prejudice.

There's barely any interaction between Aoshi and Sanosuke in canon (in
both anime and manga), which I find a damn shame because they're the
perfect odd couple. They could do Manzai Comedy too, with Sanosuke as
the boke (comic) and Aoshi as the tsukkomi (straight man).

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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