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Hiei gets his revenge on Soujiro with the help of Kenshin and the Demon Sword.
However, he then has to face off with the mysterious and powerful Tenro.
The rest of the chapters of my Yuyu Hakusho and Rurouni Kenshin crossover fan fiction are available here. Enjoy.
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Demon Sword
A Yuyu Hakusho/Rurouni Kenshin Crossover Fan Fiction Story by Chester Castañeda
Original Concept by Chad Yang
The conclusion to Hiei and the Shin Roku Youkai's all-out war against the Chojin's Dai Shin Kan and Dai Kaijin. All Hell will break loose.
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 Gallup, 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.
Chapter 48: Daydream Generation (Part 6)
At the edge of Kuskokwim's North Fork, deep within the Kuskokwim Mountains...
"Aside from Toguro Ani and Suzaku, Yatsume had one more donor to his impressive collection of DNA... Didn't he, Gein?" asked Houji Sadojima, otherwise known as the Onmyouji.
"Of course. Don't you know anything about science?" answered Edward Gein, otherwise known as Doctor Shoji Sugino.
To the Shin Roku Youkai, the puppet master declared, "You will all make the perfect new specimens for my human-demon hybrid bodies! Please sacrifice yourselves for the greater good of metaphysical science!"
The haggard demons bunkered themselves deep into the Kuskokwim Mountains while the Yatsume legion continued to grow. Unstoppable. Irresistible. Their numbers spreading like the Black Plague.
Panicked shouts, complaints, and unanswered questions pierced through the shrill, hissing sounds of the clone army's collective breaths.
"They're endless! They won't stop regenerating and multiplying! What do we do?"
"Fuck it, let's turn them into ground meat! Beat them to a pulp! Squish them like crunchy little bugs!"
"Stop, you mohawked Neanderthal! You're only making things worse! The more of them you kill, the more they multiply!"
"Then what are we supposed to do, you know-it-all imp? Do you have a better idea?"
"I... Dammit, we have no time to talk! There are more of them coming!"
"I must've killed a hundred of them by now. Maybe a thousand or a million. I don't know. It certainly seems that way. We're going to die here in Alaska, aren't we?"
"Get a hold of yourself, Suzuki!"
"Watch out, li'l buddy! CHOKE ON THIS, YOU BASTARDS! AUUUGHH!"
"CHU! NOOO! Hiei, HELP US!"
Chu was among the first of the Shin Roku Youkai to fall against the Yatsumes, not because he was weaker than someone like Suzuki, but instead because he had spent all his energy battling Kuro Momotaro.
With no youki left, he tapped into his life energy and did a self-sacrificing Kamizake pilot dive bomb onto the swarm of Mumyois that were about to tear his li'l buddy, Rinku, limb from limb.
The Yatsumes instead converged on the sober drunkard, like locusts on wheat. The next to succumb to the might of the bandaged zombie army was the Traumatized Suzuki, who had a thousand-yard stare by the time they got to him.
Shishi bailed his former Team Uraotogi teammate out, emptying the valley full of Nameless Yatsumes with the strongest Chorus of a Thousand Skulls he could muster, which ended up looking like a Chorus of a Million Skulls instead.
The demonic version of Benkei fell to the ground, reverting to his original imp form, his demonic energy completely spent.
"SHISHI! No! Stay away from him, you bastards!" cried the Distraught Suzuki before robbing the Mumyois of their sight by absorbing all light in the area and shooting a photosynthetic beam of "RAINBOW CYCLONE REDUX!"
"Dammit. Finally, you've woken up," rasped the impish Shishiwakamaru.
The Chojin's Yatsume zombies kept on coming by the dozens, some even resorting to tearing each other apart to induce regeneration and increase their numbers, thus proving themselves as Gein's finest creations. His best puppets.
The bloody Hiei (his body covered not with his own blood, but the blood of the by-now hundreds of Yatsumes he eviscerated, amputated, and vivisected on his way towards his comrades) burned with righteous fury, his temperatures rising to "black body" temperature levels far quicker than Zeru ever could because of his Makai flames.
Soujiro went into battoujutsu position, interposing himself between the Yatsumes and the fiery Hiei.
"Out of my way, Chojin scum."
"I don't think so, Hiei-san."
The three-eyed fire demon held aloft the flaming Jaou-En-Satsu Ken with his left arm while stabbing forward his open right palm, intending to blast away the arachnid-like monsters in one fell swoop with multiple Dragons of Darkness Flames.
"JAOU-EN-SATSU...!"
As soon as Seta disappeared, Hiei's Jagan tracked his movement and slashed him with the Sword of Darkness Flame. The blade then shattered into hot, molten pieces, the Makai flames dissipating.
He then fell, writhing in pain and gnashing his teeth after a supersonic Nagasone Kotetsu the size of a kodachi sliced at his face.
It came faster than he could react. Faster than he could see or feel.
Before Hiei knew what happened, Soujiro ended up cutting to the quick and his surgically implanted Evil Eye.
"This is the Shun Ten Satsu (Instant Heaven Murder), Hiei-san. The only named technique in my arsenal aside from the Shukuchi," said the Heaven Sword, who seemingly teleported from out of nowhere, his half-melted blade unsheathed.
Were Soujiro's blade not cut in half, he might've successfully sliced the Jaganshi's skull apart as well.
The closest his Jagan had ever been touched was when Kurama blinded him with his own blood as a favor to Yusuke when they fought around C-to-D-Level in power.
This was far from a nostalgic experience. More like a traumatizing one.
Everything went black soon after.
In a cold, dank cave somewhere deep within the Kuskokwim Mountains, around halfway the total distance between Bethel and Anchorage...
Hiei stirred and awoke in a cold sweat, his two eyes wide open. This third eye closed. Throbbing. Instead of laying on the cave floor, his back was cushioned by a futon, for some reason.
He really had the devil's luck. He'd escaped death again.
"Hiei! You're awake. How are you feeling?"
"...."
He thought the tomboyish voice belonged to Mukuro, only to realize it was instead the effeminate voice of his partner-in-crime, Shuichi "Kurama" Minamino, a first-aid kit on his lap.
What the hell was he doing here in Alaska?
Seemingly reading his mind, Kurama told Hiei, "I went here using the Demon World portal in Anchorage you found as a short cut. I was afraid the Chojin might send the Shin Juppon Gatana after you or something as his backup to overwhelm the Roku Youkai."
"You always manage to think of everything, don't you, Kurama?"
"That's not true, or else this wouldn't have happened, Hiei."
The Jaganshi harrumphed. "That creepy smiling boy from the Chojin's Dai Shin Kan and some bandaged monstrosity who could make more clones of himself than Suzaku were more than enough to take us all down."
The flying shadow then got up, asking, "Where are the others?" but Kurama gently pushed him back to the sleeping bag and answered. "They're resting. These three were the only ones we were able to retrieve."
"Three...?" Hiei then spotted an indolent Rinku curled up to a ball, his hat gone, his eyes sightlessly staring at the rocky ground while he sat on his futon.
There was also Shishiwakamaru, who was unconscious and in his imp form, no bigger than a stuffed toy. Right by his side, tending to his wounds was the Bruised and Battered Suzuki, who wiped the tears welling up in his eyes from time to time.
"What happened to Chu? And how about Touya and Jin?" demanded the raspy fire demon.
Rinku softly whispered, "They got him. They got Chu. They dogpiled on him after he saved my life, and... I don't know what happened next."
The Sniffling Suzuki then added without turning away from Shishi, "Jin and Touya never returned from their fights with the Dai Kaijin. Whether they're alive, dead, or captured, we don't know."
Not knowing what else to say, the fire demon slipped back into the covers of his sleeping bag. The mission to bring down the Chojin's base of operations for reviving their old dead enemies was a complete failure.
He rubbed his temples, careful to not touch the recently damaged Jagan, realizing that it'd been wrapped in gauze by his redheaded, half-human comrade.
Hiei mumbled his thanks when he thought Kurama wasn't looking (but he was, as evidenced by his small smile afterwards).
The fire demon almost felt blind without his Jagan, even though the eyes he was born with had better vision than typical human eyes, capable of seeing long distances, ultraviolet and infrared light, and super fast movement.
Come to think of it, his forehead looked exactly like it did when he first got that artificial eye surgically implanted by Shigure, the operation almost killing him.
Hiei blinked. Sure enough, right behind the kneeling Kurama were Shigure the Osteopath and Kirin the Necromancer, Mukuro's former right-hand demon who'd been with her for 250 "glorious" years.
Yes, it was them again. The chuckleheads under Mukuro's employment.
"Oh, a couple of friends of yours from Mukuro's castle insisted on coming with me too," said Kurama as an afterthought.
"'Friends'? Really? Where?" Hiei deadpanned.
"Hiei..." the redhead began to admonish, but Shigure waved him off.
"Don't worry about it. He's exactly right. We aren't his friends," said the Doctor of Darkness. "We aren't his enemies either, at least for now, but we're definitely not his friends."
Kirin scratched his chin and crossed his arms. "If any of your reports are true, then the human-demon hybrid project that Mukuro-sama and I started has proven to be an astounding success!"
Ignoring the multiple glares aimed at his armored person, the lobster-looking immortal continued, "However, it doesn't sit well with us to see our brainchild stolen by some upstart wannabe Makai warlord. Something must be done about it."
"Humph," Hiei's lips curled even as a migraine pulsated on his forehead after he knotted his brows together. "I had with me six S-Levels with power levels ranging from 100,000 to 300,000, and we were almost killed by these ghosts, zombies, and supernatural priests of the Overfiend."
"So?" asked Kirin with a shrug.
"You're both weaker than any one of the New Six Demons. You yourself can't break 90,000 in terms of power. Shigure here still hasn't cleared the lower ranks of the 77 Elite Guard."
"Middle ranks!" corrected Shigure defensively.
"What the hell do you think you two can do to help?" dared the flying shadow.
Kirin wagged his finger at his current superior. "I know what I'm doing. I originally came up with the idea for the project. Besides, Hiei-sama, you have other things to worry about."
The two-eyed Jaganshi growled, "Do what you want," before slipping out of his futon's covers, standing up on wobbly legs, and searching for what remained of his Western-style longsword.
As he expected, it was sliced apart cleanly by the Shun Ten Satsu, ending up no longer than a bolo knife. 'It would have to do.'
"And where do you think you're going?" demanded Shuichi while two of the remaining three New Roku Youkai simply stared at Hiei with glassy eyes.
"I'm going to fight the Dai Shin Kan," answered Hiei with no preamble and nary a stutter.
"Alone? With a damaged Jagan? With no Kokuryuha or any worthwhile flame powers to speak of? With barely anything left of your shattered sword?"
Kurama's statements pierced deeper than Soujiro's Nagasone Kotetsu did on Hiei's Evil Eye. "And you dare scoff at Kirin's offer to help? You're the crazy one here."
"Kirin and Shigure are now involved in this mess. That means, if they die, sooner or later, Mukuro herself would have to address this Dai Shin Kan problem with the full force of her Elite 77," Hiei answered back. He sighed, his shoulder slumping.
"By the time they'll get there, Touya, Jin, and Chu would've been experimented on by Gein and turned into one of the Dai Kaijin. I still have enough youki to rescue them and, at the very least, help fix some of the mistakes I've already made."
Kurama pursed his lips and shook his head. "I hate that about you, you know? You always have to go to extremes to get what you want. There's always a simpler, more efficient solution."
The half-youko then stood up and presented the Jaganshi with a weapon that he'd been hiding behind him all this time. "For once, stack the odds in your favor. You still have an ace left in your sleeve, after all. It's time to use this."
"This...?" both Rinku and Suzuki repeated, the dark cloud hovering above their heads clearing. Even the imp form of Shishiwakamaru was roused in his slumber, yawning and rubbing his eyes.
Hiei's eyes widened, their pupils constricting. He gulped. If he hadn't been so afraid of using that from the start, then none of this would've happened. Maybe.
As for Kirin, he had his back turned on the whole affair... but he couldn't help but do a sidelong glace regardless, unable to feign disinterest for too long.
"W-Wait, is that what I think it is?" asked Shigure, who sounded like a bell chime on the door of an old-fashioned store every time he moved. "The prized possession that Reikai finally unsealed to fight the Chojin with!"
Minamino nodded at his penultimate opponent in the Demon World Unification Tournament. "Yes. It's the Youtou Shinnoken. The Reikai Artifact capable of magnifying your power by multiple levels."
Amidst the gasps of almost everyone present except Hiei and Kuraam, the human avatar of the Legendary Youko then asked the Jaganshi, "Will you deny taking possession of the Demon Sword again?"
'Kurama, you dirty bastard,' Hiei growled to himself. Thanks to the guilt trip, there was no way he'd get away with denying use of the Youtou Shinnoken now without looking like a fool or a heartless bastard.
"You mean we now have a chance to rescue Chu and the others before they can become zombies? We can still fight, Hiei?" asked Rinku with shining eyes while grabbing hold of the fire demon's pant leg.
At the background, Suzuki wondered aloud the obvious: "Why did you refuse to use that sword anyway? We could've totally used that earlier!"
The half-conscious Shishiwakamaru said, "If you're not going to use the Demon Sword, then I will. You should've taken it with you anyway so that the rest of us could've used it."
Dammit. Hiei rubbed his bushy hair with a white streak, grunting at the piece of painful hindsight offered to him by a freshly woken imp demon.
Kurama could only smile and wipe the sweat off his brow when Suzuki also brought up, "While we're at it, why not have Kurama use it? Are you hiding something from us? Does that Reikai Item have side effects like my Dark Items?"
With one final exhale, Hiei took the sword by its handle, looked Kurama in the eye, and said, "Fine. But I don't want to hear anything about this goddamn sword by the time that we're through with this mission."
"???" was the general consensus of everyone present who hadn't laid a finger on the supposed ancient artifact known as the Demon Sword: Heart of the Sword.
A few days later, back somewhere in Mount McKinley, Anchorage, Alaska...
"Ah. Will you look at that? Hiei-san and his group is still alive, and they've even gotten reinforcements in such a short period of time!" said Soujiro while looking through his binoculars from the veranda of the Chojin's hidden Anchorage headquarters overlooking Mount McKinley.
Based on the Cheyenne Mountain Nuclear Bunker built back in the recently ended Cold War, the Savanna (also known as the McKinley Mountain Bunker) served as the current base of operations for Edward Gein's human-demon experimentations, maintained by around 200 personnel.
Throughout the Savannah's history, around 5,000 men, women, and children (human and demon) were held captive in the establishment, most of them composed of Class-C-to-D slaves, the homeless, runaways, Makai beasts, kidnapped hitchhikers, illegal immigrants, the dead in absentia (legally dead), escaped convicts, and various other people.
Less than a few hundred remained. Some were released from the facility in the guise of them being "abducted" by "aliens". Others weren't so fortunate.
In short, it had around the same amount of people estimated to have been held in captivity by the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army (the official name of Unit 731).
This, of course, didn't include the 500 or so Nameless Yatsumes lying in wait within the secret base's basement, put in suspended animation for the time being, only to be awakened for use against the Spirit World forces in short notice.
The entire paramilitary complex was funded by President Houji Sadojima's Celestial Constellation Orion (CCO) Zaibatsu as well as money pooled from the Yakuza Family headed by Tenro and the Shinjuku Underground Society led by Triad Mountain Master Feng Xinhai and associates.
"Hmm," Houji scratched his chin then stood up from his chair, his mink coat and business suit unfurling like wings. "They must've used one of those rifts we opened from here to the Demon World to get here."
"Hiei-san even has an exact number of new recruits too, since he is back to having six demons with him. Although I'm not sure if that red-haired girl is a demon," added the solidified ghost after seeing the Jaganshi's new party members on the monitor, captured by CCO Enterprise's spy cameras.
Sure enough, aside from the cloaked and bandaged Hiei (Seta particularly smirked after seeing the red stain on the fire demon's headband) being accompanied by "surviving" Shin Roku Youkai members Shishiwakaru, Suzuki, and Rinku, he was joined by... a man with multiple piercings and a hula-hoop blade, an armored demon with dreadlocks, and some redhead.
Houji tilted his head to the side before summoning a shikigami to scope out the site; whatever his familiar saw, he himself saw as well. "That's Kurama, Sou. A demon disguised as a boy."
"Ooooh. So he's like Kamatari-san, huh?" chuckled Seta. "I wonder what happened to Kamatari-san. I haven't seen him since the dissolution of the original Juppon Gatana."
Like the Cheyenne Mountain Nuclear Bunker, the facilities of the Savannah were designed to survive a 30-megaton nuclear explosion within a nautical mile, 1.2 miles, or 1.9 kilometers. The base had five acres or two hectares tunneled within part of a spur of McKinley's massif.
The building etched out of stone like the Mount Rushmore National Memorial was completed back in the Seventies, around the time when Anchorage was still a raw and untamed city filled with seedy bars, adult bookstores, and houses of worship.
When people had a "Don't ask, don't tell," policy about everything. When urban legends and missing hitchhikers were the norm.
When serial killers like Ted Bundy and the Zodiac Killer went on nationwide murder sprees and around the time when Jeffrey Dahmer had his first kill.
When Americans went missing left and right, their pictures put on the back of milk cartons and stapled posters, but were never seen again.
After all, contrary to popular belief, every single year in the United States alone, more than 2,000 people disappeared and were never found or heard from again, dead or alive.
On that note, a nondescript, bespectacled man that looked thirty but was actually about seventy or so in age emerged from the basement of the complex after tending to the Yatsumes and several other new guests that were preserved within huge glass tubes full of amniotic fluid in suspended animation, his hands behind his back.
He smiled at the Dai Shin Kan, put on his cloth skull mask, and chimed in, "So they've finally arrived? Won't they be in for a surprise when they get here! I personally can't wait."
Amidst the snowy fields surrounding Mount McKinley's hidden Savannah fortress (that the Spirit World forces only found through the Spirit Detector's radar function) came Hiei, what was left of the Shin Roku Youkai, and his reinforcements from the Demon World.
The whole group had a sullen, uncertain air looming above them like the Sword of Damocles. In fact, everyone, from Kurama to Rinku, Shigure to Shishiwakamaru, and Suzuki to Kirin all looked at the eye-injured Jaganshi like a bomb waiting to explode.
The same Jagan User who was forced to wield the infamous Reikai Artifact, the Demon Sword.
"Are we really going to be all right with Hiei's...?"
"Shut up, Rinku," berated the imp form of Shishi.
In other words, the Youtou Shinnoken doubled as the Sword of Damocles right about now (the same sword that hung above the head of Damocles).
As the story went, King Dionysius offered Damocles to sit on his throne after the man praised him for having a fortunate life. The hanging sword tied to a single hair from a horse's tail held by its pommel served to teach Damocles the lesson that with great power came great responsibility.
From atop a cliff emerged Houji the Onmyouji, Soujiro the Heaven Sword, and Gein the Puppet Master (who was carried by his Iwanbo Version 3.1).
"So you've used an Onmyouji to facilitate your soul-to-body transfers now, Sugino?" Kirin addressed Gein, from one masked man to another.
"Ah. Kirin. Long time, no see," said the puppet master to his old boss. "Do you like what I've done with Mukuro's pet project?"
"No, not one bit," answered the necromancer. "I'm actually here to cancel it, you little thief."
Edward shrugged. "You can try..."
It was the Onmyouji who first noticed the weapon that Hiei had with him. "T-That sword! I've seen that sword before! Back in the temple of that old grandmother! And back in Shibuya as well! It's the...!"
"That's right," said Minamino, who summoned a Rose Whip from a seed hidden in his scalp whose growth he accelerated and mutated with his youki. "The Demon Sword."
The redhead's green eyes then narrowed at the curious, wide-eyed smile of Seta the Ten Ken, who inquired in kind, "Demon Sword? What is that?"
Sadojima also stared at the speedster with an unreadable face and a mouth as thin as a line drawn on paper by a pencil and ruler.
Based on Shuichi's shared memories of Soujiro from Kenshin, it appeared that the happy ghost kid hadn't changed much for the past century or so.
"I've heard so much about that sword and its guardian," Puppet Master Gein rubbed his hands together, his breath forming fog. "I've seen it in action against my fellow Shin Ju, but how would it fare against the Dai Shin Kan's Ten Ken? Or even the Nameless Yatsumes?"
As if on cue, a dozen or so arachnid-like Mumyois, with their loose bandages, cloth masks, and sharp teeth, emerged from all corners of the Savannah's front yard, spider-walking their way towards the gathered combined forces of Reikai and Makai like Regan MacNeil from "The Exorcist".
The remaining Roku Youkai (San Youkai?) plus Shigure, Kirin, and Kurama flanked Hiei, who then raised his katana and drew it from its scabbard.
Out came a reverse-edged blade, which made the grinning Soujiro stand stock-still.
"What's with that sickle you're holding? Is that a scimitar?" a Yatsume asked.
Hiei answered the bloodthirsty shinobu horde. Or perhaps someone else did on his behalf, but using his voice.
"I do not wish to hurt any of you, that I don't. I've made a vow to not kill, that I did. I wouldn't be able to kill with the kind of sword I have anyway."
Everyone looked at the current form of the Demon Sword; indeed, the sharp end of the blade was on its inside curve instead of its outside curve, making the weapon look like a sickle.
The Ten Ken's eyes widened in wonder. 'Wait, isn't that a sakabatou (reverse-edged sword)? Why is the Youtou Shinnoken a sakabatou? Does that mean the guardian of the Demon Sword is...?'
One of many Yatsume spat at Hiei with a slavering tongue, "A vow not to kill? Against hanyou (half-demons) and immortals? Are you out of your mind, Jaganshi Hiei? Maybe Seta Soujiro sliced up more than your Evil Eye!"
"A sword is a weapon. The art of swordsmanship is learning how to kill. That is the truth," orated Hiei. "A sword that protects is sweet and innocent talk that only those whose hands have never been stained with the blood of men can believe. But, to tell you the truth, I much prefer that over the truth, indeed I do!"
All everyone heard for miles within Mount McKinley was silence.
"...."
"Is this guy for real?" asked a Yatsume, breaking the ice.
Afterwards, most of the Jaganshi's comrades palmed their faces while the rest of the Chojin's forces laughed their hearts out, particularly the sneering Yatsumes, who howled like jackals.
"We're doomed," said the Resigned Suzuki. "We're totally doomed. Hiei has turned into a peacenik hippie! He might set himself on fire and burn to death in protest next!"
"You've completely lost your mind, Jaganshi! GO TO HELL!" said another one of the Nameless. "What can you possibly do to us, now that your Jagan is damaged?"
Several Mumyois then muttered in chorus, "His non-killing vow sounds mighty familiar, though."
Just as the first of the Yatsumes arrived to rip the Jagan-less Hiei to shreds, the burr-haired fire demon with a skunk's streak on his hair pummeled the Chojin infantry with a barrage of supersonic slices, which made them fly everywhere like bowling pins after a strike.
"!!!"
Soujiro's smile went wider and wider, almost to the point of splitting his face. That move... It was the...!
"HITEN MITSURUGI RYU! RYU SOU SEN! DOU RYU SEN!" With the Jaganshi's demonic reflexes mixed with Kenshin's swordsmanship school, the deadly A-Plus Mumyois were reduced to rag dolls tumbling inside a dryer.
The most amazing thing about this was, true to Hiei's word (or rather, Kenshin's), not one of the Yatsumes were killed or sliced apart, which prevented them from triggering their cloning and regeneration.
The six demons (as opposed to the New Six Demons) looked at each other, mouths agape (except Kurama, who only grinned). This might work.
"Oh, cool! He's become one of those peacemakers! The ones who solve violence with more violence!" cheered the Droll Suzuki while Rinku hit him upside the head with a yoyo for his remark.
"I knew it! It's BATTOUSAI! Battousai has possessed that demon's body through the Demon Sword!" cried Houji. He then commanded, "ATTACK! KILL HIM! DON'T LET UP! OVERWHELM HIM WITH YOUR NUMBERS, YATSUME-TACHI!"
"BATTOUSAI, YOU SAY!? I've been waiting centuries for my revenge on the Hitokiri Battousai, the man who wiped out the Yaminobu!" the legion of Yatsumes said before jumping Hiei from behind.
A free-for-all melee ensued, led by Shishiwakamaru of all people, who recovered enough energy in the past few days to transform back into his humanoid Fake Oniwakamaru form. "BAKUTO DOKU SHOKU SOU!"
"Don't forget to follow Kenshin's, I mean, Hiei's lead!" called out Kurama to his allies. "Try to incapacitate the Yatsumes, but don't kill them, or else they'll end up multiplying like the head of the Greek Hydra!"
Yoyos and tops, rainbow lasers, and flying skulls made of smoke and death flew all over Mount McKinley along with the army of Yatsumes. Not to be outdone, Kurama, Kirin, and Shigure also showed off their abilities.
Instead of having his Venus Death-Trap piranha plants munch on the Yatsumes to a pulp, Kurama instead tied them up with the same Kudzu technique he deployed in his fight with the Kanji Killer, Jine Udo's serial killer reincarnation.
Shigure, in turn, utilized the Sword Cyclone to blow the hapless, helpless Yatsumes away all at once like it was Tuesday in Kansas City, his Rinka Enreki Tou (Will-o'-the-Wisp Circle Stone Sword) capable of creating hurricanes that were somewhere between the F2 twisters of Rando and Xinhai or the F5 typhoons of Jin.
So he made F3-F4 tornados in terms of speed (with winds ranging from 158-260 miles per hour or 254-418 kilometers per hour).
When Shigure ended up back-to-back against Kurama... his last opponent in the Demon World Unification Tournament... he asked, "Did Hiei tell you anything about my...?"
"Uh, hey, Shigure! Gotta go! I can see more Yatsumes gathering over there!" Minamino cut off his last foe from the Makai Tournament (who committed suicide in shame of his defeat, only to be revived again by his boss, Mukuro).
"...KURAMA! There are Yatsumes gathering over here too!" yelped Shigure at the receding form of the redhead before boomeranging his Will-o'-the-Wisp Circle Stone Sword at a couple of Mumyois. "Damn you! You're running away from me, aren't you?!"
Kirin contributed the most among the six demons in the battle. He chanted verses from an ancient, dead Makai language, which resulted in youki to seep out of the bodies of several of the Yatsume clones.
Even after he was decapitated by one of the long-armed claws of the Nameless, his armored frame still kept moving. The doppelgangers that he used his curse on were then smashed into chunky bits and pieces, his suit producing pinchers with saw-like teeth to make the job easier.
The Yatsumes that Kirin killed never respawned. They simply died, their souls going straight into the necromancer's body, rejuvenating him.
"Even if that Demon-Sword-possessed Hiei vowed not to kill you, I'm under no obligation to do the same," said Kirin, his eyes glowing an ethereal gleam after his body reattached his head to his neck. "Now come at me, any of you who dare."
Even the legion of Yatsumes had to take pause and back away from the dangerous ex-right-hand-man of one of the Three Makai Kings.
"I've been waiting for this day for a long time, HIMURA-SAN!" babbled Soujiro before blocking a slash from Hiei's battoujutsu with his own, knocking both of them back along with several Yatsumes.
Too fast for the naked eye to see, all that was left of the Soujiro that ran at top speed of the Shukuchi were exploding footfalls that traveled everywhere. Like the poltergeist that he was.
Everyone else began to employ defensive maneuvers. Shishiwakamaru had his skull ghouls herd Yatsumes towards his energy-based Onkosho Bakuheki (Cage of Hell) or his Dark Item, Shide no Hagoromo (Cape of No Return) that teleported them elsewhere a la Kuwabara's Jigen Tou.
As for Rinku, he also served as cattle rustler to the Mumyois, leading them into Kurama's Kudzu Grass or Shishi's Cages of Hell by lassoing them with his Devil Yoyos or knocking them out with his Satan Top.
Finally, after the Skull-Masked Suzuki used rainbow-colored strings to control the Yatsumes into battling themselves rather than him (in mimicry of their creator, Gein the Puppet Master), he shifted from one costume to another.
Now sporting a sea captain's cap and uniform with a huge anchor crest on his left breast pocket as well as a white beard and the stern face of a crusty, fifty-something old man, Admiral Suzuki combined his color palette powers together into a prism-shaped energy and blasted it forward.
"Take this, Gamilan! HADOU HO! (WAVE SPACE CANON!)"
"...Gamilan?" repeated Sadojima and Gein.
Edward had his Iwanbo Version 3.1 swallow him whole so that he could better control it, then the humanoid-demonoid hybrid lizard meat puppet crossed its arms in order to take the full brunt of the variagated, technicolor beam, the resulting explosion strong enough to knock the Onmyouji over thanks to the shockwave.
Like Toguro Ototo (which it shared DNA with), the third, muscular Iwanbo unit suffered no significant damage from the energy projection.
"That Suzuki is probably a better mimic than even Rando himself, I reckon," said the puppet master. "I think it's about time we kicked things up a notch, Houji."
The sprawling, indignant Sadojima snorted at Gein, got up, dusted himself off, shut his eyes, and chanted something under his breath while neon-colored holographic transmutation circles appeared below his feet and in front of his face.
The cold earth rumbled and split open, revealing six demons that the Onmyouji imbued from the get go with the Chojin's negative energy to magnify their powers like the Youtou Shinnoken would to its wielder.
Three of them were the missing Touya the Hexed Ice Master, Jin the Wind User, and Chu the Drunken Master. They all had glassy eyes, blank stares, and indolent expressions on their faces.
The jaws of Shishiwakamaru, Suzuki, and Rinku dropped, especially the adolescent-looking yoyo master's; it was Chu who saved his life from the onslaught of the Yatsumes, after all.
The Frankensteinian professor professed, "It was short notice and imperfect, but I was able to replicate the brainwashing techniques of my former colleague, Doctor Ichigaki. Your comrades are now part of the Dai Kaijin, whether they like it or not."
"N-No. Ch-Chu!" stuttered a moist-eyed Rinku.
"Liii'l buuuddy..."
As for the remaining three demons that emerged from the soil directly above the Savannah's underground basement laboratory, they were the healed-up surviving members of the Dai Kaijin: Zeru the Fire Master, Kuro Momotaro the Shape-Shifter, and Risho the Earth Charmer.
The Great Monsters went after Kurama, Shigure, and Kirin respectively under the Onmyouji's orders.
The tides of battle had turned. The rest of the Yatsumes crawled out of the same holes that the three Dai Kaijin and the three (of six) Roku Youkai who were brainwashed emerged from, finally awakened.
Soon enough, Soujiro and Hiei ended up inside the facilities of Savannah itself, with dozens of Yatsumes flying all over the place, right through the blast door Houji bought in secret from NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command).
As for the staff, they took cover elsewhere (they had nowhere else to run... not without a sled, a snowmobile, a helicopter, or mountain-climbing equipment including overnight tents and supplies).
"RYU KAN SEN TSUMUJI!" screamed the third-eye-blind Jaganshi at the Heaven Sword. He then screamed for a different reason after his fellow speedster ducked and stabbed him in the chest.
As the fight went on, Seta memorized Hiei's timing by heart, to the point of avoiding the Ryu Kan Sen and its many variants while counterattacking at the same time.
"GUAAAGH!" Hiei tumbled down, bathing in his own blood.
"No hard feelings. Right, Youkai-san? If you were better, faster, or stronger, then you'd win and prove the righteousness of your cause. But that's not the case."
Soujiro went up another gear, chopping Hiei up like a (bonsai?) tree since, thanks to his superior footwork and better angles, he outlanded the demon 3:1. He was still the faster of the two.
"The flesh of the weak is food for the strong. Make me stronger than ever before through your defeat, Hiei-san!"
The Kenshin inside the Jaganshi then asked the spirit using his own effeminate voice, "What happened to you after our first fight? Didn't you realize that the Law of Nature isn't your answer?"
Like a cut guitar string, something snapped inside of Soujiro as he remembered.
Memories of his failure to defeat Himura. Memories of the Juppon Gatana.
Memories of him never finding his own answer even after a lifetime of searching.
Seta shrieked and waved his sword around in wide arcs, which put the bleeding, lightheaded Hiei on the defensive.
Like dousing a flame with gasoline, Himura's accusations only made the Ten Ken angrier and faster, his "adrenalin" (or whatever ectoplasmic, spiritual equivalent of that chemical was) coursing through his ghostly veins.
Amidst the continuous spray of Hiei's ichor and sweat, the Kenshin inside him read through the malice in the vengeful spirit's proverbial heart.
And thusly attacked with a hundred Ryu Sou Sen strikes.
"You've already lost. Indeed, you have."
The situation was reversed. The ratio of hits between the Jagan-damaged Hiei and the mentally broken Soujiro remained 3:1, but this time every one hit the Heaven Sword made, the fire demon returned three.
The blunt-force trauma from the sakabatou might not have cut or lacerated the solidified ghost up, but it still left enough of an impression to cause internal damage and make Soujiro's astral projection flicker and fade.
Whatever shortcomings Hiei had, Kenshin filled in with the skills he brought to the table. And vice-versa.
Meanwhile, outside the Savannah human-demon hybrid experimentation complex...
While Kurama and Zeru engaged in battle (which was mostly composed of the latter burning all the former's demonically mutated plant monsters or weapons), Shigure ended up being disarmed by Kuro Momotaro, who now had a different version of his Chimera Pelt.
Kuro had the dog head on his face instead of his chest, canine hind legs rather than monkey's feet, and an extra pair of arms with avian (or reptilian) claws.
As for the quartz-armored Risho, he played it safe (as usual) and led the Yatsume army against the soul-sucking necromancer known as Kirin.
From time to time, because his opponent only attacked after stealing the souls of the Mumyois, the earth charmer aided their regeneration and multiplication by making it rain quartz crystal shards on both them and the armored ex-second-in-command of Mukuro.
The remaining three non-brainwashed Shin Roku Youkai weren't faring all that well against the trio of their brainwashed comrades. The Colorful Suzuki was stuck inside an energy bubble, unable to attack the F5 force of nature that was Jin... while cosplaying as the blind, multi-eared mazoku and one of the Three Kings, Yomi.
The same could be said of the swordfight between Touya (using the Ice Cutlass) and Shishiwakamaru (using the Banshee Shriek Sword). It didn't help that Shishi also had to deal with endless Yatsumes right and left as well as underneath (because they were good burrowers).
Finally, like a child against a fully grown man, Rinku had most of his toys broken by the drunkard who beat him up like... well, a lot of unreported domestic violence cases: With a kid who didn't want to fight back against an intoxicated loved one and parental figure.
"Chu! WAKE UP!" A basic Devil Yoyo throw to the head resulted in the weapon breaking on Chu's hard noggin. The child demon attempted more complicated maneuvers like McBride Roller Coaster (a looping string trick to entangle the alcoholic), but the larger, older demon merely dodged everything with his swaying movements.
Right about the time when the mind-controlled Chu was about to blow Rinku's brains out with a Onigoroshi energy ball, he got a swift kick to the nuts care of another practitioner of Chinese martial arts... of the Monkey Fist variety.
"You wanna pick on people smaller than you, huh? Then why don't you pick on me?"
"K-Kotei-chan!" said Rinku, blinking back his tears. Nevertheless, the zombie-like Chu grabbed his not-girlfriend's tail and lift her while she was upside-down, which made her let out a small, "KYA!"
This made the yoyo master appear in many different places at the same time and pummel his friend with what looked like a thousand yoyos.
"LET GO OF HER!"
The lumbering Chu released his grip on the monkey girl, whom Rinku caught in his arms. Barely.
She was larger than him since it took a while for certain demons to hit puberty (hence Hiei and Yukina's shortness).
"KUZU RYU SEN!"
This time, with Kenshin's bloodlust-reading skills and Hiei's hair-trigger reflexes combined, the two synchronized souls estimated the exact fraction of a second when Soujiro was most vulnerable and charged with impunity.
The ragged Seta almost fell, but willed his wobbly legs to stand.
"Stand down, Ten Ken. That you must," warned Hiei.
"I... refuse." And with that, the Heaven Sword returned the favor of being hit by the Nine-Headed Dragon Flash by doing his own Nine-Headed Dragon Flash with a blade whose edge was on the outside curve of the blade.
Hiei reeled, bathed in blood, his bandages coming off, particularly the bandage on his forehead that covered his damaged Jagan.
"It all boils down to this again, Himura-san. Hiei-san." And with that, Seta sheathed his replacement Nagasone Kotetsu sword and fell into his sword-drawing stance.
The shaking Jaganshi backed off with a half-open, bloodshot, and cloudy Evil Eye, sheathed the Youtou Shinnoken, and also assumed the battoujutsu (or old-school, Edo-Era iaijutsu) pose.
"I'm warning you. I've seen the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki (Flash of the Heavenly Flying Dragon). I know how to counter it," said Soujiro.
"You can try, that you can," said Hiei.
It was over in one-twentieth of a second. As usual, the Instant Heaven Murder could match the supersonic speed of the Flash of the Heavenly Flying Dragon.
However, what Seta did was duck low as soon as he saw Hiei land his tile-cracking left foot on the Savannah's floor to execute the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki, blocking the initial strike with a sheathe-first imitation Sou Ryu Sen Ikazuchi.
Expecting the vacuum to occur after the first slash hit, Soujiro tensed for another fraction of a second before letting his Shukuchi-powered feet and Nagasone Kotetsu fly.
A shining flare of colorful light later, and Hiei ended up disarmed and with a diagonal slash on his chest, exposing his innards, the bloody Demon Sword whirling out of his grip.
"I WIN! I've proven I'm the strongest, Himura-san!" said the smiling Ten Ken, his anger gone, his bloodlust sated. His guard down.
Hiei then snarled, "Congratulations. Too bad you're fighting me now instead of that archaic-speaking pacifist," before unleashing the might of the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, his injuries and damaged Jagan partially healed by the power-magnifying abilities of the Youtou Shinnoken.
"Ehhh?" was the last word Seta said before the Jaou-En-Satsu Kokuryuha blew him and the Savannah into kingdom come, effectively decimating the two-hectare establishment.
Kotei wasn't the only one who came to help out Hiei's team of demons to crack down on the Chojin's reprehensible and immoral operation headed by an actual unrepentant doctor from Unit 731 itself.
Trapped inside another dense barrier that the Yatsume clones clawed at or burrowed under (it was a cube-shaped energy shield that blocked them from all corners) were the demon girls Juri (the fish girl referee), Koto (the cat/fox girl announcer), and the owner of the transparent youki walls, Ruka (who was paid to entrap Genkai and Hiei in the middle of an Ankoku Bujutsukai match once upon a time).
"Touya! What are you doing, fighting your own comrades?" demanded Koto in true announcer fashion, complete with a megaphone. "If you're suffering from Ichigaki-style brainwashing, then snap out of it now! I know you're better than this!"
Touya ended up distracted long enough to get his back blasted by a stray fireball from Zeru, who said, "Whoops, my hand slipped."
Shishiwakamaru then noticed the parasitic organ or tumor attached to the ice demon's back, which he ripped apart with his Ma Koku Mei Zan Ken.
With a toss of her hair, the redheaded buxom beauty known as Ruka called out, "JIN! Are you going to waste all that time, effort, and training in the Human World, only to be used as a zombie by some evil overlord? You're not half the man I imagined you to be!"
"R-Ruka..." Hearing Ruka's voice distracted Jin long enough for the Opportunistic Suzuki to vaporize the mind-controlling organ that manipulated his ally's thoughts with a colorful laser beam.
"How's that, Juri-chan? Pretty impressive, huh?" He cupped his hand over his ear to hear his (almost) girlfriend's words of encouragement.
She said to him, "I'm dumping you. Don't ever call me again to invite me into another penis festival or something, you perverted sicko," while her two fellow demons inside the barrier had large beads of sweat form on their foreheads.
Speechless and broken-hearted, the variagated energies inside the Depressed Suzuki turned black and white, his youki becoming a yin-yang mix of jaki (negative energy) and seikouki (or saint light energy).
From there, Suzuki's brilliant Saint Light Ki collapsed unto itself, forming a singularity. Destroying the plague that would've spread all over Alaska had it not been contained within the black hole vacuum created by the rainbow demon that sucked up everything unto it.
Soon after, darkness swallowed the light as well as the nearest Yatsumes within Suzuki's vicinity as he turned himself into a maelstrom. A Walking Event Horizon. And so those unfortunate Mumyois suffered the worst death that Suzuki could produce: Spaghettification.
Stephen Hawking described the phenomenon as a gravitational pull from a black hole's event horizon that was so intense, it could stretch someone like a spaghetti noodle from head to toe.
Her arms crossed, Juri muttered to herself, "You can do it after all if you try hard enough, you big dummy."
So what possessed these untrained demon girls with no fighting experience whatsoever to come to the danger zone known as the Savannah?
The three were chaperoned by an actual fighter, a high-level S-Class martial artist demon known as Natsume, a comrade of Raizen's.
She made short work of the Yatsumes before her. It'd take roughly 500 of them to take her down, and even then, it'd be a close fight.
Afer knocking Chu off his feet with one energized punch to the jaw. she then drank a mouthful of vodka and spat it on his face.
"Is this the limit of your conviction? Look at you." Natsume harrumphed. "And you had the audacity of saying you're a man worthy of marrying me!"
"N-Natsume-chan...!?"
Woken by the sweet taste of alcohol and the bitterness of being rebuked by his love interest, Chu punched himself hard in the face and flexed his back muscles in order to expel the heart-like teratoma attached to his spine.
He snatched the gourd of vodka from the pigtailed girl's hands and drank it all in one gulp. "Aaaah. It's no Onigoroshi, but that hit the spot."
Chu then waggled his eyebrows at Natsume. "So you went to find me all the way here in Australia, huh?"
"Alaska," she corrected.
"So you admit it?" he rejoined.
The red-faced Natsume proceeded to grab Chu by the ankles and use him as her weapon of choice against the multitude of Mumyois still left standing, pushing him around like a wheelbarrow to plow on all the enemies present.
"Wait, wait! You don't need to do this! Gein's brainwashing has worn off!"
"Yeah, I know."
"WAAAAAGH! FORGIVE ME, NATSUME-CHAAN!"
Kotei and Rinku also teamed up, making sure to protect the perimeter of the barrier where Koto, Juri, and Ruka hid. The monkey demon girl either knocked the Yatsumes that the yoyo master dragged towards her or vice-versa.
Meanwhile, Touya and Zeru exchanged glances before attacking other opponents. Settling their draw would have to wait. The ice demon then gave Koto a nod before freezing a Mumyoi who attacked him from behind solid.
The blond fire demon already had his hands full against Kurama anyway, fighting off a greenhouse's worth of plants such as the Makai no Ojigi Sou (Ojigi Plant), Shoku You Shokubutsu (Death Tree), and the Death Plant (Shimaneki Sou).
"Hurricane Jin" was particularly helpful in blowing away dozens of Yatsumes into the Gloomy Suzuki's black hole, like the living, sentient embodiment of the Kamikaze (Divine Wind), the major typhoons in 1274 and 1281 that both times kept the Mongolian invasion fleets under Kublai Khan from reaching Japan.
Kirin shifted tactics, using his necromancer powers to have evil spirits under his command possess the growing army of Yatsumes, which made them turn on the other Mumyois. The coward Risho then retreated from the creepy immortal demon soon after.
As for the scuffed-up Shigure, even though Kuro Momotaro ended up immune to the sharpness of his Rinka Enreki Tou blade, he used chiropractic techniques to dislocate every bone in his body, making him unable to move.
As expected of an osteopath.
The Onmyouji slapped his forehead, the tides of war turning right before his weary eyes. "How can things possibly get worse?"
Just then, unfamiliar demons emerged from the depths of the recently discovered entrance to the Demon World in Mount McKinley, who then also assaulted the Yatsumes who weren't otherwise occupied with the New Six Demons (and their might-be, might-be-not girlfriends).
Highly trained S-Level demons, at that.
Two of the new arrivals... one a tentacle monster with a single eye, the other a living nightmare made of cosmic darkness and a head full of spines... attacked Houji and the Iwanbo-suited Gein.
They were from Mukuro's Inner Circle. The cavalry had finally arrived.
Like the 300 Spartans who fought off 120,000 Persians in the Battle of Thermopylae, so too did the Inner Circle deal with hundreds of Yatsumes.
However, because every S-Level warrior within the Elite 77 could take on at least 10 Yatsumes and the most powerful among them could take on at least 44 Yatsumes, they were actually the superior army.
It'd take a thousand Mumyois to deal with them all.
"You took your sweet time to get here!" said Kirin, who now served as the puppet master to Gein's shinobi meat puppets, ironically enough.
"Oh please, third-in-command! We arrived in the nick of time!" said a rookie member of the inner circle (they had a rotation of members that allowed lower ranked youkai from Mukuro's gang to rise up the ranks).
It was Zakuro, another armored demon who, in the Demon World Unification Tournament, vowed to kill Urameshi and Yomi. He was also part of Hiei's patrol to return humans who got lost in the Demon World
However, Kirin kept the arrogant novice in line with a simple statement. "Do you think it's wise to talk in such a flippant manner to a master of life and death?"
A second later and out came Soujiro from the exploding windows of the Savannah, blasted away by the high-temperature flames of Hiei's special move, the Black Dragon Wave.
The Jaganshi was about to return to all his comrades to cap off a successful mission when the hairs on his neck stood on end.
The Cursed Child of the Koorime didn't need a Spirit Detector to detect the pulsating energy signature that caught everyone's attention.
Power made flesh.
A pony-tailed man in ancient Tokugawa-Era clothes held perpendicular to him what appeared to be a steel pole many miles long. And swung.
In that very moment, 9 of the Elite 77 were killed instantly (most of them bisected S-Level demons who lacked invulnerability, speed, or regeneration powers) while nearly all the rest (49, excluding Shigure and Kirin, who were part of the unharmed 19) were in varying states of injury (including Zakuro).
Even more of them would've been killed had the Jaganshi fire demon not shattered two-thirds of the impossibly long sword's total length with the Demon Sword.
"Oho. And who is this upstart who broke the Kien?" said the person... demon or human, Hiei wasn't sure... whom the Jaganshi recognized as the man that survived nine simultaneous Kokuryuha blasts with barely a first-degree burn.
"Ah, yes. The demon who fought the Ten Ken, lost, and then won. Mukuro's lackey." The almost-red eyes of the man shone in recognition. "And here's the answer why: You're being helped by Battousai-sempai (senior)."
The Kenshin-possessed Hiei snarled, the eyes he was born with gleaming like gold while the Jagan glowed even redder than before. He hadn't heard someone call him that since a hundred years ago, in Shingetsu Village.
"You...!?" Was this the man who killed him? The man who almost stole Japan away from the Meiji Government's clutches?
The swordsman... more monster than human... sneered. "The name's Tenro. Youkiri (Demon-Slayer) Tenro. I'm a youkiri just like you, my rude predecessor."
"T-Tenro-sama...!" said the Onmyouji, who had to sacrifice his shikigami to escape the wrath of the "cosmic demon" who had falling stars under his command. "We might need to escape! We're outnumbered!"
"Relax, Houji. The experiment will continue as always. They only have about 29 low-to-mid-level S-Class demons in fighting condition left here on Mount McKinley. I can take them all on, even without the Yatsumes."
Without looking, the ponytail-wearing youkiri impaled a grasshopper-looking demon who almost karate-chopped his head open with youki-imbued hand. Right in the guts. With his elongating, bloodthirsty sword while letting his opponent's innards spill all over the place.
"Make that 28."
"Bastard."
The remaining legion of Nameless Yatsumes couldn't touch the flying, flaming shadow of a demon, whose millions of degrees of hotness melted or vaporized rock upon contact, so naturally, a messier end happened to the nearest of the Mumyois, some of whom had skulls exploding from merely being in the presence of the fire youkai's deadly aura.
Again, the demon-slayer made his forever-growing blade long by force of will, reaching great distances with a weapon that didn't wobble even at that impossible length.
However, the demon who defied Tenro's resolve broke apart the "regenerating" sword Kien piece-by-piece with every slash of his fiery youtou, melting and cutting the steel at the same time.
Hiei would not let that... youkiri get away with murdering his comrades. Neither he nor Kenshin would, calling the man by his real name.
"SHISHIO!"
Yes. Makoto Shishio. Kenshin's murderer.
Tenro licked his lips and let out a fanged grin. "Ah. Fresh meat. Delivered by Battousai. Delicious."
The youkiri hit the youkai between his eyes with a left jab, then finished with a right straight on the damaged Evil Eye, which made it swell shut.
Even while dizzied, the Jaganshi unleashed all eight remaining Dragons of Darkness Flames he had left in his arsenal at pointblank range of (he reckoned) Makoto Shishio's unburned and un-bandaged Heisei Era reincarnation.
"!?!?"
Even within that proximity, facing black body temperatures and beyond, Tenro remained unfazed. He walked through the flames like they were a heavy downpour of rain rather than a mixture of demonic energy from Makai and combustible plasma.
If anything, he seemed to enjoy the downpour of rock-sublimating fire. As though he could survive even on the surface of the sun.
Hiei attempted to draw in the power of the Dragons of Darkness Flame back unto himself, opting to fight Shishio or Tenro with the Sword of Darkness Flame.
However, the fiery youkiri stepped forward and strangled the fire demon with one hand, even while engulfed in dark Makai plasma. In turn, Hiei stabbed Tenro in the chest, pumping him with more black flames. The demon-slayer reacted by piercing the youkai with his sword in kind.
Blue lava flowed from where they stood, as though an eruption took place on Mount McKinley from the side of the mountain instead of through the crater (i.e., a flank eruption).
Youkiri Tenro cackled through the conflagration, not unlike how Shishio did when he died along with Himura, whom he held in a similar death grip.
They had burned to death together.
"Have you forgotten, Battousai? In this world, the flesh of the weak is the food of the strong. NOW DIE LIKE YOU DID A CENTURY AGO!"
Hiei gasped out, "You really are SHISHIOAARGH...!"
Just as the demon-slayer was on the verge of making the fire demon's three eyes pop out of their sockets, an orange-haired, disfigured woman with a jade monocle eye, a purple vest with white sleeves, white pants, and a deep female voice said, "Let. Him. Go."
The cyborg (for she was more machine than woman at that point, with most of her body surgically replaced with metal prosthetics put together by various demonic healers like Kirin and Shigure) had teleported right in front of the demon-slayer with her time-space-warping abilities.
After reality shattered all around them, Tenro shot off from where he stood like a cannonball or a wrecking ball, gaining enough momentum to smash through a multitude of rocks and concrete walls, landing right into the heart of the Savannah.
An impressive feat, considering that, like the Cheyenne Mountain Nuclear Bunker, the Savannah could survive a 30-megaton nuclear explosion.
And so Mukuro finally arrived: One of the Three Kings of Makai (the lone Queen of Makai) who was probably the strongest of the trio of titans before Raizen's passing.
"That rage...!" said Kirin with shining eyes. "It's been so long since I saw you at full power, Mukuro-sama! That was a truly magnificent blow!"
Mukuro brushed her hair back and ordered, "Secure the area. Gather what's left of these Chojin zombies. See if any of the Elite 77 who died could still be revived with our healing tanks. If there are human or demon prisoners left in that building, escort them back to either the nearest Ningenkai or Makai village."
She then knelt down beside the unconscious Hiei and cradled his head on her lap, the sharpness in her eyes softening as she parted his bangs and carefully avoided touching the black eye on his Jagan.
"You've done well today, Hiei. It's now time to rest."
"...BLOOD WIND!"
"Mukuro, watch out!"
Natsume, the one whom the cyborg lord of the Demon World defeated in the Makai Tournament's third round, attempted to blast away the red cyclone and whoever shot it at Mukuro's back with her own corkscrew flying vacuum kick, her sandaled feet energized with youki.
"!?"
However, something strange happened. Her demon energy quickly dispersed after she entered the eye of this strange crimson tornado that smelled of rust. Or rather, smelled of blood, as its name suggested.
The pigtailed martial artist was still able to use her physical strength and momentum to neutralize the twister and hit the person who made it: A... geisha or courtesan onmitsu of some sort, also wearing clothes from a century ago.
Her audacious wardrobe came with a low-cut top that somehow managed to stay on her chest without falling off.
This pale-faced female master of the Blood Wind, a special move from the Kyuuketsuki Kakuto Ryu or Vampire Fighting Style (or so claimed Rando), blocked Natsume's kick with a foldable steel fan and disappeared with the cover of dust by spinning her open umbrella hard.
The demonic martial artist missed her attack and punched the ground, cracking it open. For some reason, her assailant had a gaping but bloodless wound on her chest. A stab wound of some sort, probably.
As the combined forces of Makai and Reikai were about to round up the rest of the Yatsumes, the clones defied ontological inertia and turned into shadows that gathered unto just one Mumyoi, who escaped by digging underground like a mole.
As for the three Dai Kaijin, they had portals open underneath them care of the ever-helpful Itsuki the Gatekeeper.
From here, an extending sword tip would've pierced right through Hiei's Jagan had Mukuro not let the blade sink into her bare hand, which she then crushed with her firm grip. "...You're still alive, you bastard?"
Tenro emerged from the smoking rubble and debris, laughing like a maniac. He was joined by the mad scientist, the self-cloning ninja, the Heaven Sword, the Onmyouji, and a marble-pale vampire geisha with a sword-sized hole where her heart was supposed to be.
Save for the Shin Juppon Gatana's Gein, those were all the members of the Dai Shin Kan (High Priests) of the Chojin.
Mukuro cursed under her breath. The emergence of this upstart upper S-Level reminded her of the time when she first came into contact with the calculating Yomi.
"I see. So the mama bear had bared her fangs and claws to protect her cubs." The youkiri rubbed his chin, grinning. "At last! Someone who doesn't hold back like Battousai does. I look forward to gobbling you up, Mukuro. From one predator to another."
The Dai Shin Kan (plus Gein) then escaped to yet another dimensional rift care of Itsuki, leaving behind the rest of the surviving members of this encounter.
The battle was finally over.
To Be Continued...
The term "Youtou Shinnoken" that SeventhOne came up with is multiple terms merged into one. "Demon Sword" isn't actually its direct translation. Only the word "Youtou" is referred to by "Demon Sword" (e.g., Tetsusaiga/Tessaiga is a youtou or demon sword) and "Shinnoken" or "Shin no Ken" transliterated is "Sword Heart" or "Heart of (the) Sword".
A more accurate Romanization of this fanfic's title would be "Youtou Shin no Ken". Coincidentally, the Monogatari Series' "Youtou Kokorowatari" ("Demon Sword: Heart Span") is quite close the actual meaning of "Youtou Shinnoken" ("Demon Sword: Heart of the Sword").
