#togashi king I miss you

[chrollohearttags]

when your favorite show never came back at all so it also can never end >>>>>

[lesbiangiratina]

Going autistic about kurama and testament at the same time is fun. Theyre kinda similar in ways that i find interesting. And funny. I keep they/themming kurama in my head but like yeah sure its the he/they madness. Also ive talked about this but im thinking about how theyd get along. I think pre dark tournament kurama and strive testament would vibe pretty easily. On the other hand like. Ggxx testament and 3 kings kurama would be funny i think. Theyre unwell. Oh god 3 kings kurama. Okay no if i want to go that route maybe missing link testament. I love it when characters lives are a fucking nightmare. At least testament got better i think togashi was just going to kill kurama but ill never know oh well. Okay im going to bed now sorry for typing all this i hope you still think im cute. My phone is overheating and lagging so bad id keep typing if it wasnt

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 164 Rundown

Spy X Family: Yor continues her fight with kusarigama guy and Anya demonstrates that in addition to reading minds she may have the power to influence them because she’s like ‘oh cool this lady I don’t know is doing a street performance’ and everyone instantly believes her. (That’s a joke but I would legitimately not be surprised if Anya developed some sort of low level hypnosis with her powers and that’s the reason everyone acts a little more stupid and agreeable around her but it could also just be she’s a kid in a comedy show idk). But yeah Loid comes out in an outfit that would fit right in in a Saint’s Row game and it’s just great. Yor’s group decides to lay low and navelgaze about the old ‘soldiers in times of peace’ chestnut while Yor debates giving up assassining which I guess they’d rename the show to Regular Mom Girl X Family if she did that. The next day Anya tries to ditch Loid all day but ends up having fun doing all the stuff she’s trying to distract him with before finally just coming out and saying she misses Yor and Loid agrees to go see her tomorrow. Meanwhile the bad guys are honing in on the group and the ship that’s coming to pick up the mafia wife is on its way so the final showdown is at hand.

Inuyasha: I’m pretty sure this is still filler but it’s hard to tell since it does tie into the main plot tangentially and sometimes even the canon is just kinda written like filler sometimes. The gang (read: Inuyasha) uses Shippo as bait for the demon of the week and it turns out to be a parasite that is leeching off of other demons. Long story short Shippo gets possessed and lets all the stuff he usually lets slide build up as resentment and the gang has a whole episode fight of ‘well that wasn’t very dangerous but it sure was annoying’ which is funny because it even feels like the parasites give Shippo a minor power boost since he’s shown using more powerful variations of his gag techniques and doing stuff like teleporting which he normally can’t do (though oddly I think it is something he can do to a limited degree in Yashahime if I remember right) But yeah after a bunch of gags where it’s ‘Shippo’s gag attack but moderately more threatening’ like a toned down version of Luffy vs Usopp, Inuyasha manages to yeet the parasite off of him and they find a fuckload of the things and it’s somehow tied to Naraku harassing a large demon or something or maybe not because this is filler. Like they say the parasites are left behind because the demon changed location but I’m pretty sure if they’re parasites they’d just… go with the demon, like if they’re parasites and not symbiotes the demon probably wouldn’t care to warn them like ‘hey I’m going somewhere you guys can’t survive or some shit so get off’ so yeah the tie to canon is tenuous at best.

Yu Yu Hakusho: The final-ish round of Yusuke vs Yomi has finally arrived and for some reason they’re doing three rounds at once now and we’re having Mukuro and the girl that beat Chuu as well as chrome demon and beret guy having their final clashes at the same time which seems like it’s a weird thing to do, dividing the attention of the spectators and everyone complaining that the competitors won’t have enough time to recover for the next round you’d think they’d draw it out more but given how Togashi’s health was declining at this time that may be some sort of commentary on the manga industry. If I recall correctly this is the episode they played during the Toonami April Fools joke that revived the block so that’s pretty cool even though at the time I hadn’t seen much of the Three Kings arc and didn’t know what was going on I didn’t miss as much context as I thought I did. See the funny thing is as weird a rushed as the pacing is here the weirdest part is that the ending’s so focused on characters we know nothing about like fucking baret guy vs chrome guy is one of the final fights we don’t know shit about either of those guys and Yomi’s only marginally better. Still as the fight begins, Yusuke starts his Megaman Zero “WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOOOOR!?” monologue and if this arc had a proper… well, arc, this would’ve been something he’d been brooding over for a while but instead it kinda hits him all at once and he just kinda disassociates for half the fight. It’s a good angle to come at his character from this late in the series, him just wondering what he’s doing since he doesn’t want to be king of the demons and is just fighting because it’s all he’s ever done. He’s not an angry young man anymore nor is some brooding anime villain inspiring him to come kill them because they’ll kill his girlfriend because they want to be proven wrong, he’s wondering if all he’s waiting for now is to get beaten as well and have his own philosophy overcome. It’s good stuff but like I said it comes out of literally nowhere, though Yomi’s reaction to it is great he’s just like “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT YOU UPENDED THE GOVERNMENT OF A WHOLE DIMENSION AND YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING!?” like it really puts into context how over a dozen demon illuminati Machiavellian schemers were thrown off by a teenager that just likes to punch things. Yusuke gets a vision of Raizen which basically says that he still has to resolve what his demon half means to him, or more loosely interpreted what place his love of fighting has in his future. He gets his demon powerup and starts fighting evenly with Yomi but Yomi has an anti-demon barrier but considering Yusuke has only been using demon power for like five minutes anyway it’s pretty easy for him to just switch to Spirit Energy and blast through it. Like thematically it’s cool Yusuke showing his original spirit powers are what make him unique and the power bestowed by his demonic transformation doesn’t own him even if it informs part of his identity but it also means implementing a loophole to something that only just became a thing in this fight and Yomi having a weirdly specific barrier that only blocks one type of energy. I always thought this’d be a more interesting fight if it was Yusuke versus Shura, like Shura is basically a blank slate and having him develop the foundation of morals he’d eventually rule by in a fight with Yusuke, having him shape the demon world without actually winning, would’ve been kinda neat like I guess they’re going for sort of the same thing with Yomi becoming less of a dick but it’s a harder sell for someone that’s been running a demon dictatorship for 500 years. Still, Yusuke’s voiceover in the preview warning how the end is near does kinda get to me, I’m gonna miss this show when it leaves the block.

Jujutsu Kaisen: So Yuji has to fight a Grasshopper (or a Locust idk, his name is Grasshopper Guy and everyone calls him a grasshopper but the overview is talking about Locusts so I don’t even know) and it’s a pretty funny fight like the dude is pretty funny for a mid-tier mook to stall Yuji for two minutes and give him a win when he chops off this guy’s dick and it just feels like the JJK author gets random hyperfixations and wants to throw them in and I’m fine with that. Meanwhile the plan is just to jump Gojo with three dudes and flood the place with hostages and hope for the best. I feel like we’re watching One Punch Man but instead of following Saitama we’re following a Will-E Coyote style gang of people trying to kill Saitama and it’s just like you know it’s not gonna work, fucking Krakatoa is not gonna get one over on Gojo and I feel kinda bad for them. They do this thing where it’s like Domain Aura which is just like ‘power up all my moves and give piercing damage’ because you literally need piercing damage to even fight Gojo at all and he’s just like ‘oh that’s kinda cute so you’re looking for a beatdown instead of me just shrugging you off and killing you, congratulations on moving up on rung on the ‘still not even a fight’ ladder.”.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off: So the finale has gone full Ember Island Players for a play about the original Scott Pilgrim plot and Scott’s kind of in the awkward position of everyone resolving their character arcs without him, like I think everyone’s actually better off than if he ran around punching them in the face, did we accidentally make the original plot obsolete? Anyway during the play, Even Older Scott takes the main cast to… the moon or something? Idk if they are in the future or just on the present moon but they seem to have changed location and time and Even Older Scott is basically a demigod. Turns out he’s the one that made the knockoff AT Field that stops them from kissing but he didn’t put anything on his dick I guess so they still ended up married and they just don’t kiss while Scott’s rawdogging her like Goku which is kind of its own nightmare but yeah. They all fight and it’s basically like that scene in One Piece Stampede where everyone throws everything they’ve got at Douglas Bullet and he just tanks it by being ridiculously fuckshow strong. The funny thing is everyone but Scott and Ramona get defeated and sent back to the theater which like… Gideon straight up asked for that at the beginning of the fight so what was the point? Like it’s cool for all the Exes to get powerups from Ramona’s bag to showcase the mended bridges and show how making peace with her has turned them into their best selves but like if they’re just gonna pop back when they’re beaten what’s the point? Like I don’t quite get EOS’s plan here since best case scenario he just punches his younger to death and dies? Like he kinda gets interrupted before explaining what the plan here is and knowing Scott there might not even be one. Either way Even Older Ramona comes in to save the day and I kinda like what they did here, at first it seems like EOS is just overreacting and it’s a dumb ‘haha a Three’s Company misunderstanding almost destroyed the multiverse isn’t that funny’ but it’s a little more complicated. Scott saw the thing I’ve been complaining about the whole time, that Ramona just seems to bail on relationships at the first sign of trouble regardless of the other person’s feelings, EOR says this wasn’t the case and EOS definitely took it way too far but regular Ramona does see the conflict here and does the only thing that can really fix things: she decides to love herself. It’s a twist on the whole ‘can’t love anybody until you love yourself’ deal in that she can love Scott without fully loving herself but it’s still going to cause problems and her Super Saiyan transformation involves making peace with herself so she doesn’t feel the need to let her self-doubt yeet herself away from happiness. It’s nice, I like it, like it definitely throws some shade at EOS for all the shit he caused but recognizes Ramona’s involvement and her character flaws that led to neither of them being happy. Everyone goes home and gets their good ending and Gideon, Matt and Jules do a stinger for their own little evil council thing for being directionlessly evil but at least they’re not stuck on a girl anymore so good for them. It’s not ‘the best animated thing in 2023’ like I’ve heard some people say but I enjoyed it, as someone new to the Scott Pilgrim universe I can’t say it gave me a good grasp on everything about the world given how short it was (still not entirely sure how the power system works) but it’s a cute little thing with a nice ending and it addressed all the obvious things I was wondering about along the way, endings are hard and increasingly not good in most things so anything that has a good ending is worth some credit.

Ranking of Kings: There’s another small story about how baby Miranjo met the baby demon and it’s done in that same storybook artstyle as last episode. It’s cute but not much happens, like if anything I thought there was more to her relationship with the demon but I guess it’s just ‘nah they just met in the forest one day and started playing’ like… okay. The second part is Bojji leaving on his journey from the end of season1 and giving everyone sentimental gifts from the titular Treasure Chest of Courage it’s cute but rather than things from the actual story or flashbacks it’s just a bunch of stuff they have to make up backstories for which is kinda less effective. Bojji does eventually leave and find Kage again and they reenact the first ED while the first OP is playing and that’s nice. It’s just kinda weird, like there’s one episode left and we’re finally back to where we were at the end of last season like are we really just doing a whole season for one episode worth of story progression? It feels like Higurashi Sotsu all over again like I’d almost prefer a full season of meaningless filler so you can just skip the whole thing.

Vinland Saga: Thorfinn has a dream about killing Einar’s family, now it’s not literal, he’s just reconciling his past sins with now being such close friends with someone that could’ve bene one of his past victims but it’s kind of funny that his mind constructed a young Einar and his family for the dream and made it exactly what he looked like because we know what he looked like even if Thorfinn doesn’t and it’d be confusing otherwise. Thing is Einar’s finally become a level 4 friend and unlocked Thorfinn’s tragic backstory so he gives him the whole deal about season 1 and even goes so far as to say he doesn’t hate Askeladd anymore and without that burning hatred in him anymore he feels empty (hey, YYH, second time today we’re dealing with a young man that doesn’t know what to do without being angry and fighting things all the time). He even says he’s forgetting something and can’t quite remember something very important (I have a feeling it rhymes with “I hate Bow Emilies”) and the old man and Einar both reinforce to him that it’s never too late to start over and do something else with your life and if you don’t know how to do anything but what you’ve been doing the first step to stop that is learning new things and it’s a really great message. Also they mention catching fish for Lent and it being ready to snow which is weird considering Lent happens in the beginning of Spring but maybe the weather’s just kinda always shitty.This chill vibe is kinda completely torn down when they come back and all their plants have been fucked over by jealous farmhands who’re just like ‘if slaves do farm work then that means they’re just like me!’ Bro it’s a FARM if they don’t do farm work what the fuck else they gonna do!? Farming is like 90% of what goes on on farms! But yeah, Einar’s pissed and Thorfinn trying to talk some sense because obviously nothing will get done if they just fly off the handle but also also if they just do nothing then they’ll just keep wrecking their crops so there’s really no winning unless they post an armed guard on their farm 24/7. So yeah, they find the farmhands and THORFINN actually throws the first punch and it’s pretty badass to see him getting worked up but it doesn’t last long given Thorfinn’s not in ‘anime character taking on 50 guys’ mode and they outnumber them three to one and have weapons and shit so back into the hallucination hole for Thorfinn.

[halt-kun]

Hunter x Hunter Chapter 216 - Republic of east Gorteau

Well I'm far from consistent with this liveblog but I'll do some more today

I miss HxH

Togashi is back on board but if it's like last time we can probably expect a return in a minimum of 3-4 months

The serialization return official announcement is usually one month before when they announce the volume release too

Anyway I'm sad I still have yet to come through the date with Palm, it's definitely one of the moment I have a hard time dealing with

Gon doesn't feel good

it's normal he failed to meet his own expectations

feels inadequate

Killua doesn't seem to be feeling bad when actually he's mentally preparing to leave Gon, poor boy

HUG THEM

I still love the sapphic vibe of Spin there

You're right, you entrusted someone stronger than you with your mission and they'll definitely succeed Gon

Trust in them, you don't have to do everything by yourself

That's probably what he would do indeed

but you're also in denial

which is understandable

I'd definitely be a hunter working in conservation

I may be a biologist who works mostly on computers and rarely goes on the field and I'm not a good naturalist BUT if I were a hunter I'd do that

Kite is so good too

helping some little kids protect a place they hold dear with an emblematic endemic species

I'm sure there is more species specific to this place, such as bugs, fishes, plants, fungi,...

That must also be a biodiversity mine (not sure this translate well in english, in french, a mine can also just mean a place rich in something even if it's not exploited.)

We'll all be alive and go there

and drink tea and bake cake

Well

at least it was fast and painless

Cheetu is out of NGL

all the ants are basically amish, they're not used to any technology and big cities

You might have become a fish out of water Cheetu

You'll soon realize that information and responses can be way faster when you have a lot of testimony on the internet

Just install tinder and uber eat, eat a few french tacos

That guy just ate a whale

in how many days ?????

that's too much

does he need that everyday ? Kill him now, it's hopeless we can't help him

Some of these we'll never see again, Crocodile and Mantis looking guy

WOW

pretty panel

this palace is so nostalgic for me now

we spend so much time in there it's like I go back home everytime I see it

NO COSTUMES

THAT'S NOT COSTUMES

well too late they're mincemeat

Bad King

Diego is a furry

that's light furry but still furry

It's weird that this guy reminds me of someone, but I can't really like be sure about it like it's some guy, that might exist

It's quite funny that Togashi split North Korea into East Gorteau and NGL

A fool

you should be less confident

Well bye bye Mr Steak

Knuckle and Shoot must have encountered Kite

Well I'll probably do another chapter later but I have to hang my clothes to dry

[awisa-moved]

chimera ant + names

”From now on... you may call me... Meruem.”

i wrote about the chimera ants for a project that asked for an analysis of monsters in media, i’m sure it’s been talked about before but i thought i’d share my thoughts too (literally *just* my thoughts theres prob philosophers and writers who have theory abt names + identity but i simply do not have that knowledge atm). all of the conflict in hxh has been about individuals or groups, and chimera ant almost diverged from that with the setup of a “man vs nature” storyline and thank god. 

instead there’s a lot of inner struggles between what is humanity and what is monstrosity. what makes the ants a threat in the first place is when they absorb human dna through phagogenesis. the arc is a gradual evolution of the ants becoming more and more “human”, and that shifts their behaviour and even visually how they’re drawn. but i think what starts this shift is the want for a name. 

”May we have permission to have names?” 

“What is a ‘name’?” 

“A label to make ourselves distinct.” 

“Do what you want.” 

“We’re much obliged...”

this is relatively early on in the arc (vol 19 out of 30), but from here on togashi begins writing the ants from just simply “monsters” to a more complex antagonist. the only ants who don’t choose their own name is meruem and the royal guards, who the queen decides to name herself after the above exchange. 

”Komugi...?” 

“The blind girl.” 

(He bothered to learn her name...?)

the moment meruem and komugi play gungi and he takes notice of her nen awakening is when he asks her for her name. the act of asking “what’s your name” is one of respect, and this act repeats further on. komugi also asks for his name, which he doesn’t know. he is feared and loved due to his royal title, but lacks a personal identity otherwise. meruem calls the royal guards to him, all by name, to ask what his is. youpi says he is “not equal to the task“ of giving him a name, pitou suggests the king pick out a name he feels is most fitting for himself (trans rights!), and pouf, who earlier asserted that a name isn’t necessary and that the title of king is enough, says that there’ll be time to pick a name after the sorting. 

”What... is my name?”

the ants undergo constant transformation all throughout the story, both in a literal and a metaphorical sense, but this is the point when the king undergoes that transformation himself, and this essentially kicks off meruem’s self-reflection and growth. “I… am King. But… Who am I really…? Why… am I here? For what reason… was I born?”, and he spirals like this a couple of times. we’ve all been there buddy <3

when he plans to kill komugi, he shows kindness for the first time. in the past he striked others, ants or otherwise, with no hesitation, but this time his natural instinct is to protect her.

”Don’t you want to know... what your name is?”

when meruem faces off with netero, netero’s bargaining chip is his knowledge of meruem’s name. meruem refuses to fight until he is given that chance to find out (and also never asks for netero’s name). meruem finally learns his name, and when pouf and youpi come to his aid he shares his name with them. he’s happy to finally know his name, but also tells it to his closest aides, another way he is showing respect and ultimate trust to them.

“What did you say... your name was?”

“Gon. Gon Freecss.”

“Gon... You respected my wishes and waited for me.

despite having the intention to kill gon, pitou still asks for his name. he knew gon’s name already too since gon said it himself when he first saw pitou (”Do you remember me? My name is Gon Freecss!! I came to see you to restore Kite!!!”), but it’s the action of it that’s significant. while pitou is using doctor blythe to heal himself, he addresses gon by name again: “Gon... I’m sorry but I have to kill you. For the King...”. he wants to kill gon to keep the king safe, yet he still appreciates gon for letting him finish healing komugi and for trusting him blindly.

and then of course, the end of the arc and the last exchange of words between meruem and komugi.

”My name is Meruem. Lord... Meruem.”

”Will you...”

“Yes...?”

“Say my name... one last time...?”

“Good night... Meruem.”

meruem remembered how he couldn’t tell komugi what his name was, and just as he shared it with pouf and youpi, he tells komugi too. learning his name brought comfort to him, and once pouf and youpi became ~connected~ to meruem, they too shared the joy he felt upon learning his name. the guards still call him lord meruem, but he insists that komugi just simply call him “meruem”. and then the last thing he hears is “good night meruem”. i already mentioned it in a different post, but meruem’s birth was incredibly violent and his death is the opposite. gentle and loving. the catalyst for his growth, komugi asking for his name and him not knowing it, is finally resolved and he gets to hear it spoken lovingly in his final moments. 

his determination to win against komugi is what delays her death, but in the end it’s really the action of her asking for his name. once the ants begin to name themselves, that’s when they become not just a vague threat but a group of individuals. meruem was born a leader of a loyal colony, he had no reason to consider who he really is as an individual until komugi appeared in his life and treated him with kindness. not with fear or reverence, but genuine kindness.

there’s a lot more to be said of the general growth of the two sides (ants and humans) over the duration of the arc. the name thing was just a small thing i mentioned in my writing that i figured would be fun to go into a bit more detail. when grabbing screen caps for this i noticed ant palm breaks from pouf’s control over the frustration of being called no.1 and not palm but she is a bitch so whatever but i figure i would mention it anyway 🙄there may be other scenes i missed, and otherwise i can’t really think of names as a concept being this significant in the other hxh arcs

[hunterxloser]

Here be rambling regarding Kite and the ending sequence of the chimera ant arc. I call it Seeing Double: a new alternative to the ‘fetus theory’ of Kite’s resurrection

I’ve seen people suggest that the #3 wand that Kite draws - presumably the weapon that Ging implies allows Kite to avoid death - works by having Kite’s consciousness piggyback on, and eventually override the consciousness of, the nearest fetus, in this case, the ant queen’s last baby. While nothing in canon explicitly precludes this theory, I find it unlikely for a few reasons:

Nothing about Kite’s reincarnation suggests that it is different from other cases of chimera ants who eventually regain the memories and personality of a person whose genes (i.e. body) were consumed by the queen. In the absence of other evidence, we should assume that Kite’s ‘resurrection’ follows the rules of the other cases, and consider how Kite might have been eaten, given that his puppet body is not visibly missing pieces.

I doubt Kite “forced to take another life” McPacifist-Until-Forced-Into-Violence would be comfortable choosing a hatsu to keep himself alive that comes at the expense of an infant creature. Perhaps he could justify taking over a fetus on the grounds that he is not killing it because its body remains alive, but this is hardly a compelling stance. Other things being equal, I find a hatsu which permits Kite to survive beyond death at the expense of another inconsistent with what we know about Kite’s character and values. (Though an argument could be made that this violation of Kite’s usual moral code would act as a powerful restriction/covenant to power the ability.)

Even if Kite decided that taking over another organism were morally acceptable, in designing this hatsu he would have had to specify that his consciousness would take over the nearest human fetus; otherwise he would risk being reborn as, statistically most likely, a fly or cockroach. Kite has lukewarm passions, and makes his decisions carefully. His hatsu would be well-designed (as crazy slots is, despite how annoying it is), and would explicitly preclude the possibility of being reborn as a nonhuman animal. Therefore his hatsu could not have resulted in his consciousness being transferred to the ant queen’s last baby: it isn’t human, and thus would be invalid as a potential host.

The fetus-hijacking theory, while not conclusively ruled out by the canon evidence, has no direct textual support and appears incompatible with Kite’s personality, and therefore this theory ought to be rejected if any other plausible mechanism for Kite’s resurrection is found.

I propose an alternative theory regarding the conditions of Kite’s ressurection and the manner in which the wand and its concomitant hatsu function, a theory which accounts for several otherwise unexplained odd textual features. We see that Kite’s formerly-dismembered puppet body is whole, if not hale. We know then that none of this body was fed to the chimera ant Queen, enabling his later resurrection in the ‘Reina’/chimera ant body. Rather, his resurrection must have occurred through some other means. I argue that the #3 wand works by producing a second body that shares Kite’s consciousness with his original body, a second body that may survive the death of the first. This theory has several upshots and supports:

Motif of reduplication. There is another case of curious, unexplained duplication at the end of the Chimera Ant Arc. Namely, the dictator Diego is shown to be still alive and in retirement, despite having been killed when the ant king took over his palace. The two Diegos are clearly not a case of simple decoy; they are perfect physical duplicates. I don’t argue that Diego’s double is connected to Kite’s double, speaking in terms of plot; I merely argue that the Diego ‘clone’ provides evidence that Togashi was thinking about doubles at the end of the chimera ant arc, and wanted to draw our attention to this. (More contentiously: there are also curious parallels between Kite and another character who is canonically shown to have a double: a white-haired, serious character with a two-syllable name beginning with ‘K-A’ and ending with ‘O.’)

Precedent for body-doubling through nen. On the subject of Kastro: while it is plausible to assume that nen can do anything you can imagine - the only question is what price you will pay - there is an exact canonical precedent for someone creating a physical duplicate of themselves out of nen. It is not entirely clear whether Kastro’s double was conscious in its own right or capable of functioning independently, but it is noteworthy that Hisoka was only able to defeat Kastro in the absence of the ‘clone.’ If the duplication hatsu had been active at the moment of Kastro’s death, it is entirely plausible that the double might have gone on living and fighting as Kastro himself would have done, down to the psychological weaknesses that were his downfall. And even if this were not true, Kastro was an enhancer; Kite, as a nen user whose conjuror category is strong enough that his main ability is more or less a conjuror ability, would indisputably be able to create an even better double that would be able to carry his consciousness through a full, ‘new’ life.

Accounts for caracterization discrepancy. The fact that ‘Chimera Ant Kite’ exhibits strong, indeed irreconcilable, differences in character from the original Kite supports the theory that CAC is ‘really’ a chimera ant, generated in the usual way, rather than Kite’s consciousness transferred through some magically-pristine method into another host.

Accounts for why Kite was not fed to the Queen. Crucially, at the time Kite was dismembered, the royal guard were still loyal to the Queen. With his string bean physique Kite would undoubtedly not have been a delectable morsel on merely gastronomic grounds, but as a powerful nen user he would be singularly nutritious. Given this fact, Neferpitou should have fed him to the Queen. Instead, his body was turned into a puppet and used to train soldiers. Neferpitou’s use of his body for this purpose only makes sense if the Queen got an equal prize of her own; say, a whole identical Kite body to consume.

TLDR; the circumstances and causes surrounding Kite’s ‘survival’ as a chimera ant, while misty, are best explained by the theory that the crazy slots wand (weapon number 3) somehow enables Kite to duplicate himself. Following this duplication, both Kites were defeated by Neferpitou. One Kite was fed to the ant queen; the other was turned into the zombie/puppet version that Knuckle and Shoot apprehended.

[thelovelyghostwriter]

(via https://open.spotify.com/playlist/52aFxZiF6IhgLaj8Zzj3hU?si=2HFVzdSQT0WZ_fxe4gNniQ)

1. Million Dollar Man by Lana del Ray

You're screwed up and brilliant Look like a million dollar man So why is my heart broke?

We all know Kurapika is now the Nostrade Family Young Boss. He provides the money for Neon now by revamping their business model. He literally saved her family from financial crisis, he can provide her anything, she likes him a lot no matter how messed up he is - but why is she still “broke”.

2. National Anthem by Lana del Ray

Money is the reason we exist Everybody knows it, it's a fact (Kiss, kiss)

This song talks about the excess of materials, drugs, drinking, wealth and sex. A girl having a rich handsome man that gives her everything and he can’t keep her hands off of her. Sounds like Kurapika being in the mafia underworld and making tons of money; Neon bathing materialism as both gets drunk in love and sex? Heck yeah.

3. Young and Beautiful by Lana del Ray

Will you still love me when I'm no longer Young and beautiful? Will you still love me when I got nothing But my achin' soul?

This is the theme song for movie The Great Gatsby. @anotherworldash​ always paralleled the relationships between Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan with Kurapika and Neon. Gatsby desired Daisy because she represents the old money wealth that Gatsby longed for as a child. He became rich through illegal activities. Kurapika desired adventure and for their eyes to be appreciated (and not called a demon for it), which Neon appreciates their eyes as beautiful (even though now it’s in a twisted way. Daisy and Neon are very similar characters who bathes in materialism because they are despondent.

4. Dress by Taylor Swift

Only bought this dress so you could take it off.

Her wedding dress on their wedding night when they finally consummate their marriage. Duh.

5. Daddy Issues by Demi Lovato

Addicted to love with the wrong one Lucky for you, I got all these daddy issues

100% Neon and her daddy issues. She’s always with insane messed up men like Kurapika and also Chrollo because she never had a good upbringing to begin with.

6. Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding and Earned It by The Weekend

Are we going to put more saucy 50 Shades of Grey OSTs for this hot pairing? Heck yeah we are.

7. A Little Death by The Neighbourhood

I want you to touch me there Make me feel like I am breathing Feel like I am human.

She sought death on a queen-sized bed And he had said, "Darling, your looks can kill, So now you're dead."

This one’s interesting. So the title is based on the French phrase La petite mort  to describe post-orgasm. The song describes two people having sex, finding solace in one another and “experiencing death”. Kurapika and Neon are two wounded souls - Kurapika’s tragic past and Neon’s lack of love from her father.

Also, Nostrade is from Nostradamus - a French astrologer, physician and reputed seer. I can totally see Neon speaking to Kurapika in French. OOF sexy.

T’as d’beaux yeux, tu sais? (You have beautiful eyes, you know?)

8. Requiem Arena, The Phantom Elegy and Kurapika’s Theme aka Hiiro no Hitom (Hunter x Hunter OST)

I know the first two are the Phantom Troupe theme songs, but this also reminds me of YorkNew City arc and Kurapika so yes it’s gonna be here.

9. Afterglow by Taylor Swift

I lived like an island, punished you with silence Went off like sirens, just crying Why'd I have to break what I love so much?

This gives me imagination if Kurapika and Neon ever gets into quarrels, and Neon feels guilty about her petty tantrums because she doesn’t want to lose him.

10. Run To You by Whitney Houston

OMFG. This song is 100% KuraNeon bodyguard-boss situation. So this song was actually from this movie called The Bodyguard (1992). It’s a story about a celebrity in danger, so she hired a bodyguard to protect her. Both don’t really like each other at first, but they eventually fall in love. Sounds like Kurapika and Neon? YES! This was actually the movie that made me think KuraNeon is possible.

The first verse describes Neon:

I know that when you look at me There's so much that you just don't see But if you would only take the time I know in my heart you'd find A girl who's scared sometimes Who isn't always strong Can't you see the hurt in me? I feel so all alone

Neon is actually a really lonely girl and locked up in the bubble. She may be smiling, but deep down she’s not okay.

The second verse describes Kurapika:

Each day, each day I play the role Of someone always in control But at night I come home and turn the key There's nobody there, no one cares for me What's the sense of trying hard to find your dreams Without someone to share it with Tell me what does it mean?

Kurapika always appear calm and stoic, but really, he has a sad past. His sole purpose now is to collect his brethren’s Eyes, and to take revenge. But does that make him happy? No, he’s lonely too. Don’t worry Pika you can collect the Scarlet Eyes with Neon.

11. Love Theme and Apollonia (The Godfather movie OST)

What’s a KuraNeon song without a mafia-themed love song?

12. California King Bed by Rihanna

So confused wanna ask you if you love me But I don't wanna seem so weak

I always have this headcanon (and also some other shippers) that their relationship will start off as something physical attraction first? Then it grows from there when both of them starts blurring the lines. 

13. Pavane for A Dead Princess 

Okay, this is classical music is just... we don’t really know if Neon is dead in the current arc (although I believe that she’s not dead and Chrollo’s speculation is only a false narrative). 

But if Togashi does decide to kill her off, I think this song is so fitting for her. Given that she has Princess Syndrome. 

Even if Neon’s alive, I don’t think she is living the best life. Personally, I think she’s a princess-sy girl with a dead soul. She collects dead body parts because she has no sympathy for the dead, partly because of her upbringing. Very interesting. 

This classical music is actually my inspiration for Melody’s music box gift for Neon in Chapter 4 of my KuraNeon fanfic https://archiveofourown.org/works/27963668/chapters/70030809

14. All Too Well by Taylor Swift 

Okay, this is the one song I always think of if I’m going to write about Kurapika leaving Neon for the Dark Continent. 

Maybe we got lost in translation Maybe I asked for too much But maybe this thing was a masterpiece Till you tore it all up

This is a very powerful breakup song, and one of Taylor Swift’s best! (I’m a Tay fan actually). 

15. King of My Heart by Taylor Swift 

Is the end of all the endings? My broken bones are mending With all these nights we're spending Up on the roof with a school girl crush Drinking beer out of plastic cups Say you fancy me, not fancy stuff

We all know Kurapika is the King of Neon’s heart. <3 

16. Lucky by Britney Spears

If there’s nothing missing in her life, then why do tears come at night? 

Not really a KuraNeon song, but more for Neon. She seems like a rich girl, but she’s lonely and incomplete deep down. Her father is using her as a cash cow, much like how Britney Spear’s situation is right now. 

17. For the Love of A Daughter by Demi Lovato

Don't you remember, I'm your baby girl? How could you throw me right out of your world? So young when the pain had begun Now forever afraid of being loved

This song... gets me so sad. Not really a KuraNeon song but I think it describes Neon’s situation with her father a bit, particularly this verse. 

Okay, I will continue explaining the rest soon. 

[gabriel-gabdiel]

Youtou Shinnoken: Demon Sword Chapter 58: Living Sin (Part 10)

The B-Class Toguro fights the S-Class Yusuke Urameshi before unleashing a power beyond the one he had before he died.

Tenro, the reincarnation of Makoto Shishio, finally makes an appearance and wreaks havoc against all the Reikai Senshi before facing off against the man who killed him originally: Kenshin Himura.

The original source of this idea comes from Chad Yang. I continued his story idea found here.

The rest of the chapters of my Yuyu Hakusho and Rurouni Kenshin crossover fan fiction are available here and here. Enjoy.

First | Previous | Next (Youtou Shinnoken) | Next (Demon Sword)

About a hundred years or so ago...

In 1878, after fighting Kenshin "Battousai" Himura to a draw, Makoto Shishio died in a literal blaze of glory (through his own spontaneous combustion when his overheating body broke its limits) and went to Hell.

When he got there, he ended up right before the imposing, gigantic figure of Enma Daio, who asked him, "What are you doing here, mortal? Go back to the Gates of Judgment in order to be judged."

Shishio then replied, "Get out of my throne. I'm the new King of Hell."

***

Youtou Shinnoken: Demon Sword

A Rurouni Kenshin/Yuyu Hakusho Crossover Fan Fiction Story by Chester Castañeda

Original Concept by Chad Yang

Tenro has finally arrived in Okushiri. How will the Reikai Senshi answer his challenge, especially after learning the truth about him?

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 materials that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.

***

Chapter 58: Living Sin (Part 10)

***

Back at the Okushiri Military Base...

A shouting, crying Yahiko kneeled in front of Botan's unmoving body, seeing the huge hole in Botan's person.

A hole in the shinigami who somehow was also his kendo master from a former life, Kaoru Kamiya  (he didn't quite understand it).

Had he failed again? Like before, when Enishi Yukishiro...?

No. He would not let Kaoru down again. Not after what the Kenshingumi had been through right after Kenshin Himura died and...!

"Bloody Rain," said Yumi Komagata, who again made it rain blood mixed with what seemed like scalpels.

Right above the dark clouds filled with the scarlet squall were Houji Sadojima's shikigami (familiars) that looked like grim reapers in and of themselves due to their ragged clothes, faceless voids covered by hoods for heads, and long scythes.

And beyond them was Gatekeeper Itsuki, who had a mini-gun at the ready in order to test the limits of a solidified ghost body before it became incorporeal once more. Knowing that gunpowder had no spirit energy for Yahiko to neutralize.

"DOU GAMI! (GOD ON EARTH!)" Yahiko's earth-shattering technique blasted away the razor-sharp precipitation and Itsuki's suppressive fire into oblivion, allowing him to dissipate the slicing rain bullets around him and the soul-crushing pressure of the borrowed aura of the Onmyouji (Occult Priest).

"Insolent welp...!" Houji said the thing.

"TEN GAMI! (GOD IN HEAVEN!)" Myojin shouted as he did a much more powerful version of the God on Earth that shot him up high into the heavens. Even the nimbus clouds parted from the strength of his slash.

This rocked and shook the military base like an earthquake while the Tokyo Samurai Descendant himself approached the Onmyouji like the resulting tsunami of such an earthquake.

"INGA GAMI! (KARMIC GOD!)"

It was this technique that suddenly turned the poisonous miasma of the Overfiend into something else. Something filled with positive energy and life-giving, nourishing soul power.

Sanosuke Sagara then noticed how the crimson, purple, and black miasma of jaki surrounding them changed in color, texture, and volume. Flickering back and forth from a cool blue wave to a scarlet mess.

He then checked on Botan, only to gasp in surprise despite being a ghost that didn't need to breathe or have sudden oxygen intakes.

The hole in her chest caused by one of Itsuki's black holes had begun healing. The jaki surrounding them, as Sano suspected, was slowly being purified into reiki, which in turn the ferry-girl used to heal herself.

Not only herself, actually. She shared the wealth by beaming the spirit energy she absorbed unto Kazuma Kuwabara and Sanosuke too. Replenishing their depleted spiritual power and increasing their health at the same time.

A full restore for all her allies, if you would.

'What's going on here? Is this Yahiko's doing? Or hers?'

It was actually both.

Yahiko neutralized the overpowering potency of the Chojin's jaki just short of making it altogether disappear. Botan then purified the weakened negative energy into reiki she used to heal herself and the others while also powering them up, as though she filled the role of the Onmyouji for the Reikai Senshi (Spirit World Warriors).

Meanwhile, Kuwabara and Botan exchanged knowing glances.

They'd gone through this incident before. To be more specific, they witnessed Yusuke do the same thing Yahiko (and Kaoru) attempted to do firsthand.

It was when Urameshi got a hold of the Meikai Crystal and attempted to use it against the last Meikai God standing, Yakumo. The negative energy almost consumed him before his sheer willpower (and at the time hidden demonic lineage) turned the jaki into reiki instead.

Yahiko had decided it was easier to weaken the Chojin's overwhelming negative energy so that Kaoru could turn it into positive (spirit) energy instead of attempting to neutralize or seal it all at once.

The tag team of Yahiko and Kaoru allowed them to replicate what Yusuke himself did alone.

Break it down to its core components first, bit by bit.

The samurai boy then said, "BANZEN GAMI. (PERFECT GOD.)"

***

"Great fighters refuse to lose, but you refuse to win just to get back that feeling and exhilaration of conquering something greater than you. So what do you do now that you're in a world where nothing is greater than you?"

Those were Younger Toguro's words even as Yusuke Urameshi effortlessly tanked through and walked down his offense while blasting him to nigh-oblivion with the Renshya Rei-Gan (Rapid-Fire Spirit Gun).

'What the hell was that supposed to mean?!' Yusuke thought.

Was Toguro Ototo right? Had Urameshi become too powerful? Was he holding back his power level in order to drag out fights he would've easily won otherwise, thus endangering the lives of those he protected?

Ha. As if.

Those words truly did sound deep. They'd sound even deeper and more meaningful if said by a guy who wasn't getting his ass kicked care of him.

If that were true, he would've already hunted down and killed the Chojin himself. He wasn't even the most powerful being in Makai (Demon World), let alone all three worlds. He was a level below the likes of Mukuro and Yomi as well as his deceased ancestor/father figure Raizen.

Not to mention Raizen's old comrades having power levels so high they could band together and conquer both the Human and Spirit Worlds if they so chose.

No, instead of it being a case of Yusuke growing too ridiculously powerful, it was instead a matter of Toguro remaining stagnant and weak by comparison.

The martial artist who belonged to the "baby boomer" generation might've been powerful for a demon not trapped in Makai and blocked off by the Spirit World Barrier. However, he was a pissant compared to the likes of the monsters Urameshi eventually faced in the Demon World Unification Tournament.

On top of all that, Yusuke didn't want to hear that nonsense from the King of Holding Back. The Emperor of Power Percentages.

"Rando's Kugai (World of Suffering) is a low-level technique used by monks to empathically feel the pain and suffering of those around them. The fact that you're still suffering from its effects isn't because of its curse but because of how you reacted to it."

Yusuke frowned. Indeed, for quite sometime since his fight with Rando, every punch he threw at his opponents he also felt. For once, he found out what it was like to get punched by himself.

However, it also served as his training. The more he felt his own punches, the more resistant he became of his own power, thus raising his threshold of pain and his ability to take a punch. He could dish it out and take it.

He wasn't sure he could say the same about Toguro.

His ripcord muscles strained to their utmost, the Younger Toguro ended up having his muscle fibers ripped apart, cracked, and shattered like pottery. The anabolic state he used to grow his muscles to absurd sizes ended up completely wasted because he couldn't handle A-Level to S-Level bursts of power.

Yusuke nevertheless conceded one point to Toguro: The teenager did miss staking his life and limb to defeat an enemy, using all his strength to defend his friends and family.

He hadn't really done so lately. Not really. The last time he had a satisfying match was against Yomi.

Ever since then, his enemies mainly resorted to trickery reminiscent of Kido Asato freezing him with his shadow powers or Hiei kidnapping Keiko Yukimura to defeat him.

All of the Chojin's Shin Ju ended up as weaklings compared to Urameshi. Each and every one of them. To go against them with his full powers would be a waste of effort.

Like lighting a candle with a flamethrower or cutting grass with a chainsaw. Complete overkill.

Then again, wasn't this also the reason why Toguro, even though he was only B-Level, tended to hide his power level or only use a percentage of his power?

Huh. They were more alike than he thought.

***

Botan smiled in spite of herself. Or rather, her lips curved upward on their own and then said things not of her own volition due to her astral body's second inhabitant: Kaoru Kamiya.

"There it is. The Perfect God. That's Yahiko's answer to mastering the Mujinken."

A hundred years or so ago, Kaoru originally taught Yahiko the Tenchijinken (forethought-based techniques involving the prediction of an opponent's moves) and taught Yutaro Tsukayama the Mujinken (reflex-based techniques that reacted to whatever the opponent did in the heat of the moment) to fill in their respective weaknesses.

The two were actually more suited for each other's techniques, since Yahiko fought more off-the-cuff while Yutaro fought more methodically.

She intentionally sealed away the techniques that played to the two's strengths so that they could overcome their weaknesses with the opposite techniques, believing that someday they'd figure out how to do each other's ultimate attacks down the line anyway.

While the Inga Gami showed Yahiko's version of methodical fighting (with him focusing on every counterstrike to unleash the best counters without any wasted movement or energy), it was the instinctual Banzen Gami that showed his fullest potential.

Yahiko was more of a natural with the Perfect God than the Karmic God. It was the opposite for the more thoughtful Yutaro (who now went by the name and identity of Natsuki Shinkai/Xinhai).

"INSECT!" sneered Houji, his wide eyes glowing red, his voice booming like thunder as he produced what seemed like an endless stream of shikigami. Only for Myojin to seemingly cut and disintegrate them with a couple of reflexive waves of his sakabatou.

He wasn't even looking at the reapers as every reflexive slice of his blunt sword blew them apart and sent them to oblivion, his gaze aimed solely at Sadojima

The miasma of black jaki turned into white and blue shining reiki as Myojin neutralized it and Kaoru converted it into pure reiki. Once he reached Houji, their respective weapons clashed, the entire area split between the morning light colors from behind Yahiko and the pitch-black darkness from behind Sadojima.

It was like the clash of day and night, with the point of impact serving as their dusk or dawn. Twilight or daybreak.

To Houji's alarm, his scythe then started to crack and break. 'What the HELL is with this stupid brat!? I thought our only real threats are the Youkiri Battousai and Urameshi Yusuke! Chojin-sama, HELP!'

***

Instead of going down from the barrage of Rei-Gan shots, Toguro merely said, "Stop wasting energy," as though Yusuke left the light or electric fan turned on or something.

To Yusuke's surprise (or perhaps disappointment), the B-Class Toguro reacted to the Spirit Gun bombardment the exact same way as he did during the Ankoku Bujutsukai (Dark Martial Arts Tournament): By attempting to charge at the growing spirit energy bullets to stop them with his bare hands and feet as well as his purely anabolic, hugely muscular body.

And just like that, it was over. With Toguro face down on the ground, his body shattered and torn from its exploded musculature. A tall, lean husk of its former self.

Another one bit the dust. Like the rest of Yusuke's revived enemies that came back stronger because of the Chojin but not quite strong enough to take him on.

To Yusuke's mild surprise, Toguro was still "alive".  Or this revived zombie version of himself made by the Chojin's own personal Dr. Frankenstein was still moving.

The muscleman mercenary then said, "I'm merely at B-Level and I was able to push you this far? Your fighting senses have dulled, Urameshi Yusuke."

"Oh really? Well, I've discovered that at this point, no one could beat me but myself. You're welcome to prove me wrong, though," said Yusuke.

Again, Urameshi pulled something right out of Toguro's playbook. They both looked down on people who weren't on their level.

Toguro looked up at the night sky, which rekindled his memories. The Shichousei (Death Omen Star, also known as the Lifespan Star, Jumyoboshi, Alcor, or 80 Ursae Majoris) wasn't present near the Big Dipper.

"I can't see the Shichousei in the heavens."

"W-What are you talking about, Toguro? Have you gone cuckoo?"

Legend had it that when two warriors fought to the death under the Star of Death and it shone upon one of them, that person would die.

Was the star missing because he was already dead? Or because this wasn't much of a death match?

Fine. He'd turn this match into a death match then.

On the other hand, other Japanese myths and legends alleged that when a person couldn't see the Lifespan Star, he'd pass away within a year. That was appropriate since Toguro himself was not alive anymore.

Thusly, every broken bone from his body reset and healed, but instead of going back to normal, they formed sharp calcified bone spurs that protruded right out of his craggy, callused body like horns or thorns.

"...I knew it! You still had another form after 100%, you son of a bitch! CHOU REI-GAN! (MEGA SPIRIT GUN!)"

As Toguro got a power boost from the way his body decided to recover from his injuries, he punched back the Chou Rei-Gan Yusuke fired at his changing form before punching the teenager as well with his bone spur claws on his fist right at the moment of impact, quadrupling its effect.

He just jumped from Class-B to Class-A in a mere second.

"Ooof!" The world-stopping punch emptied the air from Yusuke's lungs.

"My former 100% has actually become less than a percentage point of my power, but for the sake of giving you a point of reference, I'll base my power increases on what was 100% of my power."

He grew about as big as his 100% of 100% form, perhaps even a little bigger, but this time around the demonized behemoth's black hair turned as grey as steel along with the rest of his vascular body that was covered with huge bony protrusions.

"So you can call this form of mine as me at 500% of my power."

"Whatever! HYAKU RETSU-KEN! (HUNDRED RENDING FISTS!)"

Appropriately enough, the attack Yusuke then used in response to Toguro's transformation was one he saw on television from his favorite anime show as a child of the 1980s, "Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star)".

The Shichousei or Death Omen Star was, after all, also referenced by the same program.

Honestly, it was just Urameshi going ham on an opponent by randomly striking his heavy-handed punches at every opening available to him, with him naming the "technique" after the fact.

***

The devastation of the Okushiri Military base extended outward, with the pairs of Kazuma and Yumi as well as Sanosuke and Itsuki traveling eastward in a trail of devastation that followed Yahiko's own blaze of glory.

The green comet that was the Tokyo Samurai Descendant clashed and burned through the spherical cloud of miasma protecting Sadojima, like a shooting star entering the atmosphere.

The two pairs of enemies fought tooth and nail for proper positioning. The Reikai Senshi pushed the Chojin's forces back to protect Myojin from their interference.

Sanosuke punched through everything Itsuki threw at him from his hyperdimensional portals and busted portal gun. Sano also dodged the dense scattershot black holes and threw pavement debris at the Gatekeeper for good measure.  

Meanwhile, Kazuma fought from afar using his blade that can literally cut through anything and anywhere in order to slash apart every attempt of the wind vampire Yumi to blast tornadoes and energy-absorbing jaki at him.

Finally, Myojin himself struck the Chojin's (and at this point, it was the Chojin controlling the Onmyouji) scythe hard, the blade covered in miasma and dark energy.

The tides of battle then turned.

Using the jaki Kaoru purified into reiki, Yahiko's green aura became denser and denser, creating a white shining void at the center of his body that sucked the darkness of the Chojin away. Acting like a reverse black hole or even white hole that absorbed all of the Overfiend's darkness into his pure light.

'This is it, Botan,' thought Kaoru "telepathically". 'This is the power of Mu (Void). The power of emptiness.'

'Emptiness...?' repeated the ferry-girl.

'Yes. A true martial artist is able to fight with instinct, freeing his mind of all thought and distractions, leading to a Zen State. Yahiko manifested this Zen State into his unique skill: Neutralizing spiritual energy.'

A second later, all energy from everyone dissipated, and from there Houji's scythe shattered like glass as both he and Yahiko plummeted into the docks of the Okushiri Pier.  

The samurai spirit fell into Ryu Tsui Sen (Dragon Hammer Flash) stance and slammed Sadojima into one of the metal crates of the pier below them with an emphatic crash.  

"You stupid kid! I'll show you! ETERNAL...! Wait, what?! My powers are gone!"

Yumi Komagata attempted to do the Hi-Ougi (Hidden Art) of Vampire Martial Arts—a move stronger than the energy-sapping Blood Wind—but nothing of the sort manifested before her. Her aura, the energy she gathered from sucking many a soldier's blood, had disappeared.

The same happened to Itsuki, who couldn't summon his Reverse-Man or escape into his pocket dimension any longer.

Yahiko's reiki had also went out, which normally was dangerous for a ghost but he somehow reached homeostasis with the way he cancelled out the Chojin's jaki.

His dense green aura had now completely neutralized the powers of everyone near him instead of merely mitigating their flow, including the now unconscious Onmyouji.

Like how no light could escape the event horizon of a black hole, not one shadow of the Chojin's dark energy could exist amidst the blinding green light of Yahiko's converging spiritual aura.

However, as a consequence, even Yahiko's allies lost their powers as well, as though he was acting as the reverse version of the Onmyouji. Instead of boosting the powers of those in his vicinity, he nullified them.

Regardless, Sanosuke and Kuwabara immediately took advantage of the loss of powers from Itsuki and Yumi with their physical strength, with the former beating Itsuki to a pulp and Kuwabara breaking the umbrella and fan of Komagata bareheaded before tackling and pinning her down.

"Give it up, lady. You lost," said Kuwabara. "You can't cheat your way out of this one by resurrecting your goons every time we defeat them. Your precious Onmyouji's down for the count."

Yahiko "heaved" a sigh of relief despite being a solidified ghost who didn't need to breathe. "It's finally over."

Botan giggled in glee. "We did it! You did it! The number one pupil of Kamiya Kasshin! I'm so proud of you, Yahiko!" The last few parts of that statement was Kaoru talking.  

Sano looked at his own bloody fists and winced. 'We've won, but why do I feel like it's not yet over? Like there's still something afoot.'

Even though the blood from his right fist wasn't his own but Itsuki's, it burned and ached something fierce. Like he broke his hand or something. 'What's going on? I have a bad feeling about this.'

Sanosuke's bad feeling then turned into reality.

***

At Class-A, Yusuke Urameshi's Hyaku Retsu-Ken would've turned the B-Plus Toguro into mince meat. Or roadkill.

At Class-S, his Hyaku Retsu-Ken would've turned mountains like Mt. Kannon, Mt. Kamui, and even Mt. Fuji into molehills, plains, or even outright trenches and canyons as deep as the United States of America's Grand Canyon.

Like he was a pint-sized Paul Bunyan.

The teenager harrumphed. "Really? 500%? Like I'm fighting 5 Toguros at the same time? So what? That's still nothing compared to the demons I've faced since defeating you, Toguro...!"

The bone-breaking punches cracked the shell of Toguro's chitinous muscle armor bit by bit. However, in turn, Toguro let his fists fly as well but in a more methodical manner.

Targeting his punches at Yusuke's openings rather than punching randomly. Using his martial arts experience to take down the stronger foe.  

His bony yet muscular fists pounded on Yusuke's smaller body, cracking bones here and there.

Yusuke's fists ached from every punch he did on the rock-solid body of Toguro, the multitude of Spirit Cuffs holding his power back also getting pushed to their limit. The restraining cuffs and seals he placed upon himself were at their near breaking point from him merely flexing his immense power.

Thank goodness the likes of Yomi, Mukuro, Enki, and the rest of Raizen's friends (as well as Raizen himself when he was alive) put him in his place early on regarding what real power looked like, or else he'd be full of himself right about now.

The Toguro with chitinous bone spurs and keratinous horns all over his muscle-bound body ended up breaking each and every one of his thick, calcified bones from the impact of Yusuke's attacks.

Toguro's bones rattled as micro-tears appeared all over his muscles and tendons. Despite this, he pushed forward. Like his older brother, he healed quickly, which alerted Urameshi that he still had something in his sleeve.

"All right. Then how about this? TAKO NAGURI!"

The Octopus Assault—Yusuke's version of the Kuzu Ryu Sen (Nine-Dragon Flash) that hit 8 times instead of 9 times in an instant—hammered the horned gray body of the zombified and demonized Toguro before he could get the chance to stab, gore, or spear Yusuke with his many protruding bone spurs.

Urameshi once heard that it took either 23,034 slaps to cook a chicken. Either that, or a slap traveling at 1,665.65 meters per second.

He wasn't sure about the math, but he cooked Toguro's goose at a rate of 8-16 punches a second with every punch traveling at 1,000-2,000 meters per second, so it would've took about 20 minutes of non-stop Tako Naguri to get to around 20,000 punches or 2,500 super-powered Tako Naguri.

Or he would've cooked/burned 20,000 whole chickens with his speedy punches at around the same time it took to cook a chicken in the oven.

However, it was at the second minute that Urameshi broke his hand. He hit a hard shell reminiscent of Usui's shield.

From the pile of minced meat, torn muscle cords, and viscera emerged yet another Toguro form.

What stood before him wasn't the spurred behemoth Toguro but instead a fully armored Toguro, with every inch of his body covered in craggy white bone.

As though his shattered bones healed wrong and ended up calcifying right on top of his pulsating muscles. He broke the calcified armor in sections by flexing his limbs in order to give his new outer shell moving joints.

It also made him look like a white lobster man, thought Yusuke in chagrin.

"This is 1,000% of my power. 100 times the power of my 100% self."

***

At the Okushiri Pier, around 9:47 PM...

The mangled remains of a man landed right in front of Reikai's finest from out of the shadows of the dark harbor.

The Reikai Senshi (and their accompanying shinigami) then felt goose bumps form at the napes of their necks—even the ghostly ones that didn't even have tangible skin, blood, or hair to make such a sensation possible.

Even Itsuki, whom Sano beat from pillar to post with bare-knuckle fisticuffs, looked none the worse for wear compared to the person before them.

He was bathed in blood and his torn clothes were dyed crimson because of it. He looked like he'd been ravaged by a pack of wolves.

The only thing recognizable about him was that he was male.  Probably.

Sanosuke was the first one to try and poke at the figure to see who it was. If he had a ten-foot pole, he'd prod the man with it. As it was, thanks to Yahiko manifesting his full neutralization powers, Sano couldn't even summon one zanbatou right now.

The street fighter then stumbled back, which made Kazuma ask, "What's wrong? Who is it? Is that one of the Chojin's Shin Ju or whatever?"

Botan gulped, hoping against hope that the man before them was the injured body of one of the New Ten Swords instead of one of the Spirit World Warriors.

Before Sano could answer, someone else answered for him.

"That's what remains of Hajime Saito. The former captain of the Shinsengumi's Third Unit."

"...What? Who said that?" demanded Yahiko.

The Reikai Tantei, the shinigami, and the Kenshingumi then turned in time to see the silhouette of a pony-tailed person from the distance.

There stood a human(?) of about S-Level power with sleeked-back hair, a lengthy ponytail, and a half-undone kimono that showed off his rippling swimmer's muscles on his long build.

As realization dawned on them one by one, their mouths went agape, practically unhinged from their upper jaw.

The blood drained from Kuwabara's face while the three spiritual beings' faces (Botan/Kaoru, Sano, and Yahiko) looked more transparent than usual.

The ghosts all looked like they'd seen a ghost (ironically enough), forgetting they were ghosts themselves. Gasping for air they couldn't breathe anymore.

Even Kuwabara, who was alive, looked like he'd seen a ghost himself or even turned into one.

The man, who himself was a bloody mess with stabs wounds and cuts at every inch of his body, held something in his arms.

It was his trophy. His prize after a hard day's battle.

It was the head of his enemy. It was the head of Hajime Saito.

Botan screamed. Or rather, Kaoru did.

The Kamiya Kasshin Master couldn't believe that Kenshin's greatest rival who was so famous he became a Japanese historical figure later on had been defeated.

On the other hand, Botan—through centuries of being a death goddess—had seen worse things before, so she was desensitized enough to not scream. Her own feeling of dread was around the same level as Kaoru's, though.

The pony-tailed assassin then took one look at the Kenshingumi sans Kenshin, the Reikai Tantei sidekick, and their shinigami babysitter then sighed.

"Oh, no one but weaklings left? Pathetic. Imagine, after such a delicious meal, I'm left with leftovers and expired food."

The new arrival then placed Saito's head beside the rest of his body. Almost reverently. "Rest in peace, Saito Hajime. You were truly a worthy rival. I acknowledge you."

"You killed Officer Fujita! You BASTARD!" screamed Kuwabara, a knife-sized Rei-Ken ablaze with reiki and righteous indignation in his grip.

Kazuma would've produced a full-length Jigen Tou with the rage he felt, but Yahiko's neutralizing presence kept his powers in check.

"Wait. Boke (Fool), he's...!" Sano trailed off, moving in front of Kuwabara to block him from doing anything hasty. 'If anyone's going to do something hasty, it was going to be me!' thought Sagara.

"Who are you?" said Yahiko as he pointed his sakabatou at the stranger.

"I'm Youkiri Tenro (Tenro the Demon-Slayer). Remember that name before I send you back to Heaven."

***

Yusuke quickly checked his Spirit Detector. Toguro was now at A-Level with his Bone Armor form. Around the same power level as the most powerful members of the Reikai Tokubetsu Bouetai (Spirit World Special Forces).

This turn of events definitely piqued his interest. Somewhat. Maybe this time, he'd get the battle he so craved from this new version of Toguro since being defeated by Yomi in the Makai Tournament.

However, the extra layer of bone armor made it harder for Yusuke to break apart Toguro's muscle armor with mere punches, no matter what velocity he reached.

As though Toguro now had double the armor.

Also, in turn, the Class-A Toguro Ototo pummeled and stabbed Yusuke with earth-shattering strikes from his bony fists, horns, and claws as well as shattered pieces of his bone armor that kept calcifying and regrowing over and over. Layer by layer. Like samurai armor or shingles on the roof.

Stubbornly, the bloody and bruised Yusuke kept on punching the armored demon to push him away and give himself breathing room.

The bony yet muscle-bound contradiction of a monster that looked ridiculously gigantic yet unencumbered by his musculature having an extra layer of armor on top of it, turning him into a veritable tank with the speed of a Mack truck. He even hit like a truck.

However, as his wounds healed in Toguro Ani fashion, Urameshi realized that he had long ago surpassed the version of him that could get killed by being hit by a car. Or a truck. Or a tank. Or perhaps even a nuclear warhead. Maybe.

"Rei-Kou-Dan (Spirit Light Wave Bullet)."

One of his Spirit Cuffs broke as he put his hip into his punches and imbued his fists with actual spiritual power. They were already harder than steel because of the spirit energy contained within his body. When he emanated reiki from inside and outside himself, his punches also become explosive.

One reiki-imbued punch was all it took for him to crack the bone armor of Toguro at 1,000%. However, he wasn't done.

Perhaps he might have gone overboard, but he decided to punch Toguro 20,000 times in 3 minutes rather than 20 minutes. But it sure felt like 20 minutes.

Furthermore, these weren't just physical punches. His fists were set on fire with spiritual energy this time around. He shot out 20,000 Rei-Kou-Dan blasts, to be more precise.

Every supersonic punch had the impact of a blockbuster bomb, with it breaking the sound barrier and sending extra shockwaves to Toguro and all. Perhaps he'd become even more explosive than multiple blockbusters.

Perhaps Yusuke had turned into a teenaged nuke or warhead himself.

However, out of the mangled mess of bone armor emerged yet another Toguro. The armor that should've served as his coffin ended up becoming his cocoon for his newest metamorphosis. Which, to Yusuke's surprise, made him breathe a sigh in relief.

Yes! He could still push himself even further!

Was this excited feeling the same one that Toguro felt when, just a few years prior, Yusuke was able to withstand the might of 80% of his power when he killed Genkai in cold blood?

Regardless, a bronze-skinned, taller, and four-armed Toguro emerged from all that mush and burnt flesh he'd become earlier, impossibly towering even higher over Yusuke than before. His current ginormous form made his former seven-foot form look normal-sized in comparison.

His muscles were like taut steel cords now, like those used in heavy-duty tires and conveyer belts. Perhaps even harder. They were definitely harder than the pieces of thick calcified bone armor that they crushed like egg shells with a simple collective body flex.

"This is 100,000% of my power. This is what fighting 1,000 clones of my 100% self looks like."

Yusuke thought for a second what Toguro meant by that, only for him to test the theory out with an additional 20,000 Rei-Kou-Dan blasts in a minute. 20,000 palm blocks later and Urameshi now had a better idea of what his nemesis meant, followed by 20,000 counterpunches in between those blocks.

All in a minute's time.

'100,000% Toguro? He didn't even bother going to 10,000%? Jeez!' Urameshi thought as he got hit with a two-armed lariat that dragged his body across the landscape and river like a trailer home in a tornado.

This was it. This was the A-Plus version of Toguro.

Yusuke couldn't even hide the grin from his face even as this newest form of Toguro beat him to the punch every time.

Toguro at 100,000% had even tighter and tauter musculature with enough strength and torque behind them to break bones to dust. His ripcord muscles could handle punching velocities similar to that of or even faster than Yusuke's.

It also didn't help that Toguro now had a body that could accommodate four arms, thus giving him twice the hand speed and arm speed due to his literal extra limbs.

***

"...SHISHIO!" screamed Sanosuke at Tenro, his blood (ectoplasm) boiling. His right fist, which Makoto Shishio broke, pulsating like a second heart.

Even though Tenro wasn't wearing bandages and his skin wasn't burned to a crisp, Sano could recognize that voice and that demeanor anywhere.

'Shishio?' thought Kuwabara. So Tenro was the man who founded the original Juppon Gatana? Kenshin's greatest rival? The man who ultimately caused Kenshin's demise? The man who might actually be the alter ego of the Chojin himself?

The guy who not only pushed Hiei to his limits, but also possibly two of the Demon World's three kings, Yomi and Mukuro? Was Tenro Shishio's reincarnation or something...?

Before they knew it, they were suddenly faced with the final boss of the game.

The fighting spirit of Sanosuke rose high enough for him to defy the nullifying presence of Yahiko and form half of a zanbatou in his hands, which he swung at the (presumably) non-burned version or reincarnation of the ex-hitokiri and Meiji rebel known as Makoto Shishio.

With one swing of Tenro's Mugen Jin (Unlimited Blade) sword, Sagara's suspicions were confirmed.

"Secret Sword One: HOMURA DAMA!"

Shishio's signature Homura Dama (Burning Soul) technique where his sword burst into flame clashed hard against the 6-foot (normally 12-foot) horse-chopping sword, smelting it in the process like a blacksmith's forge in a shower of sparks.

"A weakling like usual, Sagara Sanosuke," sneered Tenro. "It's been a while, though."

"I don't understand. Wasn't Shishio supposed to look like a mummy or something? He's some guy who was burnt to a crisp and covered in bandages, right?" said Kazuma.

Sano answered, "Yeah, but obviously it's been 100 years. He must've found a way to get a new body, or ended up with a solidified soul, or got reincarnated as this Tenro clown."

Myojin gulped. He considered deactivating his powers to allow either Kuwabara or Sanosuke to attack the youkiri. However, if Tenro was this powerful with his spiritual power nullified, how much more powerful could he get when Yahiko's powers ceased working?

The disheveled Yumi then cackled in the background, the hole in her chest throbbing with a ghostly heart that the man before her had "stolen" from her.

"It's about time you got here, Tenro. What took you so long? Don't tell me the Miburo (Mibu's Wolf) gave you all that you can handle and then some."

Tenro harrumphed. "Perish the thought, Yumi. I merely gave my respects first to the Shinsengumi in the Battle of Hakodate Monument, and guess who I also found there? That's right, our favorite Shinsengumi Captain, Saito Hajime."

'Hakodate?!' thought Yahiko. 'That's four hours away from Okushiri! All the way on the other side of Hokkaido, at that!'

Sanosuke himself snarled at Tenro, his fist burning with pain and fire, as though it remembered how Makoto had shattered it when they'd faced each other back at Mt. Hiei.

'Hakodate is the place that served as the Shinsengumi's last stand. Did Saito go there to pay his respects to his squad? In the middle of our war against the Shin Ju? It's not like him to be so sentimental.'

The street fighter spared a glance at the remains of Hajime Saito. Unbelievable. Just earlier, he pushed several of the Shin Juppon Gatana to their limits, but now he ended up as dead as the rest of the original Shinsengumi.

Well, Saito himself was supposed to already be dead and buried in the first place, but this time around he got killed off for real by Shishio. Or Tenro, which was probably the reincarnation of Shishio.

Kuwabara turned towards Yahiko and said, "Kid, turn off your powers! I'm going to face off with the final boss one-on-one at my full strength!"

"But...!" the ghost kid trailed off before Botan filled in the rest.

"Kuwabara-kun, he can't. He's the only one sealing Tenro's immense power. If he was able to do that to Saito, imagine what he could do to us! Let Yahiko seal his power for now until either Kenshin or Yusuke arrives!" warned the ferry-girl.

"I DON'T CARE!" shouted Kazuma. "Let us face him at his full strength while we're also at full strength! As a real man, I won't back down!"

Tenro smirked. "Fine then. If you're not bluffing then come at me. In this world and beyond it, the same rules of nature apply. Only the strongest survive and the weak are food for the strong."

Sano's eyes narrowed. That convinced him that the man before him really was Shishio. That was totally a Shishio-type line. 'It's now or never. We just have to keep him here until either Kenshin or that delinquent best friend of Boke arrives!'

***

"REI-KOU-DAN!" shouted Urameshi, his Spirit Wave Light Bullets bursting through his fist like bolts of lightning from a Railgun.

The 100,000% Toguro blocked the punch with his elbow, shattering Yusuke's hand bones in the process. "Is this the power of an S-Level? Don't make me laugh. Me at 100,000% of my power is enough for you."

Toguro then grabbed hold of Urameshi's limbs with all four of his arms in a bid to tear the teenager apart literally from limb to limb.

Yusuke considered Toguro's statement for a second and then said, "Fuck that," before flipping the four-armed monster off with his right hand.

The mere idea that someone like Feng Xinhai or The "Beautiful" Suzuki was more powerful than Toguro just didn't sit well with Urameshi. At all.

At any rate, the middle finger he raised at the 100,000% Toguro then flowed with energy he'd been saving for a special occasion.

Yusuke discovered that he could actually save and store his dormant spirit energy as a reserve or extra Spirit Gun blast for use in case of emergencies since it usually took forever and a day to charge his Rei-Gan.

The energy for this one he'd been gathering for weeks' on end.

Also, in order for him to not mistakenly fire off his reserve Rei-Gan, he had this special energy bullet stored in his middle finger. This was how the new technique that he improvised when facing off against the S-Level Xinhai ultimately evolved.

This was his "Fuck You!" Spirit Gun. Also known as the "FAKKU GAN! (FUCK GUN!)"

The 100,000% Toguro chucked Yusuke away like a hot potato in order to better dodge the point-blank spiritual projectile then punted the Fuck Gun back to the teenager who fired it.

However, by instinct borne from his hundreds of fights against spiritually powerful humans and demons, Yusuke jumped away from the Fakku Gan, grabbed Toguro by the ankle, dragged him towards the ball of plasma fire he actually outran, and then threw the monster back into its path.

From there, as the 100,000% Toguro braced himself for impact, Urameshi emerged from behind him. Attacking him from the rear for good measure.

Toguro was now stuck between a rock and a hard place. Or between a demon and his energy blast.

"REI-KOU-DAN! SHOT GUN!" screamed the half-demon prince.

While the Fakku Gan blasted and disintegrated the giant from the front, Yusuke attacked with his Spirit Light Wave Bullets and reiki scattershot from behind, which kept even the four-armed monstrosity from defending himself from the upcoming onslaught surrounding him.

The charged-up blasts of energy in particle and wave forms bore on Toguro like plasma tides or a solar wind. An endless series of reiki tidal waves from the vast ocean of Urameshi's power.

Thanks to the extra pressure brought about by his stored energy blast from many weeks ago, Yusuke's Rei-Kou-Dan was able to penetrate deep into Toguro's core. The technique ripped apart the steel cord muscles of Toguro as they got softened by the comet of energy that cooked him alive.  

Then, as Yusuke had hoped deep in his unbeating heart, the mangled Toguro changed form yet again.

The same heart that stopped beating after Shinobu Sensui first pierced it felt like it had started beating again in anticipation. In excitement. In nostalgia, even.

Toguro still had more forms and powers up his sleeve. Just like old times.

And from there, out of the ashes and melted muscle of the 100,000% Toguro came forth the One Million Percent Toguro.

"One Million Percent. This is me at One Million Percent of my power, Urameshi Yusuke."

***

Kuwabara and Sanosuke attacked Tenro at the same time while Yahiko struggled on the spot to focus all his neutralizing powers on the Shishio reincarnation(?) alone.

Botan checked her Spirit Detector again. Hope sprouted anew within her heart. 'Yes! Tenro's power level went down to A-Level. He's still on the cusp of S-Level, but at least he's not as powerful as someone like Sensui or Xinhai! We have a chance!'

Tenro frowned. His aura of jaki had become fainter and weaker due to Myojin's powers.

'Hmmm. The Shin Ju had warned me about this impudent brat. Even Toguro Ani couldn't heal properly thanks to this kid's neutralizing reiki.'

As Yahiko slowly mastered his neutralization powers so that only Tenro was affected by them, the energy levels of Kuwabara and Sanosuke went up higher and higher than before, their auras flaring with spiritual might that was boosted by Botan's healing powers for good measure.

"JIGEN TOU!" screamed Kazuma, summoning his Dimension Sword.

"ZANBATOU!" shouted Sanosuke, producing his 12-foot long Horse-Chopping Sword.

"How appropriate. Isn't this just a reflection of today's society? The weak are using their great numbers to suppress their betters, not realizing that without the strong to lead them or the will to become strong themselves, they will end up extinct. The world stands on the shoulders of giants."

"SHADDAP! I don't know who you are, but all's fair in love and war," declared Kuwabara.

"Not all men are created equal. Like in the Animal Kingdom, some men are simply better than others. Equal opportunity doesn't guarantee equal results. Forcing equal results in an aberration of nature, like forcing animals to act like men, the pinnacle of evolution."

Tenro used a bare hand to grab hold of Kuwabara's Dimension Sword and used his other hand holding the saw-like Mugen Jin to block the full-length zanbatou.

"Ganging up on the strong can lead to the survival of the weak temporarily. However, their own respective weaknesses will sort them out. Their celebration of mediocrity will make them food for other apex predators in the future or have them subjugated by any of their own who decide to become rams instead of sheep."

The Youkiri then broke the Jigen Tou apart like it was made of cardboard instead of pure energy and stabbed Sanosuke's chest with it while also melting the zanbatou with his Mugen Jin's Homura Dama.

"Regardless, it is better to live one day as a lion than one hundred years as a sheep. These are... THE RULES OF NATURE!"

"AUGH!" grunted Sanosuke, his recently recovered soul flickering in and out of existence, his chest spewing ectoplasm, and his aura dissipating into pinpoints of light like a disturbed nest of bioluminescent fireflies.

He felt the light inside him slowly fade all the while.

"Bastard...!" said Kazuma, who repurposed the broken shards of his Jigen Tou and shot it pointblank at Youkiri Tenro's face, turning them into "REI-SHURIKEN!"

He should've hit him with the projectiles from a distance, though. The first few blades bounced off of the intense aura of jaki that covered Tenro's body like armor, which reminded Kuwabara of the aura that Detective Matsudaira developed.

Reiatsu (Spirit pressure).

Tenro's aura was dense enough to become spirit pressure reminiscent of Bui from the Toguro Team. Or Yusuke whenever he unleashed his full power.

So this was the Chojin's secret weapon? If not the Chojin himself altogether?

The demon-slayer then grabbed the teenager's wrist and redirected the shuriken at Sano again, injuring him further. From there, he broke Kuwabara's hand altogether then grabbed him by the collar, declaring, "Secret Sword Two: GUREN KAINA! (CRIMSON LOTUS ARM!)"

Using his Mugen Jin to ignite the gunpowder-laced glove, the youkiri blasted Kuwabara with the force of a bomb.

The gunpowder-inside-the-glove trick that Shishio used on Kenshin was also used against Kazuma, with the explosion violently blowing him away. A hundred years ago, Makoto's hand was kept safe from the blast using a special metal gauntlet underneath the glove full of gunpowder that resisted the impact.

Tenro somehow ended up doing an even stronger version of the Guren Kaina that was imbued with the chaotic negative energy of the Chojin, which made the explosion strong enough to injure a human with the A-Class power level of Kuwabara.

Yahiko's power-suppressing aura didn't help in this case.

Tenro then shot the samurai ghost teen a look that chilled him to his "bones" or "spine". The youkiri then declared, "You will not drag me down to your level. Know your place, child."

However, while Tenro was distracted, the flickering spirit of Sanosuke stabbed the youkiri with hot molten metal of what was left of his sword in a spectacular display of sparks.

This was Sano's one chance of making a dent, so he had to make it count. However, as he attempted to punch Tenro's heart out, his hand ended up crushed with the youkiri's elbow block.

With a harrumph, Tenro proceeded to punch Sanosuke on the forehead, just like when Sano fought Shishio. "You never learn."

"I don't understand," murmured the Kaoru inside Botan's body. "Isn't Yahiko's aura supposed to suppress Tenro's powers too? Why is he still so strong!?"

She then noticed the unconscious Itsuki open his eyes and wake up, which led her to keep her guard up.

The black-and-blue Itsuki chuckled, tracing his finger over the scar Kuwabara had made on his face back when the Reikai Tantei faced off against Shinobu Sensui. "Y-You don't understand. This is him with his power held back."

"W-What do you mean? That's impossible!" Botan checked her Spirit Detector. "Oh no. His power is fluctuating between A-Level and S-Level when earlier it was just A-Level. That can't be! How powerful is he?"

Sneering, Itsuki said, "Who knows? Rumor has it he's about as powerful as one of the Former Three Kings—Mukuro, Yomi, and even the Late Raizen. He might even reach the mythical X-Level like Kurama did when he took hold of the Demon Sword."

Botan's face went pale blue as though unseen hands suddenly grabbed hold of her thin neck. "X-Level?!"

She remembered the event like it was yesterday.

The Spirit World went on high alert when Kurama went Class-X after wielding the Youtou Shinnoken (Demon Sword). They even called the entire Reikai Bouetai in. Not that it would've done them any good, since the Special Forces were composed of Class-A agents and Class-X was a level beyond Class-S.

She couldn't even fathom how strong an X-Level was since Kurama immediately rejected the Demon Sword, which transformed him back into his "human" self.

However, stronger than Yomi, Mukuro, or Raizen gave her a ballpark estimate of what they were dealing with. Someone as strong as or stronger than a Raizen-possessed Yusuke who ragdolled the mountain-destroying Sensui with ease.

All the same, Tenro stood victorious over the beaten figures of Sanosuke and Kuwabara.

"Will you become rams or sheep? Lions or feral street cats? Wolves or mongrel dogs? Can you evolve and turn into apex predators yourselves? It's natural selection. Kill or be killed. Make your choice."

***

The peaceful Tsurikake River had now become a war zone. A swamp in one part and a desert in another.

It was Baghdad. It was bedlam.

The 1,000,000% Toguro was there at the epicenter of the devastation. A nuke all his own. An unnatural force of nature.

An over-muscled demonized human even taller than his 100,000% version. A walking contradiction of chaos and order.

He had no skin now. He was all pure, red muscle and tendons pulsating and wriggling in every which way.

He also had six arms instead of two or four, with him towering even higher than before because he had to elongate his torso to cartoonish levels just to accommodate his extra pair of limbs.

Curious at how strong this Toguro was, Yusuke flipped the bird on Toguro with his other hand.

Yes, he had also stored another Fuck Gun on his other hand, with about the same amount of potential spiritual energy gathered for multiple weeks since he fired his first Fakku Gan at Feng Xinhai.

"FAKKU GAN!"

Again, Urameshi blasted all of his pent-up "Fuck You!" energy at Toguro by flipping him off, shooting the bolt of concentrated lightning that came out with the force of a shooting star.

Again, he outran the modified reserve Rei-Gan and came up from behind the six-armed insectoid Toguro with the intent of making sure he got hit by it.

He then attacked Toguro with both hands using the Rei-Gan and Shot Gun.

"DOUBLE-BARRELED SHOT GUN! DOUBLE BERRETTA REI-GAN!"

Those extra pair of hands on an even bigger and sturdier body made all the difference.

Two of six arms grabbed and held back the charged-for-weeks Rei-Gan. Another two of the arms parried and blocked all of Yusuke's energy-laden punches as well as the projectiles blasting through them.

This freed up the Million-Percent Toguro's two remaining hands that grabbed hold of Yusuke and pummeled him into submission.

The Younger Toguro utilized punches that carved the landscape. Made and destroyed mountains.

The kind of unnatural force of nature (as contradictory as it sounded) that could affect plate tectonics, weather patterns, or change the area forever, like in the case of Mt. St. Helens when it exploded or the nine ghost villages of France that remained wastelands to this day thanks to the Battle of Verdun in the First World War.  

If Yusuke's reiki-dense body weren't there to absorb the blows they would've shattered and sunk Okushiri right off of the map.

Even though Urameshi was breathing through his mouth, had lost several teeth, and ended up with a shattered jaw he couldn't close, he couldn't help but grin. Or at least do an open-mouthed smile.

"I'm beating you to the punch at every turn. So why is it...?" Toguro tilted his head to the side in askance. "Why do you have such a happy look on your face?"

Disturbingly, Yusuke's teeth grew back. They weren't supposed to do that but they did. Even accelerated human healing wouldn't allow the return of lost permanent teeth. All his bruises healed. All his broken bones mended themselves. His shut black eye's swelling subsided and went back to normal.

There he hung from Toguro's grip. Smiling. None the worse for wear save for torn clothes that couldn't restore themselves to their previous state.

"Come on, Toguro. You can do better than this, you son of a bitch! Gimme your best shot!"

Toguro then proceeded to smash Yusuke and his own heavenly body of a Fakku Gan together, which resulted in a mushroom cloud of pure destructive power.

Another atomic blast had hit Japan.

Toguro the Younger turned Urameshi into the atomic bomb he was afraid he had become.

***

Back at the Okushiri Pier, two things happened.

Botan, using the wealth of leftover negative energy that Kaoru purified earlier, again started healing the damage inflicted upon the available Reikai Senshi.

Kuwabara and Sanosuke stirred, as if shot by multiple doses of adrenalin.

Also, when the youkiri decided to deal with the shinigami herself to keep her from aiding her comrades, Yahiko himself confronted and attacked Tenro head on.

For all the good it did. Bless his ghostly heart.

"DOU GAMI...! (GOD ON EARTH!)" shouted Yahiko, hoping against hope it'd land on Tenro's head or sword or at least near him so that he'd get pelted by rocks and debris.

'So this is Shishio. The leader of the Juppon Gatana. Kenshin's most powerful rival,' the samurai spirit thought.

Tenro caught the reverse-edged blade between his fingers before it could make contact with him or the Mugen Jin. The God Hammer relied on recoil to give Yahiko enough space to consecutively strike something or someone three times fast in order to break their resistance and apply a zero-resistance strike.

No recoil meant the technique was neutralized.

Myojin's jaw dropped. "How...!?"

"So you're the brat who can neutralize spirit energy," said Tenro with narrowed eyes that traveled from Houji's unconscious form then all the way back to Yahiko.

Readjusting his grip of the sword tight with a gloved hand that smelled of gunpowder and negative spirit energy, Tenro again did the "GUREN KAINA!" on the blade.

The explosion blasted Myojin clear away from (presumably) Shishio, the shrapnel from his own spiritual construct of a sakabatou hitting him at the speed of bullets. His spirit fading and dissipating with pinpoints of energy.

''YAHIKO!" both Botan and Kaoru chorused in one unified body, fearing the worst.

However, the shards of Yahiko's shattered blade also penetrated Tenro's body, sealing his power further away from S-Level.

'What a problematic child this is.'

Myojin got up to his feet and charged with his broken reverse-edged blade, hoping to buy Sano and Kuwabara time. Buy Kenshin and Yusuke time as well.

He intended to do the Inga Gami on Tenro's head, only to revert to the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu ougi for Hadome and Hawatari when his opponent beat him to the punch and struck first with the Homura Dama.

However, as he defended against the downwards flaming strike with a crossed-wrist block, Tenro grappled with him and kept him from parrying the strike. "Do you want to know how your idol, Himura Battousai, died a century ago? Like this. Guren Kaina. Homura Dama."

After the explosion from the gunpowder happened, Tenro allowed the resulting fire to flare and roast the hapless ghost of Yahiko Myojin.

"AAAHH...!" screamed the burning Yahiko.

"YAHIKO!" shouted Sanosuke.

"BRAT!" yelled Kuwabara.

Tenro himself stood in the middle of the conflagration, but like in his confrontation with Hiei, he ended up none the worse for wear from the roaring bonfire.

"Too strong... He's too strong...!" gasped Yahiko. "Even after all this time, I'm still as weak as I've always been."

The bright yellow flames turned green then blue as Yahiko's form reverted to that of a hitodama (will-o'-the-wisp).

Meanwhile, Botan shrieked, fell on her knees, and covered her eyes with her hands.

"Who is stronger? A wolf in sheep's clothing or a sheep in wolf's clothing? Don't deny your true nature. Embrace what you really are. It's either you know your place or claw your way up the food chain. Evolve. Transform. Step up or step aside."

The entirety of Okushiri then started to rumble as Yahiko's neutralizing reiki ebbed away.

Like a dam that was about to break.

***

A nuke did damage in three stages.

It irradiated heat and light, it blasted everything to Kingdom Come, and it scattered radioactive materials around.

The bigger you went, the less relevant the radioactive materials became relative to the other effects as the heat irradiation had a much greater and more noticeable immediate effect. Effectively, when a nuke went off, the temperature of the resulting fireball could go up to millions of degrees, but it dissipated relatively quickly.

However, instead of having a repeat of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1993, Yusuke's dense aura (arguably going at reiatsu level at this point) allowed him to absorb most of the impact of his own Fakku Gan.

The explosion became a blockbuster level blast instead of an atomic bomb mushroom cloud.

Yusuke collapsed on the ground, taking the brunt of his own spirit energy.

Before him towered a behemoth of a demonized man. His exposed muscles bursting out of his skin. His six huge arms giving him an insect-like vibe.

This was Toguro using a million percent of his power. He had become the Demigod Asura, a six-armed demon of war and destruction.

However, even in the face of this absolute unit of a monster, something else from many miles away grabbed Urameshi's attention.

Over the horizon, he felt a suppressed Low S-Level power grow and pulse. Like a leaking and cracked dam ready to burst.

Once that dam finally burst forth, Yusuke broke all of his limits at once. Every last Spirit Cuff. Every last bit of hesitation he had from the Kugai curse placed upon him by Rando.

He caught even the Million-Percent Toguro by surprise at how fast his power level rose.

He summoned his version of the Sei Kou Ki, the golden aura serving as his barrier against Toguro's atomic punches.

His hair grew long and turned white for good measure before he proceeded to punch the Million-Percent Toguro a million times. A glowing golden punch for every percentage.

"SEI-KOU-DAN!" Yusuke cried, blasting Toguro with the Sei-Kou-Ki version of the Rei-Kou-Dan.

He had to. That dark presence in the distance sounded all of his internal alarms and red flags. His primitive flight-or-fight instinct activated.

As though feeling the rise in power from a distance spurred him into action more effectively than the golem before him that, quite frankly, took too long to get to S-Level and beyond.

Whichever Reikai Senshi was out there, they were fighting the final boss. The Chojin himself, even.

***

Botan rushed towards Yahiko's side, doing her best to heal his injured hitodama form. But the damage was extensive on his human soul, the light within his spirit fading away fast. "Hold on, Yahiko-kun! I got you! Everything's going to be fine!"

However, no matter how much spirit energy she used to heal Yahiko's damaged soul, it never healed. His hitodama continued to remain in its fireball state, flickering like a candle in the wind.

Kuwabara was the first to get up shakily on his feet, the Rei-Ken in his hand (also) flickering back and forth between its normal form and its Jigen Tou form.

"You talk too much, you bastard!" said the redhead, who attempted to create a portal to send the youkiri to space, only for Tenro to grab the teenager by his curly regent-style hair and put his face into the portal in an effort to suffocate him.

"What happened to Japan? Is this the best warriors that this new age can pony up? Pathetic," said Youkiri Tenro. "It's so sad. The United States of America turned the proud Empire of Japan into a whipped dog. An island full of losers and weirdoes."

Kuwabara ignited Tenro's glove with a small Rei-Ken on his free hand, which made it explode in the youkiri's face. Gasping for air, the redhead attempted another blind swing at the would-be dictator, only for him to end up stabbed in the lung.

He coughed blood as his eyes watered. His insides drowned in his own blood through internal bleeding.

"Sheep will always be sheep. Wolves will always be wolves. Lions will always be lions. A hitokiri will always be a hitokiri. A youkiri will always be youkiri. It's an aberration of nature to be one thing and claim to be another. If you want to become strong then change yourself for real. Defy or accept your fate. Become the predator or become the prey. It's up to you."

Ignoring the throbbing pain from his right fist that somehow trumped the ectoplasmic bleeding he got from the Rei-Shuriken, Sagara attempted a Futae no Kiwami and aimed it right into the chest of Shishio.

Or Tenro. Or the Chojin. Whoever he was or claimed to be.

Tenro tossed aside Kuwabara's quivering body like trash then blocked Sanosuke's punch with his own punch.

Last time, Sano broke his fist on Shishio's concrete face, his own Futae no Kiwami deflecting back to the bones of his hand. This time, his Douhle Extreme was enough to match Tenro's strength.

Only enough to match Tenro's strength though.

As Tenro again attempted to punch and crack Sanosuke's skull open, something unexpected happened.

"...SANJO NO KIWAMI!"

Sano blew Tenro's fist away with the Triple Extreme, which opened up his chest to a direct heart punch.

The coup de grace.

"FUTAE NO KIWAMI! DORYAAH...!"

Sanosuke landed the Futae no Kiwami right into Shishio's heart. Or Tenro's heart.

A second passed. The youkiri cackled.

"Congratulations. You're a little bit stronger now than before."

As the fading, transparent visage of Sanosuke let out a soundless scream, his pupils constricted into tiny dots on a white expanse, Tenro finally attacked the street fighter with his flame-producing weapon, its Homura Dama splitting Sano's head apart in a spectacular spray of ectoplasm.

"S-Sano..." choked out Kuwabara, his own vision fading along with Sanosuke's soul.

All that time, even in his will-o'-the-wisp form, the soul of Yahiko kept sealing the power of Youkiri Tenro. However, he couldn't contain the immense power of the Shishio reincarnation(?) any longer.

His soul finally succumbed, fading to black before shattering into a thousand pinpoints of light.

"Yahiko, no! No! NOOO!" cried Botan. "Dammit, come back! Oh no, what's going on? Why is everything going wrong?!"

Okushiri rumbled as the unleashed power of Tenro began to expand into a tall pillar of darkness and miasma. His jaki shot up into the sky, which gathered nimbus clouds all around them.

The localized quakes grew stronger and stronger. It felt like the world was about to split apart. This was the power of an Upper Class-S being that somehow ended up in the Human World.

He felt like power made flesh. A walking disaster area. A humanoid cyclone.

Tenro smirked as he surveyed the pier. He felt their presence. They were coming. He felt their power, anger, and desperation travel towards him like moths to his flame.

He could feel their strong presences, spirit energy, sword energy, and aura even from miles away.

One was on land, on foot, going faster than a cheetah. The other in the air, presumably ferried by one of Reikai's shinigami.

Who could they be?

First, there was the one half-demon, half-human mazoku descendant of Raizen, Makai's God of War, who was able to harness his demonic power and lineage. Raizen's true son. The Last Son of the Mazoku.

Yusuke Urameshi.

Second, there was the man who "defeated" Makoto Shishio to a suicidal kamikaze draw.  The Hitokiri Battousai who died and then became the Youkiri Battousai, the Guardian of the Demon Sword.

Kenshin Himura.

"Come forth. Show me the best and most powerful champions that this era has to offer. I'll defeat them all!" declared Tenro the Demon-Slayer to his upcoming opponents.

However, before Tenro knew it, his chest tightened. His heart stopped beating.

His negative energy wasn't able to heal the damage in time. He stood there, frozen. His time had stopped care of Sanosuke's efforts.

This happened due to the combination of the Futae no Kiwami and the shards of Yahiko's neutralizing reiki damaging his mortal heart. It kept him from manifesting the full breadth of his power that managed to take down even Hajime Saito.

The Kenshingumi's curse, if you would.

"Before challenging the champions of this era, watch out behind you. The past has a way of catching up with you, Shishio Makoto!"

Speaking of Saito, it was then and there that the headless corpse of Hajime Saito began moving on its own, with his one arm cradling his decapitated head.

As though he were the Headless Horseman. Or a Dullahan of Irish folklore.

That bastard. He was playing possum all this time!?

Tenro willed himself to move, but couldn't. He felt his left arm go numb. The shards of Yahiko's sakabatou might've reached all the way to his coronary arteries.

There was no telling how much cardiovascular damage Sanosuke's punch had done to his heart.

Dammit.

He began to sweat hard while clutching his chest. "Damn you, Saito Hajime."

"I've never seen you so sweaty and pathetic before," the head of Saito mocked before charging with his Gatotsu Ishiki from behind Tenro. "Then again, your sweat glands did get all burned up in your past life."

Instead of aiming at Tenro's head like with his encounter with Shishio, Saito instead aimed his sword right at Tenro's stopped heart while he was in the middle of a heart attack.

Appropriately enough, instead of being defeated by someone stronger than him, it was the desperate alliance of those weaker than Tenro that ultimately dragged him towards his ultimate defeat.

The ultimate irony.

"Go back to Hell, Shishio...!"

"No, I will make this world Hell and feel right at home!"

No. This was the same method Hajime used to "kill" Usui (temporarily). He took advantage of other people's hard work then opportunistically struck at the right time.

There was no way Youkiri Tenro would go down like a punk. Like Usui, of all people. An outsmarted weakling.

Tenro willed himself to move to block the strike.

His Homura Dama melted right through Saito's sword. Apparently, the Shinsengumi Captain was already using the last of his soul's strength to even make the strike, resulting in a vulnerable blade with barely any spirit energy to protect it.

Nevertheless, the rest of the hot blade plunged right into one of Tenro's lungs, spraying his blood all over the empty pier.

Saito smirked and closed his eyes. Instead of a solidified soul, Shishio really was reincarnated into an extra powerful human being. But a human being nonetheless. A mortal one that could be killed.

Tenro awaited the Gatotsu Zeroshiki that never came.

Alas, Saito already spent most of his energy fighting a full-powered X-Level Tenro earlier, with him sacrificing his very life force to just injure him now.

"I win again, Saito Hajime," hissed Tenro, coughing blood. "I survived your attack while you're already as good as dead. I can easily heal this damage and finish off the rest of the Reikai Senshi."

"That's my parting gift," said Saito, his own spirit fading. "You won't be able to reach X-Level in time now."

Before Tenro could wonder any further what Saito meant by his words, a gigaton punch shattered his face from out of the blue.

"Wha...?! GUAAAAH!!!"

Again, the wolf outfoxed him at every turn.

The youkiri realized that he'd just been punched by Raizen's "Son". The Mazoku Descendant. The hanyou (half-demon) that scared the great Enma Daio himself.

His brain sloshed inside his broken skull, leading to a concussion.

Any other impact from a weaker opponent wouldn't have even registered to Tenro. But a punch from an S-Level mazoku? That was a punch that could tear apart entire continents.

He also spotted from behind the long-haired, tattooed, and angry Mazoku Yusuke a warp portal that Kazuma Kuwabara probably made to shorten his best friend's travel time.

This was bad news.

His compromised heart and lungs hadn't recovered yet. Even though his energy levels were rising, his mortal damage kept him from manifesting his full power. He wasn't healing fast enough.

But this also excited him.

Tenro missed out on slaying Raizen—one of the greatest, oldest, and most powerful demons of the Demon World. Fighting his distant half-breed offspring was the next best thing to it.

With Yusuke's white hair and boundless energy, he himself looked to be at the cusp of achieving X-Level.

"Far more important than your power level, you've upended the natural order of things in both the Spirit World and the Demon World," said the gasping yet calm Tenro.

Yusuke picked up the pace, his nuclear-powered punches reaching speeds so impossibly, superhumanly fast that they came with their own eardrum-obliterating sonic booms.

However, the tough-as-nails Tenro absorbed every punch with his hard body and boundless jaki, so his mountain-obliterating punches "merely" made the pier shake and quake like a frightened child suffering domestic abuse.

"When Raizen died, you took over and found a way to keep the warring factions of Mukuro and Yomi from leading Makai into another millennia-long war for power."

Tenro gurgled but laughed with what sounded like a death rattle. Knocking at Hell's Gates with the sea of punches he had to wade through while punching and slashing at the elusive demon spawn in turn.

"You even helped expose the corruption within Reikai and had Koenma Daio depose his father, Enma Daio. Then you saved the Human World again from a Spirit World terrorist group. Imagine that."

The constant battery of kicks, punches, knees, elbows, and headbutts that barely gave Tenro any breathing room took their toll, making him cough and spew blood from many of his body's orifices, like his ears, eyes, nose, and mouth.

"The Chojin views you as a threat not because of your power level but instead of how you affect everyone and everything around you. You're a spanner in the works. Someone who can defy fate itself."

The threat of death made Tenro feel alive. His flight-or-fight instincts were on high alert.

After the thousands of demon hunts he'd participated in for the sake of turning his reincarnated yakuza boss self into someone worthy of housing Makoto Shishio's soul, this was the first time he actually, remotely felt threatened.

It was as he had imagined facing Yomi, Mukuro, or Raizen would've been like when they were still the Three Kings of Makai or at the peak of their power.

"We're cut from the same cloth, Urameshi Yusuke." Tenro sneered, wiping the blood from his nose. "I too exist to spite God. I defied my ultimate fate of death. From one lion to another, I will fight fate itself to write my own destiny. Just like you have."

"What the hell are you blathering on about?" said Yusuke, who kept up his endless barrage of Sei Kou Ki punches and kicks in order to pummel Tenro to submission.

Although he was winning the exchange, Toushin Yusuke's fists ended up aching and bleeding.

They might've even been broken by the dense thickness of Tenro's own reiatsu of negative energy serving as a barrier from inside and outside him, keeping his human body intact in spite of this mauling.

Regardless, the human-demon spawn had to finish Tenro off immediately.

Even though Urameshi was able to best Toguro by going all out, he could still feel his old enemy's presence. The Younger Toguro could still reemerge and possibly go beyond a million percent of his power. Perhaps a billion or a trillion even.

"Let's end this, Tenro. Or Shishio. Or Chojin. Whoever you are.  I'll finish you and your Shin Juppon Gatana off for good! SEI-GAN!"

A black-and-blue Tenro grinned as he felt a meteor-sized blast of purest Sei Kou Ki grow bigger and bigger from Yusuke's pointer finger. A miniature sun that glowed gold instead of bright blue.

This was the correct move. In order to finally penetrate through Tenro's reiatsu, Yusuke had to use his ultimate, ultimate move. A Rei-Gan powered by Sei-Kou-Ki shot by his white-haired demonic form.

However, the Chojin foresaw all this. This was why he gave (back) Tenro his original Mugen Jin.

When Yahiko still had his neutralizing reiki activated, the Mugen Jin could only be used the way it originally was made for, which was to create flames through the body fat and human oils it collected.

However, a hundred years later, the sword itself became a cursed sword with supernatural powers like the Youtou Shinnoken. It gained an extra property.

Without Yahiko's powers sealing its supernatural abilities away, it could absorb, steal, store, and release the spirit energy of others.

Thus, Tenro's Mugen Jin absorbed every last bit of the Sei-Gan from Mazoku Yusuke, only for him to do the third secret sword on him powered by Urameshi's own Sacred Light Spirit Energy.

"Secret Sword Three: KAGUZUCHI! (FIRE-BEARING SPIRIT GOD!)"

A fire tornado that mixed Tenro's demonic negative energy reiatsu with Yusuke's angelic sacred energy tossed the teenaged warhead around in a maelstrom of malcontent (since jaki was basically just energy derived from humanity's hatred and grudges).

If the mixture of volatile energy didn't kill the demonized Urameshi, then the centrifugal force of an F5 hurricane that would normally turn any normal human being into liquefied butter would.

"Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu Ougi: AMAKAKERU RYU NO HIRAMEKI! (HEAVENS GLIDING DRAGON FLASH!)"

The void created by the ultimate attack of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu destroyed the red, black, and gold wind funnel that had threatened to rage against Okushiri like a seasonal typhoon.

As a battered Yusuke fell from the sky, an erstwhile Kenshin jumped and caught him in midair before he could've crashed into one of the many cargo containers, if not outright fall into the hard concrete below.

They landed safely on ground zero of Yusuke's fight with Tenro, which was filled with craters and debris. From a distance, they could hear the blaring siren of many an ambulance.

"I came here as fast as I could with Ayame-dono's help," said Kenshin.

"K-Kenshin. S-Sorry. I-I almost had him, but he still had a trick up his sleeve," rasped Yusuke, who had transformed back to his human form, with most of his long hair burned away by Tenro's Kaguzuchi.

"Don't worry, Yusuke. I will finish off what you have started. What everyone had started, that I will," said Himura.

Tenro harrumphed, clutching his side. His chest still ached, his heart beating so fast it felt like it could explode. His brain throbbed and pounded inside his skull as well.

However, his adrenalin and his thrill for the fight coursed through his body, making him ignore every bit of pain he felt. He was about to pass the point of no return, after all.

In the corner of Kenshin's eye, he saw Botan stare at him with her own glistening eyes. He had heard the bad news directly from her care of the Spirit Communicator. She reported that the souls of Sanosuke, Yahiko, and Saito were no more. Also, Kuwabara was in critical condition.

They all fell against the hands of the man... the monster... before him. The wannabe dictator that he should've defeated a hundred years ago.

"I also look forward to fighting you again after all this time, Battousai. Come and die in my hands once more. The only law I follow is Survival of the Fittest. Only the strongest survive!"

"Survival of the Fittest, eh?" asked Kenshin. "Tell me, do you know what the first sign of human civilization is? How humanity became the most dominant species on earth?"

"...What?" asked Tenro in turn. "What are you talking about, Battousai?"

"I believe that the first sign of civilization is a femur that's been broken and then healed," said Himura. "In nature, a broken leg meant death. Kill or killed, right? Humans became the dominant species against stronger animals because of our cooperation and compassion. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts. We are at our best when we serve others. Be civilized."

"No. Nonsense," said Tenro. "Humanity stands on the shoulders of giants. Normal people are trash. Don't let the weak punish the strong for being strong while they themselves drown in their own mediocrity. Civilization or progress came about because of the strong. The exceptional. The best. The intellectuals. The Superman. The Overman. The Ubermensch. The Chojin."

"So you're the Chojin, huh?" said Himura. While it could be translated as "Overfiend", the name "Chojin" could also be translated as "Superman" or "Overman".

"The fates conspired against me and denied me my destiny to rule. I will write my own destiny now," said the youkiri to his fellow demon-slayer. Fellow manslayer, even.

"Regardless of what you say, both fate and time have already decided that you will not emerge victorious," Kenshin insisted. "You're destined to lose."

Tenro cackled. "Fate and time have chosen poorly, hence the pathetic state of Japan. The state of the world that's being led by sheep in wolves' clothing. Let me correct that century-old mistake. Even now, the weak are depending on your strength to protect them. Let the Ubermensch show the world what it's truly like to be strong! I will show them how to win!"

"It is neither the strongest of the species nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change," said Kenshin, quoting Charles Darwin himself as he fell into his battoujutsu stance.

Himura had to attack now, while Tenro was injured and recuperating. He would've attacked sooner, but he himself had barely recovered from battling Enishi.

As soon as the Shishio reincarnation healed and achieved X-Level, it was all over for the Reikai Senshi.

"AMAKAKERU RYU NO HIRAMEKI!"

"KAGUZUCHI!"

Kenshin and Tenro—or rather, Battousai and Shishio—finally clashed swords, the Youtou Shinnoken glowing bright-blue against the bright-red Mugen Jin. They picked up where they left off.

On one hand, Yusuke's leftover sacred energy powered up the Kaguzuchi and overwhelmed the initial strike of the Hirameki. On the other hand, the resulting void still formed, which multiplied the power of Kenshin's second strike many times over.

Tenro learned from his mistakes, understanding a century ago that there was a void formed after blocking the first strike of the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki. He sunk his stance low and pierced his Mugen Jin in the eye of the maelstrom so that his technique could be magnified in power instead of Kenshin's.

Kenshin hesitated, his soul remembering how Shishio snatched a draw from the jaws of defeat. He willed himself to slash upward regardless as an image of Kaoru filled his mind. Followed by all his friends and comrades.

He wished the same image had filled his mind a hundred years ago too. Then he wouldn't have died against Shishio.

Reality seemed to split from the lightspeed slash Kenshin did that clashed hard against Tenro's... no, Shishio's... red-hot cursed sword Mugen Jin.

On Kenshin's left was one timeline and on his right was another.

In one timeline, Kenshin found the strength and will to live to block Shishio's strike before he spontaneously combusted and died from overheating. Soon after, Shishio became the new King of Hell.

In another timeline, Shishio finished Battousai off then murdered Saito, Shinomori, Sagara, and the rest of the Oniwabanshu and Shinsengumi before forming a New Juppon Gatana and leading a coup d'etat against the Meiji Government. A second Bakumatsu. Afterwards, he died a despot. Japan's Genghis Khan.

In the timeline they were in, Kenshin and Shishio fought to a draw, with Kenshin dying along with Shishio in a blaze of glory. A hundred years after their fateful battle, Shishio ended up forming a New Juppon Gatana in order to lead a coup d'etat against the Spirit World.

In nearly all timelines, Shishio woke up from beyond the grave and ended up with an army of the undead, leading the charge towards world domination. Like a phoenix reborn from its own ashes. Again and again.

Even after his death, he was inevitable.

Would Kenshin falter like a hundred years ago or would he rise up and correct his century-old mistake? Which timeline would prevail?

A shining star of a whirling convergence of afterimages happened afterwards, followed by a huge explosion far into the distance. Right into the Sea of Japan.

A 7.8 earthquake then rocked the west coast of Hokkaido.  

On Monday, July 12, 1993, at 10:17 PM, a tsunami had formed off of the coast of Okushiri, leading to the loss of many lives.

***

To Be Continued...

Oh god, finally it's done. This took years to finish due to real-life things cropping up. Regardless, the arc that's been decades in the making is at last over.

Next up, the Spirit World deals with the aftermath of the failed Okushiri mission. Also, the first sign of civilization speech was taken from a quote from Anthropologist Margaret Mead.

Ciao, Abdiel

[teamfreewill56-blog]

Demon World Lingo

Honestly the fact that Chu, Botan and Jin (to name a few) have accents is really not that weird and I think the people who are constantly going “they’re Japanese!” Is missing the subtle hint we’re getting in these accents. THEY’RE NOT JAPANESE. I feel like too many people when they watch an anime REGARDLESS of where it takes place always assume the setting is Japan. Yes, Yusuke, Kuwabara and co. are Japanese because that’s where they live but this doesn’t apply to Jin, Botan and Chu. Botan is a Spirit/Grim Reaper, she has a British accent, Spirit World is for Human World as a WHOLE. It’s entirely possible that where Botan is from the geographical equivalent is England. This is especially true for Jin and Chu. We see in the battle with Sensui as well as Hiei and Kurama’s flashbacks that Demon World is HUGE! It is a dimension alongside Human World and I guarantee you that if you opened portals in certain areas of Demon World you would probably find yourself in America, Brazil or some other part of Asia. This by the way would explain why the Saint Beasts arc was technically an isolated event. (We have 3 Kings in Demon World and yet none of them were bothered by The Saint Beasts having their own Maze Castle territory or minions—it was so tiny none of them probably saw it as a threat and didn’t care). Jin and Chu’s accents aren’t limited to sound, their actual dialect is brimming with legitimate Irish and Australian terms meaning that it’s more likely that Jin is from a area that overlays Ireland and Chu is from a area that overlays Australia. Yusuke has only been a Detective for MAYBE a year at the start of the Dark Tournament and yet all the demons there know about Yusuke. Chu even says “You know I’ve heard lots about you.” That means in only a year, possibly less that Yusuke became a worldwide name in Demon World which also means he gained fame faster than Genkai (who spent 20+ years eradicating demons and by the time of The Dark Tournament had bedtime stories told to demon children about her.) Knowing this and hearing all the demons that Yusuke has eradicated in less than a year it’s no wonder the demons in the Dark Tournament audience are out for Yusuke’s blood, they’re scared to death of him! I doubt any of those demons even come to Genbu’s power level. Genkai usually only fought demons if they got in her way, Yusuke however is actively seeking out demons and killing them (to protect human interests as far as demons know since he’s a Spirit Detective.) Hiei’s comment of Yusuke being a boogeyman for the apparitions is probably more accurate than even he realizes.

Anime: Yu Yu Hakusho

Creator:  Yoshihiro Togashi

Characters: Yusuke, Chu, Jin, Genkai, Sensui, Hiei, Kurama, Botan

[akinari-kashihara]

35 Books for 2021

I was tagged by @saotome-michi , the list is meant to be 52 books for 2021 but I do Not read that much LMAO I’m just gonna do 35 even though that’s still a high goal

I’m gonna include the ones I’ve already read this year as well

Also I’m tagged @subarusakurazuka and anyone else following me who actually reads?

1. Youngho and Chadori: The Door to the Spirit World by B.K. Chu

2.Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims

3. Manly Appetites: Minegishi loves Otsu by Mito

4. Tokyo Babylon by CLAMP (Reread)

5. I’ll Miss You Later by James W. Gaynor

6. Don’t Call Me Daddy by Gorou Kanbe

7. X by CLAMP (Reread)

8. No Touching At All by Kou Yoneda

9. Even So, I Will Love You Tenderly by Kou Yoneda

10. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

11. Legal Drug by CLAMP

12. Drug & Drop by CLAMP

13. Wish by CLAMP

--Here on is stuff I haven’t read yet--

14. The Wicker King by K. Ancrum

15. Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE by CLAMP (Reread)

16. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

17. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

18. Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

19. Yu Yu Hakusho by Yoshihiro Togashi

20. Baccano!  The Rolling Bootlegs by Ryohgo Narita

21. Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman

22. Berserk by Kentaro Miura

23. Akagi by Nobuyuki Fukumoto

24. How to be Remy Cameron by Julian Winters

25. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

26. S.T.A.G.S. by M.A. Bennett

27. Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

28. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

29. Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody

30. The Stone of Destiny by Caroline Logan

31. If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane

32. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

33. Meet Cute Club by Jack Harson

34. Pet Sematary by Stephen King

35. The Trial by Franz Kafka

[burnouts3s3]

Last Meal, a Yu Yu Hakusho Fanfiction

https://amzn.to/3pPKgR8

(Disclaimer: This is a non-profit fan work. I do not own or claim to own the property known as Yu Yu Hakusho. Yu Yu Hakusho is copyrighted and owned by Shueisha, Weekly Shounen Jump and Yoshihiro Togashi and is licensed and localized by Funimation Entertainment. Please Support the Official Release.)

 Last Meal

 Former Spirit Detective Yusuke Urameshi made his living running a small Ramen stand. While the profits were meager at best, the shop gained a very favorable reputation for anyone who managed to drop by for a bite. Long gone were the days of Yusuke chasing after demons and criminals. Having quit his position from the Spirit World, he had long settled into his new role as the smart mouthed cook who often mouthed off to ungrateful customers.

 After a long day with no customers, Yusuke took the moonlight sky as a sign to close up. He was just about to turn the lights off when a figure approached him.

 “Sorry, pal, we’re closed,” Yusuke said, his face turned the other way.

 “Not even for your old Principal?” an elderly but warm voice asked.

 Former Principal Takenaka looked particularly out of character. Instead of wearing his usual beige suit with blue tie or the black suit he wore to Yusuke’s wake, he was instead in a Red Tracksuit, as though he came back from a long jog. His blonde hair now had streaks of grey in it and began to recede. Yusuke could also count much more wrinkles on Takenaka’s face.

 “Sure, why not?” Yusuke turned around and began heating up the stove.

 As Yusuke prepared Takenaka’s bowl of ramen, his mind wondered back to his Junior High days. Before Yusuke’s death, Yusuke often thought of Takenaka as an authority figure meant to nag him into submission while being a hypocrite. Yusuke unfairly placed him in the same category as Mr. Iwamoto only to realize, at Yusuke’s wake, that Takenaka thought more highly of him than that. Shamefully, Yusuke didn’t really keep in contact with him during his Spirit Detective days or his three year trip into the Demon World.

 “You’re looking well,” Takenaka said.

 “Sorry, I don’t take tips in the form of compliments,” Yusuke continued to have his back turned as he finished up the ramen.

 “Am I so transparent?” Takanaka smiled.

 “Not as much as you think you are,” Yusuke placed the bowl of ramen in front of his principal.

 “I’m glad to see you doing so well for yourself,” Takenaka said, separating his chopsticks and picking up a hearty helping of noodles.

 “Oh, you should see me during my off hours,” Yusuke said. Of course, Yusuke wasn’t sure how to put ‘by the way, I was almost king of the Demon World this one time until I was knocked out by this other asshole and lost the tournament I started in the first place’ into a conversation without making it terribly awkward.

 “It’s good!” Takenaka said before taking another bite of ramen.

 “Well, my wife’s a cook after all,” Yusuke washed the other dishes he intended to leave until the next day. “She’d be pissed at me if I gave somone a lousy meal. It’d give her family a bad reputation if she married someone who couldn’t make ramen.”

 “I’m glad to hear Keiko’s doing well,” Takenaka chuckled.

 “How’s retired life treating you?” Yusuke took a rag and started to wipe down various parts of the stand.

 “Not as comforting as I had hoped,” Iwamoto said. “I’m going to miss that school.”

 “Don’t tell me Iwamoto or Akashi took over!” Yusuke yelled. The thought of Iwamoto becoming the Sarayashiki Junior High principal stirred something inside Yusuke so fiercely, the former Spirit Detective was tempted to use his Demon powers to blow up his former school.

 “Of course not!” Takenaka said, affronted at the idea. “I wouldn’t let those vultures near my school. In fact, one of my last acts as principal was to fire those two.”

 “Some good news for once,” Yusuke sighed.

 “Yusuke, do you remember that boy you saved that day you got hit by a car?”

 “How could I forget?” Yusuke replied. Saving that boy started everything for Yusuke: taking his trial, returning to life, becoming a Spirit Detective, training under Genkai, taking on Team Toguro at the Dark Tournament, hunting down Sensui and discovering his Demon ancestry and going into the Demon world.

 “You’ll never believe this, on his spare time, he volunteers as a crossing guard!” The older man chuckled.

 “Yeah?” Yusuke asked. “Good for him.”

 As Takenaka finished the ramen, he set the empty bowl down, placed the chopsticks on top and reached into his suit’s pockets.

 “Darn, I think I forgot my wallet,” Takenaka continued to dig deeper into his pockets.

 “Woah, I wasn’t serious!” Yusuke said, waving his hand off. “I’m not going to charge my old principal for a meal!”

 “You’re too kind,” Takenaka slowly got up from his booth seat.

 “You know Yusuke, out of all the students I had, you were, by far, the biggest pain in the ass.”

 “I get that a lot,” Yusuke smirked.

 “But you were also the one I was most proud to see graduate,” Takenaka smiled.

 “Easy, or you’re going to make me blush…” Yusuke scratched the back of his neck out of a nervous tick.

 “I’m glad to see you made something great out of yourself,” the former Principal smiled.

 “Ready to go?” A female voice said. Yusuke didn’t need to turn around to recognize Botan’s voice, her signature oar she was currently riding on, or the bright pink kimono she was wearing, but did so anyway to wipe the countertop around Tanaka’s meal.

 “That’s right,” Takenaka said, turning to Botan and taking her hand.

 “We usually don’t allow ghosts to enjoy human meals,” Botan tucked a blue strand of hair behind her ear “You should consider yourself grateful.”

 “I am,” Takenaka smiled.

 “Any message you want to pass onto Koenma while I’m there, Yusuke?” Botan asked, gripping one hand onto her oar with the other holding Takenaka’s hand.

 “Tell Pacifier Breath I hope he’ll graduate to pull-ups this century,” Yusuke smirked, picking up Takenaka’s empty bowl and placing into the sink.

 “Still have no regard for authority, eh, Mr. Urameshi?” Takenaka sighed.

 “I can’t grow up too fast!” Yusuke smirked. “Otherwise you wouldn’t recognize me!”

 “Goodbye, Yusuke,” Takenaka smiled, holding onto Botan’s hand as she flew them upwards towards the night sky.

 “What’s he saying goodbye for?” Yusuke sighed. “I’ll see him soon enough…”

 (A/N: For those of you who don’t know, Brice Armstrong, the voice performer for the Dragonball Narrator, the original Captain Ginyu in Dragonball Z and most notably, in my opinion, Principal Takenaka from Yu Yu Hakusho, passed away at age 84. So I decided to write this quick one-shot to honor his memory. I give my condolences to his friends and family. Thank you for your performances.

 Until then,

 Keep writing!)

https://amzn.to/3pPKgR8

[frgtflcopycat]

Eight People I’d Like to Get to Know Better!

Tagged by: @xfaucheuse Tagging: (YOU! Yes YOU! I want to get to know YOU better :D)

ONE   /   ( ALIAS / PRONOUNS ) : Don ; he/him TWO   /   ( BIRTHDAY ) : January 20th THREE   /   ( ZODIAC SIGN ) : Aquarius FOUR   /   ( HEIGHT ) : 5′9″ FIVE   /   ( HOBBIES ) : Writing, reading, playing video games, running, and coding SIX   /   ( FAVORITE COLOR ) : Crimson (Red) SEVEN   /   ( FAVORITE BOOKS ) : The Super Powereds Series by Drew Hayes; The Night Angel Series by Brent Weeks; King's Dark Tidings Series by Kel Kade EIGHT   /   ( LAST SONG LISTENED TO ) : Chasing Dreams by Miss Fortune NINE   /   ( LAST FILM OR SHOW WATCHED ) : Last show was Kimetsu no Yaiba TEN   /   ( INSPIRATION FOR MUSE ) : Well when I created Lan it was more because I was hella inspired by the Hunter x Hunter universe. I had just gotten into the series and had absolutely fallen in love with it and was, for lack of a better word, obsessed. The characters were great, the story was great, the power system was freaking great! I wanted to have a character in the universe that could interact with my favorites like Hisoka, Chrollo, and Killua, and after having spent numerous years creating OCs and refining one in particular (Hiru) I was confident I could. So I took those three listed but Chrollo mainly served as inspiration, at least when it came to Lan’s nen ability. What’s more was I looked at Togashi’s other work with Yu Yu Hakusho and figured I could also pay homage to that series in a way as well, hence Lan’s fighting style being based on the one Shinsui used. Then came the character over all, at that time I was about to graduate college and so much was on my mind that I was legit forgetting things when I got so focused on other stuff and so I turned that into Lan’s character trait, gave him the gray morality that’s very prominent in the HxH world and from there took other aspects of my own life, not exactly present in Hiru or other OCs and built him from there.

ELEVEN   /   ( STORY BEHIND URL ) : Well Lan’s ability is to copy, and his hatsu’s name is Copycat. So there’s that, and “frgtfl” is just “forgetful” without the vowels and he is forgetful. So put that together and not only do you have an accurate description of him, but a decent url, in my opinion at least.

[inactivestuffarchive]

i'm just curious why is youpi your favourite? i don't see people talk about him a lot so i was just wondering :^0 (you are so valid though)

oh my god um im abt to be a clown finna write an entire several paragraphs but im not good at elaborating especially on why i love stuff so lets hope i have a brain today. 😥

to be real at first i didnt think much of him and i get why he's overlooked as a character in general. but his character development during the palace invasion was incredible ngl. he grows from fighting the hunters. he learns about honor and gains his humanity in such a short period after being exposed to them, and that's just in battle. we're made not to think much of him because we rarely see his inner thoughts during the caa as a whole (at least, not till the invasion), not like pouf or pitou especially. but he really gets his time to shine and its only for such a little while (im going to beat togashi over the head for not giving him more screen time love and light ❤ xoxo)

but his emotional growth during the invasion. was really explosive and that was good shit full stop (togashi... the power the license the authority that has..) and got me attached to him especially once i rewatched the caa and was more focused on missing the little details i didn't catch.

i really love how hes constantly portrayed as stupid and simple but once he applied in battle especially for the sake of helping the king he was actually very calculative and intelligent and he advanced quickly that way.

and he was so close to humanity and he died anyways waaa waaa it makes me so upset *autotuned baby noises 24 hr edition*

also youpi when he was tiny... top 10 epic baby moments

also this isn't important but i can't really call youpi my #1 favorite for sure. he's one of them but i have two other top faves and that includes ya pitou and pouf and i generally like to believe i like them all on equal level so i cant rank em cos i like to indecisive like that 😳

[jtfr96]

I realized it's been a long time since I've talked about my favorite manga and so I figured I'll do a series of posts for my top 5 favorite series with an explanation of why I love them so much.

#5 - At number 5 is one that completely caught me off guard, and that's Domestic Girlfriend. It is nothing like what I usually read (the entire rest of this list is shonen) and I only checked out the dumpster fire of an anime because of Gigguk and became addicted to the trashiness so I picked up the manga. What I discovered was what started out as the absolute trashiest plot possible in manga somehow evolved to be one of the most gripping character dramas I've ever read. Somewhere along the line it almost completely dropped the premise of "Haha dude's in a love triangle with his two step-sisters" and instead started telling the most phenomenally well written, personal stories about people being fucked over by life that I have ever witnessed. Nearly every single character (including unassuming side characters) became incredibly well rounded and Sasuga Kei made me care deeply about all of them. Unlike most romance manga, the problems in the later chapters aren't created from the protagonist's stupidity, and often have no one cause as well as no simple solution to escape from. On top of that, unlike with most romance manga, I actually really, really like Natsuo as a protagonist. He's a genuinely good guy and you're actively cheering for him.

Domestic Girlfriend is such a mixed bag that is hard for me to recommend because you have you power through over a hundred chapters of trash, but once it really kicked off it got me hooked, and is easily my #1 guilty pleasure in life.

Also Rui best girl and if anyone tries to share pro- Hina propaganda on this blog will be banned

#4 - At number 4 on my list is one that should come at no, surprise, and that's Berserk.

What can I even say about the series? It's arguably been the diamond standard for Shonen for decades. Despite being older than nearly every other shonen you can name, nothing about it feels dated. You can still see its heavy influence in modern titles like Goblin Slayer. Even ignoring its legacy though, it's just a phenomenal series. Guts's journey is incredibly engaging, and the the story constantly makes me so horrified or upset that I don't want to continue, yet at the same time makes it so I can't stop. The artwork is probably the greatest I have ever seen in the medium, and serves to really draw the reader in. Berserk is one of the few series I consider to truly be a "must read," and you really won't be disappointed by it.

Unless you watch the recent anime.

#3 - At #3 it's Hunter X Hunter. If you still haven't experienced this series yet you are missing out. This was my introduction to manga in general alongside Dragonball and Shaman King and goddamn did it influence my tastes. Coming off Yu Yu Hakusho, Togashi really managed to figure out what worked and what didn't and whittle away all the bad stuff to create this masterpiece. Every single character is memorable and they all tend to make an impact from their first appearances. The villains are often just as developed as the heroes and in some cases will have you cheering for them just as much. No character is ever really thrown to the sidelines, they all get their own chances to shine. And then there's the brilliant power system known as Nen.

I feel the complexity of Nen is where the strength of this series really lies. You can easily spend hours on YouTube watching various videos explaining Nen and how it creates such interesting power dynamics and stops the Dragonball effect, but I'm gonna focus on what it manages to do from a storytelling perspective. I strongly feel the greatness of Hunter X Hunter comes from the fact that it's not one genre. Thanks to Nen, Togashi is able to tell stories of multiple genres without it ever feeling like the power levels of scaled down. Not only can he tell brutal battle arcs like with the Beastmen, but he can then take the same characters and turn it into a gripping murder mystery where the characters fight with assassinations and subterfuge instead of fistfights and explosions. Hunter X Hunter never gets repetitive because it's never the same genre, and you never know what to expect from it. Other than the fact that it will never update.

#2 - My #2 favorite manga is none other than the superbly underrated Shaman King. This series was the first manga I ever got addicted to back when I was 10, and I still remember waiting religiously for each new chapter.

The series itself has the second most unique premise I've ever seen, and that is the strength of it. It's about different shamans fighting to be the best, but the beauty of the series comes from how Hiroyuki Takei managed to blend together so many different cultures and religions while still being respectful to all of them and making it worse. What starts off as normal ghost fights between a samurai ghost and others like a Chinese warlord or the resurrected corpse of Bruce Lee manages to build up in a natural way so that you're watching Faust using necromancy to battle an ancient Babylonian god. From Mexican calaveras to African animal spirits you're more hard pressed to find a religion/culture that ISN'T represented, but Takei blends it all together so masterfully. On top of that the characters all are endearing, each with their own hopes and dreams and you can't help but to cheer for all of them.

Honestly Shaman King would've been my #1 favorite manga, but it starts dropping the ball in the last few chapters. However it does save itself with a super fitting/emotional ending, and I firmly believe that if it got a new anime Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood style it'd be widely regarded as one of the greats.

#1 - Finally at #1, we have the greatness that is Jing, King of Bandits. I don't even know where to begin with this series because I love it so much. Kumakura managed to create such a surreal world where nothing makes sense, and in doing so everything makes sense. The only regularly recurring characters are the two protagonists Jing and Kir, and everything from the location to even the genre changes between arcs. You never know what to expect except that there will be a treasure and Jing will steal it before the ending, but goddamn did each arc have me hooked. I will forever be blown away with how Kumakura managed to introduce and build these 2 characters over time, with each arc giving us just a bit of Jing's character, until by the ending you have an incredibly complete picture of our enigmatic protagonist. Also, despite being with each new cast for only a handful of chapters, the series manages to make you care about the characters and their problems and want Jing desperately to help them.

I don't really know what to say to truly capture how great this series is because it's so intentionally weird that it's hard to talk about, but I cannot urge everyone to read it enough. Even if you watched the anime and thought it was "only alright" I urge you to check out the manga because a lot of what makes it amazing can't be captured in anime. I strongly feel it is the single most underrated manga of all time and it's definitely my favorite series ever.

[hamliet]

Queen Oito and Her Thematic Resonance

So one of my favorite characters introduced in the current arc of HxH--perhaps one of my favorite side characters in the entire series--is Queen Oito Hui Guo Rou. She’s a really interesting character to me, notably in how she foils several characters with long-running arcs, and through that foiling she carries great potential for thematic resonance not just for this arc, but for the arcs of Chrollo, Kurapika, and even Ging and the Zoldycks. I’m very excited to see what Togashi will do with her.

Oito, Kurapika, Chrollo, and Neon: Changing Fate

To start with, I want to mention that the Succession Contest Arc has a lot of blatant similarities to the Yorknew Arc in terms of set up. Oito is, after all, not the first woman Kurapika has been hired to protect in an arc that also focuses on Chrollo, the Phantom Troupe, and their inevitable interactions with Kurapika. Back in Yorknew, we meet Neon Nostrade, a girl who, just like Oito, is treated like a pawn by all the men in her life and who Kurapika and Chrollo don’t treat any differently: both of them, despite Kurapika being a protagonist and Chrollo an antagonist, treat her as a means to an end.

For Chrollo, that end is to steal her power, for Kurapika, it’s to collect the eyes. Clearly Kurapika is more sympathetic and did not intend to harm Neon, but the reality is he was still aiming to use her (and no, Neon was not a saint; collecting body parts is creepy). But, Oito is similarly treated like a pawn in a game by a King Man Child who marries her as his eighth wife and wants his offspring to kill each other. (It’s worth noting that there’s a faint parallel there between Nasubi and Neon’s father as well, in that both of them view their children as valuable by what they can do.)

Neither Chrollo nor Kurapika are willing to look deeper at Neon, to notice what she potentially had to teach them as @aspoonofsugar writes in her brilliant meta on Neon here. As a result, they both suffered for it and went down paths that led to their current predicaments, and to Neon’s own death, because she was treated as a pawn. Neon’s death is probably on both Chrollo and Kurapika because of the stealing of her powers and the thereafter ruination of her family finances to hire protection, regardless of whether it was Hisoka or a mafia enemy who killed her.

Oito herself describes her past as, well, exactly like Neon:

But Neon was not a pawn, and neither is Oito, as she’s making it clear. If the lesson Neon could offer Kurapika and Chrollo (both fatalists) is that life is not written, that fate can be changed, that choices do matter and that those choices affect other people as well (and that people are more than just their worst qualities) then it stands to reason that perhaps that is the lesson Oito offers as well. Of course, we haven’t seen Oito and Chrollo interact, but honestly I expect them to at some point.

Oito herself changed--she is essentially Neon changed--obviously, as she expresses. She also expresses remorse for her past actions, realizing that they’ve led to her daughter being in extreme danger--yet at the same time, she has her precious daughter. She has the capability to offer the same lesson Chrollo and Kurapika missed from Neon: people can change. The future isn’t written.

And Oito is changing her future specifically to protect the one she loves. It mirrors Kurapika’s decision back in the Yorknew Arc, because he chose to save Killua and Gon above revenge and as a result the future Neon predicted changed.

I do think it’s entirely possible that both Chrollo and Kurapika this arc will have to choose whether to protect someone they care about, or to continue their selfish path. Chrollo is the one most directly at risk, as I do suspect he’ll have to choose between his Spiders and revenge on Hisoka/Tserriednich/s treasure, but I can see Kurapika having to choose between saving Oito and Woble like he promised and Tserriednich’s treasure/the eyes as well. (Which is what @aspoonofsugar theorized the other day in her own Oito meta!)

Oito and Tserriednich: Human Value

Neon’s body collecting also has a parallel in this arc, and this character also foils Oito: Tserriednich Hui Guo Rou. Interestingly, look at the description of the women he says he hates (and presumably kills after sexually abusing):

He dehumanizes them and says their humanity comes down to what they know. Tserriednich doesn’t even seem to think change is part of the equation; all that matters is if a person can satisfy him and if they can’t, they are worthless. He’s an even darker reflection of his father.

But back to Oito. Unlike both Tserriednich and Neon, Oito is not prodigiously talented in nen.

In this sense she is also unlike Kurapika, and unlike Chrollo--both of whom are noted to be talents for their ages. Again, this returns to the idea that the lesson Oito has to offer is not in nen or her abilities, but in her ideals and her ability to change, which is necessary to keep living (something Neon originally pointed out).

If Oito is symbolic of life, as a mother, Tserriednich is symbolic of  death--he’s the fourth prince and four is associated with death in Japanese culture, collecting the dead’s eyes, murdering women, the water turning into some kind of putrid mixture during the nen type test, etc. I’d also expect this foiling to continue.

Which leads me to my next foiling/theme I want to discuss, about how Oito’s influence could spread beyond just this arc and beyond just Chrollo and Kurapika’s long running arcs.

Oito: A Good Mom.

Besides Mito Freecss (who while lovely isn’t fleshed out), she’s like, the only good parent we see in HxH. She’s willing to do whatever it takes for her child, which sets her up as a sharp contrast to Ging, who abandoned his son (and will presumably have a role on the Dark Continent), as well as Kikyo and Silva Zoldyck, and of course Nasubi.

Nasubi,  Light Nostrade, Kikyo and Silva, and Ging as well, seem to value their children and their relationship with them solely by what they can do. Can they gather the wits and strength to kill their siblings? Are they talented enough to propel the Zoldyck name forward? Are they good enough at being a hunter to find their father?

Woble can do nothing at all. She’s a prince, yes, but a baby. She’s helpless in a Succession War. She’s helpless in the world as a whole. And Oito loves her daughter and will risk anything for her anyways.

If the Succession War continues to be a deconstruction (which every arc in HxH has been and which it already is so far in Kurapika’s abilities being revealed to be killing him, etc) I’m going to venture a guess that however this ends (and I do expect Oito to make it out alive), it won’t be through abilities or powers or even shrewd strategy, but through connections, through the things Oito identifies as being “what really matters”: friendship, family, love, all those good things HxH likes exploring the limits of, but also the beauty of. Oito is symbolic of the beauty and good in the world that makes it so exciting. The journey matters, but it’s the people you love along the way, the relationships you cultivate, that make it worthwhile, not the power struggles and fights. That’s at the very core, I think, of what makes Hunter x Hunter such a great story.

[sarazanmai]

Thoughts on the “Yu Yu Hakusho” English dub. Episode one.

a little while back I watched YYH for the first time and loved it. but on Hulu they only had Japanese as an option. which is fine as this anime had some of my favorite voice actors like Shigeru Chiba, Mayumi Tanaka, Megumi Ogata (who I swear has never played a straight person in her entire career), and Kappei Yamaguchi. when I first mentioned that I was watching the show I said that the English dub was probably not good so I wasn’t upset about Hulu not having it and boy did people tell me otherwise. I had three different people hyping this dub up as an all time great so here we are!

I will not cover ever episode though, that would kill me. I figured what I will do is cover the episodes where we got introduced to our major players and from there just pick and choose any particular episodes I want to talk about. shall we begin?

so they redid the opening song in English. I’m not shocked, that was common years ago with dubs and at least the lyrics mean the same thing. though I don’t like this singer’s voice.

I love how protagonists get introduced. I mean Sailor Moon, your protagonist is late for school. My Hero Academia, your protagonist is standing up to bullies. One Piece, your protagonist is slicing open his face and also like seven. Yu Yu Hakusho, YOUR PROTAGONIST IS DEAD.

did anything ever happen to the man driving the car anyway? he killed a fourteen year old

Kent Williams is our narrator, he was Father in FMAB and also the narrator of that anime too

and I could tell it was him right away because I can’t remember how many times I’ve seen that anime

Yusuke is voiced by Justin Cook who is Kirishima in BNHA and fun fact he’s the cousin of Aaron Dismuke and helped him get into voice acting so thank him for that

“okay this is weird, stupid weird” just wait until you’re a half demon and the explanation for it is convoluted as balls

“today did start out different, I went to school” yes that is weird

you know of all the cute pompadour babies in anime, Yusuke is probably the one who comes closest to being a legit delinquent

Keiko!

“hey nice skirt” you’ve seen her in it before?

so Keiko is being voiced by Laura Bailey who was kid Trunks in DBZ, Shin Chan, Lust in FMA, and Tohru in Fruits Basket. she’s kinda hit or miss with me, I like how she played all the characters I mentioned, but in the case of say Maka in Soul Eater I found her annoying to listen to.

fortunately she voiced Keiko in what’s essentially her natural voice and not her Tohru voice (which she recycles often) so this is fine

“nice uniform, its lacy” in Japanese he comments on her underwear being white, either way don’t do that dude

gotta love how Togashi wrote a romance compared to his wife Naoko’s take on it. Togashi wrote a bad boy/nice girl couple where the boy proposes to her in a manner that just has her all “yeah whatever” and Naoko was all ROSES and GLITTER and BALLROOM DANCING and RULING THE FUCKING PLANET

yes Yusuke is so scary with his bitty pompadour and green pants

“he’s super tough and he kills for fun” lawl

I’m kinda annoyed with how they say Urameshi, its a pet peeve

“you shouldn’t talk, it makes you sound stupid” BURN

Atsuko was a human disaster, no wonder her son is like this

she is voiced by Meredith McCoy who was Android 18 in DBZ

you kick that can Yusuke!

oh God

so I knew Kuwabara was being voiced by Christopher Sabat, but you should have warned me he’s using his Yajirobe voice! who thought that was a good idea?

the kid Yusuke saves sounds too old

*Rose Tyler voice* this is the story of how I died

....why is Botan British?

she’s voiced by Cynthia Cranz who was Chi-Chi in DB and DBZ

why is she British? that’s so random

love this eye catcher

is everyone in the Spirit Realm British? should I expect Koenma to be British too?

“in other words your death was a complete and utter waste!”

its pretty disturbing Yusuke really thought his death would be seen as a blessing

“they probably came over here just because they’re getting extra credit!” do Japanese schools give out extra credit for attending wakes now?

well I shouldn’t be surprised Yusuke had such shitty time at school, his teacher is King Bradley

I had forgotten the child didn’t know or understand Yusuke was dead...

second star to the right and straight on till morning!

not gonna lie I expected myself to ship Yusuke and Botan, but I’m happy they never had romantic subtext all things considered

I keep forgetting this anime showed the previews before the closing, its weird