#damn studio deen

[darius-1]

We could've had it all!

I found the storyboard sketches of what could've been adapted into the series instead of an OVA. I'd say we DID get the Jinchu Arc animated in another timeline, where what could've been is a reality! Studio DEEN had the nerve to scrap it at the last minute!

[rachelraygifs]

Just to talk shade about the studio DEEN adaptation for like a few seconds, Tsumihoroboshi-hen being the last arc of the first season before Kai is so funny.

Like damn who could the villain be? Is it the woman who told Rena that aliens were invading earth in the most menacing way possible who also was driving back with a shovel in her car the night before the Watanagashi festival? Who could say

[gabriel-gabdiel]

Rurouni Yahiko Chapter 53: A Trip Down Memory Lane

An old flame of Yahiko returns to Yokohama.

The rest of the chapters of my Rurouni Kenshin fan fiction are available here. Enjoy.

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Back at Yokohama during Winter 1884...

A week had passed since the fateful sparring match between Satsuki "May" Brooks and Yahiko "Joshua" Myojin.

However, the clash between Satsuki and Yahiko quickly became old hat for the kenjutsu students of the Sakaguchi Dojo.

Why?

It was because Satsuki's adoptive grandfather and grandmaster of the Musou Madden School, Genzo Sakaguchi, insisted that Yahiko return and regularly spar with her and the rest of the students in the dojo to prepare them for, well, war.

A war against foreign invaders, apparently.

The so-called Brigands Guild was out to assassinate the members of the Minakata Family, the hatamoto class samurai family whom generations of Sakaguchis served under since the Sengoku Era.

In any case, Mr. Myojin had ended up being a sparring partner for Miss Brooks in the end.

They sparred with each other until everyone got sick of it, including them. Then they sparred some more.

They kept sparring until every following match lost all meaning to them. Like they were being punished through the endless battles.

This was all part of Genzo's Training from Hell: His students' collective punishment for performing poorly against both Yahiko and May.

This went on for several more days until the fateful confrontation between uncle and nephew at the House of Minakata.

***

Rurouni Yahiko

A Rurouni Kenshin Continuation Fan Fiction Story by Chester Castañeda

Old friends meet up with new friends.

Disclaimer: All characters used in this fanfic (save some others) are the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha, Shonen Jump, Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio Gallup, Studio Deen, and ADV. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted materials that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.

***

Chapter 53: A Trip Down Memory Lane

***

'Boy, there sure are a lot of foreigners in Yokohama.'

Those were actually one of the first couple of thoughts in Yahiko's mind when their train to Yokohama from Hiroshima first arrived.

Was he not distracted by the prospect of sparring with Satsuki, he would've focused more on that train of thought. However, even the eventual sparring match reinforced his first impressions on Yokohama.

After all, "Satsuki" was actually May Brooks, an Englishwoman adopted into a Japanese family.

A foreigner.

Damn, there sure were a lot of gaijin in Yokohama. It was crawling with them, in fact. Like an anthill. Or a beehive.

Or rather, weren't they more like a swarm of murderous wasps invading a beehive that they obviously didn't belong to?

Maybe that was a bit much of a comparison. However, that was what the Satsuma Domain felt was happening when the Americans first opened up Japan's ports to world trade.

Like they were being invaded by another country.

Yokohama was the place where it all began, from the Convention of Kanagawa to the Bakumatsu. It literally helped end the Sakoku (Locked Nation) Era of Japan, even.

It was all because an arrogant American foreigner embarrassed the Shogunate by forcing it to open Japanese ports for foreign trade.

It was reminiscent of what the British did to Imperial China with its Opium Wars for the sake of getting tea and other goods from the country.

The consequences of their actions could be felt even to this day, in 1884.

Like Yokohoma ending up like a center for world trade full of foreigners. Or Emperor Meiji being installed into power by the Ishin Shishi winning the Bakumatsu and establishing of the Meiji Government.

Regardless, the boy from Tokyo had ended up with a new routine ever since he lost that damn spar in Yokohama.

He attended "classes" at the Sakaguchi Dojo and served as one of its teacher's sparring partners almost daily, including weekends.

On the bright side, he got paid cold, hard cash for his efforts to train. He had that going for him, which was nice.

He was actually there to help Old Man Genzo Sakaguchi and Kinta Minakata along with a short list of volunteer students to help guard the Minakata Family while the Brigands Guild remained afoot.

The Great (Pain in the Ass) Gan also helped out in his own way. The meat shield served as a pretty impressive hand-to-hand combat sparring partner. His fighting style with the big metal bat didn't need as much polish or technique as his street fighting experience.

As long as Gan held actual job and pulled his own weight in terms of rent money, Yahiko was fine with whatever the lout wanted to do.

Even Munenori Minoe visited the dojo from time to time to help out with chores, clean the equipment, or do practice drills on defense.

However, he didn't do much there otherwise.

Yahiko expected more from him. He knew Minoe was capable of much more.

Like in Shinshu, it was hard to convince people that this meek guy with an eye patch and wig was actually a fearsome warrior and assassin in his own right.

Or her own right. Since Minoe was basically just Kaede Morinaga with a wig strapped to her head care of an eye patch.

But if Minoe thought he was a guy, who was Yahiko to tell him otherwise?

The thing was that Minoe barely went to the Sakaguchi Dojo ever since Yahiko's first spar with   Satsuki.

He was a martial artist himself who was probably even better than Myojin at kenjutsu but he chose not to help the Sakaguchis or Minakatas out.

In their other misadventures, Munenori was practically inseparable with the rest of the Three Stooges. Not this time, though.

'Was he avoiding going to the Sakaguchi Dojo because of Minakata Kinta?' Yahiko mused. 'What has he been up to this past week anyway?'

***

Dreading another blistering (and blister-inducing) sparring match with the master of long-range naginata/bo strikes for today, Yahiko found time to write more letters about his exploits addressed to his childhood sweetheart Tsubame Sanjo.

It came with the implication that she should also read the letters to Kenshin and Kaoru Kamiya as well, so they'd also know whatYahiko was up to.

It was his way of relaxing himself.

He sure hoped they were doing fine. Too bad they couldn't write him back in return, seeing how he had no permanent address at the moment.

Also, what would've been Kenshin's reaction to all these strange people using his former sobriquet "Battousai" long after he was retired from being a hitokiri (manslayer)? Everyone was pulling a Hiruma Brothers' style "prank" on him, it would seem.

'Maybe Amakusa Shogo called his band of misfit samurais the Battousaigumi (Battousai Group) partly as his way of challenging Kenshin. He's actually daring him to find them and stop them from abusing his name.'

Yahiko then thought of Tsubame and how she'd pack him lunches or wait for him to come home after every kendo practice, when she herself was done with her shift at the Akabeko (Red Cow) Restaurant.

He missed those idle days of his after all that nonsense with Jinchu and whatnot was finally laid to rest. There was something nostalgic about them, to be honest.

'Wha...?'

Speaking of nostalgia, he just saw a poster posted on the outside of the Yokohama Post Office. A poster for the circus.

It advertised clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, unicyclists, and more.

Huh. The circus, huh? He should pay a visit to the circus one of these days.  

Now that brought back memories.

Before he met Miss Sanjo, he was first smitten by a certain "Human Cannonball". A pretty girl about his age. Like Tsubame, she also had the annoying habit of calling him by the name...

"Yahiko-chan...?"

Staring back at him with a ream of posters tucked under her arm was the girl he was just thinking about.

A girl he hadn't seen in six years. A girl he thought he'd never see again in his lifetime.

"M-Marimo!?"

He felt like having a heart attack then and there.

"Oh, it is you, Yahiko-chan! I'm so glad you still remember me!" said Marimo.

What were the chances of them meeting like this?

Now if only Kenshin, Kaoru, Kenji, and/or Tsubame was right behind her too. Maybe even Sanosuke (Sagara/Higashidani), while they were at it!

Actually, Shinshu was further away than Yokohama was from the Kamiya Dojo. Since he was nearby, maybe he should drop in and visit his friends back in Tokyo instead!

***

Come to think of it, right at the very top of the same circus poster he'd been staring at was the very same "Human Cannonball" Marimo Ebisu, grinning while sitting atop a huge cannon.

'She's still going at it with the human cannonball gig, huh?' he thought. 'Some things never change.'

Marimo, a circus performer, was one of countless people the Kenshingumi (Kenshin Squad) met and helped out. Her job was to get shot out of a huge cannon that was aimed towards a target in an acrobatic fashion for the entertainment of paying customers.

Kenshin, Sano, Kaoru, and Yahiko saved the circus run by Marimo's ringmaster father Jirokichi Ebisu from a circus competitor named Soubei Sumidaya, a man whose own circus started failing after his star attraction, Marimo, left.

Sumidaya actually attempted to sabotage the Ebisu Circus by forcing them to immediately pay their loan to him they used to set up their own big top. According to their unfair contract, Marimo and her father would go back to his circus if they fail to settle their debts.

Afterwards, Soubei had his people steal the money that the Ebisu Family were intending to pay the loan with while at the same time injuring Marimo's father by getting him buried in a pile of wooden boards.

The evil circus ringleader then had some of his goons steal the gunpowder used to fire the Ebisu's cannon and then got the rest of his ex-convict performers to attack the Ebisu Circus in the middle of a performance for good measure.

The Kenshingumi not only filled in as Ebisu Circus performers themselves to stall for time; they also saved the day by taking out Sumidaya's gang in one fell swoop. Even Megumi Takani helped them out by mixing the right gunpowder portions needed for the cannon to work safely on top of tending to an injured Jirokichi.

"How are you? It's been ages!" Marimo asked Yahiko.

"I've been doing fine, all things considered," he replied. "I see you're still working at the circus."

"What can I say? I love my job." She giggled, brushing a stray lock of hair to the side of her face.

The circus was in town, and Marimo was one of its headliners in Yokohama.

At any rate, he and his second crush (Tsubame was his first) caught up with each other like old friends while he helped her put up those posters she carried to advertise her circus troupe's upcoming performance.

"How's everyone in Tokyo? Are they doing well? How are Kenshin-san, Sano-san, and Kaoru-san?"

"Well..."

He couldn't possibly recount everything that happened during Kenshin's stay with Kaoru in the Kamiya Dojo.

She didn't need to know about Jine Udo, Isurugi Raijuta, Makoto Shishio, or Yukishiro Enishi. No need to tell her about those serial murderers, anti-government rebels, and/or wannabe dictators.

He instead gave her the abridged version of what had happened so far. Even more abridged that the letters he sent Tsubame about his current exploits.

Marimo particularly loved the news that Kenshin and Kaoru were married with a child, Megumi was still practicing medicine in Aizu, and that Sanosuke Sagara had been adventuring all over the world, reaching as far as the United States of America.

Man, she was still so pretty. She really blossomed from being a cute girl to a heartbreaker in just six years.

Marimo Ebisu might not be as bombastic as May Brooks was, but she was still drop-dead gorgeous. Sometimes nothing could beat the adorable cuteness of youthful Japanese beauty.

She was like his nostalgia from when he was 10 years old personified. A muse from his past.

Marimo and Yahiko exchanged bows after their posting of all the posters was done. She then told him to come see her at the circus sometime by giving him a free ticket for today's show.

"Thanks for helping me out. See you later, Yahiko-chan!" she said as she waved goodbye.

"Uh, same to you, Marimo," he said lamely. The fact that she called him with the childish "-chan" honorific didn't even register in his mind.

Was he dreaming? Someone pinch him.

"OW! What's the big idea...?"

And so someone did. Right on the cheek.

He turned in time to see two of three Sanbaka (Three Stooges) and Chizuru Raikouji (the girl who pinched him) staring holes at him.

"That's what we'd like to know, 'Yahiko-chan'," said Chizuru, who looked at him with half-lidded eyes, a knowing smirk, and an upturned nose.

He also idly thought that maybe it'd be better if he "swapped" places with Chizuru so she'd be the one to complete the Sanbaka trio of idiots instead.

***

As they walked back to their respective inns, Yahiko's trio of companions grilled him for information even though he'd rather they went to a cookout grill instead. Like for yakiniku (grilled meat cuisine) or something.

"Was that your girlfriend from Tokyo we've heard so much about?" asked Minoe. "She's the one who calls you 'Yahiko-chan'. Right, Yahiko-chi?"

"Oh yeah, Sanjo no Kiwami or something," said the Moronic Gan.

"Sanju no Kiwami (Triple Extreme) is a punching technique, ya doofus! Her name is Sanjo Tsubame!" Yahiko said, not bothering to try and figure out how Gan coincidentally came up with Sanosuke Sagara's learned special technique.

"But this poster here says her name is Marimo the Human Cannonball," said Chizuru.

Uh-oh. Yahiko was the bigger moron after all. He gulped and sweated bullets. "Ummm..."

"Is that her stage name, Yoshi-boy?" asked the Idiotic Gan. "You didn't tell us your girlfriend is a circus performer! I thought she was a waitress in some maid cafe!"

Ah, what the hell. The jig is up. Might as well come clean.

"All right. Listen up. Marimo is not Tsubame. Tsubame is a different person, okay?"

"Oooooh," the Sanbaka (and Chizuru) chirped together in a sing-song way.

"Cut that out," he admonished his three "friends". "Marimo is... well, someone that I, we (the Kenshingumi) met at the circus. We helped her circus out when it was in trouble."

"Your ex?" supposed the Clueless Gan, which earned him a "MEN! (HEAD!)" strike to the noggin care of the wrapped-up sakabatou (reversed-edge blade).

"No, stupid! She's just a friend! A circus girl we saved from being harassed and duped into a bad contract by her former boss in Tokyo!"

"Oh, I get it. She was your first crush!" supposed Chizuru.

"N-No, she's not! She's my second... I mean, no. No! I met Tsubame before her, okay?"

"Ha. Bingo. Second crush, huh?" The Raikouji Heiress smiled like a cat that ate the canary. Her womanly intuition struck remarkably true like a pinprick to the center of Yahiko's heart. "No wonder you were ogling her with goo-goo eyes."

Tokyo Samurai Descendant winced, as though someone just punched him in the gut. "Raccoon Girl, stop it right there!"

Damn. The Kaoru look-alike was scarily perceptive. More so than the "real" Kaoru, even.

"No, that can't be it," said the bright-eyed (well, one-eyed) Minoe. "Mochiron! (But of course!) There's no way Yahiko-chi would ever cheat on his girlfriend in Tokyo with his other crush!"

"GUUUAAA!" exclaimed Myojin, who ended up on the ground, kneeling and on all fours in pain. Doing the dogeza or the Japanese kneeling position to prostrate oneself, especially if that someone were ashamed or embarrassed immensely in public.

"P-Please, Minoe. Have mercy."

***

A week ago, right after Yahiko lost his friendly sparring match against Satsuki...

Munenori Minoe and Kinta Minakata had a little private meeting at the backyard of the Sakaguchi Dojo.

"What are you doing here?" the straightforward Kinta asked. "Did Amakusa Shogo send you after me?"

Minoe chuckled. "This is actually a bit of a detour on my part, but I intended to keep an eye on you regardless. Same with Akahori-chi."

"Detour?" he repeated. "Oh. You're traveling with that kid, right? Why is that?"

Munenori rubbed his bandaged hands to keep them warm. "That 'kid' knows who the real Battousai is, Kinta-chi."

"Oh," he said, remembering how focused and obsessed Kaede was with meeting the original Hitokiri Battousai, to the point of dressing and even looking like him. "Really? That kid has connections with Himura Battousai?"

"Yes, he does. He even inherited his old sword."

"...I see."

Was this the reason why despite looking about the age of a teen, this samurai boy from Tokyo was able to take down grown men from their dojo and almost defeated one of their best students?

Was Yahiko Myojin taught kenjutsu by Kinta's incidental namesake all this time? 'But his sword style didn't look like Hiten Mitsurugu Ryu at all.'

"And as for you," said Minoe, who took off his wig and eye patch, revealing his rust-red hair and lazy eye with a cross-shaped scar near it. "Do you intend to betray Shogo-sama again, Traitor? Are you still working under Akahori Tetsuo?"

By reflex, Minakata's hand went immediately to the handle of his sword as he fell into the aggressive Waxing Stance of Musou Madden Ryu, ready to pull his Akatsuki (Red Moon) blade out of its sheathe at a moment's notice.

He wasn't talking to Minoe any longer, but instead to the much more dangerous and erratic Nisemono Battousai (Fake Battousai): Kaede Morinaga.

"Shozo Lorenzo. Genemon Gaspar. Lady Magdalia. Do any of these names mean anything to you, Traitor? You Judas!"

Incidentally, Judas Iscariot was one of the 12 apostles who ultimately betrayed Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver, leading to the Messiah's crucifixion and death.

"I remember all their names," Kinta said, his countenance unchanging. "I will never forget them."

So Kaede asked, "Whose side are you on then, Minakata Kinta? Shogo-sama's or Akahori's?"

***

Yahiko Myojin grumbled to himself. He ended up under the big top after all, attending Marimo's show in spite of himself. Against his better judgment.

He originally didn't intend to attend the circus performance that afternoon. He had hellish training and sparring to do at the Sakaguchi Dojo with May Brooks and her students, after all.

'Er, on second thought, they can take a rain check,' he mused. 'We can have a day or two without sparring, right?'

Regardless, some burly idiot with a drinking and gambling problem stole his ticket to the circus from under his nose and went there in his place instead.

Myojin was forced to actually wait in line and buy a ticket, if only to make sure the "Great" Gan wasn't up to his usual mischief of brawling, drinking, stealing, lying, and owing more food and gambling debts.

Man, Yahiko had half a mind to continue his journey without Gan and just dump the "Soba King" on the road or leave him like a stray cat at a park one of these days. He was nothing but trouble.

Then again, Gan also gave him the excuse to play hooky on the Sakaguchi Dojo for once and enjoy himself for at least a day after a week of torture and countless pole, shinai, or bokken strikes to his person.

The Ebisu Circus Troupe had blossomed and become a far bigger company than its owners dreamed possible in just six years.

The ringmaster Sumidaya would've rolled in his grave if he were dead (knock on wood). Right now he was serving his sentence in Tokyo Penitentiary, so it was possible for him to roll around his jail cell instead.

Instead of only offering one main star attraction in Marimo the Human Cannonball with half-hearted side attractions here and there, the Ebisu Circus had grown big enough to do tours on a national level.

"You actually came! I'm so glad!" cheered Marimo, who was in her form-fitting leotard cat suit as she met up with Yahiko at the entrance of the circus tent.

She waved off the cashier from selling Myojin a ticket, whispering that the boy was her guest.

"I can't wait for you to see me perform later!"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," he lied with a grin while scratching the back of his head, one eye on the lookout for any sign of the Unruly Gan.

"Dad, you remember Yahiko, right?" Marimo told her father after leading the boy in question to him.

"Ah, yes! The boy who saved our circus along with that nice swordsman fellow, doctor, kendo instructor, and street fighter!" said Jirokichi Ebisu, the ringmaster of the Ebisu Circus Troupe. "Has it been six years already? Time sure flies! I hope you enjoy the show, son! Tell Himura-san and company that Ebisu Jirokichi sends his regards!"

"Yeah, sure, and thanks a lot too!" Yahiko said, who even indulged enough to buy himself popcorn and a candy apple from the nearby concession stands of the big top. Might as well, since he was already there. "Oh, and it's Kamiya-san now. Kenshin married into Kaoru's family."

"Is that right? Congratulations to them, then! I always had an inkling suspicion they'd end up together."

"Would you believe they even have a kid too?" gabbed Yahiko between mouthfuls of popcorn.

"Ha! Himura-san, you sly dog! I mean, Kamiya-san, right? Way to go. That girl is quite a catch. I hope in the future that Mr. and Mrs. Kamiya will get to see how much our humble show has improved through the years!"

"I'll tell them all about it!" said Myojin.

Jirokichi then turned towards his star attraction and said to Yahiko, "If Marimo is lucky, then maybe she could get the same happy ending herself!" while giving her a wink.

"Shut up, Dad!" Marimo fidgeted cutely in her skintight uniform that left little to the imagination. "You're embarrassing me in front of Yahiko-chan!"

"Bwahahaha! Puppy love is so adorable!"

Yahiko laughed along with Jirokichi but his pretend mirth didn't quite reach his eyes. 'She's still going with the 'chan' thing, huh? I guess Marimo will never see me as anything other than that 10-year-old brat she met six years ago.'

He spared a glance at the young girl and her hour-glass form in that tight-fitting outfit before their eyes met and they looked away in embarrassment.

'Also, 'puppy love'? What puppy love? Does Marimo have a boyfriend already or something?'

"Well, we better get going! Marimo, go to your trailer and prepare yourself. Son, enjoy the show! It's about to start!" said the Ebisu Ringmaster.

"Don't mind if I do!" said Yahiko, who then took a large bite of his candied apple.

***

The show went off without a hitch.

It certainly helped that no competing circus ringmaster and his failed circus performers were trying to sabotage their performances this time around.

Ebisu Circus, which was founded in 1878, performed in four to five locations around Japan each year, setting up its bright-red, 20-meter-high big top in each place for roughly three months.

The circus also had shows twice a day, morning and night, up until the end of the month.

This year, in 1884, the troupe opened in Osaka before moving to Nagoya and then Yokohama, intending to perform in Fukuoka before the year was over. According to Jirokichi, they might add Asakusa or Takamatsu if the shows proved successful enough.

This time around, they had everything going for them. Lion tamers and other animal trainers. A zoo full of trained animals. Circus clowns. Magicians and other illusionists. Escape artists able to free themselves from the Chinese water torture box or while hanging upside down like a bat.

There were also jugglers, acrobats, dancers, and death-defying trapeze artists present, among whom included their headliner Marimo Ebisu.

At present, Ebisu Circus had around 50 to 60 performers, among 20 were from overseas. The ringmaster said he scoured the globe to find the best performers as his circus grew in popularity, although it did help that international ports like Yokohama allowed them an influx of foreign talent to hire.

No wonder the lines and crowds Ebisu Circus had currently gathered were even longer and bigger than the ones the Kenshingumi came across when the troupe had first formed. They'd really expanded their show into a world-class extravaganza.

If only Kenshin and the others could witness the spectacular program. It was well-worth the price of admission (had Yahiko paid)!

'Man, I do hope they add Tokyo to their tour dates. This is amazing,' thought Yahiko.

Before the main event with their headliner—Marimo the Human Cannonball—finally started, they held a short tournament of sorts to showcase the skills of their strongman weightlifters, bodybuilders, and wrestlers, many of whom were trained in classic Japanese jujutsu, judo, and sumo as well as Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling from the western world.

Yahiko yawned.

As popular as the wrestling portion of the show was to the kids, he was too old and too experienced in martial arts to not recognize the stage tricks and fake fighting that the strongmen did to each other when doing their little pretend tournaments.

Some of it was impressive, but it wasn't real fighting. More like a dance made to look like a real competitive match.

At the tail end of the wrestling show, they held a contest where the audience members were invited to participate to see if they could take on the circus strongmen in a match.

At least when they were fighting against audience members, some of the more experienced wrestlers had the chance to showcase their actual skills instead of doing fixed choreographed fights for a crowd, but those lasted in mere seconds.

As extra incentive, they offered cash prizes to anyone who could defeat the circus's stable of strongmen.

"BWAHAHAHA! I am the Soba King! The Great Gan! Beware my wrath, puny mortals!"

Wait a minute. That voice. Yahiko knew something was amiss!

Right there, on the ring down below, came forth the Rambunctious Gan in all his bandanna-wearing, barrel-chested glory, beating on his pectorals like one of the damn trained gorillas the circus had caged.

Yahiko had almost forgotten himself. This was the reason why he went to the circus in the first place! To chase after Gan the Ticket Thief and keep him out of trouble!

***

The audience ooh-ed and aah-ed at the spectacle before them.

As far as the audience knew, this unknown Japanese "strongman" thug that wasn't part of the previous shows took down the circus's own strongmen one after the other with karate kicks, punches, elbows, knees, throws, and body slams.

Yahiko tried to go back to the entrance to retrieve the sakabatou he left behind (no weapons were allowed inside the big top for obvious reasons), but it was a packed house and he was soon distracted by the Muscular Gan making short work of the long line of strongmen, wrestlers, bodybuilders, and martial artists one after another, sometimes two or three at a time.

It was a royal ass-whuppin'. A rumble where the Monstrous Gan came out on top. The Soba King of the Ring was seriously cleaning house.

No one who came down on that wrestling ring could get him out of it, it'd seem. Was this all pre-planned in advance? Was it part of the show? But why would a circus humiliate its own performers by "losing" to some random audience member?

'What is that idiot up to?' Yahiko thought. He himself could charge into the middle of the ring and try his luck with toppling Gan, but he had seen the strength and durability of the big oaf firsthand. He felt more confident taking him on with a sword instead of without it.

Yahiko then face-planted when he realized who was the girl—the valet—in the ring with Gan.

"Ohohohoho! That's right! Can no one take my," the girl in kabuki makeup cleared her throat and grimaced, "husband out? Are the wrestlers in this circus nothing but weaklings and clowns against the Monster Among Men, Gan the Great?"

"It's the Great Gan, Kaori-neechan! Get it right!"

"Shut up and mug at the audience, Soba King. I'm working here."

It was Chizuru. Even with her face completely plastered with white paint, Yahiko could recognize that face and that comically large hair bow anywhere. Or at least mistake her for Kaoru Kamiya. She was acting as manager to the dine-and-dashing food bandit.

Myojin sighed and sat back down. He wanted to hit himself for falling for carnie nonsense and circus trickery.

Of course Gan beating up strongmen was all still part of the show. Of course none of this was real and all of it was scripted. Circus or carnival wrestling was fake, after all.

What the hell were the Ebisus thinking, making them part of the show though?

"Are they friends of yours, Yahiko-chan?" someone asked him from behind.

"Ah! Marimo!" said Yahiko. "You scared me. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at your trailer?"

Marimo pouted cutely. "No. It's boring in there. All you can do in there is stare at a wall or eat. I want to watch the show with you. I want to see your reactions from up close."

Yahiko blushed and turned his attention back to the ring as Gan threw several other circus wrestlers over the top rope, growling and grunting like an unhinged wild beast. "How'd you know they were my friends?"

"I saw you with them after I gave you a ticket to the show," she explained. "I also asked them when they got here if they knew you."

"So what's going on?" Yahiko asked, pointing at the commotion that two of his so-called comrades was making. "Who put them up to this?"

"Well, Gan-san volunteered to fight the strongmen for real but my father had other ideas. He offered him some money to do a scripted show instead. The girl he's with, Chizuru, offered to be his manager for a cut of the money, saying he owes her anyway."

"Yeah, that sounds like Raccoon Girl, all right," said Yahiko with a shake of his head. "She's the stingiest rich person I know."

"About that. Is that Chizuru person a relative of Kaoru-san?" she asked. "Like a little sister, cousin, niece, or something?"

"Oh. OH. No, there's no relation between the two of them. But it's freaky, isn't it? How much they look alike, I mean," he said. "They're like twin sisters or something."

"When they first inquired about our wrestling tournament and cash prize, I almost thought you brought Kenshin-san and Kaoru-san with you over from Tokyo! Oh, and that poor Sano-san let himself go."

Yahiko laughed at her joke. "Hey, that was a good one." He then realized something. "Wait, what do you mean 'Kenshin-san' was with them? Wasn't it just Gan and the Raccoon Girl?"

Right on cue, a familiar voice shouted, "Stop right there, criminal scum."

Instead of Munenori Minoe, there stood Kaede Morinaga.

His other personality. The wig and eye patch was off. Her red hair was tied in a ponytail that started on the nape of her neck. Her scar under her eye visible to those with front row seats.

And indeed, even from a distance, she did look like Kenshin to all those who ever knew or met him.

"Well, if it isn't my mortal enemy, Samurai X!" said the Great Gan to Kaede while flexing his biceps (and sucking in his gut).

'Who the hell is Samurai X?!' thought Yahiko with a facepalm.

***

The audience booed Gan as he pushed and prodded around the shorter Kenshin look-alike Kaede like she owed him money.

"Leave the little girl alone!" some of them said. "Or little boy! I'm not sure!"

However, those who knew Kenshin and especially those who knew Kaede knew what was in store for them next.

They waited. Anticipated. With bated breath.

In Christian terms, it was a David and Goliath type of scenario. Where the young (uncrowned) King David slew the Philistine giant Goliath with a slingshot and stones to the skull.

Or at that was how Kaede envisioned it, since she actually paid attention to the bible readings Amakusa did of both the Old and New Testament for his faithful.

In Japanese History terms, it was a Kamikaze (Divine Wind) scenario. The mismatched Japan was able to overcome the Mongols through Divine Intervention in the form of a typhoon.

Morinaga then fell into her deadly Scorpio Stance.

"Swarming Stabs!"

She used sticks instead of her actual weapons, but this was a fixed carnival-style wrestling match anyway. And she was supposed to be the underdog.

The thrust pushed the muscular gorilla man to a corner. From there, as the roars of the crowd grew louder and louder, she did one of her signature moves.

It missed against Soujiro Seta, but the Glacial Gan would not be able to avoid it. He was too big, too slow, and too dumb to be able to do so.

"Scorpion Nest!"

The cheering reached a fever pitch as the seeming redheaded stepchild and weakling wrecked Gan apart like a hapless sand bag.

The feeling of nostalgia filled Yahiko yet again, remembering how the wimpy Kenshin wreaked havoc all over the Tanishi Yakuza, blowing everyone's expectations (and bodies) away.

The crowd then roared in approval as Kaede blew away the swaying, bruised Gan with one final "Deathstalker Stab!" that pushed him out of the ring, in between the ropes.

The match was over. She had won. The crowd roared with approval.

"That stick fighting girl was amazing! She was so fast with her strikes!" was the unanimous consensus of the audience. What a match. What a show.

So that was the end of that.

Myojin brushed away the sweat on the edges of his eyebrows. Damn.

She didn't hold back. She went all out instead of doing choreographed weak strikes or even sparring taps.

The ending was obviously scripted, but the hits weren't.

However, right below the ring, the scuffed-up Gan stirred. Even from that far away, Yahiko could see the wide grin on his face. Afterwards, the lout grabbed something from underneath the ring.

It was a wooden club.

'Wait, the match is over, right?' thought Yahiko. 'Gan, what in the world are you planning?'

***

The Great Gan entered the ring from the bottom rope, towered before the tiny Kaede, and then said, "Those love taps are not enough to take me down, Samurai X. Or am I talking to Patches now? Is that why you're acting so weak?"

This elicited a snarl from Kaede. "Don't compare me to Minoe. Don't imply he's weak either, while we're at it."

Gan snorted. "I don't get why you have so many nicknames for yourself like you've been possessed by multiple spirits, but I'll humor you for now. However, what I won't tolerate is how you keep pulling back your strikes. To do so is to disrespect me. You can do better than that, Samurai X!"

"What are you doing, Gan?" hissed Chizuru. "This isn't part of the script!"

"Sorry, Kaori-neechan! I'm going off-script! I'm doing improv!"

The Humongous Gan hurled his bat at Morinaga multiple times, who then proceeded to dodge in every which way. He ended up hitting nothing but air, the ring ropes, the pillar, and the post, but no swing landed on the Fake Battousai.

Like this was a replay of his fight with Shogo Amakusa back in Shinshu.

Yahiko gulped and clutched his arm rests, his fingernails digging into the material. As much as he hated to admit it, this match-up did leave him at least a little bit curious.

How would a serious Gan fare against a serious Kaede in a real fight?

Gan, with his superhuman stamina and durability versus the offense-minded, lightning-quick Morinaga.

His swings started going faster. And wilder. Gan hit everything he could reach with his weapon. The ring ropes shook around with a twang like they were being strummed like guitar strings.

Each hit spelled death, or at least a one-hit K.O., if any of them were to ever make full contact with the tiny girl or her tiny head.

If they could make full contact.

"Have you lost your goddamn mind, you ape?" Kaede asked, still keeping herself from breaking his kneecaps or shoving a stick up where the sun didn't shine.

Gan was one of Minoe's friends after all, but if he pushed her hard enough, something disastrous might happen.

She did the Scorpion Nest to help better parry the bat strikes and counter the batter at the same time, but each contact she made with his weapon reverberated right into her bone.

On his part, Gan ate all the strikes she hit him with like rain off his back.

She then pivoted and did Swarming Barb thrusts at Gan's blindside. It barely fazed him and one swing of his bat was all he needed to swat her and her silly sticks away.

'Since when was he this strong?' she wondered. If she only had sharp swords instead of sticks, it might've made a significant difference.

The structure underneath the ring mat cracked and buckled from their combined the force of their hammering blows. Like endless waves crashing off of a cliff side until it was crushed into sand and rubble over time.

She dodged, parried, and blocked, but she wasn't as much of a defensive expert as her Minoe personality. Her defense was her offense, and Gan shrugged off her offense. So in essence, he also shrugged off her main line of defense.

"How many more of my attacks can your thin wrists block, Samurai X?" shouted Gan.

Soon, bruises and welts formed all over her body.

Strikes meant to hit a target were different from parries and deflections, so Gan managed to tag her little by little every time she attempted to bombard him with strikes even though she was much faster than him.

They weren't so much parrying as they were exchanging strikes that sometimes happened to get in the way of each other.

Gan soon had her cornered at one of the ring posts and clipped her arm with a crack of his bat when she didn't deflect fast enough. Like a trip hammer, this made her turn and counter with a Deathstalker Stab to the skull.

His head got knocked back for a second before he grinned and kept attacking someone who was used to being the attacker.

The predator had become the prey.

"More! MORE! Hit me HARDER! I can barely feel your mosquito bites on my skin! I'm barely bleeding here, Samurai X! Or should I say Patches?"

This was getting a little dangerous.

Meanwhile, Chizuru had long ago left the ring, probably to ask for help from the remaining wrestlers backstage or even call the police. Like a person with common sense would.

Even though Kaede gave the likes of Soujiro Seta a run for his money, she was merely stick-fighting against someone as sturdy and resilient as Gan, who survived even the most fatal of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu techniques using a real sword.

Granted, he was hypnotized into thinking he had died, but he was still a tough son of a gun. Beating him with sticks would not cut it. She needed to use her blades to stand a chance.

Unbidden, Morinaga then remembered Kinta Minakata's answer to her question back at the Sakaguchi Dojo.

"I'm on no one's side. I don't want what happened to Shimabara to happen to my family. Not again."

To which she responded, "Whatever happens to your family would just be karma for what you did to mine!"

Yahiko stood up from his seat. "I've got to go, Marimo. I have to stop those two!"

"Eh?" Marimo said, just noticing him move. "But isn't this part of the show?"

"It doesn't look like it to me!" he said.

A sickening crack of the bat hit Morinaga upside the head, drawing blood.

Yahiko shouted, "NOOO! Kaede! Gan, you son of a bitch! Someone stop the goddamn match!"

She then countered with a Ryu Kan Sen (Dragon Wrap Flash) at the back of Gan's own head.

"!?" Yahiko was left speechless. He didn't know what to say.

The glint in Kaede's eyes had changed. Something awoke deep inside her thanks to that crushing blow to her head.  

The Immovable Gan paused for a second, noticing the change in fighting style, before waving his bat around regardless, none the worse for wear.

"Time to swat down this annoying fly!"

But this time, he couldn't catch her. She was dodging better than before. Faster too.

'Shinsoki (God Speed),' thought Yahiko. Kaede had reached the high-speed footwork of Kenshin to complement her hand speed advantage.

Minakata's words put Kaede's mindset back to the time when she served as the Kagemusha (Shadow Warrior) to Kenshin Himura while Kinta himself served as Kagemusha to Shogo Amakusa.

When she really did act like the spirit and image of Battousai Himura. Amakusa himself taught her everything she knew about Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.

The girl herself felt nostalgic for that time before Akahori helped with the genocide of the Hidden Christians.

If only she could turn back time. If only she could change the course of history.

If only she really were the Battousai.

Before the Indestructible Gan could react, the Battousai of Speed hit him flush with every variation of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu technique known as Ryu Kan Sen.

"Ryu Kan Sen Kogarashi! (Dragon Wrap Flash Gale!)"

"—Tsumuji! (Hair Spin!)"

"—Arashi! (Storm!)'

The howling winds from her relentless typhoon of attacks battered and blew apart bits and pieces of the mountain—of Mount Gan—but it would not move. It would not let her pass.

"That's more like it. I kind of felt that last one, kiddo! Do better!"

As another famous saying claimed, 'No matter how much the wind howls, the mountain cannot bow to it.'

The Fake Battousai then declared, "Ryu Sou Sen Garami! (Double Dragon Flash Head Attack!)" before spinning and focusing the entirety of her momentum towards breaking Gan's neck.

The move that "finished off" Gan at the Akahori Mansion (Formerly the Tani Mansion) now barely made a dent on him.

Gan's ripcord neck muscles splintered Kaede's sticks apart before they could even break one bone on his body or tear apart his thick neck, which he flexed hard enough to stop the sticks short from doing damage.

The Mountainous Gan chuckled as he flexed his biceps and pectorals. "Kumamoto (Shogo Amakusa) hit me harder than that, Samurai X!"

Yahiko's jaw dropped. Never mind Kaede doing better had she gotten access to her swords. How unstoppable would Gan be if he had his tetsubo (metal bat) with him instead?

Kaede wiped the blood from her face, shook her head, and blinked. She then saw the sorry state of her weapons. And grinned.

'Oh my. They look like oversized prison shivs now.'

"Are you done playing? Be serious for a minute, Samurai... GUAAAA!"

Gan barely raised his arms in time to deflect multiple stabs that would've punctured a lung or gauge his eyes out, with it instead slicing open the ridge of his brow.

"BWAHAHAHA! DEATHSTALKER STAB! SWARMING BARBS! SCORPION NEST! DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE...!"

She cackled and screamed as her blunt sticks for weapons were now shaped like daggers and spears. Unhinged, to say the least.

Finally getting nicked and cut apart enough to bleed at last, even Gan himself started to holler in laughter, his face a crimson mask.

"That's the spirit, Morinaga Kaede! If that even is your real name!"Gan screamed her whole name as he bludgeoned the cackling lunatic herself to the head and chest with sickening cracks of his bat whenever she got close enough to hit.

Like rabid dogs, they ripped apart each other with no regard for defense or safety.

"You're still incomplete! You're not fighting at your full potential! I will not lose to an incomplete person! Not while there's two or more of you inside of you instead of just one!"

"SHUT UP AND DIE, GORILLA MAN!"

Didn't Yahiko claim circus wrestling was for children? No, the clowns were for children. No child should see this barbaric display!

Before anyone in the audience could realize what had happened, all the wrestlers and strongmen from the Ebisu Circus ran into the ring and brawled with both the newcomers along with themselves then and there, signaling the end of the match by disqualification.

It became a free-for-all bloody brawl.

A melee that (smartly) showcased their whole roster of strongmen, bodybuilders, and wrestlers defeating the outsiders who dare infringe on their turf in a blowoff, one-off fued of sorts after those two took their spotlight away from them.

"Wait, what? That was all part of the show?" said Yahiko, who finally sat down and exhaled the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding in all this time.

What was even going on anymore?

Something about two factions running into the ring to take out Gan and Kaede, only to end up brawling with each other since they remembered they were rivals. Or something.

That was what he overheard the audience members say anyway. Those were the people who'd been keeping up with all the strongman wrestling matches of the Ebisu Circus.

Yahiko didn't regularly attend enough circus and carnival wrestling matches to keep up with their little storylines or changing allegiances.

"I told you so," Marimo chided. "Your friends did well. They stuck to the booking. I think. Also, I'm about to come on next myself for the show's main event. Wish me luck, Yahiko-chan!"

"Oh. Oh! Uh, good luck!" said Myojin, still pondering which part of the wrestling show was scripted and which part was unscripted.

When the (literal) dust settled from the dissatisfying ending of the wrestling portion of the show, one of the audience members remarked, "Wow, what a dusty finish."

***

Yahiko thought he was seeing things back in the Hiroshima bandit camp full of kidnapped women. Apparently, this was not the case.

He really did witness Kaede Morinaga doing Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu techniques instead of her Scorpio and Cancer Stances.

So aside from Kaede, Minoe had another personality. A third one. One who only knew Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.

Like the spirit and image of Kenshin himself, thusly living up to her moniker: The Fake Battousai. The Battousai of Speed.

She was the same Fake Battousai who wiped out the Fake Battousai Group in Shinshushin led by the late Keisuke.

'Keisuke, huh?' It felt like Yahiko hadn't heard that name in ages even though he was in Shinshu just a few months ago, still nursing persistent sword wounds he got from fighting Soujiro Seta, Shogo Amakusa, and the Nisemono (Fake) Battousai.

The Fake Battousai Group was a joke. However, the Real Battousai Group that they based their name on was no joke.

It cost them their lives (and their male bits) to take up that name.

The prospect of fighting a whole group of Battousai-tier opponents like Shogo, Kaede, and Kinta (as well as perhaps several others) was not something anyone should take lightly.

So why did the prospect of doing so excite Yahiko Myojin so much? Maybe it was the influence of Sanosuke Sagara in him acting up. The guy was a "bad" influence to him, after all.

'But what about the Brigands Guild?' he thought. He'd only heard of them recently and how Kinta dispatched several of their members with his supreme iaijutsu skills.

Surely these brigands weren't as dangerous as Minakata or Morinaga, right? Certainly, the Ten Swords or the Six Comrades were stronger than them as well.

***

And now for the main event. The Human Cannonball that closed off the show.

The teenaged Marimo, although still quite thin, was much bigger than she was 6 years ago, when she was 10 years old. Thusly, her father had gotten her a bigger, more powerful cannon to allow her to do her dangerous stunt to sail across the audience with the right amount of firepower.

She posed and danced along to the beat of the music as gorgeous circus dancers and acrobats did the same down at the foot of the huge cannon.

They did the drum roll. Everyone was on the edge of their seats as she entered the cannon.

The ringmaster himself did the countdown for his daughter's main event. "Five! Four...!"

The rest of the audience joined in, including Yahiko.

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

Kaboom. The cannon roared and the earth rumbled. Off went the Flying Marimo.

Everyone stood up to try and follow the whizzing blur that was Marimo across the big top and into her targeted net.

Yahiko, a trained martial artist, was able to catch sight of the full arch of her flight.

It was so beautiful. She flew like a swan taking a dive at a lake as she went through multiple flaming hoops and then landed on the safety net down below.

This was a routine action for her that she did twice a day, which belied the real dangers of such an act.

And just like that, within 5 minutes of drawn out anticipation and a second of climax, the show was finally over.

"Thank you and good night, everyone! I love Yokohama!" said Marimo to the crowd.

The audience erupted in claps and roars of approval, which was especially unusual for a Japanese audience to do due to their culture of politeness and public etiquette. Marimo deserved the standing ovation, though.

Yahiko came over to Marimo after the whole troupe went through their curtain call. He caught her signing autographs, blowing kisses, and waving to the milling crowd. What a superstar.

"What was it like, getting shot out of a cannon?" he asked her after he caught up with her, when she was done working the crowd.

She replied, "It's hard to describe. It's like riding the most intense, wildest bronco, but the horse has wings and you're flying in the air! With no saddle! There's a big boom and a second later, you're flying through the air, unfettered and untethered by anything. It's the best feeling in the world!"

They then went out of the tent through the staff exit, away from the exiting crowd of satisfied customers.

They walked together, with her struggling to keep pace with him. He slowed down his walk to accommodate her.

Afterwards, they heard a whistle followed by a small boom. More whistling booms, crackles, and pops followed.

They looked up into the sky.

Sure enough, fireworks painted the black canvas with fire flowers of light and sound.

The bright and flowery sparks in the heavens changed the lighting around them from red to blue to yellow and every color in between. Their mood shifted with these heavenly variegations.

It was like they'd been transferred into another world. Everything suddenly looked otherworldly. Almost dreamlike.

"Hey, what's with the fireworks?" Yahiko asked. "Is there a festival nearby or...?"

"You didn't know? This is our last show of the month for Yokohama," she said. "By tomorrow, we'll be packing up and traveling to Fukuoka. We added fireworks in our last night as a show of appreciation to the people of Yokohama for making our trip here a smashing success."

"Oh. Well, then! This is a great send off, if that's the case," he said. "The Ebisu Circus has become better than I remember it."

She chuckled. "Thanks, Yahiko-chan. I'm glad. We were practicing hard all month and in this particular show, everything just clicked."

Before they knew it, they were standing on a hill, overlooking the flowery lights above.

What a magical night. It was almost... romantic, to say the least.

Too romantic.

What was with this mood?

'Stop it,' he reprimanded himself. 'Stop thinking such thoughts.'

He then turned his head in time to meet eyes with his second crush.

They looked into each other's eyes and got lost in them. This time they couldn't tear themselves away from their gazes.

Myojin's heartbeat went a mile a minute. Nothing else short of swordfights and sparring matches made his heart go crazy like this.

Marimo closed her eyes and parted her mouth slightly, her head moving towards Yahiko's.

He himself closed his eyes.

Their lips were about to touch.

He then saw a vision of a crying, bawling Tsubame in his mind's eye.

***

No. This was wrong. He shouldn't do this.

'Stop right now. Don't make Tsubame cry.'

He shouldn't do something that could make Tsubame Sanjo despair if she ever found out about it.

'She doesn't need to know,' a voice at the back of his mind whispered to him. A sinister voice.

'No. She won't need to know because nothing will happen here,' his inner voice of reason countered.

Yahiko finally decided to come clean, grabbing hold of Marimo's shoulders before she could lean in for their kiss. This startled her.

"Y-Yahiko-chan...?"

"I'm sorry, Marimo. I already have a girlfriend."

The glint of hope and expectation in Marimo's eyes (that Yahiko noticed just now) was extinguished with those simple words.

"What? Huh. Oh."

There was a pregnant pause between the two of them.

"Is it the crazy girl that looks like Kenshin-san? Samurai X-san?"

"WHAT? No!" he exclaimed, saving himself from tripping face-first to the ground.

Yahiko then took a deep breath, composed himself, and said, "Her name is Tsubame. Sanjo Tsubame. She's my coworker at a maid cafe back in Tokyo. I met her before I met you. We ended up together while you were long gone, touring the nation with your circus."

Another second or two of awkward silence passed between them.

"Are you sure it's not the cute girl with the hair bow? The one that kind of looks like Kaoru-san?"

"DOUBLE NO! Ew! Like I'd ever date a look-alike of Raccoon Girl! Kaoru's like a big sister to me! Gross!" said Yahiko. He then stuttered, "...H-Hey, Marimo! Are you okay?" after seeing the face she made.

Marimo smiled at him with glistening eyes as the fireworks finally died down.

"Ehehehe. Looks like I've just been dumped."

***

As Yahiko went back to the inn he stayed at, exiting a rather eventful circus variety show, his head filled up with various thoughts although his heart felt altogether empty.

He ultimately did the right thing in the end.

Even though he sure did take his sweet time to do so. What the hell was he thinking anyway?

He shouldn't lead a girl around when he was already taken, even though he wasn't even completely aware of her feelings up until the last second.

'Sorry, Tsubame. Sorry, Marimo.'

Wait. Was he forgetting something? Was it Gan? Did he leave Gan behind?

No, screw the Goofy Gan. Yahiko wasn't even supposed to go to the circus tonight in the first place. He was forced because Gan was up to no good once again. So let him rot, wherever he was!

No, he shouldn't make excuses. No one forced him to go to the circus to see Marimo.

He'd been tailing her around like a lost puppy ever since they met each other again at the post office. He totally led her on even though he didn't intend to do so.

He should've seen the signs. Or maybe he did notice them but he didn't want to be presumptuous.

He should've nipped this issue right at the bud from the start. Because of his carelessness, he ended up making a girl cry. He was the worst.

The Tokyo Samurai Descendant then felt a chill down his spine.

He thusly ducked before a Tsuki thrust from behind could hit him at the back of his neck, feeling its murderous intent in full.

He turned in time to see a familiar face. Too familiar, to be honest. 'Dammit, I forgot to attend training!'

"AHA! There you are, Joshua-kun!" shouted the blonde bombshell Satsuki Sakaguchi/May Brooks of the Musou Madden School. "I've been looking all over for you! You've been skipping our sparring sessions again, haven't you? I've waited all day!"

"Ah, Satsuki! I can explain!" Yahiko said, though he did not feel all that confident with his (lack of an) explanation. He then heard a cackle from behind him.

"Hahahaha! Iiiinteresting," said Minoe, who'd actually been standing behind Myojin all this time.

Or rather, said Minoe after his wig and eye patch were blown away by the shockwave of air produced from Satsuki's pole thrust, resulting in him awakening his "Kaede Morinaga" persona.

'Ah! Since when did he...?' thought the Son of Tokyo Samurai. 'I mean, she! I mean, whatever!'

"Who is this cheeky bimbo anyway, Urchin Head? I'll mess her up," asked Kaede with a yawn while rubbing her eyes. Practically half-awake.

"She's not a bimbo, Minoe! I mean, Morinaga! It's Satsuki, Chizuru's weirdo gaijin friend who thinks she's Japanese!" said Yahiko, but Minoe, well, Kaede didn't hear him. 'I guess Morinaga hasn't formally met Satsuki yet!'

"She better watch herself. I'm not in the mood for shenanigans. That meat shield you call a friend really pissed me off earlier."

"Hey! Who are you calling a bimbo? What's gotten into you?" asked Satsuki, who brushed her golden hair back then fell into the Waxing Stance of her naginatajutsu school. "Even if it's you, Minoe-chan, I won't let such a comment slide!"

"Oho. You dare approach me?" said Kaede, who tied her unfurled hair up to a high topknot ponytail then unsheathed her sword and dagger weapons.

"What's going on here?" asked Chizuru, the fourth wheel of their group, who ran into the would-be "crime scene" with click-clacking boots as she fixed her large hair bow.

"Joshua-kun stood me up on our date!" answered Satsuki, playing the victim.

"That brute! Kick his ass!" the Raikouji Heiress said, believing Miss Brooks immediately. "What would your girlfriend back in Tokyo say about this? Cheater!"

"Hey, hey, hey! Now hold on a minute!" said Myojin. "Don't pick sides! And you, don't call our sparring matches 'dates'!"

"An opening! DEATHSTALKER...!"

"...And you! No fighting, dammit!" he said as he parried the sword with Kenshin's sakabatou and jumped in between Kaede and Satsuki to break up their burgeoning cat fight.

They soon after became an entanglement of limbs and clothes.

"Out of my way, Urchin Head...! Eeeek!"

"Ah wait, just where do you think you're grabbing, mister?!"

"Blimey! Joshua-kun! You're so forward! My heart belongs to Kinta-sama, though!"

"...I'm sorry! It was an accident!"

Just then, all four of them—three excitable girls in various states of undress due to wardrobe malfunctions from the scuffle who pushed, pulled, and tugged on the shirt and pants of a similarly disheveled guy every which way—stopped cold when it dawned to them who had been quietly watching them all that time.

And understanding how suggestive they all looked to any passerby who saw them without any context.

"So which one of these lucky girls is Sanjo Tsubame exactly, Yahiko-kun?" Marimo asked with the sweetest of smiles.

Oh no. Yahiko had been demoted from "chan" to "kun"

"M-Marimo, it's not what it looks like...!"

God. Damn. It. That was the absolute worst thing he could've said. Famous last words from many a man caught cheating with floozies.

"How dare you play with a woman's heart like this! Have you no shame? You... you... filthy animal! Perv! Womanizer! Two-timing scoundrel! You're an enemy to all women! "

"NOOOO! Marimo, you've got it all wrooong!"

The ensuing slap was so crisp, its sound reverberated all the way to the nearby docks.

Oh well. There were worse ways to end one of your first crushes than to be mistaken for a playboy by your crush.

'Sayonara, Marimo,' Yahiko thought with tears streaming down his cheeks and a wry smile on his face as he saw Marimo's svelte silhouette retreat into the distance with his blurry eyes.

Even though he developed feelings for Marimo as well, he still met Tsubame first and ultimately fell for her the hardest when push came to shove.

"Who the heck was that?" asked May as she brushed and tucked a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear and pulled her sleeves back to her shoulders. "Mary Moe? Marie Mo?"

***

To Be Continued...

Mary Moe... She's a vegetarian!

So here's to having another filler episode character incorporated into the story. First Shogo, then Shura, now Marimo. They join the ranks of the reworked Kaita and Misanagi from the infamous Black Knights saga of the third season of RK.

Danke, Abdiel

[jonathan-byers-remade]

im on the 2nd episode of the newest season of seven deadly sins and my GOD it does look soooooo bad

[theliterarywolf]

Any ‘what happened to/the downfall of *insert anime here*’ video on YouTube, inevitably: ‘And then Studio Deen happened--’

Me: 

[england-of-the-day]

Today’s England of the day is:

messing around with a cursed doll with your friends #justgirlythings

[nhkamira]

MY ANIME WATCHLIST FOR WINTER 2021☃️❄️✨

Finally got some time to do this. Winter is here and we got a marvelous season ahead! Here is my watchlist for this season + the ongoing series i’ll be watching. I already watch every episode that came out, but I’ll do a proper first impression in different posts.

Horimiya (堀さんと宮村くん) I can’t believe this one is finally getting an adaption TT. Yes I’m part of the manga readers group, and I’m really really excited! CloverWorks is in charge and so far they have shown an amazing work! just look at that poster. Genres: Slice of Life, Comedy, Romance.

Dr.Stone: Stone Wars (ドクターストーン ) If you haven’t seen season 1, go and do yourself a favor. Been waiting for this so bad, season two is finally here, and hopefully is going to be even better than season 1. As a women of science this story really gets me excited. TMS Entertainment is working again with this series so im expecting the same amazing job. Genres: Sci-Fi, Adventure, Shounen.

Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki (弱キャラ友崎くん) This one looks interesting in a weird way, i was really excited that this season got more than one romance anime, so im looking forward to this one. Project No.9 is the studio in charge, their anime has never been that iconic or memorable, hopefully this is a different situation. Genres: Drama, Romance, School

Kemono Jihen (怪物事変) Honestly i saw the poster and thought “this probably going to be a really good but underrated one”, the sypnosis catch me right away and im really curious about the mc. the studio working on this is Ajia-Do, they brought us the marvelous Kakushigoto last year so i have high expectations. Genres: Action, Mystery, Demons.

The Seven Deadly Sins: Dragon’s Judgement (七つの大罪 憤怒の審判) I love Nanatsu so bad, i hated the way they animated last season. Studio Deen normally does a great work but damn, las season was awful. I REALLY hope they do the proper work this anime deserves. This arc is so amazing to be ruined like the previous one.

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation (無職転生 ～異世界行ったら本気だす～) As one may say, there isn’t a good season without the typical Isekai story. But this one seems to be like everything good from an average Iskeai. The trailer gave me the thoughts that this probably would be the surprise of the season + the studio working on this one is Studio Bind which is apparently new since i couldn’t find any previous work. Genres: Drama, Fantasy, Magic.

Wonder Egg Priority (ワンダーエッグ・プライオリティ) Oh this one looks so beautiful. CloverWorks did such an amazing work with the design an animation. It looks like a movie. Sypnosis didn’t makes sense and was kind of confusing but I got excited and i can’t wait to see more. Genres: Psychological, Drama, Fantasy.

Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World Season 2 Part 2 (Re:ゼロから始める異世界生活) Man, I love Subaru so much, Re is amazing everyone should watch it. Its seems this part is really important for Subaru’s development, and it would probably get really fucked up as always. WhiteFox keeps working on this amazing story. I can’t wait to see everything that’s going to happen, because last season was really good but so crazy and hard. Genres: Psychological, Thriller, Drama, Fantasy.

BEASTARS 2期 This series is back and I’m dying of excitement, i really don’t know whats going to happen, and what new challenges Legoshi would have to confront but everything tells me is going to be amazing + Orange is bringing again the best CGI work on an anime ever. If you haven’t watch season 2 go and do it you won’t regret it! Genres: Slice of Life, Psychological, Drama

The Promised Neverland Season (約束のネバーランド) I’m really dying of excitement this season. FINALLY Yakusoku is back and with nothing more that worries and uncertainty for me. My kids are back and out of the farm and I’m really nervous to see whats going to happen next. Genres: Mystery, Fantasy, Psychological, Thriller.

Ongoing series from last season I’ll be continuing watching:

Jujutsu Kaisen Next arc is reallyyyyyy good.

Shingeki no Kyojin My slowly death till the end, manga ending got a date now and I really don’t know how this is going to end.

Digimon Adventure 2020 nostalgic and all time favorite.

Black Clover This arc looks insane and animation looks so good in that latest episodes, please keep it like that TT

One Piece I still need to catch up but always one of the best things to watch.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, I’ve always love this series, though i still prefer the old animation, I loved this remake, everything is making more sense now (maybe because I’m older🤣) and explanations feels less confunsing + horror is amazing.

[demonprincezeldris]

My God Studio Deen just pick a damn color for the blood! Is it red? Is it white? Is it black? (I mean I can understand why it's black for Demons but still the inconsistency to pick a color is ridiculous!)

[gijipaw]

Next week is possibly a chapter focused on Zeldris and Gelda (the synopsis is on the TV Tokyo page) and that just makes me think of several things:

1- FINALLY, Gelda will be animated (it already appeared in the opening, but that was an image) and it will no longer be just something from the manga, it will be part of the anime universe. It will have a voice, presence, etc.

2- Remember why I hate A-1 Pictures. Instead of making those nonsensical OVAS from the second season (I'm not complaining about the first, the OVAS there are fine I think) the Edinburgh vampires special should have been animated. Because argumentatively now it is important.

3- Linked to the above, will Studio Deen add things from the special? Nakaba last season helped with sketches for the chapter focused on explaining the curse of Meliodas and Elizabeth. Also, what I suppose will appear in the next chapter (the flashback narrated by Meliodas of chapter 271 of the manga and the flashback of Zeldris of chapter 286) is quite short and would not take that long. They could add things from the special to give context to how Gelda ended up asleep again.

4- There could be extra scenes! This season he already added the flashback of DK taking Hawk (which was just a panel in the manga) and I think things like that could be possible. This excites me a bit.

Damn time. Fast-forward or I will die.

[medea10]

My Review of Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni GOU

(a.k.a. When They Cry Gou)

I know what you’re thinking. Why the heck am I reviewing this anime again? I’ve already written a review in 2009 and re-polished it in 2016. (Here it is BTW) I’ve made my point on who I like, hate, what ships are worthy, and poked fun at all the deaths that happened throughout the series. I think some time has passed that I should say some thoughts on this…um, story. After all, Higurashi is one of my favorite animes.

STORY: Ah shit, here we go again!

Higurashi or When They Cry is about a boy named Keiichi Maebara who recently moved to a place called Hinamizawa. And ever since moving to this town, he’s found his days are filled with fun mischief with fellow friends Rena Ryuuguu, Satoko Hojo, Mion Sonozaki, and Rika Furude. But little does Keiichi know that there’s a little murder mystery that surrounds the town. During a town festival known as Watanagashi (or Cotton Drifting), there’s usually one or two people that go missing or turn up dead. And this year, Keiichi is next. So let’s relive the horrors that plague the town of Hinamizawa and…

One episode later.

Wait, what the…?! It’s episode 2, why are we seeing Hanyuu? I don’t remember that in the manga. The visual! THE VISUAL! WHAT THE FUCK?! ISN’T THIS SUPPOSED TO BE A REBOOT? WHAT THE FUCK?! WHAT THE FUCK?! WHY IS THERE AN ADULT RIKA?! WAIT, IS THAT ADULT RIKA OR BERN? IS THIS GOING TO BE THE PARALLEL UNIVERSE TO THE WITCHES OF UMINEKO?! THE SHADOWS IN THE OPENING ARE TOO FAMILIAR FROM OTHER WORKS! Ryukishi07, you magnificent, fucking troll master for keeping this hidden until the second episode’s air date!

Many of us did not see this coming. When they announced a new Higurashi series that was going to be done by a different studio, many of us speculated whether this was going to be a reboot or a sequel. But then we got the PV trailers and it looked like we were going to get a reboot to correct the mistakes Studio Deen made years ago. Rika’s head doesn’t look like its gonna snap off because her body is so small in comparison. Improvements! I mean, they showed everything we were already used to like the yandere girls, the original soundtrack, the original freakin’ cast, and death by baseball bat. Hell, the first episode ended with an Eiko Shimamiya song! It was on track to being a reboot! A better looking reboot!

Here in lies the sequel aspect! After episode one, we get a scene that isn’t usually seen until the Kai part of Higurashi (a good 4-5 arcs away). And they give away the secret that Rika Furude is repeating the timeline of June 1983 over and over because she keeps dying. And as the series progresses, you notice little things different from the original series. Many of the well-known storylines end much differently than what you remember. Instead of Keiichi killing Rena and Mion with a baseball bat, you’ve got Rena going psycho on Keiichi. And Rika’s fate is somehow worse than the stories of the original series. So let’s head back to Hinamizawa to hear the cicadas cry and watch a murder mystery unfold.

THE SUB: All the original voice actors have returned to voice their respected roles. Perfection in a nutshell!

LICENSING: You’ve gotta be shitting me!

As I’ve mentioned years ago in my review, the original Higurashi anime went through a turbulent time being licensed in the states. It was originally licensed and dubbed by Geneon. But once Geneon collapsed, FUNimation licensed it and did absolutely fuck all with it. Geneon could only manage to squeak out one season. At this point, FUNimation was picking up titles that Geneon used to have before it fell under including Familiar of Zero, Kyou Kara Maou, and yes, Higurashi. All of these titles mentioned here were done absolutely nothing with despite having cult followings, second seasons, and OVA’s.

A year or two after licensing it, the license expired for Higurashi. For nearly six years, the only copies you could get were out of print and estimating at $500 at the very least for a full collection. Single DVD’s could be found in rare shops, but it would take like 13 years to complete the fucking collection if you did it that way. And that was only for the first season. Second season, the best all of us could do was bootleg DVD’s from Japan Town or fansubs with glaring errors for the best season to Higurashi. We had to deal with this shit until Sentai Filmworks licensed and released the first 2 seasons and the Rei OVA’s.

AND NOW YOU’RE TELLING ME FUNIMATION IS CLAIMING HIGURASHI ALL FOR THEMSELVES?!

Where the shit was this love 10 years ago when we were asking politely to release Kai? People ignorantly blew Higurashi off for years because season two was never released in the states until 2016 because they thought the damn anime ended after Rena held up the school. I’m already irritated with FUNimation after the Interspecies Reviewers debacle and I’m still quite butt-hurt over them re-releasing Nichijou with a dub to make a quick buck. Licensing Higurashi just brings back old anger. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy Higurashi is legally licensed and can be seen on at the very least Hulu. It’s just that I hold grudges and this was a big one.

THE DUB: Holy…um, okay! This is a rather big gulp to take in. As I’ve repeatedly mentioned in past reviews, the Higurashi dub was a mixed bag of okay, bad, and oh gasperts kill it with fire. So, not great! The good folks at Geneon (before bankrupting in America) dubbed the first season with a good chunk of folks that put their fake names to the credits. Again, not great! To me, there were some aspects of Megan Hollingshed, Mela Lee, and Grant George’s performances of Mion, Rena, and Keiichi that were okay. SOME! John Snyder and Karen Strassmen as Ooishi and Takano were the best out of that dub. Everything else was just irredeemable! It needed a redub, an overhaul, and a spit-shine. For years, I’ve wondered who would be the dream cast. Sentai Filmworks unfortunately never dubbed the remaining seasons when they released them. Would Luci Christian be the heavenly voice to do Rika Furude? Could we get Hilary Haag to do Satoko? Okay, that never came to pass.

This dub is a breath of fresh air. Rika doesn’t sound like Mihoshi. Satoko doesn’t sound fake, Keiichi doesn’t sound like a weird Sonic the Hedgehog. It’s perfect. ESPECIALLY BRITTANY LAUDA AS SATOKO! I knew the second she was cast as Satoko that she was going to excel the fuck out of this role. And I was not disappointed! The only voice I’m still not quite used to is Michelle Rojas as the Sonozaki twins. Probably because I was somewhat okay with Megan Hollingshed’s voice in the 2006 version that it’ll take some time! And we FINALLY got a voice for Hanyuu. I am super excited that Xanthe Huynh is the voice and I know she’ll do great with this role! With all of that said, here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

*Keiichi is now played by Khoi Dao (known for Kiriyama on March Comes in Like a Lion, Murata on Demon Slayer, Chaka on Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Pt. 3, and Iskhan on SAO: Alicization)

*Rena is now played by Emi Lo

*Mion/Shion is now played by Michelle Rojas (known for Shizu Delta on Overlord, Touka on Assassination Classroom, Minase on Psycho Pass, Kanan on Love Live Sunshine, and Kusakai on Keijo!!!!!!!!)

*Rika is now played by Apphia Yu (known for Rio on Assassination Classroom, Marie on Black Clover, You on Love Live Sunshine, Victorique on Gosick, Natsumi on Danganronpa 3, and Laki on Fairy Tail)

*Satoko is now played by Brittany Lauda (known for Riko on Made in Abyss, Meidri on Interspecies Reviewers, Lessar on Index III, and Ichigo on Darling in the FranXX)

*Hanyuu is played by Xanthe Huynh (known for Menma on Anohana, Haru on Persona 5, Hanayo on Love Live, Hidomi on FLCL: Progressive, PallaPalla on Sailor Moon Super S [redub], and Sachi on SAO)

ANY CHANGES IN YOUR HATE-O-RADE:

Okay Medea, let-a-rip!

*inhales and exhales*

Teppei Hojo is trash. He is ultimate trash. This fucker needs to be murdered in every timeline. He is a turd in a Glenn Quagmire shirt. Him and his wife are trash. And when this pile of trash is cheating on that pile of trash, he sleeps with peak trash named Ritsuko. Teppei Hojo needs to die in every timeline. Whenever Keiichi bashes this cum-burger’s head in with a blunt instrument, I scream at the top of my lungs, “DIE SCUM, DIE”! And nothing, I repeat, NOTHING will change my opinion of Teppei Hojo.

Episode 23.

Oh, fuck you Higurashi Gou!

MUSIC: Okay, thank you for proving me wrong. I did not despise the opening theme. Having Higurashi with no Eiko Shimamiya is like having Pokemon with no Rika Matsumoto. Or Rozen Maiden with no ALI PROJECT. But this new opening is fine by my standards.

That’s right, get the niceness of the review before I get angry down below.

THESE TIMELOOPS: Rika tries to find solutions to end her time-loop in June 1983. Much like the original series, we follow stories from the Onikakushi-hen, Watanagashi-hen, and Tatarigoroshi-hen arcs (the first three stories to Higurashi, although now these have different names). However, all of these arcs have different endings. And after a positive turnaround with Satoko escaping from her abusive uncle, shit goes south when Detective Ooishi, who up to this point has never suffered under the Hinamizawa Syndrome or died a painful death goes on a murderous rampage. Higurashi style! That means, he’s after Rika Furude, will slaughter anyone in his way, and scratching his neck because he sees maggots (part of the hallucination effect).

What the shit? Ooishi for the most part has been a great guy. With the exception of the Tatarigoroshi-hen storyline, he was a nice guy! In the limbo with Hanyuu, Rika now remembers who has killed her. Every time Rika dies up to this point, she never remembers who was the cause of her demise. Hanyuu implanted that power to remember the deaths and a clue for Rika to use and then she disappears.

Now seriously, imagine Rika’s plight here. She has been repeating the month of June 1983 for over a hundred years. And each of these times she repeats, she’s horribly murdered. Rika got the shit-end of the deal in the murder department in the original series, including being dissected on while alive. Then, leaving her bloody, naked corpse out in the open of the Oyashiro altar! She’s tired of this shit! She wants to live a happy life away from Hinamizawa. She wants to grow older, become a teenager, and have fun. And this series made it worse by having her die four times in one episode. Not just that, but murdered by the most unexpected people including Akasaka, Chief Kimiyoshi, Mion’s mother Akane, and Keiichi. Keiichi has never killed Rika in any of the timelines up to this point. He has killed Mion and Rena, but never Rika. Keiichi loves Rika! Welcome back to A Million Ways to Die in Hinamizawa.

I’ll just add decapitation, drowning in a lake, set on fire, drowning in a sewage pipe, and death by…um…

Alexa, play Chandelier by Sia.

ENDING: We all know by now that in the original series, Miyo Takano is the betrayer and the reason behind all the murders during the Cotton Drifting Festival. This time, it’s someone closer to Rika that’s causing Rika so much pain. After we watched the worst kinds of murders happen to Rika, the episode after gave us our answer. Satoko, Rika’s friend and confidant is not happy that Rika is turning her back on Oyashiro and Hinamizawa. All the while pulling out her intestines!

Oh Higurashi, don’t stop being gory!

Yes, Satoko is aware of past timelines much like Rika and is almost on a god-like state. So what the hell happened to her? I know Satoko’s past has been a cluster-fuck of horror with her brother disappearing, her parents dying, and every form of abuse from her uncle. But she was able to prevail after all that. After surviving 1983, a lot has changed in Hinamizawa. The three big families of Hinamizawa put an end to the Cotton Drifting Festival and claiming there is no curse of Oyashiro. Mion and Shion moved on and are going to high school. And Rika decides she wants to move away from this village. By attending St. Lucia! And she wants to do this with Satoko.

Oh, if you don’t recall St. Lucia, Shion attended this academy until she escaped during the Meakashi-hen arc. It was also the same school that Ange from Umineko attended. But of course Ange attended it in the 90’s and we are clearly in the 80’s. Moving on!

Rika and Satoko studied their butts off for years and their hard work paid off as both were admitted into St. Lucia. Now Rika was able to prevail and fit in with everyone. Satoko on the other hand couldn’t do the same as her grades took a dip, her manners are atrocious, and she doesn’t seem to fit in with anyone. And this caused a drift between Rika and Satoko! And so during a trip to Hinamizawa, Satoko went to the old shrine where she ended up getting sent to that limbo place Rika and Hanyuu were at many times before. There, she meets Eua (God, I hope that really isn’t her name). She’s much like Hanyuu except a lot more condescending. Oh, and she’s that mysterious shadow during the opening theme. She bestows the power to Satoko of reviving on death and returning to a certain point in time. In the hopes that Satoko is able to stop Rika from going to St. Lucia! But Rika is not going to budge. She wants out of Hinamizawa no matter what. And Satoko just wants to be with her friend no matter what. Satoko is even shown Rika’s past and still no dent in…Okay, this is bugging the fuck outta me. Pause the Ending portion!

MY GRIPES WITH SATOKO: Satoko, girl, the fuck is wrong with you?! I know Rika is like your main chick and everything, but for fuck’s sake loosen the grip you have with Rika. This season has changed you and not for the better. You made a connection with ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS from Hinamizawa. Big connections! At least in the original series you did. Look at your moments with Keiichi and Shion. Are you just going to shove them off? And what really sets me off is that Satoko literally had the opportunity to learn about Rika’s hundred year’s loop of death. And feels nothing about it! Only that it’s a challenge to break her herself! God damn, at the end of season one, Keiichi learned the truth and he was remorseful. This bitch doesn’t care that her friends were murdered in such a way. And Rika’s been shot in the head, had a live dissection performed on her, and other forms of torture…AND IT DOESN’T FAZE SATOKO!

I know in my original Higurashi review, I felt sorry for Satoko as she did seem to get the short-end of the stick living in Hinamizawa. I mean, her parents died right in front of her, she suffered abuse from her uncle, abuse from her aunt, ostrisized by the town for years, and a myriad of all types of shit to befall her. But Higurashi Gou has ruined this character. Rika didn’t really do anything wrong to Satoko. She didn’t snitch on her when Satoko got in trouble. She offered help to Satoko when she thought her grades were slipping. Satoko just held onto this petty vendetta. Satoko acted like Rika sexually assaulted her and have two other people gang rape her while drugging her. Okay, that’s a call for revenge, not your petty shit.

YOU SEE WHERE I’M AT WITH YOU SATOKO?! Your actions are so bad that you have me siding with the protagonist from Redo of Healer.

REDO.

OF.

HEALER!!!

I’m done with you! Girl, bye! We now return you to my talk about the ending already in progress.

BACK TO THE ENDING: Sorry, had to get that off my chest. Yeah, Satoko is leaving a bad impression on many of us who have been following the Higurashi story for years. And it just gets worse as she uses her new power for petty shit and abusing it at that. I mean, we saw Rika use her power in order to find a way to live past June 1983. Satoko is just using that shit to win some games and have things go her way. What else could this series bless us with? How about an epiphany from Teppei Hojo?

What?!

Teppei changes for the better.

What?!

Look, I admit that these moments with Teppei and Satoko were tame compared to the shit she’s pulled in the last several episodes. But this is Teppei Hojo! The same guy that used Satoko as his personal punching bag! The same guy who fleeced Rena’s father! The same guy many of us who cheer every time we see him on a moped because we know someone’s going to bash his head in with a baseball bat. Even my best friend knows how I am with this guy. When she gave me Higurashi free swag, I took everything except for Teppei. I don’t take trash. So seeing him so remorseful makes me…conflicted.

So now Satoko’s got things turned around for her. Her uncle has…changed?! Add to that, her God-like power. Satoko decides to change the past for her own advantage. This includes changing one of the biggest stories in Higurashi Kai with the kids vs. Miyo Takano. If Rika doesn’t experience the pain in those timelines, she won’t think about leaving Hinamizawa. And if she doesn’t leave Hinamizawa, she’ll stay with Satoko forever.

Oh what a tangled web of crazy Higurashi Gou was! I gotta tell you, Higurashi got me excited all the way up until we learn it was Satoko. And then it went straight to Hell. They turned Satoko into a straight-up selfish monster. Totally unlike the Satoko we’ve all grown to love in the original series. Yes, Satoko had those moments where, yeah, you would want to throw a chair at her and beat her ass with it. But that was only temporary! You would always see the good in Satoko despite that mischievous laugh and those episodes in Higurashi Rei. And God help me, I was a shipper of Rika x Satoko 10 years ago. Not a big one, but a supporter of it. Now, I would rather support Amourshipping from Pokemon than root for this. And I despise the living fuck out of Amourshipping. That should tell you something!

If original Satoko were bestowed the powers from Eua, I think things would be different. Satoko would probably use her powers to prevent all the bad stuff from happening to her friends and to her brother Satoshi. I mean, my goodness, not once did I see her think, hey maybe I should find a way to help my ailing brother. Change a few timelines, make him all better! And of course, feel sympathy for Rika’s plight. Do it for Rika’s sake, not your own selfish desires! Rika has died horrificly for hundreds of years. And I seriously just can’t get over Satoko’s reaction to that when she learned the truth. Instead, she wants to treat Rika like a caged bird. Best friend my ass!

Now can Higurashi SOTSU fix the hot mess of Satoko? Time will only tell! And good on them for having Higurashi air in the summertime. Summertime is for Higurashi! Autum is for Umineko. Speaking of, it’s been since 2009. Any chance you want to give Umineko the old reboot or sequel it sorely needs? Oh forget it! My likeness for this season is conflicted. I was annoyed by it, but I didn’t fully hate it. It’s just that last arc with Satoko really burned my beans. And I’m sure a lot of you all feel the same way.

Guys, if you want to watch Higurashi Gou, do yourselves a favor and watch the original series first. Let that swirl around your heads for a while. I know the creator tricked us at the beginning of this series thinking it was going to be an honest-to-God retelling. It is not! It is a sequel. And a sequel that isn’t based off a game or manga of all things. So fans are jumping into this with eyes closed! And if you’re a fan of Satoko Hojo, I’m sorry. I’m just sorry.

If you want to check out Higurashi Gou, it is available to watch on FUNimation and Hulu. But please, if you haven’t watched the original series, go to HI-DIVE now and watch “When They Cry” and “When They Cry Kai”. I think you can manage without watching any of the OVA’s.

I’d rather watch that Kira OVA where the fanservice is thin, you can practically lick off the whipped cream from the Sonozaki’s tit.

That should tell you something if I’m starting to say something nice about Higurashi Kira.

See you in a few months when Higurashi SOTSU comes out.

[gabriel-gabdiel]

Youtou Shinnoken: Demon Sword Chapter 56: Living Sin (Part 8)

Likka Ikumi and Natsuki Shinkai deal with the Karasu and Kuronue tandem. The Oniwabanshu with Kuwabara deal with Gein and the Omyouji.

Hiei and Kurama deal with Usui as well.

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

At the Okushiri Airport...

Natsuki Shinkai freed herself from Kuronue's tight chains, increasing their velocity even while at rest by focusing and infusing her unique reiki unto them.

Kuronue barely dodged the bullet-fast broken chain shrapnel along with the follow-through Kousa Dageki (Cross Strike) strike and thrust combo that nearly crushed his skull and/or put a hole in his trachea.

Or maybe he didn't. Maybe he got hit after all. And killed.

However, the next thing Natsuki knew, he was about 6 feet or 2 meters away from her, none the worse for wear. As though she had hit and killed a mirage.

Damn. That was close.

They were currently inside the flaming remnants of a 747 cargo plane that Karasu had earlier blown up along with the rest of the airport.

Yes, Natsuki Shinkai could be as softhearted as Kurama in that she wouldn't indiscriminately kill her enemies. However, when she was pushed far enough, she could be every bit as cruel as the Youko.

Especially if she thought you deserved it. Like her father, Feng Xinhai, attempting to kill Daiji Matsudaira with a half-formed supercell of a tornado.

Apparently, a simple humiliating parry of her best friend's flying kick was enough to send her to the edge.

Figuring out what Kuronue meant by Natsuki's limits, Kuronue started blasting the remaining buildings and planes of the decimated Okushiri Airport.

Even though she could redirect the explosions or even rubble away from herself, the mindful Natsuki kept her barrier down against the high-speed shards of earth and glass for fear of accidentally deflecting it against nearby civilians or her friend, Likka Ikumi.

"Dammit," she cursed as she concentrated hard to deflect the individual rubble and debris at only Karasu and Kuronue in order to protect Ikumi.

"I think I understand her weakness now," said Karasu, who sneered and produced Clamshell Shrapnel Bombs for good measure. "She's only as powerful as the attacks directed at her! She also needs to concentrate hard to manipulate the direction and trajectory of a multitude of objects coming at her simultaneously or else there'll be collateral damage!"

"That's right. She can't deflect multiple things at the same time!" said Kuronue, who easily maneuvered through the raining debris, metal shrapnel, glass, and rubble in order to attack Natsuki with them, knowing that she could only dodge and couldn't return fire with any effective offense of her own.

The demons attacked simultaneously at two fronts, which kept Shinkai from focusing her psionic redirection powers properly.

Natsuki held on remarkably well though, redirecting the flying rock shards at both demons while using Hawatari (Sword Halt) and Hadome (Sword Crossing) at the supersonic Kuronue's attempts at stabbing her and making her mess up her concentration.

"Ahhh!" Likka cried out in pain as several bits of shrapnel hit her on the thigh and abdomen.

There were too many bullet-fast objects chaotically shooting at every direction and at different speeds for Shinkai to properly take account of and deflect.

"Likka-tan! I'm sorry!" shouted a tearful Natsuki, only for Kuronue to aim for her neck with his scythe. She then faced her attacker and said, "Fine. You want me to kill you? Then I will!"

She proceeded to do what Kuronue claimed she couldn't do, which was to reverse the flow of his blood in one direction, leading his head swell and burst like a balloon.

A second Kuronue appeared right behind the deceased one, his blade at the ready. "Whoa. Those are some frightening powers, child."

'What the hell was going on anymore?' thought Natsuki as the tip of the sickle cut through her stomach.

Karasu then threw a new grenade at Natsuki, who attempted to deflect it only for it to explode in her face.

***

Youtou Shinnoken: Demon Sword

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

Original Concept by Chad Yang

The Misao reincarnation known as Likka Ikumi gets to activate her special powers at last.

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 56: Living Sin (Part 8)

***

At Nabetsuru Rock...

The Nabetsuru (Pot Handle) Rock was a tourist destination off of the coast of Okushiri Island. It was a rock formation visible across the shores of Okushiri with the appearance of a pot handle.

Speaking of pots, the water surrounding the rock soon boiled, steamed, and bubbled like water inside a pot being heated by a stove. Something was afoot.

The half-healed zombie corpse body of Usui Uonuma was still licking his wounds from his defeat against Hajime Saito when one of the ferry-girls located him off of Nabetsuru Rock and informed the Reikai Senshi (Spirit World Warriors) of the fact.

Shikigami from Houji had gathered around him to present him with enough spiritual power to restore his body to seeming health.

It was weird how jaki (negative energy) of all things could heal him, but he knew his body was really more of a corpse and he was more of a vengeful ghost than a reincarnated spirit.

He knew and he didn't care. He'd cling to existence by any means necessary after it was nearly snuffed out by Makoto Shishio and "permanently" ended by Hajime Saito.

Usui had by then reconnected his body's top half with his bottom half, but his fatal wounds were still tender and his broken spine was still in bad shape.

The Spirit World Warriors were really hammering their forces down, weren't they?

A few minutes later and there he was: Jaganshi (Evil Eye User) Hiei.

Probably the second or third most powerful member of the Reikai Senshi, behind Kenshin Himura (with his inimitable Demon Sword) and Yusuke Urameshi (the direct descendant of one of the Three Kings of Makai, Raizen).

Usui smirked, opened his mouth, and licked his lips.

This was now a battle between the Shingan (True Eyes) and the Jagan (Evil Eyes).

The blind swordsman turned spearman zombie wondered about something. If he had Jine Udo's Jagan on one eye socket and Hiei's Jagan on his other eye socket, would he finally gain the power he needed to usurp the likes of Tenro? Or the Chojin?

Or Shishio?

'Same difference.'

He remembered how his supernatural Tinbe shield grew thick enough to stop even the ultimate attacks of both a super-powered Kenshin and Saito, which in turn allowed his Rochin to penetrate anything weaker and less dense than his Tinbe.

If he had the power of one Jagan to hypnotize people and another Jagan to gain control of huge amounts of demonic energy, he'd be unstoppable: The most powerful Shin Ju who possessed both superhuman senses and supernatural powers.

'But first thing's first,' Uonuma thought, noticing the fewer number of shinigami (death gods) assisting his healing as Hiei approached his perch on the unusual rock at dangerous speeds.

The sea seemingly parted in twain from the jaganshi's flashing steps as though he were a mix of a miniature speedboat and Moses himself parting the Red Sea like theater curtains.

***

There were too many of them. There was a suffocating amount if multiplying Iwanbos there as well as shikigamis who fed them jaki.

The combination of Houji "Onmyouji (Occult Priest)" Sadojima and Edward "The Puppet Master" Gein (also known as Dr. Shoji Sugino from Unit 731) were too much for this batch of Reikai Senshi to handle.

That was the simple conclusion that the Spirit World Warriors and the Oniwabanshu (Garden Keepers) had when fighting against the armies of undead Iwanbo and shikigami spirits from both of the Chojin's top generals/captains.

Like the Roku Youkai (Six Demons) on Mt. McKinley versus The Nameless Yatsume, the Reikai Tantei and the Oniwabanshu were flooded with Iwanbo versions 1, 2, and 3 and the shikigami they fed on for jaki and power ups, like this was an ecosystem teeming with predators and the Reikai Senshi were their prey.

Kuwabara had been chopping out reanimated puppets and familiars left and right with his twin Jigen Tou (Dimensional Sword) for almost an hour, only to end up sapped of energy.

He ended up with only one flickering Dimension Sword left as more and more of the puppet monsters appeared, multiplying by mitosis or something.

At the same time, he had to contend against Houji turning everything nearest him into fast-healing creatures like Toguro Ani, with their wounds or even pureed bodies healing instantly. Like nothing they did to them could faze them.

Gein, in turn, used his own unique jaki to supply the Chojin's necromancer with fresh corpses to bring to life.

The reincarnated Okashira (Boss) of the Oniwabanshu—Daiji Matsudaira (formerly Aoshi Shinomori) —fluidly maneuvered against the razors-sharp web of trip-wires that the World War II veteran mad scientist ninja known as Gein weaved with diamond-covered threads, only to be bull-rushed by the one Iwanbo Version 3 with the four arms: The Iwanbo Version 3.2.

The Iwanbo 3.2 had thus far trampled on all of the efforts of the Tokyo Oniwabanshu to take it down, whether it was through poison, fire, sword slashes, brute strength, or martial arts.

Like Shikijo, it got cross-slash scars from every part of its body, but it still kept moving, shrugging off the rain of kodachi Daiji produced as well as the pistol shots to the head (the police officer could conjure guns as well).

Kuwabara did notice how the monstrous puppet recovered as quickly as Toguro Ani while sporting the same ridiculous musculature of Toguro Ototo. 'Hiei and Kurama's investigations were true! That old ninja guy really was responsible for demonizing the Toguro Brothers!'

Meanwhile, Kuwabara desperately held on to his knife-sized Jigen Tou, willing it to existence even as he had to contend against an undead army of shikigami and Iwanbos.

He could summon a Rei-Ken (Spirit Sword) instead, but even a dimensional knife had more utility to it.

He sliced apart portals, warp gates, dimensions, space, and even the sky itself with the way his cuts remained in the air like cracks on glass, cutting through the guts of the zombie puppets down below and the ghoulish ghosts from up above.

Houji and Gein pushed him to the brink of using up all his spirit energy, which may then force him to use his own life force to keep on fighting (like what Yusuke did to take down Suzaku the first time they fought).

The Onmyouji sloppily sliced his scythe at Kuwabara, who then blocked the blade but his knees ultimately buckled against the weight of the Chojin's negative energy instead of the strength of the strike.

'Dammit, we're going to lose!'

The bowl-cut necromancer cackled and ranted, "This is the power of the Chojin! This is the power of the gods! You were no match from the start!"

As for the Aoshi Shinomori of the modern era, he threw every last kodachi he could muster at the charging Iwanbo 3.2, whose tackles were so impactful he turned even fellow Iwanbo and stray shikigami inside-out into road kill, ground beef, or ectoplasm.

Even after being turned into a knife holder sculpture or Julius Caesar after his assassination, the four-armed Iwanbo would not stop charging.

The tired Okashira ended up taking a knee. He willed himself to move away with his Water Flow Movement, but Dr. Sugino caught him off-guard from behind with razor-sharp thread that wrapped around and bit into his neck.

"Checkmate, Okashira. You killed me before, right? Well, let me return the favor."

Daiji struggled against the old man, surprised at how strong he was for his age, the piano wire digging deeper into his throat. They'd be both turned into mush by the rampaging Iwanbo 3.2, but only one of them would end up getting resurrected by the Onmyouji when all was said and done.

The air around them then changed as the ghosts of the Oniwabanshu rose again. However, something inside them changed. They exuded menace that wasn't there before.

Hannya, Shikijo, Hyottoko, and Beshimi rose up like zombies hungry for flesh.

"Don't you dare touch the Okaaashiiiraaa...!"

***

As Likka Ikumi—Misao Makimachi's Heisei reincarnation—went unconscious due to blood loss, she dreamed of what had happened earlier, when she was deemed a C-Level martial artist ninja girl while the rest of the people she knew from past and present ranked B-Level and higher instead.

"This isn't fair!" Likka complained to Yahiko Myojin. "You'd be B-Level too if you didn't have special powers yourself, you little brat!"

"Yeah, funny how that works. Even Cat Eyes got better superpowers than you and your quick costume changes! OW!" teased Yahiko before he got hit upside the head with Misao's patented flying kick.

"KECHO GIRI!" Ikumi screamed. "Grrr! I want superpowers too! I don't want to end up in the battlefield being some sort of liability to Uncle Jiji (Daiji) or Tsuki-chan (Natsuki)!

Yahiko then relented, "Jeez, Weasel-chan! Don't be upset about me being stronger than you. You only 'woke up' recently! But you're still the reincarnation of Makimachi Misao and yes, you're better at hand-to-hand combat than I am."

Likka paused then pouted. "Really, Yahiko-chan?"

Kenshin himself then said, "Misao-dono, I know that Shinomori Aoshi's talent might have blinded you of this fact, but shinobi (spies) are not known for their swordsmanship or strength. They're instead known for their cunning."

Natsuki herself interjected, "You are not a swordsman but a spy, Likka-tan. A ninja. A shadow warrior. You can take down a samurai many times more powerful than you by ambush and stealth. Use that."

Likka then woke up back at the Okushiri Airport, in time to see the miko (priestess) ferry-girl tending to her shrapnel wounds, removing the foreign objects and healing her body the best she could.

"Please, wake up! Please, hang on!" pleaded the shinigami known as Hinageshi.

***

Back at the Kyujimayama Observatory...

The combination of Houji the Onmyouji and Gein the Puppet Master was truly too much for Kazuma Kuwabara and the Oniwabanshu to handle.

Daiji Matsudaira then did the Jissen Kenbu (combining the Water Flow Movement with his one-handed kodachi strikes) to escape Dr. Sugino's wire-based grasp. The doctor was not as adept at pure ninjutsu as his Meiji Era counterpart.

However, Shoji's supernatural powers and modern scientific knowledge more than made up for his lack of physical prowess and skills.

However, just behind them, the transformed Oniwabanshu tore apart the four-armed Iwanbo 3.2 like a pack of wolves.

"Saaaave the Okashiraaa! At aaaall cooosts!"

Hannya. Shikijo. Hyottoko. Beshimi.

Again, their supposed Okashira had failed them and soiled their memories. Or this watered-down copper version of their Okashira living in the present Heisei Era did so.

These ghosts that served as Daiji's guardian angels from the death of his wife at the hands of Feng Xinhai to the present, when he discovered his dark destiny as being the reincarnation of the Last Oniwabanshu Okashira, were now forced to demonize themselves.

They abandoned their humanity and turned themselves into monsters in order to save Matsudaira.

Shikijo's muscles bulged and popped as his complexion turned grey or even metallic, with him grabbing one set of the Iwanbo's arms in order to stop him in his tracks.

Beshimi bit the Iwanbo with snake-like fangs and threw toxic spines growing from all over his body at him for good measure, the corrosive toxins directly seeping into the undead veins of the puppet monster.

Hyottoko turned into a full-on kappa youkai who breathed fire, toasting the creature from behind.

And finally, the tri-clawed Hannya mauled the Iwanbo repeatedly by slicing apart the veins of his other arms and ravaging him like a rabid wolverine.

The more they ripped apart the puppet, the more mindless they became. Like wild animals.

Houji chuckled at the display, letting his shikigami deal with the weakening Kuwabara for a change. "How would it feel if I brought your ghost friends back to life, Okashira? Alas, they'd end up as the Chojin's minions, but at least they'd be alive."

Meanwhile, Gein retreated and used his own knowledge of the dark arts in order to form a fresh new Iwanbo 3.2 puppet out of the spare parts of the discarded Iwanbo corpses.

No. Enough was enough.

The deceased Oniwabanshu had been haunting Aoshi's soul all this time, even a hundred years later in another body, because they felt like they had failed in protecting him when the opposite was instead true.

Time and time again, they'd saved him.

His blue eyes shining bright like twin stars on a clear night, Daiji's aura of reiki (spirit energy) flared to life and reacted to the youki (demonic energy) emanating from his former Oniwabanshu comrades.

He then started to absorb their dark energy unto himself, shouldering all their anger and feelings of failure unto his own body.

It was his failure and lack of strength that kept them anchored to him for so long, keeping them from passing on.

It was his turn to save them.

As Matsudaira absorbed more of their dark energy, the Oniwabanshu ghouls started to go back to normal. They were neither demons nor monsters any longer.

"Uh, what happened?" asked Shikijo.

"Beats me. I don't remember much," said Beshiimi.

"I feel hungry," said Hyottoko.

"You can't be hungry! You're a ghost!" admonished Hannya, who then turned towards Daiji's shadowy form. "It's the Okashira. He has saved us again, as usual!"

Daiji then went face-to-face against the Iwanbo 3.2, who had again started to cannibalize the corpses or even the "living" bodies of his undead puppet brethren as well as the nearby shikigami unto him.

To build his strength by feeding upon the weak just like Matsudaira did to his Oniwabanshu underlings' youki.

The Iwanbo Version 3.2 then charged at Matsudaira, with the pair of Houji and Gein close behind him.

"Kill the Okashira! Do so and we'll have this battle in the bag!" said Gein to his puppet.

"We might even be able to revive his soul and turn him into one of the Juppon Gatana," suggested Sadojima.

They were in for the shock of their lives.

***

Back at Nabetsuru Rock...

Jaganshi Hiei ran on water like Jesus Christ in a hurry then blasted the rock where the half-healed (or still-healing) Usui Uonuma lay with a Jaou-En-Satsu Kokuryuha (Dragon of Darkness Flame).

The fire demon didn't want to take any chances. However, as expected, Uonuma's Tinbe still remembered the sheer power of the most powerful strikes given to it by the Battousai and the Miburo.

Thusly, the dense adaptable shield survived even the atomic heat of the Makai flames from Hiei's deadliest attack, neutralizing it completely.

"Hn."

Usui answered that indignant harrumph with a chuckle. "And just like that, my Tinbe is now fireproofed as well as shock-absorbent. Is that your best shot, Jaganshi Hiei?"

Hiei then visually disappeared from Uonuma's midst, but the blind man couldn't even see him regardless, so he wasn't too worried.

Usui heard Hiei all the while though.

The blind spearman could only smile as he caught each and every slash or stab Hiei attempted to hit him with, deflecting them away like rain with his Tinbe umbrella.

Earlier, he was made aware that the Shin Ju had lost contact with Houji and Gein, which meant that there wasn't enough shikigami and jaki left to heal him fully.

However, he was an S-Level entity himself.

This meant that even though Uonuma didn't have the Onmyouji's assistance to restore his damaged body to health, he could damn well heal himself on his own. Not at the cancerous rate that the regenerative Toguro Ani could, but fast enough to count when the chips were down.

'I just need to buy myself a little bit more time,' Usui thought, blocking all of Hiei's sword strikes and countering them with his Rochin spear that was as irresistible as his Tinbe was impenetrable.

'Battousai's reports are accurate,' thought Hiei. 'This man is hard to kill, even without the powers of the Onmyouji aiding him and keeping him alive. Or at least undead.'

The two combatants jumped from the rock to the shore, their feet both using the waves and the surface tension of the saltwater to travel from that long distance.

Not once was Hiei able to scratch the injured man. Not with the Kokuryuha. Not with his blade.

However, the blind Shin Ju in turn wasn't fast enough to counter with his Rochin. He kept missing his kaeshi (ripostes) even though he parried or blocked all of the fire demon's physical attacks.

Getting behind Usui to stab him and avoid the shield didn't work because the spearman sensed the fire demon's presence every time and blocked accordingly.

However, thanks to Hiei's Jagan and his inborn twitch reflexes, the Rochin could not touch him in turn, no matter how badly he missed or got parried by the former bakufu swordsman turned Juppon Gatana member.

Perhaps it was because Usui was too injured. Or perhaps it was because he was too slow from the get go.

They seemed to be at an impasse.

***

"Ahhh!" Natsuki shrieked, her impenetrable deflection powers working against her, drawing the implosion towards her instead of away from her due to the nature of her reversal powers.

The crow demon smirked.

His experimental Pillbug Implosion Bomb was a success.

Shinkai predictably attempted to deflect it like Karasu's other bombs, but she did so by reversing its momentum. This made the bomb explode instead of implode unto itself.

The way Natsuki affected her environment was to use the inertia of the objects going towards her and reverse their momentum so that she didn't have to expend her spirit energy moving them away.

To reverse the momentum of an implosion bomb was to turn it into an explosive.

"Now, Kuronue! While you have the chance!"

Kuronue and his afterimage clones attacked Natsuki. Then, after several more Kuronues died out, one of them decapitated Natsuki with his scythe.

Game. Set. Match.

However, that Natsuki turned out to be a standee advertisement of a stewardess instead. Taken straight from the rubble.

"!?" intoned Kuronue, only to realize it was the Misao reincarnation who duped him into decapitating the decoy.

It was a classic ninjutsu trick. Substituting one object for another.

Karasu attempted to get rid of the troublesome onmitsu (ninja girl) with his variety of bombs, only to be greeted with a rain of kunai (ninja daggers) moving at every which way and direction, defying the laws of physics, gravity, and momentum.

He yelped as a dagger ended up in his eye, which would normally be weak enough for him to swat away. 'Where is that damned ninja...?!'

As for Kuronue and Natsuki, they were locked in a battle of wills and wits. Or perhaps a war of attrition.

For different reasons, both Shinkai and the bat demon ended up cleaving or crushing through dozens upon dozens of their respective "clones".

With Natsuki, they were illusions made by Likka. With Kuronue, it was still a mystery where his doppelgangers came from.

For every Kuronue clone that got beat up, head-crushed, stabbed, blinded, or disabled in some way, so too did every Natsuki clone suffer getting their limbs chopped off, their heads decapitated, and their bodies bisected horizontally or vertically.

The fading corpses of Shinkai and Kuronue that littered the landscape disappeared as soon as they fell.

"I don't care anymore!" the one-eyed Karasu threw implosion bombs at the pair's direction. "I'm sure you'll somehow survive this, Kuronue, but she won't!"

That was Likka's cue to detonate the bombs with her flung kunai, one of which ended up stuck unto Karasu's hand.

"...Fool! You fell into my trap!" said Karasu even as one of the implosions set him ablaze. He then took his mask off with his other hand in order to activate his Full-Body Implosion rather than Explosion. "Now to kill you to get rid of all these illusions!"

Likka then smirked before she shifted forms and turned into Natsuki.

"...What?!"

A flabbergasted Kuronue then spared a glance at the Natsuki he was fighting all that time. The bat demon chopped her up, only for her to turn into a stop sign.

"Since when were you under the impression that you were fighting Tsuki-chan?"

"Natsuki" then appeared behind him and turned him into a kunai holder. Sure enough, this "Natsuki" ended up being Likka in disguise instead, mimicking her friend all the while.

"I will not be a burden to Tsuki-chan any longer! I can help her out with my own special power! We can win against you two!" said Ikumi.

Thus was the power of the "C-Level" Likka Ikumi: Optical Illusion. Perfect Deception. Absolute Fantasy.

In other words, Genjutsu (Illusionary Techniques).

Her skills allowed her reiki to create mirages or hallucinations from her own imagination that, when used properly, could make even gods kneel and devils cry.

A special power that could beat even S-Levels to submission.

A power similar to that of the Kanji Killer and his hypnotic Jagan, but it involved projecting her imagination unto reality like realistic mirages instead of invading her opponent's psyche for them to see what she wanted them to see, thus she used up less reiki to do it.

"You've underestimated the both of us," said Shinkai, whose only injuries were from that one implosion bomb from Karasu that slipped through. "Now pay for your arrogance!"

Just as Karasu was about to explode and take both the girls with him to kingdom come, Yutaro Tsukayama's female reincarnation reflected and focused all that potential energy towards Kuronue, blasting him with her own version of Suzaku's Railgun.

She turned the crow demon into fuel and matter for her own energy gun, the same way Suzaku could turn any piece of steel into a blast of pure energy.

The golden beam of light seemed to kill multiple clones of Kuronue at the same time, his body stubbornly refusing to disintegrate, with him reviving over and over, only for him to die again, until there was nothing left of both Karasu and Kuronue in that seeming infinite loop of life and death.

***

Hiei harrumphed.

His speed did not phase his opponent one bit. Nor did his S-Level youki and Dragon of Darkness Flame.

However, he still had to kill Usui then and there.

The blind swordsman with his adaptable Tinbe was too dangerous to be left alive. He'd just disrupt their plan to take out Houji Sadojima permanently and drive the Shin Ju back without hope of resurrection.

Was it shameful to strike down an injured man? In war, there was no such thing as honor or fairness. Just survival of the fittest.

Uonuma cackled. "The speed by which you attack and how hard it is to catch you off-guard is impressive. You remind me of someone."

Hiei didn't answer back.

"Ah yes. Sou-kun," said Usui with a hint of wistfulness in his voice even though his comrade Soujiro Seta was still with him, just in a different unit of the Chojin's Army (the Dai Shin Kan).

The two used to spar from time to time, with both being amazed at the other's prowess.

Seta was surprised by the fact that no matter how fast he went, the Tinbe would block his strike despite his lack of presence or sakki (bloodlust). Uonuma was shocked at how, at times, the boy would reach supersonic speeds that even his Rochin couldn't hope to counter.

Instead of turtling up in defense, Usui attacked for a change, the sands of the beach underfoot blasting behind him like a sandstorm. His Shingan senses and Hiei's Jagan third eye kept the both of them from making fatal contact with each other. The most they could muster were flesh wounds.

Perhaps the youkai underestimated the revived human's abilities just because he was injured.

"Sou-kun's Shukuchi made him blindingly fast and his lack of bloodlust made him nearly undetectable. Your speed and constant bloodlust reminds me of him. You're always brooding while he's always happy. Like twin sides of the same coin."

"Sou-kun", huh? Soujiro Seta was a thorn in Hiei's side all throughout his mission and investigation on human experimentation at Alaska's Mount McKinley (also known as Denali).

The longer the battle went the further Usui pushed Hiei into a corner (literally even as they battled from the beach to the resort to the streets and to several nearby buildings), much to the prideful demon's shame.

It wasn't because Uonuma was as fast as him. Rather, Shishio's oldest rival was used to fighting people as fast as Hiei was, such as Soujiro.

This allowed Usui to use prediction and skill to match Hiei's superior reflexes.

The jaganshi harrumphed again, growing impatient. Someone who was this injured should not be this hard to kill.

Regardless, the youkai still had an ace up his sleeve that the nimble "Ten Ken (Heaven Sword)" lacked.

Summoning the Sword of Darkness Flame felt like a waste of time, but he did it anyway. If speed didn't work then raw power might tip the scales of their deadlock.

This only made the wistful, deranged, and sightless man happier for some reason.

A wave of nostalgia filled Usui. He couldn't see the fire of Hiei's flaming sword with his own actual eyes, his stolen Jagan from Jine sealed away with his blindfold, but he felt the heat from blade, giving him goose bumps and raising the hairs behind his neck.

Usui was for all intents and purposes a living corpse with an unbeating heart, but his mind made him feel as though his heart raced and his blood flowed like hot fire through his veins. His aortas. His artificial circulatory system.

To Hiei's surprise, the zombie discarded his impenetrable Tinbe and charged with only his Rochin. Shouting one name all the while like a lunatic.

"DIE, SHISHIO!"

Compared to Soujiro and even Hiei, Usui knew more nuanced sword/spear forms and cutting/stabbing techniques than a simple upward, side, or angled slashes. Fire sword or no fire sword.

Like a drunk brawler picking a fight against a championship boxer. Quickness could be countered by experience against predictability.

The jaganshi attempted his usual modus operandi of making his opponent miss and slash at his afterimage, only for him to appear from behind and slash his opponent to bits instead.

However, it was Hiei who ended up slashing at air and an afterimage that wasn't there.

Did Uonuma heal his wounds already? Was he hiding his true speed all this time...?!

Hiei's Jagan tried to sense and locate where Uonuma was, like always. His sight beyond sight served as his means to activate his tripwire reflexes.

Wait a minute. He couldn't see or sense him. Even Usui's jaki was gone. Hiei's vision had become clouded. 'Dammit...!'

The Rochin from out of nowhere stabbed him in the back and shot him right into the sign saying they were in Kitaoimisaki Park, his youkai blood spewing forth his mouth, nostrils, and even his three eyes.

The illusion faded away like a pile of cherry blossom petals blown away by a strong breeze, and soon reality set in.

As soon as the flames from Hiei's Jaou-En-Satsu Ken (Sword of Darkness Flame) enticed Usui's senses, he lifted his blindfold and unsealed the power of Jine's version of the Jagan.

Apparently, even Hiei's artificial Jagan that Shigure transplanted unto him was susceptible to hypnosis. Along with the eyes he was born with.

The Forbidden Child of the Koorime fell into a boneless heap before his blood pooled from underneath him.

He was too careless.

He believed he was there to take care of injured game, forgetting that an animal's flight or fight instincts made them many times more dangerous than usual.

"That was refreshing," said Usui. "I have to thank you, Jaganshi Hiei. Your flaming sword reminded me what I'm truly fighting for, even after a century."

The maneuver Uonuma did on Hiei was something he wished to do on Shishio himself. Trick him with the Jagan then stab him in the back. S-Level or not, such a sneak attack would kill him.

Uonuma then frowned. Inwardly, he thought, 'I haven't mastered Jine's Jagan yet. I can only use it once a day. Maybe more with the help of the Onmyouji's jaki power up, but he's sealed off from the rest of us Shin Ju right now.'

After a minute of pondering, the taller, bearded man grabbed hold of the diminutive demon by the hair and lifted him up high over his shoulders, his bloodstained Jagan in full view.

"No matter," Usui decided. "I have a new Jagan to play with now. As soon as Gein returns, I'll have him surgically implant your Jagan into the empty socket of my other eye. Then I'll have the power of both the Shingan and twin Jagan at my hands."

Uonuma trembled with barely contained excitement, which woke Hiei up after blacking out from the pain of being stabbed so hard.

"Not even Battousai nor Saito Hajime nor Shishio Makoto nor Tenro nor the Chojin will stand a chance against me once I have both those Jagan in my possession along with my Tinbe and Rochin!"

Just as Uonuma was about to melon-ball Hiei's Evil Eye from its artificial socket, Kurama then arrived, parrying the Rochin away with the Grass Blade.

"...Ah. You must be the Legendary Youko Kurama," said Usui with a sneer. "Udo Jine has told us a lot about you."

***

Kyujimayama Observatory suddenly had an entire building sprout from its lookout. Like a gigantic tree of steel and concrete. An ominous castle made of black spires and iron ore.

A structure with no discernible entrance, doors, or windows.

Earlier, just as another Iwanbo 3.2 was on the verge of turning Daiji Matsudaira into a messy pile of shattered bones, giblets, and mince meat, something changed inside the policeman's soul.

He absorbed the guilt and unfulfilled desires of the Oniwabanshu that left them as earthbound spirits, this energy mixing with the reiki of Daiji's soul and the kenki (swordsman spiritual energy) of Aoshi's warrior spirit.

Pushed into a corner and forced to feed into the negative energy of his comrades, his reiki and kenki started to mix with their youki and jaki.

It produced a whole new kind of energy: A swordsman's energy mixed with a human soul's spirit energy and the bloodlust of a demon.

Reiatsu (Spirit Pressure).

Like Shinobu Sensui's Sei Kou Ki (Holy Light Energy), Daiji produced a different sort of spiritual power worthy of one the gods or shinigami themselves or their version of the police, the Reikai Tokubetsu Boueitai (Spirit World Special Defense Squad).

It was through this volatile cocktail of different energies that Matsudaira was able to produce the spire-filled castle by which he trapped Houji Sadojima, Gein, and their undead army in one huge, tangible prison with his Quest-Class powers to create matter out of spirit energy but without sacrificing his life energy to do so.

And, like the One-Eight-Ten Killer before him, he himself was on the verge of breaking through from A-Level to S-Level by suddenly learning this spirit energy blending technique that took Sensui years to perfect.

Afterwards, a flabbergasted Kuwabara created a portal out of the constricting spire and exited with Officer Matsudaira in tow. He then sealed the portal shut before the Onmyouji, Gein, or their creatures could come out.

They'd finally stopped and sealed Houji from reviving the Shin Ju every time they were beaten. For now.

"You're really something else, Officer Matsudaira. You know that?" said Kazuma.

Catching up with his own shallow breaths, Daiji turned behind him and stared back at his ghostly Oniwabanshu comrades. "I can't let them down. Not again."

Kuwabara himself turned towards where the copper was staring at, in time to see the will o' wisp or blue fireball souls of the dearly departed Oni Gang.

The fireballs then formed back into the transparent human bodies of the four deceased shadow warriors. Hannya. Shikijo. Hyottoko. Beshimi.

With a smile hidden behind his mask but could still be heard from his ghostly voice, Hannya said, "As expected of our Okashira."

From there, Uchiko Shikoku (Sayuri), the ferry-girl of the Northeast Quadrant, arrived and started replenishing their spirit energy, although she pouted as she told Daiji, "I was almost sure you'd die, Ikemen (Pretty Boy). Oh well. Maybe next time?"

To Kazuma, the blonde shinigami instead said, "You, I couldn't care less if you died or not."

"Nobody asked you!" shouted back Kuwabara.

***

Back at the Okushiri Airport...

Sayaka finished up her report to the other Reikai Senshi and then said to them. "So far so good. Kurama-san's plans are coming along smoothly. I've also heard reports from Sayuri-san that Sadojima Houji and Gein had been sealed inside a castle-like structure by Matsudaira Daiji-san."

"As expected of the Okashira!" said Likka, mirroring Hannya's sentiments. "We have this mission in the bag!"

Natsuki then told the young Spirit World Inspector, "Tell Shuichi-sempai, I mean, Minamino-sempai to watch out for that Kuronue person. He may still be out there."

Sayaka tilted her head to the side in askance. "Tell Kurama about Kuronue? Why? Isn't he dead? Didn't you just kill him? Killed two birds with one stone by making Karasu into an energy blast?"

"That's the thing. I'm not sure he's dead." Shinkai shook her head. "Killing him is actually easy. Keeping him dead is hard. It must have something to do with his current powers. He might still be out there, hunting Kurama at this very moment."

The Heisei Era Misao piped up, "Yeah, it was weird. Every time it seemed like you've killed him, another him kept popping up in his place."

The youngest ferry-girl considered their words. "Do you think he's like Toguro Ani? An S-Level, Regent-Class regenerator?"

Natsuki shrugged. "The best way I could describe it is that he's like Schrödinger's Cat. Like he's alive and dead at the same time."

"Maybe even Schrödinger's Bat!" Likka quipped to mostly silence.

***

Kitaoimisaki Park was located in the westernmost corner of Okushiri Island.

The Sea of Japan served as its backdrop. It was designed as an open-air museum of sorts filled with sculptures made by Masayuki Nagare, a modernist Japanese sculptor.

Sculptures that soon turned to dust from the battle that ensued.

"RENGOKU SHOU! (PURGATORY WOUND!)" shouted Hiei as he pummeled the wide-open, distracted Usui with his fists of flame, but the flurry of blows were also countered and neutralized by the damnable Tinbe shield.

It did allow him to get away from his captor, though.

Meanwhile, Kurama had arrived there just in time with the assistance of Sayuri's intel and Kuwabara's Jigen Tou.

Kurama asked for their help after they were done sealing away the Onmyouji with Daiji Matsudaira's evolving powers.

"Let's not risk having Usui use Jine's Jagan again," Kurama told Kuwabara. "Leave and don't look anywhere near his face or eyes, Kuwabara-kun."

"You got it, Kurama," said Kuwabara before making a portal out of there. "Hiei, you fucked up! Now Kurama has to bail you out!" Kazuma jumped right into the portal he made before Hiei could follow him and beat him up for his remark.

Kurama then told Hiei, "Kuwabara-kun's right, you know," which made Hiei seethe even more. "I know how you feel, but sit this battle out for now. Let me handle this while Sayuri-san heals you for now."

As for the scythe-bearing Uchiko "Sayuri" Shikoku, she balefully used her shinigami powers to heal the damage done on Hiei, although the pint-sized youkai didn't look too pleased about it.

"Look, we're both not happy about this, so could you stop glaring at me?" said Uchiko, who actually wanted to see what was next for the death-defying "hunk" known as Daiji Matsudaira instead.

Actually, Kitaoimisaki Park was supposed to be under Botan's jurisdiction (she was assigned the northwest quadrant), but she was too busy guiding Yahiko safely towards the Onmyouji to finish him off, so Sayuri had to do for now.

Usui chuckled, rubbing his chin. "Toguro Ani warned me about you," he said. "You're quite the trickster, I hear. So are you going to fight me now?"

"Yes," Kurama said, picking a rose seed inside his hair and turning it into a rose bloom then finally into the Rose Whip. However, this time around, it was a Rose Whip tied around the handle of the Grass Blade, thus turning it into a Rose Kusarigama (Chain Sickle).

"I hate tricksters like you," confessed Usui. "You remind me of a Saizuchi (his fellow Juppon Gatana member) that could somehow fight. The best way to take care of people like you is to kill you before you can come up with a convoluted scheme to take me down."

"Saizuchi?" repeated Kurama as he attempted to scan through Kenshin's memories given to him through his contact with the Demon Sword. "I don't know who that is." Himura must've never met that particular Ten Sword member.

They then proceeded to fight. Kurama was decently fast but not blindingly fast so like Kenshin Himura, Soujiro Seta, Yusuke Urameshi, or Jaganshi Hiei.

However, like with how Usui countered Hiei's speed with technique, Kurama knew how to methodically place his whip strikes and whiplash to minimize movement and maximize his range.

Also, thanks to his new weighted weapon, he could actually maneuver his whip to bounce off the Tinbe then hook-stab Uonuma from the back, as though he were fishing in the ocean.

What a frighteningly clever demon.

It took full focus and concentration from Usui's Shingan to predict the trajectory of every whip strike and whiplash from all sorts of awkward angles.

Kurama even made sure to attack only from a distance. He patiently waited when he'd commit to his strikes to keep himself from giving away any openings. A true chess master that outwitted even the likes of Feng Xinhai.

Truly irritating. Usui had no time for such protracted nonsense.

Usui let the Rose Chain-Sickle wrap around his Tinbe, which allowed him to pull Kurama towards him and stab him with the Rochin at last. The fox spirit turned human was able to twist his body in time to prevent a full-on stab like with Hiei, as though he was used to these situations.

Kurama grunted and tumbled backwards before ending up kneeling and gasping for breath.

Uonuma spared a sightless glance at Hiei and Sayuri, sneering at the youkai in particular. This was more for Hiei's sake (and mockery) than a need for him to sense the demon by turning his head, since he had heightened senses.

"I've defeated both Kurama and Hiei! The right-hand men of Yomi and Mukuro! Even the best demon warriors that Makai (Demon World) could offer are no match against me!"

However, before Usui knew it, he felt his Tinbe start to crumble, with cracks forming all around it like the time Kenshin hit it with the follow-up strike of the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki (Heavens Gliding Dragon Flash).

"W-What? But how...!?"

His fingers then noticed the growth of moss on the shield, which had taken root throughout the battle. "Moss...?"

Kurama said as he stood up, "A rolling stone gathers no moss. But a turtle shield might. Your Tinbe is amazingly sturdy, with it getting stronger the more you break it apart like organic bone. But since I added Makai Moss to it, the tiny cracks and marks it was supposed to heal couldn't heal because the moss roots had filled up their space."

Like moss on an old building, the moss on Usui's Tinbe compromised the strength of the magic item, keeping it from reconstituting itself properly. Making it crumble as the cracks and gaps where bone or shell was supposed to be was instead replaced with insidious moss.

Also, the Rochin strike to Kurama's side was shallower than before, the spear becoming more and more brittle in cadence with the weakening of the Tinbe.

A cold sweat dripped down Usui's beard. Even after he was warned by Toguro Ani to watch out for Kurama's trickery, he still ended up tricked in the end!

"I take it back," said Uonuma, gasping for air even though he didn't really need to breathe. "You don't remind me of Saizuchi after all, Kurama. You're more like Shishio Makoto himself. You're as shrewd as a fox yet you fight like a demon."

He glanced again at Hiei, this time not to mock him but instead because his Shingan sensed the sudden spike in heat from the fire demon, which in turn knocked Sayuri back.

"Eeek!"

"Jaou-En-Satsu...!"

"NOOOO...!"

"KOKURYUHA!"

Multiple Dragons of Darkness Flame engulfed and blasted open the compromised Tinbe like a roasting chestnut, the Demon World Moss burning away along with the rest of the turtle shield as the second-in-command of the Juppon Gatana and Shin Ju practically got nuked in place.

***

Meanwhile, in the sky overlooking the northwest part of Okushiri Island...

Botan flew top-speed towards the Kyujimayama Observatory, exchanging places with Sayuri since that was under the northeast quadrant's jurisdiction.

Right behind her, riding shotgun, was a tired Yahiko Myojin, who was conserving his strength for the battle ahead against the Chojin's so-called conduit of power.

As soon as they got confirmation of where Houji the Onmyouji hid, they flew up in the sky under Kurama's orders while Natsuki herself met up with Likka in order to run interference against the incoming Karasu and Kuronue (a replacement Shin Ju along with Toguro Ani).

Even better, they stopped bothering to hide in the clouds for fear of aerial strikes after both Natsuki and Daiji neutralized their targets.

The Yutaro reincarnation blasted away Karasu (who could make flying Trace Eye bombs) and the Aoshi reincarnation trapped both Gein (Kaoru didn't remember who that was) and Houji (Kaoru heard of him through Sanosuke) inside a sealed, castle-like structure.

Now was the perfect opportunity for them to strike Houji down before finishing off the rest of the Shin Juppon Gatana and rescuing Okushiri from being under siege by the Chojin.

However, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

Instead of them going straight to the sealed Houji, the Chojin's top minion apparently decided to go after them instead.

"What the hell is that, Tanuki-chan!?"

The top portion of the castle of spires proceeded to float towards Botan and Yahiko like some sort of alien ship or U.F.O.

The monument to their success had now become the flying tombstone of their imminent doom.

Jaki laser beams then blasted through the windowless structure, creating windows and doors.

"AHHH! Retreat!" screamed Botan while the Kaoru inside her head wondered how ordinary humans from the Meiji Era could take on something as ridiculous as a floating sky fortress.

***

Before the Kokuryuha could completely sublimate or at least carbonize Usui to the point of Gein needing to create a new body for him, Kuronue blinked into existence and pushed him aside in order to take the full brunt of the Demon World equivalent of a nuclear warhead.

"...Kuronue!" Kurama shouted out at the bat demon, concerned with the wellbeing of his former partner-in-crime despite their circumstances.

Then a curious thing happened.

Kuronue turned into a shadow in the street. Only for another him to (re)appear, who also turned into ash. Another him then replaced him, dying from the flames of the black dragon conflagration. Then another. Then another.

The bat demon died probably a dozen more times before Hiei thought it prudent to return the flames into his arm as tattoos, sealing them. Not willing to let Kurama's partner from millennia ago waste more of his demon energy.

After the present Kuronue gasped his dying breath, a new him took his place, completely healthy and unharmed.

What the hell was going on?

Even Kurama was shaken by the proceedings. He had heard Natsuki's explanation about Kuronue's new powers relayed to him by Sayaka's communicator, but even then he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw it in action.

Was it instantaneous resurrection powers like with Toguro Ani? Clones, like with Suzaku? Or even hypnotic illusions, like with Likka Ikumi and Jine Udo?

The Kuronue whom Kurama knew that died because of a bamboo trap never had such powers. Granted, he was a much weaker demon around that time. But still.

"Uh... Usui, was it?" said Kuronue to Usui. "You should be more careful when fighting Kurama. He's a sneaky one, you see. Don't let him figure you out or else he'll get you killed. It's rare for him to get overwhelmed, like in the case of that one S-Level Reikai Tantei or the Reikai Boueitai."

Uonuma harrumphed. "Ah, so it's you, newbie. Don't get full of yourself. You were only revived by the Chojin because you're the only guy we know who could deal with Youko Kurama's cunning. Udo Jine was supposed to fill the role of Achilles' heel to Kurama, but he ultimately failed and got killed by him."

The bat demon could only laugh. "Haaai (Yeees). Read you loud and clear, sempai (upperclassman)."

Hiei then told the blonde shinigami, ""You better leave now if you don't want to get hurt."

Uchiko said, "But you're not yet finished healing...! Ah. You know what? Fine. Whatever." She then made her exit using her floating scythe as her means of transportation instead of a long boat paddle.

Kurama and Hiei backed away unto each other's sides while both Uonuma and Kuronue loomed towards them, their weapons at the ready.

The Tinbe had already started to reconstruct itself. The gambit Kurama used to weaken it couldn't be used twice now that Usui was aware of how his trick worked.

"Is that really Kuronue or just another imposter?" Hiei asked Kurama, remembering the Meikai (Nether World) god who impersonated the bat demon to mess with the youko's head.

"I'm afraid that's him," Kurama said, his smile looking more like a wincing grimace. "And yes, he does know me like the back of his hand."

"Hn," said Hiei. "Then the same could be said with you to him, right?"

Minamino turned towards his fire demon companion and smiled. "Yes, of course."

Multiple Kuronue "clones" served as Usui's meat shield as his actual shield continued reconstituting its cracked surface, with it now strong enough to resist the Kokuryuha and perhaps even Demon World Moss.

"What's going on? Is Usui using Jine's Jagan again?" asked Hiei.

"No, I don't think so," said Kurama. "From what I remember, Jine's hypnosis affected one person at a time. I'm not sure if Usui evolved the Jagan enough to affect multiple people or create mirages like with Ikumi Likka's powers."

Hiei grunted. Before them was a scene reminiscent of one of the Dai Shin Kan (Great Priests), whose name escaped him at the moment, multiplying endlessly. 'It was Something-Yatsume who did it,' he thought.

Was multiple cloning the M.O. of the Overfiend?

Was it his way of showing his undead army of Dai Kaijin (Great Monsters) were as unlimited as a pestilence of voracious pests? Like a swarm of locusts or a mischief of rats? Unkillable like an intrusion of roaches?

He even heard from his communicator that the same thing happened with Gein and his Iwanbo meat puppets with the assistance of the Onmyouji, which forced Detective Matsudaira to seal them off inside a windowless, spire-filled prison.

Did they intend to infest the world like a plague, from Kuronue to Suzaku or even the Iwanbos of Gein and the Shikigami of the Onmyouji?

Hiei was sick of this clone nonsense but knew that using up his Kokuryuha wasn't in his best interests.

Kurama murdered several shadow clones of his partner, only to succumb to cuts and slices to his neck, abdomen, and thigh. This reminded him of his fight with the Fake Kuronue. That Meikai God did a convincing impression of his old friend.

But this time he was fighting the real deal, and none of his tricks were working against him.

"Rejoice, Youko!" said one of the Kuronues. "When the Chojin snatched me up from the depths of Hell, he told me he did so because he saw you as a threat. You were the only one who wielded the Demon Sword and used it to boost your powers to X-Level."

Kurama frowned, decapitating that one Kuronue and countless others with his Rose Kusarigama. "Who cares about being X-Level?"

Usui shook his head. "Fool! I'd jump at the chance to be as powerful as the Chojin himself! The only X-Level in existence at present! More powerful than the most powerful of the Demon World! You could've single-handedly killed the Shin Ju if you had that kind of power! Save everyone on the Human World you so love! Why do you deny greatness?"

The Youko inside Kurama chuckled, and for a split second his true form emerged. "What's the fun in that? Something given is taken for granted. Something earned is treasured."

The horde of Kuronues laughed upon hearing this and chorused, "Ah, now that's the Youko I know and love."

Hiei also chopped and burned the Kuronues before him with his Jaou-En-Satsu Ken. The sword had flames that, unbeknownst to him, were reminiscent of Shishio's Homura Dama.

The jaganshi did know enough about the Shin Ju to realize that doing the Sword of Darkness Flame would only entice Usui to fight even with his unfinished Tinbe.

The risk of fighting someone with the power of hypnosis was high, but as long as the brilliant and prepared Kurama had his back, Hiei had no fear against such hallucinations.

Whether they were from Kuronue or Usui.

Kuronue continued, "As one of the Chojin's Dai Kaijin, I then developed newfound abilities to help me take you out in the best way possible, Youko. Knowing you, the only way anyone can defeat you is if they're given unlimited retries to do so. You're a cunning fox. Most people would die a thousand deaths first before they can find an opening to take you down. So I chose to develop that kind of power."

Hiei had to admit that that sounded about right. You did not want the Youko as your enemy.

Using the brief rise of energy elicited by Kuronue's tempting words about gaining X-Level through the Youtou Shinnoken, Kurama turned a single stalk of bamboo into the Hydra Bamboo once more.

This weaponized plant of Kurama's was bamboo on "steroids" that multiplied twice for every stalk you cut down. Just like the legendary Hydra of yore. The only ways to kill it involved overcrowding it with other plants or by burning it to the point of carbonization.

The forest of bamboo pierced through the hearts, lungs, stomachs, muscles, intestines, livers, kidneys, and brains of the nearest gathered Kuronues while the rest scattered away like disturbed flies on shit. Or bats, since he was a bat demon.

"Hiei, NOW! While we still have the chance! Kill Uonuma Usui! I'll figure out a way to deal with Kuronue later."

The jagan user charged with his flame sword, able to keep the Hydra Bamboo at bay with his burning slices and cuts so that he wouldn't get overwhelmed himself by the deadly malignant forest.

He wasn't able to kill the half-healed Uonuma earlier but now he should be able to fare better against the blind man's half-formed turtle shield. His airtight defense earlier was now broken in half.

Usui's supernatural hearing and enhanced reflexes allowed him to block Hiei's 17 fire sword strikes in one second.

However, that one second of blocking was the opening the fire demon needed in order to blast a Dragon of Darkness Flame straight into the night sky before it came crashing from behind Uonuma while he busily defended against the Sword of Darkness Flame.

One of the Kuronues ended up protecting Usui from the rear, his chain scythe weapon turning into an iron mine's worth of steel that melted from the heat of the Black Dragon Spirit Wave Technique, which in turn flooded the bamboo forest with fiery molten metal.

Also, the Tinbe had by now reformed two-thirds of itself instead of only half, with it having a pie-sized opening left on an otherwise complete turtle shell shield.

They were running out of time.

The Spirit World Warriors would be back to square one or worse if the Onmyouji managed to escape Daiji's seal before Yahiko could get to him and neutralize his connection with the Almighty Chojin.

Again, Kurama used the Invasive Kudzu Grass to smother and eat the fire away, making it grow with the same uncontrollable rate as the Hydra Bamboo had over being sliced or physically torn apart.

Kuronue said, "I've seen that technique of yours before as well!"

From there, one set of Kuronues served as gardeners who chopped and diced up the Invasive Kudzu before it could absorb enough energy to become a problem, with them even sacrificing several of their own in the process.

Another set of Kuronues kept the blaze of the growing forest fire alive, filling the air with smoke and flames that burned up the mutated bamboo before it could grow enough to become unstoppable.

Unlike the mindless puppets of Gein and the Nameless Yatsume, Kuronue's phantoms had a frightening hivemind that learned from every mistake they made and adjusted thusly with every new generation of himself.

One Kuronue branched out into multiple versions of himself, thusly exploring infinite possibilities.

The Quantum Kuronue.

Maybe Kurama should've gotten hold of the Demon Sword and finished all the Shin Ju off with one or ten slashes. A potential eleventh slash for the Onmyouji.

But that was the boring way of doing things. And Kurama loved a challenge. How should he solve this puzzle that Kuronue suddenly became?

Besides which, Kurama noticed that Hiei had been hiding one more ace up his sleeve all this time. An ace that the Shin Ju were probably also aware of, but had yet to experience firsthand.

Hiei backed off from Usui's Rochin stab, sheathing his sword and adopting the same battoujutsu or iaido (sword-drawing) stance that Himura Battousai was known for.

The whole park had become a mess. One part of it was composed of burning bamboo and molten metal that had started to harden.

The other part was filled with bits and pieces of kudzu grass reaped by scythes, with several of them allowed by the Kuronues to eat the remaining red and black flames, thus controlling the blaze.

That was one helluva landscaping job Kuronue did.

The army of Kuronues then remerged into one body, awaiting the next attack from Kurama to occur that they'd then dissect and deconstruct.

Once Uonuma's Tinbe was completed, nothing in their arsenal would be able to take down his defensive turtle shield.

The shell had already tasted every last technique they could throw at it, from Demon World Moss to Makai Flames. Everything but the kitchen sink.

Regardless Hiei flickered into action and Kuronue multiplied once more.

Usui lay in wait, his Shingan soaking in all the different noises surrounding him yet his supernatural senses able to distinguish which ones were the Kuronues and which ones were Hiei.

He also screamed, "Hey, Newbie! When you decapitate the fire demon, make sure to keep his Jagan intact! I need that!"

Kurama walked calmly towards the chaos of burning bamboo, chopped kudzu grass, a self-contained forest fire, and what seemed like an army of Kuronue converging into what appeared to the naked eye as empty space but instead was actually a supersonic Hiei.

He then snatched the jewel necklace hanging from the neck of (one of the many clones of) Kuronue.

The youko figured out the new powers that the Chojin bestowed upon Kuronue. All of his clones were the real him.

On a quantum level, Kuronue managed to exist in multiple planes of existence and manifest himself in one reality, allowing some of his selves to die and his other selves to live at the same time in an infinite loop.

It enabled him to interact in one dimension in a multi-dimensional manner, so that he could do one, two, three, or more things at the same time until he succeeded in a given instance, his realities branching forth endlessly as he explored every possibility.

For a schemer like Kurama who tended to finish off opponents with cunning and wit, this new version of Kuronue was an absolute nightmare to handle. He was like Yusuke. Creative. Unpredictable. Chaotic.

An honest demon who'd never attack you from behind but knew every trick in the book because he was an expert in unraveling mysteries, traps, techniques, and lies. He loved figuring out the truth behind everything.

The same bat demon who ended up dying, ensnared by the simplest and most primitive of bamboo traps due to his immense sense of sentiment, which was ironic and truly unbecoming of someone as clever as him.

Kuronue should've known better.

Kurama figured out that the Meikai God who impersonated the Fake Kuronue was a fake with the way he discarded the jewel around his neck.

In the same vein, he knew this Kuronue was the real deal when he... all of him... scrambled for the jewel with a high amount of sentimental value to him.

The seeming dozens—perhaps even hundreds or more—of Kuronues all jumped at grabbing hold of the jewel Kurama threw away in the same manner that the Meikai God Kaiki did.

This was the opportunity Hiei was waiting for.

"Jaou-En-Satsu KOKURYUHA!"

***

Thousands of years ago...

A bloodied young Kuronue cackled with gnashed teeth and a raspy throat at Youko Kurama and his bloodstained claws.

Maimed but not broken. His body scourged with lacerations. His limbs flopping uselessly on the floor.

His clenched teeth gripping the string of a necklace.

The leader of the demon bandits looked at the bat demon with disdain and confusion. The kid managed to steal a necklace from their haul.

"Why are you so happy? That's just a trinket compared to the countless treasures we've gathered," Youko Kurama said with a toss of his silken hair.

On shaky legs, Kuronue rose up, his bloody back on the craggy wall. "If it was so insignificant, you wouldn't have almost killed me to get it back."

Kurama raised his clawed hand, the constant lightning from Makai's dark clouds illuminating his silhouette. "Would you die for that necklace?"

Again, through clenched teeth, Kuronue spoke. "What an honor it would be to do so. Let me die a martyr. Let me be known as the one demon who outwitted the Legendary Youko Kurama."

Kurama changed his mind then and there. He put down his raised arm, turned, and walked away.

"HEY! Are you just going to let me go, you coward?" Kuronue spat, which led to him accidentally dropping the necklace. He then went on a mad scramble for it, willing his trembling arms to catch the jewelry.

"Rest up. Heal your wounds. You're now part of my bandits. Bring my jewel along with you," commanded the youko. "We hunt in the next earth day."

After finally grabbing hold of the jewel, Kuronue demanded, "And if I refuse?"

While still facing away from him, Kurama turned his head and gave the bat demon a sidelong glance. "I don't think you will."

From that point forth, the youko ended up with an ally more valuable than the trinket he stole from him.

***

The Dragons of Darkness Flames killed every last one of the Kuronue doppelgangers with its youki-infused flames from the Demon World burning them to sublimation at an atomic level.

Kurama went down on his knees, exhausted. He'd lost a lot of blood from his war with what seemed like a thousand Kuronues converging at him at once.

However, in the corner of his eye, he could've sworn he saw at least one Kuronue move out of the Kokuryuha's line of sight.

If a Kuronue had survived, then there was at least a one in a hundred/thousand possibility that if Kurama had thrown away that necklace, he wouldn't have gone after it.

Kuronue was learning. Changing. Evolving.

Kurama smiled. At least something good came out of the Chojin's plans to revive their dead enemies/comrades to use against them.

***

To Be Continued...

I based Kuronue's new powers on the version of Kuronue featured in my first-ever fan fiction, "Shonen". Something about the (watered-down for fiction version of the) Many-World Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics with a dash of Schrödinger's Cat thrown into the mix.

The boss battle is fast approaching, but those mini-bosses can be quite the handful!

Ciao, Abdiel

[metalindex-hu]

The Dead Daisies – Megjelent az új album, de már nem Deen Castronovo a dobos

The Dead Daisies – Megjelent az új album, de már nem Deen Castronovo a dobos - http://metalindex.hu/2021/01/25/the-dead-daisies-megjelent-az-uj-album-de-mar-nem-deen-castronovo-a-dobos/ -

Arról már korábban hírt adtunk, hogy a The Dead Daisies ötödik nagylemeze, a Holy Ground című album kis késéssel, csak január 22-én látott napvilágot, ez vélhetően a járványhelyzet miatt lett meghozva. Egyébként Ben Grosse producerrel a francia La Fabrique Studios falai között készült a lemez. Az még 2019-ben, nyár végén lett hivatalos, hogy a zenekarból távozott John Corabi énekes (ex-Mötley Crüe, ex-The Scream) és a basszusgitáros Marco Mendoza, a helyüket pedig a legendás énekes/basszer, Glenn Hughes (Trapeze, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath stb.) vette át. Jövő februárban nálunk is bemutatják az új anyagot. A koncert a Barba Negrában lesz február 16-án. Emellett, jövő nyáron a Judas Priest előtt is meg lehet majd nézni őket Magyarországon.

Az viszont már bizonyos, hogy ezeken a koncerteken már nem Deen Castronovo ül a dobcájg mögött. Múlt héten jelentette be a zenekar, hogy Deen Castronovo egészségügyi problémái miatt Ozzy Osbourne és a Black Sabbath turnéfelállásának dobosa, Tommy Clufetos dobol majd a Holy Ground jövő évi lemezbemutató turnéján. A dobos annyival kommentálta a hírt, hogy a porckorongsérve újult ki, és ezt kell műteni.

A Journeyből is ismert Castronovo 2017 óta volt a The Dead Daisies tagja, mégpedig Brian Tichy helyére érkezett. A turnék mellett a 2018-as Burn It Down nagylemezen és a pénteken megjelent Holy Ground-on, illetve a 2019-ben kiadott Locked and Loaded: The Covers Album című válogatáslemezen hallhattuk a játékát.

Ami pedig Tommy Clufetos dobos személyét illeti, a The Dead Daisies rajongóinak sem ismeretlen arc, ugyanis 2015-ben már játszott együtt a csapattal néhány koncerten.

A Rock Hangjával az élen koncertezik jövőre a Dead Daises

Újabb fejezetéhez érkezett a Dead Daisies története, ami a korábbiaknál is kalandosabb éveket ígér. Az Ausztráliából indult rockzenekar ugyanis felfrissült tagsággal, egy új lemezzel és vadiúj turnéval tér vissza 2021-ben Magyarországra.

Február 16-án főzenekarként, a megszokott energiájú, látványos műsorral vár minket Doug Aldrich, Deen Castronovo és David Lowy, akikhez basszusgitáros – énekesként maga A Rock Hangja, a Deep Purple és számos legendás album énekese, Glenn Hughes csatlakozott!

A turné vendége egy 2014 óta működő csapat, a Those Damn Crows lesz. Az öttagú wales-i rockbanda fék nélkül tör az egyre nagyobb ismertség felé: pár év alatt több ezres közönséget gyűjtöttek maguk köré a koncerteken, második, Point Of No Return című lemezük pedig már a brit lemezeladási listák első 20 helyezettje közé is bekerült.” a Livesounds bemutatja:

Get Out Of The House Tour 2021 2021. február 16., kedd 19 óra Budapest, Barba Negra Music Club

The Dead Daisies Those Damn Crows

Belépő: – early bird jegyek 8500 Ft – normál elővételben 8900 Ft – a koncert napján 9900 Ft

Az early bird jegyek értékesítése a https://jegy.rock1.hu/oldalon indul.

[caiuxraven]

TOP 10 ANIME OF FALL 2019 - WEEK 1

Hey guys, I have here our first weekly chart of the season as follows:

1. My Hero Academia Season 4 - this episode had made me teary eyed to be honest without getting intense.

2. Blade of the Immortal - damn, the quality of the animation and the graphics is just aesthetics. It's quite gory though.

3. Assassins Pride - Kufa Vampir had stole and killed my heart srsly. He is the better Kirito that I could like anytime.

4. Bokuben Season 2 - those discussion of coincidence about cup sizes is just a huge victory.

5. No Guns Life - man, I felt like getting a Full Metal Alchemist plus Cop Craft vibes here.

6. Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front - Babylonia - that awesome animation simply awakened the Fate fan inside of me. Plus, Gilgamesh is my best boy personally. :3

7. Stars Align - It is quite normal but I definitely enjoyed this cliche.

8. Welcome to the Demon School! Iruma-kun - best music? check! Funny grandfather? Check! Absolute comedic appeal? Triple check! This is a big surprise for me to be honest.

9. Food Wars! The Fourth Plate - I am not a big fan of this franchise, but this episode had satisfied me sincerely.

10. Seven Deadly Sins: Wrath of the Gods - White blood? Seriously Studio Deen were quite surprised with that, the animation and the quality is something to adjust with. Good thing Perfect Time had been playing in the background gloriously, too much nostalgia with this anime's music.

Honorable Mention:

11. Ahiru no Sora - Slam Dunk vibes. I have high hopes for this anime though.

12. Granblue Fantasy Season 2 - I felt like getting a better vibes here compared to the 1st season.

13. Kono Oto Tomare! - as much as I love this anime, I felt like the opening episode wasn't its best. Nonetheless, it's a good start.

14. High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even In Another World - I could feel the Classroom of the Elite vibes here. The lewd kissing scene is a big surprise though.

15. Cautious Hero - damn, I felt like we are having the best comedy of the season here. Could this be Konosuba's successor? We will see soon.

Top Leftover anime

1. Fire Force

2. Vinland Saga

3. Dr.STONE

Which anime did you enjoy the most this week? Please let us know by leaving your comment below.

[arcaneranger]

Final Thoughts - Summer 2019

Hey, look who finished the season perfectly on time, even if he did so by dropping a bunch of stuff last minute! (Technically, as of writing, I haven’t finished Re:Stage Dream Days, but you can rest assured that it’s bad.)

I thought I was going to do a first impressions rundown video for the entire season at once, since my impression posts don’t tend to get a lot of engagement anyway, but since I didn’t end up going through with it, I’ll summarize my point - summer started strong, and even here at the end, I can easily say it’s the best season thus far in what’s largely been a letdown year for seasonal anime (and a god damn renaissance for long shows, thanks to My Hero Academia, so if I seem down on a season that had Dororo, or Vinland Saga, or Fruits Basket, remember that I exclude those shows from my considerations until the end of the year).

This season saw several high-profile continuations like A Certain Scientific Accelerator, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls In a Dungeon II, and Symphogear XV, but also new works by creators like Mari Okada, and anticipated adaptations of Astra: Lost in Space and Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest, and in the end, well...a lot of those were mixed bags at best, but the biggest drawback I will remember Summer 2019 for is that it was drowning in bad isekai shows. The aforementioned Arifureta, the basically-counts Danmachi, and also Isekai Cheat Magician, Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks, The Lost Ones, Demon Lord Retry!...it just never ended, and that’s not even counting If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord. 

Speaking of all that stuff, let’s get right into it, yeah?

28 shows were simulcast this season, and of those, I…

Skipped 4:

Yami Shibai 7, Starmyu Season 3, A Certain Scientific Accelerator, and Lord El-Melloi II Case Files: Rail Zeppelin Grace Note were all skipped because I have not watched the previous series.

Dropped 15:

Worst of the Season: If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord!

I dropped this after one episode because I found the aesthetic and tone to be aggressively boring and I found even the cute daugheroo character to be utterly generic in execution...and then later found out oh boy was I right to drop it, based on how many people compared it to the Bunny Drop manga that we don’t talk about. *shudders*

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest

Wins the “biggest tryhard” award for being just the most straightforward an SAO award gets, right up to being grimdark for dumb reasons. The first episode alone had inconsistent animation, and that just did not bode well for the future...and the plot instantly reminded me of Slime, which soured on me over time. I let this one go sour after one shot.

Demon Lord, Retry!

The blandest of beige this season, Demon Lord had neither the story nor the production values to reel me in or convince me it was anything but the Overlord wannabe it so clearly was.

Isekai Cheat Magician

This show was a pretty transparent attempt to have an isekai story with a childhood friend romance plot, and while I’m fine with one and a half of those things, it couldn’t execute them in any decent way by the end of the first episode, and just wound up being largely boring.

Wasteful Days of High School Girls

Speaking of boring, what if Nichijou wasn’t funny? You’d get something like this.

Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?

So the tone this one ultimately ended up having was pretty much exactly what I expected after the premiere - it leaned too hard on jokes that weren’t as funny as it thought they were, and too hard on the dumb hentai mom trope, and neither of those things interested me in the slightest. Pretty okay with having left this off the watchlist.

The Ones Within

I have stated multiple times in the last few weeks that Symphogear is great because it can convince you that it’s a work of genius. The Ones Within has, unfortunately, convinced itself that it’s deep social commentary of some kind, rather than a bargain-bin Danganronpa with no real thought put into it.

Are You Lost?

I’m amazed that we got another Eromanga Sensei this season and it flew entirely under the radar. For God’s sake, the first episode featured a young teenage girl eating a bug and drinking her own urine. I just didn’t see myself being particularly entertained by the shock value longer than the premiere.

Ensemble Stars (4/10)

I can’t tell if this one is actually over, but Funimation’s site doesn’t list any new episode premieres coming up, so I’m gonna assume it is? I gave this one a shot and hung onto it because it took UtaPri’s premise and gave it the slightly more serious tone I was looking for, but dropped it after the second episode started to drown us in side characters with no hint that the floodgates were closing, rather than giving ample screentime to a select cast so they could actually become at least two-dimensional before throwing in more people we’re supposed to care about.

BEM

BEM suffered from an unfortunate lack of distinct personality, which sucks when it seems to have had a decent story to tell. Nothing else about the show wound up sticking out to me, though, which has me fully convinced that Production I.G.’s name is only on this to boost recognition, and the second-billed LandQ studios did the majority of the work. And their best-known other show is Swordgai. So...

To The Abandoned Sacred Beasts (5/10)

I have gotten absolutely no pushback so far for my decision to tear into this show because it should have been a different show, so I’m gonna take that as a general agreement of my earlier statement. What a waste of a concept.

Cop Craft (5/10)

This one I still think I was not crazy to pick up after the first episode, because it wasn’t until the third that the animation tanked hard and the pacing went absolutely nuts, and apparently stayed that way. Did they write a thirty-nine-episode story that had to be condensed into twelve or something?

Magical Sempai

This one I probably would have kept watching if the majority of its humor wasn’t just the title character embarrassing herself in lewd ways. It was funny, but I didn’t see myself enjoying anything more than one episode of it.

GRANBELM (6/10)

This one I got halfway through before realizing that, during my end-of-season catchup, I had absolutely no desire to return to. The plot didn’t really start moving until the fifth episode, and in that time I had not gotten particularly invested in the characters, especially since the show makes fun of the viewer for thinking that the big mecha dream battles actually had stakes beyond “you don’t get to be The Thing”. At least it looked nice and the mecha designs were very original.

Are you willing to fall in love with a pervert, as long as she’s a cutie?

There were four shows this season with questions for titles. Just saying! This one actually had me hooked right up until the end, revealing that not only is it a fanservice show, but a fetish pandering one. That being said, if I were attracted to women, I could have seen myself getting something out of it, what with the decently moody tone and good production values.

I put 2 On Hold:

Is It Wrong to Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? II

I’ll probably come back to this when the third series comes around, just to give it one more chance to pull me back in, but ditching my favorite character for harem antics and character shilling just did not endear me to this long-awaited sequel.

Re:Stage Dream Days!!

This one’s not actually on hold, but I don’t have any other good place to mention it. This one I’m gonna make it through just on willpower, not because it’s good, but because it starts out as the most shameless rip-off I’ve ever seen in anime, specifically of Love Live!.

And I Finished 7:

Kochoki (5/10)

I thought I was gonna give this one a 7 at least, for nearly the whole season, for being a decently-told and somewhat new telling of Nobunaga’s early life with great production values for Studio Deen...right up until the structure fell completely apart at the end, almost completely out of nowhere. I’m still in awe of the gall this show had to literally skip over the final battle.

How Heavy Are The Dumbbells You Lift? (8/10)

This one came right the fuck out of nowhere and totally blew my expectations out of the way from the very first episode. Looking at the summary, I was convinced I was gonna drop this after the premiere...and found myself totally hooked by its cheery visual presentation and excellent sense of meta-comedy, not to mention its genuine educational value.

Astra: Lost In Space (8/10)

One of two adaptations I was really looking forward to this season (along with Fire Force), Astra was pretty much what I expected - a very good translation of a very good manga that ran for the perfect amount of time to be divided into twelve-ish episodes. A fantastic and memorable cast of characters enhanced a surprisingly twisty story, and Lerche made it all look just as good as I’d hoped.

The Demon Girl Next Door (8/10)

Speaking of defying my expectations, another show I was expecting pretty much nothing from, maybe one I could compare to Gabriel Dropout or something, that was instead an incredibly charming story of a girl trying to save her family by defeating a magical girl...with a very, very loose definition of the word “defeat” in play. I couldn’t have asked for much more from this one, aside from maybe a sequel?

Given (9/10)

Speaking of “Lerche” and “gorgeous”, this profoundly gripping story of a spacecase and a loner hesitantly making music together blossomed further and further as it went on, and became my new go-to reference point for explicit gay relationships in anime. It went where even Yuri On Ice!!! couldn’t, and left me desperate for a Part Two.

O Maidens In Your Savage Season (9/10)

My write up for this show was one of my longest in recent memory, and I stand by it - even if Okada had to write a few plot contrivances in to get where she’s going, at least she presented her cast in an incredibly thoughtful way and gave them a satisfying payoff, with the knowledge that they’re teenagers and all of their problems can’t be solved in one semester. The high water mark for discussions of sexuality in this medium.

BEST OF THE SEASON: Symphogear XV (9/10)

Anime is wonderful, and so am I.

So that wraps up summer! We’ve got a lot to look forward to in fall, even if My Hero Academia and Food Wars’ fourth series will both ultimately end up on a list in the distant future next year. Will Psycho-Pass 3 redeem the series? Will Azur Lane be better than Kantai Collection? Will Beastars beat Aggretsuko as the biggest furry panderer of the year? Only time will tell. And then I’ll tell you all what I think it said.

[the-anime-void]

Fun story about how I got into Fate:

The first piece of Fate media I was ever exposed to was the Studio Deen movie of Unlimited Blade Works. It was the most confused and annoyed I had ever been at a product, only to be topped years later when I saw Oculus. I have no idea why my friend thought it was a good idea to show it to me. It was vile and made no damn sense.

Almost a year after that I watched Fate/Zero and been riding this train ever since.

[ergativeabsolutive]

*studio deen voice* ah yes i have a great idea. why dont we take this Very Long And Complicated visual novel, which by word count alone is slightly longer than the entire harry potter series combined, and compress half of the damn thing into a single season! what could possibly go wrong?